School Holidays Part Deux

We’ve had a much more mellow second week of the school hols.

:: After seeing a Magic Punch & Judy show at the library, Little B has been putting on Alien & Robot puppet shows galore.

:: We’ve discovered buttermilk scones make a great breakfast, especially when you add in a banana smoothie

:: I made Spaghettini with baby spinach, garlic, potato & olives (from Annie Smithers – Annie’s Garden to Table). It tastes as great as it looks!! Mr B went back for 2nds and 3rds...Yum!!

:: Lots of painting – gardens, flowers, bees…you name it….I think Little B is looking forward to spring :-)

:: Playdates with my bestie and her kiddies (our boys birthdays are 3 days apart and this week they decided they should be triplets – strangely enough neither mummy was keen on having the trio *giggle*)

:: I’ve been immersing myself in the 1960’s – Mr B is away for work in Adelaide, so I’ve been reading The Help and watching back to back episodes of Mad Men (Season 3) – yay for the library.

Permaculture Pioneers Review

I am absolutely loving this book at the moment. I’m only half way through but it’s given me so much food for thought that I cant wait to read the rest of it.

It’s a series of stories/essays representing the first three decades of permaculture. And as other reviews have said it joins the dots and connects the who's who of Australian permaculture history. Which is interesting in itself but what I’m finding more interesting is the diverse opinions and passionate beliefs that these pioneers have not just about our past but also our future (the whole earth community).

My particular favourites at the moment are the stories written by Geoff Lawton and Robyn Francis.

My brain is swimming with words like “living with intent”, “work discipline”, “re-weaving the fabric of communities”, and “expanding your life into time experience”.

I love books that challenge your brain (like The Great Disruption did for me last year). And in the last few months, I felt a bit bogged down in survivalist mode. But after reading this for a few days, I’ve realised that I’m uplifted (and no it’s not a book all about positives), I feel energized & reconnected to our sustainable journey.

Here’s hoping the rest of the book is as good as the start….two thumbs up!!

Top Reads 2011

As we meander into 2012, I've been looking back at my reading list for last year. And today when it is freezing cold and supremely rainy, and we are cocooning in the warmth,  I thought I would make a list of what I consider to be my top reads of 2011.

1. The Great Disruption

You can read my review here. I still think this is the best book I read last year. Eye opening, starkly real and very motivating, I still think a lot about what I read. I'm also pleasantly surprised when I bump into new people in real life who have read it.

2. Sustainable Table

You can read my review here. I really enjoyed this book - it's stories (and recipes) monopolised my evenings for about a week. It's been great fun cooking but I also appreciate identifying, learning or in some cases rethinking how I approach food. I can see that this will link in quite strongly with Tricia's no supermarket challenge which I hope to join later this year.

3. The Dirty Life

Hmm I seemed to have reviewed my favourites this year :-) I felt last year was one of learning and applying where we want our path to go. I liked this book most for its honesty about the sheer hard work of farming and providing food. And contrary to that thought it just made me want to work harder on our dreams and aims of a sustainable life.

But it's not all been learning, it's also been about fun. I need to read about as much as I need to breathe. And after joining a challenge to keep track of my reading last year, I tallied 75 books. Hmm did I mention I need to read as much as I need to breather ;-) LOL

4. Still Alice & Left Neglected

These two books are absolutely fantastic. Its not often books make me cry but both of these had me tearing up at different points. Still Alice is first person account of someone suffering from early alzheimers, Left Neglected is about a high flying working mother who suffers a brain injury after a car accident. They are both fictional. Dont let the topics put you off - these books are great reads and I found them very heart felt and inspiring.

5. A Discovery of Witches

Love this, love this, love this book. I'm from the old school of Anne Rice vampires, I also love the Mayfair witches. So this book which is a combo of vampires, witches and magic is a fantastic read. It's a debut novel for Deborah Harkness but I quite literally couldnt put it down. I wore holes in my eyes trying to finish as fast as humanely possible. The great / horrible thing is that it is the first book in a trilogy.

