Aussiemade

Thankyou all.

2011-05-23T11:50:00.000+10:00

Well it has been so long since I have come onto my blog. I am sure many of you can understand and even now, it is not easy. The past time has been vvery hard, and I miss my husband so much. I am so greatful to have had such an incredible relationship and know how fortunate I have been!. This keeps me from falling too far. Depression and being alone have been companions. I have not been lonely, I have incredible family and friends, and those of you on here who have communicated even though I have not responded. One thing I have found is no matter how hard it has been having people leave me messages on the phone, and emails have really been my saving grace. As have my animals and having to get up and feed, walk , care for them..have stopped me sinking too far into the black abyss. I also thank my local community and friends for love.
It has been a hard hard road and continues to be. I began a new job close to home and less hours. This allowed me to escape and return to a structure I was unable to have at home.

I still have periods of time where answering the phone, or emails is impossible. One thing I have found strange is that I have been pushing people away, even my stepdaughters..not able to tidy the house, the garden is neglected and I have not been able to have my beautiful stepdaughters and their families down. Yet it is the thing I want more than anything. As to I want to have friends visit but am unable to these things I do not understand. I have decided that I my blogging may bring me back to a place where I will function at home as well as I do at work.

So it is

2010-08-09T17:07:00.000+10:00

Thursday week ago my darling husband was helping the chap who comes to sit with him, (so I could go and have some time for myself for 2 hours without stressing about leaving him on his own), load a truck with timber. On Monday at 16:20pm he had died at home, not in bed, having managed to climb the stairs on Sunday night having enjoyed short visits by his daughters and future son in law. We were all meant to be going to a friends daughters wedding. DH did not feel up to it. The girls came back in the evening and showed him photos of Tess in her wedding dress. He appeared to sleep well overnight, I was down stairs and he woke in pain anddesperately wanting to get out of bed, (he suffered with panic attacks about not being able to get out of bed), I assisted him to put some clothes on, was able to give him some pain relief, and began to walk down the hall and to the stairs, he made it somewhat more slowly than usual, about halfway down, he became to weak and I almost carried him to the chair, too hot near the fire, I moved him to the lounge. I rang his younger daughter who came down, and than we rang his older daughter who was at work and at a very busy time for the company. Her finance drove her down.

So surrounded by his girls, our dog and cat, he was able to communicate only by raising his eyebrows, for a few hours he slowly wound down, his breathing stopping. It was so peaceful, he was in no pain, and he was in our living room with sun streaming glistening of the water, snowcapped mountains he loved in the distance, and his faviourite flowers in bloom, the wattle trees had really put on an amazing show in our garden. Almost every wattle tree (many different types) were in flower or coming into flower all at the same time; not usual for them.
His body stayed in the house till noon the next day, giving his son-in-law who was unable to come down on Monday a chance to say goodbye. We all felt a real sense of having time to spend with his body, a real appreciation that he was dead, and his spirit was no longer in his body. There was no one wanting the room, or a feeling of inconveniencing anyone. The Minister DH wanted came and we had our family service just us only 5 people and DH's body, a very special time where we could grieve as we needed and be as we desired. Tears, laughter and so much love.

The dog and the cat each in their own ways were able to say good bye too. The dog licking and resting his head as DH was dying and then licking his hand and face when he died. DH patting Toby when he was near while he was able too. Murphy chose to not be in side until later in the day. Still not coming near but the next morning he was laying on DH's very cold body and stayed there all through the service. It was quite amazing as he usually lies right near the fire...he was saying his goodbyes, I am sure.

The funeral ladies came and were so amazing and we were given as much time as we needed to say our very final goodbyes to DH's body. DH's body was taken by the lovely Donna and Michelle to be looked after and attended and then cremated. It was DH's wishes that we did not accompany his body, and we all felt that our private service at home was so much more special for us than at a crematorium would have been.

The service we had at home, gave us an outlet and we all felt able to move forward with planning the Celebration of DH's life and his wake.
Instead of the traditional order of service photo of the persons face in a oval shape the three of us agreed that a photo of DH with us, our dog and cat, would be wonderful. It made everyone smile.
Each of his daughters spoke of their love, their fathers gentle nature, his generosity, his unconditional love and forgiving nature. His 7y/o Grand Daughter stood in front of more than 100 people and read her words about her wonderful, clever and loving Grandpa. I did his Eulogy and I can not recall what I said (fortunately Future son-in-law was videoing) so I will get to hear it. A couple of friends spoke about their feelings and friendship. We had music his favourite Beethoven's Violin concerto which we played at the beginning, a duet It's time to say good bye, and we were trying to find a jazz piece that would make people smile prior to leaving the church, but unable to ..we all agreed on Barry Whites. You're my everything! (we looked at the words and it said it all really. It was bright and people smiled.
The one thing I kept hearing when I rang people to let them know that DH had died was what a special and humble man he was, a true Gentleman. (he was also quite stubborn at times) just to let you see I am not wearing rose coloured glasses here..lol).
My father and his partner came from NSW and have been amazing in doing so much for us and with my brother who traveled from Western Australia to attend they took over the running of the wake to ensure that we need not be concerned and how appreciative we all were for this. I can not thank them enough for it.
As we live near a small village and catering is not available, we asked friends to bring a plate to the wake.
Plastic table cloths with smiley faces, balloons and butterflies chosen by Grand Daughter. Wattle flowers down the middle and in vases around the wall. A true celebration of life! DH did not want flowers so instead people donated money to charities that DH supported.

I ache with loneliness and missing him some times. I know he is with me still. I walk about our garden and feel his presence. I look at the bird table, the hen coop, the fencing. I smile with gratitude and a sense of love. I sit on the bench he made and feel his presence. He is physically not with me, and that is a thing that only time will assist me to manage. It is still very early days and the tears come so easily. I have only ventured into town twice and kind words of sincerity over DH's death make me cry. A friend said I should not hide these tears, as those who cared for us truely understand.

Having the dog, cat and hens is so good. I have to get up each morning and tend to their needs. (the cat would drive me ga ga, if he was not fed). I still have four trees that must be put into the ground or at least in pots for this year this week. Of course there are all the papers to sort through and treasures for his family to have. There is no rush however I understand it helps for hid daughters to have his treasures near, and some have no meaning to me, with the exception that they have been in our home and I see them. These things are not mine. They are his families.
Thankyou to all of you who have held us in your thoughts, prayers and hearts.

Bits and pieces of flotsam and jetsam of life

2010-07-14T21:18:00.000+10:00

Strange beginning to week, popped into little village near where we live, just for milk and bread. Very expensive trip hit a major pot hole.
I was waving at a friend walking her dog, and did not see said pot hole. SO one very damaged tyre. I was only doing 60 as I was slowing to pass friend walking dog. (thankfully). As Toby(dog) and I were in the car and neither hurt, and tyre damaged I tried to get home the two kms we were from home. Nope only got about 1km. Stopped began to change tyre, spare flat! As I was trying to lift spare out hatchback door dropped on my back ribs, so bruised and sore but not broken. I just gave up. Rang the RACT which is roadside assistance c? tasmania. I have got more than my monies worth out of belonging to these organisations over the years.
So at some time in the week I will have to take one tyre into village and get it fixed, then I will ring RACT to come and put new tyre on and old off, then again drive into town to fix second tyre. Tyre month this month as my car needs new tyres. Now why could I have not damaged my tyre rather than DH's which was in good nick? ARRRGH. You have to laugh and at least my tax return is good this year.

So I will be carting tyres to and fro, and more exciting and fun I have to go and pick up my new dwarf fruit trees from Woodbridge.
http://www.woodbridgefruittrees.com.au/
Heirloom varities, growing on dwarf rootstock. These are supposed to be going into the Chook run, unfortunately the eucalyputs that is in there has become huge and will need to be removed before these new trees can go in. So pots will be the go this year.

I have been watching the Tour de France, something I really love and have for 20+ years. I began listening to it on the radio as back then no one televised it in Australia. I began because a friends daughter (whom I have never met) was riding in it. We were listening on the radio only to hear that she had been in a bad fall.
She recovered and I do not know what became of her.
Only to say this piqued my love of bicycle racing and especially the Tour de France.
Tired and very happy last night was a rest night.
So home and garden suffering till the end of the Tour.

My DH is the most amazing man I know. He is weakening, and sleeping more and more during the day. We have his pain kept pretty well under control and it may be the meds that cause him to sleep more or it may be the cancer.
However he will not wake me ( I dont always hear him get up). He gets dressed and comes down stairs, he lights the fire, I have wood that is not too heavy and kindling ready for him. We find it too hot to keep the fire going overnight unless it is less than 2C so it goes out.

The day before was a very good day, he was up and let our chooks out, did the fire and was working on his photos. He is sorting them and labelling them for his daughters. Somedays he is up to a short walk others not. He is not interested generally to leave home. It is all getting too much.

We receive invitations to visit and parties for our friends and we just have to play it by ear. He has kept a record of the time line the radiologist oncologist gave him which was 3-6 months, and we have passed the 6months this week. Interesting fact, not sure it is a great thing as he is so very weary of this slow drawn out process.

The girls have been coming down and spending time with us. Staying overnight on weekend almost each week. It is lovely and he enjoys it so much. It is comfortable and things are going well with them both for me too. It is just so very difficult not stopping them from caring and supporting their daddy, whom they love and are loosing. It can be so easy to forget that it is no just I that he is leaving. His life before we met 10,
1/2 years ago was full and precious. We are all doing the best we can and coping as best we can in the circumstances.

My eldest SD announce her engagement last week which is such happy and delightful news. Of course tinged with saddness. Such great news.

The garden is self caring almost..sigh Kale, silver beet, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbages small in number but growing. Garlic is going well, I should pop more in. I cleared the cherry trees and fed, composted and covered the cleared area with sugar cane so they hopefully will give me a good crop. The other fruit trees were done in autumn. I pruned the roses who cares if it is the wrong time, I just felt a need to do it. My almond tree is dead I am pretty sure..darn it. Hazle nuts have some flowers, but as they are not all flowering at once doubt any hazle nuts will happen this year as you have to have cross pollinators and they just do not seem to flower together.
There are buds on peach, plums, and nectarine trees. It is there second year in so I can not expect much fruit this year but at least my garden tank is full. The house tanks are half full and we have had about 10 ml of rain in last week or so. It has been a very dry winter so far. Mind you it is only just half way through.

SDs did not let us know they were coming down to stay overnight on Sunday till after 1pm so I was not really prepared'; I did have a kind of thought it may be a possiblity that they would come but...

I had been promising that I would make a treacle tart for DH, and as girls were coming down thought would do this. I whipped up a salmon mornay(tinned salmon) with left over potatoes and tinned asparagus on the bottom. Popped the lot in oven and baked with some grated parmesan on top. Served with rice..delicious. Treacle tart for desert. Big hit.lol I add more lemon juice as it is too sweet for me. It is an amazing tart when you just use Golden syrup, fresh white bread crumbs(had to buy white bread especially for it) and lemon juice and rind. Oh and pastry. Think I could make the filling without pastry and it would have very little fat. lol. Not so nice though. Just made a short crust pastry for it.

I had some lovely photos to put on here to show you all sigh but somehow did not load them correctly and have deleted them off the camera. sigh techonology brilliant when it does what I want awful when it misbehaves.

Building communities

2010-07-05T17:36:00.010+10:00

What a wonderful day I had a couple of weeks ago
A new resident in town, has blown in and bought with her a change, it may be wintertime down here but she has bought warmth, friendship and inspirational personality, (and that is only through reading her blog and a couple of emails) before we actually met, all this had me a little in awe. (the awe inspiring kind!)

Just some happy snaps of flowers in our garden this autumn/winter

After receiving an email inviting me to a Home Gardeners Group, I went to Kate's There were quite a few women and we sat around Kate's kitchen table and chatted sharing such warm, and amazing conversation. A eclectic group we were but all have in common a love for our gardens, and desire to be more self sufficient and less dependent on oil. In the process reforming the traditional sense of community. Mind you we traveled to be together, and we will meet up once a month. Car pooling as we can. Meeting sharing food, seeds, plants, knowledge, support, books, recipes, ideas and friendship.

Community what does that mean to you? For some community is family, with a few friends. The interesting thing we found in our discussion and sharing yesterday is that most of us had moved to the region recently. (12 years me) other 3months. Only one person had grown up in Tasmania, and after many years away had returned. When I first moved here to Tasmania, I found it hard to meet people, especially since I had no children. Children open more doors in new places.
The locals were friendly very friendly but invitations to people(Tasmanians) homes never came. Of course this could be more about me than the locals..lol All my friends seem to be like myself migrants from the main island north or from overseas. This situation repeated itself with the group yesterday. In our discussion we discussed how it is more that locals have family, friendships already established, lives that need no one new necessarily to be included. They are warm friendly and established.

My chooky girls Lovely Barnevelders

This is my hen with the green blue eye

This is one of the other 3 all who have orange eyes.

So newcomers may find it hard and why newbies meet with other migrants. Not always but often. It may have more to do with Tasmania being an island, a biggish island but still an island with a small population.
In saying all this. I love Tasmania. You can tell that because I was not born here but chose to move here, and have chosen to remain here! (okay local people love the place too I know.)

When one looks at my library of self sufficiency books, vegie gardening, poultry you would imagine that I had the most amazing vegetable gardens. They are a work in progress more in my head at present but the concept is being established. Fruit trees, nut trees, chickens and some vegies are all here.
Extra water tank is here. I may not be the most successful vegie grower but things are happening and I am willing to give it a try and try again.

One is led to believe Winter, is a quite time in the garden. It seems a tad deceptive to me, mine is a very busy time when establishing one or maintaining one. Planting, pruning, building, creating, and so very tiring all the planning. I have paths to re-establish, holes still to be dug. The ground is a little hard still recent rains will help. Plants to move, and dreams to dream.

A photo of our cat he is normally very hard to get a full face shot, he is not happy~!

Worm wee to make my vegies grow

as you can see they need all the help they can

But why are my raspberries now flowering? I know we are past the winter solistice here but it seems a bit too early or late whichever way you look at it.

The calm after the storm

2010-06-19T21:23:00.000+10:00

Amazing what some real sleep and a day to oneself can do for the soul. I doing very little actually and that was ok. I left guilt behind me.

My DH had a pleasant time with his daughters. Mind you he was so happy to be home as I was to have him home. It was an unpleasant situation however solutions have been found and I am saying I need a break before it is too much. Breaks my heart to feel it is all to much at times.

My DH made a decision yesterday and said that this weekend we would be at home and have no visitors. It was an quite strange when he said this as it was like a weight lifted off my shoulders. I was girding up my mind and body for more visitors. Please do not get me wrong I like visitors and we do enjoy them. It is just that it seems to have been non stop for months now. This no visitors included family. He tells me not to feel guilty about us wanting our own time, to be together for a weekend with no one coming. So I laughingly said I would drive the car to the end of the drive pop a sign on it and leave it there for the weekend. He said lets do it. So here it is..
I added quickly an amendment that all was okay though.

We have had a lovely week with some lovely suprises. The bench that DH had begun to build for me but sadly not able to finish, arrived home, and we spent a pleasant 40mins together oiling it to protect it for the rain that was forecast for later in the evening. We were rushing as it was so gray, but we made it and the oil even dried mostly.

The beautiful timber is a local one called Huon Pine. It is a extremely slow growing timber and there sadly is not a lot of trees remaining. He also has made me a coffee table and side table.

Two hens are now moulting and my egg count is down to 1 or less a day. So I guess with a 50% reduction in the work crew the other two are doing their best.

We have been having rain which has been very needed. Full rain tanks.

Daphne is getting ready to bloom, and a friend had jonquils in her garden this week. We walked through the garden this afternoon in a short sunny break. As we walked through our Wattle tree arbour we were noticing all the blossoms developing, and all of a sudden in the sunlight we noted the fluffy blossoms of one ahead. As we approached I asked DH if he could smell the sweet smell that was coming on the breeze and sunshine? Surprisingly he could the warmth of the brief sunny break warmed the perfume..bliss.

Sun on fallen timber

Lichen growing on a dead tree in the sunshine
all in all a lovely memorable short walk about our garden with my love today. This is what living is about to me. Being able to stop, stand still looking at all we have and feeling rich and so very fortunate to live where we do. Knowing that our journey is as magic as the amazing things we have around us that nature provides, and we have harnessed. Having someone to have such times with and love, simple pleasures, mean so much.

A little time on my own

2010-06-14T14:57:00.000+10:00

It is so difficult to admit sometimes that you are just not handling things. Not coping. I had told people about me when they asked how I was "not coping very well", my response. I never asked for help I could not. I felt that if I did need help I was failing my DH.

It all went belly up on Saturday and eventually his daughters came and my DH has been away overnight and will be away for today and tonight. I pick him up for an appointment and we will come home.
I miss him, he is missing me.
I just needed to have some sleep, some time to think about nothing else, no one.

But this does not happen. Even though I slept really well undisturbed sleep so rejuvenating, I have been anxious about how my DH is going. He is with his daughters who love him dearly, but it is in a strange home, strange bed, expectations are different, he can not sit inside and smoke his pipe. He is not entirely happy but will stay as he knows how much I need this short break.

When the girls came to pick him up, I did not want him to go. I cried and sobbed, in the end he decided it was important for me. Me time.
I can not say how much I love this man. How even though I know it is okay for me to have time, how guilty I feel. For failing him.
I needed to fall apart, loose the plot before I screamed out for help.
Not the best way to do things. I hate loosing control, I hate failing at the important things in life.
I know that I have not failed I really do know this. The feeling at the time is what stops me from asking for help.
Perhaps in future I can ask for help.

It is the first of June and I have cherry blossoms?

2010-06-08T17:47:00.000+10:00

Sounds normal for this time of year, but hey I live in the Southern Hemisphere! It is just the tip of one stem, but there were some blossoms on the branch.

I picked a lovely bunch of flowers today, wall flowers, wattle,
pineapple sage,

red saliva, purple one and
lovely daisies, white and yellow centered one of my favourite flowers.
This does not look that much like a winter garden with wattles flowering.
It was the first day of WINTER down under and we are down under down under! I know it has been a mild Autumn, this proves it. Bulbs are already up and I even have some broad beans flowering. I am still getting tomatoes of a bush that is protected by a very large red flowering geranium, which is again protected on two sides by the house.

