Slow Living – January

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Posted on February 1, 2013

Today I have decided to dip my toe in and join the monthly diary started by Christine over at Slow Living Essentials. The idea is to post a round up of the slow living activities for the month based on nine categories. I have watched with interest and think that this idea will link in nicely with many of my own ideals and goals. Although Christine lives in Victoria, Australia I actually discovered her blog through Heidi’s slow living posts over at Lightly Crunchy. Heidi is in Ontario, Canada – what a small world our online community is!

Here are the Slow Living categories:

{Nourish} We eat largely unprocessed foods. I eat a gluten and grain-free diet for my health. I have been doing this for 6 months and am reaping the benefits. Here is my ‘cereal’ recipe.

{Prepare} A bumper tomato crop from several varieties gave me ample opportunity to save for later.

I made tomato sauce and tomato paste.

In the dying days of the month, I decided that I couldn’t bear to lose the 4kg of tomatoes that had been frozen and were rapidly thawing due to loss of power for 2 days. Using the gas cooktop, I boiled them up and reduced the liquid then bottled and preserved them using a hot water bath.

I needed to be a little inventive as I normally sterilise my bottling jars and lids in the oven at 140C. This time I boiled the jars and utensils. Finally, I used the same water for the hot water bath. Remember, I had to haul the water in a bucket from the tank at the back of our block.

We also prepared for, and survived, the wild weather from ex Tropical Cyclone Oswald (hurricane).

{Reduce} We repainted the old star pickets to re-use in the fencing project. You can’t see them here – the timber corner and bracing posts are new.

{Green} The timber chairs and table are sparkling after being polished. I use some vegetable oil with a little lemon essential oil on a soft rag to dust and polish all of the timber furniture.

{Grow} The tomatoes grew in abundance as did cucumbers. Due to a warm, dry summer (until the last week) we managed to successfully grow cantaloupe and capsicums (red peppers). The next month will be clearing and resting the beds ready for sowing again in March, weather permitting.

{Create} My sewing machine has been out of action (and, boy have I missed it)! I have been doing some hand sewing – mending a couple of items for Missy.

{Discover} I have indulged in some fiction this month. I bought the entire ‘Anne of Green Gables’ series for my Kindle. It was only a couple of dollars and will provide hours of reading. I did not read the books when I was young, although I did watch the videos when my daughters had them.

{Enhance} We swapped a cantaloupe for 2 small pumpkins with a neighbour. Also, checked to see how neighbours were going during the storms and flooding.

I also gave away 75 novels on Freecycle. The recipient was a co-ordinator for the Lifeline Bookfest so that is where they will be going. I feel like that is giving several times over. 🙂 They were ones that we now also have on our Kindles. We are enjoying the space, too.

{Enjoy} I introduced my granddaughters to live theatre.

Miss O and I went to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in Sydney and I took Izz to see Hairy McLary, based on the books by Lynley Dodd.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my first month of slow living as much as I have writing it. Looking back back over a whole month and what you have done is really worthwhile. I plan to continue this segment for the entire year. There are lots more blogs participating so it would be great if you check them out as well.

Social Media – Splendid or Scourge

4 Comments

Posted on January 11, 2013

Social media is essentially a phenomenon of the 21st century. It may be Facebook, Twitter, a forum relating to your special interest or the millions of blogs, just like this one that are out there in cyberspace. There are very few people who do not have same interaction with their cyber ‘friends’.

Patty Beecham has eloquently captured the essence of the type of conundrum which confronts many social media users at times. Here is a short article which was published in the ‘Courier Mail’ (Brisbane newspaper) today. Yes, I am friends with Patty on Facebook and I know her in real life also.

These various forms of communication and interaction via the internet have grown exponentially over the past 15 years and taken on a life of their own. There are no etiquette guides on how to deal with the plethora of situations you may face as a result of involvement in social media. Maybe it is time to ‘write’ your own book of do’s and don’t’s for social media use to get you thinking about how you might deal with some of the challenging situations that could arise. Think about the ‘what if’s?’

If you look at the right-hand side of this blog, you will see that I have 140 ‘followers’ of my ramblings. There are some of my closest friends and family and others whom I feel I know through their thoughtful and supportive comments. Some religiously read every new post that I publish, others drop in occasionally and still more have probably forgotten that they even hit the button to follow. I am not too hung up about how many followers I have or who they may be.

I have a Facebook account which I use to publish my blog posts, play Scrabble and keep in touch with a few friends. At the other end of the scale I know of people who collect Facebook ‘friends’ like trophies. Some have over 1,200 friends and personally know perhaps 100 or so.

Social media certainly has its place if used wisely. The internet was the initial contact with some of my best friends. I am very grateful because it is unlikely that our paths would ever have crossed, otherwise.

Please click on the link in the second paragraph and have a read. I would love to hear what you think. There is also an opportunity to comment at the bottom of the article. I sure Patty would be interested in your feedback.

Back Again

1 Comment

Posted on November 5, 2012

Blogging has taken a back seat this last week as my ‘real’ life has been rather busy.

We have been away for the weekend to catch up with friends and celebrate a ‘milestone’ birthday for my girlfriend. We had a fabulous time and I have returned refreshed and with renewed enthusiasm after our short break.

I am working through a pile of mending/alterations of clothes for Missy which I have promised I will finish before she moves interstate in a couple of weeks. I have spent some time helping her declutter and sort some things prior to her move as it is an ideal time to rationalise exactly what you have and what you need. There is no point in paying to move things that you really do not want to keep.

Speaking of things you do not want to keep, this is a pile of fabric that a friend offered to me last week as she did not see the possibility of using it any time soon. I have accepted it and have space to store it until I start creating. I think that may be next year as the next 7 weeks are looking pretty busy in the lead-up to Christmas. However, I already have some plans for some of the fabric and am looking forward to using it. Thanks, Sandra.

