chickie sunday

Here are the kids - three weeks old today. Joe is taking two and I am giving the remaining 4 to my neighbour Mario. He is giving me a bunny rabbit in return. (and I don't mean a fluffy one). Hmmm, yum. Bunny Rabbit. I am thinking some kind of English Bunny Stew......

And here are today's babies. Nine so far. You can see they are in various stages of fluffing out. So far they are all Pekins bar one weak little Faverolle. Fingers crossed some more faverolles hatch out!

aaaaaahhhh! shopping.

This weird thing happened today. It happened yesterday. I was better at it today than yesterday, but I didn't really like it very much.

I WENT TO THE SHOPS! I went to the MALL (or, Woden Plazza as it is technically known)

Made me realise how blissfully good I am at living without shopping.

So why was I at the shops?


vanity.



what was that?


you heard me....


well, its a long story, see, City to Soil is rolling out in Goulburn next week and I have been invited to do an interview with the local community radio station. Not the usual 30 second grab for the regional ABCs and commercial stations.....nup, no way, this is a 2 hours affair interspersed with music and stuff.

Anyhoo, I am most grateful for the opportunity to promote the new whole of town food and garden waste collection and composting extravaganza and honestly I am so obsessed with this project that I could talk about it for 2 DAYS. But what I was completely unprepared for was the request to bring along a few of my favourite CDs to play.........what?

Now let me think, when was the last time I bought a CD..........


Um. 10 years? Oh, wait a minute, I think I bought a Ben Lee CD in 2004.

Oh GOD, the whole of GOULBURN is going to find out I am a penny pinching DAG with no culture.

It is true I don't listen to a lot of music. But there is music in my SOUL and in the air and it comes out of the beaks of birds and the whispering wind. Honest. And really, I just like silence.

And when I do listen to stuff - A'LA traveling to Condobolin and back, I listen to Radio National. Have done for a million years. Well, religiously for 9 anyway.

I love being exposed to new and unusual music - love acoustic live music - I love Mozart. Serenade in B flat minor is my favourite piece in the world. We played it at our wedding. Did you know Mozart composed that piece for his own wedding? anyway.....I just don't need to OWN it.

Sometimes when I am zipping along country roads and some wonderful new band or song is featured on RN, I dangerously scribble it down with a pencil in the margins of some scrappy bit of paper, driving with one hand and avoiding pot holes and kangaroos (it helps to be left handed for this) but I never end up buying the CD - I just love to have the music wash over me and move me and anyhow I never go to the shops so when would I have a chance to buy it, and anyway, tomorrow I will be moved by the next wonderfully talented artist and will have lost the first piece of paper......

And I refuse to spend $$ on CDs.

So anyway, I flicked through an aged pile of obscure CDs from the 80's and 90's and deemed none of them suitable. Luckily the Biggest Hippy recorded the City to Soil song, and another song about recycling - so these will be PERFECT. (right, that's 2 out of the way)

So what about the others?

I cracked folks. I went and bought a CD. I did some market research (Mr Duck Herder, the Cougar, the Biggest Hippy) and they were no help at all.

I found the 2004 Ben Lee CD under the passenger seat in the car - and it is a bit scratched.


Anyway, I followed a few leads, chased up some of my favourite old artists (Kev Carmody etc), and rediscovered Sara Storer, and went and bought one of her's. I paid $32 for it! Got it home. And it was scratched. Took it back today. They didn't have another one. Got my money back. Went to Myer. They had one copy left. Still in plastic. Not Scratched. Paid $24 (much better)

So folks, I paid $24 for vanity.

It is a beautiful CD. She is marvelous. Her songs make me cry. All good music makes me cry. Thats why I don't buy it. Don't you see? I just cry all the time. Mozart makes me cry. Beautiful things make me cry as much as sad things.

Anyway, confesison time is over. I will be able to present myself with at least one CD from this century that I like. I can even infer that I listen to lots of music, but saying "I am listening to a lot of Sara Storer lately" which would be true - its the only CD I am listening to.

Duck Herder you are full of crap!

long time gone

We return to our regular broadcasts after a longish sojourn in Condobolin. Work is BUSY but good. Spring is WONDERFUL. Life is a bit of a WHIRLWIND and it is tricky to maintain the stillness.

I am still pleased as punch with my socks. They have survived hand washing AND machine washing, which pleases me greatly. Thank you so much for your happy comments and general agreeance that rainbow crocheted socks are a fine fine thing to have in one's possessions, and even better caressing ones feet and peaking out from one's boots.

I took these photos last weekend, and only now found time to pop them up and out into the internets. Behold my individualised toilet roll seed raisers. (Don't worry, Mr Duck Herder and I are not responsible for this much toilet paper use! I have a flotilla of signed up toilet roll holder donors) I had a peak this afternoon, and can happily report the zucchinis and cucumbers are definitely up, and with tomatoes in close pursuit.

I know a fellow who uses this method, but first dips the rolls in beeswax to make them last, before planting the plants out roll and all when ready. I skipped the wax treatment and will see how they hold up.

This is much quicker than sprouting seeds in trays and transplanting to topped and bottomed 2l mild containers ALA Linda Woodrow so fingers crossed that I am onto something. (frugal elegance AND expedience)

And these clever little things are recycled recycled coke bottles. They originally had onion seedlings in them - purchased from a farmer at the farmer's market. Now they have a second generation of onion seeds, and also some asparagus seeds.

Whilst in Condobolin I finished a beautiful spring scarf - again from my stock of lovely Noro self striping wool - which I LOVE and have worn every day for a week, but which for some reason, no one has yet commented on......I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or maker, perhaps.......

will get a photo of that one soon as well.

Anyhoo - a well earned day off tomorrow. Next lot of chickens should be hatching out over weekend. Fingers crossed for some successful faverolle hatchlings - they have traveled so far those little eggs - all the way from Proserpine QLD.

Taa muchly to everyone who said nice things about my sox *swoon*

Sox #2

Sox Pair 1

da daaa.

chicken tv

We have some new babies! They are now in a brooder box in the living room. The box has a wire mesh front so we can see what they are up to. I could watch them for hours. Its like Chicken TV.

They sure do poop a lot.

In other news, Amelia the wonder duck looks like she has decided to sit. I wonder if she has the patience to go all the way. She is a little more highly strung than her mum.