never put pickle in vegemite jars

i have just this instant learnt: never pour hot zucchini pickle into vegemite jars. while i'm sure you can guess what happened i will tell you that while tim was holding the jar, it shattered in his hands. shame steph alexander forgot to mention the above heading when explaining her zucchini pickle. crisis averted and i have 3 other jars of zucchini pickle in the fridge.

in other news...i find myself addicted to other people's blogs and procrastinating my own. i need to be more disciplined as this is proving an effective way to give voice to this newish farm wife life. heading to the big smoke this coming week for some much needed girlfriend time and general being together. while it feels like life moves slowly in such a remote location, i do learn such lessons every day, and i would like to document my shift from driven career woman to something else (as seems to be happening). will let you know what that turns out to be.

this esperance summer

If I had a digital camera that worked, I would take a picture of the view out the window. It has been overcast and drizzly all weekend. It is good for the garden, I keep thinking! Good weekend home produce wise - 7 eggs today and many capsicums ripening on my plants!! While the grasshoppers have made the vegie patch their home, the capsicums, tomatoes a nd sunflowers have survived.
Have just spent the weekend off the farm, and it has done a world of good to my state of mind. Things are still ticking along for the wedding, and it is now 41 sleeps. i had intended to write a blog entry as soon as I got home to express my rage at the poor service at most food shops in Esperance - but it is interesting what time and space do to priorities. Suffice to say that the Turkish shop in town ran out of bread to wrap around kebabs by 8pm....
Tim is spreading clay at the moment, and I have just been to get a load of flat rocks in lieu of slabs for the garden. Hope summer is treating you well wherever you are.

mornings and evenings

"It is difficult to accept that life is difficult; that love is not easy and that doubt and struggle, sufering and failure, are inevitable for each and every one of us. We seek life's ease. We yearn for joy and release, for flowers and sun. And although we may find these in abundance we also find ourselves lying awake at night possessed by the terrible fear that life is impossible...Nature however requires that we have the darkness of our painful feelings and that we respect it and make a bold place for it in our lives. Without its recognition and acceptance there can be no true sense of life's great depth, wherein lies our capacity to love, create and make meaning...Nature requires that we be soulful and therefore require a dimension within us where darkness and light may meet and know each other. Mornings and evenings somewhere inside, with similar qualities to the mornings and the evenings of the earth.."
Michael Leunig always comes along just when i need him. This is something I read that helps me remember that everything belongs. I am on countdown to the wedding and looking forward to the rich time with friends that is approaching. Here's to the coexistence of mornings and evenings.

caught out

this morning's experience demands a blog entry. there is a story about a local farmer's wife who decided to mow the lawn topless because it was hot, and at that moment the Elder's man arrived...enough said. now there will be a new story. this morning i decided not to wear any trousers because i had other things to do before putting them on. unfortunately, the horizon power man decided to come and check our power lines, and let me know he was doing so, this morning. so he has seen me in my knickers. i can't really debrief (so to speak) about this with tim, as our only method of communication at the moment is over the two way- not the thing you want everyone in the vicinity to know.

the long way round

i bought tim the long way round (TV series) for xmas and we have been enjoying watching the different experiences that the journey presents (2 men ride from london to new york, the long way). so last night's viewing showed a moment where lateral thinking was required to get across a river that was gushing with water. ewan mcgregor reflects and says that he is enjoying the fact that this is the only time in his life where he has had to tackle problems like this, rather than go around, up or over. i was thinking that that's a lot of what happens in life in general.
the other day i went down to one of the dams with tim, where about 10 rams were stuck up to their necks in the dry but muddy dam. while admittedly i was no help at all, even getting in the way of the rams, there was no way around the situation but to run out on planks, lassoo rope around their horns and pull them out. there is no shortcut. for me there's some similarity in the happenings of daily problems - i need to learn the benefits of getting on with the job!
wedding planning also seems to be following the analogy of the long way round, but it will be here soon enough, and it will happen in a planned, or unplanned fashion, as the case may be. i will be posting the dvd invitation sometime soon for those whose addressees i still haven't got my hands on (i think we're down to 3 which is helpful!).