Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Everything's as it's supposed to be.

and time flies

on monday 1. 2. 2010 me and mango enjoyed a beautiful, peaceful and nicely lazy day at fruitopia

on tuesday, we went into malanda, because the man, who offered us, that we could move in and housesit his home, did not contact us again, but we did not give up, and because we knew, as he previously told us, that he is usually at home on tuesdays, despite of having no arrangements with him, we decided to travel over there anyway, so we could once and for all find out where we stand. and we were lucky, the man was at home, and as soon as we arrived at his house, he came out, and without saying hello, or apologising that he as promised did not contact us, told us, without a smile on his face, that he had changed his mind and he was going to rent his house for handsome dollars. we did not mind so much, the most important to us was, that we finally knew how things were, we said good bye with a smile and we drove back toward our home.

we stopped on our way in malanda's second hand shop, and we bought very cheap and nice cotton curtains, they are colourful with a print of giraffes and coconut trees. i may not use them for the windows as i would like to make something else from them. we previously visited the same shop a few times, and we always got some bedding made from top quality cotton and for a very good price. we are saving a lot of money that way, because the cotton of such quality is available only in the most expensive shops.

then we drove for a few minutes and we visited the river and her amazing waterfalls, where we had our traditional swim. after the abundant rains, the water in the river had risen up, and the waterfalls increased in their volume as well, gashing wildly over the big boulders, and the rivers current was much stronger, so we had some nice exercise, swimming against it toward the waterfalls, and on the way back from them, we were carried easily by the strong current. we spent the most of our time by the river alone, and only a few times someone came down to have their quick lunch. me and mango, we were relaxing in the hot sun and then we enjoyed a meal of red pawpaws followed by passion fruit, and then we jumped into the river. i took some great pictures, so did mango, and he also made some video. after our refreshing swim, we sat on the foot-bridge over the river, back to the waterfalls and we were watching the river’s flow along the shores of luscious tropical rainforest. we were throwing twigs and leaves into the water, watching their floating journey. soon after we said good bye to the river and to her waterfalls, and after about 20km of drive we stopped in atherton.

in atherton we visited the supermarket and we complained about the poor quality of frozen durians, because they are sold already a few days thawed, and that is why they are not fresh and that is why they are not very tasty. they nicely apologised and gave us one big durian for free. well, naturally, it was again not a very yummy one, and me and mango decided that we won't buy any more frozen durian from thailand at atherton's supermarket woolworths. the lady from the fresh produce who dealt with our durian cry, told us, to our disbelieve, that durians arrive in the shop already unfrozen, we were very surprised to hear that, because we never come across such durian treatment. when we asked why that was so, that durians get in the shop unfrozen, we didn't get a clear answer, the lady obviously wasn't a durian lover and i think she didn't fully understand what our problem was.

we got back in the car and we continued our journey toward mareeba, and we stopped on the way at the fruit stalls by the road, where there is no one selling the fruit, but a money box is present, over twenty years ago they used to be without locks, but nowadays they are secured by locks from dishonest people, and this also proves to me, that the world is not getting better as some say. fruit stalls with money boxes were also more common in the good old days. we bought red pawpaw, avocado and passion fruit.

on the wednesday we discovered, that the phone was out of order, but we were not very surprised as it happens here from time to time, and no one seems to worry about it, and no one was very keen to fix it. well, we had a few days good break from phone and internet. the caretaker left with his girlfriend for a day out, and when they returned, he said, that he was hopping that the phone will be miraculously fixed of its own accord, but that never happened. anyway, i had just bought a phone card, so i could ring my mum, but i also didn't worry that i couldn't, i knew that sooner or later the phone connection would be missed by others and someone would make an effort to fix it. our mobile phones were working, so mango rang the man, who was the first one offering us to housesit his house, because he is often away working, and he told us to ring him in about ten days, around 8th of february.

also on wednesday we went to marreba and we bought in the supermarket very yummy white nectarines, peaches and grapes. i also sent two postcards to the czech republic. after our return to fruitopia, mango went for a swim, and i jumped in the bathtub and then i had a nap. mango returned just after i woke up, and he told me that he didn't have a swim, but he had chatted in the communal kitchen with darrick and that they would be going for a swim right then. so i jumped in the bath again and then i was drying myself in the garden, enjoying the sun and i picked and ate a few cherry tomatoes. the rest of the day we were chatting, firstly me and darrick, mango joined us a bit later after his nap. when the sun was setting and the blood thirsty mozzies arrived, me and mango returned to our house and we enjoyed a meal made of pealed and finely sliced cucumbers mixed with avocado. and for the rest of the night me and mango relaxed and chatted at times.

