{This Moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Gratefulness

Rasperries surprising me with red globes of goodness, it didn't last very long as a ring....

Sunshiny days spent in the garden and at the beach with a friend, eating icecream by the bay....

Knowing that God is with us, never forsakes us, even when we feel a little lost...

Beautiful babies to create for. This is a jumpsuit with a skirt added to make a little dress for winter, perfect for little Hadassah, my friends' new daughter.

Weekends :)

Gardening and Cooking with Friends

It was lovely to spend the morning gardening and cooking with some friends from the permaculture group and with some friends from church who are interested in similar things.

Jody and Deeann weeding the cherry tomato jungle - and all the subsequent weeds, pruning the grape vine and harvesting what they could.

We spent the morning gardening, below you can see the other garden bed near the house weeded, mulched and the rhubarb plants were dug up, divided and replanted with soil food - horse manure and dynamic lifter! We then stopped for (a couple of pots of) tea and lamingtons, and then spent the rest of the morning cooking. Made sweet chilli and tamarillo sauce, posted about that one last week, bottled pears and demonstrated and discussed drying food. I am currently experiementing with my first fruit leather.

Jody really enjoyed bottling fruit and was very proud of her bottle of pears.

Working with 4 is so much more productive than one.

Thanks for those who came lending a hand. hope you had fun, and your cuttings grow well!

Have a lovely day xo

fire's burning....

We have been enjoying clearing up some of the remains of my recent kitchen renovations by making use of the firepit. it's a 44 gallon drum made from steel and cut in half that I picked up at the tip for $2 or so. I drilled holes around the base on the outside to allow for ventilation and propped it up on a couple of old bricks and hey presto - it's a fireplace. I have a grate I can put over the top to make it a bbq too.


There's something magical about flames, I can sit and watch them for hours, occasionally adding a log or repositioning... We have had a few dinner parties now outside around it with mugs of soup and fresh bread, cooking damper as the coals die down (delicious) or just enjoying it while people are arriving and chatting. an essential part of the backyard :)

Garden Lovers Fair and hummus recipe

Last sunday I woke up, looked outside and felt a sigh of relief as I saw the sun. It was the sunday of the Garden Lover's Fair, annual fundraiser of our permaculture group, and the weather can be quite changeable at this time of year and the fair is amazing, the biggest collection of plant growers, seeds, garden supplies on the south coast, and this year we increased the focus on food products and sustainable living.

I spent a lot of time on the gate, and behind the permaculture stand, answering questions about growing food, living sustainably, meeting times etc, and eventually found some time to have a wander around, buy my spring seedlings (there's a store that does pick your own punnet - so I got a punnet with 2 each of tomato, capsicum and eggplant, and one with different herbs and some red onions.

Also got a strawberry guava and a lillipilli (native food producing plant) which I'm going to plant in my neighbours yard ( we have a hold in the fence so I can get in to water and harvest) and an orchid I have been wanting to get for a while... I then texted my hubby to say thankyou to him for buying me such a lovely gift.

One of the highlights was the cooking demonstrations that were put on by www.ifeelgood.com.au with a vege tagine, hummus and salad. I went home and made the salad and hummus monday night, and it was amazing...

1 tin of chickpeas drained

1/4 cup tahini (ground sesame seeds)

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 clove garlic

salt

Put all in a food processor and start it, slowly adding water to the mix until it is a smooth consistency and able to be poured (like thick cream)

Serve drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with paprika and served with flatbread to dip.

YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Long weekend

Grateful

For those who have given their lives that I might live

For those who are serving to protect lives and human rights around the world.

For an extra day off this weekend...

For sunshine and walks along the beach...

White sands walk at Jervis Bay, no dolphins today...

For history preserved for us to explore

For God's amazing creation

For water, gently flowing, making music, restoring my soul

Yalwal creek, track was massively overgrown, but fun, and had a snack on a log by the creek

For food shared and fun had

For family and friends

For memories

Amen

Easter Long Weekend

Spent the long weekend at Colo River, just north of Windsor (Northwest Sydney) My mum and I have a share in a holiday park there that's a bit like timeshare but better. We pay an annual fee and get 2 weeks minimum of school holiday time plus can go any other time it's available. I had it booked for easter and had the most amazing week. I had friends come and stay with me, but also made some great friendships with the other people staying who are also shareholders.

Most people ate communally, cooking food on the barbeques and eating at large picnic tables, I think we only cooked one meal inside our cabin, the rest were all outdoor meals... delicious
I have found myself cooking on the Barbeque more since the weekend.

