Even more rewarding than popping out to the garden to grab some fresh veggies for a delicious meal for myself, is being able to pop out there and fill some baskets to give to family, friends or neighbours. The first basket headed up to Tina as she is looking after my two cows for the moment and the second basket pictured, goes to Deb, as a thank you for her beautiful fruit that I used to make some apple cider with. I think it's quite a drinkable brew but I included a couple of bottles in my gift so I could get some feedback on what others might think of it.
On another visit to my dexters I decided that the cow will be called Star. She has a tag in her ear with Northern Star written on it so I thought it would be easier just keeping much the same name. The little fella came with no name but I think he looks like a Ned. So Star and Ned are going well and enjoying the hay that is provided and slowly get a bit more of the green grass each day.
After slowly hardening off a few brassica seedlings I managed to get some into the ground. I've planted quite a few cauliflower, broccoli and green, and red cabbages. Hopefully with this extra care I'll have greater success with these plants. In the past, without the hardening off, my plants were very slow to get going, increasing their susceptibility to slugs and snails.
Oh well, we'll see how we go this time!
It was such a beautiful weekend but with winter and much wetter conditions not far away, I decided that continuing with my mulching activities was what I needed to do. I concentrated on the lower swale and managed to get all the blackwood acacia (acacia mearnsii) down and around the fruit and nut trees. The photos are slightly more interesting with that little touch of autumn colour to brighten them.
After a beautiful warm weekend an amazing storm moved through on Sunday night to signal the change of weather. The lightening display lasted probably 10-15 minutes with flashes every 10 seconds or so - really spectacular. Pity it sees the end of the warm weather but at least it was an entertaining good bye!