Desiderata

At this busy time of the year, I am reminded of sections of the poem 'Desiderata'.

Go placidly amid the noise and haste and remember what peace there may be in silence.

Fishpond

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According To Martha ....Six Things To Do Daily

According to MARTHA who has positioned herself as THE world wide authority on all things 'homey' we should be doing the following 6 things every day in the home.

1. Make The Bed - because tidiness begets tidiness, meaning if you make the bed you will feel like cleaning the rest of the room.

2. Manage Clutter - we are meant to grab clutter every time we walk out of a room and encourage other family members to do likewise.

3. Sort The Mail - open, read and sort as soon as we bring it inside.

4. Clean As You Cook - rinse and pop things into the dishwasher as you are cooking ( great advice for those that actually HAVE a dishwasher )

5. Wipe Up Spills While They're fresh - almost anything is easier to remove if you attend to it straight away.

6. Sweep The Kitchen Floor - every evening after you have finished cooking so that dirt and grime don't build up.

Well..... sounds easy enough when you read it in a pretty little list. How do you rate in the Martha stakes ?

Back From My Blogging Break

Ahhhhhhh!!! { Standing and Stretching}.

Time to return from my blogging break. It has been rather nice to have a break from writing, although my brain didn't take much of a holiday. It is always churning through philosophical analysis of events that are taking place around here.

Thank you to all the readers who sent me emails worrying about where I was {lol} I didn't realise you cared so much! {blush}. Your kind words were very encouraging.

One of the fabulous things about working from home or for yourself is the ability to take time out as required, depending on your family's needs or the need for a personal sabbatical.

So..... what have I been doing ?

Well, quite a bit actually. I have been teaching a lot more card making classes, organising ourselves for Christmas, 'gyming it' every day, learning lots more 'from scratch' recipes, planting lots of things in the garden ready for summer and selling excess possessions on E-Bay to create extra spending money for the holidays.

I am hoping that you are all ready for Christmas. You may enjoy reading Seven Steps To A Simple Christmas that I put together for the ABC radio interview last year.

And lastly....... I have written previously about having problems with my email system directing emails from the website to my inbox. I have been able to access the emails ( particularly the newsletter email form) from inside the site and there are over 200 emails yet to process! I am working through them, but please be patient if I take a little while to get to yours. I will do my best to respond.

Stop! Thief!

More Handmade Christmas Cards

Hope you like them !

Splendid Saturday Splendid Sunday

What a fabulous weekend we had. It was SO busy. We got up early on Saturday morning and went down to the river for a ski. The water was like glass.
When we got home we cleaned the boat and put it away and headed down to the gym. The boys swam while I went into the gym.
We them headed home for a breakfast of bacon, eggs and homemade bread. By this time it was actually one o'clock , so I guess it wasn't really breakfast.

We then headed out into the yard and decided to move the chook pen to create a bigger space in our 'farm' area.

Luckily the iron for the roof renovation hadn't arrived yet, so it wasn't too difficult to lift up and move around.

After working in the garden for a few hours I came in and created a birthday card for our son's friend. He was having his party at the bowling alley. I also made some yummy french onion dip and water crackers to take to a friend's house for dinner.

We had a great night out and headed home about 11.30pm


Sunday morning is latte morning. Every Sunday I am delivered my signature coffee (vanilla latte on skim) in bed. I know I know!!! I am totally spoilt!!...... what can I say.....??

After hanging around in bed reading for a while, I made everyone pancakes with chunky blueberry sauce. They were perfect! The sauce was just fresh blueberries thrown into a saucepan with a tablespoon of water and a tablespoon of sugar and simmered until they broke down and thickened up...... this will definitely be on the 'keep' list.


We did a few jobs around the house and garden and then headed out for a Sunday drive. We headed up to one of the local lighthouses and were looking out when youngest son spotted the whales frolicking just off the shore line. They were coming up and crashing down with a big splash! I don't have a zoom lens with me, so that photos I have are just flecks in a grey ocean.

It was sooooo windy up there. My hair was standing straight up!

