What happened on the weekend?

It was a public holiday for Show Day here last Friday, so all day Friday I thought it was Saturday and on Saturday I thought it was Sunday. It was good to have another day up my sleeve.  Hanno's back is starting to return to normal now so gentle work has resumed in the garden, and seedlings and seeds are in our thoughts again. The weekends are usually the days we work together more. I wander out into the garden to sit on the bench and watch, Hanno returns the favour and wanders into the kitchen while I'm cooking, to talk. It's a good partnership.

On Friday, our friends, Ernie and Jenny, came to visit. I told you a little while ago I'm working towards something exciting, well, I'm going into business with Ernie! Jenny and Hanno will be our helpers. We're doing a number of things, starting off with blogging for beginners workshops on the Sunshine Coast. Our first will be in Maleny in July, then we'll do a few more down along the coast. There will be two types of workshops - one will be the basics of blogging, with time to answer your questions. The other will be limited in numbers with hands-on instructions on how to set up a blog from scratch. When you leave, you'll have a functioning blog. I'll have more details closer to the date.

Here we are having morning tea and talking about our joint ventures last Friday.

There are other workshops in the pipeline too, some on practical things like soap making, baking, jams, preserving, gardening etc, that will be conducted here at our place. Ernie and I will also be starting an online magazine focusing on sustainability and sustainable communities. The four of us see this as a great way forward, a sound way of sharing with others and a way to build our community. There are a few other projects in there but I'll give you more information when we're closer to the launch time.

These two beauties just need a good clean up and they'll be ready for their second lives, brewing hundred of cups of tea.  Oh, and if you're wondering what we've done to that door in the background, Hanno is sanding it back and revarnishing.

Over the weekend I picked up two tea pots at the wonderful Beerwah Recycle Facility. Trish is the manager there and she is a firm supporter of the Neighbourhood Centre. I had asked her to look out for a large teapot for me because I am trying to steer the Centre away from using tea bags. I prefer instead to make a pot of tea using tea leaves. When we have a large gathering, we use almost a box of tea bags. With a tea pot we'll be much more prudent with the tea. Trish found us a lovely old style teapot that I guess would serve about 8 - 10 cups. She also had a smaller glass pot - an old coffee pot, that we can use for our herbal tea drinkers. Thanks for the donations, Trish!

I did the usual cooking and baking on the weekend: date scones and bread were baked and I made a big pot of pea and lentil soup. It will probably feed us for a few days. I also needed to use up some eggs, so I made a baked custand. This is the same as a Creme Brulee - without the caramel. I'll give you the recipe later in the week. Clothes and bedding were washed and hung to dry, the bed made, floor swept and the cat and chooks fed. We thought we'd lost our little bantam, Mary, the one who was always broody. She was no where to be found for three days. We thought a python had swallowed her, but then Hanno lifted up a piece of iron cladding and there she was. She had made a nest for herself and was sitting quietly on 15 eggs! One of our Barnevelders is not growing as she should. Her sister has just started laying but she hasn't even developed her comb yet. My fear is that she will fade away. We can't find anything wrong with her. She is eating fairly well but she doesn't mix with the other chooks and prefers to wander around alone.

Over the rest of the weekend, I was knitting, reading, writing, sending emails and speaking to various members of my family on the phone. It was just the right mix of work and rest. The weather is cool here and it's been raining, so while I went about my work I felt cosy because I was inside most of the time and knew there was soup to warm up for dinner. It was a lovely weekend. I hope yours was too. I'm now looking forward to a full and busy week.