Relax! This works...

I have been knitting a scarf out of some bamboo/cotton fibre that I got for a whole $1 per ball at the op shop. It is beautifully soft and a pretty antique pink colour. I am just doing straight knitting -nothing fancy, no pattern, no counting. I came home from work the other day and sat for 10 minutes or so knitting -not watching TV, not listening to anything -just knitting. I noticed that my breathing slowed right down, and that I felt more relaxed than I had before I started.

It occurred to me then that I am often surprised at the activities which help me, make me feel better and more hopeful and more energetic, and those which do not.

I am surprised to discover that, in this journey towards the simple life, that when I am cooking I am totally focused on the task at hand, and that even though cooking can be quite energetic, I am usually happier than before . I used this knowledge yesterday when I felt that, having had a very stressful week at work, I needed to make sure my weekend was restorative. It was quite cold outside and with two sick men in the house, there were not so many options open to me. So I decided to cook up a storm -making banana chip cookies, banana bread and a loaf in the bread maker.

The end result -little 'treats' to have with coffee, the satisfaction of a job well done, a feeling of abundance about the place.

The same thing happens when I work in the garden. It is hard work, it is often very repetitive, but the elation which comes after I have had a morning in the garden is hard to find from many other sources. When I go out and pick my own cauliflowers or a bunch of nasturtiums for the house, then that feeling of self-reliance, of abundance, of richness -is very powerful.

Watching TV is of course supposed to be relaxing. It certainly slows the metabolism down, but I am not confident that it has much of a restorative effect on me. I feel after it a bit like you do if you take a sleeping pill -sort of rested, sort of muddled and not really refreshed.

In contrast, I have devoured a novel this weekend -bought second hand from a bookshop -one of the Donna Leon novels about a detective in Venice. It was a true escape -entertaining, relaxing, witty-and let's face it there is not much on TV which can really be said to be of the same standard.

When my DH and I get up awfully early to go for an hour's walk around our suburb before we go to work, we are going against the received wisdom of our society largely -that sleeping in is better than getting up, and that driving is better than walking. Not many walkers accompany us in the depths of our winter, and even in the better weather the numbers of walkers or joggers are small in comparison with the number of people in our suburb. Yet when I make myself go out like this I inevitably find that -about half the way around-I suddenly feel more alive, more aware of the beauty around me, more hopeful and more energetic.

If this is true -that these simple activities are actually restorative -and yet they cost very little-then it would seem that most of us are hoodwinked into spending our money on things which will do us very little good. A night out once in a while is fantastic -and I love live music as much as anyone -but I do not need a hectic social life or expensive toys or entertainments to restore my sense of well being.

What I need mostly is to take notice of what works and what doesn't -and to do more of the stuff that works.

I hope you have had a relaxing weekend.

Spring is coming

I have bought myself a mini greenhouse to set up to grow the lovely heirloom seeds I bought from Yilgarn Traders who work in a garden in Geraldton, so I have great hopes for tough-to-WA plants! I have had only patchy success at growing seeds and potting on, so it is time I got my skills up on this important task.

Yilgarn traders have a website here.

I have three kinds of tomatoes, a capsicum, some 7 year beans, and catnip! My cat has never shown much interest in it, but perhaps if it was fresh?

My 'green manure crop is up in the new raised garden bed -it will seem strange to turn these lovely plants into the soil in a month or so, but this is where the tomato seedlings are going to go and it should give them an excellent start.

We have been harvesting broccoli, which is almost finished and just this week got our first cauliflower. I was amazed at how crisp the fresh cauliflower was -just goes to show the stuff we usually buy has been wilting for days before we get it. The cabbages are just hearting now -must remember to start earlier with them for next year.




The new pomegranate trees we planted a month ago are now shooting forth the most gorgeous red leaves -you can just see them in the picture above-they are going to be such a good addition to the front garden, as they will offer fruit and flowers and shade for some plants during the summer, whilst letting the sun get through in the winter time.





We have had two weeks of rain -such a joy after so many dry years -and everything is looking great. The picture above is a 'happy wanderer' which has happily made its home in my backyard -don't you love volunteers -especially when they look this good!

On the negative side, we have found white ants (termites) in the wood surround of our front door. This was a pretty scary time as I found myself worried about the roof frame being affected, but not wanting to dose everything in the garden with chemicals -the usual treatment. Fortunately we found a company which takes the low impact approach, with targeted baits and low toxicity poisons which are safe for animals etc. This treatment was a lot more expensive than the chemicals but when I said to my DH "I don't want to drench the soil with chemicals as we are growing vegetables and fruit" , he replied "Of course!" Love that man!

It will take about six months for us to be sure that the termites are no longer active, and at that stage we will need to replace the door and its surround. On the positive side, that means an opportunity to get something prettier than the 1970s orange glass sidelight that the house now has. I am thinking of something with decorated glass and a door with glass insets which let more light into the entrance.

