The Dull Roar Philosophy

Almost human...

2012-01-12T20:00:00.000-08:00

Christmas and New Years is chaos for everyone I know but I feel we manage to make it that bit more chaotic than other people. Not with our outrageous purchases or cooking or familial discord but through having our own business to run full throttle when there are public holidays all over the place, everyone else is relaxing, we can't get any services done and the children have no daycare! Christmas is our busiest time of year and after a very quiet year it came as a shock! Our boys seem to have finally decided to work in with us a bit (and finding that the younger one has been suffering with lactose intolerance has helped his behaviour a bit- not quite as cranky!) on occasion and we do love spending time together but with such a flurry of activity I forget how to do normal things like think of what to have for dinner, or put a loaf of bread in the bread maker, ditto the yoghurt...(we have been eating out a lot...Pizza anyone?) but I am every so smugly pleased to report that the boys have been asking for my homemade food because it apparently very yummy (or Master five is trying to get something from me...).
The challenge of late for me has been the boys attending a new day care for the holidays, just for two weeks. The centre is nut free and egg free and combined with Little L's newly found lactose intolerance and Master J's self taught rampant vegetarianism I have been forced to get my thinking cap on for nut free, egg free, dairy free, meat free meals. Lots of internet trawling and I have found some new vegan recipes to try, I have nearly assembled enough ingredients to make this Vegan "cheese" -have a look at this blog, it is incredibly cute! I will report back once made...I have also been hitting the Thermomix hard, dairy free smoothies, banana icecream (just frozen bananas whizzed up to make a creamy substance), homemade soyamilk (very soybeany!) and a concoction I made with seeds, coconut butter, dates, cocoa, rapadura and quinoa flakes made a rich fudgy stuff without wheat, eggs, dairy, nuts, refined sugar (makes one wonder if it had anything at all in it!).
Soon I will start feeling like a person again and will definitely report back when that happens!

Oh no here comes Christmas! And lactose Intolerance?

2011-12-15T15:49:00.000-08:00

It looks like it has been a month since I Blogged so what has happened, so many little things, a kitten has come and gone (we found here in an abandoned house), I have been practicing my roller skating, the peas have died, the rabbit has eaten all the lettuce, the lettuce has regrown and bolted and Summer keeps coming and going!
none of these happenings are inspiringly blog worthy so the blogging has not been done!
Our youngest son has been cranky and developed the most alarming rashes and his face and stomach, not itchy but he has been picking at them and dribbling on them as he also had a runny nose so lots of mouth breathing. I had been smearing him with Calendula, comfrey, hemp oil, lanolin, Dettol, Soove... nothing was looking at the rashes and they weren't getting better
I was laughingly mentioning his temperament to a customer who told me his youngest was the same until they discovered he was lactose intolerant and then once no longer drinking milk, he was fine.
*bing* a Little bell went off or maybe it was a lightbulb coming on in my head. This cranky child of mine has a serious powdered milk obsession. At Three and a bit he is really too old for a bottle but has been demanding more and more milk bottles and getting furious if he doesn't get one. It has been reminding me of a heroin addict- more little bells in my head (or is that tinnitus?) I have read in passing of allergies or intolerances causing and addictive effect possibly through stimulating adrenals or maybe it was endorphin production stimulation and I thought to myself "It's a weekend so we can't get him to the Doc. anyway, why not try a milk substitute?". So using my trusty Thermomix I whipped up an almond and oat milk substitute flavoured with dates and vanilla and crossed my fingers.
The rash started clearing up with 12 hours of switching and now he is almost back to spot free, today he came to see us in our bedroom and didn't bellow at us once!
It seems almost too much to hope for but this one change (he is still eating a small amount of cheddar cheese) has done wonders in a week. I was going to see if he could be tested for intolerances but apparently the tests can be inconclusive anyway so we will carry on as we are for a while and see how things go!
Oh and did you know it is nearly Christmas?

Three new Skills this week!

2011-11-11T19:06:00.000-08:00

Who would have known that this week would bring so many new things!

Early in the week we have welcomed a new family member in the form of Peppa, a five year old ex stud doe rabbit. We are learning about rabbits rapidly but the thing I didn't know is they like to play chasies, at least Peppa does, she loves company and we have been having her hop around inside. there were claims made that she is litter trained but she just seems happy to go anywhere to me! We have given the boys the little cordless vacuum cleaner and they go around vacuuming her "leavings" up which seems to keep us all happy! She chases them and they in turn are surprisingly gentle with her.The cat is scared and Peppa chases him. Most amusing. Peppa is a welcome addition to our funny little household.
So now we have learned to be rabbit owners!

I have also dug out some old singer sewing machines from the shed as next week I have a dance performance and was given a lovely little frock to use as a costume bu the problem is it is too little for me so I have bitten the bullet and I am learning to up-cycle. I have already turned a too small Indian blouse into a wearable one and now I am determined to make a costumes with the aid of the trusty Singer. I have, of course, needed to learn all the basics of how to thread a machine, wind a bobbin, oil it and so forth which leave me smelling all steam punkish with oil and dust and old metal. I have managed to sew two straps so far, I hope to post a picture when the costume is done. I also intend to do a more in-depth blog post when I have mastered it a wee bit more, one just for my fabulous Vintage Singer machines!(Actually really my darling husbands but I have snaffled them!)
we went to a fundraiser sale for the Van Diemen Roller's (local Roller Derby league- which of course you know all bout, right- if you don't know about Roller Derby please go and Google it, it is wonderful)

I picked up a pair of skates for $5 and have been in our giant shed out the back practising my skating which I haven't done for ummm TWENTY YEARS!(Really, it is hard for me to believe that there is stuff I haven't done for twenty years but there you go)I have picked it up again quite easily I think (It helps having the massive shed to practice in). I did fall over once and realised why they all wear knee pads when they compete *OUCH* but never mind. There's a lesson learned too! I don't know if I have what it takes to be a roller girl but I will go to the info session (I am slightly apprehensive- they are pretty tough ladies! Very nice but they are hardcore they wouldn't be woozling over a bumped knee like me!)
So there we go, rabbit owning, sewing (well ahem, maintaining a sewing machine and a small amount of sewing ) and roller skating all in one week. The garden is growing all by itself and we have purple peas coming one and lots of lettuce. Life is good!

Happy Days and Elder Flowers

2011-11-04T20:44:00.000-07:00

Today has been lovely- we went to a 2nd birthday party which turned out to be a surprise wedding which is so lovely and we were just delighted to be there- a real treat when times are tough!
Yesterday I spotted what would appear to be a flowering elder growing out the back of one of the commercial properties around the corner, not very big but I was excited as I wanted to maker elder flower cordial ever since I tasted it at a local market (but $18 a bottle- yowch!).
At dusk we took a shopping bag down the road and as I was abou to cross I saw on the abandoned block on the corner a large flowering elder *AAAAAAAH*(angelic sort of noises inserted here). This is a great block, I have found parsley plants, apples, blackberries, peaches, weeds for the hens and now elder flowers.

I luckily had a kilo of lemons at home and now have two giant pots of elder flower cordial steeping. I roughly based my cordial on this recipe but I didn't have any citric acid, I will let you know how I go and hopefully I will rustle up some containers for the 3.5 litres of cordial I will have too! It smells so goregous...
Wouldn't elder flowers make the most wonderful confetti for a wedding? I would love to get married again (to the same man I am married to now!) and have lots of canny wedding ideas!

The Great Upside Down Tomato Experiment

2011-10-22T22:24:00.000-07:00

You've seen them, the very American looking tomato planters that hang from a hook (somewhere...) the box has "as seen on TV" written in red and white letters and and impossibly lush tomato bush hangs productively from what is essentially a bag. (If you go to the link read some of the reviews- I wish I had!) I will admit I was taken in by the cheapness (is that a word? Is my English becoming all appalling?) and I was buying some cheap hanging pots at a cheap shop and thought "Oooh I have hooks on my pergola, I bet they would be perfect to hang from said hooks, I shall buy one and compare tomato growth all scientific like by planting a tomato in another pot too."
So I did. I bought two little heirloom tomatoes ( I really would like to grow from seed but it just doesn't seem to work for me!)and one went into the hanging pot and one into the AS SEEN ON TV! Upside down tomato planter. Well I say "went in" as if it was just as simple as popping it in a pot but it wasn't, it was actually pretty tricky, I managed to squeeze the roots of the seedling in through the aperture at the bottom and stuff the circle of foam inside around the stem to stop the soil running out but getting the soil in wasn't easy, I tried hanging it from the hook on the pergola but then it was too high for me to lift the bag of potting mix up and trying to scoop it in ended up with me getting rather a large amount of the soil in my hair and on my face, so next I recruited my eldest son to hold the bag whilst I put the dirt in but he is five and the plant dragged on the ground and every time I put more potting mix in the plant got lower and lower so I had to drag my ever patient husband away from his useful pottering to hold the bag as he had the height and strength required.
Both tomato plants had been soaked overnight in seaweed solution to avoid transplant shock bu I think the poor upside down one needed more than that, maybe a three course meal and some opium.

I watered both containers well and hung them up and then got sea weedy water on my head because I should have watered them once they were in-situ.

Two weeks later and the plant in the pot has grown about five inches and the upside down one is looking well...poxy is a good and accurate description I feel, the leaves are yellow and spotty and it has been growing up at an alarming angle (not down- UP!). Both plants had the same amount of water and seaweed solution, I even threw them some blood and bone but the upside down one has been doing the plant equivalent of looking at me hollow eyed, claiming it is alright and then coughing blood into it's hanky before trying to hide it from me (can one go too far when using metaphor to personify plants? This writer says no!).

I couldn't bear it anymore, after checking the healthy plant I noted the roots had rapidly spreading and even she was outgrowing her pot so I grabbed a box we found in the shed and planted them out together so they can be free and grow as they are meant to (see the box? That is a sweet box!).Hopefully the upside down one will straighten and flourish and bear much fruit, we shall see... In the meantime can anyone think of anything useful I can do with the seemingly Useless upside down planter bag?

Spring and Boasting Etcetera

2011-10-05T22:52:00.000-07:00

An age has passed since I last blogged (sounds like a mildly dirty word actually). And Spring has been busy bursting forth all over the place. We have been exploring our surrounds and enjoying sunshine and eating fresh food and gardening and all the right things one does when one emerges from hibernation.

A stylish way wear one's smoothie

The latest trend to take hold here is the green smoothie which has been started up by request from small people. it is interesting to see our children's tastes develop at their own pace. Our nearly five year old loves avocado and strawberries on his weetbix at the moment and raw vegies with dips are very popular too, so if the measure of a mother is (as many seem to think) how many vegetables her children eat I feel like Super Mum at present!
Actually I am bursting with pride as my little folk scramble about on rocks and up fences and ask for vegetables and help each other and ask inquisitive questions. They are most devoted to the chickens and the garden and carefully watering and feeding. the raised bed has been planted with lettuce and tagetes marigolds and basil and a variety of greens and it was done by the boys. they come out in the morning and collect greens from the garden for their alarming looking smoothies. Three year old Lincoln thanks the chickens sweetly when he collect the eggs and I have the overwhelming feeling that this style of child raising is right. I have to be firm with them and I do find if I am not taking care of my own stress that my tolerance of their sometime too vigorous shenanigans is greatly minimised but we are all learning together!
I wonder what other people's children are doing that make their parents beam with pride? It seems that sharing joy in your children (which I think is warranted after the tough first couple of years they put you through and should be welcomed) is seen as boasting and skiting and should be avoided. Well don't avoid it, share your joy here and I promise you you don't run the risk of boring me with their antics!

Something for nothing?

2011-08-29T22:14:00.000-07:00

I suppose there is no such thing as a free lunch but this has got to be coming close.I hope to have lunch from it at some stage at any rate.

I have been busy re-purposing and recycling. I found myself with a couple of wooden boxes and some old enamel bowls and pots after a random auction box lot purchase. Too chipped and damaged to be used in the house I drilled the bottoms for drainage and popped some jaunty flowers in the pots and filled the boxes with plastic pots I have accumulated I love this little display, it fills my heart with gladness! You will note that the rocket looks sort of spindly, the display seems to fill my chickens (well the one who keeps hopping out of the run) with rocket.

I have been wanting to construct a raised bed on the last remaining corner of soil in the courtyard as it is dry and lifeless and full of pebbles and those recycle glass gravelly things which make growing hard. we have toyed with the idea of using a piece of galvanised water tank from round the back of the shed but it was just going to be too big to handle so I had to put my thinking cap on. 'Round the back of the shed is a veritable treasure trove(read:pile of rubbish) left by previous owners so I tromped around to see what I could find.

Much to my delight I found everything I needed, an old wooden washtub with the bottom rotted out forms the raised part in the middle and the outer edges are formed by old pieces of wood, most joyous of all I found a hardwood sleeper, only slightly rotten on the ends which is just the right length for the front piece.

I have filled the bed with the most wonderful composted "stuff" I have found.. round the back of the shed of course. There is some ivy we are trying to kill off down there as well as the junk and I have discovered the most beautiful compost under the ivy and the rubbish on top of the concrete slab. It just goes to show that whoever thought that they would defeat nature by concreting and paving everything was wrong, nature will always win out of you try to fight her.

So just in time for the onset of Spring (I know you are out there peeping waiting for Winter to end..)I have a raised bed waiting for radishes or tomatoes, lettuce and sorrel seeds are already in... what else do I want I wonder? I do like the anticipation of Spring just around the corner.

Before I forget you must admire my purple sprouting broccoli which is purple and sprouting! I am looking forward to trying some after all this time!

Waiting?

2011-08-25T20:50:00.000-07:00

I sit here in a ponderous mood, waiting for my just consumed soup and tea to settle and enabling a slightly less waddly gait (too many liquids seems to make me walk like a penguin) I think about the fact that I havn't been blogging for a while. I have found myself in wallowy sort of moods and thinking, "I will wait to blog, I'll wait until something happens" but I have not yet figured out what that something would be so I will share my ponderings with you in the mean time.

I have been waiting for the "right time" to blog but I am sure if I look there are many other things I have been waiting for the right time to do, write a novel, plant some lettuce? I find that sometimes there are extremely good reasons for waiting for the righ time, such as the fact the chickens escape and eat everything green at the moment so planting lettuce might not be a good idea, I might not have a novel bursting forth right now but surely abandoning writing altogether until I have a fully formed novel ready to type out is a silly idea...and besides, I can raise the lettuce in a styrofoam box which I can bring inside if the chickens are out...

I suspect that a lot of my waiting is a fear of failure, a fear of rejection and that chatty little devil inside that wants me to believe that it isn't worth me trying things. Sometimes I control it sometimes the other way around but one thing is clear to me, there is far to much pointlesss waiting going on in the world in general.

What are you waiting to do? What dream or chore has been hovering around being perpetually put off whilst you await the alignment of the stars or the right phase of the moon or for your children to grow up? What is it that's really stopping you and what are you going to do to overcome it?

Well my soup has settled now so I will leave you with your self examination and next time post about my vintage enameled pots and wooden boxes I have repurposed as planters!

Bodging

2011-07-25T21:48:00.000-07:00

Gratuitous cat photo- he is in the Chicken yard!

Today I decided to finally remove a knackered old chest of drawers from the boys room. The poor thing had been in situ when we moved into our previous house and had been repaired several times by us. It was a pretty cheap bit of pine furniture to start with.

Not being one to throw things away I started to imagine a chicken shelter and with the able assistance of my lovely husband and a couple of other spare drawers we turned it on it's side, popped a perch at the top, a platform to catch droppings and a drawer at the bottom as a nesting box. Oh don't forget the *ahem* beautifully rustic ramp we have made.

mmm Scrappy, but useable!

It goes well with the nest made from a TV cabinet the boys were too rough with. An egg has already been laid! The shelter is made from some pieces of cut down water tank we found behind a shed at our place. It's perhaps not the most elegant of chicken houses but we bodged it for free and it will keep them warm and dry. It remains to be seen if the perch will ever get used though!

