Green thumb

Aside from all the baby stuff, I'm trying to decorate the house a little more now too. And that's pretty easy with an abundance of flowers in the garden. Today I pulled out my green thumbs and put them to work. I cut some sunflowers and zinnias. Every year I plant sunflowers and zinnias and every year I'm surprised at the enormous yield of only a limited amount of plants.

Then, I went around in my house and decided to try and start some new plants. I had two Kalanchoes that were really ugly looking. After some searching online I found that they're really easy to replant, so I cut a few stems of and planted them. I also did that with a Tolmiea (Dutch name: baby-on-mother's-lap, so much cuter). When I was browsing around the chicken shed, looking for pots, I found this pot with three hyacinth bulbs that I had had inside last spring. I noticed they had sprouted again, so I watered the bulbs and put the pot in a window sill. It's always exciting to see if it's going to work out!

Coldframe

Inspired by Duct Tape and Baling Twine, who has a family of 10 kids to feed, I started my garden yesterday.

First, I cleared out my coldframe. I could hardly see where it was anymore, because I hadn't used it last year and it was covered in weeds. Then, I filled some pots and flats with potting soil. And then I dug out my seed box. All of a sudden I'm really looking forward to gardening again. I did miss it last year. Of course, I had some tomato plants and a zucchini, but I don't really call that a garden. I mean to do better this year.

That's why I started zinnias (two sizes), sunflowers, zucchini, melons, red onions, gourds and nasturtium. I already have some tomato plants and a pepper plant that a friend of my mom's gave me.
The next challenge will be to get the garden tilled. M has so much to do in the house that he doesn't have the time (and I really don't want to ask him). It's been very dry, so the ground is hard, which means that it's not really an option for me either. I'm going to try and see if we can have a tiller come over and do it for us.

Easy pasta sauce

Every year I have a vegetable garden with all kinds of veggies and fruits. This year, however, my vegetable garden is non-existent, because that's where all the old bricks and roof tiles have been thrown. It's literally a junk yard!
People know that I like to grow vegetables, however, and sometimes they give me plants. I can't throw away a plant so when I received two tomato plants and a zucchini plant, I went ahead and planted them behind the trailer.
When we came back from our two-week vacation, three zucchinis and a bunch of tomatoes were ripe. It's hard to keep them well in the trailer, because it gets pretty hot in here. On a sunny day 32 C (90F) is not uncommon. That's why I decided to freeze them to have easy pasta sauce in the freezer.

Inspired by the Pioneer Woman, here's the cast of characters:

Olive oil, three bell peppers, three onions, three cloves of garlic, three zucchinis and a bunch of tomatoes. There's also wheat macaroni in the picture but I didn't need that until later, when I actually converted the veggies into pasta sauce.

First, I cut the onions and garlic in little pieces, and started sautéeing them in the olive oil. Because I'm not the Pioneer Woman, I don't have a picture of that.

When the onions were almost transparent, I added the cut up bell peppers. I like to use three different colors, because it makes my dish look happy.

After they were softened a little, I added the zucchini pieces.

The tomatoes were next. After I had added them, I turned the fire down and let everything simmer for a while, stirring it occasionally. After about ten minutes, everything was nice and softened and there was a little layer of juice in the pot. I then grabbed my handmixer and blended everything. Not so smoothly that it looked like baby food, but smooth enough so it was a sauce with still something to chew.

Depending on the zucchini:tomato ratio this sauce usually turns out anywhere between a green -orange - red color. Two kgs of vegetables made four 2-person servings. We ate one and froze three.
I added some ground beef and italian spices, and voila! Easy pasta!

Summer Kings

In Dutch, some people nickname strawberries "Summer Kings". This is my very first harvest of this year!

Cold frame

The early beginnings of lettuce and lavatera in my cold frame. It's spring again and even though my vegetable garden is now a brick dump, my cold frame is still in function!

Sunday afternoon

Because I finished writing my thesis this week, I gave myself the weekend off, school wise.

Today has been a lovely lazy Sunday. We slept in, had a slow breakfast and then decided we would do nothing today. Well, hardly anything, anyway. So we spent the afternoon sitting outside on our terrace, enjoying the lovely view of a freshly mown field. The cats had fun chasing after mice and birds and we read our books. It was almost weird to just sit and be lazy, it's been so long since I've done that! A while ago that was all I could do, but then I couldn't enjoy it. Now I had the choice so I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Yesterday I worked in the garden, pulling weeds and watering. The beans are little plants, the shallots as you can see have started growing greyish green leaves and last night we had the first two strawberries! I just took a picture of one of the plants and noticed a few other red ones.

Oh, how I love the summer! Three more weeks of school and then I'll be off for about two months. But today was a nice little foreshadow, I can feel my batteries recharging...

Very close

Monday the 21st is the date of my final practical exam. I've been very worried and stressed about it, but now I'm pretty confident. Monday night we had the dress rehearsal and last night was the last walk through. It didn't go very well yet, but that's why they were rehearsal. The teacher that guides me told me he was confident and he thought it was a good exam. My piano teacher told me she had never heard me play like I did in four years, and she had never expected me to come this far! Boy was I flattered... And I know I'll pass, otherwise my teacher would have told me to cancel the exam.
Even though I've had sleepless nights and worries, today was a stress free day. M and I worked in the garden. I planted tomatoes, peppers and zinnias that I had sown eight weeks ago. I sowed radishes, lettuce, carrots, beets, leeks and planted potatoes. I've noticed before that working in the garden soothes me. I think I'll be ok. It's only an exam, it's not the end of the world...
(And those of you that have been following me closely know that it's a big step for me to say this!)