Head in the Clouds – Feet in the Dirt – Page 143 – Traipsing through life in NW Tasmania

The Best Laid Plans…

I totally had planned to swan about inside today, watch movies in front of a cosy fire, pretend my muscles ached a lot more than they actually did due to the wood stacking, listen to the pouring rain that was forecast.

Sigh.

No rain. Woke to blue sunny skies and felt too guilty about my swanning plan.

Why not do some laundry?

See? Warm day, blue skies, puffy clouds.

Sensibly the towels went in first.

Then I got cocky and put on another load. I really should know better by now. Four years in Tasmania has taught me nothing!!

I did some ‘down the street’ tasks like buying a creepy doll from the op-shop (thrift shop) and some sugar cubes. (Explanations later)

Got home and put out the second load of clothes and went and grabbed my pruning shears to tackle the salvia

I almost got the first cut in and the heavens opened and the rain came down!!!

I said a lot of creative swear words as I threw down the snippy things and ran for the laundry!!! Those towels were nearly dry!!!

Was totally out of the swanning mood, so I did mundane tasks – like kitchen cleaning, clothes folding, chook feeding etc.

The rain of course cleared up and I decided to tromp down into the neighbours paddock to get some photos for my photo challenge that has just started.

Today’s subject was “Orange”

I am so pleased there are a few of the readers here participating in the challenge – either watching or actually posting images which is lovely!

Tomorrow is ‘Homescape’ My made up word to describe the landscape around your home.

I braved crawling (literally) under electric fences to get where I wanted to go – its really nerve wracking – since the last time I went near one of those I got severely zapped on the backside which was both painful and undignified! AND left a bruise in an unmentionable place! LOL

Anyway – this is what I came up with:

Source Images: DSC_7333.JPG (Av: F10.0; Tv: 1/400 sec.; ISO: 400; FL: 16.0 mm) DSC_7334.JPG (Av: F9.0; Tv: 1/320 sec.) DSC_7335.JPG (Av: F8.0; Tv: 1/250 sec.) DSC_7336.JPG (Av: F8.0; Tv: 1/250 sec.) DSC_7332.JPG (Av: F9.0; Tv: 1/320 sec.) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Using my fisheye lens for fun

Source Images: DSC_7323.JPG (Av: F8.0; Tv: 1/250 sec.; ISO: 400; FL: 52.0 mm) DSC_7324.JPG () DSC_7325.JPG (Av: F7.1; Tv: 1/200 sec.) DSC_7326.JPG (Av: F6.3; Tv: 1/160 sec.) DSC_7322.JPG (Av: F7.1; Tv: 1/200 sec.) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Gorgeous gum trees

Source Images: DSC_7302.JPG (Av: F9.0; Tv: 1/320 sec.; ISO: 400; FL: 20.0 mm) DSC_7303.JPG (Av: F10.0; Tv: 1/400 sec.) DSC_7304.JPG (Av: F10.0; Tv: 1/400 sec.) DSC_7305.JPG (Av: F9.0; Tv: 1/320 sec.) DSC_7301.JPG (Av: F9.0; Tv: 1/320 sec.) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — I love broken down sheds!

None of the above I actually used!!

In the end I settled on one of the foggy morning shots I took a week or so back

Source Images: DSC_6458.JPG (Av: F8.0; Tv: 1/250 sec.; ISO: 1250; FL: 20.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Amazing how much the weather can change a landscape!

The creepy doll I am hoping to get a photo for ‘Fear’ and maybe the sugar cubes for ‘square/s’

Its a work in progress!

Hope your day was splendid, wherever you are!

Cheers

PS just a couple more shed images from today

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Wood-work

Today Jeff and I got to and got all that wood stacked and undercover.

There are bits of me now that are not playing nice with the other bits!

I have tried to add a timelapse of the job we did today above. It does say “Error loading this Resource” Hmmmm.

I will have to try it on my facebook page if it isn’t going to play the game here!!

Me – after a job well done! (unless I go out tomorrow and find the stack fallen down in a shamble that is)

So – in case the timelapse didn’t work – this is where we started –

This is somewhere in the middle-

And this is pretty much done!

That should keep us going for another little while.

Jeff took some time to split some of the smaller pieces up into kindling

After a break (in which I sat on the edge of my herb garden and amused both myself- and I am sure Jeff- by blowing bubbles) I went into the hothouse.

