I have moved

I have moved my blog to:

http://restisnotidleness.blogspot.com/

Oh my aching back

My back is sore today, my own fault really, Cody (our cat) has some toy mice that he plays with, he brings them to us, we throw them away, he brings them back and so it goes on. He also has this habit of flicking them under the fridge, then he sits there waiting for either of us to get them out for him to do it all over again. So this morning he is sitting there waiting for his devoted servant to get his mouse out, I knelt down and looked under the fridge, I couldn't see anything under there and then I felt a twinge in my back (the usual place I get it) I thought "oh no, I can't get up" my DH came in at the point and asked if I was ok, "just my back, I'll be right in a minute" as I slowly got to my feet. Cody is still waiting for someone to get his mouse and is getting impatient so he makes an interrogative miaow (Hurry up, get it out now!!) My DH has a look and sees the mouse and gets it then throws it up the hall, Cody tears off after it, but this time doesn't bring it back, obviously he had to wait to long and doesn't want to play any more.

My big plans for today (making a no-dig potato bed) have had to be shelved. I've had a hot pack on my back and it seems to be getting better, but I shall take it easy today. I think I will try and finish my scarf. It's cold outside so a good day to stay inside anyway

Yellow Violas

The year is half over

It's hard to believe that we are already halfway through the year. The weather here in Adelaide has not been very nice lately, although it is Winter. We could do with more rain, our rain gauge has had 1mm, 2mm, 5mm and 4mm over the past 4 days. Not enough to fill up the dams. Today is another gray day, and although the sun has been out a few times it is still quite cold with an icy wind coming from the south.

Today (Tuesday) is the start of doing less work, with at the moment one day off a week, so we get a 3 day weekend. Part of doing less work means being less profligate with our spending.


profligate - recklessly prodigal or extravagant

prodigal - wastefully or recklessly extravagant

Although I suppose that profligate is not really the correct word as we don't normally go out and recklessly spend money. Last weekend we were in the big shopping centre near us and I looked at a couple of things and then thought "why am I looking at these things, I certainly don't need them even if I might want them" which led me to thinking that where once I would have been happy to spend 3-4 hours wandering around the shopping centre, buying anything I wanted (within reason) now I would prefer to be at home doing something else, like gardening, crafting, reading, surfing the internet or just doing nothing much. I used to spend too much time on the internet reading other blogs, but I have cut back on this and only have a few favourite blogs that I check out daily or weekly, sometime I will post a list of my favourite blogs.

Today I made meatloaf, we had it with roast potatoes and braised carrot, celery, beans and zucchini. There is enough leftover for meatloaf sandwiches tomorrow night. I'm trying to plan ahead so that I don't have to spend too much time cooking, so what we have for lunch (our main meal) we will have for tea or supper the next day.

Cheese

I have been trying this cheese tin that my mother sent me from New Zealand, I was a bit dubious whether it would store the cheese and stop it from drying out without using plastic wrap. I'm pleased to say that it does, I have had several types of cheese stored in it and they have all remained in good condition, this swiss type cheese has been in it for nearly 2 weeks. I have had cheddar and a blue cheese in there as well, there doesn't seem to have been any flavour transfer either. My only quibble with the tin is it would be better if it was square, that is it would fit in the refrigerator better and you could put more cheese in it as well. I have been trying to cut down on my plastic wrap use and this has been one of the ways to do it. Another thing I have been trying is plastic covers which are similar to shower caps, they come in different sizes, and work quite well, you can wash them if they get dirty, but you can't use them in the microwave

Sunday Sunset

I took these photos on Sunday night, I happened to glance out the window and saw the sunset and thought I must get a photo of that. We get to see lovely sunsets but we're not usually home to enjoy them, that will all change next month when we reduce our workload.

I have unravelled my scarf that I was knitting, I finished it but the edges curled up, which I am told happens when you knit 1 row plain, 1 row purl, so I have unravelled 1 hank of wool, and have started knitting again all in plain, and it is much better looking. Once I would have been really upset at having to do that, but now I'm quite relaxed about it, I quite enjoyed knitting it as it grew so fast so I just do a few rows while I am watching TV and it is almost half finished, another week or so should see it finished (again). The weather is getting colder now so it will come in useful on cold mornings and evenings.

