A visit to Thailand wouldn't be complete without a visit to Bodge and Ya's small farm.

We arrived just in time to help feed the chickens.

The garden is waiting for the first regular rains. But there is still quite a bit going on.
The chickens and ducks are laying up a storm, and Ya managed to harvest enough veges and a fish to make yet another delicious meal for us.

The budgies that live next to the dining table provide endless entertainment and went nuts over the branch of basil that Ya fed them.

We arrived bearing gifts of coffee and left with some of their duck and chicken eggs, bananas, papaya and rice. 

A perfect ending to a perfect day.

We are finally over the stress of leaving New Zealand and enjoying the heat of Thailand-40'C plus some days! It is great to be able to relax and enjoy the food and the massages and catch up with our friends here.
Even my small garden here is surviving the neglect and heat and I managed to pick some zinnias, cosmos and heliconias for my vases.

It is mango season, yum. Our landlord dropped off some mangoes and lumyai from his orchard, so I'll be able to indulge. 

It really is wonderful to be back.

Finishing up in New Zealand

Our bags are packed and our boxes are ready to go to the shipping company as we wind up our life in New Zealand.
The whole experience is very emotional but we are also excited about the next adventure.
The garden is sadly neglected so will benefit hugely from some fresh energy from the new owners.
We are still harvesting lettuce, pak choi, tomatoes and Chinese cabbage and there are still dozens of chillies on the pepper plant.

The chrysanthemums are putting on a impressive display, and brightening up the garden.

The kiwi fruit are huge and only weeks from being ready to eat. the odd one falls to the ground and if I am quick I get at least a taste.

The persimmons are hanging like jewels from their tree. They are still not quite ripe, so may miss sampling them as well this season.
Our next stop is Thailand. As it cools down here this autumn season, it is heating up there as they move into their rainy season. What a contrast it will be.

An end and a new beginning

We have started our packing. As I wander through the garden I think about all the things I will miss about it.
I will miss the all year round fruit, veg and flowers. It seems no matter when we show up here there is always something to harvest and some thing in bloom.
I'll miss the outdoor shower in the garden that we use in preference to the indoor shower.
I'll miss the chooks and their eggs, and the fish we catch so easily from the river.
I'll miss the sound of the morepork owl at night, the wakeup call of the magpies in the morning and the raspy growl of the possums and the song of the tui and bellbirds.
I'll miss this perfect climate that means I can always go out into the garden to work, harvest or enjoy.
I will not miss the non stop growth of weeds-go away for a week and come back to a hayfield. I'll definitely not miss the kikuyu grass- it grows meters every week,invades the gardens and takes over. It does make a nice lawn though.
I'll not miss the ants that take over the house, or the quail that seem to have found that my garden is the perfect restaurant for them and proceed to eat and dig their way through the crops before I do.

I'll definitely miss the vases of flowers I can produce any time of the year.

I'll miss the huge range of veges I can grow here all year round.

I'll miss the rose from my mums garden. It blooms constantly and has the most divine perfume.

The exciting news is that we have bought a property on Malcolm Island, British Columbia. This is a small island at the north end of Vancouver Island. We tell people to drive to the ends of the earth and take a ferry.
It is on a 1/3 of an acre across the road from the sea so lots of opportunities to garden. There will be lots to learn about this new climate, but I am looking forward to the challenge and in my mind have already started planting.

Hot Chilli Sauce

We have mountains of chillies. The chillies we grow here seem to be reliably perennial. We have had these plants on the go now for 3 yrs. This year they produced a huge crop.
We have enough dried chilli so it was time to try something new.
After assessing what ingredients we had available we decided to make a batch of sambal or chilli sauce.

Our chilli plants are huge-almost 8 ft tall and loaded with fruit.

The finished sambal.

 The recipe:

It was very hot, but yummy. We tried a tsp in a stir fry and that was about perfect. We are thinking that with a dsp of curry powder in it, it would make a great curry paste.
Also I am thinking that a tsp in cream cheese may make a delicious dip.
I think we will be making more of this and taking it with us when we leave NZ.

Going to seed

At this time of the season- end of summer here in New Zealand there is often a feeling of things coming to an end as the veges and the flowers in the garden come to the end of their life and start going to seed.
However in that end is a new beginning. Seed for the next  year or season.
In my garden lots of the veg are making seed. Some of it will be collected and saved and some will be allowed to drop in the garden and come up wherever and whenever the opportunity is to its liking.

The seed in this summer squash will probably be ready to harvest in a few weeks as soon as the outer skin becomes hard.
Left in the garden it may even self seed next summer.

The basil seed will need to be saved until it warms up again next summer. In a few weeks as the seed matures I can start collecting it.

 I don't bother to save the seed from the calendula. It is happy to drop the seed and start to produce seedlings no matter the season. There always seem to be calendula flowers in odd corners and on the paths.

This pea is ready to drop its seed on the ground and will probably sprout and grow quite happily all winter. If the birds don't discover the seeds first that is.

 Beans on the other hand will need to be saved as they mature and dry on the vine. They can be saved and eaten as dried beans over the winter. It is just a matter of not eating all the seed and saving some to start again next spring.

The amaranth is looking beautiful right now. In a few weeks I'll harvest it and use the seeds in my bread. Some of the seed will be saved for next year.

With the recent heat and dry spell most of my lettuce has gone to seed. Some of it can be harvested in a few weeks, but the plants can also be left in the garden and they will happily self seed around the garden providing baby lettuce over the winter months and into the next spring.

This parsley will also self seed and provide a perpetual parsley patch in the garden with little or no work.

This year I won't be saving so much of the seed as we are leaving New Zealand, but I will leave the seeding plants in the garden to provide the new owners with a variety of self sown veges and flowers.

Summers end

Summer is not over yet but the signs are there that it is slowly coming to an end.
The days are shorter, and the veges in the garden have slowed down. This weekend we got our first decent rain in 2 weeks.
Though the fridge is still over flowing with zucchini's, cucumbers and beans, and the fruit bowl is full of tomatoes.
The lettuce are starting to go to seed- even the ones sown late in the season-probably due to the relentless heat and lack of water. The amaranth are looking glorious as their flower heads mature and the Chinese cabbage are heading up nicely.
The early apples have made way for the mid season apples. The green grapes have all but finished but the purple grapes are in the process of ripening. The last wave of peaches-Black Boy and Golden Queen are ripening as are the figs. I ate the first of the kiwi fruit that fell on the ground though the rest have a ways to go before ripening.
Most of my flowers seem to have given up though the cosmos that were planted late are starting to flower as are the marigolds and Japanese anemones.
The flowers that are really coming into their own, add great colour in the garden and make great cut flowers are the zinnias and naked lady lilies.