shapeofthings (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shapeofthings) wrote2012-06-03 10:22 pm
shapeofthings) wrote2012-06-03 10:22 pm
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Ah, domesticity!
Mmm, choc chip cookies fresh from the oven make an excellent Sunday night indulgence (spiced up a little with the addition of cinnamon and a pinch of fancy salt).
Another weekend ends sooner than I'd like it to. I wasn't quite so productive this weekend, finding I really needed some time to just stop, sit and recover from a pretty big week. I still failed at getting to bed at reasonable times though. :-/
This is my friend Norm.
Yesterday was a big sleep in followed by lunch and conversation at Norm's house. Norm is a retired geologist, raised in Sydney but formerly from Perth. He bought a block of land to retire to, sight unseen, out at Neika, tucked into a fold of the Mountain along the North West Bay River. I met Norm after parking outside his house to go walking one day (the Cathedral Rock Trail pretty much starts at his driveway), had an enjoyable conversation and passed on one of my moo cards. Norm dropped me an email a few days later and we've been mates since (who wouldn't be friends with a 70-ish year old who signs himself off as Normal, because "somebody has to be"). Hmm, that reminds me, I really must get some more cards made up. I've been out of stock for months.
Norm feeding a wallaby on his block.
Anyway, Norm's been slowly restoring the bush on his block, removing the privets and blackberries and letting the native plants come back. It's a beautiful spot and he's an interesting character with plenty of stories to tell. His passion is caving and he was responsible for discovering 2 species of cave spiders and a cave centipede out on the Nullabor. This trip we talked about his travels overseas and his experiences hosting exchange students as a single dad, among other things.
Fungi growing on Norm's block.
Last night I had a very lazy night in, making a picnic of the odds and ends in the fridge and cupboard and watching Life On Mars (I know I'm late to the party: the first episode I saw was the final one so I didn't much see the point. Glad I eventually got around to watching it though!). I also spent was too much time faffing about with blog stuff.
Shapeofthingstocome.org kinda took off this week. A few people linked to me on Facebook and I suddenly found my visitor numbers doubling. I will admit to being a little excited to reach a whole 64 visitors on Wednesday. I know it's really nothing in blog terms, but it was a big jump for me and it's nice to find out that people thing my blatherings are interesting enough to share.
I'm starting to be noticed in the little Tassie food-and-sustainability community, which is really nice and I'm hoping to turn it into networking opportunities. You see, I think I might like to write things like that for a living, so getting positive feedback makes me think it just might be possible. Plus I'm enjoying it (more than I expected to, if I'm honest)! Problem is, I started the blog when injuries were keeping me home and restless. Now I'm back to swimming, drumming and hiking I'm finding it harder to dedicate the time to researching and writing the blog. I have so many ideas though...
I have been busy taming the wilds of my garden... This declared weed was stealing my morning sun!
Today was another productive Sunday, though no early start this morning! I made up a tub of muesli while cooking up a tasty brunch of mushrooms, egg & sauteed greens with toast and chutney, then got on with boring stuff like dishes, laundry and gardening. I started the tedious task of forking the lawn, breaking up the badly compacted soil and pulling the worst of the weeds. The compost got a good stirring and I made up a batch of experimental budget mulch (coffee grounds from a local cafe, ash from my wood heater, autumn leaves collected from my street and little bits of timber that broke off the firewood when they tipped it off the truck last weekend). I'll leave it a couple of weeks to start breaking down then see how it goes on the garden.
Getting the garden sorted here is a lot of hard work. It's weedy, the soil is compacted and lacking organics and previous tenants have done some truly bizarre things. I keep discovering plants in the strangest of places. Today I pulled apart a garden bed they'd built on top of the pavers. It wasn't a proper raised bed, only 10 cm or so high. I pulled the frame up then went to shovel the dirt into another garden bed only to discover that the "bed" consisted of a layer of potting mix over the top of some seedling pots and plastic containers. WTF?
WTF garden bed?
The tenants-before-last were apparently trippy-dippy hippies and are apparently responsible for the smooth white pebbles that have been buried throughout the garden. I seriously can't dig anywhere without running into them. Perhaps they're supposed to harness the energy of the moon?