I have tried to change the layout of the photos but Blogger won't let me (or I can't work it out) and I don't really have enough time to faff around, you can still see the photos and read the text so that's ok by me.

Some knitting I have been doing

I got this wool at Spotlight a couple of weekends ago, I really liked the colours in the hank and it said buy me, I had no idea what I would make but there was a pattern on the label for a scarf, so I decided to knit that. It knits up really quickly and I finished the hank but the scarf wasn't long enough, so I re-read the pattern and it had 1 x 100g hank, so I looked at the label and it said 50g !! You would think that the pattern would say 2 x 50g hanks wouldn't you? Anyway, not to worry, I just dropped in at Spotlight and got another 2 hanks, I was a bit worried that I wouldn't get the same batch and dye lot, but even though I went to a different shop it was the same batch and dye lot. So my scarf grows, it is quite heavy and I think I will have to block it as it has a tendency to curl up, it also has uneven edges probably due to the wool having thin bits and thick bits (I don't know what you call this type of yarn, my mother who knits a lot probably would, so if you are reading this Mum, you can comment if you know)

June

"In a sense, clutter is the end result of procrastination"

The title is a quote by Jeff Campbell. I've been doing a bit of decluttering. Here are some more ideas:

Do it now - don't procrastinate, a little at a time and you will be able to declutter.

Remember - you are making room in your life, for the life you want. Don't get stuck in the past.

If you aren't sure of something, hide it in a box for a few months. See how you feel then.

If your stuff doesn't fit your space, you have too much stuff.

Pick a small time frame that you will spend on decluttering every day. It doesn't have to be a long time, even 5 minutes can be enough to declutter one drawer.

Is it worth the space it is taking up?

Does it fit? Does it work? Is it helpful for this stage of your life?

Do you love it, use it or need it?

Tired

Well the weekend is nearly over and I feel quite tired. We were up early this morning as we had to work. Once that was done we came home and had morning tea. I decided to get out into the garden and get some seeds planted out. (or should that be sown?) First I had to remove some old sprouting broccoli, I had cut it back previously but it was badly infested with aphids and it was nearly 3 years old. Once that was out, I replanted some chives into a pot and then dug over the garden bed. The soil is a lot better than when I started, although there are still a lot of stones in it, but now I see worms and there never used to be any there. I also dug in some compost from my compost bin. I have this clever spiral device which you can use to aerate the compost and also I use it to take out compost from the bottom of the bin through the side vents, then the compost falls down and I use it to mix it all up, a bit of effort but the compost seems to compost quicker, than if I leave it to sit.

After I tidied up the 2 garden beds, I sorted out my seeds, and worked out what to plant. I planted climbing snow peas, arugula, 5 coloured silverbeet, kale, mesclun, pak choy and some spring onions. I planted a lot of the arugula, mesclun and pak choy as I intend to use it as "cut and come again" greens for us. I only planted a few of the silverbeet and kale, and one row of the snow peas. I need to do something about the french tarragon as it will start to die down now that it is getting colder.

Now I feel quite tired, luckily I have some red chicken curry already made up from another meal, and I just have to do some vegetables and some rice in the microwave and tea will be ready. Apple crumble and custard for dessert, yum. I think it will be a fairly early night for me.

An unproductive week

The post title says it all really. I have done very little apart from the usual cleaning, cooking housework and things that must be done. Although I have finished reading a book so you could say that is productive. The book called Out, is by Natsuo Kirino, a Japanese writer and has been translated from Japanese. It is a mystery novel, a story of random violence in the staid Tokyo suburbs, about a young mother who strangles her husband and then seeks the help of her co-workers to dispose of the body and cover up her crime. I really enjoyed it, some parts are quite humorous in a dark sort of way. Today I'm going to make a start on Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry.

The weather forecast is for fine weather this weekend, so a good chance for me to get out into the garden and plant a few seeds. I'm having a freezer cleanout as well so we are eating all the frozen casseroles and bits of soup that are lurking in there.

Boondoggling

I've been playing around with things on my blog and seem to have messed it up. Never mind, when I have time I'll have another play around and fix it up. Today is one of those day's, don't seem to have enough time, truth be told I am wasting time here on the computer.

