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This is Mary Rose, a standard David Austin rose. It flowers like crazy during summer as long as I keep the water up.

Each day gets busier here and we're almost back into full working mode. My online Zoom workshops start tomorrow and I'm excited about meeting all the ladies face-to-face and being able to talk about how we live. I'm also negotiating simple life workshops for the Kuringai, Willoughby and North Sydney Councils so stay tuned for news about those in the near future. 
It's been a kind of quiet busyness here this week. I'm trying to get some sewing finished before I start the simple living workshops, and they start next weekend. Thanks to everyone who has signed up. I think we're going to have a great time and I can't wait to actually see all of you in person. 

I'm thinking of having another workshop, closer to Easter, on writing. I'm not specifying the type of writing, it will be a general discussion, over two workshops of three hours in total, where I share how I started, how I maintain motivation, how I became a published writer, the commitment and hard work all serious writers need, and a little bit on contracts. I get quite a few emails from budding writers who usually ask me about getting to the next level. They want to make a living out of writing but they get to a point, get bogged down and don't know what to do next.  I think a workshop using our shared experience might kick-start a few writers and maybe clarify for others what they need to work on.  It will be online, on Zoom. Let me know your thoughts.


Soft vegetables like green onions last much longer if you prepare them as soon as you pick them or bring them home from the shop.  They just need a good wash then cut them to suit the size of the container you'll store them in; they should be stored in the fridge.  They'll easily last a couple of weeks like this. When you want to use them, just take them out and cut to size for your particular recipe.  Lettuce and celery can be processed the same way, they will last much longer and be nice and crisp.

Things are slowly returning to normal and I have to say I'm really pleased about that.  I don't really enjoy the Christmas/New Year holidays anymore. The last cricket test starts today and by the time it's over next week, I hope to be well and truly back into my 2021 housework routines.



Jamie and I baked these choc chip biscuits just before Christmas and I sent him home with the leftover biscuit dough to cook more when his biscuits ran out.  Luckily he had that dough because they had no snacks to leave out for Santa. They quickly baked more biscuits and I have no doubt Santa would have loved the smell of fresh biscuits when he arrived at Jamie's home on Christmas Eve.

When I made my lifestyle change many years ago, there was a period of about 12 months when I thought about what work needed to be done at home, what ingredients and products had to be bought for our home and what I could make myself. When I had all that information I worked out a plan and a new life was born. That plan in it’s polished form, is what became the Down to Earth blog and book. 


I went from spending a lot on convenience products to being more frugal and mindful about what I could stop buying and make at home. I wanted to start with the items/cleaners/food I used everyday, so I stopped buying Chux and started making cotton dishcloths. That one action saved money, was a sustainable practice and it increased my skill set, in this case the traditional skill of knitting. So within the first 12 months of changing my fast-paced, money-driven life to a much simpler one, I picked up my needles and started knitting cotton dishcloths. I say dishcloths but they can also be baby cloths or washcloths.

\

I use 8 ply organic knitting cotton on size 5 needles but I’ve also used two strands of 5 ply cotton on the same needles and it worked well. I always keep the small half or quarter balls left over from other projects so I have the opportunity to use all my knitting cotton for a useful item. Don’t use polyester or wool because they tend to retain smell and cotton is more absorbent and easier to look after. 


These cloths will last for years, even with constant washing. I wash mine every one or two days in the washing machine with homemade laundry liquid and dry them on the washing line. Sometimes you might catch one of your cloths on a knife and it will unravel if you don’t mend it quickly. So try to catch your two yarn ends and knot them or do a quick darned repair. 


You don’t have to be too precious with dishcloths, so this is a good project for beginners. They don’t have to fit, they’re just a square and I knit mine while I watch cricket on TV. I make mistakes sometimes but it’s a dishcloth so I don’t fret about it, I fix my mistake and carry on. 

Here are some links I found to help all the beginners.

