The benefits of a dirty mind

Did you know there’s a bacterium in soil that can actually make you happy?

Scientific research into soil microbes – mycobacterium vaccae – has found that they can have a similar neural effect to drugs commonly prescribed for depression, but without the side-effects and chemical dependency. Apparently these microscopic wrigglies stimulate serotonin, the brain’s natural happy juice. Combined with the feel-good factor of spending time outdoors in the sun and fresh air, and the satisfaction of seeing a seedling grow and bear fruit, for me it’s a pretty powerful prescription.

Quick and easy pick-me-up salad

We’re all a little frazzled and run down around here, between being flat out with work, the little guy going through some kind of brain explosion (I think the technical term would be ‘developmental leap’, or more specifically, ‘catastrophic testosterone surge’), and having Mum up to visit for a big week of Grandma-love for Declan and our annual mother-daughter day out at the Sydney Writers’ Festival.

Mother’s Day: a little jar of love

 

There are worse starts to your day than having a small person grin up at you and say: “Happy Mother’s Day, my beautiful mummy!” – even if said little guy has spent much of the night with his bony elbows wedged between a couple of your ribs, periodically grumbling “make some room for me!” in a bid to expand his substantial territory further into your side of the bed.

Sweet, sweet corn: golden kernels of awesome

So the first cob of corn was finally ready on the weekend!

We’d been anxiously monitoring it, and by Saturday morning it was looking good to go. Decs wrenched it from my hands as soon as I picked it, tearing away the husk and opening wide, ready to eat it up then and there. I managed to persuade him to wait until dinner on the promise that the first cob was all his. The things we do for love… though the second cob will be mine, all mine!