We live on the west coast of the lower North Island, inland, tucked up under the Tararua’s. This means we have very good rainfall. It also means that the temperatures are mild, not too hot in summer but not so cold in winter. Usually we would have about 5 frosts a year (this year was an exception). Sunshine hours are not high, due to cloud build up around the hills. This can lead to ripening issues.

Above is the actual garden. It is made of raised beds. The soil is heavy, verging on clay. The drainage is not great, we live on the edge of what was once a huge swamp, flax milling was the first industry in our area. You can see the puddles on the paths in the right of the picture.

I have improved the soil, but it is a work in progress.

You can see Magnolia’s blooming in the background. Since I took this picture we have had 3 frosts, which turned the flowers to brown mush. This winter has been cold and quite dry, leading to clear sky’s and lots of frosts.

So what are we eating from the garden?

This week I picked spring onions, nothing else. I was hoping to eat a cabbage but our pet ‘lamb’, who is really a 40kg hogget, got loose, and she really likes cabbages. I found her sitting in the bed where the cabbages were (note the past tense), chewing her cud, which was probably made up of cabbage.

Trying to look on the positive side she did free up a bed for summer planting and graciously left it manured!

When it returns I’ll let you know if I feel better.

That is unfair because August was warm and dry here, shame September hasn’t started off that way.

I know there have not been regular posts for a while but as some of you know and others may have guessed from the last post G1 was diagnosed with type one diabetes at the end of May.

This was very stressful. She requires ongoing care and medication to keep her alive. This is quite a burden for her and us.

But we are coping a lot better now. So maybe there will be some more time for blogging.

I hope this gardening year to keep a running record of our vege garden, which could be used as a resource for others. So keep watching because I have already begun planting.

Book reviews will return but not as regularly. I think I’ll review books as I read them. Diabetes may even make an appearance.

The above photo was taken in our garden this morning. We have a marvellous display of daffodils at the moment, reminding us that spring is really here.

There are also a few podcasts and YouTube videos that I have found on the internet.

“Ever thought of reading systematic theology to your kids at bedtime?

Well, Bruce Ware did. A professor of theology and the president of the Evangelical Theological Society, Dr. Ware’s new book–Big Truths for Small Hearts–is a tremendous resource for Christian parents.

He joins Dr. Mohler on the program today for a special conversation.”

• Link: http://www.albertmohler.com/radio_show.php?cdate=2009-05-19
• Buy at Koorong here: http://orders.koorong.com/search/details.jhtml?code=9781433506017
• Interview: http://theologica.blogspot.com/2009/04/big-truths-for-young-hearts-interview.html
• Review: http://www.cbmw.org/Blog/Posts/Big-Truths-for-Young-Hearts-Systematic-Theology-for-Little-Ones-Part-II

I’m shocked by my own reaction. I have LOVED to read ever since I learned. My passion was ignited at age 6 by Hungry Lambs** when I read the whole book in one sitting, ignoring the teachers direction to only read the first story. I think I’m in recovery now but I still have to write the essay, by Wednesday.

In absences of any useful content I thought I would put out some random stuff.

My girls caught one of these yesterday. It is a freshwater crayfish. They caught it in our stream using a net bought for them by a single girl at church. The net has been a wonderful toy, a great gift!

I’ve been noticing lately that there has been discussion in the media about how to reduce your food bill. One idea mentioned is menu planning. I’ve been doing this for years, like 10! I might share my wisdom and blog about it next week.

It’s only 2 weeks to the school holidays!!!!

My girls have just taken flattened cardboard boxes to the neighbours and are sliding down their hill on them. Even though they are about 400m way I can hear them squealing!

*I mean those that lived during the reign of Queen Victoria, not those who live in the state of Australia.

** Hungry Lambs was a reader given at school. It was the first book with more than one story in it.

This is relevant because the next stage of making crab apple jelly was to add sugar to the liquid. I measured what had dripped out of the bag overnight. It was about 4 cups so I added 4 cups of sugar to the liquid and put it in a pot to boil. This is pretty standard jam making procedure, half fruit and half sugar. I dissolved the sugar before bring the liquid to the boil , also something I do when making jam.

The rest is pretty unglamorous. I boiled it until a skin formed on a spoon full, placed in saucer, and left to cool. This took about 15 minutes.

Then I had to do the part which has burning potential. I had to get the hot liquid into hot jars and put hot lids on them. At this stage the jelly was actually quite liquid, it took a bit of faith to believe it would set. I go it all in, no burns and only a little spill.

The result.

I got four jars, plus a little. If we judged food by how it looks this would get 9/10. But we know taste is far more important or we would eat those plastic grapes they have in supermarket deli’s.