Fun kayaking, meeting a yoga swami living on the river and doing bush regeneration, playing cards, a little bit of study, a lot of fun.

On the last night my two gorgeous cousins came to stay and we had a lot of fun, watching 'cloudy with a chance of meatballs' on the outdoor big screen, kayaking, finding eels and lots of laughs.

Just what I needed to end a lovely holiday...

I 'm famous - sort of

Think you've seen this photo before?

Well, maybe you have, but most recently it's featured on Angela's blog My year without spending. Angela is from that great continent of North America and blogs about her life, and is part of the compact, a committment to live a non-consumer lifestyle. As part of that she has a regular segment called "thrifty threads" and the other week she featured me!!!

Here is an excerpt of what she wrote.

Today's model is Hannah, who blogs at Caminho da Vida.
She's a regular reader and commenter on this blog, and some of you might
recognize her as the commenter "han_ysic." Hannah is from Nowra, a small town
about 2 hours outside Sydney, and the tagline on her blog is "An Aussie girl on the journey of living generously, living simply and living out my faith." She
posts about the things she's grateful for, her outdoor
adventures, and some
really good photographs, among other things. It's
winter in Australia right now, and some of
the snow images
in this recent post about being grateful for snow are
gorgeous.

Thanks to Angela for featuring me and for sharing about your journey of living simply!

It was great getting to know you a bit more as you prepared this post.

Why I love where I live

Words can't compete with showing you. The shoalhaven from cambewarra mountain.

It's just amazing.

I have had a flatmate for the past few weeks which I'm really enjoying. Sheis in the area on placement and needed a place to stay. Her mum knew someone who knew someone who knew me. Turns out we have a few mutual friends from her uni course, one girl who went to my youth group in Berry - small world.

This weekend we took her to See where she's working. She was suitably impressed and possibly even more so by the devonshire tea by the fire inside at the tea rooms.

Us with my mum who came along too

And with some muffins she baked and I iced for family dinner the other week.

I always wanted to share my house with others, whether through meals, accomodating travelling friends, foster care, or flatmates. I enjoy sharing my house for the social benefit - sharing meals, company over a cup of tea etc as well as the obvious environmental benefit - a house with two people uses a lot less energy than two houses with one person in each.

It does take the right person to share a house, and so I'm glad we are getting on so well, and think I'll even miss the company when she's gone.

Anzac Day

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old.... we will remember them.

This year I decided to go to the dawn service at Greenwell Point. Karl decided he would join me and in the end there was quite a group of us. It was really special to attend, I had been to the midday events as a girl guide but never the early service.

The boss of the local parachute training school gave an address and I was really impressed with his talk looking at what Anzac day is and is not. The think I liked the most is that Anzac day is not a day when we celebrate our might and strength as a country, where we praise our victories. Anzac day remembers one of our countries greatest defeats, at the shores of Gallipoli on 25th April 1915. This is made more special for me as my great-grandfather was an ANZAC. He was in the ambulance corp and I have a copy of his diary where he makes his first entry on Anzac day, telling of how they ran onto shore dodging bullets and many lives were lost.

Anzac day is a day to remember those who gave it all. Their lives. So that we might live the life we do today.

Thankyou

Sunrise at Greenwell Point following the dawn service.

After the service we went back and had breakfast at my sister's place and afterwards Karl and I spent the day together. He took me to this place where he used to work.

And we drove around Kangaroo Valley and through to Berry visiting some old friends of mine for afternoon tea.

Later we had Michael and Erika, my old flatmates for dinner, and Erika brought Anzac slice. Very fitting.


And it must be said that Michael and I triumphed at the post dinner card game. Who would have thought you could win 500 by calling 6 spades ten times in a row:)

Weaving Workshop

I have posted previously about learning to spin. I haven't been doing a lot of that lately because I have been doing a weaving class, learning how to use my four shaft table loom. Denise, one of the amazingly talented women from the spinners and weavers is running a beginners class and I have joined. We are doing a sampler to start off with but at the next class i will be threading up to weave a scarf. First one may be for me, but then I'm planning to do some for others. It's such a peaceful thing, I can completely lose track of time.

Something I hope to do soon is be able to weave the wool I have spun and dyed into creations for gifts and to sell (down the track)

Some close up detail of the weaving

My loom, it's an antique but no problems working.

Some of the other ladies at the weaving class. Diny in black brings her small sampler loom to practice on but has a large floor loom at home. If only....

