Bec

Tea witch; writer and editor; keen on planetary survival; PhD (Australian steampunk and the environment); parent; gardener and friend of pets. Grew up on a farm, still feel the land in my bones. Menang Country/South Coast, Western Australia

#gardening #hiking #academia #writing #editing #kindness #nature #environment #climate #dogs #food #cats #agriculture #permaculture #reading #books

Public Key

npub12a0cs79n4nzdlrvkg0nzzu42dz39m0c2333knx8wy5s54czxj76sqwxm80

NIP-05 Address

teadrinker@aus-social.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs9whug0ze6e3xl3kty8e3pw24x3gjahu9gccmfnrhz2g22uprf0dgpr4mhxue69uhkummnw3ez6ur4vgh8wetvd3hhyer9wghxuet5qyxhwumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmvkzqzaq

Publishing to

nostr-pub.wellorder.net

nos.lol

relay.damus.io

Author Public Key

npub12a0cs79n4nzdlrvkg0nzzu42dz39m0c2333knx8wy5s54czxj76sqwxm80

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-10-20 07:00:06 UTC

Tech help please! Setting up my Dad's laptop and I've got his SSD out of his desktop. I need to copy over his docs and a few other things and when I check the properties of the Documents folder, it says there's about 16Gb in there. However, when I open the folder, it shows as empty.
Ideas?
#TechHelp #TechSupport

2026-08-25 08:28:26 UTC

I happened to stand up for a screen break this morning and heard some chittering outside the window. There among the lavender flowering and hardenbergia was a rosella. So I zoomed in through the flyscreen and managed to snap a couple of photos, which I went to show the Kids of course.
They crept into the study to see and returned, whispering with excitement about the second bird that had just flown in!
It's a pair and they're having snacks in the garden! My heart 🥰
#birds #garden #nature #wildlife #bloomscrolling
https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/117/155/178/324/612/330/original/33882bdd5d52c3b4.jpg
https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/117/155/179/060/543/450/original/7615a1ca0066b16c.jpg

2026-08-14 10:16:41 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…elsk We don't get silverfish in this part of Australia (although with the changing climate, who knows what will happen with that later, because they're definitely around in other parts). I've never been that worried about them but after reading the Wikipedia entry, it sounds like I should be!!

2026-08-13 12:59:26 UTC

Book preservation question:
I have a lot of picture books (really, a lot, like about 250) and I want to box them up. My kids are done with them for now but we'd like to keep our favourites for if/when they have kids or we have other small children visiting in the future.
What's the best way to store them so they don't get musty/mouldy?
#books #BookPreservation #archiving #advice

2026-06-20 06:07:50 UTC

Adam just brought me a truly enormous mug of tea
#tea
https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/116/780/913/056/360/939/original/f65e0d1f85e56cb0.jpg

2026-06-11 03:15:09 UTC

Best energy bites/bar recipe? Trying to make some good snacks to feed to the locusts*. Any suggestions welcome, please and thank you
Must be:
- gluten free
- no tahini because it's nasty
*teenagers, they just eat like locusts
#RecipeRequest #food #MakeYourOwn #homemade #GlutenFree

2026-05-07 08:04:42 UTC

Friends, one of my lovely former colleagues is looking for remote, parttime work, around 15 hours/week.
She's UK-based, looking for work in journalism, subbing, writing, proofreading. Experienced in writing and editing US as well as UK English.
She's a super human being, cannot recommend her enough. If you have any leads, please send this way - boosts much appreciated!
#FediHire #RemoteWork #LookingForWork #GetFediHired

2026-04-01 05:41:13 UTC

Has anyone bought an ebike from Aldi before? Apparently they're selling a foldable one for 600 AUD next weekend and the two older Kids are thinking of buying one to share (they can alternate taking it to work when they do their morning shifts). The cost isn't outrageous but I'm worried about whether the quality might be a bit meh?
Saying that, Aldi has never let me down before but also I've never spent so much at once on something from there
#ebikes #BikeTooter #ElectricBikes
https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/116/327/841/801/316/062/original/18740a15a5c3082f.jpg

