Hi! Just a quick one from me… Jeff found what he thought were Ghost Mushrooms (Omphalotus nidiformis) on one of his walks around the Oldina logging area. He was keen (as was I) to pop back after dark to see if they were.
Well, after being assured he knew where they where and a subsequent 2km unnecessary walk through the dark and spooky forests, giving up then finding them not far from where we parked the car (insert wifely eyeroll) we were indeed rewarded by – a glow!
How fabulous are they?? It took a few goes to get the camera settings right – I took the ‘real’ camera out along with tripod etc (this was around a two minute exposure!!)
Of course, Australians are going to call them ‘Ghosties’ We have seen plenty of pictures of them – but never in real life!
To the naked eye they don’t glow green, but kind of like a moonlight white! They are so pretty.
They wouldn’t really grab your attention if you weren’t looking for them. And even then… you have to be actually walking along in the dark so your night vision wasn’t wrecked. It took us a minute of waiting to see if they were really glowing or if our eyes were playing tricks!
They are poisonous, despite looking rather similar to the oyster mushrooms. Apparently wont kill you but will make you pretty crook if you ate them. (Severe cramps and vomiting) (So best not) Anyway, I thought they were amazingly beautiful and I wanted to share!
The other weekend, Maureen and I went over to the Emu valley Rhododendron gardens for their autumn festival and got to set up in the gazebo by the pond! Such a beautiful day!
Maureen had all her jams and relishes, aprons and other lovely sewn goods and the scarves her husband, Gerry crocheted!
We also had a table of Gerry’s amazing willow baskets!
Naturally… I had some soap!
It was a bit of an effort getting all the stock and tables down to the spot but it was the best place! Luckily my cousin Leonie came along for the morning and it was so good to have her help!
Its nice having a big space to spread out our wares!
The weather was perfect and we met lots of really nice people!
Back to my garden, I took some time to clear out and tidy a couple of plots
This was meant to be beetroot!! But the carrots self seeded and I just never got back to control ANYTHING!
Some of the more creative carrots
This is the lamest beetroot harvest I have ever had!!
The carrot flowers were keeping the bees busy
Some nice parsley plants that I never planted… so I left them alone.
Cleared!
I have used half this bed to replant beetroot seeds so we shall see if anything comes of that. I’ve promised them I will keep them carrot free.
The tomatoes are soldiering on! Was time to weed (ok … waaaaay past time) and retie the plants. The weather is colder but no frosts as yet so leaving the plants to get the last of the tomatoes
We’ve enjoyed having a decent lot of tomatoes this season. Have well stocked up on sauces and relish!
And… looking lots better!
While I was at it, I collected some basil seeds as well.
I was super keen to keep up and attack more plots… But I seem to have some big soap orders from some local places. Which means being a little soap frantic again. Shops also mean regular (hopefully) orders. So its not just a ‘get the soap made and walk away’ kind of thing. Hopefully it will go ok. My biggest challenge now is olive oil prices which are heart stopping and also continuing to rise! I have started experimenting with other oils to help but thats a long process. I need to have a mix that doesn’t thicken up quickly so I can do the designs which is what people come to me for mostly.
Jeff bought me these super cool moulds for my bday and I was experimenting dusting with mica… I need practice haha But… they are fabulously detailed so I might do them as a special soap in a box. I was also given from our friend Yuri these cute Buddha moulds!! I am going to present them as a pair in a box. Still hoping to have soap time to just experiment on stuff rather than churning it out!! In the back of my mind I feel fairly guilty about that lack of housework thing… Oh well! Hope everyone is doing wonderfully! xx
Hello! We are well into autumn and on our way to winter again! I’ve squeezed in some time and motivation to process a few more tomatoes! It will be sad when they are finished for the season. We are still getting rather nice days, although the nights have cooled considerably!
Here are some dodgy pics of my dodgy garden out the back. I did get out and worked on it a bit before getting sidetracked into something else… so its still unfinished!
I have had another couple of local markets – workshop upcoming next weekend, but I’ve consulted my diary and I seem to have time this week to share between the garden and getting some more soap done (yah… the housework isn’t on the list.)
I guess this was a start!
Anyway… Do you recall me making a whole heap of unsubtle suggestions to Jeff while I was in Japan about wisteria trellises along with helpful photos? Of course. Nothing had eventuated. It was my birthday the other weekend so I called dibs on what I wanted to do for the day.
