Paris

I arrived in Paris to my very lovely little hotel room, which seemed to be glowing Blue! I love staying in Paris with a window to the street below so I can watch life going on. The weather was abit on the dreary side as you can see below but it is always such a pleasure to visit this magnificent city.

On my walk through the streets on night I happened across this beautiful Christmas tree still lit up in all its glory in front of Notre Dame. What an amazing sight!

The rather unique Andrew Martin stand at Maison & Objet fair with a vintage Circus theme and below a very smart pooch looking rather regal on the wall. The fair was fantastic! and I love the tones of bronze, peach and soft pink also seen in the Maje window below.

Walking along the wide streets to the Metro in the morning I had to stop for a minute and wonder what it would be like to live in Paris for just a moment of your life? But as always my stay in Paris is never long enough now I'm off to experience the fabulous looking Thalys train to Amsterdam! 

Harvey Nichols Windows - bring on colour!

Its official if you don't like colour Harvey Nichols windows tell us that we soon will! Anything goes here as long as its strong, clashing and colourful! Gorgeous! (she says while wearing black :) 

Colour inspiration from Notting Hill

Gorgeous Sea Green terrace in Notting Hill, as I walked around it was hard not to be inspired by the amazing colours people use on their homes and the stores, even the rain only dulls the colour slightly!

Lovely coloured blue door and fabulous tiling.

It was abit of a shock leaving the beautiful Melbourne weather and landing in London this week - its been around 4-6 degrees and rain unfortunately - but the dull weather was not going to put a damper on the colours of the stores in Portobello Road! 

Movida Cocina

I am a very lucky girl! My lovely Son and his fabulous girlfriend, who just happens to be from Latin America, and understands my obsession with Spanish food - went to Movida Aqui for dinner recently and look what I got!! A personally signed copy of the new Movida Cocina from the one and only Frank Camorra and Richard Cornish. What a great way to start cooking for 2012! Thanks guys - you are the best and heres to some fabulous Spanish dinners ahead!

Our new Veggie Garden - part two

Now to fill our new garden. I read up on what to plant and all about companion plants, I have definitely learnt alot over the last few days. We had our work cut out for us locating organic seedlings, after just filling our garden with totally organic materials, I wanted to make sure we where only planting organic seedlings and seeds. We headed over to Ceres in Brunswick, what a fabulous place that is, a Community Environmental Park and Urban Farm. Amongst many other things they propagate their own seedlings and we where able to find organic Climbing Beans, Red Lettuce, Italian Parsley and Sweet Basil.

Across town and we found organic and Heirloom seeds for our Carrots, Lebanese Cucumber, Eggplant and Zucchini's (which I now realise won't all fit!). And below, our first planting of Climbing Beans with Bamboo poles in the anticipation that they will indeed climb!

Then the addition of gorgeous little Red Lettuce's, Sweet Basil and Italian Parsley.

And then off to buy more Mulch for around the bases of the seedlings. The empty looking Compost on the lower left hand side is full of lovely Carrot seeds and the lower right hand side is hopefully going to be a healthy Lebanese Cucumber!

Then for a layer of protective mesh, as we were planting the bird chirping seemed to be getting louder with excitement. So we thought we best add some mesh so the lovely little seedlings and seeds are still there in the morning.

Then the water. Hubby added a little drip irrigation system in and attached it to our existing water tank (I have to say he is abit of a legend!) So finally all done, now to cross our fingers for the exciting times ahead - that we may be eating our own Vegetables and Herbs in weeks & months to come!

Our new Veggie Garden part one

Well I've done it, actually we did it, thank you very helpful husband! Although on the 3rd trip to the Nursery in search of organic seedlings he was getting abit over it (they are not that easy to find!) so thanks for hanging in there. I thought I'd show you the making of our new Veggie and Herb garden - which we are both pretty proud of achieving and hope to enjoy home grown veggies in the months to come. Below is the arrival of our Steel raised Veggie patch which we found at Garden World. 

And then off we went with the aid of our newly purchased "The Little Veggie Patch Co" book on how to grow food in small spaces - for the amateur gardener I can highly recommend the book - as well as being very informative it is full of humour which kept me entertained. In search of Organic fertiliser, Compost, Pea Straw and other things - only thing I am still trying to locate is Worm Castings - yep Worm poo! Looks like I will have to wait till they come back from holidays to get it directly from them.

Back home and the soon to be garden is in location - with the use of a spirit level and shovel we were ready to start filling with layers to create our no dig garden. 

Our second layer of Pea Straw is in and we are realising it takes a lot to fill a 1200x700x800 sized space. There could be another trip to the Nursery involved as we don't have enough compost to fill it!

And another 8 bags of Compost should do it! Now off to do more research on what to plant!