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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!)

Cheers!

Hi there!!

There is a market this weekend- over two days at the Rhododendron Gardens not too far from here.
I haven’t checked the weather but I am booked and packed! Fingers crossed
I’ve been sorting soap this week and boxing it up… good grief I have a lot!!

Been trying to get Christmassy colours happening. None of these will go with me on the weekend. Will save them for the Nov. Markets closer to Christmas.

I am getting better at the wreath design. Chose better colours that dont run… and a fragrance (Peppermint) that doesn’t discolour the base mix.

This one was a bit of fun. I did peppermint again… going for that candy cane feel??

The butterfly embed soaps unmoulded nicely and are rather sweet.

And lastly before I take myself off to bed (shockingly before midnight) my first attempt at …
Well… I am sure you are all seeing a fir tree in a snow storm right??
This was the closest one to the mark.
Made me laugh a bit but all my FB friends and family are being very kind about it 🙂

I will try again with my normal loaf mould and a fragrance that doesn’t accelerate the trace. It got a bit thick to work with so things didn’t quite go my way.
BUT – I think I know how to fine tune it. And I’ll cut the snow smaller too.
Goals… 🙂

Have a great weekend everyone
Cheers!

Just some pretty spring stuff tonight.
Will have a soap update soon… been making more but mostly organising for the planned market this weekend!

Our lovely cherry blossom has finally fooffed out 😀
But was feeling a bit sad today thinking that I usually got Ruby standing under it for a photo session. She did love the spring flowers and blossoms…

Funny how these iris are just popping out too – I don’t really remember having them before and so far about 4 have bloomed!

Not as pretty, but mega exciting… potatoes coming up everywhere!

The white garlic seems to have recovered from being ravaged by the chooks

Flea ended up getting one of her wing feathers trimmed the other day. She was flying up and over the garden fence then happily digging up stuff… like the snow pea patch!
Seems like that’s done the trick!!
We might be finally chook-proof!

Poor snow peas. Will have to replant a couple of sections.

Still don’t need the broccoli patch so happy to leave it for the bees

Hmmm – the population of fat happy rabbits is growing!!
All cute until they have a party under the house at 3am. I think they are trying to bounce (or something) and keep bashing their heads on the floorboards. Soooo relaxing!

Calendulas continue to be a wonderful bright spot in the garden

The last tulips …

The sage has flowered. Not having had it before it was nice to see what it looked like!

The chives are a bit of a mass of purple now too!

Anyways, loving the warmer weather and the spring colours.
Mind you… I still have the fire going in the evening and the electric blanket at night because… well I like cosy!!!

Hope you are all having a lovely week so far!!

Cheers!

Hello! Welcome to the end of another week!
I hope yours has been a good one and you’ve a splendid weekend planned ahead!

Got the snaps together for my walk back to the cabin after Sharon, Lottie and I walked around Dove Lake.
There is a boardwalk that goes right back to the rangers station before you enter the park ‘officially’ that we’ve never walked. Its not long enough or challenging enough to make a whole days drive to Cradle just to do it. Its also another 5-7kms that you just don’t always feel like tacking on to the end of the day when you might have walked up a mountain already!
So, I thought it was a great chance to check it out.
Sharon and Lottie were done and were heading back to the cabin, but I still had some energy and keenness for hiking left!

Its a lovely boardwalk. Nothing to the challenges of a crazy muddy path with roots and rocks to trip you up, but I loved it anyway!

Turbo Chooks!!
Tasmanian Native Hen… I love their nickname tho… and you should see them run at full tilt!! Insane! They’d run down a cheetah! haha

Scat ID time… Hows your poo recognition skills??
What animal does a square poo??
Yup… its a wombat! (You all got that right?) Still a mystery how a square poo comes out of a round hole haha.
The things that keep you up at night pondering. (Stay tuned at the end for cute wombat photos)

It was so nice meandering along the boardwalk. I crossed a river a couple of times and a few streams

Looking back to really great views

The sun was in the right place to take photos of where I had been rather than in the direction I was going!

Still a bit of snow left dusting the top of Cradle

Over the river again

And again

And a shadow selfie of me waving hi to all of you! (See… I think of you all when I am out and about in places like this!)

I love rivers. I think I am a river girl in my heart as I grew up in river country!

Bit cold for a dip though…

The path went through a few different landscapes too

Oh look… more river!

Above photo looking ahead rather than back!
(I got Sharon and Lottie to do half this walk back with me the next day which was awesome… they both enjoyed it although at one point we needed to pep Lottie up with a muesli bar haha)

Dead tree landscape

See the path snaking down through the scrub. I suspect the reverse hike would have been a bit more challenging. I did a little bit of up, but I think overall… more ‘down’

The currawong following me… still seeking a sandwich.

What a beautiful afternoon!

Small stream trickling down and under the boardwalk.

There were a few rest spots placed strategically along the path too
This was like a rock throne or something!

Still getting glimpses of Cradle at times!

