Hello! Today is pouring torrential rain and a bit windy too! Indoor day I reckon. So pleased to see this colour iris popping out! I originally got the rhizomes from Ruby and glad to see them again… the iris after moving them didn’t do much the first season.
The patch is so lovely now! (Ahem…. not so much the patch between the iris and the house !!)
Wondering if I should get out there and snick a heap off for a vase since the wind isn’t being kind
The white were the last to appear
We might get a few apples… the last remaining tree is pretty sad actually but one side has a good amount of blossoms so fingers crossed.
No need for too much blather on my part… just some photos 🙂
Sage
Oodles of blossoms…
We’ve had some lovely days recently… So we’ve been in the garden – Pip too
And while I was on the ground getting head-butted by a cat, I took a snap of the cape weed.
A few sweet pea plants have self seeded so I’m really happy about that too!
And what better place to pop them but in a cute little cup, hand made by my sister? Hope you are all having a lovely week Cheers!
I am still going to basket weaving on Friday mornings. I really enjoy meeting the ladies at the centre and generally socialising – with a cuppa and something to eat and some weaving as well! I made another lily last Friday so I could remind myself of the technique and also continued to twist my flax into a cord which is getting nice and long. One day I might turn it into a basket!
I cut some more soap..
The sprinkle soap turned out pretty – I used the rose-geranium essential oil as it sold very well at the last market And also sliced up the black raspberry and vanilla soap too – despite the oopsie in colour mixing I like it a lot
Leftover mixture…
More black raspberry and vanilla soaps that I unmoulded today… I have an order for three butterfly soaps and a horse:
And all the offcuts from the coloured soap I cut up into rough square shapes and mixed back into a plain white ‘batter’ (using the same fragrance, Lemongrass and Exotic Lime) Waste not want not? Makes me think of nougat!!
I went for a lovely walk today… one I hadn’t done before so when I get my act together I’ll share. It was a lovely day and every step of the way I feel rather lucky to be living in this area!!
Hello… Since Christmas is creeping over the horizon, and soap takes about a month to cure… I thought to get into a bit of a soap making session. Above are the last batch of Christmas tree soaps for one of the local shops.
Sharon dropped off the other soaps from our last workshop and I took them all into a local shop for people to collect
This was lovely… soft greens with a scrub
Coffee! And two tone!
This grey and saffron turned out pretty
So did the bee soap!
I am sure they are all going to be really happy with their soaps!
So… what soaps have I put together? Some stock standard ones that sell well… Eucalyptus and beach sand hand scrub – two batches
Cedar and Saffron… three batches!
Today I did another confetti soap.. looking forward to cutting it. There is a layer of pink on the bottom and I’ve used the rose and geranium essential oil, since that one sold so well last weekend
I also did a black raspberry and vanilla loaf… but muffed up the colours lol. Bit too much black.
Then… whats on the inside??
So pleased with this technique! It worked!
Super keen to try more raindrops!
Then there was this epic effort/experiment
Underwhelming from the top??
Sneak peek…
The slab mould tasks one and a half times the mixture… so I divided that into 6 and made 6 separate batches… letting each one set up a bit so I would get even layers
I learned that one should not leave it too long between each layer – I had dinner between the pink and purple layer and it wants to part company from the rest of the soap.
Oh the cutting 🙁 I had to use a knife as my cheese cutter is too small.
I am going to have to make a bigger wire cutter for occasions like this
So… once I had it cut down the middle I could use the cheese cutter to tidy things up. There is a bit of wastage but I am planning to cube all the bold colours and drop them back into another soap.
Final result? Pretty great! (Lemongrass and Exotic Lime fragrance) Would I do it again? Maaayyybeee?? (It was an all day up until 1am kind of effort in between everything else so…)
Hey look!! The cherry blossom tree has burst into fluff!! I am sure I will be taking a stack more photos… when its not raining and windy..
Its the most beautiful tree in spring!