Raining

It rained quite a bit yesterday, before we left for work we had 20mm, in less than 4 hours. My DH emptied out the raingauge and I have yet to venture outside to check it this morning. I don't have much planned for today other than the usual you know, housework, cooking etc. When the weather is like this the only thing I really feel like doing is reading or pottering around and not doing much at all. But, there are things that need doing and I got up early so I could get them done and then have the rest of the day free.

I can hear the rain on the roof, quite gentle at the moment, yesterday it came down so hard and fast that the gutters couldn't cope and overflowed (they had been cleaned out 2 days ago). the creek running through the Botanic Gardens was nearly overflowing when we were there yesterday afternoon and I couldn't help thinking that it was such a waste, all the water was just going into the Torrens river and then out to sea. The State government really need to do something about harvesting this water, after all we keep getting told that South Australia is the driest state in the driest country, and instead they are going to build a desalination plant which will use more energy than a plant that will recycle (I don't know if that is the right word) storm water and sewage. Apparently Singapore drinks a large proportion of recycled water, I never noticed any difference in the water quality or taste when I was living there.

This blogging isn't getting any work done, so I'm off.

Cold Mornings

It was 8°C this morning, which while not really cold was cold enough to make me think that my normal breakfast of rolled oats, apple and yoghurt, served cold was not really what I wanted today. so I had porridge, or rather my variation of it:

Put in a largish bowl, (the bowl you will eat it from, I'm currently using a pasta bowl)

1/3 c rolled oats 1/2 c milk
then add 1 chopped apple (skin and all) and 1 tb craisins or sultanas, 1/2 tsp cinnamon and then microwave for 2-3 mins (depending on your microwave) You can stir it halfway through if you like, but I usually don't bother. Top with yoghurt or whatever you want (runny cream and some brown sugar can be quite nice) and enjoy.

I make other variations depending on what is available or what I feel like, the basic recipe of oats and milk stays the same, it's just the extras that change, for example,

1 tb almonds, chopped or slivered and 1 tb maple syrup/or golden syrup

1 tb chopped walnuts 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 chopped banana 2-3 chopped dates

If you like your porridge runnier, just add a bit more milk. I think it works better if the bowl is wider rather than deeper. If you want to make a larger quantity (say for 2 people) it is better to make 2 bowls and cook separately rather than 1 larger bowl.

Be warned it is usually quite hot when it comes from the microwave, so it's best to leave it to stand for a minute or so. Don't forget to soak the bowl once you have finished, otherwise it is murder to clean.

What to have for lunch

I haven't cooked this Alison Holst recipe for ages, I remembered it yesterday when I was racking my brains trying to think of something quick to have for lunch. Originally I had planned to have some leftovers from the day before, but we had been a bit greedy and there wasn't quite enough. I had potatoes, frozen peas and eggs, and I had some sour cream that was close to it's use by date, so half an hour later we were eating. I served it with some steamed broccoli which went well with the curried sauce. Delicious. It is still really nice without the peas, sour cream and hardboiled eggs, and if you don't have new potatoes it works ok too. Next time I think I will try adding some cooked chick peas to the mixture as well.

Curried New Potatoes

Serves 4 or 2 really hungry people

2 Tbsp butter
1 tsp curry powder
1 onion, chopped
6 medium new potatoes (600g)
1 tsp instant chicken stock
1 tsp sugar
1 cup hot water

Optional ingredients:
1/2 cup peas
1/4 cup sour cream
4-6 hardboiled eggs

In a medium sized frypan, melt the butter, add curry powder and chopped onion and cook gently while you wash and scrape the potatoes (if necessary) Cut the potatoes into halves or quarters for quicker cooking. Add to the curry and onion mixture, stir then add the hot water, instant stock and sugar. Stir again, cover pan and simmer gently for 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender and liquid is thick. (watch liquid and add extra or raise heat, so you finish up with a thickish sauce. Serve as it is or:

Add peas and cook until peas are tender, then serve.
Or add sour cream, mixture will thin when sour cream is added, just cook uncovered for about 5 minutes until sauce thickens, then serve.
Or add 4-6 hardboiled eggs, shelled and cut into halves or quarters, arrange eggs on top of mixture and heat gently until they are warm. Sprinkle with paprika if desired, then serve.
You can use half hot water and half coconut cream or milk, if you use the coconut cream/milk then don't use sour cream, as it will be too rich.
I have made it without using the instant chicken stock, you may need to add some salt if you omit that.

