EPBA Gathering

I've looked forward to our gathering all week and today yet again the Evil Plant Buying Alliance met. Spent a lovely morning, part tour of my garden, part Hills Pub Crawl!

There have been many, many satisfying aspects of getting into permaculture and all the related elements of if, but one of the most special has been the feeling of stepping into a vast community of like minded people who are aware, appreciative and supportive in so many ways.
Today was one of those wonderful encounters, and earlier in the week I had another experience which made me feel particularly warm and happy.

My family and I were at a local church op shop - which frequently has excellent goods for sale for next to nothing. I asked the lady if she had any decent sized wicker/cane baskets or wooden boxes large enough to store produce like pumpkins etc. We started chatting while her helper went out back to have a look, and she told me of a South African family she knew who used to live locally, who were entirely self-sufficient. After her helper returned with one basket, and a promise to keep an eye out for more, we thanked her and continued to look around. I was then approached by a customer who said' Excuse me, I couldn't help but overhear that you were interested in gardening and self-sufficiency....we have just set up our very own aquaponics tanks..." and the conversation rolled on from there.

Hubby and I have made small steps towards doing this ourselves so we were very interested, and the lovely lady gave us her number and said to please call anytime to organise a visit as they'd be very happy to have us drop in for a cuppa and a look see.
I grinned all the way back to the car and some. How neighbourly! How very typical of our experiences with people who are interested in this way of life. Always happy to share of their time, experience and even produce.

We have moved into such a rich phase of our life. Countless blessings to enjoy and appreciate.
If happiness has a form it is a sunset colour and sounds like a Celtic Harp.

The Crone will understand this I'm sure.

:)

The Big Brag!

Finally the pictures! :D !

And they pulled and they pulled....

We had a great time today, the Munchkins and me and Nana and Grumps, harvesting the garlic!
The bulbs were big and fat. Some HUGE! We had great fun re-enacting scenes from 'The Enormous Turnip' with all of us lined up pulling on huge garlic bulbs. Younger Munchkin had the biggest grin on his face each time he landed on his bottom with a thump and a handful of garlic.

We also harvested our 2 raspberries (one for each Munchkin) and 2 small but tasty carrots. Can't wait for future seasons when the raspberries take off. Oh and coincidentally there were 2 fat strawberries too - so that was easy to share too!

Molly - the Amaranth is about 4cm high!

Other than that, today was spent weeding - there's a task that never ends around here, and transplanting seedlings that looked crowded. And I planted potatoes in one of the blue tubs we recently inherited. That'll be an experiment, but I'm pretty confident they'll work.

In addition to that - another batch of Loquat Chutney, and 2 jars of Mulberry and Rhubarb Jam. Yes! Today was HIGHLY productive!

:)

Beltane Blessings!

We have some new arrivals to mark the height of Spring! 5 little chicks - 4 buttermilk colour and one black. They are absolutely adorable and keep us glued to the chook pen for long spans at a time. Mother Hen (Stormy) is being a wonderful mother looking after them beautifully.

Pics when my camera batteries are charged!

Beltane Bouquet!

I realised today that I have the garden I always wanted. I remember when we first started planting our native garden and other bits and pieces saying to hubby 'I just want a garden where I can go and pick a beautiful bouquet for the house, anytime of the year'. Well we've reached that point! And this weekend being the end of Winter/arrival of glorious SPRING was the perfect time to go out and do some A-Septembering!

The display you see is sitting in our entrance - what a lovely way to start Spring!

Now to go and do some more Spring cleaning and decluttering!
:)

There's treasure in dem der Hills!

Funny how things work out. We went garage sale hunting this morning - making a start on our christmas challenge (re-used, recycled, second-hand or home-made gifts). would you believe it we didn't find a single one.
In particular I've been looking for some of those wrought iron triangle thingies (iron lace?) that you find under the posts of old federation style homes. The plan is to make some bookshelves out of them for the wall in the hallway. Feeling rather disheartened we thought we'd stop in at a friend's place and ask where she found her 'goodies' (she has heaps of lovely recycled ornaments in her garden). As we were driving to her place we passed a lady who was writing a sign up on an easel. We thought, 'must look at that again when we go back' (being curious people!).
Well, we did - and it turns out she was having a garage sale! Hooray!
I asked if she had what we were looking for and she didn't but said she had bits of wrought iron, and kindly showed me through to her shed where we found THESE!
Please click on the image to see them in more detail. They are the sides of 2 seats. In retrospect I can't believe I hesitated all of 30 seconds thinking - gosh I'll have to do them up, worry worry - my woodwork skills are pretty shocking etc.
I didn't really look at them properly until I got home, and the detail on them is gorgeous. Nothing like the cheap nasty stuff you buy at Bunnings but pay a heap for. The lady had bought these back in the 70's. They are heavy and solid and beautiful and.... she sold them to me for $20 (for the 2 sets!). I am so very pleased - what a treasure and what a bargain.
I will have to drop round some tangelo butter or something to her as an extra thank you because I almost felt a little bad to take them for that price.

Hubby LOVED them and is excited about doing them up. We're starting tomorrow morning and using the old floorboards from our old place as the wood. Stay tuned for more pics in a couple of weeks when these hopefully will be transformed into beautiful garden furniture!

Tickly Throat Tea

Younger munchkin has been snuffly and coughing the last few days and it's been keeping him up at night. Last night I made him a tea that worked wonders and gave it to him again before bed tonight. He is sleeping soundly now as we speak.

I'd used honey and thyme before (both have weak antibacterial/antiseptic qualities) but I also read that yarrow was good for colds and sage was good for drying the mucous membranes (but warned to use it sparingly and not prolonged use).

So the tea was simply a teaspoon of honey, heaped teaspoon of thyme, 2 sage leaves, 1 yarrow leaf, and the juice from half a lemon. Steeped with a lid on for 8 minutes and Voila! Younger munchkin said it was delicious and has stopped coughing long enough to fall asleep and stay there. :)

With winter here there are a lot of snuffles going round. Why not try it out if they catch you!