Dishcloth pattern

Two ways to make a diagonal dishcloth - with holes, no holes

You Tube tutorial of dishcloth

How to knit

Knitting abbreviations

Knitting library

To all our beginners, have patience and remember that when you learn how to knit, and this is the first step, you'll be able to make clothing for your family, that will last for many years.  If you get stuck, put a comment in here or IG and one of us knitters will come along and help you start again.    Happy knitting everyone.  ðŸ§¶


This will be my last blog post for a while. I'm having a break over Christmas and will come back when I'm rested and ready to go again. Next year will be my 14th year blogging about how we live. In the beginning, knowing I wanted to write about making beds, washing up, housework and budgeting, I wondered if my blog would last 14 weeks. But it's still here and so are you and for that, I'm truly grateful.


Happy holidays from Gracie!

My sister sent this photo during the week. The Down to Earth paperback in the window of a bookshop near where she lives.

My sincere thanks to everyone who bought my books this year. It's an important part of our income now and 10 per cent of what you pay for one of my books comes to us and helps us live our chosen life here. Thanks also to all the readers who continue to visit.  Without you, this blog would not be here.

My tomatoes were growing in the bush house last week. This is what happens when you don't stake them early enough and it rains for 12 hours.


Munstead Wood standard rose growing in the back garden.



This has been the strangest year I've ever lived through. We aren't locked down now but we have been in the past and I know it's difficult shopping for food, going to the doctor and taking children to and from school. Staying at home helped stop the spread of Covid here and although there's a spike in Covid in Sydney this morning, we have almost no restrictions where I live. Hanno and I are still cautious and stay at home most of the time. What frightens me is how quickly it spreads and, as Sydney is showing us now, it goes from zero to five to 17 in less than a day. And many people don't have symptoms when they're tested but they have the virus. 

If you're locked down, I get it, it's hard but so is this virus. Keep hanging on, stay at home, be safe and wear a mask when you go out. Keep hand sanitiser and masks in your car or if you usually walk or use public transport, always have a mask and hand sanitiser in your bag. 

Use the time at home to think about your life and how you want to go forward. I'm pretty sure things will change after this, I really hope our governments will lead us towards a sustainable, less commercial, pollution-free future where businesses think about the environment as well as profit margins. It's a good idea to contact your local member of parliament too and ask how they and their party intend to protect the environment while we recover from Covid. But it's up to us to make our own personal changes too and now is a very good time to think about what we can change and improve in our own spaces. I use the plural 'spaces' because as well as being at home, most of us are also in our workplace, schools, parents homes, library and various indoor venues and these spaces must be safe for you as well.

Cecile Brunner rose growing over the chook fence.

Here is the last 2020 reading list. There are some lovely links here and I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. 

  • Recipe for coffee and coffee cream - this is one of two desserts I'm making for Christmas lunch
  • Simple hand sewing for beginners

  • A warm holiday in the life of a Japanese living alone 
  • Boxing Day meaning and traditions

  • Zoos Victoria trials 'guardian dogs' to help protect endangered bandicoots from foxes
  • 'Like nothing seen in nature before': strange dinosaur has scientists enthralled
  • The pine cone wreath making homes smile this season
  • The magic of growing plants from seed you’ve collected
  • 17 delicious loaf tin recipes (that aren’t banana bread)
  • Here's another good knitted dish/facecloth
  • Extreme frugality - meet the Carters

  • Tiny home setups that prove why micro-living will be the next big trend
  • Quick and simple needle case
  • I don't want you to buy any of the bags and purses, I just want you to see them


So that's it for another year, my friends. Enjoy the holiday season, look after yourself, rest, think, play and come back ready for what might be another challenging year. Make the most of the time you have with your family in your safe haven.  

Hanno, Gracie and I send love to you across the miles. 💜



This is the first foxglove flower I've ever grown. I just love them but always thought our climate was too harsh for them to grow here. This one is in a pot in the bush house and is really healthy. Other seedlings planted in the garden are tiny and I doubt they'll produce flowers. I'll have to change my strategy next year but in the meantime, these two plants are a real joy.

