Author: Lisa

Hello hello!!
So sorry… I keep trying to get back into the swing of blogging daily, but I am just not sure what has happened to my motivation!! (A question my garden is asking frequently!)
Shocker!
Anyways, last week we got out to do a loop.

We’ve been hiking the river track almost daily which has been great. Usually we do a double lap (12km) so I am sure that is doing us some good.
Jeff has taken to lugging his pack about, stuffed with things to help burn more calories.
I am happier just carrying ME!

I’ve missed coming along this track

Maybe I can convince Jeff to go back there tomorrow for our hike… the legs got a much bigger challenge on the hills

The day turned out pretty nice after a dodgy start.
Perfect for hiking

My usual fascination with the rocks

So cool

The tide was reasonably low so there was plenty of beach to stride across

Not much in the way of sand art that day…

Looks inviting…

Recently there was a big run from Stanley to Wynyard – 101kms! You can do teams or solo and you can do 25, 50, 75 or 101kms.
I was all fired keen to do the 50 but entries were full by the time I remembered about it.
Its called Gone Nuts, because it starts at ‘The Nut’ in Stanley.

My amazing friend Nardia, who has appeared in one of my hiking posts, did the full 101km solo!! It was a 6am start and she got into Wynyard at 3am!!!
I am in awe!!
The course goes through the parks, across beaches and through private property.
This section of track off the beach got hugely slashed for the event

We were pretty surprised actually… this is a National Park. This track is usually one vehicle width wide.
And then they slashed out several parking/turning bays

You can see the water station that had been left – although I am sure someone has collected all that by now.
But as you can see, thats a LOT of vegetation to cut back in a NP
We’ve not seen that done in previous years. Just some branch trimming along the narrower tracks.

And here we go… about to tackle ‘Bastard Hill’ for the first time in a while.
I don’t think the photo grasps how steep this terrible stretch is haha (BTW that name is what we call it. No idea if it has a real name but its a killer little stretch)

Time to stop and hyperventilate admire the view!

Two more significant stretches of ‘up’ and we were on the lovely undulating path home!

I have more news, Pip updates and soap photos and promise (Solemnly PROMISE) to return tomorrow with more!!

Hope your week has been great!
Cheers

Hello Hello!!
Just a quick soapy post as I was quite chuffed with my experimental efforts today.

I am getting things together as there is meant to be a market on Saturday (weather doesn’t look great tho)(Hopefully I can have an indoor spot if its soggy)

My sister Rosemary, sent me a few extra ceramic soap dishes that she made – so I am going to put them up at the market as a set for sale and see how we go!
I crocheted a length of cotton to tie them together…

I think a neat look! They are such beautiful dishes!

Anyway, onto experiment one…

Ombre – (graduation of colour tones)
I saw something on youtube how to do this so I thought I’d give it a go!

I also put in a bunny embed and I am really pleased with how the colour turned out for my first go! (Wasabi Fragrance)
Basically I split my soap mix into two – made one dark green and the other yellow… I would pour a bit of green in, then I would mix the yellow into the green before pouring again… so each time I poured in the mixture, it was getting lighter and heading towards yellow. (Did that make ANY sense?)
Can’t wait to try this with other colours. I am super keen!

The next experiment involved pre making a batch of soap to cut into shapes/lengths

Just straight colours, nothing fancy.
Then cut them into thin slices or pillars

Then… tried to stand them up in random places in the loaf mould while pouring each side with two different colours…
I ended up with a mess haha

I admit this didn’t look attractive… but…

Pretty excited about how the final product turned out once I lopped the top off and cut through! Each section was different of course.
I have enough shapes left to do another batch or two as well
This was definitely a fun one to put together…

Hope your week has been going well
Cheers!

Its a long week for everyone.
I’ve had Pip out of his collar as much as possible… supervised washing as long as he didn’t go near his delicate parts.
Needless to say he doesn’t appreciate me doing that job.
Currently on my lap… but the fire is on and his towel is re-warming up so I can wrap him up in it again when I have to get up from here.

I like doing the swirls in my new slab mould.

The colours worked out a lot more subtle than planned but I still like it.
This is the lemongrass essential oil

Using essential oils is problematic as most don’t really ‘hold’
I had gotten some more inexpensive essential oil – orange and was keen to try it out

Happily the fragrance stuck, but the new orange liquid dye disappeared!
Damn.

Pretty disappointing when I cut it
So… I tried again with another brand – brites… and yes, colour held but to be honest… I don’t really like it!!
Its not hideous, but… just not my thing
I think next time I use the orange I’ll use the saffron powder as that goes a more natural orange

Oh well… Its good to have an experiment

An old favourite fragrance.. Rustic wood and rum! It takes a while for the fragrance to calm down (starts out uncomfortably strong)
Bit of a mix with some madder root powder which gives a shortcake pink (is that a thing?) and the brown mixed in… odd but I quite like it.
Currently this is curing away from all the other soaps.