5. Sister

This debut novel by Rosamund Lupton is a mystery novel which is nothing new in itself. But the way she writes is as fluid as honey. I devoured this book (though not that into the crime / mystery genre anymore) in a few short days. Her writing just flowed right over me and I found it quite a compelling read.  

But to be honest I could probably throw a few more books here but then I'm sure your eyes would all glaze over and you'd be snoring :-)  So I'll keep this list short and sweet. But will say that I am looking forward to the next book in The Discovery of Witches and The Passage trilogys which are supposed to be released later this year!!

The Dirty Life

"As much as you transform the land by farming, farming transforms you", Kristin Kimball

The Dirty Life is a memoir written by Kristin Kimball and is the story of how she fell in love with a farmer and began a different way of life as together they transformed a derelict farm in a remote town in the US. I loved this book and count it as one of my best birthday presents. It's easy to read, refreshingly honest about the hard graft of farming but at the same time passionate about the process. Kristin's enthusiasm and honesty roll over you like honey.

She also doesnt beat around the bush: "tranquil and farming are two things farming is not". Farming sounds bone achingly tiring. But she also explains its promise of connectedness with the land, the celebration of effort and her gratefulness that she found it.

One of the first things I did after reading this book was to go out and plant more in our vegie garden. More eggplants, more capsicum, peas, lettuces, corn.....quite simply more. This book made me feel passionate about my garden.

Then I re-looked at a local CSA and it's organic boxes of fruit and veg. It buys the majority of its food from local sources. Combined with our local biodynamic grocer (which is run by a local farmer, who sources local if he can), I feel like I'm making a concerted effort to support local farmers and industry. And I guess like Food Inc, that's one of the key things that comes away from this book. How important it is to try and source your food locally and to support local industry.

The Winter of our Disconnect

This is a really interesting book written by an Australian journalist. It follows her experiment of removing technology / multimedia from her three teenage children as well as herself for 6 months.

The process as well as the outcome is well worth the read. As is her in-depth study of the effects of technology on both children / teenagers / people today. She found the that giving up technology completely changed the way her family interacted, the way they slept, the way they “friended” and they way they played. She believes it changed their life for the better.

Each chapter charts their experiment but also discusses different areas like iPhones, boredom, homework, facebook, eating / playing / sleeping, technology withdrawal. And along with the facts, their actual experiences make for fascinating reading.

Some chapters were eye opening and shocking in a sort of a way. I’ve seen the disconnect myself (my brother is a computer obsessive and his friends all get together on a weekend with their computers, and then sit in a room together while they play online games – he’s 30). But one particular example sticks out in my mind from this book as an example of how obsessed we are with technology and how disconnected we’ve become from real life. When two young girls got stuck in a storm drain in 2009, a 12 year old and 10 year old boy who saw it happen, didn’t call for help. No instead they used their mobile phones to update their facebook status. Another individual happened to read this and called 000. How’s that for a disconnect??

A close friend of mine lets her 3.5 year old use an iPad and an iPhone. Both of which he mastered quickly and uses quite adeptly. But you can also see the disconnect. He’s more upset when they are gone, than that they have gone with his dad overseas (i.e that his dad is missing from daily life). He looks at new things to see if he can scroll them with his fingers like a iPad, and tries to press buttons rather than play. Maushart describes studies where they’ve shown early use of computers by young children can actually alter neural pathways. 

I am not an avid technophile myself and am happy with minimal technology in my life. My phone is a basic one (it rings, though it can take photos), I do have a laptop computer and an iPod but use it for audiobooks for Little B. But that would have to be about it. I prefer real life connections with friends and family. I have next to no interest in Facebook, have never looked at Twitter and have never even seen an iPhone. 

We have also chosen not to allow Little B to access or play on a computer until he is at school. He has plenty of time to adapt to technology but not so many years to enjoy free unstructured play without pressures or obsessions that computer technology can bring. It’s for this reason that he is also tv free.

I think this is a great book and recommend it as an interesting eye opener to the changes technology has made to our society.