Planning to Reclaim the Wilds.

We have a large property (1.3acres) and much of it is gardens.  With Jeff working long hours in the city, and not being a natural gardener, and my capricious health, the garden has just carried on in it's own wild way.  I rather like the natural, wild look BUT it's a bit too wild at present.  I love gardening but have struggled to manage it with my compromised energy and pain issues.  I realise that Flylady has helped me to manage the house with ease no matter how I feel so have decided to attempt to apply her principles to the garden.  I've roughly drawn a picture of our yard and am trying to work out how to allocate Flylady's zone system to it.  I'm being very indecisive and keep changing my mind about how to approach making a plan....

I'm leaving out the 1/4 acre of 'bush' behind the fence where our dam is and I think I'll ignore the large treed gardens that run along the fenceline on either side of the backyard (light green).

Here is what I am thinking.....

Mornings - front gardens
Zone 1 - driveway gardens (dark green stripe)
Zone 2 - Light green stripe
Zone 3 - Blue stripe triangular shape
Zone 4 - Blue green stripe
Zone 5 - Blue green x side boundary at front.

Afternoon  - back gardens
Zone 1 - Gardens along back verandah - near tank, entertaining area...
Zone 2 - Pool Garden and yard
Zone 3 - Area under poinciana
Zone 4 - Side boundary garden between house and garden shed
Zone 5 - Shade garden and Orchard (big but I can take turns between them)

As much as I'd love to spend long hours in the garden each day that is not realistic.  My plan is to do 15 minutes each morning and 15 minutes each afternoon. If I'm not having a great day or am pushed for time I can do 5 or 10 minutes. Flylady allocates a zone per week of each month which would mean that I would work in each garden once per month.  I'm not sure if this is the best way to go or if I should do one zone per weekday (Monday = Zone 1, Tuesday = Zone 2 etc).  Weekends we can work on whatever we fancy.

Other Flylady adaptations:

Morning Routine - water potplants, pick up palm fronds and branches/twigs and throw on fire pile, clean up after dogs

27 Fling Boogie - dead head flowers, pull weeds, etc

Well, that gives me a bit of a plan to start with and to try and make some positive progress in the garden.  Wish me luck and if you have any better ideas - like hiring a sexy gardener! - let me know.

Kitchen

I spent this morning pottering in the kitchen listening to podcasts.  Oh I love podcasts. I started by giving my recipe book area a thorough pull everything out and clean.  Aaah, sigh of satisfaction.  It didn't actually take very long and I just plodded along, resting when I needed to.

All this exposure to cook books in addition to a need to have something on hand to eat for lunch, I decided to make use of the large bag of onions I had in my basket and make French Onion Soup. Mine is a Jamie Oliver recipe.

On a very low heat melt some butter into some olive oil and toss in a handful of thyme, about 6 cloves of garlic, crushed and some bay leaves.  As the butter melted I cut up 1kg of onions.

Cook very slowly on a low heat, you want to bring out the sugars in the onion.  I popped the lid on and left it for 15 minutes, stirring occassionally while I continued cleaning.

 Once they are soft and gooey and cooked down - probably a few more minutes after I took the above photo - turn the heat up and brown the onions off.

I cooked these for a tiny bit longer and they were a golden brown and sticky.  Pour in 1.3l of stock. Any flavour will do but I like beef in this particular recipe.  Cook for a further 20 minutes or so.

Jamie tears in chunks of bread, artistically adds gruyere cheese and tosses his under the grill to present you with a soup covered in bready, melted cheese.  Although simple that was far too much faffing around for me so I just put some in a bowl and tossed some grated cheddar in as that is what I had on hand.  Oh my goodness.  It was absolutely delicious. I had forgotten how flavoursome and unexpected the flavour of this soup is.

I'm trying Jamie's Roast Chicken in milk tonight.  Will let you know how it goes.

Catching Up

Today I find the last few days have caught up with me.  We had friends and family over on Saturday night for food and play and glowsticks in the pool (there were 7 children under 12).  Oh my what fun. Oh my the non-stop busyness.  I kept myself small and quiet on Sunday trying to recover energy from the previous night and bank some for Monday's jaunt to the crystal warehouse.  I loved the trip to the city. I loved sharing our home and Saturday night with lovely hearts. Doing 'ordinary' things.  My body has collapsed today under these choices I have made in the use of my energy.  Not that I regret my choices.  I have to live my life as well as manage my health. As I sat this morning waiting as new tyres were fitted on the car I was reminded of spoon theory.  I read this long ago and it was so apt for my own situation...  how I present and the reality of my existence are frequently incongruent.

On this weary day I ache to lie on the earth under my tree (a habit developing of late). To rest deeply and fully.  I wish for a fire. But it rains. So, instead, I gave my sink a shine. Thank you Flylady.

