green words growing

Victory garden

2010-02-15T18:30:00.005+10:00

If I recovered next week I would garden from morning ‘til night. As things are now, I settle for thinking about gardening from morning ‘til night. It’s a lovely thing. I’ve been flicking through a couple of Edna Walling books and wondering if I’ve found one of my garden soul-mates. She loved...

(continued)

Position Vacant: Robot

2010-02-12T12:00:00.005+10:00

Seeking a robot to be my arms and legs. Like Inspector Gadget, except you obviously have your own robot body separate from mine, so not really like Inspector Gadget at all. Must be competent and cooperative. Willing and able to work in garden, cook, type, sew cushion covers, turn pages of books,...

(continued)

The silly season

2009-12-23T13:07:00.003+10:00

This year I’m not being silly about it. Last year I had extreme post-festive payback. As March rolled around and I emerged from the dungeon of very low functionality, I concluded It Wasn’t Worth It. This year I’m setting boundaries, mostly with myself. I’m generally the culprit who needs reigning...

(continued)

First tomato flower

2009-12-04T11:23:00.006+10:00

in the new garden, from a plant I grew from seed. It makes me very happy.

(continued)

ME/CFS, XMRV, XAND, etc

2009-11-13T17:13:00.004+10:00

Many of you will already know this, but for those that don’t, in October there was a tremendous hullabaloo in the ME/CFS world, and there still is. The best kind of hullabaloo. This is because of research conducted by the Whittemore Peterson Institute and published in the journal ‘Science’:...

(continued)

New nest

2009-09-02T09:31:00.006+10:00

We’re moving, due to the highly thrilling fact we’ve bought a house. Which means an amazing thing: a garden. I loved gardening long before it was socially acceptable, even somewhat trendy, for younger people to appreciate the art. These days Jamie Durie and his ilk are on the telly, extolling the...

(continued)

Business as usual

2009-08-26T11:23:00.006+10:00

Existing diagnosis is intact. I will admit to a flash of disappointment about this. Although the new idea seemed a tad unlikely due to the rarity of the condition, it was a reasonable hypothesis. And all in all, despite the general unpleasantness of the process, I’m grateful when anyone puts their...

(continued)

If wishes were fishes

2009-08-19T23:37:00.007+10:00

I was referred to a consultant physician and endocrinologist for a third opinion on some medical things. The appointment was unexpectedly awful, like being in the witness box for a dreadful crime. The crime of illness. He interrogated me with gems such as: "So you’ve done absolutely nothing for the...

(continued)

Wall cloud

2009-07-16T08:23:00.001+10:00

floating on the wall beside the office bed dreaming cloudy dreams drifting near my head ,

(continued)

M.E. Awareness Week 2009

2009-05-11T15:30:00.008+10:00

For ME Awareness Week this year I thought I’d put together a summary of some of the happenings in Australia, the UK and the United States since this time last year. If you’d like to share what’s happening in your own region or country, please go for it in the comments section, we’re all ears....

(continued)

One lonely papadum, brave chickpea flour

2009-04-23T21:18:00.001+10:00

On Monday morning I nibbled on a leftover papadum and thought happy thoughts about the weekend social extravaganza conceived by mastermind friends, wherein we went on a splendid outing in the lounge room. We ate a sensational feast of home-made Indian food: you should have seen the table. I love...

(continued)

Frohe Ostern! (Happy Easter!)

2009-04-07T19:43:00.002+10:00

Righteo everyone, warm up your telly, a fab friend has made a gorgeous doco. A large group of more than fifty family and friends have camped in the same spot on Australia’s Murray River every Easter for the last 40 years....

(continued)

Happy birthday, doglet

2009-03-16T13:15:00.004+10:00

These are the lyrics I like to sing to her, to the tune of Norwegian Wood: I once had a dog, Or should I say, She once had me. She showed me her ears,* Isn’t it good, Snicklypud.** * Or tail, paws, snout, whiskers… **Or other terms of endearment ideally rhyming with...

