Saving power

This light fitting was in my lounge room -one of two halogen globe lights, each one having three globes. The globes were each 50w -that is 300 watts for the room. The globes were VERY difficult to get into the fittings, even with a special pair of tongs I bought especially made for the job.

The room was dark in corners.

With the coming changes in power costs in WA it was time to make some changes, especially when we needed to get the electrician in anyway so that one of the wall plates could be replaced.

Here is the replacement! Each of the low energy lights is 11 watts so that is 11 x6 or 66 watts instead of 300watts for the room.

There is much more light in the new arrangement. I also love the way these look -it fits my country style much better than the old ones.

With the new outdoor fridge and these lights, we will have significantly lowered our electricity consumption. Will be interesting to see the next bill when it comes!

Fifty Second post! Melbourne in autumn

I started my blog on 25th April last year, so I have already had my 'blogversary" and today's post is my 52nd! It has been great fun and I enjoy the challenge of thinking of things to write and seeing my life as something I can record and share.

This is the first time I have sat down to write since getting home from Melbourne, so I thought you might like to see some of my pictures.

Melbourne in autumn is particularly beautiful. We did a lot of walking and it was great!

There were such lovely colours of foliage everywhere!
We don't often get these scenes in Perth and our winter this year seems to have disappeared, so it was particularly nice to spend two weeks in one of my favourite cities.

Black elm tree stems are fabulous too!

And what about this colour combination from the Botanical Gardens!

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson~

Simply going to Melbourne

When I announced to people I knew that I was taking long service leave, most people assumed that I was going to go overseas. I guess that is what many people do.

I put off taking my long service leave for over 12 months because I felt quite intimidated by the idea that I had to do something very important or special with it.

It was a book called "Grace in the Desert" by Dennis Patrick Slatterly which changed my mind. Dennis went on a pilgrimage from one retreat house to another for three months throughout the US. What he found, and writes about very beautifully, is that in fact he was undertaking a 'journey within" -giving himself time and space and quiet to discover the internal stuff of his life.

I was inspired to believe that my long service leave could be fruitful by allowing myself the same sort of time and space What I have planned is a couple of retreats, a holiday with my DH who cannot leave his work for more than two weeks, and a lot of craft workshops.

I am deliberately trying to slow down and to notice what I am thinking about and feeling. I am journalling more. I am not listening to the radio or following the news.

I am trying to exercise those parts of my life which don't get much of a workout when I am a full time worker and mother and everything else that I do.

In the next two weeks my husband and I will be visiting my brother and his wife in Melbourne. We will be catching up with friends and enjoying our 33rd wedding anniversary. We are taking Kerry Greenwood's first couple of Phryne Fisher books with us so we can enjoy visiting the 'scenes of the crimes'.

This is sheer indulgence and fun. Not going overseas, simply visiting my favourite other city (other than Perth of course) and being with the one I love.

See you when I get back! Hope to have lots of lovely pictures.

Smell the roses

This beautiful card was given to me when I left work for my Long Service Leave, with a hope that I would have time to stop and smell the roses. I left work on Friday afternoon and drove straight to New Norcia for a weekend retreat. This was such a good idea, because it meant that I did indeed have time to walk around and pay attention to the beauty around me. I thought that you might like to spend a few moments enjoying what I found.

Gum trees in blossom in the monastery guesthouse courtyard. Wattle in bloom. Lavender with a friendly bee. Enjoy these beautiful things and then try to pay attention to those precious little moments of beauty in each day. Simplicity is not just thriftyness, not just growing vegetables. Simplicity starts with being attentive and grateful and the rest will flow from there.

How the job was done-cheaply-and what a result!

How we turned our old and broken outdoor furniture into good-as-new furniture for less than one quarter of the cost of new ones. (see previous post)

We set up a space in the garage to work, with our painted slats and two sawhorses (one rescued from the last hard rubbish collection). I painted the slats with an undercoat and some Weathershield paint we had left over from previous jobs. The cost for the slats was 2.20 each -we needed 30. That was a total of $66 plus fixings for another $20.

The old slats were removed from the wrought iron ends. DH needed to use an angle grinder for some of the old bolts. The new slats were bolted to the ends. The old braces and metal strip were screwed back in again.

Of course we had to celebrate the completed project with coffee and muffins! Total cost was $86 -to purchase new ones would have cost over $350 and required yet more stuff to be shipped here from China.

This sunny north-facing aspect is an important place for the taking of coffee whenever the winter sun pokes through. Our other patio is round the back and ideal for the summer time, -and with the blinds and patio heater on - can be cosy for quite many months of the year. There is no substitute for a little sunny spot in the winter or early spring, however.

