And we did indeed have a magnificent feast on Monday evening.  Emily came over and we all sat outside admiring another glorious Mount Helen sunset.  We dined on beef with mushroom sauce, salad boats using supermarket lettuce for the boats and some of the beans, carrots, tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden for the filling, together with roasted potatoes (not from the garden) and zucchini (from the garden).

We have been getting some mighty harvests from the vegetable tubs and garden.  We are almost overrun with tomatoes and are doing very well for zucchinis and cucumbers.  I have taken to munching on cucumber much like other people munch on apples!  We are also filling the freezer with things to make winter stews and soups

Carrot thinnings

One day's harvest from the vegetable tubs

We have one lonely sunflower growing in with the sweet corn.  We planted four seedlings, but three got eaten before we realised that the feral rabbits were going to be a problem!

This is not the first harvest of potatoes.  We dug up one root early in February when we went to lunch for Stella's birthday.  We knew that was a bit too early but took them anyway. This is the harvest from two roots today.  We can leave the potatoes where they are for now.  It's still quite warm overnight and the plants are looking fairly healthy.  We aren't growing varieties that will store well so best to dig them as we need them.

As well as some lovely sunsets, we have also been having some beautiful sunrises. We woke up on Tuesday morning and it looked as though we had acquired an inland sea in the plains

Fortunately for the people who live there - we had not

I've been doing my bit for wildlife this week.  Jim mentioned that he had seen a skink run across our bedroom floor and under the bed.  I didn't worry about this too much. They are entirely harmless and are very small. Earlier this week, however, it ran across my foot while I was getting dressed and tried to hide under my shoe.  This wasn't a very successful manoeuvre on its part - I could see its tail 🤣  So I grabbed a plastic pot, put it over the skink, slid a postcard underneath and took it outside.  Mindful of Lindsey's story of once catching a mouse and putting it outside, only for it to be immediately eaten by a magpie, I took my skink and put it in some long-ish grass on the other side of the garden.  It ran away into the grass and we haven't seen it again.

Today we came back from the shops to find Sam sleeping soundly - and a small field mouse cowering in the passageway.  Jim stood guard over it while I went to get the plastic pot and postcard to take it out to the skink releasing place.  I don't think the mouse was particularly well. Mice don't usually sit and cower in passageways. They usually run away and hide.  It didn't run away when I put it in the long grass. It sat there and cowered.  It's gone now though. We will assume it recovered from its terrifying encounter with two giants, an enormous dog and a plastic pot and postcard, and left.  A much better outcome than being eaten by a magpie!

I do hope, however, that I don't encounter a kangaroo in the house.  I'm not sure that I have a plastic pot big enough to cover a kangaroo!!