It is, for all I can hear from inside the house, blowing an absolute gale outside. It sounds pretty terrible in here and indeed, my carefully hoarded cardboard that was weighed down with chunks of red-gum had to be rescued from the creek and the pond. However, Martin assures me it sounds worse than it really is.
Eating blueberry pancakes for breakfast is such hard work.
I don’t know what it is about windy weather or stormy weather but it makes me worry. Irrationally at times too. But as soon as the wind started up last night I too started up with the worrying. What if the cardboard all blows away? (I’m not going to do anything about it at 3am so why worry.) What will the neighbours think seeing me traipsing off to gather back half of our front yard? (Um, they work full-time so they won’t see me and they also know we are working on the place and they saw the before photos on a daily basis so they will (hopefully) understand.) What if the baby ducks fall out of their nest? (Mumma duck has a big enough bum to hold them in and anyway, it’s 3am and they will be asleep.) See, irrational! The wind just sets my teeth on edge and it’s horrible trying to calm the old brain box down. Where’s the Valium when you need them? 😉
It might not be PC to sleep your baby in the drawer any more but what do you do with they put themselves in there?
Dinner tonight was a bit of a success in my opinion. Jas came to help me and I adapted a lentil soup recipe I came across in my RSS feed and added the leftover kangaroo meat from the roast we’d had a few days back. I’d been planning soup with it and with not much else on the meal horizon it was a go. it looks like, well, brown sort of slop and texturally it’s not all that (for kids who aren’t used to lentils and beans) but the taste! OH the TASTE! The roo meat was a bargain bin quick sale red wine and herb boneless roast so it was totally and wonderfully seasoned, adding to the general flavour of the soup, plus the gaminess of the meat itself. For those who have never tasted kangaroo before it is a strong meat. I’ve not had venison and kangaroo close enough together to be able to compare them but I do remember the strength of the venison and kangaroo is just the same. It’s utterly delicious in my opinion and using the last of the meat up, an amount unsuited to anything more than maybe a sandwich or two in the soup was perfect. The kids weren’t totally sold but did actually eat their soup and fresh bread I’d baked to accompany the soup (yeasted bread unfortunately) so I know there are a couple of full tummies tonight. Jas was a tremendous help with the cooking too, dicing the meat up finely, measuring out the lentils and generally filling in any available (and unavailable) silence with his chatter. Takes after his Mummy. 😉
Yep. Yes. Uh-ha. Ok, nope. *can’t you see I’m on the banana!* ok, sure!
As so many of my North American blogs that I follow keep reminding me, it’s 4th July today. It may not be Independence Day here in Australia but it did get me thinking about the concept of independence and all its meanings. For me, independence is akin to self-sufficiency. It’s about being able to eat independent of the global food conditions. About being able to preserve foods with which to feed my family over non-productive months, about harvesting our own fruits and veggies and meat too and about being able to save seeds or breed chicks (not that we do much of the work as we use hens to do the hard work) too. I’m a long way from being independent of the supermarkets and others for our food but I’m giving it my best shot and learning heaps about gardening and permaculture. In the meantime I will continue to do my best to damn the man and buy local, farmer direct or through farmers markets, CSA’s or my local co-op. It truly does make a difference. 🙂
The fourth of July. A two-egg day today – extra independence from the supermarket.
Independence to me also means watching my kids grow up and learn. Every step they learn is an infinitesimal loosening of the so-called apron strings, a small step close to that fabled independence that teens demand from parents that is in reality a LOT different but more rewarding once achieved a little later in life. My kids might not yet be 5 but that desire to be autonomous is clearly ingrained in them, much as it was in my psyche. I wasn’t s good at achieving it (surely I can have total independence and still have my washing done for me 😉 ) but they are showing the same skills at wanting it at least. And the undying stubbornness independence of my kids is amazing. Orik will simply refuse to be spoon fed these days. Not even a taster mouthful which is all I hope to give him. Nope, he WILL do it (or not) himself! lol
Anyway, after a week of severely broken sleep I simply cannot keep my eyes open another second. I am off to bed.
Sleep well hippies.
Rabid Little Hippy 