down to earth

What a day we had yesterday. We partied like it was 1999. Translation: I renewed my driver's licence for another five years, Hanno took me to the lingerie shop and bought me a new winter nightie and we had lunch in Caloundra. ;- ) I received a lot of wonderful phone calls from friends and family, I loved reading so many comments full of love here and felt truly special on a beautiful autumn day. Thank you for the warm wishes and generous comments you sent yesterday. Each and every one of them made me smile and it put in place one more piece of the puzzle that is you. I build a picture in my mind's eye of everyone who comments here regularly and every comment plays a part in constructing my image of you. I don't know if it's accurate, and maybe I'll never know, but it is my way of personalising this blogging thing so that I feel I'm surrounded by warm-hearted and like-minded friends.

A while ago I was contacted by the folks at kidspot.com.au to tell me that Down to Earth was one of about 700 blogs nominated for inclusion in their Voices of 2013. Recently, they contacted me again to say I was in the top 100 Australian bloggers. I'm in the Creative and Home category along with 25 other creative and home-type bloggers, including the beautiful Katie and Reuben from House of Humble. All the judging and announcements will take place much later in the year. I haven't checked out many of the other bloggers yet but those I have look fabulous and interesting and all those things you want a new to you blog to be. I thought it would be a good idea to highlight and feature of few of them in my weekend reading in the coming weeks.

Off to the big playground with Opa.

I had a bit of a chuckle when I looked at the photos of the other bloggers. I'm the only old duck by the look of it so I'll hold the flag high for all the grandmas and opas out there. It's nice to know that my blog is considered relevant alongside all those written by younger women. Still, I would have liked to see a few more older women there as well.

Full grain rolls ready to go in the oven.

So let's get back to basics again after all the palaver of illness and birthday celebrations. I haven't done a cooking post in a long while so tomorrow I thought I'd share a very versatile whole chicken and vegetable recipe that will warm the cockles of your heart. I love easy food, as long as it's delicious and nourishing. Tick and tick for this recipe. I hope you like it as much as we do. See you tomorrow in the kitchen.

In 1948, the first supermarket opened in the UK, Mahatma Gandhi was murdered, Don Bradman and Joe DiMaggio were creating records, the Pulitzer Prize was shared by James A Michener and Tennessee Williams, Lord Mountbatten resigned as govenor-general of India, TS Eliot won the Nobel Prize for Literature and on 15 April, 151 years after the first of my Australian ancestors stepped upon these shores from convict ships, I was born into a small working class family in Sydney, part of the "baby boom". The population of Australia was then 7.8 million people + one.

Protected and shielded by my parents, the nuns who taught me and no TV, I went through my childhood oblivious to the Korean War, the strength and courage of Rosa Parks in Alabama, the plight of our first Australians, the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, the invention of the Pill and the birth of rock n roll. My eyes were opened suddenly while still at school when the world stood terrified in 1961 after the Bay of Pigs invasion and then the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. At 15, I heard Dr King's "I have a dream" speech on the radio and realised during those fine moments how profound the spoken word can be, and then twisted and shouted through the rest of the 1960s with the Beatles and Bob Dylan. The freedom marches continued and the US Civil Rights Act became law in 1964. I escaped conscription because I was a girl but watched on as hundreds of young Australian men my age were signed up and shipped out to Vietnam. Many of them never returned. In 1967, Australians said an overwhelming "YES!" (90%) in a referendum to include Aboriginal Australians in the census and for special laws to be drafted for them. And then in July 1969, I watched along with the rest of the world as Neil Armstrong took "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Petrol cost: AU 10 cents/litre, UK 65p/gallon, US 31 cents/gallon

It's 1970, I'm 22, so I'd better start getting serious and do something. I started my nurses training at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, alongside the first male general nurse in Australia. Finished that, moved on, drove around the circumference of Australia and finally met a certain young, handsome German man named Hanno in the wilds of outback Queensland. My fate was sealed. Bell bottoms and moustaches. Cigarette advertising banned in many countries. From 1975 to 1978 I didn't watch much black and white TV, never cared for the radio news and while I missed knowing that Elvis died, the conservatives won power in the UK and that Ian Paisley won a seat in the UK parliament, I did know the aboriginal tent embassy went up outside parliament house, the last of the boys came back from Vietnam and women had started to take their place in the world. In early 1979 Hanno and I travelled to Hamburg to meet his family and to stay a few months.

