A WARRIOR's Day on the Green

Cricket's a funny game (yes i know but stay with me here). One minute you're euphoric because you've taken three wickets and an (allegedly) uncatchable catch while running in the same direction as the ball then falling to the ground and rolling six times (for added effect because you know you're wife has just arrived and you want to impress her).You're euphoric because it's the district Grand Final and your team has got the opposition out for a pretty poor total of 107 runs. Pfft. 107. We'll have 'em by drinks.

Then it's the turn of your team to bat. You're still feeling pretty good. You bat at number five - and with such a small total to chase, you probably won't even need to bat....could even sneak in a beer maybe. You watch your wife and daughter and their friend drive away to get coffee, confident in the knowledge that they'll be back in plenty of time to see you bat (if you have to).

Then the funny stuff starts. While your life partner and favourite daughter are away, they get a phone call. He's next in. Holy S, we'd better hurry up. No time for coffee, let's get back. On their way back, they get another phone call...he's on the pitch. The girls miss the first ball you face but get to their seats just in time to see you face your second ball........and get out.......LBW. That euphoria you were feeling not long ago? Not there any more. As you trudge back to the pavilion you practice your swing - IT'S A BIT LATE FOR THAT NOW ISN'T IT???????

Now that the excitement is over for your wife and child, they head home to do other exciting things like herd revaluations and goat feeding. You spend the afternoon on tenterhooks, willing your team to win....and somehow, despite your team being, at one stage, 3 for 7, THEY DO!!! And there's that euphoric feeling again.....and now you think, well maybe I will catch the bus back to Q with the boys....but I'll need someone to come pick me up....hmmm, who can I ask....I know - I'll ask the girls - the love of my life and my little daughty - they'll
come and pick me up at the pub at some late hour because well, they just will. They always have done before. So I'll send them a text and just check...aah yes, a positive response. Excellent. Euphoria all 'round.

So you go back to the Q pub on the bus. You have quite a lot of beers. You sing silly songs whilst standing on the bar. You are the oldest person in the team so you must set a bad example for all your young impressionable teammates. You go to the toilet and remove your jocks because you see what's happening to those other guys who haven't been as smart as you. You try to withdraw money from the ATM machine but the stupid thing won't work. It must be broken. You're sure you're punching in the right numbers. Well, you think you are anyway. Now where were you...oh that's right...you were standing on the bar singing We Are WARRIORS. It's the new Q team anthem. You only taught it to the others this afternoon but no matter, We are WARRIORS. An anthem for a generation.

At some stage your mind becomes a little befuddled. Were those girls going to come and pick you up or not? Hmm. You'd better check. So you send them an unintelligible text message to ask them. Of course they, already on their way to pick you up, can't understand what you're asking. No wonder the ATM didn't work. So you send a text to your mate, maybe he'll come. So he leaves home as well. Now there's two cars coming to get you. Oh, they all must really love you. The girls eventually work out what you're trying to say and remind you, gently, that they're on their way. So you cancel your mate. Well, you think you do. You have another beer and sing another song.

By this stage, you can barely talk 1) because you've had a lot of beers and 2) because you're throat is irreparably damaged from singing the WARRIOR song for the 23rd time. Then the girls arrive. Your favourite daughter comes into the pub to collect you while your patient spouse waits in the car, content to read her ipad....except there is no network reception in this little settlement. So she sits and waits. The rest of the team won't let you leave until you sing the WARRIOR song again. Somehow, you climb up onto the bar and you sing the WARRIOR song-while your wife is still sitting in the car outside, contemplating driving away (except daughty has taken her momma's iphone inside so wifey waits. Quietly. Very Quietly).

Some idiot inside mistakes your daughter for your wife and asks daughty "Who are you here to pick up". She proudly announces that "I'm here to pick up Gibbo". Said idiot says "ARE YOU HIS WIFE??!!!" "No", she replies, "I'm his daughter". Oh. For a few seconds your status as a chick pulling magnet is a thing of legend.

Somehow you make your way out to the car and throw your cricket bag, with all that gear and your dead jocks in it, into the back of the car and you climb in after it. "Hello Sweetie", you greet your wife. She smiles sweetly and asks how you're feeling. You actually feel a rather cold breeze over your shoulder so you sit very quietly, all the way home, and listen to the girls talk between themselves. You stink like a brewery and you emit foul smells but the girls put up with that. Because they love you.

You arrive home and stumble inside, discarding clothes as you go. Not your jocks though - you've already discarded those back at the pub remember. You were smart. You have a little drink of water and a little lie down on the couch. And so ends your euphoric day and night. You're a Winner. But more importantly, You're a WARRIOR.

