Pumpkins etc

 We harvested our pumpkins this week.  There are also a few in the garden, and we've eaten some, so altogether a decent number.  I love growing pumpkins, more than the family loves to eat them so we always end up giving half of them away, which is all good.  This year we put in Thelma Saunders, Marina di Chioggia, Musquee de Provence, Wee be Little, Australian Butter and Amish Pie (not sure whether any of those last actually grew), as well as some big greys that came up from food scraps.

 The nerines have been lovely - nice to discover what bulbs are around the place - and the banana passionfruit has bounced back from being decimated last year.

We went for a trip to the Kaikorai Lagoon out by Waldronville (10 mins out of town) and explored the estuary environment.  It was, quite frankly, pretty yucky.  Apart from the smell of mud, which is not that bad, there was rubbish everywhere and the kids found a dead pig skeleton which was still pretty stinky.  Andrew learned not to run out into mud and escaped losing his gumboots by the skin of his teeth.  There was plenty of wildlife but it didn't come anywhere near us, so we didn't get to see the cygnets we've seen from the van - they seem to be shyer of people walking than vehicles driving past.

Daniel was busy for a while making lego ships which turned out pretty well.