I’ve got two markets coming up. (weather depending)
The one at Elliot is on the 13th and I have enough nice new stuff to have a lovely stall.
The other one is back at the rhododendron gardens on the 17th April so I have time to make a bunch of soaps in the next couple of weeks that will also be ready for sale (Must dust off my motivation and get cracking)

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend!
Cheers
(My dahlias in my sister, Rosemary’s gorgeous vase)

Hello! Look at us!! Stampeded into March so now we are in Autumn!
And yes.. I put the fire on.
My hopes for any tomatoes ripening are starting to plummet.

Pip update… back at the vets today as he really wasn’t getting better. So stressful… (Glad I didn’t have kids if this is the way I act around a cat with a bottom problem haha)(I’d need to be hospitalised!)

Anyway, they gave him a heavy sedative so they could look at what was going on properly without fear of being shredded – still found nothing obvious, but with the tests and scans at least everything there is looking fine (Bladder, kidneys, infections etc)

So… we will keep the cone on properly and only off if we are watching him closely. He was given an antibiotic as well, plus we have a kind of a wash thing I have to do to his penis area twice a day.
The fun never stops here!! I managed the wash this evening without too many dramas but he is still groggy so tomorrow should be a bundle of fun.

Anyway, here is Pip helping to keep the doorway upright!!

Did a hopeful round of the garden for any tomato that looked slightly ripe

Not bad… but most of these came from the self seeded plants out the back here rather than the proper plots

Thyme… plus a bunch of basil and oregano for the spag.bol sauce I made today!
Yummo

The wind is going crazy – lots of pears falling before their time. They do stress ripen a bit so will try some tomorrow

Started cleaning up the garlic the other day:

Its fun for the first little while, but then my brain gets bored… might have to put a movie or audio book on outside and listen while cleaning up.

Looking (and smelling) lovely

I already have orders for seed garlic!

I went for a drive with Sharon and family this afternoon – they have some of their cows on this amazing property and Clarabelle (I think) just gave birth to a calf!!

We found the cows and Hamish the Highland Bull, but no calf…
So there was a lot of frantic paddock and bushwalking (me in crocs haha) to locate the tiny Moo

Hamish on his way over to see what we were doing

Paul finally found her (discovered she was a girl… only 24 hours old) tucked up under a tree in shelter. Mum came over and herded her baby away.

Hamish up closer…

Tiny Baby Moo far far away. Hopefully in the near future they will go back to Sharon and Pauls place and I will be able to have a cuddle.

Hamish being all posey… Such a handsome fellow

I should have known a short trip down the road with Sharon and Paul wouldn’t be boring! Totally got my exercise in today traipsing about looking for a baby cow! 😀

Lottie!! Such a little farm kid in her element!!

Next time I’ll arrange the sun to be in a better spot

Anyway, once the stress of making sure the calf was fine and healthy, it was a lovely little jaunt around the paddocks with stunning views and sunshine!

So lucky to live in this spectacular place!
Hope you’ve all had a great week…
Cheers

A sea of lettuce!

Poor Pip. He has been in a bit of a bad way. Suddenly while washing his nether regions he is howling/crying! No idea what has brought that on. He hasn’t been sitting down properly on his butt either.

We got an appointment at the vets, but I dashed down early to get some happy pills for him so things wouldn’t be quite so traumatic.
He was seriously stoned

He had to sit his back half down to manage to eat (he totally had the munchies) and spread food everywhere

Oh he was NOT happy at the vet. It was like he was swollen up because I couldn’t get him out of the carrier!
I did finally, sat him on his towel and had him by the scruff of the neck and patting his head and saying soothing things while the vet prodded his manly bits and Pip growled and yowled! (Understandably)

On the good side, no sign of the usual/possible issues. I know he has done a few wee’s no problems with no crying or difficulty. So rule out kidney stones or UTI’s. No redness or swelling.

Could he have over washed his tender boy bits? Lets face it. Cat tongues are like sandpaper…
I got sent home with some pain meds in syringes (oral), a cat collar and one really unimpressed but still stoned cat.

He was dopey pretty much right up until bedtime – I put the fire on last night and left him on the couch since his motor skills for jumping into his usual bed were still iffy.

Today he is a bit better. Collar has been off and on. A couple of washes has brought about a growl
I think he just might need to leave things alone for a bit!
Right now he is up under my windcheater curled in a ball sleeping! (Nawww)

Anyway, enough about my cats private parts haha

Spare bed… really needed to get more lettuce up and coming, so gave this a quick dig and added some good compost stuff in.

