The amazing people at the Helensvale library decided to hold a TEDx event and I applied for a free ticket online (you couldn't get more than one) and was randomly selected to be one of the only one hundred people to attend! The TEDx Stage at Helensvale Library So who is TED and what is a TEDx?? TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. Their catch phrase is "Ideas worth spreading" and they invite speakers on topics as diverse as Artifical Intelligence, building buildings based on fractals, conservation, racism, aultruism, autism and really anything you can think of. There is a TED website where you can watch videos of the various TED talks held all over the world and there are podcasts (audio talks) of all the TED talks and then there is an hour long hosted TED talk in a radio format that examines a topic that was covered by a number of speakers (a really good one was the seven deadly sins!) I tend to listen to the TED radio hour at work as one of ...

If you are a regular blog visitor you may have noticed that despite having a rather large block in the subtropics, growing food seems to impossible. Too much sun, too much rain, not enough rain, a week away and poof - all that hard work turns to dust again. All the reading I have been doing lately has been about globalisition (for my uni assignments) and its got me thinking again about local farmers and how to connect to them. Many of the "food sustainability" books that I read are wonderful but most of them are based in America. They talk a lot about CSA - which is community supported agriculture - and if I understand it correctly, you pay a fee to a farmer (or a group of farmers or a group that buys from farmers direct) and at harvest time, you come and collect your bounty. I hadn't heard of any such thing here in Australia and even though we have a lot of Farmers Markets, I have noticed that quite a few of them are middle men and have been to the big commercial  Frui...

For quite a number of years I have subscribed to the meditainment website. It has a large number of twenty minute guided meditations that I have found really helpful when I'm stressed, tired, or in need of a twenty minute break! They sent me an email saying that for the next week, their guided meditation that takes you on a walk through the mountains to make important plans for the following year is free for the next week! You can download their meditations and keep them on your computer, MP3 or i-thingamo and listen to them over and over at any time. My favourites are the oasis in the desert, swimming with the whales and walking around my tropical island. There are also meditations that take you to the spa of relaxation, wandering around a secret garden, kayaking to a meadow and sheltering from a storm in a cosy cabin in the woods (or an igloo!) I enjoy these and thought I would share this link with you - I'm guessing it runs out on 7th of January. Have a look, relax,...

We have had a motley collection of chooks for years. Usually the cheap hybrid layers from the local produce place that lay well and provide all the fun of having chickens in the backyard for well under $20 each.   "Cloud"                                  "Sunset"                      "Thunder"                          I have always admired the wonderful array of chickens at the Ekka and secretly coveted them. But since my only source of chickens was the produce place down the road, I simply could never lay my hands on anything more exotic than a black, white or brown hybrid lay...

I have been wanting to get some chickens that lay eggs with different coloured shells for a while. I had thought about breeding chooks for a while and as much as that would be lots of fun... I'm not sure I could deal with the surplus males. And we have great neighbours that I don't want to annoy with a rooster, so, really, that leaves me with egg production. At the Ekka I fell in love with all the different coloured eggs in the egg competition and decided that that was the way to go. So yesterday I got two Arcana's from a wonderful lady called Julie. These two should lay the greeny-blue tinted eggs when they start laying in a month or so.  The light one is called Breeze and the darker one Misty -  to keep with my meteorological theme of naming my chookies! I have got them in the big cage  with the other chooks but in a smaller chicken tractor pen so they can see each other but not damage each other while I'm at work today. I have two pens now ...

Its the old 'too much work and not enough play' this week - hence the unintended break in blogging. This week in Brissy (Brisbane) is the Ekka week. Ekka is Aussie speak for Exhibition which is shorthand for Royal Queensland Show - Make perfect sense, right? At any rate, we get lots of holidays to celebrate and a whopping great farming competition is held bang smack in the middle of the city. There are your standard "who has the best cow/pig/sheep/chicken" competition along with the who makes the best jam/cake/scones/lemon butter" competition. Then there is all the fine arts; sewing, embroidery, smocking, photography, paintings... As well as regional displays, cooking shows, farming displays, sheep dog trials, horse showing and jumping, Animals giving birth, milking demonstration, fleece judging, aquariums, egg competitions.... all culminating in a big fireworks frenzy each evening! Awesome fun! - oh and there is also side show alley and a show bag pavilion...

I'm a fairly community minded type of person and always end up donating a fair bit of time and money to various causes. I am studying in this field and over time have come to enjoy helping those who want to help themselves, in more practical ways. For one of my Uni assignments, I had to write a report on a development organisation (that is an organisation that helps move a community forward by education, physically building something and/or empowering the people). One of the organisations I looked at was called KIVA. Kiva is an organisation that helps you lend money to entrepreneurs in developing countries. We have similar organisations here in Australia (NILS - No Interest Loans Scheme) but an individual like you or me, is unable to donate money to the scheme to help people buy a fridge, fix their lawn mower or washing machine and improve their life. With Kiva, you can pick who you would like to help, what enterprise you would like to support in whatever country ...

I have been a fan of the LifeLine Bookfest for a long time. Every six months, LifeLine holds a humongous secondhand book sale at the Brisbane Convention Centre - and I'm there! There is nothing like the anticipation of opening up a book and delving into the pages for information or to find yourself in another world... Thank goodness that its open for the long weekends. I can take a while to choose a book... or ten! Here's what I did... Back in January, they had a stall recruiting volunteers and on a whim, I decided to put my name down. That was the last time I thought about it until I got an email a month ago asking me if I was still interested? They are very professional these LifeLine volunteer organisers and my email had info about everything from food to parking, to the various jobs up for grabs and how to get in early! I got quite excited about the prospect of spending a weekend with a million books (an enthusiasm for which my husband did not seem share as enthu...