Stop

My life gets really busy, Work, family, church and social commitments can really take over to the point where there is no time left.

My training is in the area of social work, and so is my employment, and one thing that we really focus on is reflective practice. It's all well and good doing the job, but if we can take the time to reflect on what we are doing and ask some questions - why do I do that? How does that make me feel? what am I trying to achieve by doing that? - If I can do this I have more control and start to work in a proactive rather than reactive way. I have a great manager who supports us working in a critical, reflective way and encourages us to take time to do our work well, not just do our work.

But, isn't life the same. Shouldn't we value our life enough to stop and look at how it's going, what we are using our time and energy for, and where we are going?

A friend of mine has set days each year when he reviews different aspects of his life. At the beginning of each calendar year he looks at his life, his life goals and how he is going with achieving them. Around Valentines Day each year he revealuates his relationships (including but not limited to his marriage) and resets his goals for that area of his life. Around the end of the financial year he takes time to look at his financial situation and his goals in that area. He also tells me that every now and then he sets aside time to be creative. To imagine.

I like that idea, and also work well with goals, but am not as disciplined as my friend about reviewing them.

Life: This year I have been to new zealand, gone campervanning, and hiked and camped in the snow. I have begun a weaving course to learn how to weave the wool I am spinning with my weaving loom. I took on the role of camp director for a camp I have been involved with, a role I have never done before. I bought a house and am working on converting the garden to a productive and attractive space.

Life Goals:

Go Hanggliding

Climb Cradle mountain - overland track (planned for October this year)

Write a book - need to work on that one

....

Relationships: I'd like to say I met the man of my dreams etc but it hasn't happened yet. Too bad it takes someone else to realise that goal. I did however do my foster care training and now provide regular respite for an adolescent girl who is in a long term foster care placement. I have developed new friendships and deepened existing ones and especially value my back fence neighbours who are like family.

Relationship Goals:

Be bolder in relationships with the opposite gender (and eventually meet a godly man who I love and spend the rest of my life with)

Be a better sister/daughter/friend

Build relationship with the girl I foster

Build closer relationships with my neighbours and those who live in my street.

Financial:

This year I bought a house, and have (with a little help from falling interest rates) been able to pay off a significant amount above the required repayments, saving up a reasonable emergency fund I am able to redraw and reducing my interest.

I have begun to sell my produce through a local cafe

I have joined the local community exchange (similar to LETS) which allows me to exchange goods and services with members of my community without using cash!

Financial Goals:

To pay off my HECS debt this financial year.

By the end of next financial year to have saved $20,000 and purchase an investment property.

To continue to reduce waste

To be generous in my life, continuing to support my sponsor children and financially contribute to my church and other ministries.

However, more than setting goals, I think it's important to set aside time that is to be still. To stop. It's easy to fill space with activity, with tv, with music, with books, with phone calls. It's almost as though we are afraid to spend time with ourselves. Are we afraid that we won't like the people we are?

I think it's important to take some time by yourself. Journal, paint, pray, meditate, just be. Be aware of yourself, of the world around you and of who you are. It might be hard at first, but generally you'll find that you aren't so bad and it's fun to hang out with you.

If there's anyone out there who this speaks to please leave a comment, share a goal or a success.

God Bless

Guerilla Gardening

I'm a bit of a fan of guerilla gardening, the idea of beautifying (often with edible plants) public spaces which are in disrepair. This is often done in secret or at night and aims to get the support of the local community to maintain the area. Sometimes it is done by secreting seeds, often in seed "bombs or balls" which have seeds and compost inside a clay ball which will remain intact until a significant rain event. (These are attributed to Fukuoka, a japanese natural farmer) Path to Freedom have an instruction sheet

Well, I'm very excited, because for the first time in a while, a show has come on TV that has got me wanting to sit in front of the box (well, I'll be recording it as I'm out at muso practice for my church on wed nights. Guerilla Gardeners airs for the first time tonight on channel 10 at 8pm.

Welcome to the show where six young warriors are armed to the teeth with attitude and gardening tools, working together to make-over the most barren and concrete-filled spaces in our cities. When the sun goes down and the city workers retreat to the ‘burbs', the Guerrillas undertake covert operations that transform the biggest eye-sores into an oasis of greenery and recreation for local communities and families to enjoy.

The Targets: Bleak public spaces, concrete jungles, disused land, roadside wastelands left by councils and developers who just don’t care.

