Feast

Whilst we've been feasting on frittata, it seems that some of our neighbours prefer a raw food diet. 

I picked about two dozen caterpillars off our red cabbage and curly kale last night, including a chrysalis or two. I knocked off as many eggs as possible too. Hopefully that will give the plants a head start for a week or so.   

Nursery spider on manuka

Dragonfly

This beast took a break on our downpipe recently - it was easily as big as a sparrow - gigantic!

Harvest

After just three weeks, our first crops are ready to be harvested. 

I'd voted the silver beet seedlings 'least likely to succeed' but remarkably they're the first to be productive. 

We're now looking forward to fresh greens with mint and feta for dinner. 

Kitchen creations

I've been busy cooking over the last few months. I made my own mincemeat for the first time with cranberries and orange peel. I learnt how to sterilise the jars in the oven and it has kept well.

Chocolate bark was another festive success though Lark's teachers didn't thank me for this gift at the start of term when it compromised their New Year's resolutions...

I've been experimenting with cake decorating too - using a crocheted doily to make a pattern with icing sugar on a Somerset cider cake. (If you try this, do it just before you're ready to serve the cake otherwise the icing sugar is absorbed and you can't see the pattern - it took me three attempts!)

I attempted a buttermilk glaze for this plantation prune cake but it didn't really work - tasty but lumpy - so I covered it up with more icing sugar! The cake itself was popular at one of our gardening group gatherings.

I've been doing some more preserving with grapefruit cordial, using the remaining fruit from our tree...

... and pickled cucumbers (though I didn't serve them together).

Next, I think I'll try some more adventurous bread-baking - maybe rolls or hot cross buns in time for Easter...

House plants

I've been busy gardening inside as well as out. Lark and I have been busy propagating all these babies from our spider plant to provide more ground cover in some of the borders. 

And my chilli plant has been flowering well after being cut right back over winter - but no signs of chillis yet. Does it need food, perhaps?

Te Whare o Te Weta

Over the holidays, I built a bug hotel at Playcentre from recycled material gathered from kindly neighbours. 

I've named it Te Whare o Te Weta - the house of the weta, in Te Reo Maori.

After that, I felt the need to construct something at home so I started this pile of logs and pine cones under some ferns. Once I've built up my collection of pallets again, I'll start on something more substantial but this should provide some temporary lodgings.