Monday and I had a list. I even got though a good amount of items on said list! I started off with a drive over to Rubys to see her granddaughter in law and my friend Marsha. Since she is from WA there aren’t too many opportunities to catch up!
Back home I made up 10 litres of laundry liquid as we had run out. Doesn’t take too long – and now we are set for the next 6 months!
The raspberries in the fridge needed to be made into jam. I am trying not to just throw things in the freezer to ‘come back to it later’ I also need to pick them and the snow peas, but will move that job over to tomorrow.
Egg washing day.
I picked basil but didn’t quite get to the pesto stage. Also on tomorrow list!
I unmoulded soaps from yesterday and cut the loaf mould too. I figured that getting some Valentines Day themed soaps might be smart. The little chocolate moulds I borrowed from Sharon are perfect for this! The fragrance is Belgium Chocolate – sooooo nice!
I can’t remember the fragrance name on this one. Nifty patterns though. I bought a whole lot of new fragrances from a different company to try out and the names aren’t sticking in my head a lot…
This one I made with my cousin the other day… Kakadu Plum. Liked it.
Japanese Honeysuckle. Its nice now that its calmed down a bit – but not the fragrance I was after. I’ll have to politely ask the Queensland Soap people if they will share where they got theirs from.
This is a bit indistinct but a lovely soft subtle green. I love the fragrance too – Ajou Pear and lemon zest (I think)(I can’t get up to check these things because Pip is sleeping on my lap haha)
I can’t show you a couple of others as over the past few months, uploading photos has been a right royal pain in the a. AND I am too lazy to get back online to the help people to sort it out. I am sure one day it will annoy me into action! 🙂
And finally – some Dragons Blood – complete with dinosaurs!! Makes perfect sense.
Lucky I have a market coming up at the end of the week. I am starting to struggle for space so I am hoping I can offload a good amount!
Well, thats all from me tonight! Have a great week Cheers!
Hello! How was your weekend? I had a great time at Sharon’s yesterday with her latest soap workshop. Lots of good food and lots of really cool looking (and smelling) soaps made.
Today, since I had been supervising others making soaps over the past couple of days, I did three batches of my own. Still yet to photograph all the latest ones of mine.
I was aiming at Sloth Day but somehow… wasn’t all that slothful. I got in and gave various plants haircuts. Like the rocket – was all going to seed and swamping the sunflowers.
Grow little sunflowers grow!!
That new tomato patch also got attended to… the plants are so vigorous! I’ve taken out lots of the big leaves and plenty of smaller laterals…. the ones I could find anyway.
I was finding plenty of small tomatoes starting under all that greenery
Tentacular also got a good trim. It was starting to get tricky getting in the hothouse door!
I’ve enjoyed having the zucchini frittas on the plate the last few nights. Must make another batch!
The cape gooseberry plants are really looking good! I can’t wait until they fruit!
Still haven’t googled about how to make chamomile tea. I have so many other things on my To Do cooking list right now so it has dropped down the rungs of priority.
Check it out! A Russian Black tomato is colouring up! Yay
Pesto is on the list tomorrow. I think I am just going to have to yank out those extra tomatoes. 🙁
Hebe’s are looking pretty
And just one of the Lions Ear bushes has burst out in gorgeous orange! Love this flower, so unusual! Hope your new week starts well! Cheers!
Hi! I seem to have gotten rather busy this week. I didn’t even get to make soap while Jeff was away. Anyway, got a phone message from Random Lady that said Jeff was walking out on Thursday not Friday – should be in at 1pm.
So, got up and did the 4 hour drive down to Lake St Clair – in the cold, fog and rain!!! Our summer is so weird right now. Jeff didn’t walk out until 4ish. I took a brief walk to warm up because I was silly enough not to bring clothes for all seasons.
As you can see – the track was super easy and clear so I wasn’t worried that I was wandering about in my crocs haha This last part of the track is definitely for the tourists not the hard core hikers
Finally my very tired and footsore husband appeared. Turns out he didn’t skip Kia Ora hut (which would have evened things out a bit.) His last night was at Burt Nichols hut which gave him a 27km hike out!!! He tried to get the ferry but it was full. What an effort! I am not allowed to talk about any activities that have the word ‘track’ in them. Maybe I’ll bring up my ideas tomorrow haha
We had a really nice drive back – no rush. Lots of talking and catching up on news and tales of adventure. Jeff had a really good time – even met a few people. Camped some of the time, used the huts here and there. Weather apart from the last day, warm to hot and no rain.
Moving on to Me…
Thought I might amuse you with my Morning With Lottie.
