Rusty on the leash while Jude and I work in her yard… Something about trying to eat the rake, the shovel, the wheelbarrow and sticking his tongue in your ear. Rather slows the work process! (Still cute tho)
I did a bunch of weeding and Jude made an excellent start on clearing the driveway of grass.
Back home… We had the extra unwanted challenge of our house pump dying.
I didn’t take a photo of the nice shiny new one. Of course it died on a Sunday. We just survived until Monday when the fellow came out and pronounced it properly dead. RIP Pump and RIP wallet. (The bill hasn’t come in but… sigh) Rates also came in. Double Sigh. Be nice if these things paced themselves out a bit hey? Not all at once!
Thursday turned out unexpectedly nice – we took to the hills for a hike around Blanfordia Hill.
This view never gets old!
The forecast had predicted doom & gloom with a lot of wind and rain.
We packed the wet weather gear expecting the worst and had a gorgeous couple of hours walking.
Hello! (Wow… clearly bright and sunny!!)
So much… up!
We walked up the tough way first, then came back down Blanfordia enjoying the superb views
Not bad at all!
And just a quick sneaky look at a soap I cut this morning. A slightly new version of the Christmas tree in snow. Usually I’d just do snow sprinkles in a grey background. This looks way more dramatic! Enjoy the rest of the weekend xx
Still not excessively winter like although we have a few days of rain supposedly coming up!
Out at Judes place yesterday helping clear more spots, wrestling blackberries and lighting fires. Always a good day! Came home with some cuttings and food!
10 photos of Rusty… one without his head blurred!!
Today we spent a little time outside stacking wood. I bring home wood from Judes, some is green and some burnable. It needed to be all in their proper places!
I also planted some hydrangea cuttings out the front where we cut back the tree-bushes!
There are still a few flowers around
Ive forgotten the name of this sweet little blue flower (also plants from Judes!) They were put in so small and are now spreading around. Unfortunately the onion weed is going crazy. I spent some time pulling a few out but it needs a concentrated effort.
And the flowers are pretty… so I left some for the second.
I love the Hellebores!
Pics are a result of me randomly aiming my tablet down low.
I finished another long row of crocheting the rug together: One more long length to go and I can start on the short lengths!
I best mosey off to bed! Basket weaving tomorrow. Looking forward to my coffee and buns and getting a bit further on this basket! Have a lovely weekend everyone
Hello there! Early attempt at keeping up to date better! Above is the view from the Somerset Surf Life Savings Club where basket weaving is now held! How good is that? Last Friday we were all out on the balcony because there were whales frolicking about out there. Sadly, I had my tablet only so the pics really didn’t show them at all. Still… its nice to show you our view!
We got a Bok Bok Box… Well… its called something boring like a chicken feeder. I like to say Bok Bok Box out loud. Jeff just gives me a … look. haha Anyway, the treadle when stepped upon opens the lid so the chooks can get to the food.
They are in training with it at the moment. Its set so its mostly open but when they step on it the lid moves up a bit. At first they all just took off in horror! They are getting braver, and the small movement isn’t bothering them as much. They can sit in the coop area with it tomorrow morning for a while to get more familiar with it. I’ll lower the setting again so its almost shut so the lid movement is more dramatic. Hopefully it wont take long for them to master it and their fears! We have been losing SO MUCH feed to the wild birds. So if we can get the chooks eating out of it properly, we will save a lot of $$
Speaking of the precious poppets… I’ve been letting them roam up the house end of the yard later in the afternoons. They get so excited to go through the gate.
The garlic!
I got keen and dug up the rest of the oca. (Starchy winter veggie according to google) I just learned you can eat them raw like a carrot! I must try it. Mostly I just bake them with the other veggies
Some stray potatoes that are now in my tummy!
Well… its been 12 or so years but the little lemon tree, after three replants, has finally done itself proud with lots of lemons!!!
Our new friend Benyu. I don’t have a photo of his fiance Rachael, but they are a lovely young couple, travelling around Australia with their caravan and house sitting here and there. Benyu did our skylight. They went to basket weaving and a few other classes at Farm it Forward Tasmania which is where I met them This is Benyu entertaining the masses at the twilight market in Wynyard!
Last weekends class soap pics!
The ladies had fun! I only had three but it was a good class. I got my last participant because I was on breakfast radio talking about soap! (How I managed to string a sentence together at 7.30am is beyond me haha)
hmmm – thats the link! Fast forward to the 1hr:45 mark if you want to listen to me stumbling though an interview!!
A better picture of the demo soap
We popped back down to Oldina for a hike!
Most of the tracks are nice and muddy – lots of puddles since we had a little rain recently!
And checking out whats left of the various fungi!
And whats life without 35 projects on the go? This collection of willow pattern granny squares was done quite some time ago… I am talking years now I think! Clearly I saw something shiny and got distracted Anyway, my best friends daughter turned 18! So I thought I would put it together and she can have a car or a couch ruggie!
I am nearly through attaching the third row tonight!
Thats about all… I think I will head back to the fire to complete the row then play some random game before bed! xxx (Below – the bulbs I put into the stump have well and truly popped up!! Mid winter!! Shows how off the weather is! At some point I’ll find something for the little pot!)
Hi! I know I know… I absolutely am not on top of anything resembling organisation or consistency! I hope everyone is doing well. Its been super icy cold… clear skies and frosty frosty mornings
Our current neighbours dont seem too bothered. Mind you… they are the noisiest bunch of cows we’ve ever had down the back. Once they spot you in the yard, they all start bellowing at the top of their lungs and come stampeding over to stare at you! Hilarious.
