just hanging around

I rediscovered the library recently. Part of my efforts to spend less. If I borrow books I supposedly will not need to buy them. To date I have reborrowed and reborrowed until I can reborrow no more, hungrily scanned a chapter or two, scribbled random notes and, in the interests of possession, wanted to buy around half of my borrowings. Mixed success there I would say.

Today a book was due, one I was particularly reluctant to give up but had to, since I had reached the outer limits of loan extension. I returned it and picked up the book I had on hold. Tasmania might be small and cut off from the rest of the world, but believe me, the State Library is awesome. I can find any library book in any tiny library anywhere in the state, put a hold on it, and three days later it turns up in my local library ready to be collected. Fantastic. Not so fantastic that I am 65th in line to borrow Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood, but you know, I'll get there eventually... I mean, I've moved up one place already.

So while I am waiting, waiting I decided I should prepare myself by reading Oryx and Crake. To be honest, I don't know much about either story, but I like Margaret Atwood (try The Blind Assassin) and with 65 people waiting The Year of the Flood must be good, and Oryx and Crake is apparently the first part of the story, so it makes sense to read it first and get things the right way around.

Book duly in hand, along with Girligami and a title pitched at helping me live green, I set off on the long walk home, weaving my way through my favourite luscious parks as I went. Passing through Princes Square I felt myself rather overwhelmed with longing to sit and linger under the trees and read a book, but I reminded myself I did not have time and kept on goi...

What? Don't have time?

Ha. It is for this very reason I quit my job - to have time to sit in the park and read. So I did. I pulled out my book, sat on a bench between the fountain and flower beds, and read.

Not for long, because one wouldn't want to, you know, enjoy things too much, or let the guard down, or forget that life wasn't meant to be easy. But enough to laugh and feel happy and be in the moment.

And the book was rather fine as well. I'm looking forward to it.

she's just asking for a fall

Pride is bad. Very bad. Or so I was led to believe by my parents, who constantly quoted 'pride goes before a fall' at me and even went so far as to give me an anti-pride postcard when I was yay high.

It was one of my favourite postcards (I had a few), but not even its great charm was strong enough to sink its message sufficiently deep within my psyche that I forever put self pride to death. I say this because I am about to praise myself. Boast. Glory in my success. Call it what you will, this post is one big orgy of pride.

Not that I'm beating myself up about this because 1) in view of my propensity for self flagellation, 2009 is my year to refrain from all beatings, personal or otherwise and 2) in my adult wisdom I have come to the conclusion a little pride in one's achievements is not such a bad thing. Allowed to grow, of course pride might become a monstrous blight on any person's character, but basking in the glow of a job well done seems to me to mirror God's satisfied observation that his creative efforts were incredibly good.

So here it is: today I cycled 26 kilometres (16.1 miles) around the city. I thought it was 40km (24.9 miles), but google maps reliably informs me it was only 26. First I cycled to the primary school I work in. That involves riding up a dirty great hill which in truth I walked up, and even that nearly killed me.


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All those oohs and aahs from some suitably impressed colleagues did wonders for my self esteem before I sallied forth to my old bible college stomping grounds to present a back care lecture.


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Thankfully the students had all been slogging it out in the garden and were just as hot and sweaty as I was. Although to be honest a large part of the ride was spent gliding down the other side of the dirty great hill.

After offering my favourite back care tips (it's all in the pelvis power I say) I jumped back in the saddle and trecked home. I present two maps here, because there are a couple of dirty great hills between the bible college and my house and google maps offers the shortest route which includes said hills. I myself prefer a flatter journey, so I rode quite some extra distance in order to spare my legs.


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This is all amazing enough, but my greatest source of pride is the way I rode. In the past I've been all timid and cautious and keeping out of cars way, which is pretty sensible when you think about it. Riding through town today however, I had to do some tricky lane changing in order to navigate our crazy one way streets and get to where I wanted. So I put on my aggressive self, which isn't so different from my usual self, and sat out in the middle of the lane preventing any cars from passing. I had to ride like the dickens so they didn't become too irate but I did it! I mastered riding through peak hour traffic and busy streets. (Ah huh. That was totally pride you heard there.)

When I thought about my cycling plans this morning I doubted I could last the distance. I'm really not that fit. So it is wonderfully satisfying to look back on all that riding and realise I can do it and not only did I make it but I found it exhilarating, and I want to do it again. And the icing on the cake? I managed to stay on the bike the whole way up the hill leading up to our house!

