I guess the common idea of retirement is to stop paid work and then spend time relaxing with hobbies, travel, family and friends. I stopped working for a living many years ago and I concentrated my time and energy on my home. I reinvented how I lived. Instead of working for money, I worked to reduce the amount I had to spend by making, instead of buying, what we needed. I made a new life for myself by doing that, I became a different person too. The days when money and shopping were the focus of life stopped and a new era of self-reliance and productivity started. The change in mindset ensured success in this new life and I found that I didn't have to penny pinch and become an expert on shopping for bargains because the changes I made pushed me towards becoming productive at home instead. Laundry products were made at home instead of bought at the supermarket, food was grown in the backyard and not always sourced from elsewhere, food wastage stopped, recycling, mending and craftiness replaced the ingrained belief that everything valuable was on sale somewhere.  I discovered that real life and the things I needed to live it, were available right here in my home and I paid for them mainly with my time and effort.
A mis-matched bed is a pure joy to me. We don't need to have matching grey linen sheets with 20 pillows to be comfortable in bed.  All we really need is clean and fresh cotton sheets on a bed that is made every day. 

Now my life has slowed down a lot. I do what I want to do, I express my creativity in a number of ways and I think a lot. And while all that is happening, time seems to be moving faster. I guess it's a byproduct of ageing. Our ages dictate a lot of what we do now. We have to be careful not to get too hot or tired so we work and have breaks, many more than we once did. I think the key to successful ageing is to accept the changes that come your way. That's what I'm doing and it seems to be working. One thing is for sure, ageing isn't for wimps. You have to be tougher than old boots to survive it.

I think the retirement part of my life is working well.  I'm happy to get up every morning. The work I do in my home keeps me interested, I have the opportunity to spend time with my family and friends and I when I look back I feel satisfied with my life and how I spent my time. I can't say I never made mistakes because I made a lot but I did learn from them and I know that I am the woman I am today because of the way I've lived and everything I've done, which includes the mistakes.

It's been a busy week full of simple home tasks, family, dogs and thoughts of changing seasons and what that means for me and my home. Nothing stays the same, that's for sure, and while I look forward to the weekend and next week, it has hit me that it's almost a year since we packed the car and took off for three weeks on the road for our book tour. That time has gone by so fast. It seems like yesterday when I signed that contract and sat down, in 2015, to write the first chapters.

Thanks for your comments and visits this week. I hope you have something good planned for the weekend. We'll have all the grandkids here tomorrow and a day in the garden or planning the garden on Sunday.  I'll see you again next week.  ♥︎

Smart ways to save around the house

How to attach bias binding

And finally, my mother studied the piano at the Sydney Conservatorium and was a gifted pianist. Maybe there is some of that in my blood because when I read this, I understood the feeling and the need. I'm smiling at you, Phil.

It was 42C on the verandah here yesterday but I believe it was much hotter out west. I'm very grateful we have an air-conditioned house. Last night was one of the few nights since we've lived here that we let the air-conditioner run all night. Yesterday and Saturday were spent mainly indoors after watering the plants and filling up plenty of water troughs for the chooks. These days are bad enough for us but I think how the native animals, birds and insects are faring, especially when their habitats have been wiped out for housing developments.  It's not a wise move to leave food out for native wildlife but it's essential to leave water out in shaded places. Usually it will help keep your local birds and insects hydrated, but on extremely hot days it can be the difference between life and death.

I finished off my shawl on Saturday and cast on a boy's seamless jumper in grey cotton.  We have mild winters here so a cotton jumper generally keeps young bodies warm. It will give me a project to work on when I'm sitting in the lounge room and I'm hoping to have it finished by early July.

Yesterday I made white nectarine jam. Peaces and nectarines are my favourite fruit and it's always a treat to eat them, ripe and cold, during summer. I'm partial to the late season free stone varieties and this year, Hanno found some under-ripe white nectarines for $3 a kilo. They are perfect for jam making so he bought 2 kgs.  Yesterday I made up one batch, netting us two large jars of jam.  I'll make up the others today. Four jars of nectarine jam in the cupboard  won't go far so I looked through my preserves books to see what else I can make from fruit easy to find and not too expensive.





I'd like to have enough jam to do us through the year - even if we have a visit from my sister who is the queen of jam on toast, with tea, for breakfast. Jam is such an easy thing to make and homemade tastes so much better than commercial jam.  In the coming weeks I'll make some dried apricot jam and orange marmalade and I'll be on the lookout for local strawberries in early winter. That should keep us in jam for the entire year.

