strange pumpkins

Arran jacket

birthday flowers

April 14 2015

Edd changed the tap. Fantastic. I can now turn it off without grazing my knuckles on the wall and spilling water behind the units. I now need help cutting tiles because they are too thick for my little tile-cutting device. At least I have now painted the wall behind the sink with sealing material so it is waterproof. The paint is green so it actually tones in with the rest of the décor whilst I wait for the next stage.

Edd is busy making a stand for the forklift device that came attached to the new tractor. It is much to heavy to leave on the tractor all the time so it needs to be stored at a height that makes it easy to put back on. He is also getting ready to take the excess sheep to market. There has been so little rain that we have no feed left in the paddocks. We have sent the goats off onto the hill to eat blackberries. I had to walk down and find them last night before dark because they were sure that there must be an easier route home. There is, but we do not want them in the house site.

I am planting winter vegetables. This week kale Bok choi and silver beet went in. We are eating beans and still have lots of tomatoes and eggplants. But the zucchinis and cucumber are finished for the year. It is now olive harvesting season and I have a jar of olives and salt in the kitchen that I stir each day. Last weeks batch are drying over the wood stove before being stuffed in jars with chilli under oil.

The lettuces are doing well now that it is not so hot and we have harvested most of the pumpkins. I had one pumpkin in the front beds near the cucumber and zucchini and I suspect we have some hybridisation going on. We got lots of huge pumpkins but they are very pale inside and look unlike any pumpkins I know. Luckily they taste fine in a different sort of way.

Only 8 weeks now before Wayne’s baby is due. He came up this weekend with Dani and they are both very excited. I got the Arran jacket finished for them and I am now knitting gloves hats and bootees.   I get very frustrated that all my old patterns charts and notes were burnt, but I am gradually building up a new set. Luckily I still have photos of things I made but I miss the lovely old books I had that gave me so many ideas.