It's All In The Attitude

Never regret. If it's good, its wonderful. If it's bad, its experience.

Victoria Holt

Image: "celebrate the difference" by 4dreamer

Day 4 Report

Whoops, I didn't get a chance to post yesterday but that didn't mean I had forgotten. Actually I have had to start thinking about what money to spend - the $1 for the beans was an easy decision but then I started considering pesto - for which I have a million uses - but it is $5 for the jar (my basil isn't ready for harvesting yet). And I am running out of honey (how I don't know I always seem to have pots of it around) so do I buy more, or do I find something else to drink? And is drink included in the "feed" part of the challenge .... yes I love a good loophole.

Breakfast: Beans with toast

Afternoon Snack: Toasted cheese and tomato sandwich

Dinner: Vegetable and couscous casserole with a lamb chop

Drinks: Honey tea

Total expenditure so far: $1

Image: "Coins" by lubroz

Pork Problems

Okay so I have now worked out how to buy Australian bacon (look for the pink square) not that I have found any of it yet but then I started to think about the living conditions of the pigs that will be in my bacon (or chops or whatever).

I don't want my food to have lived in a concrete cell with no experience of rutting and grass and sunshine. Yes I need to find free range pigs for the same reasons I need to find (real) free range chickens.

Back to google and the phone book lol - if I am having trouble finding a home for a chicken, I know that a pig is going to be impossible lol

Image: "Ferdinand the Pig" by sekundek

More Chicken Bits

It is all too hard! Well no it isn't, it is all just giving my brain a workout. I have a response back from Lilydale and they have assured me that their fertilizer and bedding are all recycled into fertilizer.

That is all good but somehow it isn't good enough. So I now have a two pronged plan - if I need to get some chicken for something (say the birthday dinner party) I will get Lilydale.

Part 2 of the plan is to find someone with a chook pen that I can chuck a couple in every now and then and raise them for me in exchange for a fee (I don't have the land or mobility to keep my own chickens). Then it will just be a matter of chopping their heads off (I can do that) and dressing them (I can do that too). I haven't found anyone with a pen yet, and I haven't found where to buy the birds so stay tuned.

Meanwhile, I have discovered that the world keeps turning if I don't eat chicken.

Day 3 Report

Okay I am already getting itchy feet and I want to go to the store - just to get one or two little things you understand. Lol - so far I have resisted but I have used my onion and run out of dressing for my sandwiches and there isn't a lot of honey left so now I have choices to make. Not that there is a lack of food in the house - I have a full freezer and a well stocked pantry.

Anyway, yesterdays report:

Brunch: Tomato, onion and cheese sandwiches (x2)

Dinner: Pasta with mushroom sauce

Drinks: Honey tea

Total expenditure so far: $0

Image: "Coins" by lubroz

Believe!

Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

Lewis Carroll

Image: "Vertical Vapor Trail and Cloud" by mountangirl (me)

Day 2 Report

Brunch: Tomato and onion sandwiches (x 2) - I just can't get enough of these at the moment.

Dinner: Steak, peas, corn and over-baked chips.

Drinks: Honey tea

Total expenditure so far: $0

Image: "Coins" by lubroz

Travel Dreams

I have some obvious travel plans - to get back to Dallas asap (with a detour via Alabama).

I have some dream travel plans - to tour Italy and learn regional cooking for mammas (just like everyone else I know, sigh ....).

And now I have a travel-for-the-sake-of-travel plan - to Tanzania. I want to go to look and experience and take photos. Between Kilimanjaro and the landscape and the animals and the light and the people and the culture and the colors, I think I could amuse myself quite happily for a few weeks.

Top picks would include a visit to Zanzibar, sighting the mountain (although as I am dreaming I may as well plan on climbing it), checking out the rock art, maybe swinging by the Ngorongoro Crater to see an animal or two and a wander around the delightful Dar Es Salaam.

I Believe I Can Fly

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

Mark Twain

Image: "Can you swallow this bubble?" by DWAZ4

Day 1 Report

Brunch: Tomato and white onion sandwich x 2 (can someone who is not pregnant have cravings because I have them bad for these).

Dinner: Mushroom Stroganoff Soup with crusty bread.

