down to earth

Hello! How are you? 🙂

The weather started warming up this week so we enjoyed the warmth on the front verandah most mornings with tea and lemon slices. We had a roof cleaner here during the week. It was an all day job for him as he pressured hosed the roof to remove mould that had started growing. I'm looking forward to the weekend, with another Zoom chat with Donna on Sunday, gardening and sewing the rest of the time.

In the styrofoam box we have a selection of coloured chard. The pelargonium cutting from the hairdresser is in the basket.

As promised, here are some gardening photos so you can see the progress in the back garden. It's wild and not the way it will end up but we're still weeding, pruning, moving, planting, sowing seeds and mulching. I'm hoping to have the majority of stage one finished by next weekend, then I'll go into maintenance mode. I still have trays of Cosmos Sensation Picotee, Cosmos Daydream, Candytuft and Cleome to plant out as well as a couple of roses I propagated over winter. I want the garden to be packed with plants so the weeds can't get a look in.

From my seated position yesterday. The plant in the pot is Osteospermum White Lightning and the very meagre harvest is the last of this year's oranges and a small handful of Tommy Toe tomatoes.

This is the second digiplexis I bought with orange flower spikes. I'm not really a friend of the colour but I think it will look okay if I plant it next to the Amistad salvia which is purple. The first digiplexis is a larger plant with a berry coloured flower. It's getting ready to flower now.

Another Osteospermum with lilac and white wallflowers behind them. This garden has to be weeded on the weekend.

Here is the digiplexis again with two pots of potatoes, baboon flowers, cleome and other assorted plants in the background.

Sadly, Lulubelle, the blue Australorp in my blog banner, died during the week, she was seven years old. All our girls are old now and won't be replaced when they die. Not all of them are laying but they still give enough eggs for our needs and we can occasionally give eggs to Sunny and Kerry. It will be a sad day when we no longer have chooks in the backyard.

I hope you're staying safe and have been vaccinated. We're 18 months into the Covid crisis now and things haven't improved, they're getting worse. I doubt any of us like what's happening with the isolation, lockdowns, stress and uncertainty but we have to live according to the guidelines that will continue to change. At the moment, the virus is concentrated in the south/east of Australia - NSW, Victoria and ACT. I'm sure most of the people in those areas are doing their best but the virus has such a hold and a small group of people continue to break the rules so I think it will be a while before the lockdowns finish. If you're in NSW, Victoria or ACT, I'm sure I speak for many others by thanking you for what you're doing in staying at home and keeping us all safe. I know it's not easy.

I hope you enjoy the reading links below. I think there are some very interesting articles this week. I send my warmest wishes to you and your family.

🍓 🍐 🍉 🍋

WEEKEND READING

A dragonfly: weigher of souls

Guess who’s coming to dinner? Roadkill placed on ‘sky tables’ to lure rare birds of prey

How to take the lead in dog walking – and earn unconditional love in return

What’s it like living with a phenomenal memory and can it be learned?

Cooking Lunch for Wooden House Builders another look at our friends in Azerbaijan

Servants: The True Story of Life Below Stairs

Summer in the Countryside

Interoception: the hidden sense that shapes wellbeing

Will power: preparing for my death has provided me with way more entertainment than is seemly

Praise, ice-cream and starting young: how to get kids to help around the house

Cuttlefish remember details of their last meal, study finds

Bumper crop! 15 easy August gardening tasks – for flowery, fruitful days ahead

Beat the heat! 40 ace ice lollies to make now – from honey parfait to piña colada

I haven't spent much time online reading this week so todays post is going to be quite short. Hanno and I have been busy creating a bromeliad garden off the front verandah. We finished the planting yesterday afternoon but I haven't taken any photos yet. I'll remember to include the photos next week. I've also spent a lot of time in the back cottage garden. Out there, the roses are starting to bloom, the digiplexis is has sent up its first flower spike, my first poppies are blooming and slowly but surely, plants are growing and becoming more colourful. Again, I'll have photos next week.

