WELCOME to my BLOG

Hi there!

I’m slowly working towards some simplicity within the home, but hey! It’s a lot of hard work!

I love having a go at growing my own veges and always use herbs fresh from my garden. I try to plant from seed whenever I can and have learnt to save and share my own seed for the following year. I make Award Winning preserves and pickles; and my husband brews Award Winning boutique beers as well. I love to stockpile and try to limit quick trips to the shops. I dabble in bread making and enjoy making my own stocks too.

I enjoy feeding my family good hearty meals, nothing like those tiny restaurant stacks you have to look for on the plate. My husband maintains our vehicles and machinery and we both enjoy fabricating on a small scale mostly relying on metal & timber recyclers for any materials needed.


While I don’t always have time to reply to comments, I love reading them. I hope you enjoy your stay and I hope you learn something new because I love sharing what I learn, and I'm always looking for another new skill myself.

Cheers!

Monday, March 7, 2011

A great weekend

Good morning. First of all I would like to give a very warm welcome to my followers...I am so new to this blogging that I find it exciting to know that others are checking in to see what I am up to.
I hope everyone had a great weekend...Mine was fairly busy, and that't why I didn't do any posts over the weekend.

I have recently made friends with a lovely lady called Sonia, so hello again Sonia. I feel compelled to put in a good word for her. I met Sonia through Freecycle..about 6 months back, I put in a request for some seedling trays and small seedling pots......Sonia answered my crys and came to my rescue giving me enough trays to keep me going and plenty of seedling pots too.....I recently put in a request on Freecycle again for some Bay Leaves off a tree, and some herbs and flower cuttings or seeds; I heard from Sonia again....offering me some  herbs, and  cuttings off a bay tree....

One amazing thing about Sonia is that I still haven't met her yet...Nope, we have never met, always exchanging goods through a family member because they live closer...Last time I picked up some herbs, I was slightly confused for a bit, because I got to talk to Sonia, not THEE Sonia, her sister-in-law....so I handed over some preserves for my new friend as an offering of thanks for the plants I was picking up....I know the rules of Freecycle include that gifts or goods should not change hands...but the person never knows that I am bringing goods if  I receive something from them, it's just my way of saying, "Hey I appreciate your kindness and generosity, and would like to share something with you in return" .......Getting back on track....Sonia arranged for some Bay Leaves to be delivered to my house....I was so pleased with what I got, I hung them immediately, caring for the gift that I had just received.

Look at the lovely bounty of Bay Leaves I received from Sonia on Friday afternoon.


Many thanks Sonia for the lovely Bay Leaves. 
I plan to rid cockroaches from my kitchen and stockpile areas for good now.

Saturday was meant for a lovely day of fishing. Why is it that the weather is always fine during the week, come the weekend, it's not so favorable for the activities you have planned for the weekend? Really, every time we make weekend plans, the wind comes up or it rains. 

So Saturday was an early morning read of the paper, finding an add for free cement bricks. I thought surely that they would already be found by another reader, but I rang anyway.
Yes! they were still available.....so a trip to Bulli we went, before we could go though DH had to go to the doctors for scripts, and I had to get that last barrow of dirt out of the trailer, (yes the mushroom compost went on top last week, lol) so after emptying the trailer, I hosed it out. It is important to look after your tools too, so while I had the hose out, I washed down the shovels and broom too....
By the time hubby came back from the doctor's I had the trailer hooked up to the car and loaded with the barrow and a trolley. 

I exchanged 5 jars of preserves for this load of cement bricks. Marty was so pleased that he was ridding his garden of these bricks, he couldn't have been more helpful. I took the preserves with me as a thank-you. He was most grateful, saying " Oh my, I haven't had home made preserves since my grandfather passed away, what a lovely thing to do". He said there were about 30 bricks, after packing the trailer we did a quick sum and came up with 82....And he thinks he was the grateful one.....




I also received off Marty some chillies for seeds, and some lovely limes fresh from the tree.


Thank-you Marty


On the way back home, we made a trip to Bunnings, even though we had the trailer on, it was on the way home and we needed to get light globes for the bathroom....
I always have a look in the garden section, this time I found a bargain on the 'not so healthy plants' table.
A huge Bay Laurel tree....for $8.00, what a bargain.


I just have to figure out where to put it, 
I know it will be in a half 44 gallon drum I have been saving for a bay plant. 
You see, good things come to those who wait, I could have paid $19 for them a few weeks ago, but decided they were just too pricey and would settle for just bay leaves from freecycle. 
Now I have the best of both worlds...Bay leaves to use immediately, and a bay tree for growing. 

I have an exciting day today. I am meeting a Down to Earther, Rose has invited me into her home and for lunch...I have some housework to do before I go, so If I keep writing here, I won't get to meet Rose......
So I will leave you with some more photos which I will comment on later, but I do have to get some housework done before I go. I can't miss this opportunity of meeting Rose, and I certainly don't want to come home to the housework later in the afternoon. 










1 comment:

  1. Well done Nelly!!! Love the Bay tree, the bricks and the fish! Thankyou for all the yummy preserves! After catching up on your blog the other night I was craving pickles and so I opened a jar of your spicy pickles and hoed into it with some jatz!! Then the next day I mixed some of it with sour cream to make a dip. Oh yummmmmyyyyyy!!! I think I can hear it calling me now!! There's only one problem.....the last time I craved pickles this ofte - I was pregnant......................................
    Thankyou!!!

    ReplyDelete

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