Today is the last day of November and thus the last day of NaBloPoMo. I have been surprised at how far it has gone and also by how nice it has been to blog every day. Perhaps I will make a habit of this.
Today is also the last day of Spring here in Australia and tomorrow Summer will be upon us. And so will begin three months of warm weather, mangoes, fresh tomatoes, beach trips, sunscreen, Christmas, NYE, heat, bush fires, picnics, salads, and long evenings. If only we could just skip the bush fires (and some of those ridiculously hot days).
When I was about 6 years old I wanted to grow a flower garden from seeds and I went to the garden shop to buy some with my mother. My mother explained to me that many of the seeds would only last a season and would have to be purchased again the following year. She told me that this was not a natural thing, but rather something that had been purposefully bred into the plants so that a small number of companies could profit from their sale and that now thousands of varieties of flowers no longer existed.
I was shocked. I couldn't believe that such a terrible crime had been committed and that nothing was being done about it. I thought that people should be marching in the street at such a deliberate destruction of flowers.
Well I didn't know the half of it.
Of course this same kind of cynical breeding has been going on with all of our plants - most particularly with our grains, fruits and vegetables - and now it is being done with GM technology. The most insidious example of this is, of course, the Terminator Gene, but essentially the plants that we rely on for food have been deliberately bred for easy transport, appearance and, above all, profit. In the process millions of different varieties of plants that were perfectly adapted to their specific locations and that actually tasted good and were full of nutrients have become extinct and replaced with a monoculture of plants that are poorly adapted to their local environments and require constant inputs of chemicals and pesticides to survive. When I stop and think about it carefully it makes my blood boil.
I have been aware of this issue for a while now. I wrote my Masters thesis on the right to food and water - with a particular focus on the impact of Intellectual Property and GM technology on global food sovereignty - but I haven't been actively thinking about the issue over the past year.
That was until I started reading Barbara Kingsolver's 'Animal, Vegetable, Miracle'. The book is a documentation of a year in which Barbara and her family decide to live almost exclusively on food that they have grown (or raised) themselves or purchased locally from farmers that they know. Although the family decide to include meat and animal products in their diet and I cannot really relate to that decision, the book makes inspiring reading.
I am currently walking around with a burning desire to grow my own fruits and vegetables and to gain a far deeper understanding of the foods that grow well in my locality and the seasons that determine when they are at their peak, etc.
Our humble little garden is starting to bare some fruits now that Spring is so thoroughly upon us. Our little strawberry bushes are fruiting and yesterday our first tomatoes of the season arrived. We also have tons of herbs (thanks to my mother and her partner's previous gardening efforts) and some sad looking eggplant plants that may or may not come good in the next couple of months.
To be fair, we only moved in in July and small babies are not very easy to garden with, but I wish that our garden was overflowing with food.
Instead, I think that I will embark on a little self-education about fruits and vegetables and try to focus even more on eating seasonally and locally (and organically). And maybe some day in the future we will be lucky enough to be able to step partially off the grid.
How fun would that be?
This post is dedicated to
Isil who finally gave me the confidence to make
İmam Bayildi - one of my favourite dishes in the world.
Since my Mum was in town, I also made Fasulye, a cannelini bean salad and couscous.
Cannelini beans may seem a bit odd, but it was supposed to be a chickpea salad until I realised that I had completely run out of chickpeas...
I make Fasulye a little differently from the recipes that I have seen online, so here is my recipe if you want to try it.
Ingredients
500g green beans (with ends cut off)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
4 tomatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 cup water
Heat the olive oil over a low/medium heat, add the garlic and stir for about a minute. Add the spices and stir again for 30 seconds. Add the beans and stir so that they get covered in the spice/garlic mix. Add the tomatoes and raise the heat to medium/high. Stir in the water and let it simmer for a couple of minutes.
Turn down the heat to medium/low and cover. Leave it to simmer for about 45 minutes, checking periodically to stir and add water if it gets a little dry.
It should be really soft and melt-in-your-mouth-y when it is ready.
See Veggie Way for the Imam Bayildi recipe.
Well it's been a big, long week and I am exhausted.
We are back home now from our little trip to Sydney and I am relieved to have a little time just to find our rhythm again and to relax.
On the way home today we stopped at a rest stop and were shortly accompanied by a busload of tourists from China. One of them gestured to us that she would like to hold Lily and then suddenly Lily was surrounded by about 7 or 8 cameras and many more people all admiring her and asking us questions (in Mandarin). We tried to guess the answers: "Girl", "Daughter", "8 Months", "Yes"... but the over-all gist of the conversation seemed fairly evident. They thought that she was cute and wanted snuggles and photos.
Lily took it all in her stride, smiling at her fans and not fussing at all.
I didn't get my camera out fast enough, but here is the tail end of the fun.
We made a last minute trip up to Sydney yesterday and went straight to Coogee beach to take advantage of the lovely weather. First we headed to Melon Head to enjoy one of their amazing smoothies. Lily thought that P's was pretty good and got it all over herself.
We then took a couple of Vietnamese salad rolls down to the grass near the beach and had a little picnic. Unfortunately, Lily was far more interested in eating random found objects than her lunch. I was't so concerned about the grass or the leaves, but I did have to draw the line at the cigarette butts, eww. I wish that people didn't just leave them on the ground.
