down to earth

I made this pickled coleslaw the other day and we enjoyed it with cold roast chicken. It's fresh and crunchy and goes well with the addition of tomato on the side. Yum. I'll make it again. It's the ideal salad to have at the end of summer when you've had your fill of heavy mayonnaise salads and want a healthy and easy alternative to serve with steak, chicken or fish. I think it would be an excellent addition to hamburgers and tacos as well.

I used the pickling liquid left in the jar when we finished off our bread and butter cucumbers but you could easily make your dressing from scratch. There is a recipe below.

Serves four, or two with leftovers

Salad ingredients

¼ white or red cabbage - finely sliced

½ white onion or 6 radishes - finely sliced

¼ capsicum or bell pepper - finely sliced

1 grated carrot

a few pickled cucumbers - chopped

salt and pepper

Pre-pickling

¼ cup coarse salt

Pickling liquid

½ cup leftover pickling liquid from beetroot, bread and butter cucumbers or gherkins

½ cup good vinegar - I'd use apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon sugar

celery salt and pepper to taste

Before you make up the salad, you have to pretreat the vegetables to remove some of the juices. If you don't do this, the juices will release into the pickling liquid and dilute it. Don't miss this step.

Finely chop and slice all your vegetables and place in a large colinder. Sprinkle coarse salt over the vegetables and, using your clean hands, rub the salt into the vegetables, making sure all of them are covered and well mixed. Leave for an hour over a container or sink. Juice will run out. After about an hour, thoroughly wash the vegetables to remove all the salt and salty water. Allow to drain for ten minutes.

Then is just a matter of pouring the pickling liquid over the salad ingredients. Leftover salad will keep well in the fridge for a week and it will develop more flavour over that time. Let me know if you try it.

If you think about all the negatives we hear about ageing, or even if you just watch modern life from the sidelines, you'll probably get the feeling that it's better to be young than old, that all the worthwhile things go to the young and ageing should be avoided at all costs, even if you're paying for that avoidance with surgery, drugs and denial.

Let me say first that ageing is much more difficult than I thought it would be. I was sailing towards my 55th birthday when I suddenly lost all my ambition to succeed in business, at 60 I started slowing down and losing strength, at 65 I couldn't hear as well as I used to and now, close to 70, I don't sleep properly, some of the foods I used to like make me feel a bit sick, and sometimes I have problems concentrating. It's nothing drastic and it's not really anything to complain about but as a self-reliant woman who is fairly healthy and takes no prescribed medication, I want to live as I do for as long as I can and I'm disappointed that the ideas I had about ageing when I was 20 years younger don't match the reality of today.

I still have a positive view about getting older and let's face it, it's much better than the alternative - an early death. I think the key to living well when you're older is to do as much as you can for yourself, embrace change, learn new things, be in control of your own life and home, think about the life you want to live, do what you need to do to live that life, make your own decisions, rely on yourself more than you reply on others and do things you enjoy so you live with the potential for happiness every day.

There are a few opportunities in later life that you don't get earlier. Retirement, time and the choice of how you spend it are the most valuable of those. When I was younger, right up until the time I closed my business, I was flat out all day. I'd come home, piece a meal together, sleep, get up and do it all over again. My mind and my life were focused on earning money and it wasn't until I closed my business and came back home (in every sense) that I realised a lot of the money I earned was being wasted on things I really didn't care about. I'd been brainwashed into thinking that was normal. I was buying food and products I could make myself and I was feathering the nests of supermarkets, department stores and the manufacturers of clothing, shoes, cosmetics and all sorts of junk instead of feathering my own nest. And while I was doing that, it made sense to me. It was only when I stepped away and calmed down and I could see it for what it was.

