I've got a bottle full of sunshine

To my great surprise I have found myself on the saddle of a mountain bike again after many years. Prior to 2010 mountain biking was a big thing in our lives and I would cycle with the kids 2 or 3 times a week. Then my back seized and that was a closed chapter in our lives.

My youngest son has been mucking around at the local jump track over the last year and was keen to get cycling again but with the devastating fire that burned through most of our mountain in March this year, all cycling tracks on the mountain were closed to allow the ecosystem to rehabilitate.

Avid mountain bikers are now carving out other little tracks around the greenbelts in Constantia, Tokai and surrounds which meant that we could give it a try again. So for the last few weeks Superman, my son and I have been out riding on a Sunday morning, about 13 - 16kms and its been great. The back so far ok :)

The foodie in me cannot help but notice the food around me in the greenbelt as I ride. Having dabbled in foraging in the past I am always interested to see what can be collected around this urban area.

There are lots of dandelions for salads or infusing into honey. Of course the bramble berries are all over the place, although coming to an end now. There are nasturtiums to eat and even a huge cactus with lots of prickly pears to pick.



The squirrels may not share, but there are loads of pinecones for pine nuts - if you are willing to do the hardwork of getting them out of the cone.

And then there is this find...Eldertrees. Lots of elder trees. I have been eyeing them out now for a few weeks waiting for the flowers to be in full bloom so that I can harvest some for cordial. John Seymour recommends harvesting on a hot day - I suppose it makes the flowers scent more pungent??

And today was the day!

So we came home with our treasure today and I followed this recipe for elderflower cordial....Soon my trees will be big enough for me to harvest our own.

Foraged treasure

In a few weeks I will check the trees again on the greenbelt to see if I can harvest some elder berries to infuse into vinegar or syrup.

One of the two bottles of sunshine!

The bee-ginning of our urban bee adventure

We love honey. And without the Cape honey bee we would have a problem in our garden. We have heard scary reports over the years of bees dying in droves due to chemical farming and cell phones! We all know that bees and other pollinators make most of our vegetables.  Without bees there would be a whole lot less variety of fruits and veggies on our plates. So we need bees...and right now bees need us.

Honey on spelt, blueberry and banana breakfast pancakes

More recently there was a news article about honey being imported into South Africa that may not be honey at all actually! Most shop bought honey is ultra filtered and heated which leaves you with none of the pollen and natural healthy honey properties. Asian honey was dumped into the South African market a couple of years back too, and this Chinese honey contained lead, antibiotics and other toxins. There has also been a recent scare just over the mountain of AFB (American Foulbrood) which is extremely contagious and the only cure is destroying the hive and all beekeeping equipment. AFB is also said to be in our country due to imported honey.

Garden fresh berries on this muesli with honey to sweeten

So it has taken some convincing of Superman, but we are getting bees. Urban beekeeping is a growing industry with many folk choosing to keep their own hives in their yards and harvest honey for their families. There are others who keep loads of hives (I know a chap who has 7) and sell their honey to their neighbourhood.

Then there are people like my new friend Lian who is a first generation beekeeper and is building his swarms around Cape Town using people like me to help him. See, I am allergic to bees. Badly. But I garden next to them all the time and am not afraid of these guys as they go about their business. I just don't make them feel threatened at all. But I cannot risk working directly with the hives...and this is where Lian comes in.

He puts two hives in your garden - one is yours and one is his. He will tend them, monitor, feed (if necessary) and collect honey from them for you for an initial set up cost of R1 000.00. When its time to take honey, he gives you honey from your hive and he takes the honey from the other. This honey he sells at the Tokai Forest Market on Saturdays along with his other farm sources.

Last week he came by to see where he could put down some hives and settled on a cool out of the way area behind our garage. I had wanted the hives in the veggie garden but as it is full of people and pet traffic he felt it would be better out of the way. Today he returned with 4 hives.

The alley behind our garage freshly cleaned out

He explained that bees should naturally find their way to the hives he has put out. There are 4 here now, only two will stay in the long term. We have bees visiting the trees around us (Japanese Pepper and Eugenia) already and they love the rocket, coriander and celery flowers in the garden too, so perhaps some little scout bee will come and find these hives and tell his buddies that there is a nice new home waiting for them!?!