Sharon asked if she could drop Lottie off Tuesday morning while she went to Yoga. No worries. She’s a fun kid – full of energy. She didn’t want to really pick the snow peas with me but got all inventive about making me a gourmet salad. (Clearly been watching her Mum make fabulous tasting plates and other foods)
Had to provide the proper bowls and chopsticks, no less!
And what cullinary delight was I subjected to?
Snow peas, basil leaves, parts of the fennel bush for that surprising hint of aniseed…raspberries, cherry plums (thoughtfully de-pipped) purple carrot and parsley. It was an adventure with every mouthful.
My stomach may never be the same again!
Tomorrow I am heading up to Sharons to help her with a soap workshop. I have already warned her about how much lemon meringue pie I am going to scoff to make up for this!! Kids!
Anyway, speaking of workshops… I need to get to bed! Hope you’ve all had a splendid week!
Well… today I didn’t run about too much. My legs are – displeased with me haha. It did give me time to sit and sort yesterdays photos!
We got to Cradle a tad before 8am and found that everything had changed. A sexy new visitors centre has just been opened for one thing… Still a lot of construction going on but overall I really like it. Collecting your Overland Track pass is now a bit different. Due to a record amount of rescues last year, hikers are now taken into a dedicated room for a talk – on safety, expectations, risks etc etc. They’ve got a policeman on board representing the rescue side of things and a video. We saw neither the policeman or video as its not up and running just yet. But since we’ve done the track a few times the lady booking us in wasn’t so concerned. People get a bit blase about the hike. And sure… if the weather behaves, its all hunky dory. A lot of people really don’t realise the fast changes that can happen up there – and if you are unprepared, it will kill you.
My well prepared husband was in good spirits when we set out yesterday. Mind you, first thing in the morning up there yesterday, it was icy cold!!
We diverted off the usual track to go up the Horse Track. This way we avoided a lot of the tourists that were heading up. It was really peaceful for us.
The Horse Track is a fair slog though. It just steadily keeps going up. Marions Lookout way has more breaks with a short steeper section.
I had to stop and rest a bit. But since Jeff was carrying the heavy pack I didn’t get too far behind him!
Jeff fixing his flyaway hair and a goofy selfie from me
(Love the fisheye lens haha)
Finally got to the top of that long upwards stretch
As ever, the views are amazing and rewarding. It was turning out to be a spectacular day.
My usual obsession and delight with the pincushion plants
Cradle on the left, Barn Bluff on the right, Jeff in the middle!!
We got to Kitchen Hut, but didn’t feel like lunch, so we went up to the junction and had a hug and a smooch before Jeff continued on his adventure and I went off to tackle the Face Track. Its rather weird to be completely cut off from contact. We are used to it more than other people with our lack of mobile phone or devices but even so… until I go to collect him I have no idea how he is going or progressing.
🙁 I was a little envious too of course! But my path yesterday lay to the left.
I think this section of pathway, flanked by pincushion plants, overlooked by Cradle with that classic old wooden walkway rates as my favourite in the world of paths that I have traversed.
I caught up with a mum who was walking down this track with her two young girls. Dad and a friend were doing the summit of Cradle. I was a bit concerned as the Face Track is not for the faint hearted. There are warning signs about the level of difficulty but – not everyone reads them or takes them seriously. The girls looked to be about 8 and 10 max. I had a chat just sounding her out as I didn’t want to just presume they weren’t capable or informed. Turns out they had no idea to the challenges of that track. I gave the mum an idea of what to expect and an alternate route back as a better (read: safer) option. Apparently her husband was also under the impression that the Cradle Summit climb was only going to take him half an hour. Some learning curves were probably achieved yesterday! 🙂
Civic Duty Done, and I trundled along my way enjoying all the sights
Again – its hard to get a sense of the steepness of the track with the photos, but the views were magnificent (as usual)
I put the camera away for a while as getting myself down in one piece took priority over photography and when scrambling down some of the sections, I didn’t need my camera bouncing about and I needed all my limbs and in some cases… my bottom haha
By the time I got down to the little hut my legs were shot from ‘putting on the brakes’ for so long. So a sit down, a drink and a sandwich was in order. Wrapped in Bee Wrap of course!
The next section of the hike was a lot of up and down. Each time I went up I thought it was the last time!!
(Jeff is out there – somewhere!!)
Finally made it to the chain links where a very long descent is made somewhat safer with a sturdy set of chains and poles that has been embedded. You can see from the photo below looking back to where I came down on it. (red line)
The tricky part wasn’t quite over as the remaining track before getting to the more heavily used Dove Lake track is pretty much like walking on scree. Its not too stable underfoot as you go down.
Clearly I did get down in one piece – thoroughly enjoying my days walk. Treated myself to a fizzy drink, jumped in the car and returned home to a very pleased Pip – who probably thought we were both disappearing on him again!