2026-03-03 02:14:47 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…vuvh This is so awesome, both the huge impact you're making for the people in the community, and the fact that others in the group are stepping in to take responsibility without you. So many wins!
I hope the relationship/financial stuff is sorted soon and you can get some space back for yourself too <3

2026-01-24 03:08:45 UTC

Happy birthday to Mia, who turns 20 today.
Let me tell you about Mia. She came to us when she was 11 and is a foster fail (to be fair, we never really set out to foster cats, so when we brought her home it was always only going to be for good). She and her sibling, Ted – a sweet natured orange and white shorthair – had lived with a couple who broke up and couldn't keep their cats, so we agreed to take them despite already having three cats (and four Kids under 12) at the time. What can I say? We like a challenge.
Mia is a lapcat, through and through, and she will fight any other cat who wants to take her rightful cosy place, whether that's a warm human belly or the couch, which she's doing her best to cover in fur.
When she was 14, she got hit by a car and we thought that was it for her, but the vet was confident that she would make it. The surgery was going to cost $2k, though and we were like, well. That's just not possible, right? We barely made it from week to week as it was. Enter my friends from the internet... an old friend from livejournal messaged me and said she was happy to help pay for Mia's surgery if I wanted. She said, don't let her age or the cost influence your decision. So I made a crowdfunding account and she and other friends met the target within days and Mia got her surgery (a leg amputation). Soon after that we also built our catio. Apart from the surgery, it's the best cat investment we've made.
And here she is at 20. She's quite deaf and probably can't see as well as she used to but she still enjoys cuddles, yelling at everyone, and devouring the expensive tinned cat food and any spare roast meat you might want to toss her way. I don't know how much longer she has but we're just enjoying her company while we can. Who knew this crotchety old lady – who was already quite old when we adopted her! – would make it this far?! I do believe she's just alive out of spite at this point
#caturday #HappyBirthday #cats
https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/115/947/843/634/683/529/original/6eeaa9a9bf072763.jpg

2025-12-12 07:54:45 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…hl3m I've always preferred nerd over geek, and I'm not sure why! I wonder if it's just that nerd is a softer word? I don't really think there's much difference in connotation... And I don't hate geek! But also it seems like they used to be used interchangeably and now nerd is more common? I'm not sure...

2025-12-12 01:46:30 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…hl3m I did think of folks when I was just boiling the kettle. Quite like the word folk in general but I'm still deciding if I want something new...
Gosh, I'm such a nerd in so many other ways, I should embrace it when it comes to plants, too, you're right

2025-12-12 00:18:33 UTC

Just saw a thing about tech bros and thought how interesting it is that we have these cute names for groups even when the groups may not be that cute (we are a herd animal, after all, I suppose).
I'm trying to think about what simplified team I would belong to. Plant bros? Word bros? 'Sises' (sisses?) doesn't work because you need one syllable. So I could be a plant sis but need to belong to the plant bros. What's a good non-gender specific term...?
Maybe I could belong to the plant chicks? Plant hoes?! (ooh, that's a good unintended pun though!)

2025-12-09 06:15:47 UTC

Kid2, to me and Adam just now: What generation are you guys?
Me: Gen X. The best generation
Her: Not Millennials?
Me: Wash your mouth out
(Kidding! Of course I'm kidding. No generation is the best generation. We're all doing what we can with what we have, and class is a vastly more important factor in our similarities and differences than when we were born)
#GenX #parenting

2025-12-05 13:23:35 UTC

#3goodThings
+ the school-going Kids and I all have two weeks left until the holidays and we are so, so ready for a break. Yay for impending relaxing time!
+ I'm reading Jane Goodall's The book of hope and it's just what I need to read at this moment
+ there was a truly gorgeous sunset today and not only did I manage to catch a picture, I was driving back from town while it was happening and saw at least three other people had stopped to take a picture too. All of us wanting to capture the moment and admire our very special world
#today #ThreeGoodThings #holidays #sunset #books #hope
https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/115/667/162/388/555/954/original/88607a46aa89083e.jpg

