Apart from the mundane such as housework, which I seemed to have upped the anti on after finding how much I enjoy this house in it's tidiest, minimal form, I have been gardening, cooking, dining out, visiting and revisiting places of note.
My garden is growing apace and I am loving it. I have been spending an hour if not more a day dealing to the outside of the house which has involved several cuttings of the lawn (our winter is the eqivalent of everyone else's spring), weeding and planting. I have eaten lettuce and spinach out of the garden already, and have tomatoes, capscicums, brocolli growing to go with the aforementioned beans and spinach. My herb garden has also been supplying basil, mint, rosemary, parsely, corriander and chives to various concoctions I have been cooking. The wildflowers mentioned a month ago are all flowering as are the transplanted lavenders, the gazanias, the self seeded daisies are multiplying and I am waging a war on weeds as they are growing too. I find myself channelling Nana Gert (paternal grandmother) as any hapless visitor has to do a round of the garden before entering the house, and there I am naming all that is planted before me. The only downside to my gardening efforts is that I can not find a scarlet runner bean for love nor money and so the beans I am growing, although runner beans, they resemble those found in frozen pkts which are second preferred to the scarlet runner in my opinion. I am wondering whether they are peculiar to NZ. I shall just have to hope there are folk growing them at home and there will still be some left at the end of January when I have my holiday.
Yes, great news, I have been granted my first offical annual holiday from Jan 26 - Feb 28, woohoo. I now have to research fares and flights. Exciting news this end is that Qantas are now doing flights in competiton with Sky West from here so from Nov 21 one will be able to fly from Geraldton to Perth for $99 instead of the $200+ it costs now, AND flights leave direct from Geraldton to Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne - not sure about Adelaide so that is beyond brilliant. It takes away the 5 hour road trip to Perth (or longer by bus) that you have to tack on to each trip which usually means an extra day each way.
I mentioned cooking before, as I have been venturing forth into trying new recipies and reacquainting myself with my store cupboard and its various interesting ingredients bought for such a possibility. I had some T Bone steaks the other week so decided to make a variety of salads to go with them. First up was good old fashioned tabbouleh, using bulgar wheat (cupboard) as I now have a garden full of the required herbs such as mint and parsely (in copious amounts) to make it and yum, all the remembered flavours bouncing off the tongue. I whipped up a Greek salad and lettuce (out of garden) and tried niece Laura's(http://hungryandfrozen.blogspot.com ) blue vein cheese dressing. I have also made Manhatten Prawn Chowder, Spanakopita (spinach and fetta pie), Tomato, mustard and brie tart, Courgette and polenta slice, tomato and mozarella salad, home made pesto (own basil, woohoo) and homemade hommus. Those who have been fortunate to share some of the above have been impressed, no less than myself who left to my own devices in the past was more likely to open a bag of chips or consider a pkt of chocolate mint biscuits a square meal on the run, lol. I had a chuckle to myself while making the spanakopita as the only recipe I could find was on line, so there I am in the kitchen, laptop perched on the cake tin on top of the bench with me hitting the space bar every so often when the screen went down, cooking my masterpiece as fast as I could read off the screen. A sign of the times indeed!
I so much enjoyed eating out at the Camel Bar of last post's mention that I have been twice again in the past month. Once for Donna's birthday lunch and once after footie finding myself not going past the calamari salad each time and not being disappointed. Two weeks ago now, those who could gathered from work for dinner at a place called the Boat Shed, one of the more salubrious eateries in town. It looks like it was an older type house which has been converted to a restaurant decked out in ship type decor in a pleasing to the eye kind of way. The food was spectacular - I had tempura, tiger prawns with wasabi mayonaise, then a lamb shank on mash, followed by a merangue and wildberry parfait. The first two courses were entree size, though I have to say, not sure what more they would have served for a main with the lamb shank dish, maybe an extra leg or two? We had lots of laughs and there are photos but as I have not shared my facebook address with anyone at work, they shall remain unpublished here, lol.
