I'm really pleased to open the new series of work space photos with Margy's place in Canada.  This, my friends, is spectacular!  Margy writes:

"Hello from Powell River, British Columbia, Canada. I live in a float cabin about twenty minutes by boat up Powell Lake. We bought it in 2001 as a summer cottage, but now that my husband and I are retired, we spend about 75% of the year living here. We love the remote lifestyle. We have propane for the stove, refrigerator and lights. We also have solar and wind power for some electric lights and to charge devices such as our satellite radio, computers and cell phones. We have chosen not to have television or the Internet. We check in with those things when we go to town for supplies, mail and other city chores. In the first picture you can see my cabin. It is anchored in place with steel cables and a log called a stiff leg. In the foreground is my floating garden. I grow tomatoes, squash, potatoes, peppers, lettuce, beets, onions, asparagus, strawberries and herbs. We don't have much space, but pack a lot in. In the background is our floating woodshed. Our woodstove keeps us toasty warm all winter. Stairs lead to shore and our outhouse.

Here's my kitchen. I get water directly from the lake below with a hand pump. As you can imagine, we are extremely careful with greywater. What goes down could come back up. We boil the water before using just to be safe. The cabin is 20X21 feet with a sleeping loft. The kitchen is at one side of the downstairs great room. One thing I like about my kitchen is that it's so handy. I have everything I need, but nothing extra. Thanks to blogs like Rhonda's, I've learned a lot about becoming self reliant. You see, I'm a transplanted city girl from Los Angeles, California. Last year I tried canning and making jam for the first time. I've also learned to make bread using my own sourdough starter. It's been great fun and I know i'm going to enjoy it for many more years to come. Thanks for visiting my little kitchen up the lake.

You can read more about my kitchen, cabin and off-the-grid living at my blog http://PowellRiverBooks.blogspot.com."

I think we're are gaining ground.  There has been a shift away from the purchased conveniences of modern living, women and men are beginning to see the light and more and more homemakers are returning to older and non-commercial ways of doing the house work and cooking.  It does my heart good to see how many younger women and men are expressing an interest in home cooking, knitting, mending, repairing and reusing, as well as making green cleaners and soaps. There is a move towards traditional home arts.  Here in Australia, fabric, yarn and craft stores are reporting record sales, and cooking has become popular again!

These traditional ways of housekeeping and home maintenance, passed down over the years by our grandparents, were replaced by convenience foods, cheap clothing and appliances, and when they started to disappear, most of us were too busy to notice.  The global economic crisis came along to show us that when we are given convenience on a plate it is at the expense of other significant things.  Many were surprised when they realised they could do a whole lot more in the home than they thought they could, for less money, while producing better quality, and they actually enjoyed doing it.

I believe it's a question of dependence versus independence.  Convenience encourages dependence.  If we buy food already cooked or half cooked, we forget our traditional foods and how to cook them.  If we always buy our clothes, we forget how to make them.  If we buy our knitwear, we never learn to knit.  There was a time when we never thought about having our nails "done", when we cut our own hair, fixed cars and lawn mowers, or we relied on friends and neighbours to help us do it, then we returned the favour by helping them do something we had the skill to do.  Now convenience and the cheapness of food, clothes and appliances makes us dependent on shops instead of each other.  We work to earn the money to pay for these things instead of learning how to do make them or repair them ourselves.

In my ideal world, mothers and fathers would teach their children how to live an authentic life in the modern world.  They'd make sure their children had the life skills they need to look after themselves, they would teach through example and they would be the people they want their children to become.  But we don't live in an ideal world, all we have is this one and while it is far from ideal, there are some thing we can all do to make our own family healthy, practical and competent.  From a young age, teach your children how to cook simple food, mend little things like toys, knit, recycle, plant seeds, harvest water, and how to care for what is theirs.  Giving them the responsibility of caring for a pet will teach them about nutrition, time management, gentleness and unconditional love.  Many parents think that teaching a child how to read before they go to school is a major achievement, but they need much more than that.  They need those practical life skills, those things they will enjoy learning while they're still young.  They will grow up confident and self reliant if you teach them these things, show them they are important part of the family and rely on them to help with the family work.  Giving to children only teaches them how to take.

I don't expect everyone to take up their knitting needles, start dressmaking or learn how to make a traditional meal from scratch, but I do see a move towards some of those things.  And the good thing is that many people realise that making and doing for oneself is a positive and life affirming thing; they enjoy it.  It has been a long time coming but the move is on and who know where it will lead us.  Now, more and more people are realising that we can change the way we live and because of that almost anything is possible.  I think real change is just around the corner.

