I am way behind on the garden updates. I've been waiting to post new pictures until I had something clever to say. Well, I've got nothing. Here are the photos:
Gettin the stuff together...
6 rubbish bags full of hay and horse manured shoveled at the police stables by yours truly (well, Natalie mostly)
the land
the plot
step one: laying down the paper foundation
manure and hay down, compost and planting next!
Natalie and Steven review the plansMe and Natalie after successfully planting a Meyer Lemon Tree!Hello Kangaroo Paw (Aus native, of course)And here it is people, the non-edible (except for the lemon tree) portion of the garden, done! back to the little veggie plot. Here are the seedlings in cups:
And here are the seedlings in the our brand new, no-dig garden!
Success!
Photos of the garden's progress coming soon!
PS: Will you "follow" me? See upper right hand side of this page. Thanks!! xo
It occurred to me a little late (post garden party) that the soil in my backyard might not be suitable for producing edible plants -- I was worried about poisons in the dirt. I looked into testing the soil for lead in particular and discovered there is no quickie kit. The cost of sending a sample to the lab is about $500.
Hello "No Dig Garden" workshop at The Watershed. Free!
Teaching
Me & Talya learning (oy vey, posture!)
Aurelie gettin stuck into it.
Stay tuned to see us apply our new skills to our very own garden!
It's strange how The Worst Thing happens and life just goes on. Three months post break up, I am something close to happy. It seems I grieved and then the grieving dissipated. Already T seems so far away. A different life.
I'm afraid I'm supposed to still be in mourning, almost ashamed to say 'I've moved on' so soon. It's just that I'm quite sure I'm on the right path now. And even more, I'm so proud of myself for facing this thing, feeling all that heartache and not collapsing. I am here now and I feel like a whole person. I do not want my old life back.
Here's to real life coping skills. Out of nowhere.
and here's to my dear friends (Nick & Talya especially) who propped me up through the worst of it.
Last month I threw a garden party. I used a photo of Braxton in her own garden in Istanbul for the invitation. About 8 years ago she and I planted an amazing garden in similarly hard times -- not a break-up, but a sizable breakdown (those were some days. yikes).
I love this picture and I love green-thumbed Braxton.
I planned the garden party in the hopes of tricking my friends into helping me clear out the backyard. And it worked!
Here's Frankie showing off what we started with: And here are me mates showing what they're made of: It wasn't all work. We ate and chatted and listened to music (no heartbreak songs!). It was a really good day.
Thank you Steph, Anna, Alice, Martin, Nick, Talya, Tam and Ian!
Not long ago Sydneysiders woke up to the most incredible red haze. A dust storm from central New South Wales carried the dry, red Australian top soil across the state. (welcome to town global warming) Here's what it looked like at 6am in my back yard:
Here's what it looked like from space (that's flying dirt!): It was a shocking red thing. My first thought was: it's the end of the world and I am one of a handful of survivors left on earth! Then I thought: probably not. I went to work, passing people with scarves and tee-shirts tied over their mouths and noses, and everyone I spoke to said: I thought it was the end of the world. Since the world did not end, I've decided to plan for the future. And since my present has been totally upended, the future seems pretty wide open. Sometimes I'm sure that that's a good thing. Other times it feels like the worst nightmare I could imagine. I tell Henry: "This is not happening! I want my old life back right now!" Henry cocks his head to the right and then the left. He says:
So I make plans. Number one, plant a vegetable garden in the wildly overgrown backyard. stay tuned.
It's been nearly 6 months since my last post here. That was back in April and I thought my life couldn't be more changed. But big things have continued to unfold since then -- unfold, or unravel. My much beloved grandma died, my father came back from the dead, and my five year relationship with Todd ended.
I always heard that 28 was meant to be the age of major transitions. Not for me. 28 was entirely uneventful. But 30 has been unreal.
Hello death card. Hello new everything.
Now I am making plans. and taking pictures too. I will document. Let's K.I.T.
So much excitement this month! (in order of occurrence)
1) Hosted a passover seder 2) Max came to Australia 3) Marked my 4 year anniversary of living in Australia (now eligible for citizenship!) 4) Celebrated my 30th birthday 5) Started first job as an RN (best job!) 6) Graduated from university 7) Said goodbye to dear friend Kylie who moved to NZ to marry her bf (congrats!) 8) Said goodbye to dear friend Stephanie who moved out to the country to start her first job as a high school science teacher (congrats!)
