James is safe with friends in SA, and will hopefully be on his way to Zimbabwe soon. Relief. I worry a lot.

Tomorrow is the start to our spiny Lobster season, and the weather, having been promising, is now looking very iffy. We may go. Or not. Tanks are full, gear ready. Well, mostly. I have to do some last minute sorting to do. A few big crays in the freezer would be very nice, but the weather may prevent it. It would probably be a good thing for the grass (which needs mowing) if it were lousy. In the meanwhile those Capsicums I was upset about not coming up? Well I have a load of King, and Golden up. The Jimmy Nardello and Healthy aren't yet. And the Diamond and one Ping Tung eggplant are up. I have planted out some of the Salsify (it will all germinate in seed trays. outside, next to where I intend to plant it. Almost none germinates in the ground.) and I've got more scarlet runners up and planted, and more germinating. I've also purple King and blue lake runners planted, and blue ballet squash, Triamble pumpkin, queensland blue pumpkin, and Kaki (which has hull-less seeds) pumpkin in the hot-house. For a bloke that doesn't like pumpkin or beans that much, I hope my success there is on a par with my eggplant success (1 fruit last year!) I did get 4 Queensland blues and 2 butternut last year, despite having dug up the plants and moved them. Funny, I love peas, eggplant and capsicums - and never get anything like the weight of pumpkin and beans I do of them. I do like pumpkin seed so I hope the Kaki variety grow.

Oh the potatoes are putting up leaves. I could probably use a few more beds of those. The problem is finding a fertile spot where the rats won't get to them (last year I planted in the old chicken coop, and the rats got more than we did. Too far from the house for the cats. I sometimes wonder if those who buy all their food have any idea how much hassle it can be to grow!