I always grow mint in a pot in the bush house. Coming up to spring is the best time to do this kind of drying because the herbs are full of oils and will regrow fast. If this isn't happening where you live now, just give it a couple of weeks. The harvested mint gave us just under a cup of dried mint. This is what we have left.

I picked all the mint I had growing to dry for tea, and surprise! you can see I've taken photos. Hanno drinks herbal tea every night and this is what he's drinking now. Drying herbs is a very easy process and going into spring when many herbs start growing again, is the best time to pick them for drying. Just pick your selected herbs, wash them to remove any dust or bugs, and dry them on a tea towel. When all the water is gone, spread them on a tray in your oven and dry with a low heat. They're stored in a sealed glass jar, just make sure they're totally dehydrated because if the leaves still have a small amount of moisture in them, after a while, they'll could go mouldy in the jar.

We're still in lockdown here but it might be lifted on Sunday afternoon. Sydney is still locked down and regional towns are caught up in it now too. With almost 300 new cases a day there for the past few days, the lockdown will carry on in New South Wales for a while yet. And in Melbourne their sixth lockdown! They have been in lockdown more than any of us. I feel really sad for the high school children getting ready for their end of year exams. Their schooling has been interrupted all year and with so much importance placed on year 12 exams, the schools and parents are doing what they can to get them through. I send my best wishes to all year 11 and 12 students and the hope that next year will be much better for you.

This is all I could manage this week, it's been very busy and I'm tired now, too tired to finish this off properly. My apologies. I'm just about to go out to clean and organise the front verandah and get rid of all the leaves from recent winds and the spilt soil from yesterday's planting. I'll have photos for you next week. When the verandah is clean, I'm going to relax for the rest of the weekend and plan what's ahead next week.

Thank you for your visits here and on my IG page. I hope you're healthy and staying safe. The world is very unpredictable right now and the safest place for all of us is in our homes with out families. I send love and hugs to you wherever you are. xx

WEEKEND READING

Avoiding recipe regret: how to record and revive your family recipes
Genetic secret to age women start menopause discovered
‘Gripping escapism’: 17 podcasts to distract you from the coronavirus
Grandma's lost recipes
Simone Biles more than earned the right to win a medal for herself
A trip to Sheffield’s John Lewis was the most intense childhood treat. I’ll mourn its passing I don't know this English shop but I have some British ancestry and it feels familiar, like our old Australian shops - Mark Foys, Anthony Horden and Sons, and all the little corner shops that no longer exist. I get it.
How to save summer fruits to enjoy later in the year
Environmental impact of bottled water ‘up to 3,500 times greater than tap water’

I'm happy to tell you that Hanno and I are fully vaccinated. We had the AstraZeneca vaccine which has been given to millions of people all over the world and up to this point, the over 60s in Australia. It was developed by the Oxford University in England. We had mild fatigue after the first jab and no side effects with the second. I was really impressed when our vaccinations where registered on our MyGov pages BEFORE we got home! I've now have a My Gov digital identity so I can prove I'm fully vaccinated. It's becoming increasingly clear that this is how we'll be able to return to travel, apply for jobs and attend large functions in the future.

We're both very grateful to be inoculated and I feel more relaxed about going out now, although mostly we're just going out to pick up groceries, to the vet and doctor. They're opening up AstraZeneca to a wider age group now so if you are able to get the AstraZeneca vaccine I encourage you to get it. The cost of getting Covid, especially the Delta strain, is massive now, and much higher that any risk associated with AstraZeneca. If you're hesitating, talk to your doctor, do more research and see if you can find a way forward.

We had Gracie back to the vet during the week and she still has an infected ear. She's had two courses of antibiotics and now she's back on the drops. She goes back for another checkup on Tuesday. She's showing no signs of distress or pain and is her usual happy self, except when we put the drops in her ear. So we're giving her the drops just before her main meal, and that seems to be working well.

I'm about to repot this lovely pelargonium in a hanging basket. I took a cutting from outside my hairdresser's building, it's grow this big and the flower, about to open, it's a deep, deep purple-red.

