A couple of my favourite things....

..........A carpet of autumn leaves........

.........That have fallen from the weeping cherry tree as she prepares to go to sleep for the winter.

And one not so favourite thing, a big fat slug eating this Hokowase strawberry
that I have been waiting patiently to ripen. Somehow I don't think I like the idea of
sharing my meal with a slug.
The rain has woken all the nasty critters, slugs, snails and millipedes.

Deliciousness !!

This is the biggest surprise in the garden, I purchased this iris rhizome from the Meadows Easter market and it has rewarded me with this beautiful flower, most un-expected because the other irises have finished flowering months ago.

The lovely colour of the sage leaves, growing just outside my back door where I can harvest them in a "jiffy" when required to season a meal

Last but not least, celery, there is NOTHING more delicious than home grown celery. Its worth growing if only for the aroma when you pull off a stalk or two. Delicious eaten straight away or added to the soup etc. I have tied some of them up to encourage them to grow into the shape of commercially grown celery and the remainder left to harvest as needed.

Pheasant flew the coop

At least he came to say goodbye before he disappeared forever.

One of the pheasants Popeye bred for the dinner table, or for sale

Lovely looking birds, but we cant find how they are escaping from their run. Several have escaped the completely netted in enclosure. We can
only hope the foxes dont get him for dinner. They perch high off the ground at night so maybe he will be safe for a while.

Anzac Day...........it always rains

HOORAY its raining !! It almost always rains on Anzac Day. As if the sky is crying for all the people that made the ultimate sacrifice so we can live freely in this wonderful, beautiful country of ours. I couldn't go outside, so here is a picture from just inside the door.

While I was in the sun room, I thought I'd share a picture of this lovely zygo-cactus. 2years ago it was a little cutting given to me by a dear friend.

And just to show how glad I am to see the rain, here is another shot!!

Quinces-to-paste

What a job, yesterday washing, coring and slicing the quinces, place the cores in a sack and boil them with the fruit, let the juice drip from the cores overnight, pulp the flesh of the quince slices. Discard the cores (worm farm)

Today, boil the juice and pulp, not forgetting to add the sugar, stirring, stirring stirring for 6 hours so that it womt "catch" This is what it looks like after 3 hours. And just in case I was tempted to put it in the slow cooker, I made Osso bucco for dinner tonight and that takes most of the day to slowly cook. After the disaster with the crab apple paste in the slow cooker, I didn't want to chance it again.

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Here it is all done and dusted, dished out into 100ml tubs and left to cool. In the morning the lids go on and into the fridge. 20 small tubs and 2 "take-away" trays, should last until next quince season.

Must go and buy some nice goats cheese. Yummo Oh and I almost forgot..........ITS RAINING !!

Crab apple jelly tomatoes and out of focus plum.

Can anyone tell me why the tomatoes always 'come good' at the wrong end of the season ? This is a self sown tomato (more than likely a seed from the compost) which has heaps of perfect tomatoes, in bunches, which will probably not ripen. We have been promised a whole week of rain for the coming week (believe it when I see it) and this will be the end of the tomato harvest. Popeye doesn't like chutneys or sauces so........what to do.

Crab apple jelly, half a bucket full of fruit made 12 smallish jars of jelly. Very nice and thick, it set well and I am pleased with it.....but on the other hand, the crab apple paste, thats another story. I tried the slow cooker method and didn't like the texture, not smooth at all, quite dark and has a slight burnt taste. I did leave it on all night on low, maybe that accounts for the taste but I think the texture is much better when one stands for hours and stirs, and stirs and stirs. Not to give up, I shall try again.........back to the tried and true.

Poor photography, I know but I dont want to walk out to the plum tree again to try another shot (the best of a bad lot) This is what happens when the season has been topsy-turvy, trees setting fruit out of season. The leaves are changing colour for autumn, while there is fruit the size of the top of my thumb. Amazing !! It will be interesting to see what it does next spring.

cooked crab apples

Well the crab apples have been cooked andare now hanging in a sack, on a broom handle, between 2 chairs to drip out the juices overnight.

Tomorrow will be jelly and crab apple paste making time. Busy day ahead.

Stay tuned for the next installment.