Not The Story

We did a long hike in rather soggy conditions today! It was great but now I am a bit weary, so I am going to make all sorts of promises about sorting photos and writing stories tomorrow!!
Its supposed to be raining tomorrow again so I might just settle in with the fire and a steady supply of hot drinks!!
Nighty night! xx

Domestic

Hi!
Such a lovely day… and I ended up being all domestic.
OK – it was a lovely day up until 60 seconds before I went to put my clothes on the line – at which at that point it suddenly started without warning or even turning off the beaming sun – POURING! haha – of course it did!

I invited Peggy and Amy, the two ladies in charge of the visiting Kinmen Island students in Wynyard, over to our place for coffee and cake. Peggy is a tour guide and Amy is a teacher.
So I thought I should make a slight show of tidying up etc.
And baking a cake!

We had a lovely afternoon chatting and hearing about their time in Tasmania. They loved the fire – our winter is a bit of a shock coming from their climate!
Peggy sent me the selfie she took of us all!

Pip was enduring it all – probably miffed I extracted him from his warm towel!
They are leaving tomorrow evening via the ferry and spend a day in Melbourne before flying home.
Its nice to gain a couple of new friends.

Anyway – you don’t want to hear about my dusting, vacuuming and so forth, so I am going to leave you in peace!
Have a wonderful day!
Cheers

A Bit of Work

First day back and Cousin Jeff drops off a load of firewood – the last bit he has available!
Yay. (With a small eye roll)
Since the rain has been coming and going I wanted to get this undercover ASAP

I moved the remaining wood up to the back veranda, cleared the rubbish and got stacking.

Between that and the dry Macrocarpa… hope that lasts us the rest of the season!!

Next… an important task had to be attended to. Some birds have decided that nipping off the garlic and onion stalks is all kinds of fun!
Not. Pleased.

I know it wasn’t my darling chooks because they would have dug the whole plot up too.
I decided to net the plots at least until they all reach a good size.

I’ve never had to net garlic before!!

Even the Duck Yard Garden had some damage

They are all mostly at a size where I can mulch them. Will schedule a beach trip sometime to see if there is seaweed being washed up.

So… the asparagus has been in for a couple of seasons now. Time for it to step up and do its thing.
Cut it all back and mulched it. Really hoping for some action this spring.

Next. Coffee. I had two bins worth… chucked them all in around the logs in one of the new raised beds.
Jeff trimmed the cognata trees back and I thought their lovely small leafy branches would be a great addition too!

This one is not far off being ready for compost and soil!

I went the total hack on the snowball bushes!! I know zip about pruning.
They were a bit out of control – hopefully they will recover in spring.
All the sticks I will run through the chipper – when I get a nice day and recover from today haha

My rhubarb is beginning to unfold again!

And I am pretty sure I am giving up on the brassicas this year. The cabbage have been in the ground 4 months and not even thinking of developing hearts!! Same timing as last year so I should have been picking them by now!

The chooks will be pleased.
I ate one measly sprig of broccoli tonight (tasted nice, but… volume wise, not impressive)
And I have one manky cauliflower.

It will all come out (eventually) and I’ll prep the bed and plant corn there later in the year.

I decided to pull up the last of the carrots! They have done so insanely well – remember they got planted last October!!
I think I will put this seasons carrots into the other end of this plot where the beetroot currently is. I know its not idea putting root crops following root crops… but I like living on the edge 😀

I washed, peeled and chopped the lot and put them in the crisper. They’ll keep for ages like that and will probably give some to Ruby & co.

No shortage of parsley

My new flower bed of iris and tulips needs a weed and a mulch but everything is up…. I have high hopes.

My hothouse potatoes are doing nicely.
I am also getting a good lot of worm wee.

The chooks finally discovered the lettuce in the strawbale garden (yah – haven’t done that wing clipping yet) so my last remaining lettuce is in the hothouse and looking fine!

Well… thats the day and garden round up! I certainly am feeling it every time I get up and try to hobble somewhere haha.
Old Lady.
I loved every second!
Hope your week has started well too!
Cheers!

