I brood, therefore I am

So what's my excuse? Maybe it's the gloomy weather, but I feel like crawling in the box with them. It does amuse me though, how they go all flat and vacant-eyed - silly chooks. A few weeks ago we moved them back into the Dome so they could finish off our winter veg bed and turn it over ready for some new planting. As soon as we made the change, Marjie snapped out of her brood.  Here she is among the Digger's Meadow Mix I flung around earlier in the year back to her old self:

Is it just me or does it feel like someone stole the year from you too? I just can't believe it's November again. Our birthdays are just around the corner, and my Mum gave me a lovely surprise on Friday when she and my step dad presented me with these:

This chair sat on my Grandma's front porch for as long as I can remember. Grandma would sit on the chair and I'd sit on the porch step and we'd chat for hours. I'm so pleased to have it. Grandma was a keen gardener and she had a magic green thumb - her front garden was full of roses. This one is lovely - every rose on it is different:

I have some seeds for an heirloom rose in our seed box - I like the idea of collecting the hips from them and using them for all sorts of things. I've never propagated a rose - must try that soon. Any tips?

Another thing we've never grown before are these:

Do we let them go to flower or do we eat them? It's the first year so we're not sure. Pretty exciting though - and stupid the way you get so thrilled that they look just like the ones in the shop...well, der!

It seems our enthusiasm for gardening has spread - I got some pics on email from my Dad yesterday showing us the veg box he has built. I particularly like his solution for the leeks - a few old weather boards on each side and they can be easily mounded as they grow. This pic is before the possums raided:

And after:

Seems the dome netting is taking off! Such a simple and effective solution, I know, but in our yard it is taking over somewhat:

We get lots of birds up here and it's the only way to keep everything protected from their relentless attention. We were anxious about the almonds after every single fruit was attacked on the peach tree and while it's keeping the birds off, we've noticed something is getting into the almonds and leaving a resin-like substance on the outside of each fruit - any ideas what that might be?

And lastly here's our spud experiment - we thought it might be a neat way to mound the spuds as they grow - just roll up the sack and add more dirt. I hope it works because I loved the spuds we got last year and this year we have some new varieties growing that I'm keen to try:

So that's all from me - I'm feeling a bit flat after the huge effort of working on my assignment and developing a new project proposal for work next year. The proposal is looking promising - if it gets up it'll be exciting but we've got a few hurdles to jump yet and at this point in time I'm happy either way.