I miss our garden when it's not growing. At the end of our main season in November, I really feel like a break because I'm over watering, tending, harvesting and the rest of it. But then December, January and February come and go and I start missing the garden. I don't like paying high prices for inferior vegetables, I can never find anywhere near the freshness that we're used to and I start longing for the garden to be there again - fresh and available, right at our back door.

The time is right to plant again and the signs are already good. Our passionfruit vines are holding big juicy passions and we've had the best season ever for blueberries. I think it's going to be a good year in the garden. But things have changed out there. The chook house has been renovated and enlarged and that took a small area out of the garden. Hanno has put up a very strong climbing frame on the new chook wall and I expect that will help our vines grow during winter because the heat of the sun will hit the vines from both sides.

I started sowing seeds a few weeks ago and almost all of them are growing well, although the daikons didn't germinate and the granny's bonnets took 28 days to come up! That's a long time here, usually our seeds take only a few days when the days are so warm but like parsley, the granny's bonnets like to take their time. I have half a tray of curly kale because we grow for ourselves and the chickens. The more green vegies they eat, the darker yellow their yolks become. If you're a new gardener, I recommend curly kale to you. It's very hardy. They're at their best as a winter vegetable but will keep going in the heat as well. It's the best flavoured kale in our opinion and beats the dark kale hands down for versatility. This year, I'm trying Japanese spinach. Has anyone tried that? I've only sown six seeds at the moment because I have so many other leaves on the go, but I'm looking forward to test tasting it.

 Still growing in the garden now - pumpkin a few silverbeet and some beetroot.

And another bucket of lemons waiting to be juiced.

I have three types of tomato - our self sown large cherry tomato that comes up every year sure as eggs, the French Rouge de Marmande and Amish paste. The seeds collected from our flat leaf parsley have germinated well and I have about 50 plants now. I'll share those with Sunny when she comes home. I have a nice selection of Sugarloaf cabbage and mini cauliflowers, magenta silver beet, Warrigal greens, pak choi, cucumbers, sweet potato, potatoes, about fifty garlics from last year's crop, calendulas - for ointments and oil, sprouting broccoli, brown onions, and peas, beans and sweet peas will be planted as seeds, along with many other root vegetables, directly into the ground. I've taken cuttings from the elder tree and that will be planted when it's ready, we brought another passionfruit vine that will be planted on the new trellis and I have a two year old avocado, grown from a seed, ready to pot on. There is certainly plenty of work to be done.

We've been building up our supplies recently and every time Hanno goes to the produce store or hardware, he brings home bags of cow manure and sugar cane mulch. Yesterday afternoon, when I took my photos, he'd just finished planting the kumquat tree that Shane and Sarndra gave us. Now I just have to wait for the other beds to be prepared and then planting will start. Once again, we'll be set up here to provide ourselves with plenty of fresh food. It makes me feel good to be alive.

We're both excited about the possibilities this growing season is presenting us with. We both have a new leash on life and feel thankful that we can do this work and provide for ourselves. It's going to be a good year here at the Hetzel homestead. What are your plans for the garden this year?

Yesterday I wrote about the inside work done in permaculture zones. Today we're focusing on the principles of permaculture and how they might apply in your home in addition to your outdoor area and gardens.

The 12 principles of permaculture:

1. Observe and interact 
2. Catch and store energy 
3. Obtain a yield 
4. Apply self-regulation and accept feedback 
5. Use and value renewable resources and services 
6. Produce no waste 
7. Design from patterns to details 
8. Integrate rather than segregate 
9. Use small and slow solutions 
10. Use and value diversity 
11. Use edges and value the marginal 
12. Creatively use and respond to change 

I'm not going to write about how we apply every one of these principles here because I want everyone to think about it themselves, and maybe tell me how they could work in your home. But I will write about a couple of them to give you the general idea. You'll see that a few of them are self-evident, some will need a bit of thinking, but that's why this is helpful - it gives you different ways of looking at your work and how to remain productive in your home. Just remember that one of the interesting concepts of permaculture is that one zone, idea, action, method or principle often has multiple outcomes over several other areas. So when you apply these principles to your home, you'll probably find that one principle relates to one or two others.

For example, catch and store energy marries up with obtain a yield in my home because we have solar panels for electricity and hot water. Self regulation feeds into this too because we had to train ourselves to turn off light switches and when buying new appliances, to buy energy efficient products that cost more up front but save money and energy over a long period of time. Of the moment cash savings are often overshadowed by long term savings, fewer products being bought and less white goods waste.


