Feathers, Fruit and the Autumn Harvest

Flocks of birds have helped themselves to our vegie patch this summer.  They trade us exquisite feathers to find on garden strolls.  So many feathers.

 The beans were spared and we have now eaten all the beans anyone would care to, no matter how delicious and sexy they are. These bush beans grew beside towering corn plants, the cobs of which we are now harvesting and gleefully consuming, they don't always make it inside to be cooked. Each summer corn seems like such trouble, they are huge, take up much space, need side pruning, require heavy feeding and mulching, take an age to ripen, and are water hungry.  Come Autumn and those first juicy sweet bites of golden yellow, all is forgiven.

A mystery plant turned up amongst my corn and I was unsure what sister had mixed herself into the bean/corn equation. Finally they are ripe and the heavenly scent revealed them to be some type of rockmelon, only three melons but they grew without fuss and taste delicious, quite the rockstars. I am saving this mystery seed for another year.

Thursday I was filled with riveting conversation. "Gosh its windy!" "that wind is really strong", "that's a fierce storm out there". If there was a prize for stating the self evident I would have won it. It was the kind of day the weather could not be ignored as gale force winds buffeted against the window, threatening to take us to OZ. We had some big branches down, a few corn casualties and a leaning tower of mulberry.  We got off lightly compared to some Victorian towns, I just love the voice over on this video taken in Mulwala, so very Australian.

The branches lying around are a boon to our dog who like to pounce and attack them, dragging them with a gleeful trot and shredding gum leaves all over the yard.

Better gum leaves than pumpkins. I keep finding my pumpkins detached from the vine a little prematurely.  It seems Zef has a penchant for playing tug of war with the vine. The pumpkins certainly have a unique appearance this year, some sporting Freddy Kruger like slashes. I cooked a few smaller ones up recently and they were still tasty, if a little dwarfed in size.

Note the spud and onion box below (a lovely hand me down from nanna and pa), these two vegetables should never be put together as the onions encourage the potatoes to sprout, a serious problem when you have lots of potatoes.

Purple Sapphires, Purple Congos, King Edwards, Kipfflers and Dutch Creams. 

A healthier Autumn Easter egg hunt.

 I am a laggard with some things (like blog posting of late). This is my attempt at making the orange peel and vinegar cleaner that I've been watching everyone else make for years. Ridiculously simple.

 We have a tiny cumquat in a pot, this summer it grew enough cumquats to not do much with, but just before they all turned off waiting for me, I managed to make one delicious jar of my favourite marmalade. I am so excited the cumquats are the thin skinned extra juicy variety, that makes a wonderfully sweet and tangy marmalade, I will definitely give that bush some more love.

The nectarines were attacked by birds, they even got inside the nets, but the few that were left were so heavenly scented and sweet they were too good to waste, we cut away the bird pecked fruit and ate the remainder, savouring each mouthful. As we say every year, next year we will get those nets on early.

Cucumbers and zucchinis are filling my crisper with shades of green, pickles and chutney are on my to do list.

This year we have eaten a lot of grated raw zucchini mixed with herbs chilli, parmesan and olive oil on pasta, it is less soggy and sweeter than the cooked variety.

Tonight we had bruschetta with tomato and basil, so good. For the recipe visit Christine's blog
Slow Living Essentials, I was far too busy enjoying it to take a photo.

 In the evening gazing inside at us from outdoors are praying mantis  It seem a particularly favourable year for these fascinating and garden friendly bugs, they are hunting the moths and insects that are attracted to our house lights, they are awesome to watch, such speed and ferocity.

Unfortunately I forgot to turn the lights off at our house tonight.  I have been a supporter of Earth Hour since it began but somehow it slipped my mind, probably due to the deliciousness of that bruschetta and having one child away at Cubs camp, perhaps we will do a belated hour another night.

Grateful for Peacock Feathers

Two sleepover parties, a family get together, and roller skating all in one weekend.  How much is too much when you're ten? It started with an early melt down about what to where.

 On Tuesday she tells me that the Friday party is a dress up party, and she needs a bird costume. On Wednesday we are furiously Googling bird costumes.  Not one image on the whole global Internet search was any good, not one. "I don't want to look stupid mum!" Me -"but you're dressing up as a bird sweet heart, it's not going to look cool".  I remembered the little girl next door had a fabulous chicken costume that would fit the bill, she looks at me aghast - "I'm not going as a chicken mum".  There seems to be more of those mum, you're an idiot, looks these days.

We found a feathery mask and some wings from an old Archaeopteryx costume. Nope no good.  "I'm just not going", loud yelling AND STOMPING AND sCREAMING AT THE TOP OF HER LUNGS. Me - deep breathing - well actually a little yelling too.

Leave the costume problem until Friday morning vegie group (we made a hot house - follow the link to check it out).  I ask our lovely host, who has a resident peacock,  if she has any peacock feathers she could spare. Yes, lots.  Peacocks moult every year happily leaving their beautiful feathers everywhere. A borrowed boa from our gorgeous neighbour and we're well on the way. Then I remember I own a peacock dress, two safety pins for  adjustment and the fancy dress problem is solved.

 She even looks cool! 

The tail is secured by the belt but was really only worn for the arrival, she plucked her uncomfortable tail and  generously shared feathers with her friends - like the Rainbow Fish with it's pretty scales. Peacock feathers really are the most amazing things, such divine hues. I don't believe they could possibly bring bad luck or an evil eye.

Grateful for the generosity of friends. Grateful for peacock feathers.  Grateful for things coming together at the 11th hour.

And, surprise, surprise, two sleepovers is much too much for a 10 year old, particularly when they don't get any sleep at the first party. Sunday night and Monday morning tears of extreme fatigue and impending illness. On the whole she held it together pretty well, bursting with joy over her first go at roller-blading and party good times. Grateful that the Big Bowerbird's weekends are not normally quite so filled.

Joining in with Maxabella loves