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This week went by so fast and I didn't get everything done that I wanted to do. But there is always time next week. Hanno had another bleed into his eye and had to have a minor operation at his eye specialist's rooms. I drove him over and got him safely back. I had my hair cut yesterday and the rest of the time I've been doing my normal chores and gardening. I'm pleased to tell you that the garden should be finished tomorrow. I just have to put down some weed mat, which I've cut out, plant a new rose - Elina and lay mulch on one garden. Kerry dug a hole for the rose last week so tomorrow I'll half fill it with our compost and water the area well. The rose is soaking in Seasol at the moment and will be planted this afternoon when it's shady. Roses can live for 100 years so it's a privilege for me to introduce it to a new home. I hope it has a long life and continues to watch over this land when I'm gone.


It looks like a bandicoot has been digging around the roots of my climbing rose.  I'll cover it with weed mat today and hopefully the bandicoot will look for food in other parts of the garden.


A trug full of rainbow chard for lunch yesterday. I used it to make a pie.  Photo below.








These are baboon flowers - a flower from South Africa that baboons eat. They're planted next to the mini pickling cucumbers. 



Here is the more practical side of the garden, I've just moved a mauve trumpet creeper there but I have to move it to a larger pot today. It's also an area where I put plants I want to keep but have no room for - now an agave and a clump of iris. Also a bird bath, bee hotel, comfrey clump and compost heap.

I'm looking forward to having the garden finished and the start of the pruning, watering and maintenance stage. It's a wonderful place to sit and think and will be worth every minute I've put into it. I've got a pair of binoculars now so I have a better view of what the birds are doing even in trees far away.


This is the pie I made with the chard. It's filo pastry with chard, onions, garlic, eggs and cream.


And for morning teas - a vanilla cake with lemon icing.


These biscuits will go to Jamie and family. They're dark chocolate with pulverised Brazil nuts.

One final piece of good news, I'm featured in the next edition of Taproot Magazine, Sustain. Savitha Rao wrote an article about four of us simple living bloggers. I'm looking forward to reading it. Thanks Savitha.

Thank you for being here today. I love having contact with my readers and it always inspires me to write more. Have a wonderful weekend, take care of yourself and take it easy.

🍋 🐝 🍋 🐝 🍋  

Weekend Reading

  • Hanging up on scammers: how to protect yourself from phishing phone calls
  • Asylum seekers and refugees building a new life on sourdough starter
  • Animals ‘shapeshifting’ in response to climate crisis, research finds
  • ‘There is so much bad behaviour everywhere’: how to raise a good child in a terrible world
  • The Great Model Railway Challenge
  • Homemade Toys — Easy to make, fun to play with, and great for gifts!
  • Making your life your job
  • Landline celebrates 30 years of rural stories
  • Landline - here is a wonderful story on sewing and mending skills
  • Full vitamin vegetarian salad
  • The week in wildlife – in pictures

We had a busy week, not because we had a lot to do but the things we did took their own sweet time. It's not easy getting old and the amount of time I take now to do "normal" things frustrates me. I did click and collect for my groceries which helped a lot and the week turned out to be a bit of cleaning, a trip to Ikea and gardening. I was really grateful to my son Kerry who came over and dug a hole for a rose to be planted and did some weeding. Not the most exciting thing for him to do on his days off but I appreciated it a lot. Thanks Kerry!  Yesterday, grandma Donna and I had another Zoom chat. That 90 minutes went so fast! We've got a lot in common and I enjoy discussing all aspects of homes and homemaking with her.


I had a couple of things to return to Ikea and while we were there I picked up some dishcloths, tea towels and silicone bowl covers. We were in and out in record time and drove home well before I expected to.

I added the new cloths and tea towels to my stash after they'd been cleaned and dried. Later on in the week I soaked the old cloths because some had small stains on them.  Most came out well but two cloths and two tea towels had to be boiled on the stove with Disan added. I left them in the saucepan until they'd cooled down a bit and was very pleased as every stain was gone.

