Hello! Heading into the first day of winter and it feels like it! Brrrr! Anyway, I did get out of the house and down to the local community centre where a lady was putting on a little workshop about making tea’s from what you have in the garden.
The fire was going and it was nice and cosy in the centre.
I am not a habitual tea drinker but I do like herbal teas when someone offers them – or if I am hiking. Not being really sure how to officially make it from the garden I thought I could just go along and see!
Get lemon balm/lemon verbena – bruise a bit, shove in teapot and cover in boiling water and wait. Hmmmm – I think I might have over thought what the process would be haha
It was lovely!
How pretty are the rose petals? A bit of lemon peel was added to this. It was nice but had a slightly undercurrent bitter effect that wasn’t to my palate – smelled amazing though! I am keen to collect the rosehips and have a go with those.
A lavender and native mint tea was also made and I rather liked that one! Funny… my lavender and peppermint soap is one of my favourites – so maybe there is something overall appealing about this combo! (Note the baskets… yes, the ladies who ran the class also go to basket weaving!)
It was a nice diversion from a miserable day for sure! Hope your day was lovely too! Cheers!
Hello! I had that pesky tooth removed on Monday!! Never had a tooth out before – mildly terrifying!! The dentist was fab tho… she made everything go as well as possible and was very kind and encouraging. Nevertheless – still felt a bit sore and sorry for myself. All healing well – still taking a few painkillers though!
Anyway – thought you’d like to see how my table looked at the market last weekend! So pleased with the overall look!
Unfortunately sales were pretty dismal which was disappointing as I usually do really well at this market. For those non-Australians, we had a federal election that day – some of the local polling booths had extensive waits so I reckon people just would have been cranky and over it and not going out to shop afterwards
I did get my scones tho… soooooo goooooood!
I have a mini workstation behind my table where I can wrap soaps, collect $$, do some crochet and… eat scones!
I got a kick out of using some of the baskets I’ve been making!
My friend Jude had the stall next to me – lots of lovely plants and produce
Her sales were also sadly a bit lacking on the day…
All sorts of fabulous things!
Maureen was there too and I dashed over to get a sneaky snap
Happily, Maureen sold really well!! Very pleased for her! Such a bright and colourful stall!
I made a couple more soap batches this week since I wasn’t running about being too busy… This one is Turmeric/Orange! Using my friend Irene’s home grown turmeric that she dehydrated and powdered I did a mix of the powder and the coarser one for a scrub like effect. And popped in the orange essential oil
I really like the look of them!
Also did a teardrop batch using the Anjou Pear and Lemon Zest fragrance
And evenings in front of the fire lend itself to crocheting- more face washers and face scrubbies
And a soap holder experiment that I did this afternoon
Maureen suggested it for my shampoo bar – so I had a go at it
I am taking it over to Maureen tomorrow after basket weaving class to give to her and she can test drive it!!!
My Mum sent me a pattern for a rectangular shaped soap sock – that’s on my list to have a go at next!
Hope everyone is having a wonderful week! Cheers!
(Bit of dramatic sea and sky for you from a hike I did on Sunday)
Hi! How is everyone? I got a chance to dip into the photos I took when I went back to my hometown a couple of months back!
Mum and Dad took me for a walk down at the Wonga Wetlands… Its an area not far from where we grew up – and I used to ride my horse close by this area. (I grew up in West Albury, NSW which is right on the Murray River – which marks the border between the two states NSW and Victoria (for those unfamiliar with Australian geography))
The history of Wonga Wetlands stretches back to the Yorta Yorta and Wiradjuri people for whom the area provided an important source of food such as fish, mussels, turtles, crayfish, snails and birds (the word ‘Wonga’ means black cormorant) (Info taken from the internet)
At the car park you are greeted with some very cool metallic sculptures of local wildlife
I’ll do a little cutting and pasting of information from the Albury Local Council site
A wetland is an area of land covered with temporary water (year-round, seasonally, or sporadically), long enough for its plants and animals to rely on those wet conditions for survival.
Our wetland sits on the Murray River floodplain and incorporates seven lagoons across 80 hectares. Wonga is home to spectacular ancient red gums and a variety of wildlife, including 176 bird species, all relying on the wetland for survival.
