Summertime is garden time...

It's been a quiet few months on the villa renovation front: too busy enjoying the New Zealand summer, and also earning the money for all the renovations I want to make!

At this time of year, it's nice to spend any spare time in the garden. Now I must admit, I'm not much of a gardener - I just don't have the required green fingers. I do appreciate a well-tended, nicely planted garden, but alas I'm just not skilled or motivated enough to do much about it. I give my plants some basic care, and after that the choice to live or die is all their own!

So imagine my surprise when last year's chillie plant not only came back to life, but is sprouting a fine crop of chillies! They're just about ready to pick, and I'll be freezing them for warming curries and casseroles in winter. Yum!

Another crop that's doing really well are my grapes: about 3 years ago I planted a vine of table grapes, and this is the first year they've really performed. In fact, I have so many grapes I'm not quite sure what to do with them all!!! Other than giving them away to friends!

They're very tasty - and have a strong, distinctive flavour. The variety is "Niagra" and I grew up eating these. In my native Switzerland we called them "Katzenseicher" which means "cat's pee" because of their strong flavour!

Though I'm a lazy gardener, I do always make sure that my two tubs outside the front door are looking smart: I just love coming home to some pretty flowers welcoming me! For summer, I've been enjoying big blue flowers with little white ones around them (I have no idea what they're called). The garden centre is a scary place when you don't know what you need, so I chose these 'cos I liked the colours. And as I was really busy with work, Mr Kiwi planted them up for me: he knows just how much I enjoy coming home to flowers. Aaaaah!

Here's Minnie keeping an eye on me while I'm taking photos!

(And a larger photo would reveal that our front steps are in need of re-building - the wood is just about rotten... the tubs are strategically placed to hide the worst of it!)