Normally I collect and dry calendula flowers so I can use them to make my own hand balm. But then this flower opened and I decided these ones need to become seed so I can always grow this particular one.
And then the next one opened on a rainy day and it was even prettier, especially with all the rain droplets!
One of the first things we packed into a storage shed in preparation for our move was the Christmas decorations. There is no chance we're pulling everything out to get to it so our house is not very Christmassy this year - I'll make up for that next year!
Luckily I hadn't packed up all of my fabric until recently so I was able to pull out the Christmas bunting panel which I bought in the boxing day sales last Christmas.
It was actually quite fun to make, repetitive but nice and easy. I might even make a birthday one for our daughter! It would have been easier to use premade bias binding but I didn't think to get that out of the shed. Strips of a newly purchased mistletoe Christmas fabric (it's all on sale already!) worked well enough... but I now have more fabric to pack!
I actually bought a few of their cheap Christmas fabrics to do Furoshiki for our daughters gifts in the future. We'll see how I go with learning the folding technique and I might start doing it for everyone's gifts. I'll keep you updated, I'm not quite sure what sizes would be best to make, or how they wrap large gifts. Perhaps we'll hide any that are too big for the fabric wrap and do a treasure hunt for them instead!
It seems like all the bugs like sunflowers, not only the pollinators loving the flowers, but also whichever critters enjoy eating them as seedlings. Needless to say I was very happy that these two have bloomed - and one of them has lots of extra flowers on it's stalk.
Since photos weren't showing all the cute little native bees I thought I'd try sharing a video.
Now that the seeds have formed, the rosellas have been enjoying the free feed, although I bet they wish the dog would stop noticing them!
I'm cutting it close with Christmas this year, I finally finished my daughter's Christmas dress, once it is washed we can get her Christmas photos done!
Arrowroot does best in the ground, but I needed to pot some up so I could take it with us when we move. I dug up a small tuber so it doesn't overtake the pot and decided to create a self watering pot in a bucket (buckets have handles so it's easier to carry). Now it's a bit boring having just one little stick of arrowroot in a bucket so I added a comfrey and strawberry.
I have to say this little guild is perfect and they have grown so fast! These three plants all prefer to stay out of the full afternoon sun, and they enjoy the more consistent moisture of the self watering pot. I did buy a fresh bag of potting mix for this one as comfrey pulls up all the nutrients. Since I've been cutting the comfrey to feed the chickens and add to any plants that need a boost, I will have to start feeding this pot regularly.
They say once you plant comfrey you'll never get rid of it... unfortunately mine disappeared when Ray helped me weed. After months of searching I was very lucky to find this single plant for sale. The lady at the nursery told me they finally filled all their special orders and only had one extra - it was waiting for me! Hopefully I can propagate it soon so I can have a backup - I'm not letting this plant die!!
