A hot and sticky Christmas

I seem to always be moaning about the weather in all my latest posts, but I cannot stress to you enough just how hot it is this November and now December. In November (which is still officially Spring) the temperatures were mid to late 20s every day with humidity at night and now in December we are in the 30 with 32 yesterday and goodness knows how much today its as least as hot again as yesterday. So we decided as Georgias singing teacher was sick that we would pick up our tree as gorgeous hubby is working tomorrow. At 3.30 it was searingly hot and lugging the tree up, putting on all the lights etc, we were hot and bothered and sweaty and all the needle stick to your skin and then of course you get an itchy rash from that....It must be so much easier in the winter chill!!! I left the girls to it with the decs and christmas music unfortunately our good christmas cd is scratched and now missing so we had to endure Love to Sing Christmas songs written for kindergarteners, but I mean you have to have SOME atmosphere dont you?

As normal I have been hit by the last minute find a pattern, decide its great for a friend and then sweat out hours of toil to get it done before the impulse passes. And this stocking for the stitcher was that. I stayed up late and then finished it off today, leaving housework, cooking, laundry in my wake. Actually I was a bit disappointed as I had expected it to be bigger and so I cant get all the notions and extra fat eigths in it I was expecting to.

I think thought it would still be agoood decoration on its own.

On the garden front many of my watermelon seeds saved from our almost failed crop last year have come up and are almost ready to plant out. This despite the fact that Alex decided to water them last night with the hot dishwashing water!!They must be a good hardy breed!! It stilll amzes me despite the fact that I am a farmers daughter, that one water melon can produce so many seeds that can them grow more huge plants. I dont know it just seems less obvious whenn you buy a packet of seeds or a plant, but knowing where they came from eating their mama, I can see this great huge expansion of seeds and watermelons forever more stratching into the future. Isnt nature just amzing wehen you actually stop and think about it, which is after all what simple living is all about :). We have been having strawberries every day from out plants and the herbs are going mad. Weve eaten some of our lovely almost organic silverbeet, which was picked fresh and eaten soon after so very little global footprinting there not to mention the food miles. Again very satisfying. Ive also planted Roma tomatoes for drying and then when the tomatoe season starts for real they are very cheap to buy the bottling sort around here. PYO for under a dollar a kilo. Which we make sauce from (ketchup), relish, pasta sauces (this is why Im attempting to grow a lot of basil). I bought two medium punnets of raspberries to freeze and will be doing a lot more as the season progresses. Soon there will be just everything to freeze, bottle, dry and preserve... Hawkes bay really is the fruit bowl of NZ!!

Happy Hot days,

Cherry