A Pile of Shit

There's a horse riding ranch two minutes away, where I used to go riding as a kid, and where Z had his birthday party a few years back. PJ and I drove out there first thing this morning.

'Is it OK if we collect some of your poo?' I asked one of the owners when we arrived.

'You can't collect mine, but you can collect the horses',' he told me, straight-faced.

And so we got to shovellin'. It was cold out and the shit was hot and steaming, and filled with worms our chickens dined on each of the three times we returned home with a car-load.

I've never been a red roses kinda gal and I've never been one for posed photos in a nice frame up on the mantle from holidays gone by. But I would never have described shovelling shit as a romantic pastime until today either.

But boy was it! The cool air, the steaming dung, no-one in the field except my beloved and I, working hard side-by-side to move the fecund waste so it can turn our clay earth into rich soil to grow good food for our family.

Dinner and movie? Chocolates in the shape of a heart? Give me a shovel, my man and a pile of shit any day.

Rednesday: Earrings

These red can pull tabs have been a-hangin' from my ears since 2003. 

Kids I meet usually scream at me that I am wearing a can on the side of my face, while grown-ups ask me if I made them. I am never sure what this question means and usually answer: "If by 'make' you mean, was I drunk at a BBQ and did I pull them off some cans and stick them on my earrings, then yes, I did make them."

I like them because they are red, because I would much rather recycle up than recycle down, and because of the tinkly sound they make when I'm on my bike and coasting down a hill into the wind.

Disruption of Apples

Yesterday morning before we took Z to school, we picked a whole lot of apples from the Poemscape trees next to the library. Afterwards PJ and I trained to Melbourne where he conducted and I filmed a workshop with some third and fourth year RMIT design students.

The workshop was about performing the city and disrupting space. After a brief presentation, PJ gave the students the apples we picked and we went out into the streets.

One group placed the apples on the ground in a busy lunchtime laneway, while we all stood back and watched how people responded.

The last group drew an apple on a brick wall and invited us to throw the remaining fruit at the chalk- drawn target. It felt like such a waste, the point made doubly clear next to the skip full of unwanted goods.

That Which is Possible

Four years ago our friend Jason and his partner at the time, Esther, handmade a series of beautiful postcards. Each card contained a picture of claimed roadside food, recipes for preserving and a map of where the various plums, pears, apples, blackberries, and quince can be foud and when approximately, the fruit are in season. They sent the postcards to friends and also to random strangers, to encourage a practice of gleaning and self-sufficiency.

They called the project That Which is Possible.

Yesterday PJ and our friend O, maps in hand, went out to see what treasures they could pluck.

These early season cherry plums are proof of their afternoon's success.

Happy happy! 

And a happy birthday to you O! We look forward to another whole year of discovering treasures with you, and discovering the treasures of you.

The Give and the Take

On the way to the train station in Melbourne last night, we passed by some people rummaging through a skip piled high with goods from a nearby church-run op shop. They found some old suitcases they were filling with their loot. The wastefulness was mind blowing; clothes, toys, books, office supplies, food, games – it was all thrown in.

What do charities do with their donations they no longer want? Donate them to landfill? Give them to another charity? Last night that was us. We found a laundry basket to fill and joined the others in their merriment and scavenging and disbelief that such goodies were freely available for the taking, to the takers.

Today we took part in another activity of abundance. For the second month in a row, a local winebar has provided the space for a harvest swap meet where gardeners are encouraged to bring their excess produce to swap. We took parsley and carrots and took home lettuce, chocolate mint and peaches, which we shared just now with friends on the deck in the gloaming.

Gone Fishin'