This week I've been working on promoting the Down to Earth paperback on radio and writing articles for magazines and online. The weather has been dry and hot so I've had the sprinkler on the garden and thankful we have rainwater tanks to allow that to happen. I've also been gearing up to do some sewing next week so I've decided on two projects and made sure I have everything I need.  All I need now is the time to do it and I think that will happen next week.

Lace cap hydrangea.
My son had to go back to hospital last Sunday with a nasty infection under his arm. He had a melanoma and lymph gland removed in late September. He stayed in for four days on IV antibiotics and tests and, thankfully, was released on Wednesday afternoon.  He's feeling much better now but it's another stark reminder of how important our families and our health are.  I hope your family is healthy and things are going well for you.
My apologies for not posting this on Friday. I had a few things to do yesterday, and it's almost the end of the year and I'm tired. I had a good sleep last night, I'm raring to go today and apart from a few odds and ends, I have little to do this weekend. This afternoon, I'll start knitting a new set of dishcloths for myself and a friend. This is a yearly task for me and it's one I look forward to because it makes me sit, think and relax with the repetitive clicking of needles.  
Here is our really tasty lime cordial alongside a jar of radish sprouts I just started.

I bought a small bag of limes when I was shopping last week and decided to work out later what I'd do with them. They cost $2.50.  Last summer, my friend Nicole gave me some finger limes from her own garden. I hadn't used them before, found the flavour to be a delicious mild lime flavour and they made best cordial I've ever had.  I was hooked.  That memory came back to me later in the day so I finely zested and juiced the limes, added juice from two lemons from the backyard and made lime cordial. It doesn't have the complex flavour of the finger limes, but it's pretty good. Those seven limes and two lemons made up a litre of cordial which I'll serve with iced tap water or cold sparkling spring water.


Usually, we make large quantities when we preserve fruit or vegetables and that's a great thing to do. You make the fruiting season last longer and add interest to your pantry and meals by putting up a few dozen jars of peaches, jam, tomato sauce, relish or chutney. That's a great thing to do, but it's also good to preserve small amounts too and it's a good way to get started on preserving if you haven't done any yet. A small batch will take less time, the lime cordial took about 10 minutes to make, and even though you'll only make a bottle or a couple of jars, you'll have something special in your fridge or pantry.

Where I live, we have an abundance of citrus fruits in spring and summer so it's common to find offers of free lemons or oranges. If the same is true where you live, grab a bucket and do up a small batch of cordial or juice. It will set you on the preserving road and that is a really wonderful life skill to have.

Here is this week's reading list. I hope you're able to make a cup of tea and sit for a while to read them.
  • Sunflower message spreads joy as thousands flock to Far North Queensland town
  • Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris appeals for help
  • I was sick of blokey books by dads – could mothers’ memoirs make me a better father?
  • Does everything you own need to be beautiful?
  • When Objects Become Extensions of You
  • Don't throw away your old sweater
  • Filling the larder
  • The fate of antiques and heirlooms in a disposable age
  • Simplifying your life, the interview
  • A Guaranteed Monthly Check Changed His Life. Now He Sends Out 650.
My sincere thanks to everyone who ordered and bought the paperback Down to Earth. I hope you get a lot of good ideas and motivation from the book and that it guides you towards significant changes in your life.

Stay well everyone, especially those in areas where Covid-19 has taken hold. Have a great weekend.


I thought about writing a new book to show how simple life could help you thrive when Covid is active in your community. But when I thought about it, I’d already written it - Down to Earth is all about living in a safe and comfortable home, providing as much as you want to produce in your home, cooking wholesome food, growing, fermenting and preserving food, mending and recycling, slowing down, keeping your family close and being comfortable in your own skin. So instead of writing another book, Down to Earth has been published as a paperback with a ten dollar drop in price.

The Down to Earth paperback was published on 20 October and I’ve had a number of people from all over the world ask where they can buy it. So I’ve done some research and come up with this list. Thank you all for your support.

