August August!

Last day of the month & time for the usual round-up.   I looked it up & ‘august’ also means: “inspiring awe & admiration; majestic; dignified & imposing”…

Inspiring awe

• the realisation of a dream: this month we opened a real campsite with real guests and earned real money.  Even the unwanted guests were impressive.  There’s a big bat that flies in and around the building most nights, occasionally stopping to hang in the rafters and poop on the floor!  And we found this little guy on the wall:

• the beauty and tranquility of our little piece of land – even in the darkest moments, we never cease to wonder at the stunning space we find ourselves in and the peace it offers us
• the sky at night – this month the stars have been so bright and so plentiful, it really takes your breath away.  Sitting under the roof of the outside kitchen we have a great view out but not up.  Many a times when we’ve walked to our tents at the end of the evening and remembered to look up, we just stand there, gawping.

Inspiring admiration

• I am so full of admiration for Nik I don’t know where to begin!  He works so hard – turning his hand to anything & everything: carpentry, compost loos, greywater systems, tiling… doing everything with care, thought, patience.  And for what???  Some nice grub, a bit of grog every night and the satisfaction of being part of a project?  He seems to nurture himself through helping others – amazing guy that he is.  And alongside all this, somehow he finds the mental discipline and the energy to pursue work, do proof-reading, support other friends – all within the context of a very stressful time for him, trying to secure work & sort out finances.  Well, the least we can do is get him legless…

• It’s hard not to admire my old man, Stevo.  He has a level of patience I will never know – spending hours researching sites and spreading the word about Club Full Monte in countless online communities.  This month he has turned his hand to many complex tasks he has never done before and achieved great results:  plumbing that doesn’t leak, electrics that work, a functioning solar PV system and has managed to do 80% of the tiling of the second shower in a fraction of the time it took us to do the first!  Of course, he most deserves my admiration for putting up with me in my many moments when I am tired, grumpy and letting it all get to me – his love never fails.  And if one more person tells me how amazing he looks for his age…

Majestic

• The garden at Topla produced an impressive pumpkin and provided a great excuse for a day of soup making.  It’s amazing how different the soup tasted substituting spuds for carrots, including more or less onions etc. Nik’s recipe was more peppery, something about the combo of pumpkin and potato.  But, in my opinion, my pumpkin soup was fit for a king and my pumpkin pie was divine…
  
  Recipe - Jamaican Pumpkin Soup
  2lb pumpkin
  1 onion
  1 carrot
  2 cloves garlic
  butter
  0.5 – 1 litres of chicken stock, depending how thick you like your soup
  remove skin & pips from pumpkin & cube (the smaller the cubes, the quicker it cooks)
  slice onion & saute in butter until soft
  add sliced carrot, crushed garlic & cubed pumpkin & soften in butter for a few minutes
  add stock & cook for 20 minutes & blend
  you can add cream at the end if you like it extra creamy, add nutmeg to garnish & season to taste

Dignified

• The garden is worthy of respect.  It has been trampled and munched and yet still the flowers hold their heads up brightly – a continuous blaze of colour for 2 months now – and the tomatoes will NOT be defeated, still bravely fruiting and even the capsicums are managing to turn some of their flowers into peppers and chillies.

Imposing

• The list of things still to do!  August has been a great trial for us but we have loads of challenges to overcome if we are to be ready for big numbers next year…  Oh well, I’ll try to keep breathing deep