Early Summer Fruits & Pickled Walnuts

We picked the first of our Brown or Sugar figs on the 3rd of December this year, which is amazingly early. They are big at this stage and not numerous as the major crop won't start until about mid January. By that stage there will be that many that I can start making jars of sticky figs to enjoy during the winter months.
at present though we are enjoying them for breakfast or lunch sliced with cheese. I may also do some in vodka like I have done with the cherries we picked up from a local grower.

On the right is a bowl of walnuts , pricked ready to soak in brine for ten days, refreshing the brine once. I did that ten days ago and now had them out in the sun yesterday to turn black. It got so hot though, yesterday, I had to rescue them otherwise they would have been cooked.
we have had the hottest start to December on record, we were 40C yesterday while Adelaide was 42C and Pt Augusta a massive 45C....

So on the left are the walnuts all turned black and ready to be put into jars and spiced vinegar which is made with various spices and herbs. They then have to sit in the jars for a month before eating them either whole (if you are a pickled walnut fan) or thinly sliced with cheese or meat. I also have a rather nice casserole using pickled walnuts. If anyone is interested I could put it in my next blog. It is a matter of either liking them or hating them. In the 1960ies we had a blacksmith who used to come to Hughes Park and shoe our horses as we still mustered on horseback.

Harry used to organize the shoeing so the
blacksmith could join our Christmas party for the men when he was finished with the shoeing . We would send him home later, feeling full of good cheer with a large jar of pickled walnuts as he loved them. We would see him going down the garden path furtively dipping into the jar and eating one....We had three walnut trees there so there was always plenty to pickle and pick later in the autumn.

I had been watching the young Murray Magpie or Piping Shrike, by our pond two days ago and wondered if something was wrong with it. It hardly got out of my way and sure enough I found it last night , dead by the plum tree with its beautifully marked feathers blowing in the wind.
So sad really, we seem to have had quite a few young birds snuff it this year....
On the left is a series of mulga vases I suppose you could call them. The were offcuts from posts our friend David was using to make yards in the Sandstone Western Australia area where they had a sheep station.He was trapping feral goats. I brought the off cuts home and a young wood turner in Victor Harbor made them int these lovely shapes. Australian hard woods can be so lovely, I adore the Sheoak's wood as well and many more. I have  friend who used to do amazing scroll work in native woods......that may be another story.....