There are lots of walks in among this area, all quite easy and flat, so accessible to pretty much everyone
Shelters and work area examples of what would have been built by early settlers and the Aboriginal People
Was great to see some kangaroos! I’ve gotten used to the tiny fat little Pademelons!
He is checking us out!!
It was a bit of a grey day and we got rained on a little bit but not too bad!
I liked the occasional random sculpture or art piece littered through the area
And the scope for some artistic photography!
and
You can see the pathways are quite wide and flat
Better line Mum and Dad up for a proper shot (Ten shots later after they’ve stopped talking and mucking about I get a nice shot!! You’d think after having me point cameras at them for a couple of decades they’d know how to behave haha)
Whats around the next corner?
How cool is this lagoon?
Some of the water birds were having a bit of a skirmish!
Since the Hume Dam was built in 1919, the Murray River has been used for irrigation, which has changed the natural flow of our river. This change has reduced flooding, and altered the time of year that floods can occur. As a result of that change, many of our floodplain wetlands and billabongs dried out, destroying the breeding habitats of local birds and fish. The Wonga Wetlands development which commenced in 2000, has helped re-create the natural flow of water into these floodplains, and as a result our birds and other wildlife are coming back. (From Council site)
I like the unkempt natural nature of this place
Swans – quite a lot of them in this area!
How does it all work?
The water bringing new life to this beautiful area isn’t from the river – it’s from the city’s reclaimed water treatment systems. Wonga Wetlands is an innovative and ecologically sustainable way for us to manage and re-use Albury’s reclaimed water.
During drier months Albury’s reclaimed water is used for irrigation and in the wetter months it’s redirected to these wetlands. The wetting and drying cycle recreated by this system replicates what would be happening in an uncontrolled river floodplain – flooding in winter and drying out over summer. Our treatment process uses biological nutrient removal and chemical processes to produce high quality water, which meets the most stringent standards available.
A bit of rain makes the water surface look interesting!
Stunning old tree (River Red Gum)
(From council site)
Before European settlement the original inhabitants and traditional owners of the Murray River area near Albury and Wodonga were the Wiradjuri, Wavereoo and Dhudhuroa people. The river was considered the giver of life, not a divider of communities.
These people moved up and down the river, using bark canoes cut from the majestic red river gums. The river, billabongs and wetlands were a rich and valuable food source. There were fish, mussels, turtles, crayfish, snails and birds and other animals to eat, and mussel shells to use as knives, spoons and scrapers
In recognition of the Wiradjuri people and the assistance they provided in establishing the Wonga Wetlands, particularly the construction of the replica Indigenous campsite (see Wiradjuri Campsite), Council named them ‘Wonga’, which is Wiradjuri for the Little Black Cormorant – still one of the most abundant bird species in this area.
Other Wiradjuri words include: gunyuck – Black Swan bringen – Red Kangaroo munjar – Murray Cod coleen – water wangarang – Turtle wargan – Crow womboyne – Grey Kangaroo
This is a really amazing area – very peaceful and extremely valuable in all senses of the word!
What Kangaroo I wonder?
Cute little tracks. I can’t tell who made them though!
A lovely seat in case you want to sit and enjoy the views! (Not for us that day since the rain started to set in!)
It was a really lovely morning out, hanging out with my parents and enjoying the gorgeous landscape! I hope you enjoyed it too! Cheers
Well, I am fairly excited because we got most of the tin on this afternoon. We were both a bit busy earlier on but in the afternoon the rain held off mostly long enough to get out and get the tin up
Already walking in you notice a big shelter and temperature difference!
The chooks seemed happy milling about in there too pretty much straight away
We (I say ‘we’ but it was Jeff putting in all the effort with the drill today) didn’t get the last two pieces on… the back one that you see in the above photo- ‘we’ needed to cut a chook sized access hole in the tin so they will be able to pop into the ‘duck yard’ via the short cut. (I fully intend to make a 70’s style beaded curtain for their door by the way…)
And the small plate for the front of the coop also needed to be cut to size. (The tin guy cut it wrong to what size I asked for, but what I asked for was also WAY wrong so Jeff had to sort that out too. Oopsie)
Really looks the part now hey?
