I recently moved to Antarctica.
I’m not entirely sure when it happened but it was apparently sometime in the past couple of weeks.
I obviously forgot to pack my thermal undies….
I know this because it’s BLOODY COLD!!!
I’ve dug out the beanie, the scarf and the extra thick socks Mum knits us for our birthdays.
I’ve also had the fire cranking, often 24/7 just trying to keep my nose from dropping off…and that’s unusual for around here. It’s not a nose-dropping-off climate generally.
So, obviously, the most prized territory in the house is the space around the wood fire.
Much time is spent each day, jostling and vying for the prime real estate, namely directly underneath and directly in front.
So far Duck is in the lead, curling up underneath and cutting off any potential invasion by lunging and snapping the ankles of anyone who gets too close.
(Some days I think he’s more crocodile than bird.)
Dog has claimed the area in front, gazing lovingly for endless hours apparently enraptured by the hypnotic glow of the flames.
That leaves the rest of us hovering longingly around the edges, gratefully absorbing any stray wafts of warm air that manage to drift past.
But this year there’s another factor.
This year we have nuts- buckets of them.
No not nuts for eating (or nuts of any other kind for that matter), but sheoak nuts.
One of my favourite spots on the farm is the sheoak grove.
Sheoaks (Allocasuarina) are beautiful- stark and gnarled and willowy.
They have a feel of ancient connection to the land, standing silent and strong.
They are my favourite spot to throw down my swag and drift off to sleep with the sound of the breeze as it whispers through their needles.
Our sheoaks are senescing which is a gentle way of saying they are dying slowly, nearing the end of their 80-year lifespan.
We decided it was time to save them, to fence them off and preserve their genetic material for the future.
To collect their seed and to plant a whole new generation of sheoak babies.
So, Sunday was seed-collecting day.
With the help of Simon from Greening Australia we collected a garbage bin of the prickly little buggers- (at least my sore fingers took my mind off my cold nose!)
Now it’s time to provide the nuts with the hot, dry conditions they love so that they’ll open up and release their precious seed…and the best place to provide that at the moment is right next to the fire.
So the little wood fire has a new role …as a place where you can warm your nuts. 