darrick is a person from America, who has been for the past 3 years travelling the world, mainly the places, where durian is plentiful. he also loves durians. we met him at first on the internet, there is fruity interview with him at mango's fruitarian blog, and he has a blog too (vagabondingvegan.blogspot.com) and he is friends with harley, his girlfriend freelee, and nick. who also attended the raw gathering at fruitopia, left after, and arrived without darrick again a few days later, after me, mango, emile and david ended up here at fruitopia after our journey from sydney. darrick arrived recently with some durian, and not long after he invited me and mango for a durian feast, he had flown from byron bay (australia) to see us, and he was looking forward to enjoying a yummy durian feast with us. and that happened, not only once. darrick is a very nice person and he is also generous and hospitable. one day his fruity friend robert came over and he brought over local fresh durian, ordered and paid for by darrick, and we all sat in the sun and enjoyed magic durians he shared with us, and it was altogether seven of us; care taker and his girlfriend, me, mango, darrick, robert, and paul, he came for a few month to generally relax and have a break from the world and his usual everyday life. darrick loves fruit and he stayed with us here at fruitopia for about a week. he was lucky, it was a week long sunny break from the rainy days. then he left for bali. so far, he likes the philipines the most, for very tasty abundant durian of many varieties and he thinks he may live there for a while. while he was here, i once made it with mangos help to the creek where he also later on joined us, and he told me that while i was swimming i looked like an angel. i was very pleased with such a compliment. when he was finally leaving fruitopia, he said, that he would love to visit us in australia again one day. me and mango are glad to have another fruitarian friend.

on thursday we had a lazy day almost the same like on the monday, i had gotten sunburnt by the creek on the previous day, i had had such an awesome time that i forgot about the time..the creek has beautiful gum trees in the water and amazing small waterfalls.. so i avoided the sun for a few days and i took care of my sunburned skin with fresh aloe vera gel.

and as every friday, me and sweet mango visited cairns rusties market, and we bought for us and darrick a lot of local and fresh durians and back at fruitopia we all enjoyed and shared more than once a durian feast..

on saturday me and mango left for atherton market, and we bought cucumbers, red pawpaws and pineapples.
sunday was a beautiful and very relaxing day

on monday me and mango said goodbye to darrick and just before that we all had a sweet fruity picnic at one of mareeba's park.

on tuesday i had an idea to go in to atherton for cucumbers, and to my own amazement, after i parked our car near a second hand store, mango remained in the car with his crosswords, and i left for that store, and there, even though it was unexpected, were the cucumbers i had on my mind. so i was nicely surprised and pleased that i had listened to my intuition, and i bought a full big plastic bag and that was almost all of them. lovely cucumbers from somebody's garden, and so cheap, only two dollars sixty for the lot. on the way back mango drove and we stopped at fruit stalls by the road and we bought red pawpaws, avocados and passion fruits.

we have been ringing the mobile of the man whose house may be for us available to housesit from the seventh of february, but so far there has only been his message bank, so we are once again not sure about our housing situation.

we enjoy everyday yummy fruit, we drink or eat pineapples, drinking or eating cucumbers, drinking or eating grapes, eating cucumbers with avocado, mango is adding tomato and hot chilli as well. mamey sapote, i drink watermelon, and i eat occasionally a lady finger banana or two, or mango. and both of us are eating red pawpaw, passion fruit and lately more durians than usual. usually we enjoy local fresh durians on fridays saturdays and sundays, twice a day. and i almost forgot we are also eating yummy white nectarines, nectarines and peaches and we are drinking orange juice often. as always we are eating or drinking all fruits only raw and fresh.

life is beautiful

Sunday, February 14, 2010

our life at fruitopia

end of january 2010

our life at fruitopia in no way reaches our ideal, but despite that, we are happy to have a roof over our heads, especially now, during the tropical rainy season, I know that a temporary stay in a tent might probably/possibly not be a very happy experience, even so, it could be an interesting one, but we have gladly decided to let go of it.