Discussing tactics - they didn't work.

I might make a hundred today.

Well actually, I mightn't make any at all. Lucky I got three wickets and a spectacular catch.

That's how I should have hit it. Bit late now. Well there's always next season. WARRIOR.

Picking, Baking and Preserving

I harvested the beetroot this afternoon, along with the biggest eggplant to date, some salad greens and eschallot for the salad for tea (with wagyu pattie) and the second barnie egg for the day. I baked the beetroot, following Stephanie Alexander's process. It was very simple. I took photos of the after but the beetroot just look like dark blobs with hair. Maybe they'll be more photogenic tomorrow when I slice them.I didn't grow these passionfruit although I do have a vine that has pretty flowers on it. I am a big fan of passionfruit butter but have never made it.......well after tonight, I'll never BUY it again. The batch I made is AWESOME... although perhaps not ideal for someone with a sugar problem. I've been eating it by the spoonful. Again, I used Stephanie's recipe.

Perhaps I overestimated the size of the jar required - I'll need a long handled knife. Or spoon.

It won't last long.

My Weekend

I had one of those weekends that seemed to last forever. Meg went to Brisbane; G and I had Chinese for tea on Friday night after his poultry club meeting.

I spent early Saturday morning in the vege garden; the snow peas have emerged, both at the trellis and in the terracotta pot at the house. I need to get photos before they possibly disappear. At night, I've taken to covering the ones at the trellis with small tins to protect them from what I now suspect are not the mice, but cut worms. My small zucchini bush was demolished overnight Friday and I found 7-8 grubs on it. I mixed a bin full of feed for the chooks. I took my time in town, doing some browsing and shopping for gifts for Drew's Canadian family. I grabbed some lettuce, broccoli and coriander to plant out. I'm covering the lettuce too until they get some size about them. The broccoli were tiny plants so I put them into a foam box over at the house.

On Sunday I again spent the early morning at the vege garden. Time passes by quickly when I potter around over there. The local cricket grand final was on too. While Gibbo's team fielded I went to J and tuned Mate's two new digital tv's. It was good to see him, he's looking well. I made it to the cricket just in time to see Gibbo take a diving catch (and rolling six times for extra effect). Kerry and Alan called in on their way back from the coast. I gave her a 365 diary and some stickers that I'd asked Meg to pick up for me at kikki-k. Kerry was thrilled.

Long story short, Gibbo's team won (that's worth another blog at a later date). So I managed to cover all bases pretty well over the entire weekend. I caught up on 365 (it's looking so fat already; (by the time December comes it will stand up on its' own); I blogged; I did the shopping; I browsed; I worked; I saw my Dad; I saw old friends for the second time in four days; I talked to Drewy; I gardened; I went to the cricket -.-; I caught up on Meg's weekend and I managed some alone time.

I think that's a good weekend.

A Taste of Harmony

Last week was Harmony Week but I pretty well missed it. Meg attended Harmony Day at her regional office. In keeping with the spirit of the day, each person was asked to provide a dish from a country other than Australia. As (female) Gibbons type people are sometimes wont to do, she totally embraced the request and overdid it by taking dishes from THREE countries - and also made the dish that her work colleague provided the ingredients for. There was sushi for JAPAN - teriyaki chicken/carrot/avocado and salmon/carrot/avocado.

Sushi making sometimes gets messy :) The rice is inclined to end up everywhere.

Macarons, representing FRANCE.

Under the alfoil are the Thai Chicken Mince Balls - yes, THAILAND. Megan could have made twice as many and it still wouldn't have been enough. She got a lot of requests for this recipe. It's always a crowd pleaser.Then there was the layered dip for MEXICO.

It was quite a morning. Then we both went to work.

Packing Your Back

Meg spent the weekend in Brisbane with Chris. They went backpack shopping and here is the result. The packs costs less than what they had budgeted - always a good feeling.

Today she booked her ticket to visit Drew in late October. It's all starting to come together! What a nice picture on the wall.

What Wiki Said

I was wondering why the first day of Spring in Canada fell on March 20 (Drew posted about it on facebook). I thought he must have had his dates wrong and that all that snow had fogged his brain. Then I read on another northern hemisphere blog that Spring had just Sprung. So I googled it and found this. He was right and I was wrong (ahem)....and trust the Aussies and Kiwis to defy the natural occurence of the seasons and ignore the moment "when the sun passes through the equatorial plane"....and just pick a date.

