I've come full circle again, back to April 15, the day of my birth. I know of some people my age who don't celebrate their birthday. How sad. I grew up with a mother who made our birthdays special and although there was never a lot of money for gifts, my sister and I always knew it was a day when we would be queens for the day and our friends and family would be there to celebrate. Hanno wants to take me out to lunch today and later in the day, Kerry and his friend Sunny will be here for dinner and to stay the night. More celebrations. It looks like my mother was right (yet again), birthday are not days to forget, they are days to remember.

Our vegetable garden is giving us grief this season. We've had so much rain, much of it falling as sudden bursts of hard rain, then on Easter Monday, we had heavy rain for 24 hours. I don't know how much we had because our rain gauge overflowed, but it was a lot. I just looked at our official readings and we've had 324.2mm (12.7 inches) this month alone.


I looked at the vegetable garden when I came home from work yesterday afternoon and it's not looking good. One of the loofahs has to be thrown out because it's rotting, so today I'll collect all of them, even the green and unripe ones, and allow them all to dry out on the back verandah. Then I'll pull out the vines add compost and plant some vanilla vines.


Our three types of tomatoes - brandywines, Amish paste and moneymakers, will all be pulled out as they've developed what looks like mosaic virus. I'm not sure if it is mosaic because that is usually spread by people who smoke or touch tobacco, but it might also be spread by insects. Whatever it is, the tomatoes have had it, so we'll pull them out, put them in a plastic bag to sweat and die for a couple of weeks, then send them to the rubbish tip. I have my doubts about the corn too. It looks wonderful now, but with all the rain it might go mouldy. So with that, we'll just have to stand back and wait. We are lucky that all this happened so early in our growing season and although it has put us back a few weeks, it's not a total disaster.


Some of the chooks are sick too and it wouldn't surprise me if Margaret Olley, Lulubelle and Martha die. We'll have to clean out their coop and keep an eye on the flock, but the signs are not good for some of them.


From tomorrow on, it will be full steam ahead with writing again. I'll be working on my book again, it's due back tomorrow after a reading, so there will be changes made and suggestions to think about. But today all that will be put aside. Today I have a lunch to eat, visitors to prepare for and celebrations to revel in, for today I am queen. :- )

Fifteen years ago, when Hanno and I first bought this little house, we drove along a one lane street, turned onto a dirt driveway and saw a very basic house on a magnificent piece of land surrounded by pine and rainforest. We didn't know it at the time, but this home, of all those we have shared over the years, would nurture us, bring us closer together and ease us along the path to a more simple life. We made some improvements as soon as we moved in to better suit our family, and put up fences to keep the dogs in, and in the time since then, apart from an interior paint job, we've been happy here and content to wake up each day within these walls.

I am still in awe of the land we live upon. I never say we own it because as far as I'm concerned, we are merely the custodians here until we pass it on to our sons; and in truth, the land probably owns us. We wake up surrounded by trees, sometimes we hear the rushing of the creek that is our back boundary, and when I walk into our back yard, even after living here 11 years, I often just stop and look, amazed at what I see. All my life's roads have lead to this place.

Our gate has been closed these past few days and if I didn't know better, I would say we had been cast adrift, completely cut off from the rest of the world. There is peace here, we hear birds call, sometimes a train in the distance, but apart from that, it's a wind rushing through the trees type of silence that feels alive with activity and energy.


There has been the undeniable whiff of self-reliance in the air over Easter. I've baked bread and nut slices, made a simple evening meal each night, set the table numerous times, washed dishes and clothes, swept, lit candles, watered plants on the verandah, watched rain fall and thought about my life here, on this land with my family, and you, my blog family. I also worked on my project, did some writing, knitting and a stocktake of the soap, yarn and fabric I have on hand. There are a hundred things I could do, and one by one I get to those that need my attention, all else can wait until its time. It's been a beautiful Easter when we both worked to produce what we need here and mended a couple of things to keep them going a while longer. After such days, it's easy to go to bed pleased with the work we've completed and tired enough to sleep deeply until the next morning.