we still have the first offer to move out to a different place, to house sit for one man, who on most days is working away from home, and therefore his house is empty, but we are hesitating to move in, because we also have another very simular offer, which is more suitable for us, as we prefer the area and the house as well, but the man who owns the house is a bit adventurous, so he arranges meetings with us, but does not arrive for them, or ring, that happened already two times, i have to give him credit for arriving once, but the other times he was fully silent for almost a week, so we are not sure what to expect and how it is all going to turn out. oh, no, but such is life, and we are doing our best to take it as it comes, and to accept that everything is happening for a reason, even at times we do not see the meaning of it straight away, that's life.

i got a bit tangled with the time in my last note about fruitopia, i wrote, that we had only two weeks left until we have to leave, but i found out that we have the whole month, but we are still hoping to move in to another place before then.

i also forgot to add, that this farm is registered as organic, and that made me more aware of such statements, so in future when i am going to buy organic fruit straight from a producer, i will look more in to what kind of fertilizers they are using. so far, i have not been too concerned about it, and we get the most of our fruit, which is very tasty and does not get so easily mouldy as the ones from fruitopia, on local markets. and since we become more aware of quality and production of fruit at fruitopia, we are eating much less of it. we are eating mainly passion fruit, a tiny bit of peanut butter fruit and we also ate some akee, which we love so much, but even though there are several akee trees here, on sunny days we were getting at most about ten a day, but since the time when the abundant rain arrived, we have only been finding one every few days, and that is hardly any. akee, just like us love the sun.

i also forgot to mention last time, that in the beginning fruitopia had two owners, but one recently left, because even though those two people shared the same vision at first, that changed with time and now fruitopia has just one owner, and a little bit poorer as well, because he had to buy out the previous co-owner. and because he did not have enough money, he agreed to also sell him a corner of fruitopia, with the agreement that the previous co-owner would not sell it, but instead should keep the land. but as it happened, this promise was not kept and the corner was sold to some slightly not so wanted neighbour.

i would like to add as well, that another neighbour beside fruitopia is a farmer on a huge acreage, and he is producing a big mono mango and avocado orchard and he is not at all organic or environmentally friendly because he is using poisonous chemicals as fertilizers and he also uses poison to spray the trees, and the wind blows those deadly chemicals onto some parts of Fruitopia as well, and on top of it, all those damaging chemicals are in the soil, and they travel a long way through waterways and rain water. we were also told, that here at fruitopia no one keeps eye on the soil condition, and that once a year the owner gets a form to fill in and send with the required money, and that is all that's needed to certify the farm as organic. so, as far organic produce goes, i learned, that i truly don't know, what is on my table and getting in to my bloodstream. it must be my intuition, which i do listen to, that i never feel very positive about organic fruit sold in the shops, and therefore i never truly did look for it. i was also turned off by overpriced organic fruit and its appearance and also my intuition was telling me it is not the real deal. the only organic fruit my intuition agreed with was from the gardens of people i knew well and such fruit was very tasty. the story goes the same for fruits from my own previous gardens.

thanks to the abundant rain, the water everywhere has risen up and gotten very wild, so we have recently been bathing only in the bath tub, just because we have not wanted to be carried away by wild waters. we could swim in any of the many lakes on the tablelands, but they are a bit farther away from our present location. we only hope that our new home is going to be situated not far from some of the beautiful lakes of far north queensland, so we would be able to swim as much we want even in the peak of the rainy season.

since we arrived in the tropics, we've been regularly visiting, each friday, cairns fresh produce markets, rusty's, and that is where we are getting our very yummy and each one very original fresh magic durians. they began their season just around the time we moved on to fruitopia. and as usual, we are learning from experience, and by now, we know who is selling the best and the most yummy durians. yes, it happened, that we've occasionally bought very off durians, and so far, we've always managed to get our money back or another durian, and that is great, because fresh local durian is expensive, it can cost from eight to ten australian dollars per kg. the best price so far was once at one stall for six dollars, and on that day me and mango bought more durians than usual, so we feasted on durians big time. each friday, after we arrive at rusty’s markets, we buy durians first, and then we have an adorable durian breakfast, we share usually two, or three, depending on the size, and after breakfast we continue our fruit shopping. we always get oranges, we only drink them, and pineapples, we only eat them, even though we get some juice by hand squashing the pineapple skin, and we also always get red pawpaw. and occasionally the odd rare fruit or 2, like different kind of sapote, mango, they are still available in abundance, mangosteen, lychee and longan, which is a bit expensive, because the longan season just began.

