Update.

One of our bush ballads has lines in it that go:

"Christmas in Australia's hot,
Cold and frosty is what it's not"

I don't remember much more, but endorse the sentiments exactly.

Back when we were clearing anything flammable (read weeds, dry grass, sticks, prunings) from around our house, and keeping everything wet, I popped in a few vegies, to take advantage of the bare spaces and the water we were using so lavishly.

And they grew!

Thanks to heaps of compost, worm castings and devotion, of course - it doesn't just happen, not here, anyway.

The mesh is to keep off the 3 mother hens and their broods, and bags and cardboard boxes are necessary to protect newly planted seeds or seedlings from the sun.

If the goats don't mange to find their way in, we will eat well. As it is they line up at the fence for a green snack when I am weeding - there is not much green outside the fence now. They have pruned all the leaves and berries off the blackberries so high up that we will need to pick from the tray of the ute to get our share.

All this leaves not much time for threads, but I have managed to knit a few little jumpers for babies in Africa.

A very simple pattern, but I couldn't stop myself tweaking just a bit, and knitting the yoke first then picking up from the cast-on to knit down to the bottom in the round on circs. A good no-think pattern for conversation times over a cup of tea, though it is hard in this weather to imagine any baby wearing such a garment!

(The smudge on the table is from a blackberry or two that escaped the ravages of the goats)