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Hello!!
I seemed to have neglected dropping by for quite some time!
We’ve enjoyed a really lovely couple of weeks with my parents.
They headed home on the ferry this morning and with luck they are either home or not too far away from it (They had about a 3.5 hour drive once they got off the ferry in Melbourne.)

I was up early and pretty busy today – but will catch you up on Norwich House news over the next few days.
Hope you’ve all had a splendid weekend!
Cheers

Well… the fun never stops at Norwich House!
Yesterday was another lovely day and since my parents didn’t outrightly object to having a go at kayaking – we went down to the river to give them a go!

They did really well!
Its harder when you are a bit older getting down and in – or out – of the kayaks, but once on the water they quickly got used to the balance and the technique.

We loaned Dad our hiking wet weather pants because ‘I don’t do wet’ haha
Solved that potential issue rather neatly.

I took Mum out first for a paddle up to the bridge and back, then got Dad on board for his go.
I felt they both had the hang of it well so sent them off for a paddle together.

I dashed up to the bridge to take some photos

They found it really peaceful and relaxing, like Jeff and I do.
Dad particularly looked relaxed here –

I did tell him not to fall in because I would never hear the end of it!!

Dad got out after this stint up the river but Mum was keen to go up further so I jumped back in a kayak and we went off for a Mother-Daughter excursion.

I spent a good deal of time rescuing a bee during my paddle! It was drowning in the river so I paddled about it and finally fished it out with my paddle and popped it on the front of my kayak. Took it for quite a nice trip upriver while it dried out. Was tricky trying to get it to land as there wasn’t a place to pull in properly.
So we paddled together a bit further, then it got all energetic… and fell back in the river again and I ran over it on my kayak!!!!
Argh!
It popped back up and I got it back on board – got back to the bank and managed to use a long stiff bit of grass to relocate it to dry land!
There.
Would have been embarrassing to explain if I fell into the river in the process.

Anyway, was a great morning!
Hope your weekend was fabulous!
Cheers!

Hello!
Soap update first before the garden 🙂
My friend in the US who makes lovely soaps, suggested I put my plastic moulds in the freezer before trying to pop the soaps out. Works SO much better! Not too much damage to the dragonfly this time!

This was lavender fragrance and peppermint essential oil. Smells gorgeous!

Hmmmm – can’t remember the fragrance. Its a new one I was trying and we all quite like it! Pip is sitting on my lap so I can’t possibly disturb the Little Precious and get up to check my stuff.

I haven’t taken snaps of the loaf below in the cut form, but Mum made this one. We had a soap making evening so I could show her what I was doing with most of my life recently! 🙂

Then I moved into psychedelic 70’s with ‘Love Spell’
Groovy yes? With practice I’ll get better at this…

A couple of days ago my parents drove me out to the large hardware and plant shop to pick up the extra bits and bobs needed to put in the new watering system for the garden.
And I found some plants…

I got up early to let the chooks out (Jeff had driven up east to hunt sapphires for a couple of days before he has to go back to work)
Then let Pip out and went back to bed as no-one else was up… Pip came in for a snuggle and I fell back asleep.
Next thing I know, Dads bellowing down the hall wanting advice as they are halfway through putting the system in haha Oops (OK not quite halfway but they were right into it)

Pip stayed in bed for ages afterwards, but then came out and took up his role as snooperviser.

Was great having parents there to show me how it all works!

Now I’ve got the hang of it, I’ve already got grand plans for the hothouse!

I enjoyed turning it on during the construction – just to see what it was doing and where the sprays were going.

The garden got a fabulous drenching yesterday. I really wanted to turn it on again today but figured… best be water thoughtful!
The good thing is I can connect the bore hose up to it, so nothing will come out of the tank.
Plus the water is pretty much going where I want it too – the round sprinkler wasn’t efficient and with the changeable wind… would go all over the place. Will save me some time too!

So now I feel all posh with a proper watering system!
Looking forward to doing some more!

Pip was clearly exhausted with his days work too..

Cheers!

