Beyond A Life (Extra) Ordinary #2

Behind the scenes and a recipe for paid subscribers

A lemon and ricotta cake is cooling on the bench; senfbraten (German Roast Pork with mustard gravy) is in the slow cooker. Outside, it is warm for winter, about 22°C; earlier, I harvested two big buckets of lemons and mandarins, and I will sort them later into paper bags for family, friends and work colleagues. We will be doing this for weeks - the trees are loaded with ripening fruit, taking a chunk of time each weekend to deal with. My freezer is already filling with lemon juice frozen into cubes, zest in ziplock bags, and even a few bags with zest and juice measured out, labelled “Lemon Delicious Pudding” and “Limoncello” respectively. It is a season of abundance and I am grateful, even if it does eat into my creative time somewhat.

The dishes are washed and I now have a few hours to write this post, then paint, or sew, or whatever tickles my fancy this sunny afternoon. We have already walked in the bush and found the first orchids of the wildflower season - bunny orchids and greenhoods, so it is time to relax. There is nothing else I need to do, right now - no, I do not need to dry and put away the dishes yet. They can wait. I used to think I needed everything tidy, beautiful and “just so” before I could create; I could not settle to write if the kitchen bench was “messy” (one cup on the bench after I’d cleaned was considered an affront) and it was a hard lesson accepting that my messy and my kids’ messy was on opposite ends of the spectrum. These days, I’m learning to accept the imperfect and seize my creative moments, to show up for myself when the window is open rather than when it’s beginning to close.

Beyond a Life (Extra) Ordinary is a monthly “extra helping” for paid subscribers of A Life (Extra) Ordinary. You can read a free sample of Beyond A Life (Extra) Ordinary here.