Ready and waiting for inhabitants

And because I am running low on honey at the moment I asked Lian to bring me some of his varieties and I was  astounded by the differences in colour between the honeys. Even the viscosity was different. Teaspoons were on the ready to try them all out.

(Left to right) Orange Blossom Honey, West Coast Fynbos, local Fynbos and Eucalyptus honey.

So here we step out into an urban beekeeping adventure...quite exciting actually :)

Structure of a compact bed

After sharing my last post on the success of my new experiment of growing very compact beds with a huge variety of plants, I was asked to share how I planned these beds out.

If you know me you will know that I often "fly by the seat of my pants" although on the outside it looks like I am a huge planner. I am not. And even if I do plan - in the practise it never works out properly.

Peas were growing up the trellis but are now over and squash seeds planted in their place

So the success of this past season's compact gardening was me having a plan, planting it up with about 70% accuracy and then getting happier and happier and more clear on what was happening as I packed in plants, companion herbs, harvesting and adding more over the last few months.

So I have planned again for summer to use the same ideas. There are a few major differences that I need to take into account, however. But these things aside I will still plant intensively and learn as I go.

1. It's going to be way hotter.
2. We more than likely will have water restrictions this summer.
3. Pests are more prolific in summer.
4. A lot of my beds still have vegetables in so this new plan will go in bit by bit.

Some background basics first:

I use Jane's Delicious Garden Planner by Grow Veg which has been great to use over the last few years. But if you don't want to use that then pen and paper and a good veggie book (or the internet) will work well enough.

It also important to know which plants to plant in which season and more or less what grows well together. You can get this info on the planner or in a veggie book.

The important thing to remember is getting good vegetables is a about good soil, water and sunshine. Plants also need growing space at the top and bottom and this system of planting allows for that.

Knowing planting to harvest times is also important, but not critical. But as I planned out the beds I made sure I planted a row of fast growing things down the sides so they would be out of the bed in time for the larger slower growing crops to spread.

So here's how I planned it all.

I have  5 beds called "Kitchen Garden" that are south facing. These beds did extremely well as they are in full sun all year around with the exception of bed No. 1 which is in full shade in winter due to a wall shadow and bed No. 5 which is in dappled shade in summer due to a tree. But by planting lettuce and other plants that bolt in bed No. 5 in summer I can still use the space, however in winter bed No. 1 is fallow.

I have 6 larger beds on the other side of the plot called "Pond Garden". These beds are lying in an East/West aspect and the long green trellises lie on this plane too. The issue with this is the back side of each trellis when covered in foliage is very shady.

Same bed - right shows shady side and left sunny side

So STEP NUMBER 1 for you is to know your sun and aspect in your garden and plan any trellis work accordingly as far as you possible can.

What I am assuming is that you have built up some good soil in your beds. You need compost, manure, green manures if your bed is new, double dug, no dig, mulched - whatever your choice, but just make sure its rich and good. Buy worms if you need to. Our pond garden's soil was dead dead dead when we started with it in 2010.  So STEP NUMBER 2 compost your soil.

STEP NUMBER 3 build yourself some trellises. I did this in 7 ½  of the 11 beds but will be adding one more in summer. We had the wooden poles lying around and I had to buy the green plastic mesh. It was rather pricey but it doesn't rust like chicken mesh so figured it would last me a good while. These trellises work for both summer and winter gardens. You can grow your winter peas, broad beans (although these must be tied to the trellis in one bunch) and your summer squash, beans, tomatoes and cucumbers up them.

This bed has beet, coriander, lettuce and peas on both sides

Now its time STEP NUMBER 4 which is to do the planning with your paper or your Grow Veg planner. Make sure you only plan to grow veg that you and your family will eat. Every year I have grown loads of broad beans but only Superman and I like them. So meal times were not happy ones when these little gems arrived on the plates. This year I only grew 2 batches of broad beans but much more peas as everyone likes peas.

Look at your climbing or tall plants first. For this summer I have 4 trellises given over to tomatoes, 1 to squashes, 2 to cucumbers and 1 ½ to beans. I will also be growing bush beans so didn't need more than this for climbing beans.

On either side of your climbing plants you will want to do one of two things depending on the way the sun falls in your garden. If you have south facing beds like I do in the Kitchen Garden you can plant exactly the same rows on either side of the trellis. If you have beds that face like mine do in the Pond Garden which is East or West then you will want to plant shade tolerant vegetables like lettuce, beets, carrots, coriander, chard, parsley and kale. They should get some sun, especially in the early stages of planting the climbers, but can handle the dappled shade that will develop later.

