G-n-L Ganesh and Lauren

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A decision...

Monday, 26 April 2010

Finally, a decision has been made... I ran out of time to rebuild a free version of blogger for all those in the same predicament as myself... But I'm not quite ready to throw in the towel on a regular blog, so I've come up with an alternative.

This month I have been slowly reducing my workload which was getting out of control, so I can go back to my ideas and give them the best chance of working. No more websites, massively reduced volunteering and a commitment to my own projects:

Sustainable Streetscapes/Transition Towns: My street planting project and transitioning my own suburb towards self sufficiency and moving away from oil dependance.
Trash 2 Treasure: A website dedicated to reusing waste, featuring a listing fee free shop and 'how to' guides as well as my new blog on recycled items (suggestions always welcome).
Green Card Training: Making my free environmental training program available to the world, for free!

It's still a big workload, but nothing compared to what I was facing before and I now no longer resent turning to my computer, but am excited to work on these projects which is how it should be!

Thanks to you all for reading...

Labels: decision

Farewell to Blogging?

Saturday, 27 March 2010

It's been quite sometime since I wrote here and I do apologise. While I have been exceptionally busy, I've also been slightly disheartened to learn that blogger will no longer be offering ftp support from May 1st of this year, after which I'll no longer be able to post my blog. There are 2 real options here - the first to end the blog, or the second to write a script to recreate blogger functionality for everyone in the same situation as me to use! (Still deciding...)

In other news we've just said farewell to our second set of couch surfers - a German couple on a tour around Australia for 5 months... We've done a few interesting things recently - clay target shooting - the melbourne city romp (an amazing race in melbourne!) - and I've founded the West Heidelberg Transition Town, the first meeting to be on Thursday at our place. I've learnt that people will buy software that you've written online for $5 without any guarantees that you aren't dodgy... Andrew has been recovering from surgery... Lachie is in Tassie... and Mum has been cooking up war time rabbit recipes that her mum used to make. Dad & his family have been preparing for the big trip to the UK and the move to Darwin... and we're off to an apple tasting festival and Permablitz tomorrow!

Anyway, lots to do - so another fleeting post!

Oh, and the beautiful illustration came from: inkvanilla

Labels: blog, farewell

Nepalese Cookbook

Friday, 26 February 2010

It has been a long time since I've written here... I do apologise! It was an exciting weekend of bike riding over the West Gate bridge, cycling with the Banyule Bug and helping out at the Sustainable Living Festival last weekend, and of course work has been rather interesting of late... but no more excuses! I'm writing to update you all on the progress of the Nepalese Recipe Book!

After weeks of cooking up a storm in the kitchen we've honed in on a few winning recipes including (in no particular order):

Daal Bhaat
Chickpea, Spinach and Tomato Curry
Asparagus Bhutuwa
Lamb Quantee (Lamb with bean sprouts)
Paratha with Vegetables
Lamb Sekuwa
Gajar ko Halwa (Carrot Pudding)
Mahendranagar Samosas
Vegetable Pulao
Tarkari (Mixed vegetables)
Creamy Coconut, Cauliflower and Lentil Curry
Quick and Easy Potato and Zucchini
Chicken, Broccoli and Tomato Curry
Tibetan Momos
Beans and bamboo shoot curry
Lamb Curry
Shikarni (Apple, Cinnamon and Honey yoghurt)
Kheer (Rice Pudding)
Banana Chiya Bread
Chiya (Spiced Tea)

Unfortunately I'm still missing some good recipes for chow mein, thukpa, laddu and achar... Not to mention a guide to hosting your very own Nepalese Dinner Party! If you have some suggestions, know of anything vital that I've missed or can help me convince G to call his mum for help please let me know :-)

Labels: cooking, nepal, recipes

Mini-Adventure 8: Phillip Island

Monday, 15 February 2010

Wow... It's been a rather hectic few weeks... With the couch surfer, outings, cleaning up the yard for the first bbq on the mexican chiminea and starting off my involvement in the Transition Town movement - valentine's day was a rewarding and relaxing day of fun...

G and I have agreed that instead of getting involved in the consumerism of the event we should organise to do something together each Valentine's Day... last year we went horse riding through wineries... this year we decided to use our Christmas Presents (jet boating at Phillip Island!)... On the way down to Phillip Island we stopped off at the Cranbourne Botanical Gardens to get ideas for our front yard. An award winning garden it may be, but it was not in the least bit inspiring. It was definitely a beneficial stop though because it turned out to be hard rubbish day in Cranbourne - or a 'Gold Mine' as G termed it. We now have a large assorted array of power tools in various states of disrepair that will soon sit proudly in our shed :-)

The next stop, just over the bridge was the Phillip Island Chocolate Factory. A feast for all the senses we just had to stop for a delicious hot chocolate given the stormy weather. I can still taste the melted chocolate pouring down my throat... mmmm....