This will be a big week for Gracie. This afternoon she's going to the groomer to be thoroughly washed and clipped. That is in preparation for her trip to the vet on Wednesday when she'll be spayed.  She's six months old now and the vet recommended that as the best time to carry out the procedure.  She'll have stitches after the operation and I want her nice and clean so she's not too uncomfortable when she's recovering.

Grace has spent most of the last two days inside the house spread-eagled on the floor in front of the air-conditioner. She goes out early morning, again at lunch time and late afternoon. When she's ready to come back in she barks once at the back door, and we, her servants, wander over to open the door for her.  She devised the system and it's working well. 😃

I have a slow busy week ahead and I'm looking forward to doing a few things in my home as well as planning and mapping out the new season garden that will be planted up in March.  Since we reduced the size of our garden and the number of plants we grow, it's essential to choose the right ones. It's time to sow some seeds in trays in the bush house so when this hot weather ends, we'll be ready to plant our seedlings out in the garden. When I work it out, I'll tell you about our plans for this year's garden.

I hope you all have a lovely week. Take care in the heat and cold, my friends. xx

I'm really looking forward to the end of summer so I can get back into baking and doing housework without sweating or needing to sit down afterwards.  Boy oh boy, has this been a hot summer.

Hello to everyone who comes by, I'll see you again next week.  ♥︎

Le orecchiette - You Tube
Chocolate chip mint Greek yogurt pops

I'm adding one extra link so we can help Humble Wife with her project.

Here's another recipe that is good to eat in summer or winter. It is started the night before and marinated overnight, the preparation and cooking the following day takes about 30 minutes. You can do a plain version using only salt and pepper or a mild spicy version using the spices below without the chilli, or a hot version, depending on who will be eating it.  This is great hot or cold so it's good for picnics and lunch boxes, particularly wrapped in flatbread with a salad.

The buttermilk tenderises the chicken and usually keeps it moist during the cooking.  I have tried frying the chicken until it's cooked and I've tried oven baking the chicken until it's cooked. The combined frying and baking method works best for taste and visual appeal.

 SPICY BUTTERMILK CHICKEN 

Makes 2 - 3 portions

2 skinless chicken breasts

1 cup buttermilk

½ cup plain flour

1 tablespoon paprika

½ tablespoon turmeric

½ teaspoon chilli flakes (optional)

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

Oil for frying

Cut up chicken breasts into large bite size pieces. Don't cut it too small because the chicken will dry out too much. Pour the buttermilk into a sealable plastic bag, move the chicken pieces around until all of them are covered in buttermilk and place the bag in the fridge overnight.

When you're ready to cook, take the chicken out of the bag and put it in a bowl. Discard the buttermilk. Place flour, spices and seasoning in a bowl and roll the chicken pieces in the seasoned flour, a few at a time.  When all the chicken pieces are coated, get ready to fry them.

Heat oil in a frying pan and when it's hot, carefully place the chicken pieces in the pan. Fry for about five minutes or until they are a golden colour. You don't want to cook them in the frying pan, you just want them to develop the colour you want when you serve them.

When they're golden, place all the pieces on a small baking tray and pop into a preheated oven on 185C/365F and cook for another 20 minutes. Cut one in half to check they're cooked and remove from the oven.  Cover with foil to keep warm.

  PASSIONFRUIT CORDIAL  

We had an abundance of passionfruit on our vines in December so I made passionfruit cordial with some of the excess.  I know they're expensive in the shops now ($1 - $1.50 each !) but you could also make this using pineapple, mango, berries, citrus juice or a combination of several juices. To make any fruit cordial you make a sugar syrup - equal amounts of sugar and water, add lemon juice or citric acid (from the supermarket) and if you have 2 cups of sugar syrup you add 2 cups of fruit juice. You can make a weak syrup using half the amount of sugar to water if you wish, you can make it with honey but I've never made it so you'll have to do your own research.

This will make up just under 2 litres/quarts.

• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 cups water
• ½ cup fresh lemon juice
• 2 - 3 cups fresh passionfruit pulp

I'm not one who takes frequent holidays. In the last ten years, I've had two holidays and both of them were working holidays (book tours). I'm a home body and prefer to be in my home, working at living the life I want. We always make sure we take days off and do things out of the ordinary, but those days are usually spent at home, or close to it. To tell you the truth, nowadays, my life seems like one long holiday. I feel relaxed, I do as I please, most days are a lovely mix of work and rest and there is always something to do.

Life is tough when you have debt. You can see that on the faces of many people, you hear it in their stories and know it in your own. That toughness is one of the things that makes life the challenge it is. Almost all of us have to work for what we get, either in our homes and gardens producing what we need, or out in the work force earning money to buy or rent a home and what we need. I've never had a problem with hard work. I want to work for what I get, it feels right to me. I don't want to be that person who takes the easy way out or who thinks they deserve to have it easy. I don't want to sit back and do nothing. I believe that work makes us strong people and through that strength, we are able to achieve our life dreams.

But even though I feel like that, I don't want you to think I'm a non-complaining workhorse. I do complain, I have days when I don't feel like doing what I have to do and I put off jobs till tomorrow, or next week. Everyone has off days, no one can, or should need to, maintain a stoic attitude all the time. When I feel like taking it easy, I am realistic enough to know work is part of life and that the reprieve from work will be short, so I enjoy it and then get ready to pick up my broom and cleaning rags  again. When I don't have the energy to push myself, I push myself gently and sit with knitting and work on an unfamiliar pattern, or spend time outside alone watching birds and the swaying trees. The restorative powers of outdoor time and silence is quite remarkable.



Most of the time, my housework is something I look forward to. I love cooking for my family, baking and making jams and sauces. There are times during the year when I organise cupboards and move things around and when I do that, it helps me with the work that will follow. I don't care what's for sale in the shops, I couldn't care less what's on TV, I'm less and less interested in being online because my home is my focus and my interest. I'm content here and I don't see that changing.

The satisfaction I feel when I make something for my home far outstrips the feeling I used to get when I bought everything I needed. What I make suits our home better than most commercial products and as a bonus, I feel the warm embrace of self-reliance when I make them. I know it can be difficult to disconnect from the ease of buying pre-made everything but once you settle into to it, home production, moderation and self-reliance delivers long-term, constant contentment.

A few ladies asked about the fabric I photographed in the last weekend reading post.  It was the cover of my old ironing board - an Ikea cover. I love the fabric so when I replaced my ironing board with a larger one  recently, I saved the cover. I was unsure how to reuse the odd shape but I knew I wanted to see it frequently. I ended up making one napkin (above) and a little table cover that I'll use on my old tea trolley. I'm very happy with both of them and happier that I could keep using the fabric and to repurpose it for new tasks.


I hope you enjoy your homemaking this week. I'll be continuing with ongoing sewing and knitting, cooking our lunch from scratch every day, cleaning, thinking about the soon-to-be planted new season garden and looking after our adorable puppy Grace. I hope to clean out a cupboard or too as well.  What are your plans for the week ahead?

I'm taking a few days away from the computer to get my head back to where I want it to be.  I'll be sewing, knitting, cooking and spending mornings on the verandah. Gracie is overdue for some training and I'll bath, brush and clip her too.  Look after yourself, I'll see you again next week.

Easy DIY ironing board organiser

We've been updating the forum over the past few weeks. There are some new moderators and many excellent threads aimed at teaching our members new skills, and the social side of the forum helps us connect with like-minded folk via with regular chat and photo threads. If you're trying to simplify or have happily settled into this kind of living but have no one close to talk to about it, this is the place for you.  If you're already a member but haven't visited for a while, or have been inquisitive but haven't had the time to join, now is the time. Even if you read only a few of our threads, you'll discover enough to make the effort worthwhile. If you become a regular, if may help you change your life.

We're working our way, month-by-month, through The Simple Home and we've just finishing January where many of us organised our homes and prepared ourselves for 2017. This month our topic is Your Money and your Life. We'll be discussing debt, saving and how get the best value from the money you have.

I've listed the forum topics below and the moderators have chosen a thread they think might help or interest you.  Just click on the link to go there.  If you're not a member yet, you'll have to register first. Don't worry, it's free, and your information stays with me and goes no where else. 😃

LIVING A SIMPLE LIFE

Robynlouise is our moderator here.

Members of DTE discuss how they describe themselves and their lifestyle. Interesting, inspirational, thoughtful and at times humorous. Make yourself a cuppa and join in the conversation here or if you prefer to just absorb the atmosphere.....that's all right too :).

