happy solstice

It is the shortest day of the year down here in the south tomorrow. 

We'll be celebrating with mulled wine non-alcoholic grape juice, hearty soup with fresh sourdough and a rich, decadent apple cake for dessert. If the rain ever stops we may have a bonfire but I feel we shall be burning our Yule log in the wood burner indoors instead. There will be candles galore and a ritual where we write out what we'd like to let go of or release on scraps of paper and then feed them to the fire. It's very therapeutic, letting it all go and starting afresh as the year begins again. 

While winter comes under the 'hardship' category for me ;o) I do love the Solstice because it is literally the beginning of a new year. The days may not be getting noticeably longer but I know that they are lengthening day by day - until we return again to the halcyon days of warmth and light and sunshine. 

I wish all of my southern friends a wonderful warm Yule Fest - may your days grow ever brighter! 

And to my northern friends I wish you all the very best that Midsummer can bring! 

Blessed Be. 

today is friday

So I've been pondering on my peanut dilemmas these past few days and while I don't have a particular solution, I do have a few new thoughts to share. 

Firstly, thank you for all your useful comments on my last post. It's always helpful to have use of a 'brains trust' and I'm also a firm believer in the axiom of 'Ask...and you shall be given lots of information that may help with your dilemma'!! 

My thinking is that yes, I do the best I can - although I know I can do better. Not necessarily just with plastic bags but also with plastic containers. An example would be when I buy olives or sundried tomatoes from the deli, I could take my own glass container instead of regularly bringing home the little plastic ones. And if I need a top up of flour or dried fruit, I can head to the wholefoods store and buy a kilo in a paper bag rather than from Woolies in the regular plastic bag. The wholefood shop doesn't have easy parking but you know what? I have enough time in my day to have a long phone call with a friend or a leisurely cuppa in a cafe, so I certainly have time to walk a little further!

I really wouldn't buy peanuts more than once a year, so there is only one large plastic bag which does get re-used. I do buy almonds, cashews, oats, sultanas and quite a few other things, every 3 months, however since I share the kilo quantity with friends, I don't always get/keep the bag! And yes, the ones I do keep get re-used in all sorts of ways before they head off to the soft plastics bin! So overall the amount of plastic is still smaller than if I bought small bags of nuts or whatever from the supermarket.

I re-use and recycle and repurpose. I rarely buy new clothes. I shop at farm shops and markets as often as I can. I use fabric produce bags and take my own shopping bags to carry things home with. I do many other small things that I cant even think of right now. I do them all so that my grandchildren's children can still breathe fresh air and explore unpolluted seas. 

I know that the small alterations you and I do can produce big results for the future.  

I just wish that everybody would stop buying plastic Stuff!!!! 

*I was looking for a photo for this post - a flower or something pretty - and I found a pic of one of my art journal pages. Appropriate I think ;o) 

thoughts on peanut butter

 

I made peanut butter today. So what's so special about that, I hear you say. Well, nothing really except that it's given me something to ponder and I want to share my thoughts with you.

I used to make peanut butter fairly regularly when our brood were younger. I haven't made any for about 10 years or so for various reasons.

Stuy loves peanut butter. I like it too, however I've also read a little about mould contaminants or aflatoxins in past years which made me a little dubious whether peanuts were all that safe to eat, not to mention the omega 6 to omega 3 ratio. So all in all, I prefer to use almond or cashew butter......but I do also like to keep The Best Man happy ;o)

Anyway, my thoughts today were more along the lines of plastic waste. Here's the thing - I bought 3kg of peanut butter nuts from our wholesaler. (I have hosted a small buyers group for about 19 years now and we buy most of our dry goods from them). We buy nuts, seeds, flours, dried fruit and more but they all come in plastic bags. Yes there's one plastic bag for every 3-4kg lot I purchase. I do reuse them if I need to divide the 3kg up and the ladies in the group send me back most of their empty bags to also reuse.

But it got me wondering today if I'm making any difference to the amount of waste I produce. I bought 3kg of nuts and used my Champion Juicer to make an equivalent amount of peanut butter. I used recycled jars that I scrounged from my daughter. All well and good but I have still used and must still eventually dispose of, The Plastic Bag!

So my thoughts are - by buying in bulk I save myself money, which is important to me; buying in bulk means I do bring home plastic bags, which is something I strive to not do - thats important to me too. Whereas if I buy a jar of peanut butter every week or so I'm bringing home a recyclable glass jar but spending more dollars...and I have to remember to actually buy it!! I like having bulk food in the house (didn't need to stockpile for Covid since I was stocked!) but I don't like the plastic that comes with it, even though I eventually send it off to the soft plastic recycling bin in Woolies.

It's a conundrum. And a First World problem, I know.

What do you think? What would you do? I'd love some different perspectives :o)

sustainable living may

Well. Another month and another sustainable living post. I think I'm going to start writing these posts right throughout the month because when it comes to the crunch, I'm a bit lost as to what I've been doing all month!! I don't take a pic of everything I do after all!

