Peppermint and Tea Tree Soap

Having a bit of a soap binge of late.  Plan is that they'll be used for gifts as we head towards the end of the year, well if they last that long.

These days I pretty confident with plain cold processed soap - ie, a lye, olive oil/coconut oil type soap.  So have started messing about with more complex soap recipes.

***

Peppermint and Tea tree wake-up soap

Soap in the moulds

Soap out of the mould - should actually still be in it, but I had an impatient

16 oz water,
6.1oz lye,
18oz coconut oil,
6oz palm oil (I used macadamia nut oil)
16oz olive oil
2 tbs crushed dried peppermint leaves
1 tbs poppy seeds
0.5oz peppermint essential oil
0.5oz tea tree essential oil

Make soap base, then add peppermint leaves, poppy seeds and essential oils at trace.

***

This soap was expensive to make and took two hours to trace.  Luckily hubs was helping stir.

The main expense was the essential oils, and the cost of coconut oil seems to be increasing every single time I buy it.  Rhonda over a Down To Earth mentioned this the other day, and she's been experimenting with copha instead of coconut oil.  Am planning on giving her recipe a try in the near future.

Bed 3: Onions

Here is the onion bed in June...

June 2011

Here it is, six weeks later, in early August...

August 2011

You would be entirely right in thinking that absolutely nothing of interest has happened amongst the onions. Why indeed, even the old dog chew toy nestling in the corner there has not been moved.

Onions. Yawn.

Bed 1: Root Vegetables

The root veggie bed is doing glorious things.

Turnips, swedes, carrots, beetroot and carrots all doing very nicely.  We're eating the turnips already.  Well, I'm eating them, hubs is eating them without knowing what they are, and the children would rather die of starvation than eat them.

Bed 1: Root vegies

The peas and snow peas along the fence are going nicely as well.

:)

UPDATED: I wrote this post last night when the peas and snow peas were indeed doing well. Now they have been eaten down to the ground by a possum. sigh.

Bed 2: Legumes

The broad beans are pretty milquetoast this year.  Usually I have a dense thicket filled with snails, which I spend many irritated hours tying up, only to have them all fall down again in the faintest of breezes. But these ones are lacking in enthusiasms and even the snails couldn't be bothered.

Unenthused Broad Beans

Still, the few that are actually trying, are starting to flower, so there is some hope.

:)

Spring Asparagus Miracle

I put in six asparagus plants last year.  Despite the best efforts of the chooks, I have three plants STILL ALIVE. (Yes, miracles do happen).

Look! Look!!

And now they're even starting to produce spears that are big enough to eat.

This can't be right.  

Kitchen Alchemy - Sourdough (again)

Sourdough starters and I do not get on.  I invariably end up with with a bowl of glue.  Glue that smells of yeast. But, glue.

So, being a glutton for punishment, and in the mood for a spot of fermentation, when I came across this recipe for a starter at 52 loaves, I decided to give it a try.

After fermenting my apple for a few days, I gathered the ingredients...

The Ingredients

 And stirred them all together...

Oh look, glue

This was done a week ago, and since then I have been faithfully feeding my starter, caring for it, loving it, talking to it, and even sniffing it.

And I am now proud to announce that, I have a bowl of runny glue that smells of fermenting apples.  No, that baby is not going to be raising anything, it can barely produce bubbles.

FTW. sigh.

Back to the packet yeast.

New Look & The Great Tomato Caper

Do you like my new look? Its courtesy of Nuffnang and Sass at Moozoodesign, and I'd like to thank them both immensely.

So tomatoes.  The garden is starting to stir, well, the weeds are starting to stir, the rest of it, the interesting bits, are all quite happy to keep napping thankyouverymuchindeed.  After two months of being ignored, its looking a lot like a barnyard out there. So yesterday, as it was a heavenly day, I finished flinging the fertiliser about the place and got stuck into the Great Tomato Caper.

Garden architecture

The Great Tomato Caper (whereby I planted all the self seeded Tomatoes last May to see if anyone survived the winter) has had mixed results.  After our first big wet spell in June the seedlings all developed Septoria blight.  Rather over it all, I threw my organic principals out the window (gasp, yes) and treated them all with Yates Tomato dust - horrible stuff it is too.  I was disappointed to go that route, but I am so OVER being virtuously organic and ending up with a fat lot of nothing for it.

