Saturday Chore Day

 Saturdays are usually quite busy for me. I not only go to a class at the gym at 8.15 but try and get all my chores done around the house and garden so that Sunday can be a more leisurely day. I go to Plus Fitness in Beerwah. The crew there are so friendly and helpful and have become like another family. 

 From the gym I went to the community gardens and weeded then gave them a really good water. I picked salad leaves and dug up a sweet potato that gave up its hiding spot by sprouting shoots.  I picked a few beans too and think I'll pull them out now as they really haven't done that well and don't have any more flowers coming on them.



As you can see from the photo above, which I took while stopped at the traffic lights on my way home just after 10 am, it was already 32 degrees. Yikes and I still had the lawns to mow and garden to weed at home.  As soon as I got home, I took a rolled pork shoulder out of the freezer and put it in the slow cooker with fresh sage, thyme and fennel to cook slowly all day. Then it was chopping up vegetables and putting them in the oven to roast, enough to last me a few days with the pork.

I picked three different types of lettuce leaves, spinach, rainbow silverbeet, beetroot leaves and some young tender bean leaves to use as salad greens. I also picked a couple of zucchini and a beetroot..




Once everything was either in the oven, slow cooker or soaking in cold water in the sink, I quickly ran the little vacuum cleaner over the kitchen floor and then gave it a mop, before heading outside to the lawns and garden.  I love my little vacuum cleaner as it is so handy for just spot cleaning. When I'm doing the whole house, I drag the big vacuum out of the hall cupboard.  The little fella just sits plugged in, in the main entrance way (not the best spot for it, but so handy for the kitchen) and it reminds the kids to use it, which is a real bonus.

I had to get my stepson to move our motorbike for me, as it was blocking the lawn mower in the shed and I didn't want to attempt to move the bike, too big and heavy for me.  Unfortunately, he didn't offer to do the lawns - oh well, dreams are free :) As you can see the lawn is rather dead, so I was really mowing off the seed heads and giving it a tidy up, as opposed to mowing grass.

I picked the last of the beefsteak type tomatoes and all the cherry type that were ripe or nearly ripe. There are lots more of them to come. Then I cut back the beefsteak in the tub, leaving the new shoots that are coming up from low on the main stem and shifted the tub back into the shade. I might get another crop off them, if I give them a good feed, some extra compost and mulch. Worth a try.

I picked the first of the banana passion fruit to ripen. I wasn't as big or as sweet as I remember them from my childhood. I think that is probably because the "soil" the plant is growing in is subsoil and we have had no rain to speak of for nearly 3 months. Still, I did enjoy it. 

I did a bit of work on my worm farm. I noticed piles of worms in the bucket that sits under the tap, so I tipped them and the bucket content back into the farm and turned the food scraps and worms over a bit. The mixture was very wet, so I added some of the shredded paper from work through it. Then I decided to lift the top level off and take the next level off as well and swap them around. I want all the worms to move out of what is now the top level - the first level I used when I started the farm, so I can use all the castings. That level is very wet too, so I won't be watering it for a while and I'll leave the lid off during the day, to encourage them to move down into level two. 

Then I went around to see my grand-daughters and have a bit of down time before starting the next round of meal prep for tomorrow. Little Tamara has improved so much over the past week, after being so sick. She is nearly back to her cheeky self. She is pulling herself up on everything. The neonatal pediatricians want her to crawl as long as possible, but it doesn't look like that will be happening. Annika was inside in the air conditioning and came out every now and again to see what we were up to and play "shops" with me. I had to be the shop keeper and sell her her toys for invisible money which she very seriously counted out into my hand. Gotta love kids imagination. 

Back home and took the pork out of the slow cooker and pulled it to bits with two forks, making 'pulled pork', of which I had some with 3 cups of the roast vegetables. I made a salad to take with me tomorrow from all my "leaves" from the community garden, and cut up cucumber and capsicum, 'strung' a handful of snow peas and put some of my cherry toms in containers. I'll add 90 gms of pork to the salad tomorrow morning when it's cooled down and also take 45 gm of smoked salmon for a snack - but more about that tomorrow. 

How can I not love this beautiful little face? 

1 comment family, Fitness, Gardening

Hot days

We have had two very hot days here on the Sunshine Coast - in the mid 30's. I am very grateful for the air conditioning in my office office on days like this.  I prop my door 3/4's closed to keep the office cool, while still allowing the clients to see me and know they can come in if they want.

