May 2016 – Page 2 – Head in the Clouds

Goodbye Tomatoes

Yesterday I showed you this mess… so today I decided to get out and do something about it.

There was no wind or rain today, and although it wasn’t the nicest of days, it was mild enough to be comfortable in a t-shirt!

Most of the time I spent grumbling at myself for not tying the tomatoes up with a quick release knot!!

Another nice little clump of parsley – thought I might leave it there

Why not put some of those excess broccolini seedlings (or maybe cabbage??) in here?

If all my broccolini produce, we are going to be swimming in the stuff!

I kept all the green tomatoes… most should ripen inside in the warm (I hope)

Often when the weather turns, I will pull up entire tomato plants and hang them upside down in the hothouse. Eventually the leftover fruit will ripen. Because there wasn’t so much on each plant, I just cut off the stem that held the fruit.

It doesn’t look pretty or stylish, but I have found it a good way to ripen the last tomatoes. If you don’t have a hothouse, a shed will do fine.

Next I spent a very pleasant half an hour picking the dried bean pods off my runner bean vines and started some grand plans in my head for extending next seasons garden.

Plenty of seeds to start some more runner beans next season

My little dabble into selling vegetables on the roadside seemed reasonably successful. Now that we have the bore water, I am a bit excited about extending the whole production and being able to offer more vegetables and fruit out the front

I still use the rain barrels to scoop up water and give my undercover plants a hand watering.

Getting the bore put in last December has given us a whole lot more freedom in what we can do in the garden

Before the bore the only water we had access to was what we caught off the house and shed rooves, which were stored in two tanks – capacity of about 18,000 litres (4755 gallons). Which isn’t much when you get at least three months over summer with little to no rain. Your showers get extremely speedy!!

I am a bit excited to plan and create new gardens for next season!

Night falls pretty early here now. 5.30pm and its dark. The fire is on and I am still adding layers to my crochet projects. I learned a little late how to make the centre sit flatter… not that I intend undoing it to fix it!!

Tonight I also whipped up a batch of lemon butter teacakes…

They taste pretty good… but they stick to the paper pretty badly. Maybe I am supposed to wait until they are really cool before eating?

Hope whatever is left of your weekend is fantastic.

The rain is now coming down again quite heavily, so I feel cosy inside. Pip is curled up under my windcheater – a warm purring lump – and the fire flickering along.

Cheers

PS Occasional extras on my facebook page!

Saturday – Little Bit of Garden, Little Bit of Protest

I decided the few roses I found clinging to the bush were probably happier inside.

Hello & Happy Weekend to you all!

The last couple of days here have been reasonably nice (you know – the wind stopped as well as the rain! Bonus!)

Jeff got out and made our yard look a lot less scruffy – its amazing how quickly the grass (and weeds) are growing right now

Having all the gates open during this process means that the girls get to go a little further afield around the property and they love a day out.

I had to chase Squirt out of the strawberry patch several times

Source Images: DSC_5145.JPG (Av: F10.0; Tv: 1/200 sec.; ISO: 320; FL: 75.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — She is waiting for me to turn my back

Amazingly I have just noticed these –

I don’t know if they will ripen, so I covered them in a clear plastic container to hopefully give them some shelter from the cold. We didn’t get so many strawberries last season, because “The Chickenator” got in and pretty much spent a happy hour or two digging them up and they never recovered in time for the season.

Then there are some tragic things in the garden… like the death of my tomatoes-

And moulting chickens

Screecher is looking so manky. Her feathers are slowly growing back.

Pip doing a boundary inspection

Mostly the cat and chickens pretend to ignore each other

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Hands Across The Sand

Today, worldwide, people joined hands on beaches in a bid to say we want cleaner greener energy.

Sisters Beach – saying no to drilling for oil in the Strait

BP want to drill for oil in the Bass Strait – the body of water that separates mainland Australia from Tasmania.

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They are still cleaning up their appalling mess made in the Gulf of Mexico six years ago! Billions of dollars!!

