Old and Unused

Now the post title will mean something to only a couple of people i was with today but when they read it, they will be giggling like school girls from the shear audacity of me saying it out aloud. I love to shock! Such is the nature of conversations when women get together and at the most unexpected times, something is said out loud followed by a pregnant pause when everyone goes silent and then we all burst out laughing as one by one we all "get it".  The moral is that you shouldn't listen in to others conversations when you don't know the subject matter.  I'm not saying any more as i will make you blush except i think there still resides in all of us mature ladies a naughty school girl just aching to be let out to play occasionally. Or is it just me?

I've had a lovely weekend visiting and going out with girlfriends.  The boys were occupied and i think they seem to have accepted that if i don't get some "girl time" occasionally, i go nuts.  "Happy Wife, Happy Life" should be stencilled onto the forehead of every husband and "Happy Mums Are Lots More Fun" onto the children's.  Its so true. So thanks boys (Rob & Tom) for allowing me this time to be just me, Lynda.

Friday night i left straight from work and travelled an hour to Ballarat to have dinner with Sharon (Miss Townmouse and family.   Click on the link and you will have the recipe for the yummiest slice that is so easy to make.

Just 4 ingredients

What i didn't get was a picture of dinner which was a beautifully baked silverbeet and ricotta pie with salad, including a quinoa salad to die for.  I didn't like quinoa the last time i had it (in a 5 star restaurant) but i loved this one prepared by Sharon's daughter, Teneale.  The texture was much softer and with the addition of a little maple syrup,nuts and fruit it was delicious.  As we are apt to do, there was a garden tour and a huge greeting for me from Alaska (India's dog).  At 5 months old, she had her paws on my shoulders.  Problem is she thinks and acts like she is about a foot high so you can just imagine the result.  I think I'll take my 5.6kg bundle of trouble called Tilly.

Sharon gave me a pile of old magazines.  Some date back to early 90's.  They were all new to me.  Earth Garden and Grass Roots Australia have been going for over 40 years and are Australian's original sustainable living magazines. They are fabulous and have many well known contributors, like a very young Jackie French.  They are certainly not glossy mags but have an organic feel to them that is far more in keeping with the subject matter than today's gardening mags that are very slick and full of ads for trendy so called "green" must have items that are so over priced its ridiculous.   I'll certainly be wading through them and bringing you a few blasts from the past.

 
I've reviewed a few already and found great articles written by families sharing their journey from the cities to a new sustainable life on the land back when "permaculture" was a new word.  I get more out of reading these real accounts written by real people than from a host of professional writers.

After great conversation and lots of laughs i left around 9.30pm to make my way home.  I wasn't planning it but between Sharon's place and home, just off the freeway is Ballan where a certain rabidlittlehippy lives.  Its been ages since i visited Jess and if you read her blog you'll know that her garden/food forest is starting to come together after starting from scratch a few years ago.  So much has changed since the last time i visited and so after coffee, she donned a head light and we took our phones out (handy torches) and you guessed it, we did a garden tour at 11pm.  The new orchard layout is great and her apple collection is vast.  I see an apple press in her future and cider in mine.  One good thing about being in the garden at night is that we got to see the slugs and snails having dinner.  Obviously if i am using my phone as a torch, i am not taking photos, so you missed out again.

Saturday, my sister Glenda was over and so after a hair cut (well make that lots of hairs) we managed to fill the last of my raised garden beds ready for my own tomato seedlings.  I can hear them singing "it time for bed".    Its already fenced against a certain four legged visitor and i will also cover it in bird netting.  Im having terrible trouble with mynahs at the moment.  We had big plans to visit the State Rose Garden today with friends for their annual picnic.  We were expected to be serenaded by live jazz and to eat artisan food whilst gazing and taking pics of over 5000 rose blooms. Mother Nature had other plans and a serious storm and downpour over night would have decimated the roses and made the car park a bog.  I feel so sorry for all those volunteers and small businesses that put so much work into the preparation.   We made a joint decision to try and find something else to do and whilst watching a dark cloud covered sky we took off to Queenscliff for lunch.  It turned out to be a marvellous day with patches of brilliant sunshine and by the end of the day the sky was clear.  As always, we went to the Queenscliff Courtyard Cafe & Nursery for lunch. Its my favourite.

Don't you just love this sign.  

This is my new favourite picture of my Bestie.  She looks so happy!

Yummy Chicken Soup and toast

After going for a walk we returned for desert and not being able to decide we asked for a taster plate each.   Vanilla slice, orange muffin, fresh fruit and yoghurt and the best by a unanimous vote, gluten free orange and almond meal cake with cream.   

So that's it for a month.  What?   Since we had a picnic planned today, i had put off my diet until tomorrow. A likely story i hear you say or haven't i heard that one before?  Well usually i do diets for myself and I'm not that successful.  This one i am doing for a girlfriend who is having major surgery in a month and has to lose a lot of weight.  Its going to be hard for her and so to support her and so that we can whinge and whine about how hungry we are together, i am doing it with her.  Glenda is joining us so we have decided to call ourselves the Shake Divas!  Doesn't misery love company?

Following "my last supper" we drove to Port Lonsdale to gaze at the entrance to the bay.  There is a turbulent rip here where Port Phillip Bay meets the Bass Strait.

 

There were lots of families strolling on the beach and plenty of people, like us just watching from the lookouts near the lighthouse.  Its way too hot and crowded down here in mid summer so from now until December is a lovely time for a day trip to the ocean.  

Once back home i found a very happy hubby pleased to have finally finished laying the bamboo flooring in Tom's room and to have made it out into the back corridor.  Two rooms down and the rest of the house to go.

Never was there a man so happy to spend his weekends working.  He (and everyone else) hates our 20 yr old stained carpet and he told me it really depresses him and prevents him from enjoying the house.  Rob has made it his mission to get rid of it, piece by piece.   The bamboo is actually quite expensive but very hard wearing and environmentally sustainable.  

Say farewell to glorious photos of food for a while or get your fill on Sharon's blog.  I'm happy that my plan includes one real meal a day so i can continue to have my salads.  I have a whole garden full to use and the tomatoes are on their way.  Till next time.....

Thanks for Visiting Living In The Land of Oz