Another quiet Sunday

I am alone at the moment. It's 5.35am, Sunday. Hanno has gone to the farmers' market to buy a few seedlings and fruit, it's quiet. Outside, rain is falling. I have a cup of tea, there is washing in the machine and soon I'll watch Martin Clunes Horsepower that I recorded last night. It's such a fine program, I'm not sure how long it goes, but this is the second episode I've watched. I love horses and will watch any intelligence program about them. This examines the relationship between people and horses and how horses have shaped and supported our world.

8.00am I hung out two of the Centre's table cloths that I had soaking, then washed. The bad thing about white table cloths is that they show every stain. The good thing about white table cloths is that soaking in oxybleach removes every stain, even tea and coffee. I often buy plain white linens simply because they're so easy to care for. I have the bed linen in the washer now and Hanno's black alpaca jumper to wash by hand. I'll be back soon.

I must remember my hand cream.

8.32am I just took the photos of Hanno in the garden planting up the new seedlings. The air is heavy with the scent orange blossoms and once again, the orange tree has far too many flowers and is shedding them. It isn't big enough yet for too many oranges but I like its optimism, and its common sense. It will grow to be a fine tree. There is a white cloak of blossoms around the base of the tree, I'll pull more off in the coming weeks.

8.35am Quentin packs her bags and moves out. Our Light Sussex chook Quentin has been pecking our little Faverolles, Heather. Heather is pictured in the right side bar. She is the little whitish girl with feather pants. Quentin is twice Heather's size and is causing her a lot of distress. We asked Jens and Cathy if they wanted to add Quentin to their flock. They agreed, so Quentin will live with them now. Bye bye Quentin.

9.30am Cleaned the kitchen, washed up and swept the floor.

10am Morning tea, date scone and knitting.

10.10am Shane rang to say Happy Father's Day to Hanno but he's still out. I tell him to call back later and that I'll call Sarndra to have a chat this afternoon, he is off to work now.

10.15am Continue knitting. I'm knitting black mittens for a friend's birthday.

12.30pm Banana for lunch.

1.15pm Phoned Sarndra for a chat. I love my DIL dearly. She's smart and funny, creative and a hard worker. Most of all, she makes Shane very happy and that alone is worth its weight. ♥

2.05 pm I have just sorted through some notes for the new soap making workshop I'm putting together for the Centre. I need to do a touch more research and add some soap calculators and recipes. I wrap some of my soap for Hanno's sister and niece in Hamburg.

2.30pm Made the bed with clean sheets. Started to think about dinner. We're having soup again, the pea and ham soup I made last night. Hanno said it was too salty so I'm adding more water. If that doesn't fix it I'll add a couple of potatoes to soak up the salt. Dessert will be fresh strawberries.

It's still raining and overcast.

3pm Phone calls from Shane and to a friend and then I sit with my knitting listening to the rain fall. It is such a soothing sound, I know its doing the garden good and my thoughts start to focus on work this week. I'm starting to think very seriously about my Living Skills workshops. It's a series of classes I want to give on cooking, baking, soap making, gardening and making green cleaners, in addition to The Frugal Home workshop I've been running for over a year. I think it would be a very worthwhile exercise to get our community cooking from scratch, baking bread and growing their own food. I feel really good about being in a position to offer these workshops, to have a venue in which to do it and the support of a committee who think it's a great idea. Our clients are mainly low income people and I'd rather share some life skills with them than apply patch ups later ton. I hope the classes turn out close to the vision I have in my head. If so, they'll be a real community builder.


Late in the afternoon, I heat the soup up and clean and cut the strawberries ready for eating. Dinner over, Hanno puts the chooks to bed, feeds Alice and Hettie and we both start winding down. Another quiet Sunday to prepare us for the coming week.

The last thing I hear as I drift into sleep is rain falling on the roof.

I hope you have a productive week and that the next seven days are kind to us all.

Some weekend listening

My friends at Radio National's Future Tense sent this link to their program on The Slow Movement. It's an interesting broadcast about slow living, including slow food. Listen right to the end for the discussion about the commercialisation of slow and simple. Very interesting, and reflective of the posts I've made recently on "the change".

