Biddy Bags

I was surfing around looking for some knitting info and stumbled across this and decided to pass it on.

I found the story on Grandma's Knitting place blog.

And there is a link here for Biddy Bags web site as well.

The following link is a video from landline telling about Biddy Bags.

http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200910/r446486_2164534.asx

99 or 22

To the tune of 99 bottles of beer.
22 mls of rain in the gauge, 22 mls of rain.
22 mls of rain in the gauge, 22 mls of rain.
Hooray.

ouh wah, that's nasty

A boy asks his mom, "Mom, why do brides wear white?" His mom replies, "The white shows your friends and family how pure your wife is." The boy thanks his mom and goes to his dad to ask him the same question. His father answers, "All household appliances come in white!"....:D ~ Bridget Argana

This post in no way reflects the blog owners personal views. It is just a joke and I appreciate the naughty humor.

Something I have always wanted to do.

Something I have always wanted to do.

Mount Kosciuszko is 2,228 metres high, and is the highest peak on the Australian mainland

If all the planets align and we hold our faces the right way, work a little harder and save enough money, my sister and I plan to climb/walk as much of Mount Kosciuszko, this time next year, as is Stewart and Debbily possible. And as seeing as she (Debbie, my sister that is) is a gun photographer, I should come back with some awesome photos to share.

The photo is supposed to be of the tippy tippy top of Mount Kosciusko (the place where I plan to yell out "hello world, it's me")

So between now and then I have to cajole a recalcitrant 48 year old body into something that will carry me from point a to point b with some poise and something resembling self pride.

My first goal toward achieving the afore mentioned plan is to walk to the top of North street
View Larger Map where I live. But being as fit as I am I'm going to have to do it one street more than the next one each day I go out (it is all up hill). Therefore, counting yesterday I have walked from home to Stuart street and today it was Stuart st. plus one which equals Peter st (if you follow the map westward until Ruthven st. then, from the corner, count eastward three houses then the one with the red roof is where I live and where I start my walking from) .

And tomorrow is Stuart st. plus Peter st plus one more until I hit the top of the street. When I get to the top and can walk it comfortably I'll let you know where I will walk to next.

Cheers and happy trails

Stewart

Against The World. House Of Hats

This found me so I'm now sharing it with you.

Have a great Aussie day

Have a great Aussie day everyone and make sure you tip your cabbie, it might just be me!!!

'Wally the Wankers'

Tell me why? All the 'Wally the Wankers', in Australia would choose to advertise their presence by attaching not one but two cheap imported Aussie flags to the side of their cars.

Sure does make it easy to spot the Wallies in your town.

I miss these guys.

Maxwell Smart aka Don Adams.



Shirl the curl aka Graeme Ronald Strachan

Cheers

Stewart

genus Megachile, bee buggered

I know the damage to this rose leaf is caused by the leaf cutter bee (genus Megachile) and I'm not in the least bit concerned by the damage it causes, I quite like it actually, but what drives me mad is that I've never seen a leaf cutter bee in action.

According to Aussie Bee Bulletin Issue 9 they are a native bee and they get their name from the way in which they cut neat pieces of leaf for building materials and weave these materials into tiny cradles for their young.

Has anyone seen one of these guys in action? Let me know.




This is a photo of a leaf cutter bee in action I lifted from the Aussie Bee web site.














Lastly I was down at the community gardens yesterday and noticed this flower. It was attached to a spindly pea/legume type plant, but a stunning flower up close.



Cheers

Stewart.

Knit a Brick or 'knit one save one'

An ad in a newspaper that is finally worth printing. I was reading the Queensland Courier Mail here last week when I saw an ad with the heading 'knit one save one' to help save children in need around the world.

I went to their web site and found the following info on 'knit one save one'.
It's run by the Save the Children organization and you can go to their web site or read about 'knit one save one' below.

As I have way to much spare time sitting in my taxi waiting for my next fare I have decided to pick up the needles and have a go while I'm doing all this waiting and as I haven't knitted a thing since I was about ten years old its been a slow process plus I needed to teach my self how to knit again.

Here (photo above) is my progress so far and yes it's full of dropped stitches and mistakes but you go to start somewhere and I'm sure I'll improve over time.

If anyone reading this decides to take up the knitting of squares I love to see (and hear)how you go and maybe I could keep track of your progress with regular posts on my blog.


Knit One Save One

Just by knitting a 20cm square you can help to save a life. Get your friends and loved ones in on it too and help us piece together warm blankets for children in countries that need a helping hand. A 20cm knitted square is all we ask. Actually, we need 80,000 squares – enough to make 5,000 blankets to go to countries like Australia, Cambodia and India.

Follow the progress of our Knit One Save One project on our blog. You can leave us a message, ask us a question, share your knitting tips and sign up to recieve updates as our tally progresses. Click here to see how the Knitters of Australia are making a difference.

Cheers and happy knitting

Stewart.

Potato time

The rain had reduced to a shower on Wenesday or two and the sun had been able to peak through a few clouds enough to allow me to get the last of my spuds out of the ground at the

Toowoomba Community Organic Gardens. I was a little disappointed with the harvest though, returning only two or three smallish spuds per bush. All things considered with the weather they had to endure I suppose they did alright.

Here is Neville with one of the bigger Sebagos that he took home for making chips with.

