thediamondleaf @thediamondleaf-blog - Tumblr Blog

° ° ° L I F E ° ° ° I know flowers are best admired from the garden. I don't like to pick them too often, especially when the bees are busy buzzing about. However I have some special guests arriving tomorrow & I have sooo many in the garden, I thought these little beauties might not mind coming inside to show off 🌻🌼🌺🥀 The scent they release into our cozy warm home is like a breath of fresh spring air, a stark contrast to the dusting of snow we received on the mountain tops today! Everything is alive & green & abundant again. I feel my energy returning & my spirits lifting. I 💛 SPRING P.s. I found some adorable weeds & I added them too 😆😄😄 (at Queenstown NZ)

° ° ° E X C E S S ° ° ° Hi friends 👋👋 Yesterday while making Vitamin C rich Rosehip Syrup, I realised I had collected far more rosehips than I can ever hope to use ⚘🥀 I had intended to make more tea and chutney, but life happens, you get busy, something else pops up, & your left with an extra Kg of dried rosehips. All spray-free, wild rosehips, which make the most delicious syrup, perfect for boosting your immunity throughout winter & spring. FREE to a good home ❤ If you would like some, let me know below, New Zealand only sorry, they wouldn't make it through our strict customs agency. I'd like to split these up, so tag someone you think will use them. ◇ Top Tip ◇ To get some of the exterior hairs, leaves & stem off, I put around 1 cup into a container with a lid, & shake the living daylights out of them! This separates them pretty well, I'll send a quick recipe with the rosehips ❤⚘❤⚘❤⚘❤ (at Queenstown NZ)

° ° ° W I N T E R G R E E N S ° ° ° Sharing is caring, & I don't mind sharing some of my greens with hungry bugs over winter, do you? 🌱🐌🌱🐛🌱🐜🌱 Pak Choi is an easy peasy, quick grower, delicious raw, in salads, smoothies or my favourite, stirfry. They have gorgeous edible yellow flowers too! 🌻 Pak Choi likes full sun in cold climates & part shade in warmer areas. Their leaves can become quite bitter if they sunbathe for too long. Plant where there will be no more than 8 hours of sunlight. 🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞 As you can see here, they can be prone to slugs or cabbage worms, however spray a little chilli/water mix on them & wash the bugs off. Rinse before eating, & don't be afraid of a couple of love bites, the leaves are still delicious! Best grown from seedling, keep soil moist & you will have nutritious dark green veg all winter long 🌱💚🌱💚🌱💚 (at Queenstown NZ)

° ° ° F U L L ° ° ° My hands are full, my pockets are full, my tummy is full, my heart is full!! ❤❤❤ That has GOT to be the definition of happiness, right?! So, they might be covered with pocket fluff now, but what's a little pocket fluff between friends? I am tempted to cover this cranberry bush with bird netting, however I have so many, I am okay with sharing a few with my feathered friends 🕊🕊🕊 Packed with vitamin C, these little sweeties are just what I need right now, to get me through the last of this flu. Believe me when I tell you I have done NOTHING to help these little powerhouses grow! Ok, I may have snipped off the top foliage to help pump nutrients into the fruit, but that was ONE time, & they are pumping! Had never eaten raw cranberries before now, & I'll never go back! Deeeeee-licious! ❤ (at Lake Wakatipu)

° ° ° A O T E A R O A ° ° ° The Maori name for New Zealand, translating to: Land of the Long White Cloud. Whoever chose the name was not wrong. Low lying, long white clouds are such a common sight here, & they are beautiful 💙☁💙🌬💙☁💙 (at Queenstown NZ)

° ° ° S H O W O F F ° ° ° Well, someone's an over-achiever! On the left is a regular sized Roly Poly carrots, on the right is a big 'ole show off! 🥕🥕 I put all of these seeds in at the very same time, however this one is a giant! Sitting up it covered my entire palm 🤚🥕 I hope it is still tasty, when carrots or beets (or most root vegetables actually) get too big, they can become woody in texture & not so good for eating. These little sweeties are going into my roasted carrot & pumpkin soup & the beautiful green tops will go into a pesto! As everything in my garden is spray free, I save the leafy green tops off lots of veg to turn into pesto, it's so delicious! Radishes are just HUGE as well, letting them go to seed, I feel like these ones will just keep getting better year after year! #saveseeds So much work to do, have been so so sick & just got back from being offline for two days - time to shine! 💚🌱💚🌱💚🌱💚 (at Queenstown, New Zealand)

