Ancient weatherboards and artichokes

Bonjour mes amis :) Hope all is well in your neck of the woods. We’ve had a nice week here, lots of sun and a little bit of rain and wind. What you may hear about drought in Australia doesn’t often include us because we live on the east coast, which is mostly lush and fertile. Matt had the whole week to work on the house so we now have the weatherboards on two out of three exterior walls with windows installed! This means that from the outside, you could think the house was done, until you looked inside. Since the lumber all came off of an old church, the house already looks centuries old. The wood is in great condition, it just has old chipped off paint all over it. Nestled in nicely with the existing house, it looks as if it has always been there. This week Matt will work more at the bank but hopes to finish the third wall and begin framing the kitchen and living room.



Gardening this week was exciting: planting! I have lots of space to plant and it is spring, it’s a wonder I have planted so little. My seedlings in pots are growing beautifully, well, the ones that have come up. Artichoke plants, who could guess what they would look like ten days old? Some seeds are especially interesting to witness their development, plants that are new to me I suppose. Although, corn seedlings are also really fun to watch even though everyone knows what a corn stalk looks like. I planted a few beds with seeds directly, carrots, beans, beets, corn, peppers, basil, lettuce and sunflowers. I’ve been very attentive watering them, especially because Jess loves to water or play with it while I water. Keith helped (did most of the work) transplant the mango tree to a new spot with more sun and more space. We did this in the rain, as suggested. Jess and I poured diluted urine on the citrus trees to kill the aphids. She is very proud that her “wee” from the potty is saved in a bucket to be used on the trees. Spring is a great time to watch the trees in flower. Although the cows “trimmed” quite a few fruit trees, they have all come back with great force, with the exception of one of our orange trees. I am planting strawberries and cucumbers and melons beneath the trees and they seem to be happy. Our potatoes seem to be doomed, diseased once again. Oh well. We are still harvesting lettuce, spinach, a few peas, a tiny bit of broccoli, cabbage, carrots, beets and the first few strawberries of the season. It’s such a neat concept to be planting for spring and harvesting from winter. Lo and behold, Jess is starting to munch on spinach and says it is yummy! I think it’s because she likes picking and there’s not many fat peas right now.

With no choir outings this week, we created a few outings. Jess went to play at the neighbors’ one evening and Matt and I took her on a beach picnic another evening.
Unfortunately we are on the wrong side of Australia to see the sun set on the beach, and we will most likely never get to the beach by sunrise. Nonetheless, it was beautiful with the waves crashing and the pelican waiting by the water’s edge for fish to eat. We sat near a huge sand castle/moat (labor donated by earlier beach visitors) and played for quite a while. Jess is quite fearful of the water, wanting to stay over 100 feet from it at all times, except when riding on daddy’s shoulders. At one point Matt and I were sitting in the castle and she moved back to the picnic blanket whimpering, “the water’s going to get me.” We never stay long enough for her to warm up to the idea, but by the end of our stay she was chasing Matt towards the water to “tackle daddy,” up until she got about thirty feet away from the water. Then she’d turn around and scamper back to me. I’ve missed the beach throughout winter and am looking forward to floating in saltwater as I get heavier and heavier.

I am starting to feel the baby move around inside any time I slow down. It’s great to feel it so early. I always invite Jess and Matt to feel too, but it may still be too early for that. Jacinta is very “baby conscious” at times, but mostly, she’s just enjoying becoming a big girl, asserting herself and using new words. You will hear her ask over and over throughout the day, “What YOU doin?” Sometimes she uses proper grammar saying, “what are you doing?” but always wants to know what everyone is up to. Often she knows the answer, but just likes to ask questions. She seems to have an answer for everything. Her latest explanation for lost items is that “the mouse ate it,” even for my boots! Each night before bed she gives Matt and I different types of kisses: eskimo, butterfly, fairy, etc. This past week she has decided that daddy asks for too many kisses and when he asks for his bedtime kisses, she firmly answers, “no, no, when you wake up.” He usually steals one or two, but she sticks to her word and gives him his kisses when he wakes up as a bribe to get him out of bed.

Here’s a question for other parents…do all children learn how to sniff, first by blowing air and sometimes snot out of their noses rather than inhaling through the nose? Jacinta loves to sniff things, especially now imitating the dogs, but also because I am so smell-oriented. I wonder if she really smells anything though, by exhaling rather than inhaling.

Today was a sunny Saturday, which made work on the house and in the garden very pleasant. Jacinta and I went to see a children’s play, “Snow White” in a nearby town. It was really nice to see an arts program out here in the country, and it was actually really funny and entertaining. The Queen was a man dressed in drag who lip-synced to “Simply the Best” and the dwarfs had broadband and ate packaged muesli bars for snacks. Matt and I both had a hard time remembering the story to tell Jacinta before she went, but he finally remembered the seven dwarfs’ names. He got them right, but at the play they named Bashful, “Shy!” How strange. Jacinta didn’t seem to mind the play, but was a little too tired to get excited so she just munched on an apple for most of it.


All the while Matt was home watching the Aussie rules football grand final in which his favorite team was playing: the Sydney Swans. It was an intense game, but in the end his team lost by one point, the score was 83 to 84. They won it last year, oh well. Cricket season is up next.

This week I found that I had hurt one of my family members in a few of my journal entries with some blunt political statements and societal critiques. I realize that what I write is sometimes generalizing and criticizing of certain ways of life. I have never meant to hurt any of you, but now know that although my intentions are pure and mean only to explain myself, what I say is sometimes hurtful and terribly judgmental. If I seem to have written off the USA as a terrible place, I did not intend to. Most of the people I love in this world are American. I am, and we are who we are because we come from the USA. There are things I dislike about our country, mainly the government and the consumer culture, but these are not unique to the USA, it is Western culture as a whole, of which I am a part and always will be. I love Americans who like the government and the consumer culture. My big move was more from city to country rather than leaving the USA for some amazing peaceful vegetarian loving hippy natural land with no televisions, because this is far from it. We may not have a McDonald’s within 30 miles but we’ve got everything else. What we don’t have is much cultural or religious diversity and this is a terrible lacking. The USA and cities are awesome in so many ways. So please excuse my blanket statement judgments and feel free to share with me any thoughts or feelings about anything offensive or ignorant I may have said. If you don’t have the time, have a good laugh at my ignorance. In the mean time, I’ll work on my critical side.

Besides all that, I’ve not much else to say. No clever closing, just an apology for making anyone feel judged and for acting as if I am not grateful for the chance to have grown up in America with all of the amazing opportunities I was offered. I am still grateful for endless opportunities, just in a smaller version of the USA, situated on the other side of the earth.

Have a good week y’all.