Maybe your body knew something big was coming (who knows whether it's virus or detox) and thought - "you know, I could recover from this a lot better if I was eating really simple foods. Maybe I'll take away her uncooking abilities so she just eats mono."

Just a thought! 

Hey Jen jen, you named all the things I was going to! As far as I'm aware, onions are poisonous both cooked and raw, though I don't know if tests have ever been done using organic. In the past, I have fed Casper left-over cooked vegan food that included cooked onion - even though it was in really small pieces Casper carefully avoided it and left the bits on his bowl. So I think they know!

As for macadamias, given how expensive and yummy they are I wouldn't want to give them to my pooch anyway, lol  Once again, I'm referring to my own experience here - 1 macadamia won't cause problems. A while ago I was sitting on the floor smashing macs with a hammer and someone came to the door - I left one macadamia on the floor out of its shell and when I came back Casper had eaten it! He was fine.

As far as I know peanuts aren't a specific problem but obviously they are highly allergy-causing in people so I'd keep a close watch on Sophie. That sounds so cute, her throwing them around!!  Definitely better than commercial treats.

Oh Meg those are beautiful! Thanks so much for sharing, glad you're taking it easy (most of the time!) and enjoying your pregnancy.
Are you coming to the picnic on Sunday? It would be lovely to see you and the clan!

Hugs to everyone at your place,
Freedom 

Hey Jen have you ever looked into Neem products? I bought a box of Neem powder the other week for hairwashing and  it dried her hair out HEAPS which was not what she was after, but for you it might be good?
Here is one website: http://www.theneempeople.com/index.html Not where I got mine but this has lots of products and info.

 

Here's our compost piles Jen:



They are based on a particular type of composting, I can't remember what it's called, that doesn't require them to be covered. At the moment we are letting the right-hand one breakdown and putting stuff on the left one. They are hot composters - on chilly mornings, steam comes off! We borrowed a book from the library that told us everything about how to do it, I'll have to have a look and tell you what it's called.

While I was taking the photo, I thought I'd take some more:



here's my little piggies, Placid in the front and Lychee at the back. Stuff only makes it to the compost heap if they won't eat it!

And here's another reason why compost is awesome:



WE have never planted a pumpkin seed but these lovely little guys grew out of the compost!

Thankyou, John, for that excellent post. Breath of fresh air in this thread!

Hey there Bronny,
Really, it all depends on your own personal choices and what 'level' you want to take things to. Are you 100% raw all the time or just high-raw? In my first few months of all raw eating I did still eat some organic shop bought tomatoes but now I dry my own. Chances are they are not actually 'dried' they are baked - this can be done in 25 mins but drying takes hours so clearly option 1 is cheaper. Also, while olive oil can be raw, the oil they are packed in is likely to no be cold pressed.
Again, it is just up to your personal preferenes. Hope I've helped!
Freedom 

I am just here to let everyone know the sad news, that precious Cherimoya died in my arms this morning. Since I last wrote here, she has had a lot of ups and downs and has certainly never been truly 'well' again. Though I only shared less that two months of my life with her, I don't know if I will ever love any rat (or any creature) as much as I loved her. She was just something too special for words. I feel so truly lucky to have had even that short period with her.

Freedom

Sorry Sacha, getting way off topic here, but this is an interesting discussion and I want in, lol!


 I've heard this sort of thing said before but not personally to me and I've certainly never felt this way before. I have three best friends, two lovely girlies who have been my friends for about 7 years and also Luke, who is the son of my Mum's best friend from highschool. There is a photo in my bedroom of the 2 of us when I was 3 and he was 1, walking hand in hand on the beach in bathers (so cute!) and then there is one when I was 16 and he was 14 and he came to my formal, with us all dressed up (cute in an altogether different way). So we've been friends forever, basically.

I can share anything with all 3 of my friends. Luke was an incredible support to me when I was heavily depressed and suffering from my eating disorder, for the simple reason that he shut up and listened to me and my world collapsed. He was solid and strong and something that had never changed. Maybe he couldn't class as a 'man' because he was only 14 but he certainly wasn't offering me practical advice. He was just there.

My girlfriends on the other hand, would be always going on at me when we were together. Don't get me wrong, I know that they could see what I couldn't and they just didn't want me to keep killing myself, but the point I'm making is that in our situation it was virtually the reverse of what you guys have been saying: the male was the listener, the girls had solutions.

What i think is also interesting is that I would not go specifically to a man if I wanted a solution to a problem. Generally I would much prefer talking to a woman no matter what the topic was, though of course there are certain individual men that I would prefer to talk to than certain individual women.

I'd be interested to hear other perspectives on this, but I would venture that it is more to do with sexuality than sex - hetrosexual women prefer to talk to men, while lesbians prefer women?

Mmmm, I bet that would leave your hair smelling nice Dragonfly!

That is great Gosia, glad you're on the up! I looooove swimming, we live just a few minutes from a river (well, kind of the river, when you're in perth, lol) and I swim heaps.

Chermona I am SOOOO happy for you that you have found a house, I wish you all the very best for this new and wonderful stage of your life!
I loooove piggies and I'm sure Herbie would get on beautifully with my two boys... if only he could come to Perth. Hmmm, I did just have a thought though... my grandparents are coming to visit us in March, they are coming by caravan so he could come with them. If you don't have success finding him another home,let me know and we'll see what we can do.

Big hugs to you, Bluebelle and Herbie,
Freedom 

No, I'm not talking about dried fruits on the ground - they really were still hanging on the tree (vine, in the case of grapes). I guess what had happened was that when they were fully ripe their attachment to the plant was slightly broken so they didn't keep growing till the point that they dropped to the ground, instead they just hung there and dried out.

I have had wild, sun dried fruit. It's yummy! The other day I was picking figs and there was one that had been nibbled at by a bird but part had been left hanging on the tree - it was dried out and very tasty. I've had the same experience with grapes and apricots.

Just thought I'd dredge up an old topic here... when I was 5 years old, I dreamed one day of being an author. At the time, my best friend and I decided I would write picture books and she would illustrate them. As I got older I thought about writing non-fiction... I wrote lots of poetry and some short stories, sent them to publishers but never had replies. Now, I have successfully written an e-book! Maybe one day, it could be enlarged and actually published.

So, my dreams have come true. Of course, they couldn't have without beautiful, sensational Jennie! THANKYOU, from the bottom of my 

Freedom