Now for my back to the beginning. Two Sunday's ago, Donna called round and we went to the local Sunday farmer's market and then on a whim, decided to go for a drive out to Mullewa and Tardun to see what wild flowers were out. It is the first time I had been back since Dec 2009 when I left for my Christmas hols which was also leaving for good. It felt great heading back there, the scenery is awesome at the moment with the canola fields in full bloom contrasting with the growing green wheat fields. With all the rain this year, I have never seen the place looking so green for so far. We did a little Tiki Tour round Mullewa as Donna grew up there, and then headed to Tardun. As we hit the gravel road, have to say I felt like an old war horse, sensing home and the urge to go faster to get there, lol. Had to have a compulsary stop by the duck pond outside McKenna's place to see what ducklings there were and to take a few photos for old time's sake. I was surprised that the pond was not as full as I expected, given that we had to drive through several sections of road that had water running across during our trip. A further few miles up the road with two corners to go, I was busy telling Donna that this very spot was where I had to stop for 7 kangaroos one evening when lo and behold, there were three Skippies in the paddock beside us. Donna immediately stopped the car as I was flapping around with the camera for photos and they were off, hop, hopping along the fence line and then spri'doing, spri'doing, they flew over the fence, across the road in front of us, over the next fence and off they went. It was great excitement as I felt I had almost called them up, lol. We drove up the road past where I used to live to find the whole place fenced off and the only access to the school is through the main gates now. We were on the hunt for a wreath flower and instead of the extra hour it would take to Howes road where they are most prolific, we went instead to the gravel pit just opposite the main gate of the school. Bonus, as we were driving through there, there were more kangaroos, or maybe the same ones, lol. We found one small wreath flower and a few other flowers out but it appeared too early for much else out there. The flowers alongside the road were underwhelming in numbers and I think it is another few weeks away from being spectacular out there. We decided to go to Pindar which is back on the main Mt Magnet-Yalgoo road but halfway there came to water across the road in two lots. I got out of the car and walked through the first bit that nearly came up to my ankles, but the next bit looked deeper and very boggy. We decided Donna's car might not make it through so we had no choice other than to turn back and head home the way we came. On the way back had another lo and behold moment when I spotted a fox trotting along the fence line inside a wheat field. I laughed at myself getting so excited seeing both the fox and the kangaroos as both are vermin but it was the surprise of seeing them I think that got to me.
The following week Donna was around for a coffee when we spied an ad for the annual Psychic Fair held at a place called Golden Ponds (instantly think of the movie and old folks homes, lol). Donna had work later that afternoon and I was still in my pjs a la Hugh Hefner, lol, when we made the decision to go have a look. Ten mins later we were out the door. Because the venue has been on the market for awhile - a function hall of sorts, out in the middle of nowhere - according to Donna, the amount of stalls etc was way down. We arrived in the first room to several tables set up with people doing various readings - cards, clairvoyent readings, etc. We walked through to the next room and there were stalls selling candles, jewellry, books etc and people doing Reiki and crystal healing. We had gone in such a rush, I only enough cash on me for a sausage in bread and a drink. We sat outside in the sunshine having our late lunch when a friend from Tardun days popped up and asked if we had had a reading yet and that we should go and get one done. The thought had crossed our minds so in the end I decided to get one done, Donna supplying the funds until later that evening. It happened that I walked past one place just as someone was finishing and though not the one I had initially intended on seeing, I asked if there was a space, there was, and away we went. This woman had several sets of cards and after holding my hands picked up three packs. The short version is, each deck said the same thing in the key comments that she made. She said when she held my hands she felt no energy at all. She asked if I started each day with good intentions with a list of things to do and maybe only get one thing done, or some days none at all? I asked her if she was living in my house as that is exactly what things have been like and in fact for the last three weeks I had been taking particular note of this very thing. She spoke about a change in work in the next 12 months and that I need to change some of my habits to reactivate my energy levels, that I had poured so much of myself out, there was nothing left for me. Hmmmmmm, survival is like that I thought. At the end of the reading she did some Reiki on me to give me an energy boost (or reboot in computer terminolgy). Time was getting on so we left soon after, however, I had been drawn to the crytal healing woman and decided to go back the next day for a bigger jump start in the energy stakes which I did. Again, it was late afternoon when I got there and lay under a set of chrystals set over the body's chakras which I guess did their thing while I lay there for 20 mins with tranquill music playing about me. I got up feeling a little mazed and was not sure what to expect, thinking if that was it, hard to tell any difference. Well, by the time I got home I felt so tired I had to have a nap. I woke up and moved to the couch only to fall asleep another two times before giving up and going to bed early (for me). The next day when I woke up, talk about feeling chrystal clear, lol. I got up, cleaned the house, mowed the lawns and did three lots of cooking, having two hours rest only before starting a 12 hour shift at work which I flew through coming home to do more outside in the garden before making myself stop to have 5 hours sleep before the next 12 hour shift. One thing the lady who read my cards said, was that I have to sit still without tv, radio or computer on for half an hour or so each day just to disconnect from everything and be still, - hmmm I have managed a few nana naps but not the easiest thing to accomplish cutting the cord to the tv and the laptop - scarey stuff, lol. I have to say, not sure whether it is mind over matter, but I do feel recharged, and have been getting through stuff like wildfire around here. I am not arguing either way. I also had my eye on a pair of earrings at the fair which I shouted myself, silver with a purple stone in the middle and a celtic design around the stone. I thought if they were there on the Saturday when I went out for the second time I would get them and they were so I did.
