Who's eating my fruit?

Wicking beds



The beds are made, they're settling in, and just waiting for rain, worms & planting. The weather forecast mentioned rain many times last week, but nothing more than a few drops came of it. Tomorrow's forecast for the local area says "A thunderstorm in spots" - what's that supposed be? A fashion statement? I think I may end up resorting to the hose - after all, that's what those white watering tubes in the beds are for:



Next I need to bully the husband into finishing the worm feeders (he has more time & more sharp power tool experience than me). It all seems to be taking forever, but it's getting there ...

At least something's eating out of the backyard

The apples are looking lovely, aren't they?



But turn most of them over, and you'll find something like this:



Telltale signs of codling moth. The pears aren't immune either:



And then there's pear & cherry slug:



... and birds ...



The white cockatoos seem to prefer the pears, and the rosellas (ok - I'm not 100% sure they're rosellas, but they're green & red & blue & very pretty) prefer the apples. At least someone's eating well!

Baking

Speaking of eating, I made up my first batch of dough from the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day book today. The children have been bringing home their sandwiches barely touched, so I thought little crusty rolls, accompanied by a small salad, might be more tempting. The rolls are certainly tempting me!



You can find the master dough recipe on the authors' website, and variations of all sorts floating around the internet. I found this a little salty, and then read that the amount of table salt should be reduced by about a third or more if you're using table salt instead of the kosher salt in the original recipe. But it's certainly delicious and easy, even like this (that blurry one in the foreground is no more!). Mmmmmm ...