We were very lucky in that the thunderstorms held out long enough for us to be thrown around on choppy seas in western port bay... A couple of times we were literally thrown from our seats as the boat swerved over large waves and lept across the ocean. We saved the penguins for next time and headed back to Melbourne to discover free mulch - a feast for the veggie patch! And to implement G's method of super savings shopping... (I've put G in charge of all food preparation this week while I take over the garden and chook care)... should be fun! :-)

Labels: botanical gardens, chocolate, hard rubbish, jet boating, mini-adventure, phillip island

Invictus: Unconquered: Inspiring!

Saturday, 30 January 2010

I have a new appreciation for rugby after seeing the film 'Invictus'... The true story was an innovative solution to the question - 'how do you inspire a nation?'. How do you unite people separated by so much hate and create something incredible. I was so impressed that Nelson Mandela was able to analyse the needs of the country so well and come up with such an inspired solution! Obviously not the focus of all his attentions but it's an important lesson for any community project or business that I want to get off the ground - people need to be inspired first!

Speaking of inspiration I'm extremely excited about week 1 of 'do something different month' - this is what's planned for the week:

Sunday: Salsa dancing in Fitzroy! (Still working on convincing G to come!)
Monday: Magic Monday at Dante's - Magical comedy night!
Tuesday: Having a couch surfer come to stay - our first official one :-)
Wednesday: Visiting the community 'generosity kitchen' Lentil as Anything
Thursday: Jeannie's birthday party at a Vietnamese restaurant
Friday: Playing pool night at the Albion
Saturday: Visiting a shooting range

Speaking of productivity the Nepalese cook book is progressing well, though has hit a slight road block in recipe variety... We need ideas for recipes that don't involve rice now :-) And as a result of the great Australia Day beer tasting I've discovered my favourite type of beer is cider - not beer at all! (G is still wearing his australian flag temporary tattoos in recognition of some delicious pear cider)...

Well back to work!! Lots more websites to program!

Labels: inspiration, invictus, unconquered

Observations on Chicken Behaviour...

Sunday, 17 January 2010

This has been one of the more interesting weeks of chook-keeping that we've had. As you may already know, our game hen Russet has always been extremely timid and is often pecked by the largest 2 of the red hens (Big Red and Copper). The situation had been slowly improving until friday when G left the chook pen door open accidentally. I'm not sure what happened during the day but when we returned home all the chooks were in the backyard, Russet was visibly distressed (but un-injured as far as we could tell) and wouldn't stop making noise (which is extremely unusual, she's usually very quiet). When we rounded the chooks back into the pen the largest 2 kept chasing and pecking Russet for no reason at all. Then out of the blue the 3 large hens (including Sienna) turned on a pigeon that had walked into the coop and tried to eat it!! They managed to swallow a large number of feathers before we could intervene to save it. I guess that explains all the pigeon carcasses in the chicken coop.

We made the executive decision that the 3 big hens had to go. Obviously Russet was never going to improve with 3 crazed pigeon killers as coopmates. We listed an ad and separated Russet from the others as a short term measure. G was of the opinion that Sienna was a good chook and that she and Russet could be friends while I was of the opinion that Sienna was only being nice to Russet because she was smaller than Red and Copper and as soon as they had gone Sienna would be 'queen of the nest' and start pecking Russet too. G decided to test the theory and purchased 2 new game hens (yet to be named!) to form an army with Russet to defend against the gang of 3. My theory turned out to be correct. As soon as Copper and Red were separated Sienna turned nasty. So we halved the coop with the game birds on one side and the gang of 3 on the other side. The two new game birds were about half the size of Russet and things started off well... but soon even they turned on Russet!!

I started to consider that perhaps sometimes my shy behaviour led others to treat me in the same way Russet was being treated! Not that I've ever noticed that but it really made me think... People treat you in the way you behave. And even tiny game hens thought they could beat up on Russet because she was timid. If you demand respect you seem to get it in this world!

Labels: behaviour, chickens

Avatar : It just keeps getting better!

Sunday, 10 January 2010

The first time I saw Avatar at Village in 3D I was impressed - the graphics were stunning, though I felt the story line was a little cliche, the characters overly stereotypical. The second time I saw Avatar was at Imax at the 3rd largest screen in the world (yes, I did feel a bit guilty about those 15000 watt lamps and the energy required)... I was inspired, awed and amazed. The creativity displayed in creating an entire culture, language and planet in Pandora was astonishing. Each little detail became increasingly evident, each glowing footprint, each flickr of the network built into the environment, each intensely stimulating selection of colours on the fluorescent planet, the ring in Nyteri's ear that made her appear more human than the other Na'avi, even the 2d photographs that appeared remarkably 3d for a moment. Who wouldn't want to live on a planet with floating magnetic islands, mystical trees where memories and thoughts could be downloaded, flying on brightly coloured teradactyl type creatures, sleeping in giant cocoon leaves and experiencing a deep and fulfilling connection to the environment? The movie is a creative masterpiece regardless of whatever the critics might say.

Labels: avatar, movie, review