#saveseeds

° ° ° F I R E B A L L ° ° ° Artichoke fluffy goodness, transforming into dancing fireballs in split seconds. 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 After removing seeds for hours (& hours...) on end, this was actually extremely satisfying. Working with dried artichokes is not for wimps. The hair-like bristles sprouting from the top feel like fibre glass & the hardened outer leaves are more like spines. This delicious plant sure is a fortress, & boy does she make you work for it! Plucking out the tighlty packed bristles, I was enchanted when they started opening, forming perfect silky orbs, a floating parachute for the seeds next journey. The seed sits deep inside, each tiny packet attached to it's own bundle of golden strands, ready to be airlifted with the coming winds. Pretty clever isn't she!? Sherwood Hotel now has enough artichoke seeds to establish a small forest of artichoke! Yum! As well as being a culinary delight, they are also an amazing pollinator attractor, bees just love their fuzzy purple flowers! 💜🐝 P.s. how cool is the flying fireball, caught on the warm up draft 😍 (at Kelvin Heights)

° ° ° S H E R W O O D ° ° ° Today, was a beautiful day. The beautiful people of #sherwoodqueenstown opened their wild, luscious, abundant kitchen garden, to let me rummage & collect as many seeds as possible! Here is just a small selection of what our earth-covered hands harvested, including some tiny hands, with the youth of our future pitching in, their inquisitive little eyes spotting seeds we would have otherwise overlooked. Sherwood Hotel is such an amazing asset to our community, providing collaborative spaces for skill sharing, social screening & alternative education. Here we have a variety of beans, broccoli, Echinacea, chard, calendula, nasturtiums & tarragon 🌾🌿🌱🍃 What a privilege to be in the company of such passionate minds; we have some real game changers in our midst. If you are a #conscious traveler, this should be your accommodation of choice. They will look after you, without compromising the environment. 👊👊👊 Here's to the future! (at Sherwood Queenstown)

#conscious #sherwoodqueenstown

° ° ° F L O W F I E ° ° ° Oh what a world it would be if there were more flowfies than selfies 🌸🌹🌻🌺🌷🌼 There is NOTHING wrong with a good selfie, go on & show off your beautiful faces! However I think we could definitely do with a few less. How about trying a #flowfie?! One thing I will be doing this coming spring is planting as many flowers as I can to encourage all of our friendly pollinators back into the garden 🦋🐞🐝 Pick yourself up a packet of any of these: °Calendula °Borage °Nasturtiums °Cornflowers °Sweet Pea °Lavender °Cosmos °Wild bergamot/bee balm Impress your friends & spice up your baking & salads with edible flowers, while helping out our hard working bees at the same time! 💛🐝💛🐝💛🐝💛🐝💛 (at Queenstown NZ)

#flowfie

🌱 S E E D S W A P 🌱 9 tickets left, my lovelies! Don't miss out! Here is the Seed Packet Template I promised you all, print it out & have some good old fashioned craft fun putting it together! Get it from my FB page or email me & I will send it straight to your email, link in bio. Fill it with what ever seeds you have in your garden, or even excess seeds you may have lying around. I will have extra seed packets on the night that you can pick up for a gold coin donation, keep them or swap! If you're like me & like to follow other local gardeners, write down your Instagram name, Facebook page or even your email - let's all keep in touch! See you soon, friends X HUGE thanks to @minkdesign for all his help on the template 💚👍 (at Queenstown NZ)

° ° ° M Y S T E R Y ° ° ° Surprise! 🌱🌱🌱 These are my mystery peas..... They have sprouted up all over my garden! However, I am not sure how they got there....? One option is that the pea straw I put down a few weeks ago, was laden with seeds, & the recent rainy/sunny weather has brought about the germination. The other option is kinda far fetched but I like it much better. We set down some green manure seeds on our empty bed to cover it for the winter. It was a mixture of mustard, lupin & pea seeds, scattered haphazardly across freshly turned soil. I saw so many birds, scrambling & pecking away, eating their fill, & also flying across to my vege garden. I shooed most of them away, as they attack my leafy greens, & that's when I noticed a lot pea seeds lying around. I like to think I scared the peas right from their beaks & now they grow where they dropped them 🕊🌱🕊🌱 Either way, I'm keeping them 💚 (at Kelvin Heights)