When we got home I organised things for dinner and got everything ready to start another week. We had an early dinner, a beautiful roast. We were all exhausted and had an early night.

What a jam-packed weekend it was..... but definitely enjoyable!

Garden Update: Tears of {Onion} Joy

I will be crying tears of joy when I finally chop and cook this little baby! Actually, it is not so little. They are remarkably huge!

This is the first time that I have grown onions. I always had it in the back of my mind that onions take too long and they take up too much space. But..... the time was going to pass anyway and I don't believe they took a lot of space. They are now ready to be pulled out, tied and hung up until we need them. I will be planting more for sure!

  Everything else is plodding along nicely. This silverbeet is going much better since a relocation into a much wetter area.

Rows of beans are powering now that the weather is warming. So too is the sweet corn. This year we are really trying to get our succession planting worked out. We always struggle with feast or famine when it comes to our garden so this year we are determined to try and stagger the plantings and have an ongoing supply of produce.

Tucked away there is the shadow is a little pumpkin that wasn't there yesterday. They say magic doesn't exist, but how was there nothing yesterday and today there is a pumpkin ? That is a miracle in my books!

There are also some exciting chook house renovations happening to prepare the girls for a luxurious summer in their new penthouse. Stay tuned for further updates.

A question for you.... how do you plan and/or organise your succession planting so that there are no gaps in your backyard production ? I have been really encouraged by the show River Cottage and borrowed the DVD from the town library. I like the way Hugh has his seedlings starting again as soon as the last lot go into the ground. He has a great system worked out.

Do you have any fabulous system for what to plant when ? I'd love to know what you do.

Yesterday We Owned The River

When we are cruising around our beautiful river and there is no one else about I always think that the river belongs to us - that {we} own the river. Of course I know it is exactly the opposite, we don't own the river - the river owns us!

I had the camera with me yesterday so I snapped some shots of the old buildings around the banks.

There are lots of old dairy farms on this island. There is also a lot of history around the area, with the river being used as the main transportation link for freight and milk. The whole area was once a bustling hive of activity. Now days, the river winds its way through the valley with most people too busy to even stop and look.

But I look....... and dream of days gone by. Days when being 10 kilometres from town was a long way and could only justify a trip there once a week at most. Days when the river was the centre of life - providing goods from afar and fish, prawns and crabs from it's depths.

You can see that cruising up the river, turning off the motor and drifting in the silence for a while, taking in the sounds of the birds, the lapping of the water on the bank, the friendly dolphins.... would make anyone realise after a while that {we} don't own the river, the {river} owns us!

Garden Update: Compost Bin Changeover

The time had arrived to empty the compost bin. We have a pretty plain compost bin. I won it in a radio trivia competition. That was about ten years ago and it still seems to be going strong.

I don't know whether we do it the 'right' way or not, but for years we have been using the same system with great success. We simply fill the bin with scraps from the kitchen, the garden and the some paper and try to keep the balance right between wet and dry materials.

The bin is made of two halves that are wired together in the middle on both sides. When the bin is full I simply undo the wire twists and am left with a perfect pile. You can see in the picture above that the material on the top hasn't broken down yet but as you look down the pile - it is perfect.

By this stage the girls get a whiff of what is happening and they start hanging around - begging to be let into the garden area.

I then move the compost to a new location (this time it is right next to where it was) and wire it back together. I sit the bin up on a couple of bricks and put some twigs in the bottom for air circulation. I then lift the top centimetres off the old pile and put it back in the bottom of the compost bin in the new location.

We then fenced off a small area and let the girls come in and have a good dig through everything for a couple of hours before we scraped it all up and put it on the garden. The girls went absolutely mad! They scratched and pecked and jumped on bugs. It really was a joy to watch!

We also cleaned out the chook house and added the manure to the compost.

It is amazing to think that we put the soil compost on the garden and grow things and then mulch up the plants and put them in the compost which in turn becomes the dirt that we grow things in again. It is a complete circle....... the circle of {life} !

Health + Yum = Chocolate Slice { ? }

You see lots of recipes that claim to be healthy and yummy. In my experience those two adjectives don't often go together. But...... I have found a slice that actually provides a chocolate fix and yet has only healthy ingredients..... and there is no cooking involved.