We married in Hamburg and Shane was born there in July 1980 but we stayed longer than intended, I was incredibly homesick so we flew home in late 1980. Flying via Tehran, we were diverted to Damascus - the Iran/Iraq War had broken out while we were in the air! Back home, we soon settled down again and Kerry was born in July 1981. Indigenous Australians started making headway with their claims for land rights, Indira Gandhi was assassinated, the Chernobyl nuclear power station exploded releasing a large amount of radiation into the atmosphere and a 747 exploded in the sky over Lockerbie in Scotland, killing nearly 300 people. We bought our first computer in 1988, pre-windows, using DOS. I needed it because I was doing a degree in journalism, literature and communication. The decade started with a bang, with many of us throwing our money around, but ended in a recession. And then in November 1989, something happened I never expected to see - the Berlin Wall started crumbling and eventually Germany became united again.

Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990, Margaret Thatcher resigned and we bought our first mobile phone (still have the same number). Our first female governor was appointed in 1991 and in 1992, the Mabo decision overturned the concept that Australia was terra nullius when the first sailing ships arrived here. I lived through the saddest day of my life in November 1993 when my mum died. Surprisingly, in spite of my doubt, life went on. Northern Exposure graced our TV screens, we were living with teenagers, the Port Arthur massacre, we bought our home and moved here in 1997. The English Channel tunnel opened and mad cow disease hit the UK. It was heart-breaking to watch as farmers had their herds killed, burned and buried in mass graves.

Concorde crashed and burned in every sense in 2000. The horrors of 9/11 (RIP) and the outcomes of it, 88 Australians died in a terrorist bombing in Bali. The first iPod. The beginning of this decade saw a profound turning point for our family when we started to slow down and simplify. I started blogging. The tsunami in the Indian Ocean took 250,000 lives, suicide bombers in London killed 56 people, the first iPhone, Benazir Bhutto killed in Pakistan, fuel prices hit record highs, the GFC. The population of Africa exceeded 1 billion. The population of India exceeded 1.1 billion. The population of China exceeded 1.3 billion. Barack Obama, the first black American president, is sworn in. Down to Earth, a guide to simple living is published by Penguin in February 2012.

Today, 15 April, 2013, I'm turning 65. I am proud of my age and lucky to have made it through when so many others didn't. I mixed my history in with world history here, not in arrogance but because this is my history - I have been shaped by my times, just as you are shaped by yours. I wish I'd learnt more along the way but one thing I do know to be true is that age is not about wrinkles, the pension or decline. I have found, despite what I've heard, that life truly opens up as you age. Not all days are good ones, but they weren't when I was younger either. Now I have the sense to not gauge my life by other people's ideals, I'm comfortable in my own skin, and while I have my family and friends around me, I know that I will continue to look for the joy in each day and appreciate it every time I find it.

Again, thank you for all the love and warmth being sent to lift my spirits. I'm still feeling weak but I was up all day yesterday and it was such a relief to not have to stay in bed all day. Hanno made us a delicious leek and potato soup for dinner, it was my first real food in five days and it went down well. BTW, for those of you who commented that my list should have included "looking after myself", that didn't have to be listed. It was happening anyway, and will continue.

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My family is moving into a more stable phase with both Alex and Jamie starting day care and their parents lives setting down a bit after the tumultuous changes brought about by being first-time parents. No one ever knows what to expect with their first baby, it's all happiness and joy mixed with a bit of pain and confusion in those first months before baby starts settling and parents realise what a profound change they've just gone through. There is no going back. Then there are the physical changes and extra work to deal with, and all the way through those first two years there is a lot of learning, not only with the baby learning new things but the parents learning about love and the future and how to work towards both. It takes a while to take on all these changes and work out a style of parenting that suits both personality and family. It's not easy but if this basic ground work is done, it builds a very firm foundation on which a child builds a life.

Jamie with the little wheelbarrow, just like Opa's, we gave him for his birthday.

My role through this time has been to support my sons and daughters-in-law as well as the babies, by helping to maintain a stable family, by showing unconditional love and by providing help whenever I could.

