dinosaur/zombie/vampire/robot

heaps of my extended family from melbourne where visiting adelaide last week including my cousin's 8 year old son lochie... he looks sweet and innocent...

but he designs dinosaur/zombie/vampire/robots who live in a post apocalyptic environment caused by flesh eating bacteria! complete with a snot bubble bommy knocker, tasers, gauging horn, whips, wings, rocket powered skateboard, hydrolic feet and gosh knows what else! aren't they awesome!?! Ben and Lochie spent hours discussing the finer points of dinosaur/zombie/vampire/robots design, most of which i'm sure i'll never understand :)

11 days

it's been 11 days since i last posted ... so much for the photo a day thing huh? i haven't been all that much busier than usual, but i really haven't felt like being around the internet.

these days my internet browsing seems to revolve around reading new posts from blogs i subscribe to, and reading a couple of news website including crikey. when last friday crikey posted this article lamblasting homebirth advocates as wingnuts, well, i just didn't want to be anywhere near the internet anymore. i did manage to stomach a look at crikey on monday to see this response from homebirth australia but it wasn't enough to make the internet a happy place again... so i stayed away a while longer to try and get back some of my optimism and general ability to pretend that the world is a nice place.

it might seem silly to care so much about the birth of a yet to be conceived child but i firmly believe that the safest and least stressful birth i could have is a birth at home with an independent midwife and to have that choice taken away from me is really distressing.

as far as i can see the only reason homebirth with an independent midwife will be illegal as of July 2010 is because the government is legislating against midwives practicing without indemnity insurance... but if independent midwives don't mind continuing on as they have been and practicing without insurance, and their clients accept the risk involved with them not having any insurance, then why should the government care? why not just leave independent midwives out of the legislation and move on?

i believe it's every woman's right to choose the way they want to birth their children. i just want the right to birth my future child the way i want to. i don't understand why the australian government would think it's a good idea to take this right away.
i don't understand why it's come to the point where if i'm not pregnant in the next two months (and i don't want to be pregnant in the next two months) then i'm probably not ever going to be able to have the legal homebirth with an independent midwife that i want.

here's what i'm up too

just because it looked fun over at meet me at mikes

Making : another knitted headband, this time for me!
Cooking : puff pastry to turn the custard i made yesterday into vanilla slice
Drinking : a small glass of sav blanc
Reading: parenting for a peaceful world
Wanting: to spend way too much money on a kitchen :(
Looking: at the internet a little bit too much, i've still got work to do!
Playing: pip's game!
Wasting: hopefully not too much time!
Sewing: nothing right now ... but i'm thinking about starting a little practice quilt
Wishing: that designing my perfect kitchen wasn't such tricky business!
Enjoying: watching ponyo!
Waiting: for my new summer sandals to arrive in my letterbox
Liking: how clever i feel for almost figuring out how to make my vanilla slice as wonderful as the ones from the french pastry stall at the farmers market
Wondering: how to make my egg custard for the vanilla slice less lumpy, do i really need to strain it like stephanie alexander says?
Loving: how the sun stays up a little bit longer every day at this time of year!
Hoping: that there isn't too much more house stuff to do before it starts being built
Marvelling:at the funny radish sounds snoring next to me on the couch.
Needing: not much that i don't already have...
Smelling: more jonquils... oops! they where super cheap and smelled sooo lovely!
Wearing: a red babushka dolls brooch and bright red shoes
Following: inhabit, so many clever eco ideas
Noticing: my aloe vera's flower stem is about to burst into bloom
Knowing: that i haven't been walking up hills enough recently
Thinking: that eating 2 1/2 white chocolate mud cup cakes over the last two days was probably 2 1/2 too many ... but they where very tasty! thank you kerry!
Bookmarking:belly dancing tutorials on you tube, it's pretty tricky to remember the moves between classes you know!

Opening: up the patterns pocket in my new meet me at mikes book... so much prettiness!

Giggling: at ben saying silly things
Feeling: toasty warm at home

some of the offending white chocolate mud cupcakes

kale for sale

Kale for Sale (i couldn't resist!) from the Food Forest

my favourite spot in the markets, Patlin's Garden's table of leafy greens. the piles of greens are a lot higher at 9am but i went walking through the gardens with ben this morning and didn't get there until 11am.

Mr Patlin was a bit disappointed that i wasn't portraying his produce at it's bountiful best and wanted to re-arrange it all for me!

leafy greens are my favourite veges, but until maybe three months ago i had no idea that the most delicious leafy green by far is kale/cavolo nero.

i'd skimmed through the cavolo nero section in maggie's harvest but not given it much thought... it wasn't until i read about kel sauteing it in olive oil and garlic, and noticed it looking all crinkly and lovely at the patlin's gardens stall, that I bought a bunch. after all, kel always seems to be right about these things!

i was expecting it to be a bit like silverbeet but, after sauteing it like kel does, i was amazed at just how different cavolo nero was to any other green i'd tried... and was immediatley converted!

So far i haven't done anything else with my bunches of kale... but i've saved the rind from my last chunk of parmigiano and have a bowl of beans soaking on the bench and tomorrow it's all going to be turned into a big pot of maggie beer's minestrone with cavolo nero. i wish i'd thought of soaking the beans yesterday and could make it for dinner tonight!

there are lots more people taking photos in august at The Byron Life.

jewelery boxes

i spent yesterday afternoon combing through my mums jewelry boxes and drawers with her. admiring all of the beautiful beads, and listening to the stories behind how she acquired them, while she looked through her books reminding herself of the older beads histories.
she doesn't really wear many of them. she always has a strand of beads around her neck, but it's usually one of the same three or four quiet favourites. but she loves scouring her favourite markets stalls and op shops chatting to the ladies about their latest accisitions and looking for another strand to add to her boxes.

there are lots more people taking photos in august at The Byron Life.

radish

because sometimes it's good to be reminded that she's cute and lovable ... even if her favourite thing (asides from watching rosellas in the plane tree out the window) is to stalk us around the house and then POUNCE... even when she knows we're looking straight at her... silly, painful, lovable cat.

i should probably try and take her for a walk again soon. she's doesn't seem to mind the leash and she has loves smelling the park after she gets over the initial shock of being somewhere different, it's just getting there that's tricky. there's only one road to cross, it's less then 50m away, but she terrified of cars and digs her claws into my arms trying to escape. silly, painful, lovable cat.

there are lots more people taking photos in august at The Byron Life.

my scientist was in the newspaper

ben was in the newspaper yesterday! he says they cut out all the good bits ... but i was impressed! (i might be a biased though)

ben with his new headband on our morning coffee walk through the botanic gardens

this is one of the headband/hat thingamajigs i wanted to finish for him, so that's number 68 from the list of 101 things to do in 1001 days done.
I started it when his hair was getting in his face but wasn't long enough to tie back, but that was probably six months ago now and his curls have multiplied so it's not quite so useful as was intended but he says it keeps his ears warm!
i went to start knitting a headband for myself yesterday and realised that i'd forgotten how to cast on and had to look it up on you tube. i probably have a long way to go until i'll be ready to start, number 70, knitting something that involve more than one rectangle...

there are lots more people taking a photo a day in august at The Byron Life.