2025-10-25 09:51:42 UTC

#caturday post from last Saturday. We enclosed the patio to make a catio a few years ago and it's been such a good thing for everyone involved. Since we've stopped them going outside, we've not lost any cats to road accidents, they've not been in any fights, and they get to enjoy watching the birds, not killing them. I mean, I'm sure they enjoyed killing the birds but obviously the birds weren't fans of that, and neither were we!
https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/115/434/171/676/569/927/original/49869d99b0873191.jpg

2025-10-22 03:45:02 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…s67t Yes please, gosh daylight savings kicks my butt (I live in place where we don't have it, but almost all my colleagues do have it, so we spend 6 months ever so slightly out of sync)

2025-06-08 13:15:34 UTC

#ThreeGoodThings for Sunday, 8th June
- took Kid3 and Kid4 to the pool, where I did walking/swimming laps and they hung out and swam and chatted to other kids who were there
- made a huge lasagne and a stew, which means easy school lunches for the next couple of days and also gave some soup away to one of Kid2's friends (omg it's so great to have food to give away, it's truly one of my fave things ever)
- it was sunny so I got to hang out washing
#3GoodThingsToday #food #swimming #sunday

2025-05-09 14:11:19 UTC

#ThreeGoodThings
- finally the weekend. It's been a long week
- chatting with a friend and former work colleague, and then a wonderful email from another friend and colleague; feeling very blessed and content to know such kind folk who seem to know just the right time to get in touch
- listening to 90s songs in the kitchen while making pasta bake for an easy-peasy quick and easy tea
#food #3GoodThings #ThingsILove #friends #weekend

2025-03-15 13:01:15 UTC

I was chatting to one of Kid3's friends in the kitchen the other week, and he was saying that he helped his mum in the garden now and then.
'I find it kind of boring,' he admitted.
And while I was weeding today, I was thinking how there is a bunch of things like that in your childhood, isn't there? But it's still good to have those experiences, even the boring ones, the chores. I didn't really love gardening as a child either, or makig food, or practising piano – I would have rather been reading or playing with my pets or hanging out with friends.
And now cooking, gardening, playing music... they're skills I have and ones I've grown better at myself through practice, and more importantly, I love doing them.
When I spoke to the friend, I reassured him that he might come to enjoy the gardening later and he smiled (because he is 14 and later is forever away, isn't it?)
#parenting #conversations #gardening

2025-02-03 07:12:39 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…23jl That sounds like such a wonderful place

2025-01-19 07:06:19 UTC

The publication I work for uses US English, which I'm now very used to, and it's fine, but my novel/thesis/everyday language is Aus English, and while I'm writing this afternoon (not for work), it's so obvious to me how much more I prefer Aus English.
I think it comes down to the appearance of the words, for me, since they're how I learnt English, it's more aesthetically pleasing, and honestly that's how I edit and write anyway -- does it look/feel correct? Then yes, it is correct. It's like I learnt the rules and then internalised the appearance as the right kind of beautiful (this is how edit grammar and punctuation, too)
Please note that I'm not saying that the version of English I use is more correct than any other English, language or dialect! I'm just musing on how I experience writing and editing and how it feels to do the work I do
#work #writing #thoughts #editing #learning

2025-01-18 12:31:38 UTC

Stewed nectarines with cream (what a delectable and luxurious dessert) and the nectarines are ones from our tree, which I accidentally grew from seed. So lucky!
I was thinking about how, when people are trying to decide what to grow, the recommendation is often 'grow what you eat'. But I think it's more important to grow what you buy a lot of and which will save you a trip to the supermarket.
Eg, we eat a HEAP of potatoes and I do like to grow them but last time the rats ate them (can you believe it? I could not!) and that's not to mention the space/time they take. Potatoes are still relatively cheap to buy so I am better off growing green crops like rainbow chard, salad greens, sprouting broccoli, all those cut-and-come-again vegies that are the ones I'd need to buy more regularly from the supermarket.
In terms of fruit, I am so happy to have a lemon tree and I definitely enjoy picking our own fruit from the other trees but if we had less space I would be hard pressed to use it for fruit trees. I reckon if you're pushed for space but want fruit, berries are the go.
Thoughts?
#gardening #gardeningAU #summer #fruit #GrowYourOwn #food #sustainability