Anyhoo, there were a few casualties, but a couple of (probably cherry) tomatoes put on good growth and mostly everyone hung in there over the short days of June and July.

THEN we had our second wet spell in July and yes, the Septoria blight is back again, sigh.  There are going to be a couple of casualties, but most plants are putting on new growth and even a few baby tomatoes are appearing.  I've started on the trellises for them, and will be reluctantly dragging out the tomato dust again when it stops raining.

The caper continues.

:)

Happy Imbolc

The pagan festival of Imbolc is around about now (usually 1 or 2 August).  As festivals go, its one of the most delightful.  Its about hearth and home, a celebration of the lengthening days and the early signs of Spring.  Its about fire and food and wriggling out from under the grip of Winter - well, actually, tradition has it that if Cailleach (a divine gaelic hag - basically the Winter Goddess) intends to make winter last longer before giving it up to Brighde (the Summer Goddess), she tricks everyone by making Imbolc a warm and sunny day.  Given that today has been unseasonably hot, methinks it was a wise decision to go the two pallets of firewood and not one.

Here at Chez Nicholas the signs of spring are in the air, mostly because I have flung about 40kgs of dynamic lifter over the garden in the last 24 hours - this is causing the kids playing out in the street to scream 'don't go near the STINKY HOUSE' at each other whenever they get downwind of the place.

Happy Imbolc.  Spring is on its way :)

If I can do it, anyone can - a rant

One of the most irritating and self-depreciating phrases in the English language.  Seriously, it ought to be banned.

Someone, always female, achieves something...


If I can do it, anyone can, she gushes to all her friends, all over the chat loop, or on twitter, or Facebook.

It could be having a baby, writing a book, boiling an egg, winning Masterchef, paragliding, becoming CEO of a large company, driving a car, Morris dancing...

So what, exactly, is this person saying?

Well, literally, she is saying that the thing she achieved was so easy that anyone in the entire world can do it.
So not much of an achievement is it?
If anyone can do it.

When I hear this phrase, I hear the person saying 'my achievement does not stand me out from the crowd'.
I worked hard. I set goals. I dedicated myself to those goals. Spent hours of my life working towards them. I used my own gifts and talents and passions - but YOU KNOW, I'm not that special, my unique set of gifts not that special. ANYONE CAN DO IT.

Guess what?

ANYONE CAN'T DO IT.

I have a relative, who will put a superb home made cake (for example) in front of you, and then list all the things that are wrong with it.  To me, it has butter and flour and sugar and cream and it is delicious.  I have NO IDEA the recipe called for it to be sprinkled with the ground dust of fairy toenails and DJs were all sold out.  Stop telling me why it isn't good enough.  Stop telling me why you are not good enough.

Its all the same thing.  The self depreciation.  These women who have achieved or created amazing things, then embark on a mission to convince us all they're not that special.

You know what ladies? You are that special.  And its about sodding time you changed your tune.

I move the we remove 'if I can do it, anyone can,' from the English Language and replace it with...
I achieved this because I worked bloody hard and also I am AWESOME.

All those in favour, raise your hands.

:)

Worst First Lines - for 2011

The results for the 2011 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction competition for the worst first lines are in.


My favourites are...

Cheryl’s mind turned like the vanes of a wind-powered turbine, chopping her sparrow-like thoughts into bloody pieces that fell onto a growing pile of forgotten memories.

Sue Fondrie

Oshkosh, WI

***

As his small boat scudded before a brisk breeze under a sapphire sky dappled with cerulean clouds with indigo bases, through cobalt seas that deepened to navy nearer the boat and faded to azure at the horizon, Ian was at a loss as to why he felt blue. 

Mike Pedersen

North Berwick, ME 

***

Detective Kodiak plucked a single hair from the bearskin rug and at once understood the grisly nature of the crime: it had been a ferocious act, a real honey, the sort of thing that could polarize a community, so he padded quietly out the back to avoid a cub reporter waiting in the den. 

