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On Monday we got a note to say that Wednesday was RED DAY at Adele’s preschool in support of the Heart Foundation. The suggested idea was to wear red clothes and have red food in her lunch box. Hmmmmmmmm. What red food did we have lying around that meant we didn’t have to go to the supermarket? It required a tiny bit of outside the box thinking and a bit of quick baking, but we came up with Red Scones.

I am not sure I have ever had a red scone before, so I wasn’t sure if they should be savoury or sweet. The choice initially seemed like it was between plain or cheese scones. For some reason a cheese red scone seemed a little odd to me. But then I went further out of the box and came up with the idea of red chocolate scones instead. (Mmmmm.. Chocolate!) After adding a bit of food colouring here they are.

And after a little baking they don’t look too bad.

Then added to her lunchbox along with a tomato and a red fruit squirt. I felt quite proud of myself that I’d managed to put together something on such short notice.

I was a little confused when I dropped her off and no other kid was dressed in red. And when the teacher was getting out her lunch said “Oh, what has mum been making today?” I said “red scones”… like, “What? Why? Doesn’t everyone bake red scones?!” About then I scratched my head and thought “maybe something is maybe not quite right here…”

When I got home I read the note more carefully and realised the real RED DAY is not until some week in Feb. Duh!

Now that I’ve already used up the red scone idea I have no idea what to make for the real red day. Do I just do the same red scones and call yesterday a trial run, or try to come up with something new?!

I’ll just hope that our lack of reading comprehension doesn’t rub off on the kiddies. And luckily she is still young enough not to be embarrassed by her silly mummy!

Ok, ok, ok. So it’s been a while since we last gave you an update. At least long enough for this:…

To turn into this:…

Cucumbers, gherkins, tomatoes, chillies, peppers, basil and eggplants all merrily growing away. Basil in particular has been pretty successful so far this year. Enough that we’ve made three batches of pesto to both eat fresh and freeze (tip we learnt – if you’re going to freeze pesto, don’t add the Parmesan until you’re going to use it). And everything else is looking good so far.

We also managed to finally get around to making and filling the two garden beds that have been sitting around in bits since we built the first batch of them a long time ago now.

So that makes a reasonable size vege patch so far. Now we just have to work out how to maximise production from it. But I can also at least see where the next beds will go. Just need to get motivated enough to measure, build, and fill them. But I suspect that might wait a while yet. We need to at least get this lot ticking over first.

In other garden news, the dwarf sunflowers in a pot have been a bit of a success this year. Made for a bit more colour on the deck over summer. Next year I think I’ll have a few more staged in smaller pots to replace those almost done, but they have lasted pretty well so far, and still more to come fully into flower. Not bad for a single pot.

And I think the only other news is that the 2013 garlic harvest has been and gone. Fifty bulbs in the end. Which is more than double last year. Those that have good memories, or do a little link surfing will remember/find that I only planted 45 cloves. But five of those were those tricky cloves that appear to be a single clove, but are actually two or three instead. But anyway, it was perfect timing to be able to use nice fresh garlic for the pesto making too. Not at all as hefty as last year’s harvest, but pretty good still. Let’s see how far through the year it’ll get us. Hopefully further than last year! And no, it appears I still can’t work out a decent way to plait garlic, so it just ends up being tied in bunches. Any tips appreciated!

So that’s it. An update on proceedings at least. We’ll try to be a bit more regular again, but no promises!