Am I good or what? Ha. You don't have to answer that - it's a rhetorical question... I already know.

I suppose the question is, will I fall off my bike now? Because as they say, pride goes before...

where's cecily?

I'm still here. I haven't forgotten my password or been languishing ill. Just busy enjoying the fruits of summer. The kitchen has lured me into its warm arms a fair bit lately. Apricot jam, blueberry jam, strawberry and rhubarb, blackberry and apple... our neighbour just gave us a huge bag of greengages so it looks like they'll be the next batch!

Then there was an experimental batch of blueberry muffins using barley malt instead of sugar - a little less than outstanding, but I'll keep working on it!

And the piece de resistance:

Blueberry tart.

Then there's my favourite hang out, the vegie patch, walking and cycling the streets to get fit (that makes me sound far more energetic and motivated than I really am), and work. I have a few blog posts simmering in the back of my mind, but in the mean time I'm going to live in the moment and release myself from the stress of keeping up a blog all the time! (Seriously, the things I beat myself up about!)

fun in the sun

It's hard to stay miserable with these summer delights on offer.

About thirty minutes from here is a pick-your-own blueberry farm. I picked two and a half kilos for only $11.20. That's an incredible $4.50 a kilo compared to $5 per 150g in the shops. You've got to be kidding!

I've never been before, but after this foray on Saturday I'll be going again for sure! Although not until I've finished drying, freezing, jamming, muffining, tarting and eating the current supply.

Joy, joy, lip licking joy!

life is like a magic bean

I have some amazing beans growing in my garden. Called 'Purple King', they produce a beautiful, deep purple bean that can grow to nearly twenty centimetres in length. In the pot, the beans cook into the soft green colour one expects of a bean. I toyed with the idea of eating them in all their purple rawness (they looked so delicious and tempting), until I discovered raw beans contain compounds found to be poisonous to humans. So we're eating green beans the traditional way and they taste good.

There's something in heat induced transmutation I think: poisonous purple beans become green and edible, gold becomes pure gold, and summer transforms inside and out. Lackadaisical as this summer is proving to be, each laid back, sun kissed moment leaves behind a warm deposit.

I was in the kitchen cooking up a mini storm this afternoon (Raspberry Curd Swirl Cake) when I noticed a lightness that has been absent for some time. I breathed deeply of the kitchen aromas (heaven must surely smell of Raspberry Curd Swirl Cake), turned my face to the sunlight that streamed in the window and disbelievingly felt around the outer reaches of my heart, as if testing my legs with ginger steps after a heavy fall. There's ragged edges there for sure, but I'm still intact. Healing even.

The sun is shining, the clouds are fluffy, the beans are purple, the cake divine, the chickens dandy (the one that still lives anyway), the house clean. Everything just feels brighter, which is nice.

cravings

I've been trying to eat vegetables in season this winter. Thus lots of celeriac, fennel bulbs and silver beet.

Yum.
No... seriously, yum! (You should try the incredible winter vegetable gratin I made. Talk about flavours bursting on the tongue!)

Anyway, my tomato seeds have not germinated this year. Corn, snowpeas, beans, carrots, lettuce, raddish and beetroot are all doing swimmingly. But the tomatoes? Not even a glimpse of green. A few other things have also not germinated, but I'm not as bothered about them - whoever thought growing eggplants in Tasmania was possible or desirable anyway?

Nope, it's tomatoes I dream of. Red, luscious, flavoursome, juicy, wonderful. So I've soaked a few seeds overnight and planted another round. If that fails I will buy seedlings ready to go. Time is running out if I want to catch any summer warmth to ripen the fruit. I must get them in the ground very soon.

But for now I dream of tomatoes. Capsicum too, because I have also religiously avoided that summer fruit during these winter months. (Funnily enough, I've always considered ragout a winter dish, but all the vegetables in it are summer produce! Go figure!)

Bring on the day when my tomato bushes are big, lush and heavy with fruit. Yum oh yum.

lagging behind

I'm not really lagging behind - if anything I've raced ahead. Australia is second only to New Zealand in the world time stakes after all and I passed through enough time zones to now be eight hours ahead of Europe.

