Garden inspired art

As we head into late summer, the days are starting to shorten. The changes can be felt in the air. it is still hot and dry but the light is softer and the heat not as intense.
The chooks seem to be feeling it as well. They seem to be taking turns taking the day off. We are getting less eggs, which isn't such a bad thing as I was having trouble finding uses for the 4 a day I was getting.
The end of summer fruit is coming into its own. The heady aroma of ripening grapes sweeps me away whenever I walk out on the deck . For some reason the possums and birds have left these alone. I guess there are enough ripening on the rest of the property that they are not bothered to brave getting close to the house.
Yesterday the first fig got eaten. it didn't have the soft over ripe sweetness that I love, but it was certainly an indication that that wasn't far off.
It seems strange not to have to organize the garden and produce for the future. Not to harvest the dried beans to eat, not to make jam from the lovely peaches or plums and not to save seeds for next season.
But instead I have taken inspiration from the garden to try and capture a few moments of the beauty that surrounds me here.

Leaving Paradise

OMG it looks like we may be leaving New Zealand.
We've had an idea recently that we are just too spread out in the world. Trying to live in Canada, Thailand and New Zealand was starting to be too much like work. (Ya think?)
So a week or so ago we mentioned to a neighbor that we were thinking....thinking mind you....of selling our house here. Two hours later the daughter of another neighbor was falling in love with the house and wanted to buy it. Sooo it looks like we have a deal and some time in the next 3 months we are out of here.
We certainly have mixed feelings about it all. Yes we are ready to move on to the next adventure, but we have created a beautiful place here, doing all the work ourselves, and will be leaving a little of our heart behind.

Summer surfeit

Mid summer and my vege garden is finally coming into its own. After a late start I now find myself struggling to find enough space in the fridge or enough friends to give the excess to.
Lots of beans, cucs, zuchs, pac choi and tomatoes.
Then there are all the eggs that the girls I have for the summer, are producing. There are only 4 of them, but they rarely go a day without each laying an egg.

The perennial peppers are laden and they are all turning a lovely shade of yellow. The bushes are 8' tall and covered in what seems like hundreds of beautiful golden orbs of culinary fire.

The blueberries have been ripening steadily over the last few weeks.

We are just finishing the last of the avocados - a harvest that has been going on for about 2 months now.

Lots of jam in the works as the plums and peaches start ripening up.

I use my standard jam recipe of 1kg of fruit to 750 gms sugar. Boil gently til it starts to thicken- usually about an hour. I add the juice of 1 or 2 lemons to the peach jam as it needs the extra pectin to thicken up. The plums are fine alone if they are harvested just before fully ripe.

It has been a perfect summer. Lots of warm days, with enough rain that I only need to water occasionally. The calendar says we are coming to the end of the season, but I know we'll have a couple more months of great weather here in New Zealand, and I'll be getting lots more from the garden over that time.