I'm full steam ahead with the garden now and it's coming along nicely. I've planted a pink climbing rose on the lattice covering the chicken coop and I can hardly wait to see it spreading out and blooming. Yesterday I bought some rainbow chard and new parsley seedlings and planted the chard up today in a polystyrene box. I also found perpetual lettuce so I bought one, which was really two seedlings, for $3. I'll grow them in the bush house over spring and summer next to the mint and micro herbs.

Tomorrow I'll plant the parsley in the old sand pit, plant a white daisy called White Lightening and an Armeria called Dreamland. I have some seeds to sow and I want to also plant the rose Elina, a yellow rose I bought for Sunny, that I took a cutting from. My last job in the garden will be to tend the citrus. I want to spray them with white oil for the scale I noticed recently, fertilise with citrus food and prune the large orange tree. We have a large harvest of lemons waiting to be picked and that will give us lemons for cooking and baking as well as a good stash of lemon juice to freeze to make lemon cordial in summer. There's always something to do ... thank goodness.

I baked a lemon cake today and we had rissoles/frikadellen/large meat balls with mushroom and onion gravy, fried potatoes/bratkartoffeln and Brussel sprouts for lunch. Delicious! It's a really old fashioned meal and it takes me back to my parents cooking every time I eat it. I love eating the food I grew up on.

How are you going? Times are tough all over the world and I often think about the names that appear here. I hope you're staying healthy and safe and remaining optimistic for the future. Have a lovely weekend. xx

🪴 🍄 🪴

WEEKEND READING

Feed your moths and hide your trousers: the expert guide to making clothes last for ever
Dead, shrivelled frogs are turning up across eastern Australia. What’s going on?
Love Sets The Table - The name says it all. This food is wonderfully creative and from scratch; it's the best food page I've seen in years. Melanie Hall cooks modern food that reminds me of my mother's and grandmother's cooking, and that's quite an achievement.
16 No-Bake Desserts for Blazing Summer Days
Embracing Our Home Part Two
Baby Dress (Sewing For Beginners)
Sewing Basics
Meet the humanists: ‘You don’t have to be Christian to think of yourself as a good person’
Mary Oliver on the Measure of a Life Well Lived and How to Maximize Our Aliveness
Natural, Homemade Laundry Soaps
Harvesting Three Types Nectarines and Canning for Baking in Winter
Firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and tea

Life continues its calm course here with housework, cooking, baking and gardening every day and occasionally a visitor or a trip out. This week we had to take Gracie to the vet because she has a sore ear, again. It's infected and the vet has put her on antibiotics and painkillers and wants to see her again next week. If there's been no improvement, he'll give her an anaesthetic and clean the ear out properly. He tried to do that this week but she cried so much he stopped so she could calm down. Poor Gracie.

The weather has been a bit strange here. We've just had two days of 26C and it's the middle of winter! It's cooler now and next week it will be cold. But the garden is motoring along and soon I'll take some more photos for you. I've raised a lot of candytuft seedlings and took cuttings of two French lavenders and a yellow rose which are growing well. I'll plant all of them in the main garden over the weekend, re-tie the tomato plants, prune, weed and finish off the fertilising I started mid-week. How is your garden coming along?

We've had sudden surges of Covid in the southern states in the past week or two. I hope the Covid situation where you live has settled down although I've read in recent days that Covid Delta variant is surging in a number of countries. I linked to David Attenborough's Extinction program a couple of weeks ago. It gives the latest facts about the loss of biodiversity world-wide and what the consequences are of that. There is a prediction by a number of scientists that more viral diseases will present themselves because of it. There is another link below as a follow up.

