Try shooting

Our cows Bessie and Violet have developed the habit of tipping their buckets over in the morning. Especially Violet. She sticks her nose in and then pulls it forward onto it's side, spilling her morning mash on the ground. She invariably follows this up by hooking her horn through one of the bucket handles leaving her blinded, wearing her bucket like an oversized feedbag. I'm leaving her to it.


Jim and I drove into Port again this morning to keep working on the garden transformation. The road into town has a lot of twists and turns, demanding care and attention, so there’s a real pleasure in going with someone else driving because it allows me a chance to lift my eyes and explore the hills and valleys. Almost every time I see a road, a house, something I haven’t seen before. It also gives me a chance to just take it all in – the morning mist, the light low, accentuating the hidden gullies on the sides of hills.


Noah was happy when I got home having enjoyed his day with Nana again. More weeding, playing. It doesn’t take long before dingbat hour kicks in though and I play the no nonsense daddy, herding him through dinner and shower towards bed. The crème fraiche didn’t work and has gone sour, too sour. We’ve got a few ideas and we’re going to try again. I also bought eight kilograms of sugar on the way home so mum can make some lemon cordial while I’m at work tomorrow. The lemons on the bush lemon tree are running out but there’s still quite a few up high so I’ll climb the tree before I go to work tomorrow and pick some.

I’m enjoying blogging. It focuses my attention on the good things that are going on, to actively look for them, even initiate them. And then when they come I capture them, savour them. It also helps me remain focused on what we’re doing here, trying to live as sustainably as we can, slowly getting there. And by writing it down we can see how far we’ve come, which helps on the days when it feels like nothing is moving at all.

The blog software includes such things as referral sites, where people were before they viewed this blog. My favourite one is from a site with headlines like “Have you ever wanted to try shooting a real gun?” and “Do you fantasize about an African safari?”. It’s a long way from there to here…

“I’m grateful that we did a bit more weeding today.”
(Confused? Look)