You will need:

Half a cup of sesame seeds

Half a cup of almonds ( soaked in water overnight and then drained)

Third of a cup of coconut

Third of a cup of cocoa powder

8 dried figs

Half a cup of chopped dates

Two drops of peppermint essence

Two tablespoons of water.

Throw everything in a food processor and churn/ pulse until the mixture is crumbly. You may need to fiddle with the amount of water or sesame seeds if it is too dry or too wet. Test by pressing some mixture together.

Press the slice into a small pan ( 20cm x 10cm) and refrigerate until firm.

The taste is nutty, yet chocolatey and most importantly it is very satisfying with a cup of tea!

We thought it actually tasted better on the second day in the fridge... not sure about the third day {lol}

Try it and see what you think.....

Bucket List {Tick}

Today I can finally tick something off my bucket list. You know that list you have of things you are going to do before you kick the bucket ?

Years ago I had put 'be a person that goes to the gym and actually enjoys it' on my list. In my mind I may as well have written 'climb Mount Everest' or 'parachute naked' because...... {in my mind} it was never going to happen.

You see, I don't mind exercise, I enjoy it on MY terms. But as I am getting older, the weight is creeping up, the flexibility is dropping away and I don't want to be forty and fat, I want to be forty and fabulous! Although I want to drop about 10 kilos, I don't want to do a 'weight loss programme'. I am after so much more than that. I am after a lifestyle change. I want to take charge of my health and my future.

I don't know what changed in me, maybe it was just my {season}. But I started getting out the front of my house and walking up and down the street. The total length of the street is 500m so it made it very easy to work out distances I was covering. It was also my cheat ticket because If I got too tired I could just come inside, rather than be such a long way from home that I would have the pain of walking all the way back. {hee hee}

Each day, it seemed to get easier. I have read and heard other people say this before but I never really got it. I started trying to jog from one telegraph pole to the next and then the next - with Hubbie's encouraging words and me screaming and cursing! Before too long I could jog the whole 500 m ( as long as I had the right song playing on my son's Ipod! lol)

Then on the 4th of September I did the unthinkable and went and got a fitness assessment at our local swim/gym centre. I had always imagined that the gym is full of people in 80s lyrca G-strings with perfect bodies and wearing lipstick! Well..... it's not. It's full of people like me who want to make changes in their lives. There's the overweight mums who drop their kids in the creche, the businessmen battling the beer gut and the retired couples who want to maintain their health. All of them surprisingly 'normal'.

So I now go to the gym. I have been everyday since then and I actually enjoy it, hence the bucket list tick. I started off really easy and have built things up. In the past I have failed because I have gone in too hard and hated it and declared never again. But the last few sessions I have felt absolutely brilliant and could actually say I enjoy it. I have great songs on the Ipod and have to stop myself from calling out "in the name of love" ( by U2) when I am on the treadmill!!! lol

If you are on a budget, your first thought may be the cost. If this is an issue for you, there are lots of ways around it - just grab your music and dance around the house, run up and down the stairs or get a workout DVD. The same applies if you have young children and can't get out. The choice is yours and there is {always} a way if your desire is strong enough.

I pay about $2 a day and am now more than willing to forgo the occasional signature coffee { vanilla latte on skim} in order to feel this good. My mind is clear, my energy levels are out of this world and I feel great. Because the focus is lifestyle not weight loss, I am really enjoying the process.

Are you ready to get started or to take it to the next level ?

Garden Update: Bean Feedback

Thank you to all the people that left a comment or emailed me regarding the broad beans. Having not grown them before we have no idea whether we are just wasting time, effort and precious garden space with them or not. From the comments, it would appear that we are on track to a bumper crop.

Here is some of the comment from Aussiemade:
I have been growing broad beans for several years, and yours look fantastic and are doing all the right things. If bees have not been about much(as they have not down here) due to wind,rain or cold, than you may not get as many broad beans as you thought, however the way it works is that generally every flower in a perfect world will grow into a bean pod. If they have not been pollinated they will just fall off. Now in saying that I have some very small pods developing, the way to see them are that as the flowers drop of you should (if a bean pod is developing see a thin pod like structure but very small. It grows relatively quickly once the warmer weather starts, so in a few weeks you should have some yummy broad beans.

