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Spring is here but Tassie didn’t get the memo – looks like its housework for me today!
Which is why now is the perfect time to do last nights blog- in the spirit of procrastination!

So… my new photo challenge on Facebook has started. The first subject is ‘Purple’ I didn’t manage to get anything super inspiring so I pinched one of Jeffs rocks. Amethyst is purple… it does the job!! At least I have the next two subjects covered with a bit more creativity!

I cut the loaf soap! Was really pleased with how it cut! For the first time no breaking – lovely and smooth. Plus the marbled colours are a bit fun.

We went out to Bunnings to grab the last lot of timber so we can complete the structures for the new garden plot.
Jeff is on nights for a bit so I have to wait before they can go together. I could do it but I certainly can’t lift a whole section myself. Patience.
I got some seedlings too. A tomato to start things happening in the hothouse, plus some lettuce seedlings.
The lettuce I got because I am intending to run a workshop for beginner gardeners next weekend. I can use them to show how to separate and plant seedlings. Was too early to grow my own batch.
Its just a hands on basic class on where to start to give people confidence to go home and throw something together and get into it.
I confess I am a little nervous. I want max. 8 people. I think there are 4 confirmed, one maybe.

The chooks are laying well and fairly steadily.

All around there are teasing signs of spring.

Tulips pushing their way up.

The protea just keeps going.

The freesia are struggling to find room to bloom, poor things

This self sown silverbeet has grown happily all winter among the flowers and weeds! Amazing. No help from me at all.

I cleared out the big woodbox in the (very very messy) BBQ area. Its now ready to take all the new stuff we’ve been cutting. It held all the smaller sized wood which has been great with boosting up the fire over the winter. Was worth the effort of cutting and stacking.

Anyway – I guess I should go look at some housework type jobs.
I need to find the dining room table again.
Perhaps later indulge in some soap making??
Who knows!
Happy Sunday!
Cheers

Somehow the night got away on me.
Trying to organise too many things at once and now its not far off 1am
So… I am sharing a spider photograph and heading to bed, along with promises to blog tomorrow over brekkie.
Or after the market.
If I wake in time to go.
Have a lovely day!
Cheers!

Hello!
Not a bad day!! Frankie was in fine guzzling form and I pruned more of the raspberries.
I spent way too long in the supermarket – they’ve been ‘updating’ which basically says to me they keep moving everything around so it takes forever to get in and actually FIND stuff… it wouldn’t be so bad if they’d just stop! haha… then I can remember everything in its ‘forever home’
Plus they changed the checkouts to a number of self service ones.

I had a decent trolley full so too much for express and I am just not a self service person. Pretty much every time I try, I muff it up then I need help and its a pain in the bum and I leave cranky. Plus when you have a lot of stuff, you’d need help to take one bag off so it doesn’t yell at you. Plus I can’t be bothered spending time learning how to do someone elses job.

I don’t want to be one of these ‘I hate change on principle’ kind of person,
BUT – we are in the country! And we have a decidedly aging population. That means – people come to shop from a distance and they do a week or two week stock up on groceries. I think there were 10 brimming trolleys waiting at the three available open ‘normal’ lines.
I had a very long wait.
I chatted with a friend who shops with two little girls – she’s not into self service – too hard wrangling the kids AND the shopping, plus pays cash… so she is also relegated to the long lines.
A lot of the older people aren’t confident with new technology. Often they even struggle with their pin cards – I don’t see a good portion of them embracing the self service checkouts either!

The bag packing area at the end of the regular checkouts is hysterical. I am going to simply have to get a photo to explain. Its kind of like a lazy susan… and its stupid. (to be blunt) The cages where the bags are put are detachable, so when the checkout person swings it to your side, you pick up your bag and place in trolley. Unless you are me then your bag snags on the cage, detaches the whole shebang, and because its metal – it drops and clatters REALLY loudly telling everyone in the supermarket there is a klutz in there.
I did that twice.
Sigh.
So the jury is out which way I would have left the supermarket more annoyed… self service or regular.
I honestly really enjoy chatting to the staff there on the way through the checkouts. They are all really nice and helpful and I’ve gotten to know a few reasonably well.
Perhaps next time will be better.

