Solar

What a wonderful sight!
At last our solar panels are up - all 16 of them. Still waiting for conection to the grid though.

Handmade

Earlier in the year I started a little shore at Made It to sell my hand made childrens cloth books and other handcrafted items. I love craft and I love others appreciating my handmade items too.

Today I just wanted to share some lovely finds for those that are concerned with loving our world a little more and being kinder to the enviroment. Oh, and because they are very practical, cute and unique.
Owl shopping or library bag.

Citrus dish soap for use washing the dishes and keeping the kitchen sparkly and fresh.
Enviromentally friendly chenille dishcloths made from recycled fabric.

Vegetable /fruit eco shopping bags to cut down on plastics at the supermarket.

Draft stopper snake to keep your home draft free and help reduce heating costs.

Then and Now

Sometimes it is good to look back and realise just how much progress has been made in the garden.

Front garden in 2008 above and below at beginning of this year. There is always something in flower in the front yard - roses, agapanthus, diamond frost which is the white flowers at the front (always flowering). Amongst all jthat there is a fig tree in a large pot, a mango tree, blueberry bushes and strawberry plants, thyme, and parsley is also growing in gaps.

Below is the raised vege patch in Sep 2008 when it was newly built

And how it is looking now. At the moment I have snow peas as tall as the fence, beetroot, silverbeet, turnips, chillis, eggplants, parsleys and some young tomatoes.

The long backyard when we first moved here - all lawn and no trees or shrubs.

Now the backyard is lush and green. There are now passionfruit vines, 5 citrus trees, 2 apples, lemon grass and herbs galore, peach tree, 4 olives all planted amongst fragrant flowers and bushes.

Mandarins

The little mandarin tree is loaded and the mandarins are very sweet and juicy. Delicious eaten just are.

But some will be made into marmalade for the pantry.

As a special desert last night I made Mandarins in Ginger Syrup.

Here is the recipe

1 1/2 cups water

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup thinly sliced peeled ginger

4 green cardamon pods

3 whole star anise

6 mandarins

Bring water, sugar, ginger, cardamon,star anise to boil until sugar dissolves. Then simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat cover and allow to stand for 15 min. Strain syrup and discard solids. Chill until cold.

Peel, remove any pips and slice mandarins into rounds. put into a serving bowl and add syrup. Cover for an hour before serving.

Oh they were delicious and I will definately be making these again.

A little break

But I am back and aiming to blog once a week. Hmm, wonder if that will happen!

While away I aquired this collection below. My aunt is cleaning out my nans house and I have inherited these amongst other things.
They are salt cellars, Salts, and were used in the 1800's and earlier and up to about 1950 to hold salt. In those days salt wasn't fine enough for a salt shaker. IT came to the table in one of these dishes with a cute little spoon. Evidently my nan liked them, so started collecting them. Luckily they are only small so I could bring them home safely wrapped in my suitcase. Next visit I will bring the rest home with me.

This is my favourite - a cute green glass swan with little spoon.

I also brought this back. It is an early baby bottle and was used by my nan as a baby. Evidently it is dated early 1900's and as it says on the bottle is the " improved baby feeder" The top is intact and is a cork with a porcelain top with a hole in it - no soft sipper or spout back then.
I also came home with loads of old clothes - hats, gloves, lace baby outfits etc. They belonged to my great grandma. My nan grew up very poor and never threw anything away! Hence her old home is full of old treasures. She was a real collector/hoarder. And I for one am very glad that she was. I will share a few more pictures of my treasures next post.

Now holidays are over I am itching to get back to the sewing machine. I have a few more childrens cloth books almost finished. My little Made it store needs more stock. I am happy to report I have sold two of my cloth childrens books - hurray.

In the Garden

My poor garden has been sadly neglected over summer. The only veges to do well have been chillis and pumpkin vines (I say pumpkin vines because the pumpkins didn't grow well) - I did make a few meals of stuffed pumpkin flowers and will share the recipe in another post becuase they were yummy.

Despite the neglect the herbs are all thriving. My mushroom plants are growing fantastically. This herb is amazing. The leaves taste just like mushrooms and are great in stirfrys, casseroles, omelettes or sandwiches. It is high in chlorophyll, calcium and protien - a little wonder herb.
Read more about them here http://www.herbsarespecial.com.au/free-herb-information/mushroom-plant.html

I have also found a use for all the olive oil tins I have been keeping. I have removed the tops, punched drainage holes in the bottom and planted them with herbs. They are just outside the door and make a nice little display.

Picking watermelons. They are all small but very juicy and sweet. They wont last long. I will be saving seeds from these to plant next year.

I have also been keeping busy on the sewing machine sewing more cloth books for my made it store.

I can't believe a whle school term has just about finished! It simply flew by.

Replacing Plastics

I have been reading a lot about plastic containers and have started replacing the plastic containers around the house. Have a look at the links below if you feel like a bit of reading.

http://www.choice.com.au/Reviews-and-Tests/Food-and-Health/Food-and-drink/Safety/Plastic-food-containers/page/Introduction.aspx
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/plastic-coding-system.shtml
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=plastic-not-fantastic-with-bisphenol-a


My pantry was the first place I began. I have replaced a lot of storage containers with glass. And I must say the pantry has never looked neater and it is so much easier to see what is in the jars. Drink bottles have been replaced by these. I love how they have big openings so cleaning is very easy. http://www.naturallysustainable.com.au/
Our lunchboxes are still plastic but I just love these cuter than cuter Eco Lunch box sets. They come in a huge range of colours too.

http://www.ecolunchboxes.com/product.html

They are on my wish list!

It will take a while to eliminate all the plastic so just doing a bit at a time at the moment but it so good to know there are some great alternatives out there.