The annual moult

I ordered another dozen fertile Barnevelder chook eggs from a local breeder with the hope of hatching a second batch of chicks before summer is over, but received a message over the weekend saying that her hens had gone into an early moult and stopped laying. Apparently other local breeders are saying the same thing. So no more eggs for at least a month, by which time it is too cold in Tasmania to think about raising chicks. My own two Barnevelder hens stopped laying more than a week ago and the two black Australorp girls (see one of them below) have slowed down to just one egg every few days. It's usually due to weather patterns... but I'm not exactly sure what it is this year that has caused an early start to the annual moult.

In anticipation of collecting the dozen eggs from the breeder, I had also collected a kind donation of nine extra eggs from a friend down the road. Not wanting to waste them, I have set them in the incubator over the weekend and we now start the egg-turning routine again in the hope of boosting our little flock. We are down to only two eggs for eating and it looks like we will have to BUY eggs again soon. Shocking! But I guess the hens deserve a rest while they grow new feathers for winter. Meanwhile, the chicks hatched in January are now five weeks old and at the "ugly teenager" phase - weird bald heads with tiny combs emerging, long gangling legs and feathers sprouting all over. We'll transfer them from the garage to the outdoor chook tractor soon.

Zucchini glamour contest

February normally marks the great zucchini glut as I have written about before... well this year, 'someone' (we know who you are) came up with the idea that everyone should bring a dressed up zucchini to the monthly movie night at the Palais Theatre in Franklin on Sunday. The judging took place during the half time supper break between the reels of film. Below is my favourite entry. It didn't win... an 'Elephant Man' themed zucchini with a paper bag over its head won, followed by the cleverly named Houdini Zucchini tied up in ropes. Last night's movie was an Aussie film called 15 Amore. Despite featuring some familiar faces, I had never heard of it before. It was a pleasant little film about life in wartime in regional Australia, but it must be said that the zucchini beauty contest was almost as entertaining. Oh dear.

Last day of summer

I can't believe it is here - the end of February already. There was a tinge of autumn in the air this week, and the shadows are longer, but today was a perfect, sunny day. In the evening we took the dogs down for a walk and swim down at the river. I thought it was worth a few happy snaps.

Beautiful Hobart

Last night we stayed in Hobart, following the graduation dinner for the 2013 Tasmanian Leaders program. It was a very special night for the 24 of us who completed it last year, as well as for our partners, employers and the many fantastic people who support this program so generously with their time, expertise, experience and funding. We celebrated the end of the formal part of the program and the beginning of so much more with a dinner at the Henry Jones Art Hotel on Hobart's waterfront.

This afternoon I had to fly to Sydney for work. My flight wasn't until later in the day, but it was not worth driving home and back. I spent part of the day wandering Hobart, something I don't get to do often. It's amazing the things I noticed on foot that I had never seen see while driving. It is such a beautiful town. Today, the Sydney Morning Herald published this article: 'Twenty reasons to visit Hobart'. Go on. You know you want to.

Broad beans

In the end, I had to freeze some. I planted fewer broad beans than last year, but we still had way more than we could eat once they were ready to harvest. I had been warned - the plants flowered prolifically. I only tried broad beans for the first time a couple of years back at the Agrarian Kitchen, where we picked them fresh and made a delicious salad with asparagus and spring onions. I have plans to make a dip and risotto using the frozen ones. They now rate as one of my favourite vegetables and are very easy to grow.

New potatoes

During the week, I dug up a nice crop of Dutch Cream potatoes from one of our apple crate raised vegetable beds, along with some random 'surprise' potatoes that had appeared in other garden beds from previous years' plantings. Tonight we'll be eating some of them with dinner, just boiled with butter. Yum.

St. Crispins Well

The original plan was to walk to Pulpit Rock and Mt Connection in the higher altitude parts of Wellington Park, but it was hot and with high winds forecast, it was decided to do a walk on the lower parts of Mount Wellington instead. A good decision, as it turned out. I was home before the crazy weather started - very high winds, rain, hail and long rolling thunder - the most I've heard in Tasmania yet I think. Today's walk along the Pipeline Track to St. Crispins Well afforded lovely views of Cathedral Rock (above). It was shady for the most part, and despite recent dry weather the waters flowed and the air was lovely and cool at the well itself.