March 2016 – Page 3 – Head in the Clouds

Steamfest at Sheffield

Source Images: DSC_1285.JPG (Av: F13.0; Tv: 1/640 sec.; ISO: 2000; FL: 75.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — The cutest steam engine ever

I had never been to Steamfest before, so I rang my friend Margie and asked if she wanted to go for a drive into the country with me to check it all out. (Husband on nightshift so he is no fun during the day)

I got a yes from Margie, so up we went. Of course, being all grown up, the first thing we did as soon as we got through the gates was get ourselves onto the teeny steam train for a ride!!

We parked ourselves in the First Class Carriage for the trip up –

Margie looking forward to the train ride

And then braved the elements and soot in the open carriage on the way back –

Source Images: DSC_1292.JPG (Av: F10.0; Tv: 1/400 sec.; ISO: 640; FL: 66.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Choo Choo

Lack of husbands on this trip meant a guilt-free dawdle through the craft halls – I immediately found some beautiful hand spun and dyed merino wool which I purchased… later to be made into someone’s birthday or Christmas present I reckon!

After some exhausting browsing and chit chatting (its quite amazing how many people you bump into that you know when you drive an hour from home!) we (Margie) spotted a small sit down tent area where the lady was serving scones with a cuppa of your choice. In need of fortification, we immediately sat and ordered some wood-fired scones!! I am sorry to say there are no photos of those little clouds of delicious-ness because we scoffed them before I thought of getting my camera back out. But I did get a photo of the very cool oven they were cooked in:

Source Images: DSC_1295.JPG (Av: F6.3; Tv: 1/160 sec.; ISO: 640; FL: 52.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Wood fired oven

A bit further up the track we found a sight worth seeing – a squadron of primary school kids having a tug-of-war with a steam roller! Not something you see everyday and there was great excitement each time the kids managed to pull the engine in their direction! (I do suspect some mechanical help may have played a part)

Source Images: DSC_1299.JPG (Av: F11.0; Tv: 1/500 sec.; ISO: 640; FL: 48.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Ahhhh! Good, clean, wholesome, country fun!

There were really interesting, working machines everywhere.

Source Images: DSC_1305.JPG (Av: F13.0; Tv: 1/640 sec.; ISO: 640; FL: 75.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Truckload of wheat ready for processing

It was great hearing them fire up the engines and seeing the process of the wheat being separated out and the remaining hay baled.

Source Images: DSC_1301.JPG (Av: F10.0; Tv: 1/400 sec.; ISO: 640; FL: 75.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — All I see are the eyes!!

Source Images: DSC_1306.JPG (Av: F14.0; Tv: 1/800 sec.; ISO: 640; FL: 28.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Bags of wheat one end, hay at the other!

It was a different way to spend Sunday and a lot of fun. A small escape from the kitchen with its waiting kilos of tomatoes!

The afternoon brought the sunshine back and once home it was nice to sit on the back veranda with a cup of hot chocolate, enjoying the view and listening to the delicate sounds of cows bellowing in the nearby paddocks!

Ahhhh – that’s the life!

Cheers

Meet the Chooks

Before our move to Tasmania, we had had no experience with chickens and I was surprised at just how much I really really liked them!

They are hilarious creatures – free entertainment really – and they totally pull their weight when it comes to earning their keep!

When we first moved here, my parents came to visit to check out our new surrounds and my Dad took it upon himself to clean out the coop and run – and got us our first 6 chickens as a housewarming present! (Thanx Dad!) It was so exciting.

Four years later we have had chickens come and go, but one of our original girls, Screecher, is still with us.

She is quite tame and doesn’t mind a cuddle but when you pick her up – she screeches!!

We don’t have too many problems with our girls. They are Houdinis when it comes to getting out of where they should be and into where they shouldn’t be!! Trust me when I say you don’t need them in your vegie garden!! Apart from hoovering everything in sight, they are like mini back hoes the way they dig! One of them (I have my suspicions this one) –

The Chickenator – Destroyer of Strawberries

got out of the chicken run, under (or over) the fence that separates the two halves of the yard, up to the strawberry patch and found the one hole in the netting and had a perfectly lovely couple of hours rotary hoeing my strawberries!! And then put herself back as if nothing happened!! Complete Strawberry Devastation! The strawberry harvest was sad this season and the above bird is VERY lucky she didn’t end up on a sandwich!!

We once had a possum visitor that made itself comfy in one of the nests. It had no inclination to leave and it was quite the event evicting it!! The girls weren’t keen on their new coop-mate and found a new nesting place to lay eggs for about a week before I found them and retrained them back to their proper nests!

