Last week I broke into my apocalypse stash - two buckets full of supplies I'd gathered during COVID. THere's a lot of rice and lentils, but also maple syrup, pepper, various spices, medicine. I'm hardly a prepper but back then it seemed important. I was looking for brown lentils because I'd run out - it was a rainy Sunday and I was desperate for something hot and nourishing. Cue lentil stew - tomatoes, mushrooms, olives, fennel tops, kale, silverbeet, herbs, celery, stock - too easy.

I'd also made labneh (a easy yoghurt cheese) with garlic chives, which I smeared on homemade flatbread. It was wholesome, cheap, and good. Labneh's dead easy - you just mix a bit of salt and maybe lemon juice into the yoghurt and strain it throw muslin in the fridge for a few days until it's like cream cheese, then add the herbs. You can roll it into balls and add olive oil to preserve it if you like but I find it doesn't last long anyway.

Meanwhile, I sorted out six boxes of memorabilia and paperwork - Jamie's Physics books, our photos, school reports, drawings from when we were little, school books, writing and more. Most of mine - in fact, all of it except for the photos - went on the fire. I scanned all my writing and put it in Google Docs, where I probably will never look at it again. Jamie reduced four tubs to one, one tub is going to my son Jarrah as it's all his stuff, and the rest is photos. It's all gone to Mum's as there's no room for it in the new house, and we can't store it in the shed there if we rent. It felt very liberating. I don't like memorabilia much - it's just living in the past and you only bring it out every few years, if that. To me this feels pointless and purposeless. I'd rather be unencumbered.

Still, I enjoyed looking through photos - me on my honeymoon in Italy, where Jamie was probably taking photos of the cars not me, and my son in Scotland somewhere in 2001.

I also got half of my blanket knitted. It's getting long enough to keep me warm whilst I do it. I'm dying to get it done - admittedly more foccussed on the end result. As I'm posting this a few days after this lovely and productive Sunday, I'm already three quarters of the way through - I've been a bit obsessive about it, even knitting in bed before going to sleep. I can't say it's without error, but the pattern kinda stops you focussing on it. @clairemobey might be impressed with this one, and @karinxxl ! Hey, I gotta show off to someone! I think next time I'll do a seed or moss stitch as this one is a pain if you miss a stitch and it throws the whole pattern off and you have to tink back.

In the meantime, Jamie was working on his trailer, which we now call the silver machine.

Yep, this is how I segue Hawkwind in a post about lentils and labneh for @ablaze's #threetunetuesday project on Hive. You were wondering, weren't you?

The trailer was advertised for $400 but Jamie poked at a few rust holes and the guy said he could take it for $200 - and with a bit of grinding and welding, and some galvanised paint he had lying around, plus fixing the bearings and changing a tyre over, it'll last a good few years. We'll need it for moving as well as moving soil and garden waste at the new place, and it'll be stored at Mum's when we aren't using it as a family trailer (she has an acre so she has room.)

We now call it the Silver Machine, because Hawkwind. It's a a blend of space-rock chaos, proto-punk energy, and tongue-in-cheek science fiction. We can't help call the trailer that because of this song.

Speaking of memorabilia, I found ticket stubs from going to see them in Exeter a few years back. Some young German kid came up to me and said I looked like Angela Android. That was wierd. We'd driven our beemer down there - Jamie loved that car. We bought it for 500 pounds and I scraped it along side a fence - Jamie could have cried.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vClzMDkXY4k

My sister in law is a massive Hawkwind fan and never misses an opportunity to see them. I remember listening to them as a teenager. I always wonder about people who havne't heard of them, but perhaps their mix of hard rock, sci fi, psychedelia and space rock isn't everyone's cup of tea. If you've never been stoned and listened to the experimental electronic sounds and hypnotic rhythms of this band, I hope you do in the next life.

Though we chucked out the stub, we didn't ditch the Hawkwind albums. We can't ever get rid of vinyl, let alone the love of Hawkwind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vobAKWK-hWc

With Love,

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