Author: Lisa

Hello!
Slow Sunday here… Jeff was sleeping off a nightshift. I am not sure what I was doing overall. I think wasting time sprinkled with a few domestics.

The pear tree is just loaded with blossoms now! So pretty!

And here is something exciting!! First potato of the season has popped up!

I haven’t seen any basil seedlings for sale yet… a few of my seeds have germinated but I reckon I’ll need to put in a lot more in case I can’t source seedlings! We had chicken pesto pasta the last couple of nights with some pesto that was still in the freezer! So good!!
I need to stock up!

The cucumber looks really good. Very much hoping for a better season with them this year.

This looks encouraging!!
I also very much need to finish filling the other bed so the rest of the strawberries can get planted and start doing their thing.

I’ve only had to replace a couple of plants in this plot that didn’t take well to the transplant so thats not bad (Not like last season when they all just died for no good reason!)

Being the first time I’ve had borage, I had to look up what the seeds looked like so I could collect some. I know it self seeds but my Mum and probably other people will want some seeds too.

Turns out its pretty easy…

The main trick is to find them before they drop

My oregano has exploded with spring and is looking super lush

Next I need to look up how to make chamomile tea right from the flower

So… who knew that a guelder rose would grow from a stick??
This was a surprise for me. I left a couple of sticks in a garden bed – I was using them as markers.
Seems like they are growing really happily!!
This means I now have to find homes for two guelder rose trees!!! (I call them snowball bushes as the flowers are like puffy snowballs!)

And the one lavender I have in the pot is looking lovely.

I need to finish tidying up this garden so I can take an overall snap so you can see how its progressing. I am hoping for a lot more flowering plants within the raised bed boarders!!
Fingers crossed!
Hope you’ve all had a lovely weekend!
Cheers!

(Somebody else had a nice lazy day too!)

Hello!
Want to join me for a walk around Dove Lake?
We left here a bit before 7.30am Monday morning and made it to Cradle not long after 9.
Totally glad I put the thermal underwear on in the morning… it was a bit brisk early on!!

Things have changed a bit again… the old car park is an unattractive building site – they are making a new viewing centre or something.
I remain unconvinced… The more we build in these areas the less wilderness and special they become…

Anyway, there is a boardwalk connecting the bus drop off to the walk which makes it all nice and easy.

There was a good snowfall over the weekend and a nice dusting of it remained.
We were hoping the clouds would lift eventually.

Sharon and Lottie rugged up and ready to go! Naturally had to do the obligatory photo at the lakes edge before we left.

We decided to go ‘backwards’ to my usual way – mostly because lots of other people were going the other way 🙂

It was nice to see the blue sky making an appearance early

Lottie charged on ahead – lots of energy!
Bailed Sharon up for another snap

We made it to the boat shed pretty smartly… Sharon, the star, had made up some soup the day before and had it in thermoses piping hot with her home baked bread… how could I say no??
Soooo good!

It was a good place to stop for a bite

Refueled… so onward!

Things were definitely clearing up and the day was getting nicer by the minute

I don’t often get to see the mountain in the snow so I might have gotten a bit over excited in the photo-department…

Runoff creating a decent little waterfall up there!

“I want your sandwich”
The ever present currawongs ready, willing and able to steal the food from your fingers if you are inattentive at all!

And into the ‘Ballroom Forest’ we go

So pretty… dark and green and tangled and mossy

Always nice to hug a tree!

Some of the pandanis are so tall!!! (Grass tree)

Love the way the terrain keeps changing

What else are you meant to do with the curly leaves but make moustaches?

Such great views in all directions!
We were loving it. Lottie was finding bits of snow and Sharon and I were enjoying catching up without being in the middle of a soap workshop!!

Of course there might have been a few snow-scuffles on the way around!

(Pencil Pine)

We stopped by the little beach areas – had lunch and fended off a few more keen currawongs
Another fellow was down on the beach photographing this one, put his apple between his knees to hold it while he got a snap, and the bird just flew right down and stole it and flew off!!! haha – awesome!

These are the birds that you need to be prepared for on the Overland – the ones that undo zips and help themselves to your snacks.