The site of my wisteria trellis! First up… fence and gate removal. Jeff easily popped the gate off and we figured we’d have the fence part out fairly smartly so we could put in the uprights for the trellis
Best laid plans and all of that…
OK…we knew the poles were cemented in. And it wiggled about but was not going to come up at all. We detached the wooden panels once we realised it wasn’t going to just pull up as one unit. The pole nearest the fence came out after with not too many issues.
But this one???!!! I thought we were going to hit the water table! It wiggled back and forth, and around but we couldn’t budge it upwards.
One has to ask what the previous owners were trying to keep in with a fence so firmly placed!! We had thought ducks… but this is overkill for ducks. Even mean ducks.
This is Jeff trying not to have a tanty because its my birthday and would ruin the vibe… BTW the angle grinder wouldn’t put a dent in that pole, so that idea got abandoned.
It got to the point where I couldn’t reach the bottom as my arms were too short! Jeff got a long screwdriver and started hacking away at the dirt around the pole to loosen it more… AND HIT MORE CONCRETE!! Some miserable, obnoxious, insane, ridiculous person in a fit of overkill had also cemented it deep underground… which explained why we couldn’t pull it up! I can’t tell you all the swear words. So I grabbed a steel dropper and a sledge hammer and smashed it into the bottom layer of concrete. (I admit it was satisfying) FINALLY we got it up!!
The whole operation took so long! But with all that out of the way, we then spent a bit more time untangling the wisteria from a pallet (more destruction, hammers and crowbars) and then I could start making new holes for my trellis!
Does anyone else do stupid things like this by choice for their birthdays?
Look! Two new holes!! No cement this time though.
Choosing the least cruddy lengths of macrocarpa.
We didn’t get nearly as far as I planned/hoped but it was enough to get the feel of what I was after so that was good. Plus we needed to clean up as I was keen to go out to dinner!
I figured I’d come back each day and dig one more hole so it didn’t end up taking a millennium to finish the project. I got back the next day after a hike to dig a hole and put another post in (I figured I was already sweaty so I might as well continue doing something physical before having a shower!) Then a few days later I did the same but got over enthused and dug the last three holes and Jeff got all the cross bars attached (The timber for those was a bit wonky but I trust the wisteria will cover that in due course)
I am rather excited! Really taking shape!
Now… I need to schedule myself in a new day of work to crisscross the bamboo across the top and then untangle the wisteria from the chook run and encourage it over its new home! Tomorrow has to be a soap day, but I am keen to get this finished this week. Hope everyone is doing fantastically well xx
Hi! Had my second last Cruise Ship Market Saturday… busy day with great sales… boy oh boy was I tired! Today was slow… with some half hearted housework. Anyway, to continue! This little creek crossing I was hanging out for! It was pretty hot so dipping my head into the water was super refreshing!
We started getting to the point of seeing ‘views’ too!
Totoro had a few photo shoots…
Then into the mossy forests we went.
Yuri, being the author of several Japanese Moss Garden books was so amazed at this area… even in the hot weather when its not at its best… its still beautiful!
Jeff was usually up ahead… and we kept finding Totoro in various places!!
Time for a quick posed snap!
We were getting a little tired and looking forward to a lunch stop
Hello Yuri!
Even in summer its a bit dark in the tangled mossy areas. Nice to get back out into the brighter light
More picture taking! Picture taking of pictures being taken??
And here we are at the lake – ready for some cheese and relish sandwiches and a bit of a sit down
The sangers were SO good (Yuri is in love with my relish haha) and I did a bit of a paddle in the lake to cool off
Unfortunately there were no shady trees at this spot so we didn’t linger excessively… just enough time to eat, drink and recharge the energy batteries!
From here the track still goes a long way but it meanders more in an across and downwards fashion.
And the views are lovely!
We started walking through different bush areas
Open scrubby areas and a few more mossy tree areas!
It really never gets boring thats for sure!
Some bright berries!
And sweet paper daisies
How great does the bark on these trees look!!??
At this point the track just seems to go a bit too long! We know Pelion Hut isn’t too far… but it takes its sweet time appearing!