Observe and interact
This is the easy one. Observation and taking time are the keys here. It requires us to not operate on automatic pilot but to be mindful, to observe and take in what we're doing in our daily work, change what we can to make our home a more productive place and to simplify our work practices. We interact with each other, discuss problems, come up with combined solutions, and, when they spend time with us, invite our grandchildren to help with the simple tasks. This interaction with Alex and Jamie taps into principles 3, 5, 8, 9, 10 and 12.

Catch and store energy
This incorporates the obvious solar panels on our roof that catch solar energy and produce hot water and electricity to use in our home but it also applies in other areas too. The jams, chutneys and sauces in the stockpile cupboard that have been produced from the garden produce out back, prepared and stored in such a way that all the energy that went into the growing of that food, is captured and stored for our use later in the year when those foods are no longer available.

Integrate rather than segregate 

This is an important principle here because for me, it deals with the family and how we all work together. Our aim has been to bring our family into the way we live - even though they don't live here and we don't expect them to do what we're doing. It is enough for us that while they're here, they respect our lifestyle, help us when they can and do not want to separate themselves from what is considered to be an unusual life. When our grandchildren are here, we show them how to plant seeds, how to pick fruit and to collect eggs. We integrate them into our living systems to slowly teach them these life skills and to help them understand us.  All our children love eating the foods we grow and share with them. They all eagerly take our home produce when it's offered to them and in that way, even though they don't live here, they show that support and become part of our home on their visits.

Last weekend, we were asked to look after Alex while Shane and Sarndra went to a concert in Brisbane. Of course we jumped at the chance to have our grandson stay over night. We had a wonderful time together and even though they didn't have to, by way of saying thank you, Shane and Sarndra bought us a kumquat tree to add to our orchard. That showed me they understand our productivity ethic, and they are part of it through that understanding. While he was here, Alex ate what was here, he integrated seamlessly into our home and we didn't have to go out and buy special food just for him. It was a real pleasure to see him standing at the blueberry bushes eating the berries he picked. While he was here, he was part of what we've created and I hope as he grows, that will develop and he'll always feel part of it and want to spend time with us.


Design from pattern to details
This encourages you to step back for a moment, look at your work practices, study your patterns of work and to decide if they're working for you or against you. For instance, if the way you do your washing/laundry isn't resulting in clothes being clean and available when they're needed -  the overall pattern isn't functioning as it should. Instead of abandoning the washing altogether, you tweak the components of that pattern - where the clothes baskets are, who is responsible for loading the washing machine, is the washing machine working properly, what cleaning products are you using, how much do they cost, where are they stored etc. All these smaller components need to be looked at individually to see what the weak points are, and then changed to make a better and more efficient system. You modify or change the details to improve the pattern.

As I said, I had no intentions of deciphering these principles and how they may work in your home for you. My intention instead was to show you a few quick examples of how they might be applied in homes and have you think about the principles in your own home and see if applying all, or some of them, might help you understand and do your work. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this and I'd like to know if you think you can use permaculture, or part of it, to help you work in your own home.


And in keeping with the permaculture ethics of earth care, people care and fair share, I'm passing on some information that came by way of a comment yesterday. It might encourage you to get involved in a community project that needs support from like-minded folk.  malleepermaculture wrote:

Something that may be of interest, on this topic, to you and your readers, is a new Australian permaculture magazine that's going into print in the next few weeks. Pip Magazine is its name and it aims to help people build, connect, create, eat, grow, and nurture their way to a better life and better world. They are running a crowdfunding campaign in the spirit of the permaculture principle, "share the surplus". The campaign ends tomorrow so if you could maybe share the link in the comments or in a post, that will help them put together an Issue #2. 

Pip Magazine: pozible.com/domain/rd/pipmagazine

Permaculture is a design system started in Australia, originally for permanent agriculture and homesteads, but now the principles have spread world-wide and the design system is much more far reaching. Last year I wrote about how the permaculture could be applied inside the home as well as in the garden. I got a reminder recently that this subject might be an interesting one to write about again and hopefully by doing so I can encourage you to look to permaculture principles to examine your home life closely.

