Watched Over and Busy

Life is pretty busy at the moment.  I've recently had to replace my car due to a catastrophic failure of two major components of my X-trail. Other than sounding a little different (which is why I took it to the mechanic), nothing seemed wrong.  I was quite shocked when the manager came out and told me that it was unsafe to drive and it's a miracle that I hadn't been killed or badly injured.  Thanking my lucky stars there. The lady in the waiting room with me remarked that 'someone was watching over you', and she may well be right. Within 3 days I had a new-to-me little car that I'm actually really loving.  It is so easy to get Sophie into as well so getting her to the vet is easier and taking her out to the dog park or beach is possible again. Further to my good fortune, my little car was 7 years old with 41000kms on the odometer.  How awesome is that!

Sophie has been spending her days lying in the sun sleeping...

You can see her industriously dug holes behind her. Grrrr.

She has also been licking her paw constantly so I've resorted to making her wear a sock, which seems to be working so far.  The cone of shame stops her licking but she can only walk backwards in it which is hilarious but not great for her.  She's getting older but still as cute as a button.

 

Uni is entering the stage of semester where assessments all seem to come due at once and class content seems to increase simultaneously.  At present I'm researching the efficacy of using art therapy to promote positive mental health outcomes for children hospitalised in paediatric wards.  It's a very interesting area and is something that I may be able to do my Masters and PhD research on.  In addition to my Masters I am also studying to be a Clinical Play Therapist.  This is done through a private training organisation and will be completed by November.  Having a background in education I am loving this are of therapeutic intervention.  I have three full days of training this week as well as a written assessment for uni.  I seem to read, write and nap at present with very little in between! :) 

I made a huge pot of vegetable and herb soup on the weekend to help get me through the busy week.  Most of the veggies came from either my garden or my Mum's which I love.  I don't know why I was surprised but the soup was delicious.  

My brother and I faced the cold winds and went to the local markets on Sunday morning.  We were both after seedlings for our vegetable gardens.  It was a beautiful day even though it was chilly and I particularly loved how quiet the markets were. I managed to get a good assortment of seedlings for $9 and came home and filled the empty spots in my veggie garden as well as underplanting my potted dwarf citrus trees with the remaining herbs and chinese vegetables.  At least Sophie and I won't starve.

There are so many very healthy plants at the market and for such good prices.  My garden is already well landscaped and easy to care for. It needs no more ornamental or landscaping plants so for now I am focusing on growing food in pots and in a raised garden.  Growing your own food is such a pleasurable thing to do. It is such a joy to be able to provide food for yourself and to be able to generously share with neighbours and loved ones, even if you have little money.  People always leave here with a posy of herbs and a few cherry tomatoes or whatever else is ready from the garden.  Such a good feeling.  My garden gives me such feelings of peace, happiness, security and abundance.

Stay well and happy everyone and if you don't hear from me over the next week or so it's because I am sitting here with my head in the books.  :)

Sandy xx

My Orchid is Blooming!!

The Garden

Life is slowly entering my garden. Yesterday, a willy wag tail hopped and bobbed around as they do. Today, a butterfly flitted in and out of the geisha flowers.  It makes me happy.  Seeing butterflies and birds makes me realise how disconnected from nature and the cycle of the seasons I have become since J leaving and me moving to this little block.  I've had a bird bath in the garden since I moved here two years ago and it's only now that I am beginning to see birds.

I built a raised garden bed in the back yard a few weeks ago and filled it lasagne style with layers of cane mulch, compost, and manure.  I let it sit for just over two weeks to start to compost down into soil and it sat happily in the long rainy days since then.  This morning I went for a quick trip to Bunnings and picked up some seedlings to plant.  I came home with strawberries, chives, dill, thyme, capsicum, zucchini, mini snow peas, baby roma tomatoes, kale, rocket, lettuce and a pentas plant for the butterflies.  While Sophie sat inside in the airconditioning refusing to leave the house, I went out and planted up the garden.  I've crowd planted it to maximise space and to reduce weeds - not that weeds should be a problem in this style of garden.  I have a few more seedlings to plant into pots around the side of the house but it is too hot there at this time of day so that is a job for later.  Hopefully I get a good yield.  The garden is such a happy place.