Back on the track… a quick stop for a touching mother and daughter moment… haha

Lottie clearly wasn’t worn out yet!

Down to another little lakeside beach.
I just love the colours in the water.

Thanks for joining me in the stroll!!
I’ll be back with more snaps soon!

Cheers!

Hi there! The bees were hard at work yesterday – it was a really nice day so we took advantage and ticked a few more things off the list.
Its gloomy today so am having an indoor day – finishing off the Cradle Mt photos so I can share soon.
In the meantime… garden!

I haven’t even looked back to last year to see the dates of planting… I am winging it a bit. I don’t think its going to hurt progress to be leaving it a bit later than usual.

The snow pea patch wasn’t too bad really…a bit of weeding of course.
Then I put up some trellises that I got from Ruby’s for them to climb on. The sticks looked pretty cool last season, but they didn’t have the sturdiness for the weight of the peas and the wind combined!

The pink hay bale twine is a nice touch don’t you think??? Haha… Jeff tried really hard not to mention it.

I like it that I haven’t bought snow pea seeds since the first time I grew them many seasons ago! So easy to replenish.

Jeff was down the back clearing, chopping and doing chainsaw stuff so I brought Flea, Dora and Flossie into the veggie patch with me so there weren’t any tragedies… they have no sense of personal space and want to be under your feet and to be where the action is!

Waiting for me to dig up worms

Flossie was the first one evicted in disgrace not long after the above photo was taken! I looked over to see her digging up the garlic!! Eeeeeeep!

Jeff had finished with the power tools so I piffed her back over the fence.

I finished digging up and weeding (again) the carrot/beetroot plot before returning Flea and Dora to the other side so I could plant the snow peas without them digging them straight back up again.

Moving right along… time to string up the raspberries!
The spring winds are kicking up again so getting a bit of support for them has been on my mind.

They are slowly getting leaves.

Meanwhile, Jeff had migrated to the BBQ area to split more kindling… it was all pretty green and the smell of the macrocarpa pine is wonderful!
He had also filled the big woodbox crate thingy so that will be useful.

Love the flyaway hair!

And lastly, planted a bunch more seeds. Luffa/loofa, zucchini, apple cucumbers, celery and eggplant. I think that was about it…

More lettuce are popping up and the cucumber are sitting up happily now!

Hope you’ve got a splendid weekend planned!
Cheers!

Hello!!

We ended up staying an extra night, so I just got home today!
We had a really excellent time – beautiful weather the first day and not bad the second! Got in some good short walks and generally relaxed and enjoyed ourselves!
Working on the photos, but just thought I’d pop by to say hi!

Hope everyone is going well!
Cheers!

(This wombat came wandering out from behind the accommodation reception/shop. She was a bit itchy!!
Apparently she got into the laundry and had to be coaxed out with an apple!!)

Hi!! Not a lot of action happening around here to report in on… but a bit of a wander through the garden to enjoy some spring flowers?

My broccoli is all bursting with flowers now…. eventually I’ll yank them out – I don’t need more seed – but for now the bee’s can enjoy (and so will I)

The pear tree has lots of buds and blossoms. Hope they hang on tight… so windy today!

In the hothouse, a few seedlings have poked up through the soil in their pots. Surprisingly there are a few tomatoes appearing already! Seems my plan of holding back a bit before planting might have timed things better.

A couple of cucumbers have appeared to0

And a few cos lettuce

Oh no!! I literally just remembered as I am typing just now that last night I forgot to go cover up the slug ravaged capsicums…. 🙁 It will be a miracle if they are nothing more than sticks!! Sob. (I’ll go down and look and report back in a few minutes)

Still getting enough lettuce for nightly salads!

Yay – snow peas!

The ‘Mortgage Lifter’ tomato has flowers!

I spotted Tentaculars first flower of spring. He didn’t get cut back at all over winter as I was still getting passionfruit late.

Lots of purple and blue flowers blooming right now. Bee’s are humming!

Bee didn’t stick around long enough for a proper photo…

The borage is lovely!

Little pansies

Chives

Sage

Thyme

Snails… haha – ew. I was too lazy to go back down to the chooks with this lot so I flung them way over into the paddock. They’ll have a long walk back if they want my sweet peas.