I really didn’t have a sense of how far I had to go until I got over this stretch… where I could start to see the lodges

The rich afternoon light just made this golden!

Back to the rangers station, I decided to walk back up to the cabin because it ‘couldn’t be all that far’

Well, yah, it was. A bit far. At that time of day. Plus I had to walk by the road which isn’t as much fun as the boardwalk EXCEPT… all the animals!

So many wombats everywhere!!

They just don’t care that you are there. Busy. Eating.

Plenty of wallabies and pademelons too

And good reason for the permanent slow speed limits here.

Not sure if the above is a Bennetts wallaby or not.

Taa Daaa!
I made it. I was ready for a hot chocolate and a sit down.
The girls were already snugged up in bed watching the Sound of Music!

Such a cute little cabin… complete with neighbours!

Reckoned she might have hopped in if we’d let her!

Anyway – hope you enjoyed the walk and the animals!!
Have a lovely weekend
Cheers

Kiss the Ground.

I hope I did that link right!!! 😀

Someone on one of my gardening pages recommended this doco/movie and another member sent me this link.
Its available on Netflix and we watched it late this afternoon.

So interesting and full of hope.

I try to share what I have learned with others re gardening and looking after the environment, perhaps especially, feeding the soil and not just the plants.
The documentary expands on this greatly.

As you know, we only have a smallish (in the grand scheme of things) plot of land but pull plenty of food out of it. With no chemicals etc either.
It was great to see large scale operations using biodiversity to strengthen their soils – and their outputs and increase their $$
Monoculture is not doing us any favours.
Anyway, I won’t spoil the plot haha – just to say we really really enjoyed it and it makes us enthused to try harder to do better with what we’ve got…

If you’ve watched it – would love to hear your thoughts!

Cheers!

Hi!
Hows your week going?
Yesterday I had a bit of a day of rollercoasting emotions. I found all my chooks in the veggie garden DIGGING UP MY GARLIC!!
There was a very ungraceful eviction and a lot of yelling. (And a lot of bok bok bokking from the garlic killers)
Then I got a note in the letterbox for me to collect a soap supplies order… excited but still mad haha

Chooks!! I tell myself I was fantasising about soup (sans garlic) but of course I love them. I straightened up the garlic and uncovered the ones they buried and will hope they recover ok.
The bottom gate that we don’t use somehow got open!!! Its now tied shut.

The soaps above have set nicely and the creamy bits have lightened up so they are looking prettier. I had the butterfly embeds and thought they might look cute

Can’t wait to use one of the new fragrances… raspberry and vanilla. I’ve sniffed it 10 times already and I am in love and I wish I got more than 50ml

Note to Judy: We didn’t go for a specific walk as Jeff promised but we did kinda get out and walk because Margies little dog Macca disappeared so we went down to join in the hunt! He was missing in action for over an hour!!!
Found in a yard nearby ignoring the calls and whistles as he was ferreting out rabbits!!!!
Glad he was found safe and sound – and looking like butter would not melt in the mouth haha

Loving the herb spiral… although I spent a sticky half hour or so out there tonight collecting slugs and snails and jumping on them. Eurgh

If I had the will, I could be out there for hours and collect buckets of the rotten things!!
Anyway, I put a small dint in the population.

I still need to cut back the cape gooseberry and really get the gardens ready for planting… tomorrow is supposed to be our last nice day for a while so better get into the garden and stock up on fire wood at the back door.
Lucky I have lots of soap stuff to play about with!

Cheers!

Hello!
Slow Sunday here… Jeff was sleeping off a nightshift. I am not sure what I was doing overall. I think wasting time sprinkled with a few domestics.

The pear tree is just loaded with blossoms now! So pretty!

And here is something exciting!! First potato of the season has popped up!

I haven’t seen any basil seedlings for sale yet… a few of my seeds have germinated but I reckon I’ll need to put in a lot more in case I can’t source seedlings! We had chicken pesto pasta the last couple of nights with some pesto that was still in the freezer! So good!!
I need to stock up!

The cucumber looks really good. Very much hoping for a better season with them this year.

This looks encouraging!!
I also very much need to finish filling the other bed so the rest of the strawberries can get planted and start doing their thing.

I’ve only had to replace a couple of plants in this plot that didn’t take well to the transplant so thats not bad (Not like last season when they all just died for no good reason!)

Being the first time I’ve had borage, I had to look up what the seeds looked like so I could collect some. I know it self seeds but my Mum and probably other people will want some seeds too.

Turns out its pretty easy…

The main trick is to find them before they drop

My oregano has exploded with spring and is looking super lush

Next I need to look up how to make chamomile tea right from the flower

So… who knew that a guelder rose would grow from a stick??
This was a surprise for me. I left a couple of sticks in a garden bed – I was using them as markers.
Seems like they are growing really happily!!
This means I now have to find homes for two guelder rose trees!!! (I call them snowball bushes as the flowers are like puffy snowballs!)