By the time the work on the last panels were done, it was getting quite dark and also raining heavily, so they will have to just wait a few days now (Jeff has some upcoming nightshifts)
That sheltered area had remained fairly dry in the recent continual rain which is fabulous. Its going to make SUCH a difference this winter!
OK… some soap…
The cut for the Oatmeal, Milk and Honey Fragrance… I put a scrub in the bottom layer too!
And the Crisp Green Apple… for a straight colour not too agonisingly boring so thats good!
Face Washers and Face Scrubbies! Planning on tying the sets up (One face washer and 4 scrubbies) together with jute and a little bauble that you can’t really see in my dodgy photo However… am thrilled with the look of using my (ahem) bread basket to display them.
The beginnings of a new basket. (Because I don’t think I have enough projects in progress…)
I will leave you with an image of what happens to cats when the fire gets to roaringly hot! Have a great day everyone! Cheers!
The weather was filthy today!! I had to drive over to Devonport and it was the kind of rain that you can’t see through even with the windscreen wipers on full tilt!
Yesterday was fairly blah (weather wise)… went out to a rally with my cousin, Fiona. Decent turn out despite the wind and rain!
(Thanks Fiona for the photos… I didn’t take my camera)
The rally was a meeting with a lot of interesting speakers in regards to the proposed offshore salmon farms they want to put in here.
Not content with the hideous environmental disaster they’ve caused in other parts of the state… sights are set on the north west coast. (Shudder)
I didn’t know they set off continual underwater explosions to frighten off the seals (and in lots of cases kill or maim the poor things) (Talking about 80,000 explosions a year!!) The 20 pens down near Bruny Island make millions $$ per year – and they lease the waters for less than what you can rent a 3 bedroom house for in Burnie for 12 months … AND the daily amount of effluent dumped into the ocean is staggering – equiv. to the population of both Burnie and Devonport sewage waste going into the ocean per day. Boggles my mind. The Bass Strait is like a whacking big bathtub so what gets dumped in these waters doesn’t have a chance to disperse either. People’s whose jobs and livelihoods that rely on the ocean are going to be under threat and the rubbish that comes off these farms is quite something. The seal sculpture below is made up entirely of collected debri from the farms that are found in the water and washed up on the beaches. Apparently there have been a number of boating accidents when powerboats hit the floating chunks of rope…
All in all there isn’t much good that can come of it but you know how it goes. Someone is making money somewhere. The current business who is slated to do this was bought by some pretty dodgy operators from Brazil. Sigh… its astounding that you have to fight to stop something like this that should be a no brainer at all. Political parties at the top are shouting ‘But jobs jobs’ – Not that many and they’re not counting the future jobs lost. Our coast is stunning. The marine life is amazing. You’ve seen my photos. You know how gorgeous and precious it is. Lets hope we can keep it that way!! (There’s something like seven months before ‘D Day’)
I’ve fished out my facewasher and face scrubbies crochet projects and getting them together and sorted for next weekends market. (Uniting Church Fete… Usually a good day they put on!)(looking forward to those scones already!)
Another project I’ve been doing in the background the past few months is a baby blanket – My Japanese friends daughter (who I’ve known since she was a baby) has just had a baby!! (Eeep I feel old haha) Its a new pattern I learned (thankyou youtube). Its a pretty pattern but it stretched the yarn weird so it doesn’t fold square – which is bugging me!! Its like it turned into a parallelogram or something. I’ve counted all the rows and stitches and they all seem correct!! So I went and did a tutorial on how to do a bear for the corner of the blanket hoping it takes everyones mind off the skew-wiff nature of the not-square-blanket!
I just have to stitch him on and I’m done!
And this afternoon I put together a couple of batches of soap…
Oatmeal, milk and honey. The bubble wrap should give the top that honeycomb like texture.
And ‘crisp green apple’ This fragrance accelerates the mixture in a crazy way – gets thick very quickly. So… I decided not to try any tricky colour swirls. And I mixed everything in well before I added the fragrance as a last thing. It still got chunky quickly but was able to mostly get it in the mould before I had to get the spoon out!! It looked a little plain so I did a last minute poppy seed sprinkle which looks rather nice!
