Other Stuff

Guest Room

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Posted on August 20, 2013

Hello Again!

I think I have caught my breath. The last week has been a bit of a whirl with Air BnB guests, family visiting, Izz’s birthday and planning a trip to visit an ill relative as well as work and all of the routine stuff around the house.

We also managed to fit in a small project last weekend. We hung the timber blind which we bought for the guest room and I am really pleased with the result.

It is something that I had been contemplating for quite some time but I had not been able to convince myself of what the best window treatment for the room would be. I mentioned to The Duke that I thought the timber blinds would be good after one of our guests suggested that a window covering would afford a bit more privacy as the window overlooks the verandah. The Duke promptly found that Spotlight were having a half-price sale on blinds that week so we procrastinated no longer.

When we bought the blind we were a bit unsure about the size but discovered that for and extra $20 you can have them cut and made to measure. All you need to provide is the inside width of the window frame.

I will show you more of what I have been working on in the coming days.

In the meantime, here is the moonrise this evening. It looked spectacular as it rose over the trees.

Busy

4 Comments

Posted on August 18, 2013

The title says it all. I am very busy at the moment, juggling lots of balls in my life so something had to give. It is the blog. Normal service will resume when I catch my breath.

Blessed

16 Comments

Posted on August 6, 2013

Once you post a new entry on your blog it is out there for the world to read. I sometimes wonder who reads what I write and what they actually think of it. I am not alone in finding that those who comment represent a minute proportion of those who read. However, the identity and thoughts of most of my readers will continue to be a mystery.

Since I have been blogging, I tend to find a lot more blogs that I read. Some are like old friends that I diligently seek out every time there is a new post, others less regularly and many that just capture my interest with one post. Many have an underlying theme of struggling. This may be financial, health or relationships. For some, the struggle appears to define them but others it seems to be an ever-present shadow lurking in the background.

The more I read, the more grateful I am for what I have. We are both employed, have a roof over our heads and plenty of food. Severe chronic or terminal illness is not part of our world. I maintain good relationships with family and friends.

In other words, we have the freedom to make choices about how we live rather than it being driven by the need to deal with issues that constantly threaten our physical or mental well-being. For that I am forever grateful.

Itis easy to take much of what you have for granted. Blogging and connecting with others’ blogs adds to my awareness.

What are you grateful for in your life?

Slow Living – July

10 Comments

Posted on August 2, 2013

Yes, it is the end of the month again and time for a round up of the slow-living activities.

However, I am sorry that I have to let you know that I will no longer be continuing with this series of posts.

I have tried really hard for 6 months to get into the swing of writing these posts but it simply does not work for me. A couple of days before the end of the month I actually start worrying about what I am going to write and whether I can manage to complete the task. I have decided that this is not useful for me and I would rather continue to be a free spirit and write as and when the mood takes me. Just like real life, some days I have lots of topics and other days I scratch around for something useful to say.

It is not farewell from striving to live slowly and simply but rather it is simply that I will no longer be participating in this project.

Please drop in to Christine’s blog and check out the fabulous blogs that are written by people who are more disciplined than me.

Filling the Freezer

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Posted on July 22, 2013

I am putting the disaster of my photos behind me and moving on.

This week is going back to the basics of the things I do.

We have a refrigerator with a freezer section as well as a small upright freezer which is the size of a bar fridge. It has been turned off and not used for a couple of months as I simply did not need it and it seemed pointless to be wasting electricity when I could fit everything in the other freezer. However, I turned it back on last night as I opened a large, catering-size tin of crushed tomatoes and divided them into portions to freeze.

I also cooked a quantity of refried-beans in the slow-cooker.

Tonight I removed the frozen blocks of tomatoes from their containers and placed them in a double bag. These are old bread bags that have been washed and re-used many times.

The containers were then re-used to freeze the refried beans.

There was some leftover quiche which I portioned up for my lunches and 2 pieces are ready for the freezer.

The plastic sheet to separate the slices is from cereal packaging. I rarely buy prepacked cereal of any kind but these have been saved and rewashed many times. I store them in a bag in the kitchen drawer when they are not in use.

The freezer is not full yet but I will be working on that over the coming days.

Of course, there are many other things in the freezer such as meat, cooked rice, spreadable butter, grated cheese and sliced bread.

What is in your freezer?

AARGH!!

9 Comments

Posted on July 21, 2013

I have just come to the awful realisation that I have deleted most of the photos from my blog.

A couple of weeks ago I discovered that I could not upload any more photos as I had used all of the available space. So, this techno-challenged fool just deleted them as they were no longer required. However, I have now discovered that my action has also deleted them from the blog posts. This has rendered some of the posts almost useless and many others are lacking a lot by not having the photos that were originally part of the post.

I do not know whether I will ever manage to recover and reinstate many of the photos so I apologise if you are new and looking through the archives.

I was going to do another post tonight but I am too shattered at the moment.

A Challenge – Plastic Free July

12 Comments

Posted on June 29, 2013

I know I said I would be back on Sunday evening with my next slow living blog post. I will do that but in the meantime I wanted to share something which I heard about today.

Plastic Free July started in 2011 as a community initiative of the Western Metropolitan Regional Council in Perth, Western Australia. From that small beginning it has spread with individuals and groups all over Australia and New Zealand becoming involved. 2013 is the year it has gone truly international.

I only became aware of this today. First, I read an article in the ReNew magazine which is published by the Alternative Technology Association. Later, I saw a link to the website posted on Simple Savings.

It seemed as though I was meant to find out more about this and I checked out the website and signed up for the challenge. Will you?

Individual bags

We do not use a great deal of single-use plastic in our home but I will be keeping track more closely over the next month and blogging about our progress every Saturday so make sure you pop in and see how I am going. It would be great if you can join in too and share your story.

Perfect or Edited

16 Comments

Posted on June 28, 2013

I read this post by Celia over at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial this morning and it certainly made me think.

Do bloggers tell the truth? Are we presenting the equivalent of a glossy magazine while the reality is quite different? Is it lying or simply omission?

What I write here on my blog every (almost) day is exactly what is going on. I take the photos, pretty average ones sometimes and write the text pretty much as it tumbles out of my head. Some days the editing is very poor.

I post about things that interest me and that I hope will be of interest to my readers. Occasionally I post something that is totally self-indulgent.

My blog is just that – a blog and it is mine. It is not my life so you do not get every minute detail of what is going on – it would end up looking like some people’s Facebook pages (and I don’t read them either). The fact that it is mine means that I get to pick and choose what I write about and what I leave out.

Have a great weekend and I will be back on Sunday evening with a round-up for the month of slow living for June.

Step Outside

3 Comments

Posted on June 25, 2013

Most of the time I write about things that I do in and around our own home. These include many things that can be bundled under the guise of simple living such as growing fruit and vegetables, sewing and mending, cooking from scratch and decluttering.

There is certainly enough to keep us occupied in our own corner of the world, but what about the bigger picture? Whatever the reason, I do not think it is healthy to withdraw from the world around us. Developing and maintaining connections with your neighbours and the broader community are vital to our well-being and possibly our ultimate survival. If everything turns pear-shaped the first thing you will need is the support and co-operation of those around you.

There are so many exciting initiatives that have developed from a seed of an idea. Some, such as Freecycle and LETS are relatively well-known, however, there are many less publicised ventures that are worthy of promotion.

I am planning a series of posts to highlight some of these ventures and how you can become involved and make a positive contribution to the community in which you live. If you have any particular favourites that you would like to suggest please leave a comment or email me if you prefer.