Let’s talk about the black dog

This week, Steve – after a long social media hiatus – took to Facebook. Not to rant, post a joke, or comment on news of the day, but to access community; to reach out to friends near and far for help.

The benefits of a dirty mind

Did you know there’s a bacterium in soil that can actually make you happy?

Scientific research into soil microbes – mycobacterium vaccae – has found that they can have a similar neural effect to drugs commonly prescribed for depression, but without the side-effects and chemical dependency. Apparently these microscopic wrigglies stimulate serotonin, the brain’s natural happy juice. Combined with the feel-good factor of spending time outdoors in the sun and fresh air, and the satisfaction of seeing a seedling grow and bear fruit, for me it’s a pretty powerful prescription.

Pseudo-sisters

When my bestie and her family followed their sea change dream north a couple of years ago, it’s fair to say I had mixed emotions: super-happy for them, but (selfishly) devastated for me.

Quick and easy pick-me-up salad

We’re all a little frazzled and run down around here, between being flat out with work, the little guy going through some kind of brain explosion (I think the technical term would be ‘developmental leap’, or more specifically, ‘catastrophic testosterone surge’), and having Mum up to visit for a big week of Grandma-love for Declan and our annual mother-daughter day out at the Sydney Writers’ Festival.

Bubbleberries and imagination

Thank goodness for Sunday.

It’s been a big week – fun, but exhausting. Work deadlines to meet, some fairly impressive tantrums to diffuse, and a couple of big days spent back in the city.

Mother’s Day: a little jar of love

 

There are worse starts to your day than having a small person grin up at you and say: “Happy Mother’s Day, my beautiful mummy!” – even if said little guy has spent much of the night with his bony elbows wedged between a couple of your ribs, periodically grumbling “make some room for me!” in a bid to expand his substantial territory further into your side of the bed.

Sweet, sweet corn: golden kernels of awesome

So the first cob of corn was finally ready on the weekend!

We’d been anxiously monitoring it, and by Saturday morning it was looking good to go. Decs wrenched it from my hands as soon as I picked it, tearing away the husk and opening wide, ready to eat it up then and there. I managed to persuade him to wait until dinner on the promise that the first cob was all his. The things we do for love… though the second cob will be mine, all mine!

Down on the (worm) farm

Don’t you just love an extra Sunday?

The long weekend couldn’t have come at a better time – it’s been a crazy week here! Starting out my copywriting business, I always expected it to be feast or famine. But so far, it’s been (happily) almost exclusively feast – the kind where there’s so much on your plate that you need a good lie down after tackling it.

Cousin love, road trips, and back to the patch

So how was your weekend?

We had a great one – we headed down to Canberra to stock up on some family time. Conveniently, both my mum and brother live down there, and it’s an easy (well, usually…) three-hour road trip. And with beautiful little Benjamin – first child for my brother and his lovely wife, Amanda – born last September, our journeys to the nation’s capital have been more frequent than ever.