Now I live exactly how I want to live. I make the choice on when I get up, what I'll do every day, who I invite into my life and what I'll do with each precious hour. I've had a good life and when I look back, I see I had a lot of wonderful opportunities that I grabbed with both hands, but I can't remember thinking, that for any length of time, my life was happy and fulfilling. It was exciting, interesting, challenging and wonderful but only ever in small portions. I never had the feeling or realisation when I was young, which I have every day now, that life is good and I'm lucky to live as I do.

Making laundry liquid.

So for all of you who are growing older and worrying about it, just let go of that feeling and embrace what happens as you age. Sure, there'll be liver spots, fails in hearing, eyesight and memory, your skin will wrinkle - surely the most obvious of badges, and you'll stop having anything like "normal" sleep. But along with that is the time factor and the absolute freedom to choose how you spend your hours. The way Hanno and I live gives us meaningful work to do each day, it makes us confident we can look after ourselves and it reduces the cost of living for us. It keeps us interested. And when we sit and drink our tea, and look around the haven we've created for ourselves, I can't help but think that choosing to slow down, become independent and self-reliant has been the making of us.

You won't hear too many people tell you that ageing isn't as bad as it's made out, but I'm doing that. Sure, it's not as great as I thought it would be but there is tenderness and contentment now that wasn't there beforehand. Age is more than skin deep, it is more profound than wrinkles, botox and looking younger than you are. It is the sum total of your time and experience and hopefully it is defined by kindness, generosity, acceptance, love and the strength of your character, so that the essence of all those qualities will be what you're remembered by.

I've made the first steps towards our new season garden. It will be planted up some time in March but before that, we'll have the chooks in there to search for bugs and scratch around, and then we'll start the process of improving the soil. This is done throughly every March when the garden is bare and again every time a plant is harvested and removed, before a new plant goes in, more manure and organic matter is added. Doing that gives us healthy crops that can stand up to small invasions of caterpillars or grasshoppers and it gives the vegetables a really good taste.

So far I've potted on parsley seedlings and sown sweet peas seeds and heirloom tomato seeds - a French variety called Rouge de Marmande, a delicious ruby red tomato. I'm also on the lookout at the nursery and markets for some grafted heirloom tomatoes. I have no doubt many cherry tomatoes will start popping up in the garden as soon as the weather is milder and the soil wetter. They grow like weeds here so we pull out most of them and keep one or two of the healthy ones.

If they find any new place to lay an egg, our girls will be there. This is one of the holes Hanno dug to replace the water pipes.

Hanno has almost finished the huge job of installing an electronic fence to keep Gracie in, even when the front gates are open. That will also keep her out of the bush house, her favourite outdoor spot, where she's been chewing plastic pots and digging in all the terracotta pots that are standing on the ground. Hanno also finished a big plumbing job a week ago when he found the source of a water leak in the ground on the side of the house. He dug up the pipes and replaced the old leaking metal pipes with new plastic ones. Not bad for a 76 year old. I suggested we get someone in to do the job but he insisted he wanted to do it and by taking it slow, he got the job done and we saved a couple of hundred dollars because he did the work.

Inside the house I've been organising the linen cupboard, tea towel drawer and stockpile cupboard. I'm slowly working my way through other drawers and cupboards too and will soon tackle the gadget drawer, the plates and bowls drawers and two cupboards holding my saucepans and bake ware. This isn't my favourite kind of housework but that feeling satisfaction when everything is clean and tidy and ready for the work ahead outweighs the hesitation of doing it. Well organised cupboards contribute to the running of a home as much as a pair of extra helping hands.

I'm struggling through the jumper I'm making for Alex. The top-down, one piece pattern I'm using isn't complicated but it's not clearly written so I've had to redo a few rows at the top of the raglan sleeves. Still, having a project that will produce a warm and serviceable garment for one of my loved ones is worth a bit of frustration and unpicking. I rarely go through any knitting without unpicking some of it. I know that once I'm passed the sleeve stage, it's all plain and easy knitting from then on so I'm soldiering on. 😇

The weather has become milder here in the past couple of days. I was watering the garden earlier and it was a perfect temperature with a lovely breeze in the backyard. A new season ahead for all of us, friends. I wonder if you're looking forward to it as much as I am.

