down to earth

Tricia's husband died suddenly a few years ago and she's spent the past couple of years deciding whether she would sell the family home and move to a smaller place. She now lives in a beautiful six bedroom mansion house on the outskirts of Sydney. There is a library, chandeliers, four hectares of bushland and a heated pool set in a beautiful secluded garden with fountains. This last couple of months she's started packing up, decluttering and selling or giving away a lot of her unwanted possessions.

She drove up from Sydney in a car packed to the roof with things she wanted to give to me or to the people at our Neighbourhood Centre. The first day she was here, we took a lot of those things with us and gave them away to people whose needs include the blankets, pillows, coats etc she gave.

She also brought some things she thought I would like. One of those things was mum's button box.

We were both born in the 1940s and grew up as part of Sydney's working class in the 1950s. I guess we both did well for ourselves and although I became middle class, I have always thought of myself as working class. I feel comfortable with those values and the collective flaws and strengths that helped shape us.

Our parents left little in the way of material possessions when they died but what I have of my mother's I really cherish. She gave me the amethyst ring and pendant she was given for her 21st birthday, I have a small fruit knife that was her mother's - it has a bone handle with the name 'jean cullen' carved in it, a little green glass that she liked and some very fine Orrefors glasses that I drink from when I'm sick. I also still have a stainless steel wok she gave me in the 1960s - it must be one of the first non-Asian woks in Australia as no one (except me) used them then.

And now, the buttons.

I went through them yesterday and tried to remember where they were from. I wanted to see, with my mind's eye, the dresses and coats they would have been on. I didn't get far with that because going through the buttons brought back different memories to me. I remembered how mum, and every other woman we knew, saved buttons, string, ribbons, old zippers and fabrics 'just in case' they were needed. And that frugal philosophy was why I had that box of old buttons in front of me.

The buttons were packed in the small, brown, plastic containers that pills used to be dispensed in before the days of pre-packaged bubble packs and child-safe bottles; there were also two little glass vegemite jars. All these were held in a 1970s 'Fresh Pak' plastic box. It must have been one of the first plastic containers sold then. It is brown, with an opaque lid with the words 'Fresh Pak' on it.

I spilled each container out so I could have a good look and along with all the buttons came a flood of childhood memories. It really was a different world then. Now that I look back on it, we, and almost everyone we knew, were what we would now think of as 'poor'. But we didn't feel like that. We had everything we needed, we never went hungry, we took our place within a strong and happy community and we knew everyone, not just in our street, but also in the streets surrounding us.

I was too young and silly to know what people really focused on in their lives then but in our home we rarely talked about money or possessions. My mother taught me valuable things like caring for others, self respect and respectfulness, she told me it was good to be kind, brave and thoughtful, she demonstrated every day the value of hard work and she showed me, by example, the importance of positive role models. So although there may not have been much in the way of physical possessions given from her hand to mine, she left me with the soul of a frugal, hard-working woman and for that I will be eternally grateful.

These are the buttons I will keep. The rest of them will go back to Sydney with Tricia and probably spend the rest of their days, not as they were intended - as a functional part of clothing or furnishings - but as a silent reminder of the days when thrift was a part of almost every life and we all saved things 'just in case'.

She thought I was sitting in a lounge chair stitching, but I was quietly taking this photo. If you're wondering, that little white box has a tiny teddy bear in it, a gift from my other sister, Kathleen.

We've had some good times together these past few days. Nothing too exciting, as is fitting for two old ducks, but good, nonetheless. We've talked and remembered, laughed, had tea and fruit cake and talked some more. Tricia arrived on Sunday night, went to work with me on Monday and to the beach on Tuesday. On Wednesday we finally got the go ahead from the insurance company for the repairs to the kitchen so the three of us went to the builder's showroom to choose a new benchtop and then to the shops nearby to look at some new kitchen appliances. We've decided to replace the cooktop and oven while we have the chance (with the new benchtop) but we're not sure yet if we'll be able to afford what we want. We can afford to replace these things now if we buy lower quality, but we don't want that. We want these things to last a long time so they need to be the absolute best we can afford. Hanno and I will go into Brisbane tomorrow to a scratch and dent sale at Kleenmaid and hopefully pick up some good quality bargains. Some of their stoves are 60% off. If we can't get what we want for a good price, we won't replace anything now.

The flash alerted her there was a photographer lurking, but I couldn't get her to smile.