I hope you have a beautiful weekend.

Start early and never stop

I often write here about building up our stockpiles, creating gardens full of fresh vegetables and making, rather than buying, many of the requirements of a simple home. One thing we also have to be mindful of, and this is one of the most significant parts of our lives, is to nurture and support our families, and be the kind of person you want them to be. We have to build our families too.

My children are now 29 and 30 years old. Both have settled down with beautiful, caring partners, both are ambitious and have good jobs and both are the kindest and gentlest men you would ever care to meet. They make me one very proud mother. The past week of reading about nappies/diapers, and how to wash them, made me realise that a lot has changed in the 30 years since I was a young mother. But I am happy being at this end of child rearing, seeing my boys fully grown, out in the world, functioning extremely well in a competitive and sometimes hostile world. I'm not saying that we were perfect parents, but we did enough right to get a wonderful result, twice.

I think children learn a lot when they gather with the family around the dinner table. This is the one part of the day when everyone can sit and relax, talk about what happened that day, and listen to what everyone else did. This is the time when we show, rather than tell, what our family values are. It's important. If you don't take the time to reconnect everyday, children drift off in their own world. We need that time to let them know they're an important part of the family, you support them and if they need help, you're there. It needs to start early, from the time they're eating from a tiny bowl, and continue right through until they leave home. Each stage has it's unique lessons, each stage prepares for the next. There will be requests to sit in front of the TV and to eat in their room, but the answer to that should always be no. They don't understand the significance of the family gathering until they're older. No phones or iPods at the table. No disruptions. This family time comes first, no exceptions, all else can wait. That 30 minutes can make or break a family.

I think I was quite a strict mother, but in some ways I wasn't. I had rules for TV, movies and books - I had to approve them all, and there were time limits. I was involved in their school, was on the P&C, I knew their teachers, and let their teachers know I was involved. I knew their friends and welcomed them into our home, but was very careful about where they went in return. We took them travelling a lot, we went camping and on road trips most school holidays when Hanno could get away from work. I never threatened something I wasn't prepared to carry out. I surprised them with some freedoms they didn't expect and angered them by not letting them do other things. All the time, they knew they were loved and supported in their interests. During their teenage years, when all the normal drink and drug issues emerge, we got through them and came out the other side, stronger and closer. Even now, we have a very strong relationship and they talk to me about all manner of things. I'm not sure what the key is. I guess it's love and being strong through the tough times, while knowing when to lighten up and loosen the controls, and always, always, being there to listen with an open heart.

Remember that you have to change as a parent along the way. You will get nowhere fast if you try to parent a 13 year old in the same way you parent a nine year old, or if you expect a three year old to behave like a 7 year old. And time is important too, theirs and yours. Don't over schedule them, running around to after-school activities most days of the week will tire everyone, including you. Children need a lot of time when they can just play and use their own imagination. Structured events and activities block that from happening. Give them the gift of free afternoons when they can make a fort out of a sheet or hike in the National Park with their friends when they're teenagers.

As I get older I understand how undeniably crucial the family unit is. It's not only important that we build strong families of decent, competent, intelligent people for our own family's sake, we need to do it for our country's well being too. Children who have been nurtured by a loving family and have seen active parents working towards a greener and simpler future have a better chance of doing that themselves.

And while it takes a fair amount of money to raise children, they don't need to see that money but they do need to feel loved and appreciated. There are many things a child can do without, and you don't have to fret if you can't, or don't want to, supply iPods, phones, fashions and computers, but never be ungenerous with the love. Children want their parents' love and attention more than anything else. Acceptance, kindness and love delivered in full measure, consistently, over the years, builds character and confidence in a way no product ever can. The trick is to start early and never stop.

