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

 

Days 2,3,4,and 5

Well so much for blogging every day!  I have been feeling a bit sick and eventually fronted up to the doc's, what a performance.  I never got to see the doctor but had to go through a triage procedure and the practice nurse diagnosed bronchitis, which I knew anyway.  (I am a chronic bronchitis sufferer,) and as I didn't have a temp, no sore throat, etc, they decided not to test me for covid-19, especially as I have had this cough for a month or more.  Anyway they prescribed antibiotics.  Well the antibiotics made me feel sick but they have improved my chest and I am back to normal for me, with only a coughing fit first thing in the morning which I find my asthma sprays helps.

We have had welcome rain for the last three days, so I guess the drought has ended, it was playing havoc with my garden. But this afternoon it is green again and everything looks lush.

Cant wait to get into it!  My appetite has been lacking, but today I feel like a good meal, so I am planning lamb chops, mash and peas, yum.  I need to get the bread machine out as I am out of bread, I was lucky, as because I stocked up before the panic buying I have flour and yeast.

I have been reading a lot in my lounge with the kitties lolling about here and there.

 
Thats it for now, I will do better at posting I promise!

So from me and the fur babies Bye bye

September Round Up

September has been a busy month for me, both in the home and out of it.  I had hoped to blog once a week, but it was not to be.  I wrote them in my head but fingers never got to the keyboard, lol.  So, it will be a rather long post.

Budget

I had a small budget for food this month as I wanted to live off my stores and save money for a new Tv.  I had allocated $100 for the month, which is normally a week’s expenditure.

 I succeeded big time and only spent $70!  I was only buying fresh produce and some other perishables.  I still have plenty of food on hand and will continue the “shelftember” into October.  I suspect I might last only 3 more weeks on my stores, we will see.

To celebrate my success, I decided not to add the $30 to my savings but to treat myself to plants for the garden.  So I trotted off to the market this morning very early, it was the start of daylight saving, so we lost an hour. I bought some more vegies but that will come off the October budget.

Garden

I also bought 2 punnets of strawberry plants to plant out, an early variety and a late variety. Some garlic that was ready to plant. Parsley and rocket seedlings, and a sage bush.  I also bought two native shrubs a kowhai and an ake ake. I will buy two more next week as I was unable to fit them on the scooter.  I am also on the lookout for a curry leaf tree.

The garden is starting to look how it use to a couple of years ago, I have had help from a good friend, she has been working like a trojan on it, I am very blessed to have her for a friend.  The garden is a sign to me that my health has improved as this time last year I was too sick to bother with it and I let it go.  Today after planting out the strawberries I even managed to mow the lawns both back and front. Mind you I had a rest in between and had to have a granny nap when I finished!

Crafts

I am afraid my knitting and crochet has taken a back seat this month and nothing was accomplished.

Health

My health as mentioned above has come on in leaps and bounds and I was discharged from speech therapy last Wednesday, I still have problems swallowing but it is getting better daily. I had an appointment with the Ear, Nose and Throat consultant last week and all is well (although I have to say I did not like the camera thingy going up my nose, very unpleasant!).  He ordered a hearing test and as I suspected my hearing is atrocious, he said I had the hearing of a 90-year-old!  I have always have had hearing issues.   I think I lip read a lot.  

 

My RA has been behaving itself as long as I pace myself.  I am a lot better at that these days.

Diet

I am very pleased with my weight this month as I have lost 4 kg!  A long way to go, but if I can keep this up I will be so happy.  I am finding that eating a vegan diet has improved my digestive system heaps, no more wind and reflux. I think animal fats don’t agree with me.  I am positive our digestive systems get weaker as we age, because I can’t tolerate half the foods that I ate when younger.

I m also enjoying cooking vegan food and have found wonderful resources on the internet and Instagram.

Some of my September meals

mushroom and asparagus stir fry with Moroccan couscous

Beet Burgers, and salad

Black Bean Tortillas and Mango salad

So that wraps up September for me.

I am looking forward to more progress in October and hopefully I will get to do some crochet and maybe even some art.

Hopefully, I will post before the end of October, I intend to, we will see!!!!