India in a Flash

I crossed the globe and back in a flash, the week was a whirlwind in which I hardly had time to adjust to the time zones.  But here are a quick few snaps of the journey.  India is starting to grow on me now I am a repeat traveller, it is truly unique and remains a culture of extremes.  The poverty and richness of the country is truly amazing.  I even look forward to the hotels and the food, the taste of India is nothing like what we do to it in Australia.

 Despite seeing the Taj last trip, you can never really understand what it is like to walk in front of it, and to listen to the history.  This trip I also bought back a chess set that I had been searching for.  I wanted a set to hold on to.  I remember my father teaching me to play as a very young child.  Maddison will start lessons next year at school, and we will practice at home on a set made from the same marble and precious stones at the Taj, and one day I will pass it to Maddison for her to look back on our journey together.

Indian Sunrise

Sunrise at 6:15 am in India, a rare moment of clear sky and beauty.  The trip this year was considerably cleaner than my visit 12 months ago.  The Government is trying to eradicate plastic bags, and I think it is working as there are definitely fewer of them lining the roads.

Over Whelmed

It is official, after months of struggling to balance work, study, parenting, relationships and life, I am over whelmed.  A transitional period with work that never seems to transition has spilled over into everything.  And as I glance around my life I see the debris of chaos everywhere. 

A week of sickness, then a week of international travel for work and then home, no wonder things look awry!  I have wallowed in it all for a week, whilst making some noises at work about the unsustainability of it all. 

The straw that broke this week was actually realising that I had forgotten to pay my credit card bill five days ago.  Me!  The person who tracks every receipt, can rattle of their net worth and give you my current tracking position until financial independence,  yes a bitter pill to swallow.  A waisted $150, ouch that hurt.

In Queensland it is a long weekend, which in itself was a surprise, as was my footy team being in the grand final!  Yes, life is clearly out of control.

I managed to spend some time out in the yard, trying desperately to connect and find some of my usual grounding strength.  Today, I have realised that one of my strengths is organisation, so time to get on with it.  In cleaning up the kitchen I found the invitation to a Scottish wedding, and it is themed, so time to organise what I will need.  I do actually have a Scottish heritage of my own, so I am importing some stuff, along with the wedding gift.  At least I have a month for it to arrive, which is a good sign in comparison to paying my credit card bill.

Life at home is still littered with pieces of my sisters life, including a double fridge freezer in the garage.  Of course, I have started to fill it, so next step is to take stock of what we have.  The $21 challenge asks you to write a list (yep, I love a good list) of the fridge, pantry, freezer and your sister's freezer and then plan your meals around using it all up.  That should keep me busy for the balance of the day.

It is also meant to hit 35 degrees and the youngster is already harassing me about breaking the ice on that pool.

Veggie Patch - Update # 5

The turkey scores have been settled, without injury!  Other than to my wallet.  Lucky this vegie patch was not about saving money, as I am now fairly certain that the return on investment will be negative for the balance of this lifetime!

It was rather funny to come home from work on Monday and see the bush turkey on the boundary fence looking down at our construction efforts and wonder 'how in the hell am I meant to get into there!'.

Score is now even, and the new plants are growing well.

Veggie Patch - Update # 4

After arriving home from work on the Monday, we headed around to the back of the house to water the garden.  My jaw dropped to the ground and the child burst into tears.  Something had certainly had a field day in our garden.  Tracking back over the potential suspects....

 

Upon closer inspection the plants did not appear to be eaten, just scattered all over the place.  The pots on the deck had also been destroyed.

There was digging, and I remembered back when the dog up the road came and visited our first two chickens.  After ruling out the possible suspects, I starting thinking about our resident bush turkey who comes to visit the chicken pen each night looking for left overs.

This weekend was filled with hammering and chicken wire as we build an enclosure around our garden to keep out the suspected bush turkey who is clearly up on the points board for that effort.

 

Veggie Patch - Update # 3

For three solid weekends the pair of us have shovelled, heaved and poured.  I have been really surprised by the dedication of the youngster.  I expected that after the first 100 buckets the shine would have worn off, but to her credit she stayed the distance and it was a nice bonding experience for us both.  Even Meg was tired of the activity and demanded that scratching her was going to be way more fun.

It has been with great pleasure that we moved the last bucket of soil into the new patch.  So this weekend we headed into the city and had breakfast together, before stopping at the nursery on the way home to pick up some plants and straw.

We learnt about strawberries, potatoes, peas, carrots, capsicum, coloured silverbeet, lettuce, bok choi, parsley, coriander and rhubarb.  We learnt that some plants require different amounts of sun, and space to grow and depths to be planted.  All very exciting stuff.  The end product for weekend 3 did look pretty good and we were certainly impressed by our efforts.

 

Veggie Patch - Update # 2

After a gruelling first weekend, I am reminded each day when I pass the balance of the soil and mulch that the activity is far from over!  But the project has been met with great excitement from the little one.  Hard to imagine why when we look at the culinary eating patterns that involve vegetables!  Maybe it is the opportunity to dress for the occasion.

Weekend 2 and we managed to find a whole crop of cherry tomatoes that had either someone survived the old garden patch, or miraculously appeared on their own steam.  We decided they looked good enough to keep, so we staked them up and weeded underneath them.

We also spent some time constructing a sprinkler system for future convenience, and well we had left over bits and bobs that could be used instead of sitting in the shed gathering dust.  Actually most of the project was designed and constructed with left over materials from the many projects around the property.

 

Meg was also very interested in what was happening.  Her winter coat certainly is amazing, she looks about three times as big.