Don't they look lovely now they have feathers!

Winter Sun. Whole foods.

2011-07-22T22:20:00.000-07:00

It seems an eternity since I last blogged. I keep trying but the posts are half baked (which reminds me I have a slice in the oven and mustn't forget!).

I have been getting more exercise, having fun using body weight exercise to increase my strength and fitness, squats, pushups, crunches etc every second day to try to keep warm and keep the happy endorphins pulsing through to keep away the SAD I seem to be prone to in Winter. I have also been taking walks every day in the watery winter sunshine and so far so good!

I notice that when I exercise more I start eating better and when I eat better I have more energy and exercise more, whole foods and raw foods are playing a bigger part in my diet these days and my energy levels are really good! I have bought some rapadura to use instead of sugar, bought some whole organic rye and celtic salt to try to make my cooking that little bit more nutritious rather than using all refined products. Resting on the bench is my first attempt at sprouted bread, something I had given up eating as it costs $6.50 a loaf but it seems it may be simple enough to make, there are recipes and variations everywhere but I have sprouted some rye, ground it up (in the Thermomix of course, but I believe any good food processor would do it) and mixed in some rapadura and yeast, left to prove and hopefully I can bake it and have a halfway convincing result!

I have made a whole rye loaf (not sprouted), milling the rye in the Thermomix and using the flour with a bit of vital wheat gluten, yeast and salt. I kneaded it a lot and left it to prove a long time (which seemed to produce a kind of alcohol but didn't affect the finished product) it made a dark, sour dense loaf which luckily was exactly what I wanted!

450G rye (ground into flour in Thermomix)

50g vital wheat gluten

360g water

50g butter

5 g salt

40g rapadura

10g yeast

mixed for 20 seconds on speed 5 and then 1 minute 30 secs on interval, left to prove over night, kneaded by hand for 10 minutes and proved for another hour, baked at 220C (could be done with a stand mixer or food processor or by hand I guess!)

I also made a sort of cream cheese/marscapone which I spread on the bread and had with red onion, delicious but gave me heart burn (better check on that slice!.. still good- the thermostat isn't the best on the oven so times vary wildly...).

The boys have started at another day care where they have their own lunches instead of having them provided which is working out much better- it turned out that Master 4 was only ever eating a tiny amount of vegetables at lunchtime and nothing else so it is much better for everyone (and our wallets- the new centre is much cheaper!) as he is helping choose what goes into his lunch box and consequently actually eating a lot of it. It is good practice for when he goes to to school next year and for me too as I will be getting repertoire of lunchbox friendly snacks! So far I have few favourites (or rather the boys do):

carrot and cheese sticks

raisins and wholemeal crackers,

fruit buns (homemade).

I will try to incorporate yoghurt and popcorn in next week.
The slice (with ground almonds, ground oats and rapadura to give it some redeeming features) is out of the oven now, slightly unevenly cooked but one day I will get a new oven...

Rainy Sundays...

2011-07-02T22:57:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wonder why it rains every Sunday, when the children are sick of their parents and the parents want to go to markets or garden or tinker it rains leaving everyone grouchy. Very poor idea in my opinion. I must have words with the person in charge.

It is raining and it is Sunday but actually things have been going very well. My darling children are snoozing (aren't all children darling when they are asleep?) away having tidied up their Duplo for the bribe of a choccy button, there is fresh bread cooling, chick peas roasting in the oven, the rain is outside and our house is snug and comfortable. It is also free of house guests. We have recently recovered from a ten day house guest, we invited him for a couple of days asking if he could come and help us with the move and talk business with us as we are wanting to expand, instead he came three weeks later(when his children were holidaying with their mum so he had nothing else to fill his time) for ten days, watched TV all day, moaned about his ex, talked over the top of everyone, left lights on, never offered to pay for food or fuel, swore in front of the children and talked rubbish about TV and told very graphic anecdotes about past sexual conquests- all incessantly. Oh and he evaluated EVERY female he saw based on her looks and what he might like to do with her, every single one, even cartoon characters on TV! But anyway, inconsiderate house guests aside, we have found that being as family is much more delightful since we have got back to normal, we are all so relieved to be with each other and be ourselves!

The boys have been helping with the gardening, choosing plants for the planters and mulching and watering as well, we have parsley growing and basil popping up in the propagator and perpetual spinach, kale, Swiss chard and Moroccan mint in the planters, A mushroom kit will hopefully be bounteous and the chickens are secured away in a yard made mostly from things we found down the side of the shed. Speaking of chickens I do think it is about time they started to lay again, I have become used to cooking with lots of eggs and now the girls have their feathers back I do think it is rather rude of them to not start up with the supplies!

I have been forced to buy again and the little tiny free range eggs from the fruit shop are very cheap but sometimes I need three instead of two for a recipe.

I have been buying a fortnightly veg. box from Hilbarn and must remember to take a photo next time I get one. The boxes are giving me lots of inspiration for veggieful foods which we sorely need but I would love to be making with my own produce.

thriftiness.

2011-06-21T19:46:00.000-07:00

I feel very privileged to count myself amongst the people who have discovered the art of being thrifty or canny as an enjoyable lifestyle option. Thriftiness does not indicate meanness, canniness does not mean bland, it can mean a way to a much higher standard of living and personal satisfaction with life.

I have always been fascinated with "Mending and making do". I am not sure if it is stories from the Depression from my Grandmother or an even more romanticised version through novels, movies and TV shows but the idea of making the best of what's available has always appealed to me. I derive a lot of satisfaction from a thrift drive and a good session of belt tightening and creativity (rather perversely some might say!). When you trade a mindless consumption habit for a mindful one you are exploring beyond the realms of the norm, thinking outside the box, it is a subversive subculture of practical domestic creativity which not only holds it's own with the end result but is great for your bank balance and in a lot of cases it is better for the planet and your health too.

There are the obvious things you can do like have a budget or a meal plan or no credit cards or pay off your mortgage early with large repayments but let's be frank, these things can be so boring if you don't spice it up a bit! I am one of those strange and wondrous creatures, a (semi) reformed compulsive shopper (I used to smoke like a chimney and could drink a football team under the table too but that's another story) who has channeled the energy previously used for soulless consumerism into a more productive outlet. Don't get me wrong I still shop but I make sure it is mindful and wise shopping, not just for the hell of it. I still make extravagant purchases on occasion but they are well researched purchases at the best possible price. I still have play money but I get it from surveys, mystery shops, I receive samples and sell scrap metal and goods I have finished with to get it. We eat out but have coupons or special offers when we can and enjoy a lot of free activities like walking, the beach, have a museum membership so we can see all the exhibits that come to town and ten percent discount at the gift shop (which is a great place for gifts).

I think that increasing your standard of living without increasing your budget is about getting to know the area around you, where the best places for cheap fresh local produce are, what the best charity shops are, where you can go for free entertainment, even where the cheap petrol is.

There are other thrifty tricks which are more universal, using an snipe program on eBay and learning which misspelled keywords might find you a treasure, going "Worldwide search" from another country's eBay site is a good one- it can pickup lots of items you would never see even if you tried Worldwide from your local eBay.

I never buy new for most things, I find that quality goods are so much better and cheaper second hand than cheap new products ever were. There is no saving if you have to keep buying cheap t-shirts which go all shapeless and pilly after one wear, second hand products have been put through their paces and if they are still looking and performing well they will out last cheap rubbish every time. There is obviously no saving if you aren't going to where it or use it either and no-one's standard of living is increased by having too much "stuff" no matter how cheap!

Blogs and forums are a wonderful resource of thrifty ideas and a sort of unofficial support group for those of us who prefer to be ourselves and not buy the latest tat because it is "in" or because we saw it, those of us who have home haircuts and wonderful homemade bread, who are sick of weird tasting convenience foods that don't seem to have any convenience or food contained therein, those of us who would rather take the children for a ramble around than a noisy expensive playcentre, or give them blocks than computer games, who encourage our children to grow naturally rather than scheduling them (expensively) within an inch of their lives.

I enjoy my way of living, it promotes being aware of my surroundings and my actions, is better for the planet, is healthier and I enjoy talking to like minded folk about such things, my children are growing up with skills and we are all learning new skills as a family, I hope you enjoy it too.

In Praise of the thermomix.

2011-06-18T18:03:00.000-07:00

Some would probably say that the Thermomix is too expensive. They might be right, I suppose it would depend on how much you use and what for. Some people don't use their bread makers either and if that is the case a $150 bread maker is too expensive as well, I personally have used my bread maker every week for two years now and the Thermomix is getting a workout too. So far this week: Peanut butter (wonderful and simple), beetroot dip, soup, biscuits (with freshly ground oat flour and almond meal), mayonnaise, coleslaw, vege burgers, muesli.

I am able to use whole foods as it cuts them so finely that skin etc isn't an issue and best of all my four year old eats anything made in the Thermomix, I mean anything including red cabbage coleslaw and beetroot dip (he doesn't care for coleslaw normally). I have not yet begun to find out all it can do yet!

Better get back to the kitchen!

A sudden change of gear.

2011-06-04T23:14:00.000-07:00

I am typing this from my "new" office which is is reality a couple of years older than me and has all the wood paneling and green laminex to support it's claim on 70's chic. The weather is wild and wooly, rain battering the windows, the awnings (green) and moaning and flapping but we are all snug inside our new house/offices.

It feels like home already!

Just before the move which happened last Tuesday in earnest I received my THERMOMIX posted from Spain with an amazing looking collection of Spanish recipes which I am having to teach myself to read and even though I haven't really got any recipes for it yet I am having so much fun experimenting with food in the wonderful beasty. I have used it at least once a day for the last two weeks, often more, two or three times in the day.

There is an amazing amount of recipes, forums, blogs and videos for Thermomix use and I must say I can't wait to get into some of the more wholefood-ish recipes for the new addition to the family. Luckily our new kitchen is very long galley style (also there are so many powerpoints and cupboards in this house) so Thermomix can have a corner all to it's self.

The garden is tiny at the new house but I am sort of looking forward to the challenge of some innovative container gardening, I have just found a stash of strange abandoned things like old sleepers and bits of galvanised iron sheds and cuts from water tanks round the side of the enormous shed which Darling Husband looked at with horror but I think could be a great place to find materials for raised beds, chicken coops and scrap metal for some pocket money!

Unfortunately the weather is too wild for any outside photos today.

Time wasting and self actualisation?

2011-05-20T21:48:00.000-07:00

I am sitting waiting for a potential tenant to look through our house, one cottage has already found some young women for when we move out but the other is yet to have an application so this means lots of sitting and waiting whilst everyone else in the (other) house has a siesta.

I have been finding I am doing a lot of time wasting in these moments, reading rubbish online and refreshing the email etc so I thought at least I can pop a blog in whilst I wait.

I have been watching lots of Escape to the Country and being very charmed by Alistair Appleton (even his name is adorable) inevitably, as he is handsome, stylish, charming, spiritually enlightened he is of course gay which is a terrible waste from my perspective (probably not from others' of course). I was interested to find that he is a long time practitioner of mindfulness meditation and have been reading his blog eagerly.

Definitely food for thought and it gets me thinking about the value of meditation in our lives and making it part of mine once again as I find my deep-seated distrust in myself and my stress levels can fluctuate badly and affect my relationships with my dear little family, not to mention myself. I doubt anyone can reach their potential whilst not being present in the here and now and live and being comfortable with who they truly are.

Meditation brings peace to the monkey chatter in the mind and is the best option I can think of for a path to self actualisation. Living in the here and now is something so often neglected by us all and I have been having discussions with my darling husband about the implications of doing so verses muddling on regardless. Makes for an interesting conversation. I might have to pull out the Dhammapada and revisit the Buddhist principles.

Deep stuff coming from the fact I had to Wikipedia Alistair Appleton on account of his adorable dimples and fears that my dream of having him as a backup husband were to be dashed.

Purple! Sprouting! Broccoli!

2011-05-14T20:45:00.000-07:00

Gardening has come to nearly a standstill at Apple Isle Cottages as we prepare for our big move three doors up the road.

After raking the frost affected pumpkin vines and harvesting the last of the volunteers (they might actually be some kind of squash, I should ask the hens as they seem to have been the ones who planted them- I certainly didn't) one of the only things left standing in the garden was a lone purple sprouting broccoli plant.

Spindly is the word I would use. This poor plant has been attacked but thousands (maybe) of caterpillars, pecked by chickens and swamped by pumpkin vines and yet it remains standing (if rather rangier than I expected) I am giving it a monthly derris dusting but that is all the "good"attention it has been getting. Poor thing. I couldn't just leave it. I have soaked it with seasol and bundled it into an old Styrofoam box with it's soil and soaked it with more seasol (evidently it should help prevent transplant shock) and will trundle it up the road with us to see if it will ever do anything edible for me.

It is seriously cold and frosty here and I am eating a lot of cheese which I am kidding myself is some kind of keep warm tactic.. that's why I bought a whole wheel of brie (that would be a kilo of it).

Buttons and Biscotti

2011-04-27T23:22:00.000-07:00

I am most smug today as I am munching on homemade biscotti which is delightfully full to the brim with redeeming features like no added fat, free range eggs and almonds as well as feeling most sophisticated and foodie. To think I nearly made cookie press biscuits instead! the recipe I used is here but I used brown sugar because white sugar is so boring to me nowadays and I used mandarin zest as I didn't have any lemons, only that lemon juice that comes in a bottle (and to think I described myself as a foodie in the last sentence! What a fraud- what foodie doesn't have lemons?). If you haven't made biscotti before and you love baking, I highly recommend it, they are so dunkable and delicious! surprisingly easy too!

I have also made myself some hairclips and earrings by gluing cute buttons to earring backs and bobbypins which have gluing "plates"on them (which I bought online I now have to make 25 pairs of each! They are so cheap to buy in large quantities and expensive in small ones). It's not really highly creative- more like getting two objects from two different places and putting them in the same place with glue- but no-one else I know will have them and I think they are cute. I fear I will now commence a frenzy of gluing and biscotti baking which could last for weeks!

Autumnal Wonderings and Wanderings.

2011-04-16T02:59:00.000-07:00

Today the "footy" was on (although how it can be called Football when the ball is ovoid and there is far more jumping than foot contact is still beyond me) which means our street was packed and the honking of the siren at the stadium echoes through our yard so we had to find solace elsewhere. We went for an epic stroll with a shaky stroller (should have taken the pram- it was my fault I thought the stroller was a good idea) through the "Forest" which is a really the old rubbish tip site with trees and playgrounds. the Autumn sunshine is perfect for this and very recharging.

There is a small pond amongst the twisted willows with watercress growing in it and the sounds of frogs and even though it is near the football ovals (real football, where one kicks a round ball) and there are many dog walkers around with ridiculously fluffy canine friends the tranquility is amazing.

We eventually made our way to the playground and the boys had a lunch of tiny felafel I made from an instant mix and little tomatoes and carrot sticks with tahini watered down for dipping. the lunch went down a treat and was so simple and quick to make and healthy so it gets a thumbs up from everyone.

on the way home the littlest man fell fast asleep. It was a huge walk but it was a good, healthy family day for free in the sunshine so it was worth all the walking.

I have started using Facebook again, mostly for business reasons initially, but have found that there are many options now for blocking ads and applications (like those infernal games so many people seem to like-do you really have to pay for them? You couldn't pay me to play them...well at any rate my price would have to be high!).

I have found that this time round I have been able to make Facebook work for me much better since a few upgrades and changes have been made and consequently it is going towards helping my "social" life such as it is and I feel less isolated now. I do see people getting sucked into abysses of their own making an arguments they shouldn't be having and wasting time they don't have but I suppose to be fair there are many other places on the 'net to do this too. I have had a massive rush on friends from the Selfsufficient'ish forum which is wonderful and I think I have nearly doubled my friends list. It is a shame that most of them are asleep when I am awake and vice versa but at least I can stay in good contact with Facebook and the forum!

Challenges Inspire from the other side of the world!

