Feeling incredibly grateful.

JodieDownUnder

The east coast of Australia is experiencing a wetter & cooler winter this year. Parts of Sydney have just been declared a natural disaster due to flooding, 4th time in 18 months! I feel very grateful not to have been caught up in the floods to the north & south of us. Actually we’ve dodged a bullet on many fronts since we retired & moved to where we now live.

Bushfires were too close for comfort in 2019 but we were not burnt out. Covid hit in 20-21, being retired & living on the land didn’t pose a threat or inconvenience to us. The flooding events of 21-22, while it was extremely wet & boggy, we had no loss or damage.

So yesterday while I was contemplating our good fortune, I decided to celebrate & moved into the kitchen, cranked up my playlist & churned out some good food & herbal medicinals. A pot of chicken & veg soup, a super healthy brunch (mushrooms, onions, sauerkraut, avocado, poached egg) a pumpkin & prune gf cake, another batch of elderberry syrup & fire cider. strained off 2 tinctures, white willow & lemon balm. A thoroughly productive day inside, while it was cold & wet outside. Made me feel good, nurturing my soul & I found out about a Tai Chi beginners class, starting tomorrow. I am one lucky girl!

marjstratton

Sounds kind of like what we had last fall. Lots of rain and devastating floods. Then this spring, it has been unseasonable wet and cool. Here it is the first days of summer and the 4th of July is cool and cloudy and all our plants seem to be about a month behind.

Hope you manage to stay safe and warm.

The food looks great!

VermontCathy

@JodieDownUnder There are definitely advantages to living in a place that is not too vulnerable to floods, fires, or urban problems.

New types of cooking was something I explored at the height of COVID when I couldn't really go anywhere. I bought inexpensive used books on Mexican, Hunan, and Sichuan, and some of those recipes have become part of my routine menu rotation.

It has been drier than usual here this year, but with occasional periods of intense rain. All of my spring crops are about 4 weeks late, while the summer crops are on schedule. In a normal year I would get large numbers of peas in June, but this year the pea pods are still tiny, so it will be another week or two before we get to get them.

It's very unusual for me to be making strawberry jam when the peas aren't ready yet!

Torey

Oh, my, Jodie! I just saw pics of the flooding near Sydney on the news. What a disaster! Glad you aren't in the midst of it.

Sounds like you had a great day being so productive.!

jowitt.europe

@JodieDownUnder Floods in Australia are on our news every day now. It is sad. Hopefully the floods do not do too much damage. Happily you are safe.

and the photos of the meals!!! I started feeling hungry looking at them.thank you for sharing what you have in there.