My Garden Loves Rain!!!!

At last, after 23 days of brilliant sunshine, we have finally had some rain!! I read our rain gauge every day at 7:00 am (but only when there has been rain) and I haven't had to venture to the gauge for the past 23 days. Yesterday, Thursday, the gauge read 47 ml, and today a further 24 ml which put a smile on my face.
No matter how diligent you are watering the garden in dry spells, nothing beats a good shower of rain. All of our vegetables and fruit trees, not to mention the flowers, have been showing distinct signs of heat stress even though they have been watered regularly. I planted out 60 odd chilli plants one evening and only 3 or 4 survived. So its back to the seed bed to grow some more. It is almost heart breaking to look down at the garden and see the beans, tomatoes and cucumbers bowing their heads in the heat. Then, miraculously, as the sun goes down, they spark up agin for the night to absorb what dew there may be in the air or drink in the water I provided for them.
But since the rain everything is starting to look like they really want to produce bumper crops. Maybe the dry made them push their roots further into the soil looking for moisture, but whatever it was, they are doing well now.

My wife Kay uses vegetables from our garden for all her cooking when they are available. Kay has started her own blog mainly about cooking and has included recipes for her delicious dishes. Some are in Malay, but most have English ingredients and methods. If you want to learn some luscious recipes go to:  umikal.blogspot.com/    If you find a recipe that you like but it is in Malay, leave a message for Kay in her "COMMENTS" on her site and I'm sure that she will arrange for a translation for you.
I thought I had better take some pics this morning just to show how things are surviving. Even our potted stuff, which we put out every time it rains, is growing well.

The turmeric (or tumeric) in a pot is doing exceptionally well and we also have a couple of more plants throughout the garden, which are also looking up. It is amazing how herbs manage the dry weather. They just keep on keeping on (apologies to the paint company!!!).

As I said before, the beans haven't been looking too flash in the heat but just look at them now!!! Complete with a huge grasshopper!!!!

Cucumbers and lettuce are really susceptible to dry weather and I have found it hard to get them to climb. They just seem to want to lie there and wait, no matter how many times I helped them to climb. The lettuce is doing OK though.

Bananas

Dragon Fruit

Lemon Tree

Tangelo

Mango

The fruit trees have not shown a great deal of stress, although the bananas have a lot more dead leaves than normal, but they are all growing well and hopefully will produce fruit this season. One lot that has really survived is the strawberry patch. They are covered in flower and are producing large, sweet fruit right now.
A couple of things I must do at the end of the season:
1. Give the passion fruit a haircut.
2. Replant  strawberry suckers.

Peanuts and Corn

Hopefully that will ensure another good crop next year.
One good thing about the dry weather is that it helps to cut down on the numbers of snails trying to eat my veges!!!!!

Do our "Oldies" Know When It's Time??

