Sunday, September 19, 2010

Joy of Nature cake



A few weeks back, our landlord send us a letter. There was to be a "working bee" on the weekend. We were excited. Our little gardens have so much potential. We envisaged new plants, a weeded yard-space, the trees delicately trimmed back. It was a day I would be working, so i'd see a 'before' and 'after'. Fun! Trucks came, utes, a whole bunch of people with landscaping gear. But in the afternoon when I came home, i was heartbroken to see all they had done was hack away at our trees, leaving stumps and devestation...a bit like clear-felling. We were both sad. Fewer birds came back. Did i mention they didn't plant a single thing? And they left all the weeds in the un-planted garden beds.

So, went a week or two ago we got another "working bee" letter we held our breaths, precautiously hopeful but mostly doubtful. In the morning we awoke to the the whine of chainsaws. Deep sigh... again. We looked out upon our garden with heavy hearts and anger. Suffice to say, what little was left of our trees were further savaged. All the little wrens and finches are well gone. Parrots too. Only our lone currawong remains. We see all the houses and suburban yards neighbouring that we once barely noticed because of all the green leafiness.

So you might wonder why we'd be making a 'joy of nature' cake? Simply, we wanted to remind ourselves of the lovely things we once had and reminisce a time past. Plus, we needed loads of chocolate to cheer our hearts. I felt so healed creating and decorating. Today we go to the nursey. We're planting the gardens ourselves.

100% vegan and devilishly devine... above are all the little details of decoration. I felt such joy crafting the delicate decorations for this feel-better cake

3 comments:

Shell said...

of any cake, this one would surely bring the delight of memories of a leafy bird frequented garden. it's wonderful and i just want to sneakily pick one of those chocolate delicacies off the top! i bet it was divine. i am inspired that you chose to honour what was and what could be, and this moved you to re-plant your own garden. i sure hope your birds return xox

wolfy said...

oh landlords have no concept of beauty reguarding trees, all they see is a damage to fences, and a nuisence... ours wants to cut down all our trees! at the moment the house is a green leafy park!!!!! soon to be a bit of a dry wasteland! i understand the need of chocolate!!!and wot a splendid creation!

Little Fox said...

mmm, devine was it ever! We have a willy wag tail and his heirem of ladies who have taken up residence among the stumps...nature prevails. He baths in the bird bath on our balcony, delightful to see him show off and splash about. Wolfy i hope you get to keep your trees!!!! On the positive, landlords are lazy, so hopefully they put off any chopping for another few years, or better still, forget completely!! Here's to an eternal leafy green paradise!