This is the rose I planted as a bare rooted stick in July.  I'll train it up the trellis now so it will be a feature of the garden you can easily see from the house.




Today and next week I'm tidying the garden, planting a couple of new plants, putting down weed mat with sugar cane mulch on top, planting up a few pots pots, deadheading and pruning. When I'm happy with the garden, I'll fertilise it all and tie a few things back. I'm looking forward to it all. 



I hope you have a lovely weekend too and do things that make you happy. Thank you for being here today and for your visits to my IG page. 😊

🍓 🦋 🍉

WEEKEND READING

  • Wild cockatoos observed using tools as ‘cutlery’ to extract seeds from tropical fruit
  • Open a lock with matches
  • Artisanal Country Bread Baking in Transylvania
  • Saving your own seeds makes for wondrous September planting
  • Why authors are turning down lucrative deals in favour of Substack
  • Cheap but premium way to fill raised garden beds
  • Foo Fighters singing Bee Gees
  • Dogs may be able to figure out human intentions
  • Taronga zoo lyrebird perfectly mimics the ear-splitting wail of a crying baby
  • Soft and healthy flatbread recipe
  • Photographs Of Grocery Stores Offer A Fascinating Look Back Through Time
  • Mid Century Home life -- The 50s
  • Queen of Denmark hired as set designer on new Netflix film
  • How to store and restore winter woollens for seasons to come
  • What does baking soda do in cookies/biscuits?



I'm trying to ignore the Covid situation because it's not getting better. I hope you and your family are staying safe, wearing masks and staying at home as much as you can.  For all those in lockdown, and that's millions of people in Australia, I'm thinking of you and hoping things improve soon.


I made a quick lunch of curried chicken soup during the week. It's delicious and easy.


Later this morning I'll cut this rainbow chard to have for lunch with Osso Bucco.

We had a really cold night last night at 4C but from today onwards, our days and nights will be warmer. That's good news for gardeners and all those who can go out and enjoy the early spring sunshine. We have a very short spring here before the weather turns hot, then hot and humid, so like a lot of you, I'll be in the garden again this weekend trying to do as much as possible before the heat makes it much more difficult to garden AND enjoy it. 


I planted up a couple of elder cuttings in a tall pot to create moveable shade during summer.


Climbing Rose, Pierre De Ronsard, was planted as a bare rooted rose about six weeks ago. It's growing well and even though small, it's already flowering well. Monty Don suggests having five or seven leaders for climbing roses and to grow them flat on a trellis or wall in a fan shape.  So that's what I'm doing.

My backyard garden is the place I go to think deeply and to renew feelings of peace, contentment and happiness. It's a place of great significance for me. And that's why I garden - not only to grow flowers, vegetables and herbs but also to cultivate wellbeing.



I hope you have a wonderful weekend and do things you love with the people who make you smile. It really does make a difference if you can continually make those connections with what makes you happy. Take care out there.  ❤️


🪴🪴🪴


WEEKEND READING

  • From mentos in a bottle to playing with rainbows: science experiments children can do at home
  • The White Girl author Tony Birch on how to write short stories
  • How to make your garden more sustainable
  • Turkish breakfast
  • Preserving Food from the Garden | Canning and Fermenting
  • This is for everyone in lockdown, wherever you are ... Bread, flowers and coffee | Walking around the North Marais to a flower shop in Paris
  • Village life in Tatarstan, making Tatar pie and handicrafts Don't forget to turn on subtitles on the cog wheel
  • Russian Easter cakes and afternoon tea
  • Wildlife Photographer Captures Tiny Garden Frogs Using Flowers as Umbrellas
  • Cottage garden ideas: 37 charming ways to create a character-filled outdoor space
  • Small vegetable garden ideas: how to grow fruit and veg in any space

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

It's been a busy week here the highlight of which was a face-to-face talk this morning with Grandma Donna on Zoom. It makes such a difference when you can see the person you're talking to online. We have a lot in common and with only a year's difference in age, our experiences are very similar. Of course, we've know each other online for a few years but the talk we had today showed us both that we should take the time for regular chats in the future. We'll meet up again soon because we've only just scratched the surface with this first meeting and we've both got a lot of questions.


