Well the seed raising experiment is still a work in progress…they certainly germinated and grew to 2-leaf stage very nicely in the mini-greenhouses – but after transplanting into the square pots, they grew to only normal seedling size – not giant seedling size like I was hoping/expecting…I am putting it down to our very autumny autumn!  The chill has pretty much set in and we have had a lot of rain (not complaining!) – so the seedlings just haven’t got that extra warmth they might have liked.  Maybe next year eh?  Or next season at least!

Meanwhile, there have been some lovely firsts in our family:

• ·        Pepper the puppy’s first birthday
• ·        First fog of the year
• ·        First campfire when friends were visiting :-)
• ·        And a first visit from the tooth fairy to our youngest :-)!

There has also been our first (and following) eggs from our newer chickens – yay!  Miss Clucky laid her last egg on Easter Sunday and we didn’t really expect the new Silver Laced Wyandotte hens to lay over winter but we are very happy they proved us wrong:

And there is even a first purple asparagus spear making an appearance – very happy about that too!

We also have managed to plant new natives in the front garden – we are expecting some pretty flowers from the Eremophilas.  They are all kangaroo fenced so hopefully will grow to a good size quite soon – at least sooner than being grazed to grow-bag height.

I have also had a go at hay-box cooking – not using a hay box of course, but a "just-boiled" pot wrapped in a woollen bed cover – it worked so well to cook the dog’s veges – was still very warm to the touch after 7 hours!  Will definitely have to do this again – a great way to save on energy for slow-cooking.