Five on Friday – country life update

Hello there, joining in with Amy from Love Made My Home for five on friday, this time I thought I’d give 5 snippets from my week.

Fresh produce
I came home yesterday to a this box of fresh fruit on my doorstep. My neighbour had stopped by while we were out and left us some surplus produce from his place. There were bananas, passion fruit and limes all from his trees. The passionfruit have filled my kitchen with the most beautiful scent, they smell delicious.

Our very own chooks
On tuesday we went out and finally got our chooks! So exciting. It was a bit of a debacle as we had to catch them, and we wanted 14! Thank goodness I took my hubby with me. I was hopeless and only managed to catch one, while he got the rest. He has a broken nail and scratches up his arms as a result. I ended up falling over and landing on my backside in the chook poo. I’m sure the chook lady had a good laugh at us city-folk turned wanna-be farmers trying to catch these hens. They are a couple of weeks off laying yet, but when they do we certainly won’t go short for a while.

The kids are loving the chooks and after school they run down to the coop to see what they’re up to. We have to keep them in for a week or so before we can let them out to free range. They seem to be happy though scratching and pecking about, and making little hollows to wallow about in.

Growing
We have quite a bit of our own produce growing at our place. I had a little walk around to inspect what was happening and was surprised to see the sweetcorn doing well, despite zero attention from me. It has been so hot here, the hottest march for 60 years they say, and very little rain since the cyclone last month.

The lime tree is bursting with fruit and the limes are full of juice, I have been using them in salad dressings and adding fresh coriander to my salads and the flavour is wonderful.

We also have a papaya tree and the papayas are huge! Unfortunately none of us like them, but my neighbour does so it will be our turn to leave him a gift at the door soon.

We have a tiny mandarin tree that is also bursting with fruit, just look at these! I love mandarins and can’t wait for these beauties to be ready. Won’t be long now.

Crochet
I finally finished off the babushka doll. It didn’t take long in the end, I just had to get motivated and find a quick half an hour to get the sewing-up done, then added the flowers, hair and face.

I decided to add a white bow for her scarf, but I am now thinking I should add a white trim around the base of the scarf too, to tie it all in. What do you think?

I purchased the pattern online here. I made the larger version to the one pictured on the pattern link.

Time out
I felt really washed out yesterday and ended up enjoying some time out with a cuppa, some chocolate and my magazine stash. I love leafing through magazines and can’t bare to throw any of them out, no matter how old they are. I really like Home Beautiful and I bring these out again and again and just flick through, re-reading some of the stories, and getting inspiration for my own home.

Most of the products and homes displayed in these mags are way out of my budget. Many of the home owners featured are displaying their second home, or ‘weekender’ which is renovated to perfection with high-end finishes and endless marble bench tops. I sit there imagining what their lives are like, walking through their amazing house and stepping onto their deck overlooking the sparkling water somewhere on Sydney’s northern beaches. Jealous? Me? Actually no, we have made our own paradise here overlooking the peaceful countryside, with our chooks and our fruit trees and the frequent wildlife visitors.

6am early monday morning shot over the side paddock, still a bit misty and very dewy

Happy days 🙂
Thanks to Amy for organising this blog link up. If you would like to join in next time please click the image below which will take you to Amy’s blog where you can find out more.
Have a lovely weekend 🙂 T x