It's half way through winter & backyard cherry tomatoes & figs in Lake Macquarie NSW are still fruiting. In 2 weeks we'll start planting seeds for spring. It's been a warm winter. What will summer bring? #ClimateChange

Another quick trip down to Sydney today. Picked up my P Bass and Strat. Expertly setup by the wonderful Piers Crocker. Both are playing really nice. Intonation is spot on. Here's Piers' late 1920s early 1930s portable, hand-wound record player in his workshop. Fun times. 🎸

Homegrown Cosmic Purple carrots. About 8 weeks of grow time. Packed with anthocyanins. Sweet flavour. Holds colour while cooking. Turned our potatoes purple while steaming. 🥕

A little garden update. We're growing nice broccoli plants but no broccoli yet! On the upside there's lots of peas doing well. Here's a few pics of some shelling peas, sugar snap peas, snow peas, & yellow snow peas (purple flowers). Also, halfway through winter & tomatoes are still on the vine! 🇦🇺🥦🫛🍅

Here's the start of our drive home from Sydney last weekend. From Surry Hills to the old Pacific Highway exit via Hyde Park, Macquarie Street, & the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Sydney was fun. But it's great to be home. #LakeMacquarie 🇦🇺 🐨 🚘

Farewell Sydney. Caught up with friends and colleagues from across AU, NZ & the UK. Thanks for looking after us. Still it's time to fly the coop. Homeward bound. 🇦🇺 🇳🇿 🇬🇧

Good morning Sydney. 🇦🇺

Before getting to Sydney CBD today, we took an inner west detour to see Piers Crocker. Piers knows vintage Fender guitars inside out. He also builds Tim Rogers' (You Am I) guitars aka Crokenbacker 360F replica guitars. Piers is adjusting RG's favourite P bass & strat. Both are circa 1973. 🇦🇺 🎸

We're both at our annual work conference in Sydney over the weekend. Just made it up to the room in Darling Harbour. Work's picking up the tab which is cool.

If you're looking for a pot of gold then head on over. It's just down the hill here in Lake Macquarie.

Minestrone soup for dinner tonight. Tomatoes, beans, onion, carrots, & bay leaves from the backyard garden. Had to move to a larger pot halfway through cooking! We'll freeze what's left & add pasta fresh each time we partake. 🍲 🍅 🌱 🫘 🧅 🥕

A little vertical hydroponic garden experiment update. Lettuce is doing well & available on demand. But, a DIY net was made to keep caterpillar eggs off & birds too when the starberries start fruiting. Some strawberry cuttings did not take well & will be replaced soon. Mostly ok so far. 🇦🇺 🥬 🍓 🌱

Here's our last homegrown 2025 Aussie summer butternut pumpkin. Picked after the shortest day of the year! Is it unusually warm this winter in #Australia? Yep. Thoughts are with friends across the Northern hemisphere facing yet another record breaking #ClimateChange summer of heat & fires. 🇦🇺 💚 🌏 🌱

Do billionaires or AI feed you? Do either make #Earth a sustainable place for all of us? Or do they both take from our collective potential & damage #Earth? Do wealthy people & AI grow in your backyard dirt? Does food grow in dirt? We all know the answers. #GetGardening #SaveDirt #SaveEarth 🌏 🌱

Here's a few turnips that looked ready in the backyard today. Turnip & carrot soup coming soon. #WinterSoup 🍲

We're still surprised by the number of tomatoes & chilli showing up each day in the backyard now it's winter here in AU. Not complaining though! We still have a few pumpkin, lots of sweet potato, & avocados too. Then it'll be time to raid the freezer for frozen summer produce. #WinterGarden 🇳🇿🐨🍅🌶🎃🍠🥑🌱

Snow peas, yellow peas, sugar snap peas, & shelling peas shooting in Lake Macquarie NSW. #Winter #FoodGarden 🇳🇿 🐨 🫛

Temperate Lake Macquarie #Climate still producing some winter passionfruit, asparagus & figs. #WarmWinter #Australia 🇳🇿 🐨 ☀️

50 50 backyard & local dinner tonight. Sweet potato with tomato, onion & kidney bean sauce. Topped with sour cream, mozzarella & avocado. 🍠🍅🧅🫘🥑

Backyard garden brekky. Bread from the local Cardiff bakery. Tomatoes are still ripening here. It's winter for goodness sake! Half a dozen avocados still on the tree. Yum! 🇳🇿🐨🥑🍅🍞

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10,_9,_...

Yeah! Our first passionfruit flower, albeit a little confused as winter in Australia is only a few weeks away. It's in good company though, hanging out with a dozen or so equally confused figs. #WarmAutumn #WarmWinterForecast #ClimateChange #Sustainability ☀️ 🌏 🌱

Today we did a little winter gardening. Pruned the sweet chilli back, planted peas, snow peas, & sugar snap peas. The broccoli, leek, onion, & carrot seedlings are going well. We also picked the last hot chilli & an avocado. It's still warm enough to gave tomatoes ripening! #WinterAU 🇦🇺🥦🫛🧅🍅🌶🥕🥑

Goodnight folks. May tomorrow be brighter than today. 🌈 ☮️

It's just over 2 weeks since we started a little solar powered, vertical hydroponic garden. The strawberries & lettuce are doing well. We cut a little lettuce for a salad tonight! Plus 2 weeks out from winter & we still have cherry tomatoes in the garden too. #WarmAutumn 🇳🇿🐨🍓🥬🍅☀️

Our solar hydroponic strawberry/lettuce experiment is still on track. The lettuce seedlings are doing well. Hopefully the strawberries really kick soon. 🇳🇿🥬🍓

If we had a time machine we'd go back to anytime with Sammy. Anytime. All the time. Always. ❤️ 🇳🇿 🐾 #ReverendGenesAndSammy

While we're waiting to see if our strawberry cuttings adapt to hydroponics, we're planting broccoli seedlings. Plus all season carrots, leeks, & a few onion varieties. Below are broccoli seedlings, some planted out, and a #Day4 strawberry shoot. 🇳🇿🍓🥦🧅🥕

Solar hydroponic garden experiment #Day2 was peaceful & quiet. There were no assassination attemps, no redactions, no bombs & no guns to be seen. No corruption & nothing died. System pH is stable at 6.3. So far so good. #LakeMacSolarGarden 🇳🇿 🐨 🍓 🥬 ☀️⚡️☮️

#Day1 of our solar powered, hydroponic, vertical garden experiment. About 65 strawberry runners from the garden, plus 12 purchased iceberg & Italian lettuce seedlings are in. Soil removed in both cases. Fingers crossed this goes well. #LakeMacSolarGarden 🇳🇿 🐨 🍓 🥬 ☀️⚡️