Capsicum

or bell pepper, as we say here.

I am proud to announce that, after 4 years, we finally have a red capsicum.

We've had modest success in the previous growing seasons, with green capsicums. They turned green, stayed green, and became large. Some years it didn't get enough sun, or I forgot to water it. And other years, the frost came before the poor thing developed any colour (apart from green, I mean). One year we even managed to pick it before the critters got it. 

This year we were cleverer. We bought a plant late in the season and installed it in a pot on our deck. That way the critters couldn't get it and I would see it every day and, if only to assuage my guilt, actually water it.

It took us four months to get this red beauty. 

I am now so sentimentally attached to it that I can't bear to pick it off the plant, let alone eat it.