The Challenge:Turn these eyesores into beautiful spaces for people to appreciate and enjoy.

The Guerrilla Gardeners"Ally – gardening guru, Lilly – 'Jill of all trades' with a penchant for power tools, Scott – construction expert, Pete – construction expert, Dave – keeping the public and the law on side and Mickie - the mastermind behind the disguises

With youth and enthusiasm in their favour, the six Guerrillas will stop at nothing to reach a potential site – they will abseil, rope and parkour (picture the opening scene of Casino Royale) to get to the make-over site on a 20 foot high ledge, or a gated median strip between a freeway and a tunnel. They routinely defy trespass laws and development consent in their quest to beautify our cities.

The Guerrillas have just 12 hours to transform the ugliest urban eye-sores into an oasis of greenery. And when the sun comes up and workers start to creep back into the city, they sit back and watch the reaction - job done. Our Guerrillas then blend into the morning crowd and head off to their mild-mannered day jobs.

Some of their best work is also done in broad daylight. Wearing hard hats and safety vests as a disguise, they perform their unique ‘raids’ right under the nose of police, council workers and government rangers.

Against the clock.Against the law?Guerrilla Gardeners – bringing your city back to life.

Doesn't it sound great!

A bike trailer

I have a bike trailer! I am trying to use the car less. Especially right now, as I had a little but of a ding and it's going to be written off in two weeks. Still completely driveable, all minor exterior damage, but because it's old and it's not really valuable, the work to fix it would cost more than them paying me out. I considered buying it back off them and fixing it myself, but then found out friends who are moving to UK are selling their car cheaply, and it has roofracks with fittings for my bike (and of course the kayak can go up there too!)

So, I will be getting a new car, okay so it's older than my current car by a year, but new to me.

Now, back to the bike trailer. I have been riding around town and have a small rack I can put a couple of things on, but unable to put much by way of shopping. Couldn't afford a new trailer. Then my friend started up a local Community Exchange group. http://www.community-exchange.org/ This is a cashless exchange system, you join up to your local area and start transacting.

To join up you have to offer 3 things, they can be items or services (eg old magazines you are finished with, cutting people's hair, washing cars etc) Then you can get on and see what others offer. When you purchase something you go into debit and the person you buy off goes into credit, but you don't have to have enough to pay them, so you are encouraged to spend before you earn, so long as you are committed to earning credit in the future. I have sold some seedlings, and given haircuts, and currenting have some mending waiting to be done to earn credit. Michael had offered to make bike trailers for people so I decided to take him up on the offer. Check out his blog for more of his creations.

Well, I picked it up the other weekend and Michael fitted it to my bike, it's a converted golf buggy, the handle still on so that you can detach it from the bike when you're shopping and use it as a trolley!

I've asked Michael to have a go at making me a rocket stove next. Check out the exchange, the more people join and offer, the better it will work. Oh, and they are all around the world, why don't you see if there's one near you.

Thanks to my Brother and his Girlfriend, (aren't they cute) for driving me and the bike out to Michael's place. Of course we went for a swim at the beach down the road as well.

And we couldn't leave without a tour of Michael's garden. Here you can see his chook tractor, with a repurposed real estate sign providing some extra shade for the chooks in the hot weather, and lots of healthy corn.

Michael's 10,000 Litre tank is enough for his household use, they use town water to water the garden. Beacuse Michael is on the coast there is much more rain that at my place, only 15 mins away. Microclimates!
His garden was doing well, tomatoes had been burnt in the sun just like mine have, but lots of things growing well, especially his eggplants which were covered in fruit.

Catching up, no 1 (Pre Christmas)

I haven't posted for a while. Everything has just been full on with Christmas and family things, camping, and running camp conqueror. I feel I am back to my life now, so there is lots to catch up on on the blog.

Firstly gorgeous Abby. She is my friend's baby, and this was the first time I met her. What a gorgeous little thing. I even got smiles (after mum had fed her!)

She even had her first visit to conqueror (where I know her mum and dad from) and I showed her where she'll be sleeping in a couple of years. It'll seem like no time at all Karl!!!



My sunflowers. Aren't they lovely. Of course they don't look like this anymore, they are ready to pick and store to feed to my chooks over winter.

This is little Ze, who is living in Jordan with his mum and dad and sister now. They came to visit just before Christmas, and came around for breakfast. His big sister A helped me feed the chickens and water the garden. (Which is all being eaten now, but I don't think they'll let me post any to Jordan to share :)

Christmas Eve we had a party over my back fence for the young adults from my church. Great night, with good food and even better company. Geoff my neighbour and Jonina my lil sis in the photo above after a feed and my bro in law Glyn and friend Bec below.