Chop an onion and sweat in a butter/oil mix with 1 - 2 teaspoons garlic. Add 600g  sliced mushrooms of whatever variety/ies you have to hand. As they begin to cook add about 1 C rice. Mix well. Add 4 C hot water/chicken stock/vegetable stock. Cook for about 15 minutes or until the rice is tender. Blitz until smooth. Serve with a swirl of sour cream and a sprinkling of parsley. As with all soups the measurements are very flexible - it is just roughly what I used, because that is what I had to hand :-)

Drinks: Lemon tea, peppermint tea

Total expenditure so far: $0

Image: "Coins" by lubroz

Letter to a Friend

Dear you, I don't know if you will get this, or even know it is for you but here is hoping.

We haven't been friends for a lifetime but some days it feels that way. We are both smart, intelligent people who have shared a journey. We have laughed. we have struggled. We have both kept the lines of communication open, even when it seemed easier not to.

Now, we have entered a new phase and I don't know what it is. It could be the end, it could be confusion, it could be a break, it could be that I committed some mortal sin I am not even aware of ... it could be anything because those lines of communication are closed. I don't know whether to speak or stay silent. I don't know whether it is me or some other aspect of life.

Somehow the last couple of months have felt eggshells because the silence could mean so much.Which is ironic because we have both said to each other a hundred times "have you talked to them about it".

To be honest I am not really sure I even care what direction this new stage goes in, but the waiting is too hard. If you don't move then I will.

This is not an ultimatum, far from it. I am just laying myself out there.

Image: "Letter to Santa" by mickryan

Color Me In

I have worn black for years. I like black. I like not having to think about what to wear each morning - it all co-ordinates. I am not in morning, nor am I making any statement on the world. I just like black and it is functional.

Little Miss M does not agree with me. She wants to wear rainbows - all day, every day.

She notices the flowers and confirms that one color can really go with another no matter what else she is told. She looks at gardens and notices the abundance of shades and contrasts and the beauty that results. She walks the park and tries to count how many different kinds of green she can see, and how many shades there are. She watches and sunsets and again confirms that colors that others think clash, don't. She is happy to wear checks and dots and stripes together (she tells me she is not a "shapist" and there is room for all kinds).

Her favorite shoes are red. Her favorite wellingtons, purple with yellow daisies. her favorite socks come above her knees and are striped with the colors of the rainbow.

She has a beige sweater given to her by a well-meaning grandmother. She wears it covered in buttons or scarves or bows (now everyone will notice it she tells me confidently.

Yess, my Little Miss M is a walking rainbow, and if there is every any doubt, you can just look at her smile.

Writer's Prompts Daily

A Matter of Choice

Learning is not compulsory .... neither is survival.

W Edwards Deming

Image: "Learn How To Fly" by klakice

It's Back!

I have just been doing the dishes, contemplating the world as I do and I realize I haven't done the $21 Challenge for a while. Okay my first thought was that I need to do some shopping "just for a couple of things" before I started but that defeats the purpose. Then I contemplated my freezer and realized that to make this a real challenge (there is only one of me after all) I need to do this over a fortnight.

So, I will be heading down to the hole-in-the-wall shortly to get my $20, raiding the purse for an extra dollar and I am set. Yes, I know the supermarket has a minimum purchase of $10 for eftpos purchase which is the only way I shop ans as such I rarely carry any cash at all anymore so I am closing that loophole. I know me - at some point I will buy something "for next fortnight" just to round up the figure - and then I might just just it lol.

I will keep you posted :-)

Image: "Coins" by lubroz

For Sylvia

First things first, but not necessarily in that order.

Doctor Who

Image: "After Action Satisfaction" by erene

Proposed Birthday Dinner

This is my menu (at this stage) for the dinner party for 8 of the sistas- I am trying to come up with a combination of dishes to suit a couple of vegetarian guests, those with gluten intolerance, those that don't eat mushroom (yes you know who you are - mwah) as well as my very limited time that I can stand up/move and wallet. Other considerations are over/fridge space, what to do with leftovers, serving possibilities, cooking space, serving space, serving dishes and bowls - well a whole heap of little things. Oh! - and the theme is "Italian".

