Home Turf and Me

Simply Sunday

2010-07-04T16:10:00.000+10:00

Looking out the front window on a Sunday Afternoon

"What else should I be doing on a cold wintry day?"

"Go on tell me where the cat went!"

Yeah right!

18 months after Black Saturday

2010-06-17T14:35:00.000+10:00

Earlier this year I applied with Red Cross to become a volunteer. The reason for this was a deep seated desire to put something back into the society which I have gained so much from. After the bush fires last year whith so many people losing their homes and loved ones, many people in our community felt a need to do more than just give money. I am one of them!

After some training I was asked if I would be interested in volunteering for the new Outreach program which involves visiting survivors after a traumatic event of natural disaster occurs and just letting them know that they haven't been forgotten and that care agencies are still keeping an eye out for them.

So off i went to Kinglake north or Melbourne, where bush fires devastated the communities on February 7th 2009.

The landscape is slowly recovering and people are gradually returning to the area and also slowly getting used to their new now very different town. But it is a slow process and now they are heading into winter. For many it was all too much and they have left the mountain never to return. For those who are rebuilding the process is long and arduous.

Something we forget though when this sort of trauma occurs in a small community is that not only is the rebuilding process trying but, life still needs to go on. The kids still need to go to school, parents still need to work, the shopping still needs to be done plus there home has to be rebuilt or somewhere new to live needs to be found.fd

I must say 18 months later the town is starting to grow again and families are moving back to their land and into their new homes but the patience and determination and sheer hard work involved is no mean feat.

In Kinglake there are businesses, coffee shops a beautiful bakery and the people are just lovely. But they need visitors, they need business and most of all they need not to be forgotten.

This little town outside Melbourne, as well as Marysville, Flowerdale, Heathcote Junction and all those other towns, which suffered as a result of the fires that day, will rebuild and folk will move back there, but we need to remember what they've been through and visit them, buy their produce, check out the pubs, and add to their rebuilding. Help build their economy. This is what they also need and this is how the rest of us can contribute now.

Pumpkins

2010-03-17T15:40:00.000+11:00

Every couple of months i turn out the compost and distribute it onto the garden which delights in the nutrients and the worms burrow away into the soil. This i did in Springtime and deposited much of the compost under the Thai lime and in other places around the veggie garden.

Abracadabra! This is our pumpkin..I think its a Japanese pumpkin but am not totally sure. It came up all by itself in the veggie garden growing happily there with a little support on its way and then over the fence onto the brick paving where it has now born 5 fruit which are slowly but surely getting large and larger!! I did nothing except provide a little water and somethings for it to climb on. Sadly the Thai Lime was growing directly in its path but doesn;'t seem too much worse off for it.

So our self sown pumpkin has 7 beautiful big pumpkins expanding happily and we will definitely be going hundry over the later autumn months! Yummmm!!

Remember - comments and feed back will inspire me to write more! So please do let me know if your reading!!!

A New Endeavour

2010-01-19T16:17:00.001+11:00

I'm a big fan of the Girls Night In which is a fund raiser for Women's Cancer Research, and something I get involved in each year.

A couple of years ago I decided to have a Girls Night in Undercover Wear party, and we did a bit of shopping and had a great night at my place! Since then I've had two more parties and they've been really successful and the clothes are.....well what can i say!

Anyway now I'm running my landscaping business and working at the nursery part time, but this wasnt quite making ends meet so I decided to look around for something else part time. Well you can guess whats happening now ..... I've join Undercover Wear as a consultant, wish me luck!! I've got to book 6 parties in the first 3 weeks which...might be a challenge, but I'm confident its going to work.

To be honest I think the clothes will sell themselves and what better way to catch up with your friends and go shopping! If your wanting to have an undercover wear party and you live in the north Melbourne area send me a message!

Here's the link to their website. http://www.undercoverwear.com.au/home/

A river and BookCrossing.

2010-01-11T14:36:00.000+11:00

A couple of weeks ago I took my son and one of his friends and our wwoofer Epiphanie, to Warrandyte to go for a swim in the river there.

