Maintenance Day, Glorious Day

Sunday was forecast to be fine, and after a couple of busy weeks and with three of the four of us having been unwell during the week, we scheduled a day at home. I was going to say "quiet, restful day at home", but perhaps that's not quite how it worked out. "A very productive day" would be a better description. Between B and I (and of course ably assisted by Big Bro the helper), we mowed the lawns, cleaned the verandah for restaining, made significant progress on the back garden watering system and the DIY bathwater irrigation, did three loads of washing, cooked tomorrow night's dinner, vaccuumed and mopped the kitchen and prepared the first Christmas parcel for mailing overseas (which I forgot to take it to the post office on Monday!)

Monday cleared to a sunny, warm afternoon- just right for playing outside. In the evening, Big Bro and I enjoyed the luxury of rainwater tanks by watering the vegies in preparation for today's forecast wind and 28 degrees.

Most of the drip irrigation zones are still at various stages of incompletion, so only one was ready to run. But what a sense of achievement to plug in the hose, turn on the timer and leave it!! I will need another maintenance day to finish the remaining zones and connect up the bath water irrigation; I am looking forward to being able to sit back and relax (or do other chores, ho hum) while the garden gets watered over summer!! I also feel a sense of freedom and security in being able to water when I want, rather than within the two 6-8am timeslots permitted under mains water restrictions. Let's just hope the summer is not too long and dry...

On Sunday I had also spotted our first (and currently only) cauliflower head, which I picked for dinner on Monday. This sudden find left me without my favourite cauliflower recipe, roasted with persillade, so I cooked it my second favourite way, steamed with cheese, which came out deliciously sweet, flavourful and tender. My portion never made it to my plate, being eaten straight from the cooking dish! There are five more plants with no obvious heads (why?), so I am not sure how long I can wait before clearing that bed for summer. I can only hope some more caulis are in the pipeline.

Days like these make me wonder why we ever leave the garden, and how we ever lived without it!