My most favourite bread tins of all time and a perfect day for baking. Love this cold weather and rain.

There’s something very reassuring about the tanks overflowing.

Did some baking with a friend in the cooking school space, which was fun.

Yesterday another friend brought me some of her (magnificent) garden’s harvest – tomatoes, capsicums of all shapes, colours and sizes and a huge bagful of the best basil I’ve ever seen.

I have watched her chop and roast various vegetables such as these, then she makes a puree to add to savoury dishes and/or to freeze.

Her chopping is much neater than mine by far, but I think it should still work.

I made the basil into pesto to freeze, although it was intended for the roasted vegetable puree. (I included some zucchini from our garden as well.)

Instead of using her picture perfect basil, I used the last of the straggly, scrappy basil from my garden.

There was soon a queue of baking dishes waiting their turn in the Gourmet cooker’s oven.

A bonus from all this is that the chickens will love the offcuts and seeds from the capsicum.

How lucky we are here in the Derwent Valley and beyond to have such an abundance and wonderful friends who share their produce.