I believe so. Both my grandparents, who raised me from a toddler, knew when they had had enough of this world. I can still recall both instances as clearly as if it happened yesterday.
My grandmother was first to go. Nan was a pillar of strength and remained so until that fatal day. I can still picture her in her high-necked, long dresses with lace around the collar. She was a wonderful cook and, because I wouldn't eat enough which caused a mild case of malnutrition (which was my fault and my fault alone), Nan would cook and bake the most wonderful things to tempt me into eating. And Pop kept this going right up to the day he was taken to hospital.
The morning Nan died started as usual with breakfast and laughs around the kitchen table. I think I was about 6 at the time, but I can still remember that lovely smile that Nan had. After breakfast things got funny. Nan asked me to go back to bed, not in my own, but her and Pop's bed. She wound up the old record player with the huge brass horn and put on one of my favourites, which I think was a fairy tale or something. This is really the only thing that is not too clear. She then gave me my stamp album and asked me to study the world stamps, kissed me and said "See you soon Jim." Nan and Pop both called me Jim. She left the room and some time later I heard a lot of people coming and going, so I got up and went to the kitchen to have a sticky beak at what was happening. I reached the kitchen just as they carried Nan in. I still remember her "granny knickers" around her ankles and the grey look of her face. She had been in the outside toilet and had a heart attack. They told me later that she died instantly. I suppose I was too young at time for it to sink in completely, but all I remember was a great feeling of loss but I couldn't understand why. I was sent home to Mum and no-one tried to tell me what had happened. It wasn't until Pop sat down with me that evening and told me what had happened that I finally understood that Nan wouldn't be coming home. It was devastating to say the least.
Life went on with Pop being my principle carer, although I did spend a little time at home with Mum and the other kids, but apparently that didn't work out too well and I was soon back where I belonged - with Pop.
He was a giant of a man!! Well over 6 ft tall, in his 70's and not a grey hair in his full head of hair and not an ounce of fat on him.
I well remember him working in his garden, both vegetables and flowers. The garden at the back of our place wasn't big enough for everything he wanted to grow, so he was kindly allowed by our neighbour, Mrs White, to use a vacant plot at the rear of her place. We used to get there by climbing an old style over the fence. Pop grew everything possible!! From potatoes, tomatoes, beans, asparagus, artichokes, beetroot, cabbages, carrots, parsnips and everything else you could possibly grow in the Tasmanian climate. There were also heaps of grapes growing along the dividing fence and about a half dozen varieties of plums.
Pop also kept chooks and I still remember how many handfuls of wheat I used to feed them every now and then, when I was allowed. On Friday evenings I used to take the eggs that Pop had wrapped in threes in newspaper around the neighbourhood to sell. They were all regular customers so Pop knew how to wrap the eggs for each person.
On weekdays I can still remember Pop standing at the front gate watching me walk up the hill to go to school, and he was there also when I was coming home. I often wondered if he stood there all day!!!
Around Mother's Day, Pop would pick his wonderful chrysanthemums and I would also take them around to sell.  On Mother's Day we always visited Nan at the cemetery and put white chrysanthemums on her grave. He would tell me then that that was where he would go soon!!!!
Every Saturday Pop would take me to the matinee at the pictures where I would swap comics with other kids there. Then, Saturday night, he would always cook me steak and vegetables for tea. Today I often wonder how he afforded all these things he spoilt me with on the old age pension.
The fatal day was on a Saturday. We got home from the pictures and had tea and he was just serving up bread and butter custard for dessert, (I have never eaten bread and butter custard since!!!), when he suddenly sat down on the settee in the kitchen and asked for a cup of hot water. When I got that for him he told me to run next door and get Mr Robinson, which I did. An ambulance arrived and he was whisked away to hospital, which was only about half a mile from home. I went to Mum's place and was not told anything at all about how Pop was.
On Sunday afternoon Mum took me to the hospital to see Pop and I can still see him lying in the bed with his feet raised. He asked Mum, "Poll. Cover my feet please. They are cold". They were covered all the time!!! When it was time to go Mum lifted me up to kiss Pop good-night, and he said "See you soon Jim", but didn't seem to want to let me go.
I was in the bath that night when Dad walked into the bathroom and said "He's gone son". I don't remember what really happened then, but Dad told me later that I put my head under the bath water and possibly tried to drown myself. I survived, even if broken hearted. I was 11 at the time.
A major part of life had gone with both Nan and Pop gone. Their deaths seemed to take everything out of my will to exist and it took a long time for me to accept that fact.
Mum stood with me at the top of Galvin Street to watch the funeral go along Wellington Street and then it seemed just like a bad dream and that I would walk into Pop and Nan's place and they would be there. BUT THEY WEREN'T!!! And I had to move back to Mum's house where I felt very uncomfortable for a long time. That's why I joined the Navy at age 15.
Life must go on but I often think back on those days and hope that I will have the courage to face death with dignity when my time comes, just like my dearest and beloved best friends did - Nan and Pop.

Passionfruit Year 2

Our passionfruit (or passion fruit, depending where you come from) is thriving!!! This is its second year and I thought that I was lucky to have somewhere between 80 and 100 fruit last time. The vines have grown immensely and after showing some buds for a week or more, have finally exploded into bloom. The flower only lasts for one day, and then is enclosed again by petals  and the fruit develops.

Check out these "before and after" shots of our vines.

 This was the passionfruit vines just before they started to produce flowers towards the end of last year, and now they are producing again. It is hard to imagine that in a few months, these two plants provided us with nearly 100 passionfruit!!!

 Now!!!! This is the same plant at the moment. Flowers have just begun to appear and then enclose themselves, producing those luscious, purple tropical passionfruit. Can't wait to try them fresh off the vine, although we still have a huge supply in the freezer from the last crop. But, I suppose we will use them over the summer.

Thanks to Paghat's Garden, I can explain briefly how passionfruit got its name. I had known all along that the cross in the centre of the flower depicted the crucifixion of Jesus, but the following explanation goes into a bit more depth. If you want to read more on this subject go to www.paghat.com/passiflorasymbolism.html. 

This is very good reading and explains several aspects of the naming of the passionfruit.

