It has been a big weekend

 First I went to the "Sorry Day" ceremony in Wellington Square in Perth, where we remembered the plight of generations of indigenous children who were taken away from their parents by force in years past. The Convenor of the "Bringing Them Home Committee" spoke movingly of the sad legacy of this policy which makes many indigenous families so poor and troubled.

There was hope too, however in the young indigenous dancers from "HALO" a leadership foundation taking young men who have a history of getting involved in the justice system, and giving them support to grow as leaders and as indigenous men.
This coming week is "Reconciliation Week" in Australia.

 There was a short walk for me this morning down by the Swan River in Guildford, which the indigenous people call "Derbal Yerragan" -a place where in the Dreamtime the Rainbow Serpent was active.

 DH and I also took the opportunity to visit one of our favourite Swan River cafe and wineries -Little River, where we ate yummy Duck Pate with fresh baguettes and salad. We also bought some of their very fine Shiraz and Cab Merlot wines.

Sadly the wonderful winter weather today hides the fact that the rains have gone away again. Our Weather Bureau now thinks we might have a 60% chance of a warmer but drier winter this year.

Finally we had our builders come back and complete the installation of the mantle for our new heater.  In our joy that this 2 day project was finally done -after 4 weeks- we put all the books back on the bookshelves and are really enjoying settling down in the evening with a book  and the new heater. Very Cosy!

Give more

I have just completed this quilt top, above which will be a banner to go with my "live simply" one. It has a lovely panel of a winery set among green vines in the middle. I was lucky enough to find some fabric which echoed the   vines which I set as a border, then added the flying geese and the words "give more". Then I finished it with an autumn leaf print.

It probably won't be pinned to a backing until next weekend, so this week I am just keeping it on my design board.

We have had a return to autumn weather here in Perth this weekend. DH and I were able to go for a lovely walk at our local beach today -it was a warm day. Any more of this and I will be watering the veggies again.

We know it is winter by the fact that the days are getting shorter and shorter. Yesterday the family came up with a lovely idea to gather together on the winter solstice for a Yule Feast. We are going to have our new 'log fire" in operation, and lots of candles to defy the long night - and yummy winter food, on the longest night which will be on the 20th June.

From that day on, I always feel that I can eagerly watch the days gradually get longer, with each morning a minute or two earlier than the last. I do hope we get lots more rain though -our Perth winters seem drier than they used to be.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. See you soon!

My new role-Nanna!

She is here! My first grandchild -arrived last Saturday morning early in Melbourne. I was lucky enough to be able to fly over for the weekend and meet her for the first time. My son and daughter in law are now celebrating the first Mother's Day at their place and of course, I am now having my first Mother's day as a Nanna. In a couple of weeks my DH and I are going back to Melbourne so he can meet her too, and we can take longer to be with her. 

It has been a very big week as a result of all of this happiness, of course.

This weekend we also celebrated my DH's aunt's 90th birthday. It was good to be able to celebrate that too. 

Today I am enjoying some lovely new CDs and DVDs...I have jazz, guitar music, and tangos! I also have the first 7 episodes of the Miss Fisher's Mystery Mysteries series 1. This TV show is based upon the Kerry Greenwood novels based upon the 1928 fictional detective with a passion for justice, fashion and men! It is really interesting to watch the differences between a TV series based upon a novel you know well -how they can't get all the characters in the TV series, or manage all the complexities. The fashion is lovely on the TV series, but the books are much more complex and more enjoyable as a result. 

All in all there has been a full amount of positivity around here this week -which is a lovely lead up to Mother's day. I hope you are having a good one too. 

200th post-progress slowly

This is the 200th post on my blog! I remember DD showing me how to set it up years ago, and how excited I was to get started. It has become a wonderful tool to record my progress towards a simpler life, and I have met many wonderful internet friends as a result.

This week we have been doing all sorts of things -some leading us closer to simplicity, and some look like they are taking us away!

On the positive side, the Myer lemon crop is being slowly processed. I love my Myer lemons, but they are a crop that arrives all at once, rather than in dribs and drabs throughout the year. For that reason, we have a new Eureka lemon in the front garden, because it tends to crop over a wider time frame.