When I read that comment to Hubbie we both said 'oh no, if every flower turns into a pod we are in big trouble!'. LOL When I was taking these photos I noticed that there are a lot of bees around and that the beans are now forming. That's okay, there will be plenty of beans to give away. I will have to put a sign out the front that says " free beans - bring own truck"

Here are some sprouts that are growing on the kitchen bench. They are the easiest thing in the world to grow.

Today I was taking out some older potato plants to make way for some corn seeds when I found these little beauties in the ground. I love growing potatoes. They are so surprising. The plants are ugly, ragged and unsightly and when you dig them up there are all these little gems in the soil. This year I want to grow lots more in cages so I can build the soil right up around them and get bumper crops. Last year our potatoes lasted really well in the cupboard - I just needed a lot more of them.

Now is the perfect time to think about what you will need for the summer period ( sorry US readers, but we are dreaming of sun and surf at the moment). It is only 16 weeks until Christmas. Considering most things take about 14-16 weeks to grow, I am looking at what we need over the Christmas holiday period. The summer holidays mean lots of swimming, boating, barbeques and easy meals. That means we need lots of corn, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, potatoes, herbs capsicum and carrots. What better place to get them from than your own garden beds.

The Beginning of a Handmade Christmas

I have started making some Christmas Cards. Firstly, because I wanted to fiddle with some designs for some upcoming classes I am teaching and secondly to prepare my stash of beautiful cards, ready to send out joyful messages when the time arrives.

Milk Bubbles

Take one straw

One glass of milk

and two boys

...

who should be getting ready for bed

...

add a giggling mother

grabbing the camera

when she should really be cross

...

the waste

that's a half a glass of milk

...

haven't I taught you better than that

...

{giggle from mother}

{naughty giggle from the boys}

Garden Update: Wanted - Bean Expert.

Our garden was feeling a little unloved until I got out there a few days ago and pulled out some old plants and got the soil ready for the next growing season. The whole garden was flooded a couple of times over the winter period and we had so much 'time off' with sickness that the soil was quite compacted. We have freshened it up and added some organic fertiliser.

Can someone please tell me what is happening with these broad beans ? This is the first time we have grown them. We have lots of bushes, all about a metre tall with loads of flowers. They seem to be evolving every day, but we are not sure whether we have missed the fruiting stage. Our seasons have been so mixed up lately - we had summer temperatures earlier in the week.

So if you are an experienced broad bean grower - please drop me a line.

My onions are fattening up well. Once again, a first time crop. I was always put off growing onions because of how long they take to grow. These seem to be going okay and I hope they are amounting to something underneath the soil as well.

And of course I can't forget our beautiful girls! We were originally advised to get four because there would be times when each of them would go off the lay. Well....... we have had four eggs a day since they started laying. It doesn't sound like a lot, but believe me it doesn't take long before they are falling out of the fridge and even though you supply the neighbours, your family and their friends, there are still eggs galore. These productive little girls are so spoilt but we are grateful for their contribution.

Yesterday Was That Day

There comes a day every year when you pull out the first pair of shorts after the winter. Yesterday was that day.

When that feeling comes, there is no denying the need to ditch the long track pants and pull on something shorter. Often it means bearing an ankle, perhaps a mid calf as you move into a ¾ length pant. But, yesterday was hot and to my surprise the temperature demanded that I move straight to the short shorts.

As I applied sunscreen and headed out into the garden I wondered whether I would do damage to any low flying aircraft as the glare coming off my beautiful lily white legs was enough to blind anyone within a 200 metre radius. But alas, I pushed on with my gardening feeling half naked as you do when you pull on your first shorts for the season.

The good news was that last year’s shorts can be pulled on without undoing the buttons which means there must have been some body shrinking compared to summer last year, hence the proud baring of flesh in the back yard.