Gracie had her birthday on Tuesday, she was five years old.



Earlier in the week Hanno and I finished making a new bromeliad garden just off the front verandah. It looks good and will improve even more when the plants fill out a bit. We used the bromeliads we already had here and which have been multiplying for a few years in pots. Hanno used old recycled logs to create the garden borders and the only cost was the purchase of some pine bark chips we'll use as mulch.  All up, the garden cost us $24.

I finished the Kurringai Council, Willoughby Council and North Sydney Council workshops on Wednesday with a talk about budgeting and debt reduction. It's heartening knowing some Councils are getting this type of information out to their residents.  

I still haven't taken photos of the back garden, I promise I'll have them for you next week.

Our food in the past week included lamb chops, guacamole, vegetable frittata, savoury mince (a la 1952), salmon fillets and potato salad. I made a blood orange butter cake too that stayed fresh for days which we had for dessert and morning teas Next week will be all gardening for me with no appointments or commitments, and as I'll be as free as a bird, I'll take a few food (and garden) photos for you.

The Delta variant of Covid is claiming more lives here in Australia, mainly in NSW.  We're out of lockdown in Queensland now but NSW and Melbourne are still restricted. If you're currently in isolation or lockdown, thank you for doing what we all need you to do. It's only by following the government guidelines and doing what we know is right that we'll survive this lethal virus. Take care and stay safe every time you go out.  Thanks for visiting me here today.  xx

🐌  🍄  🐓

WEEKEND READING
  • The house that can withstand a cyclone: how traditional dwellings are making a comeback in Vanuatu
  • ‘If you talk, you live well’: the remote Sardinian village with eight centenarians
  • Pompeii’s fast food joint unearthed in 2019 opens to public
  • Why this week's IPCC report is such a hot topic
  • Cloth masks or surgical masks? Either way, you'll be wearing one for 'years to come'
  • Bubble Bread
  • Great North Road: cycling the old route from London to Edinburgh
  • Raid the pantry: why now is the perfect time to reassess your store cupboard
  • A new start after 60: ‘I handed in my notice – and opened my dream bookshop’
  • A Guide to Developing a Deep Reading Habit
  • Tropical edible garden in Tennessee
  • Constance Spry and the Fashion for Flowers review – everyday beauty in full bloom
  • Pores for thought: how sweat reveals our every secret, from what we’ve eaten to whether we’re on drugs
  • Different Cultures Define Happiness Differently
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

Hi! How are you?


More quiet days here and we're staying at home as much as possible. We both got our final vaccination this week so that was good but we're still obliged to wear a mask when we go out. The southern states are in lockdown due to the Covid Delta variant in the Greater Sydney area and a few regional areas of NSW. Victoria and South Australia, with fewer cases, are in lockdown as well.  I send my love and best wishes to everyone affected. Hang in there, we're thinking of you. 




The two big green pots are the potatoes I planted about a month late. They're doing well but still have a few weeks to grow.

I made a delicious beef, barley and root vegetable soup today and we have enough to feed us for the next four days at least. I love good soups when it's cold and it's one of those meals that improves in flavour every day.




I did a Zoom workshop last Tuesday evening with the Kuringai and North Sydney Councils. I talked about Simple Living and I think it went over well because there were a lot of really interesting questions afterwards. I'll do another workshop for those Councils in August on Paying off Debt.

Gracie didn't have the surgery we were expecting. The vet said her ear was much better but not completely cleared up, so she's on another course of antibiotics and anti-inflammatories. She'll have another checkup next week and I hope I can tell you next week that's she's fine and dandy again.


