Week 3

It has been a surreal week for me. the loss of G hit me hard, but life goes on and we tuck our grief away, as many thousands of people are having to do all over the world.  It was only today, that I realized that we have already completed 3 weeks of lockdown, there is talk of of coming out of it after week 4 as over the last week new cases have been in their teens.  But there is a fear that the virus is lurking and will hit hard when we come out of isolation.  Fear is paralyzing the world, we  are looking sideways at people wondering whether they will infect us.  I think the psychological effect of this pandemic is going to be more damaging than the physical in the long run.   And I don't even want to think about the world economy.  Anyways on to brighter things, I really believe we have to take pleasure little things of life - cooking, cleaning, the garden, family connections, the birds singing, the antics of our pets and  of course U Tube, lol!

Over the last week I have been in preserving mode, I picked most of the grapes, leaving the rest for the birds and made 4 jars of grape jelly and 2 large bottles of grape cordial.

grape harvest

I have started on the apples, freezing them  an I think I will make some apple jelly from the Golden Delicious variety as it comes out a beautiful peach colour, the biggest apple tree is the Fuji , they store really well and so do the Grannie Smiths.  I am toying idea of making some mint jelly to have with lamb. The mint needs cutting back as it is getting out of hand, especially under the fig tree.

loaded fuji apple tree

 End of last year a new was fence erected in place of an old ivy covered fence that was falling down.  I making  a rock garden  along part of it as the soil is very stony, these stones I found on the property, I need some bigger ones and perhaps when we can move about again I will get some from the river.

 I am also thinking of growing some star jasmine around the posts and perhaps a clematis of some kind.

With three weeks completed in the lockdown I have been able to see how my stores are going.  I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I organized my groceries into 2 week lots, Well, I overestimated and each lot will last 3 weeks, so that is another 5 weeks of stores, I will be good to end of June.  The thing I am thinking of now is whether to continue using them when the lockdown ends or keep my level of stores at its current rate or even to increase the amount that I have stored away.  I would love to know what you consider an acceptable amount of stores without becoming a hoarder!  I know that they say for financial security to have 3 months out outgoings saved up is ideal.  I am thinking that in future there will be food shortages.  On a side note, my neighbour is an essential worker in the local bread factory, and he told me that the flour shortage here wasn't the lack of flour but that the manufacturers ran out of retail bags, so they had to get them printed.  I am thinking why bother, flour is flour!  Nobody is going to worry whether it is Champion or Pams etc., they just want flour!

On Sunday, I treated myself to some waffles, I had a craving for chocolate, and debated cook, muffins, biscuits and so on, I procrastinated all afternoon and fin ally after supper, I decided to make waffles but with chocolate bits in. I just used my usual waffle mix which is really a thick pancake mix and added chocolate chips,  Absolutely divine!

 I used butter to grease the waffle pan and it made them so crispy and crunchy. I will definitely be making them again.

I have been having a break from crochet, and have made this tunic for a little girl I know, Just need to go through my stash of buttons for the yoke.

Well that's it for today you all have a blessed day. 

Sharon and the kitties

 

Its Real!

Hi sorry to be absent for the lat week or so.  I have had a reminder how real and deadly this virus is, a very close lifelong friend in France passed away from Covid-19  last week, it has hit me hard.  Because we have had so few cases here (1300 approx and 5 deaths) it didn't seem real, being at the bottom of the world tends to make us rather insular!  My friend was a  type 1 diabetic, late 60's but otherwise healthy.  This post is for him, thanks for the good times we had.

I hope to get back to normal blogging later today or tomorrow and also to catch up on your posts as well.

Interesting things

I thought that on Saturdays I will list some interesting blogs  and videos and articles that I have come across during the week.

1. Gardening
 First two videos are from two channels that I follow on U Tube. They have totally  opposite methods of gardening, the  first is by Charles Dowding the no-dig guru from Great Britain.

The second is from Bealtaine Cottage, a Permaculture woodland garden.  Her channel also documents her life, while I do not subscribe to all her views, she talks a lot of sense and lives a life style I would like to emulate, and she did it all by herself on a shoestring budget.

