Weekend reading, change of seasons, garden

ADDED LATER:  I'm having computer problems, I'll be back later this week or early next week.  

Melbourne comes out of lockdown today - the most locked down city in the world. I'm celebrating with you Melbourne! Stay safe everyone and have some fun, you deserve it.

With the weather moving from cool to warm during the week, I cleaned the back verandah and moved our table and chairs towards the house where it's shady 24/7. We have shade blinds that protect the verandah from the sun during the afternoon so when I moved some plants onto the verandah I pulled down one of the blinds to provide shade and a bit of protection. I love the feeling I get when I clean up a big area like that when the seasons change. I feel I'm doing the right thing and it opens new opportunities for me. When things are a mess, I don't want to do anything because I have to rearrange everything before I even start.

It's gardenia time!  Here are a couple of sprays of them with the Queen Anne's lace.

The Taproot magazine edition I'm in was published this week and that resulted in a lot of new people visiting my Instagram page and here at the blog. Hello everyone and welcome. I hope you all find inspiration here or on Heather's beautiful blog - Northridge Farm, or Alyson's at Alyson Morgan or Farai's at Farai Harreld. We all have ideas and information that will help you transition to a more sustainable and simple life.

This weeks baking was a date cake from the Grandma's Cookbook website. It's an easy to make cake, undecorated in any way and so delicious with a cup of tea.  Jens and Cathy called in during the week (they moved up the Hervey Bay two weeks ago) and I was delighted to be able to offer them some fresh date cake with their tea before they headed home, another 2.5 hours away.  Other food I served this week included mushroom omelettes, pork fillet with potatoes and red cabbage, Atlantic salmon with salad and kartoffel puffers. 

And of course you know I've been out in the garden doing this and that. Everything's growing well and it's providing a safe habitat for the wildlife that wander or fly through.

This is a tropical vine growing over the garden arbour.

These St Anne's Lace have grown to over 9 feet tall! I love picking the flowers for the house.

Over near the neighbour's fence is this scene - comfrey, foxgloves, a bee a hotel, mauve trumpet creeper and a huge pink salvia.

And this is looking in the opposite direction.

 🐌  👩‍🌾  🦆

Weekend Reading

• Easy recipe with frozen croissant dough

• Making jackets from a thrifted quilt and curtains

• How to understand sewing patterns (for beginners!)

• Spätis: The convenience stores that rule Berlin

• ‘Locals love us’: country Australia’s general stores come into their own during Covid

• Ivory poaching has led to evolution of tuskless elephants, study finds

• Something good every day and Hungry Hungry Pippo are two newsletters my friend Pip Lincoln is writing. If you know Pip's books you'll know what a fabulous writer she is. Check out her newsletters - the first is free, the second with a small fee. Both are interesting and entertaining!

• 12 gifts  and Making my own sewing tools by the ever wonderful DinLife

• ‘Overlooked’: 14,000 invertebrate species lost habitat in Black Summer bushfires, study finds

• Jean therapy: putting them in the freezer doesn’t work – so how do you make jeans last?

• Household dust is being put under the microscope as scientists seek to better understand it

• Lillördag: Sweden's workers de-stress with 'Little Saturday'

• Is modern life poisoning me? I took the tests to find out

ADDED LATER:  I'm having computer problems, I'll be back later this week or early next week.