Joe Wyatt

Amarillo, TX 

***

Convinced that the fabled Lost Treasure of Eggsbury was concealed within the statue of the beloved Sister Mary Francis in the village square, Professor Smithee would steal away in the darkest hour of each night to try to silently chip away at her impervious granite vestments – a vain and fruitless nightly exercise, he well knew, but it was a hard habit to break.

Rodney Reed
Ooltewah, TN

***

You can read the rest of the entries here.

:)

Trip to Umina beach

It was cold and rainy last Saturday.

So we went to the beach.

It was intermittently pouring, there was a brisk gale-force easterly breeze, it was was a king tide and there was a warning for dangerous surf conditions.

My kind of beach weather.

Check out that sky.

Stay OUT of the water.

OUT... oh never mind

What? Soaking wet AND freezing
Told. You. So.

Why no,  there was not another soul on the beach - even the surfies were bailing.

We had a change of clothes, and in no time they were both snuggled and warm, tucked in the car eating fish and chips from Woy Woy.

Car still smells of fish.

:)

Building Strength

I went into the school holidays, about a month ago now, in a state of utter physical and mental exhaustion. Anyone who's followed this blog knows I'm an absolute expert when it comes to burnout, though, in my own defence I am learning, and when I started to see the symptoms this time I realised very quickly what was happening.

With the help of my wise woman - who basically sits there whilst I figure out all the stuff I knew anyway - I picked myself up.  It was no small feat when I had three and a half weeks of school holidays (my kids are educated in the independent system and we get longer winter holidays - yay) which any mum knows, can be pretty fraught - and I have children that are very highly strung and give new meaning to fraught.  Bless them.

I knew there wasn't going to be any chance for downtime - so I made three priorities...

1. Sleep - 8 hours, no arguing, yes an exception was made for Downton Abbey on Sunday nights
2. Eat - Fruit, light and healthy(ish) meals, make sure I never never get hungry, vitamins
3. Drink - tea and water, okay and wine and peach brandy if there is no wine but NO absinthe, well okay absinthe if really needed

And you know what, even though the holidays included a high stress (for me) kids party mid way, and we were slaughtered by flu over the last week, and that I've only got Miss 5 back to school as of yesterday, it really worked.  I've come out of the holidays feeling one hell of a lot better than when I went in, when really I was expecting to be a gibbering wreck.

The things that I think have made the most difference were; snacking on fruit constantly, taking massive amounts of vitamins (esp Vit C, Vit B and Iron), and rest (not so much sleep, but sitting down with some knitting at every chance - so maybe not rest so much as pacing myself through the days).

I'm not saying its all delightfully wonderful and I'm bouncing off the walls, radiant with inner peace and energy. But I'm building up my physical strength, and as I get stronger I become more positive and have the energy to focus on the things that fill up my soul and build my mental strength.  Like knitting, and blogging, and writing, and carrying out bizarre kitchen experiments cooking, and killing plants gardening.

:)

Flu

I was going to post a picture of how awful I look right now, but it was too horrible and hubs said it'd frighten people.  I have the flu.  I have not been sick like this for YEARS.  Not since the kids were tiny and I was existing on four hours of sleep a day.  Urgh.

Miss 5 also has the flu, tonsillitis (I think, doctor again tomorrow) and glands like golf balls.  Hubs is claiming to be sick but is battling on, mostly I think to get out of the house and away from drippy, sneezy, coughy, moaning females who blame him entirely for bringing this plague into the house in the first place.  Miss 7 is swanning along without a care in the world, which makes me highly suspicious, but at the same time deeply hopeful of perhaps one day selling her to science.  How can she not be sick???

To add insult to injury school holidays have now ended, but Miss 5 is in no state to return.  So rather than dying with grace and dignity on the couch, alone, surrounded by used tissues, I must spend my time bickering about whether we watch Olivia (my favourite) or Total Drama Island (Her favourite), and rushing back and forth with glasses of apple juice and vegemite on toast.  Also she keeps falling asleep on my arm which means I can't knit.

Siiiiigh.

Be back soon.

If I survive.

Skeins to Balls

 Was out at the wonderful Wool Inn in Penrith yesterday, and picked up some on-sale skeins of 100% cotton for knitting dishcloths.

Headed back to Mums where we dug out her contraption for winding skeins of wool into balls...