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Those beautiful beach photos that I share here with you? If there was an oil spill in the Bass Strait it would be devastating for us, marine life and bird life. We have so many more options these days – we don’t need to risk it.

Nice to be part of something that is worldwide.

My cousin and I debated the ethics of souveniring this placard… but of course did the right thing at the end of the day and returned it. (We were both thinking how great it would look in the back window of the car! 😀 ) (Mind you the Wilderness Society did give us some great stickers, so we were content with those)

Fiona continued being an awesome cousin by shouting me a cup of hot chocolate down at Boat Harbour Beach. Bliss.

Hope your weekends are brilliant!

Cheers

Friday’s Footprints – Japan: Nikko (Part 2)

Source Images: DSC_9376.JPG (Av: F13.0; Tv: 1/640 sec.; ISO: 1250; FL: 20.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Small shrine in the village

Back to Japan to continue my feature on Nikko. If you missed Part One, click here. 🙂

By the time we had finished at the World Heritage Shrines, it was getting uncomfortably crowded, so our escape was well timed. A quiet walk through small village streets was really refreshing. We kept coming across quaint shrines, or remnants of times gone by

The stone walls and streets give an old fashioned feel to the town

These stone structures were a permanent source of running water. They lined the entire street

We were heading to Kanmangafuchi Abyss. A beautiful looking walk up the gorge, that was lined with statues.

We finally reached the river… its hard to find any natural river course in Japan that hasn’t been mucked about with concrete blocks or edging.

Source Images: DSC_9383.JPG (Av: F10.0; Tv: 1/400 sec.; ISO: 500; FL: 20.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Not far from the ‘official’ start of the walk we were looking for

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We finally reached the part where the river ran a bit wilder – the gorge formed a long time ago by the eruption of nearby Mt Nantai

Source Images: DSC_9397.JPG (Av: F8.0; Tv: 1/320 sec.; ISO: 500; FL: 20.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Fabulous coloured water flowing over the old lava rock

Running along side the river are 70 of the original 100 Jizu Statues. Small effigies of the Buddhist protector of travellers and children.

Parents who worry for the health and safety of their children can make red caps for these statues and pray in return for them to watch over the young ones.

The day we were there a small community group were out cleaning up the Jizu – so this section had their caps and bibs removed

Just for scale… you can see the size of the statues with Jeff beside them

Source Images: DSC_9416.JPG (Av: F7.1; Tv: 1/200 sec.; ISO: 500; FL: 190.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — The Daiya River was running wild that afternoon, as the previous day there was a lot of rain.

A major flood swept through in the Meiji era (1868-1912) and destroyed a number of the Jizu. Their bases remain, along with some headless ones. They still sometimes retain the caps, or a small build-up of stones that people place themselves.

It really was a lovely peaceful walk. Lots of lush green and autumn colours

Source Images: DSC_9441.JPG (Av: F8.0; Tv: 1/250 sec.; ISO: 500; FL: 70.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Reaching the other end of the walk

Instead of returning the same way, we decided to do a kind of loop back through the town on the other side – just to see what we could see.

We did come across a shrine and a graveyard that was really interesting, and again, off the beaten tourist path.

Source Images: DSC_9459.JPG (Av: F5.0; Tv: 1/100 sec.; ISO: 500; FL: 70.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Shrine at the graves of the self immolation.

This place had an abandoned feel

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Amazing moss seemed to cover everything

24 graves are here. 5 were the retainers of the 3rd Tokugawa Iemitsu Shogun and 19 loyal vassals. It is said they committed ritual suicide (Seppuku) to follow their leader to the next world. (Although information is scarce it seems Iemitsu died about two months after his loyal retainers…)

Source Images: DSC_9460.JPG (Av: F5.3; Tv: 1/60 sec.; ISO: 500; FL: 200.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Graves from 1651

Solemn rows of grave markers, almost forgotten

Source Images: DSC_9486.JPG (Av: F5.0; Tv: 1/100 sec.; ISO: 500; FL: 20.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — So very different from a western graveyard

Everywhere you turned, another carving in stone

This whole afternoon away from the throng of the tourists was incredibly enjoyable. Finding forgotten places, peaceful spots and raging rivers was a highlight of our trip to Nikko.