Welcome home – Plum blossoms!!

I’m Back!

Hello!!
How are you all??
Sorry it seems an eon since I got in here and caught up!
I got back from Queensland last night (walked off the plane in a t-shirt to a crisp Tasmanian 4C!!)
WordPress had updated something that I hadn’t – so after fiddling about somewhat, got in touch with my host server who solved the issue in under five minutes!
Lesson learned. Don’t agonise… let the people who you pay to host your site to sort it out!! 🙂

Amazing staghorns growing in so many of the trees! I loved them so much!

I had a really wonderful week away. I soaked up the warm weather, enjoyed heaps of walks and a bit of city life.
So many cuppas on my sisters balcony just talking our heads off and catching up on a heap of news and ideas and life in general.

I just ran a few photos through post processing so I could drop in and say hi to you all!
I’ve done a lap of the garden and this month is going to be crazy. Can’t wait to dive in!

Glasshouse mountains!

I didn’t take my camera everywhere, so I missed a few epic events… like the day Rosemary took me to Movie World…
So. Many. Rollercoaster. Rides!!! haha. How old are we??
Best day – no school holidays and mid week. Perfect.

We also went into the city one evening for a Noodles At Night market.
Yum!

We also managed to fit in lots of walks and gardens too

So!! I am all inspired to get in and get a wriggle on with our spring plans, so stay tuned!
BTW – want to know what souvenirs I brought back???
Rocks for Jeff and 4 bars of hand made soap for me! haha
(Not to mention some chocolate, gardening magazines, a gorgeous rock and a tap timer from a lovely gardening friend I met while up there (Irene))

Catch you all soon!
Cheers

Getting Organised

Hello!
I have been doing mostly unblogworthy things… getting ready to head out on Friday.
I actually got most of my bag packed. I’ve got more veggies and sauces than clothes I think! haha
I’ve not gone out to take photos as I don’t have much spare time to spend in photoshop

I dashed into town today to get a B12 boost, pick up some supermarket things, wheat for the chooks and dropped in to see Margie and Ruby. Nice to catch up with Ruby as I’ve been terrible about getting over there recently!
She is all cheerful but says she can’t believe how good she’s become at sitting back and resting. She does change chairs a lot though, just to mix things up haha.
We’ll have to make sure we’ve got a spot ready to plant her Christmas peas when I return.

Yesterday I went back out to Sharons to do another soap workshop (addicted much?) It was really good to go back. She only had one other lady booked in yesterday so it was nice to join in. (Plus Sharon puts on a fab lunch!!)
I fine tuned a bit of my technique and tested out her white colouring to get the base colour a bit less yellow. Going to look forward to doing more batches with white.
She also changed the recipe a bit (addition of a little coconut oil) which helped the mixture go to trace a lot faster (thicken)

I popped a post up on our community facebook noticeboard asking if there were any beginner gardeners out there that would be interested in a ‘how to start a garden’ workshop.
The short answer is yes. Lots. Haha – So… I know how I will be spending my flying times – writing up notes and ideas on how to go about it!!

I have a bit of a list to work through tomorrow to finish getting organised.
The weather is still fairly dismal. Everything is still squishy underfoot!
If I am super amazing I might get a real post up tomorrow… if not, you won’t see me stroll back until after the 4th August!
I am sure I will have one or two photos and a few stories for you by then!

Hope you are all doing well!
Cheers!

Soap and Stuff

The many resting poses of Pip!
Hello! How has your weekend started? Well I hope.
I am working through a list of things to do before next Friday.
I am booked to fly up to Brisbane to visit my sister, Rosemary and niece Emma. Really looking forward to it and hope to enjoy weather that’s not quite as dismal for a short time!

As well as putting some frozen dishes aside for Jeff, I’ve made up some ‘worm spring rolls’ haha
Some scraps whizzed up.

Spooned into loo rolls…

Mmmmm-mmm. Looking mega delish hey?
Pretty sure Jeff won’t mistake them for his meals. I am guessing the toilet rolls are a solid hint that they are not for him.
I put two in the worm farm and froze the rest. That way if they need a feed while I am gone he just has to grab another couple out. Easy.