I'm at a loss to understand why foods go in and out of fashion.  It seems that people get sick of one thing, then go on to the next.  I'm the opposite, if I like something, I like it forever.  Is the TV program Masterchef only in Australia or is it in other countries as well?  Here in Australia, it's revolutionised the way people cook and has made cooking popular again.  I think that is a great thing but I don't like the emphasis on fine dining, it is not home cooking.  When we cook at home, unless it's for a celebration or special dinner party, I believe home cooking should look like home cooking.  Why make food into towers that are difficult to cut, drizzle sauces and oil, and strew flowers over a plate when what we home cooks are trying to do is present good nourishing food with a mimimum of fuss, several times a day, week after week. Restaurant food focuses on one plate, home food is best served, I believe, from the table with everyone serving themselves, taking exactly what they want.  Both have their place but if you're new to cooking don't confuse restaurant presentation with the more casual approach of the home cook.

Both my sons are fine dining chefs, so I do have an interest in both camps, however, I am an old fashioned cook.  I often read their ever growing collection of cook books written for chefs, and while I love both their cooking styles (one is French-based and the other mostly Asian), I remain firmly in the old fashioned camp. My favourite cook books are Nourishing Traditions and my old Barrosa Valley CWA (Country Women's Association) cookbook, circa 1950s.  But most of my recipes are in my head and while I do try new things occasionally, I generally stick to what I know.  The thing I really love about old fashioned cooking is that it often uses food that might be wasted, or foods that sit on the pantry shelf in a jar until it's needed.  This first recipe is a recycled food one and is one of Hanno's favourites.  

BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING

Stale bread, stale fruit bread, stale cinnamon rolls or stale fruit scones - about 3 or 4, cut in thick slices and buttered.  Lay these in a buttered baking dish.

Make a custard - 4 eggs, beaten, plus 3 tablespoons of sugar, a slurp of good vanilla, and about 600 mls/or a little over one pint of milk.  Whisk together making sure the eggs have broken up and mix into the milk well.

Pour the custard over the bread slices and allow to sit for 30 minutes for the milk to soak into the bread.  Then put it in a slow oven (around 170C/340F) for about 20 minutes.  You want it to be golden brown on top with a hint of milky wobbles in the custard.  You don't want the custard to be completely set when you remove it from the oven.

Serve warm with a drizzle of cream.

MUSHROOM BAKE

Cook about 300 grams/ of dry pasta shapes - something like penne, bows or shells.  Drain and leave in the drainer.

In a frying pan, saute one chopped onion, 250 grams/½ pound fresh mushrooms (or more) and one or two garlic cloves.  When the onion is translucent and the mushrooms have wilted, turn heat off and leave in the pan.

Make a cheese sauce - mine is: 2 tablespoons plain flour and 2 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan, mix together and add salt and pepper.  Cook on low heat for about 2 minutes.  Add a dash of Tabasco or a sprinkle of chilli powder and stir in.  Add about 500mls/one pint of milk. I often use powdered milk for this.  Whisk this mixture together over medium heat until it starts to thicken, then add one cup of shredded cheddar cheese.  Stir the sauce until thick and smooth.

Then put the meal together.  In a lasagna dish, add the pasta, mushroom and onions and mix.  Pour the sauce over and mix in.  Top with some Parmesan and bake in a medium over until the top is golden brown.  Serve with a salad.

MIXED FRUIT BREAD

I kneaded the dough for this in the breadmaker.
375mls water
2 tablespoons soft butter
1½ teaspoons of nutmeg
1½ teaspoons of cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons milk powder
4¼ cups bread flour
2 teaspoons yeast

2/3 cup mixed dried fruit in the fruit dispenser, or thrown them in half way through the kneading process.

Place everything in the machine and turn on to the dough setting.  When finished, shape and place in your bread tin and allow to rise again.  When doubled in size, place in the oven on about 190C/375F.

Cinnamon Glaze for the bread (optional)
Mix ½ cup icing/confectioner's sugar with ¼ teaspoon cinnamon and add 2 teaspoons of water.  Drizzle or paint on with a brush.

Happy cooking everyone!

