adrift in a cloud of Aesop

 i think we can say it has been a mixed week

during which i discovered that a silk jacket

[pre-loved Liz Claiborne]

did not dye well.

suspect it has been coated with stain resisters

 

the lesson is not to purchase in a wild rush

but take time

do the drink bottle test

ie splash a tiny bit of water on the surface of suspect silk

if the damp silk has a whiff of gas station

or worse still if the water rolls off 

leave the item in the store

the lesson is, in fact, to s l o w down

and smell the flowers

it's spring

 just be careful with Geraldton Wax

they seem to harbour a lot of flies

 happily some other things yielded better results

 i have been wandering the paddocks

gathering up bones

that are the remnants of cattle and sheep 

who have shuffled off this mortal coil

mainly due to age and infirmity

 it is not as gruesome as it might appear

and is in a good cause

in a week or two i will be taking them to the 

Arid Lands Botanic Garden

where they will form a bonecairn 

anyway after my gathering

i tottered off to the Post Office

where a delightful parcel awaited me

         

thank you Aesop

for sending me a sample of your new perfume

it mingles bergamot and orange

jasmine, rose, clove and cardamon

and two things i had to look up

Fusianus spicatus [which turned out to be sandalwood

...i always think of Santalum album together with that common name]

and

Cananga odorata [ylang ylang]

     

it smells so much better than bleached bones

that it had me dreaming

of places and people faraway

in the way that certain fragrances do

and though i miss their old fragrance

which has been discontinued

i will say that this one is quite delightful

thank you, Aesop!

+

that scent makes me want to take a tent

to the far paddock

wrap myself in teasilk

and dig a natural swimming pool

boussy sur moudon

a magical place in rolling green fields full of belled cows
edged by cherry trees, walnuts and quinces
perfumed by roses and wisteria
anointed on the last day by a drop or two of much-needed rain
which brought out giant escargots

it was a truly delightful workshop
the soft colours of the bio-region predominantly green
with splashes of pink from red rose petals
until
a parcel from California was opened
unleashing the brightness of eucalyptus

rumour has it there may be a few more events like this in other rural areas of Europe
in 2013...

england, america and possibly also australia

England and America are two countries separated by a common language.

George Bernard Shaw
Irish dramatist & socialist (1856 - 1950

there was a comment made in regard to the previous post
that set me thinking

the words were
"what if you did?"

here in Oz, it could suggest that the subject of the remark
was of little interest
on the other hand it may have indicated an enquiry
who knows
and it really doesn't matter

however it made me google the quote [above] and now
forces me to acknowledge that i have been erroneously ascribing this gem to Oscar Wilde
[and sometimes in a weak moment, Winston Churchill]

so that's sorted. good.
here's a Sunday harvest
bouquets all round on a glorious day

the bird in the tree

somehow i can't bring myself to flatten the surface

that's the front above

behind, below

and if you look closely

you can see the silk has birds woven into it

it makes me think of a book i read as a child

'the bird in the tree' by Elizabeth Goudge

and also of the Phoenix

magically reborn in the fire

the recent time in Victoria brought forth many fire stories

at Healesville there wasn't one of us

who had not been affected by fire in someway

whether recently

or back in '80 and '83

ash-dusted sisters

relishing the fresh greens of the whirled

spring has sprung

spring has sprung and brought with it various firmly grounding farming duties, such as the crutching of sheep and the marking of lambs.

crutching is pretty much like being given a Brazilian but is achieved with clippers rather than wax. it's necessary before the ewes lamb, ensuring a cleaner arrival for the lamb as well as more aromatic access to the milk bar. and before any PETA members leap in with howls of outrage, no, the process is not painful (merely a trifle undignified). if sheep kept their posteriors pristine it wouldn't be necessary. as it is, humans have been intervening in sheep breeding for over 4000 years in order to coax them to grow soft fluffy wool rather than hard hairy stuff.

this makes it tricky to keep the rear end clean and so regular trimming is necessary. uncrutched sheep are far more likely to become flyblown in warmer weather. and don't confuse the process with mulesing. this is trimming of fluff, mulesing involves removal of skin. erk.

crutching is also required before shearing as is saves having to pick the stained wool out of the fleece. that same stained wool was used in the manufacture of the naturally dyed "berber" carpets so popular in the 70s. those lovely brown flecks in your otherwise oatmeal coloured floor covering were dyed on the sheep with poo, using urine as a co-mordant. enjoy.

marking of lambs means the docking of tails and in the case of ram lambs, also the removal of their gentlemens vegetables. the tail removal, though admittedly not an attractive thought does help prevent flystrike in later life (see crutching, above). a slow death on the paddock while being eaten alive by maggots is not pleasant.

and why are ram lambs neutered? simple. if the sheep are being kept for wool, then that grown on wethers tends to be more even in style and quality. ewes wool can exhibit the stresses of pregnancy and nursing; rams wool tends to be much stronger and comes with a unique perfume, reminiscent of the billy-goat leather handbag i once innocently purchased at a market in Spain. nasty, especially on warm days. (note to self, never purchase bag without doing sniff test.)

this perfume can also be tasted in the meat in the event the sheep is destined for the table and while some cultures and religions specify the consumption of entires it's not a flavour i would actively pursue in my cooking. mind you, having assisted at sheep births over the years i won't eat the stuff anyway, roasting lamb smells too much like freshly born lamblet and i'm no baby eater.

selling the lambs to someone else at 6 months when they've turned into monsters that destroy fences for fun and beat up their mothers for the last drop of milk is an easier proposition.

and now i can pootle off to my next two teaching engagements (Geelong, Victoria later this month; and Mandya, India in October) with a clear conscience. fingers crossed they'll all still have nice clean bums when in comes to shearing time when the weather warms up later this spring.

signs of life

narcissus encircling a stone ruin, you'll just have to imagine the delicious scent...



a ewe, clearly optimistic about how the season will shape up, has produced triplets. obviously she hasn't read the newspaper and doesn't realise we are about to become a desert through climate change...or maybe she just knows better!



and Sam the Hunter, doing his bit for the environment by having a daily snack of wild baby bunny. clearly this is not an image for the squeamish reader. bear in mind though, that since the British introduced the wild rabbit to Australia a lot of environmental damage has been done by these otherwise delightful creatures. and I'd rather Sam caught bunnies than robins!