I decided that the cucumber had finally bitten the dust

I was going to clean up in here a little more but Margie and Ruby dropped in for a cuppa and by that time we were more than ready to come in and load up on caffeine!!

One month of winter gone and still a few tomatoes! Yay!

Cleared the hanging tomatoes and cucumber

Happy with the progress of the indoor broccoli

Even the potato plant-that-I-didn’t-plant is going well

I think only a couple of the cucumbers will be ok… we ate all the tomatoes at dinner tonight (cooked them up in a mix of onion and garlic!!)

Time for me to crawl into bed!!

So much for Sunday being a day of rest!! 😀

Cheers!

Source Images: DSC_7230.JPG (Av: F16.0; Tv: 1/1000 sec.; ISO: 320; FL: 20.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Told you Tasmanian weather can’t make up its mind!

Chook Poo

OK – just kidding. I am not going to write a whole post about chook poo! 🙂

The poor chickens. Their coop was a bit horrible. We had trouble finding hay recently- of all things in the country to have difficulty finding mind you!! Bad weather, bad timing etc. Finally picked up a couple of bags of chopped hay off my favourite vendor down at the local markets. Lucky I went early as he said there is no more for a long while!!

A few wheelbarrow loads off to the compost! We put this lot in the established compost – more room.

We threw some lime about – helps with mites and lice (And apparently odours) then made the whole coop lovely and fluffy with new hay.

Of course – five minutes later of unsupervised chickens had them kicking it out the door already!!

They will have some fun creating new nests

Once the weather changes back to not horrible I am going to whitewash the whole coop!!! I will feel like I am living in an Enid Blyton book!!

The weather was pretty nice for most of the day – that is, we had gorgeous sunshine until the washing went out and we started in the garden! 😀

So, we got to and dug a couple of small rows for the raspberries – extending the existing ones.

The chickens were most helpful (not)

Every time I dug a hole, someone got in it, in a frantic worm-search and another would kick all my dirt all over the place!!

Despite all the feathery ‘help’ we got the canes in. Hoping they are happy about their small move and produce some fruit this upcoming season.

There was still enough daylight left to get back into the duck-yard and try to finish up the weeding we started last week

The chickens weren’t our only company – I looked up to suddenly see this lot staring at me!!

So funny to be in your little weeding world and look up into the faces of a couple of calves!!

Right on dusk, Cousin Jeff pulled up at the gate with a load of firewood!!!

We had seen his wife at the local school market that we went to this morning and asked if she could ask Jeff if he has some more dry wood – the last lot is still a bit heavy, so we need to mix it in with drier wood and we were running short of the older stuff.

I didn’t say it was THAT much of an emergency!! 😀

Lucky us – Spiderman delivers our wood!! (Not that you can really see Jeff’s son’s costume, but trust me… its cool!)

So – I know what I will be doing with the non-rainy days this week!!

Going to have to get this stacked ASAP before it gets totally rained on

Night had pretty much fallen by the time Jeff had unloaded the wood. I did take the time to go back to my ‘garden’ to admire it. Or stand there and imagine what will be next season!!!

Hope everyone has had a lovely start to their weekends!

Cheers!

The fact that Tasmanian weather can never make up its mind, means we get a lot of rainbows!

Fridays Footprints: Japan – Gion Matsuri

Enjoying some food in the Kyoto streets with Mari and Moe

Well, its practically zero degrees right now where I am. Time to think back on warmer times – so lets try summer in Japan!

A few years back when Jeff and I took our niece, Emma to Japan, we were there at the right time to enjoy some of festivities of Japans most famous festival, the Gion Matsuri.

Who doesn’t like to dress up and go out? Especially in another country where you get to try out some traditional clothes and browse all night on local food!

Waiting for the bus to take us into Kyoto – our good friends Koichi and Mow helped us dress and get prepared

Oh it was hot and muggy! Everyone had fans! Totally essential

Koichi letting the breeze go up his sleeves!

The Gion Festival has been a yearly event almost without interruption for nearly 1200 years!!

Periods of hardship were countered by the emperor at the time by demanding prayers be sent to the God of the Yasaka Shrine. This was in 869.

