I never seem to come in from the garden with empty hands

even if I'm just cleaning out some old pots with misplaced labels  :) The blue potatoes taste lovely!

Jan 26th - traditionally our tomato canning day

And we're ahead of ourselves, because we did all the prep yesterday. It's lovely and cool today, and the sky is very grey -

but the vegetable garden is pretty.

This little patchwill be cleared out today and fed and rested for heritage garlic to go in in a couple of weeks.

Oh! Look what came out of it - all those heritage carrots I'd forgotten about

- orange, white and red. I've been feeding the tops to the chooks, and the bottoms had grown on anyway. Must remember next week to sow some of the seeds in the bee-feeding area near the apple trees, as well - I can keep the greens and seedheads for cooking, as well as for the chooks.

Jonathon's beans

On the wall of Paul's office.

The ones I can reach, we eat green: the ones up high, I let dry for that gorgeous winter casserole we stuffed ourselves with last year  :)

The raspberry bush at the side needs pruning back now - but behind them, that Jerusalem artichokes in the grow bag looks promising!

In all this sun and rain we're having, the nectarines have developed a nasty mould problem. I've been pruning and picking up after them, but I think a copper spray of some kind might be needed. Note for next year...

I should be sowing broccoli this weekend.

Building up the soup cache -

very slowly...

Oi!

For a little while there, we looked like getting a really fine crop of apples...

But it ain't gonna happen.

It's a rainy, grey early morning - but will you just look at Joss's hollyhocks?

In my Australian garden! Somewhere I have a photo of the twig these seeds came on - Joss brought it home from one of her walks with her maman. I planted three seeds, and they've taken two years to bloom, but they're beautiful

Back again.

New plan - this can be my warm-up writing. I'll take photos during the day and post them when I blog - it's just about discipline.  *sigh*

5:59am - and the day is just breaking. It was quiet and quite dark when I got up at 4:30, but just as the dawn started, a little shower of rain came over. It's been weirdly cold here for the last couple of days. Odd things are happening to the garden. The zucchini is out and full of blossom, but the fruit is torring which could be too much deep sudden rain, or could be calcium deficiency in the soil. I'm going to grind up eggshells and add that - see how it goes.

I love this moment - when the light rises, and the birds go into musical frenzy. Even a grey rainy morning like this is glorious!


The temperature is 17 degrees (prediction of 22 degrees at 3:00pm), with rain expected.

6:30 am - and the rain is here! Heavy - and lots more to come by the look of it. There will be no bike-rides today.

Oh - and I just found this photo in my camera: a gift for the cubby house, from Shak and Dave.

Perfect!