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Challenge: Create a Garden Planner Week 1: What to grow?
ADAPTING OUR LIVES AND HOMES FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Yesterday I made enough buttermilk pikelets/flapjacks for our house, Sunny's house and Jamie's lunchbox. They were supposed to be my apple and cinnamon but, ahem, I forgot the apples and the cinnamon.  They were delicious with some good strawberry jam.

I'm cutting my recipe posts down to every fortnight instead of every week.  I'm spending too much time on the computer lately and it doesn't feel right. Thanks for visiting me this week. I look forward to seeing your comments again next week.  ❤️

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Happy Australia Day to all my Australian friends and neighbours. I hope you enjoy whatever you do today in this great country of ours.
Meatballs, whether they be rissoles, small Italian-style meatballs or Swedish meatballs are a popular meal, are fabulous as leftovers the follow day and make wonderful lunchbox food.  The problem with meatballs is that often they're tasteless and dry. I'd like to introduce you to my meatball recipe. You can use beef, pork or lamb, the choice is yours, the other ingredients are always the same.  The secret is to use milk-soaked stale bread instead of breadcrumbs. Doing that will give you moist meatballs every time. But you also have to add flavour. I add onion, grated carrot, spices, parsley, egg, salt and pepper but you can add whatever you fancy as long as it boosts the flavour.

Ingredients

Soak the bread in milk for about 15 minutes and break it up with your clean hands. It should look like a lumpy paste when it's ready to use.

I processed the onion, carrot and parsley in a small food processor for about 30 seconds.

Place the soaked bread in a large bowl, add all the other ingredients and mix it all together  thoroughly.

Form into balls about the size of a small golf ball.  Place all the meatballs on a plate, cover with plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge for 30 minutes. That will help the meatballs firm up and stay together when you cook them.

Add a small amount of olive oil to a frying pan and when it's hot, add the meatballs. Cook on a medium heat for about 30 minutes, turning every 10 minutes.  You can also brown the meatballs in the frying pan and finish cooking them in the oven but it was too hot to do that here when I cooked mine.

I made a nice sauce to go with these.  When cooked, I removed the meatballs from the pan and added ¼ teaspoon of paprika, a sprinkling of celery salt, white pepper and stirred so it didn't burn. I added ½ cup of water, I let that come to the boil and left it on a medium heat for about 2 minutes. Just before I served the meal, I added ¼ cup sour cream to the sauce and stirred it through.

I served these with pan fried cabbage and onion, boiled potatoes and parsley.  You could just as easily make this recipe into a meatloaf to serve hot or cold, or around the outside of boiled eggs to make Scotch eggs.

If you make these, don't forget to adjust them to your taste but to get the moistness and a good flavour you should always include the milk soaked bread, the onion and carrot.  I hope you try them.

Gracie with her blankie, my old unstitched ugg boot.

Life's good with our little black Scottie, Gracie. She watched a television documentary with me yesterday called Dogs, their secret lives. I think she liked it because she sat quietly as we both watched and listened. Every so often she got up and ran through the house like a crazy thing, then came back to watch again. I wonder what's going on in Gracie's secret life.

This week she discovered cane toads in the back yard and chased one.  Luckily Hanno removed it before she caught it. They have poison glands in their back and can cause a lot of trouble in dogs and cats.  She's a good girl most of the time but we're struggling with one important command - Come Gracie! She only does that when she thinks there's something in it for her, but maybe that's a sign of intelligence. 😊  We're patient people, we'll get there.

We slow down and relax during December and January. The garden produces a few herbs and fruit so it only needs watering, Hanno mows the lawn on his ride-on mower and apart from excursions to the backyard in the early morning and evening, we spend time inside, out of the heat. I use the time to plan for the year ahead, clean and organise cupboards and drawers, and I knit. Every couple of years I knit a 10 - 12 dishcloths for our use here and I might do a few more fancier ones for gifts. I use the end pieces of knitting cotton I've used during the year on other projects. It provides me with dishcloths for the kitchen and it uses cotton that might otherwise be wasted. This year I'm also making a shawl for myself. I have two others. I love knitting them because they're so easy and they keep me cosy and warm during the winter. In our climate, we rarely have special clothes for winter. A cardigan or jumper with a shawl is all I need for even the coldest day here.