Zenerity - life in a Japanese Garden

Whilst in Adelaide over Christmas we made time to visit the beautiful Himeji Gardens in the city.

It had been some time since I had visited the gardens and they were even more splendid than I remembered. I think now that I'm older and enjoying gardening much more, I was able to appreciate the subtleties and sensual detail in its landscaping.

I also only just came to appreciate having such a beautiful serene setting so centrally located in the city. And entry is absolutely free! You can download a flyer about the gardens here.

I don't think there is a public Japanese garden of its equal in Melbourne. If you know of one please do let me know!

Highlights below. If you'd like to see my full album visit here.

If you love your pets, microchip them.

I just received this very important notice from Pet Register/ Lost Dogs Home.

All three of our fur babies are microchipped. I don't know what I'd do if any of them got lost but it's good piece of mind to know that they're microchipped and if they do find themselves astray, it will be very easy for someone who found them to locate us.

$25 MICROCHIPPING IN MARCH The Lost Dogs’ Home Animal Control Officer, Michael, with a local policeman and two dogs rescued from the Kinglake area. They have since been reunited with their owners. Please help us microchip more pets! Victoria's recent bushfire disaster  has highlighted the need to identify family pets. Hundreds of displaced and injured pets cannot be identified by authorities. In normal circumstances, about 20% of the animals that arrive at The Lost Dogs' Home do not have any form of identification. As animal lovers and supporters of the Home, you have probably already microchipped your pets, but please help us educate the rest of the community about the importance of pet identification. Every Sunday in March, the Home is offering half price microchipping. For just $25, owners can microchip their furry friends and help prevent the heartache of a lost pet. Please help spread the word and forward this email. Bookings essential: 1300 734 738. Venue: The Lost Dogs’ Home, 2 Gracie Street Nth Melbourne Chipping times: 9:00am- 12:30pm every Sunday in March.

For more information visit: microchipping.dogshome.com

Moo's Getting Married

In other news, I've started up a little wedding planning blog. Yes, I'm a nerd and clearly one blog just isn't enough for little ole me. I thought I'd keep it separate from Moo I Made It so as not to bore my readers who come here purely for the gardening and sewing posts etc.. However, as we plan a wedding that is a true reflection of us and our interests I'm sure there will be a bit of cross over along the way. It's also an easy way for me to record the inspiration and links as we research and plan the whole thing. AND also because there is a dire shortage of good AUSTRALIAN wedding blogs out there, and I'm tired of getting jealous of New York city hall wedding photos or images of homestead picnics in Colarado damn it! Anyway, if you care to wish to observe my nuptial nuances, feel free to join me at A Bluebird Bride.

Potato harvesting - most fun you can have in a hay stack?

I dare say yes!

My oh my. I was like a kid on an Easter egg hunt... only I'm a 30 year old and had elbow high gloves on, while I foraged though piles and piles of hay searching for potatoes.

I was cautious in my hopes for the harvest after the heatwave had killed off the potato plants. My brother-out-law had been predicting a mammoth harvest, in fact he had planned to buy us hessian bags for Christmas in anticipation of our 'potato harvest 09' as he dubbed it.

I pulled out a potato plant stalk and was heartbroken to see just lots of little tiny potatos the size of small berries attached to it. Oh no! But then I pushed back the hay from another corner and saw lots and lots of happy looking worms. I cleared a bit of earth and found a giant purple sapphire potato - yippee!

Most of the potatoes were at the bottom of the massive stack. As you may recall, my first attempt of potato growing was using the no dig method of growing them above ground and piling over with hay and compost, and then continuing to pile on the hay to make the plants grow upward and give us more potatoes.

Note for next time - you can't just keep keep piling on nothing but dry hay on the plants in the attempt to make them continue growing up, hence increasing the yield. Dry hay is not the world's best growing medium. Must remember to also do a layer of compost inbetween the hay AND water them! It's so true that it's important to keep the veggie patch close to the house where you can see it and remember to water it. Our potato patch was at the end of the garden where we intend to eventually put a water tank. Thought it'd be the last time we get to use that space in this way. Next time I think we might try using recycled tyres to grow them in and stack upwards. However, I think this was a solid effort for a first attempt.

Bushfire Appeal

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="478" caption="A bushfire in the Yarra Valley, as seen from Tarrawarra. Photo: Brent Lukey, taken from The Age website"][/caption]

I trust many of you would have heard of the terrible bushfires the state of Victoria, Australia has been suffering these past few days. It's devastating and shocking... And I think it's really taken a few days for people here to being to take it in. Eerily, I would have never heard of many of the towns and hamlets effected , however a few of the places burnt down or curently under threat are beautiful locations we had been researching as we started scoping out our wedding plans. Gorgeous picturesque towns surrounded by bushland - completely wiped out. Marysville - and all its beautiful historic buildings - completely GONE. King Lake where the fantastic Permablitz crew did a project last year GONE.