Okies… back to my fire! Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend! Cheers
Hi! Having finished my big basket, I made this little one! Tighter weave using the needle and it turned out rather nicely!
It was nice finishing something in a shorter time frame
I am pleased with the middle where I started… usually that part is super messy
Not sure what I will use it for. At the moment just admiring it haha
Last class, Adele brought in willow and dodda vine – I brought in some of my vine which is a native black pea Made up a nice scruffy basket
The fresh colours are very cool
I’ll probably use this one either on the market table filled with soap or at a local shop that wants my unscented goats milk soap as a way of making a unique display …
Speaking of soap…
Sandalwood and Vanilla… gold veins and activated charcoal.
Had another go at the milkshake/sundae like soaps
Learning from last time that the Orange and Bitter Chocolate fragrance discolours the mixture, I left it out of the top bit so it looks more like cream this time!
The fragrance also makes the mixture thicken heavily so not much time to do any precise swirling as I was literally spooning it in to the mould not pouring!!
And because the top wasn’t so set, I was able to doink the sugar sprinkles into the mixture further so hopefully not as many fall off this time
Smells so yummy too!!
Sprucing up the place with some flowers in my sisters oh so cute kitty vases!
Cold and gloomy here… I am going to not fight it any longer. Putting the fire on and either doing some crochet or making some soap… hmmm choices choices!! Hope your week is going along splendidly! Cheers!
Well… the building inspector was on the job – so we took advantage of a gorgeous sunny day among the miserable ones and got back to our chook run
We decided that some extra bracing in here so the shade cloth had more support wasn’t a bad thing
We pre cut the shade cloth for the remaining panels (like my ruler?)
But the main aim of the day was the roof We had just enough of the long beams to put up over the entire structure
Jeff hard at work (I was the official ladder relocating person)
We were a bit unsure about how to do this! All a bit awkward. Luckily Jeff has a long reach so he could get up on the extension ladder and reach across to screw in the panels.
We got more efficient as we sorted out what we were doing. We started then decided the slope on the roof wasn’t enough so we unscrewed the top side and added another layer of timber – we hoped rain wouldn’t end up pooling on top.
It has since rained and the water slid off exactly as we wanted it too and no runback leaking out where the overlap is… so… yay!
While I was up the ladder at one point, I had some cherry plum branches poking into my ear and it occurred to me that we might want to do a bit of lopping. While branches were unlikely to fall on the new roof… I’d seen possums doing death defying leaps to and from them to the old roof… Last thing our roof needs is a fat possum dive bombing the top! (We are going to also add some more bracing for the roof so the polycarb sheets have some more rigidity)
Extend extension ladder a lot and up I go
That went well. I didn’t fall down (yay) and didn’t drop any branches on Jeff’s head (double yay)
Weather turned ugly again but today had a short window of nice (Bit windy but manageable) So we grabbed the pre cut shade cloth and got that part of the job done and now its really looking like something!
We have plans to tidy up the edges with the tin, flashing and timber facing at the top.
We’ll have to do a bit of mucking about on this side to cut those beams back flush – we didn’t think it would matter but now with what we want to do… it will! Ahhh well.
I am not too worried about the extra roof overhang… if the water is coming off further from the structure, I am happy with that
Can’t wait to get the new tin! Jeff wanted to replace this clear polycarbonate on the coop but… seems it washes of well so I’ll add that to my ‘to do’ list
The coop itself will clean up nicely too by the look of it (adds to list) so probably no need for a repaint here
All in all we are pretty chuffed with progress… the end is in sight and we aren’t even officially in winter yet! Its already making a difference in the run area – of course not much rain is getting in there now so the girls feed is not filling with water and the ground isn’t mucky like usual at this time of year!
Time to relax? In the evenings anyway! Cheers!
(Seriously… I don’t think Pip could look happier and more relaxed if he tried!!)
The days remain grey and mostly raining off and on. So outside progress is slow. Plus its a bit unmotivating!! Lets soap update first!
The butterfly ones ended up turning out rather cute!