How are you going? I hope all is good in your neck of the woods. Thanks for your visits both here and to my Instagram page. Have a great weekend and enjoy what you do. xx

🧵 🪡 🪡 🧵

Weekend Reading

Let's start off with a really positive story. This isn't about Ash Barty winning Wimbledon, it's about her as a person and how she conducts herself.: Ash Barty's performance coach on defining yourself, dodging distraction and forgetting FOOPO
Ash Barty has made a lifelong impression without pretence, agendas or grandstanding
‘Don’t spend the difference’: where to put your money if you can’t buy your own home
‘Extinction: The Facts’: Attenborough’s new documentary is surprisingly radical
Why you must use kitchen soap.^^ (If you use liquid kitchen detergent, look. ^^)
Raw dog food ‘may be fuelling spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria’
Amazon rainforest now emitting more CO2 than it absorbs
Build an Old-Fashioned Hotbed and Start Your Seeds in Style
30 quick and easy dinner ideas using chicken breast

No Knead No Sugar No Milk! Super Soft & Healthy Bread!

Build a better pantry
GDonna - because of the goings-on over the past months since Covid came into our lives, I stopped reading blogs, stayed offline as much as possible and did more things around the house. I limited the news I watched to ten minutes. I found the more I heard about the death and suffering, the more I worried about it. Last week I remembered GDonna's blog and went in to visit, half thinking it might be gone, but there it was in all its beauty. I used to be a regular reader and will be again now because I love her authenticity and the photos of her calm home. If you've never read Donna's blog, and even if you have, check it out because it feels like a breath of soft country air on your face.

With a lockdown behind us and school holidays almost over, the normal pace of life will return again soon. I love the rhythm of life in my home. It's comfortable and calm and it helps me with both productive and creative tasks. I like the predictability of it, the knowledge that one day echoes through the week with familiar patterns and expectations. But I also love the surprises of life that sometimes happen along the way.

There were no surprises this week although we had Jamie here yesterday and he always adds a lot of interest, especially now that he's on the verge of change. Things are falling into place for him and yesterday, while we were weeding the back garden, he told me that it's better to work in winter because you don't get hot, and if you're cold you just have to get up and work and you warm up. He's right of course and I love that he feels that work is a normal part of his life. We're a family of workers and it feels right that Jamie fits in like a piece of our puzzle. It's Alex's birthday tomorrow so we'll have two savvy ten year old boys in the family.

It's raining today and while the rain fills the tanks and seeps into the soil it will mean that I stay inside most of the day. Although later on, after the morning chores, I intend going out to the back verandah to give it a good tidy up. At the moment there are garden tools, bags of potting mix, pebbles, straw, pots and watering cans all over the place. Most of the time we just put things back in place and move them around but it's a good idea once in a while to have a focused clean up and organise what is there to best support the work we do outside.

I've been working with the Ikea and the home-sewn cloths for a couple of weeks now and I have to tell you I much prefer the Ikea cloths for cleaning. They're exactly the right size, the cloth is perfect for cleaning and they're easy to wash. I like the tea towels I made but I'm now using the cloths as a paper towel replacement - draining, lining vegetable bins and wiping up small spills etc., as well as for cleaning glass. Did you buy some of the Ikea cloths? How have they worked in your kitchen?

A big shout out to everyone in lockdown in Sydney, Central Coast, Blue Mountains and Wollongong where the Covid Delta variant is spreading. I hope everything is going well at your place and you're staying happy and healthy. Hanno and I send our best wishes to you and hope you remain safe.

Thanks for your visit today and during the week. 💙

Weekend reading

I've enjoyed sewing this week. There were a couple of mending jobs, I fixed the waistband on a skirt and made set of six white kitchen cloths and two absorbent tea towels. I'm still using my organic cotton knitted cloths but I've found that the white cloths are much better for cleaning the induction stove, microwave and fronts of the stainless steel fridge and dish washer.

Inspired by the white cloths from Ikea, I had a sewing session and made six cloths and two tea towels using white flannel from Spotlight.

I don't think I've properly explained my rag and dish cloth cleaning methods because I had a couple of emails asking if I still use rags. Of course I still use rags, and always will, but I've only ever used rags for what I call dirty cleaning, not in the kitchen. For me, dirty cleaning is cleaning bathrooms and toilets, wiping the floor with a rag as well as cleaning up any spills that ended up on the floor. If that spill was on the kitchen floor, I'd use a rag but I don't wipe the kitchen bench, fridge or stove with a rag.

