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Are you looking for me?
I have shifted from WordPress because my photos will no longer load here. I don’t have any storage left. Cone with me.! After almost fifteen years of writing on WordPress I will spend another fifteen years writing over HERE. I still write every second day and you can join with either a Free or paid…
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the kitchens garden is in a new spot.
The kitchens garden has run out of room on WordPress so I have shifted platforms and I have continued writing and reading and posting my pictures HERE at SUBSTACK Follow me there. ☝️👆🏽🆙⬆️🔝🔼⬆️🆙☝️👆🏽. Follow me And see ALL the farm pictures and ALL the garden pictures and ALL the travel pictures. It is just the…
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Old birds Both
Sourdough starter is so forgiving. Especially Godzilla. But I have never tried to revive such an old jar of it before. But here we go. I often leave a jar of sourdough starter in the back of the fridge for emergencies. If my current sourdough starter dies or I need more than usual – something…
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Saturday Special 😉
Because I was away all last week, I wanted to pop in today. I missed you all so! And don’t forget the Farmy Newsletter comes out tomorrow! At noon. Join if you would like that delivered to your inbox! Yesterday I built a run out into the grass for the white chickens. As you can…
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How is everything going?
Just popping in to see how everyone is doing. It is as hot as expected out here in the Central Valley in California. Really hot. The reports from the farm are good – except a hawk got one of the turkeys. Damn hawks. So the growing birds are back to restricted walks. They can wander…
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Things things words
As I broaden my horizons walking and mapping further and further out from the house I follow the Bow river – it feels like the artery of Canmore. The walking tracks are still icy in patches but well maintained. It was in the fifties through the seventies that the thirty miles of walking and bicycle…
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Look! What snow feels like before it falls
If you have ever been pregnant. It feels like that. The air is heavy and still and morbid with anticipation. Before I dive into this weekends writing though – I thought I would show you … Yesterday! A little snow was in the forecast. But everyone went to bed early. So I took that as a…
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Mud Reigns Supreme
On the Holiday called Christmas it rained. It was not cold, just rained and rained and rained. The mud has reached epic proportions and Him Indoors is not able to help with chores at all now. His walking stick sinks straight down into the mud. And I am afraid of a fall. So – well…
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Happy Christmas Holiday!
The huge chicken is in the oven – stuffed with home made toasted bagels, oranges, onions, thyme, sage and oregano and balsamic vinegar. It will be a long slow cook because it is Heeuuuge! And grown right here in my own garden! Plus a leek and potato pie (the pastry is already resting in the…
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I know it is Saturday
And I did say I was not going to post on a Saturday but I was out for a birthday drink with my old school chum last night. We share the same birthday. Same day, same age. Born on different continents. So, this morning I seem to be mooching about in bed just a little…
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Sunsets Are Boring
I have discovered that sunsets are actually not nearly as interesting as sunrises. I raced down the back last night at 4.15 pm when I saw that the sun was setting so I could get a video of it for TKG Take Ten and then when I looked at the little film later, there was…
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The Stage Called Sky
Mauve is not my favorite colour but what colour would best describe this sunset. I would love to have taken you all out to sit in the field with Boo and Tima and me and a glass of wine and watch this evening show. As soon as my dead cat arrives I will. ( My…
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Write like a Mother; it’s a Real Job
When I am writing I often struggle with where to begin. What words to use to capture your attention. Finding the words, that will literally launch an essay, is a struggle sometimes. Often I simply start in the middle (like human relationships we often start our sentences mid-thought) then track back. This is not the…
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Over-confidence and Big Hogs
Drama in the barn. Come see! Yesterday (feeling a little overconfident about the safety of my IPhone ) I attached my IPhone camera – using my twirly whirly tripod – to a gate (out of reach – I thought) to film the big pigs coming in for an afternoon nap. I am so enjoying bringing…
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Nanny Boo and His Birds
This sequence is just beautiful and of course impossible to orchestrate! So I was super lucky to be in the right place at the right time with my eyes open. Much to be thankful for. N’uff said – I think! 🤭 Boo’s unchanging expression! One of our Farmy Sponsors bought a new dog bed for…
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Fresh Winter Herbs – How to Grow Them.
Growing herbs inside during the winter is easy and rewarding not to mention delicious. In late autumn it is critical to bring my herbs from the cooling verandah to the sunny glasshouse. If killed by the cold, cry I would, for my herbs. So I bring the potted herbs inside early. Crying over spilt herbs…
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Fatality in the Kitchen
Noooo! The coffee machine has finally Spat The Dummy! Dead. Nothing but Sad. No delicious foamy coffee. So it is plunger coffee for us this morning. We were hoping that the espresso machine would last until Christmas then Our John and I were going to go halvies on the cost of a new one. Coffee…
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Back home with slightly scorched wings.