Little hothouse winter potato looking healthy!

A pademelon wandered in the front gate yesterday and proceeded to eat the lawn. It ended up around the back so I threw it some apple scraps!
It seemed pleased!

Last night I unmoulded the latest loaf of soap… it wasn’t cutting smoothly so I waited until today to finish slicing.

This one is a vanilla/rosewood fragrance. Quite soft.
Again the pattern was nothing like I was aiming for but its so much fun cutting the loaf soaps to see what you get.

What didn’t fit in the loaf mould, got put into the mould with the Celtic design… it came out beautifully. Totally got the hang of these moulds

So…. that was my Saturday! How was yours??
Pips was pretty relaxed too!
Cheers!

Headlines!

Sitting at home minding my own business and a local friend messaged me with a photo of her newspaper! haha
Front page no less!!
Want to see my concerned grumpy citizen face??

I hope you are laughing a little bit too as I think I was probably about to laugh while trying to look mad.
Honestly… I AM mad inside about the mess.
But maybe more attention will garner a bit of support and action.

Sadly, our local Mayor’s response wasn’t encouraging. You can read it here, if interested.
Sustainable Timbers is state government which is the area where the issue is. However, its our community members that are responsible for the issue and I think council should at least have a conversation how to manage local issues like this.
I think I was annoyed by the statement:

“…the problem had been going on for years, and that it came down to a problem in people’s attitudes.

“Nothing will stop what they’re doing,” he said.”

So, tsk tsk, its terrible, aren’t people awful, but shrug, nothing is going to work and its not our responsibility anyway.
That kind of defeatist attitude doesn’t endear me to people.
I hope eventually Sustainable Timbers has something more positive to say about what we can do.

So – there you go.
Me at the heart of local issues!
Have an awesome weekend!!
Cheers!

Rubbish

Hi!
I spent a couple of hours today with a reporter and photographer from the local newspaper.
The reporter, Meg, messaged me via facebook as I had put up a post on the local community noticeboard about the insane illegal rubbish dumping up around Oldina. She wanted to know if I could meet and chat and show her some of the sites.

Its a far cry from my usual Tasmanian photos isn’t it? How depressing is this?
I was able to easily find a few places that we could reach by road and not muddy hiking – and they were really surprised by how much stuff we found in a short time and area.
Not just household rubbish, but builders rubbish – cement, bricks, tin, timber & what we think is asbestos.
Oh and a few farmers getting in on the act with several cow carcasses as well.

I told Jeff I wasn’t going to stand around in photos with an ‘angry concerned citizens’ look on my face.
Sigh. Guess what? Thats exactly what I ended up doing. I am going to look so stupid haha. I don’t do ‘serious grumpy face’ well. I told the photographer that smiling was my default state of being and he was now under pressure not to make me look theatrically ridiculous!
Poor guy – I couldn’t keep up the serious for long so he is going to have some weird faces that I pulled trying not to laugh to delete.

I did my bit and brought some rubbish home (I am sure I will find a use in the garden for this…)

So… what next?
Market guy turned up with my garden beds that he custom made to size for me.

Not bad for $100 delivered hey? So awesome.
I wanted them down the side of the fence here… but this suspiciously looks like there might be some more digging in order.
Will give that a few coats of thought first!!

I swapped out the coffee bins today.
I gave a few handfuls to the worms

And dumped the rest into the new raised beds.

Its been raining so I imagine it will be washed down into the cracks.

Winter eggs are so manky!! Erk

Some of the new snow peas in the hothouse are going nicely…. others looked a bit chewed. I did find and eliminate a couple of suspects. (Slugs)

The lettuce in the hothouse seem to have gotten over the moving shock – its taken a while.
The brassicas I put in there are also painfully slow.

I made some more soap tonight too. I was trying another design mixing colours… but one got too gluggy compared to the other two – so hopes not high for what I want but I am sure it will be interesting to see the final result! I think they’ll have to sit until Saturday before I unmould.