Thanks for your visit today. I hope you and your family are healthy and safe. Take care and be kind to each other. xx



These are the wild bears at Katmai National Park in Alaska. The bears come to these water falls to gorge on salmon during summer and autumn. They then take their nourished bodies up Dumpling Mountain to hibernate over winter.  You can watch them live, 24/7 on explore. org. They're amazing to watch.

Weekend Reading

  • The best of bear cam, last week
  • Victoria's chief vet calls for stricter pet food regulations amid investigation into dog deaths
  • What foods can I freeze?
  • 15 Easy Recipes for Ripe, In-Season Tomatoes
  • A day with the Amish in Blacksburg Virginia
  • No scientific consensus yet on whether warming Arctic may lead to more extreme weather
  • Homeschooling and working from home: What are your rights?
  • Korean home life, healthy meals, travelling to the countryside and crochet
  • The Pandemic Has Been Tough for Extroverts. Here's How I Managed to Make Friends Anyway
  • 8 Everyday Things That Are Dirtier Than a Toilet
  • Two-Ingredient All Natural Gel DIY Hand Sanitizer Recipe
  • Cockatoos learn how to flip open garbage bins by copying each other 
  • Homegrown Herbal Tea Recipes for Better Sleep

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.


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ABOUT ME

Down to Earth is a blog by Rhonda Hetzel, dedicated to simple, intentional living — from home cooking and gardening to frugal budgeting and handmade crafts. It’s a space for gentle inspiration and everyday wisdom on creating a life that feels real, balanced, and deeply fulfilling.

Down To Earth Book

Down To Earth Book
My books are all published by Penguin. Down to Earth, The Simple Life and The Simple Home have been in book shops since they were published in 2012, 2014 and 2016, respectively. On 20 October 2020, Down to Earth was published as a paperback.

MY FAVOURITE PLACES

  • Grandma Donna's Place
  • Grandma Donna's YouTube
  • Grandma Donna's Instagram
  • This Simple Day
  • Nicole's Instagram

Popular Post of All Times

Making ginger beer from scratch

We had a nice supply of ginger beer going over Christmas. It's a delicious soft drink for young and old, although there is an alcoholic version that can be made with a slight variation on the recipe. Ginger beer is a naturally fermented drink that is easy to make - with ginger beer you make a starter called a ginger beer plant and after it has fermented, you add that to sweet water and lemon juice. Like sourdough, it must ferment to give it that sharp fizz. To make a ginger beer plant you'll need ginger - either the powdered dry variety or fresh ginger, sugar, rainwater or tap water that has stood for 24 hours to allow the chlorine to evaporate off. You'll also need clean plastic bottles that have been scrubbed with soap, hot water and a bottle brush and then rinsed with hot water. I never sterilise my bottles and I haven't had any problems. If you intend to keep the ginger beer for a long time, I'd suggest you sterilise your bottles. MAKING THE STARTER In a...
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The last post

This will be my last post here.  I've been writing my blog for 18 years and now is the time to step back. I’ve stopped writing the blog and come back a couple of times because so many people wanted it, but that won’t happen again, I won’t be back.  I’ll continue on instagram to remain connected but I don’t know how frequent that will be. I know some of you will be interested to know the blog's statistics. 
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How to make cold process soap

I'm sure many of you are wondering: "Why make soap when I can buy it cheaply at the supermarket?" My cold process soap is made with vegetable oils and when it is made and cured, it contains no harsh chemicals or dyes. Often commercial soap is made with tallow (animal fat) and contains synthetic fragrance and dye and retains almost no glycerin. Glycerin is a natural emollient that helps with the lather and moisturises the skin. The makers of commercial soaps extract the glycerin and sell it as a separate product as it's more valuable than the soap. Then they add chemicals to make the soap lather. Crazy. Making your own soap allows you to add whatever you want to add. If you want a plain and pure soap, as I do, you can have that, or you can start with the plain soap and add colour, herbs and fragrance. The choice is yours. I want to add a little about animal and bird fat. I know Kirsty makes her soap with duck fat and I think that's great. I think t...
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Preserving food in a traditional way - pickling beetroot