I grabbed a punnet of mixed lettuce seedlings the other day -soaking them so I can pull them apart more easily.
I decided to put both seedlings and seeds in

And a row of spinach – I like the baby spinach leaves

Seedlings separated and spaced out

And in! yay.
I’ve also stretched out the netting to cover this plot as well.

Its actually getting cool/cold at night already.
I’ve got a million tomatoes and a plot of corn that needs more hot weather. Wish the tomatoes would ripen faster! They seem so far behind this season again

Still… was able to forage for a decent lot of food for dinner

I get enough tomatoes to put in the nightly salads… those strawberries. I plan to eat them later. They smell so good. (Yes a few got eaten while at the patch)

The cucumber plants have been slow but reasonably steady. They’ve struggled with some bug I can’t get on top of but we’ve had enough to put in the salads as well, so thats ok… and another lone capsicum (so sweet!)

And of course some potatoes!

In other news, I am attempting to hike regularly again…!! Sigh. Not done so well over summer in this regard
Anyway, did a double lap of the river track the day before yesterday. (12kms)
Spent yesterday in ‘Fretting About Pip’ mode, but managed a lap today – just one as I was developing a good sized blister (which sadly tells you how much hiking I have NOT been doing) so thought best to finish up and tomorrow plaster it up before heading out!

Anyway, thats about all the recent stuff around here!
Hope you are all having a really lovely weekend!!
Cheers!

I tried out a new fragrance… lemongrass and exotic lime! So fresh and beautiful.
I decided to try another ‘shimmy’ design and saved the cutting for the soap workshop yesterday!

The pattern made for a fun ‘reveal’

I did a Taiwan Swirl pattern demonstration after all the group members had finished making their batches of soap

By this stage of the day the table is in quite a mess

Such a pretty design!

An attentive audience haha

The leftover mixture I blend together and then pour into a separate mould
(Thanks to Sharon for getting some action shots!)

While on the soap stories, update on my facewasher and scrubby collection

I ran out of yellow so edged it in pink!

I think I have enough cotton to make 3-4 more

Still a little bit of tail tucking to be done

In exciting garden news, the corn has FINALLY popped out with fluffy tops and silky bits!

The crop is still looking happy and healthy so fingers crossed for some corn!

The carrot flowers blooming!

Dinner!

We had a decent clean up in the yard the day before yesterday…

Not that I got any actual photos of the cleaned up bits but you see we’ve got a lot of work here to do

Jeff spent a lot of time in the paddock cutting up leftovers from the milling as well and we moved and stacked a fair bit.

After a fairly busy day, we managed to get the kayaks in the car and down to the river for a paddle!!
So nice to get back on the water!
Hope you’ve had a wonderful weekend!
Cheers

Hi… Really don’t know where the days are slipping away to.
Halfway through February already!

Today, Sharon’s husband, Paul and his friend, Ed, spent the day getting through heaps of the timber in the paddock
Jeff cut and split ‘smaller’ pieces while the others milled a fabulous lot of the wood

There are some fantastic pieces in there and my brain is a bit giddy thinking of all the possible projects

Beautiful slabs and sleepers.
Paul took most of this back today. We are doing a bit of a barter for all their hard work – ie they get lots of timber to use!!
Below is a good number of slabs they did last week. I am hoping to revamp the hothouse with it and create raised beds around the edge of the structure… (Looks amazing in my head!)

We drove our car into the paddock and filled it a couple of times with the wood that Jeff was splitting, then drove it back so we could stack more – trying to clear the paddock as fast as we can for the VERY patient neighbour

Still harvesting food as needed for the dinner table

Actually today was pretty good… Sharon dropped in with Lottie and we all came up to the house for lunch. I picked fresh lettuce, added our cucumber, tomatoes, capsicum and grated carrot.
I baked a tray of potato bits (in olive oil and my garlic salt), hard boiled some eggs and put out a bowl of the pickled beetroot and a jar of homemade relish!

All soooooo local !!! (Bit proud)

Yum

Did a bit of a pick and sent home Paul with extra veggies
They brought us over some fresh onions too!!

The carrot patch is so lush

Funnily enough there are several plants going to seed… really strange as they usually take over 12 months before even thinking about it

I spent a fair bit of time tying up the crazy tomatoes

Snipped off lots of the big leaves and tried to wrestle them back under control
I still have more to do.
But then I got distracted and FINALLY weeded the corn and mulched it.
Still no sign of cobs but surely they can’t be too far off making an appearance?

Most of the celery survived despite being dug up by Flea.

I keep thinking I want to remove the shelters off the apple cucumbers but…it keeps turning cold at night

I did get in there and weed and they’ve grown a bit since the photo … maybe I will just leave them alone if they are happy.

I Spy… baby butternuts!

