Today was a gift. So much cooler and tonight the smoke hasn’t rolled in. We have the windows and back door wide open, gulping in fresh air like it was hope itself. My parents came to dinner and I cooked pizza. The gluten free base worked out pretty well. And on it was an assortment of vegies from this morning’s shop at the farmers market. Roast pumpkin, boiled beetroot, asparagus, zucchini, and mushrooms from the nearby IGA.
We had a kind of sponge for dessert, using stewed apricots from last year’s crop. This year’s crop (or a portion of it) is in the fridge awaiting processing. P was torn: sometimes shouting angry words at the marauding cockatoos who come to raid the pears and the apricots; sometimes feeling that the birds are probably hungry and should be allowed to share in the produce. Our pear tree is elderly and loved for its shade and shape but we have never eaten a pear off it. Although it produces lots of fruit every year, we have never got one to ripen without the inside rotting first. The cockatoos and king parrots and rosellas are not so fussy. Now, with the new carport, they announce their presence as pears thump, exclamatory style, onto the iron roof. When our cat is outside (with harness and leash) he chases the bouncing pears across the lawn, perhaps thinking that the birds themselves are falling from the tree.
At the behest of our son, we went out as a family and bought a bird bath. It is terracotta and sits in the shadiest spot we could identify. P’s mother told us that their birdbath gets so hot on hot days that no bird would set a claw in it. This informed our placement. P has rigged up a sprinkler from the automatic watering system to add a daily dose to the water in there. I wonder if it will keep up with evaporation and usage.
I spent nearly an hour filling up jerry cans from the bathwater T used yesterday and tipping them onto strategic spots in the garden. The two conifers flanking the back steps got 20L each, the crabapple got 20L and a half jerry can got given to the lawn – wherever it cared to trickle. Oh and a 10L watering can went in the garden by the garage wall. Small things like this make a big difference to my sense of self. I can’t feel better about the world at large. But I can feel better about me in it.
Out of the Cave 