 Watched my succulents swim in the overflow from our decrepit guttering and did nothing about it other than photograph it.

 

Stood on the back deck and gazed longingly at the cavern like darkess beneath our tree, and longed to crawl under and sit by the fire.

 Gazed at the vinca's in prolific bloom by the pool and thought of my maternal Grandmother.  She had vincas on the farm.  Vincas and hydrangeas.  They always make me think of her.  I think of her strong hands as she worked hard on the farm, digging, harvesting, preparing food.  I see her hands setting the table with china teacups with saucers and churning out knitting and crochet projects in great profusion.  All filled with love and her laughter.  Today I feel her close although she has long been gone. 

Even tired days have sweet memories.

Blue and Orange....

I've added another coat to the background of my chrysanthemum.  It looks much better I think.

A painting in progress. Trying something new once again to stretch myself.  I did this by adding paint and then spraying it with water in a pump spray.  Once dry I turned it up the other way and had this image.  It reminds me of the trees in their autumn colours that we saw along the New England Highway.  It could very well be the flames from a fire front too.  What do you think?  I still need to work on the foreground.

Nothing happening in the studio today but plenty of washing and ironing has been done.  I've also done a bit of a tidy in the kitchen as per Flylady's zones.  Our trip has caught up with me I think as I've been tired, tired, tired.  I have a busy week too but hope I can get some more posts in for you.  I have promised to post how to make no knead bread so will try to do that this week too.  I've not forgotten Linda!

Thank you all for supporting my art.  Don't be shy, leave a comment!

Sandy xxx

Progress

A couple of days ago I posted about how disorganised and behind I felt so I thought I'd give you a bit of an update.  I received a lovely comment from Sandie providing me with some reassurance and as Sandie comments, it doesn't matter if everything doesn't get done. I totally agree. I think some of the anxiety I'm feeling can be attributed to my final art piece looming over my head.  The rest of the anxiety stems from the fact that in order for me to have a 'normal life' I have learned that I need to be super organised.  If I don't organise myself it becomes extremely challenged to have the energy to participate in things like Christmas festivities, shopping for gifts etc.  Although I am much improved I still struggle and the requirements of my art course have really pushed me to my limits and sometimes beyond.  For example I've been pretty unwell again this week and that's after a week in Fiji relaxing!  The flights, which weren't long, a visit to friends in Sydney with time spent at the beach (always difficult for me but enjoyed) and just the change in routine, have seen me really quite fatigued, on an ECG at the doctors twice because  my heart electrics went crazy and struggling big time with day to day tasks like making the bed, preparing food etc.  The simple task of doing the groceries sent me to bed for a deep exhausted sleep for two hours and unpacking the groceries took me two days.

By being organised I use my energy more efficiently and this means the difference between being able to catch  up with friends or not, being able to be impulsive e.g. going to visit a friend or attending a local event.  Although Christmas is and always has been a relaxed affair with everyone contributing food etc, I still need to start storing up my energy so I can enjoy the day and I'm also starting to conserve energy so that I will be able to enjoy time with our visitors in January.  I'm sure this all seems odd and difficult to understand for most of you. Those who live with me everyday probably have a better picture of what I'm talking about.  Basically if I don't organise my time I get really tired, ill, sore and life becomes a real struggle.  I've learned over these past 12 years or so that by being super organised I can live a far more normal life and that's brilliant.

So, with that in mind.....

• I dug out an old Christmas plan (who brings what food, recipes and grocery lists) and so all I have to do is pass it on and shop for what's on my list. No thinking or effort other than that. Whew! 
• I got started on my art homework and put some thought in to my final piece and what I'll write to support my decisions regarding colour choices and compostition
• Thanks to Flylady I've done little bits each day to start catching up on undone housework as I've fallen way behind here. I had piles of dog hair floating around the floor, baskets full of ironing and washing etc. Am slowly making progress here.
• Menu plan is done so I minimise waste, use what's I've got on hand and don't have to think at night if I'm tired.
• For the first time in 4 years I have done our Christmas newpaper and just need to pop these in cards and post (this is the only contact we have with some people as they are not online).  I rather enjoy looking back over the year or in this case years and seeing what we've done too. Don't have many cards to write so this won't take long.
• I raided the gift cupboard and found a few gifts that have been gathered throughout the year and now just need to work out what to do for the remaining gifts.  Perhaps a big cook up. I did that one year when both my sister and sister-in-law had newborns. I made a heap of meals and froze them ready for them to reheat.  Very well received gift.  Easy to do with slow cookers and rice cooker.  Mmmm. Might be on to something there.  Just close your eyes when reading this Susan!

