Markets and Garden

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