20.9.2023
An unusual visitor turned up this week. We woke to find a large pelican peacefully floating on the dam. You forget how big these birds are. He stayed around for two days and then was off again. The swallows are more persistent. A young couple have worked so fast to build their nest in our porch that we missed the opportunity to dislodge them, and will now have to put up with the mess till the chicks are old enough to cope.
Spring is really here. Already we have had weather well above the seasonal average, and everything is growing almost visibly. We are eating the broccoli as the heads ripen but the cauliflowers are disappointing, opening whilst they are still small. We have a thicket of lettuce and mizuna, and I have harvested the first swedes. We need swedes to make Cornish pasties at the end of the month, so I am hoping they will hang on an extra couple of weeks. Yesterday I planted out sweet corn and the first zucchinis it will be time for tomatoes next.
5.10.23
Pastie and grand final weekend have been duly celebrated. We found enough swedes for Edd to make Cornish pasties and had a very full weekend with Alvyn and his friends camping and everyone else arriving for Saturday Party time. On Friday evening the weather was perfect so we had a BBQ with the campers and watched the full moon rise big and bright over the hills. It reminded us of our first Xmas here when we watched the moon rise from under the shed roof where we lived before we built our first house.
Since then, we have had heavy rain fall and there are areas now flooded that were fighting bush fires a couple of days ago! The sheep are on our house roof but still have not made much of an impression on the grass. This rain will stimulate everything to grow faster too.
