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Friday 6 September 2013

Compulsive.

I've been exhibiting behaviour verging on compulsive in the garden. I can't help myself. It's been helping me cope with an unexpected root canal (in the tooth with my one and only filling which seems just too cruel) and the fact that I have two harrowing years worth of complicated tax returns which need to be work through...yesterday. This morning, when the chap who has been helping us with various projects around the house, dropped by to present his account he found me in the back garden still attired in my bathrobe and ugg boots......yet accessorised with gardening gloves......strewing Dynamic Lifter as far as the eye could see and as though my life depended on it....OK maybe not my life directly although most definitely the life of my roses. To this vision he commented that he hadn't even bothered to knock on the front door as he knew that he'd find me out there. Maybe it's time to feel ashamed.



I have been sleeping with this....next to the bed:



The basic premise of Steve Solomon's book is that home grown veggies produced on soil of balanced fertility can contain more than twice the nutrition found in supermarket veggies. Which is quite a scary statistic really. Especially as it is more difficult (in Tasmania) than just adding compost and manure to your backyard garden bed to have 'balanced fertility'....you need to follow the recipe, in the book, to concoct your own fertiliser which includes such ingredients as guano.... aka sea gull poo. So I have been doing the wrong thing by going in heavy handedly with the Dynamic Lifer.....yet I have already planted such virtuous crops as lettuce and kale. While I'm struggling to get my head around some of the more complex scientific methods for growing healthy veg espoused in the book I must say that I did find the pages about 'Hoes' and how to most effectively use them for weeding and 'Zen and the Art of Raking' strangely comforting.

My weeding frenzy has resulted in a new recipe for dinner. Double bonus. Last night, I used the plague of parsley suffocating the front beds to create a pesto sauce with garlic, walnuts, parmesan and toasted local walnuts....the children declared it delicious...and most importantly ate the lot.

I've also been reading this:


Doesn't it have a pretty floral cover....designed by Kath Kidston, no less. 'The Diary of a Provincial Lady' transported me directly to a version of domesticity experienced in rural England in the 1930's and I was surprised by how recognisable the experiences were then....to the here and now in Hobart, 2013. Except that I don't have a live in cook, a daily, one child at boarding school AND a live in French nanny to look after the child remaining at home. I wish. Anyway, as she so succinctly sums up the eternal lament....'Query, mainly rhetorical: Why are non - professional women if married and with children, so frequently referred to as 'leisured'? Answer comes there none'. I must agree, being a housewife is the hardest job I've ever had.

Yet today, I managed to have my two loads of washing on the line by mid morning....so I went out for lunch with a friend...after the stars aligned and somehow we managed to have the nine children that we have between us either ensconced at school or looked after. There may have been a scary moment when her husband materialised pushing the pram through the restaurant....yet mercifully the child in the pram went to sleep so we were able to eke out another hour of borrowed time. It was as EM Delafield would have surely described a '...sensation of leisured opulence, derived from unwonted absence of all domestic duties'.

If you are looking for a momentary escape...and be warned....Jilly Cooper wrote that when she first read this book she devoured '....it in one sitting, leaving the children unbathed, dogs unwalked, a husband unfed'....then this book could be winging it's way to your place. As an unashamed ploy to try and grow my blog followers....sans guano......I'm giving away one copy of 'The Diary of a Provincial Lady' (not 'Growing Vegetables South of Australia') to somebody from my list of followers. All you need to do is join....for those of you who already have, then you are immediately in the running. So, next week, I'll randomly pick a name from the complete list. As Mrs Doyle from 'Father Ted' would say....'Go on'!

Rx


16 comments:

  1. Oh too funny! I read Diary of a Provincial lady a couple of months ago and identified with it strongly... I had also though I'd send you a copy (so see that is now redundant). The life of a housewife is indeed hard work (and I too seem to spend an inordinate amount of time doing tax, superannuation and insurance and bill paying).
    I turned up at my 3 year olds nursery school today wearing normal clothes including Hermes scarf and my unattractive purple gardening clogs to collect him. I had a few interested looks from other mothers as I walked in (they could, I suppose, pass for normal ugly shoes), and he immediately said to me "why have you got those shoes on???" with a frown. Then kept pointing at them on the walk home repeatedly asking me why I was still wearing them. I'm embarrassing my 3 year old already. Don't dare garden in my bathrobe though.
    That veggie gardening sounds like very hard work. I'm looking forward to your post on how you had the children out harvesting seagull poo. xx

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    1. Too funny! He has a strong sense of aesthetics already...

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    2. Yes the nutrition value in supermarket stuff pales - apparently the taste is relatively the same but there is a substance as well in organic and homegrown called resveratrol(sp?) that doesn't exist in supermarket produce which is anti carcinogenic. Hope even overseas people are eligible for the book? x

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    3. Of course.....will ship anywhere! Rx

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    4. What is it about purple? My jeans in that particular colour have been the only article of clothing that my boys have asked me NOT to wear to school. Funnily enough, they would prefer me to wear a sleeveless sequin top.....and they consider themselves arbiters of taste?
      Afraid to say that I don't feel that shamed about being sprung in my bathrobe....when we had the painters in (with scaffolding) one day they actually caught sight of something much, much worse...which still makes me blush!
      Was hoping you might be able to buy guano at the shops.....
      Rx

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  2. One of the upsides of living on a farm is the fact that I can garden wearing whatever I like! I figure if I have a bra on I am dressed. So regularly just throw one on under my pjs.....

    I hate tax returns. Horrible business.

    Hope all going well with you - good luck with the gardening. Best go as Farmgirl has just told me her "tummy is growling" at her as it wants dinner....

    T

    xxx

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    1. In whatever you like...how decadent! PJ's for gardening sound perfect....maybe you could design a range? Often dream of glam gardening.....in the style of the famous photo of Debo in a ball gown & jewels attending to her chickens....if I did I guarantee I'd have no surprise visitors! Tax returns are quite vexing.....which is why I have put them off for so long! Rx

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  3. Moi, moi, moi, je veux le livre ! Euhhhh ... s'il vous plaît ?? Merci !!!!xx

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    1. Peut - être c'est possible, lapin d'argent! Rx

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  4. romy i could listen to you all day long.

    good to know i'm not the only one in the garden in my pj's. :)

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    1. Thank you Janet...and I have so much to chat about with you too....we just need a bus seat and a long drive! Rx

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  5. Read that book a few years ago and laughed out loud frequently. Just found your blog and enjoy it immensely. Love your candor and humor!

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  6. Love your Blog Romy :)
    Have you read 'My French Connection' by Sheryle Bagwell?

    http://catalogue.statelibrary.tas.gov.au/item/?q=my+french+connection&i=1&id=802533

    If so, is it worth reading?

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  7. Hi Romy. I would love a copy of the book. I am in need of a momentary escape! Great Blog! Good luck with the root canal and the tax returns.

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  8. You make me smile - thanks for your kind give-away too!

    Christine xo

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  9. Just catching up on your blog! Love all you have done with your home and the gorgeous wallpaper. I am amazed you guys did it yourselves. You must have talent.

    Isn't it a lot of work to get a garden ready? My father helped me this spring with some wonderful stuff like the guano and now in September I am still getting an amazing amount of tomatoes and the best ones I have ever grown, so it's so worth it. That book sounds interesting!

    xKim

    p.s. Loved the post about your trip. I'd so be at the Abba Museum!! Jealous.

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I LOVE hearing your thoughts! Rx