Well, we had a week of sickness here and not a lot happening (unfortunately (or fortunately?) I was the last to get it so I continued on as much as possible in between times). The weather hasn't been the best so we didn't really miss out on much outside except for the day I was sick and slept the day away. Oh well!

During the week while still in isolation with our germies I did get to enjoy a bit of this (we had a few sunny hours one of the days lol). Summer's been a big tease in this part of the country this year!

Today was wonderfully sunny again and no wind so we all spent the entire day outside enjoying it and getting plenty of yard work done.

I spent the morning clearing out the herb garden (was very overgrown), trimming a few bushes back and found some spots to put in some more herbs that my mum had brought back from her BILs herb nursery - yay!

A few of them are going to be tall trees and were ones that I have been after since planning my herb/insect habitat a few years ago when I did my Organic horticulture course. So I finally have Lemon Verbena, Angelica archangelica and Bergamot Lemon to line the back of the garden and provide a bit of a wind break and privacy as well. The ones I popped in today are useful in teas, medicinal and culinary as well as attracting bees.

The kids and I gathered some herbs to make some herb ice blocks that they could tie up off a tree branch to catch drips off as they melted. We used mint and lavender flowers.

Meanwhile, Simon was off sorting out what we were going to edge a few of the garden beds down in the lower garden with. I've become increasingly discouraged with the garden and the masses of weeds and grasses that encroach on the garden beds which makes it tricky to keep on top of as well as the more unkempt it becomes the more I tend to ignore it.

So, I decided we were to edge four of the beds as permanent year-round, and the rest can come and go as we require more garden to spread into for our Spring/Summer garden. So he dug out small trenches to sink the planks of wood into (we went with untreated macrocarpa) and leaving about 10cm above the ground which I can gradually fill in to make the bed raised slightly. With luck, the chicken coop will still be able to placed over them as they are a little smaller - if not, no big deal, it just means I'll need to put more work into fertilising etc.

So we spent the afternoon marking out the grid to edge them while still hoping for a reasonably natural look. I have found my attempts at using driftwood or rocks no good with the weeds I have - they just find their way in and around and make it extra difficult to get to them.

The ice blocks were ready (although Danielle wanted to finish munching on her freshly pulled and washed carrot first)...

Here are a few crafts I've been working on in the evenings.

Cute little fabric basket (using more hessian which was useful instead of needing interfacing) using this tutorial. I will make some more in fabrics to suit Danielle's room when she gets her new (well, old but refurbished) desk for her birthday in a few months - I think a couple of these will be good for holding little bits and pieces. The finished basket is about 12cm across.

Then I made this cushion cover for the desk chair. Just need to make some ties for it.