Having been denied her cigarette fix, Lily decided to chase the Seagulls. I guess it made a nice change to have then running away from us.
After finishing our lunch, we met up with my brother and headed for the water. It was still a little cold for Lily, but she did enjoy squelching the wet sand between her toes.
Ah, bring on summer!
And, no, as incriminating as the picture looks, the 3rd champagne glass isn't the 3rd Pea's.
Looks like it's all said and done.
We're over the moon that the government will change.
We're very happy that the Greens have a positive swing in every state (except NSW) and are constantly being called a "viable third party" by the people on teevee.
We're ecstatic that Howard is likely to loose his seat (though it is a sad and depressing way to go).
But, we’re totally disappointed that Kerrie Tucker didn’t get elected as an ACT Senator. She did extremely well, polling at 20%, but it’s not enough to get her over the line.
Not sure what will happen in the Senate, if the Libs retain the balance of power it’s a nightmare waiting to happen.
Guess we’ll see…
I think I’ll go to bed, not sure I want to revel in Howard’s defeat all night – we have cracked the champagne though (actually popped the cork at 7pm, just quietly).
If you are Australian, remember to vote (for the Greens).
And, remember also that it is
International Buy Nothing Day tomorrow. (Although feel free to make a bid on
this house!).
We had some of the soy 'fish' left over and so I decided to do a variation on the theme that P had done so successfully the other day. This time I did a ginger sauce, steamed some asparagus and puk choy, and made brown rice.
Ingredients
Ginger sauce1/2 tblp canola oil (or any light vegetable oil)
2 tblp fresh grated ginger
1 tblp chilli sauce
1 tblp lemon juice
1 tblp soy sauce
soy 'fish' (2 or 3 per person)
asparagus
puk choy
brown rice
Cook the brown rice. (We use a rice cooker).
Heat the oil over a medium heat and add the ginger. Stir for about a minute and add the chilli, lemon juice and soy sauce. Stir for a couple of minutes and then lower the heat and let it simmer for a little. Add some hot water if it starts getting too thick.
Brush a fry pan with a small amount of oil and lightly fry the soy 'fish' on both sides.
Steam the asparagus and puk choy for about a minute (or until slightly wilted).
Serve all ingredients on to a plate and drizzle the ginger sauce to taste.
Over the last week we have been inundated with spiders around here.
First we found a
White-tail on the stairs.
Well, the stairs just go down to the garage and laundry and so we weren't too worried.
Then P found another white tail on one of Lily's soft toys as he was picking it up to give to her.
We started to get worried.
The next day P found two more White-tails in the bathroom.
We were officially worried at this point.
Then yesterday I disturbed a huge Huntsman in the lounge room. Not dangerous, but scary nonetheless.
Then P almost sat on another White-tail on the couch. And then... I found a Redback in the bath.
Despite being vegans we have called exterminators.
If you are not Australian, then you might not quite understand why. But, you see, Redbacks are lethal. If that Redback had bitten Lily then she would possibly have died before we got her to the hospital.
It's funny how you can go for years feeling pretty comfortable living in a country that is just chock full of creatures that can kill you and then one day it strikes you as all a bit scary.
Today has been one of those days. Those days when I feel a little bit lost and kind of unsure about what I am doing - sort of like I'm floating in space.
Lily has been getting pretty bored with just me at home and so this morning I took her along to a local playgroup.
I think that I had been building this up for a while now - thinking that it would be the answer to all of Lily's boredom issues and would become a great Tuesday activity to fill our week with fun, etc - and so the reality was simply not what I had expected.
Unlike my mother's group where everyone was getting to know each other and keen to make new 'mother' friends, the women at the playgroup already knew each other and had their own catching up to do. Also, while Lily wasn't the only baby, two of the others were newborns and the third wasn't mobile or very interested in playing with Lily (despite being older than her). Meanwhile the toddlers, who Lily was fascinated by, were all outside in an area that simply wasn't suitable for her.
I must admit that I am pretty crap at making new friends. I'm awful at small talk and feel ill-at-ease in many group situations (not that I am shy, I will still talk etc, I just don't really enjoy it). I'm an introvert and prefer one-on-one kind of friendships and catch-ups. For some reason, however, I hadn't thought about how uncomfortable I would feel just showing up and attempting to engage with a group of people that I didn't know. I was completely focused on how Lily would find the experience.
It is weird how becoming a parent can challenge you on so many levels. I mean, first there is the intense experience of labour, followed by a sudden complete loss of autonomy and the slightly panic-inducing realisation that your time is no longer your own. Then your sleep is constantly interrupted and you have to learn a whole bunch of new skills in an awful hurry.
However, once you have endured this baptism of fire, there are still more adjustments waiting for you - you have to become a part of the world of parents. Mother's group has been a fantastic entry point for me into this brave new world, but now that Lily is getting so active I have realised that I will have to venture out a little further.
And so I will probably go back next week despite my natural hermit inclinations. At least they are planning to meet at the pool.
Me: Hi, I'd like some bananas.
Banana Man: How do you like them? Thick or thin?
Me: Um, actually, I don't like them at all.
Banana Man (looking a little hurt): Really? Oh, um...
Me (shuffling feet and scratching head): I've never liked them, I used to spit them at my mother when I was a baby... [descends into incoherent mumbles and grinds to a halt].
