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Hi!!
Spring is still not springing towards summer
In fact, Tasmania just had a hefty amount of snow falling about the state!
My poor outside tomatoes are… sad.

I’ve been trying to gather some interest to get locals to join in on the Anniversary Bay Loop hike… two that booked in had to bail but are planning to come on the 28th when the next one is scheduled.

No-one else booked in. So I went anyway (despite the hail and rain)(Because I am tough) and found one fellow down at the carpark who planned to tag along!

So.. not really a group but hey!
And it was a great day out despite the grumpy weather

So grey

The fellow that joined in my hike, Peter, was a keen photographer so we enjoyed talking about photography and spent some time snapping photos on the beach

I just took my fisheye lens with me for the fun of it… I don’t need more photos of this area but…

Can’t help it

We had off and on again rain but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been… we had lots of hail at home but none on the walk (Would possibly explain the lack of crowds of keen people at the carpark wanting to come along)

Looked quite speccy with the sun out and the dark ominous skies!

Obnoxious use of the fisheye…

Love that teatree stained water running off from the hills

I’ve realised that we are about 2 months out from starting the Overland Track so I’m having to buckle down and get my butt out on the tracks at least every second day

Sometime in December I am going to load up with my proper pack so its not a rude shock to suddenly be carting 18kg up hills

We were lucky to secure spots and really looking forward to getting back out on that beautiful track again and leaving the ‘real world’ behind for a week!
Anyway, I’ve got time!

Hope everyone is doing well!
Cheers

The cherry blossom is about done.

Both it and the snowball bush makes things look a bit snowy

Little pest… completely ignored my requests to look at the camera

Snow ball bush

And petals…

When the weather hasn’t been acting hideous, we’ve been getting into some of the garden tasks…

I have been ignoring this like Pip ignores the camera

Happy now. Its even giving us strawberries already!

Time to remove the self seeded silverbeet and cape gooseberries that all went wild!

I’ve put a bunch of lettuce in one of the plots…

I’ve got more than the above. Just got out of whack sorting my photos!
Hang on… found it…

Hopefully they’ll perk up… the original ones are sitting up fairly well…

Self seeded sweet peas trying to sprawl everywhere so I set up a trellis for them

Jeff got in and trimmed the cognata tree back and pulled out the pelargoniums

Sob… but they were getting pretty straggly
Yet to decide what to put in

He also did a bit of roof sweeping!

Sadly we lost the other cognata. She split at the base of her trunk.
It really was way too big for this spot anyway… the 2 metres that it was supposed to grow to was a bit understated. I can see out the kitchen window again now.
I’ll plant something in its place that’s a little more suitable soon

I really feel like we have been tree killers in recent times!!

Sweet strawberries starting to come along.

A little more manageable

Did I show you my dodgy netting job?
Saved the remaining tomato plants from the birds that seem to go mad pulling everything out early in spring
They are growing slowly as the weather overall hasn’t been fabulous

Because it was going to be impossible to plant the back veranda gardens with the chooks still running amok, we grabbed some wire and popped up another temporary fence to keep the little darlings back down their side of the yard

Ummm… we might have put the gate on sideways… but its only temp and also it hooks shut over the bricks which makes it easier than faffing about with wire.

In other garden news…

The old carrot patch was pulled up

The snow peas got weeded again and they are finally making some progress

They seem awfully slow this year…

And the crazy rocket patch needed a do over

I planted half with rocket (which came up already) and the other half with basil seedlings.

Well… thats a little of whats happening out there to keep you up to date!

I had an impromptu market last weekend at a local school… they had some late cancellations and I heard about it and managed to get a stall. It was very worthwhile – sold heaps so I was happy about that!

I got a delivery of 25kgs of caustic soda (lye) today and I am all excited to get into some new soap ideas!

Hope you are all doing fabulously!
Cheers

Hi again!
Lets finish that walk… as I continue to admire the views

Neat shelf of rock hey?

Back down to the rocky shore

Glancing through the layers of rocky outcrops, then up into the green hills

A bit of effort was required along here… up!

Such pretty greens!

All the blues and all the greens

Looking back to that rocky shelf

Still looks like a bit of a way to go before we see Sisters Beach!

Funny how the light on the scene changes depending on which way you look

These are more like wallaby tracks than people tracks!

We thought this looked very ‘Amphitheatre’ like

Back up the hill…

Nice of someone to cover the barbed wire with polypipe (Safer to duck through)

The wattle looking very pretty

Path through the bracken…

Followed by a path through the tall reedy grasses

We eventually met up with the Postmans Track and followed that path down to the beach

Plenty of moss and weird lumpy things to peer at along the way

And Big Bad Banksia Men…

This one still had fluffy seed pods which I hadn’t seen before

And down we go!

