Cherries
Well my parents have been visiting this weekend and it's been a great weekend. We drove down to the mornington peninsula and visited the Digger's club gardens again - except this time I was awake and wandered around the gardens. Matt and I got carried away buying seeds for our next garden (back in queensland), so hopefully when we move back it's somewhere with a yard (and hopefully queensland gets so much rain that the water restrictions are lifted). We found a cherry farm and bought some cherries and ate nearly the entire kilo between the four of us on the drive home.... They were delicious and we were most excited. We cooked my parents salmon fillets baked on slices of orange with garlic, parsley and orange zest on top, with some lemon, basil, rocket, parmesan linguini on the side for dinner.
The next day after lunch we decided to go to the yarra valley and visit the dairy there. So we all ate lots of yummy cheese and then decided to "go for a drive" to the alpine region around Mt Buller. On the way we found another cherry farm, the cherries there were even yummier, so we bought 5kg.... We got about 1/2 way through that box on our drive. We drove down into Lake Eildon (or whatever it is called) as it is so empty compared to what it used to be.... We were a long way past the boat ramp on our drive "into" the lake, and there was nothing. By the time we got home it was quite late but we cooked eye fillet steak with green peppercorn sauce with a sort of potato bake that had mushrooms and thyme in it on the side.
Whilst my parents were staying we let them use the bed and we were using the thermorests to sleep on. As I laid on my thermorest that evening getting all the sheets arranged so it was comfortable, I lifted up one of the sheets and found a spider where I had had my feet. I'm not sure what kind of spider it was. It was about the body shape and size of a redback, but I don't think it was a redback (or a spider of the widow variety) as it had no hourglass on it's stomach. It was a brownish spider with two pink dots on its back. I got a jar and scooped it into it with the intention of having a better look at it the next day, but it was looking a little sluggish when I did all that (possibly it hadn't coped so well with my feet having been on top of it) and today it looks convincingly dead, making it tricky to get a really good photo or anything.
Dad and I had some fun political discussions where he deliberately riled me up and I disagreed with the government on everything and said I was going to "march on the capital". Issues ranging from the fact that whilst I don't want people using drugs and driving, I think random drug tests constitute an illegal search; the "anti-freedom" laws (with me citing the whole In The Name of the Father thing where similar laws got innocent people jailed); the IR laws; the evilness of terminator seeds (although he didn't give me much opposition on that); and just the way our laws are changing bringing us incrementally closer to a "big brother" type government etc etc. Always fun disagreeing with people (luckily dad and I are likely to pretend we disagree even if we don't for the sake of a "discussion").
Has been horribly hot here, and outside felt like a fan forced oven:( Hopefully tomorrow will be a cooler day, there is a breeze outside now.
Just finished reading Zig Zag Street, which Muppit gave me for my birthday - I have been laughing out loud the entire afternoon. I kept seeing bits that I thought "must post that bit on my blog" but by the end of it I would have wanted to post the whole thing (which seems somewhat illegal). Plus it's a context thing. I especially enjoyed it as it's set around the areas I've frequented (park rd, st lucia, toowong etc). I think Matthew will be glad I'm finished and am not running to him all the time insisting on reading bits aloud to him.
Mmm... I'm sure I had something useful to say, but I have forgotten...
The next day after lunch we decided to go to the yarra valley and visit the dairy there. So we all ate lots of yummy cheese and then decided to "go for a drive" to the alpine region around Mt Buller. On the way we found another cherry farm, the cherries there were even yummier, so we bought 5kg.... We got about 1/2 way through that box on our drive. We drove down into Lake Eildon (or whatever it is called) as it is so empty compared to what it used to be.... We were a long way past the boat ramp on our drive "into" the lake, and there was nothing. By the time we got home it was quite late but we cooked eye fillet steak with green peppercorn sauce with a sort of potato bake that had mushrooms and thyme in it on the side.
Whilst my parents were staying we let them use the bed and we were using the thermorests to sleep on. As I laid on my thermorest that evening getting all the sheets arranged so it was comfortable, I lifted up one of the sheets and found a spider where I had had my feet. I'm not sure what kind of spider it was. It was about the body shape and size of a redback, but I don't think it was a redback (or a spider of the widow variety) as it had no hourglass on it's stomach. It was a brownish spider with two pink dots on its back. I got a jar and scooped it into it with the intention of having a better look at it the next day, but it was looking a little sluggish when I did all that (possibly it hadn't coped so well with my feet having been on top of it) and today it looks convincingly dead, making it tricky to get a really good photo or anything.
Dad and I had some fun political discussions where he deliberately riled me up and I disagreed with the government on everything and said I was going to "march on the capital". Issues ranging from the fact that whilst I don't want people using drugs and driving, I think random drug tests constitute an illegal search; the "anti-freedom" laws (with me citing the whole In The Name of the Father thing where similar laws got innocent people jailed); the IR laws; the evilness of terminator seeds (although he didn't give me much opposition on that); and just the way our laws are changing bringing us incrementally closer to a "big brother" type government etc etc. Always fun disagreeing with people (luckily dad and I are likely to pretend we disagree even if we don't for the sake of a "discussion").
Has been horribly hot here, and outside felt like a fan forced oven:( Hopefully tomorrow will be a cooler day, there is a breeze outside now.
Just finished reading Zig Zag Street, which Muppit gave me for my birthday - I have been laughing out loud the entire afternoon. I kept seeing bits that I thought "must post that bit on my blog" but by the end of it I would have wanted to post the whole thing (which seems somewhat illegal). Plus it's a context thing. I especially enjoyed it as it's set around the areas I've frequented (park rd, st lucia, toowong etc). I think Matthew will be glad I'm finished and am not running to him all the time insisting on reading bits aloud to him.
Mmm... I'm sure I had something useful to say, but I have forgotten...
posted by earthkissed | 9:46 pm
6 Comments:
Oooo...if you have any spare seeds let me know! I have looked at buying heirloom seeds before but have never made the plunge. (and I need to convince sal to let me convert some lawn in to more valuable vegie space!)
It was all useful lovely! I don't know if down your way you've heard of the Seed Saving Network, but they can be a great source of open pollination seeds.
http://www.seedsavers.net/
YOu need to set up a four plot rotating system, should be pretty easy. These packets generally have more seeds then we need, so next time I catch up with you will have to see what I can do.... Definately go heirloom, we want seeds that can produce their own useful seeds that you can then plant the next year! I can't believe sally would be not wanting you to convert boring lawn into wonderful garden!! You should have both come to the diggers club with me..
Jade, have heard of seedsaving type things, although not that specific one. Eden seeds which we used to get has some sort of seed saving network and on their catalogue would have a star next to things that they needed seed savers for.
I'm really worried that the government allowing terminator crops into australia means these crops will cross breed with all our normal seeds making them all sterile:(
If you're concerned about big brother, don't move here. We're spending as much time and effort spying on ourselves with no provocation that we'd have caught all the bad guys by now.
Is it possible your spider was a juvenile redback?
I'm very jealous of your visits to the cherry farms... 5kg in brisbane at the moment will set you back anywhere from $60-$100 :(
Ooh, cherries... yum yum yum. Do you know whether you can pick them yourselves at some farms? That would be cool.
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