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Hey look!! The cherry blossom tree has burst into fluff!!
I am sure I will be taking a stack more photos… when its not raining and windy..

Its the most beautiful tree in spring!

Okies… soap stuff… A few things happening.
Sharon and I had another ‘in town’ workshop that went really well. 6 people came along. There was meant to be 8 but had two no shows. We hung about waiting then sent a message – they got back to say someone was sick and they weren’t coming! Sigh. Would probably be better manners to let people know.
So we started the class a little late.
But it was a fun bunch and we did some creative soaps
I brought home the loaf ones to cut

Sprinkles!

So cute!

Activated charcoal and saffron powder

A lovely drop swirl… and the fragrance was a mix called the ‘Thieves Oil’
The student had brought her own essential oil mix and told us the story of the mix which was interesting – Grave robbers during the bubonic plague in the 14th century used this mix to ward off the disease.
I had a quick google and there are a few different versions.
I like the final fragrance!

And of course I got to show off doing a demo or two. The cut loaf I can’t show you because one student decided she wanted to buy the whole thing! Who am I to argue?? Wish I had a photo… it was so pretty!
(Leftover mixture made these:)

The black raspberry and vanilla fragrance is so popular. I need to make a bunch of soaps this week… its high on my list!

Then making the demo design..

Love the blues in this!

The bottom is really wing-like

All cut. Very keen to do this kind of colour combo again.

While I am on soap… I had a market stall at the Rhododendron Gardens on Saturday – their spring festival!
I sold a ton of soap!
Lots of people were there and people that hadn’t really seen my work – and I was able to have a bigger display too!
And while on the selling topic… I sent my parents a box full and I think all of it has sold within their retirement village!! So I need to go pack another box for them!
Yay!

I got into the garden for a bit yesterday… these poor tomato plants getting quite leggy!
I put three into the hothouse and 10 into the outside garden.

I planted them quite deep – up to about where that stick is

Outside I’ve covered them up for the nights as they are not hardened off

Today I lost two!!! Between uncovering, going for a walk and returning! Blackbirds I think. Will have to keep covered or net or something annoying while they are getting established

Mostly they wilted, but today most of them had perked back up

Also a lot of little seedlings in the snow pea patch… so dug a few up and popped them in the dedicated tomato patch

So tiny compared to the others!

Garlic doing well… and all the potatoes are up!!

The weeds growing well here… so attended that and popped in some beetroot seeds!
I’ve sadly and tragically run out of pickled beetroot so.. time to work on making more!

The one remaining lettuce that I didn’t kill from the three punnets is looking quite good.

Will be able to harvest leaves soon!

Well… thats about updated.
Hope everyone’s week has started really well!

Cheers

Hello there!
Goodness the days are just speeding by!
Among this and that, another photo challenge has been done… I’ve done my bit but as usual there are stragglers so the 10 days turns into a month!

The first subject was PINK AND ORANGE. My idea was to just have an obnoxious colour combination.
I found that a challenge as I have very little pink in my life!!
Funnily enough, the album is gorgeous. I certainly didn’t appreciate how GREAT these colours can look together!!

Second subject, UPSIDE DOWN

So I went out and lay upside down on the grass with my camera until Flossie came ‘bok bok bokking along’
This made me laugh

I put more effort into the third subject, SMOKE, where I spent a very pleasant hour playing around with incense

Neat huh?

Then to lighten up the mood… I threw in the subject TOILET PAPER for the fourth subject.
The photos range from artistic, to clever – right up to hilarious.

Jeff walked out after waking up (sleeping off a nightshift) all bleary eyed confronted with this in his lounge room… haha. Took him a few moments of ‘what the?’ before he remembered there was a challenge on.

Day five we’ve returned to the classic BLACK AND WHITE

Day six – FIFTEEN…
People came up with all sorts of things. I ran about the yard making it look messier than it was! (At least I had lots of materials to work with!)

Day six, FORK/S
And there are some brilliant photos in this one… who knew a fork could look so fabulous?

Day seven- MINIMALIST.

