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)