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We’ve had a courtyard type area very much in need of the garden that it was designed for. Very much in need! So now a few other bits and pieces have been crossed off the very long list it’s almost time to focus on it. First up we need to work out where to plonk some rocks, so what better to help us try to visualise things than plant pots and a milk urn!

And I think it has helped a bit. Leaving them out there for half the day has given us a rough idea of what things would look like. A very rough idea! Now we just have go get some rocks and moving them in. Not looking forward to that! That’s gonna be a long, sore weekend…

Well, it’s not quite the shortest day, but today was such a lovely winter day (once the frost had disappeared, of course) that this year’s garlic and shallot planting proceeded ahead of schedule.

About 45 garlic cloves and 12 shallots were sacrificed from the remaining stocks from last season’s crops.

Nothing like a picture of dirt! But they’re in there somewhere, taking up the 2 front squares. Well, there’s room in the back of the shallots for a sneaky row of radishes, but not much else. Now we just have to keep the kitties and birds away until they’re settled in.

You’re right Megz, you are probably overdue an update. But as we’re so lazy and pictures tell the story better than our typing, you can have a short pictorial view of our recent holiday to rural southern Japan. All clicky if you want a slightly bigger view. Enjoy! We did!

We love visiting Japan. Maybe its the good company, the scenery, the food, the hospitality or just not having a clue about what’s being said around. Or perhaps it’s (f) all of the above!

There is always something different about every country you go to, but in Japan the food and customs are so different to how we live, and so different to all the European spots we’ve passed through. We are lucky that we have our own tour guide (thanks Jo), who takes care of most things for us, but also explains what is going on around us and more importantly what I am about to order and whether I’m likely to like it!

So what did we do there for just over two weeks? We got some rest, spent time with family, ate lovely home cooked food and lunched out a lot (nom nom nom), visited some local sites (some of which we had seen before but were happy to go again), including, an amazing private garden maintained by an 80+ year old, 500(?) Buddhas (twice), a Samurai town and house, the Beppu aquarium again, a Samurai cemetery, the local Usa shrine, tea fields, and the umbrella factory. A bit further afield we visited the caves and stone fields in Akiyoshidai which were pretty impressive and on the way we stopped to eat some fresh sushi at the fish market and look at the impressive bridge we had to cross to get there.

Oh and of course there were a few visits to the 100 yen shop to stock up on cheap things that we needed (but most of the stuff we bought probably does not fit into that category). And I was allowed to do some serious bowl shopping this time, as we had lots of room in our luggage. So I might have overdone it, but the Japanese do make lovely, slightly different bowls.

What was the highlight of the trip for me? I’m still somewhat undecided. The food was up there, but I think that perhaps it was just being able to go, and realise that you can still travel internationally even with a little one in tow. It’s different travel, and takes much more planning but its still just as enjoyable!

On to the pics!…

And another big round of thanks to the Tomooka family for a really nice, relaxed time. Again!

Yesterday was a sad day. It was the day we used the last of our home-grown onion supply. The last little tidler.

Given that the harvest was only on Christmas eve last year it would appear that if we’re serious about eating our own we better plant a few more this year!

But at least we’ve still got some garlic and shallots left. At least until the shortest day coming up when some will get planted out again for next year’s crop. And of course there’s still a few potatoes. Just a few…

Polly better want a potato, as that’s what she’s gonna get for dinner for quite some time, I suspect! As will we all! Today was potato harvest day, quickly before any frosts appear.

After much scraping, forking, and cursing, 43.8kg of potatoes were hauled kicking and screaming from the earth into random pots. Yes, we did weigh them. That’s a fair few bloody spuds!

Considering we’ve been both eating and gifting potatoes since the middle of January I’m guessing we’ve managed at least 80kg for the season from 6kg of seed spuds. Not a bad return, even though they did take up a bit of real estate. And there are some awesome chippers amongst them too. Wish I’d kept the biggest aside to weigh and measure it individually, but I was more interested in just getting them up and out.