My capsicum plant has 3 tiny capsicums on it but it is the 1st day(well now its the 8th) of WINTER! What is going on? They are still hanging in there, and are slightly bigger now.

Perhaps my garden is picking up on my desire to be planting out and producing food, oh why does my body feel it is springtime here not winter..only 12 weeks till Spring (well another 4 or so for us to really be in spring).
Cabbage with borage flowers still flowering.
I still have peas to get into the garden. Sweet peas, I want to plant heaps of them this year, they are so pretty and scented. Lots of green peas, and snow peas, sugar snaps...yummo.

Okay it is official in the local newspaper today, a small article saying that the Royal Botanical Gardens of Hobart were also experiencing plants flowering and new growth throughout Autumn of plants that normally do not do this. Just glad to know it is not just my little patch that is out of whack.
Climate change is certainly present in my garden right now.

The wonders of mushroom compost...I love it!

2010-05-28T11:16:00.000+10:00

I am so fortunate to live where I do and have access to some wonderful mushroom compost. I purchased 10 bags some are shown below.

look at my little swiss browns growind

The thing is with 10 bags they grow and grow

1kg mushrooms here

Two kgs here

and still they keep growing. I
We have so much mushroom prepared and frozen now it does make me feel quite happy that I can pull out a bag and make a very quick soup or rissotto for dinner or when guests stay. We are having quite a lot of people calling in and staying due to DH illness so it helps to have lots of easy things in the freezer. As we do not have take away near us and definitely no home delivery services.

Similarly with pumpkins, sweet potatoes and carrots cheap now I am making pumpkin soup, with sweet potato and or carrot. Some I am making into a curry pumpkin soup. It can also be watered down with more stock and make a simple quick rissotto.

Quick easy meals with bread/toast/or grilled cheese on toast. Filling and warming on a cold winters night or evening.

Thinking about gardening

2010-05-20T10:29:00.000+10:00

As the northern hemisphere is getting into the prolific months of the produce garden and we in the southern hemisphere where I live are battening down the hatches and preparing for colder temps, rain, sleet, some snow and gale force winds. Today a perfect example the wind isblowing strong, the rain is coming down at almost right angles and yet when the sun shines it is lovely (as long as one is inside by the fire..lol) then the wind picks up again and rain splats the windows. The hens are hardly venturing out of their coop and the smaller birds dart quickly to the bird table and are almost blown off.
I guess when you live in the Roaring Forties it is only to be expected. I do quite like the wind. You will have to remind me that I posted this later in the winter when I am bemoaning the wind.lol

Ah now the garden. I am not sure why I seem to be in the more normal mode of get into the garden and get things done springtime mood. It just may be the house is needing quite a big sort out and I truthfully am struggling to face it. So I instead sit here procrastinating about my plans for the garden, and checking out all my faviourite blogs. (something I have not done much of lately).

I have prepared nearly all my existing fruit and nut trees for the winter during autumn. I have 9 more on order. I am looking forward to the new trees coming to see if there is any difference with the performance of the trees I purchased last year and the year before. Non of which have really thrived. Mainly due to very low rainfall the first year and too much water this year.

These new trees will be planted in the chicken run. They will be fenced off from the hens to enable them to establish themselves. They will be watered and nurtured as will be the trees that are established sort of. I am hopeful that I may get fruit of more than the cherries this year. It would be lovely to grow apricots, peach, nectarine and plums. All of which I have at least one of already. I would love to find 9 fresh road kills that I could dig into the holes for the new trees. I will have to keep an eye out and go out for drives early in the morning once the holes are dug. Putting these in deep. I have done this with one of the vegie beds that I will be using this year. (It has been dormant for a year by the time I use it again).

Kale, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower have all been planted. My cherry tomatoes have all been removed now and they were incredible providers I will put in some more in spring. I have two self sown plants that are full of larger tomatoes, but I feel that the chances of them ripening now are dwindinling. Mind you they are protected by a very large Geranium.

I have purchased more terracotta pots for using as watering into my vegie garden beds, and I may put some around the new trees and any that I transplant, as I would think that several around each would assist in development.

I have plenty of fencing wire to make protective cages for the fruit trees and will be able to pop poly pipe onto the star pickets support around them to make netting covers to keep the birds off. Oh see how my brain is working.lol

It has been quite a hard emotional roller coaster the last three months, the next few will be I would imagine worse. As we deal with my DH's cancer. He is going strong, if loosing weight and we try to keep on top of the pain. He is currently building me pelmets to keep more heat in the house for winter. He has a list of all the things he wants to do so he knows that I and his girls are looked after. He is so active up and down the ladders and of course his pain increases with the activity. He is happily doing all of this, and whilst it is difficult we as a couple are muddling along with support of family and friends. The bad days are bad and the good days are so wonderful.

At one stage I was off to my GP for anti depressants as it was getting me down. I could not get an appointment for 2 weeks, kind of felt shattered by this. The next morning dawned sunny warm and my garden was calling. 5 hours in the garden and anti depressants no longer on my mind. So my garden is my anti depressant and my life whilst hard is actually great and we are still happy with each other enjoying what ever time we have together, sharing emotions and talking planning what needs to be planned. Laughing, at times frustrated and generally living our life together in love and contentment. Dont get me wrong. I would love to have years more together. He is my best friend. It is not to be so we have the time we have and we are trying to embrace it honestly.

Now if only the house work could become my antidepressant too. Actually I know the house is adding to my stress. I am not a natural domestic goddess on the cleaning front. I am the kind of person who has a rush of energy 3or 4 times a year and all the windows sparkle, the clothes are all ironed and not a thing is out of place. The rest of the time is just keeping on keeping on..lol

I am writting now. It is almost 1pm today and I am going to log off I vow to now go and spend time getting on with the spare bedroom.

This post was written a week ago, and I forgot to post it. So here it is. The spare room is looking better!

Mountains calling Part 2

2010-04-24T08:55:00.000+10:00

We were sad to say goodbye to Cradle Mountain and begin our journey home. We had decided to take our time on the trip home, and as we had to be in Hobart for a family get together (grand daughters 7th birthday) we felt rather than get home from our holiday after a long drive and have to do another 200kms we would stay overnight in a lovely village called Oatlands. This little village has the most Georgian buildings in Australia, according to the tourist information. We came home through Mole Creek and went for a walk along this beautiful rural towns main long street. Chatting with some ladies in a community shop, we discovered that there is a beautiful creek

and gardens behind the Hotel and shop.

Not only that but it is home to platypus. Now we were lucky to see not one but two platypuses swimming and digging for bugs. Sadly I was to noisy trying to take a photo of one that was fully out of the water a

nd frightened it back in. However did get some okay shots.

I wanted to try their honey but they were closed. It was Sunday
Seems they are only open M-F. Oh well.

This is a photo of the amazing old farmers cottage we

stayed in about 5kms from Oatlands

These were the incredibly steep stairs from the top floor which fortunately we did not have to use, except to have a look at. I can not imagine how I would have managed if I had to go to the loo in the middle of the night.

The kitchen was bigger than ours at home, and how

I would have loved a brick oven like the one where the

light is shining. It was not being used

It is strange but both my DH and I said it was fine for one night but we did not feel that we would have enjoyed staying for two. Perhaps to many sad and hard times held in the walls. We had a similar experience when we stayed in an old church school that had been converted into a Self catered cottage. We both felt an overwhelming sense of relief when we left after two nights. Just wonder at what happened to the children. May have been a very harsh school.

It is always wonderful to have a few days away, but oh I love picking up the dog and cat, driving the last 20kms of our trip along the river and through the winding narrow road away from traffic, and turning into our drive way. At times I do wonder why we have a need to leave home and go anywhere else really.

Mountains Calling

2010-04-04T09:46:00.000+10:00

We have recently returned from another wonderful trip and yes this time I took our camera.
This is Mount Roland on the drive to Cradle Mountain.

We were driving climbing up the the hills from Mole Creek to Cradle Mountain when I spotted this wee little Echidna on the side of the road.

It is about 5 hours drive from our place. We stayed in a very well appointed self contained and environmental ish house in Moina called Casa Verde. Below are part of the gardens at Casa Verde.

I took two frozen prepared meals from home, just required some pasta to be cooked and heated. I had grated cheese, and bought fresh bread.

The house was wonderfully insulated and well appointed with lots of interesting books(from my perspective) and great selection of DVD's.
I took two frozen prepared meals from home, just required some pasta to be cooked and heated. I had grated cheese, and bought fresh bread. So easy, we had space, quietness, cosy warm fire no TV no Radio. We did watch a DVD or two, after our lovely days out. Mostly we read, and chatted.
We had one meal there which was very tasty and relatively well priced for being in a remote and tourist region in the high season. Moina is about 20mins drive from The Cradle Mountain National Park. Having a place to ourselves was want we needed and so the drive was not difficult, though in winter I would stay at Cradle Mountain.

This is a replica of the first house built in the Cradle Mountain area, the original was burnt. A chap called Waltheim walked in loved the area and built a house. He married and they lived up in this incrediblely remote wilderness. He opened his home up to mountain climbers and they had many visitors.

This is my photo of the first day we went to the Mountain and National Park. The view is over Dove Lake and the Boat house in the foreground.

I was lucky to get photos with no one else in the photo. It is a very popular tourist destination. In saying that it is fairly easy to get away from people. Just go for a walk be it an hour or two or for several days. This National Park is pretty amazing..ahh but aren't they all! Something positive we humans have done is to tie up these amazing places.

DH and I did a short walk as he was not up to walking far at Dove Lake as almost every direction was up a bit of a hill. We did get to the top of the first hill and were able to look back over the Boat House.

The following day well totally different story! Rain, cold and windy. It was too cold for us to move from the car park. As you can compare from the photograph above. Day 1: 25C degrees wonderful Day 2 13C degrees brrrr.

This is a close up of the Dolerite rock that makes up Cradle Mountain and other mountains in the region. Cradle Mountain and Dove Lake were formed by glacial movement and pressure.

We did a 500metre walk in a the National Park, it was a gentle walk and very pretty.. with waterfalls and lots of bird life. There had been strong winds over recent times and quite a few big old trees had fallen. It has also been very dry up in the Cradle Mountain National Park over the last few years, so tree roots are loose. When you have winds of 150km/hr+ coming through regularly, I tend to wonder that any big trees survive at all up here.

The trees may fall and change this walk, which we have done several times in the past. It does not change the feel of this walk. I love nature as even if you have seent the same thing everyday it is always slightly different.

My darling man loves mountains, any mountains. He has climbed Cradle Mountain, many other mountains and walks in Tasmania, Malaysia, UK, Switzerland and he has climbed Kilamanjaro. His spirit was revitalised and he felt a sense of wholeness. I dont know why we have not been up earlier before he became sick. Dont put off any thing that gives you peace, joy or are passionate about.

There were some bonuses however to being in the National Park on the cooler day. We saw another Echidna. This one was so not interested in us, just mosseying along doing his/her thing.

I have never seen an Echidna's foot before lol he/she was having a scratch.

They can move pretty darn quick and I was in the car driving (well I had stopped) and trying to take photos. If I had jumped out I think I would have missed this little guy completely.

Cradle Mountain is the beginning of one of the great walks in the world. The Overland Track. 5-7day work in some really amazing land. I have never done it, but several friends have had amazing treks. This photo shows the beginning of this walk from Cradle
to Lake St Claire. It has become so popular that our state government now make you book your walk so not too many people are out there at once. It was getting too busy in summer. It is a shame in my mind how we love our natural areas so much we are so at risk of spoiling them.

It is also here that you can see many wombats in the early evening coming out from their burrows to eat. I had forgotten that Wombats have pouches that the baby when small is in a pouch. I think the one below is to big to be in a pouch now.

In the National Park I saw several wombats. I was blown away by just how ignorant and silly some folk are. Here is this amazing animal, with her baby, eating and being natural. These people see them, begin to race towards them yelling at each other,...come on come on...racing over the alpine grasses, some of which if damaged can take 30years to regenerate.

Taking photos, and scarring the wombats so that mother and baby ran away. Weird that!
I and a couple of others waited patiently and relatively quietly and the mother and baby came quite close about 10 m from us, not frightened and just ate the grass.

As I was walking back along the duck boards, I spotted this not so little guy. He was right at the edge of the boards. I could have reached down and patted him. I must have watched his antics for 20 minutes. He scratched, nibbled grass, dug roots. Stretched and scratched again. Wombats have poor vision but good smell (at least that was what I was taught) so he knew I was there. He looks as if he is loosing his summer fur and growing in his winter fur..he will need it up here.

It was very sad to say Goodbye to Cradle Mountain but how very glad we were to see it like this together one more time. I feel perhaps that is one thing when someone has a terminal disease you make the time to do the things you should be doing more off. We laughed and enjoyed every experience whilst DH was unable to do the walk to see the wombats, he enjoys the videos I shot. We just do things now and enjoy them as much as we can...

The long way home.

2010-03-20T09:22:00.002+11:00

I worked a night shift for the first time in quite a few weeks recently. I decided to take a pictorial journal of what I did on the way home.

Sunrise from the windows of where I work. This would be about 6am or a bit earlier. Sadly my camera just could not do this particular cloud or the colour its true justice.

I left work at about 8:00 normally I would leave earlier, but as I had some things to do I waited and talked with my day shift colleagues for a while.

My first stop out of town was the tip shop, there are three in the Hobart surrounds. This is the one on one of my ways home.

I love stopping at the tip shop. I have purchased some amazing bargains here and some things that have been very useful in the garden and house. The dinner set we currently are using is Wedgwood and whilst is not complete, it has enough pieces for us to use and entertain with, plus it compliments my other bits and pieces. 23 pieces and only $30. I wanted to get two more plates these will cost me $25ea!

It can yield unexpected wonders or absolutely nothing. From this tip shop (both pictures) there have been one couple who have built and furnished their own home all from recycled materials. From rubbish that other folk have bought out to dump at the tip!

Can you believe the view from the tip as you leave?

These little treasures are found near one of my faviourite vegetable stalls called Meridith's it is just a shed and they have great deals on fruit and vegies. They are made out of corrugated iron, and painted. They change them around at times. There is also one of a fox, but he was elusive this day. Tasmania used to be fox free, though there are fears that they are here now. If this is true they would really decimate our wild life and compete with devils.

This is a photo of another Smithfield dog I met at The topiary mother and baby duck are just the

Meridith's on my way home. Toby is a Smithfield too. other side of the road. Pretty fun vegie market!

Below

The sign and little vegie stand under neath is an organic vegie grower, who also has alpacas. I stop here because she has great value onions and I did not have a great success with onions this season. So I buy hers and of course usually come away with some other items.

Added to our own bounty, lots of delicious, sweet, tasty cherry tomatoes and our own eggs. I picked and gathered these on my return home that day.

We do have a paradise within 100km to source our food from.

Just to let you know the four girls are all laying eggs now. My neighbours are sharing in their produce currently. I will begin to freeze some for the quieter time ahead.

Off course no long day shopping and chasing up messages after a night shift would ever be complete without a coffee from my local cafe. The Lotus Eaters. Great food made with love and incredible skill for flavour.

Zucchini Cake Recipe

2010-03-07T12:50:00.000+11:00

Zucchini And Walnut(peacan) Cake

Cook Time: 55 minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup vegetable oil
2 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla (I alwaysuse pure vanilla extract)
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 cups grated zucchini (leave skins on)
1 cup walnuts

Preparation:

Mix oil and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time beating well after each addition; blend in vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and baking soda. Add sifted dry ingredients to first mixture; alternating with grated zucchini. Fold in chopped nuts. (Batter will be a bit thin.)
Pour into greased and floured 13x9x2-inch pan. Bake at 350° for 55 minutes.

You can use less oil, I used 3/4 cup of good olive oil. I also used mixed spice instead of cinnamon. Just for a change.

This is a lovely moist cake. I slice it and freeze the slices sometimes iced other times plain.

Icing is cream cheese.

I used 1/2pack cream cheese

Juice of 1/2-1 lemon depending on your like of lemon and how much juice is in the lemon.

You can also add butter. not sure how much..sorry makes it more soft and flavoursome

One cup of icing sugar, but sometimes I use more..it just depends on how much icing I need and whether I want it thick or more runny. I beat it all together with my rotary hand mixer. Till it is creamy and fluffy.

How come I have so many zucchini's when my plants did not fruit?

2010-03-06T19:15:00.001+11:00

I was shopping at my local health food store, getting real peanut butter, just ground up peanuts..yummo! As I was leaving the lady asked me if I liked zucchini, yes was my response, I was given three lovely dark green zucchinis, not huge but good size and lovely steamed with butter and garlic. Very nice on the BBQ too.

I was chatting to my neighbour on Monday over our sort of fence, which is mostly blackberries. She offered me a zucchini, it was the size of a marrow. But so full of taste.

We had zucchini fritters with lamb stew and mashed potato and a tomato salsa that night. All I did was cut the zucchini slices a bit thicker than normal, cut them in half and dip them in a very runny batter made with cornflour, water and yogurt. Pan fried in oil shallow. (you could I guess deep fry them).Oh and these ones I topped with parmesan cheese after they were cooked.

Shows the size of the zucchini used.

I would add cummin next time I think to the batter. They were lovely and crisp on the outside and soft on the in.

I made 1 zucchini and walnut cake. I use pecans though as I am not so keen on walnut. I also ended up with six small cup cakes. I have enough zucchini to make another cake. Which I will do tomorrow and freeze it.

This is one of the cupcakes.

We went over to visit this neighbour for a drink this evening and she gave me another large zucchini, so we will have more cake frozen. I usually do a cream cheese icing on it but it is pretty fine without it too.

Men and their toys.

2010-03-06T18:40:00.000+11:00

So my DH had an appointment in Huonville. I had the dog and we drove down to Franklin (which is on the other side of the river from us). If you ever visit the Tahune Airwalk you will drive through it. They have a lovely place for camper vans to pull in by the river, it is basic but beautiful scenery. They also have an off leash area for dogs.