The simple life, full of the home tasks of cooking, mending, cleaning and growing has been the way of life for the majority for many hundreds of years. But now, in the context of our modern times, when shops are full of fashions, leaf blowers, designer dog collars and pre-cooked food, when it's compared to what is available to us now, now it feels like it's in sharp contrast to how most people live. Working with one's own hands and producing the goods we need to live is truly empowering but the wonder of it is that is so easy to do - for me and for you too. These are just life skills that are easily passed on to all of us by example, by just watching others.

I look at TV sometimes and I wonder if what they show is real. Are the streets really that mean in cities? Do people really kill each other over drugs and money, and for no reason at all? Is road rage real? What life skills are being passed on by watching all that? I suppose I know the answers to all those questions and for now, on this Easter weekend, I've been content and well and truly happy to stay cocooned here, listening to the rain, stitching and knitting, and wondering if living simply can make a significant and real difference outside my gate. I wonder if Hanno thinks these same thoughts. I wonder if you do.

Thank you for coming here to share our days, it still amazes me that you do. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and lives with us here too. Welcome to the new readers, warm hugs to all the older ones. Let's all work towards getting the simple message out to all those who surround us in the normal course of our lives, and show, by example, that this way of living not only empowers and enriches us, it builds contentment and greater expectations.

Yesterday was a diamond of a day. The weather was warm, the rain had stopped, the sun poured down and everything seemed right. We had our gate closed most of the day - that symbolises to me that we're content to be here alone and we're cut off from the rest of the world. Letting go of the world occasionally is enriching and restorative for me and it allows me to reconnect entirely with everything that is here.

Hanno planted more vegetables, did some work in the front garden and then pottered around doing this and that. I wrote in the morning, made the bed, swept, did some baking, then set about making a casserole that slow cooked in the oven most of the afternoon. The aroma of that floating out into the neighbourhood was just wonderful. Late in the day I went over to see my DIL Cathy who is helping me with ... erm...something. These secret things happen when there is a family wedding coming up. ;- ) It was a beautiful day, filled with simple tasks, nothing was planned but it all fell into place, one thing after another. It was all I needed yesterday, the rest didn't matter.


Today will be a busy one for me and I want to make the most of it. I have to go to the local fabric store and will be there when it opens, then home to bake bread and work on "the project". I am having a week off book writing because my proposal is with my agent now and won't come back till next week. I am hoping I can finish the bulk of what I have to do with my sewing, because after next week, I'll be back writing again.

So I hope you will bear with me while I take a few day off from my blog. I want to do my best work on this project, I want to focus my thoughts and actions on it, give it my heart and soul, undiluted by anything else. Of course I'll show it to you, after Shane and Sarndra have seen it.


There are certain times in the year when there seems to be no way out - you have to bake something that is symbolic of the time. That time for me came yesterday, right after the sweeping and before the casserole - hot cross buns. What else would you dare to bake at Easter? Hot cross buns are traditionally served on Good Friday but in Australia you can buy them in the shops for about a month before and after Easter. No matter, I am a homemade gal so I can make mine whenever I want a spicy light bun. Hanno loves these buns, in fact, they might be his favourite. Oh, hang on, I forgot about apple cake, pikelets, fruit cake etc etc etc LOL. If you have a spare few minutes I hope you try these buns. They're delicious as they are, but also lovely with a bit of butter melting into their spicy goodness. They also freeze well and I have a bag of them to be eaten in the next day or two, plus another couple of bags in the freezer.

This is the recipe I used but I didn't add flour paste crosses, you can drizzle on white icing crosses if you like. I make mine in the breadmaker. I just put everything, except the sultanas (golden raisins), which were added about ¾ of the way through. I used the dough setting and baked the buns in the oven.

The Spring edition of Small Town Living magazine is online now, I hope you have time to read it over your Easter break. It's always a good read. In this edition, there are some beautiful photos, great recipes and excellent articles, including one of urban homesteading which I found very interesting. Thanks to Paul and Tina for reminding me the new edition is out.

I think I'll be back next Tuesday, but if I get everything done, I'll be back Monday. I will try to answer some of this week's comments today. I hope you have a lovely Easter with your family. Take some time out for yourself, and for those you love, and don't forget to close your gate for a while, it makes all the difference.

I hope I've fixed my feedburner and have now added the feedburner subscription icon and email to the right and left sides of the blog. If you've subscribed in the past, please use these new facilities to update your subscription. If you've never subscribed, you may do so by using the same facilities.