Okies… soap stuff… A few things happening. Sharon and I had another ‘in town’ workshop that went really well. 6 people came along. There was meant to be 8 but had two no shows. We hung about waiting then sent a message – they got back to say someone was sick and they weren’t coming! Sigh. Would probably be better manners to let people know. So we started the class a little late. But it was a fun bunch and we did some creative soaps I brought home the loaf ones to cut
Sprinkles!
So cute!
Activated charcoal and saffron powder
A lovely drop swirl… and the fragrance was a mix called the ‘Thieves Oil’ The student had brought her own essential oil mix and told us the story of the mix which was interesting – Grave robbers during the bubonic plague in the 14th century used this mix to ward off the disease. I had a quick google and there are a few different versions. I like the final fragrance!
And of course I got to show off doing a demo or two. The cut loaf I can’t show you because one student decided she wanted to buy the whole thing! Who am I to argue?? Wish I had a photo… it was so pretty! (Leftover mixture made these:)
The black raspberry and vanilla fragrance is so popular. I need to make a bunch of soaps this week… its high on my list!
Then making the demo design..
Love the blues in this!
The bottom is really wing-like
All cut. Very keen to do this kind of colour combo again.
While I am on soap… I had a market stall at the Rhododendron Gardens on Saturday – their spring festival! I sold a ton of soap! Lots of people were there and people that hadn’t really seen my work – and I was able to have a bigger display too! And while on the selling topic… I sent my parents a box full and I think all of it has sold within their retirement village!! So I need to go pack another box for them! Yay!
I got into the garden for a bit yesterday… these poor tomato plants getting quite leggy! I put three into the hothouse and 10 into the outside garden.
I planted them quite deep – up to about where that stick is
Outside I’ve covered them up for the nights as they are not hardened off
Today I lost two!!! Between uncovering, going for a walk and returning! Blackbirds I think. Will have to keep covered or net or something annoying while they are getting established
Mostly they wilted, but today most of them had perked back up
Also a lot of little seedlings in the snow pea patch… so dug a few up and popped them in the dedicated tomato patch
So tiny compared to the others!
Garlic doing well… and all the potatoes are up!!
The weeds growing well here… so attended that and popped in some beetroot seeds! I’ve sadly and tragically run out of pickled beetroot so.. time to work on making more!
The one remaining lettuce that I didn’t kill from the three punnets is looking quite good.
Will be able to harvest leaves soon!
Well… thats about updated. Hope everyone’s week has started really well!
Hello there! Goodness the days are just speeding by! Among this and that, another photo challenge has been done… I’ve done my bit but as usual there are stragglers so the 10 days turns into a month!
The first subject was PINK AND ORANGE. My idea was to just have an obnoxious colour combination. I found that a challenge as I have very little pink in my life!! Funnily enough, the album is gorgeous. I certainly didn’t appreciate how GREAT these colours can look together!!
Second subject, UPSIDE DOWN
So I went out and lay upside down on the grass with my camera until Flossie came ‘bok bok bokking along’ This made me laugh
I put more effort into the third subject, SMOKE, where I spent a very pleasant hour playing around with incense
Neat huh?
Then to lighten up the mood… I threw in the subject TOILET PAPER for the fourth subject. The photos range from artistic, to clever – right up to hilarious.
Jeff walked out after waking up (sleeping off a nightshift) all bleary eyed confronted with this in his lounge room… haha. Took him a few moments of ‘what the?’ before he remembered there was a challenge on.
Day five we’ve returned to the classic BLACK AND WHITE
Day six – FIFTEEN… People came up with all sorts of things. I ran about the yard making it look messier than it was! (At least I had lots of materials to work with!)
Day six, FORK/S And there are some brilliant photos in this one… who knew a fork could look so fabulous?
Day seven- MINIMALIST.
It was nice of Tasmania to co-operate by providing sun and a blue sky!
Day eight… TEN (or more) OBJECTS OF THE SAME COLOUR
Set myself up a little cabinet of green curiosities! Overall this album is really attractive!!