66 decorated halberds (an axe head on a spear) were made and displayed at the Shinsen-en Garden along with portable shrines.

In 970 it became a yearly event.

The floats – especially the Hoko – are huge and impressive. They are stored in the merchants districts when not in use and cared for by the people in each local area.

The main event on the 17th July. Floats are pulled down the streets of Kyoto

The three nights leading up to the main parade on the 17th July are well worth going to. The streets are blocked off to traffic. Food stalls set up, people everywhere in traditional dress and the floats are lit up so people can get a good close look.

Girls enjoying the traditional food and looking gorgeous in their Yukatas (Cotton kimono’s)

If you are lucky you might get a glimpse of a Maiko!

Beautiful Maiko – very famous in the Gion area

Moe and Emma checking out the yatai (Stall)

There was a huge crush of people, but if you are patient, they do keep moving along and you just ‘go with the flow’

Floats even tucked away in the narrow streets!

The festival runs the entire month of July with something happening on each day. As I mentioned above, the main parade is the 17th when untold thousands of people line the streets of Kyoto to watch the floats pulled down the three kilometer route.

Its quite the event to see them do the 90 degree turn around the corners. These behemoths have no steering. There are a bunch of guys with fans standing at the front of the float that co-ordinate the people pulling. Slats of bamboo are laid on the ground under the wheels and buckets of water sloshed over the area. With a series of timed pulls, the great floats are slowly maneuvered around the turns.

It must be exciting to be up on the floats as part of this event

They are holding bells which they ring as they chant

It boggles my mind to think this festival has been going for so long. We went into an information/museum area and looked at the records on display, and honestly… you could count on two hands the number of times the festival been missed since 970.

Even when fires destroyed floats, people rebuilt them in time so the festival could go on.

I hope you have enjoyed a little glimpse of this wonderful event. If you are in Japan in July you shouldn’t miss it! Don’t forget your fan and a lot of water! You’ll need it!

Cheers

Beautiful tapestries and lanterns in the evening sky

Rain

Not coming out until the weather is better.

This photo of Pip sums up everyone’s general opinion about the weather today.

Cold, dark & gloomy with never-ending rain!

I went back to bed for a sleep in as soon as I saw how miserable it was outside. Pip came in and snuggled under the covers. Then got out from under the covers. Then got back in again. Then out again. Then in. Then… you get the idea.

Once he had me thoroughly awake I got up, and that pest of a cat went back to bed and we didn’t see him again until the afternoon!! I think I got evicted so he could have the whole bed!!!

I spent a bit of time this afternoon happily disemboweling a few vegetables I had been saving for seed

Pre dried cucumber seeds that had stuck to the paper towel. I am pretty sure that won’t hurt the germination

The fire was ticking along all day and it was very pleasant getting this task done

I thought there would be a lot more seed in this one.

The bottom end of the zucchini yielded a lot more seeds

Sticky squishy job – but satisfying popping them out of the pulp

I found one that looks like its about to germinate… tempted to pop it in the ground and see what happens (maybe in the hothouse…)

I think I have more than enough to grow a few new plants next season. Maybe even sell a few seedlings!

Next on the list was another cucumber.

Now that was a lovely sticky mess!

Currently sitting by the fire drying out

I enjoy the slow pace of winter days… just dabbling in a few little projects there and there.

Spring, summer and autumn are pretty full on, so I am happy to amble through days that are cold and dismal. The sun will come back and we’ll take the opportunity to get out and do a few more outside tasks – always such a great thing if you’ve been cooped up inside for too long.

Speaking of cooped up – I took some scraps to the girls at 4.30pm today and they had all already put themselves to bed! Clearly they were in the same mind as Pip and had enough of the grotty weather!

This was from the other night. Tonight they were a bunch of bedraggled soggy manky creatures!!

Stay warm & dry!!

Cheers

Just Saying Hello

Yay – I have finally finished my “Nanna-Knee-Rug”!

Apart from a number of loose threads to sew in, I can now just enjoy snuggling under it. Right now, for instance, its across my knee keeping Pip warm!! Opportunistic Cats! 🙂

Today was full of domestic mundane-ness, slow cooked dinners and weather that changed every 20 minutes!

So totally nothing exciting from me today, but a hello and hope you are all having a marvelous mid-week day!

Cheers!

