Mid January already??

I've just realised I haven't posted here in a while...can't have been that long ago...surely not last year??  Can you believe it's mid January already.

Bonnie & Clyde stayed with us for a little while but I found their real owners - there were a couple of kids (well 20 and 21) who were looking after the house whilst their parents were away and they didn't secure the hens properly so they got out.  They were so relieved when I turned up  :)

 

The summer vegies have produced prolifically but are starting to die back now.  The tomatoes are still making a heroic effort despite being shredded by hail and then fried to a crisp on a 40 degree day.

The sunflowers are all dying back as well, I'm waiting for them to form seeds so I can harvest.

Each day we harvest a few pale zucchini, gem squash and a few trombocino zucchini.

  

The Collingwood Childrens Farm have a great farmers market that we visit each month, but each month the crowds grow bigger and bigger.

I return for my Holy Goat fix  :)  

We've had to give produce away as we've had so much

We've been visiting our favourite Spanish grocer for the best Portuguese custard tarts in the world!  

 

The corn was sadly eaten by the chooks or succumbed to the hail but I was pleasantly surprised to find one tiny plant had survived nestled in the pumpkin, looks like a tiny ear is forming as well.  We harvested our first pumpkin!  I'm not sure what type this is, but it looks better than it tastes because it was quite bland tasting more like a swede than a pumpkin!

 

We kept wondering why the mandarins kept falling off the tree.  That is until I decided to pry one open to find to my delight that actually they were falling because they were ripe!  So very tiny and still green but so sweet and juicy on the inside! 

Summer has meant lots of picnic dinners in the garden.

Well lovely until the chooks steal your dinner that is.  Gotta be quick with them getting bolder.  I've given a lot of thought to whether or not to bond with them and name them.  But it looks like they've decided for me and Miss Bok has named them Snowflake (light sussex), Koko (barnevelder) and Summer (welsummer).  I'm still heartsore over my last 2 flocks but I'll get over it in time - or perhaps I won't!