Thank you for your visits and comments this week.  I'll be going through the simple living comments on the weekend and visiting the blogs listed there.  I hope you have a wonderful and interesting weekend.  See you next week!  ♥

Today's photo is from a town very close to where I live. In fact, the kitchen setup is very much like mine, including the placement of the fruit bowl. This is Debra's kitchen and she lives in Queensland, Australia.

Debra writes:
"This is my kitchen. It is just on 18 years old, we have been in this house since we owner built it back in 92, and I still love my kitchen. It is the hub of the house, as is most peoples. The only thing we have changed is we have put in a dishwasher, we removed 2 cupboards to do this, which left us with a little nook between the dishwasher and the next cupboard, which is a perfect spot for jars etc., and we have put in a new ceramic cooktop. The oven is still the same, we replaced the fan in that about 18 months ago, and the rangehood is still the original. The wide benchtop is brilliant. I did the tiling myself, and we also laid the slate floor ourselves. The kitchen window looks out over our entertainment area and greenhouse, and the dining area next to it looks out over the pool and garden area. I have a nice big walk in corner pantry, which, when tidy, has heaps of room for everything we could ever need.


My knitted dishcloth is hanging over my tap :) I have to knit some more. I picked up some lovely cotton from an opshop I think they were something like 50c a ball, and I get 2 or so per ball of wool. I like this waffle weave pattern the best. 

My home journal is on the bench, this has phone numbers, menus, school notes etc etc in it. My husband made my phone cupboard, the drawer holds pens etc. In the corner next to the dish drainer is the recipe book holder my sister made for me for my birthday. I use this a lot. My chook scraps bucket is next to the sink, and is used everyday. When the girls see me walking up the yard with this in the afternoon, they all come running!! I have a country wall hanging next to the phone, I picked this up from a garage sale for $2, and under that is my handmade wall/desk calender. This gets used a lot also. I don't like my home to be cluttered, but I do like a few favourites here and there. I will be purchasing some new stools for the breakfast bar shortly, as my husband made some but over the years they have slowly but surely broken, and he doesn't want to make them this time, I have my eye on some lovely ones, so I think these will be an added addition to our home soon. :)

You can visit Debra's blog by clicking here. 

Please don't forget to comment. A comment is like payment for the time taken to post, and in this case in sending in the photos.  Many of us were enthusiastic about this series, so make sure all the photos get a good number of comments.  I don't want any of the people sending in photos to regret joining in.  Thank you friends. 

Roots from the palm trees are invading our backyard drains and after thinking about it for some time, Hanno decided to take action.  He called out to me to come and help him.  I walked outside to see a long rope tied to our fig tree, the other end tied to the middle palm.  "I'm going to cut the palm tree down, you hold the rope so it doesn't fall on the shed."  So I was in charge of stopping a one tonne tree falling onto our shed.  We are living on the edge here, in more ways than one.  

In reality, all I had to do was hold the rope tight, Hanno would cut the tree so it fell away from the shed.  The rope was our insurance!  So he got our ancient electric chain saw and started cutting while I took photos and did the job asked of me.  All went to plan and the tree fell where he wanted it to with nothing damaged.  I am hoping he clears the rest of the trees and plants smaller fruit trees in their place.  The chooks will miss the palms, as they were a favourite summer afternoon resting place.

Inside the house, I did some writing and talking on the phone to my sister, Bernadette and my friend in Townsville, Kathleen.  When I sat to rest, I took up the needles and did some knitting.  Is there anything better on an overcast cool day than to sit in a warm room with your knitting or sewing? I sat, contentedly, for a few hours clicking, threading and flicking wool this way and that..  I could feel the strength and energy I lost yesterday return with every row.  Clicking away, not thinking of anything but the soft wool, slowly building a jumper/sweater for Hanno.

I'm working on three projects at the moment, although if you looked in my knitting basket you'd think it was 20. I think knitting baskets are supposed to be untidy and as long as the yarns don't start tangling together, I'm happy to see the mixture of colours and textures.  As well as Hanno's jumper, I'm knitting a big scarf and some mittens. They're all simple projects that I can make up as I go.  I'm not good with patterns and counting, so I tend to knit simply so I can change it when I feel the need.  What's on your needles right now?

I'm feeling on top of the world again today.  All that knitting healed me.  Today I'm back at the Centre for Sorry Day but I'll also take Bernadette to the doctor.  I hope you enjoy your day and if you're in Australia, please spare a thought for our first Australians.