You also need to alternate your rows between a leaf crop and a root crop. You cannot do potatoes in this fashion, they need a dedicated bed.

Happy broad beans

Beds I planted in winter went as follows:

Center: Peas
On either side: Carrots, chard, onions, coriander (coriander is quick growing and removed by the time the onions need the space)

Centre: Broad Beans
On either side: Cauliflower and broccoli, onions, garlic.

Centre (no trellis): Broccoli
On either side: lettuce, onion, radish

Centre: Peas
On either side: Chard, carrots, spring onions, beets (removed soon before carrots need place to grow)

You get the picture?

For my summer beds I have planned the following: 

Centre: Tomatoes (either cherry or regular)
Sides in Kitchen Garden (full sun): Basil, peppers

Centre: Tomatoes
Sunny side: Basil, radish
Shady side: Lettuce

Centre (partial shade bed): Cucumbers
Sides: Lettuces, radish, chives

Centre: Chard
Sides: Beans growing over teepee trellis granting dappled shade to chard until December heat causes to bolt.

This bed has garlic, cauliflower and broccoli and broad beans

East facing beds in pond garden:

One given to sweetcorn

Centre: Tomatoes
Sides: one to Barbara butternut, other to basil, celery.

Centre of ½ trellis bed: Cucumber
Sides: Lettuce, bush beans, celery.

Centre: Climbing squash
One side: Carrots and aubergine
Other side: Red onions and aubergine

Centre: Tomatoes
One side: Marigold and lettuce
Other side: Courgette, lettuce, celery

Centre: Beans
Side: Leeks, carrots, dill
Other side: Leeks, carrots, bush cucumbers.

Another non trellis bed given to courgette and carrots on the edges.

Other plants growing around the place in pots, irregular beds and the pavement are:

Melons, asparagus, chard, artichokes, berries, kale, cabbage, medicinal herbs, strawberries, loads of herbs and celery. We also have avocado, granadilla, apples, oranges, lemons and figs growing around the place.

Writing this out makes me realise the bounty we have here. Not all things are producing yet, like the apples and avocado trees but should be soon.

And then? Once all your planning is done...get planting.

STEP NUMBER 5 is to start planting. DO NOT plant everything at once. You will end up with gluts of things, wastage or exhaustion as you try to process everything for storage. I prefer to eat fresh over pickled or preserved and I can because of our mild climate.

So this summer season I will plant beds and spaces as they come available because there is so much still growing and producing. I will simply add some worm tea, compost or worm compost to the space and mulch over once planted.

Last season the beds were empty and I planted one bed every two weeks which kept us going (and still is) with a steady inflow of vegetables and herbs. This worked well in that we could eat for e.g. baby peas raw and then by the time we got to the last bed, full grown peas in cooked meals.

I realise this is just one season in and not tested over the long haul by trial and error, so if you are willing to take a [small] gamble, drop me a note here or on Facebook to let me know what you are planning for your garden.

You can see my Grow Veg plans for the two gardens here:

Kitchen Garden

Pond Garden

Look forward to hearing from you!

Compact veggie gardening - how does my garden grow?

Back in May as I watched our newly planted out winter and spring garden I was ever hopeful that my method would not be madness but would in fact give us greater yields from the space we have. I have worried about shade, water, overcrowding, pests and more as I have never seen anyone do what I did, although I know the basic principals are already out there and I simply adapted that knowledge for my space.

This method was much more compact than I have ever planted before and as everything started to grow I felt quite certain that they would have sufficient space to grow as I alternated root crops with leaf crops.

The peas and broad beans shot up in the centres and started producing their pretty flowers, the roots of the beets swelled and leaves of the spinach grew. around the ends the fast growing radishes and coriander was being used well before the other vegetables. Soon it became quite a jungle and much peeping and peering had to happen to grab the right plant for harvesting.

Broad beans in centre and onions, carrots and coriander on either side.

We have eaten so well from this plan having something on the table or in a recipe for the better part of 3 months now and its been so wonderful to do my weeks meal plan starting with what sides we will have with our meal. The garden has become a true pantry once again after my slump last year when I just was too distracted to get anything going.