It was a "scorcher-of-a- day" and going to the beach or a pool would have been awful because we would have a small groupd amongst hundreds of others so I thought going for a quiet swim in the river would be much nicer, and it paid off! We packed some sandwiches and drinks donned our swimming gear and off we went. So by 11.30 the boys were in the water and we were enjoying the sound of the cockatoos and listening to running water. It was just gorgeous.

On our way back to the car we walked along the bank of the river and passed a park bench on our way, and there on the bench was a book, there wasnt a sole around and on closer inspection i saw the book had a sticker on the front. It was a bookcrossing book. On opening there is a small greeting:

I'd heard about bookcrossing years ago, which is an online bookclub (??) which was started in the US. But I never expected to find one here. So I have taken it upon myself to register the book, read it and then as has been done before ....release it. Its a great quirky way to read and enjoy books and pass them on to others.

If you're interested in joining and perhaps finding books in your area, have a look at the website and have a go. It a bit of holiday or for that matter anytime of the year fun. And a great way to get kids involved in reading too. http://www.bookcrossing.com/ check it out!

Please feel free to write comments as it lets us know people out there are reading the blog and it makes us writers happy !!

A Very Happy Chocolate Christmas!!!!

2009-12-30T10:07:00.003+11:00

This Christmas we decided to do things a little differently. We had four lovely friends over for the day starting our meal with French bread and pate served the traditional turkey lunch, with salads and roast veggies, and we sipped champagne and wine forgetting completely ....as you do... about desert. I said after eating my fill, "...you'll be happy to know you dont have to eat pudding after all that..." totally forgetting all about the wicked device you can see in the picture. ......the chocolate fountain.

Oh and did I mention it was a little windy on Christmas Day!!!

Anyway as you probably gathered we ate ourselves silly had a very decadent time eating delicious summer fruits dipped in chocolate, and sipping champagne until we could eat or drink no more.

Then the boys got down to some serious game playing.

So that was our Christmas day. Hope yours was equally indulgent and fun! Happy Christmas everyone! Remember comments and feed back encourage me to write more so please feel free to comment.

Butter

2009-11-23T22:16:00.014+11:00

Yesterday I made Butter...yummmmm.

It is much nicer than the bought stuff, and I used the butter milk for the chooks and the dogs who loved it.
I got 600mls of pure cream and put it in the food processer on high until it was really thick and the butter milk seperated from the cream. Then I poured off some of the buttermilk and put it in a jug for baking later. Its beautiful substitute for milk in cakes, puddings, biscuits etc. Then I poured a half a cup of ice cold water into the food processor and gave it another quick wizz on high.

I then placed the into butter onto a clean linen tea towel which i then lay over a seive in a bowl. I continued to pour iced water, just out of the fridge, over it until the water ran clear. It is important to do this as otherwise the butter can go mouldy too quickly.

Then i placed the butter into a small bowl and here is the result!

For more recipes like this you could also have a look at

http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/ where Rhonda has lots of recipes like this.

Soap

2009-11-18T09:51:00.006+11:00

Yesterday I made soap ....this is my second attempt. Not sure how it went. It looks like soap and feels like soap but we will see how it holds together. The first lot i made was very crumbly and is sitting in a container waiting to be turned into washing powder. But this batch is looking a bit more promising ....fingers crossed.

I am also going to have a go at making butter so will let you know how that goes.

Meanwhile here are some pics of beautiful things.

Our House transformed

2009-09-02T18:22:00.008+10:00

Before:
After: Its amazing the difference a coat of paint will make!!!

Chocolate Fountain

2009-08-28T10:14:00.003+10:00

I realise I've been a little tardy with my blog writing of late, but am determined to plod along. My excuse of course is that....life tends to take up most of my day and blog writing often doesnt fit in.

Anyway at the moment we have a couple from France who are staying with us as WWOOFers. Which are willing workers on organic farms..... although we are not a farm we are organic and do have a large garden. Last weekend we decided to give them and us a bit of a treat and ark up the Chocolate fountain. Very decadent and self indulgent and completely bad for the waistline but what the heck. It was ....divine!! We had strawberries, bananas, kiwi fruit, marshmallows, cherries and grapes and tonnes of chocolate. mmmmmmm!