It was nice of Tasmania to co-operate by providing sun and a blue sky!

Day eight… TEN (or more) OBJECTS OF THE SAME COLOUR

Set myself up a little cabinet of green curiosities!
Overall this album is really attractive!!

And Day ten>>??
Vogue.
Since Jeff refused point blank to strut up and down with makeup on for me (spoil sport) I had to torture the cat instead…

Ahhhh Pip… so precious!
Naturally I wanted to set him up on a little catwalk outside… but spring being spring, as soon as I was ready to do that – the heavens opened and it poured rain! The old chair had to be plan B

Pip was pretty reluctant early on. First he stood like a broken down carthorse…
Then he spent time deliberately looking away –

Then he basically gave up and acted like an aloof statue while I got on with it and he suffered in Siamese Silence!!
And yes, he did get treats and cuddles afterwards!

Anyway, thats that!
Hope everyone has had a great start to their week!
Cheers

We have a feathery stalker!
This Superb Fairy-Wren (we just call them blue wrens), has been at every window for weeks. If you are in a room… tip tap tap and there he is.
He is in love with his reflection… and he is a little poo-machine too! haha
EVEN IN MY GUMBOOTS!!
He has taken to preening himself in our cars rear view mirrors too, which isn’t pleasing Jeff so much. That one tiny bird can poo so much!!
Lucky he is totally adorable!

We really haven’t been working all that much in the yard, but clean up is happening here and there

Jeff started a fire and I continued it after he went to bed…

Honestly… is there a difference??

Anyway, fires are fun out the back.

Slowly sorting and cutting and stacking…

A delegation of chooks…

Still getting odds and sods from the garden… this went into soup.

Tomatoes are even bigger than the photo I posted the other day!!
Time to get them into their forever homes

The pear tree is bursting with blossoms!

I don’t really want to do it but the whole carrot patch should come out to make way for the new plantings…
Hmmm… maybe for now just do half of it…

The early iris always catches me by surprise. Suddenly there is a burst of colour

The plums are developing nicely. Fingers crossed for some warmth and a good fruiting season!

Its raining out there tonight again.
I’ve seen some potatoes popping up which is good… and I noticed the snow peas looking a bit ragged so I’ve put down some of those iron pellets in the hope to thwart the snails. Otherwise I’ll have to go and cover all the plants which would be a pain.

Hope your week has started well!
Cheers

Hey there!
Things always seem to be happening…
The council put out a local catalogue with events happening in spring so people would start getting out and about.
Sharon and I had two special soap workshops done in town (One done, one yet to do) and an extra workshop at her place yesterday.

I also volunteered to do a couple of guided walks over in the Sisters Hills/Rocky Cape area.
I had my first one on Saturday.

Just a small ‘group’ – a couple of nice ladies who lived locally but had never done this walk before… and a gentleman who (believe it or not) went to school with my mother!! Small world. He even had a class photo of them that he sent me! Terry grew up in the area and spent a lot of time down at Anniversary Bay but happily had never been up the track I started out on or seen the Wet Cave so it was nice I was able to introduce him to something new!

The entrance always looks a bit iffy

The ladies weren’t game enough to come in! (It does look spooky)

It was actually a fairly nice day – it drizzled for about half of the walk, then dried up. Without the wind it actually got quite muggy

The old banksia trees!

A bit grey but the views were still nice

Eventually we got down to the shore

Time for a bit of a fossick about

And a sit down just to enjoy the peace!

The ocean was so calm

Seaside life

As we came out of the bush track onto the beach there was a large family who had been walking around the area… but from there on in… no people as usual

(Except us)

Time to go inland up that horrible hill and hope everyone didn’t hate me for it

Puff puff… everyone did it fine!
But we did sit down for some lunch/snack and enjoyed the views… until the leeches marched in!!
Then there was a bit of a hurry to get to our feet and move on!!

Quite pretty in an ‘ew’ kind of way

Once up the last lot of hills, we looked back to the weather that was chasing us

The last part of the track is rather nice… just meanders back down to the car park

Parts of the track were really boggy…

They airlifted in materials about 4 years ago to work on the track… all still sitting there in a pile. 🙁

Grouchy looking weather!
But the little wildflowers were pretty

Getting back to civilisation again!