Thanks everyone. I hope this works. And thanks to Melinda for putting me onto the feedburner email which has no advertising.

Legumes - peas and beans - are very versatile and valuable crops. Different varieties of legumes can be grown in hot or cold climates, they're quite easy to grow, the seeds are large so saving seeds isn't difficult and both peas and beans can be eaten fresh or dry. I see them as an excellent backyard crop because you can feast on them fresh as they grow through the season, but if you have too many (and you will) they can be blanched and frozen, canned with a pressure canner or, my favourite, dried and stored in the cupboard. I don't have a pressure canner so when we have too many beans or peas, they're either frozen or dried outside, with no special equipment, and stored in the pantry.

If you have a problem growing peas or beans it will usually be in the first week. Both seeds do not like being wet and they don't like being transplanted, so sow directly into the ground, when all chance of frost has passed. Sow your seeds into moist, not wet, soil, when you know it won't rain for a few days. Apart from that, you might get a bit of rust in very humid weather, otherwise they'll probably grow quite well for you. If your season is short, grow dwarf beans or snow peas, they take less time to grow to maturity. Do not grow either peas or beans near onions, leeks or garlic, they're not good companions.

There are so many different varieties of peas and beans it's difficult to know which to grow. So if you're not sure, decide what you want to use the legumes for and go from there. For example, if you want fresh green beans there are a large variety available. We tend to plant Blue Lake or Lazy Housewife beans if we want a climbing green bean, and dwarf beans for a delicious green bean that doesn't take long to mature and doesn't need staking. All those beans are fine as a fresh bean and for drying, but the Lazy Housewife bean dries really well. So I guess my preference for a good all round bean is Lazy Housewife. Be aware though that it will need a study support - if you grow beans well, the vine and the growing beans become very heavy.

In most soils, legumes fix atmospheric nitrogen in the soil. Which means it processes the nitrogen in the atmosphere and stores it in the roots, where it eventually moves into the soil. So when your crops have been harvested, cut the vines off and leave the roots in the ground. You can plant any nitrogen loving plant - like spinach, lettuce or chard, as a companion plant or a follow up crop.

Peas are always a favourite here. I love peas and often eat them raw in the garden. We plant a lovely snow pea called Oregon Sugar, our green peas are usually Telephone peas; both these peas are climbers and need strong support to grown on. We also grow pigeon peas. These are a large bush/small tree pea that will grow well in drought conditions. When dried, the peas can be used to make pea soup, but when they're green you can eat them like a fresh cooked pea. Chickens love pigeon peas and so do parrots. When we have pigeon peas growing here the King parrots send out the message that "peas are on at the Hetzels!" and they come to eat in the late afternoon. We love seeing them eating our peas because so much of their natural habitat has been "developed", we're happy to help them find food they like.

If you want to store beans or peas in the pantry, wait until they go brown on the vine, if there is chance of rain or snow, pick them all and lay them in a sheltered position until they go brown and crack open. Make sure they're all completely dry before storing in a glass jar in the pantry. For the best nutrition, use your dried legumes within three months. You can still use them after that but the nutrition in them will lessen unless you can seal them in a pack with no air. You can also freeze dried legumes.

If you have no room nor the time, to garden, you can buy a wide variety of dried beans and peas very cheaply. They make a good substitute for meat, because when you combine legumes with a grain - baked beans on toast or cracked wheat salad with green beans, they are a complete protein.

My favourite dry pea recipe is pea and ham soup. I think I could live on that and never want for anything else. We have recently come back to eating a little bit of meat after many years of not eating it. The reason we now eat meat is for the natural gelatine and enzymes in some meat. This meat tends to need long slow cooking, just like the recipe for pea and ham soup.

If possible, soak the peas in plain water overnight. Add all the ingredients to a large stockpot, filling it almost to the top with water. Bring to the boil, then simmer with the lid on, for two hours. Remove the bone from the soup, continue to cook the soup while the soup bone cools down. When it's cool enough to handle, take the meat off the bone, cut it into smaller pieces and add to the soup. The peas will have dissolved to make a thick soup. Test for seasoning, add more if necessary - it tends to need a fair bit, but remember it is a large amount of soup. Remove the bay leaf and serve.