Upon arrival:
Mixed bruscetta (v) (some mf)
Baked ricotta and crudites (v) (gf) (mf)

First Course:
Roasted tomato bread soup with buffalo mozzarella (v) (mf)
Italian white bean soup (v) (gf) (mf)

Mains:
Slow roasted pork with apple aioli (mf) (gf)
Slow braised beef ragu with homemade pasta rags
Chicken cacciatore (gf)
Eggplant parmigiana (v) (gf) (mf)
Vegetarian lasagne or spinach cannelloni (v)
Italian roasted potatoes (v) (gf) (mf)
Italian beans and zucchini (v) (gf) (mf)
Caponata (v) (gf) (mf)
Soft polenta (v) (gf) (mf)
Garlic bread (v) (mf)

Dessert:
Tiramisu (v) (mf)
Pears Poached in red wine (v) gf) (mf)
Espresso creams with coffee bean toffee brittle (v) (gf) (mf)

After:
Biscotti (v) (mf)
Brutti ma buoni ((gf) (v) mf)
Coffee

Soupy Days

I continue to make soups - white ones this time. Yesterday it was a potato, leek and rosemary, today it is a cannellini bean soup.

The first one was just for me and Val (next door) and the freezer. It had only six ingredients was delicious!

Today's soup is still cooking so I can't give a verdict but it was a trial run for the birthday dinner (yes as well as the virtual party I am having a dinner party for those that live in the neighborhood).

Long live cool days :-)

I Wanna Fly

"I wanna fly Mum, I wanna fly!"

I had tried to plan the day whereby we could split some of the exhibitions with some rides and then onto the animals and finishing with food and showbags as we exited the gate. It was a great plan - I know it was - I had used it for the last three years. But whether Rubee was onto me, or whether she just assumed that the ride was there, well, it didn't matter - I was sprung.

She was 5 now and had talked about nothing else but "flying" all week - actually for the past few weeks. She loved the idea of being strapped in, of being safe and then taking off with nothing underneath her but the ground which seemed oh so far away. She always giggled wildly as the wind blew in her face and her hair flew everywhere else.

We walked over and that was when she made her announcement - I wasn't to fly with her this year. "You keep telling me I getting grown up so I need to do this by myself", she explained. In many ways I couldn't fault the logic but the desire to protect sometimes has nothing to do with logic. I was hoping that the ride attendant would veto the idea but the day was early and there was no one else riding. He looked at me with what I assume was his most comforting look and explained that the belt would fit, she would be safe, and that he would run it slower than usual. There being no way out without disrespecting her new grown-up status, I nodded that it was okay.

I stood outside the fence and watched her fly.

"Faster, faster", she called "I want to REALLY fly".

The operator looked at me again and smiled. I nodded.

The look of exhilaration on her face as the ride sped up, as the wind in her face got stronger, her hair flying out behind her. She waved at me every time she went past. The rest of the time she was both laughing and singing at the top of her voice. She lifted her arms high to maximize the experience.

"Did you see me Mum, did you see me fly?" she asked as she got off and came running over to me.

"Of course!", I answered and tried to match her smile.

There would be moments like this for the rest of her life - moments when she wanted to fly and I wanted to keep her safe on the ground. There would be first love and first job and first time overseas. There would be a thousand firsts and I know that each of them brings the risk of falling. Maybe today was my lesson as much as hers - to wait until she was ready, to prepare her the best I can, to let go, and be there to share the experience - whatever it may be.

Oh my dear child, my one and only Rubee. As I look at your face today I saw the joy of flying, I saw your joy. And I know that I cannot deprive you of that. May you always fly by beautiful one.

Writer's Prompts Daily

Be Free

You risk tears if you let yourself be tamed.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Image: "freedom" by rippedknees

More Gifts

As well as warm fuzzies I got cookies. Okay I had to pinch Miss K's pic because these didn't last very long - White Chocolate and Macadamia Biscuits. Now I say this because I mean it and I am not trying to be polite - THESE WERE THE BEST COOKIES I HAVE EVER HAD EVER! And I am not a huge fan of the genre - I mean I can usually take 'em or leave 'em for the best part (cookies and cakes and other sweet things that is) but these were incredible! I don't really know how many were on my plate - and I did make them last for a fraction over 24 hours but that was only because I was trying so hard not to be piggy. The recipe is here. And I mean it - they are soooooooo good - make two batches because one will never be enough lol.