wishes, fishes, beggars, horses

I wish we'd got that block of land.

I made crimsom snapper chowder for dinner last night; fresh fish, carmelised baby onions, carrots, in a vegetable broth; with chives and peccorino cheese on top. It was too delicious. I should be cooking for more than two bellies. It feels so selfish sometimes. All these skills. I learnt them from feeding crowds from one oversize pot. I learnt them from scratching and scrabbling about with bits of this and that from the garden and unchosen groceries.

I've been teaching Trouble. She doesn't really enjoy it. I don't think she's a natural in the kitchen. Mannie teaches her too. I'm Roz.

She promised her volunteers at work a cherry cake. That's what she said;
"I'll make a cherry cake!"

She's organised a photo shoot for the local paper - a positive story about volunteers at the Bugsplat Visitor Centre. There's been a lot of bad press lately - to do with the beautiful place that might be logged. To do with the Bugsplat Visitor Centre's opposition to that logging. Brave little Bugsplat Visitor Centre, I say, and they're doing the right thing, but yes, it has consequences. Hence Trouble's plan for cherry cake and cups of tea on the lawn in the sunshine and for the President of the Board to be there to hand out the Certificates.
Trouble has made the Certificates already.
They look cute.
They have the logo, and they say all the right things.
She's doing a good job.

She begged us to help, and certainly we would but she can't seem to budge from the front. She was right there with me when I played guitar at the Bugsplat Food Co-op this morning. In the afternoon Gray and I helped her to make the cherry cake. She cut out the baking paper and whisked the flour and creamed the butter (nuttelex) and sugar and seperated the eggs and it's done (not quite dusted) and cooling on a tray.

One cherry cake. For her special day tomorrow.
Good girl Trouble. You're doing great. Just be careful, darling. Don't confuse yourself with the horse. It was always such a great thing about dungeon. You girls always knew: we just ride the horse. Don't lose that now. My friend.

Back on the box.

I've just come back from boxing. Rocky was in fine form, ecstatic about his new (male!) student. We're returning to regular scheduled programming here in Bugsplat. Bellydance on Monday nights, boxing on Thursdays. Yoga starts in a couple of weeks too.

What kind of fencer are you?

What kind of fencer are you?

Trouble's results are unsurprising to us: Sabre.

Thea, Viola and Pia all came out with Epee.

Just Jo, Francesca, Shell and Calypso got Foil.


Mannie didn't take the test. She's no fencer, even in her wildest dreams, but she did attempt some kind of telepathic jumble of a farming-style fencer joke that we won't bother untangling for you. And I think Just Jo cheated. I think she cheated on that country test.

(By cheated I mean dat she chose the answers she assumed would land her where she wanted to be.)

Jealous dog.

Friday and Lila have had some issues lately, I hear.
Poor jealous dog.

Art class at Lake Littlesplat.

We had an afternoon art class at Lake Littlesplat yesterday working with charcoal and chalk pastels. It was great. Calypso especially had a wonderful time. All these years of nuding it up for money have given her a great (albeit accidental) art education.

She knows what all the words mean. Theories too. She even has opinions.

It was really good to be on the other side of the canvas.

We came home with five pictures of the lake - two charcoal, three pastel. We really like them. We enjoyed the company of our teacher and fellow students; the ladies in broad brimmed hats. We/I too wore a broad brimmed hat.

(And clothes. We wore clothes! It was great!)

Splash-landing.

Life in Bugsplat is steadily returning to normal after Leila and Sam's departure yesterday.

Routines are re-establishing themselves so as to provide a nice regular backdrop for the various events that will interupt them. Work is okay. Bellydancing starts next week, boxing the week after and yoga the week after that.

Poppy (who was Lilly, here, 'til now) the flute-player (see, I decided I wanted to reserve the name "Lilly" for my fiddle) flooded her house yesterday. Naomi and Trouble (mostly) spent all day helping mop up the puddles and air the carpets. Water is so heavy.

Midst buckets and mops, in Poppy's bedroom, I did a lot of really healthy emotional processing.

