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Happy New Year to you all!!
Lets hope 2022 brings some really good stuff.

I’ve been too lazy to get around to post processing our Christmas Day hike, but above is the view from not quite the top of Black Bluff.
We actually didn’t summit as we left slightly later than planned.
Was a lovely lovely day out regardless… along with a bit of hard work!! (As mountains usually are)
I’ll aim to work on the photos this coming week.

More raspberries.
I’ve made more jam… I think I need to get into the kitchen tomorrow and make more instead of just filling the freezer

There is a little progress in the hothouse… some cucumbers making a move

Looks like a sunflower about to come out.
And I gave the tomatoes a really good pruning… some of the leaves were crazy big. Airflow will be better now and I tied them up better too

Random lillium

Carrots sitting up nicely

Couple of little zucchinis happening

Lovely hydrangea flowers out now

Excited about the beetroot

Lots of nice ones in there

Today I went out and pulled up the white garlic!

It looked ready…

A really decent harvest again

I put them out on the lawn to dry off a bit first… but of course being Tassie, might have been stinking hot for a fortnight, but garlic on the lawn?? Time to rain
So back into the wheelbarrow and under cover for now

I’ve bandicooted a few potatoes too… they really haven’t grown up into lush plants this season… but boy oh boy dont the new spuds taste Ahhhmazing!!

Now, the tomatoes need to get a wriggle on then I’ll be in heaven!

I’ve been obsessing about banana muffins lately too

We ate all of the above so I made more today… but put raspberries in them this time
Its well after midnight now and I am trying not to eat any otherwise I’ll need to hike more

I’ve started hiking with a pack now in prep for the Overland later this month.
Jeff has almost been daily hiking with a full pack all (last) year… so he will be able to skip across the wilderness.
I’ve got plantar F in my heel so I hobble a lot in the mornings and after I get up from sitting down esp. if I’ve been hiking or standing about in the kitchen for too long…
Going to make the hike interesting.
(Imagine someone hitting the base of your heel with a hammer… thats the first thing in the morning feeling!! Erk.)(I suppose thats why they invented anti inflammatory pills)

Anyway, off to bed for me!
I hope everyone really finished the year well and has wonderful dreams and goals for the new year!
Cheers

A very Merry Christmas to all those celebrating!!
I hope you have a lovely day whatever your plans… small or grand!

We dipped back into winter early in the week… so I put the fire on. It makes me happy.
It makes Pip happier

Bliss hey?

I’ll take a moment to show off my fabulous lettuce patch!!

And since we have eggs and raspberries galore… a pavlova seemed in order too (We took it to a Christmas party)

So many raspberries at the moment!

Takes an eon to pick though!

Tomorrow (Christmas Day) Jeff and I plan to do a bit of a walk and take a picnic!
Weather is meant to be good so… fingers crossed all comes together.

Warm wishes to you all
Cheers!

Starting on a sad note tonight.
I found Flea dead under the bushes near the raspberries this afternoon.
I am really upset 🙁
Yesterday I fed her some raspberries and told her that was because she was my Favourite Girl.
I don’t know what happened. It could have been a snake bite although we’ve never had that problem in the past. She had also had respiratory issues for quite some time… not super bad… wheezy, but everything else she was trundling along fine with. Eating, healthy weight, keen to dig worms etc.
I’ll miss her so much.
I know its part and parcel of having chickens… but I don’t get used to having to say goodbye.
So, goodbye Flea – thanks for all the laughs you funny little chook! xx

The weather has been amazing… really hot.
I did fit in whipping up a batch of soap… Sweet Meyer Lemon fragrance, along with dried and crushed zest from lemon peel as a scrub and some dried lemon slices on top

I liked the effect.

Ugh… we’ve put this off for so long.
I had to put my foot down and decided to make a concerted effort to start to make sense of this area.