The best was yet to come however and that was this last Sunday. The ex WM rang me on Saturday to say she was going out to Tardun and Janette's place on Sunday after Hayden played footie and did I want to come - is the Pope Catholic!!!! She wanted to go out to Howes road and said we would go through the nature reserve out there beforehand. I asked if we could have a campfire for lunch and as the fire ban hasn't started yet, that is exactly what we did. When we got to the reserve, there was a huge pond of water filled by the rain and we parked just up from it, kicked a square of dirt out with our boots, gathered twigs and branches and with a page from a notebook I had and one match, we lit our fire. I found an appropriate stick and proceeded to put damper that Bronwyn made on one end of it and rotated it over the coals until cooked before slathering it with butter and golden syrup. We had also taken out sausages and a couple of chops, and I had found and old frying pan so we cooked that alongside the damper and had a feast fit for a king.
It was bliss, sitting in the sun, campfire going and the smell of cooking, woohoo. Of course there along with the excitement of going bush and having a campfire, how soon one forgets the down side, lol. I doubt we had parked longer than 10 mins, pulled the back of the 4WD down to put the food on, when every bush fly known to man and then some, arrived to share our meal with us. There were zillions- I had to beat one off my knife as I was trying to butter my damper. I then nearly buttered one into the damper ewwww ick but they were not getting in the way of me having my campfire lunch, heh heh. Once we had finished our lunch,we kicked dirt over the fire to extinguish it like we had never been there, and were off to see the wreath flowers. The two boys decided they wanted to stand on the running board of the 4WD so we drove several miles with them hanging on dodging bushes as we drove along the track through the reserve.
Once again although the wreath flowers were out I still think they are a couple of weeks away from being fantastic, but we took photos and enjoyed finding other old favourite wildflowers. Bronwyn had a friend from work with us as well and after the running board trip, they all decided they wanted to travel on the roof rack of the car and because we were in the middle of nowhere, with trepidation, Bronwyn let them do it. God knows what would have happened if anyone else had seen us. Again we went several miles like that, the boys loving it, until we joined the main road and they had to get down for the rest. We then drove (sensibly)along the back road of the school and off to Janette and Farmer Geoffs to look at all the wild orchids they had at their place. OMG we used to be lucky to see three in a clump at school and maybe two or three clumps in an area at the most. There were hundreds of spider orchids and a good amount of donkey orchids that were were just brilliant to see. We drove a fair way out on the farm to a valley and along with the orchads there was the best display of wildflowers I have seen this season. We took masses of photos before heading back for a cuppa and the return trip back to town. The serpent in the garden of eden this time was the midges - how could I have forgotten them. Too late I reached for the insect repellent that I had taken but had grown complacent with the beautiful day. Of course we were amongst the flowers as the sun was growing down and though they were not in thick clouds, there were obviously enough to do damage, and damage there is. My arms are covered in bites which I have not been able to resist scratching despite using soove, spit and antihistamine tablets. Thankfully I had jeans and boots on so its only my arms from the elbows down, one behind my ear and one on my cheek that is driving me crazy and I know this too will pass but arrrrgh until it does. I am about to resort to lavender essential oil which should also help. It was sunset as we left Janette's so we were on kangaroo spotting detail in case they decided to leap out in front of us, not something I have to contend with anymore living in town, lol. I have to say, I think I had a grin on my face from the time we left town until I went to sleep, it was soooo good going back out for our wild flower hunt and campfire.
I was so focussed on talking about Tardun, I forgot to mention Jude, Janet's and my trip out to the Coal Seam on Friday via Walkaway but as I am falling asleep after my night shift stint, I will sign off for now and hopefully get to that along with my promised mention of the Oakabella Homestead of last post next post. :):)
Ps tried to add more photos but taking sooooo long I could collect my pension first so will try more next time
