It is winter? Or is it just June

Yesterday we went to a nearby country town to enjoy the weekend fair that they had set up for "WA Day" weekend. Pinjarra is a pretty place, and the drive through the countryside is quite lovely (we avoided the freeway as it is often very busy on a long weekend). The displays of old machinery and cars, the historical displays, craft and community groups were all we wanted! I love these signs of community at work: the volunteers who run scouts and guides, the Emergency Services personnel, the Historical Society story tellers, and those whose passion runs to fixing up vintage cars.

 The weather has been dry and mild so DH and I took our own picnic -buns from the freezer with tuna and celery. We sat on the grass in front of Edenvale Homestead and then went to a very fine art exhibition of local works at the Civic Centre. I guess winter will arrive soon -at least I hope so. My water tank is getting low and we are now not allowed to reticulate our garden at all for several months. Perth is consistently suffering from a drying climate. Our rainfall mostly falls in the winter time, and these winters are getting shorter and less rain is falling overall.

Today is Eddie Marbo day.  This is the day we as a nation were forced to confront the myth that the land was not occupied when the settler/colonisers arrived. We can't celebrate our community without remembering what it has cost for the indigenous people along the way. On Friday DH and I walked with a large crowd of people on the WA Walk for Reconciliation. The theme of the walk was 'Grounded in truth, walking together in courage". It was good to see so many people but we have a long way to go to achieve reconciliation.

What we gave away this week:

2  jars marmalade
2.5 buckets  lemons
More lemons and grapefruit to friends

Our Cooking Adventures: 
Beer damper (recipe in Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's "Love your Leftovers" recipe book)  and sweet potato and capsicum soup
Sourdough -as usual
Onion scrolls- my first time making these! Next time I might add cheese to the onions
Left over veggie soup
Orange and lemon marmalade -as pictured!


What we made:an onion and potato box

 I had mentioned to DH that I would like to have a ventilated box for storing potatoes and onions. You know how they store better if they are kept in a dark but well ventilated space? He made me this from bits of wood in his workshop, including some vents which he had been given from his brother's shed. The hinges and handle were new. I like it a lot- it holds plenty.

A bread slicing guide

I have trouble cutting bread into neat slices. DH saw a bread slicing guide somewhere, and thought he could make me one. It uses old bits of timber he had lying around, and some IKEA screws he saved from a piece of furniture that was eventually retired. It works!

Improvements we are working on

My Permaculture Principles calendar is highlighting the principle of "producing no waste" this month. As we regularly put out our non-recyclable bin each week, I guess we have a way to go on this score, but not many of us are perfect at this stuff- we just try hard and hope to get better at it. The non-recycleables which go into it are largely plastic wrapping and other packaging (hard to avoid- magazines come wrapped in plastic, for example) , along with kitty litter waste.

We did try to have a separate compost system for the kitty litter, but it filled up too quickly and took too long to degrade. I understand that it is not safe to put the kitty litter in my ordinary compost bin because it will be used on my vegetables, but it can be safe once composted to scatter around fruit trees or ornamentals. I am thinking that what I need is a really big bin - I must start trying to find a suitable receptacle in the recycling/bartering/waste streams.

Thanks for dropping by and reading this far! Let me know you have been here, and leave a comment if you like.