May

It's hard to believe that 4 months of the year have gone already.

We bought a rain gauge last weekend, a very cheap one but I am sure it will do the job. I looked at it yesterday morning and we had 1.5mm, and came inside and told my WH, he then asked if I had emptied it out, I wondered (to myself) what for? and then I realised so went back outside and emptied it. Checked it again when we came back from grocery shopping, library etc and only had a couple of drops in it, yet it had been raining quite a lot about 2km away, which just goes to show about local conditions. This morning we had 5.5mm, every bit of rain is good.

The long weekend is over

It is so enjoyable to have a long weekend. I made 3 loaves of bread during the weekend, and we have about half of the last loaf left. I also made Anzac biscuits, they are a very unpredictable biscuit, I remember reading a discussion on how to make crispy or chewy biscuits, something to do with the amount of liquid and flour I think. One tray of the ones I made were thick and crisp, the other tray were thick and chewy. The crisp ones were cooked in the middle of the oven and cooked for a bit longer. I can remember Anzac biscuits that my mother used to bake and they were thin and crisp. It doesn't really matter as I like them all ways. The other thing I have to remember is if I am using an Australian or NZ recipe as the tablespoon measurements are different. Australian tablespoons are 20ml and NZ are 15ml, so depending on the ingredients used it could make quite a difference.

We have had a lot of rain - nearly 20mm and has been quite cold as well about 14°C as well. The sun has been out this afternoon so it has been quite nice. I went to the library on Saturday to pick up a book I had ordered, it is Animal, Vegetable, Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver. After that I popped into the Salvation Army Thrift shop to get some knitting needles, I ended up getting 2 needles, 1 crochet hook, 1 circular knitting needle and 2 double ended needles - all for $4.50 a bargain I think, as I had seen needles in Lincraft for $5. Started another dishcloth last night but I think the needles might be too big for the job as so far the cloth seems a bit lacy looking.

This afternoon I started tidying up my sewing room, but got side tracked and completed 2 small projects that were nearly finished. I will finish up the tidy up tomorrow morning.

We're having red chicken curry, green beans and rice for tea tonight - leftovers from Friday night, followed by quince poached in red wine and honey. It's raining again, I can hear it on the roof and the cloud has come down so I can't see the reservoir any more.

Living simply

Rhonda over at http://www.down---to---earth.blogspot.com/has asked her readers to give a description of what our lives are and how we live. This is mine;

I have been inspired by several of the blogs that I have found over the past year or so. About two years ago I felt unhappy with the way we were living our life. I knew there were changes we could make. These are just some of them:

Starting a compost bin, this has really reduced the amount of rubbish we put in the bin.

Stop accepting plastic bags, cloth bags go everywhere with us so we are never caught out.

Start a small veggie garden and grow some of the things that we would normally buy.

My WH put up a clothesline under the roof in our outdoor living area, now I can hang the washing out and not have to worry about it getting wet. I still also use my Hills hoist.

Instead of buying cleaning products I now make my own, I also make my own laundry liquid.

I did a major de-clutter of the house, selling furniture and giving away a lot of "stuff" that was excess to our needs.

Using a mooncup instead of buying tampons, pads etc, the money saved in 3 months has paid for it.

I already made bread, and cooked all our meals from scratch. I have been making pickles and chutney, the only thing holding me back from making more is a lack of jars.

Started sewing again and even knitted a few dishcloths.

I feel a lot more content and in control of our life now.

Poppy

Anzac Day

The Ode

They shall grow not old,

As we that are left grow old,

Age shall not weary them,

Nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun,

And in the morning

We will remember them

Laurence Binyon (1869-1943), For the Fallen (1914), stanza 4

Another weekend gone

I spent most of Saturday cleaning the oven, or it seemed like that. It is done now and today I re-arranged the 2 drawers under the oven, they are all tidy now, I had just been tossing the cake tins in any which way. Weatherwise the weekend was a bit bleak, it was quite cool and sent me to the wardrobe searching out my winter clothes, I think next weekend I will be putting away all the warm weather clothes, perhaps this time I will also get rid of the ones that I didn't wear but have been holding on to thinking I would wear them.

