Catching My Breath

What a busy few weeks I've had, not just with the de-cluttering that's been going on at my home, but I had one of my chickens fly back from overseas a fortnight ago and be in immediate need of being moved from Uni accommodation out into her first mainstream rental property, and another one moving out of home and up to the big smoke for a career and lifestyle change.
Today marked the big move to the city for my eldest daughter. She's there, safely. As any parent of children that are of driving age will attest, there's nothing like THAT phone call from your offspring to signal the end of a long drive and a safe arrival at their chosen destination, no matter what their age.

With these recent migrations now behind us, I do believe, in the not too distant future, that some normality may just re-insert itself into my life, although I am well aware that there is a rather broad range of life circumstances, depending on the structure of your family, that would be considered normal. The kind of normal I guess I'm referring to is the kind where the house is in relative order, I again have the time to immerse myself in some of my favourite domestic activities, including vegan cooking and gardening, and that all three girls are smiling, indicating that they have happily settled into their respective new homes and jobs. *sigh*

My garden is looking a little bedraggled as the Summer sun takes its toll on the veggie patch, without me having neither the time nor the energy lately to tend to it as I normally would. Everything in the garden is certainly salvageable and I've been fortunate enough to have been supplied with an abundance of veggies from it of late that I've made use of in the dishes I've been creating, although time has prevented me from being overly creative.

Yesterday, as I prepared for all three girls to join me for tea, I picked 3-4 kilos of tomatoes from the garden and made a batch of Passata, (a light sauce made from cooked and sieved tomatoes) which I would use as the base on which to create a Vegan Mediterranean pasta dish. The sauce included onion, garlic, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, marinated artichoke hearts, red capsicum all topped off with a host of flavour enhancing herbs also from the 'patch.' Served over a bed of al dente Penne pasta, there were full bellies all round although much grumbling was to be heard over the fact that there was no cheese. Being a Vegan, its not something I buy and with kids flying the coop left right and centre, there's hardly any non-vegan supplies in the fridge anymore apart from one or two dairy items such as sour cream, ricotta cheese or yoghurt purchased by daughter number three.

Another day draws to a close, and as I sit here writing, occasionally glancing out into my beautiful 'Secret Garden' which I can see clearly from the open window before me, a mixture of feelings wash over me as I edge one step closer to joining the ranks of what's commonly known as the 'empty nesters.'
Until then, I can only feel slightly sorry for the only chicken remaining in the nest as she braces herself for some pretty serious smothering on my part, as I roll the physical attention I would normally have given to three chickens, into one. Good times.....

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