I come from a family of hoarders. My parents had a huge garage which they filled with offcut pieces of timber from old furniture as well as shoes, old paint, our old baby clothes, chinese herbs and on occasion, the current rooster of the household. The latter was let out after dawn and his crowing were done for the morning. One time my mother bought 50 tins of Chinese mushrooms (bought for 40 cents/can 'is cheap!') and there they sat over a number of years as a can or two were taken back inside for a meal.
Partly due to lack of space and also a mild dislike of mess I have taken away a relatively dilute form of my parents' love of stuff. But thrown back into the mix is my apathy for most things domestic and we end up with a fine balance between utter chaos and pristine living.
What I have inherited and which has started to manifest itself here with this blog and on various family members' waistlines is that I enjoy home cooked food. This would seem a very peculiar revelation for those who cannot imagine an alternative. It was certainly something my mother always drummed into my head, the virtues of home cooking on our souls and physical well being and on the chances of roping in a kindly husband with 'Doctor' for a title. Alas, none of those things really mattered when I thought my body was invincible and could sustain itself on restaurants, take away places and junk food. I do suppose now that I think about it, the very reason why I took no notice was that I didn't want to be seen as a house frau and my mother's vision of a proud husband looking on at a wife with wonderful culinary skills was a very horrid vision indeed. I should have dispensed with such ridiculous thinking years ago but I suppose the love of cooking is something that can be cultivated without time limits and with a sense that to be able to cook and welcome those you love to share the spoils is wonderful indeed.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Let it rain!
I have been watching the Melbourne Rain Radar today, tracking a band of light showers that has been slowly making its way to our city.
Whether it's global warming or just the cycle of drought, it no longer rains in Melbourne. A decade ago, Melbourne water storage was hovering around 70% capacity and has been dropping over the years, down to a very depressing 33.8% this week. October used to be the wettest month with an average rainfall of 67mm but last month we received 14mm. When talking to other garden lovers, we talk about the last time we used umbrellas and how as children, it used to rain non stop for a week. When it does rain now or even if it showers for longer than 10 minutes, it's a real joy.
There are watering restrictions in our state which bans free-for-all use of mains water including watering gardens, hosing down driveways, washing cars, filling pools. Watering gardens in Melbourne has been restricted to two hours twice a week which I believe is quite sufficient for ornamental gardens but is not viable for those who decide to plant edibles which need to be kept moist constantly.
The Victorian Government has announced two major works to address our water issue: a North-South pipe line which diverts water from the Goulburn River to Melbourne and a desalination plant. Personally I would rather see more of our storm water and waste water recycled.
As a garden owner, but due to lack of space I have only about 700 litres worth of water storage, which is very little. As a consequence I have turned into a water miser whittling the average mains water usage down to about 80 litres/day/person.
I use clean kitchen water (from washing vegetables, steaming food) to water my pot plants and ornamentals. My water storages are mainly used for my edibles.I mulch a lot and grow a lot of drought tolerant plants. I lug grey water from the washing machine around in buckets. It's all hard work but I do think that gardeners need to do whatever they can to save water in the garden. I am still a bit frivolous, I can't resist growing flowering annuals such as violas but I restrict them to pots and only water them with reclaimed water. For the rest of my garden, I mulch a lot, I ensure the soil is not water repellent and apply wetting agents if it is. Over the past two years I have used mains water to water my garden about 4 times and I admit that it's rather intoxicating and relaxing to stand in the garden in the early morning, hose in hand, giving the garden a nice long drink. Those days I suppose may be a thing of the past.
Postscript to this entry: in the early hours of the morning after posting this, it poured down and we got about 15mm in total. Hooray!
Whether it's global warming or just the cycle of drought, it no longer rains in Melbourne. A decade ago, Melbourne water storage was hovering around 70% capacity and has been dropping over the years, down to a very depressing 33.8% this week. October used to be the wettest month with an average rainfall of 67mm but last month we received 14mm. When talking to other garden lovers, we talk about the last time we used umbrellas and how as children, it used to rain non stop for a week. When it does rain now or even if it showers for longer than 10 minutes, it's a real joy.
There are watering restrictions in our state which bans free-for-all use of mains water including watering gardens, hosing down driveways, washing cars, filling pools. Watering gardens in Melbourne has been restricted to two hours twice a week which I believe is quite sufficient for ornamental gardens but is not viable for those who decide to plant edibles which need to be kept moist constantly.
The Victorian Government has announced two major works to address our water issue: a North-South pipe line which diverts water from the Goulburn River to Melbourne and a desalination plant. Personally I would rather see more of our storm water and waste water recycled.
As a garden owner, but due to lack of space I have only about 700 litres worth of water storage, which is very little. As a consequence I have turned into a water miser whittling the average mains water usage down to about 80 litres/day/person.
I use clean kitchen water (from washing vegetables, steaming food) to water my pot plants and ornamentals. My water storages are mainly used for my edibles.I mulch a lot and grow a lot of drought tolerant plants. I lug grey water from the washing machine around in buckets. It's all hard work but I do think that gardeners need to do whatever they can to save water in the garden. I am still a bit frivolous, I can't resist growing flowering annuals such as violas but I restrict them to pots and only water them with reclaimed water. For the rest of my garden, I mulch a lot, I ensure the soil is not water repellent and apply wetting agents if it is. Over the past two years I have used mains water to water my garden about 4 times and I admit that it's rather intoxicating and relaxing to stand in the garden in the early morning, hose in hand, giving the garden a nice long drink. Those days I suppose may be a thing of the past.
Postscript to this entry: in the early hours of the morning after posting this, it poured down and we got about 15mm in total. Hooray!
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