Whether it is coriander in a Thai coleslaw or Happy Cow burger...

 Parsley onto our breakfast mushrooms...

Nasturtiums, peas, radish, broccoli sprouts and lettuce into the prettiest salad ever made...

Beetroot simply boiled and peeled and eaten warm...

Spinach and coriander in a homemade chicken neck stock ramen....

A bowl of peas to dip into hummus....

Or leeks and broad beans to add to a raid the larder soup....

All these daily offerings have been delightful.

There is so much still growing and waiting to mature in the soil like the onions and carrots. While they do their growing, I have been able to pull out the climbers in some beds (peas for instance) and have planted the first patty pan seeds which will now climb up the same frame.

Beets, coriander, lettuce and peas all together in one bed and repeated on the other side of climbing mesh

The cabbages, cauliflowers and broccoli that need to still develop large heads should be out of the ground in time to plant the summer crops in the same fashion. In fact tonight I am sitting down to plan my spring/summer garden and will use exactly the same model and see how that fares.

I have noticed that this interplanting has resulted in less bugs and white cabbage moth. There have been some aphids on some brassicas which have not been so heavily surrounded by other vegetables.

So here's to a happy urban farmer sharing something that did work this season! How are your gardens doing?

That Sugar Book ~ book review

Recently I was lent Damon Gameau's book "That Sugar Book". I opened the pages with a bit of trepidation wondering about the new guilt trip I was about to lay on myself. You see, we have some seriously sweet teeth in this home and while for the most part we steer clear of cane sugar, there are still sugars in our diet.

I loved the visual aspect of this book, not just lines and lines of words, but with lots of diagrams, cute characters, quotes and references to others who have been-there-and-done-that. It's a book for visual people who see life in pictures, like I do. And it's also great for kids as they can look at the pictures while you read.

After one chapter, I had to read another and another about his big sugar experiment, because he was not trying to cut out sugar but rather ADD it into his diet. How much? Loads! 40 teaspoons a day which is the national average per person in Australia. His twist was that it needed to come from "healthy" sources.

This was the angle I didn't expect. 

So this fellow Damon is a healthy guy, reformed by his girlfriend a couple of years back. He was eating what we call healthy fats in meats, avo, nuts and oils. These had to go for his experiment. His diet would now be what many, and even I at one time, call health foods. For 60 days he left behind those good things and entered into the "health" world of low fat food, fresh fruit, juices and carbohydrates. He had medical checks at the start, during and at the end to monitor his progress from being very healthy (by medical standards) to the unhealthy state he found himself - and his liver - in at the end of the 60 days.

It was his first breakfast that got me hooked on the book: "balanced" cereal, apple juice, low fat yoghurt. This gave him 20 teaspoons of sugar at one meal and not a bit of it came from the sugar bowl and it was all labelled as healthy.

This got me thinking...and reading labels in my pantry the next morning. I used to be a good label reader and then have become quite blasé about it all thinking that I know my way around foods now. I'm a big girl now, right?

In my pantry I found at least 10 products with "hidden" sugar in them. Only noticeable when you read the labels. Rice milk powder, which we use with our oats, has sugar. Big blow here. Nut butters too...some sauces we use...and more.

Then moving on in the book he deals with carbohydrates and how they too affect our bodies as sugar does when they enter the blood stream. Carbohydrates (including white bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, crackers, muffins, cakes, pies, pizza, beer) all cause insulin levels to spike quickly. This means that a crash on the other side is unavoidable and then the cravings for something (like carbs) hit as your body doesn't have the energy it needs.

The last whammy he slaps the reader with is fruit. In our case - fruit and veggie juices. There is many a day when I want to skip a meal for one or another reason and will just juice up some veggies and fruits. This is a problem for the body as there is no fibre to aid slow release of energy into the bloodstream and can also cause spikes and lows in the blood sugar levels. So this is a conundrum for me...when we did our 28 day juice detox last year I felt amazing! It's not that we ever planned on never chewing food again, but we all wanted to shed some kgs, detox our body and just lighten the food load a bit. At the end of the 28 days I felt strong and besides for some hunger at about 4pm each day I felt more even in my blood sugar. We did have lots of avocado though and perhaps the fats and fibre in that helped stabilise everything???

