Month: April 2021

Hi!
Been keeping pretty busy – popping down to Ruby’s place to help Margie.
We are planning on a two day garage sale at Rubys’ home to move on the last of the furniture and bits and pieces.
Its a bit hard… seeing all the familiar little items being put on a table for a few dollars.

Margie has been working hard sorting all the really special stuff which has been sent to family or kept etc.

So… there were a bundle of partly completed rugs… this one fully finished… Margie had put the lengths together and edged it.
The others we might see about using for ‘yarn bombing’ a local tree – just too much work to fix up the dropped stitches and put together as we are not sure who would really want them. All the family has gotten their Ruby-Rugs already.

Ruby got a real kick out of being a little famous via Mavis’s blog and Ruby Tuesday. She enjoyed hearing your comments – got a real chuckle out of it all being pictured and written about.

Margie said I could take this knee rug and give it to one of my lovely readers as a memento if someone was interested.
Keep in mind this was probably one of her last lots of knitting efforts – which she did pretty much blind, so while its not perfect – I think its just amazing she was still doing this almost until the end!

Comment below if you are interested. If more than one person puts up their hand, I’ll do a draw so its all fair and square. Hopefully I won’t have too many problems in getting it posted out to the winner (We’ve had a few postage restrictions due to Covid of course)

Anyway, I am off to bed soon – I posted up on FB about the garage sale and have been swamped with messages of people wanting this and that even before the weekend… which is a bit of a relief as I was worried after all the effort not many would be keen…

Hope you are all doing well and have a wonderful weekend planned!
Cheers!

Hi!
Got out and did some work outside for a change.
My, the weather has changed quickly and its so much colder!

Cousin Jeff dropped off a couple of loads of firewood – even though we’ve got a heap of the macrocarpa, its good to mix it with something else.

Wood Inspector

Today we got it all stacked.

Latest veggies:

Still haven’t dug the plot up properly…

Corn is nearly done…

So glad I planted those extra lettuce seedlings

And here are some bad photos of salads.
I am not much for arranging things and getting the right light and settings for the dinner photos… I more like throw it together so I can get into eating!

I separate the pickled beetroot, capsicum and feta because Jeff isn’t a fan
The potato salad looks unappealing but it tastes oh so good!

This morning there was a frost warning.
I don’t think we got it but it stirred me to get out and get what tomatoes were out in the main garden!
And the last of the corn! 🙁

I reckon I’ve got enough in there to do the bbq sauce!

I also picked the butternut pumpkins! Looking forward to some roasted or some soup

The beetroot and carrots here were for Lynn – she lives down in one of the local beach communities and often drops in to buy our eggs.

On the soaping front… How cute are these stickers? Jeff surprised me by organising these. They arrived in the post the other day. Will look all fancy pants on my bags and boxes!

I also got a bit crafty…

The slab mould produced soap too big for the cheese cutter and I am not so skilled at cutting with the knife.
So I bought a plastic place mat and cut my own divider set!
I forgot to take a photo of the soap IN the mould – basically I make the soap up and do the design then drop in the grid to separate it.
The soap came away beautifully today so I am pleased with my efforts

A single batch either makes big chunky soaps (above) or much smaller thin ones (Below) –

Ideally I should make a batch and a half for this mould.

Okey dokey… remember the beetroot soap that… um… went white??
I experimented further…
I’ve been dehydrating beetroot and made it into powder.

Because the chemical process of the soap making killed the colour… I made some plain soap and let its cure for about a week (less)
Took a bar and tried to rebatch it by melting it back to oil so I could put the colour in

Um… its very, er… rustic isn’t it?

Melting it down was a pain and not very successful – ie it didn’t go back to liquid form.
It also killed the lovely purple quickly but so far has retained a lovely oatmeal colour
The texture is interesting…

So… there is a LOT of mucking about and work in it to get this. Its been a fun thing to try out but as a saleable product its probably just too involved
Although if I wrap a bit of twine about it and do a bit of spruking about the home grown beetroot in it, maybe people will snap them up??
(Its a stretch I know haha)

So… back to normal soap!
I wanted to make some unscented soap for the lady that sold me all those fragrance oils and colours etc.
She said she really liked black!
So… Activated charcoal with blue square surprise!
I sent her a photo and she loved them – happily blue is her second favourite colour!
I will follow up on this idea with the black with interesting embeds!

OK… my back is now explaining its bedtime and that it moved a lot of wood today so get off this chair and scoot!!
Cheers!

Hello!! Gosh the days kinda disappear on me lately!

My parents went home 🙁 It was such a lovely couple of weeks, catching up and trotting out to beaches! So glad the weather was mostly really nice to them!
I sent them home with a dozen eggs, various preserves and baked a loaf of fresh bread for Dad who just LOVES it.