We have made a donation to the Red Cross Bushfire appeal https://www.redcross.org.au/Donations/onlineDonations.asp and if you are able to as well I urge you to do so. Over 170 people have died in the fires so far and they are expecting that number to rise to possibly 300, over 700 families have lost their homes and well over 3000 people are now homeless. It's so hard to make sense of any of these numbers.

Clem at RRR have also thought to organise a collection of toiletries and sanitary items for the victims which I think is a fantastically practical and immediate way we are able to assist. So we headed to the local independent supermarket after work to fill some bags with items we thought they could do with.

If you're able to get to Brunswick East tomorrow between 10am and 6pm tomorrow and are able to drop some items off for the collection that would be brilliant!

From Clem via Facebook:

Toiletries & Sanitary Items For Bushfire Victims - Wednesday Collection At RRR

Hi all, I'm organising a collection of toiletries, women's sanitary items, disposable razors and shampoo/conditioner (and any other small bathroom/toiletry essentials) to be delivered to the major "base camp" refuges in the fire zone. The command centres and volunteers have expressed a need for these items and what exists in the shops that remain won't last long as (obviously) there are no deliveries being made.

In monetary terms it's not even a drop in the ocean (i.e. $10 for some pads and tampons, or a set of shampoo and conditioner, or some kids' toothbrushes - just pop them in the trolley along with your other groceries) but will make a huge difference to someone who has nothing and needs to restore a bit of humanity and dignity amongst the destruction. The small relief of something as simple as having a preferred brand of tampon or the ability to have a shave in these circumstances should not be underestimated.

I will be doing a "drop-off"/pick-up at Triple R (corner of Nicholson & Blyth Streets, East Brunswick; end of 96 tram line) on WEDNESDAY of this week, during office hours: 10am to 6pm. The time and day is non-negotiable but we hope this won't be an obstacle to people's charity!

PLEASE NOTE: we will NOT be able to accept food/perishables, or clothes/blankets. There are other drives doing so including the Salvos and Coles (etc).

What we WILL be glad to accept:

* pads and tampons (and maternity and incontinence pads)
* disposable razors (both "genders") and shave creams
* shampoo and conditioner
* infant stuff (breast pumps, baby bottles, baby powder etc)
* toothbrushes and toothpaste
* soap
* sunscreen
* hand sanitizers
* face washers
* toiletry bags (preferably stuffed with all of the above!)

Hope to see some of you there to fill some "Coles bags" for the bushfire victims.

Any questions (or if you'd like to be "on call" to volunteer/sort in case we get swamped - which we hope we do!) shoot me a message or email clembastow[AT]gmail.com with a relevant subject.

Thanks and hope to see a lot of you there on Wednesday x

ADDICTIVE

OK already spent way too much time on this today.

Brilliant idea! http://obamiconme.pastemagazine.com/

Air on fire

Feel the heat, originally uploaded by alexsk.

So for those of you overseas, us Australian types endured a week of 40+ degrees (Centigrade!) temperatures last week. It was HELL. Thank goodness we have airconditioning in our new house. The felt like it was on fire. The train tracks buckled causing hundreds of train cancellations in Melbourne, power blackouts were rolled out to cope with the electricity demand.

It has somewhat cooled down now but I can't help but be depressed by the sight of so many trees throughout the city looking so burnt, and dropping their leaves like it's Autumn. I hope the poor things hang in there and don't keel over! I was so saddened to read the newspaper when I was Adelaide and hear about elderly people who died in their homes because they couldn't handle the heat. Things and people are definitely not designed to cope in this kind of heat. I went to the Adelaide Big Day Out in 42 degree heat - thank goodness the two stages I spent most of my time at were under cover and airconditioned! But that didn't stop things I had on me just falling apart in the heat. At one point I was holding my bag, and part of it came off in my hand! I was fanning myself and my fan fell apart! Is this what life is going to be like as global warming gets worse?

Our garden hasn't suffered too badly considering. One plant I bought at the Botanic Gardens market last year was fried to a crisp out the front, poor dear. The tomatoes have had the shade of the fence and haven't been effected too much in the heat. However our 'Potato Harvest 2009' has been rather depleted I fear. A substantial part of the mountain of potato plants have died. Hopefully there will still be a small harvest.

And is it any coincidence that across the globe in London today the city has been brought to a standstill with snow rather than heat?

Why aren't people freaking out about this more??!!