Never mind, I have remembered a few occasions, some food and some things to be grateful for....so I could just have enough for some interesting reading ;o)

nourish: we've been in this lovely house almost a month now and have settled into something of a rhythm. This means that I have been able to spend time getting our meals into how we would like them to be - healthy and (mostly) plant based. I have to tell you that it's quite a novelty just preparing for two and very easy indeed! When I say 'mostly' plant based thats because Stuy vacillates between vegan, sometimes vegetarian and occasionally carnivorous...sigh. I'm fine with that though because he has always been the BEST person to cook for and will eat absolutely everything I put in front of him!  So he happily eats plant based with me though sometimes adds cheese haha!! 

Anyway this month I've started up my old juicer and we've been having a mid morning green juice in the sporadic sunshine. Those are my daily ingredients in the photo and sometimes (if it's a tad too 'green') we add a dash of coconut water for a bit of sweetness. I'm also still baking bread most days but have been gifting it to my children - Stuy and I do love it when it's so nice and fresh, but I try to mostly stay away from gluten. 

lessen: I'm not even sure what to write about here but I suppose I have been lessening some of my 'stuff'. And I have a lot of it to lessen! I'm hoping by the end of next month I'll have made a start!! 

grow: there's no growing anything out here on the property. The wallaby and possum population are out of control and will eat anything thats green! I don't mind too much since its winter so nothing much grows here anyway, however I do miss having some fresh greens for salads. My solution? Starting my sprouter up again! I've bought alfalfa and fenugreek seeds, as well as some celery seeds which I've never sprouted before. And I'm waiting for the health food shop to order some broccoli sprout seeds because they are full of anti-oxidants and super healthy! 

thankful: this is where I try to tell myself that autumn and winter are glorious seasons ;o) Well, ok autumn isn't too bad because there is a certain beauty in all the golden toned leaves that carpet the lawns and parks. And it does help when one is dressed to match haha!!! But winter is next and I have yet to find anything great about winter that overrides the relentless cold and dreariness. 

So here's to being thankful for bright crunchy leaves, wood smoke, walks in the park in nearby towns and hot comforting soups by the fire. 

create: according to the photo's on my computer, I've achieved at least three creative things in May! Firstly there was the stitching job on my jeans. I bought these with some very trendy holes in the knees....my teen daughter was suitably impressed and declared me to be 'on fleek' ;o) Indeed over summer I felt quite with it.....however, when the cooler weather descended upon us, my knees and I decided that we'd had enough of being trendy (and cold) and I spent a little time filling those ragged holes in with needle and thread. I think it's called visible mending and I'm quite happy with the result. So are my knees.

I also unboxed the old woollen blanket that I'd earmarked for hottie covers and did whip up a quick one for myself. Oh it makes such a difference getting into bed when theres a warm spot at the end of it! I know thats there's such things as electric blankets but we've never been fans of them (I'm just not sure I want to sleep on an electricity field!) so I make do with a hottie. 

And then theres the two dish cloths I crocheted. The exceedingly bright orange cotton yarn came from the op-shop and matches the orange in the kitchen cupboards quite well I think. It is also giving off a continuous amount of bright orange dye that doesn't seem to be abating after a week of washing up! Perhaps that's why those two balls of yarn were at the op-shop!!

fun: and last but certainly not least, we have the fun times! There was a delightful day out with my love to a neighbouring town; there have been numerous dinners with with children and grandchildren; there was a memorable and much needed evening with a few girlfriends that didn't end until 4am (who knew we could still manage to party till the wee hours)!!! Stuy had a birthday and we had a lovely lunch picnic on the top of our hill. Really, when I think about it, there was a lot of fun and goings on in May! Which is a Good Thing after the last few months, don't you think?

And there goes May. I hope you've enjoyed having a teeny peek at my month. Have a read of Sustainable Mums month as well - she has lots of interesting thoughts and things going on.

Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment - I am so enjoying the interactions with you all!

may's photo hunt

And just like that...its June!! I cant believe how fast this year has gone - although I've been saying that for a number of years now! Are they going by faster? Has time sped up? Is it just that I'm busier? Or that I'm older? I can remember the years dragging on when I was in high school. Although maybe the summer holidays went faster, I think. Hmm. Certainly I shall have to savour each and every moment from now on!!

So now that we've established that it's June, I shall share with you some photos from the month of May. This time I actually went looking for some suitable subjects since the prompts are all shapes!

1. Triangle - There are a lot of old and older fences here on the property and while I drive past this one quite regularly, I'd never really 'seen' it. Only when I was actively looking for a triangle did I notice how triangular it was! 

2. Circle - This one made me reminisce on my childrens younger days - when we homeschooled with a decided Steiner/Waldorf slant using lots of colour and creativity. These bright and cheery mandalas were churned out regularly just for fun! I found these two in a box of random paper bits and will stick them into my art journal for posterity. 

3. Splat - Another arty one! From the time my oldest granddaughter was around 3 years old, I have painted with her. She has numerous art journals that were filled on the days she came to stay and she continues to make art of all kinds now that she's older. We still make art when both girls come to visit but whereas we used to use lots of acrylic paints, we now use watercolours. It's interesting how different children are just within the one family - the second granddaughter is not half as careful and particular with paints and we've had a few mishaps with acrylics, hence the watercolours!!! 

