green

After many dry weeks Sydney finally got rain last week, lots of it! It didn't take us long to start complaining about the drenching though, but I saw one suburb got 150mls in 24 hours so it was a lot! And there was lightning, thunder, wind and hail in some places to add dramatic affect.

This week the sun came out and the sea breezes blew onshore. It is perfect Sydney spring weather, one of our finest accomplishments, days that are so beautiful it puts a spring in your step.

I can hear the garden growing today. The plants are taking that drenching, mixing it with the bright sun and warm soil and reaching for the sky.

So it seems apt that all my recent photos seem to be green!

The garden is full of happy discoveries, I'm very excited that the Thompson seedless grape which I planted along the fence five years ago is finally happy and covered in grapes! The new fig in a pot has little figlets too and the lime which has been stingy with its harvest since we planted it is covered with a mass of baby limes. Add to that a new lemon tree and ripening blueberry crops and it almost counts as a mini urban food forest.

Down the side hydrangea cuttings gleaned from friends' gardens are heavy with fat blooms in beautiful pastel colours. I love this old garden plant and from the reaction on instagram when I posted this photo, I'm not alone. A couple more favourites of mine are the echinacea and zinnia plants I grew from seed, the unflowered echinacea plant which is two years old has the most wonderful architectural buds.

Yesterday I went to pick up more pots and glaze the last bisque fired pieces from my course. I have also booked in to do a nine week course next year at a closer venue. It seems ceramics is more than a fling and I'm really looking forward to learning some more.

I took the chance of being at the Uni to have lunch with my sister who works there now, it is a real luxury having her in Sydney now and not thousands of miles away in Vietnam.

This week too I have finally accepted that Christmas is round the corner and its time to get organised, I'm thinking about my shopping list, about a destash, and also about some handmade Christmas. I saw this wonderful simple idea for homemade celery salt over on Jo's blog the other day and couldn't help trying it when I found myself with a new head of celery. It's delicious. Whether it lasts long enough to be gifted I couldn't say, but in the meantime it does suit the smallest of my new handmade bowls perfectly. Not sure I can gift that either!

For another homemade gift - for the people I'm not meant to give too - I'm also eyeing off this bread and butter cucumbers recipe I saw on Louise's Garden Glut blog. Sounds like the perfect thing.