It's great having such an active group it's very welcoming, and a big range of people who come along, which grew to a large part out of our bible study group.

Probably one of the most sad things that happened before Christmas was saying good bye to Leah, my colleague. Leah and her Husband Tim are moving to Sydney to work with children and and young people at a church up there. That's an amazing opportunity for them but means that I am once again the youngest person at work by about 20 years. I love working with my colleagues, but it was amazing working with Leah, catching up socially and doing coffee which I will miss a lot. I will be coming to visit you soon!

Me and Leah at work Christmas Party

Permaculture group and Basketweaving

The first meeting of Shoalhaven Permaculture Network was a hit. There were over 30 people (I was hoping for 15-20) and everyone was keen to keep coming and make the group work. I invited everyone to introduce themselves and we had people who have been gardening for over 60 years to one lady who is gardening for the first time and has one tomato plant (That's her at the back right of the photo.) I gave a brief introduction to Permaculture and then people broke up into small groups to discuss and brainstorm what they wanted the group to look like.

It was interesting that the groups all had very similar responses, looking at continuing with the idea of a monthly meeting, and planning weekend workshops to get practical skills shared.
For me it was encouraging to see the interest, as it confirmed my feeling that there was a need for a group like this in my area. Both for people already living this way to share things with each other and for those who want to learn to do so.

That's my grandpa in the centre of the photo. He is my inspiration, he was famous in Canberra for his front yard garden, and producing food in my backyard was never a strange concept thanks to him. My grandparents are holidaying in one of the coastal villages near my town, so he came along to support me.

This week I also spent an afternoon with a friend to learn the basics of basketweaving. The one above is hers not mine, and I was so grateful to go out, and to make a new friend. Her and her husband are so inspirational, living a simple life, choosing to work jobs that make them feel excited and working for themselves as well.

This one is my creation. It is now finished, but I didn't take a photo so I'll add that in a future post.

And lastly Elhi, in her studio/sunroom. I have been madly weaving since, and feel a walk to the nature reserve near my house coming on to collect more supplies, I think I'm hooked!

A very Gardening Saturday

I had a wonderful weekend, visiting some friends (and their gardens).

Firstly thankyou to Sue, who came and found me at the Markets so that I could come visit her. Sue and I are both part of Aussies living simply, and it was great to meet her and her husband and see their garden and their home.

They have the most amazing stockpile, inside they have dried foods (they have adapted fowlers jars to vacuum seal their dried fruits and veges) bulk rice, groceries etc. They have bulk wheat which they grind themsleves for bread and scones in an electric mill. Under the house is the cellar with the bottled food.

They had a shed which they lived in while building their house, this was the preserving area, with converted shelves to hold hundreds of bottling jars, fowlers and pressure canning units, dryers and more.

Then the garden, which was full of food. They grow much more than they can eat and give the surplus to the local meals on wheels group. Her husband has a shed full of old engines and toys. I was so impressed I almost asked if they would adopt me. :)

Sue's Stockpile. Fruit, veges and soups. (She can bottle veges and meat as she has an american pressure canner, which can cook foods at much higher temperatures.

Sue's Garden, potatoes, beans, tomatoes, onions, broad beans. She has runs for the chooks, areas for berries that is netted in and an orchard.

What an inspiration! When I grow up I want to be like her.

Also on Saturday I went to Feedback, a gardening group based in Nthn Shoalhaven. They were wording on establishing a permaculture garden at a rural property that had recently been completed.

There was a large group, adults and children, and the garden was almost done by the time I arrived with my gift of banana trees and lebanese cress for the garden. We finished up the work and then went for a bushwalk.

The creek we crossed to enter the property, there was a causeway to get over.

The landscape was a mix of open paddocks and pristine rainforest. Some of the group are keen bushcare volunteers and were pointing out plants and picking up weeds to destry.

Imagine this for a view out your loungeroom window!

And sunsets like these....

Tempting, but I do love my house, and my crazy community.

After the walk we had a pot luck dinner, delicious with homemade sushi, dolmades, salads and curries. Thanks Janet for inviting me, I'll definately be coming back!

Lastly, I'll add in a photo from Sunday...

I went to my workmate's for lunch and after we ate, her husband decided to sew a cover for his new camera lens, I couldn't resist a photo!

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Hannah