Progress

UPDATE 26 Feb: -


UPDATE 23 Feb: -



The first sunflower is getting larger and along with it are 2 smaller ones :)

And now there are two!

The first sunflower is growing larger and it now has a companion! :)

Sunflower

Update 17 Feb 2011: HERE WE ARE!




My very first sunflower is on the way! After quite a long time tending to it, making sure it has enough to drink and does not get blown over by strong winds, I think I might have a flower coming up. This is the largest plant I have planted so far! :)

Busy weekend

It's the CNY and Valentine's weekend and although we haven't got much festivities here, we did go to the city where there was a little bit of CNY atmosphere which was nice. There were lion dances going on around the shops at Chinatown and ear-drum bursting firecrackers going off. I seem to have accomplished quite a bit at home though.


Balsam flowers sprouting!


Made a simple skirt for me...


...and a new handphone pouch.


Tried out a sponge cake recipe with the rice cooker. This turned out a little like steamed cake. I know someone who will like this!

We also wanted to arrange a bunny date for Pixie with a bunny that needed a new home. But his owner eventually did not get back to me. So no bunny friend for her this time. I have been toying with the idea of getting her a companion but the thought of what if they don't get along does make me a little hesitant. I thought perhaps that was a sign that I wasn't ready yet :P

Plants on our balcony now

My plants are currently not doing too badly after a spell of no plants and everything drying up. I even had a couple of nasturtium flowers. :)

Home grown mushrooms

The first mushroom


Some more mushrooms - we've had 6 so far and I think there are lots more to come. The texture is smoother than the ones we buy from the market.

Mushrooms are growing bigger!

They are starting to look more edible now.

Mushroom progress

It looks like we might have some mushrooms this week!

No pets so I'll have plants

Now that I don't have a bunny to tend to, I thought I'd try some other things like plants. I've already got some little shoots going in the pot and a mushroom growing kit as well.


Little shoots - not exactly sure what plants these are. I got the seeds embedded in some brochure I got from Target.

Mushroom growing kit. I've always wanted to try one. Now I can.

Not ready to go yet - there doesn't seem to be enough bloom coming up. Stay tuned!

Attempt at sprouting

Bought some organic wheat grains yesterday so that I could try sprouting some greens for Bobbers. While doing some research on the methods of sprouting, I found out that almonds can also be sprouted (or rather, soaked). A couple of useful references - here and here.

Almond and wheat grains

Normal almond and soaked almond

Is that a sprout I see? (They taste good like that!)

Bobbers will have to wait a little bit longer for the wheat grains to sprout. :D

The first tulip bloom!

Left: Morning; Right: Afternoon 

Our tulip plant sprouted a flower over the past few days and this morning, I thought the flower bulb looked quite big. Lo and behold, it bloomed in the afternoon! :D It is a little small compared to tulips sold in the shops but it is hand raised!


First tulip! 

Spring blooms

An update on some of the plants currently growing in our balcony.


Statice 

The statice have taken some time to get this far but at least now there are flowers blooming :) Must have been the wrong season to start them in perhaps?


Tulip leaves 

These tulips leaves sprouting are from bulbs saved from last year's tulips bought by Johnny when he went to the tulip festival. Wonder how long it is going to take to get the flowers sprouting. The tulip festival this year has already started but these here look like they have some way to go still.

My sunflowers

Sunflowers 

The sunflowers I planted some time ago are amazingly trying to flower at this time of the year when it is not really warm or sunny, which explains why they look rather scrawny. Can imagine how much better they would be looking if it was summer...