Exmouth and Cape Range National Park

SO after a week in Karijini, we headed over to Exmouth and spent a few days in the Cape Range National Park. Unfortunately, like all camping this far north, the length of stay was determined by the quantity of supplies ie food, water and gas we could carry...It's also advisable to book ahead for this park because the camping spots are limited, tightly managed and in high demand. Next Time I'll pack for a month :-)

Karijini part 2

Karijini part 1

Long time no post, but so much to share. Plus, I got a new camera for Christmas so can begin recording my life again. yay! So...backtracking to October, I went road tripping north... one ute, one girl and a few friends one open horizon...and about 6000km
New Norcia
















Carnamah

Carnarvon

 Karijini!

 

 

 

I'm meant to be essay writing. I think I've got about 9000 words due in the next 16 days... so of course I've spent the morning loading programmes and music onto my new computer :-) I've also built a new pen for our little chickens- so not an entirely wasted morning! hehe One of the joys of a new computer is being able to get the photos off my camera! so here is a selection from the last ...6? months!

Out of hibernation

I logged into my blog today to get my 'green tomato cake' recipe and thought-why don't I write here anymore?
Its been 18 months and I think Im ready to start writing again. Don't care if no one reads it. I like the record for me :-)
So... what's on my mind this glorious summers afternoon?
one green tomato cake coming up :-) just made some beautiful tomato pasta sauce, am trying to work out how to thresh and husk the small aomount of spelt wheat we harvested a few weeks ago...and...Im thinking the blackberries down in the front swamp are probably ripe and ready to pick and the mini horses could probably do with some company. Not much has changed in 18 months has it??!
I'm also really aware that I should be doing my readings rather than cooking all day, but im still mulling over one of the quotes I read yesterday. Yes, its about death...but in a good way...what do you think of it?

'Death is the touchstone of our attitude to life. People who are afraid of death are afraid of life. It is impossible not to be afraid of life with all its complexity and dangers if one is afraid of death. This means that to solve the problem of death is not a luxury. If we are afraid of death we will never be prepared to take ultimate risks; we will spend out life in a cowardly, careful and timid manner. It is only if we can face death, make sense of it, determine its place and our place in regard to it, that we will be able to live in a fearless way and to the fullness of our ability. Too often we wait until the end of our life to face death, whereas we would have lived quite differently if only we had faced death at the outset.

Most of the time we live as though we were writing a draft for the life which we wil live later. We live, not in a definitive way, but provisionally, as though preparing for the day when we really will begin to live. We are like people who write a rough draft with the intention of making a fair copy later. But the final version never gets written. Death comes before we have had the time or even generated the desire to make a definitive formulation.

The injunction 'be mindful of death' is not a call to live with a sense of terror in the constant awareness that death is to overtake us. It means rather: 'Be aware of the fact that what you are saying now, doing now, hearing, enduring or receiving now may be the last event or experience of your present life.' In which case it must be a crowning, not a defeat; a summit, not a trough. If only we realized whenever confronted with a person that this might be the last moment either of his life or ours, we would be much more intense, much more attentive to the words we speak and the things we do.

Only awareness of death will give life this immediacy and depth, will bring life to life, will make it so intense that its totality is summed up in the present moment. All life is at every moment an ultimate act.

In Season- tomatoes

My tomatoes didn't make it to ripe before the frosts hit. Ok- so i planted them late and everybody knows that tomatoes don't 'do' winter...but I couldn't pull out those little plants that got me through summer. Now there's green everywhere and the plants have been laden with green tomatoes for months with no sign of ripening. so I did what I always do when I have too much of a good thing- google recipes!

The first few searches produced 'fried green tomatoes' which, despite the quirky movie of the same name turned out to be quite a disappointment. Sliced green tomatoes rolled in cornmeal, salt and pepper and fried. I only tried them once, but i suspect they only taste as good as the oil they're fried in - which is why all the recipes recommend bacon fat (clogged artery alert!!) and 'rice bran oil' just didn't cut it.

But persistence paid off and google produced a jackpot- Green Tomato Cake - WOW!
so, thanks to: http://southernfood.about.com/od/greentomatoe1/r/bl10712g.htm
the recipe goes like this:

• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil or melted marg/butter
• 3 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 cup walnuts
• 1 cup craisins (dried cranberries)
• 2 1/2 cups diced green tomatoes
• coconut (optional)

Beat sugar, vegetable oil or shortening, eggs and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Sift in the dry ingredients, then the walnuts, craisins and tomatoes.
Glob into a greased 9x13-inch pan, top with shredded coconut and bake for an hour... or 2 at 180 deg C until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

someone elses perspective

I just love this post...he describes the nuanced joys and frustrations of being a development facilitator so well...
enjoy!
http://www.grist.org/article/simpson-onesky/P2

the Stables: from feral to livable...almost

The bad news is, a rat has died in (what will be) my bedroom ceiling. The good news is, my 14000L tank arrived last week and the plumber came yesterday and its all 'can do'...and my little house just might get livable before I freeze!!
here are a few pics of the progress over the last 5 months...