some like it hot

The Elwood balcony harvest was not abundant. Rosemary and basil flourished in the hot weather and assiduous watering and are still hanging in there as the weather cools, although basil is looking slightly peaky. Thyme is on our side, and has made some kind of amazing rallying from death move and is looking good. Alas, life was not kind to the lettuce and the aubergine. The aubergine was afflicted with two kinds of fly: green and white and pyrethrum came too late. The flowers which held so much promise are no more. And as for the lettuce ... a couple of good salads and then something ate the rest of my crop. And by something, I don't mean an insect. I mean something with teeth. Decimated overnight. I'm thinking possum. 

But the chilli plant. That tenacious star of a chilli plant has borne many fruit and spiced up many dish with its fresh kick of heat, better than any store-bought version. At the risk of sounding like a proud parent or one of those people who refer to their pets as fur children, I am very impressed with my little chilli plant. And, alarming as it may well be to take portrait shots of a fruit, well, it really does glow with a light all its own. 

It's not only me who gives perhaps just a bit too much power to this tiny seeded claw.

“Chili, spice of red Thursday, which is the day of reckoning. Day which invites us to pick up the sack of our existence and shake it inside out. Day of suicide, day of murder.”
― Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, The Mistress of Spices

Just saying.