For Fig's Sake!

I love a lazy Sunday and, after a hard day of working in the garden yesterday, was looking forward to a nice lie-in today. Unfortunately, mother nature, like all mothers everywhere, declared that I was wasting the best part of the day and should get out of that smelly pit and into the sunshine. Just to make sure I did, she blew a big old storm through Houston and took out our lovely big fig tree last night:

This is the scene that greeted us this morning. The big bit of the tree came down on most of the rest of it and knackered all that too.

Looks like it had a bit of wear and tear, so something was wrong with it anyway. Wish it would have told me. It was sprouting fruit like mad and looking very healthy.

You can see a little black spot in the trunk. This is more pronounced in some of the other parts, so it was rotting from the inside. I wonder if it could be termites? It could also be damage to the root system from when we had a drain put in right past it earlier this year. Whatever it is, we're a little bummed out. The tree threw lots of shade over our bedroom windows. Might have to invest in curtains now. If anyone needs me, I'll be outside for the rest of the morning I guess.

Summertime...

Sorry it's been so long since we blogged at you, but we've been busy:

Been working in the yard. A lot of sweat in the Texas sun for one flipping strawberry that a bird pecked half of before I picked it. Doesn't the other half look pretty though?

Been painting too, a delicious shade of Lemon Ice. Mmmm. Now where did I put the lid of the paint tin?

We've also been trying to figure out what keeps killing Nikki's plants...no ideas so far.

Landscaping

When Bruno asked us to host his leaving party in our back garden we knew we'd have to do a little bit of landscaping to accommodate his high standards. Unfortunately it rained for most of the day of his party and everyone, except four idiots who were playing volleyball in the pool, spent most of the party inside. Anyway, here's the new improved pool area:

The Oleanders in front of the pool equipment should grow in, also Nikki has planted a bunch of winter veg to the left of them, so it won't look as bare in a few months. The biggest difference is that we took down the trellis, which looked kind of ugly anyway.

Round the side of the house we had a big overgrown mess that was impossible to mow and turned into a mudbath every time it rained. Thankfully, that's no longer a problem.

Stop! Pepper Time!

Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, 'Holy cow, that's a lot of peppers!'

You're right, it is. 17 to be exact. Add that to the 2 I picked the other day and subtract the fact that we usually use 2 or 3 per spicy meal and multiply by the thought that we only have a couple of spicy meals per week, tops, and you end up with an equation that sort of looks like:
(17p + 2p) - (3p * 2mw) = Holy cow, that's a lot of peppers!

Let's hope Mark comes through with his buddy Pierre's awesome spicy pepper sauce recipe.

Ah, That's Better

Man, last week dragged.

I blame spending the weekend before in Galveston. It was fun, but too much beer and sun, coupled with not enough sleep, is never going to set you up for a productive week. This past weekend, on the other hand, was perfect. Nikki cooked three delicious dinners in a row (Chicken Chasseur, Cod with lemon and parsley and a Shepherd's Pie), we stayed in and watched great movies (Last King of Scotland and Hot Fuzz) and had a few, but not too many drinks (Mandolina Pinot Grigio on Friday, Full Moon Pale Rye Ale among other beers on Saturday). A little bit of gardening, a lot of floating around in the pool, I think we left our place for a total of 4 hours between 7pm Friday and 8am Monday. I even managed to kill most, if not all, of the little blighters that were hanging around my pepper plant, with soap and water, so I think I'm still organic.