Hope you enjoyed this glimpse.

Cheers

PS There is a legend about these Jizu – sometimes called “Ghost Jizu” because you can never count the same amount of statues on your walk up as on your walk back.

I wish I had of known about that before we went, because I would have certainly tried! 🙂

Looking for Colour on a Gloomy Day

It’s getting harder to find the little splashes of colour as the weather gets colder. Spring & Summer is a mass of colour. Now I am having to work harder at finding the leftover flowers.

So in between rainfalls, feeding chickens, stocking up on wood & forgetting to put raspberries in my banana-raspberry loaf, I went and took some photos of what colour I could find.

Salvia-Hot lips… makes me think of two ladies in dresses

The middle part of the Protea flower has gone fuzzy

The plant that produced the little fat red chillies has just started re-flowering and fruiting again!

Will I be able to make another batch of sweet chilli sauce?

There are other chillies – not many, but a few here and there

I really don’t know what this eggplant flower thinks its doing. The plant did absolutely nothing all year, now it wants to flower??

More cucumbers up and coming!

My fennel has popped up again all over the place! I love the fresh green, spindly ‘leaves’ and yellow flowers. Eating a whole little flower-head bunch is quite an aniseed shock!

There are a few Hebe’s around the place. Mostly all finished flowering.

Roll on Friday huh?

Cheers!

PS occasional extras via my facebook page!

Cooking With Ruby – Lemon Butter

Apparently this is a ‘proper’ tablespoon!! Wow

The lure of learning to make lemon butter was great. So I went back down to Ruby’s to have a go! Because of her eyesight she needs someone to help measure out the ingredients, but she is certainly comfortable around her kitchen.

Ruby’s lemon tree is a fabulous beast! It is NEVER without lemons!!

I can’t wait for my poor little lemon tree to grow up! Ruby’s tree is amazing

So you need three lemons.

First step is to put into a pot

4oz butter (125g)

1lb Sugar (500g)

1 breakfast cup of water. – (225ml or half pint according to google)

Heat ingredients

Then mix one egg with two tablespoons of plain flour (all purpose) and a smidge of water to make creamy paste.

Add the juice and zest from your three lemons into the egg/flour paste and mix well.

Add the hot mixture to the cold slowly & stirring. Then put all back into the pot over medium heat and stir constantly until mixture thickens and boils.

Was such a silky beautiful colour and mixture

(BTW at this point you are meant to panic and throw in a bit of salt – because ‘I always throw in salt into whatever I cook!’ was the answer to my worried ‘But the recipe doesn’t say salt!!’)

Heat about 4 jars in the oven to sterilise while the lemon butter is cooking.

I had a nervous few moments as I was put onto stirring detail while Ruby clambered about on a step stool looking for extra glasses in case we didn’t have enough jars!!

Without any major mishaps, we made 3 & a half jars of lemon butter. What I scraped out of the pot to try was really good and I am very keen to go make myself a piece of toast in a minute to try it now that its cooled!

Just talk among yourselves for a minute ok?

*****

Oh yes – I like that very much!!

Cheers!!

Ruby Tuesday – Fun With Newspaper

Ruby reflecting on the daily use of newspapers in earlier years

Righto! I am speed-blogging at the moment as my super-amazing-high-speed-NBN-internet connection keeps going doo-lally on me. I may or may not get this done.

Something I was talking about with Ruby the other week got my attention. When I was talking to her about things you could buy when she was young & the amenities they had, I asked what toilet paper was like (because you have to know don’t you??)

The answer?

“What toilet paper?” (There was a Ruby-Grin attached to the answer I might add)

It got me thinking a little about newspaper and its uses.

