Cicada(?) doing yoga & new garden photos -veggies, flowers, saplings & more-

Last week when I went down to the garden I spotted a huge insect sitting on the wrapping of the pea straw mulch. I wasn't really sure what it was, I'm not sure I've ever seen one before, but a friend saw the photos I took & said it's probably a cicada. I think they're considered to be a pest & can be quite destructive to crops, but I left him in peace even if he is bad news for our veg, of course if he gets gobbled by a bird that's a different story :p
I enjoyed observing him though, he had very beautiful wings that resembled leaves, & he kept stretching his back leg up & down, not sure what that was about, but I decided he was doing his morning yoga ':)
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 There he is, chillin in the morning sun, look at those wings :)

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Cicada yoga?

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As for the garden, things are picking up since the rain has started, the zucchinis in particular are looking really good :D
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So a while back Eli's Dad gave us a bunch of young plants, most weren't labeled so we could only guess what they were. Looking at the leaves we knew these were either cucumber, zucchini or some other kind of squash, of course we still planted them, & just recently we've discovered that they are in fact zucchini plants :) I have no problem with this at all cause I'm pretty much addicted to these veg, & now that we've got 5 zucchini plants going on, it's likely I'll be getting all the zuccs I want :D The flowers are damn good too, light batter & deep fry, with some dipping sauce, & you got a crazy delicious snack ;)

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The all mighty golden zucchini! For some reason these have been more difficult to grow than the blacks, but they're starting to pick up now, so I'm really hoping we end up with at least a few good sized zuccs, cause I love them so, so much :'D... My favourite way to have them is in a simple white sauce with a good amount of garlic & butter.

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 Chard & chillies both growing well, the chard is really nice, very tender & not stringy at all, with really great flavour, good to add to omelettes & the like.

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 Garlic sprout <3 Tis the season, so I really need to plant more, but the ones I've put in have shot right off :) One tipped over, but that didn't stop the little bastard, it just turned at a right angle & grew up towards the sun anyway... I love plants -w-...<3

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 Borage making a comeback after being smacked down by the summer sun, this is still the only borage plants I've managed to grow, despite sowing several batches of seed :c but I'm still hoping I can get some going down in the lower beds as well.
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 Super close up of the head of our Giant Russian sunflower. Unfortunately the cockies are going to town on it :/ Guess those seeds are pretty irresistible ':) As long as they leave some for us I'll refrain from netting it, nice to share with the locals I guess.

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 & these are a sapling & fern-type plant that I acquired on a walk with my dogs, I couldn't resist, especially the wattle, we really need more trees, & wattles are great cause they're hardy, fast growing, short lived, & they drop loads of leaves & stuff, which is great for building soil :) It will also provide good shade for other more sensitive plants.

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I'm pretty damn proud of this one, it's an avocado sapling that I managed to grow from seed :) I planted half a dozen seeds, but this is the only one that's made it to sapling stage. I'm doing my best to take really good care of this one, cause I'd freakin love to have an avocado tree one day - w - <3 I'm planning on protecting it from frost during the winter & my hope is to one day plant it somewhere on our own property (when we finally get one)
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Time to head out & get some things done outside,

Ja~