Just before heading down the numerous steps to finish off, an echidna was discovered on the side of the path, digging up ants and bugs!! He/she didn’t seem too worried about us and even put his nose back out for the photos!
I adore them! Furry spikey funny things!

We were out about 4 hours – and everyone really enjoyed themselves which was great!
I hope I have a few more people booking in for the next walk over to Cathedral Rocks later in the month!!

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend!
Cheers

I was all mentally prepared for a weekend in front of the fire in full sloth mode.

And the sun came out.

I will admit Friday night was abysmally cold, but Saturday wasn’t too bad and today was actually lovely out there

On Saturday the sun slipped in and out – it was nice being outside and watching the bees for a bit. They were pretty…. busy!

I did spend time putting together a couple of soap making starter packs as Sharon and I are booked in to do a few workshops soon

Even though there hasn’t been tons of tulips… they’ve been such a lovely splash of colour in the garden

Even Pip got a bit of a wander about

And poor Flea!! She is looking quite bedraggled!

Not fair moulting when there is snow nearby… brrrr

This is my one remaining lettuce in the hothouse
I seriously killed the rest of the THREE punnets!!
I have no idea why!
Oh and I think some slugs ate the newly emerged lettuce seedlings!!
Going to have to buckle down and try again!

Conversely, the tomato nursery with the Yellow Grosse Lizzies are thriving!! Go figure!!

Anyway… hope you’ve all had a splendid weekend!
Cheers!

Hello! How is everyone??
Friday again. Gee that day seems to roll around quickly!

Whats been happening??
Last weekend I did an introduction to permaculture course out in Penguin at the Reseed Centre.

The space was originally a school so ideal area for gardens and classrooms for teaching!
The course was so interesting. I thought permaculture was a type of gardening, but it really is so much more…

There were a number of people running and presenting information. They started with the big picture stuff and as the weekend progressed, moved down to the small picture stuff.

I liked the three basic tenets : Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share.

And one thing that really seemed to resonate and make sense with me… the term ‘self sufficient’ is bandied about a lot… but if you consider all your basic and semi basic needs – self sufficiency doesn’t seem particularly achievable for the average household.

Not only would you need to grow and harvest food – preserve etc. but there are a host of things that we rely on in this world… water, power, mechanical knowhow, health professionals, and on and on. Even if you mastered somehow all that was needed, you’d run out of time and just be an exhausted pigeon!!!

I like the idea of moving more towards community resilience and diversity. Not moving into a commune or anything, but having a bunch of people that share resources and skills that are close by.

There is already a lot of stuff happening (like seed banks/swapping etc)

We did some practical stuff like garden orientation, position of the sun at certain times of year – knowing your property so best places or optimal places to put things to get the most out of your plants.
Did a bit of a soil check and pH test (mine was right on 6.5 so pretty handy!)

(A bit of a clay soil with a couple of clear layers there in the bottom)

I must admit I thoroughly enjoyed the chook that insisted on coming inside and bok bok bokking loudly over the top of the presenter! Very much reminded of Flea!!

While on the subject of classes… my basket weaving class has diverted into working with bull kelp! This insanely huge leathery material is very cool to work with
Again… getting ideas from Adele and guidance on how the Aboriginal people made use of this wonderful product.

When dry they shrink up a reasonable amount

So today I chose quite a big piece to work with and took a bunch of guelder rose prunings in (nice straight but flexible sticks) for people to use to share.

Voila!
A traditional water carrier!

I’ll take the string off when it dries… and by then hopefully it will keep its shape.

And brrrr back to hail and rain and snow forecast for much of the state this weekend!
So we stocked up on a lot of easy to reach firewood at the back door!

The herb garden is getting nice and lush so I raided the oregano to get some drying.
Also found some freesias and rosemary

The netting is now hanging in the lounge on the clothes rack

The flowers are now residing in one of my sister Rosemary’s lovely ceramic creations.