I've had a number of emails from readers who want to start preserving food in jars but don't know where to start or what equipment to buy.  Leading on from yesterday's post, let's just say up front - don't buy any equipment. Once you know what you're doing and that you enjoy preserving, then you can decide whether or not to buy extra equipment. Food is preserved effectively without refrigeration by a variety of different methods. A few of the traditional methods are drying, fermentation, smoking, salting or by adding vinegar and sugar to the food - pickling. This last method is what we're talking about today. Vinegar and sugar are natural preservatives and adding one or both to food sets up an environment that bacteria and yeasts can't grow in. If you make the vinegar and sugar mix palatable, you can put up jars of vegetables or fruit that enhance the flavour of the food and can be stored in a cupboard or fridge for months. Other traditional w...
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Cleaning mould from walls and fabrics

With all this rain around we've developed a mould problem in our home. Usually we have the front and back doors open and that good ventilation stops most moulds from establishing. However, with the house locked up for the past week, the high humidity and the rain, mould is now growing on the wooden walls near our front door and on the lower parts of cupboards in the kitchen. Most of us will find mould growing in our homes at some point. Either in the bathroom or, in humid climates, on the walls, like we have now. You'll need a safe and effective remedy at some point, so I hope one of these methods works well for you. Mould is not only ugly to look at, it can cause health problems so if you see mould growing, do something about it straight away. The longer you leave the problem, the harder it will be to get rid of it effectively. If you have asthma or any allergies, you should do this type of cleaning with a face mask on so you don't breathe in any spores. Many peopl...
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Five minute bread

Bread is one of those foods that, when made with your own hands, gives a great deal of satisfaction and delight. It's only flour and water but it symbolises so much. I bake bread most days and use a variety of flours that I buy in bulk. Often I make a sandwich loaf because we use most of our bread for lunchtime sandwiches and for toast. Every so often I branch out to make a different type of loaf. I have tried sour dough in the past but I've not been happy with any of them. I'll continue to experiment with sour dough because I like the idea of using wild yeasts and saving the starter over a number of years to develop the flavour and become a part of the family. However, the loaf I've been branching out to most often is just a plain old five minute bread. By five minutes I mean it takes about five minutes actual work to prepare but it's the easiest of all bread to make and to get consistently good loaves from. If you're having people around for lunch or...
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This is my last post.

I have known for a while that this post was coming, but I didn't know when. This is my last post. I'm closing my blog, for good, and I'm not coming back like I have in the past.  I've been writing here for 16 years and my blog has been many things to me. It helped me change my life, it introduced me to so many good people, it became a wonderful record of my family life, it helped me get a book contract with Penguin, and monthly columns with The Australian Women's Weekly and Burke's Backyard . But in the past few months, it's become a burden. In April, I'll be 75 years old and I hope I've got another ten years ahead. However, each year I'll probably get weaker and although I'm fairly healthy, I do have a benign brain tumour and that could start growing. There are so many things I want to do and with time running out, leaving the blog behind gives me time to do the things that give me pleasure. On the day the blog started I felt a wonderful, h...
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What is the role of the homemaker in later years?

An email came from a US reader, Abby, who asked about being a homemaker in later years. This is part of what she wrote: "I am a stay-at-home mum to 4 children, ages 9-16. I do have a variety of "odd jobs" that I enjoy - I run a small "before-school" morning drop-off daycare from my home, I am a writing tutor, and I work a few hours a week at a local children's bookstore. But mostly, I cherish my blissful days at home - cooking, cleaning (with homemade cleaners), taking care of our children and chickens and goats, baking, meal-planning, etc. This "career" at home is not at all what I imagined during my ambitious years at university, but it is far more enriching. I notice, though, that my day is often planned around the needs of my family members. Of course, with 4 active kids and a husband, this is natural. I do the shopping, plan my meals, cook dinner - generally in anticipation of my family reconnecting in the evening.  I can't h...
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Every morning at home