Beach in sight!

So lovely to be back on Sisters Beach!

Nice easy walking from here!
All up we were probably a bit over two and a half hours… probably less than three!

Once Summer decides to show her face, then a dip in that inviting water will be the order of the day after a walk like that!

(I know… can’t resist the cool rocks)

Finished up seeing a bit of beach art right before getting into the carpark to be collected by Maureen!
We really had a very enjoyable walk! I am so glad Gerry suggested it! I’d been keen to give it a go for a while!
Hope you enjoyed the adventure too!
Cheers!

Hello!
I seem to have a million-squillion photos of this walk so I will break the adventure up into two posts.
I’d never gotten around to doing this walk and so was very keen when my friend Gerry suggested it.
I am sure you all remember my market buddy Maureen – Gerry is her husband. (A fabulous gardener – I enjoy tours of his veggie garden when I pop around. I learn lots!)
Unfortunately Maureen has been unwell, so sadly wasn’t up for the walk, but she kindly drove us in and picked us up at the other end so we didn’t have to tromp all the way back again!

We started off at Boat Harbour – easy to see a little bit of local garden influence on the track as we started out

It started off a nice little track, all enveloped in pretty vegetation

And some native something or other… I am sure Gerry told me but now I forget!! Very cute berries

I am pretty sure its a native Tassie thing. I just assume that any bush that is adorned with spikey bitey things is Tasmanian haha

Before long we wound our way down to the shore!

A small sandy bit but lots of rocks to scramble over

An old fish trap! Apparently it wasn’t just the Aboriginal people who made them but the settlers to Tasmania also set them up.
I am not sure of the history of this one

Lots of rocks

Kind of a neat colour pattern here

A bit closer to the fish trap

Imagine the effort that went into making these!!

We decided to walk up to the shoreline and trees to see if the track was easily found. There is a high tide track, but as we found out – the signage was only obvious if you’d walked the opposite direction. We kept finding the start of those deviations AFTER we’d scrambled along the rocks!

Gerry and I had a bit of a chuckle at this. We thought it was a really big fungi of some sort. So I took a snap with Gerry’s hand for scale.
Of course we poked it – was spongy like a fungi.
I nudged it harder and it rolled over! No idea what it was or was from but it was a dense rubber or foam of some sort.
We propped it back up in place so some other person could come along and get all excited at the Big Fungi!

Back down to the beautiful shoreline

A small stream and tiny waterfall running off the hills

Easy bush track here!

Fantastic boulders would appear with such a wonderful variety of moss, lichen and other plants growing on them

Down we go to do a bit of serious boulder scrambling!

Slow and steady over these!

Gerry was very patient with my constant snapping of photos 🙂

We had such an amazing day with the weather too! It had been so dodgy and miserable.
Felt wonderful to be out getting warm and seeing that blue sky!

Of course I am obsessed with the rocks though…

Amazing how they change colour so often along a fairly short stretch of coastline

More lovely trees and blue skies…

And back to rocks because they are cool

We headed back up into the scrub where the trees and other vegetation closed us in quite a bit
Suddenly we realised there was quite the cliff of rock looming over us!

The photo is a little underwhelming compared to real life… but it was quite big!

Sweet bush flowers

Out from the bush and into this neat clearing for a spectacular view along the coast. I was really enjoying seeing new views of our coastline

I might leave you here and finish up the walk in the next post tomorrow!
Hope you’ve enjoyed so far!
We certainly did!

Cheers

Hello!
Today is pouring torrential rain and a bit windy too!
Indoor day I reckon.
So pleased to see this colour iris popping out! I originally got the rhizomes from Ruby and glad to see them again… the iris after moving them didn’t do much the first season.

The patch is so lovely now! (Ahem…. not so much the patch between the iris and the house !!)

Wondering if I should get out there and snick a heap off for a vase since the wind isn’t being kind

The white were the last to appear

We might get a few apples… the last remaining tree is pretty sad actually but one side has a good amount of blossoms so fingers crossed.

No need for too much blather on my part… just some photos 🙂

Sage

Oodles of blossoms…

We’ve had some lovely days recently…
So we’ve been in the garden – Pip too

And while I was on the ground getting head-butted by a cat, I took a snap of the cape weed.

A few sweet pea plants have self seeded so I’m really happy about that too!

And what better place to pop them but in a cute little cup, hand made by my sister?
Hope you are all having a lovely week
Cheers!