Hello! I’ll be brief tonight as I am a tired little chicken right now!
We got up at 5am (NOT my forte) and got to Cradle in plenty of time for Jeff to collect his pass and get on the track. It was REALLY cold at the start – then warmed to a gorgeous day! Jeff was in pretty good spirits so I hope he has an excellent week out on the track.
I parted company with him a Kitchen Hut and walked back via the Face Track. I forget how hairy-scary that one can be!!
Anyway, will do a proper story after I’ve had a little rest 🙂 Hope your Sunday was/is great! Cheers!
Raspberries are coming along steadily… really stocked up on Jam now. And eating them sprinkled on ice cream almost every night. Happy Days…
We visited Sharon the other day… picked up some goats milk for the soap, dropped off some veggies, got fed buttermilk pancakes… the usual haha Also was given different cheeses that she has been making. Ricotta, (made into some cannelloni dish and already scoffed) and this lovely chevre! Today I rolled it up into this log and sprinkled with fresh herbs and my garlic salt. Tried it out on some bikkies. Yummo! Hard to know when to stop!
Zucchini’s are appearing at a steady rate… the snow peas are still overwhelming! Anyway, have been busy today – Jeff is trotting off on the Overland. Quick decision… there was a spot available Sunday, so he got his gear together, we shopped for food and we are heading out in the morning. I plan to hike as far as Kitchen Hut with him. We’ll part company there and I want to head back via the Face Track. If everything goes as we discussed, I’ll be back Friday to collect him.
Early early horribly early start tomorrow morning so I am off to bed! Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend Cheers!
My herb spiral has come a long way!! I planted some portulaca on the bare side.
I still have more seedlings so need to find a spot for them. They are so pretty.
So – I gave up on the strawberries here. They just did not want to do anything. So pulled them all up. The black peppermint seemed to take off fine. I dug up the plot, moved the pine needles, found a frog, then planted lettuce – both seedlings and seeds.
(My friend thought it might be a pobblebonk. Greatest name for a frog or what??)(Eastern Banjo Frog)
Then – thoroughly tired of this ugly area, I covered it in cardboard and straw! Have decided against building the last bed in the gap. Part of it is laziness a reluctance to dig into the slope again to level it and part of it is because the bed would need to be cut down to fit and I would rather use the timber as is to make a full sized bed elsewhere.
I’ve been well watering it in – put some marigolds in (after the photo was taken.) Thinking I might get some soil and put in more patches of flowers
What a difference from 6 months ago hey? Now I have to decide what to do about the path…
The feverfew has taken to the area like a duck to water! Am really pleased with the chamomile too
The other little pretty daisy like plant I got a while back is going along nicely… hasn’t gotten a lot bigger but its happy enough
Little Moo is a pretty big fellow now. He is back in the next paddock and comes over for his treats (at the moment lettuce leaves) and head rubs and pats!! Big Sook. He was so happy when a couple of the neighbouring cows came over in typical curiosity… so he licked one of them for about 20 minutes haha
I look at this cucumber daily. It should be ready soon. Having thoughts about planting more seed directly as all the cucumber plants are as slow as molasses! Not even putting out climbing tendrils. Weird season.
The two capsicum plants are doing really well… they will be long yellow ones – or should be. The other seedling I bought is about a metre high and so far no flowers or fruit!!!
More pesto coming right up!
A steady supply of zucchini now happening.
Golden nugget pumpkins…. still unsure if they’ve pollinated
Hello! The other day I went for a hike over Anniversary Bay and did the loop up and around following the Postmans Track. Probably at least 17km. So a good healthy outing!
(Nardia’s photography)
I went with my friend Nardia (on right) and her friend Lara who I met for the first time. Weather was perfect for hiking.
We decided to do the coastal route up as the tide was low when we started out.
You don’t have to wonder why its called Rocky Cape NP
Finding the pathways over on the coastal route is a bit of ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’
Of course everything takes so much longer when you stop to obsessively look for cowrie shells!! I think Nardia found the most! We were too tired at the end of the day to compare cowrie numbers!
(I didn’t keep it but the spikes were such a pretty purple!)
Don’t fall on the spikey rocks!
(Nardia’s Photography)
So hard to leave the beach… I might find just one more cowrie!
Rocky pathways
Yeah – pretty sure there is a path in there
(Nardia’s Photography)
Slightly overgrown in places.
One last stretch of beach/coast before walking up into the hills again
We found a real tangle of nets and rope. Would like to have moved it off the beach but it was a bit heavy to take with us!
When we got off the beach, we had to start off hiking doubled up as the scrub completely enclosed the path! (This bit was actually a bit more open than before – I failed to get a photo)
Looking back over the coastal route!