It might have looked a bit like weeping.

First meme of the year.

Thanks to Mr Poppy Brite!

Last Book Read: Shalimar the Clown, by Salman Rushdie. The only problem is I only managed to get halfway through it before it was due back at the library (Gray read it first) and they wouldn't let me renew it because it's been requested elsewhere. So far though, a bloody good read, and hard to hand over to the Bugsplat librarian.

Last Live Music Show Seen: Right here in our lounge room. Leila brought our viola (Lou) home! And Sam brought our guitar home! And Mia can sing!! And for someone who hasn't picked up a violin for several years, she did very, very well at that too.

It is really great to have my viola back. Apparently my viola is called Lou and my violin is called Lilly. They are friends.

Last CD Purchased: "Diving for things that shine." by Debra Jaye. It's fantastic. Unfortunately there appear to be no more of those CDs anywhere. I know because I have tried to re-stock them at the Bugsplat Visitor Centre.
I bought it as a birthday gift, for Stephen.

nb: "Stephen and Mia" - do you like your fake names or do they weird you out? Let me know.

Last Thing Cooked: Mushrooms and tofu for breakfast.

Last New Thing Eaten: Watermelon and Fetta salad at Naomi's house, for dinner last night.

My god. Watermelon, Fetta, Coconut, Pumpkin Seeds.

nb: No, I don't know why I give all my friends fake names (sometimes a few of them) and yet I don't bother with ...

Last Thing Bought: Avocado, mushrooms and bread, at the Bugsplat General Store.

Using for the first time my new (thank you Leila) orange wallet. It's pretty!

Last Gift Received: Fudge. "Midnight Hits" Sicilian coffee fudge and "Midnight Hits" Irish Coffee fudge. Mmmmm!

Last Piece of Clothing Bought or Received as a Gift:

Mia and I exchanged gifts of scarves.
I bought her (and Leila) a "Nullabor Nights" scarf. They are as soft as clouds. I think they might be made of clouds. Perhaps a desert goat farmer harvests clouds at full moon and weaves them into them?

Mia and Stephen gave me a scarf from China. It is extremely beautiful. It features peacocks. I will wear it whenever I wish to feel beautiful. The background red is a rich dark fushia. It is a particular favourite of ours. We only like (to wear) two reds - cherry red and this very, very particular shade of reddish fushia.


Last Embarrassing Experience: The photographic evidence of me/us being unable to decide whether to adopt the "monkey" pose in the breakfast banana-eating photographs or the "hooker" pose. We had to chose, see. And, as you may already know, we are a somewhat indecisive polly.

Last Totally New Experience: god, I must be getting so very venerable.

Last Foreign Country Visited if any: the past. (They do things differently there.)

Last New Bird Seen (feel free to substitute enthusiasm of your own if not a birder): Quokka!!
Mainland kind. First time we've seen a quokka here. They are EXTREMELY cute. They are bunny rabbit sized (bit bigger).


Last Big Achievement: Trouble, working.

Quiet time.

Sam and Leila and Gray are off climbing a fire-spotting tree and then swimming in the Warren River.
I hope they have fun.

I am having a nice quiet time, at home, alone, and it is very peaceful.
Summer is finally here. It's hot.

Safe travels.

Two of the party have just departed, off to Perth, and the other three are down at the shops buying hamburger buns. I'm going to have a bath, and some quiet time.

The only thing worth doing in life is loving.

I think I'll be taking my bright yellow hula duck with me.

Love never runs on time.

I never heard a love song yet
That I could call yours and mine
You know and I know that love never runs on time

Ship of friends.

Do you think that a person can be judged by their friends?
If so, we're doing just fine.

:~)

Happy New Year

I hope it's a good one, without any fear.

We have bon-bons with bad jokes and silly hats and special prizes.
Special prizes include vanilla beans and yo-yos.

We have wonderful food and wonderful wine and wonderful company.

We are very lucky.

Lysergians said:
and to everyone else that blesses us just by being alive, thank you. here's to another year.

And we agree with that.

love, LOVE, love...