Janine and I have just had our first Covid jab and it has knocked us around a bit. Headache and achy bones, a few cramps, not sleeping well. I’m still working, but going slowly and had to have a rest after lunch.

Although we are working full time as builders, trying to rebuild our ceramic workshop after the catastrophic fires, we have still managed to keep a bit of spare time for the garden, as it is our chief source of food. It’s late autumn and the trees in the orchard are loosing their leaves. The cherries start first in early autumn, as they are the first to bud and sprout leaves in the spring, they are the first to go dormant.

In late march their leaves were starting to turn colour as the tree slowly withdrew its chlorophyll from the the leaves, this is converted to energy and stored in the sap to support the new growth in the next season. not much is wasted, just recycled and reused.

By April, most of the leaves are gone from the earliest varieties.

now, in May they are all bare.

The vegetables that we are using in our meals now are mostly all the brassicas.

The spinach is growing very well, so we are having a few spinach pies.

I like to mix in at least 2 different cheeses, one of which is a blue cheese to give the pie a little piquancy.

We have also been having a bit of our own home made junk food with a high GM like pizza and pasta as comfort food during this stressful busy time.

Janine has been making puddings for desert. Often a baked fruit sponge pudding using our own bottled fruit from our summer garden.

Sometimes served with Janine’s home made ice-cream. Yum!