Yesterday Tricia made the red and white gingham curtains while I started on the kitchen curtains. Tricia bought the gingham for me in Sydney as I couldn't find anyone with it up here. The fabric cost $140. I'm using the lining from the old curtains. I bought two metres of a 60% linen/40% cotton fabric for the kitchen curtains, which cost $8.95 a metre. I've drawn my own design and I'm stitching them before making a simple half window double curtain with a valance. They will be similar to Debbie's gorgeous curtains here.

I think it will take about a week to stitch them. It's a simple pattern of flowers in a tea cup and I have the two sides to do. The red gingham curtains are hanging now and they make such a difference to the look of the kitchen. They're fresh and clean looking and they contrast nicely with the pale butter colour of the walls. I'll take a photo of them later.

Tricia is going to visit friends in Brisbane today and will return on Sunday when we plan on having afternoon tea with Susie and her family; Susie is our cousin who lives near here. I'll catch up on some housework today and tomorrow and hopefully have time to do some work on my ebooks and the kitchen curtains.

I've had a few emails from readers asking about the ebooks. I hope to have the first available for sale in November. There will probably be four or five of them from me and Bel will do one on simple living with a young family. They will be in PDF format and will cost $10 each.

Thank you for stopping by today. I want you all to know that even if I don't have the time everyday to respond to your comments, I read everyone of them and appreciate your loving thoughts and the time you take to make contact. I know many of the readers love reading the comments too and I think they add a lot to my blog. So thanks to everyone who taps away in that little comment box. Oh, and I will catch up with the remaining emails today too. : )

This is when your simple life starts. At this very minute. If you've decided you want to change the way you live and intend to make a plan to live simply, then I want you to think of yourself as living simply. Tell other people too; tell your family, friends and neighbours. Tell them: "I've changed how I live my life, I'm living simply now." You'll find that if you tell others and verbalise your changes, that the change itself will be easier. You'll feel like you've already made inroads on your new life and the change is underway.

I want to emphasise that simple living can be started at any time of your life, with each period having its own challenges and rewards. If you’re in your 50s or beyond, like me, it will put you on the path towards a healthy and ethically-based lifestyle that will allow you to do more good than harm. If you are in the period when you’re nurturing a young family and buying a home, I hope you’ll gain valuable insight into how to build a sustainable and fulfilling life. If you’re younger and just starting out, I hope you will use your simple values to build an ethical and secure base on which to build a fine future.

As soon as you finished reading this blog today, I have a task for you. Your first small step: sit down with a pen and notepad and think about the kind of life you want to live. Picture yourself in your ideal location doing what would make you happy. What is complicating your life? What do you need to change in your life to achieve what you want? Write down the points of change as you think of them. Write down how you believe you could achieve the changes you want. Write down what you’re prepared to give up to make the changes happen. List what you don’t like about your life now. List what is important to you.

Your list will show you what areas you need to focus on, and you can then work through your list point by point. If you’re like me, you’ll need to change a lot to achieve the life you want. Take a bit of time with this first exercise, think about what is important to you and your family and write it all down. It will be very interesting in the coming weeks and months to look at these points again to see how your path or your ideas change. Be aware it won't be all smooth sailing. You'll need to compromise on some of your wishes but maybe you can revisit them in coming months and move them closer to where you want to be.

When undertaking any major change in life you need to be organised to be able to cope with it and do it in the most efficient way. You will probably change a lot of small things to live simply, so organisation is vital. Each simple life is different as well, there is no fixed formula for what we're doing here. Your life will be different to mine, your plans will vary according to the stage of life you're at, if you're married or not, if you have children, if you're working at home or outside the home, there are many variables. You must plan your changes and keep all your information at hand.

I've written before about how to declutter and organise your home, but decluttering is only one part of this organisation. I am going to encourage you to start making lists. Shopping lists, stockpile lists, to do lists. Make up any sort of list that will help you achieve what you hope for. Use your lists to give yourself reminders during the day about what you should be focusing on. Use a calendar to mark important dates like birthdays, anniversaries and meetings. Keep a diary to record notes for yourself and to remind you of what you need to do.

This is your second small step. Start a simplicity journal in which you record new ways of doing things and new ideas you want to work on. The list of how you want your life to change should be the first thing in your journal. It will also hold the general information about your home like your To Do’s, your garden plan and a record of your harvests, when and what you preserve, and any new recipes you find for both food and cleaning. I hope you'll include some of my ebooks in your simplicity journal too.

