Irrelevent Threads

The observant eye will be able to tell that Louis is home by the mate cup (inscribed Buenos Aires) that has jostled for and won a place at the coffee station.
The special mate straw is sticking out, metal with filters in the bottom to keep out the tea leaves. It's a small thing but I do look back fondly on the paper straws that you sucked to death and threw on the fire instead of throw away plastic.

Not much happening in the garden: turned and watered a compost heap, gathered and spread pine needles around the hazelnuts, got gardening books out of the library.
That's a whole red cabbage in the colander, in shreds by the time I thought to take a photo. It was a miserable specimen but they stand well in the garden; peel off the manky outer leaves and it cooked up great with grated apple and some butter.
Cabbage is one of the standout home grown vegetables, if you needed to be persuaded. It is just so delicious fresh and so ordinary if it's not. I expect I have said that at one time about every vegetable I have ever grown.

Here's my raspberry experiment: the twigs in front of the fence. I pruned these at the wrong time of year to fit them in the car and that's when the trouble began.  After that I noticed they were Autumn fruiting which doesn't suit. They don't ripen in our brief Autumn sunshine. I'm going to cut them to the ground in January and see whether the new shoots fruit early the following year (January) or if they grow slowly through to Autumn fruiting.

Wax eyes feeding on the fat below. This is a photo from about this time last year.
I've actually spent the holidays making puddings but didn't photograph any. The boys have each stepped up to their cooking nights (with degrees of assistance) so that leaves me to make pudding and explore my current favourite, the 1965 WDFF (Women's Division of Federated Farmers) Cookery Book. It is unfortunate that the names were not attributed to the recipes because some of these ladies were awesome. There's one voice stands out in particular. Here's her introduction to Peter Pan Pudding and don't you just want to try it:

When something just a little light and luxurious is required for a sweet, nothing could be more fitting than Peter Pan Pudding. It is as light as a cloud, not cloyingly sweet, but utterly delicous.

. That woman is a mind reader. 

Perhaps I have said before that worms also like a little fat in their diet so it is okay to put some in the compost heap. On that note, off to put a little fat in our diet and document some winter puddings.  

Outlook Fine

We caught a glimpse of a lady on Close Up the other week, billed as a 'Dr Dolittle' who talked to animals. The only bit I saw was a cluster of animals making a noise. 'So what are they saying?' says the presenter.
'Oh they're just talking about the weather.' How we laughed. I have a saying that life is always telling us something, if only we would listen and this lupin below is signalling in bright colours: 'Look at me and do something.' My first guess was nitrogen deficiency. These are the glasshouse beds that I buried in wood chips and pony droppings; wood chips tying up available nitrogen as they break down which they will release once the process is complete. Now the lupin is fixing nitrogen from the air but that won't be released until the roots are dug in to rot.

I swallowed my pride and shot another question off to Dirt Doctor wishing that I had enrolled under a psuedonym. If I ever do one of their courses they'll see my name and roll their eyes. Jim says a number of interesting things: Could be burning from excess nitrogen in fresh manure, could be herbicide residues in the poo or chemical residue from anything the calves-that-mucked-the-woodchips were treated with (eek), or pathogens in the soil or introduced. He suggested applying lime. I noticed 'greening' on the soil here pre any Autumn additions so had planned to do the same thing myself.

So moving right along...

Photo on the left is one of the paths in the same glasshouse. A quick weed and shovel up what the birds have scratched out of the beds. Then I've put down heavy white plastic strips in between the beds, photo on the right. This has been done before (not by me) and I remember it helped keep the paths weed free. It will also reflect light and heat back up to ripen tomatoes. Those tomatoes so far, thanks for the suggestions Tim, are 'brandywine pink', and a small one 'black cherry' both from Kings and I have booked some 'Grosse Lisse' from master greenfingers (Hamish) down the road. In addition, my own beefsteak seed has failed to germinate so I will be browsing the garden shop next week and can try some others instead.

The bees are enjoying the weeds in the vegetable garden so much I haven't the heart to pull them out so I dug out the raspberries and moved them into my backyard instead. Having read up about them I've decided they are Autumn fruiting. Of course I trundled them up in the wheelbarrow first, then went inside to learn that I shouldn't let the roots dry out; went out and turned the turf over to begin to prepare the ground, thus day one. (photo on left)

Day two dug 8 holes, added a shovel of grit and compost and chopped it all in with the turf. Pruned them right back to stumps(photo on right), see what eventuates; raspberries I hope. Autumn fruiters are supposed to be better for a hot climate, don't need staking, are completely cut down in winter and pruned again back to 6 stakes if required. I should be so lucky.

Now apparently we are in for a mild start to Spring with some cold snaps and it snapped today alright. Life is always telling us something but sometimes it is just talking about the weather.