Australia
Many independent book shops. Ask them to order it in if it’s not there.
Readings 
Dymocks
QBD 
Woolworths - for the first time, Down to Earth will be sold at Big W soon, certainly in time for Christmas shopping.
Booktopia
Amazon Australia


UK, Europe and Asia
Book Depository with free postage

North America
Amazon Canada - please note: it states on the page that the book will be released March 2021. That’s not correct. It was published 20 October, 2020 and is available now.
Amazon USA - please note: it states on the page that the book will be released March 2021. That’s not correct. It was published 20 October, 2020 and is available now.

I had some new paperback Down to Earth books sent to me during the week and decided to sign and sell them. I sent the first batch off yesterday and I have five left.  This offer is for Australian readers only as the postage costs to send anything from Australia is too expensive to justify. So if you want a book, I'll sign one of these and send it to you when I receive your payment and address details. If you already have a copy, you might like to give one to a loved one for Christmas. These will be gone by tonight so if you want one contact me with your name and address and I'll send you my bank details.

It's been a busy week here.  Hanno was in the hospital on Monday to have an angiogram. We thought he might be headed for heart surgery but it was good news instead. Nothing has changed since the last angiogram two years ago and the only treatment is a change in medication. I'm going for my checkup today but I'm feeling good and I think I'll get a gold star.

Gracie and I went over to the hospital to collect Hanno after his tests. We sat in the very pleasant garden off the car park where Gracie attracted a few passers-by who wanted to pat her and know her name.  I think she liked that.  

I want to start today by thanking everyone who bought a paperback copy of Down to Earth. The hardback was published in 2012 and became a best-seller, remaining in the book shops for over eight years. I thought the book would help a lot of people cope with the COVID crisis by showing them how to create a safe haven at home, Penguin agreed and so a cheaper version of Down to Earth was printed. If you did buy a copy, I'd love you to tell me if you enjoyed the book and to review it on Instagram, your blog or Goodreads. Look in the link list below for a link to an extract of the book on Penguin's website.

We've continued to get the garden ready for summer but the most important part of this week has been preparing for the publication of the paperback Down to Earth and writing some publicity articles for Penguin to distribute. The book will be ready for sale next week - 20 October. The RRP is $34.99 but Booktopia has its presale price at AU $27.75. It's also available at Book Depositary and Amazon if you're reading this far, far away. 

If you haven't read my first book, I hope you get a copy with this release. It's my manifesto and a full description of what Hanno and I did when we decided to make a complete and significant life change in the early 2000s. I think it would make a good Christmas gift too, especially for young people just starting out or for older folk who are unsure how to move ahead during Covid. This lifestyle makes complete sense for a whole lot of different reasons in 2020. It will help you make your home a shelter, it will guide you towards decisions about how to grow, store, preserve, cook and bake food, and it will help you decide how you can make your home productive and move further away from buying everything you need from the shop.


Above: A simple breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon.  I use natural bacon with no added nitrates or preservatives.  Below: Getting ready to roll out a batch of dog biscuits for Gracie.



Now that the lavender flowers are starting to die off, I'll cut the top of the bush off, removing all the flowers.  That should give me another flush of flowers in summer.



Here are some of the things I've read during the week, I hope you enjoy them:
  • Virus that causes Covid-19 can survive up to 28 days on surfaces, scientists find
  • Cleaning up: the social media stars making housework cool
  • Old-fashioned Cherry Pudding Recipe
  • Remarkable wildlife photos - some beautiful, some incredibly sad
  • Simple Living With Scandish Home
  • DIY foaming hand soap
  • Irish Cottage Home Tour
  • We Visited a Bruderhof Commune
🧵  ðŸŒ¿  ðŸ§µ
Kerry asked me to pass on his thanks and gratitude for all the lovely messages of hope he received here and Instagram last week. He's recovering nicely and has just returned to work and the gym. Hanno and I thank you for your kindness and grace too.

So that's all my news for the moment, what are you up to?

We got our internet connection back yesterday afternoon so I'm pleased to be back with you. There'll be no Weekend Reading today because I haven't been online for a couple of weeks; it will return next week. During our time offline I've been gardening, taking plant cuttings, sewing, baking, cooking, grocery shopping, reorganising things in my home, reading another Wendell Berry book - Andy Catlett, Early Travels: A Novel, and relaxing on the front verandah with Hanno and Gracie. I enjoyed those two weeks a lot.

