Seasonal planting.

The winter vegie garden is just about planted.  Despite the delightful autumn weather Perth has put on, we're having thoughts of soups, heavy with potatoes and leek, and fragrant with thyme and garlic.

It's been so sunny, we had to water the garden today before we could start digging.  There is rain forecast for this week, which, frankly, will make a nice change from the relentless sunshine.

We planted some more garlic and two varieties of potato: sapphire and kipfler.  The sapphires are purple outside and in, they taste fabulous, but make very odd-looking mash.

The broad beans that went in a month ago haven't come up, either old seeds or not enough sun, so we put some more into a less protected spot.

Lovely friends D and P gave us some artichoke seedlings, which was an act of optimism, as the ones they donated last year didn't survive the summer.  But the garden is much more organised this year, and the seeds and seedlings are going into the ground much earlier, so they should be better established by the time the hot weather hits.

Meanwhile in the flower garden at the front of the house, the weeds run rampant.  The bulbs are starting to sprout and the roses are still blooming - must be all the sun.

Fruit

Aren't these magnificent?  They're bush tucker: rosella or native hibiscus.  Best known in a small square jar in sickly syrup to be added to cheap bubbly.

They're the seed pod, and they make a wonderfully tart jam, rather like cranberries.  We should have enough from our four plants for about two jars.

Chook update

On the left, we have Florence, on the right Shirley.  At least we hope that's who they are.

There's every possibility they're Horace and Arthur.
They're about six weeks old now, just starting to grow combs and rather smart adult feathers.  When they start laying eggs or upsetting the neighbours at an ungodly hour, we'll know whether they're male or female.  Our expert advice is that Florence might be a Plymouth Rock, Shirley is a mystery.

Puppy love

The neurotic kelpie, we discover after six months of getting to know her, loves fluffy toys.

We had no idea.

(sorry about the weird green eyes)

Subbing in

Coffee features heavily in Marmalade Cottage life.  So it was something of a tragedy when both of the espresso machines went on the blink.

The Creative Reinventor loaded them into the ute, muttering unsavoury things under his breath.  Lack of caffeine will do that to a boy.

Because he knows people, he got us a loaner. 

Pretty, isn't it?

In case you're wondering our machines are a Gaggia Classic and an ECM Botticelli, this one's a Nuova Simonelli Musica.

Green

The rains have started which means two things.

The bulbs we planted (80 and counting) start to sprout - this one's a ranunculus.

And so do the weeds.  Oxalis among other things we can't name.  The adage goes: one year's seeding equals seven years' weeding.  At this rate, we're looking at 70 years weeding!