I don’t even know what this is… its on a good sized bush but the flowers are tiny!

And the tulips.
The iris are in the same bed but the snails just keep on keeping on! Every time I go near the bed I see heaps more despite picking them off and either feeding to the chooks or jumping on them

I love the yellow ones!

Although the deep purple ones are fab too.

Okies…. thats enough for your eyeballs for now!
I need to go bring up wood, take down compost, chook treats, pick lettuce and (sigh) see whats left of the capsicum.

I am planning to disappear overnight tomorrow with Sharon and Lottie and go to Cradle for a couple of days hiking. I think its snowing…

Enjoy your week,
Cheers!

PS – So… I checked out the capsicums… somehow they’ve not been reduced to sticks as I expected!! So lucky. I must have managed to find and squash the bulk of the slugs the other night.
They are covered up again – although they need taller covers now (adds to To Do List)

Hello!

Youtube is so handy! I found a simple design to put on my soaps to make a batch that was Christmas-like.
These wreaths are only coloured on the top, not all the way through like most of my soaps but they do the job.
I made the mistake of mixing the green with oil instead of water to disperse and it went from its usual pretty light green to more olive. (I was a little sad about that)
Lesson learned.

I took a snap of the progression of the design. (Something for my soapmaking friend Linda to try??)
I do need to make a much thinner batch of the colour to make it easier to work with, but it bodgied up fine!
I used a skewer to wrinkle the green line then again to just run the skewer in a circle through the colours to drag them into some semblance of ‘wreath’

I used the buttermints fragrance and added a dollop more peppermint.
I am sure that is Christmassy?

I’ve ordered some stronger red colouring and a Christmas Tree embed mould so that should all be fun to play with!

Today I didn’t get out of my PJs – much to the amusement of Fiona when she dropped in for a cuppa at about 4pm!
Mind you, I did manage to do a slew of boring houseworky things, but it was raining heavily for a lot of the day, so outside wasn’t all that attractive.
And my PJs were warm. 🙂

Hope you’ve all had a wonderful day!
Cheers!

Surprise Iris! How nice!!

So, today turned out reasonably nice weather wise – only a few sprinkles of rain now and again…

I spent a fair bit of prep time this time, marking out the rows and getting all my potatoes in evenly spaced. I used tomato stakes to get the lines straight and an old broken shovel to poke in the holes

Haha – turn my back for a minute and some creature is already trying to make off with a potato!!

I ran out of the seed potatoes but had a good stash of ours from last season, so the last 20 or so could be planted

I think it looked rather neat by the end – very satisfying!
I planted 99 and the bit of green is a self seeded potato that I didn’t have the heart to pull out as its growing so nicely. So… an even 100 in!

Moving along to no-so-neat!!

Yipes… my poor purple garlic!! This is what happens when I net… out of sight out of mind. Amazing that we dug this plot several times and STILL missed a lot of potatoes. Not just little ones either!

I am sure they feel much better about life now.

The white garlic patch is doing quite well…

Lots of sturdy plants. So I mulched them too!

I wanted to use seaweed but… I get distracted, busy and lazy or a combo, so going down to collect it hasn’t happened!!

The new blueberry bushes are showing a few flowers!!

Ew…. well I am sure its just mud. We connected the bore for the first time in a long time… unheard of that our water tanks are so low after winter and in early spring!!! (Normally they are over flowing)
We had to run it a loooong time before it ran clear… but now thinking to empty and clean tanks.
No idea what that entails or if we need some professionals!!

Hated running the water to waste but there is no where to put it – and everything is watered enough as we’ve not long had rain.

And last but not least… some baby cherry-plums starting to show up!!
If the season rolls along at a good temperature, maybe we will get the plums this year rather than the birds!!
Fingers crossed!!

Hope everyone is doing really well!
Cheers

Hello!!
So… Jeff made it back from Lune River safe and sound. I got in from the soap workshop to find both him and Pip napping together on the back couch! Pip was so happy!

Jeff said he had all his finds out for me in the lounge room on the coffee table for a show and tell. By the time I got there, Pip was proudly sitting among them of course!

