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Life on two acres of arid dirt, on the edge of the Australian outback.

Thursday, January 19, 2017

goings on



~Outside

The winter wood pile is growing.  All those trees down from storms have been a blessing.


A new tap on our rainwater tank near the shed. This will be used to water some of our trees. 


 Apples are growing.


Almost ready for picking.




Strawberry plants.


Tomatoes.


Pollinating zucchini flowers.


Capsicum. Waiting for these to turn red.


Freshly planted oregano.


And thyme.


Greek cucumber.


New life that the rain brings...self seeded tomatoes.


Leveling.




Gathering.


Brightness of summer.




Loving having them close.  My parents new home on ten acres.


~Inside.








I was talking to my dad about soap making and he showed me this. An old tin of caustic soda, never opened. 


On the back are instructions for soap making from days gone by. It never ceases to amaze me what he has in his possession.



Some reading from the local farmers markets.  All these for a two dollar donation. 


Bigger bubbles now.



First sourdough loaf and rolls using this recipe. Thank you Joolz.






Pasta bake with sourdough bread topping.


Thinking of ways to use up zucchinis. This is carrot and zucchini slice.






This was our week. 

Just ordinary days doing ordinary things.

The days have been quite hot and the humidity a little hard to bear.  I am not used to sweating so much, and it drains my energy. But life goes on and jobs still need doing so I plug along as best I can, all the while reminding myself that in life there are worse things to bear than a bit of humid weather. Tomorrow will be cool and the promise of more rain. All will be good again. 

How was your week? Is it humid at your place? Aren't we having strange weather this year?

32 comments:

  1. I love your photos. You have a real talent taking photos. You really enjoy your life. It comes through so much.

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    1. Thank you for your sweet words Yvonne xx

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  2. Love your line of wicking pots.. I'm sure after the initial work of setting them up that they are easy to maintain.
    What a huge assortment of produce you grow. ...I'm mightily jealous of your plums :) unfortunately Sydney has the dreaded fruit fly. We used to have beautiful fruit trees when we lived in Adelaide over thirty years ago.
    Thanks for your continuing blog posts. Love it...and yes as the previous commenter wrote your love of life shines through.
    Blessings

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    1. Dear Alexa,

      I am not sure if it is the weather or the wicking barrels that are helping the veggies grow so well. Possibly a combination of both.

      My daughter lives in Sydney and she is having trouble growing things there. So glad we haven't got those pesky fruit flies.

      The weather has played havoc with my fruit so far this year. I only ended up with about half of the apricots as the rain and humidity ruined them.

      xTania

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  3. It's nice to see some growing things when w're in winter over here. I shouldn't complain; the brown, wet leaves on the ground sure beat the snow that we could be having!

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    1. Do you normally get snow Gorges? Or are the seasons upside down over your way too?

      As you say, things could be worse. That is what I tell myself regularly in trying times.

      xTania

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  4. very humid here, we had thick haze of smoke & teensy weeny shower late this arvo, nothing came of it though & high temps & high humidity again for tomorrow, wish the rains would come ...
    your photos are amazing, so are your parents house, it's what i hope to do later in life too
    your gardens are awesome too
    thanx for sharing

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    1. Dear Selina,

      Hope you get some rain soon. We had quite a bit of rain overnight as well as a spectacular lightening show.

      My dad is 80 and my mum 77 and this is their new adventure. They are the happiest I have seen them in a while. A new lease on life for them! And a great learning curve for me. I hope I am as healthy and fit as they are at that age.

      xTania

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  5. The words hot and stagnant sum up my week!

    I'm normally a lover of Summer, but this year is truely one of the hottest and most humid in my living memory. I'm not enjoying it at all, it's even too hot to go to the beach if you know what I mean, so less swimming too :(

    And the stagnant part...stagnant as in it's too hot to do anything, and stagnant because I have nothing in my garden, and I'm impatient for the hot weather to stop so I can plant...I feel like I'm just waiting!

    Le sigh...I'll stop complaining now and turn my focus towards my blessings, and what I can do :)

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    1. Dear Cheryl,

      I hear what you are saying re the humidity! We only have an evaporative (swampy)air conditioner and it does nothing in this type of weather but make it worse. Sweat, sweat, sweat is all we can do. Our swimming pool is empty so no relief there!

      Always a good idea to remember your blessings.

      xTania

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  6. Lovely photos! I bet everything feels better with great sunshine like that!

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    1. Hi Kev,

      Yes the sunshine has been lovely and always brightens my day :)

      xTania

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  7. Tania there have been record breaking high temps in our area. Maryborough had 38 yesterday, I know your temps are higher but the humidity was up around 70% as well. 40kms away, and right on the beach, we had 36. Our 91 year old neighbour, who is as sharp as a tack, cant remember a summer that was a vicious as this one has been.
    Cheryl we're 150m from the beach and it's been way too hot to get down there. The fish haven't been much into biting either. Another neighbour usually goes and throws a line in most days. He usually catches something but not lately. The weather is weird.
    I am trying to get little jobs done inside. We don't have installed air con but we do have 2 mobile ones, These usually do a great job of keeping the living area cool. Today they are struggling. However I still have a bit of relief so need to stop whining. My poor garden is just sitting and baking and waiting for me to do something. Mid Feb I'll get my seeds planted so I can plant out mid to the end of March. Hopefully the Qld fruit fly, currently trying to lay eggs in my lemons, will have gone to sleep for the winter.

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    1. Dear Jane,

      I have been listening to the radio and hearing all about the heat you are having up there. Hope you get some relief soon.

      Yesterday it was 42C here and the humidity was very unpleasant! I'm not sure how high it was but I can tell you by the pool of sweat I was in it was high. Our evaporative air conditioner does not do anything! Today it is cooler and the humidity is still 70%. Last night we had another storm with lots of rain but it going to be 40C again on Monday!

