Garden bliss

Things look good in the veggie patch...

Zucchini Cocozelle

Here's the first (young) harvest of the season...

Hard times in the veggie boxes

Well, it's been a tough season in the veggie patch thus far. It started (I think) with poor quality commercial soil mix in the raised beds. This led to a lot of weak seedlings, which were then enthusiastically attacked by slugs, snails and whitefly. I tried correcting the soil problem with lots of organic matter, but had to contend with another pest in the form of my dog, who kept wreaking havoc in the boxes by hauling her 24kg frame into them and eating blood and bone 😝.

The things growing in pots are in a different growing medium and doing well. So, we're starting to see a tiny amount of yield.

The good thing about gardening is that it's a marathon not a sprint. I will correct the soil under the cloak of autumn/winter and then be ready to go again. 

Happy basil

The basil on our window sill is doing well. I am enjoying watching it grow. I will enjoy it even more when it's ready for harvesting. In the mean time, we get to pinch bits out of the top and eat them in the spirit of making it grow full and lush.

Baby veggies

Tatsoi, lettuce and broccoli, oh my!

Broccoli a-go-go

English spinach (I feel a smoothie coming on in about four weeks)

The Veggie Box

We've recently had this old apple crate installed as a raised bed in our garden. It's only 120x120cm, but the benefits are that it's free and clear of our dog and her toiletry habits and the height allows me to do my favourite kind of gardening without bending over. For some reason, bending to weed etc wreaks havoc on my neurological pathways, activating my MS symptoms something awful.

So far, I have planted six broccoli seedlings and, from seed, English spinach, carrots, rainbow chard, coriander, beetroots, lettuces, and leeks. Everything has germinated and seems to be coming along well (the broccoli is already getting inundated with cabbage moth eggs; fortunately, with a crop of six, I can obsessively clean the leaves). Next month, I will plant garlic and snow peas. This is going to be one full planter box. We are already talking about buying two more...

Pictures of veggies coming soon

Baking as therapy

Yesterday was a bit stressful. In order to alleviate my nerves, I baked this cake. I'm not sure that it significantly de-stressed me, but it was fun and easy and tasted great. It was also a good way to use up the excess of plums we always seem to accumulate in autumn. The offering was well received by other members of the household. Half the cake has now been sent off to lovely partner's workplace, so that I don't scoff the lot.

Yummy plum cake

Window herbs

For the first time ever, I have a home with north facing window sills wide enough to accommodate indoor plants. I have kicked off with some basic herb seeds - basil, coriander and parsley - which have all germinated and are coming along well. The coriander seedlings were showing signs of purple on the edges of the leaves, which I quickly diagnosed as lack of potassium. I have fed them some potash and they seem to be greening up, fingers crossed.

Happy herbs

Returning to the blogosphere

Three years is a pretty long time between posts, and a fair bit has happened. We moved from Brisbane back to our spiritual home, Melbourne. Lovely partner has two new jobs and is working super hard, but enjoying it. Our two canine pals went, one shortly after the other, to that big dog park in the sky. After a suitable period of mourning, we fostered the mighty Jezebel and eventually adopted her.

After a couple of years of limited gardening in rental premises, we have bought a new place. The garden is small, but perfectly formed. Looking forward to transforming it to an edible paradise and documenting the journey here.

The mighty Jezebel

Random pleasantness

On the train on my way to work this morning, I felt a warm  snuffling on my ankle and realised there was a guide dog under the seat beneath me. He was a gorgeous glossy black labrador with big feet and a wet nose. I have always taken very seriously the message not to engage with guide-dogs while they are on duty. Does sleeping on the train count as being on duty? I don't really know, but this was the existential internal dialogue I was having as the dog snored, sighed, rolled and stretched out across my feet. We stayed that way for the 20 minute trip into the city; me, sitting stock still in fear that I might interfere with his duties, him just enjoying a good nap. It was a funny situation, but I really enjoyed being a guide dog cushion for a while. When I got home this afternoon, my own dogs gave me the once-over. They were less impressed with my disloyalty!

Water water everywhere...

Well, it's been a mad few weeks in south-east Queensland, with flash flooding, tidal flooding and pretty much any kind of flooding you can think of. I live in one of the worst hit suburbs of Brisbane. Our house came through entirely unscathed, while homes no more than 300 metres away from us were inundated to their roof lines. It all feels quite surreal; except that it's very real and the damage is palpable whenever we leave the house to do a local errand. Mud everywhere, people's worldly possessions lining the streets to be hauled off to the dump, army trucks (actually, I haven't seen any of these but I know they've been here) marauding the streets, police patrolling to deter looters. We ended up taking our planned two week holiday a couple of days after the floods hit and left our house for a displaced local family to stay in while they cleaned up. If there is any silver lining in this cloud of devastation, it is the reinvigoration of community spirit that has suffused our neighbourhood. From near and far, practical help, goods, money and emotional support has been flowing into town. I met more of my neighbours in three days than I met in the two years we have lived here and all sense of private property has flown out the window as people share houses, power, cars, etc with those who have lost theirs. It is humbling to be part of it. My only personal 'complaint' is that my gym was flooded and is still closed. Hopefully it will reopen next week. I have tried to mobilise myself to do other non-gym related exercise, but the local running tracks are pretty stinky and the snakes have come out to play as they seek drier territory. I did manage to get in a couple of wonderful swims in the mouth of the river near my family's holiday spot while we were away, but I can't bear to swim in chlorinated pools, which are the only option now I am back home. I knew I was having a relationship with exercise, but now I realise I am also having a love affair with my gym. Fingers crossed, it reopens next Wednesday. Can't wait!

