Miss Mandie

It seems rather remiss of me to have not officially introduced you to the wonderful forest I currently call home. I love it here. I wind up a dirt driveway that takes about six minutes from turning off the main road. It’s like entering a different world. A world where peak hour traffic means the one neighbour that lives further along than me drives to work in the morning, and comes home in the evening. A place where the sounds of birds, and cows, and dogs, echo across the valley during the day and the bats and possums come alive at night. Where the brightness of stars in the evening, outshine the candlelight from inside. A place that has forced me to confront my fear of snakes, by presenting me with majestic over-two-metre long versions slithering around the forest floor.

It’s also a place where nature is firmly in charge and the human residents are forced to abide by it’s rules.

Swollen creek levels after one storm

When it rains for more than a day, the creek at the bottom of the property swells to breaking point. Through the wild storms last month, I was stranded on my forest island for two nights until flooding subsided enough to cross the bridge out. When we could finally drive out, we had the hurdle of a fallen tree. Thankfully, we were able to drive under it as it had conveniently wedged itself on tree on the other side. Lucky!

The latest exciting development this week here has been a landslip of part of the driveway. When it first occurred, those of us living on the other side of it, risked driving across to get out. There was no getting back though, particularly as more of it slides away each day. So for the moment, I get to enjoy a 10 minute walk through The Forest to my car. It was particularly thrilling last night, as I trekked back late at night. Marvelling at the milky way shining down upon me, and enjoying the difference of walking through the towering trees in darkness. Until I remembered the wild dogs I have heard about residing on this property with us. I suddenly found myself quickening my pace and chuckling at myself for being such a whimp

Fallen tree after storms	Part of our driveway slips away!

A torch is essential around my place at night. With minimal electricity by way of a failing solar energy system, you need a torch to weave your way through the darkness once the sun has bid its final farewell for the day. I bought a heavy duty torch when I first came to The Forest. The ”heavy duty” batteries lasted about a month. So for the past four or five weeks I’ve been getting around by the light of one of those tiny torches that attach to a key ring.

Today I had the thought that I must take my big torch into town and finally get a replacement large battery for it. About a half-hour after that thought crossed my mind, Steph, my visitor who stayed over last night, called to let me know that she had accidentally kept my small (working) torch in her pocket when she left this morning. Ah-ha! It immediately made sense as to why I had suddenly decided that today must be the day to get a battery for my large torch. Pretty cool eh?

I believe we each have an all-knowing, ever-present, part of ourselves that guides us lovingly through our days and our lives. It could be known as our Higher Self, or our Soul, or just simply our gut instinct or intuition. Either way, it’s pretty amazing to realise we have an aspect of ourselves that is so infinitely intelligent! This part sees the bigger picture of our lives, the world and the connection between All That Is. The trick is to be attentive to what it’s saying, and take action when necessary rather than dismissing it.

What’s your soul trying to tell you that you need to listen to lately?

It might surprise you to learn, that despite my pretty sporadic posting on this site, I actually think of things to write, share and humour you with all the time. I seem to have a little issue with motivation in actually getting them from thought to web. However, now I’m discovering there are people other than my mother reading this site, my momentum for sharing is building.

This post goes out especially for Andy and Sue in Michigan. I got an email from Sue today, saying that she keeps track of what I’m up to via this site, and particularly likes hearing about mum and Paul on the farm, given they visited them when they last came to Oz. It reminded me that I took this video of one of our many picnic outings to my parent’s farm in NSW, Australia when I was home last in March.

You also get introduced to the two women who are closest to me in life – my mum, Bev, and my sister, Ange. We were a trio for much of my teenage years. We tend to amuse ourselves pretty well when we are together, and perhaps seeing this video, you might get a little insight into what my upbringing was like. There is one spot where all three of us are talking over each other. Ahhh, yes, sometimes it does feel like we are operating on three different airwaves, but we’re family, and we love each other, and that’s the main thing

My porridge masterpiece

My friend Alex surely didn’t know what she started when she served me some porridge when I slept over at her place a couple of months ago. From a simple bowl of porridge, a creative expression of all that can be good for us in a breakfast has been born. At last count, there are now 17 ingredients in my morning bowl of porridge. I kid you not. This is the hearty of hearty bowls of porridge you could ever imagine, and something I indulge in each morning. It’s most definitely something to jump out of bed for when I wake up!

Here’s the list of what made it into this morning’s porridge:

Oats, soy milk, water, pinch of salt, chopped apple, walnuts, linseed, sunflower seeds, pepitas, grounded linseed-soy-almond mix (LSA), shredded coconut, handful of sultanas, a couple of dates, protein powder, fresh mint, a good slathering of honey and a half a kiwi fruit on top (obviously, photo included in this post was taken a few weeks ago when I first thought of informing you all of my morning ritual, hence the lack of kiwi fruit).

Mmmm-Mmmm!