Sleepless Nights

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  • Trees, forests, silence and animal deaths.

    So the protesters are doing their thing and shouting about the annual duck season. AGAIN.

    ‘Scuse me for a minute while I laugh a little.

    Okay, protesters? You know who is out of a hobby if all the ducks get shot and can’t re-breed? The duck hunters. So don’t you think, that maybe they’re invested in the well being of the ducks as a whole? Just a teensy little bit invested?

    And yes, there might be cowboys who are shooting for the sake of shooting. Screaming at them and disrupting the hunt is probably not the way to go about reeducating the idiots. Personally, if it’s the idiots you’re targeting, you couldn’t pay me to stand in front of them and whistle and dance while they try to shoot ducks.

    So they’re probably not targeting the idiots.

    Surely, just surely, there are worse things involving animals and turning them into food (because trust me, if you’ve gone to all the trouble of dodging the protesters and shooting a duck, you’re fucking well going to eat the thing). Like maybe, OH I DON’T KNOW, commercial pig farming? Just MAYBE, we ought to be protesting at a pig farm, or a battery hen farm. Or for those of you in the USA and Canada, the horse slaughter trade and auctions. Because it’s not that the animals are slaughtered, it’s the way they do it and how the animals are transported in the first place.

    So MAYBE, just MAYBE, we have bigger issues than the fuzzy wuzzy ducks and cutsie wootsie wallabies being killed. Wallabies btw are vicious little things, invested in the serious business of garden and fruit tree murder. I’m pretty sure if you look at one wrong they’ll stab you with the knives they keep in their pouches. Kill em before they kill you is my theory [so long as that death is quick and humane. Please don’t try to suffocate one, or shoot it with little darts and a blow gun. Please].

    Also, for the record, if a wild duck or two dropped into my yard, they’d be dinner, pretty fast. (My actual plan is to breed and eat Muscovy ducks, but that’s not happening. YET.)

    ***

    Quick question: If a blogger posts a post on a Sunday – and no one reads it, does it still exist? Enquiring minds want to know.

  • Fern

    I know I pointed you towards Fern shortly after her daughter Robyn was stillborn. Anyway, she started blogging again and so now, I’m pointing you towards her blog and today, her daughter’s birth story.

    Go and surround her with internet love, okay?

    xx

  • Handy Manny – Tooling Around – review

    This post is sponsored by Nuffnang.

    —

    We were having a sort of okay morning before the post arrived. Amy kept escaping out into the big yard, to run around and when I brought her back inside, we had tears and tantrums. FYI baling twine is great stuff to tie gates shut. Too tricky for small hands to untie. Awesome.

    She’d just had yet another tantrum and Susie, the puppy jumped all over her making it so much worse, when the mailman came.

    Getting the post is exciting don’tyouknow. Probably because it involved the big yard, yet again.

    I’m not sure what made her happier, the fact that we got something in the mail from school (letting me know what days playgroups and early learners is on) or the fact that we got a package from Disney containing a dvd AND I let her open it. To the best of her abilities that is.

    I waited until Isaac went down for a nap, figuring anything new to keep her quiet during naptime was a good thing, before putting the dvd on.

    Now I must admit, I’m not a big fan of kids cartoons. I let Amy watch them most mornings and during dinner prep, but I don’t watch them myself very often. Kids movies, well, that’s a different matter, but we’re talking cartoons here.

    So I put Handy Manny – Tooling Around on. Amy curled up on the couch to watch it. I checked emails, got some writing done and watched her reactions.

    Dude, she was quiet! QUIET.

    The dvd has an autoplay feature (Fastplay?) at the beginning, which was fantastic because I couldn’t find the dvd remote in the beginning. It was less fantastic 40 minutes later when it started playing again, without me touching it, meaning that either I brave the tantrums and turn it off anyway, or let her watch it again.

    I’m not feeling very brave, I’m letting her watch it again.

    Handy Manny offers messages about teamwork, friendship and community, while having fun with friends. I’m not sure how much of it sunk in to Amy’s head, but it’s not a bad thing for her to be learning at all. If she doesn’t bash Isaac on the head when they play with the building blocks later I’ll be inclined to look twice at the dvd.

    The bonus features were a bit beyond Amy – I’m not encouraging her to learn to use the dvd remote just yet, it’s bad enough that she knows how to work the machine by herself.

    So that’s that. Anything that gives me 40 minutes peace and quiet can only be a good thing!

  • Potato and Leek Soup (Weekly Winners)

    Take some leeks from the garden.

    Take some leeks from the garden.

    Peeled potatoes.

    Make your kitchen hand (partner) peel some potatoes.

    Chop it all up.

    Chop everything roughly.

    What Amy thinks potato cubes are for. Houses!

    Amy thinks potato cubes are for building with.

    Cover with chicken stock

    Saute it off with some bacon and cover with chicken stock. When soft, use a blender or a stick mixer to puree it.

    Potato and Leek Soup

    Serve with cream and parsley.

    Also – take photos of the summer sky:

    Night Sky

    I blame Zoeyjane for this weeks weekly winners, I was going to make tomato and onion soup, but then she made potato and leek soup and I remembered I had a bunch of leeks that needed using and there you go. Potato and leek soup.

    For more weekly winners see Lotus.

  • Last chance.

    Only a day until the competition closes, have you entered yet?

    You should.

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