Feijoas are Yummy!

 It's time to pick up and start eating feijoas.

 Well around here it is anyway. You either like or hate them.

( They have varied and intriguing patterns inside ) 

That bowl full was yesterday collection. So they don't remain on the ground too long ( especially if you have birds that like them ) I need to pick up every 2nd day. Our few trees have a good crop so we will have plenty to share with family.

 They can be cooked but only if you have a real  over supply. Best eaten just cut in half and scooped out with a spoon.

 Other countries where they call them different names ( pineapple Guavas - Australia ) they don't seem as popular or to do so well as here. We are lucky in Northern  NZ.

 I will eat my share and maybe more.

*****

Heavy rain forced me to pick these dahlias up out of the dirt and rinse the blooms clean. They have recovered now and look vibrant on the kitchen bench.

Walnuts.

Yesterday I did my second walnut collection for this season. We are lucky to have a very prolific huge walnut tree.

 It is at the top of an incline so is well drained. I think it is a Wilson's Wonder  and is now 30 something years old.

 Nuts at various stages or readiness.

While growing and maturing the nuts are enveloped in an outer green skin.When ready they split the skin as shown in the top picture and the nut falls to the ground or if low down I pick it straight off the tree and take off the green shell. ( wear gloves as the juice stains. )

 The less time they spend lying on the grass the better.

I then bring them home and spread them out on an old sheet on the cobblestones in the sun. I do this every day for a week or more.

 We then both either shell them or store them in sacks  till we have time to do that .

 Once shelled and very carefully quality controlled we store them in the freezer. This way they do not go rancid. ALMOST all walnuts for sale are rancid which gives them a bitter yukky taste.( people think that's how they are meant to taste and it's not )  I will have to do many more pick ups over the coming weeks.

 This year I will be coveting my collection as we are getting ready to put our property on the market............ and this may be the last crop of nuts that are mine to collect.

 *****

 We are waiting for a contractor to come and reseed a slope of lawn up to the garden shed. Beside it is the nerine and orchid bed. I tidied it up and made a defined edge to seed up to.

Red  Nerines do exceedingly well in my garden.( pink and white ones less so )  I have them in several spots and the flowering time varies accordingly. The flowers are good in a vase. Their bulbs sit up atop the soil and like to be sun baked. The clumps build up and up. I have potted some up as I don't want to be without them.

 I wont be able to take my walnut tree or my copper beech tree both almost 40 years old, if we move to a smaller property but I can take a few garden favourites like bulbs.

 It is a hard thing we have to do...we have lived here 40 years.

Knitting.

Autumn means it is going to get cooler in the coming months. ( though you wouldn't think so the last few hot days. ) Today it's pouring down.
 I already had this wool, a lovely marled 4ply , to knit another jersey for Grandson. I'm using a tried and trusted pattern. It's strange how the wool always looks more interesting in the ball than when it's knitted.

 I am pretty much back to doing everything except Kiwifruit work.( Just keeping my arm plastered as per instructions and making sure I don't bump it. ) ( getting it wet is ok now .)  
  The garden got a growth spurt of weeds with me out of action for a couple of weeks. I've been trying to do a couple of hours weeding out of the sun each of the last few days. Mainly in the vege garden where produce is still growing.

 Some time ago I posted photos of Grandson helping with the planting of these gladioli. It was very late in the season to be putting them in. They have come up well but show no sign of forming flower buds. They are possibly too shaded, so I cut back the over hanging Luculia tree, put in more stakes to tie them up gave them another round of blood and bone and some sheep pellets and a thin covering of potting mix. I cant think what else to do to encourage flowering. Maybe some more worm pee. I scattered in a packet of Thumbelina Mixed Zinnias around their feet that might still have time to grow.

With the down pour we are getting today everything will be watered so that's one less job. I do however have to venture out to pick courgettes and beans and cucumbers.

 The passion fruit are finished now and were a big success.....one fruit the birds did not attack.

Great Progress.

Great progress with my healing. Thanks for your encouraging comments Mary; Chooky ;Kiwi kid, Suzy; Rose Marie and Dianne, they gave me a boost.
 I got rid of the sling last Friday and yesterday was my final visit. All stitches, 18 from the graft and 8 from the incision were all speedily if a little ouchily  removed.
 I came away with a roll of Micropore tape to keep reapplying myself and that's it! I healed up like a youngster...liked that comment.

 The new graft is under this. I am keeping a stretch knit tube piece over the top but my wrist is so skinny it is only acting to keep the tape clean.

 I really enjoyed being able to get it wet in the shower. Of course I am going to continue to take very good care of it in the weeks to come.

 Even better the Path Lab  Synoptic report came back with the diagnosis  benign  Keratoacanthoma.  ( excision complete )

 I have googled that and seen photos of many of these growths and realise mine was in a unobtrusive place. Many folk have had them on facial sites - not so good.

 Any way I am getting back to all normal activities and haven't missed my time amongst the vines. The garden however is looking a bit untidy.

Untidy doesn't stop the Autumn bulbs ( red nerines ) from flowering. They are early this year. Our temps have dropped dramatically -  Autumn I guess.

 Over the weekend the young ones were here. Grandson loves playing Poohsticks in the creek. The game of Poohsticks originated ( well calling it that anyway ) in A.A. Milne's The House at Pooh Corner. ( 90+ year ago in Hartfordshire  ) 

 On this occasion we didn't worry about playing it on the bridge we just dropped sticks into the little creek.

 Most floated, some got stuck on rocks and long grass, others wobbled on down the little rapids. No worry about him falling in here and we could stand in the shade. Sunday was sunny.