I am not a trained permaculturalist. I read the books by David Holmgren and Bill Mollison in the 80s, then, shortly before we came to live here in the mid-1990s, Linda Woodrow's superb book The Permaculture Home Garden was published. Linda's book showed me the possibilities lurking in backyards and even before we arrived here I'd decided to continue vegetable gardening, install a water tank and buy more chickens when we settled in. We don't follow the traditional design elements of permaculture, we prefer a more organised garden. It was enough for us to garden organically, but I never forgot the excitement I felt when, after reading Linda's book, I realised that a vegetable garden wasn't just a garden. It was a gateway into another kind of life.

The principles of permaculture are applied to working zones, generally in the garden and outdoor areas of a home, but they can also work well inside. Some folk get stuck when they stop spending and start working towards a simpler life and they don't know what they should or could be doing. I'm not saying that permaculture has all the answers but it will give you guidelines to apply to your home, it will encourage you to think deeply about the work you do there and maybe that will be the key that opens it all up for you.

Maybe as you work through the zones and customise your home using them, you'll organise your work spaces in a more logical manner and discover ideas you never thought about before. Basically the house is Zone 0 and the work zones are the lower numbers. The further away you go from those zones, the less time you spend there and the less work is done there. I have listed my zones below. My list goes from Zone 0, which is the house itself, and works out from zone 1 through to zone 5; I added zone 6, which is my community. Go through the list, think about your home if it could work for you and then define for yourself what your zones are. 

Permaculture zones in our home and possibly many suburban, urban and rural homes:

Zone 0

The house. Here babies are conceived and cuddled, toddlers turn into school children, then teenagers. It is where people like you and me develop, create, think, relax, grow older and often thrive. Here in my home the house is now a place for grandchildren as well. The home is where families grow into strong units. At the edges of your property, your community starts. From here you'll reach out and be part of your community and hopefully you'll help build an active and thriving neighbourhood.

Zone 1

This is the zone were most of the daily domestic action happens and for me, that's the kitchen. Included in this zone are the freezer, pantry, stockpile cupboard and kitchen table. This zone is mainly for food storage and preparation as well as family meals and visiting guests. this is where all the action happens.

Zone 2

This is the living and relaxation area of our home - the lounge room, front and back verandahs. Zone 2 in the house is also directly connected to zone 1 in the garden. It is where I sort seeds, tie garlic and onions, write plant labels, process loofahs and store excesses of lemons.

Zone 3

This zone requires a little less attention but still it's busy. This is the laundry where we wash clothes, make cleaners, make and store soap and keep the ingredients for all our cleaners. Here is where babies are bathed when they visit and where our dirty clothes and stored and then washed.

Zone 4

This is our maintenance zone. It's is sewing and work room and the linen cupboard. In here I mend, sew, store fabrics, yarns, sewing machine, knitting needles, buttons and sewing tools.

Zone 4

Takes in the garage, the garden shed and Hanno's big shed. These areas are where we store broken furniture, bits and pieces waiting to be fixed, tools, lawn mowers, wheelbarrows, hay and backyard equipment.

Zone 5 

Budgeting zone. Although this is not an actual place and doesn't require daily monitoring, it's an important part of the system because it relates to every zone. Zone 5 must be working well for all the zones in the house and garden to function to their potential.

Zone 6

Your local community. In a functioning local area, the homes and the people who live in them are connected to and support their local community. Occasional work may be done there in the form of committee work, support for the local school, youth and sports clubs. If there is no community support, towns die, professionals such as doctors, midwives and dentists leave and CWA, community gardens, and other neighbourhood groups close down. A thriving community always has the support of its citizens.

These zones are set up according to your work and how often that works needs to be done. Zone 1 work is usually repeated many times every day. It's also the area where you place things that need attention every day.

But the zones are only part of this. There are 12 permaculture principles that play an important role because they make you think about what you're doing, they help you improve your work practices and they guide you to effectively apply the principles of permaculture to help you live according to your values. The principles of permaculture are guided by three ethics: earth care, people care and fair share. These three ethics are a way of saying we look after ourselves, our family, our community and we don't use more than we need - we share.

This post is getting to be a long one so tomorrow I'll write permaculture principles. Hopefully today you'll share your thoughts on how you might use these zone to help you organise your work at home.

If you're living in Brisbane, keep in touch with Roman and Jana (West End) at their blog Spurtopia because they're doing free workshops throughout the year. This young couple were featured on Gardening Australia last year. Click on their workshops tab for more information. The next workshop is 2 March at 2pm - Sustainable Living in a Rental Property - fee by donation, bookings essential. 