2011-04-12T18:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I found myself stuck inside on a rainy day, doing some renovations so we can prepare to rent out the house and my poor husband had no biccies for his tea he had just run out of peanuts (which are where he gets most of his calories!) and the weather was just awful so I whipped up a batch of Anzac biccies (with half honey and half treacle instead of golden syrup as I didn't have any and 2/3 jaggery,1/3 white sugar for slightly more minerals etc) and roasted some almonds. This sent me on an eating out of the pantry frenzy and I made a brown rice pie/casserole thing with leftover tomato sauce from Saturday's pizza and half a can of baked beans from Sunday. When combined with rice and cheese and, onion, frozen corn and peas, grated carrots(home grown) and two eggs from our hens (one was broken in the nest and needed using up) and some Mexican taco flavouring I found in the back of the pantry it was amazingly good and very popular with the kiddies. I also made a wholemeal loaf in the breadmaker.

It is funny, I have a very well stocked pantry at present so it is no challenge (if I am honest) to make delicious and wholesome food with what I have but it is the mindset I have that makes it so much more satisfying. So thankyou to Frugal Queen and Mumma Troll for inspiring my cooking again- my wallet and family thank you for it! I shall be following your challenges closely.

Suddenly- immenent moving!

2011-04-09T02:47:00.000-07:00

On Thursday we spotted it- two real estate signs down the road on the former plumbers house and office and the little house next door. We had often wondered about the large sheds at the back and experience shed envy as we really needed some good big shed for our business. Friday we went through and found not only a neat little office set up (four cubicles and a reception desk no less, but a fastidiously renovated interior, rather tizzy early nineties but ever so immaculately done with a walk in pantry in the sky-lighted kitchen, a separate utility/laundry room and in the master bedroom a walk in robe and an en-suite. These features combined with the neat courtyard and definitely adequate triangle of garden which will house chickens and vegetables have taken hold of us an we made an offer which has been accepted so all things going to plan in six weeks we move three doors down the road which should be an easy move for us!

Unfortunately this is going to make establishing the winter veg. hard but on the bright side the chickens escaped yesterday and ate all the seedlings for the third or fourth time anyway destroying last weekends hard work (ah, bless them!)

We will rent these two cottages out and there is another house included with the new one- it is divided into two and has two tenants who have been putting up with mould from sweating tin ceilings for many many years so we hope an exhaust fan or two will help them and of course there rent payments will help pay our mortgage.

The move will really help our business along too- having proper offices and facilities. Behind the brown facade it was, once upon a time, a basic two bed cottage but it has been gutted and modernised. I think life will be easier than in our current basic cottages with slopey floors and sash windows.

Last night I was so excited about setting up the much more compact garden that I couldn't sleep, it was like being 5 again on Christmas eve- how will I last six whole weeks?

Life is never dull with us!

Return to Weirdo, Lefty, Pinko life...

2011-04-05T18:18:00.000-07:00

We have had two little ones and their dad staying for 9 days at our hastily renovated cottage (they are co-joined and we have our office in the "spare one"which has been largely un-renovated for over a year now!).

It was even louder and more chaotic than usual but it served to highlight the difference between the way we live and "the usual" way to live.

I noticed the girls ate much more processed food than we do, (well we do eat it and of course the stuff I make is processed, but largely by myself) and also watch a lot more TV than us, (we can't stand to have the TV on during the day, it is a night time thing only and certainly not hours and hours of it for littlies no matter how "educational" the show is) lights were left on all night as the girls are scared of the dark and showers were had by all at least once a day but sometimes more- hair washed every time and the girls used deoderant each time( they are five- is this normal? It would never occur to me to deoderise a child who hasn't yet developed sweat glands like an adult). The funny thing is I didn't realise how "weird" we were until the visit. I suppose I read forums and and blogs on subjects that interest me such as cooking, natural health, frugality, simplicity and surround myself with information which gives me a bit of a skewed perspective on life- it lets me forget that most "normal"folk are very wasteful and not mindful. So I give us a smug little pat on the back for that. We also deserve one for being over 100kw down on our electricity consumption compared to the same quarter last year. Hurrah for us!

Since the visitors left I have been growing sprouts, planting vegies, making bread and fermenting kefir like a hippy possessed, I guess I had withdrawals.

I have rejuvenated some kefir grains and they are growing very very well, they seem to like ground ginger and jaggery best. They are water grains which somehow ended up with my milk ones. I don't like milk kefir so they languished in the back of my fridge for ages and I tried to convert them all the water grains but the milk ones promptly died, hence my interest in reproducing the small amount of water ones I had.

I do sleep better when I have had a cup of kefir but sometimes it is just because I think I am a bit tipsy because I brewed it for too long. I am not sure of the benefits for me really but maybe it is doing me good...

I seem to have an answer for my anxiety/depressive attacks- I take 1000mg of agnes castus vitex (the herb chaste tree) every morning with a 1500mg fish oil and every month or so I take magnesium for a week.

So far so good! I am a pretty happy camper so I am keeping up the herbs with the fish oil, exercise and sun exposure which I blogged about previously.

Another weirdo lefty pinko treatment I am doing is taking coconut oil, if you Google you will be swamped with info about how it cures everything and makes you lose weight and makes you cleverer with clearer skin etc. I don't know about that but I have been taking about two tablespoons a day in food (mixed in with muesli or in a cup of warm soy milk) and although I am no lighter after a week I am full of energy! Seriously I haven't felt this good in years! So, although I am not fussed on the taste so much, the new lease on life it has given me is too good to pass up... we will see if it helps with weight loss later on! I have just cut myself a fringe as I was feeling decidedly unstylish but I will have to set up a photo as I am far too vain to simply post one of me with greasy hair, blotchy skin and asymmetrical face as I am now (probably stuck with the face though I guess)!

Too Cheap?

2011-03-18T19:29:00.000-07:00

Life has been as usual chaotic around here and what with escaping chickens repeatedly eating the fresh plantings and car accidents and renovating it can be hard to settle down to a definitive blog topic.

I went to Kmart today to buy some pillows as we have had to get our domestic situation into gear for a friend and his two little girls are coming to stay tomorrow for eight days. The last two weeks have been a frenzy of painting, bed buying( $30 each at St Vincent De Paul charity shop) Freecycling (the logistics of collecting two mattresses and a sofabed whilst looking after two small children!) and random dusting. Anyway, the pillows; I found a pack of two for $7, then Belgian chocolate for $2 a bar, shoes for $3 (lots) and a pack of five knickers for me for $5. Now I never thought I would be the type to think something was so cheap I would doubt it's quality but seriously how can they make a profit on cotton knickers for $1 a pair or shoes for work for $3 if the quality is any good or the conditions of the workers is good?. once upon a time I would have gone into a buying frenzy but I found although I needed the cheap pillows and couldn't go past the cheap chocolate (just to see... the Belgian dark one is vegan too) I balked at buying armloads of cheap clothing etc that was destined to fit poorly and become landfill quickly. these days I really genuinely prefer to buy second hand as I find a twinge of conscience when I buy ridiculously cheap products (unless they are obviously of a good, long lasting quality). I used to be a classic shopaholic but have found I enjoy shopping more if it is a bit of a challenge, hunting out worthwhile bargains gives me a thrill whereas buying loads of cheap stuff that looks cheap, feels cheap and is so mass produced half of town will have it seems empty to me nowadays.

There was a woman frantically filling her trolley with $3 shoes- how many pairs could she really need? I hope there was a background story and she was buying them for her family as well but I fear she was just taken in by the price and they will be coming soon to a landfill near you.

I was a bit taken aback by the fact you can also buy 24 hours a day and use "self serve" checkouts to buy your ridiculously cheap gear at 2am... am I overreacting?

How to be a perfect Housewife?

2011-03-06T01:12:00.000-08:00

I started this post with a right Royal whinge about the weather coming over all cold when it shouldn't be this way until May but today we had beautiful weather so we went for a traipse to the Seaside and had lunch at Georgetown and saw some Penguin Burrows with Penguins in them and have fitted a (new- well one from the spare room to replace the awful one in the sitting room) woodheater and so now things don't seem so grim if it is cold from now on.

So I had to find a new topic to blog on.

Then I made a bread and butter pudding from one of the many old cookbooks I have collected over the years "Our Cooking"with Flora Pell. It was awful, tasteless bland soggy pap and not like the firm golden dense puddingsI have had of late. Does anyone know a good tried and true bread and butter pudding recipe?

I have found that although I can't stop collecting them, my old cookbooks are nearly useless when it comes to assisting you to make decent food. I did make a decent rough puff pastry from a turn of the 20th Century book but by and large the results are underwhelming at best and jolly abysmal at worst. This is partly due to the vagueness of many of the old recipes where you find a previously unmentioned yet vital ingredient popping up in the middle of a recipe method or omitting the amount of a given ingredient leaving it to your unguided imagination, or measurements such as one breakfast cup of milk, or cut up small. I love old books but I have to confess I think food is getting better so I find that turning to online resources with the added bonus of reviews rather than the One Shilling Mrs Beeton's (who by the way was never a Household manager herself and plaigarised much of her content...) is a more reliable method of finding recipes.

I use my Margaret Fulton cook books, a large expensive one called "The Cooks Book", a Mrs Beeton's cakes and baking (definitely not a Victorian era collection of recipes but instead trading on her name years after her untimely death probably from Syphilis) and my bread maker recipe book but everything else I regularly turn to is an online recipe I have pasted into my own recipe book.

I find online recipes can be a bit unreliable too, like a recipe for "Rich Tea Biscuits" which were claimed to be a British favourite- perfect for dunking so I started the recipe and then wondered why there was no sugar, or currants and realised to my horror I was in the midst of a batch of scones! North Americans call scones biscuits. Luckily I improvised and ended up making a passable oat biscuit (a proper biscuit) instead.

I like the fresh loaf for it's amazingly helpful bread obsessed forum members, Taste.com.au for it's variety of recipes from many sources and comments and any number of vegetarian and Indian food websites. And of course blogs, probably a food blog with step by step instructions and photos, so thank you to those who take the time to post such helpful things- you are better than a Mrs Beeton!

Is that Autumn I can feel?

2011-02-14T22:18:00.000-08:00

The weather features heavily in my blog posts but it is a real influence here, it feels right to be influenced by the forces of nature rather than airconditioned, artificially ventilated and heated spaces with nothing natural.

We have wonderful weather at the moment and the zucchinis(courgettes- Jess- sounds so much nicer and easier for the baby to say) are growing well, I am letting them get bigger than usual so I can make some relish as last years is nearly done. The amazing sunflower is bowing it's head under the weight of the seeds and the corn will be ready any day now (if only I knew how to tell- I picked one which looked good but it was immature)

The sun is fierce but the Morning and afternoon light has a golden, muted feel to it which makes me think autumn is just about here- I shall collect many bags of leaves for mulching and layering in no dig gardens, hunt of mushrooms and savour the blackberries whilst the boys participate in the time honoured childish pursuit of "scuffling" the leaves in the their wellies. I love autumn!

I some plants are growing well and others I had given up on, like my eggplant (Aubergine Jess- parle Vous Francais, ummm un petit pous- errr non but it sounds good er bonne, oui? so maybe one day I will learn.) and I had a look at it today and BEHOLD! a beautiful tiny aubergine!

At the markets on Sunday we found a Fuchsia stall by following people carrying astonishing fuchsia plants and the lady gave Master Four a Shasta daisy in a gift wrapped pot with a heart shaped decoration complete with wooden lady bird because "he looked like a gardener" he was absolutely delighted (and I promptly bought a gorgeous flamboyant fuchsia for $5) and we have planted his daisy in the front yard. Bless the boys, they really like gardening- I have found I even prefer gardening with them to gardening without them!

Chickens and corn and crazy weather...

2011-02-12T01:33:00.000-08:00

Our weather has been mild, then hot, then muggy which makes for interesting gardening but of course nothing compared to the awful trials other folk are having, blizzards in the Northern hemisphere, floods and cyclones in ours...

Our blackberries are going well, I must plant some raspberries this year and we have been enjoying the locally grown cherries immensely, they are nearly too big and juicy to pop in your mouth- more like eating a small plum! Little Master Two is, well, fond of berries doesn't quite cut it- he is a sight to behold when he gets hold of any kind of berry, cherry or grape, they are shoved into his mouth so fast it is quite astonishing- I am trying to get him to slow down as I am worried about the choking hazard. He accompanies me when I pick the blackberries and says "Spiky" when I ask him what spiky means hes says "spiky hurts me" so he seems to understand that staying away from the brambles is a good idea.I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up and he said "A Berry" what sort of berry? "A Cherry" to which his older brother says "Well he will need eyes and little feet- I am going to be a pirate when I grow up, when I am five".

He has developed a quirk of accusing innocent animals of doing nasty things to him, even if they are in a paddock and he is not- or they are on the telly. "doggy, doggy biting me" (or Porsey, or birdy or chicken, or elephant ) no-one is safe from the accusations, even an angelic baby girl of about nine months firmly strapped into her stroller who dared to say "Bah" at him was dropped in it "baby biting meeee".

I have put the boys to work and they seem to like raking and building gardens so we are slowly reclaiming the yard from the awful amateur concrete which is slowly cracking and sinking and instead replacing it with my amateurish garden where I simply take out the lump and build a no dig garden on top with whatever I happen to have on hand. What I happen to have on hand at the moment is mountains of pea straw! I feel very rich having had five bales and a bag of pulverised cow manure delivered. This has allowed me to mulch the garden I had the chickens weeding for me (dull roar philosophy means no-one is safe from me putting them to work!) and that is ready for the next round of planting. Interestingly the hens went off the lay when they were in that garden and we are back to two eggs for the last three days that they have been back in their house which now has an extended run/yard. they were also suffering from being egg bound which was a bit scary as I thought one was going to die on me- I had a very eye opening experience feeling for broken shell up her vent (it behaves like a mouth- very sci-fi- I almost couldn't go ahead because I was rather alarmed by the sucking, kissing motion it made!) but I did gently extract the broken shell and then used a nasal irrigator ( small turkey baster thing-supposed to be for babies noses but is clearly an awful torture for them- glad I found another use for it!) to "douche" the vent with a sea salt and calendula solution and held her over the sink until there was no more yucky yellow/white stuff or congealed blood- then dosed her up with a strong garlic infusion to which I added some comfrey tincture and then added garlic and double strength raw apple cider vinegar to the drinking water. She went back with the others and laid an egg the next day.
It would seem that unless you are a commercial poultry farmer the Hyline brown egg sizes can cause you some problems- the methods for controlling egg sizes and shell; thickness are very complicated scientific amounts of Amino acids- not free ranging eating weeds and local layer pellets and scraps! What we have learned from this is don't believe it when people tell you your situation is hopeless- you have nothing to lose by trying to make it better (I found that all info about chickens who had had eggs break inside them was telling me they would die and there was nothing I could do) and that next lot of hens we will be getting some heritage breeds instead of weird MonSanto-esque commercially developed chickens....

Master Four is considering giving up being a pirate if he can be a farmer and have some heavy plant machinery as he tells me he is a really good farmer as he feed the chickens, builds gardens and wanders through the rambling pumpkins and upright corn which he tells me is "just like a field".

I have a massive amount I chives I have rescued from the neighbours garden- the landlord has given me free rein over anything living- he is going to concrete the lot so I am grabbing what I can before he does so... apparently it will be more rentable like that!

After a Pause...

2011-01-26T17:28:00.000-08:00

I must drop in and read everyone's blogs! The Silly season is over for us- we discovered that we have expanded our business a bit too quickly for the just the two of us- next Christmas we must employ some help...I think I had a couple of nervous breakdowns (but they are not called that anymore for some reason- I think it is an apt name) and am seeing a very helpful registered psychologist every so often who is giving me great practical ideas to help with our monstrous and clever beautiful kidlets who are sweeter and more amazing every day if still far from angelic!

the garden is going great guns- first courgette and cherry tomato today, blackberries fruiting (made microwave jam yesterday), carrots are popping up and the pumpkin and corn that the chickens planted are fruiting too!

