SLOW living

I've been feeling like a bit of a fraud for a while. This week, its really come home to roost but I've been conscious of and feeling like this for a couple of months. Fraudulent in the sense of not deceiving outright, just feeling a little like stretching the truth somewhat.

My tag line for my blog may have to change.

Living with SLOW principles when you are a mum of three and a worker and a student and starting a small business and helping another one get up and running does not for SLOW living make. Having a husband who is now running for parliament in the next State election doesn't help. SLOW living is not really HOW we live hour to hour. Its pretty hard and fast around here.
'Doh!', yeah, i hear you groaning.

Funny, I really identify with SLOW principles. I believe in savoring, getting back to first principles, working for your rewards, not taking the easy options, respecting nature, appreciating the effort that goes in to making, doing, being. SLOW principles are what we always try to employ in what we do, what we use, what we consume, and how we do it. But it all adds up in a modern world to a crazy busy life of promoting SLOW. Our lives are based on generating a public interest in ideas like this. My tag line needs to read something like' a SLOW principled woman working too FAST in a modern world, striving to make SLOW a conscious and attainable way of life.
Within all my responsibilities, paid and otherwise, I try and practice SLOW but at the end of the day it really all adds up to BUSY. Trying to live as consciously and ecologically as possible and getting the word out there and trying to make a difference as a working person with a family is inherently not SLOW.
Cant quite work it out.

bean playing

I've been busy the last few days. Busy unwinding, really unwinding, from the tight coil that was me trying to get my thesis done by Christmas. It took a few days to unfurl, to drop the physical and emotional stress I had been carrying, which had been propelling me along. Its been beautiful, this time at home. I've mostly spent my time playing in the garden, the girls too, the weather has been just perfect for outdoors. We have spent most of our days sitting in the creek, above the creek, beside the creek, listening to the waterfalls and indulging the Boybean in his favourite new pastine; rock tossing. Plonk.
I havent been out in public since I finished. We've been living off food from the garden, Christmas leftovers and pantry staples. We've been playing games, cooking together, doing hours of Lego building and watering the vegetables. Life is good this week.

comfort, joy and butter up its arse

Here's a Merry Christmas read from Waffle; Belgiums slattern extraordinaire and 'unfit' mother. Hope 'y'all had a good one. Im barely conscious. The thought of eating another crustacean is making me feel a bit ill. 'The Night' went extremely well. lots of laughter and wine and food and family goodness. It was brilliant. The Big Beans declared today the best-est, happiest day of their life which they wish could be repeated every day, like groundhog day, hereafter...
Hope you're all well satiated.

i dunno what i was thinking

when i decided that the 24th December would be a good deadline to submit my thesis for its last supervisors' edit. Im snappy. I think I thought maximum time to finish and then I'd be free and able to enjoy the compulsory University shut down from midday tomorow until January 5. Im cranky, stressed, short tempered and suffering a mga burn (dropped a hot molten butter pie crust on my arm??!!??) I've cooked three dishes tonight since i got home from work- dinner; ravioli with carrot sauce, sweet potato bake with nut crumble topping- sweet potatos baked with fresh thyme then mashed with cooked garlic and leek and ready to have the parmesan pine nut crumble topping placed then baked tomorrow night. Boysenberry pie crust cooked, creme patissiere made, that too is ready to be assembled tomorrow and berries piled on top. Just the Beef Wellington and hasselback potatoes and beans to do tomorrow when i get home, after Ive finished the thesis.

Looking forward to that, and the fact that my brother has promised a massive lobster, and prawns and calamari. Surf n turf tomorrow night here i come! Cant remember the last time I ate all that over farmed seafood but Im not going to kick up a stink. I love love lobster. And I look forward to a glass or two (or three or four) of celebration fizz. My mums coming for a sleepover too- first Christmas morning with her for a long time. The big beans are pretty happy about that and she's stoked too. So, this may be the last post until after the crazy hullabaloo has died down. Ive so enjoyed having you all in my neighbourhood, thanks for your company. Have a wonderful time in peace and solitude, with friends, with family; whatever the silly season holds for you. Take care and look after the planet.

carrot and citrus wine

A few months back The Gnomes came to visit to make some wine. We decided on carrot and citrus wine (we had lots of citrus- lemon, orange, grapefruit) We picked and peeled and chopped and boiled and stirred. Then we poured carrot and citrus peel and juice and sugar and regular baking yeast into a big plastic bucket and left it stewing awhile. Then we decanted and drained off the must into another bucket and left it to ferment a month or so.


We tasted, checked the alcohol content, added a little more sugar and left it to ferment again.

When fermentation had slowed right down and the water seal in the bung/ airlock wasn't gurgling anymore we racked it; drained the wine from the sludge that settled at the bottom.



Near finishing time, we checked the clarity, added some gelatine to aid it clearing, and racked it again.



So, yesterday, two months after we first chopped boiled and stirred, the Gnomes returned and we bottled up the wine. A dozen each thereabouts. We reckon it packs quite a punch.



We sampled a little; its very good, spirit-like its so punchy, no hint of carrot and the bloke reckons 'it tastes a bit like Christmas'.

