Slow Living Diary February 2013

I’m excited to once again be joining in with Christine from Slow Living Essentials for a monthly reflection of slow living. I really enjoyed last year looking back at what I had done and achieved. I also like the accountability and vainly hope it might inspire me to blog more often :-)

NOURISH: I’ve been bulk cooking snacks for school (jam oat cookies, amaranth pikelets, museli bars) with great success. I also make a batch of egg custard at the start of the week so Little B can take some as well in his lunchbox. I’m currently still trialling some kind of savoury scroll/scone – I’m nearly there with the recipe.

And I have to say the days when what's on our plate is either grown by us (vegies), made by us (bread) or from somewhere local (tiny local butcher using local meat) just gives me a total buzz.

PREPARE: I’ve been using the last of our zucchinis to make Hot Zucchini Relish (recipe courtesy of Rohan Anderon’s Whole Larder Love) as well as blanching and freezing any green beans that don’t make their way straight into dinner. I’ve also been making, using and freezing copious amounts of chicken stock. With Little B at school and prone to picking up every bug that goes around, I’m trying to keep his immune system fighting fit and healthy by adding stock to all our soups and casseroles.

REDUCE: I’ve been doing lots of decluttering a la Flylady's focus of the month (swapping clothes Little B has grown out off with friends, getting rid of any old toys or things we don’t need). I managed to swap Little B's old car seat for a fantastic maslin pan for jam making (I was so very proud of this LOL).

 
GREEN: I’ve had great success with this conditioning treatment from Maria at Econest:

'Blend 1/2 ripe avocado, 1tsp avocado oil and 1 egg yolk until smooth, then spread throughout hair and leave for a few minutes before rinsing. Excellent for fine or dry hair'

As I grow my henna out and embrace the greys, I’m finding my hair that bit more dry. As challenging as it is socially more than physically, I’m intent on going back to my natural grey even though I’m only 35!!

GROW: So far this summer, I’ve kept us in potatoes, zucchini, squash and beans. I pick beans every day so far (one of the few vegies Little B isn’t allergic too). We also harvested and ate the last of the blackberries and have just eaten our first few apples off our apple tree. But the vegie garden itself looks sad and needs some tender loving care after this hot hot summer.

CREATE:  Not much going on creatively. I keep plodding along with my hot water bottle covers. I've only got one square left of this one, then I can sew it all together. I’m hoping they’ll all be finished for winter.

DISCOVER:   I’ve really enjoyed The Little Vegie Co’s Guide to Backyard Farming – I love to read about gardening and I’m happy if I only learn one new tip. In this book, I learnt three :-) I succumbed and read Sweet Poison: Why Sugar is making us fat by David Gillespie. I’ve avoided this book for ages and I thought I didn’t want yet another thing or bandwagon to “worry” about, but it was a great eye-opening read. The irony is Mr B read it cover to cover and has totally taken it on board (suffice to say he’s not a health foodie kind of guy).

And for fun I’ve been re-reading my way back through the Phryne Fisher mysteries by Kerry Greenwood. Gotta love Phyrne xx

ENHANCE: I’ve been using my excess zucchinis and squash for good and not evil LOL. Granny B’s work set up an impromptu foodswap and I’ve bartered our excess for cucumbers, eggs, tomatoes and strawberries. It was such a great thing to be part of and I hope it happens next year as well. We’ve been trying to walk to school as much as possible as well.

ENJOY: Little B started school this month for the first time. Quite a momentous occasion for us!! And it’s been going well so far – though he has been super tired!! But February is also the month of birthdays for our family so there’s been BBQ’s, home-made ice-cream cakes, canoeing, picnics, and our 11^th anniversary!! Full of love and laughter.

Do possums eat pumpkins??

Picture from here 

 
I've never had much luck with growing pumpkins. Probably because the last 2 houses we've lived at just havent had enough sun. So I was absolutely gleeful when my pumpkins started fruiting this year. I've watched them carefully as they've grown on the vine, made Mr B mow far away from them as they took over the lawn and imagined all the lovely things I could cook when they were ready.

So you can imagine my surprise earlier this week, when I went down to the vegie garden to water one hot morning and discovered the whole lot had vanished. Into thin air :-o The vines were still there but alas not a pumpkin to be seen. And no evidence of what made away with them - no skins, no seeds - zip, nada, nothing!!

So my question is - do possums eat pumpkins?? If they dont, I have to say I'm out of ideas...hungry aliens maybe LOL??

Simple Summer Holidays

As the summer school holidays are drawing to a close it’s been fun to look back and see what we’ve done with ourselves.  Mr B took all of January off work because Little B starts school this year. We then detached ourselves electronically, turned off our mobile phones and placed them in a drawer and let the summer take us where it would. It’s been great family time and we’ve had a whole lot of fun :-)

:: We’ve explored our local surrounds and found new places we didn’t know existed (like waterfalls)

:: Been blackberry picking in our own backyard LOL (we get a bowl like this every 2^nd day) and found wild strawberries

:: We’ve spent a lot of time canoeing, bushwalking and exploring local lakes (yay for the warm weather)

:: Spent time at our local library weekly and enjoyed their school holiday activities like making carrot cars and croaking frogs

:: Read our way through the entire Flat Stanley series; then Babe the Sheep Pig, and re-read Stuart Little

:: Visited family and old friends, discovered new beaches and a new favourite – climbing trees.

The greatest thing I think has been how much time we’ve managed to spend outside and out in nature.  But with school just around the corner, we’ve spent the last couple of days readapting to the “real” world. Not long now and my faithful side kick will take his first big steps out into his new world.