Hello!
Sorry I’ve been neglecting you all!
Mad housework, then my parents arrived! Its been so lovely seeing them again. Its been over a year since they have been here.
Of course they’ve noticed a lot of changes – best seen in real life than via photos

Enjoying being able to go down the back to pick or dig up dinner.
We’ve eaten lots of new potatoes.

And carrots
Finally got the leg of lamb out of the freezer to roast up, with all the veggies etc. Was fab!

Desserts…

I managed to get into the hothouse and mulch some stuff…

ooooo – and check out our Christmas present from my youngest sister and family…

I love it! Suits this little garden beautifully!

Poor Mum and Dad had a really rough crossing over on the ferry. It took them a couple of days to get their equilibrium back.
They rested for a couple of days – we even put the fire on as it had turned chilly! Bit different from the 45C (113F) they had at their home on the mainland!
Eventually they felt up for a bit of a walk 🙂 (Brave of them huh? lol – seeing where we hike on occasions!)

Naturally we took it very easy. It was a beautiful day so we went up to Sisters to see the view over Anniversary Bay

The banksia are showing lots of new flower growth – they are so cool

Of course, plenty of old ‘Big Bad Banksia Men’

We finished up the day back at a local cafe/antique shop for a late lunch… and met Fiona who had popped in there for a cuppa too so that was well timed!

Well… I have a backlog of stories – Still haven’t had time to post process day two of the Walls of Jerusalem walk… we’ve made soap and put in a watering system in my new garden (Exciting) and tomorrow we have tentative plans to go kayaking!
BUT – thats enough for now!
Have a wonderful weekend
Cheers!

Look what today brought!! Lots of rain!
I haven’t gotten back to the second day of photos from our recent hike. My parents due in for a visit Monday so am suffering through some housework haha.

The gutters overflowed so Jeff got out there in the wet and cleared things out.

I picked some snowpeas and carrots for tonights stir fry. Yum

I got in and weeded the tomatoes – the slow growing patch – and mulched with almost the remaining amount of hay we had.

The corn – all at odd sizes which is annoying. Still a mystery if we are going to get any this season.

Zucchinis are just appearing everywhere!

Sweet little marigolds in the back garden and I have spotted a flower or two on the cape gooseberries! Yay

Almost daily digging up potatoes for the dinner table. They look like they still have a way to go before being ready for a full harvest.

And the Jurassic Rhubarb!!

Cute little golden nugget pumpkins seem to be doing well in their patch. At the rate of this summer they might be the only pumpkins we get this season!

I’ll need to pull that rogue broccoli out of the beetroot/carrot patch. Regardless.. this patch is doing so well again.

Although the birds are digging in it and covering the beetroots haha. Little rotters. Eating all my worms no doubt

Green tomatoes everywhere… Agonising waiting.

This basil took forever to take off.. but now doing pretty well! It didn’t like the cold start to the season.

Bees hard at work

So many lovely pears – at least I hope they will be lovely.

The second potato patch! I haven’t even gone digging in this one yet!

Happy to see a couple of the nasturtium seeds took, in the mostly failed Hugelkultur beds. The birds keep insisting on kicking off most of the decent topsoil. Rather annoying!

The main patch from the other side… always looks rather nice after Jeff has mowed everything!

Still got some raspberries out there. Will be nice to have some fresh ones to share with my parents.

As ever, when picking raspberries there are a number of chooks stalking the perimeter of the nets like little velociraptors!

Back in the hothouse – more food that is not ready… like tomatoes.

Ok – this one nearly ready…

The yellow long capsicums are slowly changing colour… looking forward to these

And this ‘Mad Hatter’ capsicum… what a puzzle! Its taller than me! (Almost) And its only just started to form fruit.

The basil has sprung back since the last pesto event. Time to make more?

I was looking back on the back garden photos from 6 months ago and its such a transformation!
Still some work to do but loving the new area.

You can barely see the rock spiral!

The dill grew super fast!

Seems like I always have a tomato jungle doesn’t it??

Love the sunflowers!