and every saturday we visit other near by, or not so near by, local fresh produce markets where we get our fruit straight from growers. especially very tasty cucumbers, i never tasted so yummy, sweet, juicy and creamy cucumbers like the ones here in the tropics. also one very nice originally german man, mango worked for him for a while, it was at those days, when mango used to live in this neck of the woods, about 11 years ago, sometimes gives us very soft, but not mouldy, ready to eat red pawpaw for free. he lets me pick them, as many as i want to. so far, it seems that he grows the most yummy red pawpaw in the region, yum. he also sold us yesterday, about 5kg of very yummy and top quality lady finger bananas only for one dollar, mango gave him two. from another man, we get the yummiest avocados, and then from what ever other stall holders have to offer, we choose intuitively and buying usually passion fruit, water melons, pineapples, etc..

at times, we even buy fruit from supermarkets, usually telegraph cucumbers on special, and they are super tasty. also on special, very sweet white nectarines, and just recently so far cheapest in the area, and also very sweet, green grapes.

the truth is, we don't know how exactly the fruit we buy is fertilized or treated, but we know that it is taste very yummy, it looks and behaves very healthily and we feel its great benefit. we do not feel sick, or suffering any pains, yes, our health is with us.

and because it's often raining, mango is writing more than usual and i do a bit more writing as well, but i read more, not on the internet, but books. i already read a few of them. mango also planted in a box some durian seeds and they have already sprouted out and i took some pictures of them. we are going to take them with us, once is time to move out. we also gather some other fruit seeds, we like to grow at our next location.

there is, here at fruitopia a very very slow dial up internet connection, so slow, that it is taking a few minutes to turn the page, and on top of it, they are often errors occurring, and that is for me the worst scenario, because in most cases i don't know what to do, and my only choice is to bother mango, to help me with it. luckily, he is so nice, that he always helps me, with smile (almost always), but i do not like much the idea, to bother him with such thing. and that is the reason, why i am not very often on internet, and i use it only very shortly. mango was looking for solution for better internet access, and after some research we bought a wireless broadband modem for about hundred dollars, and prepaid usage for seventy dollars for two months. there was some limit on the usage, and even though, mango did a fair bit of research and spoke for ages with the sales person at "allphones", very soon, after we began using our wireless broadband, mango discovered, that our limited usage was disappearing way too fast, even though we were doing our best to use it sparingly. no, wonder, even mango, the net whiz, got confused, and he went to some forum debating net connections, and very quickly learned, that optus was making big money for a tiny bit of service, and our luck was with us, that he discovered this just before our 14 day trial period was due to run out, so we could return the modem, get the $100 refund, but we lost seventy dollars, witch was advertised to last for two months, and it was used in two weeks, despite hardly being used. and because we are not sure, were we will be living in the near future, we decided to stay on fruitopia's dial up connection, and we'll look in to it again once we have moved out. not every area is network accessible, so we do not want to end up with a useless modem, and more loss of money as well.

and it is monday, the beginning of the new week, and i am looking forward to see what this week is going to deliver to us.

i woke up in the morning to a lovely sunny day, but in one hour dark big clouds arrived, and it was overcast, without rain, so far.. yesterday was a little bit sunny, mostly cloudy and it rained only a bit at night time, i went to sleep at three o'clock in the morning. oh, i would never believe it, but i miss the rain :) true is i always loved the rain, as long as the temperature stays around 30 + celsius.

mango has lost appetite for watermelons, actually, he was never very keen on them, so he had today orange juice and i had a watermelon juice. they were fresh juices, made by me from raw fresh fruit, and we drank them fresh , straight after they were made. as always. yum, yum, yummy, yum. i love fresh, freshly squeezed fruit juices.

life is beautiful

ps: the pictures will appear again, as soon as we get a fast internet connection :)

Monday, February 1, 2010

the place on the earht called fruitopia

got its name when one person bought eighty acres of previous tobacco plantation and transformed it into his dream; a big fruit orchard, because he loves fruit. he has been living here and growing fruit trees for six years now. true, some mango and lychee trees were already growing along with the tobacco earlier.

just before we drove off from sydney toward our fruity dream, we were invited to visit fruitopia, and its kind owner let us stay for some time. i am sure he would let us stay longer, but before we appeared here, he had already promised the accommodation we're living in, to some family who are supposed to soon move in, and therefore we will have to move out, and go on, even though we don't have a clear idea where, and we have one month left to look and find a new place to live.