When is the first day of Spring 2011 in Canada?

First Day of Spring is on March 20, 2011

Astronomical spring in the Northern Hemisphere as defined by the International Astronomical Union begins with the Vernal Equinox on March 20, 2011, at 7:21 p.m. EDT.

At the start of spring (spring equinox), day and night are approximately 12 hours long (at the equatorial plane) and the Sun is at the midpoint of the sky. Our north pole tilts towards the Sun.

First day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere

In general, the four seasons correspond to the relative position of the sun to the earth. Meteorological determination of spring is calculated according to when the sun passes through the equatorial plane. When going from winter to spring, the sun is moving north; as soon as the sun crosses the equator, we call it spring. (This applies to places north of the equator.)

First day of spring in the Southern Hemisphere

The "official" date of spring south of the equator (official is corresponding to the first day of fall in places north of the equator) would be around September 20/21, depending on when the sun crosses the equator.

Countries such as Australia and New Zealand, however, designate the first day of September as the official first day of spring (climatological counterpart). Preference between these two methods varies across Europe.

Many east Asian countries use lunar dates to determine the beginning of spring.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/When_is_the_first_day_of_spring_2011

Old Friends

Old friends came to visit on Thursday night. After three hair pulling days at Surat, their presence was very welcome.

Kerry is my oldest post school friend - she was one of the first girls I met when I moved to Brisbane in August 1980, to Milton House. Six of us moved out a few months later into a house in Frederick Street, Toowong across the road from the cemetary. We had some wild times during the 12 months we spent there! I was the only working girl - the other 5 went to Kelvin Grove Teachers College.

We haven't seen each other for seven years and keep in sporadic contact via email and facebook yet when we get together the years melt away and it seems like we saw each other only last month. We catch up on each others families and lives and talk about the old days. Haha, the old days - well I guess they are now! It's thirty-one years ago since I met her. We were only 18. She and Alan have taken to travelling the world and Kerry is heavily into photography.

I think she needed to visit, for both our sakes. People float in and out of our lives as we need them and we might even get to see a bit more of each other if some very tentative plans come to fruition.

Dear Canada.....

On facebook, Drew welcomed the first day of Spring (March 20) with an Australian take on the situation.

First Day of Spring.Take note of the animals frolicking in the warmth of the sun, the flowers blossoming and kids playing in the sprinkler.Get your s**t together Canada! Hah

Terror in the Grass

Roast Millie. Look at all those fingers itching to get at the crackling.

Back at Surat

Waiting for passengers. The stockies had to get the boat over and back to the yards to draft the pregnant cows.

He's coming to get me.

Precision driving. He's done this before.

Feeding time.

A Reminder of Home

Hi Drewy. Here's a few pics to remind you of home. It's a grey, coolish, rainy, overcast day here today (same as yesterday) - just the kind of day I like to have now and again but to someone living in the northern hemisphere it's probably not what you want to see..........you probably want sunshine and heat hey?! I think the dark day also played up with the photo quality. That's my excuse anyway.

Artichoke flowers.

I don't know what's wrong with my lemons - perhaps I bought a mislabelled lime bush instead. Am I supposed to do something with them to make them go yellow??
The beetroot are flourishing.

As are the salad greens.
The eggplant look pretty on the bush. We haven't managed to eat any yet. Some other creatures get to them before we do.
I planted 16 snow peas along this little climbing trellis. I don't imagine I'll end up with too many due to the mice but I'm hoping for at least some success.

I also planted some in the pot at the front verandah. I figure if I spread the geographical location of my crop I might actually grow some.

This is what's left of the little lemon scented herb I planted last week. I thought that, because it had a bit of size about it, it might survive the pests but it's quite damaged.

The cedar tree seed pods look pretty in the rain.

The grass needs mowing Drewy.
The poinciana tree is enjoying all the rain and is finally making a beautiful canopy. This is one of the two trees that Grandad bought me for $2 each from Howard many moons ago.

Despite being repeatedly told that they're not allowed in the garden, these two continually disobey me. Just like little kids hey???!
This is the view looking towards the house grid - where the paperbark tree was removed. Have I already shown you this view? It's totally opened everything up.
Here's two photos of the trees at the end of the house that Rocky cut back to save the gutters clogging up. These were taken a few weeks ago when it was sunny.
To finish off, Meg just made these this morning. Melting Moments. You would love them. Very delicious, except after eating two I now feel a little queasy. Am off to have some fluffy fried rice (that Meg made as well) then might have a little rest!! Love you and Miss you, Mumma.