Anyway, Jeff had a great time. Found lots of petrified wood and some very cool pieces of agate.
I need to make time to get some photos
Its nice to have him home again!!

My long term compost project. Been wanting to get a third bay forever… now I have a new kind so will have to change the other two when I empty them

Luckily we have Cousin Jeff who randomly drops pallets off for us!

I am copying Fionas compost – so they are the full size of the pallets and lined with old shade cloth

I’ll put stakes at the front so I can slip down timber as a front that can be removed and all the compost accessed when needed.
(Unfortunately with the sloping land things aren’t all that even but I really don’t care enough to go and dig and level the site. Nup. Got other things to do!)

Meanwhile, as I am getting creative with compost, Jeff was down the back splitting some more kindling as we ran out!!
Pip was down there for some snoopervising. Hitched a ride back up.

The cool kids on the block really…

Pips got the pirate squint happening!

And lastly… soap. The ‘Shimmy’ that we cut yesterday at the workshop!
Cedar and Saffron. Smells so good and I really like the shimmy effect!
We had five in the class yesterday and it was a lovely day!

I am thinking that now is the time to start experimenting with Christmas soap designs…. back to google for me!!

Hope your weekend was fabulous and your new week has started well!
Cheers

Look at that for a beautiful afternoon! Not a skerrick of wind either! Was a perfect day for the garden

The soil in the new garden beds had sunk a bit… as expected.
It was pretty messy and it took way longer than I supposed to find and dig up all the strawberries!

Lots to choose from when replanting.
Nope… I have no idea which ones are the first runners!! As usual, it was all out of control so will just have to take pot luck.

Oh and I found the Godzilla of Worms

I posted it on my gardening pages where a lively debate ensued thinking it was a variety of blind snake!!
I know worms and snakes so was 100% certain that it was a worm.
Plus we only have three varieties of snakes in Tasmania and the blind garden snake is not one of them.
To be honest I did a double take though when I first spotted it!

I pretty much emptied the trailer of soil and as you can see… not full enough! Must get back to Sharons and beg some more soil! 🙂

So far the other little strawberries I transplanted the other week are doing ok!! Some are even flowering so I am taking this as a good sign.

The night before I went snail hunting in the tulip and iris patch… so many!!
I took them down for the chooks of course the next day!

They were pretty thrilled… and despite being enough snails for everyone to feast, there was still a lot of chasing and snail-stealing going on!

The ‘bok bok bok’s get a bit echoey in the bucket haha

Another job that has been a LONG time coming is repotting my Boronia…
Took a leaf out of Monty Don’s page and used the pot to make a hole in the new soil first.

Then off came the pot and into the soil it went. Hope it survives the change!!

Jeff went off south yesterday back to the Lune River (Addicted much?) Too hard for us both to go to re organise the animals and I wasn’t going back to the vet so soon… I’ve only just recovered from the last trip haha
I am sure Pip has forgotten!
Anyway, I’ll save a ‘me’ trip up… perhaps an Overland Jaunt???
Hopefully Jeff is having fun and finding lots more agate!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
Cheers

Hello!!
How was your day?
The weather was gorgeous here today… perfect… no wind, sunny, mild.
I did some gardening but tonight I’ll share the latest soaps…

I did this soap at Sharons workshop as a demo for the people attending! Its a nice one to do as you can see the design as its done rather than having to wait for the cut!

The one below I did pre workshop so the ladies could have a go at cutting
This didn’t work at all how I intended!!
The fragrance made the soap thicken up so quickly, so it ended up in def. layers and clearly I missed lots in the mixing process.
I don’t dislike it… maybe a bit heavy in the colour, but not what was in my head!!

Then the last couple of days I’ve put together some new batches for this upcoming market… they should just be ok cured by the time the date gets to us.

Raspberry…

Then I did a batch of lavender/peppermint which is really lovely!

And the last one I finally used my cat embed mould that I had done a while back but couldn’t decide how the rest of the soap was going to go… in the end I just went for white! Worked better than I hoped!
Very cute!!

Have a great Friday!
Cheers