Nature's Alarm Clocks

All my life I have been a mid to late sleeper. When living at my last share house I would wake up around 7:30am - 8:00am even on workdays. But no longer!

All my life I have relied on an electric alarm clock to go off to wake me or at least show me the time in bright red lights so I can ensure I don't oversleep. It has been turned off for the last week.

Below is a picture of the reason I now wake up anytime from 4:40am - 5:30am.



Partly this is responsibility driven. I know kittehs need their breakfast. I know they will continue to mew insistently outside the bedroom door until they wake Rhys who needs more sleep than I. I know I have lunch to make and pack, breakfast to have, bins to put out etc. In the future I'll also need to feed chickens and maybe do some morning garden watering.

In another way the choice is out of my hands. I will be woken by the door meows. If the door is already open (or I wake long enough to open the door and crawl back into bed) I will have a kitten snuffle at my ear/nose/eyeball/forehead and I'll open my eyes to see a pair of big hopeful kitten eyes plainly saying "wake time nao plz."

And over time the early waking has become a pleasure. Time to relax, have breakfast, enjoy the quiet world, play with kittens, type up blog entries...

Product Review - Lush Solid Deoderant #2

Mid last year I was looking to replace my toiletries and what cosmetics I actually use with ones that were free of unecessary and possibly harmful chemicals.

I was happy when I found that the soaps and cosmetics company Lush made solid deoderants without any of the unwanted ingredients on my strike list. I bought a dried powder block deoderant to try out. I really wanted it to work out for me as I'm keen on Lush as a company with an environmental conscience, limited plastic packaging and low energy/handmade production of their goods.

Unfortunately, as I wrote in my review on this blog, the powder cube didn't agree with me. After a few weeks of using it I still received a burning sensation and redness in my armpits when using it.

So in desperation I tried again with another Lush product - the Aromaco solid deoderant. Like the powder cube, the Aromaco had none of the unwanted chemicals in it, it was a deoderant only and not an anti-perspirant and it came with the usual recycled paper packaging Lush uses. The solid deoderant bar feels like a firm soap and is applied like soap by rubbing it onto your skin. I usually add a touch of water to the bar before rubbing to help application.

It has now lasted me 6 months and I've still half a bar left. I'm impressed with how it has warded off body stink during the Winter and Spring months. Scented with a soft witch-hazel-meets-patchouli it is non-offensive to even fussy-pants Rhys. (Though he does turn his nose up at the block when I use it and calls it my "feral hippy deoderant").

Now we've reached Summer I'm starting to see a decline in the effectiveness of the deoderant block over a full day, especially when I have to walk through the humid Queensland heat at my typically fast pace. I'm planning to get a second bar to keep in a tin at work so hopefully I won't have to supplement it's use with something less ideal.

In short I'm incredibly happy with it as a product and am pleasantly surprised with how long the small block I bought has lasted me thus far. If you're interested in giving it a try but don't have a Lush store near you, you can always buy it and any other Lush product from their website.

O Take Your Canvas Bags to the Supermarket

My older sister, Kirsty, has recently introduced me to the comedian Tim Minchin. She and my sis in law, Nikki, were both surprised when I said I hadn't heard his song about canvas bags. Kirsty immediately set to loading it on Youtube while Nikki chuckled and told me that since hearing it she has never ever forgotten to take bags to the supermarket because as she's leaving the house this song pops into her head.

After watching it I understood. If you have a few free minutes you should check it out for yourself!



Now everytime I'm heading out to the car to go for groceries I'm singing this ultra catchy song and remembering to pack canvas bags like I never have before.

Not long ago I wrote a post about reducing disposables used in my household, aiming to never get a plastic bag from the supermarket again. A responding comment made by Metanoia struck home with me. She said that she still gets plastic bags from the supermarket when grocery shopping because she uses them for for her kitchen bin and if she didn't use them she'd only have to spend money buying bin liners which would no doubt be thicker and more damaging to the environment.

Since then I've been taking fabric bags when I remember, saying no to plastic bags for only a few items, buying the Coles biodegradable bags when I feel wealthy (39c each) BUT also occasionally accepting plastic bags at the checkout to use, as Metanoia does, for bin liners.

Today I discovered a new alternative for use as bin liners. Biodegradable plastic bags (in the bin liner section of the supermarket)! I could have squealed with delight upon seeing them but refrained. Now I have an enviro-friendly bin liner option and no need to bring home supermarket plastic bags ever again - provided Tim Minchin's ever catchy song reminds me each time to take my canvas bags to the supermarket...

*sings* Take your canvas bags, take your canvas bags. O take your canvas bags to the supermarket! Take your canvas bags......

Grocery Shopping - aka Why Rhys Won't Go To the Supermarket With Me.

