7 May 2021

Weekend Reading

On Tuesday night I gave my last ever live community talk. I have had a connection with Noosa Permaculture for about ten years now so I ended on a high with this beautiful community group. President Petrina and her committee made me feel at home as soon as I walked in the door and the people who came along were supportive and interested. Thank you all. I had a lovely evening and after giving community talks from here to Hobart, I feel well and truly satisfied that my last talk was here, close to my own home and with people whose values I share.

This is a Hepburn Voice, a gift for my birthday last month. It's a voice activated speaker that works as a radio, it plays the music I have on my phone (and other online music) and it also allows me to listen to Ted Talks, radio stations from all over the world, audiobooks and podcasts. I can even ask it what's the time in NYC or the weather in Lativa or answer my phone while I continue to cook in the kitchen. 😮 Modern technology, most of it doesn't relate to how I live but this, THIS is wonderful. And I love that it's high tech and yet looks like a meek and mild vintage radio.

Our passionfruit have been producing for the past couple of months and this week, Hanno harvested the last of them and pruned the vines right back. The trellis has to be repaired in places so now is the idea time for both the pruning and the repair work. The cordial is a light syrup with all the passionfruit that needed to be used straight away. I strained the seeds off when I bottled it.

Today will be the first of many days when I have no appointments, meetings or work of any kind so I'm looking forward to getting stuck into the garden. I've got about three times as many seedlings as I need, a few plants in pots, and packets of seeds that I plan to broadcast over the soil. I'm planting my potatoes in bags and pots today too. The weather is beautiful, the birds, bees and insects are flying in and out and for me, this is a perfect day's work. I have a feeling that many of your will feel the same about your gardens.

I hope you're safe and well and feeling more optimistic about the future with the increasing vaccination rates. Hanno and I had our first vaccination last Saturday and will have the second jab in late July. We had feeling of tiredness and Hanno had sore muscles but the only other effect is the feeling that we're safer this week than last week. If you haven't been vaccinated, I hope you can get it done soon. Have a lovely weekend. xx

WEEKEND READING