I am still going to basket weaving on Friday mornings. I really enjoy meeting the ladies at the centre and generally socialising – with a cuppa and something to eat and some weaving as well!
I made another lily last Friday so I could remind myself of the technique and also continued to twist my flax into a cord which is getting nice and long. One day I might turn it into a basket!

I cut some more soap..

The sprinkle soap turned out pretty – I used the rose-geranium essential oil as it sold very well at the last market
And also sliced up the black raspberry and vanilla soap too – despite the oopsie in colour mixing I like it a lot

Leftover mixture…

More black raspberry and vanilla soaps that I unmoulded today… I have an order for three butterfly soaps and a horse:

And all the offcuts from the coloured soap I cut up into rough square shapes and mixed back into a plain white ‘batter’ (using the same fragrance, Lemongrass and Exotic Lime)
Waste not want not?
Makes me think of nougat!!

I went for a lovely walk today… one I hadn’t done before so when I get my act together I’ll share.
It was a lovely day and every step of the way I feel rather lucky to be living in this area!!

Hope your weekend was amazing
Cheers!

Hello…
Since Christmas is creeping over the horizon, and soap takes about a month to cure… I thought to get into a bit of a soap making session.
Above are the last batch of Christmas tree soaps for one of the local shops.

Sharon dropped off the other soaps from our last workshop and I took them all into a local shop for people to collect

This was lovely… soft greens with a scrub

Coffee! And two tone!

This grey and saffron turned out pretty

So did the bee soap!

I am sure they are all going to be really happy with their soaps!

So… what soaps have I put together?
Some stock standard ones that sell well…
Eucalyptus and beach sand hand scrub – two batches

Cedar and Saffron… three batches!

Today I did another confetti soap.. looking forward to cutting it. There is a layer of pink on the bottom and I’ve used the rose and geranium essential oil, since that one sold so well last weekend

I also did a black raspberry and vanilla loaf… but muffed up the colours lol. Bit too much black.

Then… whats on the inside??

So pleased with this technique! It worked!

Super keen to try more raindrops!

Then there was this epic effort/experiment

Underwhelming from the top??

Sneak peek…

The slab mould tasks one and a half times the mixture… so I divided that into 6 and made 6 separate batches… letting each one set up a bit so I would get even layers

I learned that one should not leave it too long between each layer – I had dinner between the pink and purple layer and it wants to part company from the rest of the soap.

Oh the cutting 🙁
I had to use a knife as my cheese cutter is too small.

I am going to have to make a bigger wire cutter for occasions like this

So… once I had it cut down the middle I could use the cheese cutter to tidy things up. There is a bit of wastage but I am planning to cube all the bold colours and drop them back into another soap.

Final result? Pretty great! (Lemongrass and Exotic Lime fragrance)
Would I do it again? Maaayyybeee?? (It was an all day up until 1am kind of effort in between everything else so…)

I’ll return with the latest cuts soon!
Cheers!

Hey look!! The cherry blossom tree has burst into fluff!!
I am sure I will be taking a stack more photos… when its not raining and windy..

Its the most beautiful tree in spring!

Okies… soap stuff… A few things happening.
Sharon and I had another ‘in town’ workshop that went really well. 6 people came along. There was meant to be 8 but had two no shows. We hung about waiting then sent a message – they got back to say someone was sick and they weren’t coming! Sigh. Would probably be better manners to let people know.
So we started the class a little late.
But it was a fun bunch and we did some creative soaps
I brought home the loaf ones to cut

Sprinkles!

So cute!

Activated charcoal and saffron powder

A lovely drop swirl… and the fragrance was a mix called the ‘Thieves Oil’
The student had brought her own essential oil mix and told us the story of the mix which was interesting – Grave robbers during the bubonic plague in the 14th century used this mix to ward off the disease.
I had a quick google and there are a few different versions.
I like the final fragrance!

And of course I got to show off doing a demo or two. The cut loaf I can’t show you because one student decided she wanted to buy the whole thing! Who am I to argue?? Wish I had a photo… it was so pretty!
(Leftover mixture made these:)

The black raspberry and vanilla fragrance is so popular. I need to make a bunch of soaps this week… its high on my list!

Then making the demo design..

Love the blues in this!

The bottom is really wing-like

All cut. Very keen to do this kind of colour combo again.

While I am on soap… I had a market stall at the Rhododendron Gardens on Saturday – their spring festival!
I sold a ton of soap!
Lots of people were there and people that hadn’t really seen my work – and I was able to have a bigger display too!
And while on the selling topic… I sent my parents a box full and I think all of it has sold within their retirement village!! So I need to go pack another box for them!
Yay!