The old newspapers were cut up into roughly the size shown above and placed on a shelf in the dunny (loo – toilet – bathroom). I think I am inadvertently cringing on behalf of my bottom thinking about this. I did ask if it wasn’t a bit rough – however “That’s all you knew” so I guess they had tougher nether regions in the olden days!

The toilet was outside. Apparently there were two side by side toilets… one for adults and one for little kids. The theory was it was easier to do whatever business you had to do if your feet could be firmly planted on the ground.

There was a pan at the back that was removed and contents taken and buried. Not too far away – the less distance travelled with the contents the happier everyone felt (No-one wants to trip with a full pan do they?)

Anyway… to digress a little… I was getting right in depth on the whole newspaper thing when one of our MP’s turned up at the door to say hello. Local fellow, Brett Whitely. Doing the door knock meet & greet. (An election coming up here for those of you non-Australian readers, although I promise you, the lead up to us choosing our new Prime Minister is not half as entertaining as the lead up to the USA Presidential Race!)

Nice fellow and we enjoyed a chat plus he was good enough to stay a bit longer and answer one or two questions I had regarding some policies, so that was good!

Mr Whitely had noticed the paperwork coming through for Ruby’s upcoming 100th birthday. You get all sorts of grand birthday wishes when you turn 100! Like from the Queen for instance!!

Anyway, back to newspaper.

I am starting to use it for more things around the house. Jeff sometimes gets a nice big bag full from a workmate whose son has a paper round – the extra’s accumulate and we especially use the newspaper over winter starting the fire.

Using just the fire ash and water with a wad of newspaper, you can easily clean up the glass door of the heater.

(There was an overnight hiatus between the photos above and now. Internet came on briefly then crashed, hence Ruby Tuesday now being Ruby Wednesday)

Newspaper was the material of choice when it came to cleaning.

Cut lunches were wrapped in newspaper to take to work or school

Wrapping & packaging – it was newspaper all the way.

A visit to the butchers in earlier days would mean your meat wrapped in many many layers of newspaper to absorb the blood/juice. No plastic or ice bricks to transport it home either. (and if you had a 10 mile journey via horse and cart its possibly you didn’t get much more than sausages, just to be on the safe side. Especially in summer!)

Draw liners were a must with newspaper

The newsprint was considered hygienic – I have read a little about its ‘almost sterile properties’ (more research required)

Shelf liners too were a ‘thing’. Not only were the shelves lined, but some of the newspaper would overhang the edge, and the housewives would scallop the edges or create other fancy patterns.

My efforts really look a bit dodgy, and with a curvy mantle, I don’t think I have mastered the proper effect!! 😀

Of course, school would be no fun at the end of the year if you weren’t making miles of paper chains from newspapers to decorate for Christmas!

If you missed the earlier post you can read here how to make these nifty origami bins – once full you can compost the lot if it has food scraps.

I also once wrapped all my Christmas presents in newspaper with the addition of a fancy ribbon.

I have changed the toilet roll, just for fun. So far I haven’t had a reaction from Jeff…

If you get stuck, at least there is some good reading at hand

Hope your day is great!

Let me know if you make specific use of your newspapers & how.

Cheers

PS – I plan to go help Ruby make some lemon butter. It’s not only ticked in her recipe book but has the additional “Good” penned in, so I am expecting grand things!

Cleaning Up the Hothouse

Messy but still somewhat producing hothouse

The hothouse was really looking a bit feral. It wasn’t a bad day today – the wind had died down and we got more sun and no rain! I was actually in a t-shirt for most of it!

Its really tempting to pull up everything and make things look nice and orderly. But a couple of the tomato plants are still slowly producing ripe tomatoes. And on the very cusp of winter, who wants to stop that?

Once I had gotten a bit of space I paid a visit to my broccolini- and -possibly- mini-cabbage farm

Last season I had some wonderful broccoli in the hothouse so why not use a few of my excess plants in there?

Outside I would plant them a bit closer, but in here they are known to grow hugely! Here’s hoping

These have a good possibility of being cabbage.

