gotta love that life thing

Its been an interesting time with the humans lately. For example, one of them pinched the Mountain Man's honey truck from our front yard on Friday night. And then this morning at the farmers market everyone I bought anything off seemed to be just radiating joy. The olive oil man was happy, the bread girl was happy and the honey man wants my recipe for saba. We talked, or at least I listened while he told me about everywhere he takes his bees and which trees flower where at which time during the year. I think he enjoyed having a listener (and customer) who appreciated the incredibly hard work and heavy lifting in being a commercial beekeeper.

And I had a moment at the recycling depot while happily scrummaging around in the skips for empty champagne bottles to put my saba in. It would appear folks on this side of town drink 397 beers for every bottle of (cheap and nasty) champagne.

I realised I have crossed a line between relatively normal and completely loopy when a car pulled in and instead of thinking "oh, how embarrassing, these people are going to see me rummaging about in the bins" I immediately thought "oh, goodie, I wonder if these people have any champagne bottles"



I am the cat lady. and I am only 39.


In other news, I made another batch of honey plum saba. This one using big fat purple plums from the prune (splendour I think) in the front yard. These are beautiful meaty plums, probably the best I have tasted for eating fresh and I hesitated to put the last bucket full into the saba, but then, lets face it, its really value adding and thats a good thing right?



The saba continues to impress the neighbourhood. A bottle was consumed with the girls next door yesterday afternoon, and well, we all had to have naps afterwards. It packs a punch. Two glasses helped greatly to ease away the surprise that someone would take the gorgeous little old 4WD ute I was in the process of buying. I mean if Bruce doesnt want me to have the truck of my dreams, at a great price then who am I to argue? Luckily it was still insured.


And for those with an interest in the feathered goings on - Big Fella is definitely embracing the whole gender spectrum. She has gone clucky but gets off the nest in the morning to pretend to crow then gets back on the nest to try and make babies. *sign*

And finally, I got off my but and bottle some tomatoes today. They are coming in thick and fast now. Some of the tomatoes are so big (the black krims especially) that one tomato almost fills a No20 jar. Soon it will be time to start making relish. yum yum.

Carolyn and Hugh from across the road have invited us over for drinks this afternoon. They promised they had lots of empty champagne bottles for me - yippee. saves me going through their recycling bin when it goes out tonight.

I am lucky to have such beautiful alcoholic ( celebrative) neighbours.


that is all.

Lacuna Sabbath

where we stayed in Freemantle

Dear Mr Weekend Farmer was wondering what this whole Lacuna Sabbath thing is and it is this. "Lacuna" is like a gap, a missing bit, an extended silence, and Sabbath is of course, a special day of rest and prayer generally celebrated once a week. So my Lacuna Sabbath is my gift to me - to try ever so hard to dedicate Fridays as a day of rest, contemplation, tending the garden and conversing with ducks. A special space in the life of a busy duck indulged in with wanton love and joy, and fiercely protected and defended. It kinda comes from a Leunig character - Mr Curly who lives on the shores of Lake Lacuna. Originally it was my way of saying NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! STOP! to crazy work hours and too much overtime but now it is part of my life and it is just delicious and wonderful.

So anyway, what did I do on this Lacuna Sabbath? Well Mr Duck Herder and I have been in Perth since last weekend so after lots of travel and a wedding and eating and drinking and general conviviality, today was pretty calm. We stayed in Freemantle which is a City I just love.

This morning was spent reconnecting with the garden after a crazy hot week. This afternoon I "racked" the honey and plum saba. And now I am completely sozzled in a delicious way. I think I am not the best at using the syphon yet, and have had to consume FAR too much wine in proportion to what ended up in the demijohns. It is delicious. *hick*



One batch has the most luminous ruby colour. The other is cloudier and more orange. But they are both delicious.

And they both turned very dark once I had racked them. I have kept the sediment to use in muffins etc. It is deliciously sweet and buzzy.


In other news, the widdle ducklings are HUMONGOUS. One is very little. Some have naughty white bits on their throats which is cute but not really proper for a Kahki Campbell.


that is all!

for the Rocketeer

http://www.livingapartment.com.au/

for your Sherdie!

more of that hot stuff

As one hot windy day follows another. We are in the middle of another heat wave. I have been watching episodes of Gourmet Farmer on the web and I must say I am YEARNING for some of that gorgeous cool wet mountainous Tassie landscape. Right now it just looks like heaven.

