Mint and yarrow beer

There’s a lot of mugwort in the garden, so I thought I should brew

However, I’m short of bottles because there’s a huge stockpile from previous experiments.

Can’t remember when I brewed this one, which is marked as mint and yarrow.

Might’ve been 2018 and it tastes really good.

Dry bubbles with a mild refreshing tang.

Alcohol seems moderate.

Thinking I should brew with mint more often.

Butterflies love my mint

Some years ago I returned home from Burning Seed with a terrarium made from a plastic bottle and in it was a little mint plant

I’d built the terrarium at a workshop run by Di and Daryl at Mint Country Club, where they articulated the ten principles of Burning Man for an audience of mostly first-time Burners.

Di and Daryl are better known outside the Burner community for their attendance at country shows as First Light stilt walkers and they performed at Leeton’s show in 2019.

Anyway, I’ll cut a long story short, years later the mint now occupies a corner of my yard and is popular with a variety of insects.

As autumn begins the mint flowers are attended by bees, moths and an assortment of butterflies.

It’s surprised me how many types of butterflies flutter around.

At first I thought there were a few species, but after comparing my photos to Google’s search results, I think I’m up to around half a dozen now.

A photograph gives me the opportunity to identify their characteristics, like the spotted body on the Plain Tiger — which seems a misnomer.

And I didn’t know these small, bright yellow creatures are also butterflies.

I’ve said that nothing sorts out introverts and extraverts quicker than someone pointing a camera at them, and this seems to be true of butterflies.

The older-looking ones with faded and rough-edged wings will seem oblivious as I move increasingly closer to take photographs; while the pale ones are skittish and fly up over my head, sometimes circling around behind me to get back to the mint but other times continuing up over my house.

Another plant that seems to be popular with some insects is the basil I bought a supermarket

It’s worth getting a little punnet of living basil during spring, because if you treat it right it’ll supply you with fresh herb throughout the warmer months.

I found a caterpillar under one of the leaves this week, while picking the remaining leaves after the basil had flowered.

Love in the time of Corona

What will romance look like as social-distancing becomes part of life?

The impact of Covid-19 follows the conversation stirred by the #metoo movement about bodily sovereignty, which might be seen as a new beginning in recognising the negotiation of intimacy in western societies.

Now personal boundaries extend to within coughing distance of someone and a kiss might be construed as a serious form of assault.

Will flirtations retreat to the digital realm?

More weird dreams

Woke from a dream where I interviewed Kid Koala ahead of his tour of regional Australia

Eric was showing his website analytics that demonstrated spikes in searches for the towns on the tour as they were announced.

When asked why he wanted to visit these smaller locations, I saw the venues would be golf courses and the events were less like a concert and more like a picnic with an Easter egg hunt.

Except, instead of finding chocolate, the audience were playing golf with balls that broadcast drum breaks as they flew threw the air to seek out samples for the performance as they landed.

We have to be careful now

Watched Rams today, a documentary about influential industrial designer Dieter Rams

One poignant moment showed him standing in a crowd as the voiceover shared his reflection that no one would meet his eye in the streets these days.

He was commenting on the proliferation of mobile phones occupying people's attention, and it led to the observation shown in the screenshot here.

April Fools Day

Only spotted one post so far, which is a lot less than usual

Wonder how many will appear from the northern hemisphere later today and tomorrow.

Like the closed playground below, playfulness is vanishing from public -- even without the restrictions that have been placed on movement.

Playground closed

The playground at the end of my street was closed this week

It's an image I wouldn't have imagined, maybe even a week ago.

I can understand that Council's duty of care to maintain safe equipment poses an impossible burden, since they have dozens of playgrounds that would need to be cleaned regularly.

However, I realised that I needed to take a photo to document the impact of Covid-19.