Blessing the fleet.

Flowers on the water from the wreaths in the memory of those lost at sea from the blessing of the fleet.


Every now and again, something brings the island, and the fragility of life here back into sharp focus. Basically everyone knows someone who was lost at sea.

The reason the national carrot growers association have not asked me to be their guest speaker

Fencing

I heard the dogs a-barking and went down to find Davo - neighbour, busy moving his cows into the paddock I keep the chooks in, which I've been using for field crops with mediocre success (my first wheat just got nailed by the birds, the grasshoppers are eating my potatoes and my pumpkins and my buckwheat) Still, there is a lot of effort there. This was something of a crossed line, as Barbs had said he couldn't because the fence wire was down, and he'd taken to mean he could, if he fixed the wire. And, as a few of the islanders do, he just went ahead without bothering to TELL anyone. Anyway there were some words said! We DO want the paddock short for fire season, and my cultivated strips are a basically 3 chook-tractor wide, along the outside of the garden, and he's got more steers than grazing. So I ended wasting a morning fencing that section off, just when I really can't afford the time.

We had the other kind of wallaby in buckwheat pancakes for tea this evening. Much more gamey.

One set of edits down

Ok, Dog and Dragon's edits are DONE - marathon effort, but done. One more - bigger job.

I cooked liver and onions last night. What made it moderately unusual is that it was wallaby liver, our own onions and our own bacon (and our own thyme). I soaked the livers in milk, which makes them less strong flavoured. The key I believe is to braise the onion (sliced thin) slowly in a cast iron pot, with the lid on, until they're melting-soft. I then caramelise them on high heat, add the chopped bacon, and fry the liver - cut in thin strips and dusted with cumin and flour and salt in small batches. Cooking liver well, IMO is almost as hard as fish. It's got to be JUST cooked -a little rare if anything, otherwise it tastes and resembles shoe-leather. Yes, I have been kicked in the mouth (quite ineptly, fortunately) so I do know precisely what shoe leather tastes like. Never bite the shoe that kicks you, it probably stood in something nasty. Away, Wallaby liver is slightly stronger flavoured than lamb, so probably not for those who don't like liver.

Tonight I ventured on broccoli stems in tempura batter with a sweet-and sour chili and ginger dipping sauce. The batter was not a success. Need to work on that. The sauce was a bit salty, but nubbly all the same. It was actually good with the fish and chips too. I drew the line at having it on the salad!

Busy

Busy times... the next while may be very pre-occupied with this trying to make a living stuff. I have the edits to DOG & DRAGON (arrived today) and the edits to CUTTLEFISH due soon.

Last night we went out on a sadly wind-rippled evening hunting flounder, and tonight we have the opportunity to go with someone to shoot wallaby. I'm doing as much learning as I can, and one simply does not turn this down, because opportunity seldom knocks twice here. Carpe diem (a carp a day? I really don't like carp) with both weather and people, rules.

I really have to do something about my spears and heads for same. It's that or believe I've lost it. I had three failed goes at one squid, another at another, failed two attempts at trevally, and failed another at a skinny fish (not sure what it was). And I hit (at least some of the time) but failed to penetrate all of them. We did get 12 flounder - but that is thrust onto a hard surface. I did see an advert for bulk 'paralyser' spear points some time back (We use multi-prong spears, each with 5 points). Mind you, the one i was too nervy to spear properly as it was over a big sandshark. It was our night for them, and they'd wreck my waders.

A day that had seen rain...

We've had a day of rain. And lightning. Here it is unusual enough to comment on. Back in South Africa afternoon thunderstorms were an all-too-regular feature of summer, and very hard for a working writer. Something had the dogs very uneasy last night and they had me out of bed far too many times. Yawn.

I made barley and wheat rolls today and was seriously unimpressed. I'll have a go at barley bannocks but I think that may join the list of flours that I do not need to own.

My summer plants are growing reasonably well--It's an endless tail-chase trying to get everything in and up in the warm season, especially with the melons and pumpkins. The seeds are up, they just need to get bigger.

When going to lunch with our Polish friends, bring an extra stomach, and maybe a third tin-lined one for the vodka. We had quail, smoked Australian salmon, smoked trevally, and muttonbird, and salad... And beer at lunch time (which is sudden soporifia for me). And we got there at twelve and home at three, for a 'quick lunch'. Still, it was a lot of fun and great to taste yet another island bird. There are partridges and pea-hens and duck still on my 'taste' list, but we get there.

Mince and sunset

Barbs and I minced - by hand - about 6kg of wallaby mince. It does make one appreciate minced meat as a luxury not just the lowest form of meat that isn't a dubious internal organ.

We were rewarded this evening by yet another spectacular sunset. I've seen sunsets and skies in scattered beautiful places, many of them stunning. But really Flinders has the most spectacular I've ever seen (the cloudscapes and dawns too). I am a very mediocre photographer, and I have a very ordinary point-and-shoot. I can't do them justice. I think it may come down to a combination of the exceptional clarity of air, which has blown uninterrupted across 2/3 of the globe, or the angle of the sun or something. All I know is a rotten photographer here can look quite talented. click on the pics to see them full-size.



I did leeks and fennel with tomato to serve with our couscous and fish this evening. It did not look as spectacular as the view, so a picture of the mountain instead.