Getting the kids off the PC

2009-07-22T10:35:00.008+10:00

We have a new rule in our house that computer games are only allowed on Weekends. So the kids will stay on the pc all weekend if their allowed. In an effort to get Sam off the pc on Saturday my partner got him to sit down and do some serious engineering together. They pulled out a robot kit which had been sitting in the cupboard since last October, and started putting it together, and i tell you what its pretty impressive.

It took about two hours to finish but at the end of it this is what they had made. Pretty cool!!! It is a robotic arm, has a remote control and the arm itself will swivell turn go up and down and as you can see here picks things up!!

Pretty neat batman!

Now if i can just get them to work on the vacuum cleaner! As always comments and feedback are much appreciated. And welcome to new readers too.

My attempt at Fitness

2009-07-15T09:56:00.007+10:00

A couple of months ago a fellow blogger wrote about a meetup group here in Melbourne who she went hiking with. This got me thinking and searching the net for this group and others in and around Melbourne. Turns out there are loads of interest groups getting people together doing things they love doing.

This is a definite positive side of the internet. There are meetup groups for everything from walking to knitting to playing chess or just going out on a Saturday night. But they are organised and regulated and seem a great way to meet like minded folk. A great idea ...whoever thought of it!

Anyway the upshot of it was that i joined a meetup group of hikers in an attempt to get fit and spend some time with Sam and get out and about. Sounds crazy i know but it was really fun.

So on Sunday we piled out of bed at 7.00 packed a pack and picked up some friends drove to a beautiful little town outside Melbourne and .....you guessed it ....metup with a whole bunch of other crazy people and went for a hike!!! From Daylesford Lake to Hepburn Springs a total of 16kms. So we definitely got ...out and about, and had a great day. It was a bit cold and drizzly but the countryside was gorgeous and i'm sure my legs are the better for it!

The area is famous for its spring water and also it hot springs. Very therapeutic and the water is delicious. So there wasnt any hope of being thirsty. Needless to say we were in bed by 9.30 that night and very much asleep shortly afterwards!!

Here are some pics to enjoy.

By the way comments and new readers are always welcome so feel free to indulge me!

Getting sorted!!

2009-07-14T18:30:00.006+10:00

Beautiful bee hives from www.Palazzo Rospo.com

Today I have been sorting through the cupboards!!! Fun ??? Not really but I did manage to get about 8 bags full of clothing to take to the op shop. ( I think they call them thrift stores for US readers).

As of last Friday I am no longer employed on a full time basis, but am not really that concerned at this stage. I want to try and live more frugally. I'm going to have a go at making our own soap, bread, biscuits, and other stuff. We already grow our own vegies and fruit and have 4 chooks but i'd like to extend that.

Now that I'm leaving at 8am and coming home at 6.30 I'll have time to grow beautiful fruit and veggies and cook beautiful food.

I'm quite looking forward to it. So first I'm going to start with a good clean out. Cupboards, drawers, and then move outside. Also we need a couple more chickens.

It also means I'll be able to write more often. I'm interested in getting a bee hives too. So if there are any readers out there who have experience with keeping bees I'd love to hear from you!!
Meanwhile beee happy!!

Hydrangeas are Huge!!!

2009-06-23T15:45:00.007+10:00

Here in wintry Melbourne ...which i must confess is not as chilly as it might be I find my mind wandering to flowers of spring and summer. Having read blog in north America this morning and oogled at the pics I must say I'm longing for spring and the plants all to wake up.

So in the meantime I'm posting some gorgeous pics of one of the best flowers i know and have great affection for although seem to have great trouble growing thanks to our climate. But here it is.

Unfortunately these aren't my photos .

Melbourne in Winter still praying for moreRain!