In the kitchen I like to start off with a cloth that I know is clean. That used to always be a knitted cloth and now I've added the white cloths. I saw them when I went to Ikea a couple of months ago, felt them and thought they'd be very absorbent so I bought 10 of them and two absorbent cotton tea towels. The dish cloths were 30 cents each and the tea towels were 80 cents each. I got 10 cloths and two tea towels for $4.60! It was only when I used them that I realised what great products they are and such great value for money.

This is the drawer under the oven where I store my kitchen cloths, tea towels, hand towels, straining cloths, jugs covers, tea cosies, oven mitts etc.

I feel the kitchen is cleaner now because I'm encouraged to use a new white cloth every morning. When I clean glass surfaces I dry the surface with one of the absorbent cotton tea towels. Most days I use four or five white cloths for washing up, wiping the kitchen bench, sink and stove, and I wash them every two or three days. Having a stack of them there, and not just one or two, makes all the difference. I feel prepared for anything.

This is the first forget-me-not. It makes me very happy.

Tommy Toe tomatoes are growing well. Tomatoes are easy to grow in winter in this climate, in fact, it's the easiest time of the year to grow them.

We've been in lockdown again this week, it ends tomorrow. Sydney, Wollongong, Newcastle and the Blue Mountains are also locked down. We're dealing with the terrible Delta variant of the Covid virus and with only a small percentage of people in Australia fully vaccinated, it's worrying, to say the least. If you're in one of the lockdown areas, I hope you made the most of the extra time at home. I think it's useless having a negative outlook. I just get on with it and use my time to do things that will make life better for us. I hope things are good at your home too. Take care of yourself, stay safe and keep warm (or cool). Thank you for visiting me here today. I love your comments and visits.

🐓 🪴 🐓

Weekend reading

‘An archaeological dig for food’: recipes to cook with kids during Australia’s lockdowns
‘We can actually make a big difference’: Peter Singer and philanthropic experts on giving well
Stop Spending Time on Things You Hate
Inspiring Woman Growing a Huge Amount of Food in Her City Permaculture Garden
Tips for Zero Waste Living - How a Family of 5 Makes Almost No Waste! Most of us know this family - Lauren, Oberon and their daughters living in Tasmania. This is a great video.
A quiet day at home
Permaculture is agriculture reimagined
Little house on the mountain - I love that she suggests we "accept silence" because I feel that is one of the fundamentals for being mindful
Sewing projects for scrap fabric
I want to die happy - this is a blog of mine that I think deserves a second run around the block

Now that I'm not working for a living I live at my own pace. Most days are made up of housework that is done so we feel comfortable and at ease in our home; gardening to grow some food and flowers which contributes to our physical and mental health; cooking nutritious food to keep us full and healthy; various mending, repairing and maintenance jobs; looking after each other and Gracie; and, importantly, spending time thinking about the value of each each day and how it helps build the life we live.

There are always things to be folded and put away.

Gathering my soap ingredients. That dark jug is olive oil. I have no idea why it's so dark in the photo.

Soap making - it's an olive oil and coconut oil soap with no fragrance or colour.

Of course, there are days when odds and ends need to be done too. For instance, yesterday I made soap, over the weekend I'll reorganise our linen cupboard and make a couple of tablecloths and next week I'll prune and fertilise the plants on the front verandah. It's a mixed bag but I get it done by being flexible and juggling the 24 hours I have each day.

When the chooks give you too many eggs, you make egg custard.

Another thing that helps use those 24 hours wisely is to cook food that doesn't take a lot of time, or a lot of food that can be served day after day simply by reheating it. I'm doing that this week. I made a big pot of beef, barley and vegetable soup on Tuesday and it's fed us every day since. We finish the pot today. Yes, we eat the same thing every day but that doesn't worry either of us if it's delicious (and it is 😁). The good part of it is I don't have to stop at 11 am to prepare our main meal at lunchtime. I put the soup on a low heat mid-morning and just serve it up when we're ready to eat. It's a saving of about 45 minutes and a great way to help me get through those busy days, and much less cleaning up too.

