Our apples have finally started! 
So happy to see them, despite my somewhat late prune last year.  Thank you trees!

After yesterday's storm, this was the only peach with obvious skin damage.  How amazing is that! Very little leaf damage to the trees or the long legged lab-lab legumes that I 'crack planted' a while ago which are now expanding throughout W2 fixing nitrogen as they wander.  
I did my PhD on the effect of impacts, so this pattern was like looking at an old friend.  These distinct crater and finger patterns can be seen from all kind of high energy impacts, including lightning and meteors (the latter, somewhat larger than hail!).

Had a feeling today we might get a storm (BOM guessed 70% x 1-5mm), so I removed a few more peaches lest the young trees sustained damage.  We're not a commercial orchard, so I can micro-manage our crop especially with such BIG peaches for such young trees - isn't nature amazing - never complains, never explains!
27ml came down from the heavens with lightning, thunder and a bit of hail thrown in for good measure.  Dogs not amused.
Not complaining. Love mud. Mud means magnificence. And muddy dogs.
Probably another bucket or two tomorrow to share around.
'Tis an ill wind that blows nobody any peaches.
'Til next time. Yum!

Every year, I purchase Thomas Zimmer's Astrological Calendar to read his thoughts on the year ahead and help me with optimal planting and garden tasks in keeping with the natural cycles.  I always find his thoughts inspiring and that is no different this year as we enter a new decade.

He speaks of the craziness unfolding as greater awareness is applied to our once (considered) noble institutions, and suggests there is a remedy for the individual through all of this..."[which] lies in the attitude of mindfulness of purpose, there is nothing quite as effective in keeping one out of negativity and despair as a clear sense of purpose.  If one is engaged in a task with a definitive aim, then the surrounding conditions, the dust and the dirt, do not seem to matter all that much."

At this point, I am reminded of Monty Python's series of rejoinders in the Life of Brian when the followers of Brian think they have found the Messiah. Suggesting the remedy is 'purpose' often evokes the response: "but I don't know what my purpose is!"  Thomas Zimmer is ahead of the game once more, "...It would be impossible to describe generally how one goes about defining such an authentic sense of purpose  for oneself - that is the work - to find that."

Welcome to 2020 and finding your purpose more fully, and through it your own personal way through the craziness.

Pauline xxx

It's too hot to be outside now so I am in the office thankful for air conditioning, surrounded of course by the dogs.  Despite 25% of our normal rainfall so far, our bees and trees are still surviving for which we are most grateful. Leaves and flowers are much reduced but still there - nature always does its best.  We will certainly cherish the easier and more plentiful times to come.

And, we have not let the grass grow under our feet this year - wot grass! - so here are some changes.  Pictures on the left are 2018; right, 2019.
(1) Raised veg beds now covered from hail - not entirely, so that the bees can visit.
(2) The 'West orchard' covered from birds and mulched to help retain water and give the trees a more forest floor environment.  I am so thankful for consultants Kim and Angus Deans' patient help, Mr Bendy's steel bending, Peter our perpetual builder's building skills and my husband John who quietly gets on and makes these visions happen.