So… I set up my gazebo and attached the proper sides that my lovely cousin Marilyn gave me for my birthday. I had a market at the Rhododendron Gardens and I knew the weather was likely to be a little iffy that day.
(And yes, Cousin Jeff has been by with wood that I need to stack!)

Inspector Pip.
It all fit so I kinda knew what I was doing before trying to nut it out at the market itself.

On the upside… this was one of my views on the day!!
On the downside… it was quite the walk from the car to my spot!
On the upside, there were volunteers to help carry my gear.
On the downside I lugged my gazebo down and didn’t have to use it…

On the super dooper upside??? This is where my market stall was!!

Queen of the Castle or what??

Plenty of space for people to walk in and check things out and a spot for me to wrap the soaps

Nice to have lots of space to put everything out!

It was a gorgeous place to spend the day.

Do you know what was even cooler??? The little lake had a resident platypus or two that popped up and showed off for all the visitors and me for the whole day!

They are so funny!

Fun Fact: In the spirit of dangerous Australian Animals, did you know these creatures (the males) have a poisonous spur behind their hind foot? Apparently its a kind of pain that even morphine cannot dull!!
But they are cute…

I really really must go back to the gardens and walk around properly. They looked so pretty from where I was.

Sales were ok… I sold about $280 worth of soap. The stall price was a bit higher though than other markets. I think because the stalls were scattered all over – it didn’t funnel everyone to the stalls, it was like people had to stumble on them by accident.
Still… I had a really nice day out. Had my own little picnic with me, met lots of nice people and enjoyed watching the platypus!

I hope your weekend was lovely too!
Cheers!

Hello!
The other day my parents spent a couple of nights over at a cousins place, so Jeff and I went for a bit of a hike up in the Sisters Hills.

Funny gloomy old day… hard to see where the sky met the ocean.
What at first looked like smoke was just a sea mist clinging to the hills

A few little flowers out here and there… think my lens or something was smudged tho !!

Its more of a challenging hike – some good ups and downs over the span of about 10kms (slightly less) over three hours

We didn’t do a loop, just kept hiking until we estimated we had enough light to get back to the car

Cute little flowers

Heading back…

The rain didn’t really get going until later that night

Small banksia flowers

Little pink blooms

Back home… time to pick a bucket or two of tomatoes

So many!

Well, A bucket and a box

I raided some other areas of the garden too… those little lettuce seedlings are a good size now

The apple cucumbers that I put in insanely late have actually produced a few fruits!!

(With apples and eggs)
Oh and of course the nightly corn

Mum helped me with the tomatoes today.. washed them as I cut them. I’ve got another lot sitting there with onion which I will make into another batch of relish in the next day or so.

There are others to cut and cook… and pick. Would love to make up a lot of BBQ sauce soon too.

And on the soap front!!! Experiment. Cut the side out of a plastic tray and used it to pull through the soap mix – nifty effect.

Hilariously not beetroot coloured, but beetroot soap.
The purple water went brown in the lye then as the soap cured in the first day… to white! (Poppyseeds mixed in)
I’ll have to try a different approach for getting more of a beetroot colour.

And an attempt at a new technique… I was aiming for teadrop…
Someone has suggested wizards hat or Aladdin’s Lamp

I do love this design… keen to have another go

Quite a variance between the bars.

I did a market yesterday at Elliot… was a cold day, cold wind, rain etc. So had my table inside this time. Did quite well for a more quiet day again… (About $230 in sales, so worth getting out of bed despite my misgivings as it was SO warm and cosy under my blankets)

Anyways, thats a bit of whats been happening here.
Parents are booked to head home tomorrow 🙁
Seems like the two weeks has flown by!
Good news, Rosemary AND Emma are looking to come down to visit end of May if all goes well on the Covid front! So yay!!!

Hope you are all doing well!
Cheers!

(May we all be able to sleep this soundly!!)

Hi!!
The weather has kept up its extraordinarily nice manners, so we drove west to the beaches out there.
Along the way on the north, the sea was like a mill pond…
Not so much once we were west!
I could sit and watch those waves crashing all day!

Hello to the Birthday Boy!
Nothing like a stroll on the beach and a picnic on your birthday!

This area has many midden sites – you can imagine for many many years, the Aboriginal people sitting here enjoying the bounties of the seas!

It was a little windy and cooler – although I warmed up quickly in the sun

Waves!

Parents rugged up a bit more than me

They were loving it all!

The scenery here is rugged but beautiful

Lots of kelp…

We headed down the opposite way from our initial start so we could spend some time walking on the beach

Thats where you find the serious kelp!

Foot and hand for scale!

So tough and leathery!

Strolling on

Jeff annoying the birds…

More seaweed

And more

I paddled and got my pants wet…

Up into the small dunes …

I love sand dunes

And here is Mum, also loving the sand dunes…

Getting in touch with her 15 yr old self!