Jeff slashed a lot of the tall grass and weeds down along the fence line as well as building up the burning piles.
I dug up a heap of massive thistles among other weeds

It was super hot so we called it quits before getting sunstroke but it was good to really get our teeth into it.
Lots more to do but seeing the progress makes things seem achievable.

We wont be able to burn anything for quite some time now that its summer. But at least it can be ready.

Something pretty… collecting calendula petals.

Two kilos of raspberries picked yesterday – there is more down there but this took me an hour and I needed to come back up to cook dinner!

I do hope your week has been going well
Cheers (and tears)
xx

Where to start… okies. Only one soap photo, just made a double batch of the dandelion soap so I am nicely stocked up all at once.

Moving on to basket weaving! I wanted to try using some cord and yarn, so I made this!

I reckon I’ll just muddle along making baskets then when I want to give someone a present I can… put stuff in the baskets?? 🙂

One of my cousins called me the other week – planning on a small family get together.
Would I bring the scones?
Eeek.
Um… I’ve never made them but I had a couple of weeks to practice so I said yes.

So I did a test run.
Not bad but a bit floury and a little doughy… but edible (mind you the chooks LOVED them.)

So I got on to youtube to watch the technique… I know you aren’t meant to over mix them – I was too light handed with the first try
I didn’t get a second run at them so just made them up earlier today before the afternoon tea. (The pressure!)

They worked out really well!! And even better? They tasted great and my lovely cousins were all very enthusiastic about it so I am feeling like the Scone Queen tonight and I fervently hope Ruby is peering down saying well done! (I didn’t really bother making scones mostly because I’ve been surrounded by other talented scone makers)

I made use of half of my raspberry harvest from yesterday and made some fresh jam to take along too (as well as cream of course but I didn’t make that, only whipped it up)

Garden… time to plant out the poor remaining zucchinis

Reminder… this is them in their little pot!

This is the desired plot

After a clean up and a ton of twitch removal…

This plot is now more desirable

Um… and I forgot to get a photo of the transplanted zukes… I’ll try to do that tomorrow! Poor things were too big to move I would have thought, but anyway, they are in now and they immediately wilted and sagged and whined and complained.
Today they do seem like they are sitting up reasonably well.

The struggling tomato patch (with smattering of potatoes)
I got in and weeded the area… and pulled up several plants that really were just not happy.
Put in too early and were stressed by wind and temperature changes (like the snow week!)

I do hate pulling them out but I figure they are never going to thrive.
I had another whole pot of nice seedlings to replace several of the sadder plants

Trying to keep up with a decent amount of water and so far the new transplanted tomatoes have bounced back pretty well.

I need to cut the fennel back or dig it out… overshadowing the original zucchini plants… that are doing quite well.

Nice fat strawberries!

I went down to the raspberry patch with a modest sized bowl… and quickly realised my error!
I needed a much bigger container!
Always a nice thing!

Snow peas coming along steadily now!

And I pulled up all the purple garlic. Not as big bulbs as usual but a lovely harvest nonetheless.

Yesterday late afternoon, I went to change the water around and I got a bit of a fright at the strawberry patch!
A tiger snake in the netting!!

No drama… just in the top ten of the worlds most venomous snakes and me prancing about in crocs…

The poor thing had gotten herself enmeshed in the strawberry netting – I hadn’t secured it down properly after Jeff last mowed.
We (Jeff) tried to help her untangle but weren’t getting anywhere, so we called the snake people

Mum, Dad and Daughter (Kate, Scott and Miah from North West Snakecatchers) were all in on the whole act and it was interesting to watch. I suppose it was easy to get her under control as she couldn’t go far and were able to cut her out.
Happily no damage. Miah sexed her and pretty sure female hence my use of ‘her’

Now named Bronzy (We all agreed she was gorgeous but Miah was pretty keen to keep her and gave her a name)

Check out Bronzy’s spectacular colours!! Easy to see how this snake got their name.
Bronzy was pretty chill and non aggressive over all… she was probably tired. Although having been around the garden a lot I would say she’d only been stuck for half of the day,

Time for Miah to do her thing… Bronzy needs to go into her bag

She will get relocated… perhaps down at Oldina (you know… where we hike weekly!!)(Next hiking day… hey there Girl! You look familiar?!)