Every morning when I walk into my kitchen it looks tidy and ready for a day's work. Not so on this morning (above), I saw this when I walked in. Late the previous afternoon when I was looking for something, I came across my rolled up Zwilling vacuum bags and decided they had to be washed and dried. So I did that and although I usually put them outside on the verandah to dry it was dark by then. I turned the just-washed bags inside out and left them like this on a towel. It worked well and now the bags are ready to use when I bring home root vegetables, cabbages or whatever I buy that I want to last four or five weeks.
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You’ll save money by going back to basics

When I was doing the workshops and solo sessions, I had a couple of people whose main focus was on creating the fastest way to set up a simple life. You can't create a simple life fast, it's the opposite of that It's not one single thing either - it's a number of smaller, simpler activities that combine to create a life that reflects your values; and that takes a long to come together. When I first started living simply I took an entire year to work out our food - buying it, storing it, cooking it, preserving, baking, freezing, and growing it in the backyard. This is change that will transform how you live and it can't be rushed.  
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The last post

This will be my last post here.  I've been writing my blog for 18 years and now is the time to step back. I’ve stopped writing the blog and come back a couple of times because so many people wanted it, but that won’t happen again, I won’t be back.  I’ll continue on instagram to remain connected but I don’t know how frequent that will be. I know some of you will be interested to know the blog's statistics. 
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Making ginger beer from scratch

We had a nice supply of ginger beer going over Christmas. It's a delicious soft drink for young and old, although there is an alcoholic version that can be made with a slight variation on the recipe. Ginger beer is a naturally fermented drink that is easy to make - with ginger beer you make a starter called a ginger beer plant and after it has fermented, you add that to sweet water and lemon juice. Like sourdough, it must ferment to give it that sharp fizz. To make a ginger beer plant you'll need ginger - either the powdered dry variety or fresh ginger, sugar, rainwater or tap water that has stood for 24 hours to allow the chlorine to evaporate off. You'll also need clean plastic bottles that have been scrubbed with soap, hot water and a bottle brush and then rinsed with hot water. I never sterilise my bottles and I haven't had any problems. If you intend to keep the ginger beer for a long time, I'd suggest you sterilise your bottles. MAKING THE STARTER In a...
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Time changes everything

I've been spending time in the backyard lately creating a contained herb and vegetable garden. My aim is to develop a comfortable place to spend time, relax, increase biodiversity and encourage more animals, birds and insects to live here or visit. Of course I'd prefer my old garden which was put together by Hanno with ease and German precision. Together, we created a space bursting at the seams with herbs, vegetables and fruity goodness ready to eat and share throughout the year. But time changes everything. What I'm planning on doing now, is a brilliant opportunity for an almost 80 year old with balance issues. In my new garden I'll be able to do a wide range of challenging or easy work, depending on how I feel each day. It’s a daily opportunity to push myself or sit back, watch what's happening around me and be captivated by memories or the scope of what's yet to come.
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The most wonderful news

This post will give me more joy to write than anything else I could think of today.  I told you  there are a few exciting things happening here at the moment, well, I am now able to tell you the most exciting one of them.  Our son Kerry and his beautiful partner Sunny are having a baby!  Hanno and I will be grandparents in late March.  I can barely believe my eyes when I read what I have just written.  This is one of my original stitchery patterns. This wasn't planned but it's welcomed wholeheartedly by all of us.  Both Kerry and Sunny are hard workers and now that they have a baby to love and care for, they've decided it's time to buy an apartment together.  Sunny is going home to Korea to tell her family and when she comes back again, the search will start to find their first home together.  We are all so excited!  My knitting has taken on a life of its own and when I think of all the projects I could start, my head spins.  Thi...
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About Blog



Down to Earth is a blog by Rhonda Hetzel, dedicated to simple, intentional living — from home cooking and gardening to frugal budgeting and handmade crafts. It’s a space for gentle inspiration and everyday wisdom on creating a life that feels real, balanced, and deeply fulfilling.