As I type I can smell a gentle smell of rosemary wafting from me as I have been tramping all over the garden moving the chickens into a temporary enclosure in the overgrown garden bed.. I must have leapt through a rosemary bush at some stage!
Will pop back with brag pictures soon once I have caught up with everything...

ARRGH! eggs....

2010-12-16T16:10:00.000-08:00

I woke from a lovely dream about harvesting carrots and redesigning the vegie garden to find my two year old had been busy. He was standing in the middle of the kitchen falling over and screaming in the mess he had just created 13 eggs and a litre of milk ALL over the floor. Dry weet-bix crumbled onto the table and more milk on them I have never seen so much chaos. For future reference it is extremely difficult to clean up that much egg especially before coffee. Master Two can climb, move chairs and undo any latch now and he is out of control with big brother happy to watch but not let us know what is happening as he think he can avoid blame that way (he has another think coming!). I know it is "the age" and that "boys will be boys" but I find it hard to believe that other people's children behave like this too? Is there really this much chaos and stress in other households with small boys residing within? If so why do we have children- I am beginning to think I should have had more hens and perhaps a small pig instead... does anyone want to swap?
What makes it harder is they are so cute and it is difficult to stay mad with them but I have no idea how to alter this behaviour... is Super Nanny at a loose end now?

A year of Blog

2010-12-13T12:01:00.000-08:00

I just popped into Kezz's blog to find that she had just passed the one year anniversary of her blog and have found that I have done the same but I am not as diligent as posting so often but I hope that my little group of followers enjoys reading the posts I do- I love reading your posts too- it feels good knowing there are other like minded folk all over the world and we dont have to be selling things to one another or have a hidden agenda, just sharing and enjoying reading!
Thanks for helping me keep sane-ish!
XX
J

Living Free..!

2010-12-12T00:55:00.000-08:00

I have closed my Facebook account (well deactivated- they are hoping that you will return and will resort to emotional blackmail to try to ensure this.. Robyn will miss you...Danielle will miss you.. etc). This has been a great relief to me as I feel it is one step too far in the degeneration of human communication. (Whoops being a bit militant here- I am hormonal so you shall have to forgive and maybe also give me cake and icecream) ok maybe not that bad but I don't like the cynical targeted marketing on the side. The insular selfish quality makes me uneasy-for some reason- I should love that side of things! But at least in rabbiting on in a blog or discussing on a forum I am forced to be creative rather than just tick a box- here is my personality I "like" the following things. It seems to reduce us all to the level of 14 year olds raving about the latest Ke$ha song(oh no don't get me started) and consenting to further bombardment of advertising for things we don't really want or need. I don't like the fact that none of our info is really secure, it sort of gives me the feeling that I am owned by Facebook. And lastly 2 million new users sign up every week and it made me feel too conformist "Baa I joined Facebook, Baa, I got an iPhone, Baa I am wearing what is in fashion and bought far too many owl ornaments" (Ok some of the owls are cute but you go onto Etsy and type Owl into the search I dare you- were are suffering from Owl saturation here soon we will reach Peak Owl! That was a pun you see on Peak oil which is bad- even though is sounds good). So no Facebook for me. If you would like to read another rant against Facebook I recommend reading this by Tom Hodgkinson whose works I have been reading lately and does raise some interesting points in his books- although he is rather more enamoured with smoking, alcohol and ukuleles than I am.

We are slightly at the mercy of seasonal income having our own business but I don't think we could go back to full time work for someone else- not in the same soul crushing working for the Government way we used to, we are too addicted to the flexible lifestyle we have. I wouldn't give up that much of my time for meaningless work for any money- it is not fulfilling and not enriching and your life can just slip away before you know it. money spent on trinkets and alcohol etc to try to make up for the fact your life is being sold pointlessly. well that's one perspective anyway.

Working full time in an unfulfilling pointless endeavour whether it be call centre or Public Service can be so draining that you find your creativity stifled and your motivation sapped so you find yourself too tired to cook good food, too apathetic to enjoy your garden and experiment and create. well that's what we have found anyway- I suppose it must suit some people or it just wouldn't be the done thing!

If it sounds like you have the same empty feeling from working full time at an unfulfilling job I thoroughly; recommend reading Tom Hodgkinson books, they really touched a nerve with me!

In the mean time I have been harvesting some volunteer potatoes, eating purple podded peas, experimenting with kefir, finding doors people have thrown away (the right size for our house with lovely brass and ceramic hooks as well!) making random Christmas things (a stocking and a choir of angels made out of gumnuts- crude but I hope endearing!) not being able to control our "spirited" "interactive" children (read between the euphemisms there) and being thankful for my life.

we had a great riverside picnic for our Sir talks A lots fourth birthday with a cake made out of what was on hand- a surplus of eggs and a pint of low fat cream (can't be whipped) which was on special- this turned out to be a chocolate pavlova topped with vanilla bean creme patissiere. Absolutely wonderful and I will make it again!

Summer(ish) Rain free things and welcome volunteers.

2010-12-02T00:54:00.000-08:00

November has been unexpectedly busy with the business thriving and all kinds of chaos with childcare because we refuse to have our children attend a centre which has a policy forbidding communication with children other than your own beyond saying hello and threatens parents with instant banning of the whole family if this is not complied with and then finding the right centre only to have the places whisked away for other children who, due to Government policy have the right to take places from any one in any centre they choose. the fact that we run our own business and will have to close at the busiest time of the year so we can look after the boys full time which will leave us up to our eyeballs in debt and unable to provide for our own children is apparently of no consequence.

All this chaos and thriving business (which might be doing much less well soon if we don't get this childcare sorted) and dance performances at the middle eastern dance festival and refinancing all our mortgages and business debts with another bank has meant that all my good intentions for Na No Wri Mo have fallen by the wayside(well not all of them I have written about 3000 words) but I am pleased I have done some as I do need all the practice I can get. I notice that since I have been on FAcebook my writing has seemed harder because it is just so easy to update my status or post a link rather lazily instead of writing a proper blog entry (shame Jess, shame)

We are getting wonderful growing weather here and all sorts of volunteer vegetables are popping their heads up, potatoes are everywhere, pumpkins(I suppose- they are definitely curcubits of some description)and what would seem to be a block of popping corn are all happily growing themselves. The weeds are enjoying the alternating hot dry days and cooler drizzly ones. Some more volunteers in the garlic are these poppies which although thriving do look rather like they might be pharmaceutical grade opium poppies. We are not sure but a farmer friend thinks they might be- this week they will open and then we can identify them for sure. I suppose that some previous tenant might have been trying his hand at growing some for recreational purposes(apparently the opium is lifethreateningly strong in the wrong hands- don't try it at home) and when I have moved some soil for my tyre garden the seeds have been jostled into life again...they look rather magnificent! (actually I vagued out writing this and returned a couple of days later the poppies have bloomed and are not opium ones but are gorgeous!). We are eating a bit out of our garden but because I developed a rather irrational fear of having a glut of anything we are more snacking on broad beans and peas than living off them. Ah well next year I know PLANT MORE PEAS!

A local body works(panel shop) is closing and we went to see if they had any car parts we needed and found their dumpster was full of treasures. After asking permission we now have the most splendid gate (for the soon to be constructed chicken run) and the neatest clothes airer which we needed as ours is rubbish.

Freecycle has been great for me too, I have got rid of lots of stuff and have dollhouses for my boys for Christmas( I have seen them playing happily and calmly with doll's houses for ages at day care so I want to bring some of that into our house) and water and milk kefir grains.

I have stocked up on layer pellets for the hens which were on special and now it costs us about $1.55 a week to feed our chickens and in return we get 14 eggs which seems like great deal to me! I keep reading about keeping your own chickens not being economical but so far ours are very cheap to keep. I have bought a 50 meter roll of wire mesh so we can have a little free range enclosure for them but apart from this extra mesh and the couple of dollars a week for layer pellets the girls have only cost $35(for three hens and $20 of chicken wire) which much cheaper than paying close to $5 for free range eggs at the supermarket (which i didn't do- I always bought tiny free range eggs from the fruit shop -24 for $4 but they were nearly as small as bantam eggs!).

I have discovered that the children love dipping things ( I had already discovered the magic of making things in patty form) so they are going to have a lot of dips for summer- hummus and other legume based dips are easy and tasty and healthy so I am happy with this revelation!

Brief bloglet

2010-11-09T19:11:00.000-08:00

Just a little blogging today- time is at a premium here at the moment-not least because I have been practising in my two dance classes for performances this Saturday night, I am trying to write a 50,000 word novel (trying being the operative word.) I seem to have a lurgy of some kind and the business is a mixture of small problems and thriving well. I have been making my own ciabatta which needs work but is delicious and also my own doughnuts.YUM...

Have a look at this site for easy Ciabatta and check the homemade doughnuts I made! Fried in olive oil and surprisingly non greasy and light ( I tried a cake based recipe but they were nasty and greasy and stodgy- go the yeast based ones!) the recipe for these ones can be found here. The garden is growing well but so are the weeds and it is a battle to keep up. Random potatoes have sprung up in many places and pumpkin plants have started to appear. We also seem to be growing corn where the chicken ark was, the result of my darling little boys pouring the jar of kernels on the none to clean floor and consequently the chickens benefitted. It will be interesting to see if it grows!

I am have been planting and had a birthday and not had an existential crisis but I will see if I can cover anything that still seems interesting at later date!

Thankful for the Sanctuary of my Home!

2010-10-16T00:39:00.000-07:00

It seems an eternity since I blogged but I suppose it hasn't been really.

It has been a frantic and not very enjoyable two weeks but rather than relive the stressful minutiae of very jolly thing going horrendously wrong (oh and throw in a week long bout of dreadful gastro which made me miss a paid dancing gig:() I will focus on the enjoyable parts of life.

The garden is growing well, the hazels and apples are well in leaf so I am really sure they are proper trees now, one apple is even blossoming, rather unwisely I feel, as it is really nowt more than a stick. The second lot of peas are growing well but I did give them some compost today as they look a bit pale and acerbic to me... so far we have silver beet, spinach, broad beans, carrots mixed with radishes, beetroot, red ribbed dandelion, chamomile, calendula, little gem lettuce, sunflowers, violas, chives and probably something else but I can't think what all growing away in the garden.

The compost heap is a great steaming pile which for once is a good thing! It is full of worms and I am bandicooting spadefuls out of the side of the pallet bin for my plants....as long as I keep turning it I have every faith it will all be good soon. Out there front I am winning a battle against the evils of "lords and ladies" which have spread everywhere and I am reclaiming my land, I have rescued some root bound boronia shrubs with gorgeous hot pink flowers from the discount table at the local hardware shop and bought a spanky grevillia which has a very ordinary person name (Robyn something...). Using some recycled bricks I made a little platform in between and have bought a birdbath from the auctions as well as a real treat for us, a deco kitchen table and chairs and a kitchen dresser pantry with lead lighting. We are delighted as they really add character to our kitchen as well as helping me with storage (the dresser has a pantry and a built in bread box) and the Formica table is easier to clean than the cheap stained pine table we had before so with shrubs and new (old really actually quite old) furniture and a birdbath I am feeling that the place is less of a squalid hole than before...next I am working on the bathroom which is really dismal but really the whole thing needs to be rebuilt and I am just not going to do that. Maybe a new loo seat, a shower curtain and paint the dodgy bath surround.

I have discovered the joy of making my own fruit buns which (with a little bread maker help) and they are better than but nearly indistinguishable from bakery buns. My little man insisted I make them but he didn't like the sugar glaze I made and so the next lot has none. The bread maker gets such a good workout, today I have made fruit buns and multi grain rolls, the bread is much nicer than the cheap stuff at the supermarket. I have made naan, pizza, savoury scrolls- I am yet to master pita or focaccia but I hope to soon. I gave up entirely on sourdough, it was way too much work and I really prefer a plain yeasted "rustic" style bread like a ciabatta rather than a sourdough anyway.

Speaking of giving up we sent the ducklings to a wildlife carer as two suddenly died for no discernible reason (which apparently they do frequently) so we wanted to give the remaining two a fighting chance by sending them away.

The chickens however are earning their keep and although they are still a bit pecky they look much better than they did when they arrived. They are keeping us in huge golden yoked eggs and I am ever so grateful!

I really enjoy reading everyone else's blogs as they help keep me grounded and inspired even when everything in "real " (i.e. the world outside my house) is going wrong. Keep on keeping on everyone!

Spring Growth and Sudden Ducklings

2010-09-27T21:09:00.000-07:00

Spring weather is keeping us on our toes and as I have been typing it has swung from being a beautiful sunny day to raining heavily and icy, there have been blustery blasts as well. The garden has been growing well, the first spring growth has begun in earnest for the new hazels and apples which is very exciting for us as we were ever so slightly worried that we had bought sticks or that we would kill them before they grew. The old apricot tree is flowering and now in leaf and I hope the wild winds haven't blown too many blossoms off because the old fashioned fruit it produces is so very flavoursome. The boys and I are out mulching, weeding and planting as often as we can and my little helpers are getting the hang quickly, in fact Sir Talks a lot begs me to plant with him "Mummy, can we pweeeease plant some seeds...I weeely want to!". In the face of such cute begging I have acceded to his requests we have planted many seeds, more peas(the last ones died) beetroot, red ribbed dandelion, German Chamomile, radishes, red cored carrots, sunflowers, calendula, nasturtiums, basil, feverfew and some chilis. we are also trying the deep stem cutting technique we saw on Gardening Australia last Saturday to grow some lavender and Rosemary. We are also trying to grow some old potatoes in a tyre which I have been plonking the soiled straw(actually sugar cane mulch) from the hen house. We are getting right experimental this spring... It all sounds very impressive but the garden is still scruffy and not overly productive!

The chickens are doing well, the boys love collecting snails and feeding them to the chickens who love them and give us giant tasty eggs.They love the scraps and the weeds too so it is a good arrangement for everyone.

I have started to trim down the number of toys the boys have, they both can spend hours with snails and sticks and kicking a sod of grass around but toys don't keep them entertained for nearly as long, some of the toys don't capture their imagination either so Freecycle is doing well out of me at the moment as many toys have been given their marching orders. It was entertaining to have the boys cull their own toys but unfortunately the initial pile contained a much loved train and four of my childhood teddy bears so we needed to offer some guidance with what is the right kind of toy to give away- one that you don't play with and is actually yours!

Yesterday our little family expanded again with us finding four baby shelducks wandering about the suburbs with nary an adult in sight. When we saw them for the second time we decided that we should collect them for their own safety as cats roam Launceston constantly so now we have four baby ducks. They imprint very quickly and think we are their parents now and they love to wander about inside (once our long suffering but bloodthirsty cat is locked in his favourite cupboard).

Can Coffee Change lives?

2010-09-18T17:40:00.000-07:00

I have been the fortunate recipient of a share hamper of Goodies from Cadbury Bar of Plenty and Republica Fair trade Coffee. The chocolate is fine, I prefer mine darker and the Bar of Plenty theme doesn't seem to add much to it being not particularly more interesting than a standard bar but the coffee, oh goodness me!

It is from Republica Coffee in Sydney and we are drinking the organic and fair trade Timor. Not only is the coffee delicious but I have noticed some other effects which were totally unexpected. I normally get a wee bit jittery from coffee, increased heart rate, sometimes a "plum stone" feeling in my throat and it can spark off my anxiety and for these reasons I don't drink it that often but four days into having a cup daily and this Coffee doesn't affect me in the same way. On the contrary I just feel healthy and efficient, happy and determined, I have also cut down on my tea as I don't feel like I need as much and my appetite has lessened so I am not scarfing biccies and chocolate as much because I am just not craving it. I haven't done any research on this but I wonder if it is because it is organic? I wouldn't normally attribute great effects to produce being organic, I would just prefer that they were because to me it make sense to farm organically but my darling husband and I are having the same experience with the wonderful Republica coffee. we also had the same experiences with our cheap and nasty coffee which is why we rarely had it, loved the taste (but the new coffee tastes so much better!) but didn't like the effects.

