long-toothed hinterland dweller

Still with me

My headache was back again this morning.  Not surprised; my 'migraines' are always two day affairs. At least I can usually count on coming good on day three.  And I am thankful that Easter will be mostly spent quietly at home.

In the meantime there's the dilemma of whether or not to bother taking pain-killers ... and what I can eat without making it worse.  As I said yesterday, the list of suspect foods is very long.  I made some toast this morning, but what to put on it?  Marmalade is citrus, and Vegemite is yeast.  Yhogurt is a no-no and so is coffee and orange juice. 

Lunch is a boring affair when you have to exclude tomato, avocado, cheese, onion, processed meats, dressings and pickles.  I only threw a sideways glance at the fresh sourdough loaf and the hot cross buns.  But then also, practically every kind of fruit is out - especially the ones that I most enjoy, like pawpaw, bananas, and pineapple.

I took a walk in the garden munching on an apple.

The Pride of Barbados is in bloom.

And the lovely Singapore Frangipani.

Then I had my daily swim.

The water temperature was perfect.

This is the pool, taken  when the Purple Wreath was in bloom.

Relaxation and deep breathing always help with pain.

Earlier today I managed to sit briefly for some meditation -- and so made a start on a new commitment with the group that meets together at a site called 100 days.

They're an interesting and eclectic group of (mostly) bloggers and I'm looking forward to spending the next three months meditating with them.

My poor head

I awoke with a headache this Good Friday morning.  I wasn't surprised.  Yesterday had been somewhat stressful - a rare occurrence for me.  A lot has been happening of late.  As I reported last month, two of our kids have been house-hunting.  Now both have just signed up for their new homes - within two weeks of one-another. 

Only son's purchase was relatively smooth.  He and M took a little time to work out what they wanted, but within the limitations they had set themselves, their choice had not been difficult. Friends and family, including M's parents and ourselves, were asked for their opinion and advice, and finally the purchase went through. 

For daughter #2, vey pregnant and not yet relocated from Melbourne, the story has been a little different. For the past four months she and B have been house-hunting by internet, with a willing mother and a not so enthusiastic father, sallying forth to Brisbane each weekend to check out possibilities on the ground.  Armed with a camera, clip-board and pen, we reckon we have trudged through 50 homes - and driven by 20 or so more.  But we were glad to be of use, and tried hard to be thorough - despite the fact that the parameters seemed to be changing from week to week.

Time was running out and the right place still hadn't turned up.  Then this week, one more possibility presented itself.  This time little brother was pressed into service to attend a mid-week night-time viewing. He had his phone at the ready to give an on-the-spot description and took the usual digital shots to forward by e-mail.

Two days later it was all over!  We were advised that this was the one -  an offer had been made and had been accepted.

This poor Mother went into a tail-spin - probably from anti-climax.   A place they hadn't actually seen - and one that had not even been given a parents' seal of approval.  How could they be sure they were getting the right house?  What unimaginable defects might little brother have missed?  Very little sleep for me that night - and now today, a headache.

Although I don't often succumb to stress, I do have regular headaches. Usually I can pinpoint the cause, and will mostly identify something that I ate as the main culprit. On this occasion it could have been caused by any one of a number of known 'trigger' foods.  Although I have all but given up coffee in an attempt to curtail my migraine heads, I have been taking a lot of weak tea, and yesterday I did indulge in a little pre-Easter chocolate.  And then there was the glass of wine at dinner - and the avocado and the cheese at lunch - and the yhogurt for breakfast - and the fruit-cake with morning tea and an afternoon snack of a banana and some nuts.  All things I should be avoiding as a preventive measure!

I guess this puts me on the same footing as Tjilpi who admitted to having a hangover last week.  But I am wearing something slightly more decorous than a pair of underpants on my head - a cooling headband of water crystals in fact. 

And let me tell you - it's going to be a chocolate-free Easter for me this year!

Fruitful times continue

A week has sped by, during which time my hearing has improved vastly, although my ears continue to pop and click whenever I yawn or swallow. 

I've been missing from the blog, busy devoting considerable time to family and various matters that needed my attention.  There have been two days at my casual job, the grandchildren came for another hectic morning, builders have been to tend to small renovation jobs,  I travelled to the city for a symphony concert and again to see the Queensland Theatre Company's production of 'A Streetcar Named Desire', then twice more to househunt for my pregnant daughter.  I gardened and made mulch - and then spent two more days out in the glorious autumn weather playing croquet - my wonderfully relaxing, but also grippingly absorbing, sport of choice.

In between, I've been swimming each afternoon in the pool - warmed by a recently installed solar heater - and cooking up banana muffins and cakes to use up the last of the over-ripe bunch we picked.  And in whatever time I can find, reading "The Meeting of the Waters", an intriguing account of the infamous South Australian Hindmarsh Bridge affair and its entanglement with the secret Aboriginal women's business.  The book is written by journalist Margaret Simons - a favourite writer of mine since the days of her 'Earth Mother' gardening column in The Australian - and even more so after her delightful book about compost, "Resurrection in a Bucket".

But back to the kitchen and the garden - both the dragonfruit have been picked and eaten.  And you are right Mikhela - lime juice helps a lot.  Otherwise, some big scoops of natural yhogurt.  I'm developing quite a taste for the red dragonfruit, and will be keeping an eye on the new crop coming on.

Meanwhile the Tamarillos (aka Tree Tomatoes) have ripened.

These are another lesser known subtropical fruit.  Originating in South America, they are now widely grown in New Zealand for export.

Again, they don't have such a wonderful flavour, but are juicy and refreshing and very versatile for those who like making jams, chutnies and sauces.

I like them because the tree is quite attractive as well as fast growing and early bearing.  You can see the fruit here against a backdrop of banana leaves.

Here's the tamarillo tree soon after we planted it, a little over 12 months ago.  The leaves are big and shiny and the size of dinner-plates.

Behind it you can see the cactus of the dragonfruit plant snaking up and across the wire trellis erected for it.  That is bearing now too - while next to it, the banana suckers we planted at about the same time, are now more than 20 feet high.

(Tabor is contemplating growing dragonfruit in her greenhouse.  I'm no expert, but it is worth giving it a try.  There's a link to some horticultural information here, on the left side-bar.)

The other tree that is fruiting for the first time this year is our Lemonade tree.  A lemonade fruit is a citrus hybrid that looks like a lemon but has a mild sweet flavour that makes its flesh as ready-to-eat as an orange or mandarine.

We liked our first taste of this fruit so much that we planted a second tree, but this one is growing as an espalier on a wire frame constructed in the same way as for the dragonfruit.

The milk bottle hanging among the leaves contains the wild may oil that we put out to attract and drown the fruit fly.  It does a good job, as is evidenced by all the bodies floating in the liquid.

Below are some of our bright chilli bushes - we have red, gold, green and purple varieties - which amazingly, are regularly raided by birds.

It's probably time for me to make some chilli jam again - and some lime marmalade - and the rosellas will be ready to pick soon as well. 

So if you don't hear from me for a while ... !