And into the bag goes Bronzy on her way to a new home
They suspect she was passing through (surrounding paddocks being mown so everyone is probably upset who lives in the paddock!) but not great to have a female living here as during mating season, she’d attract the fellows.
Much as I like the animals, we’re just not that keen to have a squadron of them on our back doorstep

Well… thats all the fun and excitement from Tassie
Hope everyone had a splendid weekend and that it was snake free and full of scones!
Cheers

First up… Poor Pip.
A trip to the vet to get teeth cleaned. He ended up with three extractions.
I gave him a couple of ‘chill pills’ before going in so he was more docile – esp handy the night before as he wasn’t allowed food from 7pm.
(Siamese are pretty vocal about this sort of indignity)
Anyway, after me fretting all day I get to pick up my cat (who growled at the lady who picked up his carry box haha), who looked like he’d been in a bar brawl.

Oh he was so happy to get out at home. We got loved and schmoozled and kneaded and loved again!! We tried to feed him slowly – he was so hungry
Basically by the time he went to bed that night he’d pigged three tins of cat food! (and surprisingly didn’t puke it all up again)

Back to his old self today although he is on pain meds for a couple of days and we’ll need a check up in a week to make sure he is doing ok.

Check it out!! First raspberries!

A basket full of oregano

A few more strawberries

Another lot of oregano into the drying nets

Since that bit of warm weather, the lettuce has really gone ahead. We are eating nice big salads each night

I am excited!! Tomatoes!!
And these poor tomatoes that never got transplanted…

Not sure what to do now!! The weather was so bad for so long. The tomatoes I put outside are woeful. This bunch has at least one tomato growing

Hothouse snow peas..

Again… not got a plot ready then the weather has been a bit up and down… this pot of 4 zucchinis is a bit desperate to get out

Cherry plum trees are laden

So many!!

The pear tree has a lovely lot of fruit on it

The outside snow pea patch has suddenly got lots of snow peas.
Better go pick them tomorrow!

Hello Pumpkin!

And hello carrots!

The beetroot is coming along well too

And… some pretties

Flowers in that new area are doing nicely

Unknown name above, but below the portulaca are budding up and starting to bloom

Sweet little flower

And really pleased to see the hydrangea looking happy!

Hope you are having a great week so far
Cheers!

Hi there…
The nice weather had been continuing, so I took a deep breath and started work on the side garden… which was in a pretty sad state

I thought it would be less overwhelming to just start on the top part.

I think I took out about 3 barrow loads of weeds

A glimpse of further down in this patch…

I am ignoring that for the second…

Jeff helped me get one of the bigger milled timber pieces and shored up the edge so I could get rid of the ugly plastic bits and fill with woodchip

Many many barrow loads of wood chip later…

I might see about putting in a cape gooseberry in the back corner there. They grow big so it might hide that water heater without me having to do much

It inspires me to get off my butt and continue down into this patch further.
Plus like in other spots we’ve done this, weeds that pop up are easier to spot and pull out!

I also planted our corn!!!! Why here?? I dunno. Because I could??

Hope you are all having a fantastic weekend.

Cheers

First day of summer today. And it was a pretty nice day… even hot!
Anyways, just a bit of this and that from the last week.
I picked more dandelions to infuse into oil since I liked the first dandelion soap so much… I’d like to recreate it. (Pip thinks this table is his current snooze spot)

I did a bit of craft work with a cereal box as I want to box these soaps up ‘fancy’ (but keeping up with recycling)

I’ll get Jeff to handwrite on the front (Dandelion & Goats Milk Soap) then will paste a printout on back of all the good stuff in this bar)
And seal with one of my cool stickers!

