Chrystina, Strawberry Girl and etc

Easter has been and gone. The week before Easter, we went up to my parents farm in Gympie for the week end and my Mum gave me 30 strawberry runners. My parents grew strawberries semi-commercially during my entire childhood, and beyond. Dad was a hobby/small crop farmer as well as his full time job. Mum did the majority of the work tho. She picked and packed the strawberries daily while Dad was at work, he just ploughed the field, sprayed them, helped plant them, connected the sprinklers (once a season type things) and watered them, that was a week end thing, .... my sister and I also helped plant and pick them, but Mum did the most of it. Mum says I have "strawberry blonde" hair because she was pregnant with me whilst she was picking and packing strawberries. Anyway.... this is the first time that I have tried to grow my own strawberries. Obviously I love them but as a child I gorged myself on them....when picking them, it was a little bit like.... 10 in the basket, 1 in the mouth....lol....so I never felt the need to have any on hand, I would buy the occasional punnet but could live without them... but finally I feel ready to grow some of my own. So when I got home from Gympie, I weeded a heavily overgrown garden bed and planted my 30 strawberry runners. Two weeks later, 26 plants have survived and are looking good. Hopefully I can keep them alive and flourishing. I am not the best gardener in the world (understatement) I always assumed I would eventually get Mum's green thumb.... maybe I have to wait another couple of years, but hopefully I won't kill my beautiful strawberry plants!
So, Easter.... We had a BBQ and Mum was here and my sister and her 2 kids. I made a mountain of food. Onion and cheese flan, spinach and ricotta cheese pie, zucchini slice, potato salad, coleslaw, potato bake. Hmmm.... alot of cheese there you say...... oh, yes, did I say that come New Years this year I decided to give up sea food and cheese? No? well... this is the story.... I am a vegetarian, have been since New Years 1989. Actually, when I was 16, 3 years before,  myself and 2 girlfriends decided to become vegetarians because we read an interview that Morrissey did in some magazine about The Smiths song 'Meat Is Murder' I think he may have said in the interview "Meat is murder, I don't eat my cat" or something, we used to always chant this, lol. I didn't eat meat for about 6 months and then the friend I was living with twisted my arm a little and we started eating meat again... but I was never happy about it and on New Years 1989 I decided to stop again and that was the end of that. But when the husband and I started talking about making babies, he and my Mother badgered me into eating seafood at least... and I caved. Well, the days of baby making are well over and I thought it was high time I gave up seafood. When I was about 21, 2 years into being a vegetarian and a year  before the meat eating husband came on the scene, my Aunty informed me that she found out that cheese has an animal substance in it called rennet. I was horrified and decided to become vegan. This lasted about 6 months... *sigh*  I don't think I could handle soy milk in my coffee any more and tofu was getting on my last nerve. And don't even breath the word 'carob' to me!  So I went back to the eggs and dairy although at first I was very careful to only buy animal rennet free cheeses. Then eventually I got lazy and my brain turned itself off and I forgot about rennet altogether. Until late last year when good old Hungry Jacks reminded me about it... I went to buy my usual veggie burger that I get when the family goes there on rare occasions and on the menu list up on the boards it says *includes animal rennet* or some such thing and I freak out and I remember what it is, tho I have to get the manager to explain it for me.... oh bugger.... For me, the thought of eating meat is like eating cockroaches, it is just plain repulsive.
So I decided to stop eating cheese and seafood this past New Years Eve... still not eating sea food, but I was having a big sulk about not been able to eat pizza and cheese cake... tho I have been very good about it. Pizza is my biggest dieting down fall. I loved it so much. I was like the guy in the Pizza hut ad.... they order pizza to be delivered, the guy dances his girl around the room, all excited, the doorbell rings and he drops his girl like a hot potato to get to the door and the pizza delivery person... hee hee, that was me.... but now, no more :(  No more pizza for me... :(   Bloody animal rennet cheese!  but this Easter, I was very careful and bought non animal rennet cheeses and made all my own food for the BBQ. Tho I do still want to stop eating cheese in general, coz I'm scared that I might accidentally slip and go back to it, coz I know I will get lazy and forget to check the ingredients on the pack.  *sigh* I have a tub of ricotta left in the fridge, I plan to make myself a cheese cake with it and then I will eat it no more.... cross fingers....
Here is a photo of me and the kids on Easter Sunday...

I think the file name for this photo says 2011, what a der, it was actually this year, 2012, lol.... I don't think I was that doped up on chocolate!! I wore those bunny ears from the minute I got out of bed till the minute I got back into bed at the end of the day. We had a good day. And here is a photo of my niece and nephew with my kids later on that night, they all had a good time too, lots of fun! I think they might have been doped up on chocolate by this stage tho, lol!  :)