Another interesting aspect of this sitting area is that it faces the street. We have a fairly quiet street and our neighbours keep pretty much to themselves, but when they see us around this table they often want to be more chatty. The front garden is where the flowering plants are mostly -and it can be a lovely place to be.

I hope you have somewhere nice to sit and enjoy the sun too!

Small important projects

In our attempts to live simply, it is the small but important projects which often make a huge difference.

For example, our Myer lemon tree is now covered in fruit. Unlike the Eureka, the Myer has one big crop and then no lemons for much of the year. It is important to store our harvest and that is what I am doing right now, with the help of the extra freezer space in the new fridge.

Freezing the juice in icecube trays will mean that we always have lemon juice on hand for such things as baking and of course, in the winter time, for soothing sore throats. I will also be freezing some lemon zest for recipes too. Lemons are quite expensive to buy in the shops but our Perth climate means that most of us can have lemons on hand when we want them.

This winter plan to add a Eureka to the citrus 'orchard' in the back yard. We have a lime which is, for the first year, looking established and which is greatly valued for it's role in gin and tonics, among other things! We also have a small mandarin which is struggling to be established after we moved it last year, and a slightly bigger ruby grapefruit.

Another crop which is easy to grow in a small area and which adds so much to our diet is the herbs we grow for abundant flavour. I have 5 different basil plants at the moment and intend, this week, to harvest the annual ones for pesto which I will freeze in cubes too. There is something magic about a cube or two in a vegetarian pasta dish, to add shine and flavour to the sauce. At the end of summer I make it with basil and that lasts us until the spring when I make another batch with nasturtium leaves . I found that recipe in Jan Oldham's book ( a favourite of mine).

I have finally finished my Easter bunting! It is a good thing the festival of Easter lasts 50 days! I have worked out how to cut the fabric so that I don't waste too much of it and intend shortly to make some in a gorgeous green spot, green flower and red gingham mix which will double as a party bunting and also as another Chrsitmas decoration.

Finally, this long weekend is the time to complete a project outdoors. We have an outdoor setting which has lasted years and years, but the wooden slats are now breaking and it needs some repairs. The garage has been cleared and the painting has begun. Hopefully by the end of the day I will be able to show off the new look patio setting!

New beginnings-and coming closer to the end

This is our new fridge!

The new fridge arrived this week. The old fridge has gone to a good home -my son has a friend just starting up a home of their own and they had no fridge, so this is a win-win situation.

Our new fridge has a high number of 'stars' which means energy efficiency for us when compared with the old one. We also get extra freezer space, which we will enjoy because we use it a lot for freezing stock, or left overs to make sure that they are still in good condition when next we decide to use them.
I have planted my raised garden bed with broccoli, red cabbages, cauliflowers and a few mizuna seedlings. It seems a bit early still, because our weather today was fine and around 29degrees C, but surely the autumn and winter will come soon?

My dear husband and I took off this afternoon to our very favourite Swan Valley restaurant and vineyard for lunch. Dear Jan and Bruno! Hostess and vigneron extraordinaire. We sat for hours and enjoyed fine food and wine whilst we dreamed of the next stages in our life journey.

That is what Little River has done for us on so many occasions. Given us the time and beautiful space necessary to really talk and dream together.

Of course, one of our big topics is the fact that I am now only 10 working days away from my long service leave! In my whole working life I have never had long service leave before, and the chances are I never will again. I am so looking forward to time to do all of those things I can't do when working full time.

I didn't always work full time. For the first 15 years of our married life at least, we shared one full time position, so that we could each work half time and devote the other half time to our family and our whole lives. That was a wonderful lifestyle, but it was not bringing in enough money to purchase a home of our own. So we took up other work and with it all the stresses of modern living.

We are now so close to achieving the end of our mortgage, and as our children are almost independent, we are hoping soon to gradually cut back on the hours we both work. Maybe not this year, maybe not next -but soon. We only need to work enough to allow the bills to be paid -we have simple needs and our commitment to a simple lifestyle makes those bills smaller and smaller over time.

What would we do if we did not work full time and our children did not need constant attention?

We talked about our dreams -everything from just being able to sit and read without feeling like we had to be productive all the time, to developing 'mastery' at some particular skill such as woodwork or veggie growing.

I am sure that we would have some kind of voluntary work to benefit the community.

I am sure it would be lovely to be able to choose what that community work was!

Lots of hopeful things were discussed, and hope is one of those things which make us more energetic and optimistic.

I will have some time on Long Service Leave to look carefully at our financial position and to begin to determine what our income level could be reduced to, without too much stress and strain. This will be a good first step on the road back to a balance in our life again.

Until then, gardening and lunch at our favourite restaurant occasionally will keep us going.