I started the day off early, with our usual Friday morning beach session. The sun was a brilliant orange as I drove to down to the beach. The tide was out, exposing the rocks, and as I was early I walked out over them to get some photos of the waves breaking up over them.

I had a shower and breakfast at my Aunts, she was off at yoga, but as I have a key, I let myself in. I had my usual breakfast protein smoothie. I walked over to the cafe just across the road from her apartment and got myself a yummy berry and chocolate muffin for my morning tea.

We have started winding down at work as our program is not being refunded. I have spent the last two days shredding paperwork that will no longer be needed and have got 5 rubbish bags full - which my worm farm will love and will keep them going for many months. Some will go into my compost bin.

I also cleaned out some of the kitchen cupboards at work, and threw out old jars, lids with no containers and vice versa. Eventually everything will need to be packed up and either stored or donated. It will be quite a job to get it all cleaned, 8 bedrooms, two living areas, kitchens, bathrooms and 2 staff offices/sleepover rooms and ensuites.  I only have one week left there and then will be unemployed for a while, until early next year if things go to plan.

Tonight, I am babysitting my grand-daughters as my son is working and my daughter-in-law and her girlfriend (who is on holiday from Victoria) have gone to the Caloundra Music Festival. I will go home once the girls return = probably around midnight I'm guessing.

4 comments family, Fitness

The Blanket

Blanket Number 2 being sown up

I have  nearly finished sewing together all the squares I have knitted over the last two winters. This time I used 12 ply wool on big needles and made the squares lots bigger. My theory was I'd finish the blanket quicker - didn't work that way, probably because my knitting bag often sat neglected beside my chair while I read a book, or was on my computer instead of knitting.

 This is the second blanket I have made from "peggy" squares. I enjoy the relaxation of knitting garter stitch, I don't have to think about it and can do it while watching TV. It is only a winter hobby though, as it is too hot to have on my lap in summer. I still have to sew another 4 squares together and add them to the bottom of these ones that are already sown up. My granddaughter, Annika was here on Saturday and she said "Gran, when are you going to finish my blanket? You said you'd have it done for me ages ago". Oops.

First blanket I made

The photo to the left is the first blanket I knitted out of peggy squares. I made it for my granddaughter, however it has ended up being a "cuddling on the sofa" blanket at their house, which everyone uses.

Presently I am knitting dishcloths out of cotton and now hemp, as per Rhonda, from her  Down to Earth blog. It is a simple pattern, and if I can do it, anyone can. When I say, presently, what I mean is, there are two finished cloths in my knitting bag waiting for me to sew the ends in and another on the needles waiting for me to get back to it. I'll add it to the list of things I need to do when I finish work in 9 working days - not that I'm counting :).

3 comments Knitting, leisure

Sunday's 17.8 km walk

On Sunday we had our first Gold Coast Kokoda Challenge 2018 training walk.  My poor Christina, coming from a cold wet NZ winter/spring, where if they are lucky, the temperature may manage to reach 18 - on a good day, to the 30 plus degree heat we had on Sunday. She really felt the heat.

We began our walk at Mt Nimmel Lodge and headed up the road a little, before heading off into the National Park on what appeared to be a very well used, rough, torn up 4 WD track, but I get ahead of myself. Prior to climbing the gate thing to get onto that track, the "boys" (who have done the GC Kokoda Challenge before) warned us that there were a couple of dogs that liked to hide and then race out barking. We were chatting away so much, we forgot them and the rotten pair sneaked up behind us and scared the s..t out of us - we all jumped and Andy, our hero, waved his hiking poles and yelled at them, which stopped them in their tracks. Christian guarded our rear to ensure they didn't make another run at us. That certainly got the adrenaline going.

Back to that first hill. Just a warm up, the boys said, like
Mt Ngungun, just straight up instead of zigzagging - hmm! There were a few expletives from us girls as we surveyed the steep, very slippery track - so dry that the dead leaves lying all over the track were like trying to climb up on marbles. We got the hang of using our hiking poles real quick.  If we thought the going up was bad, going down the other side was murder, even steeper, with loose stones and rocks. Andy (in the bright green shorts and our official trainer) bounded ahead, demonstrating how to navigate it. I followed then stopped to take a photo, (which doesn't really show how steep it is) so ended up at the back. My heart was in my mouth a couple of times when my foot slid out from under me - giving my knee a painful jolt, but thankfully no lasting damage done. Near the bottom we passed a couple of girls going up - we three girls shook our heads, thinking "wow, do they know what they're getting into". Then it was an easy stroll (yeah right) up the road to where Check Point 3 would be. Christian by now is saying, "oh, I remember this, can we turn back now". Once again us girls are looking at each other going, "if he wants to turn back and go up what we just came down, what are we going to be climbing up?".

