With Liz and Do

For Katy to benefit from the Mentos freely (without two uptight people all the time over her shoulder), we plan two weeks of volunteering north of Melbourne.

Liz, Do and their teenager Aiden welcome us warmly and with great class in a private bungalow. It used to be an AirBNB rental but there was so much cleaning involved every weekend. Housing volunteers makes it possible to host people who will work for you, win-win. :)

The family follows the principles of permaculture. The vegetable garden is pretty full: tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, potatoes, salads of all kinds, basil, rhubarb, pears, plums, ... Everything that does not fit in the garden or inside the property is picked in the wild: mushrooms, apples, pears, hawthorn and rosehip berries. It's abundance at the moment but Liz and Do are planning ahead and getting ready for winter. They are preserving specialists: drying, syrups, jars, freezing. All means are good to enjoy these good products in the coldest of winter. [Meteorological note: summer is definitely gone and we left the tropics, it rains regularly, some days temperatures don't rise over 10°C and it even snows sometimes]. Meals are delicious and, often, with at least 50% of ingredients produced on site.

Nothing like working outside. We roll up our sleeves to pimp the vegetable garden, which is organized into beds. We reinforce those with wooden walls, we replace the bales of those with straw outline. A quick and efficient weeding and the job is done, it's good to go for a new cycle. We can sow some new yummy seeds.

Afternoons are free, this gives us plenty of time to cuddle Cosmos (the tabby cat) and Rhubarb (the ginger cat). We're also walking Betty, the cute little dog, in the surrounding forest. Its better to restrain yourself from straying too far from the path because there are old gold mines (more or less deep) in all corners. We spend a day in Melbourne: visit of the library, two museums and stroll around the city along the river.

Do's favorite pastime is ultra run, running over distances longer than a marathon. Not physical enough for us (hum hum), so we opt for a two-day trip with Liz (camping included half way).

It was completely by chance (but quite good fortune these days) that we noticed that Liz buys toilet paper in bulk, in partnership with their neighbours. We are very lucky to sleep next to the reserve with no less than two hundred rolls stored ;).

Katy takes off for Belgium and the ferry awaits to take us for ... Tasmania.