Monday – Mending and Making

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Today I tackled the growing pile of mending.

This pair of GMan’s work jeans already had one patch – I added another two.

I had managed to put a rip in the knee of a pair of my lightweight travel pants so they got the same treatment.

I us double-sided iron-on interfacing to fuse the patch to the inside of the garment before reinforcing it with a zigzag stitch.

I darned a hole in the cuff of a woollen jumper. Once again, this is some of GMan’s workwear as evidenced by the touches of paint.

I also mended holes in the toes of two pairs of socks but no photos.

Finally, I moved on to actually making something. This is not terribly exciting but I used part of an old sheet to make a cover for GMan’s Drizabone coat.

It has hung in the shed for many years with minimal wear but I imagine it will get much more use in the colder climate. Since it is oilskin, it is not ideal to have it hanging against other clothes so I made a slipcover for it.

Now that I feel I have pretty well cleared the decks, I can make a start on some ‘real’ sewing. The first project I have planned is to make some trackpants for GMan.

Plastic-Free Challenge

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This is a rather timely post as we approach Plastic-Free July. I choose not to participate directly in this initiative but simply to make every day a challenge to reduce, preferably eliminate, single-use plastics.

Moving to a new town throws up a few challenges when it comes to refusing single-use plastics.

Naturally, I take my own bags when grocery shopping and tulle produce bags when buying loose fruit and vegetables. I have managed to locate a couple of shops in Melbourne where I can buy bulk dry goods such nuts, flours, seeds and dried fruit.

However, one of the trickier items to purchase without single-use plastic is meat. Some butchers are prepared to place meat directly into the customers container but plastic bags remain the default position and some outlets specifically refuse to use containers provided by the customer. Unfortunately, Covid19 has become an ‘excuse’ for not accepting containers.

A few days ago I set about searching for a butcher in our general vicinity who would be amenable to placing my purchases directly into my own containers. I found ‘Meats on Mitchell’ in central Bendigo so yesterday I tested them out. Aside from the single-use plastic issue, the meat needs to be good quality which appeared to be the case.

It was a simple matter of asking for what I wanted and handing over my containers. There was no hesitation or problem with checking the weight of the container before adding the meat. I was happy with the entire transaction and let the staff know that I had chosen their shop primarily because I was able to bring my own containers.

The chicken we ate last night was excellent quality and I intend to make this my regular butcher for meat purchases. Although we do not eat a lot of meat it is good to be able to source it without any single-use plastic.

Hung Up

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One of the things we have spent time doing is hanging things up. Whether it is pictures, other ornaments or various storage solutions, I am a fan of using vertical spaces.

Here are a few of the things we have hung in the past few days.

Hooks in the broom cupboard helps to keep various items tidy and organised.

There was nowhere to hang a handtowel in the bathroom but we have remedied that now.

We hung this terracotta ornament on the fence above the pond. It is about the only sun I saw today as today is the winter solstice here in Australia and it was very cold and overcast.

GMan is keen to get some more hooks to help in his quest to organise the stuff in the shed. We spent most of the day working on that project yesterday and there is still more to do. I think ‘a work in progress’ is the best description.

Somewhat Sociable

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I know that my posts for the past 5 weeks have mostly about getting things organised in our new home but recently we have managed our share of being out and about, too. So much so, that 5 days have managed to slip by since my last post.

A couple of weeks ago we joined the Theatre Royal in Castlemaine. Apparently this makes us ‘loyal royal’ supporters and as such we are eligible for discounted movie tickets. We took advantage of this on Tuesday evening when we went to see Allelujah starring Jennifer Saunders and Judi Dench. There are a good mix of new releases and arthouse films and we are looking forward to seeing more.

When we were given our membership tickets we also received a teatowel each. Whilst it might seem strange, I actually appreciated the fact that it was a practical freebie that was not just plastic junk.

It was a bit of a movie week as we also joined the local film society with the rather clever moniker of ‘Maldon Golden Movies’. There is a screening once a month which is a selection of recent and classic films. On Thursday we saw ‘Black Narcissus’, a 1947 film starring Deborah Kerr.

Movies were not the only outings. On Sunday afternoon we went to a small bar which hosts live music from some of the very talented locals. We met some other residents and ended up going to dinner with a group of them afterwards.