2025-01-14 12:14:00 UTC

Almost $500 worth of groceries and as I'm putting it away, I think, how will we eat all this? But we will. And then I'll have to buy more, and isn't it weird how we have to pay for food since it's a human right?
#food #HumanRights #thoughts

2025-01-02 01:45:17 UTC

It's hot here today (34°C, which is like 90-something F, and quite hot for us here on the south coast) and I have a headache thanks to poor sleep. I watered the garden early and will check on the pots later to make sure they're doing OK.
There's a fire danger warning and so of course I'm on edge about that too. Planning to stay inside as much as possible. I wanted to go to town to run some errands but I've shifted that to tomorrow. Trying to change my mindset to respond to the weather rather than just pushing through with plans regardless.
#summer #climate #today

2024-12-28 03:17:52 UTC

Joined Mastodon in '21 and started properly posting in '23 (maybe '22, but I can't remember for sure and I can't be bothered going through all the posts to check). Have had one dubious DM but even that one was fine and didn't get too weird.
Joined Blusky in November this year. Barely a month and I get my first weird DM. Plus the bots. Omg, the bots.
I don't think everything has to be reduced to a better/worse good/bad binary and there are some people I know from the other place who never took up Mastodon, so it's great to be in touch with them again. But let's just say in wanting to make a clone of the other place, Blusky also cloned all the undesirable things as well. It's a shame, but I suspect it's for that very reason that it's proving popular with people.
Of course, everyone's experience will be different and I think that the volume of diverse voices on Blusky is something that goes in its favour. But it's been super interesting to reflect on how I respond emotionally to being on each platform. I definitely feel more at home here.
#Blusky #SocialMedia #FindingYourPeople

2024-12-19 08:30:03 UTC

Had a discussion about AI with Adam today, who told me I sounded like a luddite, and I can understand why he would say that, but also I'm just so sick of people using ChatGPT as a substitute for thinking, and also that it's integrated into every damn platform without us even asking for it, and that it's creating literal tonnes of CO2 while doing that.
It's not that I'm against AI, I'm against the uselessness of it, the unnecessariness of it. Please, use it for processing data, use it to help improve climate models or the many other important and helpful applications. But just the careless waste, that really shits me
#AI #stupid #ProbablyNeedAHoliday

2024-12-13 06:16:06 UTC

So the Rabble are on holidays now for the next 7.5 weeks (wtf) and it does feel a little unfair that I have to work while there's this very holiday atmosphere in the house...
however, I did teach Kid4 how to make a super easy chocolate cake while I was on my lunch break and am now having a piece for afternoon tea so things could be a lot worse
#baking #parenting #ParentingIsTeachingThemToCook #summer

2024-12-06 23:46:16 UTC

I don't give Christmas presents to many people outside my family. I like it that way -- it appeals to my anti-consumerism -- but there is one friend with whom I always exchange gifts and even though she has a lot of cool interests, I don't always know what to get her.
I'm conscious of adding to clutter when I know she's working on minimising that, plus we don't live close to each other so I have to send the gift. And we are of the age (and indeed the privilege) where we have most of what we need.
Watering the garden this morning, I had a thought: herbs. I have several growing in the garden, and I could dry some, bag them up and send them to her so she can use them in cooking or tea. I'm so excited about this idea :)
#herbs #gardening #Christmas #friends

2024-12-01 00:44:22 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…3cq5 Truly one of the best legumes

2024-11-23 12:23:43 UTC

Dad asked if I could bring him some beans and peas from the markets today so I parked up after dropping Kid2 at work and walked over in the sunshine to get them.
So many good things to eat... I haven't been for months and if any time is premium market-going time, it's now! I picked up Dad's peas and beans and got myself some honey, mushrooms, zucchini and cucumbers. The woman who served me had dirt under her fingernails. I thought, 'my people' 🥰
This arvo I spent an hour in the garden pulling grass and weeds out. The very heavy showers we had the other night made it a dream. For tea tonight I made risotto with half of the mushrooms from the market, plus broccoli and spinach I had on hand. Damn, I love risotto
#today #saturday #markets #food #GardeningAu

2024-11-17 03:02:56 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…fynq Me too! Perhaps the news got more global, bit by bit, and we found more interesting stories (hardly possible, surely -- what is more interesting that humans just bursting into flames?)