Every morning, on that short walk over dewy grass to our chook house, I am usually aware of a feeling of acute optimism and hope for the day ahead.   I bend down to pick up a brick to keep the gate open, unlock the door to the coop, remove the block of wood that stops rats and other night visitors opening the food hopper, then call the girls to come out and greet the day.  They wait at the gate for me to walk out with them but often I stop to look at the garden.  It's backdropped by the house and I can stand there in the half-light with the bright green of the garden almost shining right in front of me while the house, lit then by only one kitchen light, stands in the shadows.  This scene almost always fills me with optimism and eagerness for the day ahead.

I felt that optimism yesterday when I stood looking, came back inside to get my camera, and took pictures of what I saw.  I thought I might capture that feeling and use the image as a computer wallpaper - a reminder to myself of what is possible, even in a small and simple backyard.

Yesterday was my big workday.  I needed to be full of enthusiasm and energy.  I left here around 7am to go to the bakery and  IGA to select food to serve at the Centre.  I did one of my Frugal Home workshops and knew I would have hungry mouths to feed.  I settled on fruit scones and tea for morning tea, with crackers and cheese, chicken and ham salad sandwiches, wedges of watermelon and orange, tea and coffee for lunch.  I over catered because there would be another meeting at night and whatever was left over could be eaten then along with the mushroom pasta bake I took from home for our evening meal.

I picked up all my supplies, was really pleased I had all my volunteers to help make the sandwiches, then settled down before anyone else arrived to write a short piece for the local newspaper.  The phone rang ... twice.  Two of my volunteers were sick and could not come in.  Luckily our high school trainee would be there along with one volunteer. 

We had a number of activities happening during the morning - a first aide for babies course and our sewing circle, as well as my workshop.  I made some phone calls then saw Sonya from the Permaculture Pathways blog walk in.  She came to learn how to make an apron so I took her out to the sewing room, invited her to make a cuppa, then went back to find our statistics file so I could use it in a report I was writing.  Babies, mums and dads started filing in for the first aide course, then my Frugal Home people arrived and we were into it.  I think the people who attended found it helpful. There were two ladies there who read my blog.  Hello Caroline and Natalie! The course over, we had lunch together, then I started writing my report for the later meeting.

People kept coming in to talk, I had about five phonecalls, another small meeting, then we closed the Centre for the day.  The presenter of a solar panel info session arrived to set up for his presentation at 7 pm.  I heated up the pasta bake, got the leftover sandwiches from the fridge and set up our small meeting room for our committee meeting.  That ran from 5 till 8pm and as it got later and I grew tired, I thought a couple of times about that view over my turnip tops and cabbages across to the house.  My feelings of optimism were being replaced by thoughts of a warm and cosy bed.

I drove home in the pouring rain and there Hanno and Alice were waiting for me as I knew they would be.  I sat with Hanno for five minutes, then went to bed, happy that I had used my time well that day.  And now I'm about to go out and walk to the chook house again and see that scene again in the half light.  I will spent this day at home baking and cooking and maybe napping this afternoon.  Tomorrow I'm back at the Centre again for Sorry Day, we have a big function planned that I am really looking forward to.

Thank you all so much for sharing your stories yesterday.  I have not yet read them all but will try to do that today.  I'm also going to visit the blogs mentioned but that will have to wait till later in the week.  I hope you have a lovely day today and enjoy what you do.

When I started living more simply I didn't know what simple living was.  All I knew was that I didn't want to work and for me that presented a dilemma.  You see, I am a working class girl.  So if I wasn't going to be working, what would I do?  It was important that I continue to work in some way so I was really pleased when I realised that I could change the way I lived by working in a different way.  Not only would I have a simple philosophy, I would also express myself by simplifying my everyday activities.  I didn't know it then but I was about to reinvent myself and my life and I would never look back.

It became clear very quickly that changing one thing lead to another and that most household activities were linked.  Learning how to stockpile, made me look at the way I cooked, that linked to my budgeting and how I spent my time.  Wanting to reduce the amount of waste we threw out and the amount of packaging we brought into our home lead me to knitting dishcloths, which lead to knitting jumpers, and sewing in all its various ways. So instead of planning what I would do, I just did what I was interested and that lead me on to the next thing and the next.

We all know this journey never ends and that there is no one size fits all - each and every simple life is different.  I am interested in knowing what lead you to your simple changes and how you have simplified.  If you have a blog, please leave a link so I can read a bit about you in the coming days.  This is a fascinating subject and I am sure that discussing it like this will help others who are thinking about change but haven't taken the plunge yet.