Hi there! The market at Elliot went really well. Its the first time its been run in a while and a couple of new ladies had put it all together.
I had lots of rhubarb so I chucked some of that in too
I got in at about 8am (I had to wait for Jeff to get home off nightshift so I could grab the car) And by the time I set up, people were coming in buying so I didn’t have much time to take a bunch of photos around the place
Most stalls were inside but happy that Maureen and I had our gazebos and the weather was lovely, as we had much more room to display our wares.
We were lucky re the weather – the day before and the day after were windy and rainy!!
They want to put on another one mid December – hopefully more people will utilise the outdoor area as its a lovely big space and I am sure people would enjoy wandering out there among the stalls.
I sold just a little over $400 worth of soap (Market Happy Dance) and Maureen outstripped my sales by more than $60 so she is also totally rapt!! We just had people constantly browsing by and buying! Great day!
Hello! The weekend is nearly upon us again! Firstly… apologies, something in wordpress automatically updated and the net result is that it won’t accept my replies to comments again!!! Eyeroll. Yet to dive in to muck about and sort it. Bear with me 🙂
So… the garden! I got in and put three of the cucumbers in the ground so they can start their long climb up the trellis! (They look so tiny now)
Then I made room for some of the basil I bought the other week as seedlings as mine always seems to take an eon to get going
They were in their punnets a bit long… a bit of soaking and all good!
The remaining punnet of capsicum had also been in their pots way too long… so finally set them free as well
I noticed a good portion of my new rocket had disappeared overnight!! Damn… slugs on the rampage. I thought. Until I walked out the back and spotted a fat baby bunny in the middle of the patch!!! Scoffing my rocket!! Oi!!!
Between the bunnies and the blackbirds digging up everything I’ll be lucky to have a garden!!
The oregano is going exceptionally well, so I picked a heap to dry
Carrots making an appearance!
I put in a fair days work in the garden the other day… got the beetroot in Mind you since then I’ve had to net that patch too as the birds are enthusiastically digging it back up!!
The zucchini patch…
The zucchini seedlings were more than ready to go into a bigger space
They look a bit lost in here but it won’t take long and they’ll fill it all out.
Moving right along to this seasons butternut pumpkin patch
Bonus potatoes found in the clean up
The butternut seedlings were also ready to burst out of their pots
And done..
And my final task for that day was to start prepping the area for this seasons corn
Raked all the straw back off and dug it over… again removing the horrible twitch that creeps in everywhere. I still need to dig through some blood and bone… and perhaps get around to putting seed in the ground?? That will help
This afternoon my friend Maureen is planning to pick me up so we can go over to set up the gazebos for tomorrows country market at Elliot. Hoping the weather doesn’t do anything horrible. I think a little rain is forecast but will be optimistic and hope for the best. Will be nice if I can offload a bit more soap!
Picked a proper handful of strawberries yesterday!! So sweet too!
Anyway, best be off to get ready! Have a super weekend! Cheers
On our last day down south… we went alllll the way south! As far as the road will go basically! Its the furthest south you can drive in Australia. Then a short walk.
To a lookout with a life sized sculpture of a 3 month old Southern Right Whale
Of course, humans being human, back in the 1800’s they went on a whale hunting frenzy and just about hunted them to extinction. Their name came about because they were the ‘right’ whales to kill. Slow moving, high in blubber and their oil burned more cleanly than the Northern Hemisphere whales. They estimated before they started hunting there to be about 100,000. Today, only 2-3000 remain. 🙁
Right whales grow to around 15 metres and on average weigh 55 tonnes, although they can get up to 95!!
Cool and blustery here, but very pretty.
There are not many people further south than you when you stand down here. Next stop is Antartica!
Looking around
And then almost tropical
Not a day for swimming though!
Popping down to the beach for a closer look
Pretty!
Time to head home… With a quick stop so I could go see the start of the South Coast Track (or the finish)
By the way – we were in a National Park
This is not a hike for the faint hearted but it is on our ‘List’ 6-8 days and a lot more rugged than the Overland Track. You need to be experienced and completely self sufficient. No fancy huts on this trail! Most start at the other end and finish here. The start requires you to fly or boat in!! There are full on river crossings, coast, beach, plains and mountain hiking. It can snow any time of the year! From what I’ve read there is a lot of mud involved haha
Have a peek at the walk notes here if you are curious.
Anyway, a lot more work is required and some serious mental preparation too before we embark on that one!
