Gum Valley Patchwork

Do yourself a favour

and go and see The Dressmaker! Last Friday night I suggested to Russell that we go to the movies and see The Dressmaker. Chris had been at the shop sewing all day and had recommended it.......I had also seen great reviews for it and had been assured that it wasn't just a chick flick.......and it isn't!

It was funny, sad, gruesome, a bit icky in places, and extremely entertaining. I found myself playing spot the actor as so many familiar faces kept popping up on the screen as I laughed out loud with all of the other cinema goers. The costumes were incredible......and with Marion Boyce as the costume designer you couldn't expect anything less. And I was excited to learn that there will be a special exhibition of the costumes at Barwon Park Mansion from the 11th December 2015 to the 11th March 2016. I feel a road trip coming on.........I have never been to the Barwon Park Mansion so that will be great! All of the details are here.

So there is my little review of the movie. Nothing like  what my sister Cathryn used to write in her Movie Blog posts......which I read and enjoyed immensely.....along with quite a few other people. Maybe it's time for you to start up again Cathryn......please! Is anyone else with me?

Linda   :)

Pumpkin anyone?

Well we did get serious.......big time! First a tandem trailer of composted straw from a friend's farm...........now that we are longer farming we don't have ready access to beautiful compost......just a small downside of not milking cows. We topped up a couple of our round raised garden beds with it but it didn't seem to go very far.......especially in the large tank that we recycled after it caught fire.  Russell then did a farmers deal with our neighbours to access a huge pile of well composted sawdust from their calving pad. Eight ute loads later and we had everything topped up and ready for digging in and planting.

With the last few barrow loads I decided to make a small herb garden around my (long struggling but at long last growing) lemon tree. If the lemon tree grows too big I will only be too happy to rip it up and relocate them again!

Russell borrowed his mum's rotary hoe.........yes his mum bought herself a rotary how about 2 years ago at the age of 90 years young!.......and dug the compost into my original garden beds. I was a little impatient and dug the tomato bed over with a fork.

Once the tracks are cleaned up and we replace the hedge (which I have grown new plants for), the garden will hopefully look a lot better.

A couple of the ute loads of compost went down onto the bank of our dam. Our plan is to grow pumpkins and cucumbers down there, allowing them plenty of space to spread out. Over the last couple of months we have mown and sprayed the area a couple of times. I had a roll of recycled matting that we decided to use and some rocks to hold it all on place. Russell installed a couple of taps along the poly pipe and hose was dragged down for summer watering.

The pumpkins (19) and cucumbers (18) were joined by 4 watermelon.....which might not grow but one can only try.

An otherwise wasted space that will hopefully produce enough pumpkins for family and friends for many months. Although with everything else that we are going to plant in our increased vegetable garden I can see a possible sideline of a roadside stall in my near future.........I've always wanted one......maybe it will be this season!.....but there will be no raspberries at it........they will all be just for me!!!! (Oh and that applies to my cherries as well!)

We are planning on getting out this afternoon and getting the rest of the tomatoes and seeds planted.

Linda     :)

Lots to choose from

Regular customers always enjoy checking out the Specials section of the shop. I always try and keep it stocked full of bolts but over the last 2 weeks I have been a bit slack and there were a few empty spaces that needed to be filled. So yesterday afternoon I spent a couple of hours topping up the $8 per metre basket, and also the $12 per metre shelves.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with these fabrics......they might be the last ones left in their range, ones that have been in the shop for a little while, or sometimes I have been able to get them from my supplier at a reduced price. Any way you look at it they are excellent value and make great quilt backings........working out cheaper than some of the plain solids in stock. So why not check them out next time you call in. 

Linda    :)

It's time to get serious

Last week I called in to Bunnings....which just happens to be up the road from where Emma lives. They have a great garden section......my favourite part of Bunnings......and I took the opportunity to stock up on some vegetable seedlings for the revamped vegetable garden.

There were tomatoes (grosse lisse, romas and a yellow fruiting variety), capsicums (2 varieties), chillis (4 plants / 3 varieties), some herbs, a cape gooseberry (thanks Wendy for introducing me to these little gems), white strawberries, about 20 regular red strawberries and a punnet of watermelon plants. I'm not confident about the watermelons in our climate, but as I think it will be a long hot summer they might just do something this year......if I keep them well watered.

A couple of weeks ago I planted some seeds into pots and punnets to get them going before planting them into the garden beds.

The first of the seeds were up in 3 days! I planted a mix of vegetables and flower seeds, including lettuce, pumpkins (seed we kept from a pumpkin), cucumbers (apple and burpless), zucchinis (only one up so far out of 5), and capsicums (didn't think that they were going to grow so I bought a punnet....now they are up!). The flowers are marigolds, cosmos, zinnias (2 varieties), calendulas and larkspurs. I have had to keep a close eye on them during the warm sunny days to make sure that they don't dry out.....so far so good!

The rest of our vegetable garden I will grow from seed sown straight into position.......beans, peas, carrots, parsnips, beetroot, onions etc. The well overdue rain on Saturday morning was just brilliant and we are hoping for more this week.....with only 19mm for the month of October and only 65mm for the whole of September, we are certainly experiencing a very dry Spring. Maybe November will be different.

Linda     :)