Doing: ...Thinking of the Aussies in the southern states about to go through the biggest heatwave in 100 years over the next four days. I am blessed in that I don't have any water restrictions here, so I'm really feeling for the gardeners who will probably be bucketing water around over the next few days...

... Finally shelving plans to get chickens for the foreseeable future. I'm really disappointed by having to face up to reality, but over the weekend our dogs found and attacked another Blue Tongue Lizard in our backyard :-(

This one was a large adult lizard and although the dogs were in a frenzy, I think it managed to escape unhurt? They've killed two lizards previously but they were smaller Blue Tongues, so perhaps this one was faster and a bit more savvy. They rustled it up while I wasn't home and I found them going for it around the compost bins when I got home - I hauled them inside and investigated but couldn't see it (and didn't prod too much since I was a bit worried it was a snake!). A little while later the girls yelled that they could see it and I saw it disappear behind our shed - I could see it was a large one but even shining a torch in there I couldn't see if it was injured. I can only hope it has moved on to safer dog-free yards.

I was incredibly distressed when they killed the other two Blue Tongues (not only because they are defenceless native wildlife, but because they are quiet vegie gardener allies - their main diet includes snails!

Anyway, long story short, I am now totally convinced that any chickens we might get would be instant prey for our dogs. Even if we were to securely fence off an area of our yard, they could never free-range properly, they'd probably die of stress from being barked at (one of our dogs once spent 20 minutes barking at a Praying Mantis) and since they are heavier than our kids, they could easily push past the girls (or me if I wasn't paying attention) and get into the chicken pen... Bummer. At least we are able to source local backyard eggs from one of DH's work mates, which is the next best thing.

Making:... A new batch of heavy duty laundry powder.


... Another batch of bread dough from the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day book. The Crone raved about the pizza base it makes so pizza is definitely on the menu this week!

In the Garden:...Speaking of The Crone; if she can blame me for her book expenses, then I'm going to blame Nature Witch for my garden splurge at the nursery yesterday ;-)



I don't have time to sow seeds of some plants now if I want to harvest before the weather cools, so I relented and went to the nursery to buy a couple of punnets of seedlings to plant out - capsicums (peppers) and Lebanese cucumbers - plus a couple of herbs... but came home with another banana tree (a Lady Finger) and the beginnings of a tea hedge, three Camellia sinensis bushes. I've got my coffee hedge going out the back so - in the interests of not being biased - it seems only fair to grow a tea hedge out the front to make our own green tea :-) I'd suggest we'll need a great deal more than just three bushes to provide all our tea requirements though LOL, but I've got room for several more; ultimately they'll form a low (1m/ 3 foot) hedge at the rear of the medicinal herb garden I have planned. More information about processing your own tea leaves is here.

...Planting out three sad-looking Pink Brandywine tomato seedlings into the veg garden. They have suffered badly in the heat, despite being in the shade, so I wouldn't be surprised if they fail to grow.

...Harvesting cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, kale, silverbeet, mustard greens, carrots and the first of the Lazy Housewife beans.

Dinner: ...Silverbeet, kale, mustard greens and tomato quiche, and garden salad.