Liv's first day of school

It was Liv's first day of school today, Evie started yesterday.  The house is very quiet, and now pretty clean.  I hope she's having fun, and the day is not too long for her.  She knows a lot more people than Evie did when she started, so that should help.  I'm looking forward to some breathing space after last year's busyness!

Bringing bonnets back giveaway

 I've been having fun making bonnets out of left over fabrics these summer holidays.  The girls are loving walking down the street in them, because they get so many positive comments.  Also, they don't blow off in the wind, so they don't have to hang on to their hats!

 To celebrate the start of the school year (!), I'm giving away a bonnet.  The above bonnets are baby size.

Sideways bonnets- all size toddler/small child except the plain linen one, which is sized for an older child or adult.  Evie at 7 wears this size, and it fits Liv at 5 too.  All you have to do is comment on which one you like, or I'll custom make one for you.  I'll be making a few winter ones from blanket off cuts too, without the brim.  One extra entry for each share on blogs and various forms of social media (just come back and comment here again).  Good luck, I'll draw the winner at random on Monday 3rd of February

Survival of the hardiest

 I didn't get around to posting about my fried garden after our ridiculous heatwave, probably better to focus on the plants that did survive well, some of them thrived.  The ones that did the best were in the newest raised beds with good soil.  My poor driveway garden with its sandy soil and radiant heat from the concrete didn't do so well.  We also sadly lost a chicken.

 These two photos are of two cape gooseberry bushes growing together, and I think they doubled in size, and now have little buds on them.  I'm looking forward to trying their fruit, to see if we'll grow them again next summer.

 The cucumbers have taken off, I've just discovered some ripe for the picking after buying a couple at a farmer's market yesterday.  I thought it'd be a few weeks before we had any!

 A little capsicum.  We had some nearly ripe ones, but they were cooked on the bush.

 Grapes doing well.

 Comfrey- it was a pile of brown leaves at the end of the heatwave, but had a small green leaf poking up.  This is one week later.

 Sweet potatoes are quite happy, but are yet to fully take off

 Zucchinis chugging along

New growth on a young raspberry, after some leaves were damaged.  So we'll have to have a good think about what we can grow in the driveway, and cover everything with sheets or shade cloth in extreme heat.

Early January garden

 The garden is producing well at the moment, luckily, we've only had one extremely hot day at a time, rather than a heatwave so far, so the garden has recovered pretty well after a hot day.  We've even had some rain this week, so I've confident enough to plant the next round of carrots, some leeks, and some cosmos (to attract beneficial insects) in the beds that the potatoes came out of.

 The biggest pumpkin so far.

 Cucumbers making their way up the teepee

 Leeks up one end, cosmos up the other

 The backyard in full bloom, attracting lots of Honeyeaters

 More rambling pumpkins

 Zucchini

Pumpkins taking over, with some watermelon and sweet potatoes in the foreground

Potatoes, potatoes, potatoes!

The bulk of this year's harvest.  I found a few more deep down after this photo.  We've been cooking up all the ones I damaged with the garden fork, and they're pretty good.  Dreaming up recipes to use all the produce that is ripening...