Week 37

The weather is starting to get warmer, and with the warmer weather comes The Return of the Flies (sounds like a B-grade horror movie!), and the weeds and grass start growing like crazy again. I'd almost enjoyed not having to worry about it over winter.

I'd hoped to get out and mow the lawn today. First I finished off line-trimming the lavender field. That took all day, so no lawn mowing got done. I took extra care with the line trimmer to try and shift some of the dirt and debris underneath the lavender plants, so it took a lot longer than usual. Of course I also created quite a lot of new debris too.

The cyclical nature of farm life is starting to bug me a bit. Everything seems so futile at times. I spend so much time trying to prevent things from growing, either by mowing lawn, pulling weeds or spraying weeds. It almost seems pointless. I just wish there were an easier way. Mind you, I also get sick of having to eat, toilet and shower regularly too. It just seems like Groundhog Day all over again sometimes.

In keeping with the self sufficient spirit, I made my own breadcrumbs for the first time a couple of weeks ago. When I was a kid my parents used to put the ends of the loaf of bread into the hot water cupboard to dry out and then make breadcrumbs with it. I thought the bread had to be dried out to make breadcrumbs. I've never tried making it myself before, apart from one time, years ago, with my friend. I insisted we needed to use dried bread. She insisted we needed to use fresh bread. I toasted her fresh bread to try and dry it out, and it turned out to be a disaster. Lately I've realised that the only reason they dried it out first was so that it wouldn't go mouldy, not because it needed to be dry. Anyway, I've started following their lead and keeping the ends of the bread loaves in the hot water cupboard and bunging it in the food processor to make breadcrumbs when needed. An excellent use for those odd bread ends that usually don't get eaten anyway.

-M