      We were called the storm state this morning on the radio. So many storms happening and people losing electricity everywhere! Not the usual type of weather for here. This weather is coming down from Broome direction and we are getting lots of storms (and rain) because of it. Everything is so green. This is not how it is here in Summer.

      Thank goodness we don't have fruit fly in South Australia. I can be quite devastating!

      xTania

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  8. Ordinary happening and goings on but so interesting and fun to see what you're up to. I wish I had more time for the garden and a veggie garden, at that. But working outside of home for 30+ hours a week just makes it too hard to bring it to fruition at the moment. Since I last took pics of my garden, the weeds have again taken over so I need to get out and hoe, hoe, hoe them down again.
    These storms are a worry and seem to be much more frequent than before. Our girls lost power yesterday early evening and it only came on at 10 this morning. Kirby and staff was locked out of her office as it has electronic entry. She was fuming as she had a busy day ahead. I do feel sorry for Power Networks SA who have to fix these outages (that are totally from storm damage) and bear the brunt of dissatisfation with the angry public.
    We've escaped a lot of the hot weather so far (quite weird for Adelaide to have 35C and we have 25C on the same day) so I'm quite happy. I think there's more storms brewing for Sunday or Monday...

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  9. Yes Joolz, something needs to be done about the power, it is happening too frequently. The west coast is out again possibly for 48 hours in some areas. It just keeps on occurring time and again. We had a few flickers but no loss this time.

    I cant complain too much about the heat this year, as it has been so mild. What I do object to is the humidity! Where we are it is supposed to be hot and dry, but instead this year it is green and wet and humid! We don't need to go on a holiday up north because the north is down here. Cant have it all I suppose lol! Take the good with the bad, at least we are still breathing.

    Have a lovely weekend Joolz,

    xTania

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  10. Lovely photos, so much going on! Love the caustic soda tin!

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    1. Thank you Farmer Liz. That tin is something special. Dad has more than one of these :)

      xTania

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  11. It's been very humid here, Tania with day and night temps high. As I type though, it's raining, washing the world anew:) Your photos are lovely and seem to tell the story of your ordinary days that look full and productive. I think it's lovely to see beauty in ordinary things, like flowers and sourdough bubbles and little treasured tins from long ago. How lovely to have your parents close by now. How I wish my Mum wasn't 2000kms away! Meg:)

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    1. (((Big Hugs))) to you Meg.

      I love having my parents close by now, they have lived quite a way from us for so long, but now I get to see them whenever I want. Usually every weekend. They are elderly but very healthy and fit and they are loving there new piece of paradise :)

      It is the ordinary things that make me smile. I do not need a complicated life, give me simple everyday things and I am in happy :)

      Hope you have a lovely Sunday,

      xTania

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  12. Your doing great! Our weather has been hot and humid too
    Not much going on in the vegetable garden. I've been busy reorganising the inside of the house and redoing the gardens out th front which leaves little energy for other things. That's fine. I'll grow lots during the winter to make up for it
    Meanwhile the local market gardeners have been very generous and been supplying us with local grown produce.
    So haven't missed not having my own as much
    We will start on the wood pile as soon as the weather starts to cool

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    1. Dear Angela,

      Sorry to hear you are experiencing similar weather to us. It is great news that you were still able to get veggies from the market gardeners. My veggies seem to be doing really well considering the humidity. I did lose most of my apricots though.

      Because the storms blew down trees we wont have to worry about getting wood later. We will only have to chop it up into smaller pieces.

      Wishing you a lovely rest of the weekend,

      xTania

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  13. Good Morning, Tania ...

    What a lovely week you've enjoyed. I, too, always relish in delight with all new life that a soaking rain brings. Since moving from the Gulf Coast, where the average humidity levels are between 70% - 99%, we often miss the moist air up here on the prairie, especially during the winter months when the air is excessively dry. Our daughter and I always miss the skin conditioning aspects of a moist climate ... I never expected to use so much moisturizer in my life.
    Have a bless week,
    Mrs.B

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    1. That must be a nightmare Mrs. B.

      I do not like dry itchy skin. I imagine you would have to put moisturizer on more than once a day.

      We have had more rain a couple of days ago and the country is very green, definitely unusual for this time of year. We are in the middle of summer and usually there is heat, dust and flies. This year there is just the flies with a touch of heat. The days have been cooler, which my garden just loves, and we have had regular rain to keep things nice and green.

      Blessings to you for this week,

      xTania

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  14. Enjoyed seeing your blog. Seems that you have lot of place around your house for many plants around your house. It was nice to see apples and tomatoes. Your bread has come out good. Looks yummy:)

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  15. Lovely photos again Tania. We share similar taste in your glass dishes, old cutting board, and old bottles. Great to see you doing so well with your veg gardens in your harsh climate. I made the flat bread, and it turned out perfectly. So simple to make and delicious. The best!! Thanks for sharing the link to the recipe. X

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    1. So glad to hear you tried the flat bread and liked it Sally. It is such a simple recipe, just how I like it :)

      xTania

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  16. The recipe for soap on the back of the caustic soda tin would produce pretty hit-and-miss soap me thinks! imagine getting to trace after stirring for 2 minutes :-) Totally fascinating though

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    1. Must have been a more superior product Mr HM :)

      I dont think my dad will let me use it to find out haha!

      xTania

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  17. Your pics say it all, few words needed.

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    1. Thank you Deb. I love how photos tell their own story :)

      xTania

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  18. Ordinary days and ordinary things are the best. Love all your photos.

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Your comments really make my day. Thank you for taking the time and for being so kind.