Hei,

I’m going to be taking an indefinite break from blogging starting today.

Last night I realised that writing battlecat posts has lately become a duty that hinders me following any other creative practice including just writing for writing’s sake.

I’m sure that I’ll return to making some form of regular posting soon – but for now at least I’ll be letting wordpress alone and freeing myself of something that’s become an obligation.

You can keep up to date with my day in under 140 characters per post feel free to follow my . del.icio.us feeds will continue to flow through to battlecat.net and presuming I get new batteries for my camera sometime in this lifetime, my account will become more active.

If you crave the personal touch, you can always send me email.

Thanks for reading.

xo Pippa

Possibly the most fantastic and unexpected thing that happened at Aliese’s yesterday was that I discovered that her backyard is full of stinging nettles. Most people would balk at the idea of picking nettles for fun, but what I saw in front of me was not a painful plant, but wild produce ready to be gathered.

Earlier this winter I’d hopefully planted seeds primarily so I could use the nettles as a nitrogen rich green compost, but they didn’t grow very well, so I’ve been looking out for some wild plants to harvest from. I’d seen some nettle-like plants by the side of the road earlier in the week, but my tentative stroke of the leaves didn’t result in any stings – so yesterday I took a braver approach and put my hand flat onto the leaves which did confirm my suspicion that the plants were indeed nettles.

It’s not that painful. I figure that nettle stings are the discomfort equivalent of eating warhead lollies – some people are braver or have a higher tolerance than others – luckily for me the sting is bearable.

So I borrowed some rubber gloves (I’m not yet brave enough to enter a nettle patch with bare hands) and scissors and picked a bag full of prickly leaves, ready to be dried and made into tea.

What did seem really weird that it was just over a year ago, in Finland’s early summer that I helped Ninnu prepare nettles for tea. But temperature wise I figure that there’s not much difference between July in Australia and early June in Finland.

Now of course I’ve remembered that nettles can be added to soup (fresh and dried), risottos, pancakes and used as a hair tonic as well as being a tea for people and gardens.

Aliese, it looks like I’ll have to come over this weekend and do some “weeding” for you!

The first real four day work week, one day Pippa, two days weekend has gone into effect.

A sleep-in.

Reading Number 9 Dream by David Mitchell.

Finnish inspired breakfast – rye bread, butter, fresh greens (red orache, beetroot leaves, kale), cheese, plus the secret ingredient of Aromat (MSG laden, but incredibly delicious salt substitute).

3 hours of gardening – compost turned, old geraniums pulled out of the garden bed near the kitchen, mint planted in teapot, soursobs and other weeds pulled out, yellow passionfruit beside eastern fence, cavalo nero kale in big vegie bed, green things (nitrogen) and brown things (carbon) added to compost. Money tree repotted (my good fortune may change horribly from now on) and johnny jump ups sown into the kitchen garden bed for now.

Recycling and bin out two days early – not that I realised.

Bike ride over to Aliese and Denni’s.

Walk at West Beach with Aliese and the puppy. Dinner with Aliese, Denni and D’s folks.

Home again.

Ready to sleep, but strangely the thought of work tomorrow has brought on a headache.

Chamomile tea, paracetamol and a bit of reading pre-bed.

• Gamasutra – Who Says Video Games Have to be Fun? The Rise of Serious Games
  Great gamasutra article on how video games technology can be used to present serious issues. While there’s a history of games being used for education and training (flight simulation and military training come to mind) games are overwhelmingly viewed as
  (tags: games technology tomakeoneday philosophy)
• September 12th – Newsgaming.com
  A simple and powerful game-based representation of how the hunt for a non-uniformed enemies causes civilian casualties and destruction of societies and community resources.
  (tags: socialsoftware social politics philosophy games future humanitarian peace terrorismresponse)

In a move almost as embarrassingly bad as crying out a previous lover’s name whilst shagging someone else, I accidentally wrote Ratbag Games on the delivery instructions for my new Nintendo DS Lite.

I have to admit that despite working in the games industry – I don’t really play games that often. Though, working on the principle that the DS has converted a lot of non-gamers to addicts I thought it might be a worthwhile tax deduction. But the DS isn’t just for games as I’ll be getting the web browser eventually, and one of those brain training types of games as well as Animal Crossing.

Luckily Nintendo industrial design is almost in the same league as Apple – so my shiny black DS will sit very happily alongside my iPod and presumably a black MacBook sometime in the future.

Oh! What a beautiful wet day!

The rain is plodding down again and it is as if there had never been a drought. Eventually I’ll have a rainwater tank and a collection of unwanted mosquito larvae to be thankful for, but right now I give thanks to the rain as an excuse for a day off in ugg boots. I have tea, rhubarb and almond cake, a heater, ideas and an overflowing inbox of emails, plans and bills.

The seedlings in my garden are resentful and small but still green. Like me they say It is cold in bed, there is not nearly enough sun for us to want to leap out, ever higher and stronger with each morning.

Just wait, I tell the plants and me. Too soon it will be sunny and warm all the time and you’ll be exhausted and thirsty from all the growing and living and expressing of the energy inside. Sleep in and receive kisses from your lover, the rain.