The decision has been made!

From "somewhere on the internet" & for no particular reason....!



Laying awake early this morning, with many things running through my head and unable to return to sleep at the time (fairly unusual for me these days) I made the decision to stop blogging - at least for the time being.

There are twenty-file draft posts waiting to be completed, one of which is made up of suggestions for future blog posts with notes and links included, and it must run to two full A4 pages or more. Probably more!

I realised I hardly ever write about the things (I think!) I am really good at, one being raising chooks. I realised I only occasionally expand on subjects important or interesting to me and seem to type in a long-handed short-hand kind of way. And I realised I was adding stress to my days by thinking about blogging or not blogging and, quite frankly, it is stress I can do without at the moment.

Time is a huge factor and whilst I believe that one can make time for things which we deem important in life, there are so many more important things requiring my attention out in real life and I must do them.

Apologies go to the folk following this blog and to the newer ones of these who perhaps came expecting more. I cannot deliver, not right now!

Thank you to all those bloggers who inspire and will continue to inspire me. It's helpful at times, on this road to living more authentically, to know and to read of others doing the same; I like that we can all learn from each other and have some sort of little online community going. I'm simply struggling to keep up with my real life community and something must go.



So... it's bye from me for a while. Take care!

xxx

Good food, at home

The other day one of my sons and I stopped off at the new wood-fired pizza/cafe in town. We'd been out and about and thought it was as good a place as any to stop for a while and have a chat about his future and his plans. Plus, he likes pizza, and this place has been advertising widely since it recently opened and we thought it would be a nice lunch.

I had something lighter with a nice salad but I did try a morsel of pizza. We were quite disappointed.

Making most of our meals from scratch and not eating out very often any more, we realised once again that we've come to so enjoy the meals we prepare at home that bought food is definitely missing something!

Home made pizza dough made by one of my sons, heading for a second rise...

All the boys make their own pizzas, from scratch - they mix the flours, knead and rise it, flatten it out and top it with simple ingredients and a great mix of herbs grown right outside our kitchen (and sometimes an organic dried mix from the good folk who operate this local company).

We are still without an oven however they cook pizzas first of all in a large heavy pan on top of the stove, then finish it off on a pizza tray under the grill. Despite that, their pizza tastes twenty times better than the wood fired effort we paid for the other day.

I'm fairly ashamed to say that there was a (short) time in my life, many decades ago, when I was of the opinion that restaurant food was somehow superior to simple home meals. When I was first married, we entertained a lot for the business my husband was in, and were entertained, and ate in lots of ritzy places. Many of the meals were quite enjoyable but home cooking they were not!

As much as I like Thai food, the last couple of times we've come home later and grabbed a takeaway at the local award winning (best restaurant in our state one year!), I just haven't enjoyed it all that much. I'm yet to prepare Japanese food which tastes as good as that found in a good Japanese restaurant (don't make it very often though!), and there ARE some restaurants around which serve fantastic food, but on the whole, I'm really, really, enjoying home cooking and home prepared food at the moment!

Over the years I have come to appreciate more simple flavours, too, and as I study and research more into nutrition and health issues I have confirmation time and again that Simple is Best for health and digestion.

Today

Life is fairly busy and this blog is one of the last places of my life to get attention at times.

Today it would have been my dear Mum's 92nd Birthday and my sisters and I are meeting today in as central a location as possible, with as many of our children as can attend who aren't at work or uni or school. It's school holidays here in NSW so the younger children will be there, as well as my teacher-niece, and two of my sons. We all live so far apart that it is quite a feat to get together and good fun when we do.

So, there's no other news for the moment and my photo today is the view this morning outside my kitchen window. I love looking at that pergola during Spring, with the Banksia Rose in bloom and the two different Japanese Wisterias loaded with flowers hanging like soft mauve bunches of grapes.



That's Italian lavender in a vase on my windowsill. Click to enlarge.



We had about 170mm of rain on the weekend (nearly 7 inches of rain in the old scale), mostly overnight Saturday and during Sunday, so the paddocks and road in flooded quickly. We weren't cut off as the rain subsided for a day or two and now it's been absolutely pelting down again overnight. I love the misty mountain look on days like these.

Shall be back when I'm able...

Bits and pieces, and LETS, on a Sunday

Purple Sage (R) and Thyme (L),
with Nasturtiums and Violets and little Johnny Jumps Ups.

