Resilience

This is part of my winter food supply.

The squashes are a mixture of Butternut Squash and Whangaparoa Gold Pumpkin (the round ones). They are in the tunnel house to dry off a bit more before they go into storage in the garage.

The capsicum peppers in the background will be harvested then chopped up and frozen. This is one of 10 plants still being cropped in the tunnel. Half are orange and half are red varieties. Quite a few of the fruit are still green and will probably not ripen and change colour before winter finishes off the plants.

I mix them all up when I freeze them. They are then perfect for soups, casseroles, flans, scones and muffins.

To my amazement I picked two courgettes today from a couple of plants growing outside. I’m getting four a week still and it is definitely the latest they’ve ever lasted. The warm autumn and the lack of any frost have combined to make it a very long crop.

Incidentally some of the pumpkins have already been used. Pumpkin soup is my standard lunch at the moment.

Amongst other things today was the day to take down the fruit cage net. What a fandangle of a job it is: removing it from the cage; then picking out all the weeds which have grown through the edges; and then folding and rolling it up small enough to shove under a bench in the garage. I cursed repeatedly throughout, but it is done and I can forget about it for six months.

Bean and I had a wonderful walk at Bortons Pond and onto the Waitaki River bank. The extra was taken down there. Bean was watching a flock of Royal Spoonbills which I completely failed to photograph.

It is one of our very favourite places in the world, and it was wonderful to have a sunny, solitary amble.

Well, one of us ambled. The other one thundered and hurtled.

I’m happily weary this evening. Bean is already under a blanket.