Another moment in the green

I tried a few new edible plants in the patch during the summer months and some have been massive successes and others have completely bombed. I had a 'man at Bunnings' who we shall call Fred to protect his identity. I would visit every Friday with Kalean mainly because they have a playground and it generally is not crowded. I was looking at the prices of their seedlings and asked one of the guys (Fred) if there were any plants that were on the destruction list that he could sell to me at a cheaper price. Turns out there was but, in general, company policy is to not sell below 50%. So I was able to pick up quite a few seedlings over the last few months for $1 a punnet.  But now Fred has moved stores and the cost of petrol would not justify the possible savings.

So here are my ratings. I tend to look for size, productivity and taste.

Corn- A great looking plant and if you can get a cob then all well and good but most of my cobs were only half filled with kernels. And yes, I planted them in 'box' formation! So corn is off the list.

Lettuce- A must. Just keep planting every few weeks cos in summer they bolt in an instant.

Lebanese cucumber- Takes up a lot of space but worth it. It's on the maybe list.

Lebanese Zucchini- Too spiky, takes up a lot of space. Off the list

Tomatoes- Oh yeah baby. You have to grow these and as many varieties as possible. I have a black zebra in at the minute. The rosellas & I have an agreement. Anything on my side of the fence is mine & anything over the creek side of the fence is theirs. Home grown tomatoes taste like tomatoes really should taste.

Chilli- I can't express how important it is to have a variety of chilli plants in the garden. I had to tip out everything at ground level due to a 12month old baby walking around but was able to replace with a few in the raised garden bed and some in pots.

Pumpkin- The jury is out on this one. Pretty cool to grow but subject to a lot of bug issues. I haven't actually eaten any of the ones that I have grown as they have not made it to maturity.

Onions, garlic & leeks- Great when they eventually mature six months later.

Potatoes- I love growing these but they are soooo ugly.

Eggplant- Love a good eggplant as long as you can keep it worm free. Put them whole over a naked flame, peel them, mash them up, add garlic salt and you have a great baba ganoush.

Carrots- A bag of carrots only costs $1.50 so why bother.

Basil- I wish basil would grow all year. It is a mad herb

Beans & peas- I just loved the fact that Kaelan would pick a snow pea and eat it. Keep them fungus free.

Enjoy.

A 'surely that can't be right' moment (brought to you by Mcdonalds)

Sunday 15 January
These days I am more and more aware of every cent that I spend. So when you get a niggle that something isn't quite right then it is worth investigating.

Lets have a look at the above McDonalds receipt that I got the other night .

Where it says VM this includes the burger and a large serving of chips.

So if I ordered a large filet of fish meal and a cheeseburger, and a large cheeseburger meal and a filet of fish then I should get the same items. A filet of fish, a cheeseburger, a large fries and a tasty large soft drink to wash it all down with.

Value Meal 1
1 LRG Coke- $2.90
1 LRG FILET -O-FISH- VM- $4.35
1 CHEESEBURGER- $2.15
TOTAL cost is $9.30

 Value Meal 2
1 LRG SPRITE- $2.90
1 LRG CHEESEBURGER VM- $2.35
1 FILET-O-FISH $4.25
TOTAL cost is $9.50


WTF??

Ok so there is only 20c difference and at this point in my life I can still afford an extra 20c. But still, WTF???

This requires more investigation....

Take a moment to watch & learn

“Research shows that you begin learning in the womb and go right on learning until the moment you pass on. Your brain has a capacity for learning that is virtually limitless, which makes every human a potential genius.”

- Michael J. Gelb

I have a 17 month old boy and he is at the stage in life where his learning curve is going ballistic. Every day he amazes me with what he remembers, retains and regurgitates (& sometimes it is more than metophorical).

For Christmas I got a dodgy clock, temperature & barometer 3in1 item that I was supposed to take into the office. I am not sure why I want to know what temperature it is at work and if the air conditioning has sucked all the moisuture out of the air but anyhow the temperature guage was completely faulty. Actually this year it really annoyed the shit out of me when I got a crappy present. We are doing it quite tough so a $15 present & $2 card and $1 piece of wrapping paper if given as a voucher could actually make me happy. Instead we get more junk that we can't even sell on e-bay that goes straight to the bin.   So after leaving it on the window sill for a couple of days, during a clean up, I decided to add it to Kaelan's pile of toys. He comes home later on and is playing with his toys when he sees the 3in1, picks it up, walks to his mother, hands it to her and points to the window sill. I was impressed.

Last Friday I was teacng him body parts. This started well over a month ago when it took 3 days to teach him where his nose was. On the day I am talking about it took about half a day and now a month later it takes about a minute! I taught him where his willy was and the action to go along with it was to use both hands and grab the nappy. Question- where's your willy? Response- 'both hands on nappy & pull up'. Quite amusing at the grandparents.

But I got bored and taught him the difference between a booger & a nose, ie nose on the outside, booger on the inside. Most amusing again until that night in the shower with his mum where he proudly displays his newly learnt knowledge by shoving his finger up his mums nose. 'No dear, no idea why he did that'. 

Now I am dreading the day when he learns how to speak proper and amazes the day care kids & staff with his proud willy grab.