Sort of like a bizarre mini hills-hoist

 You place your skein thus...

Its school holidays, this is how I amuse myself in school holidays

 And then proceed to swear and weep as it tangles itself up, falls off because you have it too loose, won't wind into a ball because you have the winder thingy too close, and generally makes a Nuisance of itself.

Skein in mid-fall-off

After the kids got back from feeding the cattle they helped as well - Yay.

Still it was worth it in the end.  Dainty... erm... well... roundish balls of cotton ready to be knitted into a plethora of dishcloths for various gifts etc.

:)

Ice Skating

Miss 7s birthday party.

:)

Birthday Cake Friday

A special cake this week.  Miss 6 turns 7 today :).

After seven years of this parenthood thing, you'd have thought I'd be getting the hang of it.  But no. It still bewilders me!!  Though these days it's not so much the enduring surprise that I am actually someone's parent, but more that the someone does things like kick-ass at maths and is quite the chess champion.

Happy Birthday little Girl.  We love you so much.

;)

Making Wheat-bags

 Its been perishing cold, so I made the kids some wheat-bags yesterday.

I made an inner sleeve of calico and filled it up to about 3/4 with wheat and half a cup of lavender, then sewed the end shut.

Then the kids chose their favourite fabrics from my stash and I made a cover.

They go in the microwave for 2 - 3 minutes on high, with some water in a mug to stop the wheat drying out too much, and stay toasty warm for ages.

They can also be kept in the freezer, if you're after cold rather than hot.

I got the wheat from the local pet food store, and the lavender is leftovers from when Mumndad grew it out in Orange.  I believe you can use rice instead of wheat, though I haven't tried it.

:)

Chicken Coop Disaster

The hen enclosure did not fare well in 85kmph winds yesterday.

Shredded

Of course I was out when it all happened, so the ladies took foul (heh) advantage of the situation to rape & pillage my newly replanted lettuces.

They were then placed under house arrest in their coop.

Hubs and I won't be able to even start rebuilding this mess until Sunday, so I have spent the morning devising temporary accommodation for daytime foraging.

Taa daa.

Why no, I never thought the fire-guard would be so useful

Whilst not ideal, the dog can't get in and the remains of the lettuces are safe, and they're digging in my green manure for me.

NB: When I took this photo I had managed to capture the two Australorps, but the Rhode Island Reds were still running around like... er headless chickens, but with heads.  With the assistance of the wretched bloody dog and the kids we eventually managed to catch them as well.

:)

The Freezer

So yesterday I posted about our fledgling food stockpile.  In addition to The Pantry, we've also invested in a new freezer.

My new bff

Bought ridiculously cheaply on ebay because it has a couple of dents and one of the drawers needs a corner glued back on.

This replaces our old second fridge, which has never been made good use of.  It also uses about 200kWh less power.

My next job is to investigate wholesale meat and how you go about buying half a cow and getting it into bits small enough to fit in the freezer drawers.  I believe there is a wholesale butcher in Dural, so that will be my first stop, if I can find him.  Liss over at Frills in the Hills heads down to a butcher in Wilberforce every month or so, which might be worth a trip.  And I know MumnDad's butcher at Mulgoa might also be able to help.  I'll keep you updated on how I go.

:)

The Pantry: Why oh why do I keep typing The Panty??

This post is not about my underwear.  No siree.  I have posted about my underwear in the past, here, but today underpants will not be mentioned. Well not again. I hope.

Ahem.

The Panty (bugger) Pantry.

Creating and maintaining a grocery supply is something I've been thinking about for a long time, but I've been putting off, mostly because my cupboard looked like this.

The Last Bastion of the War on Clutter

However, we've decided its time to get our stockpile up and running.

I'm not going to write an instruction manual on it, because (as usual), others have done a brilliant job already.  If you want info on creating a food stockpile check out...

Down To Earth
http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/search/label/Stockpiling
http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/2009/09/from-stockpile-to-pantry.html

Eat At Dixibelles
http://eatatdixiebelles.blogspot.com/p/get-prepared.html
http://eatatdixiebelles.blogspot.com/2011/01/be-prepared-challenge-acquire-step-one.html

Simple Green Frugal Co-op
http://simple-green-frugal-co-op.blogspot.com/2011/07/how-stocked-is-your-store-cupboard.html

Hubs spent an afternoon tackling The Cupboard, and I have slowly begun to stock it.

