Sourdough love
Buttering my toast when my eye was caught by the heart. I must be making good bread 🙂
Weeds
Weeds are plants too. I choose to see the beauty in some of the more innocuous ones here. If they aren’t out to hurt me I will try to coexist.
These are so happy looking.
Summer Prepping
This is the first year that I will be Summer prepping. I usually squirrel food away for the Winter but Summer is usually a time of abundance so I just eat whatever is fresh. This year however I have frozen cordial for the hot Summers days when water just won’t cut it. I used lemons and limes from my trees and mandarin from a friends tree and honey from my bees. It is delicious now and I am sure that it will be more delicious on a hot day. I froze it in a mini muffin tin then popped them in a container in the freezer.
I also used my sourdough culture to make pizza bases/wraps. It is how I currently make wraps and they work fine as a thin pizza base. I just cook them in a pan on the stove top. I did a trial a few weeks ago using one as a pizza base then cooking the toppings using just the griller. Perfectly fine. This house gets so hot in Summer that I try to not use the oven. These can be ready to eat out of the grill in minutes as opposed to 30 to 40 to cook the base and pizza in oven. Yes I have a slow oven! I will see how they go. If it works well next year I will make even more.
Beeautiful
Checked on the bees yesterday. They are amazing. This is a frame of nearly all baby bees, they will hatch out of their cells when 21 days have passed since the queen laid the egg. A bit of capped honey at the top and some baby boys (drones) at the bottom. Beautiful.
My first trial of not using a full foundation sheet, the bees have to make their own comb entirely. They are doing a super job.
Good Morning
Cold
I am cold in my bones. I know that it doesn’t get that cold here in Victoria Australia compared to other places around the world. The coldest it got this Winter was -4.5C at my place. It is all relative, that is what I have known most of my life as cold, my body knows this as cold. My house has no insulation in the walls, holes in the floor, and flimsy windows. Spring is here during the day. It is sunny and almost t-shirt weather. But in the mornings and at night it is still so cold. I am sooo sick of being cold. My hands hurt, my feet hurt, I don’t like it… Evidently it makes me very whingy! I am super grateful that we have a new heater and I can warm up in the evenings so that I don’t have to wear all my clothes at once. I am ready, so ready, for the warmth. I will be less whiney. I am sure!
Green green grass
I am one of those people that actually enjoy mowing lawns. It is like meditation. My favourite part is that it is so visually rewarding. This isn’t really lawn it is just weeds. I am mowing for a few reasons: 1) snake season is upon us, I don’t want to accidentally stand on one in long weeds nor do I want to make a nice habitat for them. 2) I want to improve the soil without tilling or really doing much to it at all. The clippings should break down and add goodness to the soil. 3) I want to grow a woodland in this area (lofty goal I know!) and I have started planting the trees. I am much more likely to tend to the trees when it isn’t a treacherous path down there. In 20 years when these trees have grown big enough to create a canopy I will start planting the understory. I can see it now! Til then, the beauty of freshly mown lawns.
Glimpses of what is to come
Spring, for me, is about watching and waiting. Lots and lots of watching and waiting. Plants put out fresh growth and tantalise with signs of flowering. So many of the plants that I planted in Autumn (and have forgotten what they are…) are about to flower. Probably. Maybe…
Full
It bucketed down, a quick down pour. But it was enough for a full water tank and a full rainbow.
Billy & Franklin 