I’m 27.
Had a birthday 4 days ago.
It’s not the best picture by any means, but this is the ‘cake’ that I made to share with my work colleagues.
Two chunks of watermelon, separated by slices of honey dew.
Strawberry halves decorating the bottom-half … grapes forming a ring around the base of the top-half.
Slices of kiwi underneath of banana ‘candles’.
I purchased several pounds of organic seed potatoes. They are presently in an open box, getting misted daily, pending shoot development.
In the meantime, I started a few plants from store-bought potatoes to experiment with growing. Continue reading “Potato growing experiments”
I am adding updates to the top of this post.
Please scroll down to view earlier posts.
13 Apr, 2011:
A very nice lady at Sensishield wrote back to me this morning. Not only did she say that they saw no reason why (under careful use and parental guidance) the toothpaste wouldn’t be detrimental to Eliza, but she also offered to send some complimentary tubes to my mother-in-law in advance of her visit next week! Very, very kind.
In other news, I am seeing no further evidence of decay on Eliza’s teeth. Her gums are looking much better. Over the last two weeks the gums above her top two right teeth had bled from time to time (not sure if it was the use of acidity of the hydrogen peroxide, or the abbrasion of baking soda, or the brushing itself, or simply inflamed and unhealthy gums).
We bought some yoghurt for her, in the hope that an oral injection of good bacteria might add to our fighting efforts. Unfortunately, she’s not interested in yoghurt.
This Friday will be two weeks that Eliza has been on her homeopathic medication and Cod Liver Oil.
Frank’s mother suggesting using Flax Seed Oil as a vegetarian alternative to the CLO … but I paid $26 for the CLO, it tastes of lemon (more chemicals, I know … but at least she doesn’t spit it out!!), and I’m going to finish it before I buy anything else.
I bought some Purslane seeds to plant this year. Purslane is rich in Omega 3 and fat-soluble vitamins A and E.
With any luck, the CLO will take us through to a rich summer supply of Purslane.
We had a heatwave this past weekend!! It got up to 28°C!!
Suffice it to say that the clothes on the line dried beautifully, and that any niggly little fruit stains that remained on Eliza’s clothes after I’d scrubbed them were sun-bleached!
We also aired out the house, though I question if it was so wise exposing what have been rather cool internal temperatures to sudden intense warmth!! Oh well.
We’ve had probably 3 weeks of rainy spring weather. Rainy but very cool. Yesterday was a sudden shock on just how quickly Spring can end, and Summer can arrive!!
I’m not looking forward much to the sweltering summer temperatures.
We started the first bunch of seeds (squash/melons, nightshades, salads and peas) back on Wednesday 6th, and I am told this morning that some of them are already sprouting.
The corn, broccoli, and cauliflower were started yesterday.
We’re hoping that some of the beds will be able to be filled next week, which will allow for me to get the root vegetables started.
If I can’t get them planted in this month’s waning moon, they’ll have to wait until next. Well, I guess they don’t really have to wait, but I am trying to plant ‘by the moon’, so I’m trying to stick to the rules.
I still need to work out what companion planting paring I’m going to use … sigh.
So much to do. It’s very overwhelming.
Well, summer is fast approaching, and the little lady in my life is becoming better and better at occupying herself. Cue time to do some much-needed decoration around the house.
Here are some photos that I’ve found via Google Images. I did not take the photos, nor do I make any claim to them.
These are just to swoon over.
I was thrilled to be able to hang laundry to dry outside on Saturday.
It was a cooler day … and some of the clothes still weren’t 100% dry by the time I brought them in around 8pm … but it felt brilliant to br able to not use the drier!!
I made homemade laundry detergent on Friday using my homemade bar soap as the base.
It was runnier than I expected, but that’s probably because I didn’t use as much bar soap as I should have.
I found a recipe for a more concentrated detergent that I think I’ll used next time. I like how it calls for soap in cups, rather than bars.
1 quart Water (boiling)
2 cups Bar soap (grated)
2 cups Borax
2 cups Washing Soda
■Add finely grated bar soap to the boiling water and stir until soap is melted. You can keep on low heat until soap is melted.
■Pour the soap water into a large, clean pail and add the Borax and Washing Soda. Stir well until all is dissolved.
■Add 2 gallons of water, stir until well mixed.
■Cover pail and use 1/4 cup for each load of laundry. Stir the soap each time you use it (will gel).
People have asked me a lot recently about any plans to move back to the UK, but we’re sill working on ‘making it’ over here.
I miss the UK. I really do.
But I have to also accept the fact that I’m looking back with rose-tinted glasses.
Do I miss commuting to London? NO!
Do I miss the people traffic in London? NO!
Do I miss the weather? NO! (Well, actually, in an odd way, I do. Summers and winters both are so bloomin’ long here!! In contrast, spring and autumn are unbearably short. We still have snow on the ground at the moment! Spring doesn’t officially arrive until mid-May. So in that sense, I really do miss the fresh rains of spring/autumn.
Maybe one day, we’ll end up with a farm in Northumberland.
It’s been a strange path for us.
We moved to the US not knowing exactly what we wanted – only that we didn’t want to live where we did, nor work in London.
I had recently been doing family history research, which brought to our attention how vast amounts of wealth in Frank’s family’s past had just been thrown to the wind, so to speak. We wanted to change that and bring financial wealth back – and neither of us were under any illusion that it’d be really really tough to accomplish that in the UK.
So here we are now.
This is why I’ve been planning the garden as I have – everythnig is a very calculated step towards self-sufficiency/reliance.
We’ll see where it takes us.
