Catherine Campbell

Would you like to meet our goats? This is Lucy and Maud (I named them after Lucy Maud Montgomery who wrote Anne of Green Gables) and just incase you're wondering they're not inner city goats, they live with my lovely fellow just outside of Melbourne where they have lots of land and even a small unused quarry to climb about on. We adopted them when they were only a few days old and had to bottle feed them for the first three months as they each came from a litter of four and weren't getting the attention they needed. They are now very tame, they follow us around and come when called, that is when they're not too distracted by what they're munching on. I can not speak highly enough of goats, they really are the most beautiful animals you could ever care to meet.

spring gardening...

I don't know what kind of seasonal person you are? You might be the kind of person who actually likes and looks forward to Winter. Weird. Just kidding. I love Summer! Sun and warmth for me please. I'm reading blog posts, those that come from the northern hemisphere, and they are beginning to talk of a change in seasons. There is mention of catching the last of the Summer sun, an Autumn breeze being felt in the air. Yippee! What this means is that we in the southern hemisphere are about to steal your sunshine. I tell you it cannot come soon enough. 

I'm beginning to plan my spring planting and as I'm going to plant from seed this year I thought a little greenhouse might be a good idea.

Where ever you are, I hope you're looking forward to the season you're heading into.

winter gardening...

 

I hope you had a lovely weekend, I threw on a thermal, braved the winter cold and spent Sunday in the garden. The last picture above is of one of the blueberry plants, they don't seem to be doing fantastically well but I have been reading everything I can about growing blueberries so hopefully, with a bit of tinkering, by Spring they will have found their feet!

in the sun...

Today was such a lovely sunny day, I decided to go on an adventure down the back of the garden. What I found was an army of rabbits and snails looking longingly at and ready to pounce on my new little seedlings. In fact the whole situation looked a little bit like this...

Well ok, not that many rabbits. I managed to fend them all off and my seedlings are continuing to grow happily and peacefully. I'm using a weed mat this year and it is working so well, I don't need to use so much water which means I can grow all my vegies mostly on rain water. I wonder if they taste better with rain water... probably I suppose. Anyway, here are some sunny growing pictures...

p.s. I keep meaning to mention this... over here at the wonderful blog of Victoria E is an interview with one of my all time most favourite artists, Evan B Harris. If you're interested it really is a great read, you can also see more of his work at his flickr account.

in the garden...

Today was a lovely sunny day and I can almost believe that wonderful Spring is on its way. Spring is my most favourite time of the year... planning vegetable gardens and planting seeds, I love being outdoors in the sun (as do most, I'm sure!). Today I started to turn up some soil for my future vegetable patch, I must say it looks fertile and promising. This year I plan to have a vegetable patch 'in the round', by that I mean I'm going to plant in a big square around the plum tree. I figured all the other growing vegetables might encourage the plum tree to give us a few plums this year. So here is a very early progress shot...

Also, while I was out enjoying the sunshine I noticed that one of my rabbits has some very interesting patterns in his fur. Every year as he gains and loses his winter coat his patterns change and at the moment he has a love heart right in the middle of his face. Good one Captain Mushroom...

mumblings...

I went to see a film this afternoon called The Lives of Others and it is definitely a five star, most excellent film. I know it has been out for a while, but you can see a little snippet here.

Today one of my bunnies got into my well guarded vegetable patch and ate everything! I was quite sad, but to tell the truth, my vegetables weren't really growing very well in this cold frosty weather. I hope he enjoyed his feast... mmm hopefully something may sprout up again.

Also I had to post about this beautiful jewelery piece that I bought recently from Etsy seller Paraphernalia. I fell in love with it at first site and thought it would most likely be well out of my price range, I was very happy when I saw how affordable it was and can't wait until it arrives!

Tonight I'm going to be packaging a few orders myself. Running a little business is a very new adventure for me and I think I'm slowly getting into the swing of things. I borrowed some design books today because I have ideas for some pretty packaging that I want to make. It is strange, you have to learn to be a professional photographer, graphic designer, accountant, marketer and mailman (woman) all at once... while still finding the time to make lots of stuff.  Speaking of making stuff, I have to get on with things as in 12 days a new shop/gallery/showroom is opening in Melbourne that I'm going to be part of. I haven't seen it yet as the shop itself is still being created but I hope to report back good things...

winter garden...

This afternoon, after I finished work, I came home with a box of seedlings ready to plant my winter vegetable garden. I haven't had veggies growing for a few months now and I was starting to miss it... so I went a bit crazy at the nursery.
If all goes to plan I should have celery, silverbeet, broccoli, bok choi, beetroot, lettuce, parsley, brussel sprouts (yuk! only growing them for the rabbits), snow peas, normal peas, rosemary, mint and strawberries!
Hopefully I will get lots of healthy strawberry plants growing... home grown strawberries taste amazing. Oh my goodness I'm going to turn into a vegetable!

crab apples...

We are quite lucky to have a few fruit trees in our backyard, one of which is a crabapple tree. Instead of watch all the fruit drop to the ground and be eaten by my rabbits, as I did last year, I decided to make jam! For my first attempt I think it went very well... it set properly and it tastes really good. I will hopefully be able to make another batch while there is still some crab apples left on the tree! Here is a little picture on a lovely sunny autumn day...

And here is one of my rabbits, Mr Bunny, who still managed to find many to eat amongst the grass!