After the big hill, along the ridge

This hill is the 2nd biggest of the "Big 5". Andy warned us. He said "you'll think you're at the top and then you look ahead and realise you're not, it just keeps going", and off he went. Christian hung with us girls for a bit, giving us encouragement and saying "the idea is not to stop, just keep going, even slowly".  Imagine a muffled 'snort' here from us, "even slowly", what do you think we'll be doing, running!", Off he went. leaving us three girls to stare at each other in horror, wondering what we had let ourselves in for. Andy wasn't lying, it just kept going up and up and up, forever - I didn't time it, but I reckon it took us about 40 mins to get up it - it was over a km of climbing. We stopped numerous times for a minute of two each time to catch our breath and stretch, before breathing deeply or should I say gasping as deeply as our lungs and racing hearts would allow us, before tackling the next "we'll stop at that big tree up there", or "we'll stop at the next water run off area". Finally we made it, or thought we'd made it, but the hill/ridge was just tricking us. The rest of the climb to the very top, before we hit the road to wind our way down, down, down, to Polly's Cafe, was a slow climb up and down the ridge, with a few steeper climbs, which if we hadn't just expended all our energy on that horrid hill, would have been a walk in the park.

Finally, on the way down. 

The 5 km or so down the tar-seal road was very hot. We slow jogged the steepest bits of it - it's actually easier on the knees to jog it than walk it. We also walked backwards several times, taking turns so one of us could ensure the others weren't heading for the edge. We stopped part way down to take a team photo, with the Gold Coast high-rises in the very hazy background.  4 hrs, 25 mins later, we got to Polly's Cafe, cold drinks all round and a lovely stone wall to sit on until our rides arrived to pick us up. Andy had thought we'd complete it in around 5 hrs, so we did well, coming in under that.

Surface Paradise, Gold Coast in the distance through the heat haze

One of the locals on the road down, has a sense of humour - see the sign above to the left. There is a bullet hole in the piece of tin tacked below the sign, that reads "If you can read this you are within range".  Strangely enough, none of us were that keen to linger to see if the owner of said sign wasn't joking and was simply sick of "townies" trespassing onto his farm instead of staying on the road. 

Andy cheerful told us "the actual Challenge Course is 5 times what we've just done" - what have we signed up for???  Once home, well where Anna lives, we availed ourselves of their newly installed spa - bliss.

Christina and I in the spa, Anna being photographer before joining us. 

Our days walk summary.

2 comments Fitness, Gold Coast Kokoda Challenge

Gran Day with Annika

Ready for the oven

On Saturday my daughter, Christina headed up to Noosa North Shore to spend the day with her sister-in-law and her girlfriends, who were up there having a 'girls weekend', while my son, Ross stayed home with their girls.  Christina had a lovely beach day, lying in the sun, having a dip in the sea and generally relaxing. I took Annika (4 yrs old) home with me for the day, leaving Ross with little Tamara. Naughty Gran that I am, I put on Finding Nemo for Annika to watch while I made muffin quiches for Christina and my breakfast tomorrow morning. Once they were in the oven I watched it with her, well I sat beside her reading a book, while she watched it.

Then we headed off to the local swimming pools as the temperatures were in the 30's and after TV, it was time to be outside and active.  Annika has been having swimming lessons since she was a baby, and loves the water. She jumps right in to the deep end and makes me "race" her across the pool. Unfortunately we didn't have her goggles with us, so her eyes got really sore. She found a pair of "fins" beside the pool and insisted on putting them on - they were not made for little people, but would she listen to Gran, of course not. The pool is a tepid temperature, so rather enjoyable in the heat of the day.






After our swim it was off to a cafe for a "chocolate milkshake and hot chips please Gran".  I love the way this cafe does "special" milkshakes for kids, in little glass milk bottles with the sprinkles around the top, which of course, had to be licked off.  I think I ate more of the hot chips than she did - oops.

As a special treat, she got to watch Find Dory when we got home in the fond hope that she would drop off and have a sleep, but not such luck. However, Gran did snooze on the sofa, having seen this and Finding Nemo many times.