Its a start

I'm not one for making huge lists and inventories, so I'll be adding to our store as I see things on sale in the supermarket.  I aim to get about a three month supply happening, and have it all up and running in the next few months, before hubs next work contract runs out.

I am already loving having the extra jars of peanut butter on hand.  No breakfast disasters/tantrums in this household, not any more.

:)

Small signs that I'm feeling better....

Was utterly thrilled to discover a local has started a seedling and organic veg business, and yesterday I rocked up at the monthly market to scare her with my enthusiasms say hi.  It was only 11am and she'd already sold out of most of her produce, but I was still able to grab a few veg for us.

It is not the size of your carrot, but what you do with it that matters.

I'm getting my bounce back, can you tell?

:)

On My Mind: Electricity Prices

This post is part of Down To Earth's On My Mind

Washing on the line, not in the dryer.  Its been a cold wet winter this year and the dryer has been getting a work out.  But with the massive increases in electricity prices, I know I need to stop using it so much. I'll probably still have to finish these off in the dryer, but I'm getting them as dry as possible before I start chewing up the power.

I wanted to write a post about electricity prices, and the fact they're increasing by 17%.  But Rhonda has done a wonderful post here, that says everything I could have thought of, and more.
http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/2011/06/electricity-prices-are-rising-lets.html

Rhonda also has a great post on the rising cost of living and homemaking.  If you are feeling stressed or worried about increasing prices its well worth a read (or even if you're not) :)
http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/2011/06/homemaking-in-tough-times.html

Writerly Wednesday: Its easy peasy

Somehow this makes it all seem so much easier...

Kung Fu Panda, Bridesmaids and Invisible Ink

I am writing this whilst swilling a glass of wine and scoffing brie and bbq shapes (classy eh??).  Today I took the kids to the movies, had Yum Cha for lunch, slothed about all afternoon (did put on load of washing, but that was mostly because dirty washing pile was blocking door to Other End of house and therefore the TV) had friends over AND did not tidy up beforehand, have done boil and serve tortellini for the kids dinner, and am letting hubs fend for himself.

So, am getting the hang of it, slowly.

We went to see Kung Fu Panda 2 at the movies, and it was just fantastic.  I'd heard that it was better than Kung Fu Panda 1, and it really is.  The animation is spectacular, and the story is wonderful.  There's enough to it to keep adults engaged and kids amused.  If you've got little people, or even if you don't, its well worth seeing.

Movie wise I was worried I was turning into a complete old biddy.  Saw Bridesmaids on the weekend - "the Hangover for girls" apparently - and was totally and utterly appalled by it.  It was just horrific.  Everyone keeps telling me they thought it was funny, but I didn't crack a single smile throughout the whole thing.  It was only because I thought it had to redeem itself at some point that I stayed to the end.  Needless to say, it did not redeem itself.

I thought it was me. I thought I'd suddenly turned into such a stuck-up old thing that I am offended by toilet humour.  I was brought up on toilet humour, cut my teeth on fart jokes, I couldn't understand what had happened to me...

But then, last night I was watching the QI Episode Espionage on iView, and weeping with laughter over the factoid that IF you are in dire need of invisible ink and have no lemon juice or milk to hand, then sperm will do just as well AND that the head of MI6 who recorded this riveting fact in his diary was none other than one Mansfield Cumming.

And it dawned on me that the problem with Bridesmaids was not so much the toilet humour, but it was the plot, which was weak and pointless, and the characters that were shallow.

I am just as crass as I always thought I was.

Well phew.

Not a patient patient

I have spent the weekend trying to do nothing.

IT IS KILLING ME.

Take it slow??  I have gardens to dig and meals to cook and THINGS to do.

I am trying.  (Yes, yes, very trying, ha ha).  But I sit down with a cup of tea to enjoy the sunshine and immediately spot the hole in the gazebo roof where a possum swan dived off the house roof onto it, and swiftly discovered it was a Very Bad Idea.  I try to enjoy the garden, but I want to dig in the green manure, and plant the lettuces, and look at those weeds, and I need to water the peas and... and...