Ugly soap!! Haha and oops. The mixture thickened up too much for the design I wanted to do and I should have just changed my plan on the fly.
Never mind.

I liked the top.

I had to stock up on lavender and peppermint…

Pretty pretty!

I’ve also finished my basket… I haven’t gotten a snap of the actual finished product but its not a great deal bigger than this:

I was pretty happy with it in the end. I enjoy the relaxing process of creating it.

I am trying a new one now using some of my stash of yarn and winding it around a thicker rope. (I’d like to make some as soap display bowls or for a gift pack… but it can’t take as long as the above to do to be practical)

Last Saturday was the Uniting Churches annual big Flea Market. I love it. Set up the evening before and stroll in in the morning ready to go.

I’d kept a lot of my new designs aside so I could have the baskets full of mostly new stuff… and I loved the look!

I kept my layered soap up the back… I have a bit of a ‘thing’ about kids coming up to the stall… snatch a soap, wipe their snotty noses on it then slam it back into the basket. Then proceed to the next soap!!
I put up a sign this time to handle with care and supervise children haha – actually only had one little snotty octopus this time – he threw one on the floor.
Happily the mother bought it. (one of the more $$ ones and I hope she likes peppermint!!)

Anyway, it was a great market and I sold really well.
I was lucky and my market neighbour was a friend of mine from basket weaving classes

Jude had a fantastic table full of gorgeous and interesting plants, fruit and veg and some excellent eco products.

And the best thing about a country church market? Someone gives you a cup of coffee and some fresh made scones!

Bliss!

The very next day I had organised another Anniversary Bay Loop hike and this time seven people turned up!

Down on the beach we found an echidna!

S/he was the subject of many photos before we moved on

We had a beautiful day for it… even got quite hot!
I dipped my feet into the water which was lovely

I am enjoying showing some local people this walk.

Anyway, fingers crossed this weather will keep up and no more snow!

Hope your day has been great!
Cheers

Cats love to roll about!!
Pip is so enthusiastic about it when he gets to be outside with me!

Anyway, he is not a garden plant so lets move on!
Gee we’ve had some gorgeous weather lately! I might even say summer like!
Its really helping the plants make a move

I even pulled up a garlic (like a month or so early)

The purple patch does look a bit bleurgh…

Plus its got this rust thing on thats been creeping in. So I’ve got to find out what it is and how to combat it. Hasn’t effected the growth or the garlic itself… but I would rather not have it

Finally planted some carrot seeds!!

And some pumpkin seeds under the covers
I picked up some apple cucumber seedlings and popped them in too

Snow peas finally making a move!

The white garlic looking happy

I got in and weeded the potato patch… planting them under the straw helped overall with the appearance of weeds

There are even a few flowers here and there

The young blueberry bushes have some fruit too

Back up in the veranda garden, it was time to weed and mulch the lettuce

The cape gooseberry plants had dropped a lot of seed

This patch has done well overall… only lost one lettuce

All snug now. 🙂

The basil are grimly hanging on to life by their cuticles…so they got a weeding and a boost of kelp juice and some mulch.
Fingers crossed (The rocket doing just fine and dandy)

Moving right along to the herb spiral

The oregano is still super lush…
But the lemon balm was too bushy and the borage was just too big and getting mucky

The bees were loving the borage but I wanted my path back… seeds have dropped and new plants are already on their way

I also pulled out some mint that is getting in everywhere (of course) as well as giving the lemon balm a severe haircut (the chives can breathe again)

Nice to walk back down my path!!
I found a little spot for a new thyme bush too!
And put Mavis’s gorgeous Thyme Sign back with the right plant!!

Oh… and I crushed my thumb between two rocks which wasn’t smart.
The perils of gardening!

Hope everyone is having a lovely week!
Cheers!

Hello!
We’ve had a couple of nice days in a row… so getting a little more done in the garden
We did have some hail the other day which didn’t impress my poor tomatoes (The chooks probably weren’t happy either!)

