34 Comments

Posted on February 16, 2013

When I published my post yesterday I was surprised to see on the sidebar that it was my 500th post.

500 times I have written something important to me, hit ‘publish’ and you, dear reader, have to taken the time to not only read it but often ‘like’ the post or add your comments.

It is a good time to reflect on what I have written and trawl through the archives. Here are 5 posts that seem to have touched a chord for whatever reason.

Decluttering Meets Damask

Do You Really Need That?

Project 333 – Ready, Set, Go…

Friday Favourites – Mango & Avocado Salad

A Storage Solution

To celebrate the milestone of 500 posts I would like to offer a giveaway to a lucky reader. It will be a surprise but if you would like to enter you will need to be a follower of this blog and leave a comment on this post.

To follow just click on the ‘Sign Me Up’ button on the right-hand side of the blog. Entries are open to both Australian and international readers.

Entries will close at midnight Friday 22nd February (Brisbane time). Once the winner has been drawn you will be contacted via email and/or a blog post to arrange delivery of your prize.

Good Luck!!

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.

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.

Thank You & Snippets

1 Comment

Posted on March 13, 2012

I cannot reply to all of your individual comments but please be assured I read them all and am touched by your support and kind wishes. Thank you for taking the time to comment and I am looking forward to a fabulous second year of blogging at Organised Castle.

Things are pretty quiet here on the home front as I have been busy working. However, by having the house reasonably decluttered and keeping things simple it is ticking along well. We had a simple but delicious meal tonight – grilled salmon with lime and sea salt on potato mash with peas, carrots and broccoli.

We have also started some preliminary holiday planning for later in the year but more on that another day.

The decluttering continues – every day I usually manage to move at least one thing into the op shop bag. I have 2 bags full to drop off tomorrow when I go into town to pick up some supplies.

Til next time.

Time to Celebrate

11 Comments

Posted on March 12, 2012

It is one year ago today that I started writing this blog. I am really pleased that I have managed to stick at it for a whole year. It is due, in no small part, to my dear readers.

Your regular visits that keep that little stat counter ticking over, the thoughtful comments and the inherent knowledge that there is someone out there in cyberspace waiting to read the next installment of my ramblings are the things that inspire me to write another post.

The stat counter is about to hit its own milestone. By this time tomorrow the will be 20,000 hits.

The WordPress platform has proved to be much more to my liking than Blogger which I used for my previous couple of short-lived blogging attempts. I know that many bloggers of long-standing use Blogger but I am happier with WordPress.

Speaking of WordPress, they have just introduced statistics by country which is very interesting. I knew I had some readers from the USA but have discovered that I have had visitors from no less than 36 countries! WOW! Please introduce yourself and where you are from.

Finally, although he has no idea idea who I am, I must also thank Bryan Allain for his book, “31 Days To Finding Your Blogging Mojo”. This little volume which I downloaded to my Kindle helped me to understand why I was writing this and what I wanted to achieve.

I will continue to write and hope that you will continue to read and join me on my journey to a simpler, more sustainable and organised life which leaves space for the things I really love and value.

Until tomorrow.

Why Subscribe?

5 Comments

Posted on November 7, 2011

Hello subscribers, friends and occasional readers old and new. If you are new to reading this I hope you find it interesting and worthwhile. Please leave a comment or you can email me.

I have been writing this blog in its current form for a little over 7 months. This is not long in the blogging world and a I hope to continue with it for much longer.

This is a Word Press blog and so, rather than “followers” as you see on Blogger, the term used is “subscriber”. I have now reached the dizzy heights of 18 subscribers – thank you to each and every one of you for the time you take to read my ramblings.

If you have subscribed I would love to hear from you and find out a little more about my blog friends. I would really appreciate it if you could either post a comment or send an email with your general location, your interests, how you found my blog, what keeps you coming back and of course the big one – how I can make it better. Constructive criticism is welcome.

I will be updating my profile and also profile picture so that will be coming soon.

For those of you who have not subscribed, please consider this option. You can go to the top right-hand corner of my home page and click on the button labelled “Sign Me Up”. Once you have subscribed you can adjust your preferences to receive email notifications or not or add to Google Reader.

We have now returned from our holidays so in the next few days I will go back and respond to your comments on previous posts.

Have a great day and I look forward to hearing from you. 🙂