Pebbledash picked it up, I am turning 61, not 62! Thanks Diana. Meryl, one of the volunteers I work with picked it up too. When I mentioned at lunch yesterday that my birthday was coming up, she said it didn't seem so long ago we celebrated my last birthday. Then it hit me, they gave me a morning tea for my 60th, I'm still a mere slip of a girl - I'm going to be 61.
:- )

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I have been touched by the number of emails I've received lately from new readers wanting to live a life similar to ours here. I'm asked all sorts of questions about the type of chooks we have, how many water tanks, what food we eat on a day-to-day basis and how many loads of washing I do each week. Some people ask about when I go to bed, when I get up in the morning, do I drink green tea or black, what would I buy if I had the money and how do I cope with living on a restricted budget. It seems to me that these questions are about one thing - they are trying to find "the formula", they want to know how to live simply. But simple life is different for everyone, there is no formula, no one way to do it. The secret is to decide how you want to live, work out what values are important to you, then work towards the goals you set.

If you do that, if you develop a set of values that support how you want to live, it will be easier to pinpoint areas you can change in your life to reflect your values. For example, if you decide that one of the values you want to embrace is to live a more healthy life and buy local, you'd probably have to look at what you're eating and change how you shop. Instead of shopping only at the supermarket, you'd also need to go to local markets, find out with other local food is produced and then work out a way to buy it. You'd also look at the chemicals you have in the house, get rid of them and work out what alternatives you could use. If one of your values was to be more frugal, and through that work towards paying off your debt, then you'd probably start by tracking how you spend your money and work out a budget. Then you'd go through your bills and work out what you could do without - pay TV, the second car, ballet lessons for the children, your magazine subscriptions etc. Then you'd work out ways to save money in the home.

A few days ago, I made a big pot of pea soup that will keep us going for about seven evening meals, plus the occasional work lunch. That soup cost me four dollars to make and works out to be about 57 cents for the two of us each dinner time. Some people will look at that and think eating pea soup for a few nights in a row is boring and some would just refuse because they want to eat steak and three veg or roast pork. But I don't think like that anymore. That soup supports our simple values in many ways. The truth of it is that eating that soup helps us stay on budget, it frees up other money so we can buy fresh local milk, cheese and fish, it saves us money on utility bills because we only have to heat it up each day, it saves time because I don't have to cook a meal each night and it's a nourishing and delicious meal that we both enjoy.

Some of the things many of us do during the normal course of a day include baking bread, walking to the shops, sweeping the floor instead of vacuuming, washing up by hand instead of using the dishwasher, stockpiling to save money and time, making yoghurt from scratch and growing some of our own food in our backyard. Now if I were new to this way of living, and I saw many of those common tasks of a simple home, I'd probably think it was too much work and why bother. Why do all that work when I can easily buy what I need. But the fact is that doing those things support the life I want to live, so doing them is not a bother to me. So you see, working out what is important to you, knowing what you want to include in your own life, and then doing those things on a daily basis, will help you live more simply and even though it will be tough at times, you'll stick with it because you're working towards your goals.

Simplifying will never be about the colour of the chickens in your backyard, the brand of breadmaker you own, how many jars of jam and relish you put up each year or how many acres you 'own'. It is always about the way you think about your life and how you express those thoughts by how you live. I am flattered that many of you want to do things in a similar way to how we do them here and maybe some of you will settle into a life very similar to mine, but I encourage you think about your life, think about what is important to you and then set about building your life to support your values. We don't all have to be carbon copies of each other. In fact that is one of the things that is so appealing about this way of life - we can all express it in differing ways and still be part of the whole.

I don't want to put you off your changes, and I'm not saying don't copy what I do. I am encouraging you to be very clear about what is important to you. Before you start changing your life, you'll have to think about it a lot. Don't just dive in and do what others are doing. Think about what you hope you life will become, think about what you consider to be important, then the path you need to take will be clear. Often the first step is the most difficult, in this case it isn't. Your first step is to make a cup of tea, gather a pen and paper, then sit in your favourite spot and think about what you want and how you would like to live, write it down in bullet points. You might need a few sessions - just you, your thoughts and your pen and paper. When you have a list, go through it a couple of times and cross off what's not really important, keeping only those points you think will make you happy, fulfilled and content. That is your map, my friends. Once you have your map, then come back here and ask questions that will help you follow your map. I am happy to answer your questions, and many of the other readers are too. If you ask something in the comments, you'll get opinions from a few of us. But that's one of the beauties of a simple life. It's about communities working together to help each other, and we have a wonderful community here willing to help you.

