beautiful ...... mess

The rain seems to have become reacquainted, yet again, with our little town, as the little rivers start to rise, we struggle with keeping things dry and anticipate another possible flood. But there is a beauty and acceptance, an understanding and ways to manage. Yesterday we lit a fire in our fireplace, no it wasn't cold and yes it is summer and yes it did become more than rather toasty but it and the open windows circulating air, definitely aided in drying things out a bit. It's something we have learnt since being here, that and the importance of not leaving anything that is faintly damp unattended as the mould encroaches as soon as you turn your back, not even your back, if an eye is turned, you best watch out. This here is fertile land. 

Before the rain or the drizzle returned, we set ourselves out and about a little further afield. The Mid North headed up to Grafton for a concert to support the protestors that were in court after being arrested for protecting property that had been earmarked for Coal Seam Gas exploration. It was emotional being part of something like this (as it is with any protest, gathering of people power), so beautiful seeing people getting together to make a difference. It was encouraging to see the news today to see a little bit of progress has been made, but there is still a long way to go. CSG just boggles my mind, I know it is ultimately all about money and power, but it breaks my heart that despite overwhelming evidence on how widespread it's destruction of the natural environment is, it is still being pushed ahead and hailed as the answer to our addiction to dirty coal, yet there remains little to no support for one of the cleanest energy providers, the sun. Okay, obviously this could go on for ages, but I will stop...soon, as we were leaving the concert Ilo said with a bit of satisfaction and 'job well done' in his voice, "Ah, so does that mean that those people are not going to put gas in water anymore?", oh darling, if only it were that easy. 

We are thoroughly enjoying our Wednesday beach dinners, this time we had the pleasure of Nic, Amy and Alia's company, the wind was whipping about and we all had a layer of salt covering us but again it was so delightful. We ran, we found two very similar pieces of sea glass (hooray) and ate delicious homemade wraps with an assortment of grilled vegetables, crunchy tofu, feta, jalapeno pickles, homemade dips and our staple, caramelised onions.

On the way to the beach, Poe was saying how he has seen all that Ilo has seen because he is older, I was clarifying saying that Poe had seen all that Poe had seen and Ilo had seen all that Ilo had seen, somehow we got to when Ilo was a star in the sky before he was born and how he could see lots from up there. Ilo pipes in, ' I could see the whole world and I could see Australia, then I could see Manu (Ilo's uncle) standing on the roof with his arms stretched out and he was reaching and reaching for me and then he got me and he brought me down and he was so happy and I was so happy". 

Oh that mind, so scrumptious and wonderful. I love being taken inside his mind, into his little journeys. 

From this, emerges these. 

More amazing bird creations by the immensely talented and beautiful Nick Warfield. We did a bit of huddling and lots of chatting on our rainy day market. Such a gorgeous and quite amusing day. We did end up leaving early after a crazy downpour led to the surrounding creeks (within metres of our stall) started to encroach and rivers of mud started to intimidate our stall. Strangely it was totally great and fun. Oh and those who are interested and let's face it, if you are drooling at all those gorgeous bit and pieces, who wouldn't be. Nick is making a,... wait for it .... awesome cabin out of these birds, yes, when he sells birds he uses the money to add an extra little bit to the cabin (which is kind of being built within the walls of a shed, that just has a roof and two side walls). I promise I will take photos and include you all on his very exciting journey.

And just to continue with the cabin theme that has been wafting around here of late. Scott and I were in pure heaven last night, those of you out there in TV land are probably all over this but we found on iview, Man Made Home, yes Kevin McCloud from Grand Designs, is making his own cabin out of timber from his land and by using recycled objects. It is drool worthy and heart warming and totally worth lusting over. Seriously, he makes his own glass (!!), super strong glue out of rabbit skins and urine, oak chip Ale and so much more. Ah, sigh. That kind of stuff, absolutely floats my boat. 

Should I mention now that I have just eaten two desserts combined. Does that make things a bit clearer? Not two huge slabs, just a little bit of my pear crumble and a little bit Scott's rice pudding (it is late after all and it would be good to keep this good thing going). I know some of you out there have an aversion to mixing things up like this and prefer there food with space around it but the combination of the two of these was quite groundbreaking.The softness of the rice pudding combined with the crunchiness of the crumble and the texture of the pear. I must say it's also pretty exciting to be eating such deliciousness in a really quiet home (all I can hear are the frogs outside), drinking tea and updating all of you out there.