Banana Man (looking somewhat embarrassed): Um?
Me: They're for my partner. I think thin would be better - she's small.
[Okay idiot, just pay for the fruit and get the hell away from here]
Banana Man (trying to rescue the situation): Have you tried Ladyfingers?
Me (also trying to rescue the situation): No [smile].
Banana Man: You should, they're the nicest bananas in the world.
Me: Maybe I will [knowing full well I won't].
Banana Man: Thanks [goes back to a world where people like me don't exist].
Me: Thanks [flees].
It is supposed to get to 31 C today (I am not sure what that is in Fahrenheit, but it is hot) and so to cope with the heat and to clear my sleepy head, I decided to take Lily to the pool.
We set up our towels in a shady spot under the trees, got our swimmers on and Lily made a bee line for the water.
Once in she wasn't so sure. The baby pool was a little chilly and she started to climb up my body to get out. So I decided to take her into the kid's pool.
The kid's pool was deliciously warm and she loved it. She giggled as I floated her across the water and by the end she was kicking and waving her arms as I pulled her along.
Afterwards we caught up with a couple of friends for a picnic lunch on the grass. It was so relaxing to sit there in the shade, relaxing in the cool breeze.
It was a lovely little break from the heat and I will definitely be doing it again. Perhaps we will make it a regular Monday outing...
Lily fed almost nonstop between 2am and 6am today. When she woke up (at 7am) she was all smiles and had no new teeth.
Why???
I am very sleepy.
And I thought that things would get easier when she was mobile!
The other day I decided to give Lily some cannellini beans for lunch and so I had to figure out what to do with the rest of the can (I know, I should use the dried beans, but I am simply not that organised at the moment). So, I grabbed a bunch of mint from the garden, added the juice of half a fresh lemon, a little salt and some olive oil and blended them all together to make a white bean & mint dip. And, it was really yummy.
It tasted really fresh and minty and just perfect for a sandwich of tempeh, tomatoes and lettuce (from the garden). It also made a good dipping sauce the next day when I was feeling snacky.
Yesterday was hot hot hot and so we decided to have salad for dinner.
I roasted up some left over pumpkin with some rosemary from the garden. Added some mixed beans, a bunch of parsley (also from the garden), some tomatoes, snowpeas, asparagus and avocado and topped it with fresh lemon juice, olive oil and some Iku salad dressing. Yum.
Lily was quite taken with it, but had to settle for her own meal of avocado, butter beans and pumpkin.
[
continued from part one]
3. Fair trade goodnessAnother option for an ethical Christmas gift is to give people something fair trade. Things like
coffee,
tea and
chocolate are a nice option here, because they are semi-luxury foods that lots people like (or may be slightly addicted to). Another benefit is that these are some of the products that are difficult to grow in Australia and generally involve incredible bad labour conditions (
essentially slavery) when purchased from large corporations. A lovely spin off may be that some of your gift recipients may choose to make the switch to fair trade on a more permanent basis.
Other fair trade items might include clothing or home wears from shops like
Cambodia House or
Taylor & Khoo - who produce their products through fair trade practices in Cambodia and then send all of their profits back to Cambodia to run projects like an orphanage and other project work with people with disabilities, urban poor, female land mine victims and rural youth.
4. Eco-friendly gifts
Eco-friendly gifts are also a nice option for an ethical Christmas. This opens a whole range of possibilities and there a plenty of places stocking great gift ideas in this category.
One of our favourite sites is Biome where you can buy a range of eco-friendly products, like these adorable wooden animals by Anamalz (available internationally), or environmentally responsible stationary (like the "I used to be a car tyre" mousepad) or the beautiful skin (and baby) care range from Tasmania's Beauty & the Bees.
5. Homemade & Handmade
Another option is to make something yourself. So, for example, if you enjoy baking, you could make gingerbread for people or other tasty treats (using organic & fair trade ingredients, of course).
If you are skilled in the arts & crafts area then you also have a whole range of other options - you could make a patchwork quilt for someone, using recycled & vintage fabrics, or you could make them some jewelry using recycled objects.
If you lack these kinds of skills (as I do, alas), then you might want to check out all the glorious items available on etsy. Everything on etsy is handmade and the money goes straight to the producer. Continuing with our ethical theme you could focus particularly on items that are made with recycled or eco-friendly materials or you could use the geolocator tool to locate sellers that are close to you (or to your intended recipient) so that you items do not have to travel too far and use up unnecessary fossil fuels.
6. Experiences
Finally, you could give someone an experience rather than an object. For kids this might include a gift of dance or gymnastic lessons, or a trail ride. For adults it might be something that they have always wanted to do - like the Bridge Climb (Sydney Harbour Bridge) or hang gliding.
P's sent me hang gliding for my birthday a few years ago and it was the best birthday that I have ever had.
Lily just took her first steps between pieces of furniture (in a desperate bid to get a bottle of cleaning spray). I can't believe that she is doing this already. I hope that she practices for a long time before deciding that she can let go!
We bought a big bag of fresh tomatoes and a bunch of basil at the Farmers Market last weekend because I was going to make Bruschetta for the party. I ran out of time, however, and so I was left with having to think of something else to do with the food. And so we ended up with fresh tomato and basil soup.
I had forgotten just how delicious fresh tomato soup could be and so I thought that I would share the recipe with you. It is extremely simple.
