Happy new year!

I have a feeling this will be a very good year. I went to bed at the normal time last night and when I woke at midnight, to the sound of fireworks someone was letting off in their yard, I also heard rain. It's been raining for a few days now so the ground is saturated, the tanks full and the washing is drying under cover on the back verandah.

Yesterday we met this little visitor. He's a common house gecko. We often hear geckos calling with their distinctive clicking sounds but we rarely see them. This fellow is a baby and will no doubt learn to hide in daylight hours but it was lovely to see him out walking upside-down on our lounge room ceiling.

I got quite a bit done yesterday. I wanted to go into the new year with everything squared away so that nothing would hold me back this year. It's symbolic more than anything, I suppose, but it does make me feel like I'm organised if I can do what I say I'm going to do. I didn't quite finish off the bedroom, I just have to take a few things to my sewing room today. When I do that, I'll dust and vacuum the carpet and it will be done.

Feeding time

We took advantage of the rainfall yesterday and cleaned out the aquaponics tank. Hanno let a lot of the water run out, cleaned the pump and we filled the tank again with harvested rainwater. The fish - silver perch - are growing really well now and we have several that are around 10 inches long. If you click on the photos above they will enlarge.

And here is one of the grow tanks. We have parsley, tomatoes and silverbeet in it.

I also worked on the ebook yesterday and hope to have that finished next week. It is bigger than I expected it to be so I've had to divide it in two so it will be easy to email. I've included a bread making and soap tutorial, with photos, as well as information about budgeting, green cleaning recipes, recipes for drinks and a lot of posts on simple living. Much of what's in it is in the blog but this format is more like a book that you can either read on your computer or print out and read at your leasure.

Today I'll be ironing, knitting, baking bread, tidying my sewing room and, hopefully, working on the ebook. I want to get everything in order before I go back to work next week so I can look forward to a year full of challenges knowing that my home is as I want it to be. My home is not a show house, it gets messy at times, but it's organised and clean most of the time. I guess it's like most homes in that it reflects our lives - sometimes spick and span, sometimes a bit of a mess, butalways welcoming and comfortable for us, our family and friends.

I wish you all the best for 2008. May it be a good one for all of us.

Here is something to look at when you have a spare 20 minutes. The story of stuff. a reader sent it to me a couple of days ago and I've just watched it now. It's very interesting. Thanks Cindy!