 2.  Some blogs that have good resources on living the simple life - 

Down to Earth Blog Australian Rhonda  Hetzel has plenty of resources for making your own laundry powder, recipes, you name it. 

In similar vein, is American Jane of Hope and Thrift Blog, who also has good advice for people wanting make themselves self sufficient. Plus recipes etc.  

With both you need to look at past post, just click on the topic you are interested in in the Label section on the side bar.

3.  An interesting article

Guardian  UK Starting a daily routine advice from 4 people - a polar scientist, a monk, a solo sailor and and a Scottish Islander 

4.  Something to bring a smile

A covid version  of Doh Re Mi, very cleverly done.
Also I have just discovered that she has done a version of My Favourite Things. Look out for it.

 Enjoy.

Day 8 and Day 9

Hello, I am rather late with Day 8 as it is midday of Day 9!  So this post will cover both days.

Yesterday, I practically spent in the garden, tidied the herb bed and then gravitated to the vegetable beds as is my wont.  I am more of a vegetable growing person by nature, but I have to say I enjoyed my flower garden this year.

I mostly cleared the pumpkin patch - 5 pumpkins and 6 squashes.  I was growing to pull up the zucchini plants but noticed that they each had some fruit, the recent rain must have quick started them, so they got an stay of execution.
Then on to the sweet corn patch, I needed a bit of elbow grease to dig those up, the roots went way down.  By then I was hungry, but too tired to cook a meal from scratch so here was the opportunity to do a convenience meal, my version.

 A real quickie, Barbecue Bean cottage pie.  The basis is the mash potatoes and the beans. I added some sweetcorn that needed to be used,  simply put the beans and any vegetable you desire into a baking dish, top with mash potato and if desired sprinkle some grated cheese on  top.  Bake for 1/2 hour or so in a moderate oven. And voila.....

 I used instant mash as I am trying to conserve my potatoes as I am not wanting to go out during the lockdown.  I had half for lunch and the other half I froze.  In the afternoon I cleared the tomatoes and the cauliflowers and the broccoli that were manky looking.  By then I was really tired and came inside and did some reading during which I fell asleep. After a supper of soup and bread I watched TV but my eyes kept closing so I went to bed rather early.

Today I woke up a 5am!  All  that sleep yesterday.  After a cup of tea I decided to do the house work - laundry, vacuum cleaning and cleaning out the bathroom.   By then it was time for breakfast,  I was quite hungry so had scrambled eggs on toast.  Then another nap!  I see I am going to have to have some kind of schedule as I can see my daily pattern will disintegrate.  I can easily fall into a pattern of insomnia and that when my RA  flares.  So I will that tonight. 

For the rest of the afternoon I played around in PAINTER ESSENTIALS   and made this little meme for you all, you are welcome to copy and paste it to your files and send it to others or use on your blogs.

Day 7

 It was a beautiful sunny day and my, does the sun take all your worries away.  I was able to do a bit of gardening, this time of the year is real busy as the garden needs tidying up for the winter and the winter vegetable crops need planting and sowing.  I tidied up two flower beds at the back and planted some lettuce in the herb garden near the back door.

Here are some photos of the garden at the back in all its glory earlier in the summer, I was very proud of it. 

For lunch I finished off the risotto from yesterday  and for supper I had soup and a slice of bread.  

The afternoon was spent reading, a granny nap and watering my many indoor plants and starting to put them in their winter quarters. I have to move many of them as I don't want them near the heat pump. will finish that off tomorrow.
 

Some of my baby houseplants I've put into an old fruit bowl, looks rather nice I think and they will enjoy each others company

 In the evening I watched TV, played a few games of mahjong on the computer and  worked out my budget for the next fortnight as it was pay day.  I am going to be able to save while the lockdown is on, as I am not out and about and having temptations to spend money! Also from next pay, the government has increased our pensions by $25 a week, and from May there is for 12 weeks a winter heating supplement of $40 a week. We are very blessed with our government, they are also giving employers grants so that they can continue to pay their workers and so not have to make them redundant.

So, all in all a wonderful day to finish off the first week of lockdown.

Bye for now, take care and be safe

Sharon