Ingredients
1 kg fresh tomato, peeled and roughly chopped
a handful of fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped
1 tblsp olive oil
3 cups of boiling water
salt & pepper to taste
(a couple of cloves of garlic would be yummy too, if you can eat it).
Slice a cross in the base of the tomatoes and blanch them in boiling water to make it easier to peel them.
Heat the olive oil in a heavy-based stock pot over a medium heat. Add the tomatoes (or the diced garlic first if you are using it) and stir for a couple of minutes. Add the salt (I used about 1/2 teaspoon) and the basil and stir for a minute. Add the boiling water, stir and cover. Leave to simmer over a low heat for around 10-15 minutes.
Serve with crusty toast covered in pesto. (A dollop of pesto in the soup would also be tasty).
Eat outside, if possible.
For other Wordless Wednesdays click
here.
Dear Lily
Today your turned eight months old.
This has been a huge month for you. Your crawling has improved dramatically and you can now crawl properly on your hands and knees for the full length of the house. A few weeks ago you also figured out how to pull yourself up to standing. You were so impressed with yourself that you promptly let go (with inevitable results). Ever since then standing has been your greatest passion in life. Some days you wake up and immediately pull yourself up to standing on the bed rail - as though you were worrying all night that you might have forgotten how to do it.
Due to all this practice you are now incredibly quick at pulling yourself up on everything around the house - the couch, coffee table, draws, the clothes drying rack, chairs, etc. - although flat surfaces like windows still present a bit of a challenge. You have also figured out how to take a few steps while you are up there, which makes me think that cruising might not be too far down the track.
You have also shown the same level of determination and independence when it comes to eating. You have decided that if you can't hold it and feed it to yourself then you are not going to eat it. As a result we have had to adopt an entirely new approach to feeding you. We now give you a selection of steamed veggies, some pieces of avocado, some beans and a bit of crust and you simply feed yourself. It has made meal times so much easier - although you certainly know how to make an impressive mess!
Fortunately you have gone back to enjoying bath time again. I think that it is because you can now sit up and play with your toys and with the water. You now like nothing better than to splash the water and to suck on your washcloth.
This has been a month full of visitors. My Mum (G1) and her partner (G2) were down for a week; we visited my Dad (Grandpa) and his partner (Grandma) for a long weekend; we had a party at our place; and you saw quite a bit of Papa's parents (Grandma & Grandpa) all month. You have simply thrived on all the company.
In fact, your least favourite days have definitely been those when we didn't get out and about and didn't see other people. On those days you have been bored and frustrated by your current inability to walk. Because of this, I have decided that we need to get out more and preferably to places where there are other little people (since they fascinate you so much). We started this last Friday by going to story time at the library, which you absolutely loved. However, my plans to take you to playgroup this week were thwarted by a nasty virus that has been making you pretty miserable.
Currently you are sleeping in your hammock. We just got back from the doctor and you lay back on the couch and fell asleep all by yourself. You have never done that before in your life so you must be feeling pretty exhausted - poor little thing.
Hopefully you will wake up feeling heaps better and be back to your usually happy self tomorrow.
love mama
xoxo
Yesterday morning Lily slept for two full hours. I was so impressed. She never used to sleep for any longer than 45 minutes. Although to be fair she has been having quite a few naps of over a hour for a little while now.
However, when she woke up she wasn't her usually smiley energetic self.
I had been wanting to take her to a local playgroup for a while and so we bundled her into the car so as not to completely miss it, thinking that she was just a little dopey from sleep and would wake up soon. Fortunately it wasn't on when we arrived and so we took her for a walk to a local cafe instead. While we were there we both noted that she seemed usually listless and decided to head home.
Things went downhill from there. We noticed that Lily was starting to feel very warm and took her temperature. She had a mild fever and so we took off her clothes and gave her some water to play with in an attempt to cool her down. This occupied her for a little while, but then she started to get very upset and we took her off for another sleep.
A few hours later after a couple of short naps Lily's temperature had gone up again. We called Health First and they suggested that we give her baby Panadol. Unfortunately when we did she vomited it straight back up along with the entire contents of her last feed.
So her and I got in the bath to clean off and afterwards she collapsed naked in my arms and slept for almost two hours. It was horrible to see her so unwell and so unhappy. I would have done anything to simply change places with her.
When she woke up she seemed a little better, but her temperature was still raging and so we gave her some more Panadol (in diluted juice this time) and took her into the lounge room for some quiet play. When we took her temperature 45 minutes later it had gone down a fair bit, which was a huge relief.
Over the next few hours her temperature went up and down and she had fits and starts of sleep and tears, until the fever finally broke around 3:30am.
Luckily for me P has stayed home from work today so that I can recover a little... Even more luckily - Lily seems absolutely fine.
One of the foods that we served at the party on Saturday was a recent addition to our cooking repertoire, but it is fast becoming a party favourite. So, I thought that I would share the recipe with you.