Its cold. Raining. A lot… but some sun forecast for tomorrow! Better write up a list of things to work on tomorrow just in case they are right!
Hope you’re having a great week!
Cheers!

Present

Just a quick little post tonight to share with you a project I have been working on for a while.
Since my parents received it in the mail yesterday, I am free now to share and not spoil the surprise!

Its a hardcover, coffee-table like book of photos taken when we were in Japan… and yes, that was a year and a half ago!!

Between one thing and another, its taken me a while to get my act together! First to finish post processing all the photos… then to choose and arrange what images I thought would look best together.

It was an enjoyable process as I got to sit and enjoy reliving the moments – little memories of a fabulous adventure. And I think I enjoyed it more doing it now while we’ve been guest free than trying to fit it in when I was hugely distracted.

You don’t have your family forever – and to be able to share a really special trip like this is a memory to be treasured.

We met lovely people who looked after us so well which made the experience even more amazing. We visited lots of gorgeous gardens, shrines and cities. Everything in its own way unique and enjoyable!

Of course my parents rang straight away after receiving it to tell me they loved it!! Mum is already talking about taking it to show her sewing class ladies 🙂

Anyway, that was just one of the background ‘things’ I had going on that I thought I’d share, since today was a no-photo day and spent with friends and out of the rough weather!
Cheers!

A Bit More Soap and a Lot More Tree

Lavender this time! I know its a bit ho-hum but so many people (including me) love lavender soap.
I put a bit of the mixture into my dragonfly moulds and I might have let out a girls ‘Squee’ of excitement when I saw the result.

I left the soap in the mould two days this time – I wanted to give it more setting time before disturbing it and possibly breaking the pattern (like in my first attempt.)

Its a hard mould so its a bit more iffy getting the soap to drop out. I ran a toothpick around the edge and exercised some patience and small pressure and they dropped out beautifully. Later when it hardens up I can run a potato peeler around the back edge to tidy it up.
If I was selling them I could imagine these looking very pretty and special boxed up! I might invest in another mould of these as I can only do four at a time.

So – since Jeff spent yesterday on my raised beds, it was only fair to get stuck into the tree today!
The wind was blowing the right way which was handy… and it hardly rained at all.

I moved and stacked a fair bit of the chopped wood

I set aside a lot of ‘awkward’ wood to put into the raised beds as well.
(and chucked some wood ash in just for good measure)

I love my parang! I started slow… just using it to strip some of the needles off the branches into the barrow to dump in the muddy chook yard. I wanted to get the feel of it before going too hard and losing a favourite body part. (I am fond of all the bits really)
Still… I used it to chop through some bigger pieces and its lovely to use. A bit heavy so I had to give my hand a rest every now and again, but I’ll get used to it.

The fire was fabulous to work by. Smokey but toasty.

Jeff was a machine today! He got through so much stuff.
We sort into usable piles as well as burn – we’ve got a pile for the chipper, a pile for using in the garden, one for cutting to fire sized pieces etc.

Clear ground again!!!

The chooks usually stay clear of the fire – or if the chainsaw is out.
A couple do a runner and escape up past the open fence to dig worms in the old compost. Pretty funny.
They are enjoying the nice long grass… no hope of cutting it for a while. Too wet and boggy.

A mere handful of tomatoes left! Not bad for mid winter!

Hope you’ve had a lovely day too but a lot less sore than we are!!
Cheers!

PS – had a chuckle when a friend noticed a comment of mine from a facebook article was pulled out and used in a newspaper article!!
Pet hate of mine is ‘photographic competitions’ where the fine print basically says if you enter, win or not, the people running the event get to keep and use your images forever. To me its just an image grab.
This bit appeared in the article:
“This is how so many places – businesses, councils etc get practically their own free catalogue of photos,” also wrote Lisa Maree Millar. “Very few competitions nowadays lack this clause of ‘we are stealing your photos to use as we please’.”
Ahhhh – nothing is sacred online!!
Link here if you are interested in whole article 🙂