By this stage poor Yuri was like ‘dead man walking’ and just stumbling along on automatic, bless her cotton socks! She did an amazing job! We were all fairly tired by the time we reached Pelion and set up our tents! After a bit of rest and relaxation and food we were quite fine but very much enjoyed getting to sleep that night! Anyway, I shall try to attend to a few more photos soon to continue the story! xxx
Hi! Wow… two days in a row! I’ve been working on some of the photos from when our friend Yuri came to stay. So I thought I’d start sharing the Main Event… a hike up into the Cradle NP to see what the rangers dub ‘The Japanese Gardens’
When I was in Japan last year I spent a fabulous day with Yuri and convinced her to make plans to come and see us. The hike was a big goal – the area falls right in the middle of the Overland Track, which wasn’t really a practical option. Happily, there is a kinda short cut into the track via the Arm River Track. Its a fair way from our place to the start, so we opted to go the day before and camp closer so we were on the track earlier without having to wake at dawn and do a super long drive first.
We camped at the base of Mt Roland, ate a picnic dinner and Yuri and I took a short local walk just to get into the swing of the thing.
Actually where we camped was literally across the creek and down from where Maureen and I stayed for Steamfest and in future, we will use those cabins for these adventures.
Haha… off we go. Nothing too difficult or long. It was just nice to stretch the legs after the drive.
Lots of little signs and other bigger signs with local information
I think Yuri was nervous, and I was also anxious (wanting things to go smoothly) So easing into our adventure was a nice thing to do with a relaxing walk.
And it was such a pretty area!
We were mostly all ready for the next days walk. Jeff was taking our tent and I had Yuri’s tent. We were trying to reduce her pack weight as she is only small and wasn’t used to crazy hiking. My friend Nardia was kind enough to give us a loan of a pack and sleeping bag and a few other handy things for the hike.
The main hike we planned to do over three days. First day in – a long haul with a mean climb for the first half… hence wanting to start early before the sun cooked us. Second day to go up to the Japanese Gardens and third day to hike out.
I worded Yuri up about the lack of showers – a shock to the system for a Japanese person I am sure, since bathing is such a cultural thing! I also said dont worry about the makeup – you just have to carry it and the wildlife and other hikers dont care!! hee hee… I am pretty sure she snuck some in.
So here we are looking all Genki (Japanese word) ready to tackle day one!
We brought the Triton this time as the road in is a bit rough and I think Jeff was crying when we brought the nice little Mazda last time.
Jeff also brought Totoro along for the hike! (If you are not familiar with the movie, do yourself a favour and go check out ‘Totoro’ and some other Ghibli Studio Movies while you are at it! – My favourite is Spirited Away)
Easy start…
Followed by a bit of log balancing
Yuri looking like a pro and non of us fell off! Bonus!
Finally a sign to tell us we aren’t lost!
And then came the tough part… up and up with the switchbacks. I get ridiculously anxious about the start of a trek… esp the going up thing. I am talking throwing up anxious… which is annoying as I’ve done these things so many times. There is no need for it, but – huh. Body says nope – Drama Queen Time! I did take some medication to calm the farm and let Jeff do his pace heading off ahead and I planned to stop at every switchback and inch my way up.
The overall combo seemed to work well and we just took our time overcoming the days challenge.
And stopping to take a snap or two!
The switchbacks stop eventually but the up continues for a fair way.
The track got a bit more interesting with the bush closing in
It has been so dry over summer… more than we would usually expect here in Tassie, so the moss and lichen weren’t as spongy fresh as we are used to seeing.
We’ve dubbed this rock, ‘Nectarine Rock’ in honour of stopping here to down packs and enjoy some fresh fruit! I cannot describe HOW GOOD that nectarine tasted! We were in heaven! Sometimes you have to do stupid things to enjoy your fruit more…
Clearly revived… Yuri looks like she has lots of energy left!
I always enjoy coming back out into the open spaces after spending a while in the scrubby bush areas.
I forgot to ask Yuri how many photos she took on this hike! She outdid me by a long shot!!
And I love just stopping to take in the views, catching my breath and generally trying not to break land speed records when doing these hikes so I enjoy hiking buddies like this!
Anyway, I am going to leave you on the track here as I have an early (ish) night. Plan to head up to Jude’s in the morning for some gardening and in the afternoon attend a talk about fossils in Tasmania (is that nerdy?)(I am totally there for it!)