I ‘scampered’ up the one at the top end to get the photos (does one scamper when one is 50??? In reality it was a bit of a slog through the soft sand!)

And the best and safest way to come back down is on your bum!

And great fun was had by all!!

Oh look… more seaweed… with all of Jeff for scale this time

Monstrous stuff

And teeny tiny seaweed

Love it here

Endlessly crashing waves

A little climbing….

All in all we had a great day out!
Hope your week is going along well too!
Cheers!

Yesterday we popped down to Sisters Beach – keeping up with the lovely sunshine while it lasts

Wore the parents out a bit… ended up strolling for about 4kms!

Sisters is such a pleasure to walk along with its big expanse of white sand

Having a cuddle and a laugh with my Mum

Dipping feet into the water

Wasn’t really cold either!

There were a heap of cute little sea snail trail artworks on the beach yesterday!

And my favourite coloured rocks

Dad took lots of these photos… I pinched his phone to take a few snaps too because I was daft and left my camera at home!

Cool ripples in the sand

And brilliant blue skies

Back at home… the food keeps on coming along!

I made a batch of tomato sauce (I did beetroot pickles yesterday)
We’d run out of sauce. Jeff likes this one… nothing fancy added.
This should keep him going a while

These funny little things are capsicums! I’ve looked up a recipe for red capsicum relish so I might give that a whirl…

Did a quick pick of the tomatoes and our daily corn ration… its still amazing and tasty… just loving it!

Carrots and potatoes… still haven’t gotten into that potato patch to dig the lot up!

And lastly… chillies!! I’ll cut and deseed these and wait for more so I can make up the sweet chilli sauce! We’ve been without it for so long – am excited to see such lovely chillies growing in the hothouse.

Hope your Easter Weekend has been excellent!!

Cheers!

Hi!
We’ve been really lucky this week so far with the weather!
Which is a treat as Tasmania tends to turn on the doom and gloom when my parents visit!!!

I had a big disappointment… the day after my birthday my sister Rosemary was meant to arrive and spend about 5 days with us…
Some Covid19 Kerfuffle in Brisbane put them in lockdown and prompted Tasmania to impose a 14 day quarantine on anyone coming from Brissy.
So bummed. Was really looking forward to being able to catch up and do some stuff with my sister! 🙁 (Still sulking a bit haha)

Anyway, back to the lawn tea party…
Trying unsuccessfully to get a photo with my parents where we are all behaving…

Sharon took about 10 and these two were the best haha

Sharon of course was there… she took over on camera duties

Cousin Leonie (we are currently trying to plan some kind of hiking trip before winter sets in) and Margie!

My market buddy Maureen turned up unexpectedly!!! She was meant to be over west at a friends place for Easter but put that back a day to join in the tea party! I was rapt! I haven’t got a photo but she gave me a fabulous PURPLE shovel!!
On the right of me there is my lovely friend Shirley. She buys our eggs and I like to drop her in some veggies and have a cuppa and a chat! So nice she was able to be there as well

Cousin Beck and little Henry – who ate his way across the tables haha!!

And of course, Fiona!

I had the devil of a time getting the one candle lit for the cake… so funny!

And I swear I wasn’t drinking but I dropped the knife before I could cut the cake, but some fast footwork saved me from having to go in and wake my nurse!!!

Anyway, I loved my birthday and my tea party.. some of the cousins arrived later and we moved inside to catch up (Ann and Fiona did most of my dishes, bless their cotton socks!!!)

The next day we went to Fossil Bluff for Mum and Dads first walk on the Tassie beaches this trip.
I also won Lottie for the morning!

Sensible photo of my parents not pulling faces

And getting Lottie to pose!

Nice to be back at the beach

Its been great having lots of food straight from garden to plate (in a manner of speaking – I do wash and cook it)

The corn has been sensational!! So juicy and sweet!!
Generally one carrot feeds the four of us!!
Still haven’t dug up all the potatoes yet… still on my To Do List

Jeff got me these neat new moulds… bee motifs!!
So I made a batch with a honey fragrance. Smells good… but soap is soft… hope it hardens up.
Then I wanted to try a new fragrance he got me so I looked up a pretty cool design to make with it… Sandalwood & Vanilla and its scrumptious..
Attempted a gold vein! Turned out pretty fab!

I used activated charcoal for the black and worked out a more successful way to use the gold mica. Nifty!

Anyway, have been hiking in the afternoons on the Oldina Logging Trails, did beach walk with parents in morning so I’ve gotten a double whammy of sun today and feeling tired!!
I forgot my camera when we went to Sisters Beach today so I’ll pinch my Dad’s photos and share them soon!
Hope everyone has a great Easter Weekend, whatever you are up to!
Cheers!

(Not the most flattering Pip photo, but funny enough…)