 

 My raised garden.  A Birdies brand from Bunnings which was easy for me to put together by myself.

Dwarf snow peas with a cheap climbing frame from Bargain Max.

I've planted two varieties of strawberries. They make me think of my childhood on the farm.  I earned my first ever pay packet picking strawberries, a round fifty cent piece and a small perfume bottle.  No doubt I ate more that went into my tray.

My basil it going great guns after the recent rain and here is the pentas I purchased for the butterflies. I'll transplant it into a larger pot and nestle it in the garden bed.

A Morning Out

I was off in search of concrete cleaner today and decided to visit the Bunnings at Caloundra so I could swing by the beach and take in the view.

 This is Pumicestone Passage at Golden Beach, Caloundra.  The land in the distance is the top end of Bribie Island.

 It was so still and perfect today.  A very gentle breeze and the temperature in the shade was just perfect.

 I remember a huge container ship - the Anro Asia - running aground on the end of Bribie when we were kids.  Mum and Dad took us down to Caloundra to see it while eating a treat of fish and chips from Bullcock Beach.  It seemed that half of our hinterland community had the same idea that night and I remember playing with many of our school mates on the beach with a giant ship just off shore.

 I wandered along through the parks for awile and then sat in the shade of a tree just watching the world go by for awhile.  I could have stayed all day but unfortunately had to make tracks to the hardware - which was crazy busy I have to say.  Insane!

I saw an outdoor bench that I liked.  It was very comfy and made from Eucalyptus.  It's in my mental wish list for the verandah area I've cleaned up....or maybe the front verandah...

I came home with some lovely pink dahlias.  I have some deep maroon dahlias that have been thriving in my garden and I've been delighted by their prolific flowering, so I decided to add a new colour.  Hopefully they'll be as happy in the garden.

Staying on track with my efforts to do something creative each day.  Today I added colour to the little drawings I did yesterday.  I'm thinking ahead to what I want to do tomorrow and I'm hoping I have time to do it.....it involves paint.  My time is rather full tomorrow with my meditation group and then I tutor in the afternoon.  I suppose I can paint small to match my time restraints.

Afternoon light.

As I came in from working in my garden this afternoon, the light was catching my geranium at the front door.  What can I say, small things make me happy!

 I got out my little sketchbook and made marks again today.  I'm using my copic markers and admit to either being too lazy to change the thickness of the nib or forgetting to do so..... All done with a 0.3.  Here is today's somewhat eclectic effort.

Yesterday's with added colour.  I ended up using felt pens as I wanted to do it while watching tv in the living room.  Pens are more conducive to that than watercolour.  I think I preferred this page without colour.  What do you think?

A Quiet Weekend at Home

We've had a pottery, sleepy weekend.  Jeff has been working monster hours in the city for a couple of weeks so he caught up on some sleep this weekend.  On Saturday, our niece Miss R, came over to make a Mother's Day gift for her mum (my sister).  One gift grew to two......R began by making  bath salts for her mum.  To scent the salts, lavender, ylang ylang or bergamot (can't recall which) and a tiny bit of Australian Sandalwood was used.  Miss R even very seriously and diligently decorated the bottle with flowers and a dragonfly from my stash. She was very proud of the end result.  So cute.

Bath salts done, I was informed that some caramel fudge would be a good present so we looked up a recipe and checked to see that we had the ingredients.  We did so the cooking began.

After 10 minutes or so Miss R lost interest so I was left to stand and do the stirring and stirring and stirring that is involved. :)  I hope Susan enjoyed her gifts as her girl was very proud.

I had planned to show you some of the progress we have made in the garden but I've run out of energy.  So I'll leave you with a picture of our African Tulip towering in full bloom over our roof.  The sun was catching it as we arrived home and I thought it looked lovely - a break from all the green.

I'll share our garden progress with you tomorrow.