So Toby and I drove on down and he jumped out of the car to do what dogs do run and sniff and leave his mark/s. I walked up the side of the river aways and noticed these sail boats skimming along rapidly, only there was no wind and they were very small.

Then I noticed the men with the remote controls in their hands.

I sat and watched for a while, taking in the concentration and stress evident on some of the mens faces it was serious stuff racing remote control boats.

Just looking about the rivers edge whilst walkind with Toby

Looking back towards where we live

On the drive home

How can it be Autumn already?

2010-03-02T21:35:00.000+11:00

It is not possible that it is Autumn. It has come around so fast. However we have been having lovely warm days and quite cool no cold nights for us at this time of year. We had a fire on over the weekend all day. However this week is set to see temps warm up again. Mind you I feel a wimp talking about cold when I look at blogs in the Northern Hemisphere where record levels of snow have been falling, I really have nothing to say about cold. lol

On a drive home from Cygnet (our little village closest to us) two days ago I saw so many beautiful scenes and end of summer and colours that evoke cooler weather. These rose hips just too attractive to not photograph.

The grape leaves have begun to change into their Autumnal colouring after the couple of quite cold nights we had

My DH's eldest daughter bought me a bunch of these the other day

such an amazing colour. I am not sure what they are called,

they last for ages as cut flower

I have been getting some delicious cherry tomatoes, and runner beans.

The summer garden has not been a success as previously mentioned. I am delighted to have any vegies coming from the garden.

My beautiful chooks are laying two eggs a day at present and my youngest one is finally looking as if her combs and wattles are beginning to grow. I think I have two girls laying good eggs firm shells and lovely dark colours as Barnevelders should be. I found an egg two days ago that was thin shelled and very flexible and fragile, it was also very pale.

My four Barnevelders having their monthly worming treat.

This is one that weighs in at 43gms and

has this amazing speckle appearance.

Which you can see more clearly in the close up

below.

I went out a bit later in the day when their had been a raucous lot of clucking to be able to take this photo. No other chookie was about so I think she may have been singing out to celebrate, or is it moaning from the exertion?

Yes that is a golf ball. It is my fake egg.

Seems to be working.

It is amazing what I see sometimes when I walk out the back door. I was watching a Kookaburra sitting on a branch, and I decided to go and grab my camera. He was sitting watching something in the undergrowth and just after I arrived back and took this shot he swooped down. There was a rustle in the long dry summer grass, up he flew with a small rabbit in his mouth. I was not quick enough to capture it, well the one photo I managed was just a bit of his wing.

Away from home

2010-03-02T13:26:00.002+11:00

We were away at the amazing east coast of Tassie in a delightful town called Bicheno last week. We put our lovely Burmease in a cattery, but Toby could come with us. The place we stayed had a five paw rating for Life Be In It Dog Friendly Accommodation. It was called the Aspley Holiday Unit.http://www.apsleyholidayunit.com.au/
It is a little way out of town about 3km, but really fantastic if you are travelling with your dog, or want to holiday with your dog.
The property is fenced off so your dog can run about the large 1/4-1/2 acre yard which is full of native trees and has views off the ocean in the distance and you can hear the sound of waves.
The beaches in Bicheno are fantastic and the largest one with its lovely safe swimming and long stretching beach is dog friendly. How Toby loved it running along the sand and into the water. Last time we were in Bicheno he lost his dog collar and tags, we got home and several days later someone had found them, gone to the trouble of contacting our council and sending it home to us. We did pop in and say thankyou a few weeks later and pay for the cost of mailing it. This time we lost a fantastic brand new frisbee, last seen heading on its way to New Zealand. lol Toby just would not go in to the water far enough to get it. I began to the water was lovely and clear and warm. I waded in (having taken off my trousers) and about 4 metres out found myself in water too my under arms. The frisbee was still quite a way out..lol I can see why our dog, who loves water but is a little reluctant to actually swim far was not keen to go out.
You can learn more about this delightful sea side town on these sights.
http://www.discovertasmania.com/destinations/east_coast/bicheno
http://tourtasmania.com/content.php?id=bicheno
There is also a fantastic large deck that can be closed entirely off. We left Toby there for several hours he was safe and secure.
We went to an amazing animal park, www.natureworld.com.au just 2km down the road from where we were staying. I am so annoyed that I forgot my camera, as you would have loved the three young Tasmanian Devils that were chasing each other over the two peices of meat. These and several other pairs that live here are tumor disease free. Two wedge tail eagles, who had been hurt and not able to live in the wild anymore, but they were not in an enclosed cage. The devils and young wombat sleeping on his back stole my heart.
I must admit I used to think devils were horrible creatures, until many years ago DH and I went to a wild life park close to home; now closed due to all the very expensive extra insurances they had to have saddly. Seems Australians are going down the US road of sueing for anything and accepting little responsiblity for yourself or simple accidents that are truely no one fault. I do not mean any offence to any Americans who read this! Just my opinion on a very sad state of affairs when beaurocracy has made it very hard for long standing businesses to keep going due to more and more regulations and insurance requirements. For me it is a very sad comment on our society and leaders. (I now step down off my soap box, brush myself off and move on).

New Arrival

2010-02-17T13:02:00.000+11:00

My first egg. It is beautifully oval in shape with almost smooth

surface. It weighs in at a tiny 30 gms

The egg on the left is mine note the darker shell

not as dark as some Barnevelders but ok for a first egg.

The other brown egg is from a local egg supplier.

It is a little like your birthday, you know you have presents coming, you do not know what they may contain. I have to wait until my DH is up to share the cracking of our first egg. To check how thick the shell is, how firm the white and how golden the yolk...
drum roll ....

There is a blood spot and a little white ring area on top right

Does anyone have any ideas what the white ring may be?

Look at this lovely fresh egg, sitting upright almost on its white. Only problem is the shell is quite thin. Is this normal for newly laying chickens? Any help greatly appreciated.

My Kale comes with extras

2010-02-15T22:30:00.000+11:00

Last night I was sitting out on the deck watching three dragon flies swooping and flying after insects. So pretty especially when the last vestiges of sunlight hit their wings. I did try to get a photo but no luck just blurs.
It was a lovely sultry evening, and today is amazing and much warmer than forecast.

This photo on the left shows my scarlet runner peas,

my rocket and mesculan lettuces flowering and below are my tomatoes.

I watered the vegie garden, and was delighted to see this lovely little frog nestled in my one and only kale plant. He was equally surprised to see me I feel.

I am hoping that he may be making a meal of any caterpillars, snails or slugs devouring my kale.

This is my youngest chook. She just seems to be so much behind the other girls in her growth. I am not sure what is happening with her. Hmmm I think I may be repeating myself.

I have to share with you that a well meaning colleague told me how she was using shredded paper in her laying boxes. So in my wisdom I thought why not give it a try! Hmmmm I swear these two are saying we did not do it....

Why is it always the youngest gets the blame...

I speak from personal experience here..lol mind you in my case it was so often true. It was I that done it..lol

So I now have a chicken run covered in shredded paper, and I will not be using it again. Luckily the girls have succeeded in not only spreading the paper, they have also taken it upon themselves to reorganise the lovely pile of straw, manure and bits removed from their coop. I had put in the corner of their run to let it break down and form compost. Well know it is going to rot all over their run...sigh. Just hope it does not rain before I can rake it all up and fence it off.

Last but not least just a little oddity..

On the way into town today we were met with this lovely traffic light. Which made me laugh, as we are 8km from nearest village, and well there are just so many cars at this very dangerous intersection.

Ahhh but it was a glorious day and yes my windscreen is tinted.

Back to garden and planning for winter.

2010-02-14T20:52:00.000+11:00

After almost 40ml of rain the other day, we have almost full rain water tanks, and when this is your sole source of water it is a pretty wonderful feeling. My usual way of celebrating this is to have a lovely long bath. Yes tonight will be a lovely soak in the tub. The other wonderful thing that has happened in the time since is the raspberry canes are looking much healthier, and already there are new shoots of green in the dry grass. It is a very unusual situation to beginning February (often our hottest month) with so much water.
Tahitian limes in a pot. Think I will have to grow a lemon in a pot too. sigh
The tomatoes are beginning to produce. However I do not seem to have any large tomato varieties growing. Where did they go? Oh well cherry tomatoes produce for much longer. The scarlet runners are the only beans that have done anything much in the self care vegie patch.

No eggs from my beautiful girls as yet. It is one of the exciting things waiting, waiting, waiting, for out first egg. It is also one of the most frustrating..lol

Two of my girls seem to be waiting for something too! Eggs maybe?

Publish Post

I have picked just over 1kg of blackberries today, so we will be eating some fresh tonight, and I will be making sauce and or some jam in the coming week or so. Well if my energy levels rise. I guess our life recently has taken its toll on me not just DH.

I have been thinking about he winter garden and have decided to plant some brassicas in our flower garden beds. Will fill the empty gaps left by the end of summer growth. Need to add some manure and mushroom compost and fingers crossed the wallabies wont lay on them. I have a bed almost ready to go in the vege patch for some too. So much for this year being one of increasing using our own produce, aaahhh but it is early still only February just have to remind myself of this.

Ahhhh home is bliss!

2010-02-06T00:10:00.000+11:00

Thankyou for your support, comments and prayers in respect to the last post they are very appreciated by us both.Oh it is so great to be home, just a little up date we have been travelling to Hobart for radiation treatment and now have no more appointments in Hobart YIPEEEE! This will be our first weekend and week with no visitors, no appointments just my DH and me, well Toby, the cat and four chooks as well..lol
So the garden has really suffered this summer so far.The hope chest seedlings well most have fallen along the hard season due to weather and absences. Being away so much and dealing with such emotional situation has seen not much action in the vegie garden, nor the garden in general. Daisies giving up, salvia's so much and the rabbits have been breeding so lots of things nibbled.
I have discovered we have a couple of wallabies living in the bush that is part of our land just out the front door(well it is really back of the house) Every morning I hear them hop away when I go out side and often when no one has been out that way for a few hours you hear them. It is a great place as they have the dam and protection. Toby does not chase them.

It has been unconditionally hot here. We have had 8 days in the last two weeks over 30d Celcius which is very weird. So many of the plants I had put in have not survived as I have not been home to water them often enough. Fortunately the chooks survived, the heat two days were over 38 clost on 100 degrees farenheit.
We had no rain for the whole month of January. Nights have been very warm for us too. 22d C at 7am yesterday! YUK!

Toby watching the formation of the storm, he was so hot that we put wet towels over him and I had to spray the chooks with water to keep them going yesterday. Such a distressing thing to see your girls panting I kept checking on them to make sure they were drinking and almost bought them to the house to put them in the bathroom to cool off.
The storm clouds get darker and darker, day becomes night...

The storm broke and the sound of heavy rain filled not only the rain water tanks, but my heart. I had watered the garden in the morning and knew that the ground would absorb the moisture and not just let it run off.

The raspberry canes just may survive to give me some Autumn raspberries.
The grass was so long and so very dry that it made the place look such a mess, when combined with the two wattle (acacia) trees we had to have removed and all the debri that was lying around, it was just too much for me to tackle. We have some lovely kids as neighbours and the 3 boys worked solidly for a couple of hours moving all the heavy timber and branches. What a difference. I paid them as I would have a man. One of the boys was hoping to have enough money to buy an ice cream, his delight on his face when he realised that he could now buy a new game for his Wii? was reward enough..lol.
We came home on Wednesday to find one of our lovely neighbours had been over and mown this extra long grass, where the felled trees had been lying, and around the berry bed and near the house. Such a genorous and unexpected gift.

Basil I just do not seem to have any luck growing it. The planter I had started actually looks smaller than when it was first put in. I can not work out what I do wrong!
In the picture on the right there is a pink label and just under it is a tomato plant that is not growing.
Anyone have any ideas what it is I am doing wrong?

Fortunately my French tarragon is growing really well this season. I transplanted the dormant plant during winter out of the garden into a polystyrene box and it sits on the deck in full sun(as does the basil).My little watering gnomes help to keep the roots moist.

Look past the sweet pea flowers and you will see the freshly mown straw, it sure is not grass..lol.

Many of my flowers also have suffered and our beautiful Happy Wander which climbs over the front fence of the deck is dying. Wether this is due to too much winter spring rain or what. There is one part of it that is greenish so I hope some of it will survive as it looks so lovely in flower in winter. It will be interesting to see what grows back after this summer rain. It has revived my need to get into the garden and sow some winter seeds.

A momement in time

2010-01-20T15:01:00.000+11:00

Life has been very busy here, as my DH is not great he has been diagnosed with cancer, and it has spread to his bones. We only found out as he had a cough which lasted for a few weeks, with a viral infection, so he was on antibiotics. The course of antibiotics finished and he had pain in his side, GP thought strained ribs or fracture so off for Xray, only to find a growth in his lungs. This was discovered to be Cancer three days before Christmas. So we have been up and down to Hobart all over the Christmas New Year period for numerous tests, scans, and biopsies, now we know that it can not be operated on, which was an option but having it in his bones makes this null and void. Chemotherapy is not an option either, for which he is grateful. So on Tuesday we go back to Hobart and begin talking with a Radiologist oncologist? He will be having radiation therapy to minimise pain. We know that this is about managing the symptoms and not a cure. It has all happened so quickly that it has really taken my breath away. My DH is my best friend, we have been together for nine years this month. We have a wonderful lifestyle, our relationship is almost beyond description. We share many things in common, we talk about everything, we do fight...(I have a temper),  we love each other and tell each other often throughout the day we laugh a lot have fun and enjoy silences too That may be hard for people who know me to believe..lol. If I am away from home we speak on the phone, every day sometimes more than once. We have been fortunate that we have been able to be together so much. I work generally one or two shifts a week. Which compared to most married couples working 5 days a week means we have spent 3 times as long together so we have actually been together almost 20 years in time. We are content and feel so rich with all we have especially each other.
He loves me just as I am, not wanting to change me, well he loves red lipstick, long hair and fringes, me I don't like beards so a good compromise, and red lipstick looks okay on me.lol   There is something so amazing about being accepted totally for you, as you are.

I count myself so fortunate to have met him, we are both philosophical about this journey we are taking together now, and with his daughters. The roller coaster of emotions overwhelm me on a daily sometimes hourly basis. We hide nothing from each other and have said the same to his girls. That we don't want anyone to feel they have to be strong for us, or for us to be strong for anyone else. When he holds me in his arms as I sob I feel it is the safest place in all the world. When I am kissing him, or just hugging him because it is such a lovely thing, it feels so good and safe. When we sit in our chairs reading or watching TV and his hand reaches out to take mine. Such great feelings of love togetherness, these have always been part of our relationship because touch and warmth are so important. Communicating is so important, listening to each other is so important. When I go up to him and just kiss him as he reads or has his cup of tea, ahh what bliss.
We go for a walk everyday, we sit out on our deck watching the eagles, the water, the chooks, have a wonder about the garden and feel so content and appreciative for what we have had, what we have now and our deep abiding love for each other. We both have a great sense of humour

If I knew what I know now when we met I would still choose to take this path, with him , as my life has been enriched as he says his has with our relationship. We continue to experience new things with each other, ie I took him through his first ever automatic car wash a little while ago..now that is an exciting date..lol

Do I share this with people this very personal journey, or just keep it to ourselves, a decision not easy. I feel that some of you have got a feel for my DH through my writing. It is funny when life is challenging you, and the person you love most in the world. I guess you can either close down and bear it all alone. You can wallow in the misery, and fear, or you can take it one day at a time, accepting the emotions that come charging out with no control, knowing that in one day you may sob your heart out, but also laugh heartedly, that you will sit watching the beauty about you sharing it together. See the love in both of your eyes. Am I fearful of the road ahead, off course, I am. However I am also so aware that I have so much more with this wonderful man than many many people ever have. I am so grateful and appreciative. There is another way to look at this journey. We have time and knowledge that so many do not get to share. My Dh is a lot older than I am, and he has had a life of amazing experiences, and will have more. It seems to me that sharing having time to share must make this journey easier than if one day he was here and then he was gone.   Have we given up hope, no, we are realistic, grounded and far more aware of how things are than many people.   The radiation may stop the pain, but it will not be aimed at the primary cancer. We have time, how much is unknown but believe me we have never taken our time together for granted and will not be now. We are so blessed.

I will continue to write my blog, and attempt to keep my garden, with some help. It has got away from me over the last month, amazing how weeds grow without any water!

Lifes journey....complete

2010-01-02T10:55:00.001+11:00

As I was sitting here this morning, my phone rang and as we are on dial up, I kind of said a few comments as I was booted off the computer and answered the phone.

It was one of our neighbours (our road is a lovely community of caring, loving people), to let us know that her mother, who used to live over the road from us and is in a nursing home, had died contentedly on New Years Eve. This amazing lady Jean, was 92 she had been an educator, a writer, and a warm and supportive friend to my DH and than to me. She had spent many years in a wheel chair but was independent as much as possible and she carried a strength about her and knew her mind. I respected and cared for her greatly.
When I think of all that Jean has seen in her lifetime it takes your breath away. The world has really changed rapidly in the last 92 years.

The night Jean died was New Years Eve,A full moon night a Blue Moon and here in the southern parts of Tasmania we had a lightening storm with both sheet and fork lightening that went on for several hours surpassing the man made New Years Fireworks. The brightness of the sky from the light of the moon when the clouds and storm passed was as bright as early morning as she left her earthly body. We are sad that she is not with us any longer but she is young again, and her spirit, her love and words remain with us.
We will have her funeral and then have been invited to a celebration of her life. There is always an edge of saddness for a person who dies, but for such a lady, who lived such an amazing life, we can not mourn but be joyous for all she was!

Happy 2010

2009-12-31T17:49:00.000+11:00

It is kind of weird being one of the first countries in the world to celebrate New Years Eve. We are having a very quite New Year at home. It is so hot here today, my thermometre is registering 38C it is under the front porch which is east facing(southern hemisphere sun rises) so coolest side of the house. Very windy and we are all flaked out. I have been spraying the chooks with water and ensuring they are okay. Though at one point thought I may have to bring them into the house..lol but the temp has dropped ever so slightly and they are out chasing bugs. Lots of water.
Dog and cat are both hot poor Toby has a double coat, so very cold bones, and ice blocks. for hiim. The cat was not too keen.

