Author: Lisa

Well… an interesting day.
Spent a lot of time at the bank this morning as it turned out Jeff’s eftpos card had been compromised and someone was happily fleecing our savings account!!! (To the tune of over $700 mind you!!!!)

I found this at about midnight the night before and promptly dragged Jeff out of bed to confirm his spending hadn’t gone completely haywire…

Its not something we did … like not protect our card or anything. Random bad luck. The bank lady said there are scores of people just playing the numbers and they sometimes get a hit.
Of course, Jeff’s card has been cancelled- my card is ok. The account isn’t compromised, just the card.

Oh before any of the parents start hyperventilating – don’t worry… I did the hyperventilating thing last night and generally in this type of situation, all the $$ will be returned. We weren’t scammed so we had no part of the transactions to take any of the blame.
Just have to wait… Sigh.

So…. this was the project I gave up on after digging potato plots. It’s a wonder anything was growing in the hothouse!!
Until I look at the photo I didn’t really notice quite how bad it was!

Jeff ended up taking the kukuri to it and went the total hack. Probably better he did… I tend to snip and feel bad about pruning things… Jeff’s pruning often ends up a foot above ground!!

Plus he mowed yesterday so things are looking much nicer!! Mind you, in this warmer weather, the grass will grow as we watch it!!

I’ll share some soapy photos tomorrow… I’ve been invited to have a stall in a month at the rhododendron gardens so I’ve put a few more batches together that should get just cured enough in time! (You know… because I was so low on stocks, … snort)

Hope everyone is doing great!
Cheers!!

Hi!
Back in the garden today!
Bit of a puzzle this skull that appeared in one of the raised beds… what goes on in my garden at night????

These are carrots that I wedged under a plastic container because of marauding slugs and kinda forgot about them. Apart from being a bit squashed, they are growing pretty well!!

So… todays main task was to prep the potato plot.
The straw that I piled on top of the area over winter had done its job nicely… not many weeds to contend with at all!

I let the girls in – they were so excited!! I had to throw them off certain gardens but in the end they were fairly well behaved.

They got under my feet a lot as they were super keen for any worm I might dig up… I was worried I would stab one by accident!
Still… as inconvenient as they are at times, they make me laugh and its hard not to enjoy them clearly having the time of their lives! (You’d think they didn’t already have a huge space to play in!!)

So, we dug.
A generous amount of blood and bone – actually I didn’t think I was going to put that on today because of the wind. At best I was going to wear it, at worst, breathe it in!!
But the wind dropped after a while enough to get in and finish the job

I’ll hopefully plant next week

Anyway, the fun didn’t stop there….
The top end of the garden was looking a bit like a tip…

(and yes thats Flea in the compost)

Then there was this little area

The lemon balm was super huge… considering I never planted it and don’t look after it…

I cut it right back (took some cuttings too to see if they will grow)

Its also given the self seeded leeks some space to breathe
I will redo the little trellis before planting… lots of the sticks are too brittle now.

A couple of weeks ago I cut one of the leeks off at ground level to give to Sharon.
Its growing back nicely! Free leek?

Last time I looked the rhubarb was all little nubs… today its got leaves!
I’ve not ever really looked after it properly… so I felt a bit guilty and gave it some blood and bone and some mulch

Also weeded and gave some mulch to the little hydrangea!

The composts are going well. This one is ready to use!
Lovely stuff and lots of worms

The second bay is ready to rest. I dug it through and topped it with straw then lemon balm!!
This means I will finally be forced into making bay #3

Will add that project to my list. Although the third bay I want to build like Fionas… Will be more convenient.

When I spotted one of the chooks digging up the garlic, I decided it was time to herd them all out before I started finding them horrendous rather than cute.

I got them all out… I thought.
Nope. There’s a feathery bum… of course that’s Flea, back in the compost!

I was going to prune everything around the hothouse but I think I ran out of oomph.
Save that for tomorrow or the next day!

Its nice seeing the tulips appear!
Really makes it feel like spring!

I am enjoying seeing the little bits of colour appearing everywhere!

The wind has kicked back into high gear tonight!
Hope you are all doing great!
Cheers!

Hello!
I made it into the hothouse!
Noticed not only snow pea flowers but an actual snow pea!!
(That I forgot to pick and eat… must grab it tomorrow!)
So… spring is totally here!

Oh, and oopsie on the capsicums.
Their little houses weren’t pushed down enough and some hungry slugs got in… damn!

So I did a double whammy on them… eggshell everywhere AND their containers!

Hope they recover!!

I bought my seed potatoes… looking forward to getting those in the ground!

