I am obviously missing some of the core attributes you need to be a stay at home mum. When I had my first child Conor (now 9) I can honestly say I was terrified that I would be a good mother to anyone, and didn’t feel I had a maternal bone in my body. I…

9 years ago, I became a single mother when my son was only 2 years old. It was during the time when my son wasn’t in my care that I decided to do something I had always wanted to do, but never had the time to (rather than mope around or feel lost). I took…

Good old Melbourne bought out some hot weather for this weekend. On Saturday I was at the Sustainable Living Festival held at Federation Square. The sort of place you could find everything from recycled tyre shoes to natural brews. Had it not been so hot I could have spent the whole day there. With a…

It’s not every day you find a new description for what you do that sums it up so nicely. I used to say that I am a stay-at-home mum, but it doesn’t sound very sexy, now does it? It describes where we are located, and very clearly that we aren’t drawing a salary, but very…

When I studied Forest Science (19 years ago now….yikes), I recall my soil science lecturer Dr Nigel Turvey would constantly be reminding us to use the term ‘soil’ instead of ‘dirt’. So, of course being the mature grown up well-rounded students we were, there was legendary status to be sought for asking a question in…

Dear team Part of my therapy is coming to terms with my family. Have shared the parents on the scooter with dog clipped onto the front this week in an attempt to come to terms with my own genetics. Now I wish to share what the dutch rellies are doing – as we speak. It’s…

Blogging, or the writing of a web log, is not something I ever considered before December last year, or even understood, until trying it. The concept of writing an online diary to an unknown audience for no gain other than to share is a tad strange, but then so is twittering (which I still don’t…

If I could pass one of the most precious recipes I know onto you, it would be this one – Broad bean and dill rice (aka Green rice). This dish is Persian and is called Baghali Polow. It is extremely common in Persian cooking. I have had the pleasure of eating this rice since I…

I wrote a blog about the price of being picky a few weeks ago, regarding bananas. In today’s Age there is another article along the same vane:  A blight on us for a perfectly fruity fetish. It is a good read. Seems we are caught in a futile and downward spiral here. Consumers are to blame for…

Ok…so I have never cooked beetroot. I rarely buy it (maybe a few years ago I purchased tinned beetroot for burgers) and I have never grown it. I will happily eat it, quite like it, but for some strange reason I have overlooked this vegetable. Perhaps I associate it with doilies, pickled onions and mini-gerkins (like a…

Tom was delighted with his Christmas present (see The perfect Christmas present for the perfect man), and why wouldn’t he be. It’s not every day you get a meat mincer, sausage casings and some spices. A gift that enables you to be creative, make mess, make dinner, and involve the whole family is indeed the…