I put in some late potatoes… because?? Because I could basically. Will be interested to see how they go at this time of the season.
Our other patch is a scant few weeks off full harvest

Soap… Did the embeds.
I was hoping to have a few more bunny soaps for Easter

I made the embed, which is basically filling a silicone tube with the soap mix. The first one I took apart didn’t come apart cleanly (Bunny’s foot got a bit mangled.) These ones stayed in the mould for a week while I was sick… so came out better because they’d set a lot more.
Key tip… Be Patient!

The extra ones I cut down and poked into some heart moulds

Check out my lovely vase, designed and created by my sister Rosemary!
I do need to put it somewhere else to photograph it so its not competing with the table cloth.
Not too many flowers happening in the garden but the oregano flowers were perfect

Well… I am feeling a few aches and pains from spending a day moving wood about so I am going to call it quits for the night!

Hope you’ve all had a splendid weekend!
Cheers

I finally got around to cutting the slab of soap I made a week back. The nature of the slab mould makes creating the swirls a bit more…controlled?
Anyway, lots of fun!
I’ll have to increase the mixture for this mould as most of what I cut was a bit thinner than what I wanted.
The two pictured above are the end pieces that I didn’t slice in two.

I do really love the results of the swirls

Of course, I put a couple together to get that mirror image effect

Pretty cool

A few more photo challenge photos…
Day 4 was ‘Fruit’

(I threaded some yarn through the peel to dangle it up, then did a little bit of photoshop to remove the yarn)

Day 5 was Black and White… Took me ages to get something.
In the end I settled on a chook

So funny when they are just going to bed…they just stare at you.

Day 6 was hat or hats.
Mind you, we’ve got a house full of so many different hats, but I decided to torture Pip with a tinfoil hat.
The resultant photo was pleasingly full of Cosmic Woo…

In the photo below I am sure he is plotting to kill me..

And this one kinda shows off his new shiny bonnet haha

And day 7’s subject was Falling Water… I didn’t get creative with setups… I just stood at the back door!

Anyway, thats my Saturday done… its 10pm and I think I am feeling better because I really really want some chocolate cake and am debating with myself about going to bake one!!
I’ll try to resist!
Cheers!

Wow… we are getting hit with quite the storms today. The rain has been pelting down and we’ve even had thunder and lightning!
I had to get in all my wet weather gear just to go lock up the chooks tonight!

Its Friday night and I am feeling a lot better than I have most of the week.
Still haven’t done much though!!

Standing at the back door while the thunder rips across the sky and the rain blows right in the door!!

We have a few guttering issues!

Earlier I ventured out, cleared the filter for the tanks (water is pouring in!! Yay)

Also picked some beetroot

Yesterday or the day before (can’t remember now) I took a few snaps of garden ‘stuff’

Corn still has a long way to go!! At least its getting a good drink today/tonight

Lebanese zucchini! Suddenly I have a million. (And no appetite haha darn)

A sea of tomato plants

Excited to see a few ripe ones happening on the outside plants!

Despite losing a couple of branches and lots of pears in the wind… enough are hanging on.
Will go inspect damage tomorrow if this weather calms down

Plenty of rhubarb
Huge leaves!

I found some stuff in the hothouse too!

I was playing about with the camera yesterday as I was trying to get some photos for the current challenge.

Trying to get Flea to pose…

Nope!

She’s a funny chook!

This chicken really looks like she is about to ask to see the manager!!

Anyway, nothing much else to report from my part of the world!
Hope you are all doing great!

Cheers

Hi…
Gosh. I ate something Sunday night that firmly disagreed with me.
Firmly and emphatically.
The results were not pretty!!
Lucky I have my own personal nurse who set up a pillow on the bathroom floor and kept me company with cool facewashers to my forehead!

In the end I slept on the couch in the sunroom as its quite a hike from our bedroom to the bathroom.
My body said nope… you are not keeping anything inside for a while!!!
Monday was a right-off… today I was vertical off and on but mostly rested. (weird)
Just trying to rehydrate etc.

So nothing noteworthy really happening here… but I did start a new photo challenge. Thought I might share my first three images.
Top one, the subject was ‘Green’
I put a drop of food colouring on the oil layer and waited… This image I thought of the number I did was the most effective.
Its really mesmerising to watch the colour drop and expand!

The next subject was ‘Weather’

Of course… summer in Tasmania can be… changeable! I thought this one encompassed the feel of it!

And the third day was ‘Geometric Shapes’
I found a discarded coffee cup today – with the remains of a hot chocolate from before the ‘I had to live in the bathroom for the night’ incident.

Happily the dried chocolate at the bottom provided me with a shot!

So… anyway. Thats about all for now.
Pip has been an especially happy kitty as he has been able to nap with me for about two whole days now!

I sincerely hope everyone is feeling better than me!
Cheers 🙂