I suppose I could have closed the book at the end, turned off my light and slept soundly. I mean I can count all the right things we do on my fingers...but that's not me. I have had his experiment going around and around in my head for weeks now and thinking about what this means for my family.

In particular what other sweet things am I willing to cut out - how radical will we go? Honey...coconut blossom sugar....spelt bread...sweet potatoes...these are all on our menu. According to the science, they should go too.

Well, at the end of the record playing in my head I have decided on a few things we can do to reduce the hidden sugars...

1. Make more time to shop so that I can check labels again for sugars. Things to look at carefully are the pseudonyms for sugar: evaporated cane juice, raw organic cane sugar, fruit juice concentrate, apple juice concentrate, cane syrup, beet sugar, caster sugar, crystalline fructose, blackstrap molasses,  grape sugar, invert sugar, fruit juice, maple syrup.

2. Go back to meal planning. When you know what to buy for good old nourishing food and have a list it saves money, time and is better for your health.

3. Stock up on healthy snacks for the every hungry kids in this house. Being on school break now gives me a chance to think a bit more about this and search out and try some recipes which can fill up the "cookie" jar and the fridge with grab-able food on the go.

So that's really it. A lot of the stuff in his book I knew and we have been on a pretty good food path for a while, but there is always room for improvement.

Have you read this book? What are your thoughts?

Drip irrigation for the Urban Homestead

To say that dragging around a very long hosepipe attached to a semi working borehole every second day for the last 7 years, has become tiresome, is a serious understatement.

It gets snagged.

It gets twisted.

It waters paths, not beds.

It gets hooked.

It gets punctures (in the wrong places).

It is messy.

I eventually had enough but knowing the price of installing drip irrigation I had to keep going.

Then it ran dry.

Superman took notice as the municipal water bill started to climb....and climb...and climb...and climb...and climb...

I sent him a little video made by the GrowVeg team which got him thinking.

Then being the number cruncher of the family he crunched his numbers and found that once the cost of the drip irrigation was paid for we would save and save and save.

So overnight he made up his mind and off he went to buy what we needed then gave up two days of his very busy work week to install it along with the help of a friend.

So now every second or third day I simply walk outside, turn on a tap and it drips away.

Our next step will be to link the borehole to a Jo-Jo tank and then use that to pump the water into and from there connect it to the drip irrigation. We also hope to include in our backyard renovation, which is currently happening,  rain water tanks for the same purpose.

Then it will be free....free...free to water the garden and this will make my number cruncher happy.

So for those of you who understand the numbers this is what I am told...

A normal rose sprinkler uses 27 litres per minute on one spot. It runs for about 6 hours to water the whole garden.

Drip irrigation uses 25 litres per minute over the whole garden and runs for about 4 hours. The holes in the pipe are at 15cm intervals and with the calculations it should give a diameter of 30cm which will overlap with the next 30cm circle.

So while the per minute usage is similar the coverage is vastly different.

How do you water your garden?

Visiting Babylonstoren - motivation for the weary vegetable grower

Yesterday was a day that did this to me....M-O-T-I-V-A-T-I-O-N...with a capital....M

I have been wanting to visit Babylonstoren between Stellenbosch and Paarl for more than two years now but life has simply not allowed me to get there. Now that I have been once I feel I must return to spend a day there every few months and move slowly through each of the garden areas and watch the garden over the seasons. Whether this dream will be realised I cannot say, but there would be value in it.

I have also been needing to order bulk frozen and fresh berries from Hillcrest as my other supplier has dried up and have wanted to get more berry plants into our garden. So having the perfect excuse - a day out with my Superman and long standing friend who was visiting, we headed out at 8.30am to Helshoogte for the berry farm.

This was truly a whistle stop visit to hastily grab the 10kgs of frozen berries and 5 plants which were waiting for me. A quick look out on the patio at this incredible view and a brief glimpse at the menu was all we needed to decide that it would be good to return - but Superman says only on his new motorbike for a breakfast run...okey dokey - will take some time to prepare myself to go up Helshoogte on the back of a bike.

Babylonstoren does daily garden tours at 10am with the remarkable Gundula whose love and passion for gardening, plants, food, natural medicines and animals shines through all she says. A wealth of knowledge and expertise, she took us through the brief history of the farm, what their goals are and how they have structured the space.