I was going to plant seeds on the Sunday, but never got around to it because it wasn't very nice outside in the garen. I'm glad I didn't as the birds have been in the garden digging through the mulch and have made a real mess scattering the mulch everywhere, so any seeds planted would have been eaten or messed up. I think I will have to buy some seed raising mix and plant the seeds in punnets first. We got about 10mm of rain last week which is better than nothing. My freesias have started pushing through and also my volunteer anenomes, will have to wait and see if they all flower.

We were looking around the garden today and deciding which plants needed cutting back or removing, there are a few that haven't come through the summer too well and as this is the second summer for some of them, I think it will probably be better to take them out and put in something that can cope with less water. Cactus maybe!!!

Ikea is starting to annoy us, I rang there on Thursday last week, to see if the bins that I wanted had come in, the guy on the phone said yes, we have 60. We arrived at Ikea and navigated our way to the kitchen area and there was 1 solitary bin, when we asked the shop assistant she said No, they haven't come in yet, I said yes they have, and explained that I had rung and asked, so she made a few calls, and the upshot was: they had arrived but there was a problem and they hadn't been unloaded yet. We were quite annoyed (one of us more so) and I have yet to ring back and see if they are on the shop floor. Perhaps I will leave that till Thursday.

The picture is of the shopping tote that I was sent in a recent swap, my swap partner also sent me two other bags, a knitted dish cloth and an apron (on the back of the chair). they were all really lovely and I am using them already. I forgot to take a picture of the shopping tote that I had made for the swap. It is similar to one I already posted about, but I added a strip of green fabric and embroidered spirals on one side, I also made a pincushion as well.

I have a book out from the library called: Sorted by Lissanne Oliver, it is about decluttering and I will be using some of her ideas over the next couple of months.

Daylight Saving is finally over

NZ Spinach or Warrigal greens (L)

Plumbago next to the compost bin (R)




Cody (not amused) (L)

Closeup of a small table I am decorating (R)


Another weekend almost gone, we have had lovely fine weather all weekend and it hasn't been too cold. I made bread but didn't get to make the hot cross bun/loaf that I had planned, just as well as we still haven't finished the other bread. It seemed as if I spent most of Saturday washing clothes and hanging them up, and then folding them once they had dried.

We went to Ikea today, we had been there last weekend looking at a divided bin to replace our current recycling and rubbish system (which is a separate box and a round bin (attached to the cupboard door) in the cupboard under the sink) the bins we were after had run out and were coming in last Friday, but the shipment has been delayed and there were no bins, so it was a bit of a wasted trip really. I like looking around Ikea, there are some good ideas there and I prefer to take my time, have a close look and compare prices etc. My DH doesn't really like going in there at all. So later this week I will be phoning them to see if the bins have arrived so we don't have another wasted trip.

There is a koala in a tree about 200m down our street. When we were coming home last Sunday (from Ikea) I happened to see him (or her) walking up a side street, so we stopped our car and put our hazard lights on and sat there and watched the koala cross over the road, he ran on the grass and climbed up a tree and he has been there ever since. I heard on the radio a few days ago that koalas sleep 22 hours out of 24 and it seems to be true, this one is just sitting there. He has moved around the tree a bit going a bit higher each time. I must try to take my camera next time I go for a walk and get a picture of him.

Wild Weather

A rather large hot cross bun loaf that I made on Saturday

Today has been really windy, plenty of leaves and bark falling off the trees, and also several tree branches falling down (but not near us). There has been a bit of rain but I think the wind is drying out the ground fairly fast.

I took a look at my garden this morning when I went to empty the compost bucket. My NZ spinach seedlings are growing well. I planted them in 3 separate spots around the garden and they have all taken off, now I will have to make sure I keep the area around them weeded.

We went and got groceries this morning, over the last few weeks we have been spending less at the supermarket, I think it is because I am really thinking about needing as opposed to wanting something. We are not spending any more money at the market , in fact last Friday I came home with $25 in my wallet. The last 6 weeks I have been writing down everything we spend and it is a bit of an eye-opener, it should make it easier to budget come the end of June when we will be cutting back on the number of jobs we do in our business. I am really looking forward to having a bit of extra time.