We will be buying the Republica all the time now, Husband of mine is now scared of running out and is already devoted to his stove top espresso with low fat milk! Luckily the local supermarkets stock it...

And of course one can feel happy that one is supporting fair trade and organic whilst feeling so much better.

Can coffee change lives? Oddly enough I can affirm that it is changing our lives and I hope that the coffee workers are enjoying the benefits too!

Has anyone else had this experience with something unexpected, does eating or drinking organic make a huge difference to you? Has anyone else had this quality coffee epiphany? I would love to hear from any one who has anything to say on this!

25 things post!

2010-09-12T20:55:00.000-07:00

As inspired by Mumma Troll and Kezz here are 25 things about me you may not know...

1. I have never met my father and would have no idea how to track him down if I wanted to.

2. I eat just enough (ethically sourced) fish and seafood to not be considered a vegetarian

3. I used to suffer badly from panic attacks, migraines and severe anxiety. I don't so much anymore which I think is to do with my husband and lifestyle.

4. I used to have the ability to sink enough alcohol to sink a football team I just don't do it anymore, I have a light beer every few months, just enough it would seem to prevent me from calling myself teetotal!

5. I have enrolled in University three times with nothing to show for it.

7. Somewhere in me is a writer waiting to get out but I don't know what to do with her!

8. I love sprouts and sprouting seeds I have two sprouter, one jar type and one triple layered, I found each of them at charity shops.

9. I am yet to find a vegetable I don't like eating.

10. I am messy, I have always been messy and trying not to be is a real struggle for me.

11. I feel very passionately about the plight of the hardworking poor in India and other third world countries but not much sympathy for the poor in Australia, most of whom live lives that 3rd world poor could only dream of, all paid for by welfare handouts!

12. I spent my childhood living in books and daydreaming.

13. I spent my adolescence reading, daydreaming and acting- I wanted to be an actor until I was 19.

14. I was 26, married and a mother before I passed my driving test.

15. I now own a car hire company which I started with my husband!

16.I was terrible at maths as a child and even worse at managing money when I first started working, I think I am better now...

17. I think showering really frequently is a waste of resources and time and probably causes premature aging!

18. I have hyper mobile joints which means I am lovely and bendy for Yoga but also can turn and sprain an ankle easily.

20. I gave birth without drugs both times, not because I was passionate about it, I gave birth within 10 minutes of arriving at the birth centre for my second son- there was no time for pain relief (or the birth pool unfortunately!).

21. I love chocolate, shoes, the colour pink and think Johnny Depp is gorgeous (yes I am female and breathing!).

22. My nails break easily and as much as I would love to maintain glamorous red nails I normally have grubby little paws with dirt under the nails.

23. I adore the island state of Tasmania where I now live but don't particularly care about the mainland any more than any other country.

24. I am not actually related to many of my relatives, they are mostly friend of family and step grandmothers... the only people I share blood with I don't really talk to.

25. I am not a fatalist and do believe that we control my own destiny... however my husband is definitely my soul mate and I do get the feeling that some things are or are not meant to be...

So there you go.. that was harder than I thought it would be, I though that talking about myself would be easy!

I would love to read your 25 things as well!

Frugal Fun!

2010-09-06T02:35:00.000-07:00

I know some of you out there will appreciate the odd sentence that follows.

I am enjoying being flat broke.

It really it is a wake up call as it is easy to slip into complacency and not appreciate money for what it is. We have found that once our needs are met the only desire we have for the stuff is to try to help others (unfortunately our pie in the sky dreams for this are very large scale so we will need much money for them!).

We have sold our little car which was excess to our needs and have managed to scrape together some big ticket items which have sold on eBay (a convertible roof hardtop, a Mazda engine and gear box) as well as my old maternity gear which are doing quite well. We collected scrap metal and we got a princely $47 for it, which paid for $20 of chicken wire and $15 for three hens rescued from the poultry farm nearby.(more on hens later) The remainder has gone on chocolate, cream and strawberries for the Little Man's second birthday today. I found everything he needed at charity shops, a toy wombat, a solid tonka digger, a hard hat and a Thomas the Tank engine doona cover all in excellent condition, this combined with a $2 bottle of bubble mix has given him a lovely stash of toys he is very impressed with and totalled $11.20. I always make my own cards and I had the whole lot set on the coffee table for him to find in the morning I didn't use any wrapping, he is too tiny to find excitement in the removal of wrapping and the mess and waste have turned me against it!

Last weekend we went to Hobart to have a look at some properties again but I made sure we didn't spend any unnecessary money. I packed a thermos of coffee (real stove top stuff, not instant) as I find that tea just isn't very good from a thermos, some popcorn, left over latkes cakes from the night before, carrot sticks, coffee and walnut muffins, boiled eggs, stawberries and blueberries, water for the boys to drink. This went into our giant picnic basket and after our tour of real estate we went to the Royal Tasmanian Botanical gardens and had a lovely picnic. There was a curious duck who made the mistake of coming to see the Littlest man and was promptly and joyfully chased and we had a great explore of the organic Veggie patch as seen on Gardening Australia and Sir Talks A Lot asked what every single plant in the veggie patch was... every single one!

Yesterday was the Littlest man's 2nd birthday so we went to Cataract gorge for yet another picnic (they are big in our house.. or rather out of our house) which was quite flooded due to the wild heavy rains of Saturday. We had popcorn and cream puffs and chocolate cake and went for a trek which in retrospect was a bad idea with two sleepy toddlers who made our lives difficult but hey! all a learning experience. Cataract Gorge is just amazing and we are blown away every time we visit which is why we were so determined to have a walk around despite the foolishness in hindsight (muddy tantrumming toddlers anyone?).

Over the last week we have finished our chicken coop from recycled and salvaged pallets and roof iron and we are very delighted to have our rather moth eaten looking chickens in situ. unfortunately it has been raining so the coop is in the shed but we hope to move it into the sunshine today- once those dastardly sheep have left (they have eaten all our grass and keep knocking over the gate so it is back to the farm for them.. today!) Our hens are brown hi lines and they have already given us four eggs!the eggs are much much bigger than the tiny free range ones we normally buy- I think one of our eggs is worth two shop bought ones!

All said and done we are having more fun than ever since our economy drive started in earnest!

Belt Tightening

2010-08-24T20:42:00.000-07:00

There was a Federal Election on the Weekend. There was no clear winner, I think this was because both the choices were bad. If I was our Prime Minister I wouldn't have called an election until I had proven myself and the memory of her removing her predecessor had faded but there we go, she did, and now it looks like she will be amongst our shortest serving Prime Ministers (Not as short as Harold Holt...). Tasmania had a similar result in it's election. Politics. eeeerrrrrrrgh. I don't trust anyone who wants to be a politician to run the country. A well, things are just the same here as they were before the election!

We are Thrifty, Frugal folk here at Apple Isle Cottage even out littlies love to find things that "might be useful". My exuberant two year old found a surf brand hat yesterday when we were walking back from the markets, I quickly checked that it wasn't dirty and he ran around with it on his head joyfully yelling "HAAAAAT". That hat is now at home but I am not sure what we will do with it yet. None of us really wear surf brand beanies but it might be good to put a rescued animal in or make a tea cosy. There can be many good findings around here when there has been an event at the stadium across the road. I may be a bit too much of a hoarder though, I have many plastic tomato sauce bottles which I saved and washed after some large event.. still not sure what I am going to do with them but they look so useful, like the aluminium freezer trays I found in a car we bought at auction (I also found some lovely red nail polish in that car!). Speaking of auctions I bought a box lot of cookware at our local auctions the other day and goodness did I get some value. For the price of a stock pot I got all this.

There wasn't much dross either, all good quality gear and now I will be baking like mad. Things I never knew I needed such as I am glad I have two kitchens I need it to store all my cookware!

We have "Issues with Money" at present, the rates were all due, childcare had to be paid, a hot water cylinder blew etc etc. All the mundanities of life accumulated at once and we are "Belt Tightening" phase here. It has been a month since the last major supermarket shop and we have kept our cupboards well stocked with all the staples required for a healthy tasty diet and I will try to stay away from the supermarket for a week or so. This means I need to cook more but today I used my biscuit press to make around 100 biscuits, I have made a batch of muesli, My new muffin tins have help me produce 12 coffee and walnut muffins and 12 blueberry ones (very good basic recipe), bread maker whipped me up a batch of dough to make pizza scrolls and is now busy on some wholemeal bread. That should keep the wolf from the door for a wee while.

It seems like last week I was all spendy- boots and books and all sorts but things change rapidly!

I have transferred some of my points earned from surveys into pay pal vouchers, now I can have a wee eBay indulgence if I must so I don't feel deprived (Thrift is my lifestyle choice but I can get a bit spoilt and huffy when I must be thrifty!).

Just before I finish this post can I just say having fostered sheep for the last few weeks I can see why people eat them, seriously- they are incapable of bonding, make lots of mess and are very rough- no perceivable personality. In fact they are making me want to eat (lamb)meat again- I would give up on my vegetarian tendencies just to eat lamb these days!. And get some chickens who are lovely and give eggs! Sorry if this sound heartless I normally am a very touchy feely save the small fluffy creatures type but these sheep are so terribly stupid!

There is Nothing as Cunning as a Sheep

2010-08-15T04:37:00.000-07:00

This weekend started strangely enough with me rescuing a sheep which was pinned under a Mazda Mx5 windscreen. Both were quite undamaged. by some happy twist of fate the lamb was in the convex part of the shield and must have also cushioned it's landing so both are doing well. Good. Right then. Lambs are starting to graze on anything they can find and sucking down many bottles of milk. Also Baaaaing an awful lot which lead to us calculating how long it would be until they could go back to the farm and what sort of useful decorative pet we would be trying next. We decided that enough was enough we would have to start on a Chicken coop device. I have no idea when we get some chickens but my dearly beloved seems to think that one just collects them from emergency stopping lanes about the place. There are many beautiful Chickens wandering about the lay-overs of small towns in Tasmania, always with a rooster. I guess this a side effect of being a fox free island (there are sightings of Foxes and people whipping themselves into a frenzy over scats but no-one has yet found alive fox despite millions of state funding being poured into locating foxes.. but that is another story.). Ah yes, chickens. we have started a chicken coop using reclaimed used pallets and will be using scrap colourbond roofing for the shelter. So far so much fun but we didn't make much headway today due to the rain and the kidlets.

So we went for a journey to Burnie where we were most astonished to end up in Crusty's bakery (by virtue of finding a loyalty card with a free coffee for the taking on the ground and searching for the place to redeem it) and we had a treat where we all had a wee cakie thing. So one apple turnover, a giant real cream puff, a marshmallow cone, a jelly slice and two mugs of coffee cost us $9.70!!!! unheard of! I wouldn't have expected much change from $20 even with the free coffee.

And it was good too! (!) Burnie is lovely. Set right on the waters of the Bass Strait, Burnie has had a troubled past as one of the most polluted places but when the paper mill closed and the pigment factory stopped it's dangerous business the town was forced to diversify and has recovered to be a really picturesque place (albeit with a rather industrial feel.)Great Views!

I am experimenting with sourdough at the moment and I wouldn't say I have been successful yet but here is a photo of my first ever sourdough loaf.

My paragraphs seem a bit disjointed today and I don't know whether this is because I am very tired of because I have just discovered facebook and been spending too much time exchanging snippets of information with friends I haven't seen for over a decade. All of whom seem to be rabid Greens supporters for the upcoming election. I can't wait for the election to be over! Speaking of greens (I was, loosely) I must sing the praises of the small patch of chickweed growing next to the back door. I harvest some nearly every day , chop it finely and pop it in something I am cooking. I used chickweed and garlic tops on a pizza the other day and use it as a parsley substitute in my garlic and oil pasta dishes. The boys are quite content to eat it too so chickweed gets my dull roar stamp of approval, it is convenient, fresh, free, healthy and the children will eat things with it in. My next Dull Roar stamp of approval goes to making things into patties and frying them. It doesn' matter if they are fritters or latkes or pakora, my eldest boy will gobble down any kind of patty/fritter device no matter what the contents. He at so many red cabbage, pumpkin, onion and spinach pakora the other day his tummy was tight as a drum. He likes to dip in a sort of raita I make with yoghurt, mint garlic tops and sometimes chickweed (!). Actually dipping is very popular with the littlest man too but he only eats the thing in which he is dipping, not the dipper so I have to get a collection of healthy things in which to dip (rather than just tomato sauce). It makes me unreasonably happy that my children will eat what I cook them!

Chilblains Ahoy!

2010-08-08T16:26:00.000-07:00

Winter will be coming to a close but it has been taking it's toll. A lack of sunshine and the cold restricting activities seems to have given me a touch of SAD which I am fighting vehemently now I have realised that my Eeyore like view of the world was a symptom and not a reality. It is something to be aware of next winter as I recall having a particularly bad time of it last year. I am applying the principles from The Depression Cure: The 6-Step Program to Beat Depression without Drugs which include regular exercise, daily sunlight exposure, fish oil supplements, regular sleep and social connectedness and, meaningful activity being aware of destructive thought patterns. So far so good and my headaches are much less as well. It is sign of the way the much talked of "society" is heading that the above are considered a "cure" a "prescription" instead of part of everyday life. By rights we should all have these things already incorporated in our life but these days you really have to make the effort.

I have built a new little garden just for this years peas as they were all root bound but I was going to have to fence off the garden they were going in due to little sheep people being about but I have recovered a piece of land in a forgotten corner and my Little Sir Talks A Lot helped me a lot with turning it into a proper garden. After forking over the ground we pulled out bits of bricks and detritus lay some cardboard from the sheeps pen on top( I use opened out cardboard boxes in areas of high sheep traffic, then compost it or use it for mulch as it is errrmmm pre-seasoned), a few handfuls of pelletised chicken manure and a layer of rotted grass clippings, then a layer of sugar cane mulch. I planted the poor cramped peas in pockets of compost and coco peat. they have a dubious structure to climb made of sticks and string. The peas are purple podded and have grown beautifully so far so I am expecting great things from them! I am also pleased to have used what was about the place instead of having to buy new chicken wire to keep sheep out.

Working with my little man was great and he was genuinely helpful. Finally my persistence (You will help and we will both like it even though I am shrieking "no no no no get off the seedlings arrrghhh! not over there!" and you are thinking "this isn't fun at all, where's my Thomas the tank engine?" because it is wholesome and productive and good for you dammit!) has paid off. Lugging things about and digging and creating in the out doors makes me feel so much better about life but it is murder on my chilblains.

My poor knuckles are swollen and itchy with chilblains and it is so hard to keep them out of water and extremes of temperatures. It is also hard to wear gloves because I can't type or garden wearing warm gloves and my gardening ones don't really help with the cold!Well that is my whinge for now.

I am being very indulgent lately- apparently it can be very good as part of dealing with depression- treating yourself to things (probably not my old way of doing it which was a litre of Cafe Grande ice cream and a family block of dairy milk though) so I have bought the books I wrote about last time and I am waiting for them and a pair of new boots ooooh they are lovely. My boots were all cracking around the soles and wouldn't polish up any more and were all baggy and saggy ergh. My darling husband tells me it is good for the soul to buy new shoes. No, you can't have him, he is mine!

Progress

2010-08-03T22:18:00.000-07:00

Winter is still in full swing but my fruit and nut trees arrived from Woodbridge fruit Trees. 10 hazel suckers, a Cox's Orange Pippin, a Pomme De Neige and a Beauty of Bath Apple tree have now found there homes in our backyard. The Hazels have been planted as a hedge along a boundary fence, probably a bit close together but I want to ensure a hedgey result ASAP as I am ever so impatient and I justify this to myself by saying it is for pollination. Two of the apples are going to be espalliered and the third is planted in a corner and I will weight the branches to form a weeping shape for easy harvesting. This is the plan now, I have absolutely no experience with trees but I do have high hopes. The Hazels look ready to burst into life. I have mulched them with aged grass clippings (to help with the acidity) and sugar cane mulch. The apple trees I have just mulched with the sugar cane. I have been buying mulch, gardening gloves etc with gift vouchers I earn from surveys which is a nice way to pay for my hobby!