Now we just have to find something resembling a dark, cool place to store them. A bit lacking around here, so I guess we’ll just have to find new and inventive ways to ingest carbohydrates…

Regular readers might remember last year’s fruit harvest as being something of a non-event. We hoped this year would be better, and so it proved.

Yes, that’s right! We’ve managed to increase our production 200% in a year! Three whole apples this round! Yippee!

Once again the main culprit for the miserly production was the grass grub beetle munching everything around November time. This year we might resort to a few nets as well as the spray. Either that or a very large flyswat!

That’s right, it’s the ingredients for another batch of chilli jam! Regular readers might be thinking I’ve used the same photo as last year, but there are some differences if you look closely enough!

The very last of last year’s batch is sitting in the fridge, so we’ve obviously both got the perfect amount for a year sorted. I think. I’m also only guessing that we’ve used the same recipe that we used last year, as we didn’t seem to note it down anywhere. Doh! Bookmarked this time though, on the assumption it is. We never learn.

What we have learnt is that a jam thermometer makes life a lot easier than trying to use cold saucers to estimate the setting point! Life would have been a lot simpler if we’d leant that before the apricot jam session!

We’ve got some new neighbours over the fence in the back paddock. At least they’re relatively quiet and well behaved!

Our next door neighbour asked if he could graze his flock of alpacas for a while letting them chomp on the lucerne that’s growing there. We’re not doing anything with it, so why not! Besides, it’s kind of nice to watch them mooch about the place!

Sometimes it’s the little things that can make a big difference. In this particular instance I’m thinking of the sudden lack of any (visible) cables being emitted from the TV hanging on the wall. Magic!

When we installed all the network, satellite and aerial cabling oh so long ago we neglected to install an HDMI cable, frankly because we were rank amateurs (apart from Kelly, but the IT guys don’t really generally care about TV’s). But luckily the professionals that came after us to connect up all the wires to actual sockets thought that perhaps one day we might like to be able to do so, and very kindly drilled some nice wide holes and installed a pull wire or three. We only needed one (so far), but what a life saver it was!

• So. First step: After convincing my able assistant it was a good time to attempt this task, the initial issue was to work out which of the three pull wires went from the receiver box to the box behind the TV instead of straight up to the roof. Which generally involved tugging randomly until a wire moved more often than the other two.
• Second step: Work out which way it was most inclined to be pulled.
• Third step: Use massive amounts of duct tape to tie the HDMI cable to the pull wire (trying to make a nice conical shape at the front to assist in travelling though holes in studs).
• Fourth step: Pull wire with fingers crossed, and to helpful advice such as “I don’t know how this is meant to work”, “It’s not going to work”, “It’s stuck”, etc…
• Fifth step: Try to mask surprise and look generally like I was confident all the time when the mass of duct tape appears on the end of the wire a lot sooner than we thought it should. I swear we were only a third of the way through, and hadn’t come close to clearing the difficult 90 degree turns, but apparently we had. Joy!
• Sixth step: swap over all the wall boxes and install some blanks around the wire to avoid any mice thinking it’s a nice entry/exit hole for them!

I have to say we were both almost as surprised as when we managed to suck a fishing line from the pump shed. But it was a very, very nice surprise! Especially after putting it off for so long.

That’s obviously the receiver end. There’s really not much point of showing you just a TV on the wall!

So, another job ticked off. What next?!

The above piece of paper has been attached to our fridge for over a year now. It’s left a few guests chuckling a bit. Especially as up until yesterday it was stuck on the 2011/12 count. But at last we opened our 2012/13 count! The first 2 zuchinni of the season. I’m not sure if it’s fully correct to include the 2012 bit, given where we are in the year. It certainly feels like it’s a bit later than last year we’re getting some, but then we were a bit slack planting the seedlings out.

And the good news continues today. Another to add to the total. (Yes siree folks, that’s a 50% increase in just one day!)

And 2 more starting to swell. Although I’m not 100% sure the experimental tunnel house plant is liking the very hot temperatures in there. But it’s still producing, so we’ll leave it there for now. The shock of eviction might be a bit much for it.