I feel like I own Autumn. I was born in April so Autumn is my season, it is when I feel the most comfortable, the time when I know deep within me that anything is possible and the time when on the 15th of the month, I realise I am one step closer to my grave. I will soon be 62. I have been thinking about aging for a while now, not because I am getting older but because those around me are. Sure I age at the same rate, but I never feel I'm old. I only know I am my age when I write it on a form or look at Hanno and wonder why time went so fast. And if the truth is told, sometimes when I write '61', I look at it and think it's wrong.

To put my age into perspective, these are a few facts I looked up:

When I gave up working for a living, I gave away all my watches. I didn't want to be constrained by certain time periods and what was supposed to happen at those times of the day. I wanted to do things when they needed to be done or when I felt like doing them. I wonder now if getting rid of my watches had a deeper meaning for me - whether by not recording time on my arm, it didn't record anywhere. Of course, that is a ridiculous notion, but I still think about it. The truth is, I love being my age, what ever age it is, but now in my Autumn season I feel I have become the real me. I look at other women my age who have plastic surgery and dress like fluffy lambs, and I feel comfortable, content and proud that I am what I am.

Ageing has been hijacked by commerce, it's now bound up by what we should look like. Advertisements in women's magazines and the undertone of many TV programs pressure women (and men) into believing if they don't look young, they're not good enough. WRONG! We should only look young when we're young. That's not rocket science. Older women are still beautiful, beauty will never rely on youth.

I am happier now than I have ever been. I am proud to look my age, to have my hair its natural grey colour, to dress how I feel comfortable. Sure, there are times when I forget things, when I can't move nearly as fast as I used to, or when I go to sleep in the arm chair when I sit down to knit. Those things come with the territory but you also get many golden moments too. When I was younger, I didn't have the confidence I have now. I didn't know how awesome I can be when I put my mind to it. I didn't feel this powerful.

Like everything in this world, the ups are always balanced by the downs and sometimes when I look at Hanno and my sister, I see fragility and worry about how we will all progress into older age. I am concerned there may be a time when we can't do the work we do now and I hope we'll be okay with that if it happens. But then I remember the Blue Zones I wrote about last week and I know that life can still be rich and fulfilling in very old age. I think about writing my book at the age of 62 and I feel grateful that I have the capacity and desire to do it, and the energy it needs.

So bear with me today as I think about age, birthdays and the number 62; tomorrow I'll be ageless again. Tomorrow all thoughts of age will probably have left me and I'll be back to writing posts about being frugal and green and living the simple life. But you never know. At my age you can do anything. ;- )
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Thanks for all the feedback that came while I was working on my blog on the weekend. It's so encouraging to have people tell you you're doing a good job as you go along. I have added an email subscription box and will add a feed subscription soon. I'm quite baffled by feed subscriptions and I'm sure I've done something to mine. Anyhow, we'll know soon enough. My hope with the new look is to have things better organised so that the older information is more easily accessed. Let me know if you have any more suggestions for me.

I wanted to place more emphasis on my home too. I didn't want it to look like a gardening blog and although my garden is an absolute joy to me, without my home, I'd be lost. So I chose some new photos for the banner that, I hope, indicate where my heart is. I love my home, and while it's a small and simple dwelling, it suits my simple soul and working class heritage.

Hello everyone. Please bear with me today while I make some changes to my blog. Hopefully it will be finished by this afternoon.

I keep coming back to it, even though I don't have to, it's one of the daily tasks in my home that slows me down and focuses my mind on what I am trying to achieve. Washing up. It must be something all our ancestors did and I am pleased that even though my washing up is in a stainless steel sink, it is still symbolic of going back to basics.

I've read a lot of the research that says a modern dishwasher uses less water and energy than hand washing, but I don't believe it. I think that a conscientious and mindful person will beat a dishwasher every time. Nevertheless, this is not a post to convince you of one thing or another, it's just a report of what I'm doing.