So – soap.
I did two batches today… still learning. The original oil I had which I used the last of the other day, is the best. Its not available at the local supermarket so I will have to look elsewhere. The first one I did today in the loaf mould took forever to ‘go to trace’ I thought my stick mixer was going to catch on fire!
The colours are still wonky but… will look forward to cutting it.

That flesh colour was actually supposed to be more pink

Then my new supplies arrived so I tried a new fragrance and a different oil. It was a bit quicker.
The fragrance ‘Country Kitchen’ is nice but wow… hope it calms down after a bit. They usually do but at first some of them are a bit much.
Think cinnamon and sweet Christmas type cooking smells.

I also used a new white in the above which wasn’t as strong as the powdered version… so next order I’ll grab a heap of that.

Weekend is upon us!
A small sleep in tomorrow as Frankie won’t be in.
I’ll enjoy that – but hopefully not too long! Things to do.

Thanks for listening to my supermarket whinge haha
First World Problems hey? If thats all I have to worry about then my life is pretty cruisy.
Have a great weekend everyone…
Cheers!

PS – not one to share a lot of internet stuff, but I saw this today and was rather taken with it. Adding the link here in case some of you enjoy it as much as I did. Worth 12 minutes of my day for sure!
The Interviewer

Check it out! I see raspberries in our future!

Looks so scruffy hey?
Unfortunately the Tree Guy couldn’t make it today. (One of his kids has a condition that sometimes means dropping everything and doing the hospital stays 🙁 ) I hope all is well there. Its not a stress for us. It will happen eventually.
It was a lovely day – but I am a bit hamstrung by lack of topsoil at my local landscapers. They are hoping to get it in tomorrow. I can’t just get the mushroom compost alone – too rich. Once they have the topsoil, I’ll order at least a truck load for delivery. Beats going back and forth with the trailer this season since I have a lot of new beds to top up!

So I started chopping out the dead canes and retying the live ones in bunches.
I didn’t get very far as by the time I got to this job it was getting really chilly.
(I did a bunch of other annoying little jobs that weren’t really exciting)(Except the new choc chip bikkies I made… that was good. Cousin Beau timed his visit right at the time they came out of the oven! He was pleased)

Trying to be careful with the living canes (above) and dead ones (below)

I’ve seen a few new little ones popping up too.
If I am lucky I will be able to get back into that job tomorrow. Its the ideal job to do while waiting for things like – soil!
Frankie was in today but I didn’t get a photo… she was super hungry today. I think I fed her FOUR times! Little Piggy!! She was charging at the bottle too, sucking like crazy with that little wiggly tail going like mad!
Way. Too. Cute.

OK… thats all from me!
Have a lovely day!
Cheers

Hello!
I was out most of the day at my friend Sharon’s place. We had a great afternoon. She fed me lunch, we did a big seed swap and talked about our property/garden plans – both of us are pretty much on the same level when it comes to having a bunch of ideas of ‘Things To Do’
I picked up some soap from when I did the last workshop with her.
These are an experiment – burnt sugar fragrance which I was dubious about but it came up really nice. Not really like burnt sugar but good anyway.
Plus I used a bit of her white colour to make the base less yellow. I still got grey instead of indigo but better than dirty green haha

The one with the poppyseed scrub was lovely too – lemon something or other.

The one I made yesterday (in which I forgot to put fragrance) turned out pretty.

Again I made the base whiter so the blue stayed blue. I think I am going to be a big fan of using the white.
The recipe is a bit different too – a bit less volume overall and also putting in some coconut oil.
The whole process was a lot quicker and smoother to get through – the coconut oil really made a difference.

Keen as a bean to make some more.
There is also a chance for me to have a market stall at the end of Sept. somewhere a bit different – so a chance to move along lots of the things I have been making! Fingers crossed.