Home things past

Traditional farmhouse butter - You Tube - it's a bit gloomy and stern in places but see it through. I found it delightful and particularly liked the family having breakfast of homemade, buttered fruit loaf with their cups of tea. This is a genuine look at a family still living a traditional life back in 1970.

Introducing ...

I hope you enjoy your weekend as much as we'll enjoy ours. Shane and Sarndra are going to a concert and we've been asked to care for Alex on Saturday night. They arrive tonight. It looks like a visit to Steve Irwin's zoo is on the agenda - it's just a few minutes down the road from us. Enjoy what you do and take some time to think about this beautiful life we're all living.

I got some good news from Penguin yesterday. Down to Earth is being reprinted again. :- ) I've received many emails from people who have said it's been an important turning point in their lives. I am proud and humbled knowing Down to Earth had a positive effect on so many people. Thank you all so much for your support of my book. 

♥:♥:♥

I reinstated my email last week and as reliable as clockwork, got five emails from new readers asking how to start living a simple life. It's the most asked question I get. I hope this helps.

You've been thinking about it for a long time, you've decided to simplify your life.What now? Well, there could be a hundred answers to that question but let's take the simple road and work out what is possible in those very early days. The path ahead will be different if you stay at home to work or if you go out to work, but there are a few similarities. The main one being how you deal with money. Paying off debt and reducing spending play an important part in living a simpler life. It's also often the one solution people don't want to know about. The first step in dealing with your money in an effective way is to know how much you're spending, and on what. Start tracking your money. Get a small notebook and every time you go out, write down what you spend. Don't cheat, this is only for you, no one else will see it. Track your spending for at least a month. When you add it all up, you'll have a very good record of your spending habits, how much you spend and what you spend your money on. That is where you start organising your money and paying off debt. There is more about it here.

I've found that many people who do simplify want to live a healthier life as well. They want to improve the quality of the food they eat, cut out preservatives and eat fresh, local food. They try to cook from scratch whenever possible and sometimes that means creating a vegetable garden in the backyard along with a flock of chickens. Travelling this route will allow you to be as self reliant as you can be in a suburban or urban home. For the non-garderners it means finding local food or markets and traders whom they trust and support with their hard-earned dollars.

If you got this far it tells me that you've started changing your mindset and have moved away from what is considered "normal". Continue to focus on where you're heading, don't take any notice of what your friends and family say, if you think you're doing the right thing, continue on and disregard the naysayers.

Organise yourself. If you're working outside the home as well as in it, or if you're like me and want to simplify as much of the housework as you can, you'll need to be organised so you can do it all. Simply living often means more work, but it's work that you often enjoy doing and will give you the life you're searching for.

When you organise yourself, include time for yourself in the mix. Concentrate on relaxing and making the most of every day. Taking time out during a busy day, even if it's just to sit with a cup of tea for 15 minutes, will help you keep going. You're worth it, never forget that.

Start making some of your own cleaners such as laundry liquid, cleaning paste, vinegar cleaners and soap if you feel you want to. That will help you on two fronts - it will reduce the cost of your weekly groceries and it will create a healthier home for you and your family. Take every opportunity to live with fewer chemicals in your life.

I just have to smile when I look at Kathleen exploring her new home. 

The frizzles are earning their keep. We got one egg from them on their first day here.

Establish productive habits. I found that by carrying out two daily tasks, it helped focus me on what I wanted - a sustainable and productive home. Your two tasks can be anything that you must do every day, but sometimes miss out on doing them. My two tasks were to make the bed every morning and to make a loaf of bread every day. Each of them didn't take long to do but they kept me on track during those early months. I felt that if I had done just those two things, that I was progressing on the right track and often it motivated me to continue on with more work.

So, just to clarify, here are some things that will help you move from a mainstream life to a simpler one:

We are the very happy owners of six new chickens. Kate from Beautiful Chickens brought them to us yesterday afternoon. We had the new wing of the chicken palace open for the first time with the red carpet down. The band played Waltzing Matilda. Ahem, I think I got a bit carried away there. They are such a beautiful bunch of girls. So healthy looking and not too flighty, I think that's always a good sign. If they're calm, it tells me that they were relaxed and comfy where they came from.  Kate has a beautiful setup of coops and runs on her property. The chickens have a lot of room to wander around, they have free access to fresh water and food. Everything is clean and the chooks are vaccinated. If you're thinking of buying some chickens, I recommend Beautiful Chickens to you. You can contact Kate on 0414550302. If you're looking for beautiful looking chickens that are excellent layers, ask Kate about her Isa X Faverolles. 