Between the chickens and the compost we have very little kitchen waste. They are like little garbage disposal units with attitude!!

They get plenty of fresh garden greens and I can pick up free out of date bread from the local supermarket if I ask at the right time. I also like to cook them seed/grain cakes and make them warm mash in the winter. As a result, the eggs taste divine!

We have plenty of eggs for ourselves and we sell the excess to family and local friends. They are always in demand and I love having eggs ‘on tap’ to use whenever it takes my fancy.

The coins we get paid for the eggs get put aside which pay for their feed, with the rest saved for some specific thing we want to do or buy. We put in two screen doors and screens on the windows from the egg money. The egg money also bought a book of movie tickets!! Awesome chickens!

Chickens can be kept in smaller areas in normal backyards (if your council allow it) quite successfully. I highly recommend having them – they are not difficult to take care of and there are very few issues we have come across. I think the worst is when they die as you get so attached!! (Yes – we cry) Clean water, safe area to scratch around, nice mix of pellets and scraps, a place to lay and roost and that’s all you need – er – plus your chickens of course!!

Go for it!

Cheers

Those beady eyes can spot a grasshopper at 20 paces!!

Friday’s Footprints – Dip Forest Reserve

Source Images: DSC_5663.JPG (Av: F22.0; Tv: 1/4 sec.; ISO: 320; FL: 36.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Dip Falls

We are lucky to be surrounded by beautiful natural areas in the north west of Tasmania. Each week I will try to feature a place we enjoy visiting.

Dip Forest Reserve is only about 40 minutes west of us and inland a teeny bit. Its actually a lovely drive through the farming country to reach it.

Source Images: DSC_3579.JPG (Av: F4.0; Tv: 1/60 sec.; ISO: 500; FL: 28.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Walking through the man ferns to the Big Tree

It’s beautiful walking through the tall man ferns – all lush green. They grow at about 1cm per year, so some of these have been around for an awfully long time! And after a gruelling three minute walk along a flat path you reach “The Big Tree” (Someone with a creative turn of mind obviously came up with the name)

This 400 year old giant is a Browntop Stringybark, or Eucalypt Oblique. At a height of 62 metres (203ft) and an impressive 17mt girth, it really makes you feel a little bit small and insignificant!!

Source Images: DSC_5655.JPG (Av: F2.8; Tv: 1/30 sec.; ISO: 500; FL: 28.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Gnarly base

Somehow over the years, it has survived the fires and logging and is a wonderful place to take visitors. It’s good for the soul to stroll along and look up at the younger trees and man ferns that loom above you.

A walk down the long staircase to the bottom of Dip Falls is the next place to go. Its a pretty steep descent and a real bugger to walk back up again, but it is totally worth the little extra effort!

Source Images: DSC_3166.JPG (Av: F4.0; Tv: 1/60 sec.; ISO: 320; FL: 28.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — End of the stairway

Source Images: DSC_5861.JPG (Av: F5.0; Tv: 1/100 sec.; ISO: 1250; FL: 28.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Dip River

The falls themselves can change remarkably over the different seasons. Sometimes there is no more than a trickle, and at other times a deluge!

Source Images: DSC_5660.JPG (Av: F22.0; Tv: 1/13 sec.; ISO: 320; FL: 35.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Spring/autumn

Source Images: DSC_1661.JPG (Av: F9.0; Tv: 1/320 sec.; ISO: 320; FL: 20.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Winter

About ten minutes after the above photo was taken I managed to do a really ungraceful pirouette off a slippery rock and spun myself down to fall into the (at the time) raging Dip River.

It. Was. Cold.

I took my camera for a swim as well which happily survived its dunking. I bravely proceeded with the rest of the touring with friends in wet squelching undies. Not recommended.

Autumn brings out a variety of simply gorgeous fungi of all shapes and colours. One day I am going to go and visit Dip Falls at the right time when I am not with tourists and spend some special time with my macro lens, a tripod and go nuts!

The curling ferns and varieties of mosses are fascinating to see if you have the time to stop long enough and really take notice of your surrounds.

Hopefully you have enjoyed the first “Friday’s Footprints”

Have a super weekend

Cheers

What do you do on your anniversary?