Well… I best trot along.
Frankie is in tomorrow PLUS the Tree Guy is also due in to make another mess AND a plumber as out kitchen taps have kinda bitten the dust.
Most importantly I need to make more of those choccie bikkies because we might have run out. 😀
Cheers!

I am just dashing past tonight!
Jeff got home just in time for Frankie’s afternoon feed so I thought I would give him the pleasure!
All so cute!
She then bounced about showing off and making us laugh.
No problems today – she behaved like a little angel!

Hope everyone has had a lovely day!
Cheers

Oh look at that!! Another plum blossom photo! For which I offer no apology and no sign of ceasing. I am loving it too much. I like to spend a little of my day standing under it looking up! Even in the dodgy weather!
It will be finished soon enough and I’ll turn the lens to something else.

So… why the heart attack you ask??
Yes! Frankie!!! We put her in the garden – she ran about bleating but wasn’t so shook on the tank accommodations at first. I was in and out a bit, then I went to check on her – AND SHE HAD GONE!!! She pushed open the top gate – that actually doesn’t open out -only enough to squeeze a lamb through!!
My heart was fully in my mouth as I raced straight out onto the highway hoping not to see a lamb laminated on the road.
I turned to see her trotting towards me (and road) so shooed her back – she was so close!!!!
She isn’t totally used to me so it was a bit of cat and mouse grabbing her. I tossed her back in the garden, forgetting in my haste to fly out the top gate, the back one was wide open – so she BOLTED straight out that one!!
Who ever said sheep were dumb???
At least this time she ended up at the back of the house – I yelled inside for Jeff to come and help NOW!!! (I put my farmers voice on haha)

Jeff caught her – she was more wary of me – and we stuffed her in her carry box, gave her a bottle then did the veggie patch up like Fort Knoxx.
Soon she was back to bouncing through my cabbages.

I am trying to get a photo of her mid spring with all 4 feet off the ground.

After a while I realised this was not helping me get the garden prepared!
Eventually during one of the heavier rainfalls I caught her and re introduced her to the shelter. She loved it and spent most of the rest of the day in there.

Despite the sticky mud, on and off again rain and lamb distractions, I felt I made good progress to making the garden less overwhelming than I had been feeling. Plus I cleared up rubbishy bits, put all the stakes together and did general tidying too which went a long way to improve the overall look.

I put the tarp over one section – it won’t be needed for a while so figured that might kill off the weeds for me first before later mulching.

So… the area between the poles (if you can see in this rather messy photo) has really good soil. It was all new compost last season and I have topped with that conditioned straw. Its just luscious!
I am planning on planting snow peas here this season. So… I repurposed the sides of the arch that was left here when we moved in but I could never find a spot for it.
Jammed some apple branches down into the ground and staked in the wiggly willow branches that I have been keeping forever and stopping Jeff from chucking them on the fire!

Bit hard to see with the pear tree behind… so I took a dodgy photo from the other way

(The pole on the left is really not that crooked!!!)

Plenty of self seeding parsley but replanted this little fellow anyway.

I had to march Miss Chook back through the garden and out the bottom gate. Clearly I haven’t clipped wings yet.
The girls are laying well.
Luckily a friend wants 4 dozen to do some mad baking so I can move a heap on in her direction!

Lastly… and totally unrelated to gardening – sea urchin photos!
I was trying and failing to get another shot as I have another photo challenge starting in less than a week. I thought I would try to snap some shots of the beautiful urchin we found the other week.

The patterns are so beautiful!

Anyway, off to bed for me.
Frankie will be in in the morning, so I better get my beauty sleep!
Cheers!

I optimistically put the clothes on the line outside… Yes it did rain immediately.
I just left them there. Overall the wind and little bit of sun dried them pretty well so the occasional sprinkles didn’t hurt too much.
They’ve all finished off quickly in front of the fire tonight.

Frankie is being dropped off again tomorrow morning. I’ve set up the plastic tank at the garden edge.
Fiona has had her in their fenced orchard with a dog kennel 🙂

We’ll put some hay in there and hopefully she will enjoy the run of the garden with somewhere comfy and sheltered to rest.
If the weather is truly awful, she can always come inside in her carrier again.