Sundays tend to be my grocery shopping day, mostly because that's when the local markets are run on the peninsula.

These days I always do meal planning first because no matter how cheap beetroots are per bunch, if you have nothing to do with them it's a waste of money and food! On the menu for this week is Tuna Risotto, Fetta and Tomato Salad and, lastly, Roasted Red Capsicum Tarts.

A quick trip to the local fruit and vegetables market and $15 later I had all the vegetables and fruit I needed.

Then.... the supermarket, a place where Rhys no longer treads with me. Why could this be?

To illustrate the whys of this situation I thought I'd make a list of what I bought in Woolworths today and why I bought each item.

AO = Australian Owned
AM = Australian Made
S$ = On special

• Hercules bin liners - got excited that degradable bin liners existed. Spent some time comparing brands offering degradable bags - none AO or AM. S$
• Archibald Honey - Glass (recyclable) jar. AO and AM (other AO company in glass jar was using imported honey). Bulk size. S$
• Devondale UHT Milk (for my next yogurt making attempt) - I find it hard to determine in Devondale are AO and AM - (it says so on their butter products but not their milks?). Tetra pak is recyclable. 1L to prevent wastage.
• Cedel Toothpaste - Only AO, AM toothpaste on the shelves. I dithered for about 4 minutes determining if it was a waste of money (same price for small tube as for a large Colgate tube) and if Rhys would shun an unknown brand.
• Bundaberg Brown Sugar - Determined that it was AM and the only other brand CSR is also AM but neither appear to be AO. So looked at location of production and decided Bundaberg QLD was closer than VIC (CSR) and so was less travel miles to get to me. Larger size as it was cheaper per 100g and meant less packaging.
• South Cape Fetta - Low Fat. AM.
• South Cape Parmesan - more expensive than other brands but only AM that I could find.
• Pampas Shortcrust Pastry - Low Fat. S$. (This is my one regretful purchase because as I was unpacking later I realised that I could have made shortcrust pastry myself easily enough and prevented the unecessary plastic packaging.
• Mirabella Light Bulb - AO. Will plant a tree for every bulb purchased. CFL (Compact Fluorescent Light) uses less energy, lasts longer than incandescent bulbs.
• Nestle Condensed Milk - Low Fat. Buy 3 for $6 - S$. Purchased these as a start to my stockpile (buying non perishables when they are cheap on sale.)

For each item on the list above I spent time looking at all available products, checking for cheapest prices, checking packaging to see if anything was Aussie made/owned, considering packaging (recyclable? biodegradable? bulk? individually wrapped?), considering health (low fat? low sugar? more fibre? vitamin fortified?). THEN there was dithering time added. THEN there was the time I spent doing this for other products that I didn't end up buying at all (e.g. olive oil).

And that level of anal retentiveness, good people, is why Rhys (and most other people) won't grocery shop with me anymore.

I don't think everyone should have to put that amount of thought and deliberation into their grocery shopping but I do think our environment, economy and health would be in a better way if we all did.

Polenta Mash - the Lazy Comfort Food

Last night's dinner fare was tasty steak with boiled vegetables and a red wine & cranberry jelly sauce. Delicious! However I went a bit overboard on the veges and made almost double what I needed. So this evening I had leftover vegetables and not much else as the fridge is on the lean side until I hit the markets and do grocery shopping tomorrow. One rubbery carrot, a few eggs, a tub of yogurt and some frozen potato chips does not a meal make. I was at a loss about what to do for tonight's meal.

A blogger I read once made an entry about 'using up' those supplies that sit in the pantry, being creative on how to cook what you have rather than buying more. This is useful not only for ensuring that you use pantry supplies before their due date, reducing food waste, but also for when the supermarkets have already closed for the day.

With this in mind I eyeballed the dried supplies in my pantry for inspiration.

Barley seeds. Nup. Rice... *pull a face* Not tonight. Tuna - I'd make sushi but for the lack of mayonaise and nori paper. Tuna mornay? No pasta. *sad face* Tapioca. WTF? Polenta... hmmm.... polenta!

And that's how Cheesy, Creamy Polenta Vege Mash came to be on my dinner plate tonight. An idea born of desperation and laziness it became a very tasty reality and on my list of comfort foods to cook when in a pinch.

1/2 L of hot water and 1/4 L of chicken stock are boiled together in a saucepan. 160g of polenta is added to the boiling liquid in a steady stream, stirring it through immediately. 1 cup of boiled vegetables are added along with 1/4 - 1/2 cup of grated cheese and a generous splash of low fat cream. As the polenta thickens, remove it from the heat. Serve and eat while deliciously hot.

The lazy comfort food when the fridge is empty and the pantry isn't offering up any gourmet feasts.