Hello! OK… I am officially making my 2024 goal of blogging at a regular pace. I am yet to sort out that pace.
But I just renewed the site for another 12 months so I better get my act together! (Above and below: Mulled wine, Japanese Honeysuckle and some Aloe Vera Soap)(I was adding to stock to make sure I could cover the last lot of cruise ship markets and some local ones)
Stacked boxes of soaps! All ready for Steamfest, held at Sheffield for three days.
I even went as far as labelling the boxes. Back to good old scribbled notes and tape as the little label holder didn’t really work. I think there is around 600 soaps in here
Soap sock/soap saver! New design – I just made it up and its quick to do and… importantly… fits the soap in. Just a couple of granny squares crocheted together
These will be nice to do over winter when I am trying not to do much but sloth in front of the fire.
Travel sized shampoo bars – I like the little bags. Got to stir my butt and get more shampoo bars made.
This year we cancelled the campsite and was lucky enough to find a place not far south of Sheffield to lay our heads. Maureen decided she was just a bit on in years to be crawling in and out of tents… esp in the middle of the night when one might want a wee!! This spot at Gowrie park was only about 15 minutes drive and the part we stayed in was essentially a backpackers with private rooms, shared bathrooms and a kitchen! Perfect for what we needed. Here is a pic of the room I artfully decorated in my rubbish.
We will definitely take advantage of this location again.
Anyway, down to Sheffield we go… Maureen and I! Her husband Gerry also drove up to help us put up a backdrop as we decided last year that the grotty old shed walls weren’t aesthetically pleasing enough.
Just in the throes of covering our stall up for the night. I love setting up and walking away! But its a dusty shed and the condensation means a bit of cover is a smart move.
The ladies from the Cruise Ship Markets also packed up from one market and drove the hour and a half to set up here!! Exhausting!
This time Maureen convinced Gerry to let her bring up his baskets to pop onto a table! Mostly willow and flax – what a variety he has! Not bad for starting a new hobby in your 80’s!!
I’d kept a number of full batches to use at Steamfest so I wasn’t left with half filled baskets So good to see them all out on display
I made use of the back wall to display Mums scarves and the cosy cuffs my friend Nozomi’s Mum made.
Here we go! All set up! Carpet and all!
Maureen in fine form! Mind you the hat lasted about 4 minutes as we were dying from heat! It was madly hot over the weekend. Humid too! Hilarious watching people though. The ones walking by in various stages of Melted Puddle were the Tasmanians who seem allergic to any sort of humidity. I could instantly tell the Queenslanders though… they looked quite comfortable in an ‘you call this humidity??’ kind of way!!!
Lovely aprons and wall hangings.
Maureen certainly has been busy since returning from Japan. She did have things on her stall that weren’t hers – besides Gerry’s baskets – and next year that wont be happening. Cutting down all the extras to just display her own work, (and the baskets of course!) so she can keep all the loot for herself!
Jeff dropped in to visit on the Sunday – to check out Steamfest and kiss his wife of exactly 17 years! Unconventional anniversaries are the name of our game it seems Yet to do something like have a dinner out to celebrate!
We loved the look of our little shop and had a fabulous weekend away, eating pizza and various other junky food!! We had a lot of laughs! Mind you, sales were down a lot compared to the previous year, but we still went home happy.
My friend Jackie makes these absolutely gorgeous reversible bucket hats! She has sold well over the cruise ship season. Actually we were all meant to be there today, but the boat cancelled so we all packed up and came home. Its raining now… and finally being at loose ends (yes yes, still a million projects to be worked on but…) so I wanted to sit and blog and photoshop travel photos from Yuri’s visit!
There are two more cruise ship markets and then the season is done. Hopefully the weather and seas are good as they are pretty big boats. I’ve done well out of them – I’ve been madly saving it all and I am planning on funding a return to Japan… this time with Jeff!! (Nice wife haha) After the cruise markets there are three more local markets – two in April and one in May and a potential soap workshop in April. So things have slowed up markedly and I am beginning to catch up on other things – helping Jeff a little in wood restocking. We emptied the tanks and swooshed them out. The bottom was getting a little manky in the main tank so it was time. And wow! Rain. So decent timing on that. Its been super dry. Also made my beloved pesto and another batch of relish as the tomatoes have been so much better this season than last! The house is still a wreck. Lets not talk about that! Hope everyone is doing well! Halfway though March already! Insane!