I have juiced a batch of lemons, and frozen the juice in ice cube trays. These become a wonderful resource for cooking, for hot lemon drinks in winter, and for flavouring iced drinks without making the drink more diluted.

I have zested and frozen about a dozen lemon skins.

I have also sliced and frozen slices of lemon.

But there is as many lemons on the tree left as I have processed till now! 

 Our new gas heater has been partially installed. The new heater was a necessity as our old one will be obsolete when the State Government changes the gas supply. We took the opportunity to have a gas heater installed which looks like a log fire, and yet has a 4 star energy rating.
For purely decorative purposes, we have also built a fake chimney and are having a mantle installed.  This is the picture about half way through the process - we hope the installers will come back this week and finish the job.

 I have been using one of my most useful acquisitions -a set of jewellery pliers- to fix a couple of Op Shop necklaces. One of them needed re-stringing, and one of them needed to have some beads removed. I enjoy having a variety of accessories to dress up basic outfits, and I find that having the basic skills to fix something from the Op Shop, or to change it in some way, really is very useful.

On the (slightly) negative side, I have started a second job before my first part time job was finished. This means that for the next 10 or so weeks I have a more than full time job. Obviously this is not really a Simple lifestyle. Fortunately they are both quite complementary positions, and my DD and DH are stepping up to take over some parts of the household work, so that we can get through this time. I anticipate my good old slow cooker will be getting work out over the next few weeks. There is nothing quite so encouraging as coming in after a hard day at work, and finding the wonderful smell of a slow cooked casserole to greet you, with dinner all done.

I find I am already missing my 'quilting day' but I have spent this afternoon sewing, so it is all good so far.

Thanks to all those who have subscribed to my blog and left comments over the years. I do appreciate your encouragement.

The Peace of the Done

 "Out of the strain of the doing, into the peace of the done." (Julia Louise Woodruff, 1910.)


Yes, the quilt for my first grand child -due early May -is now finished. What a lovely feeling!  I added a purple and yellow and green binding, which picks up the colours found elsewhere in the fabric.

I enjoyed the quilting, which was a combination of straight and free motion. I do think my skills are improving each time I do this and I am happy with what I achieved.

This is a picture of the finished front.

The prospective new parents are getting very excited about the way the date for the birth is getting closer and closer, and we prospective new grand parents have booked flights and accommodation -not long to go now!

I really like the way the quilting adds so much texture and how it shows up the design so well. 


Now, what shall I start next?

Easter celebrations at New Norcia and our place

Easter at New Norcia, the Benedictine town which is situated about 120 km north of Perth in Western Australia, was as lovely as ever.

DH and I have been lucky enough to share in Easter celebrations there for the last 3 years. We went up on Thursday, and stayed in the Monastery guest house. The centre picture of the collage is the view of the courtyard garden at the guest house. Other views are of the town and its surroundings. 

We were invited to sing in the choir for the Maundy Thursday and Dawn Easter services. The music was lovely- augemented by our very talented organist/pianist, a cellist and a trumpeter.

Between services and choir rehearsals, we read books. I have a biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran pastor who was an ecumenist and a theologian in the 1930s and 40s in Germany -a man of great intellect and courage. We also bought a Richard Rohr book "A Lever and a Place to Stand" which was very inspirational. The two books go together very well and enabled us to do a lot of reflecting on life and faith.

We also walked around the town and its surroundings. Everywhere the country is waiting for the new life to begin, which can only start when the rains arrive. Nevertheless the olive trees continue to grow, and the pink and grey galahs swoop and soar. There is a beautiful display in the education centre of six panels representing the seasons as they are identified by local indigenous people of the Nyoongar nation. The picture in the top right hand corner is of the current season -which is called Makuru, if I have identified it correctly.

There were some very interesting people who gathered at New Norcia for the celebrations. We met some old friends and made some new ones.

We gave ourselves the luxury of not rushing away after the Easter dawn service-which starts at 4.30 am and goes for three hours...we have learned that it really does help to slow down, have an afternoon nap and go home the next day.

When we got home, we shared with our DD a lovely Easter cake made by my talented niece, who is setting up a cake decorating business called Jakes Cakes. It was a very delicious chocolate mud cake and the Easter Bunny, basket of eggs and flowers were all wonderfully done.