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.

15 Minutes in the Garden

Inspired by a gloriously cool afternoon and my progress earlier this week I headed outside to be productive earlier.  I only did 15 minutes but that was enough today.  I'll show some before and after pictures then show you the whole garden.

Before photos of the area I worked on.

Couldn't have a work photo without my helper...

After 15 minutes..

I've mainly cleaned up the overflow onto the pavers and pulled some really big weeds from the bed. Then I hit the pavers with the hose.  I left the walkway until Jeff is here to help me (he's out cycling at present).   There are some really heavy rocks to be moved and the wheelbarrow is loaded and too heavy for me also.  If all else fails I'll unload it one small bucket at a time.

Now, let's talk about this garden. The garden once contained two large palm trees that grew up through the shade cloth roof and held an assortment of shade plants.  The palms had to be cut down in order to replace the decking and shade cloth.  This changed the look of the garden quite a bit.  So too have the weeds, the neglect and the huge hole digging party had one day by Jess, Sophie and their visiting friends. Yes I'm talking about YOU Bentley, Molly and Milly.  Naughty dogs.  You look onto the garden from both ends of the back deck, the kitchen window, the playroom/gallery window, the studio windows and doors. So it is really very visible from much of the house.  I'd really like to revive it but at present am a bit lost for ideas.  

 The rocks are from another bed that was pulled out and thrown in one of Sophie's holes. They are now a snake and cane toad pit and need to be removed.

 From outside the studio (Granny Flat end) looking back towards the verandah/deck of the main house.  We use this to barbeque, eat out here etc.

 I can never remember the name of this vine like plant.  It gets pretty little red flowers but it is incredibly robust and invasive popping up everywhere throughout the garden.  I think a serious physical attack and then some round up might be the only way to become free of it.  There are lovely hydrangeas beneath it.

 The agapanthus line the outer edge of it and that tall stuff towards the right is all weeds thanks to the generous birds who visit dropping seeds. :)

I think I'll start by cleaning it up.  Remove the weeds.  Take out the remaining big palm stump. Remove plants that the previous owner planted that are invasive and really just annoying.  Then see what I am left with and make a plan from there.  I think I'll keep the hydrangeas and the agapanthus, peace lilies, begonias and ferns.  I'm considering adding gardenias and more crotons for colour and height.  What do you think?  Any ideas regarding plants to choose or things to think about?

Maybe a night trawling Pinterest might be time well spent!

Happy Easter everyone.

Taking Care of Yourself

Taking care of ourselves can take so many forms.  It can be as simple as taking a nap.  It can involve the more complex areas of eating well, saying 'no', making sometimes difficult choices about what to do with our energy and time, managing medication and health care. It can involve developing habits or practices that support your well being.  Sometimes it just means doing 'stuff' to make you feel better.

These are the things I've been doing of late to take care of myself.....

Going to yoga at the sweet old town hall in Glass House.  So many childhood memories of this hall. Cent Sales. Big anniversary or birthday parties.  Dances. School concerts... The yoga was more demanding than my home practice so I spent much of the time in corpse pose imagining I was doing what everyone else was doing.  That counts right?!!!  :)

Going to meditation group.  Last night was Angel's class in Maleny.  Tomorrow is Aannsha's group class in the CWA Hall in Beerwah.  So very grateful to have these two ladies in my life.  Meditation has overall, helped me more than medical treatment I've had for anxiety and pain management. Who would have thought?  I will NEVER stop meditating.  Oh, and don't you love the singing bowl?  They are really quite extraordinary.  If you've not heard one you can check them out on youtube.

This crochet task comes under 'expressing creativity' and 'just getting stuff done'.  My nephews J and R asked me to make them blankets (last year).  They got online and found pictures of what they wanted and presented me with the ....uninspiring task of making a pacman and a minecraft something or other.  Well, I have done bits and pieces here and there. Stalled. Procrastinated. Avoided it. Tried to forget it.  Complained to myself that I don't like the ghastly yarn I was able to source locally in the colours needed. Muttered to myself that I had really wanted to make them a gorgeous ripple blanket each..... you get the picture.  So I've sucked it up and am just doing it without the struggle.  I am making progress and it is lifting a weight off my shoulders.  The air is cooling and I hope to have these finished for the boys before the end of their Easter holidays and in time for winter.  I fill the stitches with love and fond memories and hope for their future instead of struggle and complaint.  I hope they are happy with their choices and my efforts.