We are back from down south. Was a lovely few days away – even had some nice weather! Was actually HOT for a bit! (Only under a sheet the first night but back to blankets the second haha) We got up pretty early and I drove about half way before I had to hand the vehicle over to Jeff as I couldn’t keep my eyes open! So I napped a bit, then when I woke up…then I snapped a bit to show you some of the passing countryside!
I love the lush green
Rhododendrons out in full bloom everywhere.
Fab old homes
Water…
Down this way there are a lot of orchards… apple and pear mainly
Possibly all of this not my best photography work haha – never mind. You can get a bit of a sense of what we were seeing this way.
Flowers!!
I didn’t get any photos of our accommodation… pretty non descript, onsite cabin, shared campsite shower block etc. All slightly… basic. The cutlery drawer cracked me up. Not so much the mismatching items as the provision of ONE teaspoon, three forks, two soup spoons but several more dessert spoons. Two butter knives… and the most puzzling… two cheese knives!!! The little things that amuse…
Anyways, out to the digging sites we go. We did some random digging and fossicking on the first afternoon but got more into it the second full day. We went to the place Jeff had started digging when he took his last lone trip. We extended his dig either side. I haven’t sorted through them yet but we found plenty of petrified wood and hopefully one or two tree fern fossils. The above agate also came from that first area!! (My find!!)
Our cheese knife complete accommodation was only 10 minutes or so from the digging area so we sensibly went back for lunch and a coffee (and to rest our aging backs haha) before going back to the agate rich area to see what we could find there.
I went back to a mud hole I was digging in the first trip and extended that. It wasn’t all that fragrant… and the mud was pretty sticky… but I got a lovely lot of stones out of it.
I am yet to scrub up most of them but I did get a few cleaned up and took some photos so I had something interesting to share with you!
So many different colours from one stinky mud hole.
Did I mention leeches? There were leeches.
A bit like a caramel.
By the way, leeches aren’t awesome.
Other couples have short trips away that don’t involve stinky mud, broken fingernails and leeches. There might be something wrong with us!! 😀 😀 Anyway, I have a few more snaps to share of our last day which I will save for tomorrow or the next day (Our drive to The End Of The Road)
Hello!! How is everyone? Did people do something for Halloween? I think a few local kids did some trick or treating in town and the staff at the supermarket dressed up a bit 🙂
So – I peeled some slivers from an orange and chucked them in the dehydrator. I was a bit excited about a new fragrance called ‘Orange and Bitter Chocolate’ Oh yes… yummo! I wanted to put some actual orange peel on the soap as a decoration. That kind of thing needs to be dehydrated though otherwise it will go mouldy. (Not a good look in soap haha)
Well – the fragrance made the mixture thicken up SUPER quick. I practically had soap in the bucket before I could get it into the mould!
Panic panic. It did make for a really interesting texture and the colours underneath once unmoulded looked ok too
It does smell delightful.
Another one I did prior to this also did the same acceleration to the ‘trace’ (thickness of the mixture in soaping terms) I was going to do a drop swirl with a new Strawberry and Champagne fragrance… it ended up going into the mould in layers as it was so thick!
I haven’t remembered to get photos of the cut version…
Then there was a new batch of the Oatmeal and Stout (Smells divine)
Again no unmoulded photos yet, same as the one below which is another new fragrance which I am loving already ‘Coconut and Lime’
Then there was another attempt at the embed mould of the Christmas tree… I really liked the stripes better on this one
(Little hearts)
Funny thing though… the tree got a bit fat!! Too much pre Christmas Cheer… or I didn’t snick the sides of the mould together quite firmly enough and it… bulged haha
This whole loaf (12 bars) is destined to be sold in a local shop that one of my friends owns!! I’ll be able to hand them over in the first week of December as they should be (just) ready by then.
I got a fantastic order from my parents – 35 soaps!! They’ve asked around their retirement village who wanted to buy some. So I put a box together and even made up a special request (Round soap with pink)
My parents showed the lady in question the photo and she really liked them and also requested a couple of the ones with the purple too! (Lavender and Cedar)
And last but not least… attempt number two on my ‘Fir Tree in a Snow Storm’
Charlie Brown would be proud… 🙂 I remembered the olive granules in the bottom layer as a scrub and had the mixture thinner this time. The indigo powder does streak … and I think I need to put the green in spread a little wider to get a less lopsided tree…. Still a work in progress but so much fun to create!