All of this extra expense has come at a time when we are still recovering from the driveway project -which was one third more expensive than we imagined-and at a time when the breadmaker, the dishwasher and the clothes dryer all need replacing! (the dryer is only used to finish off the clothes we dry under the eaves but there are times -like when it rains for two weeks-when it is important) . We have replaced the bread maker and the dryer, so hopefully the dishwasher can be replaced soon and we can then start saving again.

That is life, though. I am aiming to keep concentrating on all the good stuff and celebrating every growing thing in my garden and my life.

Thanks for coming by to read my blog -I am quite a fan of blogging - I find it a great network of people all sharing their lives and their stories, their failures and successes. Please feel free to leave a comment.

Generosity is a subversive act!

The picture of my passionfruit is an example of the generosity of the natural world. It has grown so much since I planted it just a few months ago. We now cannot see the ugly fence that dominates this picture above.

I have been giving to it in return -lots of care and attention. I hope that in the future I will have passionfruit in abundance -and be able to give them away too!

I have been thinking about what are gifts and what does it mean to give. I thought it might be timely to follow up the 'stingy' post of last week with a balance about generosity.



I know that some people come to the 'simply living movement" out of a sense of chaos in their personal finances -perhaps they are struggling with their mortgage, or they have maxed out their credit cards, or they never have anything put away for a rainy day. Simplicity helps them get control of their finances and find out how to live without over-reaching themselves all the time. There is nothing wrong with that at all. We were in a similar position once when my DH was made redundant. It was at the worst possible time when we had just bought our first house after 20 years of living in church homes and the mortgage was fierce.

For people who are struggling to make ends meet, there is a great need just to watch every penny and if they need to cut down on their charitable donations and such, that is what they need to do. If they need to sell their surplus things to make a few extra dollars, fine.

For my DH and myself however we are now living more simply because of other reasons and there is now room for more in the way of generosity.

Earlier this year DH gave away his beloved old Single Lens Reflex film camera. Now, this was a constant companion on our holidays in the early days. He loved it to bits. But it had been unused for years and when he found it again in the top of the walk in wardrobe, he decided to do something. He could have taken it to a dealer, but they would have said it was not worth much, and then he would have felt upset that his beloved camera had no value. Instead he "Freecycled" it -to someone who will value it as much as he does. Win all round!

We have had great satisfaction in signing up as regular supporters of St Judes' school in Tanzania where we help 8 girls go to boarding school (read about St Judes here)

There is a very moving post about getting rid of a sense of entitlement over at Notes from the Frugal Trenches which explains very eloquently why a generous spirit is so right for most of us. We live in a very rich nation in Australia, and in many other Western countries, and we have homes and food and medicine. So much of the world does not share these things.

Simple giving however does not have to only involve giving things or money. In my experience most people just need to have someone who will consistently give them some time to be listened to, and nearly everyone is in need of being thanked more. I try to make sure that I smile at the people on my street who don't look like the rest of us because that I hope, makes them feel a bit more at home and not so lost and strange.

In our world of grasping and greed we need more of us to just give away what we have to give. I hope you feel the same!

I am so stingy that....(part one)

* Today I turned a tiny few stems of rhubarb (the crowns are young yet) and one slightly munted pear into a fruit crumble. The topping is some biscuits which turned out a bit more like cake than biscuits, so I whizzed them in the blender and bunged them on the crumble. It was really yummy!

Other stingy practices:

*I plant the cloves of garlic that are shooting, so that I can have more garlic. I snip the green tips for garnishes and flavour in scrambled eggs

*I use the tops of the celery for salad leaves. (One of our friends was very excited to discover that you can eat the celery leaves-they were so distressed at throwing away huge piles of them that they stopped buying celery bunches!) They are great in casseroles and soups too -slightly peppery.

*when I harvest the first broccoli flower, I leave the plant there so I can also harvest the second, smaller flowers too

*I saved some bananas in the freezer and made banana bread (Ok I will own up -the reason I had too many bananas in the first place is because when I ordered online I thought I would get 6 bananas, and what I got was 6 BAGS of bananas!). I made the bread even though I don't really like cooked bananas, just because I hate to see good food wasted. As it happens, the orange peel in the recipe I used made it quite palatable.

* I regularly make 'leftover soup" -that is I cut up all the older veggies from the bottom of the crisper drawer to make soup for our lunches during the week. That saves waste and we don't have to buy lunches from the nearby shops which saves cash too!

I plan to make this an occasional series and welcome any comments from other stingy people too!

A time for every purpose

I have had a wonderful three month break from work, and today is the last day.

I achieved most of what I wanted to do:

*DH and I went to Melbourne together and had a wonderful holiday
* I went to sewing classes and have made 3 quilts. The latest one is pictured here -my "Christmas quilt" which I enjoyed making very much.
* the driveway project is finished-the pictures are here on this blog
* I have had lots of physiotherapy on my shoulder and it is improved -this would have been very hard to do when I was at work full time
* I have read lots of books
*I have had leisurely lunches with friends

The garden has had some work too. We set up a new raised garden bed, and have planted it with green manure which is just now coming up.