 All in all we have had a restful, inspirational and delightful weekend, thanks to the many people who shared their talents to make it so.

I hope you had a wonderful Easter too, and that the joy of Easter can go with you.

How to have more space

This is our lounge room which will have a new heater soon - we think!

There are a number of TV programs which show us fabulous homes -either being built new or renovated. One theme in most of them is SPACE. I am amazed at how big they are! Some of them would take the small Not for Profit agency I work for several times over.

Space is buildings is very costly. Part of the reason so many young Australians are saddled with huge debts is that the houses we build and buy are so much bigger than the ones our parents grew up in. Yet even these big houses, with their games rooms and media rooms and alfresco eating areas are still not enough for some people, whose accumulation of STUFF has grown so big they rent storage containers and put their extra stuff in there!

There is a 15 page research paper on the Australia Institute Website which looks at clutter and why it worries us.

Here is the link:
www.tai.org.au/documents/downloads/WP112.pdf

"Four in ten Australians say they feel anxious, guilty or depressed about the clutter in
their homes. Women are much more concerned about clutter than men: almost half of
the women surveyed said they were anxious, depressed or worried about the clutter in
their home, while a third said they were embarrassed by it. Indeed, fully 59 per cent of
women said there was a room in the house that they don’t like visitors to see because
of the clutter."

Our research shows that many people – 84 per cent of survey respondents – are in the

strange situation of having bought things in order to deal with the excessive amount of

things they have bought. Around a quarter had even bought vacuum storage bags –

which suggests that the stored items will not be in use for some time. One in five

respondents had built a shed or garage to keep or store things, while one in eight had

even moved house to accommodate their superfluous ‘stuff".

Thanks to our Lenten habit of "Giving It Away for Lent" I am feeling a tremendous sense of space in my house at the moment.

The kitchen cupboard where I keep my pots and pans now has a space for everything I use, since I gave away the large slow cooker I never used. It is now blessing a young person who has been setting up home for the first time, and who wanted to make Rogan Josh like mum! I used freecycle to find it a new home. There will be one near you...search for the word in your search engine.

I have also given away some large platters from the cupboard where I store party crockery. I can make do with smaller ones. The big platters went to my local op shop which supports the Salvos.


My wardrobe is more roomy now I have taken a couple of large bags full of clothes I don't wear any more. The ones I have left are all in use, and are ones I like to wear. They hang better on the rack because I have the space. 

We are undertaking a renovation of our heater in the lounge room, which means that we won't be able to have all of the book cases we had on the same wall. This means giving away some books -which I admit is never an easy task. 

One of the "Simple Living" mantras is to 'Live within your means" -that is, do not spend more than you earn. This is so important for peace of mind! See this article for  more on this

The corollary of that is to "Live within the space you have" which means, with only as much stuff as you can reasonably use and reasonably store. The benefit of this approach is that you don't have clutter to worry you, and you don't need to spend money on a bigger house or storage facility! 

You can't organise clutter, you can only get rid of it!

So how to help manage and restrain stuff?

•  The flylady mantra is "you can't organise clutter, you can only get rid of it!" Beyond a sensible, normal point, there is no point spending good money on storage solutions for stuff which is in excess to your requirements!
• Don't go shopping without a list -shopping is not entertainment.
• Put a sign on your mailbox which says "addressed mail only". Advertising catalogues are designed to make you bring more stuff in your house..often stuff you didn't know you needed or wanted before you saw them in the catalogue. Since we stopped this junk mail, we have had so much more money! All the little bits of discretionary spending all add up.
• If you buy something -the bag you brought it home in has to be filled up with stuff you don't need any more and given away. The "one in, one out" rule means that you do not accumulate too much stuff. As flylady says "Clutter walked in your house one bag at a time, and that is the way it will leave!"
•  Establish a regular routine of decluttering so that you are always evaluating what you have. "Do I still love this? Do I still use this? Could it find a better home with someone else?"

I once visited a shanty town in Namibia, where I saw people living in one room. It is part of my mental geography, if you like! I am constantly asking myself about how my life would look to the people in that house...how much do I really need to live on and with? Could I live with less and also give more to aid and development programs which are supporting sustainable growth in other places?

How would the rest of the world see our junk?