And Day ten>>?? Vogue. Since Jeff refused point blank to strut up and down with makeup on for me (spoil sport) I had to torture the cat instead…
Ahhhh Pip… so precious! Naturally I wanted to set him up on a little catwalk outside… but spring being spring, as soon as I was ready to do that – the heavens opened and it poured rain! The old chair had to be plan B
Pip was pretty reluctant early on. First he stood like a broken down carthorse… Then he spent time deliberately looking away –
Then he basically gave up and acted like an aloof statue while I got on with it and he suffered in Siamese Silence!! And yes, he did get treats and cuddles afterwards!
Anyway, thats that! Hope everyone has had a great start to their week! Cheers
We have a feathery stalker! This Superb Fairy-Wren (we just call them blue wrens), has been at every window for weeks. If you are in a room… tip tap tap and there he is. He is in love with his reflection… and he is a little poo-machine too! haha EVEN IN MY GUMBOOTS!! He has taken to preening himself in our cars rear view mirrors too, which isn’t pleasing Jeff so much. That one tiny bird can poo so much!! Lucky he is totally adorable!
We really haven’t been working all that much in the yard, but clean up is happening here and there
Jeff started a fire and I continued it after he went to bed…
Honestly… is there a difference??
Anyway, fires are fun out the back.
Slowly sorting and cutting and stacking…
A delegation of chooks…
Still getting odds and sods from the garden… this went into soup.
Tomatoes are even bigger than the photo I posted the other day!! Time to get them into their forever homes
The pear tree is bursting with blossoms!
I don’t really want to do it but the whole carrot patch should come out to make way for the new plantings… Hmmm… maybe for now just do half of it…
The early iris always catches me by surprise. Suddenly there is a burst of colour
The plums are developing nicely. Fingers crossed for some warmth and a good fruiting season!
Its raining out there tonight again. I’ve seen some potatoes popping up which is good… and I noticed the snow peas looking a bit ragged so I’ve put down some of those iron pellets in the hope to thwart the snails. Otherwise I’ll have to go and cover all the plants which would be a pain.
Hey there! Things always seem to be happening… The council put out a local catalogue with events happening in spring so people would start getting out and about. Sharon and I had two special soap workshops done in town (One done, one yet to do) and an extra workshop at her place yesterday.
I also volunteered to do a couple of guided walks over in the Sisters Hills/Rocky Cape area. I had my first one on Saturday.
Just a small ‘group’ – a couple of nice ladies who lived locally but had never done this walk before… and a gentleman who (believe it or not) went to school with my mother!! Small world. He even had a class photo of them that he sent me! Terry grew up in the area and spent a lot of time down at Anniversary Bay but happily had never been up the track I started out on or seen the Wet Cave so it was nice I was able to introduce him to something new!
The entrance always looks a bit iffy
The ladies weren’t game enough to come in! (It does look spooky)
It was actually a fairly nice day – it drizzled for about half of the walk, then dried up. Without the wind it actually got quite muggy
The old banksia trees!
A bit grey but the views were still nice
Eventually we got down to the shore
Time for a bit of a fossick about
And a sit down just to enjoy the peace!
The ocean was so calm
Seaside life
As we came out of the bush track onto the beach there was a large family who had been walking around the area… but from there on in… no people as usual
(Except us)
Time to go inland up that horrible hill and hope everyone didn’t hate me for it
Puff puff… everyone did it fine! But we did sit down for some lunch/snack and enjoyed the views… until the leeches marched in!! Then there was a bit of a hurry to get to our feet and move on!!
Quite pretty in an ‘ew’ kind of way
Once up the last lot of hills, we looked back to the weather that was chasing us
The last part of the track is rather nice… just meanders back down to the car park
Parts of the track were really boggy…
They airlifted in materials about 4 years ago to work on the track… all still sitting there in a pile. 🙁
Grouchy looking weather! But the little wildflowers were pretty
Getting back to civilisation again!
Just before heading down the numerous steps to finish off, an echidna was discovered on the side of the path, digging up ants and bugs!! He/she didn’t seem too worried about us and even put his nose back out for the photos! I adore them! Furry spikey funny things!
We were out about 4 hours – and everyone really enjoyed themselves which was great! I hope I have a few more people booking in for the next walk over to Cathedral Rocks later in the month!!