Time for the feverfew to be cut back. I was hoping the flowers would stay nice until my parents arrived. Oh well…

So… that about wraps up the garden stroll!
Tomorrow will finish off the cleaning up, and as a point, clear the dining room table so we have some place civilised to eat together!
(Jeff and I just sit in the lounge at the coffee table and watch a movie or a series over dinner)

Have a wonderful weekend everyone
Cheers

Hello
Just got some new potatoes on to steam so while I am waiting, I’ll finish up the walk in.

So glad we got some clear skies – we did get a fabulous view back across to Cradle Mt Area.

Soon we started coming across lots of tarns and waterways

Eventually I called a time out, so we could shed the packs and have some fruit, a drink and a sit down

One last stretch before the camp site!

To my delight… lots of pincushion plants!

Crystal clear water

We reached Wild Dog Creek campsite and set up our tent.
Well… Jeff set up our tent! I contributed by blowing up the mattresses.

These platforms are a really good thing. Set areas to camp on mean less people trampling about in the bush squashing stuff. Plus they are better to sit on and getting out of your tent is less messy – esp if its been raining.

Views from the tent

Not bad at all!
Time for a rest I reckon!

Cheers!

Hello!
We are back – actually been back a couple of days!!
The weather unfortunately turned on us, so even though we did some fabulous walking, we opted out of the mountains. No real point in making all the effort to see a 360 degree view of mist!

So – here’s me, pack, hat and gaiters ready for the haul up to Wild Dog Creek where we planned to camp.

It was a day of pretty steady ‘up’
Probably not the best time to realise that one is about 2 months overdue for her B12 jab. Hmmmm

Her Nurse Husband called and booked her in as soon as we got back (He knows something of my procrastinating ways)

So anyway… I stopped a lot.
(Admiring the views and taking photos)(and panting)

It was the end of a long weekend so we met a number of people coming back down. It was fairly busy up there apparently.

Sorry – lots of photos of Jeff’s bottom. 🙂

So much to look at – once you raise your eyes from your feet so you don’t fall over rocks that is!

The cool overcast morning was shaping up into a pretty nice afternoon.

Stream crossings

Trappers Hut.

You can actually do a circuit but we weren’t sure the first time out exactly what the area was like and the layout of things.
I think I’d be tempted to do the circuit next time rather than up and back.

Still heading up up up!
And if you stand about too long, trees eat you.

The trees start to change as we get higher and more big rocks to walk up and over.

I am going to finish up here tonight… my internet connection is like molasses today. I annoyingly spent ages chatting to the online ‘help’ only to end up with helper #3 saying they would ‘monitor’ the situation for 24 hours.
In my experience it means they will do bugger all so I’ll have to call back tomorrow and agonise with them while they try to blame my system first. (yes I’ve turned it on and off several times, no I haven’t changed any cables, no we don’t have any new devices added to our system and NO – you can’t SMS me because we don’t have a mobile phone and no, I am not running over to a neighbour to borrow one)(Can you see I am emotionally scarred from previous encounters?? haha)

Hope you are all having a lovely week and I’ll hopefully get some more photos uploaded so I can continue the story soon. (Its just at this rate I’ll make it to bed at 4am and I don’t have that much patience!)

Cheers!

Hi there!
About to have a shower and hit the hay!
Bags mostly packed. Will have to make some sandwiches in the morning before heading off. We are not 100% sure of our hiking plans. There seem to be a few options in this area – so will all be a bit of an adventure.

Pip, putting things together has a look of deep suspicion on that little Siamese Face!! 🙁
(Vet visits, bags and me vacuuming) haha

Soap above/below. My friend sent me some essential oils to try. This one is lemongrass and so far smells amazing. Essential oils don’t always hold their fragrance in the soap making process. I haven’t been buying them because its a very costly experiment. So I feel lucky to have been given some to play with!

Here are some pretty rough snaps of Jeffs necklaces. Lots of petrified wood and agate used.
I am sure his Mum would like to see them – Judy… I’ll work on getting nicer photos sometime!

In a jumble but a pretty jumble!