Stress is a killer

On some level, we all know that stress is bad for us. If we haven't worked it out intuitively, there's more than enough research and popular media accounts out there in the ether of all the nasty things stress does to us to sink several thousand ships. Having MS puts a whole new perspective on the dangers of stress. Things have been a bit stressful around here of late, as we face some challenges and try to support people who are close to us who are dealing with challenges of their own. Yesterday was a stressful day, so today, my legs don't work properly. My central nervous system is clearly calling time out and has taken its bat and ball and gone home (*select preferred sporting metaphor here*). All there is for it is to rest, meditate, be calm and kick that stress to the kerb in the hope that tomorrow is a different day...

Best ever flavour combinations...

...peanut, chilli and egg
tuna and olives
chocolate and peanut butter (works equally well in porridge as it does in ice-cream)
maple syrup and pecan (made for each other).

Others?

Lunch of champions

Quinoa, black beans, sweet potato, tomato, red onion, green capsicum, avocado, spices and hot sauce. Yum!

48 hours in

It's been almost exactly 48 hours since the Thermomix arrived. Now, this blog isn't about to become an advertorial for Thermomix or a slavish rendering of Thermie (see - affectionate abbreviation already) converted recipes. But, I just want to say this. In its first 48 hours with us, we have used the Thermie to make:

1 loaf of bread (success - we even milled some of our own flour for it)
1 batch of pasta sauce (okay)
1 jug of fruit and vegetable juice (success)
1 thai green chicken curry (success for the carnivore)
1 batch of chilli jam (success)
1 batch of porridge (not great, prefer it the old fashioned way)
1 batch of muffins (okay, but I think it was more work than doing it manually).

Any way you look at it, that's quite a lot of cooking. The cool part is, all of that took a sum total of about two hours (thermie cooking times included, oven cooking times excluded). I am having fun!

300

Today was a milestone; I burned 300 calories during my cardio workout at the gym. Three hundred calories isn't much to write home about for a fit and active person. Indeed, four months ago, I burned at least 500 every time I hit the gym (which was pretty much every day). But in these times of MS recovery, 300 is a big deal. It is interesting looking at my otherwise healthy muscles and knowing that it is the neural pathways that are holding them back, making me feel weak, tired and unsteady on my feet. But the truly counter-intuitive thing is that vigorous exercise actually alleviates the fatigue. After burning my 300, I managed to clean the house, cook lunch and do laundry. So, the message is clear; unless I am projectile vomiting with fatigue or a danger to myself on the treadmill, it is exercise for me. This makes me happy, cos it's what I like to do.

The Simple Things...

...are often the most satisfying. A salad (mostly) from my garden, fresh tiger prawns on wholemeal bread with a smear of avocado, lemon and pepper.




Followed by apple crumble, full of almond and chia seed goodness.

Put it to the universe...

...and the universe provides. Last week, I blogged about the burnout of my old food processor, during which I made a fleeting nod to the unattainable wonder of the Thermomix. Well, guess what? We are getting one!!!! Actually, it's not the Universe we need to thank, but my kind and generous brother, who has bundled a life time of Christmas gifts into this one remarkable present. This is truly the Rolls Royce of kitchen appliances. It arrives next week. I am supremely excited!

Feeling alive

Reverb10 is a cool initiative that prompts you to flex your creative muscles by reflecting in writing on aspects of the year that's been. Today's prompt:

Prompt: Moment. Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors).

Oddly enough, the most alive I felt this year and, indeed, in living memory, is the few moments during which my neural opthalmologist told me I had MS. I was literally shocked into complete presence in the moment. I could feel the tattoo of my heart and the pulse of blood in my neck, but I wasn't really distracted by my bodily functions. I was listening very carefully to what the doc said, as sweat prickled between my hand and Lovely Partner's, who was keeping me, as usual, grounded to this earth. The whole experience lasted about seven minutes, but I will never ever forget it. It is quite stunning how present I felt to my own existence at the same moment I was contemplating a future changed forever. Hmmm...

Tasty tomatoes

When you get down to it, tomatoes are pretty easy to grow, if not to keep disease-free. I've never had any trouble growing tomatoes. But growing really tasty ones? Well, that seems to be another story for me. For years, it has been a hit and miss affair; sometimes sweet juicy success and sometimes a good effort but with a tad too much acid or a hint of grainy flesh. I have tried growing many varieties, adjusting my soil conditions and my aspect. But I still haven't nailed the science of the perfect tomato. This year's early crop, however, have been quite the triumph.




The only thing I can put it down to is that they grew and ripened quickly. But maybe there's something else I'm missing. Do you have a secret for growing really tasty tomatoes?