Spring Rolls
IngredientsOne wombok (Chinese cabbage), shredded
4 medium carrots, chopped into matchstick size pieces
200g firm tofu, crumbled
1/2 cup of dried Shitake mushrooms, rehydrated & chopped
2 cups mung bean shoots
1 tbsp finely grated fresh ginger
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 tbsp canola oil
1 tsp sesame oil
1 packet of spring roll wrappers
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Heat the canola oil in a wok (or fry pan) over a medium heat. Add the ginger and tofu and stir for a minute or two. Add the mushrooms and carrots, bring up the heat a little and stir for a couple of minutes. Add the remaining ingredients (except the sesame oil or wrappers!) and stir for a few more minutes (partially covered).
Take off the heat and stir through the sesame oil.
Once the mixture has cooled place it in the spring roll wrappers. Basically place a line of mixture along one edge (leaving some space above and below). Fold the wrapper down at the top and bottom and then roll.
Place the spring rolls on a oven tray (or two). Brush lightly with canola oil and place in the preheated oven for 15-25 minutes (or until lightly brown and crispy). [They will probably take at least 20 minutes, but do check them at 15 just in case... it is not like they need to rise or anything]
Serve to admiring guests with a dipping sauce of soy sauce, lemon juice, sesame oil, fresh coriander and diced fresh chillies. [Save a few for yourself or you may miss out]
I just checked on 3rd Pea.
She has discovered she can sleep on her tummy. This is good news for us as it's likely she'll feel secure enough not to need so many snuggles all night. This is especially good news for C, as she is the Pea's snuggle object of choice (with me coming a distant second).
The Pea has decided the best place to be sound asleep on her tummy is horizontal about half way down the bed. She obviously loves her mummy, though, because she is almost entirely on my side of the bed.
While C has close to a full half of the bed to stretch out in snuggle free slumber, I have an approximately 25cm wide strip of mattress and I'm fairly confident that as soon as I lie down little Pea will decide to practice kicking me in the stomach.
I think I might head for the spare room...
The
Walk Against Warming was on today and we were planning to attend. Lily even wore her "Save the Future for Me" t-shirt.
[Photo from a few weeks ago]
However, we had a family event to attend on the other side of town and arrived late (because Lily was napping) thus making us so late for the Walk Against Warming that it had already finished by the time we arrived.
Sad us.
Anyway, I had been planning to write about the walk and post our photos, but that was not to be. So instead I thought that I would post a recipe for our favourite pesto pasta dish.
Ingredients:
Pesto
1/2 cup basil leaves (tightly packed)
1/2 cup of rocket (tightly packed)
1/2 cup of walnuts
1/4 cup olive oil
the juice of one lemon
1/4 tsp salt
The rest
Penne pasta
1/2 cup marinated artichokes (roughly chopped)
1/3 cup Kalamata olives (pitted & halved)
1 cup button mushrooms (cubed)
1 tbp olive oil
2 cloves garlic (finely chopped) [optional if your little one doesn't like garlicky milk - like Lily)
Boil water and cook the pasta.
To make the pesto place all the ingredients in the blender and blend together until smooth. If it is too dry then add a little more lemon juice or olive oil.
Heat the olive oil over a medium/low heat. Add the garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Add the mushrooms and stir for 4 minutes. Throw in the artichokes and olives and mix together. Add the pasta and stir through several large tablespoons of the pesto.
Serve with a dollop of pesto on top.
Eat.
We had a little party here for my birthday today. The intended theme was 'salute to summer' but the day dawned with heavy gray clouds and a cold wind and so I decided that if summer wasn't going to salute me then I wasn't going to salute it with my party.
We spent the morning preparing food - roast veggies, spring rolls, samosas, salad, and choc-chip cookies and then as it was due to start the sun decided to make a dramatic appearance.
People dribbled in slowly - most people were over an hour late (that what you get for mostly inviting people with young children!) - but gradually we had a house full of lovely people and tons of delicious food (vegan chocolate cake, pide bread, hummous, fruit platters, dips, crackers, etc...).
Lily had a ball. She LOVED having so many people around - especially all the little people - and was awake for the whole party (1:00-5:30pm). Then she collapsed in a heap so that we could do a quick clean up before dinner.
Unfortunately, as usual, I forgot to take a single photo. So instead you will have to be content with a couple of our meals from earlier in the week.
Pesto pasta - with artichokes, tomatoes & olives
Dahl and brown rice
[Recipes to follow.]
Today was my birthday and I woke up to blueberry pancakes and a delicious fruit platter that P had prepared for me. The recipe for the pancakes was from Vegan with a Vengeance and they were delicious - you could really taste the cinnamon and vanilla.
P got me that beautiful necklace and matching earrings that I
posted about the other day. Hehe, the power of blogging!
After breakfast (and a nap) I took Lily along to the Library for storytime. She loved it. All those little people AND singing. She was in heaven.
Then, P's mother offered to mind Lily so that P and I could go out to dinner for my birthday. It was the first time that we have been out without Lily since she was born. It was weird. We both kind of felt like we have left a member of the gang out of our plans and we were both fairly stressed that she would be distressed.
We were only gone for one hour (we couldn't bring ourselves to stay out any longer) and when we got back Lily was absolutely fine. She had woken up from her nap all smiles and had been happy ever since...
I get this nifty ABC news headline email twice a day and it's usually very informative and just about the only way I stay remotely up to date on goings on.
This afternoon's just arrived and the headline story was this:
Bhutto under house arrest: reports
Pakistan's main opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has been placed under house, according to Government officials.
Placed under house!
I hope they don't mean that literally.
Oh darn, now I've got all these Wicked Witch of the East images in my head...
