Simple sights

Thank you for the kind thoughts for Bernadette.  We went to chemo yesterday and I'm happy to tell you she was pain-free all day.  Maybe it was your prayers and good thoughts that helped that along.  On the way home we picked up her daughter from the airport and they collected Flora McDonald on their way home.  Hanno drove them home from here because I was tired and needed a short sleep.  What a lovely thing it is to sleep during the day.  I never liked to in years gone by but now I sleep whenever I feel like it and I am better for it.

After my nap I checked the forum, talked to Hanno, and did a few odds and ends.  I bought a large dish drainer yesterday as the one I had doesn't handle our dishes and all the bottles, jars, funnels and spoons I usually have when washing up.  I reorganised the kitchen sink to accommodate the new addition, washed the lunch dishes and the bits and pieces sitting on the kitchen bench, then stood back to admire my new drainer.  LOL!  I am amused by simple sights now - a dish drainer full of drying dishes pleases me as much as anything finer would.  I am looking forward to tomorrow when I can get stuck into the kitchen and give it a good tidy up.

When I'm doing that tidy up, I'll also make some soap.  I gave four bars to Kerry when he was here last week so we only have a few bars left.  I also want to make more liquid soap, and try to perfect my method of doing that.  It will only be my second lot of liquid soap so I still have much to learn, but the product itself is so lovely, I doubt I'll ever be without it again.  I've been using it for shampoo, removing stains, washing dishes, spraying on bugs in the garden and adding a little to my bucket of vinegar water when I mop the floors.  It's a full day job though, with lots of sitting and waiting, so I'll have to start that early tomorrow.

Many of the long term readers here will probably remember that Autumn is my favourite season, so as the days shorten and the strength of light changes, I look forward to those coming  cooler months when we have our vegetable garden back to full production.  Hanno started the planting  (I will do a post on that later in the week) but just seeing him out there in the garden in the late afternoon, reminds me that most beautiful time of the year will be here very soon.  And when I can eat home-grown heirloom tomatoes again and don't have to rely on the insipid pretenders we buy at the shop, I'll be one happy gal.

Growing a vegetable garden gives us such a sense of empowerment.  Those vegetables, along with all the skills we've learnt along the way, help us survive as independently as possible and if there was, heaven forbid, a local disaster, or a transport or oil strike, or problems further afield that stopped the production or movement of oil, we  know we would be fine here for a long time.  I guess we're preparing for the future by relying on the past.

I am going to work today and will be presenting one of my Frugal Home workshops.  I always enjoy them even though it's a bit of a rush in the morning to set up and organise food for lunch as well talk to people as they come in.   But it will be a good day, of that I have no doubt, and the incidentals of the day will be forgotten  to be replaced by the pleasure of sharing what I know with others who are keen to learn.  Sharing knowledge, passing on information, and encouraging those younger used to be a normal part of life, but it doesn't seem to happen much nowadays.  I love the point in the workshop when people realise they really can change the way they live and still be happy and fulfilled.  There is always a point when they see the payoff for taking the time to come along to the workshop.  They have the printed information in their hands but the thing that surprises them is the stirrings of motivation to change.  That is  what I strive to give them.  Information without the motivation to use it is worthless. The quiet people who walk in change into a little group motivated towards change.  When they leave, they hug and thank me.  Often they make plans to come back - sometimes to volunteer, sometimes to attend another workshop or take a bus trip, or to learn how to sew and mend at our sewing circle.  I feel very fortunate to be part of it.