Wow… March! Thanks for sticking with me! I clearly haven’t gotten any better at time management. I am thinking once this month is done, cruise ship markets done, everything should settle back to something more sensible. I did a quick stroll around the shabby garden yesterday to get some updated pics to be able to write a quick blog Tomatoes – Magnificent!
Hothouse? Not so magnificent haha Oh dear
I have an insane Black Russian Cherry Tomato plant that has grown all over the place and the fruit is gorgeous
I’ve squeezed in some time to make a couple of relish batches
Our visitor, Yuri got totally addicted to the relish! She wanted it on every meal!
The potato patch is probably ready for a full harvest… When I have time
All looking a bit shabby but boy oh boy are the new potatoes tasty!
And a slightly hilarious meal photo… not restaurant worthy, but home made rissoles and some salad and eggs and damn its good! (and relish)(and yes, erm… tinned pineapple because I love it)
And another less than artistic meal photo… potato bake and the first of the corn which is soooo sweet and amazing. And a lame salad because I was too lazy to do anything else.
So many meals in the above pic! Below, my butternut pumpkins have happily taken over this space and I’ve got 4 or 5 of them growing that I’ve spotted so far. (The other rampant plant in there are a multitude of cape gooseberry bushes!)(I am never going to get rid of those!)
Hiding in the oregano and lemon balm!
Cousin Jeff has dropped off a couple of loads of wood and Husband Jeff has been collecting wood as well on his hikes – and he cut/stacked it all! Usually thats my job so I am pretty happy about that!
We will do some more collecting soon. I want to be over stocked this year!
The outside tomatoes that I grew from laterals have just started to ripen. Most are yellow. The bamboo trellis has worked pretty well
What a mess tho! Oh well… I’ll get to it eventually!
Fat bottomed mutant zucchini…
Golden nugget pumpkins…
Um… random egg? Weird chickens
Coco. All these are tablet photos… so not exactly the usual quality but… thought you’d like to say hello to the chooks! I’ve not made time to get back to photoshop to go through all our adventure hiking photos that we did with Yuri. We had a fantastic time and I am looking forward to sorting the pictures.
Might get some sunflowers soon!!
I did plan a day of slothing finally on tuesday… then it turned out I needed a tooth extracted!! (Back molar) So it really wasnt the relaxing day I was aiming at!!! I’ve tried to take it at a bit less of a frantic pace. I’ve booked in to the last three cruise ship markets which is in the latter part of March. I made up some extra soap batches that should be cured to use by then. It gives me a bit of a break from those – but I have Steamfest on the 9th, 10th and 11th March which Maureen and I go up to Sheffield and stay. We plan to set up our space on Friday. The lovely thing being that we dont have to take it down every day… they just lock the big shed. So the cruise ship markets have been a fabulous success as far as I am concerned! Saving all the $$ to get Jeff and I back to Japan later in the year (goals) I really am looking forward to winter though! Some long evenings in front of the fire – movies and basket weaving!! Crochet? Anyway, I have a list I need to work through today so I better get my butt moving! Hope everyone is doing fabulously well xxx
Almost non stop soap making, squeezing in some gardening, and now well into my second guests stay!!
(above chamomile flowers drying)
So happy to be getting tomatoes. Also the apple cucumbers have gone totally mad
Luckily my friend Nardia and her family loves them so I have been able to offload the majority their way!! (Only so many Jeff and I need)
I haven’t had much time for jam and sauce making but the freezers were threatening to leave home, so I did get a bit of raspberry jam made and also rendered some more fat for future soaps.
I had some successful tallow soaps… then this:
It thickened unbelievably fast, then the next day was too hard for the cheese slicer, and broke a lot under the knife!! I definitely need more practise and experience with this!
Here a few random pics of recent batches… golden honeycomb and Yuzu with loofahs embedded
This fragrance was called Unicorns and Pixie Dust… so I sprinkled it with glitter and rose petals and stuck in rosebuds….
Over the top but cute and fun!
Pineapple and papaya…. smells soooo good!!
