Month: April 2024

The other weekend, Maureen and I went over to the Emu valley Rhododendron gardens for their autumn festival and got to set up in the gazebo by the pond!
Such a beautiful day!

Maureen had all her jams and relishes, aprons and other lovely sewn goods and the scarves her husband, Gerry crocheted!

We also had a table of Gerry’s amazing willow baskets!

Naturally… I had some soap!

It was a bit of an effort getting all the stock and tables down to the spot but it was the best place!
Luckily my cousin Leonie came along for the morning and it was so good to have her help!

Its nice having a big space to spread out our wares!

The weather was perfect and we met lots of really nice people!

Back to my garden, I took some time to clear out and tidy a couple of plots

This was meant to be beetroot!! But the carrots self seeded and I just never got back to control ANYTHING!

Some of the more creative carrots

This is the lamest beetroot harvest I have ever had!!

The carrot flowers were keeping the bees busy

Some nice parsley plants that I never planted… so I left them alone.

Cleared!

I have used half this bed to replant beetroot seeds so we shall see if anything comes of that. I’ve promised them I will keep them carrot free.

The tomatoes are soldiering on!
Was time to weed (ok … waaaaay past time) and retie the plants.
The weather is colder but no frosts as yet so leaving the plants to get the last of the tomatoes

We’ve enjoyed having a decent lot of tomatoes this season.
Have well stocked up on sauces and relish!

And… looking lots better!

While I was at it, I collected some basil seeds as well.

I was super keen to keep up and attack more plots…
But I seem to have some big soap orders from some local places. Which means being a little soap frantic again.
Shops also mean regular (hopefully) orders. So its not just a ‘get the soap made and walk away’ kind of thing.
Hopefully it will go ok. My biggest challenge now is olive oil prices which are heart stopping and also continuing to rise!
I have started experimenting with other oils to help but thats a long process. I need to have a mix that doesn’t thicken up quickly so I can do the designs which is what people come to me for mostly.

Jeff bought me these super cool moulds for my bday and I was experimenting dusting with mica… I need practice haha
But… they are fabulously detailed so I might do them as a special soap in a box.
I was also given from our friend Yuri these cute Buddha moulds!!
I am going to present them as a pair in a box.
Still hoping to have soap time to just experiment on stuff rather than churning it out!!
In the back of my mind I feel fairly guilty about that lack of housework thing…
Oh well!
Hope everyone is doing wonderfully!
xx

Hello!
We are well into autumn and on our way to winter again!
I’ve squeezed in some time and motivation to process a few more tomatoes!
It will be sad when they are finished for the season.
We are still getting rather nice days, although the nights have cooled considerably!

Here are some dodgy pics of my dodgy garden out the back.
I did get out and worked on it a bit before getting sidetracked into something else… so its still unfinished!

I have had another couple of local markets – workshop upcoming next weekend, but I’ve consulted my diary and I seem to have time this week to share between the garden and getting some more soap done (yah… the housework isn’t on the list.)

I guess this was a start!

Anyway…
Do you recall me making a whole heap of unsubtle suggestions to Jeff while I was in Japan about wisteria trellises along with helpful photos?
Of course. Nothing had eventuated.
It was my birthday the other weekend so I called dibs on what I wanted to do for the day.

The site of my wisteria trellis!
First up… fence and gate removal.
Jeff easily popped the gate off and we figured we’d have the fence part out fairly smartly so we could put in the uprights for the trellis

Best laid plans and all of that…

OK…we knew the poles were cemented in.
And it wiggled about but was not going to come up at all.
We detached the wooden panels once we realised it wasn’t going to just pull up as one unit.
The pole nearest the fence came out after with not too many issues.

But this one???!!!
I thought we were going to hit the water table! It wiggled back and forth, and around but we couldn’t budge it upwards.

One has to ask what the previous owners were trying to keep in with a fence so firmly placed!! We had thought ducks… but this is overkill for ducks. Even mean ducks.

This is Jeff trying not to have a tanty because its my birthday and would ruin the vibe…
BTW the angle grinder wouldn’t put a dent in that pole, so that idea got abandoned.

It got to the point where I couldn’t reach the bottom as my arms were too short!
Jeff got a long screwdriver and started hacking away at the dirt around the pole to loosen it more… AND HIT MORE CONCRETE!!
Some miserable, obnoxious, insane, ridiculous person in a fit of overkill had also cemented it deep underground… which explained why we couldn’t pull it up!
I can’t tell you all the swear words.
So I grabbed a steel dropper and a sledge hammer and smashed it into the bottom layer of concrete. (I admit it was satisfying)
FINALLY we got it up!!

The whole operation took so long!
But with all that out of the way, we then spent a bit more time untangling the wisteria from a pallet (more destruction, hammers and crowbars) and then I could start making new holes for my trellis!

Does anyone else do stupid things like this by choice for their birthdays?

Look! Two new holes!!
No cement this time though.

Choosing the least cruddy lengths of macrocarpa.

We didn’t get nearly as far as I planned/hoped but it was enough to get the feel of what I was after so that was good.
Plus we needed to clean up as I was keen to go out to dinner!

I figured I’d come back each day and dig one more hole so it didn’t end up taking a millennium to finish the project.
I got back the next day after a hike to dig a hole and put another post in (I figured I was already sweaty so I might as well continue doing something physical before having a shower!)
Then a few days later I did the same but got over enthused and dug the last three holes and Jeff got all the cross bars attached (The timber for those was a bit wonky but I trust the wisteria will cover that in due course)

I am rather excited! Really taking shape!

Now… I need to schedule myself in a new day of work to crisscross the bamboo across the top and then untangle the wisteria from the chook run and encourage it over its new home!
Tomorrow has to be a soap day, but I am keen to get this finished this week.
Hope everyone is doing fantastically well
xx