Some photos now:
Todd enjoying Pesach
Max appreciating Aussie culture,
exploring the sites -- Harbour Bridge from ferry, Anzac bridge from car, and Blue Mountains bushland. Here he is enjoying a stroll through Surry Hills and having a country brunch in Megalong, Blue Mountains.
We also took a day trip up the coast to Avalon beach... it was a bit grey (Autumn now, you know), but the temp was in the 70s and Max braved the ocean undertow
while Todd and I enjoyed sitting in the orange sand.
For my 30th, we had a backyard dinner party. Todd was responsible for the decorating! Max did an amazing job cooking for 15 people! and Marian baked THREE beautiful cakes! and then there were me mates -- thanks everyone for coming!
Two days after the party I started my job as a sexual health nurse...
no photos.
Two days after starting the job I took a day off to attend my graduation ceremony!
um, and here's my cute outfit underneath (by Aussie designer Jayson Brunsdon):
ALSO bff Jake came up from Melbourne with lovely Gen for a short visit.
And all this excitement happened to coincide with my 4 year anniversary of living in Australia! Here I am at Circular Quay in 2005, just a couple hours after landing in Sydney for the first time -- a couple hours after moving across the world to be with a boy I'd known for three months! It was not a mistake. It's been the best adventure!
So that's it for April 2009. Great fun was had, but I'm ready to establish a new routine (I heart routine). Work has been amazing, but I have to learn SO MUCH -- not to mention be present 8 hours per day after 5 months of brain-dead unemployment.
I am so nervous and excited today. Why? #1 Cousin Josh interviewed Julia Roberts!! I just love her -- I can't help it! #2 I am being interviewed for a position as a sexual health RN at the awesomest public health clinic in Sydney. Yay!
My regular readers (Hi mom!) may have noticed that I've mostly abandoned my charming homemaking aspirations for a sadly vapid obsession with clothes. Well today I am here to let you know that not all is lost!
Ok, I have lost patience for crafting and arranging (no curtains sewn, scarves unfinished, clutter thriving) and I never was able to develop a cleaning routine that adequately reflected my desire for... cleanliness, HOWEVER, the cooking is in full effect!
Por ejemplo: In honour of Purim-- a holiday I believe I've celebrated once in my life (and this year was not it) -- I baked Hamantashen! So yum I ate 30 in two days. If you too would like to increase your own chub factor, you can find the recipe here.
But the baking does not end there, little ones. Today I will be making banana nut muffins! You're probably thinking: "Samantha, how do you have time for so much baking??" Well, it is simply due to the extra 40 hours per week awarded to the unemployed. So there you go.
The baking is very and extremely impressive to me as I am generally a cake-from-the-box kind of lady. This, however, is not the achievement I am most proud of. Here it is: for weeks now I have been cooking beautiful meals every night. That is something I've never been able to maintain before. It's a nice thing to do. Highly recommended. I especially like the sitting down at the table with Toddy part.
In other news, following the advice of friends I took Henry to the vet to assess some bizarre behaviour, namely, his occasional aggressive air licking. It looks something like this:
Personally, I chalked it up to your run-of-the mill puppy neurosis (like mother like puppy!), but other people kept telling me it was WEIRD.
So last week I took Hen to the vet for a professional opinion and she gave me a referral for a neurologist. Yesterday we had our appointment and it turns out Henry does not have any serious brain problems -- he has obsessive compulsive disorder! So after more than $300 of vet bills, turns out I was right, he's just neurotic.
Calling it OCD -- the treatment for which is apparently doggie Prozac -- is a little disconcerting though. No Prozac will be administered to Henry, but a hefty dose of guilt has been administered to me! Despite my best efforts, I have raised a crazy dog.
I am sorry to say that I remain unemployed. It is very depressing. That said, I have more prospects at the moment than ever and I'm hopeful I will have a job by April. In the mean time, my life exists in slow motion. I suppose if I'd thought of these 3 months as a holiday I would have been more energized, maybe would have taken advantage of the all that there is to do in a Sydney summer. Instead, I have wasted my time feeling like I'm wading through molasses--wading from my bed to the computer and back! Oh gosh, that sounds terrible. Maybe it's not so bad as that.