New Years Goals

 Picture courtesy of here

The start of a new year is such a funny time – there’s the reflection that come as one year closes as well the opening expanse of possibilities of a brand new year. I’ve enjoyed 2012 – we’ve renovated and settled into our house, Little B has loved and thrived during his last year a kinder, I made new friends and we’ve had the peace that comes from digging in and making a home.

As I look at last year’s goals, we didn’t do too badly. We started a vegie garden at this house but had no chance to expand it. We kept our electricity usage to a minimum and our latest bill with solar has us in credit (yay!!).  I did find alternatives to more items from the supermarket and have settled on a little local independent supermarket as an alternative to the duopoly of Coles & Woolworths for those things we just cant change because of Little B’s allergies. And I did learn more crafty skills (I learned to crochet, to sew a wider variety of items) and hey I learnt to plaster on this house ;-)

And I was kinder to myself. I’ve let myself wander in mind and thought – read more for fun than information, caught up on old movies, and spent some really concentrated time with my family.

So as I enter 2013, I’m focussing on 4 simple goals:

* Improve my posture – after my fall in July, my body is still struggling to recover. Turns out I pulled my psoas muscle which controls your hip sockets and is kind of hard to work on. But my physio and I are aiming for full recovery by July this year (which sounds like a long way away but it’s sort of a little by little process)

* Move more – said hip injury has made me a couch potato, but a few thoughtful Christmas gifts means I can get back out into the garden and canoeing more.  I’m a moving kind of gal and I want to get back to that.

* Grow more – after our successes this spring/summer with our limited vegie beds, I’m inspired to branch out and grow more of our own. We are aiming to put in more vegie beds and to put in an avocado tree, and another pear tree as well.

* Be more creative –I've purposefully left this sort of open ended because I want to think outside the square for so many different areas of my life and I'm not quite sure where I'll end up. I guess creative to me in this instance, is to look at things in my life with a different set of eyes.

* Remember more - Time passes so quickly and perhaps I feel more nostalgic as I get older, but as we slow down on our sustainable journey and as my little one grows, I want to document our family memories more. I hope to write on this blog more, am aiming to join in Jodie's (from Che & Fidel's)  52 A Portrait A Week project, and to spend more time with my lovely son and husband. We've done so much community work this year, that I want to spend 2013 focussing that little bit more inward.

And as Jodie quotes Gretchen Rubin from The Happiness Project, I want to "slow down, stay patient, take photographs, and play Hide and Seek". This year I want to live and soak in the moments of my time with my loved ones.

 

Let's see what 2013 brings!!

Canoe Trip to Herring Island

On the weekend, as part of Little B’s advent calendar we took a canoe trip down the Yarra River to Herring Island.

There were so many things and people to see as we canoed along. I loved looking at all the old boat houses, and cactus walls. Little B loved all the baby ducklings and saying hello to everyone we “met”.

Sometimes, you need to just lie down for a little rest (hmmm mainly I would think only if you actually did the paddling rather than socialising LOL).

Originally created with silt dredged from the river, Herring Island passed through many hands (including the Scouts) until it became part of Parks Victoria in 1994, and is now an Environmental Sculpture Park. It’s also the home of a Summer Arts festival from January to April each year.

After a picnic lunch from our trusty esky, we did a walk around the island and checked out all the sculptures. Little B loved the “giant pinecone” and a falling fence to nowhere :-)

We’ve found a good travelling picnic lunch for canoeing is tombolas for Mr B and Little B and a sandwich for me, some fruit and a nutrient dense home-made slice or biscuit. Mr B’s current fave is bring along some home-made ginger beer (since he’s the muscles in our paddling).

On a side note, Mr B and I could not get over how dirty the Yarra River was. We canoed it a looong time ago (about 7 years ago) and it was dirty then but the level of pollution in it and the smell was disgusting. It dismayed us both over how much rubbish was floating in there. We always pick up rubbish from wherever we canoe following the Take 3 Clean Beach Principle (though in our case it is generally lakes and rivers). Little B does it naturally now though he is still saddened and doesnt understand why people leave it there in the first place.

Neither do I love, neither do I. All we can do is make the best difference we can. I wish more people did it though.

Advent Calendar 2012

Two years ago, with Granny B’s help I made a fabric advent calendar for Little B. Mainly to help him track the time until Christmas (and his birthday which is not long after) and not only was it fun to make but an absolute hit with Little B. It’s always been part home-made, part craft, part cooking and part experiences.

And it's these things the he remembers and talks about when thinking about Christmas. Inadvertently these have now become family traditions :-)

But this year I’ve taken a leaf (excuse the pun) out of Tricia’s book over at Little Eco Footprints and made a leaf advent calendar. For three reasons, 1) it takes up minimal space, 2) I like the notion of using things we have in the yard and 3) Little B was very attracted to the novelty of the whole thing. Our normal advent calendar has just stayed packed away and we will probably use it again next year.

But as with all traditions, my little boy has gotten bigger and some activities have lost their gloss.

So this our list for this year (taking into account one very science-y, outdoor, active type of boy – read less cooking):

1. His Christmas Book (we started this from his 1st year)

2. Decorate the tree

3. Paint with Feathers

4. Make a natural sistrum

5. Make a foaming monster

6. Draw on the trampoline

7. Create an ice world

8. A canoe trip up the Yarra River

9. See the Myer Christmas Windows

10. Put a gift under our local charity tree

11. Make your own bath paints

12. Make a snowglobe (for presents)

13. Blow up balloons science style

14. Paint with Mud

15. Climb a tree

16. Camp overnight in the backyard (in our trampoline tent)

17. Paint rock monsters and setting some free

18. Make a home-made lava lamp

19. Make a nature paint brush

20. Make some seed bombs

21. Make a gingerbread house

22. Go for bike-ride along part of the Warburton Rail Trail

23. Make fireworks in a jar

24. Sprinkle reindeer food and put out milk for Santa