A Simple Reminder

On Wednesday I spent the day with my youngest son on his school excursion to Timbertown. We have been there before, so it was nice to go with his class group.

Apart from spending the day with my son, it was a very healthy day for me. I felt a reconnection.

I walk into the little cottages and there is something spooky about it. I see the small rooms with perfectly laid out furnishings and hand made quilts on beds and hand stitched lacework on vintage wooden chests of drawers. It is spooky yet it really speaks to me. It is spooky because I can sense the pain of a woman who probably had 10 children with no electricity or running water and worse still... no lap top to record her frustrations and joys!

After the spookiness clears I am drawn to the simpleness. I am drawn to the fact that there are limited personal possessions, which meant that what they had was truly treasured. I am drawn to the idea that their life was made up of the ‘job’ of living in itself.

Every day was about living. It was about preparing meals , growing food, washing clothes, making belongings, educating children. These tasks took all day. I see our lives in contrast where we do the ‘business of living’ in a short period of time. We wash our clothes automatically, have our food delivered and outsource the majority of the other tasks. Then we are left with the rest of the day and week wondering what we should do. We have so much time left over that we introduce jobs, hobbies, socialising, children’s activities and recreational shopping.

As I look around the old style room I imagine that life was so busy through the week from sun up to sun down that by the time Sunday came around it was a well earned ‘day of rest’. How lovely it must have been to know that you worked hard and accomplishment so much all week that you were due for a day of relaxation and socialising. I guess the flip side of that is that it all started again with wash day on Monday.

Of course I know that I am totally romanticising the whole thing and the reality would have been quite harsh ( especially the no lap top bit) but isn’t that was nostalgia is all about ? You take the good and leave the bad.

Back to my home in the 21st century where I have my own version of the pioneer cottage. My focus turns to preparing meals, tending to the garden, baking some treats, composting the food scraps, collecting the eggs, washing the clothes, tidying and caring for my home, making some handmade cards and helping the children.

I am just lucky that I have a digital camera and lap top computer so that we can all share the journey.

Weekend Recap

What a lovely relaxing weekend away I have just had. A whole weekend at Camp Elim (near Forster NSW). It is a similar style to a sport and recreation camp, mostly designed for school groups and definitely not five star, but when you have the opportunity to work uninterrupted on your albums all weekend and someone rings a bell and feeds you, then that is quite okay.

On Saturday evening I walked down to the lake and took some photos as the sun was going down. It really is the most beautiful place to sit and ponder life.

Of course, I had to sneak a photo in of my work table all set up. It didn't look like this for very long.

It was lovely to get away, but it was also lovely to return home. Now I'm off to do some unpacking and sorting and to get out into my garden. It was really warm yesterday and I feel the need to till the soil!

The Smell Of Spring

Have a look at my beautiful sunflower. Boy has it been a long wait! I remember planting the seeds and wondering whether they would come up. Since then the garden has been flooded twice and I had weeks where I didn't even glance at them due to sickness and a series of other unfortunate events.

Add to that the fight with the galahs. Can you blame them for flying in and attacking them - they are like giant lolly pops screaming 'eat me, eat me'.

This afternoon I am heading off on my annual girls weekend away. Each year we go to "scrapmania" a weekend of scrapbooking and crafting. I am looking forward to going through my photos, reconnecting with them and making some great albums for us all to look back on and treasure. I love having the time to sit and think and write.

The camp is held at 'Camp Elim' which is just outside Forster on the banks of the most beautiful lake. I will take some pictures to share with you all.

Most of all, I am looking forward to some relaxation and renewal time. An opportunity to recharge my batteries. I have so many ideas for our garden and I smell spring in the air. I feel that it is almost time to plant. Just need a few more warm days to heat up the earth a little more before I plant the seeds.

I hope you all have a great weekend as well.

Reconnecting With Your Photos.

One of the reasons that I make albums of my photos is that I love to RECONNECT with the memories that the photos provide. I love to record what the photo means to me and the memories that come flooding back as I drift off into each image.

I just had to share this one.

It was eight years ago. After giving birth to a very sick baby I was finally able to bring him home. He was yellow with jaundice. His big brother had already taken ownership of him and as a family we felt a total feeling of completeness.