And some tulips are still out there in the garden hanging on and looking beautiful

Yellow…

And some have reached the end

I am enjoying munching on the cape gooseberries… really putting off uprooting that entire garden so I can do salad stuff as planned. The cape gooseberries are thriving there though!

Thats about it update wise!!
I reckon I’ll be hunkered down inside for the weekend if the forecast is accurate!
Hope your weekends are fabulous!
Cheers!

Hi again!
Well… the raspberries popped out some leaves so they went high on my list to sort out.
They needed a pruning weeding and a general all area make-over

I made a huge problem for myself… I should have taken the net off when they woodchipped over the fence…
I didn’t realise how much of it there would be and thought the netting would stop the raspberries from being buried.
By the time I knew better… it was too late

I said many many rude words as I shovelled a ton of chips out of the way… and you can’t just shovel happily. Because – sticks. Sticks stop the shovel from shovelling…

I had to cover Pips ears!

Finally unearthed the whole thing and shoved it aside while I worked on the patch.
I pruned back the canes and cut out the dead wood.
Jeff came down and helped me sort out the net (Untangle and renet) and shovel lots of woodchip around the patch… (He had been mowing again… that time of year when you can almost see the grass grow)
We then mulched the actual canes with straw.

Plenty of timber hanging about to weigh the netting down!!

I still need to get back in there and restring the supports along each patch but by the time we were done here… I was done!

We let the girls out and naturally they started to kick out the woodchip immediately.
This is why they were left locked up during the process – otherwise I’d still be there trying to get the job done and piffing chooks out of the way!

Flossie getting a cuddle

Back up behind the house and a couple of cows appear.
A few minutes later they are all there staring at me.
So I proceed to run up and down the fence line (in gumboots) with a bunch of cows stampeding along behind!!
I find this hilarious!

Anyway…
Next!
Potatoes!

Handy chopping boards all over the property at the moment!

I didn’t want to go out that day because it was doing one of those Tasmanian Weather Days and raining and sunning off and on every 10 minutes.

Told myself not to be a woose and get out and plant. So I did.
Rain never really hurt…
Tasmanian Weather immediately hailed on me!!!! Eyeroll.

But because I was in Tough Woman Mode, I soldiered on

Marked out the plot and dropped the spuds in

This season I also decided to mulch straight away since I had the straw. I never get back to my poor potatoes for mulching … maybe this will keep them happier this season!

Nice to get another important gardening job ticked off the list.

Tulips are still blooming which is lovely.
I am tempted to cut and bring some inside, but I don’t have that many and I am enjoying seeing the colours when I go out back.

And the snails haven’t ravaged them either this season thanks to the iron pellet stuff I’ve been using!

Hopefully the nice weather keeps it up more often than not!
Hope your week has started well!!

Cheers

Well, there it is… the last log being loaded onto the rack for milling

The guys have done a spectacular job and its been really interesting to watch

There she goes! (Spinning blade of death….)

I’ve been Chief Sawdust Relocating Manager

So much beautiful timber!

The weather has been a bit manky recently…we have done some work cleaning up and Jeff has done a lot of work splitting wood for future fires

Unfortunately for one of Jeff’s fingers… he also had a slight ‘small axe incident’
So far he hasn’t been to the doc but did all the usual nursey things.
I think he will live…

I’ll return with some gardening stuff next post.
A few more advancements have happened

I am going to have to get more heavy handed with the red so its not quite as pink in the final stages!
Anyway… its a start. Christmas soap! (Peppermint)
And oops… just remembered the tree embed I put in the freezer earlier. Will have to get that out and remove from mould before bed.

Crochet update!
Its really growing
Although there are a horrifying amount of tails to tuck!! (sadly this is not going to coincide with a visit from my Mum… darn it) (No pun intended haha)

Its going to take me an eon!

Of course no carefully arranged display is complete without a cat boofing his way under the covers and causing a cat-tidal wave of crocheted squares…

Thanks Pip!!

Basket weaving!
Loving my Friday morning classes. So relaxing there.