Once I had dropped her home, and Christina arrived home, it was an easy tea for us and then into preparing for our big walk on Sunday.  Breakfast smoothie with mango, blueberries, rolled oats, protein powder and almond milk to drink on our way down to the Gold Coast, chicken salad wraps for after the walk, muffin quiches to eat before the walk. 600ml of electrolytes each to put on our carry belts along with our snacks.

Nuts, craisins and chocolate, beef jerky and protein bites (in the freezer) all bagged,  pain killers and small first aid kit, just in case. 3l water packs in the fridge chilling. Plus bottles of water in the freezer to act as Ice packs in the Esky and for drinking after and another 2l of electrolytes in the fridge to take.

Then it as early to bed, ready for an early start Sunday.

1 comment family, leisure

Friday

As I sit at my computer tonight, typing this blog entry up, I can hear the wonderful sound of rain on the roof, and if I go into my bedroom I can hear the water running off the roof and into the tank. Lightning is streaking across the sky, both sheet and forked; I wish I could capture it on camera; followed some seconds later by thunder which rolls around for a a good 30 seconds or more. Hopefully, no bush or grass fires are being started by lightning strikes, the vegetation is so dry.

My day started off with quickly vacuum packing some tomatoes I free flow froze. Not only does vacuum packing before putting back in the freezer stop the development of lots of ice around the tomatoes, but it helps reduce the amount of room they take up in the freezer. I have 4 lots in the freezer now and another tray full to vacuum pack tomorrow morning.

Then it was off to beach exercise class. There was a mist hanging over the now bare land where earlier this year a pine forest was harvested. It reminded me a little of winter at home, NZ, where we would have days of thick fog.

The sun was already up by the time I got to the beach, but as always the sunlight reflecting on the water had me snapping a photo or two. Then it was off to my Aunts in Maroochydore to have a quick shower and a chat, before heading off to work. I never tire of the view from her balcony out over the Maroochy River winding its way out to sea. When I was there Tuesday evening, kite surfers were out playing in the waves. This morning, I didn't even see paddle boarders, even though it was such a beautiful morning.

Work, well, what can I say, another day at the office. It was my colleague's last day today so I made her some Raspberry Scrolls - the smell while they were cooking permeated throughout the house, even upstairs, drawing most residents out of their rooms to see what was baking. They were delicious.

Home via the supermarket to buy protein balls for our big walk Sunday, wraps, milk and vegemite. I don't actually like vegemite, in fact, I think it is disgusting, but I am using it on a nasty ulcer I have under my tongue. Two people have told me to put vegemite on it several times a day for a couple of days and they promise it will go away. It better, I nearly gag at the taste of it and it stings something wicked when I put it on the ulcer. Anyway, I forgot the stupid vegemite, so will have to rinse the mouth with salt water until I go back to the supermarket tomorrow.  Nothing else has worked, so I'm willing to keep on for another day. Do any of you have a remedy for mouth ulcers that really does work?

In just over an hour, I'm heading down to the airport to pick up my daughter who is flying in for a three day weekend, to do our walk on Sunday. It will be so wonderful to see her and spend time with her, even if it is too short an amount of time.

4 comments family, Fitness, Preserving, Work

First Birthday

My littlest granddaughter turned 1 yesterday. We are so blessed to have her in our lives as she was born at 26 weeks and 2 days gestation. She was in NICU for 2.5 months and then the local hospital. Here in Australia we are so lucky to have such advanced medical care for babies born so early. She came home for a few days and then just before Christmas went back in as she wasn't feeding well at all and had to have a feeding tube put in through her nose (which she hated). The best Christmas present ever was that she came home a couple of days beforehand so we had her with us for her first Christmas. She is 5 days old in the photo to the right and for a brief minute, has her cpap machine off while they clean her nose etc.

Her first year has been full of ups and downs, not just for her, but for her big sister and mum and dad. Having such a little baby to care for takes so much time out of your day and places huge stresses on mum and dad and extended family. As Tamara was born down in Brisbane and had to stay there, the family moved in Ronald McDonald House, right next door to the hospital. A real upheaval for Annika, away from home and all that was familiar to her, with a much longed for baby sister who she wasn't allowed to touch, much less hold.

Then once home, such care needs to be taken that no-one who has been sick or could have been in contact with sickness comes to visit, feeding time takes so long and had to be every 3 hours around the clock for several months. And then there were the times she pulled the feeding tube out and it had to be put back in again.