The Gnomes also guided me in a trimming and carving session on a huge hunk of beef. I now have lots of meals of thin schnitzel, a fillet for christmas, some steaks and chunks for curry or mince. What a rare treat! I even got invited to a 'pluckin' party'! Like minds is all Im saying. Stay tuned for that post.


The boybeans got a sweet little thing goin' on with Veggie Gnome. Must be all the berries...

Viva Chavez!

Press release. Copenhagen.
Chavez Calls for Systemic Change to Save Planet
By Kiraz Janicke

During his speech to the 15th United Nations Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez slammed the lack of political will of the most powerful nations to take serious action to avert climate change, and called for systemic change to save the planet.

Chavez, who received a standing ovation for his speech, said the process in Copenhagen is not democratic; it is not inclusive. In particular, he criticised an attempt by rich countries to overturn the Kyoto Protocol. Doing so would eliminate differentiation between the obligations of rich and poor countries, treating countries from the Global North and South as equally responsible for climate change.

There is a group of countries that believe they are superior to those of us from the South, to those of us from the Third Word...this does not surprise us...we are again faced with powerful evidence of global imperial dictatorship, Chavez said.

The Venezuelan president also applauded the initiative of the protesters outside the summit who were calling for serious measures to stop catastrophic climate change.

There are many people outside... I've read in the news that there were some arrests, some intense protests there in the streets of Copenhagen, and I salute all those people out there, the majority of them youth. They are young people concerned for the world's future, he said.

I have been reading some of the slogans painted in the streets. One said, "Dont Change the Climate, Change the System!" And I bring that on board for us. Lets not change the climate. Lets change the system! And as a consequence, we will begin to save the planet. Capitalism is a destructive development model that is putting an end to life, that threatens to put a definitive end to the human species.

Another notable slogan is, If the climate were a bank, they would have bailed it out already, Chavez said during his speech. Its true; the rich governments have saved the capitalist banks, he said, but they lack the political will to make the necessary reductions to greenhouse emissions.

One could say there is a spectre at Copenhagen, to paraphrase Karl Marx...almost no-one wants to mention it: the spectre of capitalism, he declared.

History requires all people to struggle against capitalism, and if we dont, life on the planet will disappear, the Venezuelan president argued.

Do the rich think they can go to another planet when they've destroyed this one? he asked as he recommended a copy of a book by Herv Kampf, How the Rich are Destroying the Planet.

Climate change is undoubtedly the most devastating environmental problem of this century. Floods, droughts, severe storms, hurricanes, melting ice caps, rise in average sea levels, ocean acidification, and heat waves, all of that sharpens the impact of global crisis besetting us, he continued.

Human activity is exceeding the limits of sustainability and endangering life on the planet, but the impacts of climate change are also being felt disproportionately by the worlds poor, Chavez explained.

He also pointed to the relationship between economic inequality and levels of greenhouse gas emissions. He said the richest 500 million people, or 7% of the worlds population, are responsible for 50% of global greenhouse emissions, while the poorest 50% of the worlds population are responsible for only 7% of total emissions.

Using this analysis, he argued that it was not feasible to call countries such as the US and China to sit at the summit on an equal footing, insisting that the same obligations cannot be imposed on both nations.

The US, with a population of 300 million, consumes more than 20 million barrels of oil a day, while China, whose population is almost five times greater than that of the US, consumes around 5-6 million barrels a day, he pointed out.

The behind-the-scenes negotiations at the summit have been marked by sharp disputes between the US and China, and between rich and poor nations. Poor countries have criticised rich countries for attempting to set inadequate emissions targets for industrialised countries and for pledging insufficient funding for poor countries to alleviate the impacts of climate change.

According to various reports, poor nations argue that rich countries should reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. The European Union has pledged a 20 percent reduction. The US, however, has only offered only a 3-4 percent cut.

Outside in the streets of Copenhagen mass demonstrations calling for climate justice have been repressed by police using pepper spray and batons. More than 1000 people have been arrested.

We ask from Venezuela: How much longer are we going to allow such injustices and inequalities? How much longer are we going to tolerate the current international economic order and prevailing market mechanisms? Chavez questioned.

Chavez called for the summit to change direction. We cannot continue like this. Lets change course, but without cynicism, without lies, without double agendas, no documents out of the blue, with the truth out in the open, he said.

so my brother called...

and told me that he loved me, that they would lock in next Christmas lunch as i had requested, that they would come to our house on Christmas Eve and we would do dinner as a complete family, that they would bring food, and I cried. I think my last email must have worked or something? My poor mum was beside herself with joy. I cant remember the last time we had a Christmas meal with them...

So my head turns to a menu. Thinking that I will suggest they bring wine and i will do the food. I'm thinking a piece of fantastic local fillet of beef wrapped in mustard, wild mushroom duxelle and pastry ala Wellington style, a boysenberry tart courtesy of the Gnome berry bushes, nut loaf with pimiento sauce for the vegos and some vegetables/warm salads. Any suggestions? I haven't ever done a Christmas Eve dinner. Usually Im a seafood for lunch at Christmas kind of girl and we always have nut loaf, its our family tradition. Whats your favourite Christmas food? Do you have a Christmas food that's tradition for you?