We also had our flu vaccinations this morning, usually we don't bother till May but this year they had a waiting list at the pharmacy as they were waiting for the vaccine to come in and I guess they wanted an idea of how much to order. We have been having the flu vaccine for the past 5 years, it is a good idea, especially when you work for yourself, as if you get sick then who is going to do the work (Mr Nobody??)

A loaf of the New York sourdough style bread that I made on Saturday

The weekend is over

I finished re-organising my pantry, it took longer than I thought it would , but that's ok it is done now and it looks a lot better. I started Saturday afternoon and had completed half by tea time, so I thought I would leave the rest till Sunday. I'm glad I did as I was losing a bit of committment to it and when I started again today it was with renewed zeal. I think I only found a couple of things past their use by dates: some tamarind paste and an opened packet of custard powder.

I'm finding it hard to get the pictures lined up so this will have to do. The top pictures are of the pantry before and the lower ones are the after. I'm off to relax now.

Planning for the Weekend

I've been making my plans for this coming weekend. Nothing special is happening, football is into the 2nd week (and I still have to think about my footy tips) but I have been looking at my pantry and thinking it is a bit of a disorganised mess, so this weekend will be devoted to re-organising the pantry.

My pantry is quite a large one, when we first moved to our house the pantry had very deep shelves on three sides (the door is on the fourth side) and things got shoved to the back never to emerge again. So we decided to change it and ripped out all the old shelves and my DH installed slim white melamine bookcases with adjustable shelves on one side, we left the back wall empty and put a broom cupboard( with shelves), another bookcase and in the remaining space 2 overhead cupboards and 2 cupboards with a benchtop, these were in white melamine also. I think it cost us about $250 all up, quite cheap compared to some quotes that we had.

It is generally quite tidy, but since we have come back from holiday in January I have let things slide a bit to the stage that it is starting to annoy me. I want to be able to have some un-interrupted time to do this job, so I will be starting Saturday afternoon and I should be finished by tea time Saturday night. Why not start in the morning you ask, well I have other things that need doing first , like go to the dentist, washing, folding, and a couple of other things, so if I get them done first then there is more chance of the pantry being finished in one go.

Sunday will be a bit of a rest day I think, I will go for a walk first thing and do the usual chores that follow on from Saturday (more folding, ironing) and then do a bit of reading. I have a book from the library - The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards, and it is on a 2 week loan so I must read it quite quickly.

Easter weekend

I've had a fairly productive weekend. I've finished my swap tote, and have started another one.
Have done a lot of washing (the lawn sure appreciated it via the grey water hose) I made 2 loaves of bread, there is only half left now. My DH has done a bit of painting that needed doing.

We had to work on Sunday at one of our jobs, not arduous work just some high level dusting which is better done when no-one is at work. That took about 4 hours and then today we did another of our jobs, we could have done it on Thursday night, but then we would have been home really late so decided to leave it till later in the weekend.

Went for a walk today, it is dark in the mornings now, the sun doesn't rise till nearly 0730. I didn't see a single person this morning, heard a rooster crowing, some dogs barking and kookaburras and magpies. We have a bird feeder hanging from a tree in our backyard, yesterday we had lorikeets, Adelaide rosellas, magpies, turtledoves, crested pigeons and magpies visit us. Last week we even had a couple of cockatoos.

Autumn equinox

It is the Autumn Equinox today at 3.48pm. On the day of the Autumn Equinox, the Earth’s poles are the same distance from the Sun. The Sun rises due east, sets due west and reaches 52° above the horizon at noon. There are roughly 12 hrs of day and 12 hrs of night.

In some parts of the world, such as Australia, seasons begin on the first day of a particular calendar month - in March for Autumn, June for Winter, September for Spring and December for Summer. In other countries such as Britain, it’s accepted that the seasons begin on the dates that the Earth passes four special points in its orbit about the Sun.

With the hot weather that we have had lately it would probably be more correct to have Autumn begin on the day of the Autumn Equinox. A scientist in Adelaide has done some climate modelling and has said that the recent 15 day heatwave was probably a one in 3,000 yr occurrence. The last heatwave of 10 days was back in 1934.

I'm just happy that it is over, I was starting to feel really grumpy, and I couldn't be bothered doing anything, just happy to lie around in front of a fan and read and doze. Last weekend I did the bare minimum that I could get away with doing, everything else I left till it got cooler. So now I am paying for it and have to play catch-up.