a few days ago we went to have a look at a place where we could move to in two weeks time, and if we don't find something more suitable, we will surely move in there, just for the time till we find a place witch may suit more or fully our needs and dreams

even though fruitopia is blessed with two thousand fruit trees of many kinds of fruit, and raw fresh fruit is my daily food, i am looking forward to move out. there are surely differences between fruit orchards. i am not enjoying looking at the fruit trees which are unhealthy, because they do not grow in healthy soil. on top of it, there is not enough people living here to take care of so many fruit trees. most of the trees are choked by tall grass and numerous weeds, which are happily flowering and after flowers produce an abundance of seeds and thus happily and joyfully continue multiplying.

and why is the soil so unwell? well, previously the owners were for growing tobacco for financial profit for forty years, and to earn as much money as possible, their goal was to achieve the biggest harvest possible, because greed is never satisfied. but on the contrary, the more it has the more it wants, and therefore the harvest had to be each time bigger, and that was possible only through feeding the soil more and more with strong chemical fertilisers. and with the soil it is the same story as with the human body, because we are dust and in dust we will return, and if our body and soil is not fed properly, it get sick and dies in suffering..

and therefore we are harvesting some fruit from Fruitopia already mouldy and some will get mouldy very fast after harvest. on top of it, the fruit is not sweet and tasty enough, even though it is fertilized by so called "natural" fertilizers in the form of granules, which i do not personally perceive as natural, and the soil has not yet had long enough time to strengthen and heal itself. in addition, the granules used for fertilizing consist of blood, meat and bones of dead animals. and that is not all, the fruit trees are sprayed with a fish paste from dead fish, diluted with water.

oh, yes, for many years i have been aware, that i am unaware of what treatment the fruit i am living on gets. and that is one of the reasons why i and my sweet mango are looking for a bit of land, where we can grow our fruity food as we wish, the vegan way. we do not want to eat fruit fertilized with dead processed animals or chemicals.

through the land of fruitopia, there runs a beautiful creek, the way to it is very steep. awkward steps have been built to get down to it, and despite my walking difficulties after a serious spine and spinal cord injury i am able to get to and from it, but i cannot get in to the water as the big boulders on the creek shore are too slippery, so i could slip into the water with ease, but it would be impossible to climb out due to the slimy surface. so i have no reason to go there. more so, because even the way up would be so difficult for me, that after refreshing myself with a swim, and climbing all the way up the steep hill, i would feel like i wanted to jump in the water again to refresh my self, so i would find myself in a vicious circle, thus i gave up on the idea of swimming down there.

luckily only five km from fruitopia in mareeba centre, is the lovely barron river, and me and mango, we found there a nice private place for swimming, that no one seems to visit, because they have a better place further up the river :) so that is our swimming place for now on, but our ideal is to live on a piece of land with some kind of water feature not far from the house, so we could swim a few times throughout the day, because swimming is for both of us a big life joy. only recently we went to get some yummy fruit at the market in the cute little town of malanda, and because when mango is driving i always look below every bridge we pass by to see the water i love so much, i noticed that malanda has a lovely river with a beautiful waterfall, and therefore straight after the fruit shopping at the markets, we returned there, and swam with joy in such an amazing place, but even before that we had a yummy durian picnic in the sun. yum.

well, i am curious as to where we are going to end up when our time here at fruitopia is over.

we do not eat much fruit from fruitopia, even though some fruit is edible, for example jack fruit, ice cream beans, akee and peanut butter fruit and rarely paw paw. but most of if before it gets ready it turns mouldy, and me and mango, we do not eat mouldy fruit. we both believe that mould is poisonous and therefore not healthy. i've noticed, that a lot of people cut the mould off and eat the remaining peace of fruit. i believe that such fruit has the mould spores throughout it.

well, it is once more a long note, so i better finish it.

life is beautiful

fruitopia

what appears at first glance to be healthy, fruitopia.

bananovniky

what appears at first glance to be a healthy banana trees. one with a bunch of green bananas

papaje

what appears at first glance to be a healthy pawpaw

zelena zaba

adored citizen of fruitopia, the green tree frog, i am not sure how healthy she is, i have not tasted her, and i don't even intend to, and i also don't know where and what she eats.

vodopady

and here are our waterfalls