Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes

Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes seem to be on my mind at the moment.

After this amazing Indian Summer we have been having lately, hastily winter is creeping in. The past couple of days it has been over cast with rain varying between drizzle and a constant and steady sheet of rain. With summer lasting an unusually long time (my tomatoes still flowering and fruiting in mid April is more than unheard of), the rain is welcome and the slightly cooler weather too. The sun is always nice, but I know in myself, I was ready for some cooler weather, the chickens were heading to bed earlier despite it still being light and warm, the gardens were looking a little droopy despite regular watering and seasonal fruit and vegetables are all over the show. 

Which brings me to my next thought about change. Seasonal eating, to me, is the best. The food is the freshest it will be, especially when grown in your own garden. There is food that is not stored in big sheds that are kept in the dark, at a cool temperature with all of the oxygen sucked out for long periods of time and its food that is so good for the time of year. Although, I always find it weird that potatoes are a seasonal summer food when they are extra tasty roasted next to a leg of lamb on the coldest night of winter or that citrus are a winter fruit when they are extra tasty in the height of summer, squeezed into a glass of gin and lemonade or with squeezed over a summer fruit salad. I digress. As the seasons change, so does the food. And, its gotta be good for us, eating all that fresh goodness. Then, when we have had enough of those fresh tasty flavours for a while, the next season is upon us with new delights for our taste buds. 

The seasons provide a great array of change in colour, temperature, food, daylight hours and many other things. 

Just as noticeably lately, down by our house, the estuary changes. Not on a (roughly) 3 month cycle but 4 times a day. As the tide comes in and out, as the sun fades and rises again and as the weather changes. Sometimes, it is nice just to sit down there and watch the changes happen, literally before your eyes. I often sit down there and wait for the incoming tide to lap at my toes or paddle until the only water running through at that time is ebbing slowly in and out of the channel. 

All the change around me at the moment has got me thinking about the change I need to make in me. And trust me, there are many. So, this weekend I started. I started purging my stuff. My junk. I am a little bit of a hoarder. I get it from my mother. Not a ‘my house is so full I have to slowly climb up a wall of old newspapers, rubbish, crockery and clothing that I have squandered away for the last 9 years to climb through a mouse sized gap between the pile and the door jamb to get to the oven where I sleep on a stove top that has  the last 13 years of culinary leftovers caked on it’  type. But, I hate wastage. I hate the disposable world that we live in (apart from cameras (which I notice a distinct lack of in the supermarket these days!!)). I also hate spending money on stuff that I once had but had thrown away. Everything (except rubbish (obviously) is useful). Our house, mine and my minimalist partners, is starting to get a little cluttered. Maybe it is because ‘the Queen’ is living with us and I have one less room to store my junk in, but I am noticing it far more than I used to. And, I certainly don’t want to become a ‘my house is so full I have to slowly climb up a wall of old newspapers, rubbish, crockery and clothing that I have squandered away for the last 9 years to climb through a mouse sized gap between the pile and the door jamb to get to the oven where I sleep on a stove top that has  the last 13 years of culinary leftovers caked on it’  type. So, this weekend I emptied out one whole wardrobe and tried the bin/recycle, donate, keep method. I emptied the whole wardrobe (only to put more stuff into it that actually should belong there) and donated 4 banana boxes of stuff to the local playcentre and the op-shop and threw out two more boxes of junk that is as good as useless. It might be only a little for now, but our house is already looking a shit tonne (official measurement) better and I’m on the road to becoming a nearly minimalist already. Change is in the air. And I do love change. 

“Change before you have to.” – Jack Welch