Don't you love all the chook furniture Hanno made. It's all from recycled materials. I hope it makes our girls very comfortable while they settle in.

I decorated the coop with bunting and hung a half curtain over the front of the nesting boxes. Chooks like privacy when they lay eggs. I've also hung a print of chooks and a rooster in the coop next to this one, I'll take photos of that today. I was going to put up some fairy lights too but the person who took down the lights after Christmas (and that person shall not be named here) lost the lights. He doesn't remember where he put them after Christmas and all attempts at finding them failed. We will get some lights in there soon. I wanted to have a set of battery operated lights so that if we have to go to the coop when it's dark, we'll have more than a torch.

In the new flock, we have two red frizzles - one with a blonde chest, one with a red chest. Two Australorps - one blue, one blackish blue. A barred Plymouth Rock and a magnificent silver-laced Wyandotte. All of them are young, the two Frizzles have just started laying. The Frizzles will be called Tricia (red chest) and Kathleen (blonde chest). The Australorps will be included in my bell series of names - the blue will be Jezebel and the black will be Annabelle. We already have two bell girls - Bluebell and Lulubell. The Wyandotte will be called Tammy but probably only the older folk or those who love country and western music will know why. :- )  The Plymouth Rock is Martha.

We'll keep them safe and sound in their new home with the door closed until later today. That will teach them that this is where they live from now on. Usually we'd leave them locked in a bit longer to familiarise themselves with the smells and sounds of our backyard, but it's hot and we want them to get out into the fresh air. So about lunchtime, we'll let them out to meet their sisters, although they can see each other through a wire door in the coop. At the moment, they're drinking water and eating seeds and seem to be happily scratching through the straw. We checked them when Kate left and looked in on them again when it started getting dark and the older girls had gone to bed. They seem to be quite settled.

Kate had afternoon tea with us before her trip home and we talked about her doing a post or two about chickens here on Down to Earth. I am hoping the first one will be up fairly soon. It will be on how to prepare for your first flock of chickens and what you need to have in place when you bring your first chooks home.

It's a good feeling having a new flock of good quality chickens in the backyard. They've come at just the right time. We'll start planting seeds and seedlings in the next few days and it won't be long until we have a fully productive backyard again. It makes me feel very secure knowing we'll soon be able to pick fresh vegetables and collect many more golden yolked eggs every day. That, my friends, gives a feeling a satisfaction like no other.

It's been a long, dry summer here. The temperatures haven't been nearly as high as those down south, we've had only two very hot spells, but the rains didn't come this year and that was worse than the hot weather. Summer is our wet season and when it passes with very little rain in January or February, then it doesn't look good for the rest of the year. Our average rainfall in February is 405mm, so far we've had 99mm. We have town water and tank water here. We installed two water tanks to use on the garden. They hold 15,000 litres/quarts. We have a smaller tank on the front verandah that holds 500 litres, that water usually keeps my ferns and plants alive. Our annual rainfall here is just under 2000mm, and about half of that falls in summer.

I believe that if you're growing a garden full of vegetables, then you need to be collecting water to enable you to do that. Water is a hidden cost in vegetable and fruit gardening but if you're serious about supplying some, or all, of your vegetables, then you should think carefully about how much it will cost you to grow them. If you don't harvest your own rain water, watering will be your biggest cost. In Australia the average water use for two people is 360 litres per day. Hanno and I use much less than that at around 200 litres between us and that costs us around $200 every three months. If we used town water on our garden, I suspect we'd use the average of 360 litres and that would cost us just under $400 per three months. We save that amount of money because we harvest our own water. We want to be as self-reliant as we can be so buying tanks and being thrifty with the water we do have is just part of gardening for us. If we can grow a lot of the food we eat, taking no water from the communal dam to do it, then we see that as sustainable gardening. Saving vegetable seeds, recycling household and garden waste into compost, home-made fertilisers and harvesting water is part of the closed system we try to maintain here.

And then the question of managing the harvested water comes into play. I used to be a bit obsessed with the rainwater. I'd check the water level by tapping on the side of the tanks and I'd water with miserly amounts of water on the vegetables. I was fearful of running out of water. A few years ago I decided to stop watering the front gardens all together. I'd planted up gardenias, wisteria, roses, camellias, magnolias and a few drought-hardy species like callistemons and sage. To my surprise, most of the larger plants survived and it was only the smaller roses and daisies that died. We never water the lawn. I don't care if that dies or not. Grass is so resilient, it always comes back after a bit of rain.