Her progress over the year has been slow but steady. She is still tiny, only 6.4 kg's and has her own "weight" line in her baby book that the nurse checks. She is way under the average for weight, but above for height.


She is crawling now and pulling herself up to stand. She loves her big sister and giggles lots. Her latest big neonatal pediatrician appointment went really well, they are very impressed with her and we were all so pleased to hear that she is in the very small percentage of babies born so early that not to have any damage to there brain or development, although she has been diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder, however it is not known how this will effect her in the future. The Dr's said the best thing for her is having an older sibling making lots of noise around her, dragging her around, putting her in boxes, playing with her and generally doing all the things older siblings do, being outside and exposed to lots of different sensations and having a range of stimuli around. To date, the only thing we, the family have noticed is she is really fussy about textures with her food and if that is all we have to worry about, who cares.

Big Sister Annika  - dress up

She gave us a bit of a fright last week, becoming sick with a nasty cough/cold and then getting a gastro bug. She didn't eat or drink much for 6 days, however the Dr's assured her Mum and Dad she wasn't dehydrated and to just keep up doing what they were. I looked after both the girls on Saturday night while Mum and Dad went out to a family wedding. We thought she had turned the corner, as she actually ate some avocado, chewed on watermelon and drunk 60 mls of a bottle. Unfortunately it all came back up 3 hrs later and again an hour after that.  After that she just wanted to sleep on me for until her tummy settled again.

She spent Sunday at the hospital under observation, but the pediatricians didn't want to keep her there, fearing with her lowered immune system, she would be too at risk of catching something worse.

She is slowly turning the corner now, eating lots better yesterday and loved her first taste of her chocolate birthday muffin, even trying to eat the crumbs off the table.

2 comments Birthday party, family

Saturday

I woke up early, 4 am and as much as I tried to go back to sleep, pretended to be asleep, hoping my brain and body would get the message, it didn't work. I eventually gave up about 5.15 and read my book, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, by Lisa See. It is a great read and I highly recommend it. I didn't want it to end, but when it did, I got out of bed, drunk my breakfast smoothie and headed to the gym - at 6.30 am, on a Saturday morning - sad:). Today was upper body day. After that I caught up with my PT's fiance at the local Tapas Bar for a Chai Latte before heading home to housework, washing and gardening, via the Community Garden, where I watered and weeded and shifted the 4 eggplants that weren't happy at all where they were.

The Community Garden is doing well. We are harvesting salad leaves, small crops of beans and zucchini. The tomatoes are coming along as are the carrots, climbing beans, cucumbers, broccoli and beetroot. I need to get some more seed going.

I picked lettuce, spinach, silverbeet - green and coloured (as above), beetroot leaves and young bean leaves to take home to make a salad for my lunch. Bean leaves are rich in Iron and other nutrients that we use everyday in our cells. 

Once home, I put the washing in the machine and set it going, added some water and essential oil to my diffuser and turned it on, went outside and watered the tubs and put the soaker hose on the vegetable garden then started picking tomatoes.  I use Doterra Essential Oils and at the moment have Elevation in the diffuser. Not only does it smell lovely, it will hopefully help keep everyone's mood light and happy.   I knew there would be a few, but not two bowls full. We have had some horrid winds over the past few days and my tomatoes have taken a battering, even though they are under the cover of insect/fruit fly mesh and stacked in tomato cages. They were so heavy with fruit, the "arms" of the cages popped off and the tomatoes all fell in a heap. I removed all the ripe and nearly ripe and picked up the odd green one that had been knocked off and wired the "arms" back on, propping the "branches" of the tomatoes back up, then giving them a good deep soak. I pulled on out, it had only two very small toms left on it and the plant was very broken. These are a mix of Black Russian, Mortgage Lifter and Rouge de Marmade or something like that and an unnamed large cherry type.   I cut the ripest of them in half and free-flow froze them. Once frozen, I'll vacuum pack them to use at a later date for tomato sauce and napoli sauce.

Above are the tomatoes ready for the freezer and the salad I made with the "leaves" I picked from the community garden and I added the purple lettuce from my garden, as well as the tomatoes, spring onion and carrot. There is also cucumber, celery and I added avocado and slow cooked pork and drizzled it with a Balsamic reduction. I had it for my lunch and it was as delicious and tasty as it looks.

I spent the afternoon and evening looking after my two youngest grand-daughters, but that's for my next blog. 

How did you spend your Saturday

1 comment Community Garden, leisure, Tomatoes