Jamie and Alex are both starting to talk, and now that we see Jamie much more frequently it's a joy to be with him, watching, as he goes through this wonderful life change. We know how difficult it is when you're working and trying to raise children to be self-confident, contribute to the country and build a life for themselves. We did it ourselves and we see our own children doing it now. We're lucky that we have been able to step back and create an unusual life here where we can support ourselves by growing food and raising chickens in the backyard, and where life has taken on its own enriching, gentler pace.

I see our life now as continuing along this simple path and being a stable support for our family, a helping hand outstretched every time it's needed. It is still our responsibility to provide leadership and care, but without interference. We expect Alex and Jamie's parents to provide most of what the boys need but one of the things we can provide is to show, by example, how to live simply, to appreciate what we have and to demonstrate, without doubt, that while the commercial world will throw all the gadgetry, gimmicks and glitter at them, this way of living provides clarity, enrichment and happiness. I have no doubt Alex and Jamie will benefit from all the new discoveries made during their lifetime, just as I have benefited from those in mine, but I hope they remember all through their lives that sustainability is equally important and that a wheelbarrow can also an instrument of change.

Oh boy. I haven't been that sick in over 35 years. I'm still not 100 percent fit but I'm vastly improved on how I was. I've had norovirus. I became ill suddenly on Wednesday night and by Thursday morning I was dizzy, had a fever, headaches and was incredibly tired. I couldn't eat, the smell of cooking food made me worse and I could only take a sip of water at a time. I survived for three days on fresh juice, ginger ale and water. Yesterday, I didn't feel as nauseous and I slowly ate a slice of bread with Vegemite and later in the day, a slice of bread with tomato. I was able to drink more too. Hanno bought me some lemon mineral water. Now, four and a half days later, I'm still dizzy and weak but all the other symptoms have gone and I'm much better than I was.

As usual, Hanno looked after me and kept me going. He also looked after Jamie on Saturday and Sunday and kept us apart, with Jamie coming to the door to wave hello and when I felt better, he proved to be quite entertaining, although still well away from me. I'll be resting today but not in bed, thank goodness. It will do me good to sit on the verandah in the fresh air and catch up on my knitting in the lounge room.

For the ladies joining me in the list challenge, here is a tentative weekly list for me. It's very similar to last week's because I only got through half of last week's list. This is a good reminder though to not be too hard on yourself if you don't tick off all you want to. Some weeks are like that. Simply move it on to the following week and do what you can. I'm not adding anything new to last week's list. I think it will take all my time to get through what's there at the moment. I understand that you might not be in that position if you're caring for children or working outside the home, but always, do what you can, don't be too hard on yourself and don't aim for perfection.

I NEED TO:

Finish transfer the Down to Earth forum to another server.
Finish off the last few pages of the Milk ebook and send it in to be made into an ebook.
Read about how to create a newsletter in my email account.
Write notes for future workshops.
Take photos for blog.
Make a cake or biscuits.

I WANT TO:

Sow seeds.
Knit - finish off my cotton shawl.
Tidy my desk.
Write my blog.
Read.
Organise my new book proposal notes.
Take an hour's break in the middle of the day.

I'll finish putting up the link list when I'm feeling better, so if you've sent me an email or comment, I'll get to it soon.

And lastly, I want to thank you all for your concern and good wishes. It never fails to surprise me how connected I feel to so many of you who I know just though your comments. It is a constant reminder how powerful the written word is.

I've been very ill with a virus the past 36 hours. I wrote this blog the other day but couldn't get up to post it. I'll be back as soon as I can be.

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It's changing here. The warm days are cooling slightly and at night we take advantage of flannel sheets, fluffy doonas and homemade quilts. The bed is always the first to signify the change of seasons, followed fairly closely by the slippers, food and our clothing. I find the older I get, the less I like the extremes of temperatures. There was a time when I worked much further north and didn't feel any adverse effects. There was I time I loved the coldness of snow and those climates that seem to be shrouded in mist for days at a time. Now I love cool but not cold temperatures, although I am looking forward to establishing a yearly winter trip to visit my sister Tricia, who lives in the Blue Mountains at Blackheath. It's wood fire country. We have hot tea instead of cold drinks and there life is mostly lived indoors during winter.

