Effort pays off

This week we have been working on the garden in every spare moment, even foregoing our usual early morning walk to get things done.

We both work full time, and have had full social lives on the weekends, but this garden needs our care just now.

The summer is warming up and the biggest task was to spread some wonderful lupin mulch on the veggie beds in the back yard, to shade the soil and protect the moisture within. Lupin mulch feeds the soil by adding nitrogen to the soil. I used it last year on the veggies -and the added bonus is that it smells wonderful!

Last weekend DH worked very hard getting all the back yard covered with in-line drip irrigation. It was a huge job, but it will save a lot of water and put it to better use.

There is still a lot more I would like to have done, but it is so rewarding to see the Seven Year beans climbing the trellis we have made on the fence, and the passionfruit with a lovely crop of green egg shaped fruits.

The tomatoes in
the wicking bed are looking seriously healthy at the moment. We water this only once per week via a tube that puts the water underneath the plants in a reservoir of sorts, and the shade cloth just breaks the heat of the sun.

I wish I had planted more cucumbers -we have only four, but if I look after them that will be a good crop.

It is not all productive in the garden however. I am just as pleased that the jasmine that I planted in a desperate attempt to cover up our ugly fence near the back entertaining area, is now in flower and smells wonderful.

I am even happy that the cannas I had given up on and tried to pull out have defied every attempt at eradication and are now in glorious flower.

It is interesting to see how much food we can get out of our small garden, given the fact that we don't have a lot of space, and the work we do in the garden tends to be a bit sporadic.

We are harvesting huge rainbow chard and tiny lettuce leaves at the moment, along with a large variety of herbs which add a lot of flavour to our food.
The added benefit of course is that the food we produce is entirely organic and totally fresh when we eat it, so we are getting the very best nutrition we can get from these things.

Apart from the exercise required to make it happen of course! However nothing really happens without effort and in the case of the garden the effort seems to be paying off at the moment.

Learn a new skill

Those who are on the journey of simplicity often find themselves challenged to do for themselves what they would have had others do for them in the past.

The idea is that we need to revalue the old fashioned skills that our generation nearly lost.
W e need to find out how to

• cook from scratch,
• mend things when they are broken
• make do with what we have got
• be resourceful
  

The idea is that we become more self-reliant, and more able to value the sense of achievement more than the quick lift of having purchased something.


Take this Advent calendar for example. I struggled all day Saturday with those pesky stars. My poor brain could not make them work! It would have been much easier to go out and buy something instead, but where would the sense of achievement been?

As it is I have learned a new skill.

This craft will, I hope, lead me into many enjoyable hours of my future life.

I have already used it to make a whole cloth baby quilt for my neice's child. I had just learned how to use the darning foot on the sewing machine to do free-motion quilting, and it was very satisfying to see the result that this new technique was able to achieve.

This year I have also been setting myself up to grow my veggies from seed -something I have had only limited success in doing in the past.

I am still learning how to manage the veggie garden so that there is a more manageable supply of veggies. At the moment we have huge quantities of rainbow chard, but soon we will be over-run with tomatoes (I hope!).

The thing about growing from seed is learning to stage the plantings over a period of weeks so that there are some veggies in season, some coming on and some going to seed to save for the next time.

All these new skills give me plenty of challenges. I find them far more satisfying than going shopping! And when you don't go shopping, you have time to learn all these new things!

Finally a word of welcome to the new subscribers to my little blog. It is tremendously encouraging to have you here! Please feel free to leave a comment any time.

New beginnings-from old things.

This rose was on it's last legs last year. We moved it, fed it, mulched it, watered it and leaned the spade up against it. One last chance!!!

Look what happened!

I have an aubergine which was planted late last summer. Didn't produce anything. I decided to see what would happen if I left it over winter, as I had tried on several occasions to grow these without success.

Now I have lots of tiny aubergines!

These are the first flowers on my passionfruit vine.

I have also just started my new job. No pictures of that, but another new beginning.

And I went to a new patchwork class and this is what I have made so far.


I love new beginnings -the hopeful promise of them.

Yet everything here had preparatory work to get this far.

Everything new is in some way dependent upon what went before: tending the garden, designing the quilt, learning the skills, putting in the applications.

Today is All Saints Day and this is a time to remember all those who went before -who did the preparatory work, to give us the start we have had today.

Spring garden shade

Our garden is beginning to adapt to warmer weather at last.

DH did a fantastic job when I was away in Sydney last week, and put up all the shade sails and shadecloth blinds on the north and west of the house. These blinds stay up all summer. They bring lots of light into the rooms -somehow the light seems to bounce around the room, yet they cut out most of the heat that otherwise would make the rooms very hot.

Eventually we will have a grape covered pergola on this northern side, but that will need to be of sturdy construction and DH needs to be on holiday to tackle it -not a weekend job.

There are still lots of spring flowers -pelargoniums are splendid at the moment, as are the daisies and cannas.

The kitchen garden is producing leafy things at the moment. Today we harvested the last of the red cabbages.

We have some lovely lettuce, but I will need to get some more in soon.

There are some great rainbow chard plants in the larger raised garden bed. I am going to put more lettuces in here under the shadecloth sail (picture lower down).

The heirloom tomatoes survived the transplanting process and are now in the smaller of our raised garden bed -the first of the 'wicking' beds. We have them under shade on the northern side. They seem to be very happy in the bed, and the soil seems cools and damp but not wet.