As usual I had a great day out at Sharons with one of her soap making workshops. Only three people ended up coming but everyone opted to do two batches, plus we had two batches ordered by her cousin, so we madly did 8 batches of soap that day…
THEN… I came home to make a half batch to experiment with piping on some cake like frosting… hmmmm

Slightly hilarious…
I’ve used an op-shop silicone loaf mould which is beautifully wonky.
The fragrance was chai tea.
The piped colours are… interesting??

Honestly I must have been delirious!
I thought the red would come out pink but it ended up orange.

However… it was good to finally try this and I’ll do it again with more thought to the colours.
I’ll just market it as ‘Ugly Chunky Chai Tea Soap’

It was actually fun to do so I am keen to try again!

Have a great week everyone and hopefully I’ll stroll back at the end of it all with some new stories!

Cheers!

Hello!
So – catching up on news… the weather turned pretty blah here. The rain has been fabulous but the cold not so fabulous. We opted out of our hike the other day as it was a long drive to potentially climb a mountain and not see anything!! Save it for another time.

So I made a lot of soap instead! Of course!

I got to the part of my list that said ‘pickle beetroot’ and did that. So picked the first of this seasons beetroot and I reckon they look pretty fab! Taste good too!

I have yet to photograph the other new soaps but this one… think ‘big soap slab’ haha
Its an old latex baking… tin/tray/??
Anyway, its a bit floppy around the edges but it was fun creating the big swirls of colour, then working out how to cut it!!
Ended up with big chunky bits which actually I quite like. So I might even give that another go!

Oh I am still so very much loving the new potatoes.

Raiding the lettuce patch… Poor thing.
Some of the big lettuce that has gone to seed has fallen over in the wind and rain that we’ve had lately. (Actually so has the dill)

My parents are due to visit early February (yay!!) and I have worded my Dad up to help me put in a watering system for this area!
He said as long as I did all the bending 😀
It will be great as with the wind, the usual sprinkler is hard to get in the right spot to water everything efficiently.

Shirley rang requesting eggs and parsley. So I took a bit extra 🙂 Love having food to share and in the back of my mind I can dream that if I make it into my 80’s that someone might sometimes drop in some fresh garden food for me!! haha – it could happen!!

Market night at Two Oaks!
Ellen (the owner) had us all set up inside tonight as the weather was still pretty questionable! So comfortable we were!
Jeff had his necklaces

And our lovely friend Maureen had her jams, aprons and other gorgeous hand sewn articles

Of course I had my soap… 🙂
It was a quieter night than usual but we all sold stuff and had such a great afternoon relaxing, talking, buying off the other tables etc.

I am popping back out to Sharons tomorrow – she has a workshop happening. Not too many people but it will be fun to join in anyway!
Meet some new people and catch up with Sharon.

We have another hiking adventure planned for next week. Its a 4 day thing – Walls of Jerusalem. So its carry all in like the Overland and apparently there is a lot of ‘up’ involved. (sigh)
I’ll pack on Sunday.
We drugged Pip up to take him to the vet for his steroid injection. Beau is kindly looking after the place and animals for us but he doesn’t need his hand chewed off daily and to be spat at trying to give Pip a pill.
So Pip is good for a week. We’ve worked out that after that Academy Award Winning Performance at the vets that one time where he went into hissy-spitty-alley-cat mode and had to dismantle the box to get to him… drugs are a good option. By the time he gets to the vet I’ve got him as mellow as can be. Much better for everyone involved 🙂
Siamese!! (He is currently curled up under my windcheater making little snoring sounds haha)

Hope everyone has a splendid weekend planned!!
Cheers

Hello!
I left these soaps in the mould a day longer than usual… I have had mixed success getting them out smoothly.
Today most came out almost perfectly! Winning!

I got the pesto made. In fact, I did two batches!
The kitchen smelled fabulous while the garlic was baking!

Other tasks on my list included picking raspberries and snow peas.

Got to get an early night – we have a bit of a drive planned and a new hike in mind.
First I have to remember to go out and turn off the water! Corn will be soggy by now!

Cheers!