I recycled one of those old cardboard covered three ring binders, covered it in a fabric and I use that for all my simple notes, recipes and reminders. My journal also contains letters people write to me, seeds that I've decided to plant but haven't planted yet, a calendar so I can mark down what I'm doing, my water meter card, seed and tree catalogues and many recipes.

If you find something online that will help you in your new life, download it and add it to your folder. It is important that you keep a folder to organise your transition to simplicity, not only will it be the repository of all your notes and reminders, it will also document your journey to your new way of living. Keep this folder and your diary together so you always know where they are. You can put in some dividers and have sections for recipes, seed catalogues, ideas you want to try, stories from others who inspire you to be the best you can be. If you're trying to reduce your electricity and water consumption, keep your bills in your folder, along with your weekly meter readings. Tailor your journal to suit what you're doing and it will help you simplify. You'll have all your information in one place and you can add to it or read it easily.

Starting a simplicity journal might sound like an extra burden in a changing life, but being organised will focus you and keep you on track for all the good things that will become part of your simple life.

Many people want to live simply but don’t know how, or where, to start, or even what simple living really is. The simple answer is that simplicity is about many small things that add up to become entire way of life. For me, simple living has been a mixture of personal growth, thrift, making do with what I have, resource conservation, a change in attitude about what is considered success and achievement, slowing down, expanding horizons, living well on less money and making deliberate choices about my life and how I live it. Of course, it encompasses much more than those elements but that’s it in a nutshell. It is a fine honest lifestyle and when you get a taste of it, nothing else will be good enough for you.

I have been trying to set out information in my blog about the practical aspects of a simple life. Things like how to:

budget and shop mindfully
store and preserve food
grow some of your own food
keep chickens and worms
organise your home and declutter
and how to make some of homemade cleaners

Many of these tasks are things that will help you live simply and generally they're all fairly easy to do. The difficult part of your simple living change will be to have a deep understanding of how you are personally responsibile for how you live your life, to develop simple values and consistently live according to them, and to change your mindset about spending and possessions.

We live in an increasingly artificial world. We can have anything our heart desires, for a price. If you’ve got the money, you can buy disposable mops, toothbrushes and underwear, robotic vacuum cleaners and lawn mowers, fake jewellery as well as authentic gems that may have cost someone their life, frozen dinners, fake finger nails and suntans, cigarettes that might kill you, clothes that look divine but hide their exploitative creation, and meat, fruit and vegetables that look perfect and healthy but often aren’t.

Many people have deliberately cut themselves off from the natural world. Some won’t eat a tomato that has had a bug on it but will happily eat vegetables that have been fed with artificial fertilisers, meat that comes from animals that are poorly treated and fed unnatural food, or fish and prawns that have lived their lives in polluted waters far from our shores. Even though an important part of simplicity is to have enough money to live, one thing is certain, simple living cannot be bought. No credit card has enough credit, no amount of dollars, euros or gold will deliver it to your door. It is one of those rare things of true and enduring value that you have to work for.

I'd be lying if I told you that simple living is easy. It is satisfying, rewarding, healthy, beautiful, it makes you feel happy and content, it's substantial and important and necessary, but it isn't easy, especially when you start. But it's a wonderful and significant way of life and I hope all of you decide that even if it isn't easy, it is how you want your life to be.

I have been amazed and delighted in these past few months to see the mainstream media finally give time and space to the problems associated with Global Warming and Peak Oil. It’s been a long time coming. These two problems alone, even without factoring in the current drought conditions we’re experiencing, are enough to worry a lot of us. Some people seem to be so frightened by these problems that they are unable to do anything. Some believe that technology will save us all. Others believe there is little we can do. The vast majority though do know a little about the mess we’re in, but continue on regardless. While I’m aware that no one is really one hundred percent sure how to assist in the recovery of the environment, I do know we got into this mess by each and every thing we all do in our modern lives, and we can lend a hand in reversing the trends by stopping such careless extravagance and by taking small steps back to equilibrium - by living simply.

Every one of us has a part to play in this recovery. It is not too difficult. It requires that we all monitor our spending, cut back on our excesses, produce some of our own food and work towards a healthy future one step at a time.

One of the small steps to take when you’ve got your spending under control is to learn how to produce some of your own food. With worldwide food shortages now in their second year and the drought continuing, countries like Australia and the US, that supply much of the world’s wheat and meat, just can’t keep up with the demand. It’s a worrying sign that most people are ignoring. In the future, food will be much more expensive as there will be less of it grown on an international scale and less fuel to transport it around. The fuel that is used will be more expensive. The days of cheap food are coming to an end. Now is the time to learn how to garden and store food effectively, and to cook well using those foods you produce and stockpile.