° ° ° L ❤ V E ° C O O K I E S ° ° ° Today I craved old fashioned Autumn comfort. I knew exactly where to turn to find the inspiration I needed, my good friend @lifeveganstyle_ 💚 The beautiful Vegan Mama to be has loads of incredible cruelty-free recipes & her food pics will leave you drooling! Head over to her page & wish her a happy birthday! 🎂🎉🎁 The base for these delicious oat cookies was one of her amazing creations & super easy to customise to your hearts desire. These ones are Love Cookies ❤❤❤ My secret ingredient is a tablespoon of Maca Root Powder. High in Vitamin B, C & E, it improves energy, mood & increases libido (ooh la la!!) Maca Root is also called Peruvian Ginseng. They taste like Autumn to me! 🍁Earthy🍁Oaty🍁Spicy🍁Warm🍁 This afternoon I pottered about my garden, collecting the last of the strawberries & tayberries, snipping off pineapple sage flowers, taking in the crispy cold air & collecting armfulls of apples. It was therapy for the soul. Fire season is just around the corner.... 🔥🔥🔥 (at Queenstown NZ)

° ° ° Golden Hour° ° ° That delicious golden glow, time slows down, the temperature of a soft, warm hug. This was the beginning of one of my favourite sunsets this summer. The one where we discovered a tiny hidden beach & went swimming, in not very much. We felt the freeze & braved it anyway. I remember shivering out of the water, the feeling of numbness melting off my skin, in that warm, golden glow. Autumn is here now. The golden glow has lowered & settled upon the leaves. I love this just the same. 💚🍃💛🍂❤🍁

° ° ° T E A ° ° ° Rose Petal & Raspberry Leaf 🌹🍃 It's no secret, I 💚 tea. I also love buying tea. I'm a tea hoarder. Don't judge. So this year I'm taking my addiction I to my own hands and making my own tea! It's so easy. Let me say it again. SO easy. I took inspiration from of my favourite teas, and gathered the ingredients. Some I had in my own garden, some I gathered from the wild & some I pinched from other gardens ✌ Dry bunched leaves upside down in a cool dry area, out of direct sunlight (too much sunlight will destroy medicinal properties) Once completely dry, when the leaves crumbles between your fingers, removes all the leaves from stalks & stems & blitz in a food processor. Store in an airtight jar/container. All you need is a tea strainer which you can buy quite cheaply from most places, a good book, & stormy night! Perfect night in! I've dried raspberry leaf, lemon balm, mint, rose petals, rosehip, chamomile & citrus peel! Yum!! Looking for more suggestions please! 💚💚💚💚💚💚💚 (at Queenstown NZ)

° ° ° Bee Happy ° ° ° Found this tired little bee on my bed when I got home from work 🐝💛 I have heard that sometimes bees get a bit worn out, thirsty, & need a little pick me up, so I put down a spoon with a sweet mixture of raw honey & water. I hope this was the right thing to do 💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛 (bee-keeping/loving friends please correct me if I'm wrong!) He/She (I don't know how to tell...) made a bee-line straight for it & did a little booty dance afterwards, so I'll take that as a positive sign. I've taken it outside to rest on the nasturtiums, I'd hate to leave it inside & have it fly into the window later! Bee happy! Bee free! 💛🐝💛🐝💛 (at Queenstown NZ)

50 posts! Well that escalated quickly!

#50 posts #tumblr milestone

° ° ° H A P P Y ° ° ° Hi!!! 👋🤚👋🤚👋🤚Kia Ora!!! Caught me mid grin, like the cat who got the cream 😋😋😋 I've been super busy lately & have clearly not been paying attention to the bounty in my back yard! Woah! There are apples in every direction. Enough quince to feed a Queen 👸 (the large, fuzzy yellow things in the box). Juicy big pears. Radishes for day! OVER 100 TOMATOES!!!! (which is over a kilos worth of cherry toms, pretty happy with that in Autumn!) I'm staying in this weekend. My beautiful, faithful garden has earned my undivided love & attention, & that's what She's going to get! So many flowers and herbs for drying too, I'm like a kid in a candy shop! #happiness (at Queenstown NZ)

#happiness

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

thediamondleaf