In the vegetable patch

You all know I love Winter but it's the second day of Spring today and we're in those transition days from cool to warm.  It's an absolute joy now to walk in the garden, looking, picking, tying back, clipping and even weeding.  My favourite times in the garden all through the year are very early in the morning at first light, and late in the afternoon when the trees on the neighbouring property shade our garden.  Hanno was out all day yesterday driving a group of ladies around the thrift shops.  I was in charge of the garden.  :- )  We're going out of our main growing season now and heading towards a time when we'll harvest a lot of tomatoes.  In november or December, Hanno will stop planting and although we'll continue harvesting over summer, no new plants will go in.  

This is what it looks like now.

These are the new tomatoes Hanno planted outside the garden.  Hettie, our cat, lays in the straw almost all day, sleeping.

There are a few types of Chinese greens here including bok choy, tatsoi and minuba.

Frilly lettuce is planted next to the Chinese greens and in between those crops we have a lush crop of chickweed.  I tend to think of that as a crop because we use it to feed the chooks.  They love it.

The elderberry is flowering.  I am going to take some cuttings and propagate this to give us enough berries to make champagne each Christmas.  We won't do it this year, but from next year we should be right.

Tomatoes and lettuce.

Garlic and zucchini.

New bok choi, tomatoes in the background, leeks in the top left corner and new cucumbers on the climbing frame.

In the next garden over, a big clump of parsley in the foreground, more lettuce, silverbeet (swiss chard) and the white flowering coriander/cilantro.

The same garden taken from the other end.  Here you can see Welsh onions and climbing green beans, just starting to attach themselves to their frame.

Same garden, looking back into the main garden.

Yarrow in the foreground, celeriac, silverbeet/swiss chard, kale and snow peas.  I will harvest all that silverbeet today and have it frozen by early afternoon.

Looking back onto the Chinese greens again, this time with the orange tree, bay tree (cut back) and passionfruit vines in the background.

And while I wandered around, watering and checking, eyes were upon me.  Notably those of Quentin, our Light Sussex chook.  She is upset that I am in there and she isn't.  Potatoes will soon be planted in that bare patch near the chook fence.

Our garden isn't big.  It's divided up into six beds, with herbs growing in pots near the bird baths.  Outside the fenced garden we have a lemon tree, which grows in the chook run, as well as passionfruit vines, bananas, mandarin, pink grapefruit, avocados and loquat trees.  This is more than enough food for us, and to share with family and friends.  I hope all of you who are starting gardens now or who are thinking about it, dive right in to the world of home grown vegetables and fruit.  The difference in freshness and the superb taste of backyard vegetables and fruit, is enough to keep you going year after year.  Happy gardening everyone!

What have you given up for good?

There are changes happening all over the world now that I think will benefit us all in the long term. Many of us are thinking more about how our behaviour impacts our environment, we are checking food labels before we buy our food, we're getting rid of harmful substances and cleaning with simple things like vinegar and baking soda. In general, we're thinking about how we can save money rather than spend it. We know that the decisions we make need to be sensible because when we look around us now we see the results of so many bad decisions. Jobs and homes being lost and people on the brink of losing it all. I believe common sense is making a come back.

I have made many changes in my own life in the past decade. I am not the same person I was back then, my decision to stop spending on "wants" changed me for good. I've been wondering what are the five things I know deep down to my bones, I will not go back to. Five things that used to be common in my life that will never be in my life again. I thought it would be easy to come up with five. It's not, because I want to be sure this is a forever decision, and that's a tough one. For example, I immediately thought of air travel. I've not taken an air trip for the past eight years, even though I've travelled interstate and have been offered a free trip to another country. I'm definitely not going to be a frequent flyer again, and that is for reasons other than the cost of air travel, but never? There may be a time I have to fly, so that's not on my list.

Here are five I've given up for good. Five things I know will never be part of my life again. I want to see yours too and while I expect there to be a common theme, I reckon it will be a diverse list that will make us all think. In no particular order:

• Acrylic fabric and yarn.
• Fat-free or low fat food.
• Fly spray.
• New cars.
• Magazines, newspapers, music CDs.

I'm really interested in seeing what you list. Remember, you must be totally convinced that you'll never buy it again.