Apart from tidying up the tails on the inside, I am done.
The red bit around the top (Might have mentioned this before??) are grasses that were dyed with beetroot and woven in.

I used it on my market table on Saturday to display my business cards!

Then, I learned how to make roses and lilies!

Adele (our teacher) started one that I finished and finished one that I started! But she let me take the both home.
I liked the process of weaving the flax to make the lilies.

And a series of folding and twisting creates the roses!!

Pip trying his best to give subtle hints about his sleeping bag being warm enough ready for him to crawl in to!

Anyway, thats about it from me tonight
Hope everyone had a super weekend!
Cheers

Ed and Paul have done an amazing job! Last log was done yesterday
I will have more photos and story of course but not quite got all the pics sorted yet!!

So I’ll show you some soap…

I did this today… the cut should reveal a Christmas Tree… and stripes?? I can hope! (Peppermint)

Yesterday I tried a new design…
I used the divider to get the base part done

I made up three colours for the bottom and blended them softly before pouring

I then grabbed my high tech soaping tool (chopstick) and made some waves

I am loving this design and am very keen to do other colours!

I had to cut them horizontally to keep the design intact and was really pleased when I did…

Rather elegant!!

The leftover mixture made some cute little bee soaps too!

Hope your week is going splendidly!
Cheers!

Poor tulip… everything got covered in grass clippings yesterday.
Jeff and I took advantage of the beautiful weather to mow and do more cleaning up around the yard.

The plum tree is done and dusted with its blossoms. Lets keep fingers crossed for actual plums and some nice weather to ripen them up.

The day before yesterday, we decided to finish off the top of the garden fence at long last

Since we have oodles of timber, procrastination has won the day as we haven’t had to buy what we needed

This way we have been able to staple the wire to the top bar and stop it from flopping about – as it does when big fat possums jump on it (Or birds)

It doesn’t look too bad and it certainly looks more finished than before!

I suspect the possums were getting over the fence near the top gate then using the two moveable composts and the sink as a jumping point out, so I’ve started sorting that area.

I have yet to move the sink (insanely heavy) as I have to sort a suitable area, but was able to empty and move the two composts

Hmmmm so much work to be done. Plus I am unsure how to sort the older composts just yet.

Neglected much?

A lot of weeding, sorting and wheelbarrowing later…

I am hoping the ferny moss takes hold in the old Man Fern chunks I got from Ruby’s place.

Plot by plot I am getting the garden under control.
It was a shock to realise we’ve made it to spring already!

Yesterday after the mowing, I tackled the snow pea plot as I will need it to swing into action soon…

Eeeek.
One of the wooden trellises had rotted at the bottom so I ended up taking it out… then I took pretty much all the other bits out and whacked in some proper steel droppers to secure the mesh to.
And dug weeds. Twitch. So. Much. Twitch….

Happily… another plot done by days end.

Looks 100% with the mowing done too.
Grass from now is going to grow stupidly quickly

Still easy to grab carrots whenever I need them.
Itching to pull that plot apart but… not really nec. until October when I will want to replant.

Oh… I killed all the lettuce (99% of them ) in the hothouse that I transplanted the other day!!!!

Maybe 4 are struggling along??? I have absolutely no idea why…
How disappointing!! And weird. Was it me or the punnets of lettuce?

The little tomato seeds that I put in at the same time have started showing up

So funny… yesterday morning only these guys were up.
By the afternoon… a whole lot more!

These are yellow tomatoes.
Hope they survive unlike the lettuce!!

My pot of sweet peas! I didn’t plant them. They are just doing their own thing. They never really thrived last season under my ‘care’ so I am ignoring them.

We let the girls out of the chook run after we had done with the lawn – They had a great time… Flea of course off on her own mission.

A good number of tulips are out which is nice and those iron pellets are keeping the slugs and snails at bay so I don’t have half chewed flowers so far!!

Yesterday was a pretty huge day… with all the mowing, weeding, whippersnippering, digging, weeding, planting, splitting kindling, etc etc.
According to Pip it was completely exhausting!! (This is where we found him at days end, dead to the world haha)
Cheers