A huge congratulations to all the winners. Well deserved. I am also honoured to have recieved Carol Jane's special award. In fact, I will admit I was a bit teary-eyed. 

The last two weeks have certainly gone by in a blur. As some of you already know, I am a primary school teacher. This year has certainly had its challenges, and I will admit, the last month has been really exhausting. But we got there in the end. 

School is now finished (Thursday); the spring cleaning is now complete (yesterday); the Christmas tree is up with lights still going up, and the Christmas shopping is almost complete. In amongst this, hubby also started a new job two weeks ago. After the last break-in, us turning down the offer to take over as the franchise owners, then the shop going up for sale, hubby decided it was time to leave after being Manager for 14 years. This new job is with someone who has always said to let him know when he wants to move on. I think now it is now fair to say, we are ready for a good break. Without any leave accumulated, Hubby will only be able to join us for the weekends, but we are used to that. We do however have full weekends together for the first time in 15 years, time off for sports events, and guaranteed holidays. That has been a challenge in the past for us.

Despite the constant wet weather, and humidity levels high, the garden is certainly humming along nicely. The beans are forming. We have an abundance of cucumbers (thanks James). The sunflowers are taller than me. The corn is tassling. And I have about 10 different dahlias due to flower in the next few days (I will take pics for you Sue). I have also resisted the urge to check the potatoes. 

However, I was slightly alarmed three days ago with the tomatoes, after finding one black mark on two stems, and a few interesting leaves. The black mark did rub off though. Thankfully it was only on two plants, and only in one garden. Connor's are still safe. It is not usual for us to get powdery mildew and we are good at dealing with it - blight however is another matter. And after James' lost his, I am on high alert (James I will have to hold off on those laterals). As I had some thin copper wire from a few years ago, I have put that through all stems, and gave it a good feed (leaves included) with a seaweed foliar feed that I found in my supplies. I was unable to spray at the time with copper as I had no safe spray containers to use. I have since purchased one for that today, and will do that a bit later on when the bees are not active. 

After finishing some Christmas shopping this morning while the boys are out sailing, I will admit I bought myself a little present - a snake plant. Our house is slowly filling up with indoor plants, and this is a plant I have wanted for a long time. 

NB - At Prize Giving this week, Connor also received best Senior Home Garden.