Source Images: DSC_7045.JPG (Av: F10.0; Tv: 1/2000 sec.; ISO: 250; FL: 20.0 mm) DSC_7046.JPG (Tv: 1/1600 sec.) DSC_7047.JPG (Tv: 1/1000 sec.) DSC_7048.JPG (Tv: 1/800 sec.) DSC_7044.JPG (Tv: 1/1250 sec.) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Over the back as the sun streamed down for a short time

Source Images: DSC_7040.JPG (Av: F10.0; Tv: 1/640 sec.; ISO: 250; FL: 20.0 mm) DSC_7041.JPG (Tv: 1/500 sec.) DSC_7042.JPG (Tv: 1/320 sec.) DSC_7043.JPG (Tv: 1/250 sec.) DSC_7039.JPG (Tv: 1/400 sec.) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — I love our peaceful back view!

Bubbles, Garlic & Graveyards

Well, I caught a cold the other day and I am shaking off the tail end of it.

That meant no visiting Ruby, who I am sure appreciates me not sharing my bugs around.

Happily this particular cold seemed to come and go really speedily (probably all the weeding scared it off)

Soooo… today I was working on some photos getting ready for my upcoming photo challenge on facebook… (I wrote a post here about it if you are interested)

One of the subjects is ‘Bubbles’ so I tried making a super strength bubble mixture and went outside to play!

It was actually tricky to get a free floating bubble – not least then get the camera aimed and focused before there was a pop.

It’s pretty hard to steer bubbles. It was a total game of chance

Soapy rainbow colours

bubble 2

A few floated away

bubble 1

And more than a few popped before I could even snap the photo

It was a good start to getting ‘that perfect image’ but I am going to have to enlist Jeff as Bubble-Assistant so I can be free to take the photos while he creates the bubbles! (I am sure he is dying to play with bubbles on his days off)

(Will add the mixture I used today at bottom of post)

I had Pip outside with me, as the sun was mostly shining. He went Mad-Cat half way through the bubble project and shot up a tree!

Something happened in that cat brain and off he went!

He isn’t generally a tree climber, so impressed he made it that far without falling out!

He got down really easily – that is I unclipped his lead and he used my shoulders as a landing pad.

On my way to visit the chooks this afternoon I went into the vegie patch to see what the garlic was doing. I was so pleased – the purple variety, which is an early garlic, has all shot up really well!!

Even the regular garlic is making a move with tiny shoots showing

While I was there, I thought I might as well raid the broccoli patch for dinner

One of the other subjects in the challenge is “From the Graveyard”

I visited the local cemetery by the river to see what was there that was aesthetically pleasing.

This graveyard is not used anymore – well, no new additions anyway. There are a few ancestors of mine in here too.

A lot of the graves are rundown, neglected and quite frankly look as if the residents are trying to escape!

Frances has been laid to rest in here… I wonder why they thought they needed a 5 foot iron fence surround with spikes on top?? Who WAS this person???

I really like old graveyards. I like reading the dates, names and little notes that people have on their headstones.

The effort that has gone into someones final resting place really is impressive compared to the fairly boring more modern cemeteries.

I am not sure if its ok to be amused while walking through a graveyard, or if you are supposed to keep an air of solemn – ness the whole time.

The finger pointing down… Yes, I know they are ‘down there’ !!

More spikes, although a little less sharp than Frances’s spikes

I am actually waiting for a foggy night or morning to get my ‘final’ shot as of course a graveyard looks so much more impressive looming though the mist!

Have a lovely day everyone!

Cheers!

************************

Todays Bubble Mixture

6 cups water

1/2 cup cornflour

1/2 cup dishwashing detergent

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 tablespoon glycerin

Mix water into corn flour first then add all other ingredients. Let sit for an hour.

Chocolate and Raspberries – What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Recently I bought some amazing hand made raspberry chocolate.

It was sooooo good, but way out of my budget to buy in the quantities I need… so I thought I would try to make some.

My ten minute internet search didn’t help much – just kept giving me dessert recipes.

Time to go it alone!

Melting the chocolate along with some copha

I was kind of following a chocolate liqueur recipe that I have… (Which is excellent by the way)

Positive notes from sorting my pantry – I knew exactly where to find these!

Once I had some chocolate in the mini cups I spooned a bit of raspberry into them

What didn’t fit into the cups I put in a tray and swirled the remaining raspberry in.