We have planted two pomegranates in the front yard.
The broccoli have begun to be harvested, the mushrooms are on the second crop and the cauliflowers are getting bigger.


All in all I have had a wonderful time! One of the most wonderful things about such a long break has been the sense of being completely relaxed and at ease. It is a sense of 'coming back to myself" -who I am when I am not "busy busy busy".

I can see how wonderful it would be to have more of this kind of life, but at the moment I am still a working girl. I am not unhappy to be going back to work. In these difficult economic times it would be churlish to complain about having a job. I know that there will be stressful times ahead, but I have had the season of rest and now is the season for work again.

One of the challenges for me in going back to work will be to keep the balance between work and life which we all aspire to keep, but struggle to actually do. One of the disciplines I have been practicing for over a year now -before my long service leave began in fact- is the practice of having one day 'off' per week.

It means being disciplined to get some work around the house done on Saturdays so we can relax on Sunday. It means being determined to save Sunday from all the challenges which come up to fill it up with stuff that does not refresh or renew us. Often it simply requires patience -yes, we could spend all Sunday doing this or that around the house or whatever, but we will choose instead to read, to nap, to drink coffee or wine, to listen to music.

It often requires a simple word which is, however, so hard to say. "NO!" We need to use this word to keep ourselves focused on the main goals of our lives so that we do not clog everything up with too many commitments and too much to do.

I am keen to keep up my quilting even when back at work and one of the ways I intend to do this is to take more classes to keep my skills growing.

I am planning at least one day of working at home each fortnight, because the office is very busy and hard to get good quality work done there.

There is one other 'tool' I have to help with this: I have a small group of friends who meet every Sunday evening to support each other in our lives. We keep each other honest about the promises we have made to ourselves, and in particular to the challenge of just taking care of ourselves by trying to have some time in every week when we are not 'over achieving".

I am sure that they will be keeping me to the promises that I have made myself about the 'time for everything" as the working life starts again.

The record of my life here on this blog is also a tool for accountability -so if you see me sliding away from the goal of 'simplicity" -you have my permission to nag me back into line!

I would be pleased to hear of any suggestions you have of things which work in creating a balanced life.

Simple way to get organised

It is tax time in our house, and probably yours too. How are you going at finding all the receipts, group certificates, bank statements and the like that you need at this time?

Our organisation suddenly shows itself as adequate or not, when we are searching for the important things.
I thought I would suggest the few things I have learned about important papers and trying to keep them organised for such times:

1. Mess is attracted to horizontal surfaces. The more horizontal surfaces there are, the more places there are to stack things.

The one thing I have learned is, to make the piles of stuff appear somewhere near where they need to be. Sometimes this means moving a table away from somewhere like the front door, if everything seems to collect there, and putting it somewhere near your filing system.

2. Have somewhere to put things and put things there often. So, have a file named "tax" and when you are going through a pile on a horizontal surface, and you come across something which looks relevant, chuck it in.

A file can be :
-a large recycled envelope in a shoe box covered with fabric or paper
-a lever arch file in which you can file things in more-or-less date order
-a filing drawer in a filing cabinet

3. Try to open mail in the vicinity of your filing system. Then you can file-as-you-go.

4. If you have to transport important things like group certificates from work to home and this is the weakest link in your filing system then:
-post it to yourself
-keep a file pocket in the car and put things in there

There are two expense types we were wishing last year that we had done better at recording.

One is medical expenses. If you are over a certain threshold you can claim a deduction. So- do you think we did something sensible like keep our receipts? No, but it doesn't matter, as the pharmacist will give us a statement of expenses on prescriptions. We tend to go to quite a lot of pharmacies -so now we are wandering around collecting statements. For tax advice about this try the tax office website.
We often make donations to charities -so where are the receipts for those? Yes we had some, but I am sure we had made more donations. The hardest ones to keep track of are those donations we make when someone calls at the door and you get a tiny slip of paper...just seems to disappear.

Last year about this time I was inspired when a friend showed me her tax filing system. She has a pocket file book (you know, plastic pockets bound by a spiral. ) She had labelled each pocket with something like "Self education expenses", "medical" etc. All the receipts go into the pockets and there is even a running total in each pocket!

I told myself that "if she can do it, I can do it!" This has worked very well for us this year. My DH is even talking about getting the paperwork off to the accountant early this year 'because you have all the stuff sorted and together!"

The system is now in a lever arch file called "Tax Records" and everything I think might be useful at tax time is just punched with a double hole punch and filed in the file, with dividers to show where to put the medical expenses or the charitable donations, and some pockets for the little annoying pieces of paper.

Any suggestions of your own to add to this list of helpful strategies to keep track of everything?

Something done-the before and after shots!

Before and after shots of the driveway. I think you will agree it was in need of a bit of work! We have been able to connect to underground power and to fix our drainage problems with a fair degree of success, so we are quite pleased with the result. Bit of tidying up to do, however!