4. Square - I crocheted up these two dishcloths using a ball of thrifted cotton yarn. It's a really bright and garish colour but I figured it wouldn't matter after a few washings up! Neither of them are actually quite square but I thought it was close enough to it!

5. Star - The bloke that owned this property before our son bought it was a demolisher and he left behind a treasure trove of goodies! All manner of timbers and loads of old iron gadgets, machinery and paraphernalia. There's a pile of the smaller bits in the shed and the light was shining directly at this star shape when I was browsing around recently. I think it's the foot pedal from an old buggy or carriage although that's just a wild guess. I just love the patina of age on old metal objects, don't you?

6. My own choice - I'm in love with this photo and might even use it for my blog header one day! It's the only tree on the very top of the hill on this property and even though it's dead, there's a simple beauty about it. Lots of birds use it as a vantage point and it will be a sad day when it eventually succumbs to the elements and falls. The Best Man and I had a little picnic lunch up on the hill a few weeks ago and I snapped a quick pic. Perfect!

And here is a link to this months photo hunt although I cant seem to leave my link over there...oh well, do have a peek and see what other bloggers found for these prompts.

a bit of this and that

It's been a funny kind of week. After my last post, I just couldn't seem to find my groove and wandered a bit - literally and mentally. I'm putting it down to the lack of sleep and the wild dream, although I have slept a bit better since. It's a kind of unsettled feeling, as if I'm in limbo and not sure of where to head. Is my love affair with solitude coming to an end? Part of me screams 'Not Yet Please' while another part whispers 'Yes it's time to look outside again'.

But 'outside' is not the same anymore and I unsure how to navigate this new world. So I'll just stay home a little longer and try for a return to the contentment I felt during the last few months. I wonder if we are all a little at a loss about how to move into this new way of life? Surely I'm not alone in my bewilderment?

I started last week with a little watercolour sketch of some backyard roses my oldest granddaughter brought me. There aren't many flowers to be had at this time of year here, so these were much appreciated. I'm a bit of a dabbler in many types of arty pursuits but there's something simple and childlike in watercolours and I always feel soothed after an hour of splashing pretty colours on paper! 

It's getting very frosty in the morning's and way too chilly at night...which means it's hottie time!! I made this one out of an old blanket for my daughter last year and borrowed it to trace the pattern. So far that's all I've done and my own water bottle is still wrapped in an old jumper. I have hopes of actually being motivated to make one for me in the next few days. Or so. 

Then later in the week I gathered some op-shopped fabrics (and an old sweatshirt of mine) to cobble together some pyjama's for the two granddaughters. Ugh, I couldn't find right sized patterns so had to make do and add length and minus width - which I really dislike doing. Simple, straightforward and quick is my motto! I managed with minimal gnashing of teeth and they happily went home with a pyjama bottom each - the tops will get done another day. I hope ;o)

 I also started to shorten a shirt that Stuy had brought back from India a few years ago. He's hardly worn it and since I'm not a fan of the long length, I suggested I cut it off to make a tucked in shirt. I got as far as unpicking the pockets and then folded it neatly back onto the to-do pile. Like I said, not much motivation this week.

 This thrifted skirt did actually get a complete makeover!! Yay! I like my skirts above the knee and wear them with tights, so I'm always excited when I see one at the op-shop that fits and just needs a trim! This one is nice and swirly and I'm sorry now that I haven't got a photo of me wearing it. Oh well, you'll have to use your Minds Eye!

And I feel I need to mention that yes, I do all my cutting out on the floor. No tables here that are big enough to use for cutting since the only one we have has the sewing machine and my art stuff on it. Anyway, I tell myself that all the crawling around on the floor (but not the swearing) is good for my swerves! Although the swearing helps!!

Which brings me to today. After a gnarly start, my day just seemed to get worse until I finally just gave up and sat down to paint. And then I got inspired....and made a delicious dinner....and then more inspiration for this blog post! Amazing what a bit of art can do!!

Thankyou so much to all who commented on my sleepless night. As Regula said 'It's comforting to know that there are women all over the world not being able to sleep on occasion'. I agree. Women just like you and me. I hope you all have a wonderful sleep tonight - or a beautiful day!!

Thanks for stopping by xx

last night

Last night I could not get to sleep. 

I. Could. Not. Sleep. Again. 

I counted way too many sheep 

And slowly back from ten.

My brain was overfilled with thoughts,

My heart was full of dread.

The what if’s and the maybe’s

Went round and round my head.

So I tossed and turned till three,

And thought. And thought some more.

I tossed about most carefully - 

So he could calmly snore.

And when I finally fell asleep

That blessed peaceful state,

Into my mind there crept a dream. 

I’m sure you can relate. 

This dream was big and bold and bad

With pictures so insane,

That when I woke, I felt as though 

I’d been run over by a train!

True this. But the funny thing is that I woke up with almost the entire poem rattling around in my head. How weird is that? Of course I quickly scribbled it down and gave it a bit of polish and an ending ;) And yes, thats the view from our bed, taken this bleary morning!