Off the track there such a hot end to 2009, and with the wind, I do wonder if the New Years eve fireworks in Hobart will go ahead. It is a busy culmination down here as we have the Sydney to Hobart Yacht race finish and a large food festival called The Taste (taste of Tasmania) there is also a large concert on called the Falls Festival over the weekend. camping and partying. So I hope those attending have kept fluids and coolish.

Our year here has been an interesting one. I read Mona's blog Wsprsweetly of Cottages
http://wsprsweetlyofcottages.blogspot.com/2009/12/fresh-new-yearand-joy.html, and her words describe how I find blogging. She puts it into such great words I can not add to it.

I have been blogging for a bit over a year now, and have found so many people out there with similar interests, but whoose lives are so different. I appreciate all who share parts of their stories.
Around the world we have had major fires, floods, and life has been harder for many around the world due to financial crisis, poverty, famine, war, increases in AIDs, abduction, and the increasing numbers of people forced to work as slaves, weather to make some money or because they have been forced too.

I am so thankful for the lifestyle I have and am creating, that I have the choice, and freedom. That I am rich beyond measure. Life is throwing some curly bits at us recently but we will take it one day at a time.

My resolution for the year is to stop worrying about the small stuff. To do what I can to aid others.
To continue working in my gardening creating a supply of vegetables, fruit and eggs, maybe some meat, and nuts. To support local businesses and buy seasonally.

Thankyou for following my journey and sharing yours.

A little bit of everything.

2009-12-27T21:12:00.000+11:00

Mince pies as I mentioned in the previous post, this is just to show that I do not actually make them as pies, no more pasties style for me..lol much easier when making so many.

Now onto the vegetable garden. I have finally put all my seed chest seedlings into the vegetable garden. There were some that did not make it. The melons all seemed not to have survived my being away and I have not had the chance to resow them. May just put some seeds in and see, has anyone ever succeeded with this?

The tomatoes are my self seeded ones I think that theymay be Tommy Toes, which would be terrific. I

This is the bed that I have been putting zucchini's and cucumbers.I am letting the beetroot and carrot that are in it go to seed. There is a bean that has grown must have dropped a seed. You can see just see the terracotta pots that I have sunk into the ground for watering, like a water well. Covered with mulch.

This is my last attempt at basil. I sowed seeds, I put in seedlings into the vegetable garden, and none. So on the deck in a polystyrene box. Fingers crossed. I planted some sage, my sage from last year has died? Thyme and a lemon thyme have gone in. Pumpkins Turkish Turban, and a butternut pumpkin, chili, cucumber. One tomato unknown variety in the box with the basil.

The beans are doing well flowering with lovely scarlet flowers. This is my first bed I planted with tomatoes, and they have romped ahead. I have flowers and the aubergine is flowering as well. Things are going well.
The girls are out free ranging amongst the hazel nuts. They are growing so well and seem to be happy. Toby is not going in as much as we have resorted to putting him on a long lead so he can move around but not go into the chook run.

Christmas from Down Under's Down under..

2009-12-26T11:06:00.001+11:00

Season Greetings Everyone.
It is Boxing day here in Australia, after a delightful Christmas spent with family and friends in Hobart, not too hot, but beautiful azure blue skies, and a breeze blowing over the Derwent River. Saddly it was not clear but very hazy.
I awoke having had family issue need for mince pies, 5 dozen made, and 2.5 dozen eaten! OMG. My DH loves them and told the kids that they were only for decoration. That he knew how many were there and well of course no one took any notice. My brandy butter was almost too intoxicating. Mind you it went pretty fast onto plum puddings.lol Little Grand daughter loved the Toblerone mousse.
I also made a lovely mango, rockmelon, cucumber, salad with spring onion greens, garlic and balsamic vinegar Yummo went brilliantly with ham and turkey.

I was so busy having such a lovely time eating trout, home cooked ham, turkey, salads with mango, rockmelon, mushrooms and rice, new potatoes (pinkeyes) and enjoying the company of those we love. Saddly not with my side of the family but knowing they were having a very pleasant time in their homes.

For my northern friends, Austraila kind of closes for the rest of December to early -mid January now. Hope you do not need a solicitor, a specialist doctor, accountant, many other businesses take the time from Now through to at least 4 th january off.
No photos today. Just wishes for you all to have a safe, happy, and contented holiday season.

Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat...

2009-12-21T16:45:00.000+11:00

Summer Garden the fox gloves are finishing, Calfornian Poppies are looking great with the white daisies. The holly hock is flowering again, but everything will need a drink tonight when it cools off. I have mulched most beds and that has been a huge help with moisture retaining, I succombed and used sugar cane mulch.

There is something wonderful about getting my camera back. I feel a greater sense of being able to truly share what is happening in my world.

Garlic is harvested and some is plaited, others still require drying. Some was at risk of going mouldy so has been separated into cloves and will be put into olive oil and also I think I will try my hand at pickled garlic. It would be such a waste to loose any.

I have harvested 173 bulbs of garlic whole, and 10 or more that I have had to separate into cloves to be used now and to go into oil and or pickled garlic. This is 100% return on the single cloves I planted way back in March. Perhaps a bit too early. The mounding of them helped immensely, especially with all the winter rain and more recent rain we have had. I am thrilled with the success of my garlic!

I made strawberry jam yesterday. Sadly not from my own strawberries. I was fortunate to buy 2kg for $5 so purchased 4kg. So strawberry jam that can be made into chili and strawberry, strawberry sauce. I love it!

When you look at the amazing colour of the strawberry jam,(which I had to take a photo in the sunlight to show its beautiful colour). I am a strange kind of a woman, as I prefer these to Rubies..I told you it was strange..lol

The following are photos of my vegie patch where I have put my terracotta pots with lids as watering devices. They seem to be working really well. The lettuces have thrived near one. Tomatoes are doing well. It is quite strange I grew some of them from seeds and succumbed to buying a couple of seedlings from Diggers heritage Seed company at the local hardware shop nursery. They were more established than my seedlings. Interestingly enough one of my seeds has caught up. The others are doing okay. The pot in the foreground is meant to have some dill in it but looks like the birds or slugs have devoured them. Oh and can anyone tell me how you can have a potato grow in a space where you have not had potatoes for three/four years, and suddenly you have some? That is the large plant in the background.

My beans in the garden are hanging on so far with the really bizzare temperature extremes we have been experiencing. Last Wednesday it was 36C than Thursday was 11C, with a forecast of snow on the highlands for Friday.. Ahhh Tasmania.

The chooks are growing and looking so beautiful, three of them are developing their combs, one is obviously younger she still is just getting her comb.

Two of the girls have wattles starting and going red. In these photos you can see how beautiful their markings are becoming.

Toby is a bit too much for the girls, he works them, trying to round them up. Some of them ignore him eventually but one and I think it is the younger one is harassed and flies and flurries about. So Toby chases her.

My DH believes we will not get any eggs. sigh. He is being kept out of the hens run as much as we can. He does worry about the girls if he does not see them.
The others do not seem to be perturbed most of the time, just scratch and lie in the sunshine. How I love seeing them with their wings up getting sun under them. I am falling for my chooky girls. They are delightful to watch and listen too.

I have been perusing many of my northern blogs friends blogs. My breath has been taken away with the lovely snow scapes that they have. (not so keen on the driving conditions) and who knows we in the south of Tasmania may still have some snow for Christmas. Not normal though, so I always feel kind of strange singing Christmas Carols about snow and cold etc. I am including here the words of a wonderful Australian Christmas Carol that I love to hear and sing.

Six White Boomers (a boomer is a Kangaroo)

By Rolf Harris & John D. Brown

(Introduction)
Early on one Christmas Day, a Joey Kanga-roo,
Was far from home and lost in a great big zoo.
Mummy, where's my mummy, they've taken her a-way,
We'll help you find your mummy son, hop on the sleigh.

Chorus:
Six white boomers, snow white boomers,
Racing Santa Claus through the blazing sun.
Six white boomers, snow white boomers,
.. On his Aus-tra-lian run.

Verse: Up beside the bag of toys, little Joey hopped ,
But they had'nt gone far when Santa stopped.
Un-harnessed all the reindeer and Joey wondered why,
Then he heard a far off booming in the sky.

Chorus: Six white boomers ...

Pretty soon old Santa began to feel the heat,
Took his fur-lined boots off to cool his feet.
Into one popped Joey, feeling quite OK,
While those old man kangaroos kept pulling on the sleigh.

Chorus: Six white boomers ...

Joey said to Santa, Santa, what about the toys,
Aren't you giving some to these girls and boys.
They've all got their presents son, we were here last night,
This trip is an extra trip, Joey's special flight.

Chorus: Six white boomers ...

Soon the sleigh was flashing past, right over Marble Bar,
Slow down there, cried Santa, it can't be far.
Come up on my lap son, and have a look around,
There she is, that's mummy, bounding up and down.

Chorus: Six white boomers ...

Well that's the bestest Christmas treat that Joey ever had,
Curled up in mother's pouch all snug and glad.
The last they saw was Santa headed northward from the sun,
The only year the boomers worked a double run.

Chorus: Six white boomers ...

A Joey is a baby Kangaroo
Marble Bar is one of the hottest and most isolated towns in Australia

Our neighbours had a road Christmas BBQ yesterday, and what a wonderful afternoon evening it was. We ate chatted, drank, the weather was warm and skies blue, a cardigan or sloppy jo was necessary as the sun set, but we adjourned inside and watched the native animals come and eat the grass, bettongs, wallabies, bandicoots, and paddymelons. Just outside where we were sitting with the doors open. Our neighbour hood which is about 8homes all up over 1.5km distance is a lovely caring and sharing community. It is one of the great joys of living in a rural setting for me. So warm and helpful. I ask someone do they know someone who is electrician or plumber, and usually someone comes up trumps for me.

Summer harvesting has begun..

2009-12-12T16:38:00.000+11:00

It is cool and very windy down in the Huon Valley, with a possibility of showers. It has been like this most of the last week.
I harvested all my garlic ( I know I was going to leave it till the summer solistice, it was just to wet and warm at times, I was afraid it would begin to go mouldy) and I am very happy with the results. I hope to be picking up my camera on Monday so will be able to return to photos as well as my words. I have over 200 head of garlic, some are small, but will still taste lovely. Majority of it is a good size. So I will have cloves to plant next season, and a lot to use for us. This was a sucessful year for garlic.

We have had a harvest of just over 10kgs of broad beans, and we ate nearly all of them. I have some pods drying for seed next year, and I will buy the red flowering seed varitey to plant as well for next season. So this was a sucess story aswell.

I am very happy with my flowerpot garden so far. I have flowers on some of the tomatoes already and all are growing well. Mind you the same is true of the self seeded one, though they are smaller but very healthy.

I picked some strawberries both my red ones, and my white variety, in fact I had a lovely handful of red currants, jostaberries and a few raspberries, along with the strawberries. It was so good since I grew them all! For me that is being a success.

The beans in the vegie garden are growing and some in a pot on the deck are flowering, they are scarlet runners. They have lots of flowers on them. I must have got very carried away with planting seeds. As in this pot is a star jasmine, and I added sweet peas, which we have been getting quite a lot of flowers off. I also have some violets growing, not planted by me? Then I noted I have beans..lol. My DH wonders if anyother things are going to turn up!

My snow pea and sugar snap also in a pot on the deck is flowering and giving pods, just a few every day. Added to salads it is enough.

The chooks are growing and getting used to Toby. There is one whose comb and wattles are begining to go red and grow, my understanding means that this chook is heading towards egg laying. The next one is a bit behind this one, and the other two girls well their combs are not very noticeable at present. I estimate I may begin to get at least one egg in the next 2-3 weeks. Fingers crossed. The Chooky TajMahal has had to be rearranged as I realised that the girls jump of their roosts into the laying boxes the way I had it set up! Not a good idea at all. Unless scrambled egg is my intention.

It must be almost Christmas, as my DH has been requesting mince pies, (fruit mince) which I make for him as a special thing at Christmas. I used to make them as a pie, but now just roll out the pastry and use a glass or biscuit cutter in a circle shape, I fill teaspoon of mince on one half, fold the other side over and Wallah Christmas Fruit Mince pasties. Much easier to do, less pastry, less fat, not less taste! Quick and easy compared to making pies with lids.

2009-12-05T13:31:00.000+11:00

I do miss not having a camera, my neighbour has been great in lending me hers, however not keen to borrow it too often, I value our friendship!.lol

Okay I have begun my vegie garden with the sunken terracotta pots (no holes) that I purchased some time ago. They have been dug into the bed and the saucers have become there lids. I mulch over the lids when I fill the up. The first two weeks they have been working well, as in I filled them and the tomato seedlings, beans and aubergine are surviving. This week we have had 37mls of rain so I have not needed to refill them. So far I only have organised one of my beds this way. I had to cover this bed with hessian as the temperatures during the day and at night have been somewhat cold. We have been having a fire in the house for a few nights a couple without and again needed on last night. It is summer down here truely..lol
It does mean that I have still to finish putting my other seedlings out. They look healthy and happy so hopefully this week.

The chooks are settling in well, and one hopes that at sometime Toby will stop rounding them up. He does not do it all the time, and they ignore him often, but everyso often I look out the kitchen window and he has them all going round and round the silver birch. They pop into the chook taj mahal and out the other side or just to escape him at times. The two that are bigger have tried to let him know that they want to be left alone, by pecking at him. The smaller two just flap and run often, so of course he chases them and rounds them up.
They are just begining to get the redness in their wattles and combs, they are about 13-15 weeks now and how delightful they are. They are getting their full plumage now and the Barnevelders pattern is really lovely. I love sitting in the sun stroking one they feel so soft, and the soft noise they make as they sit is beautiful. I also love it when they lay in the sun with a wing up!

I noted raspberries on my vines today, not quite ripe so I have netted them a bit.
My cherries are hopeless this year! I went out to net them but the birds had basically taken most and theyare still green, there were a lot that had not developed correctly either. I am putting it down to our weather and perhaps shock from when the tree was removed that was quite close to them.

I have been getting some strawberries every day, just a good handful, as I am the only one that eats them apart from the lizards and snails, it is good. I also had some lovely sugar snap peas the other day. Morning tea consisted of strawberries and sugar snaps on the deck with a cup of chai.

The broad beans are nearly finished and have been a terrific crop over 10kgs. yum!

I pulled some of the garlic on Monday as the leaves were almost dead as Toby had jumped on them, and as we were expecting more rain was concerned that they would get water inside and begin to rot. Wonderful and I will have photos hopefully next posting. (camera I hope will be back end of next week)

I went to the local herb and alternative therapy market last weekend. The weather was lousy but I was able to buy some horse raddish and other herbs, mostly for the chook run. So they all have to have beds made and be put in, or I may put the wormwood in a large pot and place it near the Taj Mahal, to keep flies away.
The others will go into a bed or two, and be fenced off until they are big enough to cope with the girls in and about them.

My kiwi fruit is flowering well one is, the other has buds, as they both have to flower to cross pollinate for fruit I am really hoping that very soon the other one's buds will open so fruit is on its way.

My passionfruit has gone downhill, and I am going to buy another. If I can get one that is not grafted I may try that, or I just may get two. One grafted and one not, and compare them. I have decided these will go along the out side of the chook run fence.
Well cool, wet and windy here in tassie. I am not complaining as water tanks are full, things are green and growing.

Blue tongue lizard and garden

2009-11-26T18:32:00.003+11:00

Life is getting back to normal here in Tassie, what with being away from home for 10days and coming home to a garden that had gone beserk, grass over 1m tall, foxgloves taller than us, and shrubs that now made it very difficult to walk on the very overgrown paths. Ahhh gardening never go away in a good spring...lol!
The paths that I had been slowly clearing over winter when possible and early spring, well I wonder why I even bothered.

The difference between two photos is one on left the day I left, one on right day 10 days later.

My DH was checking his new fences, which he with only a small help from me put in all on his own. (How proud I am of his achievement). He came to me and said I think there is a snake caught in one of the fences. Now all snakes in Tasmania are poisonous. With a little trepidation I walked over to have a look. Turned out, thankfully it was a blue tongue.

You can see in this photo where it is still swollen.

We have seen a blue tongue in the garden since this, and it may be this one. I am sure a blue tongue is responsible for stealing our strawberries, hmm not sure if I am okay with it..lol. I just love the fact our garden is such a fantastic habitat and birds and critters live here and share our garden. We get the delightful antics of the swallows and swifts. The blue wren and his harem. The lovely red robins. Little finches, and the parrots. Frogs croak at night and have even climbed our deck windows in the chase for bugs. We have not seen our echidna for a while and I do hope it is still about.

Pink Flamingo rose. My roses this year are looking fantastic.

My Mr Lincoln is still small but has buds and the perfume ohh

I have two other red roses both highly perfumed.

Daisies, California poppies and nigella seedlings which have now begun to flower.
I am lucky that my neighbour has very kindly let me borrow her digital camera to take these photos as mine is off being repaired.
We have picked over 8kgs of broad beans and still have some on the plants. I have picked about 1/2kg strawberries but have to keep trying to beat the blue tongues. Why is is you think ahhh that one will be ready in the morning, you go to pick it and there is only a part of it still there!..lol
Our cherry trees this year are very disapointing. Hardly any cherries on them.

I have had to replace the nectarine tree that I put in winter before as it did not survive, and thought the new nectarine was going down the same pathway. I am so thrilled as it is leafing up beautifully. My only fruit tree out of 9 that has fruit on it is a golden gage plum. This was bought for the pollinator of the green gage..so we may get some plums.
The hazlenuts are looking great. My almond is not doing a thing, it is still alive..but.

I hope to have more photos soon, to share.

My hope chest has began to be planted out. With the death in the family and being on the mainland things got behind.
I have dug into the tomato and bean bed some of my terracotta pots and they are working really well. I can tell how moist the soil is and only water now the seedlings are bigger when the pot is empty. I fill the pot and give the seedlings a bit of a drink.
I have still to get other seedlings in but they are looking great and my hope is that this weekend they will be in.

