posted by Lily on homely

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Oh my goodness – it’s the end of August and I’ve been away so long.  Completely unintentional and compared to the despair of 6 million Pakistani folk left homeless by dreadful flooding, no good reason why.

Well … it’s still no good reason but one irritating contributing factor has been a lack of laptop.  The battery in my laptop exploded and one of the hinges on the screen snapped off which turned my elegant little ummm … you know, one of those really flat apples into a lopsided football – it’s currently hanging out with the Apple geniuses  who  declare they can fix it.  Hmmm.  But still, we’re dry and safe, with food in our cupboards and clothes on our backs so who’s to complain.

So, whilst the rain is beating down upon our little home tonight, and the wind whipping the trees and rattling the windows, I am thinking of those poor, poor people for whom it must seem, the rain is never going to stop.  In unfair comparison, Abby and I are cosy and warm.  Dinner is almost ready.  Julian is still at work.  And I do have some gardening and stitching to share.  :-)

The more I read, the more things I find that we can do ourselves to make our home a place of production not consumption!  We’re making our yoghurt under the spare ‘oom bed (it’s cosy warm under there – go figure!), baking our own bread and cookies, we’ve found a marvellous Friends of the Earth shop where I can take my own jars and bottles to fill with flours, salt, herbs and spices, grains, pulses, cleaning products and shampoo, buying our fruit, veg and milk from a marvellous online organic store that delivers gorgeous seasonal bounty to our door each week, and just this weekend, have bought an old fashioned hand-turned mincer for making our own organic and free range mince, sausages and burgers.  What fun!  Abby is especially keen on this and, much to Julian’s horror, uses the coffee tamper to shove her diced meat deeper into the mincer whilst briskly turning and turning the wooden handle and delighting in the mince that comes tumbling out.

Of course, with spring on its way – ah!  the blossom trees around us are SO PRETTY!! – gardening was the next obvious choice and a few weekends ago we took out a family membership of the Diggers Club and came home, laden with seed raising trays, seeds galore and very excitingly – a rhubard corm and seed potatoes.  Yum!

Now, our windowsills are lined with wispy green shoots – we have capsicum, tomatoes, sage, basil, strawberries, onions, chives, comfrey, celery, thyme and more.  In egg cartons we’ve raised beans and this weekend past, transferred them to the garden – scarlet runners, black eyed peas and sugar snaps, with cos lettuce and english spinach in amongst them.  And what would a garden be without flowers!  So we have lupins and sweet peas lining the front porch – boy am I looking forward to sitting out there in the warm sun, breathing in the heavenly scent of sweet peas – and fox gloves bordering our strawberries.  Oh the opportunities for gardening in Melbourne are indeed magical!  I’m already planning our bulbs for next year :-)

Until then, there are so many more vegies to plant, care for, harvest and enjoy.  And we are having such fun – Abby talks to them all each morning – sweetly cooing at them to grow strong.  I don’t know about that.  On Mythbusters they showed that the plants enjoyed heavy metal music the most so I’ve been screaming at them every now and then.  Just to keep them on their toes.

Meanwhile, back in Pakistan –  I’m wondering if there’s some kind of CraftHope project established to help out here.   I think the flooding is concentrated in the south where the winter – which will be upon them before they have a chance to dry out and re-establish some kind of home – is quite mild.  But still, I’m sure after their desperate food, water and shelter needs are met, they will be needing practical resources for their homes – blankets, clothing, bedding.  If you know of appeals of a practical nature – let me know.  In the meantime, I shall do some more research and get back to you with anything I find.

p.s. the empty pot above is not really empty.  It’s cradling my most prized gardening possession – my rhubarb corm.  Hopefully we’ll see action before too long :0

p.p.s. thank you to the kind folk who emailed to see if I was still breathing :-)  Your friendship and concern brings a smile to my face and warms my heart.