(continued)

Blossoming bedroom

2009-03-10T19:41:00.002+10:00

We all know I lie around all day, plotting world domination and concocting interior design ideas just in case I ever own my own home, right? Right. All this goes on in my headquarters, the bedroom, my room of choice on account of the heavy curtains over the window. The bedroom is a lovely dim...

(continued)

Flame tree

2009-02-12T21:32:00.005+10:00

The temperature in Victoria last Saturday reached 47.3°Celsius, the most scorching on record. I spoke to my grandmother that day, she said it felt like the hottest place on earth. The countryside has been in extreme drought for many years. She held the phone up to the window and asked, “Can you...

(continued)

Evening sky

2009-02-05T10:39:00.001+10:00

(continued)

Interview with Greg Page on Orthostatic Intolerance

2009-02-03T11:52:00.005+10:00

Greg Page The above links to an interview with Greg Page (retired Wiggle) about his experience with orthostatic intolerance. It’s fantastic that he’s speaking about it – I can’t tell you how helpful it is for the rest of us – he’s doing a great job in Australia for public awareness. I was...

(continued)

On Wednesday I called my doctor ‘Margaret’.

2009-01-30T18:00:00.002+10:00

I said it with great confidence. His name is not Margaret. I was a bit dysautonomic at the time.

(continued)

Memoria, a ladybug, and a fledgling year

2009-01-15T22:26:00.006+10:00

Happy new year, all. It’s still January so I think it’s not too late to be expressing new year verve. 2007 wasn’t that flash. 2008 was delightful. I’m pumped about 2009 and the adventures to be discovered therein. Sometimes you can feel a good year coming, like a train rumbling in the distance. ...

(continued)

Life goes on

2009-01-11T23:51:00.006+10:00

Saw the link to this organisation on the SA ME/CFS Society’s site, it seems like a great resource: Life goes on - Strategies and choices for the seriously ill and those who care for them. It looks like a positive and helpful organisation. They offer telephone counselling for patients...

(continued)

The twelve seagulls of Summer

2009-01-06T20:24:00.002+10:00

On a sweltering, overcast day in December we went for a wheel down to the river. We ate fish and chips with friends under a cotton tree with wide, spreading branches and yellow flowers; saw sea gulls, ibis with curved bills, slender she-oaks, and water lapping gently at the shore. My feet touched...

(continued)

Giddy up, jingle horse, pick up your feet

2008-12-25T09:17:00.007+10:00

And I thought I lived with the most enthusiastic Christmas elf of all time. But no, a household in BrisVegas have synchronised their lights to music. Ye gods. Yes. That is some serious Christmas spirit. Not quite my taste, but they're raising money for charity so I won't say a word about Kath and...

(continued)

Podcasts and me: a love story

2008-12-24T10:29:00.037+10:00

I’ve always liked the word ‘pod’, a little kernel of potential awaiting a bushfire, or soil and rain, to explode into life. I was initially a little dismayed when Apple hijacked the word (even though iPods are wonderbunk), but I’ve come around again because podcasts are my hourly companions. I...

(continued)

Heimlich in the kitchen at noon

2008-12-20T12:10:00.012+10:00

I have in recent weeks been bragging to my partner that my tablet-taking skills are second to none, demonstrating how many I can get down my gullet in one go, like a boaconstrictor swallowing six pigeons. I came undone last weekend. I was taking my after-lunch tablets, and was up to the acetyl-L...

(continued)

Yahweh, I know you're a pear

2008-12-19T13:15:00.002+10:00

God songs from school, they stick in your head. Askew, but they stick. I saw a bass clef today and it took me two hours to remember what it was. For a goodly while I thought it was a rest. Then I thought, no, it's a fermata; then I thought, well whatever it is, it looks familiar. When I did...

(continued)