 Another thing that has been weighing on me heavily.  While my brother lived in the granny flat end of the house I left this area to him to care for.  He's been gone now some months and I finally, finally, just got in and did it.  I didn't get fixated on doing it perfectly.  I'm very sore today so that would not be an act of self care.  I simply wiped over the airconditioner units.  Decluttered and raked, pulled some weeds, then hosed the concrete.  A thorough cleaning of the airconditioner vents, the poles, using the pressure cleaner on the concrete and cleaning the outside bathroom (just past the airconditioner units) can happen another day.  So, as an act of self care I took action to remedy a situation that was draining on me and I did so in a way that fit the needs and capabilities of my body. 

As always my supervising companions were underfoot.  Once it is all properly cleaned I'll look at placing a comfy chair here or something.  It's a beautiful spot to sit.

Nature Mandala

Aannsha took us through quite an extraordinary healing meditation today in our group session.  During my meditation I made mandalas on the ground at the base of a lovely tree (in my mind of course).  When I got home I felt compelled to bring this into real life.

Gatherings from my garden and my stash of shells and stones.

Catching up...

Some of the busy things that have been filling our days here in our little neck of the woods.

 Nigella's cheese stars for Christmas.  I made heaps and they vanished very quickly once again.  These seem to be Christmas favourite and really they are so very easy to make.

Icing Christmas Biscuits from Sophie Gray's Destitute Gourmet books.  Another favourite. Spicy biscuits with lemon icing.

What happens when you go out to the movies and leave two labradors alone with a whole watermelon on the back verandah.  Those are seeds not flies and it's been put up onto the BBQ to get away from those naughty girls.

Tree Day.  I started the tradition of tree day when my first nephew and niece were infants.  Each year I give my nephews and niece a new special decoration which we open around the first weekend or December.  These  decorations are then placed on my tree.  The kids each have a box where their 'tree day' decorations from past years are stored and they put these on the tree along with my own decorations. They then tinsel bomb the house while listening to Christmassy music.  In the early years this day was a challenge with 4 little ones all decorating up as high as your knee, and needing help and lots of supervision. This year was very different with ages ranging from 8 to 11 they were so good and independent.  A great day.

 We have made marshmallow shooters and measured how far we can shoot them around the yard and then stuff them in our mouths before the 10 second rule expires - or the ants get them....

 I've supervised lots of swimming.  Cousins, friends, play dates....

 The two J's have been busy around the yard learning new skills.  First time with the chain saw.

Since we got Sophie 9 years ago we've had a problem with this garden.  It used to be lush and full of shade house type plants.  Sophie insists upon digging here if we leave the house and not amount of scolding or punishment could induce her to do otherwise.  It drove me crazy and I asked that it be torn out and replaced with pavers as my christmas present. Master J got to work upon hearing this and his Uncle had to follow along.....

 I look straight out my kitchen window at this garden all the time and it drove me crazy.  I felt so much better looking at the area even when it had reached this state.  This photo is taken looking back along the verandah towards the granny flat.

Jeff hired a brick cutter from Bunnings and got busy making a lot of noise for a very long time.  He then got the pressure cleaner out and proceeded to make even more noise during clean up. Luckily our neighbours are a reasonable distance away.

The paving project is mostly finshed and has made an incredible difference to the visual appearance of our outdoor space but the biggest difference has been unexpected.  The floor inside stays much, much cleaner - no dogs trailing dirt in after a good dig and lie in the hole....  The dust levels are also reduced noticably.

We also have  skip bin out the front and we are tossing old garden pots, junk from the shed etc and having a pretty good clean up.