Over the years I changed my ideas about conserving our tank water. I realised that even though the tanks got low, they've never been completely empty and even in drought years, rain would often come when we needed it most. Instead of being miserly with it,  now I water almost every day and the garden has survived summer and the drought quite well. I no longer have that feeling that we'll run out of water. I changed from a glass half empty to a glass half full and I'm happier for it. I never waste water, but I am giving all my plants and particularly the vegetables, the water they need to thrive, not just survive. I don't know if there will be a time in the future when we run out of tank water but I'm not worrying about that till it happens. I have plants here that need the water we have, I have to live this day, not worry about next month or next year.

We're still practising all the water-wise techniques such as planting vegetables with similar water requirements next to each other, making sure the drips from hanging baskets flow into the garden, using thick mulch to conserve water already in the soil and water storage crystals in the ornamental plant pots.

Those tanks have been one of our wisest investments. I'm pleased we can share the water we harvest with our chooks and all the visiting birds that fly though here as well as the wildlife that live here. I'm grateful I have a husband who could rig up the system of pipes, drains and tanks that makes our water harvesting a success because without those tanks I doubt I'd be as enthusiastic about backyard food production as I am.  What is your watering setup at home?

Bread and butter cucumbers.

Another week put to bed and now the weekend looms. I hope you take enough time over the next few days to rest and allow your stresses to float away. We all need to be ready and able for our work next week. Invest in yourself and your future work by resting enough to do it well.

Hanno at the produce store. He's pointing out a little chicken tractor.

The plan was to go out for lunch at the surf club and to pick up a couple of odds and ends at Bunnings and the chemist. We also needed a new chicken feeder. I was going to take photos along the way to show our local area and to give my northern hemisphere friends a glimpse of sunshine and the south Pacific Ocean. The plan worked well at the Little Mountain produce store. I snapped Hanno walking into the store, put the camera in my bag and there it stayed until just now when I downloaded that one photo to the computer.  Oh well. My intentions were good.

The chickens will be here next Tuesday. I can hardly wait. They will be a group of Wyandottes, blue Australorpes, Isa x Faverolles, Frizzles, and splash Pekins. Kate, from Beautiful Chickens will bring them up and help settle them into the new chook B&B. The little house is ready out there. Hanno finished painting the exterior and soon, before it gets too hot, I'll go out and add the finishing touches, lay down some straw, fluff up the nests and install their feeder and water container. Just between you and me, I also have fairy lights and bunting. :- )  Shhhhh.

I'm so proud of Hanno. He did the renovations with as many recycled materials as he could find.  The floor is made up of cement pavers, bought new, but almost all of the rest, the corrugated iron sheeting, timbers and wire, were recycled. Oh, there is a new latch. Now we'll be able to separate the chickens properly and keep smaller or sick chickens in a quiet area. It also provides double the space for them when it's raining. Hanno still has to make a small run off the side of the coop but that can go up in the next week or so. It needs to have a roof and be completely enclosed - I've seen goannas (large lizards) climb up over the old wire fence in the past.

Here is my seed station (and morning tea). I work out what I'm about to plant here, then write up the labels and start planting in the bush house. Those three seed packets near the cup were brought over from Korea when Sunny's mum came over last September. I have Korean seeds for hollyhocks, salvia, dahlias and pansies. 

The seeds sown two weeks ago have germinated - with the exception of kale and daikon - and have now been moved out into the sunshine. A second planting happened two days ago and this afternoon, I'll sow more seeds. We want to eat the freshest food and the only way we can do that is to grow it ourselves. There is optimistic anticipation at this time of the year when we prepare for our annual vegetable planting. From 1 March, it will be full steam ahead and this year, I'm more motivated than ever before to make the most of the climate and the rich soil we've built up over the years. What we don't eat fresh will be shared, frozen or preserved in some way. Nothing will be wasted. Whether you have a garden like we do or a collection of pots, I hope you garden along with me so we can share photos of our fresh food. I'll have a Pinterest page up soon so we can do that.

