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Hi! Seems like I could upload the rest of the photos today with no dramas!!
How was your weekend?

As you can see – finally putting the first batch of relish together for this season. Seems a long time coming! We’re just finishing the first month of autumn!

Love my Nanna’s old scales. The best thing about them is how cool they look, the second best thing is, unlike a digital scale, it doesn’t switch itself off after 25 seconds of inactivity!!
One day I will put my hands deeper into my purse and buy some super kitchen scales (that DON’T get bored and switch off to ‘save power’)

Done.
I also made some muffins

Pip has a thing for banana muffins (no we don’t spoil him that much)
(Really!!)
(I can tell no-one is believing me at all)

And soap… something different, first I boiled up some carrots…

Do you know its the first time I’ve really looked at the cross section of a carrot closely! They are so pretty!!

I was using the carrot to make the colouring. So when I mixed the lye, I used the water that the carrots boiled in, then when it cooled a little I mixed in the pulp

When I was ready to mix it all in together with the oils, I put it through a strainer so no bits would get in… I suspect there would be mould issues with the cooked food in it… not sure

I tarted them up with some poppy seeds on top. The yellow (Which was part the kitchen lights) has faded now… there is an interesting smell – maybe its the poppyseeds, not sure as I didn’t put fragrance in. (Nor goats milk this time)
I just wanted to see how it all behaved.

It mixed up well and set quickly so I was able to unmould today quite early.
I would love to work on making a range of botanical/vegetable soaps using plants from my garden. Would be very bohemian and cool!

To be honest I am dying to have a go at using beetroot but I reckon people would come out of the shower looking a little purple haha

I’ll have to see if I can remember to get a snap of the unmoulded soap in the natural light tomorrow.

So… today – back to Oldina for a 10km hike up those gnarly hills!

It rained off and on…

The creek seems full

Lots of people were out there today on motorbikes and quadbikes

We found a random golf ball… reckon one of the crows (ravens) dropped it – probably pinched it from somewhere thinking it was an egg

And up the ugly hill we go!! This stretch is super testing!! But we got up to the top with no stopping along the way… just a bit of whinging on my part haha
Once we get to the top of this, there is a slight down before going up the rest of the way.
Its all a good workout anyway.

Thats all from me tonight… planning to head to the shops in the morning to pick up groceries I need for when my parents arrive (booked to arrive Tues) and the afternoon tea party on Wednesday!

Have a great week everyone!
Cheers

We did a good chunk of yard work yesterday… Jeff mowing and whipper-snippering, me cleaning up and moving ‘stuff’

Love getting a proper harvest of tomatoes!

The lettuce seedlings I put in are going well… starting to get swamped by the silverbeet seedlings (from the plant I let go to seed)
Not that ANY of the lettuce seeds germinated that I put in at same time!

I had some other photos from today but I can’t get them to load at the moment…
So this is short and sweet…
Off to bed!
Happy Weekend everyone!
Cheers

I had to have my camera with me yesterday as before our hike, I needed to take a snap of Jeff in front of the Rural Health Building as the muffin mixed up his meeting with a photographer… So I was the backup!

Do you think that tree looks a bit precarious??? I rush past that bit now!! Its a very very solid bit of tree.
I didn’t get heaps of photos… the day was grey and gloomy and it ended up raining.
Nice walk though!

And here is one of the photos I took – they will select one and it will go in their magazine along with the article they are doing on Jeff.
All in regards to Mental Heath.

Posing in his slick new T-shirt from his Canadian family!!

Pip is getting mightily suspicious about all the housework
That usually indicates people invading his precious little world!!

Funny little side story… at the last soap workshop, the ladies were telling stories about their cats and their crazy hunting prowess, etc… seriously, like the cat bringing in a headless wallaby THROUGH THE PET DOOR!!
And other such deeds that were more reminiscent of big cats on the savannahs.. I mutter to Sharon out the side of my mouth sadly… ‘and my cat bites his penis 🙁 ‘

I thought she was going to choke!! Made me laugh anyway.
On that delicate subject… Pip has been pretty good. I only put his collar on overnight but during the day we’ve not seen any dubious behaviour of late resulting in cry’s of pain or blood! This is a step in the right direction!!

I unmoulded and cut the pretty feathery looking soap I demo’ed at the workshop… cool pattern underneath!

The individual slices look fab!

Looking forward to doing more of these for sure!

I decided to risk it and pick a couple more ears of corn. These were much better… just that bit plumper and juicier.
I think most of them should start being properly ready when the family are here, which is fabulous
Plenty more tomatoes out there… there might be a batch of relish yet!

House cleaning and organising going along ok. We got the plumber in today because the loo had been leaking (just a seal cracked so nothing major) and the kitchen sink taps needed fixing… they needed extenders as where they are attached into the wall is ‘awkward’ and turning off the taps easily was a pain.. the cold tap dripped unless you put in a Conan The Barbarian effort into turning it off! Its so beautiful now 🙂

I put the fire on this afternoon… its been constantly pouring for over 24 hours and I really need washing done… so I’ve hoisted two loads so far up onto the drying rack… which I am still in love with… some I’ve been able to take down already, the rest can finish off over night.
Of course, having a fire on means a cat needs to be wrapped up in his especially warmed towel!! He has looked blissful all afternoon/evening

Hope your week is going well!
Cheers!

Hi !
Wow… its super windy here. Has been quite intense for a day or so now.
The market at Elliot went pretty well considering the dreadful weather. Enough people got out and spent money to make it worthwhile. (Around $230 – more profitable than staying in bed!)

(Partly set up – everyone was inside that day!)