Last Year's Popular Posts

The last post

This will be my last post here.  I've been writing my blog for 18 years and now is the time to step back. I’ve stopped writing the blog and come back a couple of times because so many people wanted it, but that won’t happen again, I won’t be back.  I’ll continue on instagram to remain connected but I don’t know how frequent that will be. I know some of you will be interested to know the blog's statistics. 
Image

Every morning at home

Every morning when I walk into my kitchen it looks tidy and ready for a day's work. Not so on this morning (above), I saw this when I walked in. Late the previous afternoon when I was looking for something, I came across my rolled up Zwilling vacuum bags and decided they had to be washed and dried. So I did that and although I usually put them outside on the verandah to dry it was dark by then. I turned the just-washed bags inside out and left them like this on a towel. It worked well and now the bags are ready to use when I bring home root vegetables, cabbages or whatever I buy that I want to last four or five weeks.
Image

You’ll save money by going back to basics

When I was doing the workshops and solo sessions, I had a couple of people whose main focus was on creating the fastest way to set up a simple life. You can't create a simple life fast, it's the opposite of that It's not one single thing either - it's a number of smaller, simpler activities that combine to create a life that reflects your values; and that takes a long to come together. When I first started living simply I took an entire year to work out our food - buying it, storing it, cooking it, preserving, baking, freezing, and growing it in the backyard. This is change that will transform how you live and it can't be rushed.  
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Workshops update

  This photo shows what the weather's been like here.  That's steam coming off my neighbours shed roof after a brief downpour of rain.  I hope we’re getting closer to organising these workshops. I didn’t explain this clearly enough: Group 1 is four workshops, Group 2 is four workshops. Out of those eight workshops I thought we probably end up doing three or four.
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Creating a home you'll love forever

Living simply is the answer to just about everything. It reduces the cost of living; it keeps you focused on being careful with resources such as water and electricity; it reminds you to not waste food; it encourages you to store food so you don't waste it and doing all those things brings routine and rhythm to your daily life. Consciously connecting every day with the activities and tasks that create simple life reminds you to look for the meaning and beauty that normal daily life holds.  It's all there in your home if you look for it. Seemingly mundane tasks like cleaning and cooking help you with that connection for without those tasks, the home you want to live in won't exist in the way you want it to.  Creating a home you love will make you happy and satisfied.
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Time changes everything

I've been spending time in the backyard lately creating a contained herb and vegetable garden. My aim is to develop a comfortable place to spend time, relax, increase biodiversity and encourage more animals, birds and insects to live here or visit. Of course I'd prefer my old garden which was put together by Hanno with ease and German precision. Together, we created a space bursting at the seams with herbs, vegetables and fruity goodness ready to eat and share throughout the year. But time changes everything. What I'm planning on doing now, is a brilliant opportunity for an almost 80 year old with balance issues. In my new garden I'll be able to do a wide range of challenging or easy work, depending on how I feel each day. It’s a daily opportunity to push myself or sit back, watch what's happening around me and be captivated by memories or the scope of what's yet to come.
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Simple life workshops on Zoom UPDATED

I've added more topics to the list. This post is for those readers who expressed interest in doing online Zoom workshops or who want to register now. The topics haven't been chosen yet but potential topics are:  vegetable gardening and composting; starting a vegetable garden and choosing vegetables suitable for a beginner;  cutting costs in the home, housework and routines; homemade laundry liquid and powder, soaking, stain removal and washing clothes and household linens; cooking from scratch and building your pantry to help you do it; homemade bread - white, rye, wholemeal and ancient grains. I'm not doing sourdough; living on less than you earn and developing a frugal mindset.
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