And the one lavender I have in the pot is looking lovely.

I need to finish tidying up this garden so I can take an overall snap so you can see how its progressing. I am hoping for a lot more flowering plants within the raised bed boarders!!
Fingers crossed!
Hope you’ve all had a lovely weekend!
Cheers!

(Somebody else had a nice lazy day too!)

Hello!
Want to join me for a walk around Dove Lake?
We left here a bit before 7.30am Monday morning and made it to Cradle not long after 9.
Totally glad I put the thermal underwear on in the morning… it was a bit brisk early on!!

Things have changed a bit again… the old car park is an unattractive building site – they are making a new viewing centre or something.
I remain unconvinced… The more we build in these areas the less wilderness and special they become…

Anyway, there is a boardwalk connecting the bus drop off to the walk which makes it all nice and easy.

There was a good snowfall over the weekend and a nice dusting of it remained.
We were hoping the clouds would lift eventually.

Sharon and Lottie rugged up and ready to go! Naturally had to do the obligatory photo at the lakes edge before we left.

We decided to go ‘backwards’ to my usual way – mostly because lots of other people were going the other way 🙂

It was nice to see the blue sky making an appearance early

Lottie charged on ahead – lots of energy!
Bailed Sharon up for another snap

We made it to the boat shed pretty smartly… Sharon, the star, had made up some soup the day before and had it in thermoses piping hot with her home baked bread… how could I say no??
Soooo good!

It was a good place to stop for a bite

Refueled… so onward!

Things were definitely clearing up and the day was getting nicer by the minute

I don’t often get to see the mountain in the snow so I might have gotten a bit over excited in the photo-department…

Runoff creating a decent little waterfall up there!

“I want your sandwich”
The ever present currawongs ready, willing and able to steal the food from your fingers if you are inattentive at all!

And into the ‘Ballroom Forest’ we go

So pretty… dark and green and tangled and mossy

Always nice to hug a tree!

Some of the pandanis are so tall!!! (Grass tree)

Love the way the terrain keeps changing

What else are you meant to do with the curly leaves but make moustaches?

Such great views in all directions!
We were loving it. Lottie was finding bits of snow and Sharon and I were enjoying catching up without being in the middle of a soap workshop!!

Of course there might have been a few snow-scuffles on the way around!

(Pencil Pine)

We stopped by the little beach areas – had lunch and fended off a few more keen currawongs
Another fellow was down on the beach photographing this one, put his apple between his knees to hold it while he got a snap, and the bird just flew right down and stole it and flew off!!! haha – awesome!

These are the birds that you need to be prepared for on the Overland – the ones that undo zips and help themselves to your snacks.

Back on the track… a quick stop for a touching mother and daughter moment… haha

Lottie clearly wasn’t worn out yet!

Down to another little lakeside beach.
I just love the colours in the water.

Thanks for joining me in the stroll!!
I’ll be back with more snaps soon!

Cheers!

Hi there! The bees were hard at work yesterday – it was a really nice day so we took advantage and ticked a few more things off the list.
Its gloomy today so am having an indoor day – finishing off the Cradle Mt photos so I can share soon.
In the meantime… garden!

I haven’t even looked back to last year to see the dates of planting… I am winging it a bit. I don’t think its going to hurt progress to be leaving it a bit later than usual.

The snow pea patch wasn’t too bad really…a bit of weeding of course.
Then I put up some trellises that I got from Ruby’s for them to climb on. The sticks looked pretty cool last season, but they didn’t have the sturdiness for the weight of the peas and the wind combined!

The pink hay bale twine is a nice touch don’t you think??? Haha… Jeff tried really hard not to mention it.

I like it that I haven’t bought snow pea seeds since the first time I grew them many seasons ago! So easy to replenish.

Jeff was down the back clearing, chopping and doing chainsaw stuff so I brought Flea, Dora and Flossie into the veggie patch with me so there weren’t any tragedies… they have no sense of personal space and want to be under your feet and to be where the action is!

Waiting for me to dig up worms

Flossie was the first one evicted in disgrace not long after the above photo was taken! I looked over to see her digging up the garlic!! Eeeeeeep!

Jeff had finished with the power tools so I piffed her back over the fence.

I finished digging up and weeding (again) the carrot/beetroot plot before returning Flea and Dora to the other side so I could plant the snow peas without them digging them straight back up again.

Moving right along… time to string up the raspberries!
The spring winds are kicking up again so getting a bit of support for them has been on my mind.

They are slowly getting leaves.

Meanwhile, Jeff had migrated to the BBQ area to split more kindling… it was all pretty green and the smell of the macrocarpa pine is wonderful!
He had also filled the big woodbox crate thingy so that will be useful.

Love the flyaway hair!

And lastly, planted a bunch more seeds. Luffa/loofa, zucchini, apple cucumbers, celery and eggplant. I think that was about it…

More lettuce are popping up and the cucumber are sitting up happily now!

Hope you’ve got a splendid weekend planned!
Cheers!