Back here in the sub-tropics, we're looking forward to a milder winter. It's still warm enough to grow vegetables but it is cold at night. Sometimes it goes down to 3 - 5C but luckily we never get frosts. If it were up to me, we'd be sitting beside a wood burning stove in the evenings. Unfortunately, Hanno hates wood fires so I have to make do with extra layers of clothing and my slippers. Do I whinge about that every year?

I think my favourite aspect of ordinary life during the colder months is the food. All those soups, stews, porridge, hot scones and bread, and being in the warmth of the kitchen, cooking. I love cooking winter food. It fills a need in me to nurture my family and fill their bellies with nourishing hot food that will keep them going in the cold weather. Chopping vegetables and adding meat, chicken, lentils, beans, or barley to a hearty stock or a simple broth never fails to satisfy my soul. I love the smell of those rich foods wafting through my home. It's like a lifeblood running through us; it keeps us alive.

A close second to the foods are winter crafts. I knit all year long but in winter I'm like a possessed woman, clicking away madly to create more woolly warmth for my family. It seems like important work to me. I love sitting with my knitting on a cold and wet Sunday afternoon, watching something like Vera, Time Team or The Sopranos on TV and if I can smell vegetable and barley soup cooking slowly on the stove then, you won't find a women more content than me.

What do you love about your current season?

Wow. The Blackheath workshop is almost full. Thanks to everyone who booked yesterday. I'll get details out to you in the next couple of days. There has only been one inquiry about the other workshop further west. We decided to do it in Bathurst after all but if there is no further interest, we'll probably do both workshops in Blackheath. Please let me know so I can book the venues.

Also, I'm going to link to everyone who is taking part in yesterday's list challenge. If you want to be part of that, please email your link to your list post so I can include it - rhondahetzel@gmail.com

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A couple of months ago, Kim asked me to write a post about making a bed with hospital corners. Well, it may have taken a bit too long to get to it but today we have it - making your bed. This is one of my favourite topics. I love it because it's one of those most ordinary of tasks that many people don't think about, but when you do, you realise what a profound act it is. Many of us may be guilty at times of not looking after ourselves properly. This one small act of making the bed, is high up on the list of household tasks that help care for you, the homemaker and maker of the bed. It will make you feel better. If not when you do it, then certainly when you go to bed.

We all know how important it is to make a baby's bed. Those small bundles spend a lot of time in their beds in those first few months and generally parents know that the bed has to be clean, dry and warm enough. That little bed will hold your baby when you can't, it has to be safe secure and comfortable.

Your bed is the same. It may not be made up with fresh sheets quite as often as a baby's bed but it's just as important that your bed will hold you safely and securely and that when you go to bed after a hard day's work, the comfort you find there relaxes you and helps you sleep. Sleep is a strange thing. We still don't really know why we sleep but all of us do. Usually once every 24 hours we loose consciousness and lay silent for hours. We don't know what's going on around us, we don't know what time it is, we don't respond. Knowing all this, I guess it makes sense to have a bed that keeps us warm and comfortable, and will safely hold us during those hours we lay silent.

I don't make my bed with hospital corners anymore. I learnt the technique when I was a nurse in the 60s and 70s and it's just one of those simple things that always stays with you. I use fitted bottom sheets now and I don't tuck in the top sheet at the bottom on the bed now because both Hanno and I like to poke our feet out from under the sheets and quilt.

Always start off with a bottom sheet that is completely flat, with no creases. If you don't use fitted sheets like I do, lay a flat sheet out on your bed, make sure there is an even hang on both sides and then tuck in the top of the sheet under the mattress. Pull it tight because creases in the sheet you lay on will be uncomfortable. If you're making the bed for someone who is elderly or frail and they spend a lot of time in bed, creases have the potential to start bed sores. So just take the time to run your hand over the bed to make sure no creases remain before you tuck in the top or bottom of the sheet. See below for how to make the hospital corners. You would do that top and bottom is you're using a flat bottom sheet and just at the bottom for the top sheet.

Lay the top sheet on top of the bottom sheet and smooth it out with an even hang on both sides of the bed. The goal here is to provide warmth on both sides of the bed with a good enough hang as well as comfort for the toes and feet.