I managed to grab a few hours in the waning light to put a few pots of seeds together…
Did I mention I can’t get my beloved mushroom compost by the scoop anymore? All the main mushie farms are now closed in Tas (Something about the big supermarkets buying from the mainland grrrrr) so the only mushroom compost is by the bag, not the usual trailer full!! Sooooo sad about that.
(By the bag is a bit more expensive… ie the two bags cost 2/3rds as much as a whole trailer scoop!!)
I’ll rethink my compost plan when I get planting. (Except the beetroot… the beetroot deserve the mushroom compost!)

I planted some pumpkin, cucumber, a few varieties of tomato and some basil.
Then it just got a bit dark to continue…

Will look forward to getting stuck into a few tasks when the weather isn’t so dismal… sooky I know, but I have lots to amuse me indoors while the weather is dank and gloomy and I really enjoy the sunny days getting out and digging etc!

(So glad I planted that winter lettuce!! They’ve been doing well)

The soap workshop went well yesterday! 6 lovely ladies took part – all very nice, keen and chatty.
Sharon put on gorgeous food as usual and there was time for me to make a demo soap with that special Taiwan Swirl design… always a crowd pleaser haha

Hope wherever you are you are doing well and your weekend was lovely!
Cheers!

Hi!!
I haven’t managed to get photos of the rocks with my ‘real’ camera since we arrived home…
As you can see by these snaps, I sensibly didn’t take my camera out with us on The Great Fossicking Day.

Wow – we spent pretty much 6 hours wallowing in the mud!! And loved every bit of it!!
The above photo of Jeff was after he washed off a bit!!

Thank goodness for gumboots and rainpants!

We found a spot where lots of other people have been digging and I guess we were pretty much working through their spots rather than digging our own new trench!!
The rain had washed off the mud from the rocks on the top layer so it was easy to spot some nice pieces without digging too!

This unusual piece of agate was my best find! I hope we can polish the face of it.
That square bit actually runs through the whole stone.

The colours varied too… from the reds and oranges to the blues and blacks!!

And lots were translucent!!

The ladies at the Ross Cafe that we stopped at were really interested in our little adventure, we promised to stop in on our way home and share some of the spoils!
So we did!! It made us smile a lot to see others get totally excited about rocks!

Anyway, we’ve still got heaps to sort and take photos of and tumble… will be an ongoing process!

Sorry I didn’t get any other location photos – using the camera really wasn’t practical, then when we were not covered in mud it was dark!!

It was a very nice view from our little lounge room in the cottage we stayed at!
It was also bliss going out each evening for dinner – no thinking about what to cook or dishes to wash!!

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!! (Soap Workshop booked tomorrow with Sharon!!)
Cheers!

Hi!

Look at me…away from home but wrangling some technology on Jeffs old tablet!

We got away not at 6am

Or 7am…

Anyway, we got away and it was a lovely warm sunny day for the most part.

• 

We stopped at Ross for a bite to eat. We were hoping to browse antique and bricabrac shops but nothing was open 😣😣

Ross is an old convict town… I’ll have to look up some history on it later before I lead you up the garden path. But I think women convicts were held here.

The town is full of gorgeous buildings and homes.

Lots of stone walls…

It also has a gorgeous bridge

It was nice to stretch my legs.. we still had a way to go.

The wind was crazy strong actually – the tablet was like a wind sock… trying to keep it steady to get a shot of the church…bit dodgy…

Anyway… onward! Bye Ross…

We arrived in Dover around 3ish and checked in to our cottage….oooo such a view out front!

Not bad, eh?

We unpacked the car and decided to go down to the digging area just for a pre fossick peek

Mostly these were chips and scraps of diggings from others… but we were pretty excited about it

Anyway, thats an on the road update…wish us luck tomorrow!

Cheers

Hi! I haven’t been going mad on the soaping front lately… Just snapped some photos of the recent ones.
The above one is the ‘raw’ version of the circles (Below)

I decided not to trim the rest as I was losing too much soap. The design will appear as they are used. Its a fun technique and I am keen to try again and fine tune!

The latest Taiwan Swirl cut – turned out rather lovely.
New fragrance, lavender and cedar… really like it.

(The bottom layer – again… the pattern will emerge as its used, so no need to trim and waste soap)

And this last one is apple and sage… another really pretty fragrance!
This pattern has possibilities if I use a few colours next time!

Anyway… thats all from me.
Must continue packing!
Cheers

Hi – how has your weekend started?
We had a bit of a sad morning start as we had to dispatch our white matron chook. She’d been on the downward spiral the last week… and not eating the last couple of days. 🙁 Its the right thing to do but its the worst part about owning chooks.

The day was mostly spend putting gear together to drive south on Monday.
The pic above is a PLB – personal locator becon. We finally got one. We’ve been talking about it for a while. Seemed sensible to have one ourselves since we take off to remote places to hike etc.
Its a LOT lighter than the one I hired when I did my solo trek!