But I also lived one of the worst days of my life during that time. My son Kerry was diagnosed with stage two melanoma. I've never been so scared in my life. Kerry handled it very well and although he was worried, he went ahead with all the tests, scans and surgery and then had to wait a week for the results. We were all so relieved when the surgeon reported that he removed the melanoma and nearby gland and that instead of stage two, it was stage one. Removal of the gland revealed the cancer hadn't spread.

I spoke with Kerry yesterday and asked if I could write about this. He agreed and wants me to pass on an important message to you. He said it's vitally important that we all check our skin, especially with summer coming up. He said that even if you think there is no problem, just like he did, to do a thorough check and go to your doctor if you find anything out of the ordinary. The doctor actually asked him what made him have the check-up because it didn't look like a melanoma. He had no pain, no itching and no reason to be worried, but he was and he acted on instinct and got it checked. That saved him and I can't express how grateful I am that he took that step, had a check and got the treatment he needed. Australia has the highest incidence of melanoma in the world so please check your skin today and make sure you check the kids too. How to check your skin.


Herbs and a transplanted orange tree.

After Kerry's scare, things returned to normal and the rest of life is pretty good at the moment. We're getting ready for summer outside - we'll be cleaning the windows next week and trying to protect the garden from wind and sun with straw mulch. Our sun umbrella it up all the time and I'm wearing broad-spectrum sunscreen but most of all not spending too much time in the sun. I still have to clean out the bush house and repot a few plants and hope to get that done soon. I only have about three weeks before the humidity starts and want everything done before that.

We always have water out for the birds and insects.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow - Hanno's favourite plant.

The Down to Earth paperback arrived last week.  I'm delighted with it and will take photos tomorrow and write about it over the weekend.  

I hope you're well and safe from the coronavirus. Over 35 million people confirmed with it so far and there is no sign yet that it's easing. The state I live in has a handful of cases, all from returning travellers, so we're out and about but still very mindful of the dangers and abiding by the advice given to us. Take care. xx

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I'm Rhonda Hetzel and I've been writing my Down to Earth blog since 2007. Although I write the occasional philosophical post, my main topics include home cooking, happiness and gardening as well as budgeting, baking, ageing, generosity, mending and handmade crafts. I hope you enjoy your time here.

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      • Back where we belong
      • Planting vegetable seeds and new workshops
      • Workshops starting 1 March
      • First workshops, book by Friday
      • Look at my linen cupboard 😎 + workshop info


Trending Articles

NOT 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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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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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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It's the old ways I love the most

I'm a practical woman who lives in a 1980’s brick slab house. There are verandahs front and back so I have places to sit outside when it's hot or cold. Those verandahs tend to make the house darker than it would be but they're been a great investment over time because they made the house more liveable. My home is not a romantic cottage, nor a minimalist modern home, it's a 1980’s brick slab house. And yet when people visit me here they tell me how warm and cosy my home is and that they feel comforted by being here. I've thought about that over the years and I'm convinced now that the style of a home isn't what appeals to people. What they love is the feeling within that home and whether it's nurturing the people who live there.
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Back where we belong

Surprise! I'm back ... for good this time. Instagram became an impossible place for me. They kept sending me messages asking if I'd make my page available for advertisers! Of course, I said no but that didn't stop them. It's such a change from what Instagram started as. But enough of that, the important part of this post is to explain why I returned here instead of taking my writing offline for good. For a few years Grandma Donna and I have talked online face-to-face and it's been such a pleasure for me to get to know her. We have a lot in common. We both feel a responsibility to share what we know with others. With the cost of living crisis, learning how to cook from scratch, appreciate the work we do in our homes, shop to a budget and pay off debt will help people grow stronger. The best place to do that is our blogs because we have no advertising police harassing us, the space is unlimited, we can put up tons of photos when we want to and, well, it just feels li...
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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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