I mentioned that it is 7 weeks until Christmas but my busyness is not really related to a crazy shopping frenzy or significant over-indulgence in food. It is more about a self-imposed deadline for projects that I want to complete both at home and at work before the end of the year. More about that in tomorrow’s post.

Garden Update

4 Comments

Posted on August 15, 2012

Much of what goes in the the garden happens without a lot of input from us due to the fact that both The Duke and I work full-time.

Today I want to share some progress on a couple of different fronts.

On Monday we finally had the large poinciana tree near the driveway removed. This has been planned for over 12 months but when another large limb dropped a few weeks ago we were galvanised into action. The tree lopper came on Monday and by the time we arrived home there was no sign of it apart from a small pile of sawdust where the stump had been ground.

This is now the view from our front verandah. We will be replanting beside the driveway but have yet to decide exactly what we will do.

This is the remainder of another tree stump which we also had removed to make way for a revamp of the vegetable garden area.

The harvest from the vegetable gardens has not been as great as last year but today I was finally able to pick the broccoli.

2.1kg of broccoli from 6 plants is not a bad return and that is only the main heads. As usual, there will be more smaller secondary florets. We will use some of this before we go away and the rest will be blanched and frozen.

The cauliflower has been a disappointment compared to last year but at least I got some. There was also 1 other small head which I picked for dinner last week.

Like everything else, the snow peas have not been spectacularly prolific but here are enough for the stir-fry tonight and the salad for my lunch tomorrow.

Finally, this is 836g of ginger that we pulled up on the weekend. It grew from 1 small piece that we planted last year. There is still more in the ground but I saw no need to harvest any more! We will be dividing it up and planting lots of separate pieces. The plants look lovely and thrive with the other ornamental ginger, cordylines and heliconias that are growing in the shade of the the cedar tree.

Last but not least I wanted to let you know about my 2 new blogs.

Eating For Health is about my decision to try a grain-free, sugar-free diet. Click on the link and find out more.

Somewhere, Anywhere is my travel blog. This will be an online journal of our travels, beginning with our upcoming overseas trip. You will be able to follow our adventures as all of the updates will be posted on there.

Comments & Countdown

10 Comments

Posted on June 17, 2012

A big thank you to all of you who take the time to comment on my random thoughts which masquerade as blog posts.

I have been very tardy about responding but have gone back over the past 4 weeks since I last responded and replied to all of your comments.

Although I will make a concerted effort to reply each day I will check and catch up on the comments each Sunday from now on.

It is now 9 weeks until we head off on our big adventure to the USA. All of the accommodation and transport are booked so now we are concentrating on researching what we plan to do and see in each place we visit.

One of the things I had read about in New York was the new(ish) High Line Park which is built along an old elevated railway line above Manhattan. There is an access point to it quite close to where we will be staying. You can read all about it in this post I stumbled upon.

Any tidbits or suggestions will be gratefully received. Our itinerary includes Washington DC, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. We will be self-catering for much of the trip and I am keen to maintain the same criteria as I do at home. That means local, seasonal, organic and minimally packaged food so if you have any thoughts in this regard I would really appreciate them.

Family Comes First

4 Comments

Posted on June 7, 2012

My complete lack of blogging for about a week has probably left some of you wondering if I am OK. I am absolutely fine but have busy with other facets of my life.

Last weekend my mother spent the weekend with us. Whilst this is not unusual, we had a weekend full of activity although it was limited somewhat by the heavy rain (190mm or almost 8 inches) on Friday and Saturday. We managed to dodge the worst of the rain when we went to the local Agricultural Show. There was dairy cattle judging to see, poultry breeds to check out, gorgeous alpacas and one of my favourites – the wood-chopping events. We spent a lot of time viewing the various fine arts and crafts and also the produce section.

The washing doesn’t end just because it rains for a few days but it does become a more challenging task. Hanging it on an airer in front of the fire meant that I just put a few things in the dryers for a short time to finish them off.

I cooked and prepared food for meals on the weekend and also for future meals and snacks. Cooking from scratch really does give you an appreciation for the food you eat when you know the time and effort that has gone into the preparation. I made pastry (and a steak and kidney bean pie), Lemon Delicious, pasta (to freeze) , orange and poppyseed muffins and pumpkin scones. The Duke squeezed a bucketful of oranges from the tree and made bread.

There was plenty of time for relaxation, too. We played several games of Scrabble and learned lots of new words in the process.

Then it was back to work on Monday and for the last couple of days I have been staying with Belle and help to look after Miss O and Izz before and after daycare while Belle has done some extra work.

I will be home tomorrow and get back into blogging in earnest. Thank you for staying around – there will be some interesting posts and photos coming up.

What has your week been like?

Blogging Takes a Break

4 Comments

Posted on June 5, 2012

My apologies for the lack of new posts over the past few days.

Normal service will resume soon.

A Building Site

Project 333 – The Ripple Effect

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Posted on April 11, 2012

I have been contemplating what to write tonight when it occurred to me that reducing the clothes that I wear for the next 3 months to just 33 items is really the tip of the iceberg.

The concept of living with less stuff can be applied to many other areas of your life.

I find myself thinking critically about all of my stuff and wondering what we really need and how much is enough. The concept of enough is an interesting one and it is very personal. Each individual’s circumstances and experiences can lead to very different ideas of enough. It is important to find what is right for you. Books, backpacks, pens, CDs, glassware are all on my radar. I may not actually get rid of anything but I am certainly giving thought to our needs.

In the meantime, back to Project 333. Here are some other blog posts about the project. If you find any others that interest you, please add them in the comments.

The Gardener’s Cottage