A workmate of Jeff’s dropped by the other day with her husband and some sour dough starter for me!!
The pressure!!!
I am a bit clueless on this whole sour dough thing… I didn’t really have time to research the whole thing, so I just followed the recipe she gave me and hoped for the best.
It didn’t rise a lot and the final product was a bit flat, but it sure tasted pretty good, albeit a bit heavy!!
I’ve got more starter to ‘feed’ so am keen to have another go.
Sharon and Paul do this a lot so I reckon they’ll give me some training!

After packing and doing general domestics today, I ventured outside to plant some seedlings I picked up the other day.

I got three tomatoes for the hothouse to get a head start there. Also some capsicum. There weren’t any chilli seedlings available which I would like to get too. They are slower to establish and I am not taking chances with a cold spring this time and seeds.

I dug through some of the cow poo straw and planted the tomatoes and one punnet of capsicum. I ran out of daylight before I could muck about with the second punnet

I also covered the capsicum with some bottles as they are a lot smaller and didn’t want them to be a slug feast.

The ‘Mad Hatter’ capsicum I decided to leave in – but gave it a good pruning

You can see its huge and leggy. I forgot to take a snap of the final look after its snipping.

There is a lot of new growth showing so will leave it and see what happens.
Speaking of snipping… when we get back I need to cut back all the bushes on the outside of the hothouse… they are so tall now and along with Tentacular the Spectacular passionfruit… its getting a bit dim in there!!
(Add to To Do List)

Anyway, thats about it!
Market tomorrow (I hope)(Just to look not to sell) and packing the car!

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend
Cheers!

Ok – hello!! Feel free to just admire the photos and skip the reading!! haha
What a drama!! 😀
I hate not knowing enough about computers and techy stuff to be able to sort things out myself… although I do try and end up nearly blowing a gasket and I am positive my blood pressure might have spiked about 2 hours ago!!

So… you all realise I have been writing blogs since getting my new PC, but for some reason couldn’t answer comments??
I spent over 2 hours the other day with a tech person from BlueHost and didn’t resolve issue… thought it was a weird new computer setting.

(Adding the pretty flower photos is helping me with the calm)
Today my blog decided that I wasn’t allowed to write posts either – I’d click to create a new post and then it gave me a sign in box… which I filled in but was rejected.
Mystery… why was my password now being rejected??

I’d actually had a really stressful day as I had to take Pip to the vet (Digressing Story)
We are planning on going south early next week, to fossick for agates around the Lune River (Cringing as I am listening to rain not just pour, but bucket down with a vengeance outside right now) so we needed to get Pip a steroid injection to last until we get back, so Wonderful Cousin Beau doesn’t have to give him tablets.
I don’t deal well with taking him to the vet. Its completely irrational.
We gave him Happy Pills so he was all mellow but waiting for the 5pm appointment wasn’t great for me. (I should have shared his pills)
I cry all the way home while Pip then strolls out of his box, rubs my foot with his head, eats up a storm then gets wrapped in his blankie as happy as a little clam.

I think I might have issues….

So… by the time my wordpress locked me out for no apparent reason, I might have had a hissy fit.

The most ridiculous thing is… is that I hadn’t signed in originally (on new PC) with an admin password. I’d forgotten its existence as for years, the old computer just stored the original passwords and sorted that out for me.
Thank-goodness I didn’t throw away the bit of 4-year-old scrap paper with the details on it!!! I thought I transferred the right usernames and passwords to a little book.

So… can anyone explain to me WHY I could still write posts up until today?? Anyone? Kinda explains why I couldn’t answer your comments but one would think if you aren’t signed in as admin – why can you see anything at all? (And write posts lol )
This is going to keep me up all night.

Oh – and my email isn’t working.
I’ve decided I don’t care until later next week.

Anyway… I think I have the blog worked out now… no excuses not to be replying to your notes etc!!

(Maybe tomorrow though)

(Mind you, I am suddenly getting a ton of spam… yay! So somethings definitely changed)

Thanks for getting to the end of my little Friday Saga!
I am going to play a mind numbing game before bed and I will be all better haha

Hope your upcoming weekend is fabulous!

Cheers!

Apparently log in passwords for adminning your site is different to word press in general.
Argh
BUT this does not explain how I was able to write posts up until now on the new PC – although it might explain everything else not working – like the comment replies.

More investigation nec.

I’ll return when I wrap my tech-challenged brain around it!

Cheers

Hi..bear with me

Somehow i cant get to my blog via new pc…

I had same issue logging in on tablet…then after telling me my password was wrong, it just let me write a blog.

There is no logic…

Right…I am currently killing a sour dough loaf and i am off to bang my head on a wall

Cheers!