It tastes sweet and appley, but slightly tart. I had some on toast this morning and it was a little bland. Maybe it would be better on scones with cream, but then everything tastes better with cream!

I’m not sure if I would try this again, I’ll see how many jars are left this time next year.

As a funny after note I ‘forgot’ to tell my children that the word ‘jelly’ in crab apple jelly did not mean the same thing as jelly out of a packet. They came home from school expecting a dessert. They were a little disappointed.

WARNING: These crab apples were harmed in the making of this post.

The previous owner of our property planted a crab apple tree. As far as I can tell crab apples are useful for 3 things:

1) Bird food, birds love them.

2) Apples for dolls tea parties, their size means they look like a perfect small apple for a doll.

3) Crab apple jelly, like jam with out the fruit pulp.

Our crab apple tree has a prolific crop every year. In past years all of this crop has been used for either one or two. This is because to make jelly you need a piece of muslin to strain the juice from the pulp. Despite the fact that I do spend time in fabric shops I never got around to buying a piece of muslin. Until last year. But when I went down to check on the status of the crab apple crop they were all gone. I can only guess that birds were the culprits.

But this year I was prepared. I had my muslin and I was going to beat the birds.

I consulted cook books on the best method to make jelly, but in the end I combined the ideas.

First of all I took the pot down to the tree and filled it up. I then washed and halved the apples. I put in enough water to just cover them. The picture is of them in the pot.  I then cooked them until they were totally pulped, which took about an hour.

Then the fun bit began. I had to strain what was in the pot to separate the liquid from the pulp. One thing that all the books I read said was to let this process happen slowly and NOT to squeeze the bag with the pulp.

Now I’m sure you can buy flash gadgets to do this but this is what I rigged up in the kitchen sink.

I left it over night to drip.

In the next post read how I turn the liquid into something you can spread on toast.

I tried medieval history as an undergrad and I just didn’t get it. Medievalists are a special sort of person, they love all things medieval and don’t really care about modern history.I’m the opposite.

But I do like Vikings. A lot.

Blame it on my ancestry. My fair skin and well above average height betray northern European origins. In keeping with my interest in Vikings I really liked this book by Jackie French. French is Australian, and a prolific author. G1 has read several of her books and enjoyed them.

The main characters are a girl, Hekja, and her dog, Snarf. They are captured by Vikings, one of whom is the daughter of Eric the Red. The story follows Hekja life as a Viking slave, which includes some great adventures.

This book has a Christian component to it as the Greenlanders that Hekja is captured by have recently converted to Christianity. The Christianity is syncretistic, the Vikings have merged some of their pre-Christian beliefs with Christianity. This is particularly evident when some one is given a Christian burial service, but is buried with grave goods. This could be used to talk about the spread of early Christianity. In fact the whole book is a really good introduction to Viking life.

Another point about this book is it is a challenging read, but there is nothing in it I wouldn’t want a 10 year old to read. This makes it a great for those children whose reading age is higher than their chronological age.

I think this book would need a reading age of 12+ and could be enjoyed by older children (or adults).  Although the main character is a girl there is plenty of fighting, something Vikings were famous for. Because of this I think boys would enjoy this as well. Both G1 and I really liked this book. We got our copy form the young adults section of the public library.

Do you have an 7-8 year old girl? Then go to the library and get her a Judy Moody book.

I really like Judy and so did my girls. Children like Judy’s zaniness, parents will appreciate that Judy is a pretty normal kid, with a normal home life.

The plot lines revolve around the kind of things that middle primary school children can understand. Making new friends, and what happens to the old ones. When your teacher goes on a long break and you get a substitute. This happened to G2 last year, and the scenario that Megan McDonald writes reflected her experience.

From a Christian perspective these books are neutral. There are no Christian characters but neither is Christianity portrayed in a negative way. Book 4, ‘Judy Moody Predicts the Future’, sparked some good conversations about who knew the future (God!) and why people like to know what is in the future.

These books are readily available. The age range is 7+, G1 is 10 and she still likes Judy. They have a few pictures, making them an ideal transition book for those children moving into chapter books. I think Judy Moody will appeal to girls. McDonald has also written books from the perspective of Judy’s younger brother, Stink. Try those if you have a boy.

It was small and brownish. We looked a each other for a few minutes then I slowly moved, and then ran inside to get the camera. When I came back the frog had gone.

I did some research on the net and using this site I worked out that I had seen a tree frog.I borrowed one of their photos, my frog was more uniform in colour though.

Tree frogs usually hang out in the foliage around steams and ponds. We do have a stream on our property but it’s a good 5 metres from the vege garden. I think seeing a frog is a hint that I need to do some work on the drainage.