A cruise through the past week

I have a collection of photos for you today with not much writing. The garden photos were taken yesterday and the others over the course of the past week.  I hope you enjoy them. I'll have more garden photos for you when I tidy the place up a bit and things start growing. Where you see the straw above, I've just scattered seeds - alyssum, aquilegia (granny's bonnet) and bee and butterfly mix.

Many of you have asked for more Gracie photos, so here are two. This first one was taken on the day she was clipped last week and the one below was taken yesterday as she was warming herself on the back verandah.

Also in the backyard are our chooks. We have nine altogether, a mix of various heirloom breeds. Here we have, from left, a light Sussex, blue Australorpe, silver-laced Wyandotte, and the three inline on the right are a gold-laced Barnavelder, a barred Plymouth Rock and a New Hampshire.  They're looking sheepish because I caught them jumping up to pick leaves off the passionfruit vine.  grrrrrr.

Storm clouds approaching.

Along with many other people we've been doing jigsaw puzzles.

From the front, this shows several mystery vines that came up spontaneously. I'm not sure if it's an old variety of apple cucumber that I grew last year or some weirdling from the mulch. Hopefully, it flowers soon and I can either tend it or pull it out.  Behind that is one of my David Austin standard roses, Mary Rose, and behind the rose is my lipstick salvia. More details about that below.  

Mary Rose on our kitchen table.  

Yes, I know!  I said I wouldn't grow vegetables again but I couldn't help myself. I needed to have some in there. These are rainbow chard, grown from seed, called Bright Lights. They have assorted stem colours of pink, ruby, cream and yellow. They're really versatile because they can be cooked or used in salads.

Can you see my little visitor on the birdbath?  It's a pale-headed rosella, a very timid parrot. They come in sometimes to drink here.

This is my favourite salvia - Salvia involucrata x karwinski Winter Lipstick. I just love it.  It's like an explosion of pink lipsticks. When I bought this plant two years ago, the tag named it as Chiapas Sage, which it doesn't look like at all  This beauty grows to around five metres tall and flowers from April till November when it's cut back again.

This photo shows our lunch as well as food for Gracie and the chooks. On the top left is a bowl of old bread for the chooks to which I added a bit of milk. In the dog bowl is the start of Gracie's lunch. She had a small piece of chicken and her homemade chicken and vegetables. And what have we been eating? A simple quiche - bacon, egg, garlic, onion and green onions in filo pastry. If you don't have time to make pastry for your quiches or apple pies, filo does the job nicely and all you have to do is unroll it and brush it with butter. I used eight sheets for the quiche.

I know it's very 1940s but this is my favourite dessert - vanilla junket with fruit on top. I'm happy to tell you that Woolworths now sell junket tablets (rennet) and making it is very easy. I make it in the afternoon to be set and ready for the following day. This used to be called curds and whey - of Little Miss Muffet fame.

You can always tell when we've done the shopping, our fruit bowl looks like this. The passionfruits are from the backyard and are just delicious this year. So there we have it, a cruise through the past week here at our home. What have you been doing this week?