It is coming around to that time of year when I start stressing about Christmas - what to buy people and what to answer in response to all those people who ask me what I would like them to buy me. This got me thinking about some of the options of making all this present buying a little more ethical (or 'ecotarian' if you will). So here are some of my ideas:
1. Buy a toiletOdd, yes, but this is an idea that has recently really taken off - you purchase something that is needed for someone in the global south through an NGO like
Oxfam or
Baptist World Aid and 'give' it to someone for Christmas. This is the perfect way of entering into the spirit of Christmas without adding to the problem of overconsumption in the West.
If that doesn't make a lot of sense, here is Oxfam's description:
Oxfam Unwrapped is a collection of life-changing gifts - giving you the chance to give someone who has everything something special and something special to people who haven't got much at all.
P and I did this last year and it worked really well. It is even possible to tailor this kind of giving to the recipient. So, for example, we bought educational supplies for children in Thailand for my Grandfather and his wife who work in educational policy for UNESCO. We bought a 'start a business' pack for P's father who was a banker and for my father who worked in this area for the World Bank. For my brother I bought 'sex education' because, well because it was funny really. And the toilet? Well that I bought for my Mum because she has always said that she wanted to join the World Toilet Organisation and because, well you would just have to know her to truly understand...
2. Ethical Toys
Obviously young children are not likely to be quite as impressed with a gift that they personally do not receive, but it is still possible to buy gifts for children that are ethical.
There are lots of places that now stock fair trade children's toys and games, and most are made from sustainable wood or textile products that are gentle on the earth and on children.
Some examples include the Oxfam Shop (online and in capital cities around Australia - and other countries), Lark (online and stocked in many retailers around Australia), Generation Wonder (online), and Under the Nile (online and in retailers around Australia).
To be continued...
I saw the immediate aftermath of a road accident on my way to work this morning. As my bus drove past the scene police, ambulance and fire truck had just arrived. A motorcyclist had been hit by a car and he appeared to be not in a good way.
This is obviously a bad thing, but it seemed to bring out the best in several bystanders. A cyclist and a car driver (not the one involved in the accident) were clearly the first on the scene and were administering first aid to the motorcyclist. Another car driver had pulled up and was conducting traffic across three lanes (interestingly he was continuing to do so despite the police presence, perhaps they thought he was doing a good job and it freed them up to do other things).
Despite the inherent awfulness of the situation, the fact that several people had interrupted their commute to assist gave me some hope that not all humans are entirely selfish and self-serving.
It also got me to thinking about my own life. Being confronted with the prospect of mortality and the utter frailty of the human body tends to make one reflective.
I decided to endeavour to treat every day as a precious commodity and to try and keep things in perspective. C and the 3rd Pea are the most important things in my life and it's so easy to forget that in the daily grind.
So, based on the philosophy of the ever expanding circle of concern which begins with the individual, then embraces the family and ‘soon the circle... includes first a class, then a nation, then a coalition of nations, then all humanity, and finally, its influence is felt in the dealings of man [sic] with the animal world’
I'll endeavour to do what I can to assist whom(what)ever I can, but C and 3rd pea come first.
I don't think this contravenes the ideals of ecotarianism that C and I are implementing in our lives, nor should it affect the work I do in the development sphere, it will just help me to remember what my order of priorities would be were I forced to make a choice.
And how could I ever forget when every day walking up the hill from the bus a deep sense of happiness and contentment comes over me, no matter how depressingly bureaucratic my day has been. It gets stronger with every step and culminates when I walk through the door and see the lights of my life. It gets even better when 3rd Pea notices me and smiles (and lately often yells "dada" in excitement).
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Hi my name is Julie from [blah blah] Research. Is your Mum or Dad home?
Umm... Well, I guess they did just leave.
It seems like a lot has happened over the last week.
First my mother came down to visit us, which was lovely. It was so nice to see her spending time with Lily and watching a bond form between the two of them. It was also great just to have another pair of hands around the house for a few days. It is so much easier to clean up, cook and get organised when someone is able to occupy Lily for a while.
On the Tuesday afternoon Lily discovered that she can pull herself up to standing. Ever since then it has become her main obsession in life. She tries to do it on anything and everything and seems to think that she can let go once she is up (with predictable results).
On the Wednesday Mum's partner joined us and Lily had two Grandmas in the house, which was also lovely - if a little too busy for a certain little person to sleep. Then sadly they had to leave on Friday morning and we were on our own again.
Fortunately that day I had a lovely lunch with two of my favourite vegan bloggers to distract me - Anna from
Veganista and Theresa from
the Tropical Vegan.
I had never met Theresa or Anna before and it was so nice to have the chance to chat with them about their lives, their PhDs and the reason that they had become vegans (I love finding this out). The lunch itself was a little ordinary. We ate at Sizzle Bento on the ANU Campus and it seems that they may be a little too busy for their own good. My tempura (for example) was still runny, which wasn't tasty in the least.
On Saturday morning we loaded the car and headed up to Sydney to visit my Dad and his partner (and Midnight and Freya). This was Lily's best trip in the car so far. She was fairly calm for the first hour and a half and then she slept for the next hour and a half (almost all the way to Dad's door). (The way back wasn't quite so good, with Lily vomiting all over herself about three quarters of an hour out of Canberra).