The silver beet has gone to seed and I will have many seedlings sprout, I have brassicas growing..think they are the brussel sprouts I put in ages ago..hmm will have to wait and see what occurs.
I have several myster plants too that have sprung up in the vegie plot. Along with seedling tomatoes, which are cherry and pear ones. So it is begining to look very positive down here in Tassie.
Happy Gardening all.

Life and death

2009-11-19T23:40:00.000+11:00

Been off line for a while, we had a death in the family, my step dad, not really close but it did involve travelling to spend time with my mother on the mainland. So I am hoping that I will be able to be back on and with more to share.

Hope Chest is full of hope...

2009-10-31T21:24:00.001+11:00

The Hope Chest has taken a bit of a battering, first lot of seeds were knocked over by my DH accidentally...

Second lot well a kind neighbour was looking after them for me whilst we went away on our holiday....

Something ate them all when they forgot to bring them inside at dusk.....

My third and final lot are showing promise.

Basil seeds sprouting..if anyone can tell me how to get them up in the garden by direct sowing I would love to know.

Dwarf Capsicum with a little capsicum on it already and more flowers developing.

Bean, tomatoes, melon, seedlings

Nasturtiums, zuchhinis, pumpkins, honey dew melon,

Eggplant (Aubergine), Chilis, tomatoes,

Choko(green wrinkled thing), Avacado seed, and Rockmelon

Fig and one of my grapes,

I have been picking Broad Beans, and still my silver beet is going well. Some is begining to go to seed. I have purple podded peas, and snow peas. g

The warmer weather has seen the garden just go crazy. Everything is growing at such a rate, I will have to do a lot of pruning when the flowers have ceased on many of my shrubs, as they are almost making the pathways impenetrable. The scent from the Jasmine flowers is rather heady on the warmer evenings, and the curry plant in the foreground is just budding up for flowers.

Between the Diosma (small flower shrub behind the foxgloves) and the white daisies is one of our paths, (which I had almost cleared and begun to regravel, in early winter) The rains put an end to that and now the pathway is overgrown, pretty but ...

It is an amazing year for the foxgloves, and in the background some of the broad beans I plantedin the flower beds are almost ready to pick the pods from.

The irises are still coming up, a lovely white on on the right of the picture, (my photos are not quite as good as a friend kindly lent me her camera and I have not any idea how to use it..lol)

New Leaves on my Kafir lime,

Look carefully you can see a flower bud or two on my Tahitian lime fingers crossed..

So all in all things are happening in my Spring Garden, and my hope chest is full of positive hope!

Taj mahal is now occupied..YIPEE!

2009-10-31T17:06:00.001+11:00

Please note Chook means Hen in Australian..lol
Four lovely Barnevelder chickens have made the Chooky Taj Mahal their home for two weeks now and how welcome they are.

They are 9-11 weeks old nowand are settling in well, I believe
It will be a few more months before we will get eggs. My idea is that they get used to being handled and Toby as he is a part of life at our place.

They are delightful and many hours have been lost by both Toby and I watching their antics.
They are a Dutch breed who are a quiet and delightful temperment. They are not mean to be as flighty as some breeds. I have been getting them used to Toby and attempting to get him used to them. He has helped us gather one escapee up, (the fencing was not quite finished) and this chook had jumped out of the Taj whilst I was sorting out water and food. Off chook and dog, me and DH went. Toby found her and indicated by standing at one side of a large tussock of grass on the dam wall where she was. She was well hidden..he remained on his side enabling me to get her and settle her. On return to the Taj and her sisters she ran to them clucking and sharing her great escape. (attempt anyway)LOL Fences are all up now thanks to my DH hard work. They are lovely girls, and I have built a small safe out door run for them and how they love to be out scratching and eating the grass.

I have a worm farm so they have had a meal or two of worms and other insects I have gathered from the garden. I love it when one finds a worm and have a real chuckle as I watch their antics, as they chase and try to steal from the one with the worm. Little do they seem to realise that I have actually put quite a few worms in their. lol.
Those of you who have chooks I would love to know what you feed them if you do not use a store bought product.

Get them wagons rollin...

2009-10-16T13:35:00.001+11:00

We have been away for just over a week. It was meant to be a very relaxing holiday, which it was in many ways. We went on a horse drawn colonial wagon holiday. We being Dh and I and Toby. We had to cross the 200+miles across Bass Strait first. So a night trip on the Spirit of Tasmania Ferry. I booked a cabin as I could not imagine sitting/sleeping in recliner chairs with 100+ others all snoring and what ever else and feel rested at 5:40am when we have to get up and get organised to move down to the car, and continue our journey. So a7 plus hour drive (including dog stops and walks, lovely walk with Toby around Deloraine along the river.

) to Devonport to catch the boat, the overnight trip, all was wonderful. Off the boat and through Melbourne, out and on the way to a very tiny place called Rehola (about 50km from Bendigo) where we were to commence the caravan holiday. Only problem is I was in such a mood and had a shocker of an argument with my DH..which made the journey so horrendous for the last 1+hours. I don't understand it and these moods swings of mine fluctuate so widely and come on so quickly. I guess the tired factor and stress of getting on the way did not help.

I have to ask myself why does going away cause such a great deal of stress?
Are holidays stressful for others out there?
Okay the holiday was very different, think camping trip, with more comfortable beds, and living setup, hard roof, and the fact you could pack up and move each day (if desired to a new location). No power, hot water unless you boiled it up, not flush toilet, no TV, computer , telephone, shops, or mobile phone (only because my battery ran out and I could not be bothered to ask Patrick the owner of the set up to charge it, he would have very happily).
We had a basic fibreglass wooden caravan, in a bit of a gypsy style.
With a gas grill and hot plate, gas light, double bed and two single beds. Plenty of storage, a grill for bbqs, a dutch oven for cooking over the fire, and a bush toilet, consisting of a shovel, bucket and toilet seat construction you could use. For us it was just easier to dig a hole and be very basic.

Our lovely Clydesdale horse Penny, a fiesty 14year old, with a similar dispostion to mine at times. Wanting to be in control most of the time and requiring some real relaxing to let others take over. (something this holiday kind of assisted me to grasp a bit more, thanks to my DH and Penny).

Patrick or his daughter Amanda came out every day we were moving, and harnessed up the horse, and ensured that we were comfortable managing the horse and caravan. They would show you were you were going and assist if needed at steeper parts fo the road, and if they were going a different way to normal for the Penny. I loved the slowness (7-8km an hour) of the journey, and the smell of the horse and her distinct personality. Both of us humans had visions that we would walk along beside her for an hour or so, needless to say our fitness level would not allow it. Toby loved it once he got into the swing of being a real working dog (as Patrick described him he was a bit of a woose..lol well he is a pet). Toby's first experience was to sit on the wagon at my feet and just watch, but oh no he wanted more, so he managed to jump off (out of my grasp) and almost get killed as he went forward infront of the wheels next to Penny, and not being aware of the speed we were travelling tumbled in a distinct sommersault. Almost getting run over..thankfully he was not hurt just a bit bruised and shaken. After this he settled down (particularly if we ignored him) to running alongside Penny. He loved it. He was foot sore, and I would assume muscle sore, but did he want to stay on the wagon, NO WAY, he had to be running along side.

We had two days where we moved campsites, and then wanted to stay put for two nights, which was brilliant. Sulpher crested cockatoos, and galahs abounded in this area, as to grey kangaroos, which we only saw a couple. The area had, quite a bit of rainfall very recently and was lush and green having been in drought for a few years. It is a gold mining/fossicking historical area. We had two periods where we had a full day without moving so two nights in one spot, for us this was the best in that we sat around relaxing, reading, drawing playing cards, or just watching the birds, nesting. The song of the magpies was wonderful and the dawn chorus spectacular. Sunsets serene and bliss in so many ways. Peace and not another person around. Sheep in the paddocks at times, but just us and Penny.

I would not enjoy it in much warmer temperatures as the flies and heat for me would be too much.
Strangely we had much colder nights there than at home, our first two days were windy and cool, with a shower. However the rest of the trip was sunshine, warm days and blue skies. So nice to have had this as on arrival home it was still wet and cool.

I would like to have included more photos however sadly on our second day, somehow I dropped my camera (not realising it) and Penny accidently trod on it, and or the caravan rolled over it. Digital cameras do not survive this treatment very well. We had no showers for a week(well I did have the opportunity at one point two nights before we left, but soap would not lather, it was nice to have running hot water. We only changed our outer clothes once in the week as it got hotter. We had a great time, an interesting time, and for a family holiday it would be something really special if you like camping. I am glad I did but my days of camping are a thing of the past. I like a few comforts and these are simple really, flushing loo and hot water on tap.

Early mornings

2009-10-04T08:21:00.000+11:00

I was awake at 4:30 this morning, and being wide awake and unable to get back to sleep I rose and dressed in the dark, came down stairs to a chilly room, lit the fire, and watched the dawn breaking. The dawn chorus was incredible, well worth being up to hear the celebration of the birds that another new day has dawned. The Kookaburras laughed, 3 Swans flew overhead, one of the Sea Eagles was soaring about on the warming air across the river. I stood in the garden listening and observing all that we have around our home, with the scent of the smoke from the fire and a glimmer of snow on the Hartz Mountains in the distance. I was unable to take photos of any of the birds light was not suitable but the garden and morning light on the water well these I can share with you!

I was unable to take photos of any of the birds light was not suitable but the garden and morning light on the water well these I can share with you!

I came inside to a warmer house (marginally) and decided to catch up with my reading of my blogs, and down load some photos onto the computer. As I began Murph our cat wanted a cuddle and jumped up onto the computer desk, well onto the key board. Not happy with this he climbed onto my right arm and sat, not easy to touch type with a cat who weighs in at 5kg on your arm. He eventually decided to climb up and sit over my shoulder, purring and dribbling than slumbering after all it is only 5am and he needs all the cuddles and catnaps he can get.

(one dribble happy, 2 dribbles unbelivably happy, three dribbles estatic and I need to shower and he goes on the floor..lol). So I spent a happy hour or so reading blogs with my espresso coffee, toast with homemade seville orange marmalade watching the sun rise and the sun's heat begin to warm the room.

A day in our life with mother nature

2009-10-02T21:21:00.002+10:00

The photos on this page are a trip Toby and I made recently, Saturday 27th September, little did I know the tragedy that was happening in the Philippines, and Vietnam this same weekend.

For me it was a regular day out experiencing the wonders of nature!

The photo below is on the way into town, thankfully someone had been through before us.

This photo is just as we near the larger of the towns near us. The police told us it was now only four wheel drive vehicle access. Our little car had to make a detour!

The river has never risen to cover the main road bridge

even though this shows the river at low tide.

It was quite amazing to see the blossoms still intact on this

tree in town, after all the wind and rain.

This is across the river heading to a friends place to check they were okay.

The rain continued for the next 24hours. We were lucky we only had a blackout for 14hours. Some areas of Tasmania were without power for 5days. The storm was across most of the state.

Toby is keeping his eyes on the road..

you can see why..

This was on the way home, I thought we might be able to go under the branches, but then I noticed that there were power lines tangled in the tree branches, (PHEW!) so we had to take a detour around the coast road and saw the beauty of gum trees (eucalyptus) growing on the foreshore, sea gulls on a flooded jetty, an amazing arbour of flowers and donkeys on a rescue farm looking pretty in pink!

Our neighbours had a large branch down, but it missed their home we had many smaller branches about the place. Lots of kindling for next winter! :)

Fortunately no one was killed and we are all safe and dry. My heart goes out to those people and families in Indonesia, vietnam and the Island areas of Samoa and Tonga. Who were not so fortunate.

Lost one brain!

2009-09-20T18:30:00.000+10:00

It has been a bit of a hectic week. My brain has gone AWOL at times. I drove up to work on Thursday only to find I was not actually booked for that day,but for Friday and Saturday? I had booked my accommodation and at such short notice would have been billed, I ended up staying for the day browsing about the shops for an hour or so. I am not a woman who enjoys wondering about the shops, unless they are garden centres or hardware shops.I ended up going for a drive.
Quite a lovely day and I was really thrilled to see a mother swan and her 3 cygnets feeding on the side of a busy road. Many vehicles flying bye not noticing. Me I turned around but as I pulled up closer to the little family mum shepherded her babies into the water to hide behind some reeds. .
Simple pleasures and delights

I watched them for a brief while but mum was quite disturbed so I left. I worked Friday and had to cancel Saturday as I had made arrangements to meet friends at Salamanca Markets. So another day wondering about looking at many things, and buying little. Enjoying friends company and meeting some new people.

Today was our little community village market day which I am one of the organisers of. We began life as a local produce market, but are now encompassing local craft and artisians. Today we had lots of lovely plants, and some vegies, fresh free range eggs, home made cards, cakes, biscuits, homemade bread, goats cheese, pork pies, ginger bread, preserves of all kinds, jams, vinegerettes, flowers, knitted beanies. I love my four hours a fortnight there meeting lots of people both locals and tourists. I also love having choice of so many yummy things. Tonights meal is a ploughmand, a bit of this and that. Pork pie, pickels , I made, and relish I made, goats cheese, some of my quince jelly, olives, more cheeses, delicous.

As I was leaving to go to the markets I noticed the yachts were out. First race of the season a leisurely sail down from Hobart yesterday , and then they race back to Hobart today.

As you can see they were moving fast, lots of wind today.

The weather has again deteriorated and the fire is lit as the wind blows, snug and warm glass of red wine at my side. ahhh I have such a wonderful life, I am so content.

Dorothy is right, There is no place like home..

2009-09-15T12:25:00.001+10:00

Unlike Dorothy after my days away from home, I do not have to find my way to the wizzard, (even if I do live in OZ..lol which is what many call Australia). Nor do I need to go on a quest to find Glenda the good witch and be given her red glittering shoes, as you can see my red shoes do not glitter.

and click my heals, and say the words, "There is no place like home and be magically returned, no hour long drive.

I am sure the feelings I experience as I turn into our driveway, see the house with its warm lights, smoke coming out the chimney, the door opening the rush of delight as the wonderdog, prances and wags his whole body in welcome. DH finally suceeds in getting through the vibrating circling dog, embracing me in his safe and loving arms, finally weaving his way between all our legs and paws meowing his welcome, or is that he has not been fed yet is chokie face the cat; is no less a welcome than Dorothy and Toto's on their return from Oz. Ohhh the welcome of Home! Nothing compares.

It is amazing how much can happen in the course of two days in the garden, especially if it has been warm 20degrees C, and warmer nights. When I took the wonder dog out this morning for his walk, after some heavy rain overnight, it was to a cooler gray clouded sky, so once again the fire is lit. I have just put the left over bones from a roast lamb in a pot to simmer in water, from this I will make a curry. Sigh just the thing to warm on a cool spring evening.

Tulips in pots that have not flowered for two years have this year quite spectacularly

and whilst I am not a real lover of tulips; mainly for the shortness of their flowering and the difficulty I have found growing them. They are a intense flower and on mass look spectacular,. When I lived in Canberra, the Floriade Exhibition every year was incredible using mass plantings of spring bulbs. It is usually held early in September.

We had lots of rain overnight which is good as it has meant my new trees that I planted on Wednesday were watered well, (I was going to do this, this morning). One less job to attend to. I am not a woman for jewelery at least not diamonds and pearl kind of things. I mean who needs to have diamonds when you have this..

Strings of perfect droplets, on a thread so thin and so strong.
Cob webs are such truly incredible achievements from spiders not only for their incredible beauty, but the design concept, the engineering of the attachments to hold them in place, also the strength of the silk threads that the spider makes. When spiders make webs massive amounts of protein are required to manufacture the silk. So much energy is expended that spiders will often eat the webs to recoup the protein and restore energy for more spinning. The other issue it that over time the cobweb begins to loose its stickiness which reduces the chance of food being caught. So the eating of the web often on a daily basis; and I would imagine particularly if no food has been caught is a way of ensuring that their webs remain in good working order.

The tensile(how much pressure it can have exerted on it in a curve before damage occurs) strength of the spiders web is greater than the same weight of steel with much greater elasticity and according to Wikepedia

"Its microstructure is under investigation for potential applications in industry, including bullet-proof vests and artificial tendons. Researchers have used genetically modified mammals to produce the proteins needed to make this material.^"[2]^[3]^[4]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider_web

Nature is incredible. I love that through a man made creation The World Wide Web...(spider connection lol)
is connecting me to many people who have a love of nature. Actually I love how the WWW is broadening my horizons and letting me travell the world meeting people generally.

My lemon tree has several flowers on it, that look like they may actually develop. Now if only they will be pollinated and the fruit hang on. One of my great desires this year is to be able to pick a lemon of my own tree. What an achievement that would be. lol No wining world class medals for me, promotions in the work force. My biggest achievement, the one that would make me very happy, and proud is to be able topick a lemon..lol. Now is that the simple life?

The daffodils are coming to their end, the iris's are still going well, and my jonquils are beautiful. One thing is my fresias have not flowered as yet. Where as normally they have flowered before my daffodils. They do have flower heads on them. We are talking about springtime, and the pansies are delightful if a little nibbled,and weathered.

There are also many native plants flowering now. Lovely bird and bee attracting Grevillia,

The plant below I am unable to recall or find the label for it so it's name I do not know.

This is a native Salvia. It is a small but spreading shrub. It is truely beautiful in full flower.

Procrastinating..as I am not a domestic goddess

2009-09-09T17:47:00.001+10:00

Not being a great fan of house work, and having let the house work get away from me, I made a decision to get on with it yesterday.

So first thing I took the wonder dog for his walk and game in the morning, in the rain.

I realised that I needed to get my bare rooted nectarine tree I purchased the day before on my trip to Hobart, into the ground quickly. I noted it had buds forming. I had the almond and a lilac that I had taken from the front of the house(driveway entrance east gets little morning sun and that is all), to put in the back yard, west facing. So off course I decided to get these done first.