I think winter is a great time to work through those busy days and get cupboards cleaned, sorted and decluttered and to look around your home to see if anything needs changing. If changing a few things around makes your work easier, why not invest some time in doing it. How are you organising your days this winter?

Thank you for being here today. I hope everything is right in your world. Stay safe. 🥰

Weekend Reading

I've had a good break away from the computer and enjoyed the two weeks Tricia was here. Spending time with close relatives or friends is always a valuable thing to do. Tricia brought plants from her garden so we planted out Euphorbia, Lupin and Penstemon cuttings and lots of seeds. I've taken cuttings from some of my roses and they're growing good shoots now and although I planted a few vegetables, including turnips, a night visitors enjoyed half the seedlings the first night they were in the garden. Funnily enough, the other half are still happily growing.

Above: the pecan tree is yellowing and dropping leaves, it will be green again in September/October. To the left of it is a native fig tree. All birds love this and fly in daily to feast on the tiny fruits.

Here is the elder tree chopped back to the bone. You can't do this kind of pruning to most plants but this elder is as tough as old boots. It's currently growing about 2 - 3 inches a day and will be back in action in a couple of months, and much healthier for the pruning.

Below: one of the yellow passionfruit cut back after a year of prolific growth and many buckets of fruit. It's about a metre high now and will cover the trellis again, shading our bedroom wall, by summer.

The orange tree returned to its full glory this year after being devastated by night moths last year. We have three orange trees - two Washington navels and late season orange called Lane's Late; two Eureka lemon trees; one elderberry, which was cut right back and is now putting on strong growth; one pecan; a loquat and two yellow passionfruit vines, also cut back and regrowing well.

Above: fragrant stock, a favourite of mine and below, Cleome - four Queens Mix.

I'm having such a lovely time at the moment. All cleaning and home maintenance work is up to date, the weather is superb, I have a garden that needs my help every day, I have a couple of books waiting to be read and plenty of sewing to do. I don't need more than that to make me feel satisfied and happy.

This is the only rush hour we have here - the chooks racing each other to get out of the coop in the morning. Now, in winter, they want to be the first to find any native figs that have dropped overnight.

I promised the recipe for the plum cake so here it is. I bought Sophie Hansen's book In Good Company recently and have baked her Visitors Cake several times since. It's similar to the old pound cake and can be made plain and simple as a morning tea cake or enriched with dried fruit, apples, apricots, nuts, coffee or chocolate to make it an ideal visitors cake. This time I added plums. And for all the chook owners out there, it's a good recipe when you want to use up four eggs, or use up 12 by baking three cakes and freezing two. It would freeze very well.

SOPHIE HANSEN'S VISITORS CAKE - with plums

1 cup (250 g) butter, softened
250 g (9 oz) caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
1⅔ cups (250 g) self-raising flour

6 fresh plums cut in half or ¾ of a can of plums

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease a 20 cm (8 inch) spring-form tin.

Add butter and sugar to a mixing bowl and cream it with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla and then the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold in the flour. Spoon the batter into the tin and bake for about 35 minutes.

The cake is ready when it smells cooked and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let it cool in the tin for about five minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack to cool.

Bidens growing near my tiny solar fountain. We still have a lot of nut grass. Has anyone had success in removing it? I'd love to know your secret.

I hope you're safe and secure and enjoying life. Thank you for being here today, say hello in the comments so I know you're still around, or you're a new visitor.

💚 💜 💚

WEEKEND READING

My favourite webcam started up again - Katmai Alaska Bear Cam, live

The Endlessly Inspiring DIY World of Maude Smith

Curiosity du Jour: The Talking Victorian Bouquet

Ageing process is unstoppable, finds unprecedented study

Right to repair: it should be easier for Australians to get phones and devices fixed, review says

Want to stick to your budget? Open six bank accounts

Satay skewers, spicy sweet potatoes, rice paper rolls: Yotam Ottolenghi’s party recipes

Hurricane apple cake

Recycling textile waste: ‘A solution exists, we can’t go backwards’

How to build a woodbarrow