We reached our ‘halfway point’ and decided to hike back instead of calling Nardia’s husband for a pickup.
According to the sign we had another 3 hours hiking ahead. I had never done the inland side of the Postmans Track… I was keen. (Until the first hill five minutes later)
(Nardia’s Photography)
Pant pant puff puff. I suck at hills
(Nardia’s Photography)
Luckily Nardia was still snapping away. I just put the camera away as it was really weighing around my neck.
(Nardia’s photography)
As always, the rewards for slogging up a hill are great! So beautiful!
(Nardia’s camera, Lara’s Photography!)
We started out at 2pm and got back to the car at about 8.30pm, slightly footsore/legsore but in pretty good spirits. Always brilliant to share the gorgeous countryside with like minded people who oooo and ahhhh over rocks, shells and views, just like me! 🙂
Must do it again… maybe after a few days rest though! Cheers
Hello! The other morning we woke under a shroud of smoke. Seems like we’ve joined the rest of Australia in hazy conditions. Some smoke was from some local fires that are now under control. The majority was from the mainland fires and held here as we had an overcast day. It has cleared since then.
I’ve hiked about 28kms in the last two days and my legs are… feeling it haha I also feel too tired to get into photoshop to post process photos for a proper blog post so… sorry! There will be a delay!
One of my readers, Pat, asked for more information about the facebook page that is gathering crafty people to make wildlife carers products. The link is here for those who are interested in getting involved. Thank-you! (Hopefully I got that link added correctly!)
I nearly have a sunflower!
My friend Nardia sent me this, this morning! Look! My snow peas are famous!!!! They look rather amazing in this dish!
Anyway, I am going to toodle off into bed for a good nights sleep… I have a few plans for tomorrow in the garden so lets see what happens!
Saffron and Honey. (With the calendula petals on top)
Hello. Weekend is upon us again. Any plans? At this stage I think we have a walk planned on Sunday.
More lavender – the colouring is rather subtle though.
A new batch of Applejack Peel. Smells so lovely. Have cut it tonight and the patterns are nice too.
This was from the batch of White Ginger and Amber fragrance. I also made a batch of ‘Dragons Blood’ tonight. Mixed the red into the ochre – Not a bad combo but you’ll just have to imagine it for now 🙂
I made another batch of raspberry jam today with the latest two picks. (about 3lb of fruit) Then outside to water and picked over a kilo of snow peas! Will have to call some cafes and restaurants in the morning to see if they want to buy them. I don’t fancy advertising them to chase single sales of 100gms each. People can be so unreliable about getting back to you and keeping meetings!
My carrots are getting bigger! These, some of the snow peas, the below onion and some of my garlic landed in tonights stir fry dinner!
Now – on to some serious stuff.
You’ve probably noted that Australia is on fire. Right now my best friend is preparing with her family to defend their home as the fire is heading their way. Her husband is group captain of a large area of rural fire brigades. They’ve got their defenses in place and a plan. I am so worried for them but there is not a thing I can do to help… which is awful. Its terrifying stuff. You may have seen some photos. The other day one of their local volunteer fighters was killed. A freak tornado-like wind picked up the back of the 10 ton fire truck and upended it onto the cabin. Young married chap with pregnant wife. Heartbreaking. Two trucks were literally blown over in this manner and other firefighters were taken to hospital.
Thousands on the coast have fled to beaches to escape the flames and entire small towns have all, but been wiped out.
If you are not familiar with the size/geography of Australia – here is an interesting comparison that might make the scale of what we are going through a little clearer.
NSW – New South Wales is just one state in Australia. The bushfire season started in September which is just not normal. Our worst months are January and February – December being our first summer month.
Our firefighting forces – paid and volunteer – are stretched thin. As you can imagine, volunteers are losing wages or money if self employed and are, quite frankly – exhausted.
Firefighters from Canada and New Zealand have been sent and I think a bunch from the US have just landed.
Google ‘Mallacoota’ for some images that look like we are going through Armageddon.
The toll on our wildlife is horrendous. I can’t even think about it properly. Numbers like half a billion lost have been thrown about. Wildlife carers are in full force doing what they can. My friend introduced me to a Facebook page where people are sewing, knitting and crocheting items to donate to carers. Joey pouches are in big demand. Bags that hold animals like baby kangaroos, wallabies, possums, wombats etc. Bat-wraps are another item sorely needed. I never knew about these things! The photos of little bats in their swags are very cute. But sobering to realise we are losing thousands of them 🙁 One that I can do and just started today is crocheted nests – for birds and small wildlife. I’ve got plenty of spare yarn – and hopefully once one is done, I’ll get faster at it.
Anyway, thats all from me. Its going to be a rough weekend for a lot of people – it would be amazing if we could get through it with no more loss of life.