Day 13 of heatwave

It is Day 13 of our heatwave. This is the weather for the next few days:

Forecast for Friday:
Dry with some high cloud. Very hot with moderate to fresh north to northwestwinds, strong and gusty about the hills until mid afternoon, ahead of a slightlymilder, moderate southerly change late afternoon or evening.

Precis: Dry. Late wind change.

City: Max 40
Elizabeth: Max 41
Mount Barker: Max 38
Noarlunga: Max 38
UV Index: 9 [Very High] UV Alert from 10:10 to 16:40
Fire Danger: Extreme (Mount Lofty Ranges Fire Ban District)

Forecast for Saturday:
Dry with some high cloud. Very hot with light to moderate northeast to southeastwinds and afternoon sea breezes.

Precis: Dry. Mostly sunny.

City: Min 20 Max 38
Sunday Dry. Mostly sunny. Min 21 Max 38
Monday Dry. Sunny. Min 23 Max 39
Tuesday Dry. Increasing cloud. Min 25 Max 39
Wednesday Possible shower. Min 20 Max 31
Thursday Possible shower. Min 20 Max 27

Noarlunga is the area where we live, we usually find that it is a couple of degrees cooler than the city. We haven't had to resort to using our airconditioning much. We've been quite comfortable with a fan while sleeping.

My vege garden is still surviving, I am watering once a day but checking in the afternoon and if anything is looking a bit sad then I throw a bit more water on.

It is too hot to cook anything hot so we've been having a lot of salads, although this weekend I'm thinking of making a vegetable curry, which is meant to be cooling (perhaps because eating curry makes you sweat) and a yoghurt dessert which I saw on tv yesterday afternoon. Will post the recipe tomorrow if I haven't melted away by then :)

Feeling hot, hot, hot

We are into our eighth day of over 35C and I am over it, still more to come according to the weather forecasters. Haven't been doing too much because of the heat. My DH has been slaving outside away building a pergola, he starts early while the area is still in the shade and stops once the sun hit it. Me, I have been doing as little as possible, just the things that must be done.

We had a long weekend, so nice to have Monday off as well. I bought my first thing from Ebay today. We have been wanting a scrabble set for a while, so I saw some on Ebay and there was a "vintage" one in Adelaide, pick up only, ideal for us as we could just go and pick it up and pay at the same time. I bid for it and managed to get it for $10.50 - a bargain, there are 4 pieces missing but we can replace them quite easily.

The vege garden seems to be coping with the heat. We have been watering twice daily, and even the warrigal greens are coming up now, and some self-seeded coriander is going well. The zucchini plant has 5 zucchini growing on it. The only disappointment is that the tomatoes aren't colouring up yet (the sole one that did go red, some bird got to it)

The un-paper bag

My completed shopping tote. It can hold quite a lot, I had a half bunch of celery, some bananas, truss tomatoes, 1kg brown sugar, 2 packets of pasta, 500g almonds. I put the wine bottle beside it to show how tall the bag is.

Walking this morning

I like to go for a walk most mornings. It is cooler and quieter in the morning and everything smells better. My DH and I say hello to the neighbours "fierce" guard dog before I set off. This morning the moon is hanging low in the eastern sky, Venus is above it. It looks stunningly beautiful . Sometimes I have already decided where I will walk and other days I just wander. Today I'm wandering, I set off up the hill, it's just starting to get light. The other side of the hill I start getting into my stride, a few cars on the road but no people yet. I cross the road where the footpath runs out, and hear some rustling in the gum trees above, I stop and go back a few steps to have a look, then I hear plop, plop, plop (lucky I didn't have my mouth open) and I see a possum making its way through the branches to the next tree, I knew it wouldn't have been a koala as there was no smell. I carry on, there's still not a lot of traffic about yet, and no one else walking either.