Anyway, I got rid of the dodgy garden bed, did my best to rip up the mint that's invaded from the neighbours yard (and has evidently just been mowed over for many, many years), prepped a bed for peas (some of which have self-seeded in parts of the garden and will need transplanting), transplanted some self-sown leeks and celery and started planting out my herbs. I assembled my little plastic greenhouse then had an attack of insanity and started pruning the rose bush.
No-one's pruned the rose properly in a very long time, so it was a mass of thorny brambles. I intended to just cut back the bits that were growing up against the house but it was impossible to get close enough to do so, so I just started hacking back at the spiky bastard. The rose fought back bravely, drawing blood several times, and in the end we declared a truce. I'll finish the job in a couple of weeks, and this time I'll wear gloves.
The Cottage: what a mess! The random brassicas are gone now and I've got old boxes down on that patch to kill the weeds. In a little while I'll put my bulbs in there. There's loads of feral fennel and English ivy in there, along with much grass, which will be a nightmare to get rid of. At least the rose - thorny bastard it is - smells lovely!
Tired of gardening and starting to feel the cold, I went to collect some firewood from the tonne I got delivered last weekend so I could get a nice blaze going (I used the last of the old firewood last night). When the firewood arrived I thought it looked a bit green, but it was soaking wet from the rain (that was falling and falling... *ahem* sorry!) so I wasn't sure and the guy that delivered it swore it was below 25% moisture. Anyway, it's dried off now and I discovered that is indeed rather green and really shouldn't be burnt for a few more months. Great, I have a tonne of mostly-too-green firewood and winter's just beginning.
While I was lamenting my heating situation the neighbours came home so I stuck my head out and said hello. They knew I'd got the firewood last weekend, so I mentioned that I was disappointed it was a bit green and was thinking about picking up a small load of better wood to get me by. My lovely neighbours volunteered to throw some of their firewood over the fence in exchange of some of mine in a few month's time. How lucky am I?
I got the fire going, had a friend drop by, ate dinner out of the freezer (a lovely home-made lamb curry) then baked the afore-mentioned cookies and delivered a dozen - still warm from the oven - to said neighbours as a thank you. The house has been vacuumed, the dishes done, the kitchen floor mopped and the washing put away. Shortly I'll have a hot shower, put clean sheets on my bed and crash out. Another busy week awaits. Thank f*ck next weekend's a long one!
Next weekend I'm getting out on the Mountain again. It will be awesome.
Another weekend ends sooner than I'd like it to. I wasn't quite so productive this weekend, finding I really needed some time to just stop, sit and recover from a pretty big week. I still failed at getting to bed at reasonable times though. :-/
This is my friend Norm.
Yesterday was a big sleep in followed by lunch and conversation at Norm's house. Norm is a retired geologist, raised in Sydney but formerly from Perth. He bought a block of land to retire to, sight unseen, out at Neika, tucked into a fold of the Mountain along the North West Bay River. I met Norm after parking outside his house to go walking one day (the Cathedral Rock Trail pretty much starts at his driveway), had an enjoyable conversation and passed on one of my moo cards. Norm dropped me an email a few days later and we've been mates since (who wouldn't be friends with a 70-ish year old who signs himself off as Normal, because "somebody has to be"). Hmm, that reminds me, I really must get some more cards made up. I've been out of stock for months.
Norm feeding a wallaby on his block.
Anyway, Norm's been slowly restoring the bush on his block, removing the privets and blackberries and letting the native plants come back. It's a beautiful spot and he's an interesting character with plenty of stories to tell. His passion is caving and he was responsible for discovering 2 species of cave spiders and a cave centipede out on the Nullabor. This trip we talked about his travels overseas and his experiences hosting exchange students as a single dad, among other things.
Fungi growing on Norm's block.
Last night I had a very lazy night in, making a picnic of the odds and ends in the fridge and cupboard and watching Life On Mars (I know I'm late to the party: the first episode I saw was the final one so I didn't much see the point. Glad I eventually got around to watching it though!). I also spent was too much time faffing about with blog stuff.
Shapeofthingstocome.org kinda took off this week. A few people linked to me on Facebook and I suddenly found my visitor numbers doubling. I will admit to being a little excited to reach a whole 64 visitors on Wednesday. I know it's really nothing in blog terms, but it was a big jump for me and it's nice to find out that people thing my blatherings are interesting enough to share.