There is a dishwasher here that is used when we're busy or when visitors are here, but washing up by hand, especially in the colder months when I use it to warm my cold hands, always draws me back. I add a small amount of hot water to the kitchen sink, tip in some homemade soap and dive in. It's a job best done when the radio is playing softly so I am aware of what I'm doing.

“Make the moment vital and worth living. Do not let it slip away unnoticed and unused.” Martha Graham

I don't want to use detergent, it's full of nasties, I don't want to use one of those lovely new natural products that don't contain nasties but do cost too much; I use home made soap. It doesn't lather up much, it doesn't need to, a good clean doesn't rely on lather. The lather you get from detergent comes from chemicals included to make those bubbles. Basically, soap is produced from natural products, and detergents are synthetic - the result of chemical reactions.


So I use my homemade soap to wash the dishes here. It's mild, contains no additives, just oils and lye, and as the glycerine is still in the soap, it doesn't dry my skin. I usually have a bottle of "liquid soap" made up which is using bits and pieces of leftover soap dissolved in water but I find this needs too much glycerine to keep it liquid and it's not worth it. So I'm happy using a bar of soap rubbed onto my dishcloth but I will make real liquid soap when I find a supplier of potassium hydroxide fairly close to where I live. If you know of anyone who sells it in Queensland, please let me know.

My tools of choice are a homemade dishcloth, preferably a thin one, a brush and the dish drainer. I think dish drainers are symbolic of my life now; just as my aprons, the chooks and the garden are. I wash glasses and cups first, then cutlery, then dishes and bowls, followed by pots and pans. It's a very simple process, most of the time it's enjoyable and it slows me down enough every day to remind me that a simple life is not a destination, it's a journey.

This addition is made after reading an email from my sister, I think you'll enjoy reading it. It adds to the washing up information and it tells you a little bit more about where Tricia and I came from. She said it was okay to add her email here.
: - )

rhonda, i really enjoyed todays post. do you remember washing up at grandma's? i have vivid memories of it and they all came flooding back after reading the blog. the kitchen sink was made of stone and the drip tray at the side was small stones put together with i don't know what - but it had a beautiful surface of small flat level stones - rather like what they put in succulent pots today. she also washed in the same sequence that you mentioned and i was always told to make sure that everything was dried properly and to dry the cutlery well so that it shined!

but what really started me off was the soap - sunlight in those days - and it was inside a wire cage sort of contraption with a handle and then was swirled around in the hot water. i wonder if you can still get them?

then the kitchen table is another memory of always helping to polish the table top with kiwi oxblood boot polish. i thought it was great when i was allowed to polish it with the electric polisher (which she gave me when i moved into cambridge park and it lasted many years!) that was a great kitchen - the old kookaburra stove and the little cupboard beside the stove.

the fridge however, was another matter - it always had a particular odour that thankfully i haven't encountered since. there was also a great oak sideboard - do you remember? i wonder what happened to all that stuff! love tricia

Crocheted dishcloths and scrubby patterns here. Knitted dishcloth patterns here. Knitting or crocheting dishcloths is a wonderful and practical way to develop your skills in those areas while producing something of value. They are good beginners projects because they're relatively fast, portable and easy.

I will be able to get back to my square knitting this weekend and I'm looking forward to it very much. Are you knitting along? I will make a flickr page this weekend for the photos - I've started that. I'm already a member of Ravelry so I'll go there on the weekend and see what I have to do to organise a knitalong.

Our latest swap, organised by Sharon and Rose is coming into its final weeks. You will need to have your parcels in the post by Saturday, April 25, 2009. If you're having problems with anything concerning the swap, please contact either Sharon, if you're in her group, on - cdetroyes at yahoo dot com, or Rose, if you're in her group, on rosmar at 1earth dot net. It's usually at the end of swaps that we have problems, so please help Sharon and Rose and let them know now if you're having any problems getting your swap done. I have no doubt the ladies will have a swap update soon so they can organise the final few weeks. I'm really looking forward to seeing what everyone has been working on.

"It may be when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work.
And that when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey."
Wendell Berry

Thank you all for your visits this week, for leaving a comment, and for being part of this blog. I hope you have a lovely weekend full of what you enjoy.

I missed listening to the Radio National interview because I got my times wrong. :- O However, Hanno and I have just listened to it online. If you want to listen, it's here.