Getting lighter now, I get to the roundabout and decide to walk past the shopping centre, there are a few cars there now, mainly the staff for the 2 supermarkets. I can smell the hot cross buns from the bakery, it makes me hungry and I spare a thought for the bakers slaving away with the hot ovens. Along the back of the shopping centre and down past the fitness centre to the sports oval. I can hear the fitness instructor yelling out to the class (aerobics of some sort is my guess) from a distance it sounds like someone being murdered. I walk through the sports oval, the council have sealed the walking/bicycle tracks around this area so the footing is nice and level, across the creek and past the retirement village, I circle around the school and come out on one of the main roads. I don't like walking on the main roads much (too much traffic and fumes) so I head up a side street and cut through a path and come out a bit further up where I can cross over and head home. There are more people out now, some walking their dogs and others walking or running to the bus. I can smell the perfume that some of the women use, don't they realise how overwhelming and unpleasant it can be. I cross through another park, there are birds in the gum trees looking for nectar, I grab a flowering piece for our two cockatiels before I go up the last hill and arrive home.

Hump Day

The shopping tote is finished and I am quite pleased with it. It didn't cost me anything except time and now that I know how to make it next time will be easier. So hot today, I heard the weather forecast this morning and they were saying that 7 days in a row over 30C is officially a heatwave, and they have predicted 7 days over 30C. I like warm weather but not this warm. I just feel like lying around reading and doing nothing.

I made ginger beer last weekend, with the warm weather it starts working quickly so it is not long before we can drink it. I make a half batch of the recipe I have, it doesn't use a plant, just mix it up, wait a day or 2 for it to bubble and then bottle.

I have been trying to limit my time on the internet, I used to watch a lot of TV then decided that I was watching too much and I think I swapped tv watching for internet surfing. Over Christmas I didn't have as much access to the internet so I sort of got out of the habit. Once we were back from our holiday it didn't seem to hold as much interest as I had other things to do, so now I try to use it as a reward for when I finish my To-do list, I give myself 15-20 minutes surfing.

Autumn has begun

It is March already, Autumn has officially started, although in South Australia we are now having a mini heatwave, with high temperatures being forecast for the next week. A lot of trees are gettting their autumn colours. Last week had been quite cool so I had started thinking about getting my warmer clothes out. My garden has survived after a fashion and I have learnt some lessons about planting for next Spring. Soon I will be planting some garlic, pak choy, snow peas and spring onions, these are all things that I tend to buy quite frequently so if I can grow my own then I will save some money.

I'm currently making a shopping tote for a swap on Rhonda's Down to Earth blog, it is nearly finished, just have to make the handles, it looks ok so far. I'm a bit picky with shopping totes. I like them to have gussets and fold up so I can have one handy all the time. The pattern (which is called the un-paper bag) has gussets and needs a stiff piece of plastic in the base, but then you wouldn't be able to fold it up small, so I shall leave that part out . I'm making it out of calico as I have a lot of that fabric, maybe I will tizzy it up a bit I'm not sure yet. Will post photos when I am done.

I would love to make some bread this week, but realistically it is probably going to be too hot to have the oven on, so will have to make do with bread which I made a fortnight ago and froze. I make 2 types of bread at the moment, one is from The New York Times website (nytimes.com) and is called No-knead Bread, it is a white bread with minimal yeast, you mix it up one day and bake the next, very simple to make and and has a really good taste. The other is from The Organic Gardener magazine (Nov/Dec 2007) and is a bread recipe from Linda Cockburn, called Doona Lifter (no knead) again very simple to make, but a lot quicker. It is a nice dense bread full of sunflower and pumpkin seeds, makes 3 loaves, lasts us all week, and also makes fabulous toast. (wonderful with avocado)

Long time no blog

I've been away on holiday and what with Christmas and coming back from holiday I haven't really felt like blogging. Came back and found that most of my veges had gone to a sad death, some of my bean plants survived and a tomato has survived, thanks to the efforts of our neighbour who did some watering for us while we were away. One plant that has done well were 2 frangipani cuttings, when we left they were sticks with tiny shoots at the top, look at them now!! This weekend I'm planning on, removing all dead plants and digging some compost into the garden. Next week I will probably plant some more seeds and have another go. My DH is constructing a shade shelter to help protect the vegetables from the 40C sun so I hope we will have better luck this time around. I think it is mainly trial and error to see what will grow in our climate.

I knitted a dishcloth while on holiday mainly for something to do, I even managed to get my 2 sisters to knit a few rows as I have never been a very good knitter. It ended up too big (I think) but will still serve the purpose. It was quite relaxing to do but after awhile I got stiff hands and had to have a break.