2009-06-15T11:01:00.009+10:00

Winter is well and truly here, and after a burning hot summer, its quite a shock to the system! Last week we had rain most of the week and snow down to 500m which for us here in Melbourne is quite unusual. The rain we had was much needed and beautiful, it washed our streets and cheered up our gardens but alas was not really enough, our dams and reservoirs are still only holding about 25% of their capacity. If you live in the UK or USA this might give you an idea of just how dry it has been here.

However cold and wet it has been the weekend was sunny and the birds were dancing around in the winter chill.

Picture courtesy of Cecilia MacCauley whose blogs and art are quite sublime!

I attended the first of a two day course in permaculture and met some very like minded people. While my partner and son were at home in the warmth there I was out looking at worms and compost, and learning lots about sustainable gardening etc. A goood day, if all house holds grew some of their own veggies and fruit and shared amongst their neighbours, friends and family it would change our world considerably. Swapping what we grow with others and sharring the goods around would contribute greatly to our current economic, climate and health crises'.

The weekend has inspired me to look into bee keeping, developing the veggie patch and perhaps turn the nature strip into a herb garden to be enjoyed by all.

........Stay tuned!

Correspondence in the form of comments is always welcome I love to hear from people.

That Swine Flue and Rain.

2009-05-26T22:39:00.010+10:00

This is my son when he was ....about 10. He's now 12 going on 18!!! He's reached high school and is much more handsome than any of the other boys in his class!!Now we have a sluggish economy the weather has gone crazy and now...we have swine flue. Good grief.

Anyway I digress. Two weeks ago I was scoffing at all the fuss about swine flue,then one day I was driving to work and discovered that some kids in Melbourne had it. A bit closer to home i thought then a couple of minutes later i wasn't quite so relaxed turned out that one of the kids was from my the same high school !!! This I discovered on the radio. Great. ..... !!! So I rang the school and the more i knew the worse it got. Yet i was confident that we would never actually be touched by this, thankfully we haven't been although the school is now closed for a week and the kids are over the moon about getting time off!!

But something i don't understand is how come this sort of fuss is made every year when the flue has something to do with animals . But normal old human flue doesn't really feature. I mean we have Equine flue, Bird flue , Swine flue and there has been a lot of publicity about these over the years. We hear about them, read about them and the fear of God is instilled into us about them, but your average Jo flue, which kills just as many if not more......... doesn't get much publicity at all.

By the way, just for the record, just because the school is closed doesn't mean they get off Scott free, the kids have to do school work at home!!!

On the weather front we have been (unfortunately) having gorgeous weather here in Melbourne. Over the weekend it was quite warm arounde the 21c mark and the evenings were really mild, we've had a couple of foggy nights but mostly the weather has been quite lovely. Then yesterday a bit of a repreive......... rain although in Brisbane they would probably call it a shower, here it was rain. Please can we have more of that!

A Beginning

2009-05-04T13:52:00.001+10:00

I want to communicate with all those other women out there who are working and mothering and trying to be superwomen. Its not taken me tooo long to realise that I'm not super, but that doesn't stop me, like a lot of others, from trying! Even though our partners or families may beg us not to.

I've just spent two years re-educating myself, so I could work in an area I love, only to be promptly tripped up by a recession and the drought. So my horticulture career has taken a bit of a turn in a different direction while I work from 9-5 as a receptionist.

This doesnt stop me though, I will have every intention to continue designing or helping people in their gardens and eventually build this adventure into something which bears resemblance to an income. While doing a diploma in horticulture, I learnt an awful lot about myself and other things I could do. Now people may not be so interested in having their gardens refurbished but many are building and interest in growing their own fruit and veggies and becoming more sustainable.

I am of the firm conviction that everything happens for a reason, and these tough economic times will teach us all a lot about being self sufficient, and perhaps bring a hault to so much greed, adn expectations of all things instant. Essentially I think we are faced with this crisis as the universe or god, or fate or whatever you call it or believe in, is trying to tell us dumb humans something about how we are treating this planet. Its time to give back to the soil and work a bit harder at caring for our planet.

If we live more sustainably and teach our children this we won't all starve by any means. In fact we may eat a lot healthier than we have been for many years.