The domestic calm before the storm

Lettuces, and what might be baby spinach, or might
be rocket or might be bulbless onions.
Only time will tell.

Our yummy tomatoes - of course
most of them will ripen while we are away.

The rest of the photos are - guess who. Today's blog
is one for the grandparents really.

We're off to Australia very soon, so we've been relaxing while we can. Our garden is finally producing loads of things we can actually eat. Betty Jean has been giving me a hard time lately, refusing to be fed - she will only eat if allowed to pick up the food herself. We didn't take pictures because it was too upsetting, but her high chair recently looked as though Prince had vomited on it. Betty Jean even had purple mush up her nose. We're very proud, BJ can crawl backwards. Getting excited about the trip, but have a sense of dread about all the things we probably should do before we go. Best not plan too much, but let the chaos wash over me and us.

Julian is very important

Florence has been used on all the AOP's promo material, and here she is in today's Times. Hats off to Julian and Micah and Ali and of course Amy AKA Florence. Betty Jean and I are very proud.

Queen's Park Beauties

The Gang (with Meena and Robin, but without
Candy and Kaia and Iona)

Guess who (BJ is now 7 months old)

Candy and Kaia (3 months)

Thelma and Matteo (7 months)

Annika and Iyla (8 months)

Gail and Iona (7 months)

Gail kindly had the ladies over for a magnificent lunch. Most of the babies were too excited to sleep through nap time, but they were very good little girls and boys. Betty Jean finally mixed and mingled. Matteo entertained us all with his (aided) walking. And the ladies got to have a few drinks relatively undisturbed. These girls have helped keep me sane. Also, it's nice to be able to talk pure baby and know you're not going to bore the bejesus out of someone.

Home Alone IV - starring Betty Jean Culkin

Julian is in Australia shooting so BJ and I have been amusing ourselves here at home alone. It's a bit dull without him so Betty Jean has taken to "playing" with Bunny. By this I mean pulling all Bunny's hair out. Bless Bunny, she just bites BJ gently until she lets go.
The garden is looking a bit hillbilly, but there is so much going on out there. We ate one of our baby spuds the other day (just a test - we chopped the spud into about 10 mini chips), we have more tomatoes than we are going to be able to handle, and the basil just keeps giving us lots of pesto.
We are going to need a lot more though if we ever want to supply our own food. We have joined HDRA and it is a pretty amazing resource. I just hope that we can just invert all the seasonal garden work calendars when we come back to Australia but somehow I don't think it is going to be that simple.
The wedding is all planned thanks to mum. Very much looking forward to seeing people. Life has been very uncomplicated of late and it is nice to sit back and take note of that - it hardly ever happens.