The day was pretty gloomy with sideways misty, soaking rain. Pip the Siamese Cat took one look and went back to bed. (Really very tempting to follow him but a fair bit of guilt about the waiting tomatoes kept me awake instead)

So I grabbed my brekkie and opened my emails to find a note from my best friend wishing us a happy anniversary!! Eep!! Really? That’s the date?? Damn!! I looked about the house and spied no bunches of flowers or boxes of chocolates so rightly assumed Jeff had forgotten too! Whew.

So I dutifully reminded him and we smooched and looked through some wedding photos and marvelled at how fast nine years goes by!! I couldn’t resist putting some photos up on facebook of me looking a lot cleaner and prettier than my normal self, holding roses instead of a bunch of vegetables!

LJM364 — Blushing Bride (Photo Credit – John Russell)

This is the more usual me:

Oh it does my heart good to see all those potatoes and that lovely red dirt!!

Anyway, so I carefully dressed in some daggy trackie pants, wind-cheater and bright blue knitted slipper-socks (I am nothing if not sexy) and did the dishes and started chopping up the tomatoes.

After 6lb’s worth, I needed some outdoor time so I went and raided the hothouse, because it was still wet and miserable and I didn’t want to be that far outdoors!

By this stage I was kinda over tomatoes, so I donned my apron (seriously – does anyone except me these days wear a house apron??) and stuffed it with apples so I could fill the dehydrator again as dried apple snacks are almost better than chocolate. (Almost…)

Ok – now we can get onto the anniversary stuff and have a great dinner – Glad I thawed the nice steaks out! Baked some potatoes (of course) and made a basic salad while Jeff did the manly BBQ thing and cooked the steaks! All washed down with glasses of cordial as were not sophisticated enough to crack a bottle of wine! Maybe we should plan better for the ten year anniversary!

Aaaaand very romantically I am still awake, Jeff has gone to bed and Pip is having a bath.

Time for me to sneak a tipple of my home made plum liqueur!!

Cheers!

Fresh on the plate

The best time of the year is when you rarely need to stock up from the supermarket and instead just step out into the backyard and pick or dig what goes on your plate. Its not too hard to build up a basic garden for summer salads, even if you don’t want to go all out with a massive enterprise! It really lightens the load on the budget

Tonight was one of our scrappy dinners, as is usual when the hard working husband comes off a night shift. I just grabbed some fresh salad items – lettuce, tomato, cucumber, heirloom capsicum with a bit of basil to make it more exciting…

Most of this was growing 10 minutes ago! (er – not the cheese)

We had a good corn harvest from the garden this year. We have been scoffing down corn like it was going out of fashion! Nothing better than biting into a fresh juicy cob of corn!!

I have frozen several cobs and also cut the kernels off the not so perfect cobs to save space in the already bulging freezers!

This made it easy to add a chicken sweet corn soup to the dinner menu, toast up a bit of home made bread and we’re done.

Drowning in Food

Source Images: DSC_0687.JPG (Av: F11.0; Tv: 1/500 sec.; ISO: 500; FL: 52.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — February is a month of plenty!

When it comes to this time of the year I think I start going just a little bit doo-lally! Just when you get several kilo’s of tomatoes made into sauce, relish or dinner, followed by several more kilo’s chopped and frozen – its time to put more apples into the dehydrator, pick more tomatoes, hunt for runaway zucchini’s and figure out what you want to do with the next armful of cucumbers!

Its kind of a race to try to waste as little as possible as you are wondering if you really did need 25 tomato plants this season (of COURSE you did!!) What doesn’t get eaten, cooked or frozen, often gets sold or given away. When things really get out of control there is a bunch of greedy chickens to peck up the rest.

tomato relish — Seems like there is always relish bubbling away

This season I only bought three tomato plants – the rest were self seeded or grown from the laterals of the more advanced plants. I have enjoyed trying the heirloom variety “Black Russian” – Such a gorgeous huge tasty tomato!

I also tried one called “Tigerella” simply because the name took my fancy! Its a bit bigger than the usual cherry tomato, lovely tiger stripes and a great taste, although the skin is a little thicker than I expected for the size.

One year I am going to manage my tomato plants properly. I tell myself I am going to snip back laterals and keep them tidily tied up etc etc. It would take a bit of the fun out of finding all the hiding ripe ones and the self imposed game of twister I have to play to reach out, down, around and through to get to all the fruit!! To be honest I do like my semi-jungle approach.

raised garden bed of tomatoes before they went mad

After a very dry season we are now getting gloom and rain. Hopefully the sun will be back tomorrow so I can happily fill up a few more baskets and boxes with tomatoes.

Lap up all you can from your gardens in autumn!

Cheers, Lisa.