If you make the top sheet too tight, it will cause pressure on your toes. When I was taught how to make a hospital bed, we always added a pleat at the bottom of the bed so the sheet could easily expand to accommodate the feet. So right in the middle of the sheet, pull the sheet in from both sides and make a pleat. Don't worry about the pleat looking untidy. It will be completely cover and flattened by your top layers.

When you get into bed with the pleat at the bottom, the pleat will expand out to give your feet the room they need.

Then, to make the hospital corners, standing at the side of the bed near the end, lift up the side of the sheet so it looks like the above and lay the mitred corner on the bed. Then tuck in the bit that's hanging down.

You will then have a corner that looks neat, like this.

Then take the sheet corner that is still laying on the top of the bed and tuck it securely under the bed, giving you a firm mitred corner - a hospital corner.

In hospital, they used to tuck in the sheets along the side of the bed. I'm not sure if they still do that but it makes a really tight bed. I prefer to have a bed with the top sheet fairly loose, so I never tuck in the top sheet.

Some other things to remember when making your bed is to not have the top layers too heavy. Toes and feet need to be comfortable and make sure your pillow supports your head and neck well. I've found you need different pillows at different stages of life. Hanno uses a soft feather pillow, I have a firm latex one. There is no doubt about it, if you make up a comfortable bed every morning, you'll look forward to going to bed at night. Establishing a good sleeping pattern is such an important part of healthy life. If you sleep in a clean, well made bed, you'll have the best chance of having a good night's sleep. If you've never been in the habit of making your bed, just try fluffing your nest for a week and see what difference it makes. I think you'll be surprised.

I make myself busy on purpose. It helps me slow down and live simply. Busyness has always been part of my life. I work better when I'm under some sort of pressure or when I have to meet a deadline. Because ... when I have no pressure making me work, I don't. I sit back thinking I have all the time in the world to do what I need to do and sometimes I end up doing nothing. At this stage of my life being busy is working very well for me. I have a lot of opportunities nowadays and I say yes to projects to keep me on my toes and for the sheer pleasure I get from it. When I work through all my tasks, then I have a chance to relax and I make the most of it.

People often comment on my workload but I rarely do more than I know I'm capable of. Being raised in a working class home, I discovered the benefits of work early in life and I've never found a reason to stop work, even now I can. I'm supposed to be retired but people keep asking me to do this and that and I'm happy to keep going while I can. When I thought I was retiring, way back when I closed down my business, I found that doing everything I wanted to do in my home made every day full, rich and empowering. I thought I was "retiring" and that work would ease off, but instead I work in a different and more fulfilling way which more often than not doesn't feel like work.

I have always found that writing down what I have to do enables me to work through the list without having to rely on my memory to keep going. A list provides a reminder of the work and adds an element of organisation to it as well. It allows me to think ahead and choose the tasks that need to be done and what can wait a while. Now that I'm moving into a very busy period, I'm doing a weekly and a daily list. This is the best way for me to choose what I'll work on during the week, then choose from that list what I'll tackle each day. I've found it's a very good way of organising myself and managing my time.

You can join me if you want to. If some of you join me we might do it for a few months on a Monday morning to see if the lists makes us accountable enough to make a difference to our work. The thing you mustn't do it to make an unrealistic list. It must be achievable.

I wrote my weekly list yesterday. I'll move whatever I feel like doing, or need to do on a particular day, over to my daily list. Hopefully by the end of the week, everything on my NEEDS list can be ticked off. I intend to go to my WANTS list in my breaks and on the weekend and hope to have most things on that list finished by week's end too.

My weekly list - Monday, 2 April.

I NEED TO:

~~Transfer the Down to Earth forum to another server.~~
~~Finish off the last few pages of the Milk ebook and send it in to be made into an ebook.~~
Read about how to create a newsletter in my email account.
~~Meet with Ernie on Tuesday.~~
Write notes for future workshops.
Take photos for blog.
Go to the bank.
~~Pick up milk from the dairy.~~
Do a small amount of ironing.
~~Cook dinner every night.~~
Make a cake or biscuits.