Wonder Dog catching the ball, (not taken yesterday, as you can see the sun is shining, but I love this shot)

I removed the walnut and nectarine that had not survived the lack of water last summer and too much water now, and planted the nectarine and lilac in their places. I also dug a hole for the almond to go in the chook run, to provide the chooks when they arrive, some shade. Trees planted.

Lilac bush transplanted to new home
hmm what was it I was going to do today?

The dog was having fun out side so I played with him, in the rain, as it was drizzling off and on as I did all the planting.

I noted that the raspberry patch needed to be weeded and the canes from last year cut back. So I did this, as it really needed to be done right at this moment. Their is already great growth on the new raspberry canes, and I must wire them up a bit better this year.

Hmmm now what were my plans?

So after this I weeded some of the flower beds a bit, and sowed some parsley seeds, as you have to keep parsley seeds moist, and it was raining again, so perfect time to sow them. In went triple leaf and Italian parsley.

One of the possums that comes to visit us, at the kitchen window. It is an old photo but show you their dexterity, and cuteness. (I love them but they do a like to nibble on my plants)

Funny there is something at the back of my mind I was going to be doing today, what was it?
Having sown the parsley directly out side and some flower seeds, I thought I should plant up some more seedling punnets. I have planted climbing tomatoes Black Krim, Black Zebra, and Wapsipinnicon Peach, along with Rockmelon French Charentais, so my hope chest is filling again, and I have replanted my beans quite a variety.

What a handsome Scarlet Robin.. he was watching as I weeded

This is looking NE up the Huon River in a general direction towards Hobart, one of my routes to work/Hobart takes me along the river, the following shots were taking at about 6:30am as I was heading to Hobart 70kms away to do some shopping. Don't ask why I was leaving at this time, especially as even eating breakfast on the way, I discovered the shops don't open till 9am in Hobart. So wondered about for 45mins.

The photo on the left is looking across the river the sun is just coming up but we are looking west here. I am not sure which mountain range these are. The road is very windy it takes between 45minutes to an hour.

Below some people fishing down in ront of our place

I dont rush as it is such a pretty drive and I have to watch out for possums, wallabies, potaroos, bentongs, quolls and rabbits.
I really do not want to hit any of the wild life well maybe a rabbit would not be a bad thing....
We do not have wombats or Tasmanian devils in our area.
Very little house work has been achieved today..ah well it will be there tomorrow and so will I..lol

Publish Post

Tragedies both near and far, a good reason not to put things away for good!

2009-09-09T12:17:00.000+10:00

My heart goes out to those people in California who are dealing with the horrendous fires, and their aftermath. It beggers belief that someone can deliberately begin fires as it seems may have happened in California, and often here. It is devastating as we in Australia know and can share.

Closer to our home in the winds I mentioned (Sunday our time) a little home a way up the road (9kms) was demolished by a gum(eucalyptus) tree falling on it. Fortunately the lady who only built her home 3 years ago was not there at the time, she is away and the police are trying to find her to let her know what has happened. Not only her home demolished but one would imagine many of her possessions, her treasures are destroyed also by the damage and the rain.

When I was young my family lost both business and the home we lived in (a flat above the business) in a fire, very little was salvagable. My teddybear was saved but had a very smokey smell for many months no matter how often he had a bath. My mother had all her treasures you know the things we put aside for good, or for later on. Some of her treasures were from my parents wedding and she had not used them, they were gone.
For me the lesson I have learnt is to not have things put up and only used occasionally. I try to enjoy and appreciate the things I have not store them away for best or later. I have too much as my DH would nod in agreement. We use things as much as possible. If something gets cracked or was broken, it may be sad, and we might feel a bit bad for a little while, but then we know we have used it and enjoyed using it.

I was out weeding my vegie garden beds today. There has been no rain for two days now. This opportunity was too good to miss. Whilst the ground is still very wet, it makes pulling deep rooted weeds out easy, the onion grass, and general weeds are also coming out with very little effort. Only problem is that these clumping styles of weeds pull out quite a lot of soil too. My vegie garden has been so weedy, I am almost positive it is from the sheep and horse manure I have been using as fertilliser. Plus we have onion weed(at least that is what I call it, has bulbs growing and these spread and form more clumping grass. I hate the thought of ever using some of the weed killers out there particularly around my vegie beds. I would love any suggestions on how to get rid of this one. Though I feel that pulling it is the only way.

I also discovered that I have been picking beetroot leaves, which I thought were coloured silver beet leaves. I discovered this as I was clearing an area, that I must have just popped seed in. Again no labels..I have to be so much better organised, anyways these beetroots were the bullring kind and they sadly due to my ignorance have gone woody, or have I picked them too early. I am not the best gardener and just put things in in the hope they will grow, at least that has been my past ways. I am working on changing this. They were quite large, several weighing in at over 300gms each. They have very little colour on the inside, but you can make out the rings. I have decided not to do anything with them as I have obviously left them in the ground too long which is a shame.

Well I am looking at the garden and working out where to plant the spring plantings and summer crops also those that take along time to grow so my plan of action book is getting a bit of a workout. I must say it did feel great to be in the garden. Even if I was covered from head to toe almost in mud. The wonderdog has decided he must jump the fences and join me in the vegie garden bed. So re-fencing the vegie plot is second to the chook run. Oh yes what has happened to the chookie tajmahal? It is there waiting for the girls to arrive! Well I have read the article below, and for me it has been of great interest.
http://www.aussieslivingsimply.com.au/articles/theethicsbehindpoultry.pdf

I do not buy hybrid seeds so am not really wanting to buy hybrid chooks that tend to have unhappy lives as they are generally bred to go into intensive chook farming/egg production. I know many people have happy free range isa browns. This is just my preference and I am growing to like the idea of having pure bred chooks as I grow pure seeds. I did consider buying some from a poultry farm, they wanted $25ea and they had, had their beaks cut. Whilst on one hand I felt this was a positive step to save some of these poor battery hens, on the other buy buying them I am actually supporting an industry that I do not support. I dont buy battery eggs, I buy free range chickens for meat. So for me it is about my personal opinions and the treatment of animals in humane manner. Okay off my soap box.
Oh and I was amazed to see some chooks being sold as pullets whose legs were so thick they must have been at least 12 months old if not older. Hmmmm. I am thinking about New Hampshires and maybe another breed. Anyone with any suggestions please share.

Murder in the Hope Chest

2009-09-05T20:47:00.002+10:00

When it is wild windy and wet, it is lovely to know that the seedlings growing inside are doing okay. I have cabbage, sunflowers, pumpkin, tomatoes, zucchini all poking their lovely first leaves out of the seedling mix.

This photo is a Turkish Turban Pumpkin Seed, with my bush peas in the distant background,

Arrgh a discovery of very smelly seed pot. My beans have been to wet and have disintegrated? They have rotted in the punnet..Though a tomato seedling has grown, somehow got into this punnet by accident. Lesson learned. BEANS WILL ROT IF TOO WET!.. so I will be bleaching this seedling punnet and re potting it. I am adding some fresh soil and potting mix to the stuff in the pot and will use it again to plant some new beans. Allowing the soil to not be saturated. I have been a murderer to beans!

Well a lesson learned!
The photo above and to the right is a mortgage lifter tomato seed just coming up, and the one below is a White climbing tomato.

I was working in Hobart recently and in my lunch break went shopping for some seedling pots. The nearest nursery was a lovely little city type nursery, Newtown Station Nursery, with its lovely gift shop and cafe. I wandered about looking for some sort of seedling pots for sale but non to be seen. As I left I noticed a large container with hundreds of plastic pots, and a large sign "POT RECYCLING!" into the container I went and dug out all the pots you can see in the photo. Absolutely free. A little wash and bleach pop in my own seedling mix, and seeds. Fantastic! What a great idea. There should be more things like this.

I have also been trying to work out what to do for watering the vegie garden. I really love hand watering as I usually pull a few weeds, and get a real feel for what is growing, needing some help or being eaten in the garden. Such a relaxing past time, that I think will take about 30-40 mins but I always nearly end up out in the garden for a couple of hours. Hopefully remembering to go and turn the tap off at the tank, before I tie up, weed, or pick.

First Iris of Spring

Oops off the track again. I have had great success in my first vegie beds using terracotta pots as water reservoirs. I had been looking at wicking beds, but a lot of work to do in already established beds. So instead I filled the holes in the pots with a water proof adhesive used in plumbing, and the saucers become the tops. I dig several holes per bed and put in a pot and lid(saucer) for each hole before I plant out my plants/seeds. The terracotta pots cant have any treatments, as they must be natural as this allows the water to seep out into the soil.

I went to a building supply shop in Argyle St Hobart, that has a great selection of reasonably priced terracotta pots. Such a great assortment and great prices. The best thing is that I found pots that did not have any holes in them! I felt like I had struck gold as it means I do not have to fill the holes.

You have to make sure that the saucers sit fairly firmly and flatly on top of the pots to avoid little bugs drowning. (not such a bad thing for the baddie bugs, I guess).
So it is a fairly simple process and gives quite a lot of water in each pot. Over a litre. So I will keep you up to date with the workings of my pot watering system.

Even the dog enjoys the spring garden!

It was a funny day here today, it was warm, and sunny, so I went out and did quite a bit of weeding. I also have been putting some blood and bone around to fertilise the garden. Having been told that the rabbits are not keen on blood and bone was an added incentive to spread it today as we have so many rabbits eating and digging about. Fingers crossed it will work.

Look I am sorry but it is NOT Spring tomorrow!

2009-08-31T16:58:00.000+10:00

Had a weekend working, and so was away from home overnight. Staying north of the city of Hobart. These views of Mt Wellington were taken on my way to work at just after 6am yesterday. Not a lot of snow it seems, but it is quite deceptive as Mt Wellington is tree lined almost to the very top of its 1271 metres.

The beauty about Hobart as a small capital city,( population is only 209,300approx.), is that you are never far from nature. Hobart is on an amazing Harbour, and Mt Wellington is its majestic back drop.

This picture is of the dolerite cliffs that are very noticeable on Mt Wellington. (A lovely walk is possible to view them up close to really get a feeling of their majesty.

This picture is as I get closer to where I was working. I am almost at the foot hills of the mountain.

It is incredibly windy down here in the beautiful Huon Valley. Trouble is I can not see much of it. The weather is horrendous, and bleak.

We have had all weather today, hail, sleet, rain making it best to be inside with the raging fire, stew cooking and damper baking (as I am right now).

My mind is full of gardening, the need to get out and have some really good days, digging and planting, transplanting, protecting and mulching, feeding enriching and enjoying sunshine in the garden. So sitting here with tea and honey, soothing and warming with a lovely chicken stew/pie..

(as I have put a mashed potato top on it) I feel it makes it more a pie, cooking in the oven. Damper or herbie scones will accompany it. Red wine and the lovely heat giving fire, knitting my DH jumper and maybe watching a dvd. Arrrgh are you sure it is really Spring tomorrow?

I read mainlanders blogs and feel a real sense of living close to Antartic today. I am more empathetic with the northern hemishpere bloggers today.

One thing though I am sure that in a couple of weeks the sun will shine and it wont take long for our garden to be growing and we will be reaping some wonderful home grown vegies.

Wind, water, washing and wallaby

2009-08-28T14:06:00.000+10:00

This morning I was greeted by this site as I came out our front door. Morning sunlight amongst the trees.

Quite beautiful.

I decided that since it was going to be windy, with sunshine that it would be lovely to have the clothes dry out on the line instead of over the stair rails in side. Which is how the drying has been happening for almost the last two months. To show how much rain we have had over the last two months you can see the new water feature that has been added to our garden. Not something we planned and it does make for interesting times when hanging out the washing. Very muddy and slippery. Fortunately I did not add to my washing by slipping or muddying my clothes!

What I did not notice until it hopped away was a lovely Bellamy's wallaby that must have been coming down to drink at the new water feature, if you look at the picture below you can see it in the lower third of the photo. I just caught him with the camera. I must say it was lovely to have company as I hung the washing out.

Today is a day for catching up, finishing of the marmalade, generally tidying up, preparing for work and a night away from home. I am also going to slow cook a roast chook today, for our dinner tonight.

I made a cake last week apple and walnut (though I used pecans) and it looked lovely but oh it was lacking something. It was heavy and well it has been fed to the worms in the worm farm, now that is unusual here.

So perhaps I will bake a butter cake/maderia cake.

My seedlings are doing well I have peas up, cabbage, and sunflower, sprouting quite well. It must be the worm castings and potting mix I planted them in. Now I am hoping that in several weeks I will be putting lovely healthy seedlings into my vegie beds.

I noted that the rocket has gone to seed, so that will mean some seeds for next season and maybe some will self seed, if I miss them.

All in all a day a full of varied and different things, my darling man is cleaning out the gutters, in preparation for the next rain, they filled with wattle flowers, and gum leaves, and the other day they began to overflow in the extra heavy rain we were having. Again there is snow on the Hartz mountains in the distance. So still winter time in the south of Tasmania.

My hope chest

2009-08-25T20:15:00.001+10:00

Sorry but I have not quite had enough of the wattles.

Ooops sorry to anyone who thinks I am about to declare secrets and lots of positive thoughts...lol

My hope chest are the seeds I have planted into pots. Seeds for tomatoes, beans, peas, pumpkins, melons, capsicum, chili, zucchini, aubergine. I hope that they will provide some fruit and vegetables for our table over summer.

I know, I may be getting started too early, but the sap is rising inside me. My fingers and thumbs are itching to be out there in the garden. Getting the beds together for these new seedlings. I am not able to get out and do the preparation work in the beds, putting in lime, and manure blood and bone, compost and manure. It would all be just washed into the paddock at present.

So this is the best I can come up with for my itching green thumbs.

I have been reading other peoples comments and blogs about what they are growing, and getting from their gardens. I love reading about the northern hemisphere as it encourages me and gives me ideas as to what to grow for our spring/summer season. Gardening is really I think 20% planning 5% dreaming, 50% physical work, 25% replanning..lol

I am looking forward to the time I can get into the garden and clear the silverbeet out, saving seeds for where I will move it too. Working that bed to ready it for the tomatoes, though I am also going to grow tomatoes on the deck down stairs and this year I am going to give growing some things that really like the sun on the top deck to see how they go. Though I will have to work out protection from possums and birds up there as we dont use it a lot.

The following pictures were taken the other day when it was lovely sunshine, pardon my getting carried away with sharing them. It is just so long since we had sunshine! I love the way the sunlight was coming through the garden.

Sugar snap peas and their are flowers on it.

A part of the flower garden, geranium, lovely ground cover and a yellow daisy bush.

Sunlight on our happy wander that goes along in front of the house and deck. Call it winter a wonderland plant!

Daisy, daisy give me your answer do..

I'm half crazy all for the likes of you.

Well the vegetable garden is producing something

Garlic is doing well thankfully it growing on a raised bed.

The sugar snaps are doing well now, they even have some

flowers.

Mixture of daffodils oh if only they had lifted their pretty heads a bit more.

I Love my garden!

2009-08-23T10:10:00.021+10:00

I have been working a little more this week, so not much has been happening in the garden. Though the weather is improving and whilst we are not getting the very hot weather that the mainland is we have been having very mild nights (no fire) and days, this has bought on many of the flowers. I have noticed that one of my fruit trees has blossoms of a beautiful red opening up on it. The rest are a bit behind, but I am living in hope that I will get some fruit of them. I have left it too late to transplant the ones that I had intended, but it has been to wet. I was out in the vegie garden deciding what to take out and where to plant things for the spring and summer. I happened on a huge bumble bee pollinating the broad bean flowers.

Bumble bee working pollinating broad beans.

I also noticed a smaller possibly native bee pollinating the broad beans as well. So I am now hopeful that we will have broad beans in the not so distant future.

This may be a much smaller native bee pollinating more broad beans.

. Looking at my brassicas, and well they have been a little bit of a disaster this year. I am sure that I planted them too late. So will be planting them much earlier this year. You can see that my cauliflowers are not forming great big heads, but this one is much more closed. For two of us it will still give us a couple of meals. Not a sucessful year for broccoli either Thankfully between the winter salad bed and the tri colour silverbeet we have had a choice of greens from the winter garden. I had been working last Sunday week for a brief time in the garden, until it rained again. I was hoping to weed all the berry bed and finally cut down my still green raspberry canes. I started to weed around the fence line and the currant bushes to no avail as the water just ran into the areas I took the weeds from and the lovely soil was still caked onto the roots of the weeds. So weeding roots has to stop. I will do some trimming of the leaves and my raspberries this week.

Water surrounds the currant bush.

I was walking about the garden today and was again amazed at how sweet the wattles perfume is. We have quite a few wattle trees/bushes on our land. I love the variation to their flowers, leaves, and colours. They bring many native animals and birds into the garden, to eat the seeds when they fall. They are incredible plants. I am researching which are the wattle seeds you can eat. I have my fingers crossed we may have this variety. The aborigines made a flour from wattle seed (Acacia), and in the southern regions of Australia there are 47 types of wattles which produce seeds for human consumption. (from Edible Wattle Seeds of Southern Australia). Edible Wattle Seeds of Southern Australia is a joint project of the Department of Conservation and Land Management in Western Australia and CSIRO Forestry and Forest Products. Whilst this book is talking about cultivating these Acacias as crops, I like the idea of having something that grows easily at our place that puts nitrogen back into the soil. You can burn the wood, and get the added benefit of the glorious flowers. Now I may be able to utilise the seeds in flour, as flavouring and apparently you can also use it as a coffee substitute. I would imagine roast the seeds and grind them. Hmmm maybe I will try that in a few years, sorry but I love my coffee! I may trim off a branch or two and bring them inside. The other plants in my garden are flowering and it seems to me the rosemary is quite early this year, and the daisy's big bold flowers in front add textural contrast. The golden diosma flowering, in front of the purple Happy Wander which flowers quite early in winter and continues flowering into mid spring.. the garden today was humming with bees.

Daisies in front of flowering blue Rosemary

Golden diosma in front of happy wander

One of many varieties of narcissus we have growing

My poor old comfrey is suffering however. I am thinking I will dig it up and place it in compost, keeping just some of the healthier looking plants. Too much rain and infested with bugs.

It really is a fantastic autumn/spring this year, even with the weeds and inability to spend much time in the garden.