Okies… thats all from me! Hopefully I’ll pop in tomorrow evening to say hi, as we are planning to disappear south again the following day to hunt more fossils and agate (and yes I know I haven’t even taken photos of the last lot properly) Jeff was all fired keen to go again (cough… nerd… cough). I wasn’t going to go as it was all to hard with the animals, but apparently Wonderful Cousin Beau is free to stop in for a couple of days! Yay… trip for me too!
Hello! Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend planned!! First things first… strawberry rescue! Thanks to Ruby, I picked up some unwanted polypip and other bits and bobs from her place, so I was able to put together some new nice looking arch frames for some netting
I need to source some more clips but this is a good start!
Now its just the slugs I need to thwart!
And rocket progress…
Today I really really needed to get the carrots in.
I hate twitch… its never ending!! I spent a long time pulling it all up again. This stuff is bomb proof! Oh… and still digging up that evil weed matting – that the twitch is now embedded into making things much harder than they need to be! Never do weed mat!!
All grumbling aside, I felt a bit chuffed with the end result
Satisfying isn’t it? Went and found some sticks so I know where to expect the seedlings to pop up. I’ve got three different types in… and can’t remember off hand what they were!! I decided to give the beetroot its own patch this year and plant more carrots
Slightly wonky overall garden view
Potatoes are pretty much all up and going well. Lots of weeds coming back. I really really would like to mulch them but the blackbirds would just get in and kick it off as they are nesting everywhere and on major worm and bug quests.
Anyway, I am still following Ruby’s playbook and hoed in between the plants. Disturbing the weeds and aerating the soil
Better.
Lovely Rhubarb, forging ahead!
I started prepping the beetroot plot too
I just gave it a weeding and turned it over. Its got compost, leaf mould and has had rotting straw as well… I think I’ll add in some potting mix to lighten it up before planting the seeds… probably a tomorrow job. I am about out of my beloved pickled beetroot so… the sooner growing the better!
Did I post photos of my iris? They are all coming out now
I went out tonight and its horrifying how many snails are living in here though. I am feeling too lazy to go back out with a bucket…
Hi! As I type the wind is really kicking up out there! Pip is tucked up under my top keeping warm – and having a major licky-licky bath which is giving me the irrits haha – if he doesn’t stop soon I am evicting him and wrapping him in his towel so he can slurp all he likes on his chair.
How fluffy is the cherry blossom?? Loving it!
So… whats been happening? I had picked up another load of soil from Sharon and Pauls place, and managed to top up the last strawberry bed.
Took a few barrow loads to get it sorted.
Filled it back up with strawberries. Most have survived although I think today I replaced about 5.
I also topped up this bed. At one end its got black peppermint… which is gorgeous! Then the following day I did a complicated pattern planting rocket seeds.
Today I noticed that they’ve popped up already! Love how fast they are! I’ll give them a week then I’ll take out the sticks…
Oh! A strawberry. All very exciting until you return and find that the rotten blackbirds chewed it! Time for netting!!
Disappointed 🙁
I pulled up the second pot of potatoes in the hothouse. I think this one did better considering it was only one potato rather than three! They are all gone now… they were sooooooo good!
Did I mention that we sold the log of macrocarpa timber to a fellow that randomly appeared on our doorstop and asked if he could buy it?? I checked with our tree guy who originally wanted to mill it but its been so long and its in someone elses paddock. Tree Guy will be able to take whatever he can when the last of them come down.
I wheelbarrowed 4-5 lots up to the garden and put in a separate heap with the coffee ground.
It should break down pretty well. No rush
I’ve also been getting some (green) firewood from our cousins place. I added to this pile with another load before moving it all today.
Moving things about so we can start storing the new wood and letting it dry out
We also got the leftover milled timber that wasn’t wanted so we can use it for anything we need around here… so we braced the fence end of the timber pile
I say ‘we’ … Jeff pretty much did that 🙂
I bought some steel droppers the other day and today scrounged about for timber to put the front on the compost. Happy with that.
Now… to transform the other two bays haha Seems like I will NEVER get this three bay compost thing finished to my satisfaction!
The weather has been fickle. One day superb, the next miserable. Pretty funny when its a gloomy rainy day and I fail to put the fire on. Pip sits around in conspicuous spots under my feet, hunched up, slightly fluffed out, looking pointedly woebegone.
Lets translate that into ‘You useless human where is my fire and towel?’
I try tucking him up in bed, but he prefers to be out in the open guilt tripping me.
Finally I cave (because lets be honest… I love a cosy fire) So, human gets everything sorted, towel warmed, cat wrapped and finally I get some purrs. Spoiled rotten perhaps?? Maybe??
