It's a Classical Life

Last year my son got his first job. It paid about $11/hour. He quickly learnt that the things that he bought were paid for, per hour of work. For example, lunch with friends might have cost $20, which he saw as two hours work. He didn't particularly like his job and two hours work just to pay for lunch wasn't worth it in his opinion. I was amazed at how quickly he learnt that important lesson - ie, our money is worth our time.  Henry David Thoreau said, The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run. My current job is a real pay-cut from my teaching job (but I love it so much more!) and yet I found that I was spending as if I were still on a teacher's income. I was dipping into my savings to pay for things I didn't really need. For the last two months I have realised just how frivolous my spending had got. For the last couple of years I had been tracking my spending (on clothes only). L...

"Self-sufficiency is the greatest of all wealth." ~ Epicurius   As February has come to an end I wanted to take the time to reflect a bit on what's been going on in garden. As I watch floods, cyclones and other extreme weather events lashing our country and others, I give thanks for the relatively mild weather we have been having. Most of February was hot though - as in over 30 degrees celsius. We have been watering the grass by attaching a hose to the washing machine and allow the grey water to go onto the grass rather than down the drain. You can see just how dry the grass still is despite this! Honestly I think the soil has become a bit hydrophobic and the water just sort of puddles. Still we are trying to recycle the water and also create a greener yard. This snake-like thing has been a great source of entertainment to Norman, our new Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, who has been my constant companion. There is something so precious about having an animal that shadows y...