Spicy Black Tea and Prune Brownies

Normal folks may have tea breaks after a good amount of work. We needed one before we got started, after an exhausting plant shopping spree. 

Windbreaker

I may have mentioned we'll have lived in this house for 30 years come next January, the longest either of us have lived anywhere. We always had gusts coming up from the sea, (from behind us,) for a week or fortnight every spring and autumn. Around 2010, I noticed some years it could last for a month, then two.

Then a couple of years ago I noticed just as strong winds coming down the hill, (from ahead of us) and for extended periods. Suddenly, wind, and the weather, could come not just from Richmond way, but from town as well, and I couldn't predict the rain any more.

With this year's El Nino, we're expected to have gusts go on and on, I read, so we finally put a wind cloth in front of the best veg patch. I thought green, but Ben though black would be less visible, and once again, he had the right answer. Here's he's going over the staple marks first with a black Sharpie, and then with a clear nail polish. It worked really well. Orange Tomatoes will be this year's winners. 

We got the green wind cloth before the black, (yeah, yeah, my idea,) for our new, tiny tangor, (tangelo+orange), who lost several leaves in the first week to the wind. These materials are mostly holes and not a lot of "threads" but it's amazing how effective they are.

Laurel's Revenge

We had a massive tree cutting job done in May, and one was to get a towering laurel, (which I liked to be honest,) reduced to a stump. We knew it'd come back; Team Leader Scott confirmed it's like a weed. Well, well. Five months on... And now we have a unsmall area we have to fill in with many plants. 

Not Joe and Jill??

Ben's into flowers with multiple colors this season; this is one we got in late-September. I wasn't sure about the colors, (I tend to like one hue/value,) but I liked the name. It turns out Bidens is a genus of plants!   

Snowman Kumura

Connings Pop Up, Archilles Avenue

Yuzu

We like the idea of having yuzu, but wonder how long before they fruit. Most probably in their first year? But there is that old Japanese saying, "Three years for peaches and chestnuts, eight for persimmons. The Big Fool yuzu needs 18 years."

We came home without it this time. 
Mitre10 Mega Nelson.

Ben's Victory Lap

Although we got promptly refunded for the unneeded garden stakes, we spent the money on one more plant, a purple/pink Gazania, a plant new to us. 
Mitre10 Mega Nelson 
 

Parking Neighbour the Next Day

Back at the Garden Centre the next day, we parked next to this manly car, because we had to return some garden stakes. We solved a problem Ben's way instead of mine, which turned out to be, ahem, a better way, and we didn't need the stakes. 

Blinded

Well, poke me in the eye, why don't you! I bet some of these are the same-stuff-in-different-wrappers. I usually stick to the least specialized, but this week I wanted the tomato fertiliserl juice because many flowers respond well besides toms.

The powder/granule fertilizers have their own aisles.
Mitre10 Mega Nelson.

Revenge of the Occasional Gardener

This is what happens when blackbirds dig up oh-so-many seedlings I planted, in spite of strategically positioned obstacles. Some of these have been dug up since, and then covered, and dug up, and.. it's never ending!
Mitre10 Mega Nelson 

Parking Neighbour

The cutest, quietest parking neighbour.

Mitre10 Mega Nelson. 

Stuff of Nightmere

This is the best pic of around a dozen I tried; the sun was so strong I couldn't get rid of the reflection of the street, but this is an enormous soft/stuffed toy of a... spider! Seriously, would you consider giving this to a child? Or even an adult you like??
PaperPlus, Queen Street, Richmond.

We're Good, but Thanks.

Nice sign. 
Queen Street, Richmond. 
 

Slippery

It took me a while. A lady laughed with me when she saw I slowly/finally got it. 
Richmond Mall.