"The five petals & five sepals are ten apostles, leaving out Judas the betrayer & Peter because he denied knowing Jesus. The purple carolla Bosio reportedly had seventy-two filaments, the number of thorns in Jesus's crown. The three pistil stigmas are nails. The five stamens are the number of wounds, so that to this day, Catholics in South & Central America call it "The Flower of the Five Wounds." The leaf represents the spear that placed the wound in Jesus's side. The dark spots under the leaves are the 33 pieces of silver paid to Judas. When the flowers are spent after a single day (the time Jesus spent on the cross), the petals do not drop from the vine but re-close over the ovary, & this symbolises the Hidden Wisdom that constitutes the Mysteries of the Cross, and is like Jesus enclosed in the tomb."

The reference to the petals not dropping but close to protect the developing fruit can be seen clearly in the pic below. Also, you will be able to understand references to parts of the flower from the above explanation.

Even though it is a very beautiful flower and produces wonderful fruit, I never cease to be mazed at the beauty and simplicity of the flower. I think that also the whole plant deserves to be recognised as one of Nature's Wonders.

Three cheers for the passionfruit!!!!          

The Penny Has Finally Dropped

I don't know whether I am slow, doddery, in the throes of Alzheimer's or just plain thick, but for ages I  have enjoyed having a smoke in the outside entertainment area where I often get ideas for a blog. This is where the problem started.
I would consider at length a subject for a blog and then, when it was time to go inside and write it, I had forgotten what I was going to write about!!! Frustration and feelings of inadequacy to say the least.
So, last night I had this great idea for a blog and went inside and promptly forgot what I had decided on!! Then it all came to me like a great flash of light from the great beyond ........
Why not use my mini laptop outside to write as I think of it?? I told Kay and she said that it was a great idea and asked why I hadn't thought of it before!!! Very sensible woman, my wife. My laptop has been in retirement for quite a while. I had even removed the battery to save any damage as I didn't think I would be using it too much, if at all, for some time.
So now the laptop has been reinstated as a working tool and I can write to my heart's content in the open, fresh air and enjoy my smokes as well???
Talking of smoking, my doctor often has a shot at me for smoking. Mainly because I now smoke roll-your-own smokes and they create an awful yellow nicotine stain on your fingers and he used to point that out. So I have invested in a cigarette holder and have cut out the staining for good. I can now smoke with the holder clenched between my teeth and type TWO HANDED!!!! Miracle of miracles.
I think that maybe I could be mistaken for one of those great authors like Hemingway sitting in his own little bit of Paradise writing with his own cigarette holder clenched in his teeth and thinking of those millions he would receive from sales of his book. But, woe and alas, I don't really have the imagination to write a best seller, although I have dabbled in writing a novel.
I have written the basis of several chapters of a book of fiction loosely based on my escapades when I was in the Navy, but I'm sort of stuck as I have vague memories of actions and escapades but nothing really concrete enough to put on paper. One day they may all come back to me and I can write some more. Maybe having the laptop outside could be the inspiration I need.
One thing I do regret with this small laptop is that it isn't big enough to install my music writing programme. If I could put it on here I could also finish writing my march.
Well I think that's enough rambling for my first outdoor blog.  I think that maybe I will become a bit more "prolific" in the future now that I can write my thoughts down before I forget them!!!!!

Mao Tse Tung Time

Last time I wrote it was barbie time. Now its Mao Tse Tung time. More on that later.
Kay was cooking a lovely meat dish for lunch today and I happened to go out for a smoke. It was about 30 C or 83 F outside at lunch time. I was shocked to see about 37, 853 flies (give or take a couple) buzzing around the fly wire of the kitchen window. I don't usually waste fly spray on the odd fly or two, but rather use my trusty $1 fly swat. But today I had to spray or I would have ended up with a very bad case of RSI using the swat.
There was every kind of fly you could imagine - the small pests of house flies, green marsh flies (which give a nasty bite) and big, noisy, black blow flies and everything in between. I don't know where they came from, but I was satisfied when I saw most of them writhing in death throes on the concrete.
Now, for the reference to Mao Tse Tung!!
During his rule in China he published an edict that EVERY person was to kill and collect 20 flies every day!!! They then had to take them to the village counting area where they were counted and the persons name "ticked off" on the register. If they didn't make the quota, they were penalised in some way such as reduction in their rice ration (or so I have been told). In rice growing areas they had to kill 2 swallows every day as they were destroying the rice crops.
I believe that it was a very successful project and the fly population was drastically reduced. Its a shame that it didn't continue and that more populated areas didn't begin something similar but without penalties, maybe even a small reward??? And ........... Why did Noah allow them on the ark in the first place, and where did he keep them????? Food for thought!!!!
As far as my Mao Tse Tung actions - I try to get 20 flies with my trusty swat each day before breakfast and so far I have been mostly successful.
It may seem trifling, but I do enjoy the short respite without flies buzzing around me while I have my cup of tea. When they come back I start again!!!