celebrations

Small, significant.

After years of bad eczema, my son's immune system seems to have made a big leap to overcome some of it's challenges. We are no longer gluten free or egg free and his legs are the best I've seen them for nearly three years, possibly longer. Naturally I'm very pleased for him even if I don't know what's around the next corner dermatologically. It's changed my cooking, freed me up to play round with some old old favourites and experiment without recourse to some unattractive and/or expensive substitutes. I made quiche yesterday - two days' worth of lunches and the leftovers for dinner tonight. I've pulled out the Edmonds recipe book and as I type, Oaty Apple Loaf is cooling on the wire rack. It's made me appreciate some hitherto taken for granted ingredients, the 2-3 years we've spent gluten and egg free.

I let the chooks out to free range for the first time late this afternoon. They just followed me around! They also gobbled the grass enthusiastically. As I didn't get a chance to reinforce the plastice cover on the chook run by sewing some shade cloth on top in the weekend, vigorous winds on Monday and Tuesday have created gaping holes in the raincover. The rains which followed have really made the run very wet and I want access to fresh grass for them. I'll let them out for longer tomorrow.

I still haven't planted the latest silverbeet seedlings, but I did go slug harvesting in the early afternoon for the chooks. It really is a satisfying pastime, preparing the soil environment for safer planting and feeding much loved delicacies to my chooks at the same time.