Shells

Blackbirds do a great job of collecting snails. All they need is something hard to help them crack open the shells.

Winter bonfire

It was a dark, cold night...............now we have lots of lovely woodash for our garden.

Nothing beats a BIG fire.

Green manure

Some of the garden has its winter coat of lupine, mustard, phacellia and broad beans. Other parts have a thick mulch and the areas I was a little behind on have covered themselves with an amazing diversity of weeds.

Winter tomatoes

Nothing beats opening our cuboards on a cold winters day. They are full of summer harvest.

Stories of blackberrying picnic's, family fishing trips, climbing the plum trees, foraging for fejoas .....................and tomato soup -an old family recipie chocka block with garlic, basil and capsicum.

Babies

They are so cute!!!

Ari and Toby have spent a lot of time researching, planning, saving, building, feeding........and now we have three baby guinea pigs. For four weeks anyway as the plan is to get more pocket money.

Willow fodder

Our sheep really enjoy willow at this time of the year. It is usually high in tannins so should help with any worms they may have.

Drying

Some of our Luffa are drying out nicely. I cannot wait to start using them. It is fun watching them slowly change from heavy, solid fruit into light, dry Luffa.

Garlic

Time to plant garlic.

The beds are all ready with a good layer of compost and a sprinkling of woodash. My best cloves off my best garlic from last year are soaked in a weak solution of cow manure and worm wee overnight and then once planted blanketed in a thick layer of mulch.

Homeward bound!

I have found this old golf trundler invaluable for carting all sorts of tools, animal food and fencing paraphernalia all around the farm.

Worms,

Noke or as Aristotle would call them the 'intestines of our earth'.

These ones are tiger worms -see their stripes.

They are one of the biggest eaters as earthworms go.

Munching through our kitchen scraps and making a valuable addition for our potting mix in spring.

Yacon flower

Yacon have beautiful, small, composite flowers heralding a long awaited harvest. Yum!!!