I am often thinking about this blog.  About how I don’t seem to post much lately – and how that doesn’t necessarily mean we aren’t doing much.   

There is certainly less to see, that is true – because most of what I am doing is thinking. 

I long thought that I think too much.  But I changed my mind when, a few years ago, we were just starting to plan our strawbale home and I wrote that exact sentiment to Warwick Rowell.  He emailed me back one of the biggest compliments of my life.  He wrote, “Few people bother to think.  Even fewer bother to think deeply.  Fewer still think deeply, consistently”. 

Those special words sustain me at times like this when I do so much thinking.

And they got me thinking new thoughts ;-)…about compliments, about the best compliments in my life, about how blessed I am to have even received compliments – especially ones that sustain me.

Good thoughts, friends, good thoughts.

 

Looks like we will be having some quiet time continuing for a while.  The ‘building’ work has stopped for a while – while Michael recovers from recent surgery, two weeks of night shift work up North (while not fully recovered from the surgery) and this ‘flu.  He, and I, just need to spend some down time to get back on top of life.  Nothing to worry about, we know this happens sometime and it is good to welcome the break.

We’ve had a good bit of rain down here, so the garden is coming along and we can already pick some bok choy (planted as seed a few weeks ago) and silverbeet (self-sprouted J) – to join the monster zucch’s that just keep on giving.  But, on Saturday I made some “chicken (forgot the noodle) soup” – for the multitude of menfolk who are sickly – Michael has shared his germs with the boys….

 

 




 












And I think it might be bordering on obsession now – a third string bag is already started J.

 

 















I am still reading through the Down to Earth blog – so many good words on there – this is what I have just read today, “…There is an inextricable link between personal happiness and kindness.  Well, well, well. Fancy that. So all those times our mothers and grandmothers told us to be kind to others they were really showing us the way to personal happiness...”  I always find it amazing to discover that when we do good for others, we are doing good for ourselves – I wonder why this does seem such an amazement – why have we lost this knowledge? 

I really am starting to think this crazy busy roundabout we are all on really isn’t good for any of us – the “lack of time” (for helping others/ourselves) is starting to look, to me, like a big part of the problems of the world…I am starting to think that when we have the time to look after ourselves, we will then have the time to share ourselves with others…hmm, I think that sounds a lot like what I have heard others say before!

I made soap:

 

(It should look nicer when it has finished cooling)

Picked vegetables:











 



















(With a helper J)

Made a vege pasta sauce and pickled beetroot J:


 













Planted potatoes and transplanted some self-sown tomatoes (even though it is way too late to be planting them, I like to give them a go – they went to the effort to sprout after all).  Sowed some carrot seeds amongst those transplanted tomatoes.  Staked up some other tomatoes that I planted a few weeks ago – they are a fast-growing roma, and are already flowering, so we may be lucky and get some more before the cold sets in.

Finished the fruit string bag:



















It works J - and I liked it so much I have already started another.

And the normal everyday things – 3 loads of washing, topped up the compost bins with straw, helped the hubby feel a bit better by letting him sleep most of the day (he has ‘flu – a real one L). 

 

Happy Easter weekend!

 



 














We had the joy of visitors – Michael’s parents, Aunty Joan and his sister and BIL.

They couldn’t sit still!   So we now have stirrups in the chook run J.