Behind or ahead, I still feel gnawing hunger at strange times, need to pee in the middle of the night while my circadian rhythm still tells my kidneys it is day time, and fall asleep while watching the news. (Incidentally I was able to stay awake for the whole of Ugly Betty without difficulty. Sigh. Such trash, but I love it)

Really Frank and I are not doing too badly. Apart from waking up at 5:30am yesterday, we are sleeping well and feeling only moderately tired. I have a slight constant headache which I am working on by drinking lots of water. (which will no doubt help not at all in the night time peeing stakes...)

I started back at work today (at the school) and loved it. Now I just have to conquer the hospital, which I would quite happily never look at ever again if I could avoid it. Ah well - don't need to go back until Monday.

The biggest issue has been the cold. I spent all of autumn bedding myself down for the winter before jetting off to summer. Now we have gone from the longest day of the year to the shortest over night. Endless summer evenings have been replaced by darkness, the trees look indecently bare, and the cold... the cold. Well it took me three hours to get to sleep the other night I was so cold for so long. It was 32 degrees C in Rome when we left. 9 degrees C the day we arrived here, the coldest day of the winter so far. What a shock.

Moan, moan, moan - anyone would think I could at least be glad about the month of warmth and the fantastic places we visited.

So I'll stop complaining now and start reflecting on the great time we had.

cheers everyone!

I've scraped myself of the wall, thanks to all your kindness and nice thoughts and a good dose of sunlight. Thankyou, thankyou to all.

Yes, wouldn't it be nice to hive off somewhere, skip Christmas and chill together. I was just saying to someone this morning that I find Christmas with friends much less stressful than Christmas with family because there isn't the weight of expectation. Friends tend to take you as you are.

Since we can't all hive off, skip Christmas and chill, Frank and I are heading off for a week shared between my Mum and his Mum, with hopefully lots of r&r to boot. (Note to self and anyone who will listen: never take leave before Christmas no matter that it is impossible to get leave over Christmas or in January... it just isn't restful)

Anyway, if there's a blogging silence, you know why. I shall return and comment like crazy after my late shift on Christmas Day. Have a good one!

sunny days

I have never taken a day off sick without actually being sick (and even then I feel slightly guilty), but today my work ethic is being sorely tested.

It is a stunner of a day and I don't want to go and work inside a stuffy building all afternoon. I want to be outside enjoying the sun, light breeze and dancing birds. I'd also like to be with Frank and share the delight together.

This is what we were doing this time last weekend:


[I'm still working on uploading the movies - takes forever and I can't access any other webpage while it's trying. So you'll have to live without it. But they're good, so I'll keep trying!]

This one gives you a good idea of just how much of an adrenalin rush it was:

...can't I go back again? Please? Walk away from today's work and experience the adrenalin rush all over again?

Camp was good. I confess I don't like my church at the moment. I don't like church at all. It is a lot of energy expended to maintain the institution for what purpose? I would like to leave but my Dad always left everything when he didn't like it anymore and I'd like to be different from him. So I'm staying. Anyway, camp was a good chance just to be with people and remember how much I like them even if I don't like the whole deal of how we meet together. Yes, it was good. I like those people a lot. And we sure had fun!

back by popular demand (or 'too slack to study')

Due to an overwhelming number of requests, I have decided to come out of my mini-hiatus in order to continue regaling you with stories of life on a small island. Your positive feedback and support has been encouraging and inspiring to say the least.

Besides, with a little bit of organisation I'm sure I can work, cook, clean, wash, meditate, make cards, organise church music, sew, sleep, exercise, spend time with Frank, cultivate friendships, study and blog! Shouldn't be too hard surely!?!

I didn't do much study today anyway... it was hot (32C degrees) and sunny, I couldn't concentrate and the beach was beckoning us.

We made the spontaneous decision to take advantage of one of Tasmania's few hot days by heading to Green's Beach for the nicest swim I've had in ages.

Usually, no matter how warm it is at home, at Green's Beach it's cold and windy, but today it was beautiful and warm with a light breeze. Our only issue was with the tide - we had to walk half a kilometre to even dip our toes in the water!

The flat sand banks extend quite a way out to sea, so the waste-deep shallow water warms to provide a refreshing dip without the usual freeze of the southern waters. Being on Bass Strait rather than the ocean, there was hardly a wave and we just puddled around in the water enjoying ourselves. Fish and chips and ice cream from the harried owners of the corner shop (experiencing their busiest day of the year) topped off a lovely afternoon.

I promise to study tomorrow. Really. I will! (If I don't go to the beach again that is, since it's supposed to be another scorcher)

And for the record, I did do an hour or two of study this morning!