Bruised and Battered!

We have taken a bit of a beating here lately. After my last blog we have had a good spell of wild winds and rain. Lots of rain. Measuring from my rain gauge we have had over 200ml. With that has come some seriously muddy play for the kids and mess for me! Plus the garden has had most of its leaves either blown off, burnt by the wind or have turned into a soggy mess. Its quite sad to see all the hard work you put in only to see mother nature destroy it. I can imagine how the farmers out there who rely on the production of food suffer from extreme weather conditions. I think I almost need to just pull out most of it and start again. Thankfully its a change in season and most of it will kind of finish up soon anyway. It is still disheartening though. I also planted a heap of winter seeds and have a few nice seedlings coming along to plant out when the weather fairs up a bit. Yesterday I picked my first cluster of bananas and they are ripening very quickly, so we are eating bananas for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I may be a bit biased, but they are the best bananas I have ever tasted!!!

I have not been doing much else otherwise or in the kitchen apart from the usual day to day cooking as I am a little obsessed with watching Outlander - apdapted from the series of books by Diana Gabaldon (/http://www.dianagabaldon.com/books/outlander-series/) .... I also think I might end up reading the books as soon as I finish watching the second season as the next season doesn't come out until September and I don't think I can wait that long to find out all that happens. Have you seen or read this series? I sometimes think I was meant to live in another era, all that is past fascinates me. I love the life of the land, the clothes, the talk and the social gatherings. A dreamer perhaps.

And now I must attend to all the weeds and soggy plants I have pulled out on my morning inspection amongst the break in the rain and put them in the compost or green bin. Have you too been affected by some crazy weather of late? Talk soon, C xx

Banana tree blown over in the wind.

Glorious bananas picked from above tree after it blew over.

Chilli plants stripped of their leaves.

Choko and horseradish hanging onto life.

One of many puddles around the home.

Soggy Zucchini plants.

Okra, I will leave these surviving fruit on to save the seeds and try again next year.

Baby beans on the way out.