The peas are ready to plant out really but the bed I am planning in is in with the sheep so I either need to modify my plan or build a wee fence as the sheep have been starting to ruminate which means they are nibbling on everything.

Baby Hazels

Oatlands windmill

We had a fact finding mission to Hobart as we are looking to expanding the business down there and the Southern Midlands are so dry with terrible tree die back. there are many gorgeous little towns and villages along the way and I amused myself taking random photos on the way.

I have been having alot of fun with reading and I have a long list of books on hold at the library but two I am reading at present are just wonderful.

The Thrift Book by India Knight is an accessible book making being thrifty, ethical and treading lightly seem appealing to those of us who don't wish to wear all natural hemp, secret hippies waiting to break out whilst remaining well groomed, foodies who don't wish to waste their money and those who like India and myself just weren't very financially literate and living on credit cards regardless of income. It isn't a book for students living on the bones of their bum but I was charmed and intrigued by many of her suggestions and I will be buying my own copy. I have since read some reviews on Amazon and I think people are unreasonably harsh and missing the point of the book. It is a light book glamorising saving money and the planet for those who are not naturally inclined and might prefer to spend their credit cards on cupcakes and corsages but are finding their lives rather empty and difficult as a result. Her writing style is frank and conversational and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I am buried in Thrifty Gardening by Alys Fowler which is a gorgeous book similar in aesthetic to the Self Sufficientish Bible by Andy and Dave Hamilton, lovely pictures and great ideas for growing a garden for very little money using reclaimed and re purposed bits and bobs and how to make it a pleasing place to be....I will be buying this one too. I do love books about being canny and saving money..I have a bit of an addiction which is draining my pocket BUT I would swear and declare that I have saved the purchase price of each and every one by following the tips contained within. I also try to borrow from the library first and that way I know if I really can't live without the book rather than just being sucked in by the pretty pictures. If I am reticent to return it at the end of the fortnight (or month if I have renewed) I know I will be getting a good value and much loved book I will turn to time and time again.

And then there were Sheep.

2010-07-24T00:24:00.000-07:00

I was out in the front yard foraging for chickweed, wild rocket and nasturtiums for my lunchtime salad when my neighbour, having greeted me on her way out asked incredulously "Do you have a sheep now?"

I had to admit that yes in fact we now had two sheep- she had heard a "Baa" when she was bring in some wood for her fire and said to me "I thought it must be you guys". So there we have it. Our neighbour thinks of us first when she hears the bleat of a sheep in the inner city suburb. We are officially the "people most likely to have sheep in our backyard" and fair enough too, we do now. Two orphaned lambs, twin brothers whose mother died before they were even cleaned up. Orphaned lambs are a steep learning curve and I had forgotten how much work they are but given the other option for them was being left alone in a paddock we thought it was better to have them with us. Our boys love them in the way that toddlers do- vigorously, but they are learning to feed them bottles and even the youngest is having a go, after berating the lambs for drinking "my milk!". we plan to keep them until they are weaned or our farmer friend finds a ewe who has lost her lamb to match them up with but unfortunately being bred for no other purpose and being boys it would seem they will be going for meat eventually. We consoles ourselves with the fact that they wouldn't even be alive had we not taken them in and surely some good life is better than none at all?

We have had some sunny weather (which is fading into overcast as I type) but the warmth of the sun is most rejuvenating and cheering. We have had a cold winter- last year it was wet wet wet but not as cold. This it would seem, is a genuine Tasmanian Winter complete with nasty chilblains for me. the chilblain's were so bad I actually spent good money (shock! Horror!) on socks and gloves but I am delighted, especially with the socks which are from Cold Comfort In Tasmania, 100% wool and knitted on an antique sock machine. and if you want wool socks this is the place to get them.

The garden is quiet and disheartening but I am trying to keep up the effort. I have some Early Cropping Massey Pea seedlings (only 7 as the rest rotted) and 11 purple podded pea seedlings started. Today we worked the bed (we being two small boys; "I halp!" says Master almost two whose talking is coming along great guns, and two sheep).

If anyone has a sure fire way to keep the cat out of my veggie bed so he stops leaving smelly "surprises" I would be most interested to hear what it is, wire over the bed didn't help, I put old brambles on the bed, I have planted rue near it...proprietary products are very expensive so I would want to be sure it would work. Damn Cat! The spinach and carrots are suffering greatly at his hand (well not hand exactly) at present.

I am branching out and doing "Bollywood Style" dancing this term which is fun. The little ones love the music and we dance around in their bedroom with them imitating my dancing which is very endearing and almost makes up for all the mess and stress they produce!

We were in the Hardware shop yesterday and I notice lots of "spring" gardening products on display. I think it is a little optimistic at this stage as well still have an official 5 weeks left of winter but I guess all the gardeners are waiting, hoping that soon the planet will warm and bloom and we can get some plants into the soil again!

And now a return to our usual programming...

2010-06-20T19:00:00.000-07:00

Well there have been many little tasks happening here.. since we have started taking the Creche's food scraps our compost has come along great guns. We pop the scraps on everyday and then a layer of aged grass clippings or fallen leaves. On Saturday I add our weeks worth of scraps from our kitchen bucket and then turn as best I can- the heap is now a happy steaming pile even in sub zero temperatures! Hurrah!

My children are so exhausting at the moment I am finding it so draining it is hard to stay perky when they refuse to sleep during the day, filthy up their clothes as soon as they are put on, get into anything messy/dangerous/important that they can get their hands on as soon as my back is turned, talk, sing shout and fight constantly and demand food then spread it on anything they can reach all the rest of the time....everything becomes a big palaver with my boys! *sigh* I am so grateful we have a quality day care centre where the children are happy, it buys us some time to do things like run our business and oh I don't know.. spend some time as a couple! It is almost definitely an age related thing... please let them grow out of it!

We have some Jonquils popping their heads out amongst the general chaos of the garden- shows what I know- I thought they came along in Spring but we are only a few weeks into Winter. They are cheering to see especially with the happy looking Calendula flowers. Borage plants are charging ahead, I love their old fashioned blue flowers they ease my melancholy- well they are supposed to anyway...I have started planting annuals which I like and letting them go to seed so I end up with a kind of perpetual garden. I collect the seeds and fling them around places I would like more flowers and it might just work. The Calendula in the photo is a result of this approach. Very Dull Roar Philosophy...

Gardening is so humbling because I can do a lot of research and ask questions on lovely helpful forums but there is a gap in the knowledge which can only be closed by gardening myself in my garden, It will take years of trial and error, weaving new knowledge in when the old no longer works. I am very new to gardening and thankful that I don't have to support my family on the food I grow as there is so much for me to experience and learn before I can count myself as a Proper Gardener.

The ground is so cold and my little plants are just sitting and waiting, not growing. I wonder if they would like some more compost or mulch or if they will just sit until the weather warms up a bit.

I have planted some peas and have them in a plastic blanket bag and in a foil lined cardboard box to reflect the light and hopefully stop them becoming leggy. I have started a mushroom kit and am trying to encourage the mold growth by keeping the polystyrene box in an insulated bag and spraying with warm water...hopefully I will report success but it is bloomin' cold here! The mushroom kit is being kept inside so that should make a difference.

I have been quite obsessed with trying to bulk buy and avoid the supermarkets lately. Haven't been for a week and a half but I have been buying enormous quantities at the Cash and Carry- 25kg of sugar, 2.5kg cheddar cheese, 2kg mozzarella for the freezer etc 10kg of Tasmanian plain flour for $8.50. The local fruit shop has been doing 10kg of local Atlantic potatoes for $6.95 and $5.50 for 10kg of local onions so that will be keeping our costs nicely down as well as eating locally.

Hope you are all going well in your quests of life!

Presumption of Innocence. In Support of Andy Muirhead.

2010-06-19T17:01:00.000-07:00

This Blog is different from my usual but soon I shall return with fascinating updates regarding compost and homemade muesli. Please bear with me as it is something I feel strongly about.

Friday before last I tuned into ABC 1 for my regular fix of Collectors. I have done for years- we both love it. Watching this show has got us through two pregnancies, interstate moves, starting a business, we watched it together on honeymoon. We have entire new collections started simply because we saw something that caught our eye on the show. It has cult status and is unique Australian television. People from all over the country are united whether they collect antique bottles or novelty erasers or things they find on the ground. It is a great unifier and wonderful family show.

Except when it isn't on, and the website has been taken down and all reference to the show is removed KGB style. And why? Because the host Andy Muirhead has been charged with one count of accessing child pornography using a carriage service(ie: the 'net). Not convicted, mind, but charged and will have his day in court in August. What ever happened to the presumption of innocence? The ABC has been quick to convict this poor man and remove all traces of his career with ABC TV and Radio before he has even been on trial...I didn't see the ABC news piece but evidently they even showed his house on TV for goodness sake! Behaving the way ABC has should be a criminal offence as the mud they have thrown at Andy is the kind that rarely washes off. No-one but the police and Andy have any idea what has actually occurred in the one count of accessing child pornography but there is something I do know, these days a fully developed 17 yearold can post photos obscene of him/herself and if you happen to look at it and not report it that is you accessing child porn. If Miley Cyrus gets out of the car with no knickers on and paparazzi publish a shot that is child porn but you can wander into any department store and buy high heeled boots, padded bras and mini skirts for your three year old and wander down the street with her looking like a cheap hooker and that is fine. Unless you take a photo of it. Then it is child porn. In fact any photo of a child with no clothes on would appear to be pornography these days. I have several photos of my babies in the bath- I wonder if that is porn these days?

When we were renovating a rental property my husband found a porn collection in the roof space including a magazine which had models who all looked like they were prepubescent but claimed to all be 18. These "women" looked like little girls, no hips, undeveloped breasts, no pubic hair and yet they were arranged in hard core positions and talking about how much they liked doing a variety of Xrated activities with much older men, often calling them daddies. But that's OK, apparently as soon as you turn 18 your decision making abilities are much more superior to those when you are 17 and you can now choose to portray yourself as a 12 year old. As long as you are not one. But if you are a 15 year old who looks 25 and do the same a crime has been committed. Am I the only one who sees that no matter the age of the model, if she looks 12 then it is promoting pedophilia? Until matters such as allowing tarty adult style clothes for toddlers to 12 yearolds and allowing 18 yearolds looking 12 to participate in the sex industry I believe that the Child pornography laws in this country are a Joke.

Andy- I have no idea what you may or may not have done but rest assured in this house we still embrace a presumption of innocence.

Shame, ABC management, Shame, you have shown yourselves to be grubby little people with no more regard for human rights than the worst Communist dictators. Last month I won a magazine subscription because of my entry on Why I love the ABC (Collectors was amongst the reasons). Unfortunately I wouldn't be entering if the same competition was held this month. My love of the ABC has gone decidedly cold. You have failed Andy Muirhead and you have failed Collectors fans.

You can read more here and here.

Dull Roar Beauty

2010-05-31T22:19:00.000-07:00

Like all my approaches in life my 'beauty routine' is mainly aimed at not looking too scruffy without actually making much effort, spending much money or creating much waste.

I have been trimming my own hair for a few years now but not been doing a great job, luckily the length was always enough to distract people from the poor trim job. That was until last night- I tried these instructions for a "U-shaped trim" and took about 5 inches off my length. I am delighted with the results and the length (just below my bra back) makes my hair much more manageable than the straggly bottom length hair I had before.

Emboldened by this experiment I had been searching for a better hair removal technique for those hairs I didn't want so long ie legs and other places. I have been using "disposable razors" and used about four a year but if they are any good they tend to have strange gimmicks (lavender scented handles?) and much packaging. I seem to have been searching for hair removal techniques for most of my adult life! I have just finished "sugaring my legs" which was really just like waxing, i used an old popsicle stick as a spatula and paper bags which had held food from the bulk food shop instead of calico strips. I also made the sugar gel myself. It worked well and so I tried the traditional method of sugaring without the strips which definitely requires some refinement on my part. You can read about sugaring here .

I needed to "release some tension" after a particularly maddening day with noisy disobedient children so have been happily smashing up concrete preparing for the arrival of my hazelnut suckers and digging the ground to prepare for the apple trees. I appear to have stumbled onto the old loo pit (the loo used to be in the shed along with the laundry many years ago) and found over 40 beer bottles and other delights- most complete!
Our creche director has put up a little display on being "green" at "bubby school" as we call it and she was explaining to us that they were green in many ways but much of the food scraps had to be thrown out due to the wormery not consuming as much as was thrown out and we stepped in to save the day! I am delighted to be getting a big container of food scraps to add to our compost until we complete our planned chicken ark. It wasn't going to be worth our while having chooks as we get free range eggs very cheaply but if we have the creche food scraps the amount we would spend on pellets would be much less! Hurrah! In the mean time our compost heap is growing with food scraps, leaves and grass clippings and the birds around here are looking very content! A mutually beneficial arrangement for all!

Dull Roar Tea time: Pop a Woolly Hat on the Teapot and Reclaim the Cupcake!

2010-05-22T04:32:00.000-07:00

I think I am going a bit potty bonkers...possibly thanks to small children who seem to believe it is their role in life to make noise and throw things at every available opportunity or perhaps the accountant who forgot to put over $67,000 worth of deductions in our tax (no wonder we had a tax bill!). Or perhaps it's the cold.

We has our first frost last night and by crikey is it cold here! I have ordered some bare rooted apple trees and hazelnut suckers for winter and I am having a great time trying to plan the garden now!

The aphids and white fly are reaching critical point so I am trying to learn about making more habitats in my garden to bring in friendly predators, the darling Husband is very keen on buying a box of ladybirds but we are unsure if the onset of winter is the best time...

The youngest son is most vexing at present and insists on removing his trousers and running around with fat little mottled thighs going blue in the chill!

I had a lovely day today with the boys at the local park which is a magnificent Victorian anachronism with fountains and a monkey display and big beautiful trees. We had vacated the house so hard working husband could work on some auto electrics( stereo dontcha know) without the shrieks of battling babies upsetting the soldering. Once we left the park I had a hankering for some lunch and happened on a Sushi train restaurant which I had never seen before. In what can only be described as a moment of madness I decided the boys might think it was fun. They did BUT I would only recommend trying to sit on unstable bar stools and eat tiny Japanese food with chopsticks with a three year old on one side and a 20 month old on the other (both very... Ahem .. vigorous) if you are feeling particularly resilient yourself. As they say- that which doesn't kill you can only make you stronger (I do think I could feel myself having a minor cardiac event at one point though).

We had to buy a new teapot the other day as the very daggy glass one we had was developing some alarming cracks, with the cold weather setting in we thought it prudent to get a teapot which would not be so volatile with expansion and contraction of temperature changes. The new teapot is ceramic and once the chill set in we found we had to return to warming the pot and we really needed a tea cosy. I found on e*ay they cost upwards of $12.95 no matter how hideous which I was outraged by! I used to wear one I found in the costume room at college. It was great because the piggy tails would stick out the spout and handle holes and my head stayed warm in the cold theatre. on relating this story to the darling the husband he pointed out what should have been obvious- buy a woolly hat for the teapot; so I set off to the op-shop and picked one up that matches the teapot very smartly and was $2. Lovely tea now!

I have been baking today (oven helps keep the house a little warmer!) and made cupcakes. Real cupcakes. Not these generic sickly fluffy paps of nothing topped with luridly pastel greasy butter cream but a solid little open crumb chocolate butter cake with an honest chocolate glace icing. Sort of like the Inspector Frost of cupcakes (OK... I am actually watching A Touch of Frost at the moment but I swear the cakes and he are very similar although he is not chocolate.. told you I was going mad). No wonder some people hate cupcakes now- the "Sex and the City" American style that is so "popular" at the moment is truly awful. I am most alarmed by American food in general actually- it seems that so much of it is not actually made of food at all! Please tell me I am not the only one to suffer from this brand of food racism!