This tomato I didn’t know I had. It was quietly growing in the tangle of older plants. Its really spindly but has plenty of fruit! So I tied it up and gave it a feeding (kelp juice) and watering. There is also a potato randomly growing at its feet. Have no clue why, but left it there anyway

My ‘potting bench’ had all but disappeared

Emptied pots, threw out rubbish and generally made the area a useful one again

It was too late to clear out the top corner of the ?? whatever the hell has accumulated in there ?? so I paused to admire my progress…

Then moved my sights to the raised garden bed out the back of the hothouse.

The tomato plant was still producing tomatoes, but something was eating them before I could pick them. So I picked all the rest of the unripe tomatoes and cleared out everything except the silverbeet, which the chickens enjoy snacking on.

Found some good fat worms in here!

New home for some more of the excess seedlings.

Mind you, I will probably go out tomorrow and see them all doing backstroke or dog paddling (depending on their level of swimming skills) because it is raining so hard out there tonight! I took a shower a while ago and the sound of the rain was drowning out the sound of the shower!

Mad

Happily I stuck to my rule of ‘when its not raining top up firewood at back door’ rule

Hope everyone else is keeping warm and dry!

Cheers

Sunday – A Few Vegies & Yesterdays Rock Beach

Source Images: DSC_4927.JPG (Av: F13.0; Tv: 1/1000 sec.; ISO: 800; FL: 75.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Mostly torrential rain, with a few sunbursts…

It was a good idea not going to the market again. Well… not to have a stall anyway. I did go down to buy some wheat for the chickens and chat to a few brave stallholders I know. Most people were packing up at around 10am – Potential customers mostly stayed inside at home!

Broccoli & carrot consumed at dinner tonight. I still do minimum grocery shopping.

We are still getting nice little hauls of tomatoes and other vegies, despite being half a month off winter-proper! Despite their warm mash, the chooks are half heatedly laying, but that cucumber plant deserves a medal!

This evening we might have binge watched a TV series while enjoying the cosy fire. My hand is a bit sore because I am not used to crocheting for that long all at once!

My original rug has expanded by about 3 balls of yarn

A bit wonky but I am liking it – on the plus side its keeping my knees warm as I crochet!

And I started a new rug because I wanted to look at a different colour, and being in the middle of only a couple of projects at once is for sane people. Pretty sure I have about 15 on the go and not quite finished!

Sometime I will stop being lazy and get a proper photo or two done of my projects

Anyway – time to share some of the photos from our beach fossick from yesterday that got side tracked by my Not-Quite-Ambergris story

Once over the railway line, we got down to this little rocky beach just past Penguin.

Overgrown and not a hive of human activity

Even though the rocks weren’t up to scratch compared to my favourite ‘rock beach’ there was still enough to see and admire

It was (again) the rock colours and textures that really took my fancy.

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It was clearly a penguin landing area and nesting site. Plenty of penguin splatties in evidence (their poo makes quite a splash in case anyone needed to know that) Also Jeff saw one at its burrow entrance! I missed it because I was busy playing with rocks.

Tangled undergrowth, great penguin habitat

We finished up the day sitting at the beach outlook at Penguin, scoffing hot chips and being mean to seagulls by not giving them any.

Hope your weekends have been excellent

Cheers

PS Occasional extras at my Facebook page

Beach Treasures Worth 10’s of Thousands?

So – because it wasn’t actually raining today, we drove up to Penguin to see if we could find another rock beach where we could look for more examples of jasper.

We didn’t quite find what we were looking for, but we stopped by this other little beach to see what we could fossick for.

Well, Jeff found this weird stuff

Well, I got thoroughly over-excited and thought it could possibly be ambergris! Have you ever heard of it? Basically its whale vomit or whale poo. Why exciting?? Well.. its worth about $20 per gram – the tip-top fancy perfume people use it in their processing! Not kidding.

Well… I had my collecting bags so I popped a couple in bags to bring home to research. And Holy Cats did it stink!!