My zucchini seedlings were bursting out of their pot…

So I put one lot out into the garden where I hope the weather is fairly nice to them

The tomatoes in the hothouse are about 4x the size of the poor woebegone outside tomatoes…

I’ve even got some flowers!

The lettuce patch … the seedlings I put in the other week are starting to look a little more robust.
Lots of tiny cape gooseberries appearing too… will be soon time for a bit of weeding and mulch

The rocket seeds I planted are all happily up, while their basil neighbours are NOT happy about anything!
I mostly keep each one covered at night but the chopping and changing back to super cold hasn’t helped much.

All the basil I planted out in the hothouse got ringbarked by something and died!!! All of them!! Will try again and make sure I cover them with bottles.

I have enough strawberries now to make a little pot of fresh jam… maybe tomorrow?

so many lush herbs… the oregano is especially fabulous

From garden to one of Rosemary’s awesome vases

Today… a clean up project

Just off the back veranda, fennel, lemonbalm, oregano, raspberry canes (?? no idea why) and general weeds

I have SO MUCH lemon balm everywhere…

So… thats the horror I started with

And here is where I finished up!

Some Portulaca along the front there and the other plants were given to me by my cousin Fiona.. and I can’t tell you what they are!!

I just grabbed some random bits of timber for the front edges and dug them in. Its so good to still have copious amounts of woodchip too

Anyway, will leave you with a few pretties to finish up

Orange calendula (got so many calendula seedlings popping up everywhere!)

Nigella… (Love in a Mist) (Such a pretty name!)

Random snap dragons appearing this year!

Loving my pathway, although its time to pull out the massive borage plant that stops me now walking all the way down the path!

Thoroughly enjoying all the sweet peas!

And bees.. busy everywhere getting right into the heart of the flowers!
Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Cheers

Hello!

So… I’ve been thinking of putting together a bit of a ‘natural botanical’ selection of soaps to offer something a bit different to my ‘normal’ soaps (Do I even have normal?)

I just made an aloe vera soap out of fresh aloe from the garden. (I’ve failed to take a photo of the actual soap – its very plain with some green clay used as the colourant and rosemary essential oil as the fragrance. I am looking forward to trying it out

I will revisit the carrot soap, turmeric, orange (using the dried zest as a scrub) rosemary and some other ideas.

I saw online a ‘how to’ on dandelion soap along with all the blurb on the great things that the humble dandelion can do/or be a benefit for.

I went out into the paddock and took a huge basket… and found an underwhelming amount of dandelions!!
I dried the flowers anyway.

The easier and quicker part was to dehydrate and crush/powder both the leaves and roots

After this much effort I figured I’d need to do the infused oil properly so we stopped on the side of the road after one of our walks and picked a heap more dandelion flowers.
I partially dried those then dumped them into the oil to infuse

They were left for about 2 weeks.

Another hike and another forage session to get more flowers to make dandelion tea (Yah.. this is a process…)

Overnight soaking of the flowers created a brown tea colour, but once mixed into the lye it went a nice yellow

So… finally I was up to the actual soap making part! (No pressure)

I split the batch in two and worked on the bottom layer using the regular oil and lye mix, but adding in French green clay and a couple of spoonful’s of the crushed dried dandelion leaves
A fairly thick mixture so I could make an uneven divide between the two layers

Once in the mould, I sprinkled the first layer with the powdered root in the hope it would show up between layers once cut.
Once it set enough, I started to mix the top layer

I decided to just let the infused oil and the tea do the colouring for me rather than adding in any clays.
I did mix through an apricot kernel scrub

The whole loaf has also been fragranced by lemongrass essential oil, which is just lovely!

Drum roll… agony waiting today to get it out of the mould and see how it went.

I was so pleased with it!
It looks lovely and natural, but not boring!! I like all the little bits of texture and the muted colours, not least the powdered line of the dandelion roots!
I am calling it a success!

Cheers