I finally got to cutting the slab mould soaps too
I made a loaf with activated charcoal yesterday – with luck the cut will reveal veins of gold. (Fingers crossed)
My friend Nardia (the lady who I have done a bit of hiking with) owns a local shop. She’s asked if I can do just plain goats milk soaps as she’s had requests. So I started on making a supply. Easy to make a double batch of the unscented and uncoloured soap – not sure how much I’d need in reserve but we’ll work that out as we go along
So… back to the chook run! I was excited that we snagged a bit of non raining day to put up some shade cloth!
I’d been itching to do this bit!
We just popped one of the old bits of tin up against it to get an idea of looks
Jeff reckons that with all the effort we should get new tin and I agree. It would probably be cheaper too than painting the old stuff – can always find another use for the old stuff
I miscalculated the size of the roll so we’ll need to grab another roll of shadecloth
I think we’ve worked out how we are going to go about the roof – just need a nice day to get in and get on with it.
Update… I’ve found where we got the tin from for the garden fence and they can cut to size too ($1 extra per sheet! Sold!) Just have to go and get some precise measurements and email it through… then we can go and collect. Things are moving along!
Hope everyone’s week has started fabulously! Cheers!
(Cold weather comfort food… banana muffins of course!)
We got the fire a bit warm and even Pips towel was too hot for him
Twist and turn
What I was actually trying to do here was photograph my finished basket … until Mr Poser was showing off looking all cute
I decided if I went taller it would look silly.
The fresh colours at the top will fade quickly
I am a bit chuffed with it… love how the whole thing is made purely with the flax and no string or other man made materials.
So I started a new one…
I am using a needle this time and making the stitching much tighter . Not sure what shape I will aim for… these things always seem to just do their own thing!
I’ve kept up with a bit more soaping.
I love it how this blobby kinda mess ends up looking so cool
I’ve been lazy about removing the blocks today and doing the final cut… maybe tomorrow? (This is the Lavender and Peppermint mix)
Today I made some ‘raspberry jam’ fragranced soap
I think tomorrow it will look better. The yellow parts have lightened up. Will try another snap when I unmould them Thought it was about time I started using the butterfly embeds since I have a million of them
I was going to do a late night batch but the power has been flickering so… didn’t want to get caught half way through making something
The weather has been cold and mostly raining a lot. So we’ve not gotten out all the gear to work on the chook run the last few days. Killing me. I just want it done now! I did get Jeff to come out and be on ladder holding duty while I went up and mopped off the solar panels. Ugh… that guttering needs fixing but… its in a dodgy high spot (uneven ground) so we’ve not tried ourselves and we’ve not wanted to spend the $$ One day… Anyways, solar panels! I didn’t fall down so that was good. But you can see where my reach isn’t enough. Roof is a bit slippery so I didn’t get right up there… just what I could reach at top of ladder with the mop. I suppose getting 3/4 of them cleaned off will be helpful.
Yay for self seeded tomato plants!
Sunflower seeds!
Dahlias…
Poor Flossie is moulting again!! She looks dreadful! Stupid time of year to do it in this weather! She seems happy enough and still totally greedy about her food
Protea
Our tiny little Japanese Maple is now bright red! Just a burst of colour in the corner of the yard!
And lastly… one more of the posing pussycat! Hope you’re all having a wonderful weekend!
Hi! Just thought you might like to see the cut soap from yesterday! Love the pretty rose-geranium result… the fine gold line is hard to see but its there and rather elegant!
The lemongrass/exotic lime colours turned out a bit more subtle than expected but I like it a lot
Leftover mixtures into my bee moulds!!
Today we were out chipping away at that chook run!
Jeff did most of the construction although I was able to be useful finding timber, measuring out and cutting stuff to length
I pulled apart the timber pile to get to the size we needed as it was all stacked as it came off the mill.
We’ve put it all back in better order so finding what we need will be quicker. Should have done that at the beginning haha… Never mind. We’ve put the intact long ones on top of the pile which we will be needing for the roof
So… here we are. We’re about ready for the next stages – door, shade cloth, tin and roof! Oh and paint. I will need to drive back over to the hardware shop tomorrow. I’d like to pick up the laserlite for the roof, as well as more screws and paint. Hmmmm and bird wire… I better measure stuff and write a list hey? Hope your day was great too! Cheers!
