Now THAT is a radish!

The last unharvested radish has become a monster. I can't cut the leaves off and weigh it, because I'm planning to give it to someone tomorrow as a joke!

There is an elderly couple (late 70s/early 80s) who come into the fruit and vegie shop where I work, every Friday. I call them Sweetie and Honey, because when I had my hair really short and it started to grow again, Sweetie (the woman) started calling me Curly. Anyway, Sweetie likes rhubarb and Honey likes radishes, but neither will eat the other's. So I pick rhubarb to take to work, knowing that every now and then Sweetie will buy some. And I grew radishes a couple of times during spring/summer, knowing that Honey likes a bit of zing in his life occasionally.

It's been a while since I've had radishes of a saleable size, so last week Honey quizzed me again as to when he could expect to see some in the shop ... had I got around to planting some seeds yet? I had to admit that I had forgotten (again), but boy-oh-boy did I have the grandaddy radish of the gardening world, but there's no way he'd eat it. Honey has assured me he misses my radishes so much, he'll be in anything ... so I'm going to drop it off at their house on the way to work tomorrow. I wonder whether he'll really eat it????

Littlefella's Cubby

Dave and I spent most of yesterday working on the cubby. The photos are (1) first stage, November 05 - frame and floor completed (2) and (3) second stage, March 06 - roof and 2 walls completed. There are plans for the other long side to be filled in, and for the front to have a door. For now we're out of the right sized roofing iron. The remaining sheets are too small and would need lots of cutting and fiddling about.

Because we were working with 100-year-old recycled (from the old cottage) hardwood, every hole had to be pre-drilled. We'd already cut the roof battens to the correct length, so they were the easy first step. I had some sisalation left over from insulating under the house, so we thumbtacked it onto the battens. The roofing iron is the same stuff as on the walls - 100-year-old rusty recycled tin (from the old cottage, of course) - so we scrubbed around the old nail holes with methylated spirits and siliconed them up, before putting the sheets on the roof.

While Dave was plugging away, it occurred to me that the back wall with its overhang (weather protection) would be the perfect spot for a window. I unearthed two window panes that I paid $2 for at an auction a couple of years ago that had been earmarked to make a coldframe. The pane in better condition has been left for the (possibly mythical) coldframe. The one that could really do with a fresh application of putty has been used. We screwed it straight onto the framing, so it doesn't open, but I figured that if we'd hinged it at the top and the kids were less than gentle with it, it wouldn't last long.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that the bits we've done are going to be exactly weatherproof. I'd guess that if we got a big storm from the southwest (which would hit the outside of the filled-in corner) that there'd be water coming in under the roof and between some joins. But hey, it is a CUBBY after all!