It is begining to look a lot like Spring at our place

2009-08-17T17:33:00.005+10:00

We took an impulsive trip, in the glorious weather last Saturdayweek, temps of 20degrees Celsius to head the 140km return trip to Hobart. We had been wanting to go to Salamanca Markets for some time. This was a perfect day. It was too! Warm sunshine, and fantastic. Southern american music, jugglers, artisans, craftsman,photographers, cooks, cheesemakers and food smells abounding. It is sad though to see the cheap, imported manufactured goods appearing on so many stalls. It is really taking away the wonderful uniqueness of this Tasmanian institution. It is still worth a enjoyable leisurely stroll, and trying the great foods, and drinks that are being produced. We certainly enjoyed it.

First time pasta making! I have also been cooking home made ravioli, after following a tutorial on the Down to earth blog, I really enjoy this blog. It was such a enjoyable thing to make, and even though I have not got a pastry roller, and rolled the pastry by hand, it was not too bad for a first effort. Spinach and ricotta cheese in a tomato sauce yummo! They took a bit longer to cook than I allowed for, as I had made the pasta a bit too thick. I know next time to roll it even thinner. I am going to try my hand at spaghetti next time. Still too wet to get into the garden, and it began to rain again on Sunday so it was a good thing we went out yesterday.

Dr Feelgoods Chocolate Cake, just the thing for a rainy day

2009-08-12T15:16:00.014+10:00

So it is raining, non stop today. Too wet even to take the dog for much of a game, every time he is out side we have to wipe his paws and give him a towel down. He seems to be happy sitting out the front on the door stoop watching the rain and the world go bye. This photo shows the view or should I say lack of view from our deck. This is how it has been for the last couple of days. If I sit still too long I think I am going to go moldy! Today I have been planning meals for DH while I am away, so right now in the oven is a lovely simple lamb slow cook casserole, otherwise known simply as Lamb Stew. Lamb Stew, simple 4 lamb chops, 2 cloves garlic, 2 onions, 3tblspns Worcester sauce, carrots, potatoes, parsnips, (peas I will add in a little while, and some flour to thicken it if it needs it) I have lovely heavy duty enamel casserole dish, so I can do the whole process in one pot. Gently fry garlic and onions, add chops and brown, chop vegies, adding what ever you like, add a couple of cups of water, and Worcester sauce, S & P put lid on and put in oven to cook slowly, or in your slow cooker.. Serve with crusty fresh bread or damper. (which is not going to be happening here this time) Also in the oven is Dr Feelgoods Chocolate Cake recipe, from Passionate Vegetarian by Crescent Dragonwagon. One of the best simplest recipes ever,made completely in one bowl you only need a 4 cup measure, a teaspoon and tablespoon and no dairy or eggs, so is great for any vegans out there. Okay Makes 2 9 inch cake rounds or one 9 x 13 inch cake grease your cake tins, well She uses 2 tblspns of sugar (I use raw), and 2tblspns of cocoa powder(I have a great very dark cocoa powder that I buy in bulk) but normal would be okay though I have never used it. She uses this to shake all over the greased baking tins, which gives the cake/s a lovely crust that is sweetish, saves icing it. I dont always do this usually I ice it. this photo shows the uniced version, too hot to ice. So Cake ingredients, 2 cups sugar 2/3 cup cocoa powder not sweetened 3 cups wholemeal flour plain 2 tspns baking powder (soda) not bicarb soda 1 tspn salt 2 cups of water 1/2 cup vegetable oils, 2tblspns cider vinegar, white vinegar(which is what I usually use) or freshly squeezed lemon juice 1 tblspn pure vanilla extract. (I am using my home made vanilla essence shop bought would be okay too) Preheat oven to 350f Spray or oil generously your cake tins. I use pyrex glass baking dishes as the ones I have, come with lids, so I can store the cake in the same dish it is cooked in. Do the dusting thing as explained above. Coating the dishes well. Easy to make this cake by hand as it is a very quick simple mix with a spoon. Begins quite sloppy but thickens as wholemeal flour absorbs liquid Put flour and sugar in large mixing bowl add cocoa, baking powder, and salt and mix with a spoon, In your four cup measure (or if you are like me only have a 2 cup, I pour 1 cup of water into dry mix and then mix all the liquids together in the jug). Put the water, oil, vinegar and vanilla essence mix vigorously for a couple of minutes. (I often just pour it all together and mix in the bowl with dry goods making sure it is really mixed well) Once mixed pour into the dry ingredients and mix until all dry stuff is mixed in. Pour mix into cake tins, bang on bench a couple of times to remove any air bubbles. Place in preheated oven and bake until the edges have pulled away from the sides of the tin and the cake tests clean with a toothpick (you stick a toothpick or thin bamboo skewer into the centre of the cake, if the pick/stick comes out clean cake is cooked, if cake mix sticks leave for longer). Let cool. Decide if you want to ice or leave. Serve however you enjoy. So right now the house is warm, with the smell of lamb stew and chocolate cake cooking. Gray skies and mist, rain falling, DH clattering about in his workshop creating more wonderful timber creations, the cat laying on the desk, fire glowing me sharing simple pleasures. Lovely simple and very little washing up! That is bliss. I am looking forward to sitting by the fire reading a book, having a piece of Dr Feelgoods chokkie cake.

This photo was a few weeks ago as I drove home from Cygnet, the small village nearest us.

Too wet for gardening so lets make marmalade!

2009-08-11T14:54:00.012+10:00

I love seeing daffodils and jonquils, it is a time to really believe that winter is almost over! We love Seville orange maramlade. I have been hassling my local vegie supplier as to when there would be some seville oranges. I kept being told next week, next week. Well it was this week and I have made one batch of marmalade so far. I used to be very fussy and chop them finely and thinly. Now I just pop them into the food processor for a few turbo boosts, and all the work is done for me! Yipee it really is a wonderful labour saving device, a bit like my apple slicer and corer. I priced the marmalade we used to purchase and it is $5 for a 200gms jar. I made 11jars worth in vary sizes from 150ml to 500ml and filled a 300ml bowl as well.I have run out of lids so need to purchase more. No real hardship as we have been eating the marmalade in the bowl. $3.95kg. I used 2 for this volume $8.00 plus 2.5kg sugar (from a bulk bag that cost me $13.95 for 15kgs. Equals 93 cents a kg which is $2.23 so for $10.23 I made 12 jars or more of jam, so less than $1 a jar. Okay so power and gas for processor, and cooking. My labour well cutting and putting oranges in the processor 10mins, adding to pot with sugar and very little water, as I like to let the juice from the fruit do the jelling. Jars were reused from previous jams and produce, lids about 12 cents each. Still beats the $60 or more that a smaller quantity of marmalade would have cost me. Not forgetting it is an imported product so that helps. Mind you the oranges I used came from Victoria so not a very local product, and sugar from qld. So not many points for local produce in this one. I picked a cauliflower yesterday, not very well formed, but it appeared to be going moldy. I can understand this as it is still raining and from memory we have not had a day without any rain for nearly a month! Even when we have had no rain in the daytime, it has rained in the night. The forecast is for more and I was told in town that the long term forecast is rain till mid to late September. So not the only thing that will be going moldy. A friend said to me today his chooks are asking for gum boots, or hitching rides on the ducks! My broad beans are doing well, but I am trying to hand pollinate as I am not seeing bees about one would assume due to the wetness. So my hope for lots of broad beans may be gone. Peas are growing, though I seem to have lost all the peas I put under the broad beans to grow up on their stems. I must have had an idea that there might be a bit of wet weather when I planted my garlic where I did. As you can see I made a mound just in front of the berry patch. A lot of my friends are saying that theirs in the ground is not doing very well. I have some yellow tips on some of the leaves, but I am hoping that it will recover and be okay in the spring. Potatoes are still just waiting about and will get put into the garden later in September! Even my worm farm has not been doing so well. The worms I guess got a bit cool and were not eating as much. I was giving them too much food. Yes I know the information does say they are less active in winter. There are heaps in their, and some powdered milk and they are back on the happy way again. I have some peach blossoms forming on my trees, and finally the raspberry canes are begining to yellow. I will cut them back and redo the berry patch in near future. I have been weeding the grass that has grown from the hay I used as mulch. Whilst some people think it silly to use hay, it gives me more mulch when I pull out the grass before it seeds for this year! Also it was a heck of a lot better price than straw or pea straw was last year. I am including a photo of our new letter box. Our blue barrel (plastic has done us well) but we have been getting damp mail, due to a hole in the top. So the man of the house has built yet another wonderful wooden structure. It is lovely!. He has been keeping very busy this winter. We have also been taking some vitamin D capsules, all winter which have really helped our moods. Tassie has one of the highest rates of seasonal affective disorder, a form of depression bought on by lack of sunlight. We sure have not had much of it this winter. So we have both found it to be helpful. We have also both had head colds, but have managed to soldier on. So many others have had flu so we feel very appreciative that we have not! I made a delicious stew last week just using up the vegies in the crisper. I tend to do this the day before I am going to go shopping. I called it my I almost threw that out stew. I love putting some fetta on top just adds something to most vegie dishes. Other times we grate parmesan on top of our soups or stews. We had a lovely gift of some great kale, blue cheese and mushroom tart from a local cafe yesterday. (they had too much left and they were closing for their two days off so I was having a coffee and received this great gift what a great tasting tart. I am going to have to find a recipe for it. The vegie garden has been providing us with silverbeet, and green leaves for salads. My parsley has been doing really well, yet many people in the area have had no luck! So I am really thrilled that I can grow one thing sucessfully! Yipee can you live on parsley alone? I have many people comment when they see I have Daphene flowering in a pot. It has been here in this quite shaded position for over 2 years now and when I take crazy dog out for his last ablutions for the night, the scent is just so amazing. It makes this last task of the day quite bearable on these still very cold and very wet nights.

August and counting down the days till Spring is offically here..and what I have to get done!

2009-08-01T16:56:00.006+10:00

Well guess what it is still wet ohh so wet, and today has been wildly windy. We have had some branches down and the power has gone off twice today. Thankfully for only short periods of time. I am very happy we are not a 100% electric home. When you do get black outs (as we do) on a regular basis. Generally due to high winds in our area. You really need to have a non electric source of heating and cooking. We have been without power for over 24 hours in the middle of winter on several occasions, fortunately not this year. I can only imagine how a home totally reliant on electricity would fare! So I have been out today staking my broad beans so they don't all get bent and break off. I did weed some chick weed I have growing in amongst my bulbs. I know have jonquils, and more daffodils flowering. Our happy wonder is looking resplendent in her purple flowers, especially when Looking at her with the golden wattles in the background, they are out of focus but give you the idea of how pretty it looks. As I said wet and wild here today, so I have been cooking. I made an old fashioned slice today. Raspberry coconut slice, however instead of using raspberry jam, I used apricot jam. Home made that is lovely and has large pieces of apricot in it, and not a lot of sugar. It is almost a sauce. I replaced it and put more than the normal amount. I also replaced the white sugar in the coconut topping with brown sugar. It is delicious and not as sweet as the raspberry one. As it has been too wet for DH to be in the garden finishing off the new pergola, (he has been doing his own lattice from scratch). He is instead building a new post box, as our old one an old plastic barrel has holes in it and lets the rain in. Which in the current weather means we are getting quite a bit of damp letters. He loves working with timber and I am looking forward to seeing his creation. The house is lovely and warm, with the smells of dinner cooking. Tonight oven roasted sausages, scalloped potatoes with garlic and onion, cauliflower, brussel sprouts and a carrot, sweet potato mash. So it is smelling terrific. I would love it to be a lovely sunny day tomorrow, unfortunately the forecast is for more rain for the next few days. I am begining to worry that if I stand still too long I will at worse take root, at best get mouldy! Well I hope the weather is good in your area and you are accomplishing a lot over this weekend. I guess I can get lots done in the house in preparation for when the sun does shine again. I still love where we live, and the lifestyle I have. I may complain about the weather, but I have all that I need and more in my life. I am so appreciative to my quality of life. You do not need lots of things, to make you happy, nor lots of money. Peace of mind, no debts, and a place to make your own home. Water and food good air to breathe, and hopefully love. I am so rich I have all these in abundance.

Winter cold; but spring weather...don't plant anything in the garden..

2009-07-26T21:00:00.011+10:00

Well it has been a hard week I have been battling a cold and finely succumbed. Fortunately it has not been so bad that I have had to cancel working. Many of my colleagues have been quite sick with flu and yes some have swine flu. So I could be working many extra shifts. Which works okay as the garden is really too wet to work in, so being off colour makes it easier to not be in the garden. It is looking lush and I have my first daffodils and foxgloves. I have been looking at what is growing about the deck. My mint is still going ,usually it dies off in its pot during winter, so maybe all the rain is the secret more water required. Mixed lettuces in my protected set up (polystyrene box with bird wire protection from possums and rats)are not so happy , too much rain for them perhaps. They have been under the deck up stairs so should not have had frost on them. I have aloe vera in a pot with a lot of pups so will have to separate and plant pups in other pots soon. The photo below shows my miners lettuce growing. It is prolific and grows all over the place, but easy to get rid of and great to eat in leafy green salad mix. I use it with my mesculan mix, corn salad, parsley and turnip greens salads. The little gnome like character is actually a watering device to help get water down to the roots. We have not done any fencing for the chookies run at Chookie Tajmahal however my DH is building me a great pergola as an entrance to the chooks and I will grow either kiwi fruit or passion fruit over it..now Tajmahal well passion fruit may be the better to grow. lol If you look in the distance of this photo you can see it under construction.

Felt like spring was here in the valley today, but I will not be fooled into planting anything!

2009-07-18T21:42:00.002+10:00

Well it has been another lovely day in the valley today. Very cold again overnight 1deg in Hobart so most likely a bit cooler down here. Last night I was so appreciative that I had fixed our new electric blanket. We have a kings size bed, and I begrudge paying the money they ask for a blanket for it. So I bought two kingsize singles (fitted) and was able to join the two together and make one for our bed. How lovely to hop into my roasty toasty bed. Out in the garden weeding again, clearing some of the flower beds. I also did a bit of clearing about the vegie garden. Picked some greens for salad tonight, but when we ate them they were not so good. Not enough sunshine I think and too much rain. I planted some daffodil bulbs I had forgotten about in pots, and some garlic that had sprouted and needed to thin out. I am still getting mushrooms from the compost (See photo)I bought ages ago. I picked a few more raspberries today(added them to the salad tonight). I thinned what I thought was a raddish only to find it was a very small beetroot. (sadly not ripe enough to eat but such a pretty one). Gleanings from the garden My vegie beds are to wide so I am looking at making them narrower, and reshaping the vegie beds to make it easier to tend. Whilst my lemon tree is looking so much healthier I am pondering when is the best time to move it. Or is it better to leave it and just buy a second tree. I was speaking with a neighbour today, who has the most amazing vegie garden and water catching system. He makes sure he never misses any moisture, he uses corrugated metal on the slopes to gather some more water into drains. I am hoping to talk with him more and gain much needed information and knowledge. He has a garden ablaze with daffodils at the moment, they form some of the borders around his paths. Amazingly pretty. He was saying that they are late this year, only a week but late. I always get a bit excited when my bulbs and the wattle start flowering. I want to get out in the garden and sow seeds, and feel the dirt on my hands. I was getting some seedling pots ready, filling them with a mix of worm castings and soil, thinking about what I can sow now that will be ready to plant in 8 weeks.(second week of September) not my tomatoes a bit early for them, unless I put some plastic about them to make a mini green house. So planning for spring is my main priority I just cant actually plant anything much in the ground as yet. I have to dig holes, for the lilacs, fig, grapes, kiwi and passion fruits. This all must be done in the next week as well as the fencing for the chookies. It is written here so I can report back.

Did I say it has been cold down here?

2009-07-17T20:47:00.004+10:00

I did say it has been extremely cold down here lately. Just to show you how beautiful a frosty morning (well actually it was after 12pm when I took these photos on the way home from a night shift, having done some shopping on the way. Got out into the very wet garden today and finally cleared some weeds out of the winter garden bed.(at least I am pretty sure they are weeds.) I am going to plant carrots and maybe some more onions in this bed. Broad beans are doing well, silver beet is not so great, peas well some are okay(those that are protected by eaves of the house. My raspberries are still flowering? It seems kind of strange. I made some Naan bread to have with a great curry the other night. It was so easy that I will never buy it again. Sure it takes a little while, but the knowledge of what is in it, that I have made it, and the simplicity off it. I started to think about it Naan is made by many millions of people in Indian so it must be a simple process, which I discovered it is. You do need a little time, as in bread making, but the taste is so delicious. Naan an extra treat with indian take away. $3 each I made 8 naans for 2 cups plain flour, a teaspoon of dried yeast a bit of salt and sugar and some water. I have frozen those not used. Just grilled them under the grill on our stove. The wire for the fencing for the chookrun has been delivered today, so we hope to get the run up in the next week. I am keeping my eye out for chookies, I have seen a couple of adds lately but we are not quite ready so have had to wait a bit longer. It is going to be another cold night, but I did notice in my garden the first of my daffodil and jonquil bulbs are about to flower. The happy wonder on the deck is looking so lovely in its purple flowers and the wattles are begining to flower. The daisys are begining to flower too! We have foxgloves flowering. I am almost begining to worry that I have not begun to sow seeds for my summer garden!

Why the change in spelling of my Blog Name?

2009-07-14T00:08:00.001+10:00

I was chatting on one of the American sites I visit, and someone asked me if I was a maid from Austria, working in America..I had to laugh and said no I was a female (maid) and from Australia where we call ourselves Aussies. I had to chuckle, and then thought well I am made in Australia so decided to go with Aussiemade.

2009-07-10T22:05:00.000+10:00

Hmm blogging nightmare, photos and words awol!

2009-07-10T20:45:00.000+10:00

Views on my way to do the shopping.