Superman feeds the Tilapia - an excellent food source

African blooming water lily

The most remarkable thing is that in this little organic oasis every plant, flower, ground cover, tree, herb and vegetable has something to offer a hungry world for food and medicinal needs and to attract bees, birds and other pollinators to this garden in an farm area that is predominantly farmed using chemical fertilisers and pesticides. The knowledge that they have they share freely and as we walked she reiterated that it is a eating tour - to help ourselves to a fruit here and there, to crush and sniff a leaf.

Everything is admirable - whether it is the 70 year old guava trees which were transplanted from a neighbouring farm and which are thriving in this paradise or the olive trees that are dripping with fruits. I am really not a guava fan but seeing them sitting there on the branches promising me something new I had to eat one....we all had to eat one.

Unspotted, unblemished promise of sweetness 

I ate it - and enjoyed it for the first time ever.

Each garden revealed more delights, more inspiration and more knowledge and ideas to me for how I can begin to make very part of my little patch of earth count towards growing food for my family and others...I can grow fruit trees along my green garden walls, I can add Elderflowers to my pavement instead of these horrid Brazilian Peppers we have care of the municipality. 

Their citrus fruits are ripening all over the farm, the naartjies warm and delicious from the hot sun that we found ourselves under. It was about now that 8 of the tour group left the remaining 6 of us perhaps sensing that we were simply going to ask too many questions through the tour and they were not interested in that depth of info. I think it was around about now that the "official" tour speech evaded Gundula and we were directed to the more intimate things of the garden.

While my tomatoes are over, they still have many growing almost as a wind break up this trellis

Quince trees are grown upright here but form an extensive hedge around some of the gardens. I remember my grandma making stuffed baked quince pudding served with custard and of course quince jelly.

It was soon hereafter that Superman started getting really excited as we hit the garden where all the peppers and chillies are grown. Being heirloom plants he was given enthusiastic permission to taste test the chillies and take seeds of ones he would like me to grow. My handbag was not prepared for this and by the end of the day this is what it looked like - and our hands held a few other treasures too.

One of the more impressive garden structures was this huge cage where they have grown all sorts of vine based plants - pumpkins, butternuts and calabash.

A few other highlights amongst the walkways were the cactus garden where they grow a variety of prickly pear that has very few prickles (although Superman didn't believe there were still some and got prickled!) Apparently they need a licence to grow these plants as the seed from them, which would be dropped by birds eating the fruit, will revert back to the prickly variety. There is a wild beauty about these plants that is hard to describe.

I was also intrigued by the number of different variety of Aubergines that they grow. They give over a whole garden to the different varieties. We have about 8 plants at home with their dark purple black fruits waiting to be picked. I think I am going to plan some of these for next season.

Another surprise was the Chamomile carpet planted right towards the end of the tour where we all had to have a sit down, a roll, a scuffle of the feet to enjoy the "calming" effect. Gundula says its a favourite spot for moms to bring unruly or tired kiddos to calm down :)

Heading on to the Greenhouse for lunch we walked through areas where the beds were lying in wait of the next plants, this was quite encouraging to me as I also have about 6 of my 12 beds lying empty waiting for the seedlings to come of age. 

I also love the garden structures and have made some notes of what I can do in our comparatively tiny space here at home.

Lunch at the Greenhouse was a treat, the gorgeous Lemon Verbena iced tea perfect for hot thirsty excited gardeners. There is always a waiting list so you do need to be patient. We luckily only had a 15 minute wait, others 40 minutes to an hour.

A gorgeous lunch with two of my most favourite people was a perfect ending to this day.

Take home value is actually what this day was all about. It's wonderful to stand and look at this vast food garden but I have to apply what I have learned to our small 900 square meter erf. Here are some of my thoughts so far:

-Under planting every tree or tall vegetable with a herb, indigenous medicinal plant or ground cover that attracts bees.

-Use up spaces and build the structures I need

-Don't be afraid to experiment

-Plant closer together

-Use my walls for fruit or as a food wall

-Plant vegetables that take a long time to yield in pots not in the beds

-Plant crops that turn over well into the beds

-Don't be afraid to use natural pesticides if all else has failed

-Get my bees

-Turn my pavement into a food garden too with fruit trees and medicinal plants.

-Mulch, mulch, mulch, mulch.

I do hope you have enjoyed this report, and that you get the chance to go out there sometime and enjoy the tour. Let me know when you are going - perhaps I will join you!?!