The soap dish sets looked lovely but sadly didn’t sell anything this time around.
I am sure eventually they will. (Same thing with the facewashers and scrubbies)

Been spending time on youtube and getting so many cool ideas…

Using the bottom of a soft drink bottle to disperse the colours..

This is Oh So Satisfying to do!

Once all poured, I ran a skewer through the ‘petals’ and ended up with a very neat design

Still not 100% on the cutting – size and shape but…

(Bottom was rather cool)

Yesterday at the soap workshop I did a demo with this technique.
It certainly had the wow factor

The bottle bottom does get up and run away a bit – as it is full of air. And its also hard to pick up at the end of the process
I am going to drill holes in the feet so the air can escape and I can hopefully push it back down more easily… and attach something (screw or cord) so I can pick it up out of the mould when done.

I totally want to do more of these

Another geometric soap

Colour worked out nothing like what I was aiming at…

And this one I did as a vertical cut… the brown ‘branches’ were supposed to be slivers of gold.. ummm… seems when you mix the gold mica into the ‘batter’ it goes poo-brown
This ended up looking like tree branches with square leaves 😀

At the market a lady came up and said her cousin had left her with a stack of micas and fragrances that she wanted to get rid of… would I be interested in having a look??
Oh boy, would I indeed???

A lot of the containers and bottles were full – even the ones that weren’t still had decent amounts of stuff left in them
I was lucky enough to get all of this for $100! Actually I offered more but she was happy with $100!

Also some moulds and other useful bits and bobs.
So cool!
My supply collection is really pretty great now!

This soap was a bit of fun to create!
I ended up splitting the batch and doing it in two sections… the black bottom had to set a bit first before doing the top part. Since the mixture for the top needed to remain fluid, it was sensible to split the batch and not start mixing the coloured part until later in the process

Pleased that it actually worked!

Then there is a mishmash of soaps made with leftover mixtures

The snowflake moulds are really intricate!

I was worried half of the soap would stick in the bottom but they came out easily

And today I cut the latest two loaf soaps
The ‘shimmy’ I took to the class for students to have a go at cutting. Strange but the almost yellow part of the soap started out bright orange! Totally changed within 24 hours!
The other one is a slightly failed blue ombre… I was trying a different way but it wasn’t successful. Learning curve 🙂
Cat embed looks like a cat, so thats a win.

Have a great week ahead!
Cheers

Hi!! Meet Braxton!
He is a very lucky calf as Sharon and Paul adopted him so Jezebel had a sibling and could help drink the milk that her mother has lots of.
Sadly Braxton wasn’t wanted by the farmer (I am not sure exactly why… male and wrong breed??)
This sounds totally horrible, but he was going to be shot and discarded.
That just hurts my heart.

Look at how little and adorable he is!

That is the ugly face of intensive farming.
I am not a vegetarian, but thats just a waste of a life. Whatever is in Braxtons future, at least he is going to HAVE a life, and a good one at that!

Margie enjoying Baby Moo cuddles.

Me enjoying a smoothie at Sharons with great farm views!

(Banana Muffins)

I think I broke my promise about blogging the next day… Ummm.. I don’t even know what happened to that day!!!

Anyway, I am in Panic Cleaning Mode

So excited… my parents are booked to arrive in Tassie on the 30th March and one of my sisters, Rosemary is booked to arrive on the 1st of April!
Its been over 12 months since I saw my parents and cant remember when I last saw my sisters and families!!

My parents get to stay for a couple of weeks, where as Rosemary has a shorter window of almost 5 days.

We are so very much looking forward to it!
(I turn 50 on the 31st of March, hence a good time for people to come on down and poke fun at me for making it to half a century.)

I’ve decided to leave out the soap updates for this post… seemed like the post might end up going on and on for too long.
Lets talk veggies.

Corn!! First corn!! I will confess I picked these a bit early. Its just that everything is SO LATE and I was getting impatient.
So they tasted ok but nothing to get super excited about. I’ll just have to be patient and wait for the next lot.
I am hoping they might time themselves right for when my family is here then I can look like a champion!

Finally got what I would call a decent pick of tomatoes!!
We are loving them in the salad each night.
Jeff has also been making himself a lunch salad of tuna, tomatoes and mayo.
This was the other day, so I reckon I should be able to go out and pick some more.
They are terribly late too… Still crossing my fingers for enough to stock up on my relish … we are getting low.

We pretty much have potatoes nightly too… the patch is looking really scruffy so I think next time Jeff and I are free and the weather is ok, we should just dig ’em all up (can’t wait… so much fun!)

Carrots are a good cross between lovely, huge and straight… and downright suspect…

This one seems to be running away…

I’ve been out at Sharons today… we had another soap workshop… a few cancellations meant we were down to 4 people, but we offered them to do a second batch for an extra fee since we had a fair bit of spare time, which three of the ladies said yes to!!
So we did 7 batches with students, I did one demo batch then after everyone had gone, Sharon put together one more as she has a big soap order upcoming.

Oh… and I came home and ended up doing a batch tonight.
I need an intervention lol

Quick Pip Update?? He is not in the cone all the time. Things seemed to have calmed down a bit, but he must be going a bit senile or something because he bites his penis then howls and wonders why that hurt!!! (and bleeds!!!)
I don’t think the vet has a solution for stooopid cat!
We’ve been giving him a calming drug daily, although I left off the last few days until we had an ‘incident’ yesterday.
While we are out or he is locked in his room for the night we put the cone on so he can’t have free range on his nether regions.
This is so weird!!
Apart from that, healthy, good appetite, affectionate and currently curled up on my lap sleeping!!

So… I reckon I am done for the night.
Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!
Cheers!

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!