Smashed Pinky and a Nigella Crush.

2010-05-08T03:07:00.000-07:00

Well having a business takes up so much time but I am pleased that this week things have been a wee bit quiet, it has allowed me to regroup and for us to re-evaluate the direction the business is going in, things are going to be getting pretty exciting again with high hopes and hard work ahead but we think it will pay dividends.
I smashed my pinky finger in the car door and much to my slighty queasy astonishment the nail has cracked across to the bed and looks like a nasty bruised zombie finger now. Quite fascinating but extremely painful and I am wondering how it will heal. The nail shouldn't pop off because the crack has allowed the blood that would normally build up and make the nail black to drain out slowly. I haven't posted a picture in the interest of keeping my band of followers.. it is quite hideous really! The blood kept flowing but didn't stop me from being part of a belly dancing performance at a 50th Wedding Anniversary party last night- I am getting $15 for it- I wonder if I can claim my costumes as a business expense?
The finger has made gardening a bit tricky but we have made a valiant effort planting beetroot today, I don't know if it will grow well but Sir Talks Alot wanted to plant some beetroot so there we go!
We walked to a hardware shop today and I had an exciting time with two curious toddlers, the younger one causing semi deliberate chaos and the older being a wee bit clumsy which had the same result of knocking over various cyclamen on display for mother's day. The boys love the water features at the Garden centre and Sir Talks Alot is very interested in all things gardening and cooking now, choosing bananas and broccoli at the fruit shop and following me around the garden about 1 foot behind at all times. He understands about composting and improving the soil but unfortunately his little brother will not stay off the newly turned soil and both of them regularly fall over into the garden beds for no apparent reason- it is not deliberate but a bit exasperating anyway!
We have been doing a lot of walking lately, the littlest man in the pram with a scoot board attached to the back for Sir talks Alot and we are finding it easy to walk about and have some family time which is really cutting down on non essential car use and getting us some good old fresh air and exercise!
I think Sir Talks A lot has developed a bit of a crush on Nigella Lawson- he has previously told me that "Nigella is a weally nice lady" and that she is such a busy lady (this is said in a very admiring tone- I think he rates busyness very highly) Today he tells me that I don't need to listen to Nigella talking, after all the show is on for him- it is his special show...he was requesting to watch Nigella last night instead of In the Night Garden last night but the thing that has tipped me off is the fact that he claims Nigella loves him and told him so.. apparently when she was making Peaches Melba she said his name and told him she loved him! I don't know if this is the result of recurrent congestion in his ears or maybe Nigella is his imaginary friend... (a much better influence than that crooked Billy Bond, a wolf who comes down our chimney and then steals our telly, only to sell it back to us at the Royal Oak Pub...that wolf is a bad influence on our boys). I haven't the heart to tell him that maybe he is mistaken about being the object of Nigella's affections!

Confused Weather

2010-04-24T02:32:00.000-07:00

I was entertained by last nights news telling me the sea off Swansea was going to be confused today. I don't know about the East coast but I was utterly baffled by today with howling windys and torrents of icy rain interspersed with bright clear blue skies!

We managed to fit in a very busy day of work for the business and a walk in the afternoon, even planting the garlic out with Sir Talks Alot- they are going to have two tyre beds- last year they had only a styrofoam box and were planted on Winter Solstice which resulted in lovely but rather small bulbs- I am hoping that the larger space and earlier planting will yield bigger bulbs. I was so proud of how quickly my little man learned about planting garlic- it only took us a couple of minutes working together! He marched back in and told his daddy very proudly "Pwant the garwic pointy end up wike this Daddy!"

I have been embracing the cooling weather and home grown pumpkins with much cooking.

Pumpkin and date loaf is popular with Master Me Too whilst the glorious husband and Sir Talks Alot seem to be addicted to home made crackers. The first batch needed work, I will make them thinner and cut them with a scone cutter next time but the key to making them "crackeresque" is beating the dough with a rolling pin which is fun.

Tonight I had a hankering for some comfort food so made a vegetarian "shepherds pie" not really very shepherd-ish though without any lamb. It was great and surprisingly hit the spot tasting better than the original in my humble opinion!

Vegetarian "Shepherds Pie"

1 cup brown lentils- pressure cook in two cups of water for half an hour. put aside.

about 300g of pumpkin and same of potato(my pumpkin was a bit underripe and therefore starchy- I would err on the side of more potato)- cut into 1inch chunks(peel the pumpkin)and cook for about 15 mins in microwave until soft enough to mash. Mash with one tablespoon of butter.

return pressure cooker to high heat with some olive oil and add:

half and onion (chopped)

1carrot (medium dice) and fry for about 5 minutes then add

1 small garlic clove (bashed but not minced)

half a teaspoon curry powder- fry for about two minutes (lots of stirring too) then add

1can tomatoes

lentils from above,
I also found about quarter of a can of baked beans in the fridge and in they went too!

half a teaspoon of mixed hebs

half a teaspoon of stock powder

a few drops of soy sauce

cook over medium heat until nicely thickened and reduced.

pop into lovely dish and top with pumpkin and potato mash and a little grated cheese, if you have a good fierce grill brown off the top or just bake it at 200c for 20 mins.

Very well received by the small loud people who I live with (including the cat)

I haven't included a picture as brown stew like foods photgraph so badly!

Re-purposing Running Riot...

2010-04-02T03:00:00.000-07:00

I have been having fun finding "non traditional" objects to grow plants in.

I found a perfectly good galvanised bucket on the side of the road- well, it wasn't so good as a bucket because it had holes punched in the bottom but it started me on a rampage of repurposing. It has basil growing well now and was quickly joined by an olive oil tin with mint and an old mixing bowl which had a crack in the glaze which has had some drainage holes drilled and is supposed to be growing chillies but seems to have silverbeet instead(!?).

Having our regular "lunch out" we spotted some giant olive tins behind a patisserie so lovely husband popped his head into the kitchen window and asked if we could have them- they are now either side of the door with pansies and marigolds growing in them.

I have also planted a lemon tree in the drum from an old tumble dryer- I think it is a lovely thing, all stainless steel and shiny and even had holes at the bottom already. I have already turned a couple of wide tyres inside out and made successful little gardens in them.

I can't wait to find some more things to repurpose- at the moment nothing is safe as long as I can figure out how to get reasonable drainage there could be a plant in almost anything! Special mention must go to my long suffering husband who is very supportive of my mad ideas and pulls apart tumble dryers, drills very difficult holes in bowls and asks for tins for me!

Sometimes you have to be a Diva

2010-03-12T21:17:00.000-08:00

I feel very slack for not blogging but apart from the general business (busyness?) of life I have also been rehearsing my little(-ish.. ok fairly rotund!) buns off for my first belly dancing performance.
I was part of a student troupe (I take lessons with Zahira's Belly Dance Bazaar performing at the body n soul festival last weekend and I loved it! I am sure my performance wasn't polished but I had fun. My Saturday show was better than the Sunday one, I put part of that down to not having the great nervous energy but also I was disappointed when I got on Stage on Sunday and my little family hadn't been able to make it( naps are terrible for scheduling sometimes!).
I used to be a "drama weirdo" many years ago and my life revolved around theatre but I became jaded with the lack of maturity and well... dramatic behaviour so I hadn't performed in any capacity for ten years.
I must say though dressing up with a serious amount of slap and girly girly costume was a lot of fun as I don't get to be glamorous very often these days. even if I do dress up a little person will run up to me and smear unknown substances on me and then I need to go get changed.. or I go into the garden and absent mindedly pull up weeds with my bare hands...
Belly dancing is fun and make me feel very glam- I think it is a great celebration of femininity and great for getting rid of poor self perception. We ladies really need to give ourselves a break more often and stop trying to "blast" "nuke" and "banish" and other unpleasant war like words parts of our body as if they weren't wonderful and doing a great job. My thighs might be other than the ones I would have chosen from a catalogue but they are strong and do a great job keeping my bottom from sitting directly on my knees!
I don't have a lot of time or energy for beauty routines and I would love to share some secret girly tips but this is all I could come up with...not very many and not very secret sorry!
1. Oil cleansing... Google it- it is wonderful for the skin and takes a bit of tweaking to get the right proportions but very worthwhile doing. I found I didn't have to do it more than three times a week.
2. Microfibre cloths. Yes like the ones you use on the bench, or the car (not the same ones from the shed- new, clean ones- or ones from the facecloth aisle) no soap or cleanser needed. exfoliates and cleanses nicely.
3. Coconut oil- excellent moisturiser when you are using your natural sunscreen www.uvnatural.com.au I use extra virgin coconut oil on my face, arms etc.
4. Dry brushing. I will admit I don't shower extremely often but I do feel I don't need to as I dry brush every morning to get the lymph flowing and slough of the old dry skin. Google it and you will find heaps of information!
I think that is about all.
I would love to say that I get a good nights sleep, eat plenty of fresh fruit and veges and drink heaps of water but I can't state that with honesty. I do try though!
I would love to here from any of you out there so I could try some cheap, low maintenance environmentally friendly beauty tips!

Redeeming Features cookery!

2010-02-27T02:49:00.000-08:00

Well, life is always full of challenges big and small isn't it!
Sir Talks A lot is displaying "challenging behaviour" at present which can be quite exhausting especially when little brother Master Me too is copying everything.
Poor Little Sir Talks A lot (AKA Beany) has a recurrent middle ear infection and this always results in a burst ear drum- the Dr refuses to take my word for it and little man is on the second course of his strong Antibiotics but I don't think they are working, last time this happened he needed cortico steroids and a different anti B. I have told the Doc this but he doesn't believe me so we have to let him find out for himself.. in the meantime we have a cranky defiant little man at home whose behaviour is no doubt worsened by having a painful, smelly, gunky ear. At least he loves the outrageously artificially raspberry flavoured medicine!
I have pulled out two of the courgette plants as they weren't producing and they were getting too much powdery mildew.
Working on plantings for Autumn as it is just around the corner- well the day after tomorrow to be precise! Gardening is a humbling experience and I have so much to learn, not just from my voracious research and question asking but just through painful experience and failure too...ahhh I guess that is life in general too!
I have cleared out some of my less loved clothes and they will be picked up by a freecycle member tomorrow, so far I have moved on a chair, two tyres and a bread slicing guide.. oooh it is addictive to pass things onto people who really want them!
I have had two culinary victories with my "redeeming features" cookery.
"White Dip Bean Dip" as named by Beany is actually just this recipe here from Andrea Meyers: http://www.andreasrecipes.com/2008/04/24/cannellini-bean-dip-with-herbed-pita/
but we had ours with home grown cherry tomatoes, beans and toasted fingers of homemade bread which had been collecting in the freezer awaiting being turned into breadcrumbs (they were drizzled with olive oil and rubbed with homegrown garlic)
Beany made it with me when Master Me Too was napping and we had much fun ands enjoyed eating it with me, Master me too gobbled up the leftovers when he got up

Tonight we had vege rolls which were a (surprising) hit with the little men.
I was making it up a bit as I went along but roughly:
two sheets of puff pastry
1/4 cup frozen peas
1 "portion" frozen spinach (approximately 1/4 cup)
1 small potato diced.
1/2 tsp curry powder
1 small tsp stock powder
(cook the ingredients so far in a microwave proof bowl for about 5 mins until potato is fairly soft)

Add 1/2 cup grated courgette
4 tbsp (ish) cottage cheese(creamed not low fat)
a couple of handfuls of rolled oats
one handful of sultanas
a handful of mung bean sprouts
1 egg
Mix together thoroughly

Cut each pastry sheet in half and place 1/4 filling in centre of each piece of pastry, form into rolls, place seam side down on baking tray and bake at 200c (fan forced) until puffed and golden brown.
I am sure that I have had more blog worthy happenings than a couple of meals and a burst ear drum by proxy but the migraine I have had in response to a surprise thunderstorm has left me little vague and scattered...
Hope I make a modicum of sense!

An Introduction to Freecycle...

2010-02-18T01:55:00.000-08:00

Things are calm here, blackberry and courgette muffins in the oven Stargate Atlantis on the TV but today had pockets of extreme excitement...
I have just joined Freecycle and very excited about redistributing goods to those who would appreciate them. I listed a grey vinyl armchair that has been lurking on the verandah since we moved here. We inherited it with the house and I have cleaned up enough rental properties to know that this was the sort of armchair you don't mess with. It is so solid and dour that I think it must have come from a maternity ward and been used for nursing, I found it good for breastfeeding anyway. But it had done it's time here so I popped it on Freecycle. A very happy man called to say he was collecting it for his wife and we took care to let him know how big and heavy it was...
Some hours later a man in visibility vest and Council hat was examining the gutter out the front very closely... Hurrah! he has come to check the festering stagnant puddle full of mosquito larvae (and adults!) that I reported on Monday (not too bad a delay I thought). I was chatting about how the whole suburb is slowly sinking and the puddle has formed in a low spot when a man appeared and told us it wasn't as bad as in Malaysia.
Council Man: "I have just exchanged a whole lot of Malaysian money"
Suddenly appeared man: "Are you going to Malaysia?"
Council Man: "No I just came back from there."
Suddenly Appeared Man:"You would have gone to Butter Hills (sic?) Caves, I have the cave on the left"
Council Man, "Oh the cave on the left, I didn't go there, too many stairs"
(Suddenly appeared man is hereafter called "Cave Man"); "Yes, there are 208.."
This cave based conversation went on for some time with many interesting facts about cave ecology (this cave has over 300 species and is about 2.5km long apparently), I just hung about as such odd conversations don't normally happen at my gate post.. then it took a turn!
Cave Man ; "perhaps you will be coming to where I live I put in a concern for Johnson Grove (insert long protracted description of driveway entrance problems)"
Council Man: "Are you number 27? I will come over tomorrow- what are you doing here?"
Cave man: "Collecting a chair"
Council man: "I meant Australia"
....I left them to it and the Cave man (now Chair Man?)went to get his Mitsubishi sedan which was clearly inadequate for the mighty armchair...
Then a loud opinionated tow truck driver delivering a car to us pulled up beside the Mitsubishi and decided to get involved.. I watched from afar...
"No bloody way,the hole just isn't big enough, I know holes and that isn't goin' in the hole, no bloody way!" so sayeth the Tow truck driver- a rare occasion of him actually being right.
Eventually the chair was put back on the nature strip whilst Chair Man went to get a more suitable vehicle and reinforcements( I did tell him it was heavy!).
After we finished running errands the chair has gone and there is so much more room on the verandah- not to mention the entertainment factor from the whole happening! Freecycle is great!

Jammin'!

2010-02-14T18:32:00.000-08:00

I am amazed when you Google about jam making (or even read in a Book!) the amount of complicated shenanigans that seem to be involved....you need a canner (!) you need special jars, you need a water bath, you need shop bought pectin...it is enough to put lazy folk like me off jam making for life.
I picked some more blackberries today (normally 250g every day or so) and made jam. (Please note I totally cocked it up when I decided to measure the capacity of my jars by measuring out cups of water- in the cup I had squeezed my lemon juice into so I threw a half a lemon in to the mix when it was cooking to add some more pectin.. worked a treat!)
The recipe I got from allotment.org.uk- I have tweaked it to be even more Dull Roar Philosophy

Je vous présente
The Dull Roar Jam Making Method
Collect any jars you have from vacuum sealed foods such as jams, pasta sauces etc, wash and store for another day..
Another day pull them out (two will do) and pop them in baby bottle steam steriliser in the usual fashion- set to go.
Bung 500g fruit and 2 cups sugar with 1/4 cup lemon juice in a large microwave proof bowl.
Set to go for 5 mins on high.
Stir when it beeps.
Set to go for 20 mins on high opening the door and looking at it fiercely occasionally to ensure it doesn't boil over in the microwave 'cos that is some sticky sticky mess. Also stir sometimes when you are looking at it fiercely.
I forgot to tell you to put a saucer in the freezer.. do that now.
test a bit of jam on the saucer to see if it will set- it normally sets much better than it does on the saucer.
let jam sit for 5 mins (or not- I don't, I am waaaay to impatient for that!)
Pour into the hot sterilised jars from baby bottle steriliser and slap the lids on, the vacuum seal button will pop itself down and seal it. Jars and jam need to be hot for this to work.
Makes about two cups/ two jars of very nice jam very easily.