So even though I'm tired and feel a bit gross I've made some progress and feel better for it.  I am doing a bit of art today but won't get all of my homework done. I'll rest this afternoon so I can go to art class tomorrow and have rests planned all week so I can deal with 'Tree day' on the weekend.  My niece and nephews come over every year, first weekend in December, and help me put the Christmas tree up and decorate the house. It is CHAOTIC.  We usually do some Christmas cooking, dancing etc too.  Each year since their birth I've bought them a new decoration for the tree and they get to open this little present on 'Tree Day'.  Looking forward to it.

If I get any art completed I'll post it tonight.  The post seems a bit rambling and jumbled but I'm tired and that's where my brain is today.  Hope you can get some sense out of it.  I think  a sleep before lunch is on the cards today.

FLYing

Today has been a cool, overcast and at times wet day. After popping up the coast to run a couple of errands and to share a coffee with my sweet man I came home and pottered.  As I've got back into 'Flylady' I use my time much more effectively. As the kettle boils or microwave runs I find myself spot cleaning the kitchen, running the swiffer over the floor, putting a couple of things back in their place, rebooting laundry etc. I've also been using the power of 15 minutes again. I set the timer as per Flylady and set to work.  We came home to a dog cushion torn to shreds and spread from one end of our verandah to another.  I grabbed the wheelie bin, set the timer and got to it.  Not only did I clean up the explosion of padding, I swept a small area of the verandah, cleaned off the duchess at the back door, returned some shoes to the shoe rack, did a poo run (picked it all up) in the immediate back yard (we have more than one), wiped the cobwebs off a large pot, brushed down the chairs and table of the outdoor setting and returned the wheelie bin to the side of the house all within 15 minutes.  The difference is amazing and once again I doubted I'd make such a difference in just 15 minutes.  I SHOULD KNOW BY NOW. 

The rain had stopped and I was still feeling ok so I decided to do another 15 minutes outside.  My vegetable garden has been an appalling mess of late so I decided to attack it.  I had 4 big rosella bushes to dig out as well as the stump of a pawpaw. I set the timer and not only did I get the bushes and stump dug out, I managed to weed 2/3 of the garden as well. This included putting all of the garden waste in our green waste pile further down the yard.  I think another 15 minutes tomorrow and I'll be able to fertilize, mulch and be ready to plant my next crop.  Brilliant.

This is the pawpaw tree I didn't pull out.  It's loaded! I'm thrilled as I've had NO luck growing pawpaws here in the past 10 years. This is rather odd as they grow like a weed and happily grow with little attention.

What's for dinner

Since coming out of hospital I've had my wings on again and been 'Flying' as per the lovely Flylady.  I've done little bits and pieces each day to match my energy and the consistency has really paid off.  The house is quite presentable, laundry is done, there is very little clutter, meals are planned and my grocery list matches my menu.   I've even been able to tackle a couple of cupboards and clean out my wardrobe too. Brilliant!  It made me realise that I have VERY. FEW. CLOTHES.  Really. I don't usually have heaps of clothes but having lost weight and moved down a size I have even fewer. I'll have to do a wardrobe post for you at a later date because today I'm putting my menu plan out there.  So, what is on the menu this week here at Heart's Landscapes?

• Garlic Lime Chicken with brown rice and a mix of greens and red capsicum
• Oven baked salmon, my rosemary smashed potatoes and mixed greens with garlic, honey and balsamic dressing.
• Chorizo and vegetable frittata with a large mainly green mixed salad.
• Cranberry and Orange Pork chops baked in oven, mash and steamed greens.
• Tacos with salad, avocado and possibly sour cream
• Maple herb steak (marinate steak in a squirt of maple syrup - enough to coat - and fresh herbs from garden), Michelle Trute's low fat macaroni cheese, salad and apple crumble with custard as a treat.
• My seafood marinara  - as previously posted here.  Fruit for dessert if we so desire.

Lunches options consist of :

• leftovers
• A salad of some type with fish or chicken or a vegetarian protein
• a Mission Mini wrap (wholemeal) with salad or hot veg such as capsicum, mushroom, spinach, eggplant etc with or without a protein.
• Soup as is or with a cheese scone or slice of bread.

Snack options:

• Fruit
• Small cheese such as Laughing Cow segment, Babybel, or cheese stringer
• Nuts (8-10 only)
• Yoghurt
• Fruit parfait (with yoghurt and muesli)
• Home baking
• Air popped popcorn

This weeks baking:

• Madeira cake and lemon poppy seed muffins (due to the overwhelming number of lemons on my tree), will freeze some or even all of the muffins.
• Jam drop biscuits from the classic Day to Day Cookery.

So, that's our food in a nutshell and it has already made my day seem so much .... easier.  I'm yet to do the baking.  Our lunches and snacks never change much so I won't post them again but I'll work on organising myself enough to post my menu plan each week so that I have a record of it and so you can take a peep too of course!

I'll do an update on my art tomorrow so you can see what is coming out of my pencil at present.

Stay well and happy everyone.