I've been spending time in the backyard lately creating a contained herb and vegetable garden. My aim is to develop a comfortable place to spend time, relax, increase biodiversity and encourage more animals, birds and insects to live here or visit. Of course I'd prefer my old garden which was put together by Hanno with ease and German precision. Together, we created a space bursting at the seams with herbs, vegetables and fruity goodness ready to eat and share throughout the year. But time changes everything. What I'm planning on doing now, is a brilliant opportunity for an almost 80 year old with balance issues. In my new garden I'll be able to do a wide range of challenging or easy work, depending on how I feel each day. It’s a daily opportunity to push myself or sit back, watch what's happening around me and be captivated by memories or the scope of what's yet to come.
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One of the bars in the hotel.
During this past week, I worked in the garden till Saturday's solstice and on Sunday, went to a family lunch at the Kin Kin Hotel where Shane is working now. It’s been restored to what it looked like when it opened in 1914 and what a beautiful building it is. The food was delicious and the staff were friendly and helpful. Jens and Cathy are returning to Tasmania and will live there permanently in their new home. The lunch was a final catch up before they head south again. So the weekend was a big silent leap into a new era for me, although no one else knew it. The garden has moved from stage one to a garden I'll work in most days. I'm really glad I can say I'm a gardener again.
They were playing and catching big grasshoppers under the lemon tree.
I love watching wildlife in the backyard. There is a family of kookaburras (the world's largest kingfisher) living close by. The families are usually made up of a breeding, monogamous pair with several helpers from previous broods staying to help defend their territory. In the past month, I've watched the mother bird as she teaches two young males to catch lizards and insects. Yesterday afternoon the mother bird sat on the washing line while I sat on the back verandah. She was watching me and the two males hunt under the lemon tree where they caught a few large grasshoppers. The female birds are more slender and smaller than the males which tend to be round and bulkier.
My meals are still from scratch. I was shocked when I saw an advertisement for a report on fast food in Australia. The stats tell us many families spend $2000 a year on fast food!!! I haven't bought fast food for years and it amazes me, that with the higher cost of living, people still see fast food as an option. Apparently, foreign fast food companies love coming here to line their pockets with our hard-earned money and take it off back to their own countries. What a shame and what a bunch of dumb clucks we are to let them do it.
The world is a dark place at the moment. I hope your'e staying safe and sheltering in your home when you can. Things WILL get better but in the meantime, stay close to your family and friends and make sure you do things that make you happy. xx
I really enjoy reading your blogs Rhonda, Thank you 😘
ReplyDeleteI heard that about fast food too....perhaps it's tired Mothers grabbing food after a long day working and also running a household. It's really only one generation where Mothers were at home caring for the children and home. I'm all for choice however society these days thinks once your kid is at school you should be out working. The other big issue is the cost of housing forcing families to have two incomes and in a lot of cases this still isn't enough with the cost of living and the price of housing. My interest rate on my first home was 14.4% and I was super excited because it had come down from 17.5% however I only needed to borrow $100,00 for my first little home. Now days that's the deposit. I'm pleased you have a little garden again suitable for your time of life and health as it's such a feel good. I finally planted my "Glen Large" garlic a few weeks ago and most of them have come up which is exciting. Your lemon tree looks amazing and we love kookaburras as well. At our place we mostly have Cockatoos and we have a Major Mitchell [pink cookatoo] that hangs with all the white ones near us and it's so lovely to spot him on the footpath or in the tree. One day he was on our roof and my son grabbed his camera and took some photos. Have a good week. Regards Kathy
ReplyDeleteHi. Kathy. One of the problems with fast food is that you have to work longer to pay for it. It would be cheaper to cook from scratch in a double batch a couple of times a week. Eat one and freeze one - after a month of doing that it gives busy families a freezer stockpile of home cooked food to choose from - and at a fraction of the price. I was born in the 1940s and until WW2 started, women always stayed at home. It was only after the 1960s and the advent of credit cards, that women chose to work outside the home. I'm all for choice too but a simple, from scratch kitchen is the most economical way to go. You can work outside the home AND cook from scratch. Maybe I should do another post on the easiest way to do that.
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