Bunny soaps for Easter…
The soap room is… bulging haha
Anyway, right now I have my friend Yuri visiting from Japan…. So it was soap and housework frantically being done as well as more garden tidying as Yuri is a published author of several books about Japanese gardens, does tours in Japan and Europe with clients to guide and educate them about the gardens etc.
So I wanted our garden to look less… terrible!!! 😂
Dodgy pic but that is one of her lovely books I was gifted!
Anyway, we are having a great time… crazy busy. And tonight we are all packed to go on the hike back to the Japanese Gardens up in the Cradle NP.
We plan to drive tomorrow to a spot closer to the starting point, then start Thursday morning earlier than if we had to drive from home. It’s fairly hot these days, so earlier start for the first day will be nicer.
(lunch platter)
Anyway, I wanted to zoom by to say hi and bye before we went.
Hello! I went into Burnie this morning ridiculously early to set up my soap stall… two cruise ships were due in today! Both got cancelled… there was a bit of a swell even though the weather didn’t seem too tragic. Soooo… I have to pack everything back up, load the car and come home. (mind you I am probably not as miffed as around 4000 people who have missed out on seeing Tassie!! Felt pretty bad for them)
Still… apart from the annoyance factor, I’ve got plenty to do here at home. Like a ton of raspberries to be cooked or sorted… and another ton to pick!
We’ve had a visitor for a week – my best mates daughter who chose us as her first solo holiday! First time on a plane too… haha… she is certainly not a fan of flying! Anyway, we had a lot of fun and her Mum told me that since she got home she hasn’t stopped talking about it all. So sweet!
So many raspberries in the fridge… at least maybe today I can do something about the current lot.
We also have been getting buckets and buckets of cherry-plums, despite the squadrons of birds who seemed to spend all day in the trees gorging themselves
Now looking at these pics I realise I’ve forgotten a zucchini
Its probably reached baby elephant size.
The zucchini flowers are pretty I reckon
Golden nugget pumpkin
Squash
I reckon if I went down to the garden now I’d find a heap of these apple cucumbers! Later… (promises self)
They are growing so well… but not climbing by themselves. Will have to go and tie them up again.
The outside tomato patch is going well… even got fruit on them! All are from laterals and one self seeded.
Time to put in new lettuce seedlings. I collected snap pea and some other asian leafy things seeds (yah… soooo lazy about going back to find out what I grew … something that Jude gave me!)
A good tidy up and in with the new seedlings
I just bought a mixed punnet and threw some rocket seeds in for good measure
Most have taken hold well.
Corn patch doing nicely… Its also on my mental list to give it a good feeding soon.
The hothouse is still an overwhelming jungle… but finally a few things starting to ripen which is very exciting. Oh those Black Russian Cherry Toms are DIVINE
Okies… time to start mixing up some more soap… or jam. Or something! Hope your week has started well!
xxx
(PS… we’ve finally been able to bandicoot some new potatoes! Yay!)
Hello! Oh dear. Marching through January and I am failing terribly keeping up here. I was going to put forth a 2024 goal of blogging better. Sigh. Then I’ve been chasing my tail trying to keep up so I’ve been too scared to mention it and put the pressure on hahaha Currently have my Besties daughter staying with us – its her first time on a solo holiday, first time on a plane (she wasn’t impressed haha) Lauren is having a ball and we are enjoying having here here. Its only a week so packing in what we can to make it all worth while.
In between… I’ve had plums and raspberries continually and trying to keep up with soap. There is so much soap A LOT of soap !!
Just before Christmas the Basket Weaving group had a wreath making day. Was so much fun… and supremely messy! A lovely social day where everyone was freestyling making wreaths out of all the fabulous flora etc that Krystal brought in for us to play with. And food.
The lovely bubbly Patsy making a large wreath!
Christine made this fabulously elaborate affair.
Some of the plants we had to rummage through and use.
There were some reindeer there up for grabs if people wanted to attach those.
Everyone as usual made such different wreaths.
I plan to pop in tomorrow with Lauren – just to do something a little different to the swimming, walking, kayaking, rock collecting, shell collecting that we’ve filled the week with so far!!
Plus I’ve been missing my Friday Brekkie of cake and coffee haha
I’ll make my 2024 blogging better goal an actual thing SOON Bear with me!! Hope everyone has had a splendid start to the new year! xxx
