Cooking is another thing I love to do, and I've just made a batch of chilli jam with chillies from my garden. I put about 12-14 Thai red chillies in one batch - it's so bloody hot my mouth and nose are still hurting after putting a tiny bit on my tongue! I'm not quite sure why I grow chillies - I don't eat many - but they do grow so easily and prolifically. And they look beautiful in the garden. As winter moves in, I also have to use up my enormous hedge of basil. I'm going to make pesto and freeze it - this way I can have fresh basil pesto in the winter instead of using that horrible soggy schleppy basil that you buy in supermarkets. The tomatoes are coming to a slow end also, and I've already made two batches of pasta sauce with them. Oh I do love food, and I love to make things!

I have some brussels sprouts to plant, and have baby silverbeet and broccoli happily growing in the garden beds. The sunflowers and zucchini were pulled out over easter, now I have literally thousands of sunflower seeds from the old flowers to plant in the future. (Considering that I only used 6 this year, this batch of seeds should keep me supplied for, well, about a millenium.)