Having now read the instructions for these kugelhopfs or whatever they are called gardens, I discovered you are supposed to dig down about five feet (since the metal rings are 30cm high). So i think mine will be a modified version. Am down 30 cms on one side of the hole (sloping site) and about 10 on the other. It was about then that Shadow dropped his ball on my foot with a very meaningful glare (after several earlier attempts) so we went for a walk around the lake.

And somehow the digging has not resumed. Funny that. Still, I am able to harvest a fair bit of gravel from this location once I start putting the soil back into the hole - I will use my gemmology sieve so it may be a slow process. The gravel will, in turn allow me to make cement so the clothesline can make some progress too.

The run into town this morning garnered sufficient groceries to keep me happy for a bit. And I escaped without running into anyone who wanted to chat - miraculous! I am currently buying milk in one litre cartons so I can save up five to make blanching tubes for the celery. Not terribly economical, but hey it works for me.

The tomatoes are still alive and have put out two new leaves at the top. They are doing better than my 'frost resistant' native hops which were badly burned by that really hard frost we had a few weeks back and which are not recovered yet. It was all new growth, so I guess only to be expected. Once the next frost is passed I will prune them back to the older growth and see if they will start over with a boost of seasol.

Apple trees are all afroth with blossom right now which is a lovely sight. Hopefully I might get some apples off them this year if the parrots leave them alone. I plan to net them when the fruit starts forming.