I WANT TO:

Sow seeds.
Knit - finish off my cotton shawl.
Tidy my desk.
~~Write my blog.~~
Read.
Organise my new book proposal notes.
Take an hour's break in the middle of the day.

MY TUESDAY LIST - on this list I've moved items from my weekly needs and wants list to a list of what I hope to do today.

Write blog
Start forum transfer - this will take a couple of days
Finish Milk book
Meet Ernie
Pick up milk at dairy on way back from Ernie's
Cook dinner

Let me know if you join in and I'll find a way to link to you. I hope you enjoy your day.
Rhonda. xx

Recently I read Tania's post about rising early and the mundane ordinariness of Monday mornings and once again I felt that soft collision of connection between the two of us. In reality, we're worlds apart - geographically, in age and culture, and probably many other things, and yet there is something that I recognise in Tania. I'm not sure if it's my life now or memories of my past but that warm recognition I see in Tania's blog and the way she writes about her life is familiar, comforting and reassuring.

I didn't realise it until I snapped back to reality but I sat there starting out the window after reading the post, trying to find the reason for the recognition. The sun was still on the rise behind some pine trees, making bright shadows on the front garden and highlighting spider webs that otherwise would have gone unnoticed. Tiny golden leaves fell from one of the trees near the house and a Sacred Kingfisher swooped down at one point to pick up a grasshopper.

How do we make a connection like this to someone we don't know?

Blogs are strange things. I've been thinking about them a lot lately because of the blogging workshops we've just finished and have been trying to define just what a blog is. At the most basic level a blog is a way of recording one's thoughts in a similar way you'd write a diary. Most blogs are glaringly public though. They're a form of expression, like a book or a letter to a friend. They're a record of life. They're a way of getting public recognition. They can be a business for those who spend a lot of time on their blogs and have something to sell - be that their thoughts or products.

And what of all of us who write blogs? Having met a few hundred people in the past month who are new to blogging, I know now from that small sample that bloggers can be anyone. They are young, middle aged, old and older. There are many people who want to record family life or their travels as well as many who just want to blog and see what happens. And there are the business bloggers.

My hope for all of those new bloggers is that they develop a community of people who "get" them. People who they might never meet but feel they know, just like me and Tania. Had someone told me years ago such a relationship could be had on the internet and that real friendships could be formed, I would have thought "pffffffft, as if". But it happens all the time.

I think I'm one of the luckiest bloggers on the web. I have you and this wonderful community of like minded folk who drop by, say hello, write emails, send gifts and cards in the post - right now I have Courtney's borage seeds winging their way to me (thanks Courtney). People leave comments to share what they know and to make a contribution to the continuing conversation we have here. This blog, and I think Tania's blog, started off as solo efforts but have both developed well beyond that. We now have a thriving and thoughtful community online and that is a beautiful and powerful thing.

How has your blog developed over the years?

Our blogging workshop at the Maroochydore Library.

I've been very fortunate lately to have been involved in writing and blogging workshops in the Sunshine Coast libraries. We do the last one today. My business partner and friend, Ernie Marcum and I, delivered the 16 workshops at every one of the council libraries. It was exhausting, we had to leave home far too early and too often, we carried heavy bags containing computers and notes, some days were hot, some days it rained, but we loved every minute of it. Not only did we get to talk about things we love doing, we met some incredible people who are passionate about writing and blogging. We also met hard working librarians who focused on delivering appropriate and interesting activities, workshops and reading materials for their communities.

This is me with my good friend Beverly Hand, elder of the Kabi Kabi people. We met at our Neighbourhood Centre and I'm sure we'll be lifelong friends.

Above and below are community events that rarely rate a mention in mainstream media yet they're an important part of our community. You need to be part of your community to know when your local events take place.

I have no doubt that libraries need more funding. They're doing a great service with what they have, but we need more librarians, and the libraries need to be open longer hours and open up to even more new programs and ways of operating. If you're in Australia, I urge you to lobby your local councillor to increase library funding and employ more librarians. Just a quick email should do it.

Libraries are wonderful places. They are there for us in large and small towns and in recent years they've been moving from the older model based solely on books and reading, to a wider approach of presenting workshops, genealogy research and resources, JPs services, baby and toddler reading and rhyming and much more. Libraries are the community places that many of us feel comfortable in. We introduce our children to them at a very young age in the hope of developing a lifelong love of reading and learning.