Well, molasses can be pretty bad. Remember the Boston Molasses Disaster of 1919? A tank holding 2.3 million gallons of molasses exploded in the middle of the day sending a 15ft, 35mph wave of thick molasses into the city. 21 people died, 150 injured. Bad news.
so I'm doing ok. In fact, I've felt a bit of lift looking toward April. What's happening in April? ONLY MY 30TH BIRTHDAY! I've always enjoyed getting older, never one to relish childhood (Bedtime? Absolute worst). And thirty, I reckon, is the best. In fact, the entire 30s decade is going to be the greatest. So I'm fully looking forward to the day. PLUS, my deer friend MAX IS COMING TO AUSTRALIA FOR THE PARTY! Best Birthday Ever.
Max!
But there's even more in April: I am also graduating from uni! (who knows why the ceremony happens 5 months after the end of classes, but it does).
And then of course there is passover which means another chance to host a dinner party with me mateys.
That is a lot of action for unsociable me!
Speaking of Jews, Toddy and I visited the Jewish museum on Sunday. I very much enjoyed the Culture and Continuity exhibit, especially the engravings by Ilya Schor. Unfortunately there were few (and only tiny!) examples of his work online: Still speaking of Jews, I'm looking to buy a haggadah and need recommendations. Ideally I want something that is traditional, but acknowledges the continuing struggles of peoples across the world... ok, I'll say it, something with a lefty slant. Probably not the Santa Cruz one, a bit too much, no? Also I want transliterations of the Hebrew prayers, not just the English translation. And why not something beautiful too? Suggestions? please.
So many of the plants and trees in Sydney are the same ones you find in California. You even see dry golden hills as you drive out of city -- just like California! The animals, however, are very different: no squirrels, no racoons, just kangroos, platapie(?), koalas, crazy bad snakes and spiders, and tropical birds!
Today I counted SEVEN parrots (not actually parrots, but look like parrots to me) just hanging about in the backyard.
My dearest Ana K has re-emerged out of nowhere! I haven't actually seen or spoken to her in 5 years or more, but TWICE this week I was startled by her presence-ish in my home:
1). I ordered a used book online from the US (where all things are far away, but also cheap and wonderful). When it arrived in Australia 6 weeks later, I discovered that this book ("Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets") was once the property of Katonah Village Library. Katonah is a small town in upstate New York not generally known as a center of international commerce, but personally known to me as ANA'S HOMETOWN!
What are the chances a book from this tiny hamlet would end up 10,000 miles away in Sydney -- and with ME, a lady who happens to feel a personal connection to Katonah?? Very small chances. And yet there is proof: 2). Later this week my mom and Jessica S each commented on their love of Rachel Maddow. I occasionally listen to her radio podcast, but I couldn't remember if I'd ever actually seen her. I did a search on The Google (as you do) and here's what I found: Is that or is that not a spitting image of AK? So the end of this riveting story here is: 'Hello Ana, I hope you are going well and also did you know that you look like Rachel Maddow? xoxo sam'
In other news: my number one first choice employer has contacted me about an RN position they think I should apply for (very positive feedback on a resume and letter I sent them)! Cross your fingers that I get an interview, am totally brilliant in said interview, immediately get offered the position, and live happily ever after. Thanks!
As I'm sure most everyone has heard, the horrific bushfires continue to burn in Victoria. Close to 200 people have been killed. It's frightening and terrible and we send our thoughts and prayers to all those suffering.
I've gotten a few messages of concern from friends overseas. Do not worry, we are safe here in New South Wales and our friends and family in Victoria are also far from the fires.
Speaking of families, I would like to introduce you to Summer Grace Alleyn. Born TODAY! Congratulations to Josh & Emma! And congrats also to Aunty Me and Uncle Todd!
the land
the plot
step one: laying down the paper foundation
manure and hay down, compost and planting next!
Natalie and Steven review the plans
Me and Natalie after successfully planting a Meyer Lemon Tree!
Hello Kangaroo Paw (Aus native, of course)
And here it is people, the non-edible (except for the lemon tree) portion of the garden, done!
back to the little veggie plot. Here are the seedlings in cups:
And here are the seedlings in the our brand new, no-dig garden!
Success!
Photos of the garden's progress coming soon!