2009-07-10T13:02:00.000+10:00

As it has been so cold lately and I have done very little work in the garden I thought I would share some of the beauty in the valley where I live. Frosty mornings created some great photo opportunities. The river and frost are at a little place called Nicholl's Rivulet, a very scenic and slower pace trip to Cygnet via Margate, Snug, than taking the more direct but highway through Huonville. The photos of the snow capped mountains are taken on my drive from the little village near where we live, they are the Hartz Mountains great place to walk in summer. Nearest town is Geeveston. The river in front is the Huon and truly a delightful place to see but living here is heaven.. We are having a slow cooked lamb roast with home grown rosemary and garlic for dinner tonight. Something very simple and delicious. Meat falls off the bones. Tomorrow I am going to try a very old bread recipe out from a book I have just finished reading. I am also waiting Seville oranges to arrive at my vegie place so I can make some lovely marmalade. I will also be making some lemon butter as my beautiful SD gave me some lovely lemons of her tree. Hers has been so productive unlike mine! Maybe I will have a go at making some preserved lemons as well. Oh so many options. I have actually been drinking a lovely lemon cordial that a local lady makes and is selling at our produce market. May even try a cordial. More vanilla essence with vanilla and vodka is in the process of being made, as to is vanilla bean sugar. Will let you know how it goes.

hhhm said there was a hiccup

2009-07-04T17:57:00.001+10:00

So you can see hopefully that it all went a bit wrong with the photos and the writting laugh. I am putting the third photo here. The Chookie Taj Mahal in the distance, green grass, and berry patch.

Raining still we are snug and by the fire

2009-07-04T16:44:00.000+10:00

Sally A the first photo shows my polystyrene boxes on the deck with onion seedlings in them, covered with bubble wrap, the seedlings are sprouting. I do take the plastic off them when the sun is out, which has not happened much down here lately. I am not really complaining it just is so wet and slippery underfoot everywhere. The second photo is of lettuces, in frame, with mesh to stop possums eating the lettuces I am trying to grow in there. Just showing you the bubble wrap insulation on top to protect the seedlings. The third photo is showing the finished chookhouse in the distance and showing how green and wet it is apparently we have had the most rain in June in over 50 years. So it is wonderful as all the water sources are filling up or overflowing, the underground water areas will also be full and the soil is so wet and spongy. Saddly it means I have done little weeding and not much else. Our next project is the fencing for the chook run. I also have to extend both the vegetable garden and berry patch in area so more fencing. The very cheap bird wire I used a few years ago is now failing under the pressure of wind and wallabies so it is all being replaced. At least that is how I am hoping these photos will turn out..sigh as I had a hiccup in the downloading so fingers crossed.

2009-06-27T17:13:00.001+10:00

shows the potato plot, with moat. Chookhouse all that is left to do is fill the gaps, oil and put a little gutter on. Fence and find some chooks! So we are almost done. I am so proud of my DH he is so clever and the chooks will have a lovely safe and dry home.

I really do like rain, but....so do the slugs and snails

2009-06-27T15:55:00.000+10:00

I really have wanted to get out in the garden, it is just so wet underfoot, and even though I managed to plant some peas under my broad beans, I pulled a few weeds, it was just to mushy. The potato bed has its own moat thankfully I had piled up where the potatoes are a bit, seems to be keeping the animals that have been nibbling the leaves at bay. I am unable to get out their and kill off all the slugs and snails that are eating all the leafy plants. Even my comfrey, and other flowering plants that have never been attacked are under savage leaf eating attack at present. I did try some beer baits but they have all flooded as the rain has been intense. I have visions of no a leafy green left if we dont get some dry days for a week or so to allow me to decimate the slug snail population. Has anyone any ideas? Snail bait washed away, dusting with vacuum dust washed away, I am going crazy! There are so many I cant even hand pick them all! ARRRGH!

The longest day has passed

2009-06-24T14:36:00.000+10:00

The longest day has passed and for a change this year I did not leave it to put my garlic in on this day as I have in the past. I include a photo here of my garlic, which seems to be growing well. I have had to put some wire over it to try to stop the wallabies and the dog from laying on it. The chookhouse is nearing completion, it is going to be pretty spectacular. We have to oil it yet. It will be oiled with Maddison oil to blend in with the house. Fencing is the next big thing to create the run for the girls, as much as I would love them to be able to wander all over the garden, I have seen how much damage they can reek with my neighbours garden. They will have a large run and will be popped into other areas to dig and weed at times. Does this mean they are not free range, maybe but they will have plenty of space to wander. I just cannot believe how hard it is to find where to buy either sexed chickens or point of lay hens down here. I have put out word, checked email and surfed the net, rung a couple of places that had chooks. All I have left are the people who produce eggs large scale to see if they can direct me. Who would have thought it would be so difficult. My brassicas are growing but no little heads as yet. We are eating greens from the garden for salads, mesculan mix, corn salad, miners lettuce, turnip green(young leaves, parsley, bokchoy, mustard, garlic shallots, young beetroot and silver beet leaves. Yummy. On the deck I have planted in polystyrene boxes some more mesculan mix and baby cos lettuce, white onions, spring onions and spinache. I also have planted sugar snap peas garlic and other things in polystyrene boxes putting them along the edge of the house. I am moving the two lilac trees as they have never done anything much where they have been. My darling man chopped down a eucalyptus tree that was growing too close to the house today, and I will plant both the lilacs here. I have to plant out the fig which is going into the chook run, grapes to grow over the deck pergola, kiwi fruit, and passionfruit perhaps along the chooks fence. I may also have to move the apricot. I have to laugh at myself, as I have decided that I am not buying anymore fruit trees this season, well maybe one nectarine..and a second lemon as the one I have just has never produced a lemon ..yet I do live in hope. Making more bread today, linseed and soy. I will also make a great sponge cake from the Australian Woman's Weekly Cake Cook book, Simple sponge, light and fluffy I have never had a failure with it. I put cream and passionfruit in the middle with a cream passionfruit icing on top. I was thinking of putting raspberries on it, as mine are still fruiting and producing large berries. It has just begun to drizzle, I would love it to continue this light drizzle rain over night and for tomorrow, watering the vegies for me. I did put some worm juice and worm castings about the vegetable garden and in the new boxes on the deck. I have also covered the seeds with bubble wrap which was an idea of the Simple savings site. Simplesavings.com.au it helps speed up germination and protect the seeds from birds and bugs. Fingers crossed it will have great success for me! Does anyone else love this time of year, actually I think I love most seasons, they all have something truly unique. I hear some cockatoos and our local parrots calling to each other, as I sit here typing this. Earlier this morning I was watching a family of blue wrens at the bird bath, and a pair of scarlet breasted robins on the feed table. The frost on the cobwebbs and the dew as it drips off the trees it is all quite perfect. Especially as I am sitting inside with the fire going, the yeasty smell of bread rising and a sponge cooking in the oven. A mug of tea by my side and the dog smelling a touch damp, (imagine damp wool) laying at my feet, low cloud and drizzle..soon a glass of gluwein I think..oh hard life here at home.

Bread Making as I can't get into the garden much!

2009-06-09T17:55:00.001+10:00

Just wanted to share my bread success with you. It is really delicious, and so easy. It is a white bread or roll recipe from the Family Circle Favourite Bakery Recipes Book It makes 1 loaf or 10 bread rolls. 3 cups plain flour 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon sugar 1x7gm dry yeast sachet (I used 2 teaspoons of loose yeast from lowan which I store in fridge) 1 cup of hot water 2 teaspoons of oil or melted butter. (I used olive oil) I added several tablespoons of mixed seeds I have. Pumpkin, sunflower, and linseed whole seeds. 1 Mix dry ingrediants including yeast in a large bowl. Combine oil with water. Add to dry ingrediants and beat well. Mix by hand to form soft dough. 2. Turn dough on to a lightly floured board, knead for 10minutes. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl(I don't do this, I just put into a glass bowl). Brush top with warm water (I forgot to do this) cover with greased plastic film. (I just put a plate over the bowl or a lid if I have one that fits) Leave in a warm place until dough doubles in size approximately 35 mins. 3 Turn dough onto a lightly floured board and knead for 1 minute. 4 Shape dough into a loaf and place in a greased loaf tin 23X10X8 cm deep pan.(I just shape the bread and place on a baking tray). 5. Brush the top of the dough with warm water, ( I forgot to do this) and leave to rise in a warm place for another 35 minutes. 6 Bake in a very hot oven, ( I put my fan forced gas oven to the highest setting pre-heat. Iput the bread into the oven and spray cool water on the sides (not a lot but most bakers ovens have moisture controls and since I have been doing this my bread is so much better. I let it cook for a few minutes and then I spray the sides of the oven again, creating steam. I then let the bread cook. Recipe says for 30 minutes. To test whether the loaf is baked, turn out of tin, The sides and base should be golden brown and sound hallow when tapped. To make rolls follow directions 1-4 than divide into 10 pieces shape each into a ball place 5cm apart on grease baking tray. Leave to rise for 20 minutes. Bake in very hot 15-20 minutes. I am eating mine with lovely honey as I type! I would love to hear feed back on how your bread goes and what you have added to it. I am thinking of doing some feta and sundried tomato rolls with herbs. It is going to snow down to 400meter mark tonight, 3 to 9 is our temp range tommorow with gale winds.. so I am so glad we are snug with the fire warming us!

The leaves have fallen and winter is before us! well for 2009 at least !

2009-05-31T14:31:00.000+10:00

Last day of autumn. I have been away for a couple of days but thought I would show you chook house progress. Some of my garden, and the things I am doing to grow more. As well as areas I would like to pretty up a bit. I am hoping to put up a trellis for the kiwis so that they will hide the gas bottles. I am also going to plant the grapes so that they will give us summer shade on the deck. Cold and getting colder here today. I do get envious a little of the lovely gardens with great edges and defined paths. We have let our paths get grassed over, but they are being cleared, and we will re gravel. So I will be glad to have some time to deal with weeds and organising in the next three months. Joining in Sara's project 2010 of becoming as self sufficient in vegies, herbs and fruit on Simple Savings site is one of the great things I am undertaking for the next 18months. I love the aspect of planning ahead and really getting a grip on my garden so that it provides not only a place of beauty, relaxation and food, it provides my exercise workout, my quiet time, my care of my chookies. My DH and I find we dont really have a need to travel much or have holidays. Though we still do go away for weekends and a week or two here and there. It just seems to me our home is the place we are happiest. We already know that we are one of the most fortunate couples in the world we are content, we don't desire to be rich or have material things. We are happy with a lifestyle of simpler things, good friends, a sense of community and each other. We have our dog and cat, along with the native animals and birds that let us share their land. We see ourselves as being on their place and ensuring that we provide shelter and food plants for them as well as our selves, which in turn we kind of hope will help with them not eating our foods. (not that it happens )lol. Just had a wander around the garden to see how things are, and noted that in my absence of three days more mushrooms are growing or have become the giant mushrooms whilst I have been away, form my $3 bags of mushie compost. I have picked and picked so many swiss browns over 10kgs off them and the white button ones, another 6+ kg so have been able to share with neighbours and store mushrooms made into a mix of mushrooms, onion garlic and red wine. Great soup starter, or for rissotto. Popped several bags in the freezer. My blue angel peas are flowering, they are the ones in the polystyrene box sitting and trailing up the house.

More photos of my winter garden

2009-05-28T20:20:00.001+10:00

The pictures are my broad beans and silver beet, and one lot of my brassicas. I have them under tulle yet still I had caterpillars on them. (explains the leaves with holes). I have hand picked all I could find. Little blighters are so hard to see. Eat your heart out MIrage and all those exotic resorts, we have eggotic Wattlegrove Chookie savoy

Last few days in Autumn 2009

2009-05-28T16:48:00.000+10:00

First photos of chookhouse under construction. It is very exciting having the foundations and flooring structure up. This chook house will not be moving anywhere. Cemented in and structurally sound for a heard of sheep let alone half a dozen hens. My darling man says it is his Taj ma hal to me! His gift of love. Ohhhh I have such a lovely man in my life! My vegie garden is doing okay. Only trouble is my winter bed of greens seems to have been overtaken with weeds. Must be from the horse manure! I used old stuff, or maybe some of the sheep manure, but this was very very old stuff. Oh well I have been checking out with my plan what I am meant to have growing in this bed on Wikepedia (falling in love with this as I dont always know what a vegie looks like..lol so they give a picture). Helps me a lot. Silverbeet is going well (I have been selling some at the fortnightly produce market down here)! My broad beans are amazing me. I have flowers on a couple of them already. My peas that are growing against the house have some flowers on them. The Happy wanderer is coming into flower, and I am almost 100% certain this is early. Rosemary is flowering and many bulbs are up. I still have leaves on my plum, peach trees, though apricot cherries and hazlenuts aswell as part of the apple(grafted) have their beautiful autumn colours. We have had some rain and beautifully mild days with sunshine. The nights are cool (not surprisingly) and there have been a frost or two. I will be working on pathways, weeding, and fencing through out winter. Along with preparing seeds and seedlings for my summer feast of vegies. I appreciate the guys on the garden thread at simplesavings.com.au for their help and assistance with answering questions. I love my garden and am really enjoying providing food for us to eat. I have lately been having meals with all produce provided by producers in my local area. I am very proud to support them. I get great organic beef from Nicholls Rivulet, and fruit and vegies from fellow producers at our local produce market, and locale.

Alpine strawberries and autumn raspberries

2009-05-19T17:11:00.002+10:00

So here I have been waiting and waiting for my alpine strawberries to ripen. They DONT they are a white strawberry and have a delicious taste. We have not got a lot just a couple of handfuls but made a great discovery. I was weeding about them thinking to myself that they were taking a long time to ripen. I noticed that some were going rotten and bugs had eaten them...hmm what? me thinks. So I popped one in my mouth, a lovely burst of strawberry. Darn ignorance in this case was not bliss. lol There are quite a few more flowers on the strawberries and raspberries, I am hoping we will have enough for desert of them one night.

Winter vegie beds and paraphenalia from tip shop to protect the seedlings

2009-05-09T15:03:00.000+10:00

what on earth happended to April!

2009-05-09T14:23:00.000+10:00

Well cool and wet down here today but I have been out to take some pictures of the garden. Things are growing relatively well and you will see my devices (mostly from tip shop) to try to thwart bugs.lol The silver beet is as you can see growing fantastically, I have sold several bunches at the produce market, people seem to love the tri colour of the stems. Broad beans are in same area and are doing well though I do have to put some string about them to stop them being blown about to much in the wind. I have also put in some tree onions in this plot, and a mesculan mix, and one or two other things um fenugreek hmm( I have to improve with putting lables about what is growing where. I have picked my very first saffron from my crocus two have flowered but sadly my DH accidentally threw out the first three i had drying. Second lot are in a safe place. Such a pretty flower. Still getting some tomatoes and zucchinis off the plants. Under the netting are my brassicas. Cabbages, Cauliflowers, brussel sprouts, and broccoli.

March marches on and progress has been made!

2009-03-31T17:57:00.000+11:00

Hi All no photos this time, as my new camera has a problems. Off to the seller. sigh I have broad beans up and some peas. I have cabbage, broccoli, and Brussels Sprouts seedlings going well. The meter squares seems to be growing well. I have lots of little seedlings up. My silver beet has been incredible, and looks as if it has self seeded in many places. The peach tree I thought I had lost is full of leaf and I have added some manure and compost around the bases of all the fruit trees. The rain water tanks are full! YIPEE so exciting. The grass is green and the garden is looking incredible as many plants that were not doing so well have revived. I have planted a flowering gum against the dam wall, and cant not wait to see it in flower in a year or two. They were spectacular in the south of Tasmania this year! I have put in over 100 bulbs, and lots of seeds to have lovely flowers for spring and summer. The garden at the front of the house is looking really good. The plants I transplanted in summer, that were not doing so well in the heat are going great guns. I hope to be able to have some pictures soon. I have been clearing paths about the flower garden, and getting the beds in better condition. I have put horse poo, blood and bone(which helps keep the rabbits from eating the seedlings) and compost over the beds, and dug some in as I planted the new bulbs. In the process I have dug up so many fresias, that I have to put them in pots, as they seem to be spreading so crazily. I am rearranging my vegie garden and organising beds for spring, summer plantings. The two potato beds (hopefully will be free of potatoes just never seem to get rid of them all) will be for tomatoes, zucchinis, capsicum and pumpkins (growing as I did this year between the beds.) I am moving my strawberries plants and extending the berry bed. I have to move the goose berries and the currants, as I have not allowed enough room for them to grow. The raspberry beds will be extended and this will give the jostaberries an area all of their own. I am making a bed just for asparagus, and another area just for rhubarb. My rhubarb has been growing all summer. So we have had lots of it. The wild apple is full of fruit and I will pick some soon. They are still very green, but will be great for pies and freezing. As well as for crumble with rhubarb. All the gardens will have new good quality steel birdwire fencing(thanks Mr Rudd) and I have a dream to have good paths and cleared area on the outside of the fences to minimise weeds getting in. My dream would be to have edging, and I am thinking of using stone, and cement(with brown colour added) to do this. I have to work out where to put the garlic and next seasons potatoes. I am popping some in just to see if I get some early ones. Gosh life is great in the garden. I love the hardwork and the rewards. I love hand watering with a hose, as I can really keep an eye and give each plant its needs. I will be very happy when the March flies and mosquitos vanish. They have been such pests in the last couple of weeks, I got bitten by two march flies..arrgh!. We have been eating our own potatoes, silver beet, spinach, tomatoes, coriander, french tarragon, parsley, rosemary, oregnao, bay leaves, the odd carrot, beetroot, raddish and zucchinis. Salads with borage flowers and marigolds. We have also had native wild cherries which are yummy(at least I think they are). My basil was a failure, I never seem to have any luck. So it will be grown in pots next season. My beans have not done so well either. The lemon tree is looking good, I wait for lemons and limes. I dont get it? I have very little luck and yet my SDDgets lemons in the hundreds on her little tree. I am going to protect it more and will put up a barrier about it. I have some plastic I bought for another purpose so will try that to see if it helps. Oh and some hessian in case of frost. My passion fruit and grapes are growing but no fruit. My poor fig is miserable. I transplanted my french tarragon into a poly styrene pot as it was not happy in the garden where I had it, but it has lots of new shoots. I am also going to give horse raddish a try again. Mine all vanished?