The best thing (for me) about Saturday was that Lily finally figured out how to say Mama consistently. She has been saying Dada, Baba, Ga, Ya, Nana and a range of other random sounds for a while now, but Mama seems to have been a challenge. It is silly that I care, but it was nice to hear her say my 'name'.
Now we are back in Canberra and the week looms before us without any food from the Farmers' Markets in our kitchen... Perhaps I should go and investigate what we can rustle up for dinner.
A slightly different kind of meme is traveling around the blogosphere - instead of answering a series of general questions, you get interviewed by someone whose blog you read. So, here are my five questions from
Half Pint Pixie:
1) You seem to be very well traveled (I especially love the Chinese signpost photos). Of all the places you've been to, where would you most like to live?When I travel around Australia I often think that I would like to relocate to live in places that I visit - like Far North Queensland, or the South Coast or Tasmania - but sometimes when I visit fascinating places overseas I am actually struck by the fact that it would be really challenging to live there. Nepal, China, Manila and Johannesburg were all a bit like for me.
Some of the places that I would most like to live are probably the ones that I have been lucky enough to live in already - Laos (Vientiane), The US (Washington DC), and Canada (Vancouver & Fernie). However, I would also love to live in Paris or Tuscany (or Umbria), and I think that it would be great fun to live in Bangkok. It is such a vibrant city and I love Thai people. Phnom Penh would be fun too - although I certainly didn't think so the first time that I visited.
2) Like us, you are raising your daughter vegan. Have you encountered any opposition to this from doctors or family members?
Fortunately for us we haven't. Yet.
I am sure that as Lily grows up we will encounter opposition or issues, but so far we have been extremely lucky in the support that we have received.
3) Do you have a plan for NaBloPoMo or are you just going to wing it day by day?
I was planning to have a plan (if that makes any sense), but I think that I am just going to wing it. It is a bit like having a routine for Lily. I always intend to, but at the end of the day it just doesn't seem to work. Things just happen.
4) What has been the greatest change in your life since Lily's arrival?
Mmm that is a hard one. Everything in many ways, but less than it might have been. We weren't really going out in the evenings all that much before her arrival so not going out now isn't such a big deal. Also I was never much of a drinker of alcohol or anything so changing my diet for breastfeeding hasn't been very dramatic (although giving up onions, chili and garlic for the time being is a little challenging).
I guess there have really been three huge changes. First, having such a fascinating and delightful little person in our lives has been an absolute blessing (if I can say that without being overly cliched). Second, it has started to change my own identity in that I now think of myself as a mother and that has huge implications for the way that I view myself and the world around me. Finally, I really don't get any time to myself at the moment and haven't since she was born. Since we have adopted an attachment parenting style of raising Lily I am basically with her 24 hours a day and that has been a huge adjustment.
5) If you were sent into outer space with your family for one year what three foods would you bring (assume that they would stay fresh!)?
Only three! Bother.
I guess I would bring soy beans (and hopefully I could bring a soy milk maker and make tofu as well), tomatoes and buk choy. I would also add brown rice and mushrooms if I could sneak them in and then I think that I could survive OK.
Maybe while I was sneaking I might slip in some dark chocolate too, but that really wouldn't be necessary...
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Now it's your turn. If you want to be interviewed, leave me a comment including the words "Interview me." I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions. If you don't have a valid email address on your blog, please provide one. You will update your blog with a post containing your answers to the questions. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
This afternoon we went along to the
Cruelty-Free Living Festival at Petersham Townhall. It was on all day, but we didn't get there until 1:30pm and were happy to see that it was absolutely packed.
The first thing that we did was secure ourselves some food. We decided to share a plate of food from
Peace Harmony (a vegan Thai restaurant in the CDB) and a mushroom pie from
Go Veg. The food from Peace Harmony was characteristically yummy. We had a plate of rice with soy 'fish', seitan and buk choy and it was tasty and filling - particularly the 'fish' which was yummy and seaweed-y.
The pie was a little disapointing. The contents were fairly yummy, although a little too processed for my preference, but it was cold in the middle because it hadn't been in the oven long enough. They had warned me that this might be the case (after I had bought it) and so I took it back to get heated up, but it was actually still cold when I got it back... so it wasn't the best.
After we had filled our tummies we wandered the stalls to see what was there. Quite a few of the stalls were very specific in their issues (i.e. Chinese Bears, or Animal Testing, etc.) and those ones weren't all that interesting to me, but there were a few good stalls from companies that supply fair trade and vegan products - including some catering companies whose cards I stored away for future possibilities.
After checking out all the stands we decided to get some sweet stuff at Tea and Empathy (a food stall run by the NSW Vegan Society). We got some choc-chip cookies, a little chocolate muffin and a little spice cookie. They were all pretty good, but the spice cookie was particularly delicious and I wish (in hindsight) that I had bought some more for later.
Finally, on our way out we went back passed the Etiko stand and that was where danger struck. We were quite taken with their sweat-shop free footware and within about 5 minutes were suddenly the proud owners of one pair of low-rise sneakers and three pairs of Thongs for Acheh. So much for the budget! The only thing that saved it further was that they were out of size 10 sneakers (for P).
After that we made a hasty exit (having emptied our wallets) and headed home.