I'll be preparing the now 'ex', potato patch for members of the onion and brassica family over the next few weeks. So I'll be adding lime, horse, cow and chicken manure to the soil and digging it all through.

One of the more disappointing things going on at the Toowoomba Community Organic Gardens is the crows getting into the corn before I even get a chance to get near it. I have some bird netting in the shed I purchased a while to keep the birds out of my plum tree so I'm going to throw it over the corn an see if I can salvage a cob or two for myself.







Tomatoes; I've had an absolute dismal year for tomatoes so far. First it's been bone dry, then scorchingly hot, then rainy and overcast and on top of all that I think I have over done it with the potash and the fruit fly has beaten me to nearly every piece of fruit available.

So it tomatoes take two, hoping I'll have better luck in the second half of the season. I have planted seedlings of Burke's Backyard tomato at the community gardens and some seedlings of Yellow Perfection and Reisentraube (chreey tom bearing trusses of 20 to 40 fruits) at home.


Spelt Wheat I'd like to say I've been busy preparing the spelt wheat patch at the Toowoomba Community Organic Gardens but I suspect someone there likes using the rotary hoe a lot because I haven't done a thing. That might all change tomorrow (Sunday) because now that it has rained and the soil is moist it's time to get the green manure crop started.








The cow-pea seed needs to be planted up to three inches deep so I'll hand broadcast them first and rotary hoe them in and the Japenese millet only needs to be sown shallowly so I'll be hand broadcasting that and rake it over lightly and hopefully we'll get a nice storm and water the whole lot in. Fingers crossed lets see how I go.







This is the progress of the red kidney beans (5 x 10 mtr rows). Flowering like mad and setting heaps of pods after the rain. Am I looking forward to harvesting? No, not really, but then they won't harvest themselves. The Navy beans planted 2/3 weeks after have enjoyed the rain as well and are flowering and setting beans like mad.

This is just a pretty photo of a pretty Gerbra to say good-bye with.
Good-bye and cheers till next time

Stewart.

Funky Town

Woke up this morning feeling 25 and like it was the 80's and singing this song.

Good morning, hope your having a good one. Funky Town

Lets paint some more

From this to......














......this in just on a hour of sanding. So I'm thinking 5 or 6 more hours and I'll have this one side of the house ready for paint. I'm feeling a little excited at the prospect of actually getting some paint on the house but I also know at some point it will become a chore and I'll have to chew my way through to the end. For now though I go with the feeling and try to remember it when the going gets tedious.

26, 26 and 28mls

Since Christmas I've tiped out 26, 26 and 28mls from the rain gauge. I have powdery mildew on everything it can possibly grow on and then some. When it does fine up enough to work in the garden again I'll nearly have to start from scratch. But lovin the rain.

It's supposed to fine up this week so all the squash and zucchinis at the community garden will have to be pulled out. I have to see if I can rescue the rock melons and cucumbers. The rest of the potatoes will have to be dug up as well. I'll probably put in a quick summer green manure crop where they were and use the space for onions and brassicas. It looks like a rat or something is eating the corn before it is anywhere near ripe so it looks like I'll have to spring for some fine chicken wire and surround the corn with it and see if I can keep whatever it is out that way. Does it ever end? I suppose if it's good enough for something else to eat my food I must be doing something right.

And if I can ever remember to but the bloody lid back on the chook food when I finished feeding them I'll be a lot happier with myself too!
I hate it when you got no one to blame but yourself.

Cheers

Stewart

Jam Drops

The ground is still too wet to allow me to do any work in the veggie garden so I'm in the kitchen instead. And the treat for today is 'ta-da', 'Jam Drops'.

Yeah, I know, hardly earth shattering but I loved Jam Drops as a kid when mum cooked them and that love of Jam Drops has stayed with me ever since.

Results Taste is excellent but they went flat, not keeping that classic mounded Jam Drop shape. Anyone got any idea why?



Here is the Recipe:

1 cup SR flour

1/3 cup custard powder

80g butter softened

1/3 cup caster sugar

2 tbs milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup jam

1. preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line 2 baking trays with paper.
2. sift flour and custard powder together
3. beat butter and sugar together until pale and creamy.
4. add milk and vanilla and beat until combined
5. add flour mixture and mix together to form a soft dough.
6. roll heaped tablespoonsful into balls and place onto trays leaving about 5cm space for spreading
7. using your thumb make an indent ib the top and fill with a bit of jam
8. bake for 15 minutes until golden, transfer onto wire racks to cool.
9. can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Until next time, cheers

Stewart

River Cottage

I was introduced to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's 'River Cottage' adventures by some bloggers who I befriended on facebook.

And during some down time through the week, due to our wet weather, I found a web site that features a lot of his TV shows. This link "Escape to river cottage", will take you back to the very beginning but I have found all of his shows (there is several series now) informative, inspiring and entertaining.

It is essentially about Hugh's experience of becoming a self sufficient small holder in Dorset, England near the coast. I find his enthusiasm, humility and honesty refreshing and also inspiring.

I also find that whenever my motivation is flagging I just have to watch an episode of two and I am reinvigorated to get back out into the garden and keep saving for my own little farmlet.

Check it out and see what you think!

Cheers

Stewart
P.S. Thank-you to those responsible for putting me onto River Cottage.

2010

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
-- Confucius


Happy New Year!