Summer has arrived! Happy Australia Day: Happy Chinese New Year!
Picture of yours truly fishing off rocks at Carlton, Tasmania and my son Peter doing the same thing with Andrew in the background (Peter's friend and his partner's brother)
On Saturday 24th as discussed in the previous entry a new alpaca was born. On Sunday my son Peter rang and asked if Kim and I would like to go to Carlton Beach as he and partner Kathryn were going, along with Kathryn's parents and her brother.
Kim declined as he had things he wanted to do around the house but I decided it sounded like a good idea. I am also thrilled that I have such a good relationship with my son. He often rings for a chat or drops in for a coffee or asks us to something and I feel lucky to have this. He appears to genuinely enjoy our company, as we do his. Peter picked me up and off we all went to Carlton. We also met Melanie, my eldest girl , her partner Aidan and their two daughters at Carlton. Melanie has a beach tent shade set up we got under and shared lunch. The boys went fishing off the rocks. Eventually it got too much for me and I walked round to do a spot of fishing.
I have a real tug of war with this. I was a vegetarian for eight years or more. My Dr was telling me I was not that well and I needed to consider adding something, like at least fish, to my diet. I was in Swansea and friend Tony had just cooked some freshly caught fish and I succumbed. As my husband has a boat (though only went out for the first time yesterday in nearly two years)I have gone out with him and done a spot of fishing. One part of me feels bad that I am taking a life of another species and the other part gets excited as to how many fish I can catch, how much money I can save from having my own, rather than buying etc. I also enjoy eating fish now that I have for a few years. I don't eat it regularly, it is a now and again thing. I still go through the I feel bad scenario and wish I could get past it. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know :)
None of us caught anything! I ended up sunburnt as the sun was quite intense and I should have reapplied sunscreen. We did have a lovely day. I invited Kathryn's mum and dad over for a BBQ but he was not feeling the best so they headed home. Peter, Kathryn and Andrew accepted the invite. Andrew is Kathryn's brother. About six months ago he accepted a promotion in his job and is now working in Brisbane, so has come down for his Christmas break. Whilst we were in Carlton, Kim got the boat out and checked it all and put the battery on charge but was dubious about whether it was any good. Monday, Australia Day he bought a new battery at Supercheap and checked it. Peter and Andrew arrived over to go out on the boat. Kathryn had to work but is not into boats or catching fish , though loves to eat fish! She also only eats veggies and fish. We tried to get hold of Aidan as he had wanted to go out but as he was not answering his phone (turned out he had gone out without it) I went instead. Kim eats meat and fish and is not a big veg eater. Melanie and Aidan eat most things and are big meat eaters. Peter eats both meat and fish though tends to eat more fish and veggies, partly due to Kathryn's choice in cooking and due to his braces which have made it difficult to eat certain foods. As for Luke and Krystal, Luke eats meat, fish and veg whilst Krystal enjoys chichen, some fish and veg. She only cooks chicken so Luke gets various chicken dishes. You can imagine what it is like to cater when everyone is over!
We launched the boat at Carlton which is the first time from there. We were only out around an hour as it was too choppy and Andrew ended up getting seasick. Andrew caught one flathead that he could keep. He had caught another one as had Peter and Kim but they were all under size so threw them back. The law says 300mm and we keep a ruler in the boat but could clearly see the little flatties were too small. I caught nothing but seaweed! We headed back in and home to our place. Kim filleted the one fish for Andrew to take home to his parents to cook!! A bite each, I would say. They actually stayed and watched the cricket till it was time to pick up Kathryn from work at 5.30pm.
We fed the pacas and got ready to head off to an Australia Day Pool party. Our friends, Roger and Thelma were hosting it. They are a just little older than us, though have some children younger than ours as their youngest (twin boys) are soon to turn 16. As you can imagine there were a number of teens enjoying themselves in the pool. Rog and Thelma have six sons and are wonderful parents. As Rog is also a muso they often have great parties, complete with band! Rog and band are going to play at Melanie's wedding next October.
They have a HUGE backyard and all I could picture was plenty of places for chook pens, veggie patches and so on. After seeing mine Roger is thinking of doing something about getting chooks. He is a great bloke but is one of those people who starts a project then starts another one before finishing the last so I have Thel's permission to get on his case! I brought a salad to the BBQ and it had lettuce I had just picked from the garden, eggs I had boiled from my girls and alfalfa I had grown. Unfortunately lousy tomatoes this year so they were store bought (I Know, sad isn't it, having to buy store bought tomatoes that are not in the same league as home grown ones. I also missed out on cucumbers because the ones I put in were taken over by too many potato plants coming up everywhere. My son is now talking about starting a veggie patch so I am really pleased about that. Of course when it finally will happen is another thing.
The weather has been very warm. Though it has been wonderful to have such weather as I always feel better and happier when the sun is shining, we really need some rain. We have no growth in the paddocks and the ground is parched and cracking.
Ciao
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