Breathe... Breathe...

No, its not going particularly well.

Thus far two things have helped.  The first has been the complete and immediate banning of ALL multi-tasking.  I am working very hard on doing one thing at one time, and that thing alone.  If I am putting on a load of washing then I am not stopping or allowing myself to be interrupted until the machine is gurgling away and spilling half its water onto the floor (rotten seal).

Its much much harder than it sounds.

The second thing ground me to a halt.  And it was just a trip out with the family.

You see it was a friends 40th birthday breakfast yesterday morning, and those few hours of travelling, socialising and kid-wrangling drained me to a point where I teetered once more on the edge of losing it.  You see, after we got back I decided I'd go and do something in the garden (lettuces being top of the list).  But as I started to dig, I started to panic more and more about other jobs that needed to be done.  I felt overwhelmed, exhausted and close to tears.  I decided I must be hungry, but food didn't help the utterly wretched feeling of failure and anxiety, I just couldn't shake it.

Eventually, my exasperated husband intervened (he is a brave brave man) and I got sent to bed with Time Team on the lappie, immediately passed out and woke up three hours later.  Then moped about the house being crabby until Downton Abbey, and then crawled back into bed.

Yep.  Recovery plan going well.

I do learn though, eventually.  Today has been help-yourself breakfast, lunch at Maccers, trip to the shoe shop to spend gift vouchers :), dinner from the freezer and doing nothing that required any effort when the kids were playing outside, watching tv or monopolising the computer - whereas usually I'd been tearing around cleaning things, or folding things, or cooking stuff.  The multi-tasking has been up-graded to no-tasking (or very bare minimum tasking, as any parent will know), so maybe there is hope for me yet :).

Post Traumatic Stress

I thought I had depression.  I did not want depression, and I certainly did not want to go onto anti-depressants.  So, for the last few weeks I've been ignoring the symptoms and thinking that if I just went to bed earlier, or remembered to take my Omega-3s then it'd be all good.

But my exhaustion grew and grew.  I couldn't write, I couldn't read, I felt overwhelmed, useless, pointless, adrift.  My temper was on a hair-trigger, tears simmered just below the surface and my tolerance for any kind of stress was zero.  I felt like I took one step forward and two back.  Simple household chores were beyond me and my so-loved garden was just a burden.  I found driving so stressful that I was convinced I was on the verge of having an accident.

So yesterday I arrived on the door-step of my wise-woman, tissue in hand and trying not to cry because I was wearing make-up and had school stuff on later in the day.  I should've forgot about the makeup.

After she'd patiently listened to me rant and sob for half an hour, she smiled gently and told me I was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress - NOT Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD - which War Veterans and the like get).

I have been living under a very high and sustained stress level for the last year, especially since January, when hubs became unemployed and Miss 5 started school.  Now that hubs is back at work and we are finally getting some concrete help with Miss 5, the stress levels are dropping and now its time for me to pay-the-piper. So I get sick (migraines), freak out (traffic, and anything else you care to think of), lose temper (with everything and everyone).

Because I haven't been able to take the time to nurture me, my tank is empty, I am exhausted, and my inner self has said enough is enough.

And all this the day before school holidays start.

Typical.

So how do I recover from all this exhaustion?

Not pills, but cups of tea.  Not getting a cleaner, but giving myself a break and getting the family to help with the mess, or live with the filth.  Going to bed early. Eating well. Getting outside.  Less sugar, more fruit.  Getting the endorphins moving.  Taking short-cuts, being slack, cooking nothing but scrambled eggs.  Taking vitamins. Drinking water. Starting a new writing project. Having fun.  Cuddles.  Wine. Laughter.

And most of all, just breathing.

Actually, sounds quite fun.

I'm glad that depression wasn't mentioned.  And looking back, I can see that my mood was not as empty black as depression, that I didn't have the urge to check out to the degree of sleeping all the time, or suffering anxiety attacks.

And I'm looking forward to a school holidays where I am the slackest parent on earth.