So… I just uploaded a bunch of photos,
I get out to Judes about once a week to work with her in her gardens and property. She feeds me awesome lunches and we do random jobs. Sometimes clearing leaves and making leaf mould compost and just using the leaves as garden compost, sometimes moving rocks. Other times rediscovering pathways and clearing gardens!
Last couple of visits we had been working on this pathway which had all but disappeared. Very satisfying to unearth it.
In the garden on the left, Jude dug up this horrifying monster. Its an Australian Paralysis Tick!! Obviously it must be full of blood but we didn’t recognise it as a tick at first because… HUGE!
Our garden has so much work to be done in it! Every now and again I prioritise fixing up a section, but its pretty slow going.
The last time I cleaned the chook coop, I made some better steps for Gympie. Now they all happily use their new steps. Although its going to be a pain to take out and clean with the next coop spruce up. I’ll have to think of something better but for now, Gymp. can get up to her spot without the agony of me watching her try to half fly and fall because she didn’t like the last arrangement of log steps!
A few weeks ago I finally put in a garlic patch! The garlic was jumping out of its skin trying to grow in the box. Now I am procrastinating about cutting up the rest to make garlic salt!
They have liked the frosts… this pic was just before they went in (so I am not even sure why I am posting this haha) but I checked them today and they are all up a couple of inches or so high already.
Frosty nasturtiums
Frosty calendulas
And yay for slack gardening skills letting the rocket go to seed… as I have a nice patch to collect fresh leaves from!
Another bigger thing we got done was the skylight! Our old one was pretty much on par with a colander. The leaks went from a one container affair to an 8 bucket event! A friend did the work for us… pulled out the old one (it was dreadful!) and we ordered a new one – double glazed! The roof was covered back over while we waited for the new skylight to come in and it was so nice not to have it raining in the dining room. Benyu did a great job fitting the new one in – considering the mismatching size of hole vs new skylight! He has also left it so we can look up to the sky instead of the old perspex that was in the ceiling.
Mind you… overall its been worryingly dry. Autumn had hardly a drop! Even now, at winters halfway mark, very little rain has fallen.
On the soapy front… I have been trying to stock up. I’ve quit Arty Duck. It was good to have my soap there, but I was finding it stressful to have to spend a whole day over in Smithton – plus the $$ to drive the hour there and hour back. With the insane prices of olive oil as well, my margins are a bit slim. Since the sales weren’t super huge, I just decided to step back from that one.
(Above Golden Honeycomb and the three layered soap is pineapple and papaya (divine)) I am supplying a couple of more local places which is enough. No more markets booked in at the moment, but mostly doing a workshop each month. And I changed my recipe so I am not having to re mortgage the house to buy the ingredients. The new recipe cuts way back on olive oil, increases coconut oil and I’ve added in both rice bran and sunflower oils.
And yes… I’ve had to start making my Christmas soaps! Have I mentioned we are booked to return to Japan? This time I am taking Jeff! I have used all the soap $$ I got from the Cruise Ship Markets to get us the tickets back. We are booked to leave mid October and wont be back until end of November. We have mostly planned to go to more rural areas to do hiking here and there! Its been fun researching. Of course we will spend some time in the usual areas as thats where a lot of our lovely friends are so we are looking forward to catching up.
Our friend Rachel is coming along, so we have been talking a lot about plans. She is also now friends with a bunch of my Japanese friends – So I am sure its all going to be quite memorable.
Over the next three months, I’ll pre book any markets that I know are upcoming and have my soap stocks up to scratch so I am not the maniac I was over last summer.
Definitely need to do this design again… a Nautilus swirl. I did it as a demo for a workshop. Mind you. It was my first try ever!! (living on the edge doing it in front of students haha)
I absolutely LOVE how it turned out so I am super keen to do some more.
OK… what else on the craft front? Above was just a sampler as I saw another lady at basket weaving do this crochet pattern…and weaving in a chain stitch into the double crochet gaps! Filing this idea away in my brain for a later project…
I attended a card making workshop… that was a lovely afternoon. Farm it Forward Tasmania has a ton of papers and whatnots to do such great cards and a very nice lady guided us through.
There was only two of us – but look at all the pretty cards that were made! Mine were the red ones and my friend Michelle did the blue ones.
My friend Kazz ran her first workshop – to make Elf Ear Jewellery… so I had to go along to that! (Who doesn’t need elven ears?) Its a slow process… esp if you haven’t done wire work. But it was fun to do. We all managed to get one ear done. I have the stuff to make my second one when I get a chance! I loved it though!
And basket weaving! I am a bit strict with myself to set aside Friday Mornings to trot along to weaving. Its a real treat. Someone brings you a cuppa, and there are buns and cakes etc! A whole big bunch of really creative friendly people attend, so I get my social fix for the week! At the moment I am working on this ambitious project. I found the vine like wood at Judes while we were cleaning up something. I couldn’t bear to throw it on the bonfire so it came home with me. I’ve twisted up the top and handle, then have worked from the top down with the flax. (Usually everyone works from the bottom up.) So… its just evolving slowly but I am loving the look of it so far! It just takes SO long to do a lap around!! Mostly I’ve only had the time to work on it Friday mornings… while I am not eating or talking! Hence the … slow.
OK… That is about all thats going on… besides hiking so I have some chance of not cracking up on all the planned Japan hikes!
Stay cool if you are in summer and stay warm if you are in winter!
