Rain beautiful rain

Rain, beautiful rain!

Good evening loved ones! This Saturday night journaling might become hard if I have many more highly social Saturdays (hee hee, these kind of days energize me, but I’m out of practice, so I’m whooped). Although it’s 11pm and I’m a tired puppy, I still feel this need to close this week with you all. It’s been a really good week. After last week’s hot sun and lack of rain, this week it rained constantly for three days. The rain was very nice, light at times and very heavy at others, but constant, very tropical. There was no thunder or lightening, it was the kind of rain that you can play in, or mulch in, as Jacinta and I did. It was cooler and there was no sun for these three days, a nice break from sunscreen, sun hats, short sleeves and bug spray.  Our rainwater tank, from which we get all of our water for drinking, washing, plumbing and everything else, it is full once again! Matt has gone back to work, training at a bank, and although it is a monotonous process, he is thankful for employment, and even has a laugh here and there with his co-workers. The sun has returned and the plants are overjoyed given their big drink of water and now sun!

Thanksgiving has come and gone, I hope you all enjoyed the family and food surrounding and blessing you. I had a good few phone days on Wednesday and Thursday enjoying catching up with a few of you and hearing beautifully familiar voices across the telephone lines. I prepared a small Thanksgiving meal consisting of a Chilean Harvest Stew (pumpkin, corn, tomatoes and beans), a brown rice dish with macadamia nuts, apples and celery (trying to imitate stuffing in a strange way), roasted potatoes and carrots, and bread pudding for dessert. Not so traditional, but I tried to use some of the normal Thanksgiving ingredients I could find here. I tried to find cornmeal for cornbread, but no one eats it here! Life without cornbread???? I’ve since heard that cornmeal can be found through the co-op. Jacinta and I picked flowers from the garden and decorated the table. Keith, Matt, Jess and I gave thanks for the good things in life, said “Cheers!” (Jess loves toasting, saying “Cheers!” and having a swig of water) and had a good meal. It was hardly a feast with my big lovely family in Indiana and Illinois, but a humble meal to celebrate the food of the season and give thanks.

Rosellas are brightly colored birds with green and blue backs and scarlet red bellies. This is not a bird you see often here at our place, but this week we had a few encounters with them. First off, Keith rescued a baby rosella who had been abandoned for some reason and was sitting in the middle of the road, seemingly unable to fly. After work at the macadamia nut factory that evening, Keith brought the baby bird home in a box and excited Jess and Jedda (the dog) to a level of distraction from all other activities. Jacinta watched him hand feed and care for the birdie. The next morning while Jacinta and I were out at play group, the rosella’s parents came up the street from where Keith had picked up the bird and then down the big hill of our driveway and honestly came to rescue their baby. Keith heard the squawking parents all morning calling from the trees outside, and the baby responding, squawking back in reply. So her brought the bird outside, followed the calls, and took the bird out if its box and carefully placed him on the ground. The young rosella then flew up into the tree, rejoining his parents. Amazing, aye? The second rosella encounter this evening took place at our friends’ house while we were having dinner. Jacinta had finished eating and we were lingering at the table chatting, apparently too long for Jacinta’s taste. So, off she went, exploring out onto the veranda, and disappeared from my sight. I promptly call to her and follow her out reprimanding her for leaving the room and find her sitting contentedly in a big arm chair, calling out, “Ees! Ees!” I look at her string pointing finger to see a rosella off in the distance, sitting on a telephone wire with its scarlet chest sparkling in the setting sun. Ahh, what the children teach us.

So this week our little girl has been just as interesting to watch as ever. As I was working peacefully in the pouring rain, re-mulching trees that had not adequately been mulched the first time around, Jess sat a few feet from me, playing with her shovel in the dirt. She was digging up dirt, putting it in a pot, and dumping it out on the grass. Once in a while, she would pause and listen to the kookaburras laugh and hold up her hand to her ear to show me that she was listening. I stopped mulching quite often to marvel at her joy in the rain, and once I stopped and watched her contemplate. I never thought about that, when is a child old enough to stop and stare into the trees, and just think? There was nothing moving, it was the dam she was looking at, filled with lily pads and purple flowers, surrounded by big trees. Contemplation for a toddler, what a cool sight to observe. She’s growing some more teeth, so sleeping is hard for all of us. Her hair can be made into a really nice, sweaty, wet head mohawk, it’s quite fun to play with! Her newest word is, “See See!” I think she wants to tell you to, “Look at this!” She often sings the word, “Yahweh,” (the word for God in ancient Hebrew), repeating it over and over just to herself. We don’t think she’s really calling for Yahweh, but who knows?

Garden progress is great. I’m having troubles discerning which plants are weeds and which are seedlings because I sprinkled so many seeds haphazardly. I decided on a few weeds and got rid of them, and mulched over the rest, hoping that anything that really wanted to live would grow through the mulch. I transplanted some leeks, strawberries, lavender, pineapple sage, and catnip. All of our trees are now properly mulched and have comfrey growing around them. All are doing well, minus the coffee tree who needs some extra love. I built a new compost heap since the turkey owns the other heap now. Matt has continued his serious digging with a shovel, a rototiller and a tractor, preparing to build himself a workshop next to the existing shed. I’m scoring a bunch of dirt from this project! Carrots have sprouted, finally, the beans are climbing the teepee and the corn is over a foot high. The sunflowers seem to have outgrown the caterpillar munching and both gardens are flourishing for the moment.

Playgroup was fun this week, I really enjoy a few of the ladies who come. I rode my bike although the rain looked as if it were about to come, hoping for the best and we made it there as the first drops fell. I got out my knitting and settled in for a chat. I’ve been knitting again, which is great fun with this soft, sea-colored, hand-made yarn. The children all played, mums trying to keep them out of the rain, but by the end, we just gave up and let ‘em get muddy. So after a bunch of puddle play, the rain stops and I change Jacinta into her last outfit and diaper. We pack up, get on the bike and it begins to pour, once again. So we hop off, and hang out with the other mums, waiting for the rain. A friend offers me a ride in her van, and we eventually walk over to her van. With the bike and all of my stuff in my arms, Jess was given the freedom to walk to the van. A little coaxing here and there, we’ve almost made it to the van, and she sees a great looking puddle. She throws her helmet down into it and lays down, like it’s the bath tub. So, off go the clothes, the diaper, and we get into the van in the backseat, naked on my lap, between my friend’s two kids’ car seats. The van can’t get down the hill and back up safely in the rain, so we’re dropped off at the top of the hill, bike and bags and all. Here’s the funny picture I want to close with: Jacinta and I walking down the hill in the pouring rain, hand in hand, and Jacinta, completely nude and smiling after a good hard day of play at playgroup.