And now a return to our usual programming...

Well there have been many little tasks happening here.. since we have started taking the Creche's food scraps our compost has come along great guns. We pop the scraps on everyday and then a layer of aged grass clippings or fallen leaves. On Saturday I add our weeks worth of scraps from our kitchen bucket and then turn as best I can- the heap is now a happy steaming pile even in sub zero temperatures! Hurrah! 

My children are so exhausting at the moment I am finding it so draining it is hard to stay perky when they refuse to sleep during the day, filthy up their clothes as soon as they are put on, get into anything messy/dangerous/important that they can get their hands on as soon as my back is turned, talk, sing shout and fight constantly and demand food then spread it on anything they can reach all the rest of the time....everything becomes a big palaver with my boys! *sigh* I am so grateful we have a quality day care centre where the children are happy, it buys us some time to do things like run our business and oh I don't know.. spend some time as a couple! It is almost definitely an age related thing... please let them grow out of it!

We have some Jonquils popping their heads out amongst the general chaos of the garden- shows what I know- I thought they came along in Spring but we are only a few weeks into Winter. They are cheering to see especially with the happy looking Calendula flowers. Borage plants are charging ahead, I love their old fashioned blue flowers they ease my melancholy- well they are supposed to anyway...I have started planting annuals which I like and letting them go to seed so I end up with a kind of perpetual garden. I collect the seeds and fling them around places I would like more flowers and it might just work. The Calendula in the photo is a result of this approach. Very Dull Roar Philosophy...

Gardening is so humbling because I can do a lot of research and ask questions on lovely helpful forums but there is a gap in the knowledge which can only be closed by gardening myself in my garden, It will take years of trial and error, weaving new knowledge in when the old no longer works. I am very new to gardening and thankful that I don't have to support my family on the food I grow as there is so much for me to experience and learn before I can count myself as a Proper Gardener.

The ground is so cold and my little plants are just sitting and waiting, not growing. I wonder if they would like some more compost or mulch or if they will just sit until the weather warms up a bit.

I have planted some peas and have them in a plastic blanket bag and in a foil lined cardboard box to reflect the light and hopefully stop them becoming leggy. I have started a mushroom kit and am trying to encourage the mold growth by keeping the polystyrene box in an insulated bag and spraying with warm water...hopefully I will report success but it is bloomin' cold here! The mushroom kit is being kept inside so that should make a difference.

I have been quite obsessed with trying to bulk buy and avoid the supermarkets lately. Haven't been for a week and a half but I have been buying enormous quantities at the Cash and Carry- 25kg of sugar, 2.5kg cheddar cheese, 2kg mozzarella for the freezer etc 10kg of Tasmanian plain flour for $8.50. The local fruit shop has been doing 10kg of local Atlantic potatoes for $6.95 and $5.50 for 10kg of local onions so that will be keeping our costs nicely down as well as eating locally. 

Hope you are all going well in your quests of life!

Presumption of Innocence. In Support of Andy Muirhead.

 This Blog is different from my usual but soon I shall return with fascinating updates regarding compost and homemade muesli. Please bear with me as it is something I feel strongly about.

Friday before last I tuned into ABC 1 for my regular fix of Collectors. I have done for years- we both love it. Watching this show has got us through two pregnancies, interstate moves, starting a business, we watched it together on honeymoon. We have entire new collections started simply because we saw something that caught our eye on the show. It has cult status and is unique Australian television. People from all over the country are united whether they collect antique bottles or novelty erasers or things they find on the ground. It is a great unifier and wonderful family show.

Except when it isn't on, and the website has been taken down and all reference to the show is removed KGB style. And why? Because the host Andy Muirhead has been charged with one count of accessing child pornography using a carriage service(ie: the 'net). Not convicted, mind, but charged and will have his day in court in August. What ever happened to the presumption of innocence? The ABC has been quick to convict this poor man and remove all traces of his career with ABC TV and Radio before he has even been on trial...I didn't see the ABC news piece but evidently they even showed his house on TV for goodness sake! Behaving the way ABC has should be a criminal offence as the mud they have thrown at Andy is the kind that rarely washes off. No-one but the police and Andy have any idea what has actually occurred in the one count of accessing child pornography but there is something I do know, these days a fully developed 17 yearold can post photos obscene of him/herself and if you happen to look at it and not report it that is you accessing child porn. If Miley Cyrus gets out of the car with no knickers on and paparazzi publish a shot that is child porn but you can wander into any department store and buy high heeled boots, padded bras and mini skirts for your three year old and wander down the street with her looking like a cheap hooker  and that is fine. Unless you take a photo of it. Then it is child porn. In fact any photo of a child with no clothes on would appear to be pornography these days. I have several photos of my babies in the bath- I wonder if that is porn these days?

When we were renovating a rental property my husband found a porn collection in the roof space including a magazine which had models who all looked like they were prepubescent but claimed to all be 18. These "women" looked like little girls, no hips, undeveloped breasts, no pubic hair and yet they were arranged in hard core positions and talking about how much they liked doing a variety of Xrated activities with much older men, often calling them daddies. But that's OK, apparently as soon as you turn 18 your decision making abilities are much more superior to those when you are 17 and you can now choose to portray yourself as a 12 year old. As long as you are not one. But if you are a 15 year old who looks 25 and do the same a crime has been committed. Am I the only one who sees that no matter the age of the model, if she looks 12 then it is promoting pedophilia? Until matters such as allowing tarty adult style clothes for toddlers to 12 yearolds and allowing 18 yearolds looking 12 to participate in the sex industry I believe that the Child pornography laws in this country are a Joke.

Andy- I have no idea what you may or may not have done but rest assured in this house we still embrace a presumption of innocence. 

Shame, ABC management, Shame, you have shown yourselves to be grubby little people with no more regard for human rights than the worst Communist dictators. Last month I won a magazine subscription because of my entry on Why I love the ABC (Collectors was amongst the reasons). Unfortunately I wouldn't be entering if the same competition was held this month. My love of the ABC has gone decidedly cold. You have failed Andy Muirhead and you have failed Collectors fans.

You can read more here and here.