Traveling fast and light with nothing but Little Blue Bag is how I love to travel. And travel energizes me – invigorates me – makes me stronger. But traveling this fast means I sometimes fly a little too close to the sun. And getting back to a messy, sticky house and farm after being at…
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San Francisco to Oakland to the Central Valley.
It is warm out here in California as I catch up with family across the state. While I am away MiL has gone to stay with another capable member of her family in another city. So everyone is taking a short break from caregiving. Hopefully that is successful because it is important for her minders…
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What is different about you today?
What if we woke up each morning and asked ourselves: “What is different about me today.” This is yesterday morning: Very cold. Frozen. The leaves were tumbling from the trees. This was last night when I drove up the drive. This is this morning: Last week it was in the 80’s and muggy yesterday was…
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Hogs in Fields, Grazing like Cows
Stairway to Heavens. Pigs in Clover. Old Lady with Radio. Listening to Hockey. Busy, Busy Roosters on Very Important Business. First Fire of the Season. Without Complaint. Hogs grazing in Fields like Cows. That is All! Celi Tonight is Halloween Night? Best you stay indoors then I think. (As if we can hide from the…
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Practical Procrastination
Despite a long unwritten and largely ignored list of chores; last night I went to bed at 6.30pm and slept until 7am. I can get to that list tomorrow, I thought. At the very least I can begin to write that list tomorrow, was my second thought. I have remembered a few of the things…
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Bright White Waxing Gibbous
I had trouble coming inside last night. The moon, though only at half strength, was washing the land in silver. And it was the perfect temperature for a walk. It was dusk when we started off but soon the fake lights were shining on the horizon, competing with the stars. We finished by walking back…
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The only way to Start is to Begin.
My writing is not going too well. There are too many changes of location in my day. But I keep restarting. And I keep beginning. Writing needs a rhythm and short stories written for a podcast are all about the words a writer does not use, so first I need to get all the words…
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Lowering the Light
The season is slowly lowering her light. Casting her shadows longer and further. Autumnal shades of gold are creeping in around the edges: Today I start editing the text for this week’s podcast on SubStack. Podcast on Sunday. Farm Sounds on Wednesday. So the words here will be fewer today as this week’s story is…
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Trading in the Old Phone
I said thank you so much to my old phone and traded her in without a qualm. When I was working at the mill I had a bit more money. And I bought a decent phone. Mainly for the ability to take a decent image with my phone. Then a few weeks ago I came…
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Green Waters
I got some pond weed and put it in one of the white chickens water bowls to see if they might eat the weed as extra nutrition. Every experiment needs a control. And the chickens preferred the control. The green water was roundly rejected. the clean water was drunk up. The white chickens preferred the…
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The Best Present Ever
I have given up on trying to buy presents for the farm-hand husband. Nothing is ever right. Year after year my presents lie unused on the table, sometimes for months until I put them away myself. Total waste of money and effort. For a few years I gave him cash which he quite liked. Last…
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What a Difference a Day Makes!
Things have a habit of working out right? Well, not always. But yesterday they did. Yesterday I felt that my MiL turned a corner in her recovery and the Physical Therapist was happy to graduate her to a cane to walk with, (leaving the walker behind) after she passed a series of tests. In a…
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The Middle of the Night
I have never been one to use an excited up-beat bloggers voice. You know me now. If I say I love you I absolutely mean it in that moment. If I say I am grasping here – feeling like I am being left behind – you know I am going to be raw and vulnerable.…
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The Fat Lady and The Dead Boy
Your Sunday Podcast. The Fat Lady and The Dead Boy. I need to add a trigger warning with this podcast. There is reference to suicide in here. So don’t listen if this is something that might hurt you. It took a lot of writing because this is one of those incidents in a persons life…
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Gone Fishing then Not Gone Fishing
I wrote this yesterday. Gone Fishing Yesterday Melanie, who is working on this site, has discovered that the theme we have been using here at The Kitchens Garden dot COM is now obsolete and retired by wordpress. AHA we said in unison. This is the reason we have been having troubles. So as time permits…
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Camo Cat
Apparently the White Chickens are not the only ones hiding in the bushes. Can you see Mr Flowers? He hung out with the meat chickens all day yesterday. Tucked into their weedy bushes. There is a space for him (Mr Flowers) and the layers to hop in and out of the white chickens run; over…
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Two Egg Handicap
Yesterday, at the beginning of afternoon chores I collected the last two eggs. This in itself is not news-worthy. However, with time always at a premium nowadays, I did not run them up to the house straight away. I proceeded with my work, carrying my two egg handicap in my hand, as you do. Waiting…
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Bigger. Wider. Better.