It's been a bit of a funny day, with me drifting from one thing to another, taking photographs here and there for a post on weeds I'm writing, fussing around with the chooks and letting them in to the house yard for an afternoon "stroll", a move I may regret!



Quick girls, a new yard to explore!

Inside to complete some work, then heading outside again.

I wasn't happy with the result of my weed photographs so will go back and capture them in a better, softer light. Too much harsh not-yet-Summer light doesn't show them up too well.

I also rode my bike down to what we call our Eastern paddock, with horse feed on board, to feed our old horse Ginger, who is about thirty years old. He sees that feed bowl coming and moves very quickly for an old man, over to the fence to start guzzling! We actually hang it on a gate, most times, so that it's too high for greedy Beau the alpaca to get his head into for a guzzle as well.

Bike with horse feeding bucket on board.

This is the bike I bought from a member of my local LETS group last year. I had an old bike but the dirt roads around here were giving the thin road tires a bit of grief and so I went on the lookout for something which could handle them better. I logged on to LETS one morning and, wa-lah, there was this bike available.

My local LETS group is the most active in Australia, with I think the highest turnover as well of shells, the alternate currency used by our group. Each group has a different name for their currency, with the Hunter group to the North trading in Mollies, and the Sydney group to the South trading in Operas.100% shell trading is encouraged although at times a dollar amount is charged to cover expenses and so forth. Some information about LETS and LETS trading is here (click to read) - has links to further information.

I was introduced to LETS by my sister-in-law some years ago but it took a while for me to "get it" and get it I did. Once enough people start thinking of goods and services to trade, it's almost limitless. A friend of mine organised almost all of her recent wedding through LETS, from hairdressing to cakes, to catering, invitations, photographs, etc. She was thrilled and it saved her a lot of money.

On my walk around today I discovered Cos lettuces, coming up in the grass - amazing!


We'll be harvesting these for sure, when they're ready...

And I realised this little track the dog had worn in her run around some of the trees is a great little path for the grandchildren to venture along and explore. Down here and to the left they'll come across a bird path and a little seat - perfect for picnics!



I'm heading outside again soon before starting work at 5pm - we're moving the electric netting fence so the chooks and ducks and geese have new ground to forage on. We're also swapping the netting around the orchard to some with smaller openings as we've discovered some of the smaller ducks are getting through (and obviously not caring about being zapped, the naughty things!), so to keep them safe from foxes, this has to be done, pronto.

Bye for now!

On my mind...

Joining Rhonda at Down to Earth with an On my mind post today...

On my mind today is getting back to basics. I started off thinking of the craziness of the industrialised food system and how it's affecting our health and our lives. I have been attending a workshop series on health and nutrition and viewing documentaries (again) such as the brilliant Food Matters, Food Inc and The Beautiful Truth, so far.

Then I found this little gem of a video clip via Milkwood Permaculture and thought I'd share it today.



"The film, by film-maker Johnny Kelly, depicts the life of a farmer as he slowly turns his family farm into an industrial animal factory before seeing the errors of his ways and opting for a more sustainable future. Both the film and the soundtrack were commissioned by Chipotle to emphasize the importance of developing a sustainable food system."
Soundtrack is the good ol' Willie Nelson...

The modern food industry and the way we treat the animals and the Earth must stop and we must move back to a more sustainable and healthier way of life, of treating animals, and eating.

The theme of this little clip is "Back to the Start" and whilst many people are generally horrified by the notion of returning to the horse-and-cart days, ditching the dishwasher and the multitude of electrical appliances in the average home and spending considerable time growing and preparing food instead of plonking packets into a microwave and pressing a button, there is a lot to be learned and gained by observing many of the methods used in the "olden days". Clearly what we have now isn't working too well.

So, based on that theme, I am having a Back to the Start or Back to Basics day today here at home. All the family left early, ranging from 5am to 6.30am; it's raining, after a very warm few days, and they will come in later, hungry, wet and cold. I don't have to water the garden so I'm getting back to basics and concentrating on the important things today inbetween bouts of work at the computer and cleaning the fridge: cooking a soup and other nourishing meals, lighting the fire early to warm the home and making a cosy environment for them all to come home to. They are the people I love and I want this home to feel special to them and somewhere welcoming to step into after a long day "out there" in the world.


Edited to say, the grandchildren are now coming to play this afternoon so DARN, that means I won't have time to clean the fridge. LOL!!