gotta tidy up around here, Anton reminds me that it’s actually pretty good and I’m grateful for his perspective. Agrarian landscapes are never going to be stable and perfect. They’re full of change, cycles, flux, requiring constant work and engagement. Here’s a little snapshot of our little, steep agrarian landscape…. While the babe sleeps in the middle of path, neighbouring paths are weeded, crops pulled out and young crops checked on. Those empty looking beds on the right are actually full of garlic, which is just popping its head up now. It’s going great guns, except where the black birds have scratched it up. Black birds are not our favourite thing, they’ll destroy young crops if not protected. Usually they leave the garlic alone and head for the tasty greens, not this year though. Nothing is safe. Despite the birds, the rainbow chard is standing tall, strong, crisp and firm. The chooks, well the chooks look really bad. They’re molting. Our young orchard is resembling a living skeleton, revealing its bones and showing the strange shapes which we’re training them into to in order to fit into a small space. The raspberry canes are all pruned and tucked away, waiting to wow us next season. Some abandoned tomato plants are slowly ripening and will soon feature in our salads. A happy reminder of the warm days behind us. The tamarillo tree is coming on nicely. For some reason the birds like to eat all their leaves off, but not the fruit – so we’re ok with that, kind of. And the myrtus berries – oh how I love thee, are having a second flush, a last hurrah before the long cold sets in. The cabbage patch doesn’t actually have any cabbages in it, or much broccoli as they were blown out of the ground by some recent strong winds (I know, crazy). But we have some beautiful brassicas, take this cauliflower as proof. The greens are in full flight, so vigorous, so juicy. This is their time to shine.   Having grown up in Queensland, I have a deep appreciation for the cool temperate climate which slows the garden right down over winter. Unlike the sub tropics/tropics which CRANK all year round, we are gifted with a more restful season where we get to pause and reflect, catch up and entertain the idea of a holiday… To the tropics which is blessed with warmer oceans, more bare feet action and not a woolen jumper in sight :-).]]>