It was a nice afternoon and really inspiring to see that so many people were interested in living a cruelty-free lifestyle. Perhaps next time we will take the time to check out some of the cooking workshops or to listen to some of the speakers.
The is Werona.
Well, to be precise, this is the main hut on the Werona property.
Werona is a area of bushland owned by the Quakers on the river in Kangaroo Valley. As children my brother and I spent many a weekend here with our Mum and her partner exploring the bush, building camp fires and swimming in the river. It is one of those places that I imagine in my mind when I want to be miles away from anything stressful.
Bother, we missed World Vegan Day
again. So annoying,
we keep missing everything these days.
Anyway, I hope that you had a good one and did something animal-friendly yesterday.
On Sunday we are going to the
Cruelty-Free Living Festival in Sydney. Since it is NaBloPoMo this month, you will hear all about it from me when we get back (to my Dad's place). In the meantime, here are a few of my favourite vegan things:
OK, must go pack for Sydney now. Have a lovely day.
For a while now P. and I have considered ourselves to be
ecotarians rather than just
vegans, but we are generally reluctant to use the label because it is meaningless to most people (and probably confusing to anyone else). So, for a while now I have been meaning to do a post to explain what it means to us.
For us being
ecotarians means that whenever we make a decision about our consumption (be that of food or any other product) we try to consider a whole myriad of ethical issues that relate to the impact of our choice on the earth. These issues include:
- Whether or not the product has been produced locally or whether it was transported half-way across the world to us.
- Whether or not the product was created using slave labour (or sweatshop labour) or whether it was ethically or fairly traded.
- How much packaging is used and whether the packaging is recycled and recyclable.
- What kind of chemicals were used in the creation of the product or whether it is organic.
- Whether the product is cruelty-free (in that it contains now animal products and was not tested on animals).
- Whether or not we actually need the product or whether we are simply consuming for the sake of it.
- How much energy and water was required to create the product.
- Whether the product is brought to us by a corporation that is highly unethical in its business practices (such as Nestle, Coke or Monsanto).
- And, well, you get the picture...
This may seem like an incredible pain to some people. It may seem like it would involve a life of constantly reading labels and standing, frozen with indecision, in supermarkets aisles. However, it is really not like that. Like any lifestyle decision it is something that becomes a natural part of your day to day routine. Good brands and products become familiar and what you buy becomes second nature.
So, for example, on Saturday mornings we go to the Farmers' Market to buy our fruit and vegetables. We try to focus on buying things that are in season and we prioritise the produce that is available from the organic sellers. Then we get our coffee from a coffee stand that stocks fair trade organic coffee and P. gets the coffee from East Timor, because it is our closest neighbour.
At the supermarket we start off in the organic/health food aisle. There we buy cans of organic beans and tomatoes (and prioritise the ones that were grown locally). We also pick up some Greens & Blacks Maya Gold chocolate when we are feeling a little naughty. It is vegan, organic and fair trade. However, it is also transported quite a long way to get to us and (like the coffee) we don't really need it, but this isn't about being perfect, it is just about trying to make the best choices that we can.
Sometimes there is no perfect choice. So, for example, we can choose between SunRice, which is grown locally, but in an area that really doesn't have enough water to sustainable farm rice, or Basmati rice, which is grown in Pakistan and transported a long way, but grown in an environment that is more suited to rice farming and in an economy that could do with our support. Sometimes, also, the best choice might be an non-vegan choice, but I am not ready to go there yet. I still feel pretty committed to veganism.
Sometimes the best choice is extremely expensive. For each change that we have made it has taken us a while to get our heads around the price difference. The first time we went to the supermarket to buy fair trade cocoa we came back with Cadbury's instead. It was $2 and the fair trade one was $10 and we couldn't bring ourselves to pay five times as much. But then we started thinking about the fact that each time we save money by buying unethical products we are simply externalising the cost to someone else. In the case of the cocoa we were externalising the cost to the slave workers that produce the cocoa that goes into all chocolate and cocoa that is not fair trade. For the non-organic products we were externalising the cost in damage to the earth and to the local environment of people that lived near the industrial farms. Slowly we are starting to be more consistent in living up to our own values.
It is still a challenge sometimes. Sometimes I baulk at the price of eco-friendly products and buy the regular one (like dishwashing detergent), but then P. is there to help push me along (he bought the eco-friendly one last time and now I will never go back). However, other changes have made things cheaper (cleaning with bicarb and vinegar is much cheaper for example) and all of them have made us feel better and made us all healthier - so the advantages make it worthwhile.
Finally, I still think of ecotarianism as a flexible approach. The aim is not to be perfect. The aim is simply to bring a conscious mind to our consumption and to to try live up to our own values. What this means will change with each situation and will our own awareness. I also think that this means that what ecotarianism would mean to anyone else would also be quite varied - which is why, for example, it is not a very useful label to use if you are going to someone's house for dinner, but this also means that it is a 'label' that makes you only responsible to yourself. It is simply irrelevant for someone to point to the inconsistencies in your lifestyle and call you a bad ecotarian the way that some people seem to feel compelled to do with veganism or vegetarianism, because the whole point is that you are simply taking each choice as it comes and making the one that feel right to you in the moment.
Hopefully, however, the end result is that we will leave a smaller footprint on the earth than we would have otherwise and we will set a good example for Lily to follow as she grows up and makes her own consumption decisions.
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