I went shopping today – I fully intended to get some lettuce as mine in the hothouse is just about done and they need time to grow new leaves.
I couldn’t! I didn’t want iceberg – we don’t like the taste anymore and I just couldn’t bring myself to spend $3.50 on a small uninspiring little plastic wrapped cos lettuce!!
So I raided the rocket patch and added a few of the last lettuce leaves instead.

The potatoes in the hothouse are going along nicely too.

I emptied the coffee bin into the raised bed and gave a few handfuls to the worms

Little by little, more flowers are showing up.
Unfortunately we apparently have at least 3 more rainy days ahead.
Time to make more soap?

Its a really cold night – icy. Going out the back to grab more firewood is chilly!
One more week of winter!
Hope your weekend has been fun!
Cheers!

(A little over done but sometimes its fun to do)

Yum – I spent a lot of the afternoon in the kitchen today!
I looked up a new chocolate chip biscuit recipe and pretty happy with the results.
(Note for US people. Biscuit = Cookie. Scone = Biscuit.)
(Australians will mostly call them Bikkies because we are lazy about pronouncing any word thats too long.)

I bought some choc chip bikkies recently… then was sad about it because there is just so much excess packaging. I know it can be tricky for a company to produce edible goods like this and get them to a consumer without it being a handful of crumbs… but I know I have the time to make them so I should be able to easily avoid adding that much more plastic to our rubbish bins.
We don’t get a rubbish collection here – we are pretty good at recycling, composting and burning, so we only need to do our tip run once every 4 months (ish) And I will deliberately avoid over packaged products, bring my own bags etc etc.
Every bit helps right?
Home baking. Home grown… better for the environment.
Lets not talk about my waistline…. haha

I also made a big batch of koroke. A Japanese thing. Basically its mashed potato mixed with slightly curried mince meat (ground beef) then made into patties, dipped in egg and breadcrumbs. I shallow fry then serve with our favourite tonkatsu sauce and kewpie mayonnaise.
There is a good lot there so not much to do in the cooking department for a few days.
Yay. Over dishes.

Still not the nicest weather so the best place was indoors again.
Maybe tomorrow??
(I never look at the forecast unless we plan something special – I just get up and see what the day is going to bring!)

Hope your weekends are fantastic!
Cheers

PS – a few more common shortened words we use:
Afternoon = Arvo
Lipstick = Lippy
Television = Telly
BBQ = Barbie (of course)
I am sure by now you are familiar with ‘Cuppa’
Chocolate = Choccie
(So now I have choccie bikkies to eat lol)
MacDonalds = Macca’s
Heard of our band ACDC?? We call them Accadacca 😀
And guess who is responsible for that widely used term ‘Selfie’ ??
You’re welcome. 😀

Hello!
A bit gloomy out there today. But I was up bright eyed and bushy tailed to take delivery of Frankie for the day!
(Yeah – nah… I don’t wake pretty)
Anyway, Frankie was great. She wouldn’t drink her morning bottle but was more interested in nosing about everywhere. And since I am not her ‘mum’, she wasn’t interested in following me about!
So I popped her in the veggie patch with me so she could have some exercise while I mulched the garlic and onion.

As well as these two patches I also mulched the bottom garlic patch. They are all set and I can ignore them until the weather turns warm.

Meanwhile, Frankie bounced about everywhere and chewed random things.

I put her back for a rest and she didn’t start bleating for a bottle until 1pm. She was awkward about taking it but I ‘insisted’ and she was soon guzzling away.

I think the plum tree is at its best right now! Its such a delight to see as you walk down the back – no matter the weather!

Its just a mass of blossoms! Bliss!

I thought about making choc chip bickies, (cookies) and also thought about making soap… but then I thought about the dishes. And didn’t.
Maybe tomorrow.
Anyway, since I got to bed horribly late last night… tonight I am going to aim for ‘early’

Whats the weekend plan everyone?
Cheers!