Wrapping Sandwiches

You can save money on clingwrap, and prevent rubbish going to landfill by using alternative methods for wrapping sandwiches in a packed lunch.

My husband usually takes a sandwich to work. He uses a lunchbox with a compartment but he prefers his sandwich in a separate bag so that it is easy to remove and stays together. I avoid using cling wrap wherever possible. I use the bottom half of plastic bread bags (I cut them), when I have them. I also use the plastic inserts that come inside cereal or other boxes, though they need to be small enough to contain the sandwich. Otherwise I use ziploc bags which he brings home again and are washed for reuse (the aforementioned bags are thrown away). Growing up our sandwiches were always wrapped in greaseproof paper but I don't keep this product at home now, and am not sure that it would break down in the compost bin if I used it regularly.

Jubilee Cake

1 cup mixed fruit
3/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp. butter
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup boiling water
1 egg
2 cups self-raising flour

Arrange the oven trays and preheat the oven to 200° C (400° F). Grease and line a tin with baking paper. In a large mixing bowl, pour water over fruit, sugar, butter and cinnamon. Whisk in the egg, then mix in flour and stir well. Bake 1/2 to 3/4 hour.

Recipe courtesy of B. K. Turner, Snowtown Centenary Cookbook, 1978.

Tongue-Tied

When I'm speechless you always find the words
You're the January in my June July
You always find time to dry the tears
And even though I hide my love for you
There are no words.

Copyright © Aurian 2002

Intravenous

I ask you to reveal my beauty.
Where does it lie
Inside this battered body?
I search but I cannot see it
Even when I close my eyes.

When I sleep I dream of you
And you watch me -
The flicker of my eyelids,
The gentle rise and fall of me.

I breathe in the words you whisper,
Steady and sure through my heart
You seep
I seek inside -
I am full of love.

Copyright © Aurian 2002

Weighed Down

You do not need to hear from me:
It only encourages fraud and necessity.
So I will continue to hide from you
Requiring effort and discipline
But at least we won't be close -
Suffocated and drowning.

I can see you through the surface
You stare down at me
Melting and moving
But you are solid and I cannot reach you
I am weighed down.

Copyright © Aurian 2002

Ode To An Illness

I don't know why you are inside me -
You have no place there
Yet you have found a home,
No camp, for eternity.

I would ask you to get up and walk -
Find someplace else for your abode,
Yet you've no legs except mine
And you will not take them.

I try to coax you out
But talking with you is like being ignored -
A husband with selective hearing
Who never picks up his clothes.

For when you go, I go.
When I depart this place so you shall
Reason enough to evacuate instantly
The world relieved -

And then I smile:
Lost in limbo you shall be
But I will live forever.

Copyright © Aurian 2002

Baby's Room: The Walls Are Getting There

Jeremy has spent one day painting the ceiling, and last weekend we tested the blue paint for the walls. I cut up a piece of board that we had sitting around to 50cm X 50cm. I had some instructions I was following from an old Family Circle magazine that suggest 60cm square but I think 50cm is big enough. Looking at an A4 piece of paper in a room is definitely not big enough to tell what the final paint colour will look like. And I wasn't going to paint test on the walls again, not after what happened in the entryway!

I used the environmentally friendly paint that I bought from Bio Paints (highly recommended), and hand mixed (with a stirrer) the pigment into the paint at 1%. It took a long time to mix in, but eventually resulted in the expected pale blue shade. At the moment we are unsure as to whether the shade is too light. I want the room to be light and airy but I don't want the paint to look grey, which blue tends to do if it is verging on white. The aim is to have the painting finished by the end of June, so I might do one more shade test this weekend, and then we will paint the walls on the following weekend.

I haven't yet done up a proper sample board for this room, but I have spent some time working out the colour scheme (triadic) and have been matching up a few different fabrics against the paint sample to compare the effect. Unfortunately, due to the handmade nature of this paint, I have discovered that the blue pigment is more blueberry than I expected, and was not quite the fresh blue I was looking for. But if we keep the shade light there will be no problem. It will still be a great background for the "Heritage Teak" stained cot that we have purchased. It would have looked better in white (especially with teak stained floorboards) but I made my choice taking into account durability as well.