Coming from New Zealand where all 4 seasons are gloriously distinct (except perhaps summer), I often complain that Queensland has no seasons. However, there are seasons and seasons - and all of these are reflected in the farm and its current 'progress'. There are seasons of extreme weather, and (violins please), there are the seasons of our lives. And the recent season of extreme weather in Ipswich - namely flooding - obviously led to another season of my life. That unwelcome season of getting my act together!
A lot of my stuff got spaced out during the flood and interacted most unpleasantly with mud. That involved tedious daily chores like cleaning and scrubbing - uninspiring at the best of times. Then of course, after you've cleaned what you
can clean and thrown out what you can't, comes the rather more fun part of replacing it all. But, faced with the possible occurrence of another natural disaster, do you get less and better quality stuff or less, lesser quality stuff that is more expendable?*
Such philosophical (or are they practical?) questions, along with the mud-scrubbing thing have so consumed my time that I hadn't been out to the Farm for ages. So, it was with great excitement and anticipation that I returned last Saturday to see what effect the extreme weather season had had on the Farm.
Well, I should have known. As in life, some things had flourished - weeds, passion fruit vine - while other things - like saleable produce were (excuse the pun) very thin on the ground.
No silverbeet, No lettuce. None of our usual standby's. Basil going to seed. A handful of tomatoes here and there. But there
was lemon grass, and aloe vera, and the paw paw orchard looked as though it couldn't wait to yield up fruit - in another season.
One thing there was in abundance however, was
Rosellas. See pictures. So the current project is to pick them and dry them out for tea to sell at our roadside stall. With the consequence that now in these post-flood, post-mud days, I have the luxury of helping the farm at home by drying the rosella flowers in the bright but sporadic late March sunshine. And being at home is not just about getting things back together everyday. Thanks to rosellas, I can commence
my new season of moving on.
So it is at the Farm. I weeded a garden bed on Saturday - hey, I almost
combed it free of weeds, and then Anita made fine, straight furrows in my work of art and dropped in seeds. They should be ready in a few weeks, and by then, we'll be well into another season...the little veges, the herbs, me - all of us probably.
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| Rosella flowers modelled by Tess Lovely who should be a 'hand model' |
Actually, I'm coming to realise you don't have to be hit over the head with a season - like Autumn in New Zealand, or a flood in Queensland - to recognise it. It's a subtly changing transformation sometimes and right now, I'm completely fine with that.
*Answer to everything: Move to higher ground!!
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