The wet, cold weather doesn’t feel like spring, but I have other clues to go by. The jacarandas may not be flowering yet, but the early peaches and apricots are, and the coral trees in the swan valley are covered in red flowers and hungry birds. My newly planted bare root Prunus mume trees are starting to flower too, so I’m hopeful that they’ll fruit in a couple’ve years and I’ll be able to make umeboshi and plum wine.
Also covered in flowers already are my blueberry bushes. I may have to plant more of these – they’ve been singularly successful. I’m currently enjoying the very first ripe berries – mixed with delicious vanilla bean yoghurt, and macadamia nuts. I know it sounds unusual, but it’s seriously amazing.
The chickens are starting to lay again as well, and at least one of the younger pullets is laying now. Five eggs this morning. I’ll have to get back into the habit of eating eggs and baking, and also contact all the people who’ve expressed an interest in buying eggs from us.
That’s really all the news I have for this week. The Blackboy Peach (also, apparently, known as the Peche de Vigne – which is a much better name) I ordered from the Guildford Garden Centre arrived last week as well, so it went in on the weekend along with the pair of Prunus mume. I’m hoping the other bare root trees I ordered will arrive soon, so they can go into the ground before they start flowering or budding. Then we can sort out some automatic irrigation for them for this summer – because hand watering a dozen young trees with watering cans is kinda not my favourite thing to do for an hour after work every day through summer.