Quite a few of you commented on how nice our blue quilt is (see previous post). I've blogged about this before but we must have a lot of new readers here, so let me explain the blue quilt again. I bought the blue quilt at Ikea a few years ago when I needed a bed covering that hung down to the floor on both sides of our bed. In winter, we have a top flannel sheet and a doona/duvet but they only hang to the bottom of the mattress. To be really cosy in a winter's night, we need a longer top covering. The blue quilt is ideal, running from floor to floor over the top of the mattress.

But not to disappoint the quilters out there, I found the first quilt I ever made. I've only made two full quilts and this is the first one; the second was Shane and Sarndra's wedding quilt. I made this little single quilt in 1980 when Shane was a tiny baby. A year later I had two tiny babies when Kerry was born 12 months after Shane. I needed a cover to put on the floor so I could put both of them down. As they grew, we used the quilt as a play mat, a tent and a hide away and any number of other things. I think we even used it as a quilt for a while. I haven't seen the quilt for years but found it again this week when I cleaned out the linen press. There it was in all its unpretentious glory, lurking at the back of the cupboard.

As you can see in the photos, the quilt has been well and truly used and it's been washed many times. I don't remember much about its construction, only that in the late 1970s, I bought a bag of pre-cut Laura Ashley patchwork squares and set about sewing them together when Shane was sleeping. The backing is an old brown sheet and all the stitching is done on the machine. It's not made well, it's very simple but it holds a lot of memories for me. It's in need of repair now with one of the squares frayed and unstitched and all along the edge, signs of wear and age need some sympathetic hand sewing. I'm not going to replace or hide any ageing fabric, the wear is part of the quilt now and I want to keep that, but I will tidy it up and repair the obvious.

This is the Around the World wedding quilt I made for Shane and Sarndra. Tricia helped me piece it together and my DIL Cathy did the machine quilting.

When the quilt has been repaired, I'll return it to its former productive role and use it to protect my off white lounge from the grandkids. I like to use everything I have. Everything I own now has to work for its keep. It should have another 10 years of life left in it, I think I do too, so as soon as it's repaired, I'll put it to work on the lounge and it will be part of my daily life again.

Do you have any of your old handmade quilts still doing service in your home?

This time last year, Hanno and I set off on a three week book tour. We came home feeling happy and optimistic after having met hundreds of people around the country. We were also incredibly tired and it took a couple of weeks to get back to 'normal'. That arrival back home signalled the start of my retirement. I've been retired for almost 12 months now so it's time to think about how I'm going, if changes need to be made and if I can improve on what I'm doing. This kind of self assessment is ongoing because I want to be in control of my life. That doesn't stop the unexpected from happening but when it does happen, it's easier to deal with because I'm working to a plan which is shaped by what's happened in the past and what we need to happen in the future.

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.

So there will be no major reshuffle after this reassessment. I think I'll just keep on keeping on and this week:

I'll continue to plan my soon to be planted vegetable garden.
I'll try to track down and catch a mouse I saw in the kitchen. Ugh.
I have to put pockets on all my aprons. This is because we're training Gracie and I need treats/bribes to be close.
I'll continue with Alex's jumper that I cast on late last week. I'm shaping the raglans at the moment.
I'll set up Pocketbook - a budgeting app.
As part of the continuum, I'll continue to focus on needing and using less.
And, of course, I'll take time out for myself to think, plan, rest and appreciate what I have. If I don't value myself enough to do that, I might as well give up.

With the seasons about to change I guess there are many of us who are preparing for the coming season. What are you doing this week?

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.

Gracie with her teddy bear. She takes it out to the fence to show the chickens.

And then she brings it back and gently places it in the shade.

At night she sleeps on her back close to either Hanno or me.

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