The one major snag – besides the pong – is that ambergris is not allowed to be traded in Australia because we have a law that prohibits the sale of products from endangered species. And since ambergris is from sperm whales, well… its a blanket no-no. (But from what I have read, no-one has been willing to prosecute for someone picking up random whale sick)

Anyway, the trip home was epic. Jeff was all for taking a photo and leaving it at that, where as I had hatched 10 wild schemes for selling my ambergris all before we hit the front door. The car stank. It was cold, we had all windows down AND the heater going flat out! Jeff was grouchy and I was trying to explain about paying mortgages and clandestine meetings on beaches involving the swapping of whale vomit for a duffle bag stuffed with cash. (we are watching a kind of spy/espionage series at the moment and it may be rubbing off)

Sadly, even though what we found looked so much like a lot of images online, it didn’t pass the ‘hot needle’ test, and a nice fellow from New Zealand emailed me to tell me it was a kind of stinky (yeah I knew that bit) sponge. He also asked “Are you in Tasmania by any chance?” 😀 Clearly he has had people message him before all hopeful!!

Now I have to dispose of my ‘samples’ I thought it might make good compost, but the look on Jeff’s face when suggested means I will have to find a different place for it.

Far Far Away…

Cheers!

Friday’s Footprints – Rocky Cape to Sister’s Beach Hike

Source Images: DSC_2941.JPG (Av: F10.0; Tv: 1/400 sec.; ISO: 400; FL: 28.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Rocky Cape NP living up to its name

So far, after four and a half years of living here, the hike over the Sisters Hills between Rocky Cape National Park and Sisters Beach, really rates as my favourite day out. It’s not a well known, much traversed hike – more likely find local people than tourists on it – that is if you see another soul at all!

We first went because my mother was insisting that we had to do it before she fell off the twig or went all doddery on us 😀

So we got a bunch of family together –

Ranging from kids up to 70 something, off we went! Packed picnics, water bottles – and jackets etc, because even though it was summer this is Tasmania & it does weird things with the weather

Firstly you have to go up a bit…

Once we got a bit of height the views started getting pretty good.

Sometimes it got a bit swampy

I wonder who dragged a plank all the way up there for our convenience?

Hikers stretched along the invisible trail

Tiny flowers bloomed along the path

Family snap – my Mum in the middle, with cousins Ann & Fiona

Suddenly we found ourselves overlooking an amazing rocky shore landscape – which was phase two of the hike!

I always feel there should be some sort of dinosaur lurking in here

We got down to the bottom where there was a unanimous decision to break out lunch and sit down for a while.

Should have brought cushions, but regardless… lunch tasted wonderful!

Sated, we all started the long, and at times challenging scramble over the rocky landscape

Often getting to each little cove, meant a hike up into the bush again to then come back down to the shore

Soft sinking rocks on the beach, followed by scrambling up and over rocks

The colour and formation of the rocky shores were fabulous – but presented a reasonable challenge to cross at times

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When we reached little sandy beaches it was quite a relief on the feet – the sun even came out once or twice!

The beaches were full of shells, coral, rocks & seaweed to fossick through

Source Images: DSC_2851.JPG (Av: F6.3; Tv: 1/1000 sec.; ISO: 400; FL: 20.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — I love collecting beach treasures

The landscape is pretty wild looking to me

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But so beautiful

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Source Images: DSC_2951.JPG (Av: F11.0; Tv: 1/400 sec.; ISO: 400; FL: 40.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Fabulous colours & textures both in the water and rocks

When we reached this point overlooking the beautiful long stretch of beach, we were all very keen to get down there and take our shoes off

Hiking across those sands was a dream after a few hours on the rocks!

A final walk past and over rocks…

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Seriously – after several hours of hiking over rough terrain a walk that seemed straight up was a bit mean!!

Once at the top it was brilliant to look back over our footsteps and see where we started way off in the distance.

So – if you come to visit, pack your hiking boots and raincoat – we’ll probably drag you along on this adventure!

Cheers!