If you don't already have a productive vegetable garden, now is the time to start one, or to plan one for the next growing season in your area. There is much to be done. First audit your own food preferences and work out how much of that food you could grow in your own backyard. You should work out a plan for bartering in your area. Swapping what you can grow for things you can't is a great thing to factor into your food plan. You'll also have to learn how to store all your food safely.

We've talked about budgeting here and having a spending plan, we talk about menu plans but we also need to think about a food plan. Where will the food come from that you use in your menu plan? How much will you have to put aside in your spending plan for food next year and the year after?

As wives and mothers we are the organisers of food in our homes. If the food shortages continue and grow worse, as they are predicted to do, how will you continue to feed your family within the confines of your budget? Your food plan should answer questions like: 'how much food do we eat in a month?', 'what kind of foods do we eat?', 'where does that food come from?', 'can I produce some of our food?', 'what foods are produced in my local area?', 'can I produce something that I can barter for local milk, eggs, bread, meat etc?'

I'll continue to write about food plans as they're an important part of our simple lives. In the meantime, start your own food plan and ask yourself all those important questions about the chain of supply. It will stand you in good stead in the coming months.

FURTHER READING

Food shortages in Australia here and here and here
Worldwide food price rises here.
Wheat shortage in USA here
Food shortages in Japan.

Graphic from allposters.com

I've had a few emails recently from people wanting to simplify but they don't know what their first step should be. No matter what style of simple life you want for yourself, you'll need to have your finances in order, so the first step is to track your money. This is a simple process where you take a small notebook with you wherever you go and every time you buy something, you write it down in your note book. You must be consistent and mark down everything, even the smallest amounts.

You'll get a fairly good idea of what you're spending habits are at the end of a week, but keep your tracking going for a month to get a more accurate picture. Tracking your money might not reveal what's really important to you but it will show you what is important enough for you to spend money on it. You'll discover what your priorities are, what your spending patterns are and you can then use this information to change habits and focus on positive spending, like debt reduction.

I doubt there is anyone who hasn't wondered at some point where their money went in a particular pay period. Often we're so tied up with work, or the children, or things that are happening in our lives that we spend without knowing it. We may also be spending small amounts frequently without thinking how those small amounts add up over a longer period. For instance, if you're buying a coffee every morning on your way to work, or when you meet your girlfriends after you've all dropped off the children at school, I bet you'll be surprised how much that will add up to over the course of a year. If that coffee is $3.50 a cup, that's $17.50 a week, $70 a month and if you buy it for ten months in a year, that's $700 for one cup of coffee. I'm not saying that you should stop having your coffee, but make it at home, put it in a Thermos and take it with you. Or invite the girls back to your home for coffee. If there are four of your, you're all paying someone $2,800 to make a cup of coffee for you. That money could make an extra payment on your mortgage or be saved in the bank for an emergency.

Once you'll got a month's tracking done, look critically at what you're spending your money on. I bet you'll be surprised. Who knew those weekly magazines would add up to $800 over a year, surely your $5 lunch at work isn't costing you $1000 a year, your new mobile phone deal, with all those cute extras, can't be costing $900 a year! It's incredible how all those tiny amounts, when added up, cost far more than we thought and far more than they're worth.

I'm not telling you to give up all your small pleasure, but choose your pleasures wisely and know, really know, what they are costing you. When you know the full cost of something - not just the monetary cost, but also what you have to give up and how long you have to work to pay for something, you often don't want it anymore because the cost is too great.

So if you're wanting to simplify, start by tracking what your spend. It will be one of your first exercises in the self discipline of simple living and hopefully it will show you not only how your money is slowly leaking out of your life, but how to stop those leaks and start using your money to help you live the way you want to live.

Graphic from allposters.com

Today is a day of preparation for me because aside my normal daily chores, I’m preparing for the arrival of my sister. We’ve finished breakfast and Hanno has been to the farmers market near here to buy some fruit and a few odds and ends he needs. I will wash up shortly, clean the kitchen and sweep the floors. Instead of baking bread this morning, I’ll bake this afternoon so we’ll have fresh warm bread with our meal tonight. That simple meal will be pasta with my own preserved tomato sauce and a sprinkling of parmesan cheese. We’ll have a crisp fresh salad from the garden as well, and cold watermelon wedges for dessert.

