Kicker

I don't know where to start...

I could say that I was humbled into silence after some lovely feedback at launching my blog,
but really three weeks of not adding a thing is simply self sabotage for a blogger (even a new blogger like me knows this!).
So what's my excuse, we went through a round of the flu in the house, things got busy at home/ work... but this isn't new for anyone else. So here comes the kicker, literally...I got a wee little kicker growing rapidly inside me and giving me hell at the same time. Yep here comes round two and even though I know I will love he/she more then life, I think round two for us means the final round!

Needless to say the last thing I have felt like doing is getting out there and playing with compost and bending over at strange angles dealing with seeds. All I want to do is lay in the bath drinking flavoured water snacking on crackers, and well home grown vegies don't grow this way. I have faith this mood will pass and I will once again derive pleasure out of finding worms in my soil, and I hope it comes soon. It won't be long until I will be able to harvest my carrots, peas and potatoes and I do want to be able to enjoy them, not worry if they will reverse their travel route shortly after eating them!

In the mean time it will just have to Kai enjoying some strawberries.

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The time has come

As I still question the purpose of this blog, I am going live... The murmurings of another person are available for you to read!

So welcome and read from the earliest posts if you care, otherwise check in when you can.

Would you like carrots, peas and potatoes with your chicken?

It is all coming along very nicely.

My no-dig kitchen garden is up and running. I did kickstart my collections of vegies with buying seedlings, but my peas and beans are doing well from seed. BB even has a little sandpit it the patch, but most of the time he is more interested in the dirt! I can't wait for him to want to help me plant our produce.

Gardening with Grandma

Now I water and wait, while I try to cultivate more plants from seed.

The other side to this little adventure, being this blog, has suffered but we will get back on track. HM is pushing for me to write more and launch the site. I suppose this is inevitable, but there is something so peaceful about people not knowing about it just yet. My private world is still safe with me, though I am meant to be conquering or at least coinciding with technology.

What is also very exciting is that we are getting chickens! We are looking into purchasing (or building, if HM gets his way) a 'Chicken Tractor'.  Two dallies + two bantams in the backyard = interesting times! Throw in a toddler and away we go. Talking of BB he is waking now, talking in his language that only he understands. It is such a beautiful sound that I will miss when he is moulded in to communicating in English.

Anyway back to Motherdom, I think we will go and check on the vegies. It is such a lovely winters day.

The space is set.

My no dig garden has been erected in the middle of my backyard, the whole 4.8m x 4.8m and 1.2m high, and it is all thanks to my wonderful husband and his very helpful parents. It is beautiful! I never thought I would say that about some wood and wire but it is.

My two dallies who previously dominated the backyard have come to terms with once again being placed at the bottom of the pecking order (first it was off the couch, then out of the house and now a quarter of their play and pooing area has been removed).  However they have enjoyed trying to get their little noses through the holes in the wire to grab a mouthful of hay or two.

The most surprising aspect to this new little adventure is that I love going to the local co-op to get my hay, manure and compost. It is  a whole new world of shopping I am discovering - including baby chickens which my 13mth BB old called 'duckz' on sight. I would not have found this joy if my own compost worked! (I suppose that my own compost not working is not as surprising in this adventure). My quick banner batch bin that consists of a bin with a lid, occy straps and a few drilled holes will need a little more then the recommended two weeks because, after some reading, I think I have overloaded the bin with too much kitchen waste unsettling the nitrogen vs carbon equilibrium). I also had to purchase 'well rotted' manure as the fresh manure I collected at a friends farm needs to age before being put directly onto a garden. It seems I do have a lot to learn.

As I am still deliberating the internal design of my patch I have only laid two layers for my no-dig garden, newspapers and lucerne hay. However in anticipation I have started to sow some seeds that are winter welcoming and it was meditative (it could be the case that BB's long sleep contributed to this state).  Anyway time will tell if I should continue with living blue ideals or use the pen to breed Dalmatians... fingers crossed.

What's the deal with blue?

Morning television has never been the same for me since I discovered 'The Circle'. I have laughed, cried and even voted for the show and the presenters in the recent 2011 TV Week Logies awards (you go girl Chrissie).

Anyway, they recently had a segment about a young female trying to live blue. I was captured as she explained that for her being green was hard, but living blue was simply about making better decisions in everyday living.  Ka boom. I googled and found http://thebluemovement.com/The_Blue_Movemement_UP6U.html and http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/apr/18/birthofthebluemovement, and, like that I was ready to make a change.

In sum Blue takes the environment out of the green movement and replaces it with human consciousness and how simple choices we make as consumers can alter the affect we have on the world's resources. My favourites are reusing shopping bags, turning off electrical items (including being on standby) and buying local. It is also the inspiration for my worm farm, compost heap and aspirations for a functional (to be developed kitchen garden). For me, another beautiful aspect to living blue was that I could relate to it as easily as the next person. I don't need to look the part to care, or to feel guilty that I use a computer with high speed Internet. I just need to go about my day making simple changes acknowledging that I am taking from this world so I will put back what I can.

Motherdom - Me today, tomorrow a Mum

So just over twelve months ago I gave up my blissful time, my precious body and the world of adult communication - sober and intoxicated! I would be lying if I said I didn't miss it, but I wouldn't give my Beautiful Boy (BB) up. I am hooked, even though some time it is a struggle to stay on the line, as I swallow the world of motherdom whole.

We have been through the fragile baby period, the laughing era and the movement stage, now we are looking into our little toddlers eyes and considering a little sibling for him. Even when he threw his first tantrum at the local swimming pool I was thinking about what a miracle reproduction is.  Yes I can barely get myself dressed in the morning without a few coffee's and my BB's first sleep, but being a mum makes me be a better human, and for that I am grateful. I no longer want to slide through the months and years I want to make every day count, even if it is making sure the worms have been fed, or watering the bonsai, I want my BB too learn consistency, compassion and integrity so he can live the life he wants every day.