We are heading out this evening to the same venue for some more musical adventures.

Next week sees the beginning of a 2 week festival ‘Maldon in Winter‘ which has a wide variety of events with something for everyone. We are busily deciding which events we would like to attend.

For a relatively small town, Maldon has plenty to offer for locals and visitors alike.

Sewing Stuff Sorted

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It is over 2 weeks since I posted this photo of some shelving I repurposed from our walk-in wardrobe to my sewing room.

I knew that there some new IKEA flat packs which had been left by the previous owners but I had not investigated exactly what they were until yesterday. In what I would describe as a massive win, I discovered that there were 4 cupboards, a set of 2 drawers and 2 glass shelves – all designed for the above-mentioned shelving units.

So, I set to work and this is the result.

While there is still some fine-tuning to be done, I am pretty happy with the set-up and mostly know where everything is.

Now to get on with some sewing before too long……………

An Extra Shelf

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I do not have a large collection of linen and I had a relatively small linen cupboard in our previous home. You can see details of it here. However, the space allocated as a linen cupboard is a bit smaller here. The shelves are not adjustable which limits the usefulness of some of the space.

So, I searched online and found a suitable addition at Howard’s Storage World. We went to Melbourne yesterday and one of my goals was to buy this piece which I felt would maximise the effectiveness of the available space.

It came flat packed and was relatively easy to assemble.

It was then a simple matter of adding it to the existing shelving. This adds an extra shelf for smaller items such as handtowels and serviettes.

Joining In

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Organisation and settling in to a new home is much more than simply unpacking possessions and arranging furniture.

Last week we joined the local library. It is not a Council-run public library, but rather, an independent community library which is run entirely by volunteers. Membership is $30/year. The opening hours are limited – 2pm to 4pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday as well as a few hours on Saturday morning.

The Maldon Athenaeum Library is located in the Mechanic’s Institute building in High Street.

This photo of the exterior is not mine as there are no leaves on the trees at this time of the year but the rest is entirely accurate.

Likewise, this photo of part of the interior.

I borrowed this book by Michelle Obama last week and finished reading it this morning. It had been on my ‘to read’ list for some time and I found it most interesting and illuminating.

Of course, borrowing books is not the only service offered by the library. I discovered that there is a small group of Scrabble players who play at the long table in the front room. I played on Saturday and am looking forward to making this a regular event.

We are planning to get involved and volunteer with this great organisation.

More Marketplace

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One of the few pieces of furniture that we did bring with us when we moved was our dining table and chairs. However, we soon realised that due to the space available that a round table was not the best option.

We bought another setting from Marketplace a couple of weeks ago and you can read about it here. The next step was to sell our existing one. After a few unsuccessful enquiries it has now gone to a new home.

The lady who bought it has downsized to a retirement unit and was very excited to find what she wanted. I also gave her several tablecloths which fit the round table and are no longer any use to me.

We had been using a couple of the dining chairs at the office desk and also my sewing table so it was time to find some suitable replacements. So, it was back to Marketplace where I found these 2 from different sellers.

They are perfect for our needs and we picked them up yesterday.

I am currently looking for a suitable floor rug for the family room so stay tuned.

In the Garden

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The past week has been full of activity which didn’t leave a lot of time for writing.

Lat week we had our first overnight guests as well as other visitors for lunch one day.

Meanwhile GMan has made a start on refashioning the garden a little. This photo shows the garden as we inherited it although the trees have grown somewhat. In fact they had grown so that much of the canopy was actually above the gutter. They are deciduous and as it is autumn (or officially winter in the past few days) much of the debris was ending up in the gutter. What wasn’t in the gutter was on the patio and subsequently being walked into the house.

So we agreed that these two specimens needed to go. This is the result. The next step is to hopefully dig the stumps out so that we can add some plantings more appropriate to the location and space.

Yesterday morning was a trip in the ute to the local rubbish dump to take a load of tree cuttings. The weather did not co-operate and this was the view. GMan persevered and had it unloaded fairly quickly.

We know that there will be more removal and renewal of plantings as we gradually decide on our preferences for the garden.

We would like to devote a bit more space to food production and some of this may be at the front of the house in the north-facing space but that requires some realignment of existing elements. In the meantime, we planted some broccoli seedlings this afternoon and rigged up some temporary fencing to protect them from the dog.