Progress

Only a little time spent in the garden today but good progress was made.  Before we started.

Progress being made.  It was great that Jeff was able to help me as he was able to pull out things that I had struggled to and did it so quickly!  Below, Sophie always finds herself a spot at a distance to lie like a sphinx and simply watch.

 Jess is always in the thick of it, usually leaning over your shoulder, between your legs or.....

Desperately trying to get you to "Please throw the ball....."

What the garden looked like when we knocked off....

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.

This is not a cooking blog really.... and some random pics.

What happens when Jeff plays with the dogs on the back verandah and they've not been brushed for  a few days.

New shoes.  My feet are so swollen at present from the prednisone that my current shoes (I only have a couple of pairs) are unwearable.  I've been wearing thongs (flip flops - not underwear on my feet people!).

Dreaming of a new food processor and blender combo to replace mine which is currently held together with duct tape....

Fish pie for dinner using Jools Oliver's recipe.

Overflow requiring the oven to be cleaned afterwards. Sigh.

 Smells pretty good.  The best thing is that after feeding us I had enough leftovers to put some in the fridge for lunches and some in the freezer to share with Mum and Dad or to use as a meal on a busy or tired night in the future.

Hope all is well in your world. 

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.

A Random Ramble

The roast chicken in milk turned out beautifully.  Very moist and a lovely flavour.  Probably not as tasty to me as my easy roast chicken (stick a pierced lemon, a handful of thyme and garlic cloves in cavity and bung in oven in roasting pan).  Flavours were similar.  The picture below shows the chicken just after I had browned it and poured the milk and flavourings in. 

Over the weekend I took the time to try another kitchen experiment.  I baked a savoury strata for breakfast.  Jeff loves this type of thing and I must admit I enjoyed it too.  We had some day old vienna loaf so I cut it into chunks, soaked it overnight in a mix of eggs, milk, salt and pepper.  Just before cooking I stirred some bacon, cheese and parsley into the mix and them popped it into a springform tin.  I had some for breakfast and then lunch the next day with a salad.  It was a great light lunch option.

Some time ago I made some visits to a community garden near Kawana Lake.  It is fantastic and has so many ideas that I'd love to implement if I only had the physical capacity to do so.  I brought home some gooseberries and ate most of them.  A few had spots so I tossed them into an empty pot along with some wrinkled cherry tomatoes and now I have seedlings galore.  I've planted some out in the garden and think I will have to plant a heap more as there are just so many and I do love gooseberries.  Three tomato plants have come up and I'll keep them in the pot.  Looking forward to eating those too.

At Christmas I looked like this.....

My hair was really long at the back and curly and thick.  It became a burden - I'm just too tired and sore to be washing all that hair and lugging it around with me.  So I had about 6 inches cut off and now I look like this....

No, I wasn't driving!  Much easier.  I don't need a sleep after a shower and hair wash anymore...

In keeping with the theme of randomness, I am just having a pottery type day today.  I've done my morning routine (Flylady), paid my bills, made some calls and now I'm going to potter.  I have a vague list of things to attend to. Some crochet (a LONG procrastinated about project), cleaning the pantry, doing some ironing, spending time in the garden, a visit to the fruit shop for some supplies .... I'll just spend a bit of time doing each thing as it suits me.  Some days I would use a timer as per flylady but I will just do each thing as my energy permits and maybe listen to some podcasts and use them as my timing for each project.

Meditation group tonight which I am looking forward to. I carpool with a friend I've had since kindy (so we've known each other for at least 44 years) and another friend meets us there.  Even though we don't have a lot of catch up time it's still nice to touch base with them regularly.  See you tonight Annoeska! 

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.