I'm enjoying doing more in my home again. Many people would think I'm crazy saying that but it fills me with a feeling of satisfaction knowing I'm making the most of what we have. We have a wonderful life and it doesn't just happen by chance. We identify what we want and what we need to do, plans are made and then the day-to-day work carried out to make our plans happen.  And it is in the deliberate action of daily chores and what comes from them, that gives me that feeling of continuous contentment.

I've received the first typeset file of my new book and have to read it tomorrow to send back for printing on Friday.  Later this morning I'll settle in on the front verandah with a cup of tea to do that. When I send the manuscript back to Penguin, I'll do some writing for the new ebooks, then craft work - either sew on the embroidered pocket on my new apron or finish off a dishcloth, and finish of the decorating in the new chook house.

Apple and walnut cake

Before I go I want to thank everyone who took the time to tell me their thoughts about the ebooks I'm writing. That information is invaluable and I thank you sincerely for helping. I've made up my mind about the subject now and as soon as I made the decision, it was clear to me immediately that it was the right choice. More on that later. I'll go through all the other subjects and make a list of the suggestions. Over the next month or so, I'll write posts about as many of those subjects as I can. Hopefully that will sharpen me up a bit and help you move forward in your simple life.  Have a beautiful day, my friends.

It's been quiet here lately. Sunny and Jamie are over in Korea visiting Sunny's family. It's a wonderful opportunity for Jamie to spend time with his cousins, aunties, uncles, and Sunja, his beautiful Korean grandma. I want so many things for my grandsons, Jamie and Alex, and being at the heart of their families is just one of them. Hanno and I miss having Jamie here but we've been talking on the phone and have seen photos and videos. Hello Sunny, Jamie, Sunja and the rest of the family! We send our love to all of you.

Hanno finished most of the chicken house renovations and although there is still some work to do on the exterior - painting the recycled corrugated iron and adding an enclosed run, the coop, roosts and new nesting boxes are all ready. I'm decorating the coop. I haven't yet decided if I'll put curtains on the nests but I probably will. There will also be fairy lights and bunting. :- ) One of the things I know Jamie would be excited about if he were here is that we're just about to get some new chickens. He would be right in the middle of that so when they arrive, I'll make sure I take plenty of photos of the girls, their new home, where they're sleeping and eating and drinking to send to him.  He has loved those chooks since he was tiny and from when he could walk, the first thing he did when he came to visit was feed the chooks bread and fruit.

In the meantime though, my days flow by in a gentle trickle. I have such a rich life, there is always something to do here. I haven't yet sewn the embroidered pocket on my new apron, I have the last bit of Johnathan's cardigan to finish, I want to knit a set of loose weave dish cloths and of course, in addition to my housework and writing, I have the on-going important work of raising seeds to be planted in our vegetable garden next month. This is all the gentle work of a simple home, the tasks change with the seasons but the work flows on, never ending.  I love that.  Working for the life I want at home is a creative and rewarding way to spend my time. You probably do something similar and feel the same about your home.

I started a new ebook recently. It's part of a series of six. I'm not sure of the title of the newest book yet but it's all about housekeeping, routines and green cleaning. Penguin expects the first book, The Simple Life - the pleasures and rewards of getting back to basics, to be published as a print book and ebook in late March. The ebooks will be on sale on Amazon and iTunes and all the usual places.

I wonder if I can pick your collective brains. In addition to that book, I've already written one on milk and making dairy products (various cheeses, yoghurt, ice cream etc) in the home kitchen using what is generally available, I've also written a kitchen garden ebook, and now the housekeeping one. My contract calls for six books in total so I wondered what other topics you'd like to see me write about. I was thinking one could be a book of my various food recipes, some published here, some new ones. Would that interest you? And one other topic - maybe baking - a step-by-step guide to various breads, fruit loaf, cakes, scones, crackers, biscuits. Something that will help you provide tasty and nutritious snacks for your family without going into those aisles at the supermarket. Give me some ideas of what you want. I thank you in advance for your help.


Although it's still summer, this February has been quite mild here, but not so for our friends down south and in the west. More homes have been lost in the bush fires and thousands of hectares of bushland burnt. That means lost habitat for our birds and wildlife. I hope the days of high temperatures will come to and end soon and we can all enjoy the start of autumn. I'm sure those of you in the snow are looking forward to sunshine, green grass and warm days. We've seen quite a few news reports this year of the heavy snow falls and floods in north America and Europe. It's been a tough season in many parts of the world. But soon the seasons will change again and we'll all get used to the changed conditions. In the meantime, stay safe everyone.