In other news, before it got stinky hot this morning I started moving fermenting stuff and bee stuff into the new shed. There is still plenty of room for the preserving stuff and tools stuff. Bikes won't be translocated until we get a better lock. I wont KNOW MYSELF without all my little projects scattered and heaped all over the house. And I am anticipating Mr Duck Herder (who thinks I smell quite lovely thank you) loving me lots more without all my mess everywhere.


There are some beings who are enjoying the heat. The tomatos are starting to ripen. The Siberians are early quick lovely simple small to medium boring round and red. I will grow these again for sure.

But as always, the Black Russians are my favourites with their dark smooth roundness and complex flavour.


Didn't have quite enough marties or time or inclination to bottle today, and Mr Duck Herder was making "what are you doing with all these tomatos on the bench" noises so I cheated and just chopped them up and froze them in little half kilo bags. So simple. It will be like pulling little bags of concentrated summer out of the freezer in 6 months time. Imagine, 6 months time we will have forgotten all about this heat and be missing the sun.


And summer is all about making salads out of what ever is in the garden. Micro greens (poncey name for baby lettuce) , cucumbers, lettuce, zucs, corn cut strait from the cob, lemon juice, a boiled egg (bigg fella's if you ask) whole egg mayo, free range chook and some sesame seeds on top. (post picture). yum.


Stay cool all you southern hemisphere folks.

honey bike shed stinky duck

And exciting thing is happening folks.


The little men are here putting up our new shed.
Soon we will have a three bedroom house instead of a 1 bedroom, two bike room / bee stuff room house.

A weird thing happened today. Simon the guy at the produce store told me he hated my perfume. He thought it was a man repellent. (!) I am trying not to worry that I smell. I don't smell yukki folks. Do I?

Smell is a funny thing. I like to wear a lemongrass oil with a tiny bit of patchouli in it mostly because I always have a sore neck and shoulder and the lemongrass makes it feel nice and it centers me and reminds me to relax. I make little bottles of the same oil up for my girl friends because they love the smell so much. So it was a bit of a surprise to be told it was yucki. A good opportunity to not let my ego tell me that I always have to smell delicious for everyone and if I like it then that should be good enough. Although perhaps I'd better go a bit lighter on it.

I had just been thinking about ego and about how susceptible to praise I am and wondering how I would REALLY go if people ever didn't like me or think I was amazing or adorable. And how do you get to a place where you are steady and calm whatever people think about you or your work good or bad.

In other news I asked Bruce to find me just a couple of meters of garden hose so that an old hose I have can reach all the kiwi vines more easily and wouldn't you know, there in the bargain basement bin at a certain hardware store was just what I needed for $1.



Life is funny.

Haa haa thanks Bruce.
Amen.














Oh and one of the little men called me "Sweet Pea" , not STINKY Sweet Pea or Little Miss Smelly. So there.

Lacuna Sabbath

Hooray for the Lacuna Sabbath. Ducklings still equals seven. We have removed Esmond from the equation (I warned you!) I think it was only a matter of time until he started killing them off.

Still more trouble in paradise Winkie has returned from my sister's place after deciding she hated her adolescent children. She has gone from being top chook to bottom chook. So we are running two shifts in the old fluffy cage - Esmond in there at night for the ducklings protection and Winkie in there during the day for her protection from the other mean chooks. Hopefully she will be accepted back into the flock soon.

In other news, 2 meters of gravel dust just arrived out the front so I can organise a nice flat surface for the new shed. My weekend just got booked solid.

That is all.

widdle babies

OK folks, here's what ya want. ready? One, Two Three......aaawwwww.



Stupid cute huh?




Yup. Stupid Cute has arrived at the princess castle. They haven't left the nest yet (that's mum just to the right) but why would you bother when you have a wading pool beside your bed?



Proud father hasn't shown infanticidal tendencies yet, just a little nibble/nudge.


Hot bees. Her Majesty Queen Malina's girls are very yellow huh?

that is all.



eeeyyyaaawww eeyyyaaaaw
I think the beer ambulance is here.

Keep cool everyone!