Of course – the chocolate set, but the raspberry remained runny.

Mind you – if you throw the whole thing in your mouth at once, end of runny problem and it tasted pretty good!

So I need to rethink it and maybe spend more than 10 minutes with google.

Not all was lost. I re-purposed the block into chocolate muffins.

Choc muffins with real chocolate/raspberry melted over top

Now what to do with the rest of the chocolate???

I certainly had a good time cleaning up the dishes anyway!

Hope your week started out brilliantly!

Cheers

Raspberry Canes – A Bit of a Cut & Style

I love raspberries! Tasmania is a great place to grow raspberries – it has the right kind of weather – and I keep telling Jeff its the main reason we moved here.

Last season my two modest rows of raspberry canes produced a massive 31 kilos of fruit! (around 70 pounds)

I still have several bags of frozen raspberries in the freezer ready for whenever I want to cook something ‘raspberry’

Today ended up being a day to attend to the wayward canes. I went down to the market this morning to pick up some wheat and hay for the chickens. While chatting with a few different people, I learned that everyone was pruning and planting their canes! Right! Best get right onto that!

I still have to take the lines that run along the canes down and restring them tighter so they have something to give them a bit of support.

I also tied bundles of them together, which also helps support them – we get a lot of wind here!

I pruned a lot of them back. Mostly it was easy to tell if the cane was dead and needed cutting out completely, but sometimes taking the tip off you can see the green in the cross section. Of course, those ones I left in to hopefully produce another great crop later this year

Quite a lot of new canes have been poking up through the ground in places that are not convenient. I got to, and dug a lot of them out by the roots. I ran out of time today, but I plan to dig another row and put these back in

I cut out a LOT of dead canes.

I figured I might as well drag out the little mulcher and put all these dead canes through and add it to my new compost bins.

The dry canes went through like a dream – a noisy dream.

That’s a significant reduction in pile size!

I will mix it tomorrow – one bin full already!

Well…That’s almost another tick off the long gardening list.

I hope your Sunday has been fantastic!

Cheers

PS Occasional extras on my Facebook page

Day of Worms

Hello! How is everyone’s weekend so far?

Lucky me! My fabulous husband went online shopping and bought me a surprise… two surprises actually! Compost bins!

He figured it would take too long to get around to building more and found these!

Luckily I collect weird things, like bags of chicken poo, so I was able to 3/4 fill one already with the hay/chicken poo mix from cleaning the chicken coop.

I have also dumped in a lot of worms, transported mostly from the original compost.

Looking forward to filling them up with more scraps & mulch etc.

It really was a fabulous day out there! When Tassie weather is on form, its gorgeous! I was in a t-shirt all day.

Jeff had begun to dig and weed the duck yard (we have never actually HAD ducks, but because this yard originally had a pond area, we figured ducks must have lived here!)

The weeds really had taken over as its not an area we use – its a chicken yard really.

Whatever this is, its growing very well. Happily it wasn’t too hard to dig up – just a lot of it.

Screecher, our one remaining original chicken, totally knows the ropes when it comes to us digging in the garden… snacks galore!

The other girls got in on the act too

I thought it would be good for Pip to be outside for a change. He has spent far too many hours buried under the doona, the lazy cat!

Funny to watch one of the new chickens trying to get brave enough to get closer to check out what kind of weird bird he was!

We made quite a lot of progress over the afternoon, along with several chooks coming in to ‘help’ dig

Rewards were plentiful!

I am pretty sure all the chooks had a great afternoon! So much enthusiastic scratching and scoffing of worms!

Once the new girls got the hang of what was going on, they were quite bold in the worm catching arena!

The sun was gone, moon had risen, about time to call it a day!

Felt so good to be out in the garden again getting some work done!

So pleased with todays work!!

I should be able to finish off the last bit tomorrow afternoon if the weather plays nice again.

We are going to block the chickens access to this area next season and this lovely big space is destined to be one of my new vegetable gardens!

I figured I could have a good patch of corn, and also put the space hungry pumpkins and zucchinis in this area. Also along the taller fence to the right of the below image, I could plant a row of runner beans that can climb up the fence and do their thing.

I also plan to boarder as much of it as possible with marigolds!

I totally cannot wait for spring!

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