This community gathering was at Bell last year when Hanno and I travelled out there to demonstrate how to make soap, scones and laundry liquid. We had the best time with these ladies and Hanno was spoilt with hot coffee and cake - frequently.

Often in the past, when we moved to a new community, the library was my first port of call because of the local information and valuable connections to be made there. For all of us who live a simple life, libraries hold information we need, spaces we can use for community meetings and ideas for future projects. But I love libraries because of the people there. If you've simplified, cut back or downsized, then probably, like me, you won't be interested in most of the mainstream advertised information about big TVs, mobile phones and $400 shoes. You'll be looking for information that is not broadcast. You want to know where to buy old breed chooks, the best value for money water pumps and solar panels, organic yarn, good knitting needles and crochet hooks, incubators, honey extractors, where the community gardens are and the closest farmers' market or LETS market. You'll never find this sort of information in a magazine and often not even in the local newspaper. You need to know people in your community who will tell you. You need to build your community networks.

In our community, you can learn to sew at the Neighbourhood Centre, and it's free.

Community networking can start, very successfully, at your local library. If they don't have the information you're looking for, ask the librarian or put up a notice on the noticeboard. Ask about community groups you can join, be active, get out and be part of your community. Your neighbourhood will only be as supportive and active as you make it. If you're living a simple life, if you're aiming for a sustainable lifestyle, it will open new doors for you if you get out and be a part of your community. I have found you only ever get out what you put into life and when I first ventured into my community about ten years ago, a whole new world opened up for me. I have been changed in profound and significant ways simply by being part of my community. If you haven't made your connections yet, don't wait to be asked, every community is screaming out for people who don't mind a bit of hard work. Just dive in, get involved and be a part of something special.

If you're a part of your community I'd love to know how you got involved in the first place.

I am using this post today to write about email safety. I know this isn't my usual topic but I've had a lot of emails lately that are obviously from hackers who have hijacked someone's email account. There are two things here to watch out for. One is not having your email hijacked in the first place, the other is what to do if you receive one of these emails.

Even though this isn't something I usually write about, I'm a bit of an expert on it because, unfortunately, I've had my email account hijacked and, as I said, I've been receiving a lot of emails from hackers, using names I recognise. When I had my email hijacked, it happened when I had a very simple password on my email account. Hackers now have programs where they can hook up to an email address and the program will run scanning through thousands of words until it hits on your password. If you have a common word or name as your password, generally it can find it. Then the hacker can use your email address to send his/her own emails - usually containing viruses, spam or pornography.

When my email was hacked, the hacker used my address book to send all the rubbish they sent out and it looked like I had sent it. So everyone who received one of those emails, received an email from "Rhonda Hetzel" and many of those people would have opened it. Had there been a trojan or virus of some kind, all those people who received that email would have been infected. Sorry.

When that happened, gmail contacted me and explained what had happened. The most important thing to do immediately was to change my password. As soon as the password was changed, the hacker could no longer use my account.

That all happened a few years ago now and since then, I always use strong passwords and I haven't had any more problems. In the past few weeks, I've received a lot of emails from people here whose names I know and their email was sent with just one link in it. I NEVER open these emails.

So what do we do to stay safe?

NEVER open links in emails unless you've asked it to be sent to you or you know, without doubt, it is safe. Even your family may have had their email hacked so it could look safe and innocent, but it's not.
Change your email password right now to something that is much more secure. You need a longer word - about 9 or 10 characters, mainly letters with no spaces. Then throw in a few numbers and maybe a hash, question mark or ampersand for good measure. So "rhonda" is not secure but "rho2n83?da" is. Often, when you make up a new password, the program will follow you along and it will show you going from unsafe to safe to strong. And it makes a huge difference just making this small change.
If you're like me and have a million accounts, get yourself a little notebook that sits next to your computer and enter in the usernames and passwords for all your accounts, or add this information to your homemaker's journal. Always update it if you change passwords or create a new account.

And that's it. Strong passwords work and they're easy to change. And if you get an email with a single link, don't open it. Delete it straight away. I don't want to scare you but we all need to take care on the internet so we can enjoy the time we spend here. Stay safe, everyone.