I don't know if the jar lids wear out or how long they would keep, mine are in the fridge anyway and two pots of jam don't tend to last around here as the boys love it on bread with tahini.
There you go- no mystery- not much mess and no special equipment- takes me half an hour from go to whoa (a bit longer if I have to pick 500g blackberries first...!)
Go, and have fun and be no longer intimidated by condiments and spreads!

A Very Beany Day

2010-02-13T00:48:00.000-08:00

It seems that blogs are rife with people gushing about their children so I am warning you now this is a gushy children edition of the dull roar philosophy...
This morning I went to the boys' room and found Sir Talks A Lot (AKA Beany) tidying up all his toys. There was a perilous teetering pile looming from his toy box but he was determinedly tidying up... I was astonished and delighted!It set the tone for a day with a Very Helpful Little Man (and squeaking baby brother).
I managed to walk to the shops to buy free range eggs and blueberries (also coca cola for ailing Daddy Man and newspaper for me) and a toy puppy at the Salvation army shop for the good little man in question ("Mummy I also covered my mouth when I coughed and you didn't even haf ta tell me to!"), collect borage, nasturtium and calendula seeds, make a vegetable slice (with homegrown zucchini(now called courgette by me as it is easier for me to spell), capsicum from the neighbour-over-the back-fence (traded for some blackberries) spring onions and wild amaranth that I have recently identified in my garden...I also made a delicious courgette chocolate cake(next time more cocoa and less sugar) , the boys relished cleaning out the bowl!
Cap'n Beany (AKA Sir Talks A Lot) then asked if he could have his own garden so we found a bit of the front yard long neglected and laid a no-dig garden on top for his pleasure.

First we sprinkled some pelletised fowl manure, then laid a layer of wet paper, then more fowl manure, then a mulch of leaf mold (fallen leaves and alkanet which I am hoping will be nearly as good as Comfrey- which has been attacked by now squished caterpillar) then another sprinkle of manure, a layer of compost , some more manure and finally a good layer of straw. The manure was only a light sprinkle for each layer and each was helpfully watered by a little person ("That's right darling, good job ...whoops! Ok not on mummy's shoes!). Beany was really very helpful and it was a joy to work with him especially as gardening with him can leave me feeling very stressed and then guilty because I feel I have been too short tempered... He will be a great help when we give the same treatment to the rest of the front yard (see the above picture) Then we went inside and they had a finger food meal of vege slice, homegrown cherry tomatoes, whole meal pita bread and cheese whilst we watched their favourite show "Nigella Express" and "Gardening Australia" (What, me influence their viewing habits? Never!). Now they are tucked in bed (including the Daddy Man -AKA my Soul Mate and long suffering husband -who has been terribly knocked around by catching a flu whilst stressed)
I made my first attempt at courgette relish and I am a bit obsessed with it and worried that courgettes are going to have me fatten up considerably as I can't stop eating cheese and relish sandwiches, cheese and relish on crackers... cheese with relish on it and now courgette chocolate cake! I hope all my walking about and lazy gardening along with the odd bout of belly dancing keeps the wobbles at an appropriate level!
I might go watch The Empire Strikes Back for the 93rd (approx.) time or possibly some old episodes of Angel...decisions...decisions...

Blackberries and Thunder

2010-02-05T02:25:00.000-08:00

Funny hot weather here these days and a lurking sort of menace to the air. We had some much needed rain last night but the clouds and mugginess remains.
I harvested some zucchinis (courgettes... easier to spell for me!) today- some lovely stripy open pollinated ones from The Lost Seed. I am amazed, as many before me have been, at the courgettes capacity to turn positively marrowlike as soon as my back is turned. I am delighted to be facing the age old problems of gardeners all over Australia- "What am I going to do with all these ?"
The tomatoes are rambling all over the place as my dull roar tomato stakes weren't up for the job and so they have feralised throughout the garden. Lovely sweet little tomatoes hidden amongst the plants bursting in my mouth when I potter around.
I am occasionally munching on some brown beauty beans.
Sir Talk A Lot has an amazing ability to eat Blackberries which we are taming over a remaining bit of back fence. There are so many that I pick about 300g a day and there are still plenty for the birds. The brambles seem to like being pruned. The boys love blackberries which can be very messy and a bit scary if they try to get round to the brambles without adult supervision. Although I freely admit the boys are prodigies who are amazingly capable I still don't think a 16 month old and 3 year old should be near so much spikiness (sp!). I let Sir Talk A Lot have as many as he wants on the weekends and squirrel them away for freezing and baking during the week. He can get quite emotional when I tell him he needs to stop eating blackberries- I am fearful of him getting what my mother in law calls euphemistically "a tummy ache". Courgette and blackberry muffins have been in the lunch boxes this week.

Mumbling along as it should...

2010-01-23T03:05:00.000-08:00

We have had a breakthrough here at Apple Isle Cottages.
It is in large part due to a book called Divas and Dictators by Charlie Taylor, a great book about behaviour modification techniques, specifically his 6 to 1 principle of using six pieces of praise to every one of criticism when dealing with your child and I am astounded how quickly his techniques are working.
We have not been having fun lately with two very demanding little boys but they have responded so quickly to the heaps of praise and specific treats that life has become easier in just a couple of days. Huzzah for Mr Taylor we say!! Some of what he suggests is forehead smackingly obvious, or at least it should be but that doesn't undermine its worth at all.
Today the boys "helped" me cook a fresh stripy heirloom zucchini from the garden, our first! Master Me Too (16 months) is very passionate about cooking and resents not being able to see the cooking action or take part in it.
Sir Talk A Lot (three years old) has been delighting us with his counting prowess, his little brother copies everything he does and has been found poking his finger at the counting book saying "two, two" in an adorable effort to be just like his brother.
The boys had a wonderful time being totally rapt in watching Nigella's Express and Gardening Australia today ... they really enjoy their gardening and cooking- I hope this sticks, I think it is so important for kiddies to enjoy "real" things like cooking, working the garden, fixing, cleaning, creating etc rather than things I consider "unreal" such as video games and obsessions with following (but not necessarily playing) sports.
When the boys were bathed, read to and tucked in bed I fossicked some compost out from the heap and fed the zucchinis, beans, pumpkins, borage, potatoes. I added some more scraps and comfrey to the heap which is breaking down well.
I had fun pruning some vigorous non fruiting "poky outy" bits of the wild blackberry bush we are taming out the back. I have picked enough for my first batch of blackberry jam now which is good as we are on the last jar of strawberry I made earlier in the year.
The library always provides us with wonderful treasures and apart from the Charlie Taylor book I am also reading a lovely little book called "four Tenths of an Acre" by Laurie Lisle which is an absolutely delightful read about the evolution of her garden and experiences of life.
Aren't Libraries wonderful?
I hope for many more days like today....

Ponderings on waste

2010-01-18T02:46:00.000-08:00

I vaguely worry about becoming a fanatic, a zealot that noone listens to but it seems to me that my views on life are reasonable... maybe crazed fanatical zealots feel the same way.
Here are some of the thoughts I have had recently that seem to be out of the ordinary...

I expect people to do the job they are paid to do without me having to get all threatening...why is it that from panel beaters to the ombudsman it seems that most people simply will not do the job they are paid to do unless there are several follow up phonecalls and a nasty letter. Most service providers seem to think it is ok for them to vaguely agree-ish to something in principle- accept money for it and then do bugger all about it- if you are lucky- if you are unlucky they will do the exact opposite you are paying them to do and then charge twice as much as they quoted! Is it cranky and old fashioned of me to expect the paid professionals to do their job and a better job of it than I would do?

I think loo paper from virgin wood should be illegal or at the very least taxed like cigarettes so that it is prohibitively expensive.. for goodness sake we have plenty of paper to recycle so that the poor trees can at least be used twice- not just grow a dignified oxgyen producing physical being so I can wipe my bum on it and then flush it away to the ocean... I am not a fanatical greenie but c'mon people- growing trees just to wipe your bum at least we could print some facetious drivel on it- read it, then wipe our bums on it!

People are too wasteful these days, I was watching an old Scrapheap Challenge tonight and we were amazed at the apparent "Scrap" in the heap like you know, those pesky old tractors that still fire up and drive...sure I know that the show is a setup and the tractors are likely planted but it illustrates my point about waste! I read on forums about people thinking they are cutting things to the bone because they have a five year old Corolla and a ten year old kitchen and only one and a half bathrooms. People!!!! a Five year old Corolla is a lovely car to have.. I have several (for my business), kitchens used to last a lifetime and when I was growing up having two loos was a luxury only for the very upper middle class and rather indulgent. when I lived on the Gold Coast council cleanup time was amazing and I got some amazing stuff that needed one screw or a light bulb or a wash but was fine apart from that... hundreds of dollars worth of gear... you could also buy a car that was roadworthy from the council auctions for about $200...they had been left on the side of the road....some of my best finds have been from the inside of abandoned vehicles we have bought... such waste! No wonder we are "all" poor and the planet is choking in "stuff".

The Australian poor... I no longer believe in it. We live well of the equivalent of benefits whilst our business is building and I have had my time on student allowances... Poor choices such as spending all your money on drugs, alcohol and video games tends to be the reason most people are poor.. can't afford school shoes but McDonalds five times a week and always beer for the week. Easy handouts have created a multigenerational class of Bogans who expect to be spoon fed and given all they desire when they whinge and swear enough....

Ahhhh. that feels better.
A good vent.
I shall return much less angry next time.
Or perhaps I will have remembered more things that drive me so very batty!

2010-01-01T03:05:00.000-08:00

Christmas and New years have come along in a whirl of activity and trying to keep everything down to a dull roar is getting trickier- I have just dropped into survival mode.
It is the busiest time of year for our little business and the wonderful community daycare my two boys go to closes for ten days over the Holidays.
Trying to juggle such a busy business with two VERY active toddlers in the heat is proving challenging to say the least!
I am amazed at how dirty the little ones get when they play out in the backyard all the time but having to do more washing seems to be an ok trade for healthy active kidlets (says me who doesn't do the washing for our house).
Christmas was subdued and I made a lemon meringue pie which I was delighted with and the little ones didn't want to touch as they were too busy playing in cardboard boxes their christmas presents had come in... Master Three spent several days sleeping in the box (just at the appropriate times, ie nap time and night time.. not the whole days!) and eventually we had to recycle the sad and sorry limp container!

The weather has been HOT and DRY so watering the vege garden has been high on the agenda.
My tomatoes are revving along and have long out grown their stakes.. I suspect the soil to be too rich in nitrogen from some ill fated pea plants who previously occupied their bed but the fruit is coming along merrily so we shall see...
The remains of an old apricot tree has determinedly survived the main trunk falling over about 18 months ago and I am bringing in almost ripe apricots everyday which the baby boy loves, those left on the tree are pecked at by birds but there seems to be enough for us all and the birds seems to keep the insecty pests down.. I have seen a few grasshoppers but they don't seem to be damaging so I can only suppose the well fed birdies around here are snacking on them.
I am working on a repertoire of "redeeming feature" snacks which the children will eat but have at least one redeeming feature such as whole grains, vegetables etc and am having success with a prototype of a carrot biscuit... when it is complete I will post the recipe. I know there are others out there but Master Three cares not for spices and I don't like a lot of them because the fat and sugar content is ridiculous....
The kitchen floor is filthy but at least we are all together and healthy...the floor can wait until things settle down again!

Spontaneous path building!

2009-12-13T21:39:00.000-08:00

It has been a surprisingly productive day here at Apple Isle Cottages.
We have a big pile of bricks recently acquired from the next door cottage we have taken over and we were lamenting what to do with it when I looked at my very temporary path made of old fence palings (which has been there since January!) and decided that it was time to upgrade to something more permanent and decided to muck together a brick path using the great bricks we have in our pile which have "jorny & campbell Launceston" stamped in the top. In typical Dull roar philosophy style I used some of our existing large gravel pile as a base and an hours work later she was done..and I even found a few treasures..( ok one treasure- a teacup with no handle and not very old)..the path is a wee bit higgledy piggledy but Apple Isle Cottages is pretty higgledy piggledy itself, being built in reclaimed swamp 113 years ago.
So a new free path which my three year old hopefully won't fall over in such a spectacular slapstick fashion (although it was amusing the first couple of times, I won't lie to you!).
I have managed to fit in one 15 minute session of tidying, got the dishes done, tidied the boys room and put away the washing in that time!
What a beautiful day it is here today, I wouldn't live anywhere else in the world for quids!

And So It Begins

2009-12-12T21:47:00.000-08:00

First of all I would like to formally welcome you all to my first blog which is likely to be of no real interest to anyone but myself so if you happen to take the time to read it I am most gratified and hope it warrants any attention you may bestow upon it.
I have a busy life, not busy like most people's, no social calender, no office to trudge to every day, but busy with a new small business, two small children, a tumbledown house in a new state and the beginnings of a vegie garden messing up the long neglected back yard.
My long suffering and much adored husband and I moved from Sunny Queensland Gold Coast to Launceston Tasmania in January of this year and so I guess we are about to celebrate our one year anniversary in Tasmania.
We don't like waste here in our house and that is reflected in how we live our lives. Food and garden scraps are composted (food only after it is offered to the peculiar little Devon Rex cat who chooses to reside with us). Things are bought second hand where we can which is not only cheaper but means I don't feel guilty when I stain or break something and has the knock on effect of being better for the environment. To some it may seem I am an environmentalist at first glance if I am truthful it is our dislike of waste that has lead to our life style being of benefit to the planet and not a feeling of obligation to reduce my carbon footprint.
There, that feels better- what a confession- I am not a ramapant greenie, I just happen to act like one!
I of course bear no ill-will towards mother nature and am very fond of the beauty and bounty she supplies but it hasn't been my only motivation in changes I have made in my lifestyle.
We repair things when we can and repurpose things in a new way if we can.
I was always amazed at the amount of perfectly good things thrown out in the Gold Coast council cleanup- such a wasteful community up there- we have found Launceston is less like that and people are more understanding of a our mend and make do attitude.
I sound very pious and wholesome BUT I will confess that I struggle with things like keeping the house and garden in a reasonable state so I have invented my own philosophy-
The Dull Roar
it is basically an attempt to keep our heads over water domestically.
I will never have a display home clean home- even if it was just me I'm a grubby little devil who likes doing grubby things like cooking and gardening and the house would never stay clean and i also have two grubby little children and a much cleaner husband who also has grubby hobbies like renovating and repairing cars and don't forget the cat- did you know that dark Devon rex cats sneeze dark tears everywhere?
I do however recognise that a certain level of social responsibility and cleanliness is required so I am trying to work out a plan to keep the mess and rudeness down to a dull roar...
So far..
* Set the fabulous vintage kitchen timer to 15 mins and do something to help the tidiness and cleanliness. Washing pots and sweeping the floor, wiping benches generally takes less time than this.
*Time savers- food in the freezer for the boys day care lunches
-teaspoon of generic brand nappysoaker in the loo overnight to be flushed away in the morning.
-spraying the floor and cleaning with a damp towel (pushed around by my feet!) instead of mopping which never really worked.

hopefully I will build up a repertoire which will allow me to get on with running our business and doing the fun frugal stuff I enjoy, cooking, making my own salves, vegie gardening, newly interested and converted to jam making, make my own bread (use a cheaty machine- how I love it!)making my own yoghurt, cutting my boys hair (actually only one of the boys is fun to do haircuts on the other is tooo hoppity) making yoghurt....

I am looking at ways the Dull Roar Philosophy can be applied to other parts of life too...