Saving grace

Every time that I move my place of abode, and it has been fairly frequent in the last 15 years, I declaim in my over-the-top way, that I must have dirt. I need to be rooted. Where I am at the moment is fairly expensive (and getting moreso with each contract), but the size of the outside is nearly as big as the size of the inside, and this suits me just fine. Not only does it sustain the inner me, but it also enables me to play host for play-dates with my grand-daughter, Alannah.


There have been, and continue to be, so many wild'n'wooly things happening in my 'greater' life in the last 12 months, that my daughter and I have agreed that it is time to move onto the next phase. We have agreed to find housing that suits her young family, and includes me as well. We are giving ourselves this calendar year to sort it out, and to find a property. They are all horribly expensive, and there is a specific layout that we are after. We have found one, but it is on the market now and we are not ready to action anything just yet. What we do know is that neither of us want to be involved with residental care for me, if we can sort an alternative.

But it will have a garden, and she is more than happy, nay overjoyed, if I were to take that on as my own personal fiefdom!

Staple of the Great Depression - Rhubarb

I thought to start by listing the staple Australian foods of The Great Depression. However, upon reflection, maybe I should specify which Depression! I mean, of course, the depression from 1929 to about 1935. The one where everyone was so scared of losing their money, they all stopped spending, and started saving. All at the same time. Meaning not enough people were buying to keep companies liquid, which resulted in lay-offs. And so the circle goes around.

I think the staples of that era were things one could grow oneself, or find in laneways or up in the town common: rabbits, chokos, rhubarb, lemons, passionfruit, apple cueys, iceberg lettuce, Grosse Lisse Tomatoes, offal (cheap from the back-door of the butchers - especially tripe).


My rhubarb is growing well - better than anything else I have planted. See what the back of the packet says: 'Start harvesting when the leaves have some colour'. But don't eat the leaves as they are toxic. Only take a few outside stems during the first year.

It has been a strange old summer. I have pulled the lettuce and the baby pumpkin, as they both succumbed to mould. I squash about 10 green grubs each morning from assorted plants. A runner on my strawberry has rooted, and is sending up shoots.

As Kirsten and her family are down the South Coast for a few days, I went over and re-organised her balcony pots this morning. Need to find a punnet of Sweet Williams before Wednesday. Somewhere ... on a bus route.

In a pickle

Day 9 of the pickle-process. I tried one today to see whether I have to continue for 20 days or whether the bitterness will have eased sufficiently by 14 days. See my gnawed seed? I think I am heading toward a 14 day PP. Invariably, as I go about my chores, I have assistance.

Shonky identification ....

My brothers confidently identified them as Major Mitchell Cockatoos. Well they're not! They are Little Corellas which are distributed across the north, throughout Central QLD, NSW, VIC and parts of SA. The Little Corella perfers woodland, farmland and wetlands and it feeds on seeds and cereal crops. With the more obvious characteristics noted in the image, the Little Corella has a small crest and a yellow tip of iots tail.

Didn't it rain, children

Oh, it rained forty days
And it rained forty nights,
There was no land nowhere in sight.
God send the angel to spread the news
He haste his wings and away he flew.
To the East, to the West,
To the North. to the South.
All day all night, how it rained, how it rained.