Oh well.
Hope you are doing well!! Enjoy the week ahead – lets finish with a snap of my beloved herb spiral… looking so lush! One of my sisters just sent me a link to a recipe for oregano pesto… mmmm
Hi! These photos are from the other day. I decided the garden here was too unruly for even me to cope with, so got in and did a major tidy and chop (and weed)
We’ve had a few days here and there of perfect spring weather
I cut the cape gooseberries right back, and also dug one up and gave it to Kirrily (Our old border) I will relocate the other two as well… I didn’t realise how big they were going to get and they are unsuitable for these beds.
I’ve found a few small self seeded lettuce in here too… bonus!
Two have since been eaten! Sigh. But the others I’ll replant when I top up the beds
This side needed a bit of TLC too
I’d like to get some more flowering plants soon for the middle areas
The borage is happily out of control and the sweet peas are slowly slowly growing up.
Such a difference from around 12 months ago when it was just a messy grassy slope!
Still loving the herb spiral
In other news… the hothouse potatoes were ready! Nail biting moment… would there be any potatoes? (The plants never flowered)
So I pulled the tops off the first pot that I had planted three potatoes in and tipped the pot…
Success!!! Oh how we have missed new potatoes!
Not bad for winter. I feel three was too many to plant, but it was all an experiment and boy oh boy did they taste good!! (Yes, past tense)
See the bowl? That gorgeous gorgeous bowl? My sister Rosemary has gotten into ceramics and is producing amazingly beautiful works at about the same rate I make soap! We got this in the mail the other day (Was so nervous opening the box to see if it made it in one piece!) (I’ll add a photo at the end of the post so you can see it sans veggies)
Still congratulating myself on planting new lettuce seedlings over winter. And a few snow peas haha
I know… I am still hiding that lovely bowl under food…
Yummo, fresh salad and proper free range eggs from spoilt chooks (Plus my cup, hand made also by Rosemary)
Rhubarb really going well so far.
The lemon balm I cut back to the ground has sprung up as if nothing happened!!!
I spent a great afternoon in the garden today too… will catch you up on that soon! Hope you are all having a wonderful week!! Cheers
Hello hello!! What a weekend! Gosh I am feeling weary tonight! So… yesterday I woke and the weather was less than nice. But I decided since the car was packed (and I am the eternal optimist) that I would go out to the Rhododendron Garden and see how things went.
Maureen also turned up after some debating in the morning because it was pouring at her place!!
The organisers decided we shouldn’t be down in the gardens – too wet and not many people expected in the rain. We got our gazebos up in the car park and I put out a few things then the rain came down more… even with the sides to help the misty rain just floated in and got the soap damp. Not going to work
Luckily instead of having to go home, we were able to snaffle a spot inside in the corridor along a wall and put a table up each and do a reduced version of our markets.
We really had a lovely day even though it was slow. We met lots of people… esp the volunteers that run the garden. So sweet and helpful.
(Maureens really cute kids aprons)
We both did better than we thought in sales for the day and the best thing was being able to just cover our stuff and leave it behind, ready for today!
Happily our gazebos did get used yesterday!! The Taiko Drummers couldn’t do their performance in the muddy garden in the rain, so they set up in the carpark! A real shame about that. Today would have been better for them with more people to enjoy it. I certainly loved it
This is Ayano… I met her later and we made friends!! Maybe I will be able to meet her again sometime and brush up on my Japanese!!
And today was stunning weather! Its hard to believe this followed the dark day of misery yesterday haha
So we decided to relocate our wares back outside under the gazebos where we had more space to work in and put out more stuff
So many people came by to see the gardens (and buy soap!!)(and craft goods)
Everyone was so cheerful and positive. It was a lovely atmosphere today!
Maureen has done so much sewing this year!! She is saving her pennies as she is planning to join an expedition with Margie, her daughter in law Marsha and myself to Japan next year! (You know… if we can ever leave the country again!!!!!)
We are hoping to go in November 2021. Obviously nothing set – who knows what the world will be up to by then! But its great to have plans and goals to work towards!
It was nice having the space today.. I could sit at a separate table behind the main display and wrap soaps for people – like a mini office! I also enjoy seeing the soaps all out together. People were being so complimentary about them. I think my head swelled up.
Great outcomes though. Sold over $500 worth over the two days and now I have some space so I can happily make more!!! Yay for markets!
Hope you’ve all had a wonderful weekend too!! (I hope to go back to the gardens ASAP so I can actually have a look around!)