I'm starting to be noticed in the little Tassie food-and-sustainability community, which is really nice and I'm hoping to turn it into networking opportunities. You see, I think I might like to write things like that for a living, so getting positive feedback makes me think it just might be possible. Plus I'm enjoying it (more than I expected to, if I'm honest)! Problem is, I started the blog when injuries were keeping me home and restless. Now I'm back to swimming, drumming and hiking I'm finding it harder to dedicate the time to researching and writing the blog. I have so many ideas though...
I have been busy taming the wilds of my garden... This declared weed was stealing my morning sun!
Today was another productive Sunday, though no early start this morning! I made up a tub of muesli while cooking up a tasty brunch of mushrooms, egg & sauteed greens with toast and chutney, then got on with boring stuff like dishes, laundry and gardening. I started the tedious task of forking the lawn, breaking up the badly compacted soil and pulling the worst of the weeds. The compost got a good stirring and I made up a batch of experimental budget mulch (coffee grounds from a local cafe, ash from my wood heater, autumn leaves collected from my street and little bits of timber that broke off the firewood when they tipped it off the truck last weekend). I'll leave it a couple of weeks to start breaking down then see how it goes on the garden.
Getting the garden sorted here is a lot of hard work. It's weedy, the soil is compacted and lacking organics and previous tenants have done some truly bizarre things. I keep discovering plants in the strangest of places. Today I pulled apart a garden bed they'd built on top of the pavers. It wasn't a proper raised bed, only 10 cm or so high. I pulled the frame up then went to shovel the dirt into another garden bed only to discover that the "bed" consisted of a layer of potting mix over the top of some seedling pots and plastic containers. WTF?
WTF garden bed?
The tenants-before-last were apparently trippy-dippy hippies and are apparently responsible for the smooth white pebbles that have been buried throughout the garden. I seriously can't dig anywhere without running into them. Perhaps they're supposed to harness the energy of the moon?
Anyway, I got rid of the dodgy garden bed, did my best to rip up the mint that's invaded from the neighbours yard (and has evidently just been mowed over for many, many years), prepped a bed for peas (some of which have self-seeded in parts of the garden and will need transplanting), transplanted some self-sown leeks and celery and started planting out my herbs. I assembled my little plastic greenhouse then had an attack of insanity and started pruning the rose bush.
No-one's pruned the rose properly in a very long time, so it was a mass of thorny brambles. I intended to just cut back the bits that were growing up against the house but it was impossible to get close enough to do so, so I just started hacking back at the spiky bastard. The rose fought back bravely, drawing blood several times, and in the end we declared a truce. I'll finish the job in a couple of weeks, and this time I'll wear gloves.
The Cottage: what a mess! The random brassicas are gone now and I've got old boxes down on that patch to kill the weeds. In a little while I'll put my bulbs in there. There's loads of feral fennel and English ivy in there, along with much grass, which will be a nightmare to get rid of. At least the rose - thorny bastard it is - smells lovely!
Tired of gardening and starting to feel the cold, I went to collect some firewood from the tonne I got delivered last weekend so I could get a nice blaze going (I used the last of the old firewood last night). When the firewood arrived I thought it looked a bit green, but it was soaking wet from the rain (that was falling and falling... *ahem* sorry!) so I wasn't sure and the guy that delivered it swore it was below 25% moisture. Anyway, it's dried off now and I discovered that is indeed rather green and really shouldn't be burnt for a few more months. Great, I have a tonne of mostly-too-green firewood and winter's just beginning.
While I was lamenting my heating situation the neighbours came home so I stuck my head out and said hello. They knew I'd got the firewood last weekend, so I mentioned that I was disappointed it was a bit green and was thinking about picking up a small load of better wood to get me by. My lovely neighbours volunteered to throw some of their firewood over the fence in exchange of some of mine in a few month's time. How lucky am I?
I got the fire going, had a friend drop by, ate dinner out of the freezer (a lovely home-made lamb curry) then baked the afore-mentioned cookies and delivered a dozen - still warm from the oven - to said neighbours as a thank you. The house has been vacuumed, the dishes done, the kitchen floor mopped and the washing put away. Shortly I'll have a hot shower, put clean sheets on my bed and crash out. Another busy week awaits. Thank f*ck next weekend's a long one!
Next weekend I'm getting out on the Mountain again. It will be awesome.