A goose hook

We headed to the lake today.

Zephyr packed a backpack filled with some of his favourite things.

We fished and swam and hung out with the ducks, geese and swamp hens.

And then we noticed this, left by some stupid anthropogenitor.

So with some gleaned street plums we coaxed her closer.

The way she exorcised the stone from the fruit in one pugnacious motion was miraculous.

Then I grabbed her around her feet, tucked her under my arm and tried to free the hook.

It wasn't going to come, so we took her home and called our local wildlife rescue service.

While we waited we spoke to her gently and offered her some water.

Then Gayle from the wildlife rescue service arrived and within a few minutes had removed the hook. Gayle rubbed Manuka honey into the wound and returned her to the lake on dusk.

Warm fish salad

Here is a recipe that pretty much determined itself tonight. Almost all of the ingredients have come from what's on hand in the garden and from the nearby lake – beautiful Lake Daylesford.


Ingredients

Locals:

Baby silverbeet fordhook leaves
Green spouting broccoli
Snow dwarf peas
Sugar snap climbing peas
Spring onion
Spearmint tips
Peppery wild rocket
Baby broad bean leaves
Soft oregano tips
Parsley herb
Lemon (from George and Geoffrey)


Redfin (English perch caught by Meg)


Foreigners:

Tamari and sesame seed oil (to pan cook fish)
Salt and Pepper
Sun-dried Tomatoes
Olive oil

Procedure:

Throw all the herbs and vegetables into a colander and lightly rinse off any soil. Gut, clean and pan fry fish in sesame oil, add tamari and steam with lid to finish off. Remove cooked scales, head and bones and with the raw gut feed to the chooks for extra protein. Lightly toss fish meat in with garden salad and add salt and olive oil.

The result:

Delicious!

And now for more Fukuoka:

Culture is usually thought of as something created, maintained and developed by humanity's efforts alone. But culture always originates in the partnership of man and nature. When the union of human society and nature is realized, culture takes shape of itself. Culture has always been closely connected with daily life, and so has been passed on to future generations, and has been preserved up to the present time. The One-Straw Revolution, 1975, p138.