The Plant In

Hello hello from Sydney!

We drove up five days ago to start working on the Food Forest project and have another six days of digging and planting to go.

It's all very exciting. In a few short days we have gone from this

to this

and will eventually go to this:

If you live nearby, come and say hello and check out our progress. And if you want to get involved, please come along to our Community Plant In Day this Saturday July 11th from 10am till 4pm.

We will have planted all the fruit and nut trees by then, but we'd love it if you could bring a clump of something edible, Cadigal and/or beneficial from your home or community garden, to plant on the day.

The location: St Michael's Anglican Church, Surry Hills. (Corner of Albion and Flinders, near Taylor Square.)

If you're a Facebooker, you can join in the fun here.

Why not bring a picnic and make a day of it.

Hope to see you there!

School Holidaying

Exercising our legs to keep warm.

Exercising our creativity.

A winter picnic.

A winning niece.

Storages replenished.

Bring the Cow Out

When I first moved out of home I rented a room upstairs in a big house that had an adjoining room I used as an office. I bought a black and white cowhide to sit on the office floor in front of the fire place.

I got it cheap from a tannery because it hadn't been tanned properly. I couldn't see the problem, though when the afternoon sun came through my windows, boy oh boy could I smell it.

This is before 1998, so there was no Google to help me find out ways to get rid of the stench. So I researched it the old fashioned way – I asked my mum. Every morning before work I would take the cow over to my folks' place where Mum would embrace it, like a grandchild. And every afternoon, I would swing by to collect it. 

She tried powders and salts and fragrances and scrubs, but what she found was most effective was leaving it out in the sun. 

The cow became part of our family and the phrase, bring the cow in, bring the cow out, became part of our lexicon; to refer to the mundanity or repetitive nature of tasks.

Today the cow is still part of our family and lines the floor of our living room, when it isn't going camping or picnicking with us, or lunching with us out on the deck.

Porridge Picnic

Yesterday PJ and Z met me here, at the half way point of my morning walk, with pancakes and coffee on the open fire. This morning it was porridge that awaited me.

Just as we learnt a few days ago that coffee made with carbonated spring water doesn't work, so too this morning we discovered that porridge tastes much better made with water without bubbles.