Fingers crossed, a gardening success (thanks to the interwebs)

It's been a very hot day but at least it hasn't been unpleasantly humid. 

This morning I took my friend (the one who's husband dumped her after 37 years and who I shall call Prue) out for coffee/brunch. It is just about impossible to find somewhere for coffee when it's peak season but thanks to Penguin I have discovered Off the Wharf cafe which gets packed for lunch/dinner but if you get there early enough you can get a good table with a lovely view of the water and a decent coffee and toastie. I hope it stays that way over summer!

The tourists are entertaining, though. A large group arrived and, like Goldilocks, tried nearly every table in the place (including one with a reserved sign) until they found one they appeared to like. They then proceeded to order a variety of beverages ranging from iced tea to beer to a fancy cocktail. At 10.30 in the moming. Oh well, when on holiday ...

Prue and I sat and chatted for a couple of hours and she is still offloading about the soon to be ex. He does sound like a right piece of work but there are two sides to every story and I haven't heard his and I am unlikely to nor do I want to. He rang four times while we were there to ask her about plants for the soon to be on the market house. She kept reminding him that they weren't landscaping to keep so to buy cheap and cheerful not expensive and stunning. I really feel for her. The next few months are going to be very hard and she has back and knee issues that aren't helping her frame of mind. 

When I was out watering I noticed this wee fella. When I was in hospital with the hip a couple of friends came to visit and brought me a cyclamen in a pretty pot. Once it had finished flowering I planted it in the rockery at the back with little hope it would survive. It seems quite happy even though it does get full sun and has produced this flower and a bud. After I took the photo I removed the flower and bud so it doesn't waste energy keeping them alive and can focus on new leaves.

After my recent post about my tomatoes and the advice given by my wonderful bloggy friends I did some googling and pruned with no mercy (well, maybe a little bit of mercy) and took a lot of leaves off that the google gardener gurus suggested (and, Pixie, I think). I watered them well this morning but by lunch time they were very droopy and the soil was dry. I had tried the old soft drink bottle with the neck stuck into the soil trick but I think the pots are too small. Himself went into Bunnings (in Bairnsdale - half an hour away!) and bought deep saucers so the water will drain into them and hopefully be reabsorbed into the soil as it dries out. It has to better than just washing away and might even retain some nutrients. Tomorrow I shall source tomato food - I forgot to ask him to get some when at the big green shed - and I will report back with the watering results.

I'm not sure if you can see the water in the saucers here but I am sure you can imagine it ...

A tomato! I have a few like this but they need to get much larger and much redder for me to be able to claim success. 

If you look closely you can see a lot of yellow flowers that should, gods of tomatoes willing, become lush, red, juicy bites of wonderfulness.

If you can be bothered to compare the above with a photo I showed you on 1st Jan you can see that the plants are a bit perkier and a lot more open.

Despite the heat I thought it a good idea to make soup for lunch and of course it was a recipe that required the oven first. Roasted red capsicum (bell peppers?) and butternut pumpkin (squash?) soup. It is, I think, the best soup I have made and I make a lot of soup*. Next time I will have the oven at a higher temperature to blister the capsicum - I ended up roasting for twice the cooking time and even then taking a blow torch to them (just the sort you use to brown a creme brulee - nothing too scary).

It is gin and tonic time and we are in for another hot one tomorrow that may well be unpleasant as a stormy change is forecast for Monday. I just hope that the winds don't exacerbate existing bush fires or cause any more. 

*I mentioned a couple of months ago I was following Michael Mosley's Fast 800 weight loss plan and most of my recipes come from Dr Claire Bailey's (his widow) cookbooks and we love them. I don't follow strictly (see gin and tonic) but closely enough to be slowly losing weight and feeling better in myself.