I had a good few hours of farming yesterday. The Night Nurse was going to study at home all day which meant we had cover for The Matriarch and I did not need to be told twice. After reading yesterday’s post you will understand why I fairly bolted out the door. White Chickens I spent…
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Fluffy Bottomed Mr Flowers
When the Duke of Kupa (my first big peacock) – was sick in that terrible winter – was it 2018? – his tail feathers stopped growing. The Duke died of pneumonia and because it was the middle of the worst winter I ever experienced out here. The ground was frozen solid. As hard as glass.…
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Nocturnal Is Good for the Soul
Imagine if we were meant to be a little awake at night. Just one eye, maybe. Farmers are always a little bit awake – we leap to our feet – well I leap to my feet – at any farmyard sound that is out of place. I have never understood deep unconscious sleep in the…
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Armpits and Insteps
Those hidden spaces on our bodies that work so hard and are shaded from view. I am not going to draw a picture for you – you know what I mean. Your tired body deserves a thank you! For getting you this far. All of you who are working away doing essential stuff that no-one…
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The Moon and Me
Gentle is not soft. Though soft attracts me. The softness of night sounds. The softness of a child’s arms. The softness of a belly. Gentle can be as hard and strong and safe as an arm looped around a shoulder. I had a small child perched on the arm of my chair yesterday evening. To…
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Angels Doing Cartwheels
In the deep night my old filmmaker friend was chatting with me. And here is the last line of our thread. I read it as I was drifting off to sleep. …… “sleep angel; when you call someone angel they imagine having wings”. ……. Isn’t that just the loveliest thing. Things are settling again. There…
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Put your Life Jacket On First
It is hard to write a farm lifestyle blog without the life bit getting in the way sometimes. And as you know I try to keep family business private. Especially if it is not my business. So please forgive me my absences. Let me just say. Don’t be mean spirited. A person is a multi…
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Kept In The Dark
A friend came out to visit last night and said – I could hardly find your place! Why don’t you have a yard light. I couldn’t see your house from the road. There’s no light. All the farm houses around here have a big bright yard light so the whole of the environment is lit…
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Naturally Hatched Chicks
And I thought I was the only one with chicks in the Late Summer. But chickens have other ideas. This mama hen was wandering about the big pig’s weedy garden. Her newly hatched chicks scratching about in their (the pigs) dinner spot. It did not feel safe. But there you are. As I write this…
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A Day for Myself
Yesterday was way more than the day I expected. I had a day for myself. Actually an afternoon, but it felt like a day. A whole afternoon for myself and a good friend. So yeah, the only photo I took was this one. (Below) (The sunrise was from this morning). A lovely drop, too! I…
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Cover Crops Need Loving Too
Our cover crops in the big fields did not get a good start this year due to the dryness of the early summer. So there is a bit too much grass in there for my liking. Nature abhors a vacuum so where the red clover did not take off; a ditch grass grew. And in…
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Birds of a Feather – Flock Wherever
Mr Flowers seems to spend his entire day sneaking up on me, peering around corners, looking in windows, checking doors for lapsed latches. I believe he is sending silent silent signals to me to throw more tiny tomatoes his way. What is the name of the sound when you flick your tongue from the roof…
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In the Night, the Rain Came
Last night, it rained for hours. I stayed awake, I always do when it rains. I listened to the soothing sound of the steady rain and the distant hoots of an owl, as though his calls were carried by the raindrops themselves. I opened up the big doors and the windows all the better to…
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In which Wai Has Dinner in Bed
Tima the KuneKune was bloodied and tired with just a hint of a smirk when I came out for afternoon chores yesterday. Bleeding scratches on her shoulder but I got out the iodine. No-one likes the iodine. But fighting is not rewarded. Wai (the rescue pot belly) would not come out of his corner at…
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Opened Tima’s gate – Things did not go as Planned.
Tima is an old KuneKune pig. Most of the year she is free to wander anywhere she wants to. But like all pigs she believes she is allowed to eat anything she finds. And this includes whole fields of wheat and all the tomatoes. So in the harvest season I set her up a camp…
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Furiously Leaning Into the Day
Yesterday I got a lot done on the farm because I got angry – I call it the Little Red Hen Syndrome. I see Red. (I cannot tell you why that happened yesterday) but when I get angry I seldom speak out I just get to work super fast. I use anger as a tool…
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Can’t get too hot for me!
Remember my old rule of keeping whatever title comes first into my head. Well, I just arrived in California from wintry Melbourne, Australia and it cannot get too hot for me. Though the winters are mild in Melbourne there is nothing quite as delicious, for a cold tired body, as the full bodied heat of…
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A walk down memory lane for you and me
Good morning from Australia. I no longer post here as I cannot add pictures anymore so we have shifted The Kitchens Garden over HERE. Pop in! Pop over! Pop up! Sign up. Let me know you have arrived in the comments there! This site is still open as long as I pay for it so…
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come away with me
The kitchens garden has changed its location. Talking about the same things. The same places. Written by the same person with the same style. But in a new location. Because we have run of space here on WordPress and I can no longer load pictures. And I am all about the images! GO HERE TO…
The Kitchen's Garden 