My most put off task, ironing, has been half completed and I’ll finish it off before lunch. After lunch I’ll make the bed up for Tricia, pick a small posy of flowers for her room and arrange a radio for her bedside. She is one who wakes in the middle of the night and likes to listen to the radio while she settles back into sleep. I will check her bathroom too and make sure there is homemade soap and some organic shampoo, and maybe another posy of flowers should find its way in there too. After lunch I have more lettuces and cucumbers to plant and I’ll tidy the front verandah as I know it will be in constant use over the coming couple of weeks.

It is at times like these, when I want to welcome someone special to my home and extend a healing heart, that I realise how much my home means to me. It really is so much more than bricks and mortar. It then becomes a place of shelter, not just from the weather but from everything else too. When we are here, it is just us; just this family, with no thoughts or cares for what is outside our fence. When we are here, this is a place where we can reconnect with each other, slow down time, or ignore it; we can wake when we choose, sleep and rest in the warm spring air on the verandahs and listen to the birds zip by. The breeze will rustle leaves and make them to spin gently to the ground and we will sit and talk and drink cool cordial and hot tea and forget for a while that the outside world isn’t as enriching as this.

This is Tricia and I when we were little girls in Sydney. This photo was taken at my grandma's house at Strathfield in the early 1950s.

My sister Tricia is two years older than me, next year we will both be in our sixties. When I look at that sentence, I know it is true, but I can barely believe it.

She has lived all her life in Sydney and the Blue Mountains (just outside Sydney). Her husband, she was also married to a German man, died suddenly a few years ago so the past few years have been hard for her. She's been trying to keep a business going, keep a family together and keep her sanity. When we were younger, we were worlds apart, now we've grown much closer and we have a very good relationship. It's one of the great parts of growing older. You mellow (well I did) and accept people, warts and all. I wish I had done that when I was younger. I had very strong views in my younger years and I wish I would have lightened up a bit much earlier than I did. I have said before in this blog, I'm a slow learner sometimes. Tricia's main wart, as far as I was concerned, was that she liked football. See! I told you. Dumb.

Anyhow, all this is the preamble to tell you that Tricia is coming to visit us tomorrow. She'll stay for a couple of weeks. I'm really happy that she'll be spending some time with us. She wants to relax, swim, visit, sleep, come to work with me and read. Oh, she's also helping me make some curtains - she is bringing some curtain fabric she bought for me in Sydney. I'm really looking forward to it.

Tricia loves fruit cake. I made her this one that we can have for morning teas while she's here. Brandy was poured over it while it was still hot from the oven. For medicinal purposes, of course.

FESTIVE FRUIT CAKE

Ingredients

1 kg (2.2 lbs) dried currants, sultanas and raisins
50g (1.75 oz) glacé cherries and 100 grams dried cherries
150 grams chopped nuts - I used walnuts
1 cup sherry or port - or brandy, whatever you have
100 grams butter at room temperature
275 grams (8 oz) brown sugar
5 eggs at room temperature
grated rind of 1 orange - grate on a fiine Microplane if you have one
grated rind of 1 lemon - ditto
350 grams (12 oz) plain flour
2 teaspoons mixed spices - I used cinnamon and nutmeg
3 tablespoons black treacle
50 mls brandy or Grand Marnier or sherry for pouring over when the cake is cooked

Method

Soak the fruit in 1 cup port overnight.
Weigh out all the ingredients into suitable containers so they are to hand when needed.
Before starting mixing, make sure you've lined the correct tin and turned on the oven to 150°C (300°F).
Make sure the butter and eggs are left out of the fridge for a while before use, as this will help stop the mixture from curdling later when adding the eggs.
Cream the butter, sugar and treacle together using the beater on a high speed until light. Stop the machine and give the beater and bowl a scrape down using a plastic scraper.
Add the eggs one at a time on a medium speed.
Sieve the flour and spices together. Add the flour and spices gradually on a low speed.
Stop the machine and scrape down the beater and bowl once more.
Add the fruit and nuts and mix in with a wooden spoon.
Add the mixture to the tin, level and smooth the top with the back of a spoon. Place into the middle of the oven at 150°C (300°F) for about 2½ to 3 hours. Check the cake after the alloted time using a skewer. Place the skewer into the middle of the cake: if it comes out clean, then the cake is done. If it needs a little more time, put it back in for another ten or fifteen minutes. Remove from the oven, leave the cake in the tin on a cooling rack to cool down. Pour over the brandy while the cake is still hot.

This cake will keep for many weeks. Wrap it in greaseproof paper and the tightly wrap it in aluminium foil.