I have always loved this photo, but today, in preparation for a scrapbooking weekend away I dragged it into photoshop, sharpened it up and took out all the colour. Sometimes a colour image holds a lot of distractions. Turning it greyscale allows you to study the image in depth and see its purity.

When I look at this image I can remember the sense of joy I had. I can also remember that feeling of total exhaustion that only the mother of a new born can understand.

A New Space

I have found myself a new space.

I used to have a creative space in the small office that we have. It used to be one of the boys' bedrooms a few years ago and I loved the bright blue walls.

Since being so sick, I found it really difficult to go and work in that space. It only has a small window and I was having trouble seeing the true colours of papers I was working with. I could match two pieces of paper and then view them in different light and see that they were two completely different shades of the one colour.

When I was so sick I was drawn to the light. Wherever the sun was shining, I had to be - curled up under a blanket. As the sun moved around the house I followed it, starting for a couple of hours in my bedroom and then slowly moving around the house until it started to shine through the lounge room window and I could curl up on the lounge.

I decided that I would take over the front bedroom. It used to be my youngest son's room, but he decided to move in with his big brother a few months ago. They had been using this room as a 'games' room. It had lego and toys and their play station and piano keyboard.

On one of the days when I was feeling better I worked like a little ant to swap the rooms over. I would pick up four or five books from one room and shuffle them into the other room and bring four or five books from there back to this room. It was a very slow process, but like a little ant I just kept shuffling along moving things from one room to the other. It took a long time.

Now I have this fabulous spot to work. It is right at the front of the house. I can look out and see the chooks pecking around in the front yard. I see people walking past with their dogs and kids riding their bikes. If you look at the photo you will notice a little rose - that is where the sun peaks over the horizon every morning. I love to sit here and greet it.

I haven't got the room set up exactly the way I want it yet. I have to sit around in here for a while and do a few projects and get the feel for it. Then I will reorganise it to suit me better. It's all about feeling glorious in your space and not feeling cluttered and overwhelmed. I need it to be functional, yet highly motivating and inspiring.

For now, I am loving sitting here with a hot cup of tea and looking out at the world. I love the light. I am so glad that I found this space. I can't believe it has been here all along.

It just goes to show that changes come from within. Sometimes, the things that we are looking for have been here all along.

Bread Recipe - Cafe Style

I made this bread a couple of days ago. It was meant to be a long bread roll. As it rose on the tray before baking it grew as wide as both my hands put together. I thought I would continue, warning everyone that as it rose in the oven, be prepared with an escape plan in case it grew out the oven door and began to overtake the kitchen.

Although it was nothing like I planned, it came out looking lovely and sure smelt good. After a few taste tests and then a few more ( just to determine the correct use for this style of bread) we decided it would be perfect to make garlic bread with. We would just slice it up, toast it a little and then spread with a mixture of butter, crushed garlic and Italian herbs and pop it into the over for a few minutes to brown up. Beautiful cafe style garlic bread!

....... and just for the purposes of further testing - you can also through it into the toaster and spread it with vegemite..........delicious!

TO MAKE:

Use two bowls. In the first bowl put a cup of boiling water, one tablespoon of butter, 1/2 tsp salt and one tablespoon of sugar. Leave aside until it cools to luke warm.

In the second bowl put 1/4 cup luke warm water, one tablespoon dry yeast and 1/2 tablespoon of sugar.

When ready, mix the two bowls and stir in about 3 cups of plain flour. Leave it to rise for about 40 minutes and the roll out flat onto a floured board and then roll it up until it forms a long sausage. Cut three to four slices across the top and leave on a baking tray for another 30 minutes. Paint the top with a mixture of egg and milk and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

If you do have a go, make sure you come back and leave some feedback. I am sure you will have a way to improve this trial recipe. Maybe you would like to try it with wholemeal or a multigrain flour.

Part 12 cups boiling water2 T butter2 T sugar2 tsp salt Cool to lukewarm.Part 21/2 cup lukewarm water2 T active dry yeast1 T sugar