I got into the garden for a bit yesterday… these poor tomato plants getting quite leggy!
I put three into the hothouse and 10 into the outside garden.

I planted them quite deep – up to about where that stick is

Outside I’ve covered them up for the nights as they are not hardened off

Today I lost two!!! Between uncovering, going for a walk and returning! Blackbirds I think. Will have to keep covered or net or something annoying while they are getting established

Mostly they wilted, but today most of them had perked back up

Also a lot of little seedlings in the snow pea patch… so dug a few up and popped them in the dedicated tomato patch

So tiny compared to the others!

Garlic doing well… and all the potatoes are up!!

The weeds growing well here… so attended that and popped in some beetroot seeds!
I’ve sadly and tragically run out of pickled beetroot so.. time to work on making more!

The one remaining lettuce that I didn’t kill from the three punnets is looking quite good.

Will be able to harvest leaves soon!

Well… thats about updated.
Hope everyone’s week has started really well!

Cheers

Hello there!
Goodness the days are just speeding by!
Among this and that, another photo challenge has been done… I’ve done my bit but as usual there are stragglers so the 10 days turns into a month!

The first subject was PINK AND ORANGE. My idea was to just have an obnoxious colour combination.
I found that a challenge as I have very little pink in my life!!
Funnily enough, the album is gorgeous. I certainly didn’t appreciate how GREAT these colours can look together!!

Second subject, UPSIDE DOWN

So I went out and lay upside down on the grass with my camera until Flossie came ‘bok bok bokking along’
This made me laugh

I put more effort into the third subject, SMOKE, where I spent a very pleasant hour playing around with incense

Neat huh?

Then to lighten up the mood… I threw in the subject TOILET PAPER for the fourth subject.
The photos range from artistic, to clever – right up to hilarious.

Jeff walked out after waking up (sleeping off a nightshift) all bleary eyed confronted with this in his lounge room… haha. Took him a few moments of ‘what the?’ before he remembered there was a challenge on.

Day five we’ve returned to the classic BLACK AND WHITE

Day six – FIFTEEN…
People came up with all sorts of things. I ran about the yard making it look messier than it was! (At least I had lots of materials to work with!)

Day six, FORK/S
And there are some brilliant photos in this one… who knew a fork could look so fabulous?

Day seven- MINIMALIST.

It was nice of Tasmania to co-operate by providing sun and a blue sky!

Day eight… TEN (or more) OBJECTS OF THE SAME COLOUR

Set myself up a little cabinet of green curiosities!
Overall this album is really attractive!!

And Day ten>>??
Vogue.
Since Jeff refused point blank to strut up and down with makeup on for me (spoil sport) I had to torture the cat instead…

Ahhhh Pip… so precious!
Naturally I wanted to set him up on a little catwalk outside… but spring being spring, as soon as I was ready to do that – the heavens opened and it poured rain! The old chair had to be plan B

Pip was pretty reluctant early on. First he stood like a broken down carthorse…
Then he spent time deliberately looking away –

Then he basically gave up and acted like an aloof statue while I got on with it and he suffered in Siamese Silence!!
And yes, he did get treats and cuddles afterwards!

Anyway, thats that!
Hope everyone has had a great start to their week!
Cheers

We have a feathery stalker!
This Superb Fairy-Wren (we just call them blue wrens), has been at every window for weeks. If you are in a room… tip tap tap and there he is.
He is in love with his reflection… and he is a little poo-machine too! haha
EVEN IN MY GUMBOOTS!!
He has taken to preening himself in our cars rear view mirrors too, which isn’t pleasing Jeff so much. That one tiny bird can poo so much!!
Lucky he is totally adorable!

We really haven’t been working all that much in the yard, but clean up is happening here and there

Jeff started a fire and I continued it after he went to bed…

Honestly… is there a difference??

Anyway, fires are fun out the back.

Slowly sorting and cutting and stacking…

A delegation of chooks…

Still getting odds and sods from the garden… this went into soup.

Tomatoes are even bigger than the photo I posted the other day!!
Time to get them into their forever homes

The pear tree is bursting with blossoms!

I don’t really want to do it but the whole carrot patch should come out to make way for the new plantings…
Hmmm… maybe for now just do half of it…

The early iris always catches me by surprise. Suddenly there is a burst of colour

The plums are developing nicely. Fingers crossed for some warmth and a good fruiting season!

Its raining out there tonight again.
I’ve seen some potatoes popping up which is good… and I noticed the snow peas looking a bit ragged so I’ve put down some of those iron pellets in the hope to thwart the snails. Otherwise I’ll have to go and cover all the plants which would be a pain.

Hope your week has started well!
Cheers