:)

Happy Yule

Last Tuesday was the Winter Solstice here in Australia.  It was a miserable night (weather-wise), a southerly gale hit Sydney, with freezing temperatures and rain.  So it was a perfect time to put together a Christmassy feast, snuggle in with the family and drink mulled wine.

The paltry remains

We had sandalwood, frankincense and sweet orange in the essential oil burner, and mulled wine warming on the stove, so the house smelled divine.  In a nod to Yule I cooked roast chicken with bread sauce, roast potatoes and pumpkin, gravy and all the trimmings.  Then we had homemade apple pie, with custard.  We lit the room with candles and had the woodfire roaring away in the corner.

Then we wrapped up warm, and went outside to light up the longest night of year with some sparklers.

The kids loved it, and hubs and I loved it too.

:)

Meet Dirk, he's a hottie

Been doing a spot of knitting.  Latest creation is Dirk the Hottie cover - so named because he looks unsettlingly like a 70's roll neck jumper.

Front

Back

 This is my other hot water bottle cover, also made by me.  It doesn't have a name.  Hmm, maybe it should.  I know, we shall call her Celeste.

Celeste and Dirk

Now I can say I'm sleeping with Dirk and hubs is sleeping with Celeste.  Ah ha ha ha.

Hmm, just remembered that Miss 5s OT lady is called Celeste.  Ahem.  Let's change the subject.

Dirk has been upcycled.  He started out as a cardigan...

Old, pilly, never sat quite right and the colour made me look ill

I pulled the cardigan to bits, and reknitted from a pattern I found on Ravelry.  Am rather pleased with it actually.

:)

Pesto update

So back at the end of March I posted about my bulk pesto making efforts.  Instead of freezing the pesto, I elected to keep it under oil in the fridge.  And three months later this is what it looks like.

Mmmm, so very very yummy

Yes, bit of a mess, and this is after I'd scraped off the brown crusty bits on the top.  It had gone brown down the sides of the container as well.

So, lesson gleaned; Pesto keeps beautifully for about a month under oil in the fridge.  If you are planning on keeping it longer my advice is to freeze it.

I picked out the still green bits, smeared the over the base of a veggie pizza and fed it to hubs.  Thus far he has shown no ill effects, but I am watching closely for any adverse reactions.

:)

Cake in a Mug Friday

I loves a challenge, and when Rach over at Ramblings of a Romance Writing Mama issued a cake baking ultimatum that involved chocolate, I was all Hell Yes.

I'd heard of these microwaved cake-in-a-mug before, but never actually tried them.  So when the kids got home from school this afternoon we gave it a shot.

Mixing ingredients

Eating - it didn't even make it out of the cup

Not the most elegant presentation I'm afraid, but small people were tired and crabby after a long week of school - its nearly the end of term as well - so it was wisest to let them dig in without any delay :).  Was rather amazed at how easy and how yummy they were.  See Rach's blog for the recipe etc.

Have had a day in the kitchen, dealing with the apples we picked up at Bilpin a few weeks ago.

Two batches of blackberry and apple jam (about 7kgs in total, which cost me about $30 in total - largest expense being the 3kgs blackberries which I bought.  That's around $1.36 a jar)

I'll do a batch of strawberry jam when they come into season, and that should see us jammed-up for the year.

I also made a second batch of apple pie filling.  So I've now got the equivalent of 12 apple pies in the freezer (no pastry).

Knackered now, and yes I peeled all those apples (but do have a brillo mixer that has a slicer attachment which does all the slicing for me).

Yawn.

Thinking about 40

I turn 40 in six months.  On 1st January 2012 to be precise.

When I turned 20 I was working in Sydney as a junior secretary (coincidentally in the building hubs now works in), single, partying, thinking about finishing my degree (which I'd taken a 'break' from), living in a cute flat in Ultimo.

When I turned 30 I was working as a PA, married (but not to hubs), still partying, still thinking about finishing my degree, and renting on the North Shore.

When I turn 40 I'll be working from home as a published author, married to hubs (hopefully - love yooooo), two children, one cat, one dog, four chickens, one arts degree, one mortgage.  And a single glass of pinot is my idea of a party.

Yep, seem to have got my act together in the last ten years, or maybe it all fell apart?? Hmm.  I know one thing though, I'm one hell of a lot happier going into 40 than I ever was going into 20 or 30.

