Something smelly

Cold, crunchy frost this morning. Like a true icebreaker my gumboot broke through the frozen crust on the cow’s water trough. I keep the cow’s feed in the old corn shack and the cows have started mooing anytime I go in. This morning they didn’t even wait until I was in. It was warm mash for breakfast this morning, sweetened with molasses. Bessie is slowly mellowing, getting used to me, leaving her skittishness behind. I gave her a long scratch under the chin while she ate, only the second time she’s let me. The pragmatist in me tells me that they’re just cows but lately I’ve been looking to savour more of what life has to offer, and an affectionate relationship with our livestock is too good to pass up.


I’m experimenting with a different approach to work and life at the moment. Usually I try and get through the work I need to do as quickly and efficiently as possible so I have time to relax. Things that slow me down, extra problems that need my attention, things that go wrong, are all to be avoided, resented. The experiment is to embrace a life of endless work, and to enjoy it. Instead of getting through what needs to be done so I can do what I enjoy, I’m trying to really enjoy what I do, what needs to be done. There is always so much to do.

I got a lift in to work this morning and on the way Jim had to stop to drop his kids off at daycare. Wandering around the carpark waiting, enjoying the crisp air and morning sun I was struck by the windows of the Arts Centre where I have choir. Not the windows themselves but the surrounds, the architraves. It was just the subtle ornamentation that caught my attention - the tapered sides, the detail on the bottom piece. Taking function a little bit further into the realm of cuteness without overdoing it. It is a nice progression I recognise every now and then – learning how to do something properly, mastering it, then exploring ways to make it cuter, more interesting. Why stop with straight lines? I was thinking the same thought later in the day looking at the finished paving. There aren’t many straight lines but perhaps we could have made a little space for a garden bed against the studio to grow a creeper. Something smelly, in a nice way.


I have started giving Noah chores. I got the idea from a Steve Biddulph book on raising happy kids. His argument is that kids need to learn about real life, about having responsibility, about contributing and taking pride in their work, learning self-sufficiency, and of course being praised for their achievements. So now Noah sets the table every night for dinner, and I’m teaching him to put the duck and the chooks away at night. He enjoys collecting the eggs too. We’ve only had one good layer for a while now, Gladys our silver pencil Wyandotte, but this week we’ve started getting a second egg from one of our other 5 hens. I wonder who it is.

“I’m grateful that I helped put Marmalade and the chooks in bed."
(Confused? Look)