Today is going to be 32 degrees Celcius, according to the forecast. Sunday is one of our twice weekly watering days, and our automatic drip irrigation has been on. The plants gradually adapt to the warmer, drier regime of our Mediterranean type climate, and will adjust.

I am very happy that two of my three roses are in flower. I have struggled to get the feeding and sunlight regime right for these, but what I am doing now seems to be working.

Roses are good in this setting -they keep on flowering through summer when other flowers have finished. I like having some flowers to pick for the house, and of course the flowers are essential to bring the bees. Last summer we were hand pollenating some veggies, so I am trying harder to make sure that there are some flowers among the vegetables out the back .

The next tasks will be to continue the heavy mulching of the garden that we have started, to protect the plants and conserve the water in the soil. We will be doing this for weeks to come.

Soon it will be common for us to take every meal we can outdoors, in the patio out the back, and the menu will be cold collations, salads and sandwiches as staples.

It is something I am very grateful for every day, to live in such a fantastic place and with such a wonderful climate. We had a good wet winter this year, the first for many years, and the street trees are looking strong again and ready to cope with the summer heat.

You have to see this

You have to come and see the wildflowers in Spring in Western Australia.

No, really -just drop everything and come.

You will see so much that is beautiful and rare.

Mass displays of everlastings.

Brilliant blue leschenaultia.

Native hibiscus.

Tiny orchids.

Wattles in their thousands.

Can't come just now?

Enjoy these pictures -we had so much fun on just one day's drive north of Perth.

Next time you must come with us, though!

I am so stingy that (part 2)

I have some celery plants. They are too bitter to eat raw. So I decided today to make cream of celery soup.

I took the bones of a chicken which made our picnic lunch yesterday. I boiled them for stock.

Then I added the celery and leaves of about 1 whole bunch of celery, an onion, a quarter of pumpkin and two potatoes and boiled them for about two hours..

I tasted the soup . EEEK. It was bitter!

OK time to experiment.

I added a pinch of salt. I added two desertspoons of sugar.
Still bitter.

I added a desertspoon of chicken stock powder. One tspn of curry powder.

Hmmm....stranger!

Ok now I am desperate. Don't want to throw this out!

Added half a jar of applesauce and one whole can of coconut milk.

Blended it with my lovely bamix.

Served it with home made scones. Vietnamese mint sprinked on top.

The comment from my daughter made it all worth while:

"Strangely this works! I would eat this again! WIN! 8-)

Celebrating!

There were flowers and a beautiful gift of a new Greek icon of Sophia (Wisdom) and her daughters
Faith, Hope and Love.

There was champagne when I got home from work on Friday!

Why?

Regular readers may remember a post I made last year here which talked about some promises I had made to myself. One of these talked about getting a new job. Yes I have done it! I announced on Thursday to the Committee that I was leaving my work of 13 years in a not for profit agency, the last 10 of these as Executive Officer.

I am proud of myself for dong this before I had actually received an offer for a new job. It felt like I was jumping out of the aeroplane without a parachute!

However the very next morning I received word that I had been offered a job that I had applied for -one I was describing as my 'dream job".

When I made the decision to leave, I wrote a list of what I wanted in a new job -and this one fitted the bill almost to a T. I wanted to work for another not-for-profit agency, with a strong track record of getting things done. I wanted a project position that would give me back some face-to-face work with clients as I find this most energising. I wanted a training component to the position as I love that part of the work. I wanted a fairly short term position -after so long in one spot I just wanted some freedom and variety. And I wanted a challenge!

And I will start this new position very soon. It is all of the above.

Of course it is a bit scary. There is always grief at leaving some things that were worth having in the other position. But I am very grateful to have got this far. I took some risks, I made some hard decisions. For me-for happier days.

My original post made these promises to myself. Here is the promised update:

1. I will take my long service leave which is so overdue... I will do it for myself, to care for myself. I will take a trip, I will do a retreat, I will organise craft classes and learn new skills.

Action so far: I took my Annual leave -learned patchwork and quilting -went on a retreat.

Goal Completed!

2. I will try as hard as I can to finish the mortgage payments completely so that I can take the pressure off myself if I need to get out of my present job into something kinder for me-less hours, less money but more life..

Action: We are still making extra mortgage repayments but we are soo close to the end! This job I have taken does not have the 'less hours' that I wanted, but hopefully in the next 2 years this will be a reality. Goal 70% completed.

3. I will learn new ways of tackling conflict so that I don't get so damaged, and that includes learning to put boundaries around hurtful relationships.

Action. I have been working on this one with my spiritual director, and I am booked in to some workshops too. Pleased with my progress - and the healing which is going on. Goal 60% completed.

4. I will be braver than I was.
Action: I have been taking some risks, doing some things I haven't done before. Mixed results, but I am not stopping yet. Still doing this -see above! Goal 60% completed.

5. I will let the day's troubles be sufficient for the day. No importing tomorrow's worries into today.

Action: Still working on these, but I think I am getting there. Goal 50% completed.

5. I will put my energies into life giving things and walk away from the places where my gifts are wasted. No regrets, just the wrong place for me.

Action: Done in one major area of my life -goal 50% completed.

6. I will love more, laugh lots, and grow more fruit!

Action: Planted passionfruit, cape gooseberries. Need a trellis for the grapes. Taking more time to go off and do things that are fun. Goal 50% completed.

7. I will finish my Diploma of Business. Done! Goal 100% completed.

8. I will practice gratitude-all the time. Goal 80% completed.

That is it for now, but I intend to come back and update it.