I'm going to write a series of posts on turning 40 over the next few months.  Looking back over the bits I treasure and the bits I'm more than happy to let go, and looking forward, at the things I want to achieve, and the stuff I'd like to leave behind.

This can be the first one.

:)

Weekend in Our Nation's Fine Capital

Spent the long weekend in Canberra.

Never been so COLD in my life.

We spent most of the time doing this

Was lovely, lovely to be away.  And I like Canberra - there I said it.

Visited:  Parliament House
Kid status:  Underwhelmed
Highlight:  Being x-rayed by security (kids), Seeing Magna Carta (me - no I have no idea why it was there, but it was, yay - I do like an ancient document).

Visited: Carillion
Kid status: Thrilled - due to being able to scooter around the lake
Highlight: Hot chocolate

Visited: National Gallery
Kid status: Bored, annoyed, fighty, sticky
Highlight: Being followed around by our own cordon of security people

Home now and considering 'Famous Person' day at school on Wednesday. Thinking of sending Miss 6 as Margaret Thatcher and Miss 5 as Stevie Nicks, but feel the irony of this portrayal of their respective personalities may be lost on pretty much everyone.

June Vege Garden

Bed 1: Root vegetables

• Turnips, beetroots, carrots
• Yes, they got dug up by wretched escaping chickens  - broccoli did not fare well, why can they not dig up weeds??

Bed 1

Bed 2: Legumes

• Broad beans coming along
• Peas just sprouted

Bed 2

Bed 3: Onions

• Growing slowly, oh so very very slowly

Bed 3

Bed 4: Tomatoes

• Growing, but slowly, a few have flowers on them, but am not holding out hope for anything setting fruit or ripening

Bed 4

Bed 5: Sweetcorn/Pumpkins

• Growing green manure, that's about to be dug in (at some point, in the future).
• Might try and fling in some lettuces before the sweetcorn and pumpkins go in in August

Bed 5

Bed 6: Potatoes

• Chickens again.
• Also, local nursery has not got spuds in yet, so not much planted.
• Should probably do something about this bed as well :)

Bed 6

Winter Garden

Busy week this week, hard work too with a visit to the Max Brenner chocolate cafe and the kids athletics carnival (yes, picture me in my knee high ug boots holding Miss 6 by the hand as we sprint the 25m to the finishing line, in between sitting in the bleachers, sipping hot chocolate and chatting with all the other mums).

We're also into the first week of winter (in Australian terms anyway), so I thought I'd share a few pics of what's going on in the garden, and surviving temperatures that go BELOW ten degrees (celsius).

Our single mandarin, nearly ripe

Heirloom beans, on bean teepees in the front garden

Turnips 

Rhubarb, just planted and settling in very nicely

The cherry tree has lost its leaves, the apricot and the crab apple are thinking about it, and the apples are showing no interest so far.  They're saying we're in for a really cold winter this year, so it'll be interesting to see how everything goes over the next few months.  I kind-of want it to be cold to keep the apples happy, but at the same time I'm actively growing a lot of stuff over the cold months this year, so I'm hoping it doesn't freeze the bejeesus out of them.

So I'd like it to be very cold but not that cold at all, if that could be arranged.

:)

Burnt Cake Friday

Well first I waited around FOREVER for one of the chooks to lay an egg, but after much sitting around on the nest by everyone except my two poor moulty Australorps, no egg was forthcoming.

THEN, after careful measuring and stirring (the recipe gave measurements as, eg, 3/4 cup, and then gave the gram measurement of a whole cup in brackets afterwards. It took me a while to figure this out.  So when it said 3 tablespoons of butter at 20g each, I thought it meant 3 tbs butter equalled 20g and not the correct 60g).

Still, I battled on, with one egg, no butter and a LOT of sugar in the recipe.

And Taa Daa... Slightly Charred Pecan Cinnamon Cake

It looks less burnt than it is

As I got it out of its tin I noticed a shiny blob on the surface, being a mammal of higher intelligence I stuck my finger in the blob and quickly discovered it was MOLTEN SUGAR from the topping.  Still fricking hurts.

Yup, the kids are just going to loooooove this one.

sigh.