The meaning of DH…

Ok, so for all those of my in-laws (yes, you know who you are!) who have questioned the meaning of DH on this blog, DH is actually an internationally recognised, commonly used abbreviation for DEAR HUSBAND!!!!! It does not mean that other D***H*** that you have all thought it did!!! I find it interesting that has been only my in-laws (and my wonderful Dear Husband) who thought it meant otherwise…. la la la lala lala….

A strange avocado plant

This avocado seed sprouted in the compost/worm bin so when I found it I planted it in an old milk container. One avocado seed…. and it has four stems sprouting from it! Now, avocado seeds are pretty huge, it’s not like I could have accidently planted more than one! I don’t know if this is normal for avocado’s or not since I haven’t grown them before. Weird…..
I have a large pot here that I have to repot it into this week, and at some point I need to decide what I’m going to do with it. Apparently they grow up to 15 metres tall, this is/will be a decent sized tree! Won’t last in a pot forever….

An unexpected harvest

When we first moved here in january the back yard had three very sad looking young saplings planted here. There’s no actual soil here, it’s just gravel on top of yellow and red clay…. Like every other plant here the Landscapers (and I use the term very loosely) just dug a hole, dumped the plant in, tossed a handful of water over it and that was it planted. These plants had been put in a week before we moved in, in the middle of a very hot summer with no-one to water them.
I mulched them with pea straw (cheaper than lucerne hay!) and watered them with the washing machine water every day or so. They ended up dying (surprise surprise!) but the pea straw grew! They’re only fodder peas, so not that wonderful for eating, but as long as we picked them young they were great! This was Dian’s first time for growing and eating fresh peas and she loved them! Took them to school for recess in the pods still!

Two cute nappies

Diapers for those of you in the US… I made these yesterday just for fun.

And just for the record, no I don’t have an announcement to make and yes, I will tell you if/when there is an announcement! LOL!

The outside is plain cotton towelling and the inside is blue and green velour. Thought it was cute that I managed matching snappi’s to do them up too!

Leading a Connect Group again

It’s been a few years since I led a Connect Group for my (old) church in Canberra. I’ve been going to a Women’s Group on monday nights since we moved here and loving it! Today the Group Leader rang me with a terrible headcold (she really sounded awful!) and asked if I could lead the discussion tonight. Ummm, sure… but I wasn’t in church on sunday as I was sick all weekend, so I have no idea what the discussion is about! Luckily there are discussion notes posted for the leaders, so I could grab those and rely on the other ladies who were in church! It went really well, there were only four of us there, and we finished earlier than usual. The discussion went great, we all learned from it and I was so blessed not to be nervous at the thought of leading again! In fact, it felt pretty good!

Suzy the cat

Meet Suzy. We got her from the RSPCA several years ago, only a week before the organisation was burnt out in the Canberra fires of January 2003. She sleeps on my feet, and comes and snuggles up into my arm in the mornings. She also has a bad habit of wanting to be let outside at 4.00am, running through the house around the same time of morning. Let me assure you, cats are NOT quiet! I’ve heard Dian make less noise….

Hash browns and my DH

So it’s the day before Mother’s Day. I’m attempting to sleep in, while ignoring the sounds of Dian and her friend who slept over as they play and watch tv. I can hear Eddie in the kitchen and thought he was cooking breakfast. He was, my breakfast! He came in with a hash brown made from leftover mashed spuds, and when I suggested that tomato sauce would be nice on the next one, this is what he brought me. Isn’t he wonderful!!!!!

Ok, the photography isn’t the best!!! BTW, they tasted good too!

Scarf Swap

I was recently in a scarf swap that was organised on Woolaholics Forum.
This is the scarf I received from M in Western Aust. It’s very long and designed to be folded in half and looped around your neck. Lovely and soft and warm!!!

And this is the one I sent to A. It’s a moebius scarf, see the half twist in the knitting? And yes, it’s actually knitted with the twist in it! I know you can cheat and knit a straight piece and then graft it together, but this is knitted with the twist in. I loved it so much I didn’t want to send it off, so now I’m making myself one exactly the same! A loved it too!

We have a house to move to!!!!

We have a house to move into in July!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!! It’s about 20 minutes from where we are now, and is about five km from school, shops and about the same distance from Eddie’s work. Nice big house again, but with PARKING!!!!! LOLOL! A secure backyard so I don’t have to worry about the guinea pigs being eaten by a dog or passing fox, and best of all there’s a garden!!! Not much of a garden, but we are in a drought! There are ROSES out the front!!! I miss having roses. We had such a beautiful rose garden back in Wanniassa, and I was sad to leave them, and let’s not even discuss the pain of leaving my vegie garden! There’s a bit of a back garden along the edges with some hardy, minimal care, drought tolerant plants there, and I plan to put in some flowers etc, plus vegies in between and some food plants for the piggies.

The house is in a nice area, lots of families and kids and a very quiet street. So we (I) just need to pack up here, and we can move as soon as Eddie finishes his course in QLD.

It’s the first and only house that we looked at, the current tenants are moving out on 9 July, and that’s when our lease runs out! Brilliant timing for all!

Healthy eating…

Ummm, well, an update… hasn’t gone as well as I had hoped. I had the best intentions, but basically lost it when I didn’t actually sit down and plan how to implement it… Eddie informed me the other night that soup was an entree, NOT a main meal, so either I start two course meals or skip soup… I have the sourdough starter in the fridge ready to make French Sourdough loaves. Bought the starter culture, and piima culture that I haven’t used yet, from Fermented Treasures. Ok, so while I’m thinking of it, I’ve just written it in my calender for an hour on wednesday to make up some menu plans and incorporate some more healthy eating habits.

So far; - changed the deep fryer (don’t use it that much) from olive oil to Supafry animal fat. Baked vegies taste way better cooked in this!
- Tried using a butter spread (homemade) made with butter, olive oil and flaxseed oil. I found it rather salty and it sank into the bread. We’re currently back on Olive oil margerine, but I think I may try and just go to straight butter.
- No more Equal sugar substitute. Honestly, it’s scary reading the reports on these substitutes. They’re all neurotoxins, and the effects they have on a person’s body is shocking. The Stevia isn’t getting used, neither Eddie nor I like the taste, so we’re currently using organic raw sugar. Need to come up with a better solution. Maybe we should just bite the bullet and swap totally to Stevia and just get used to the taste.
- Eddie requested that I buy decaffienated coffee for him. This is day one, so we’ll see how he goes. I really should give up my coffee habit (2-3 daily) but I have to say I’m not real motivated to do this!
- Swapped normal table salt for Celtic Sea Salt and Trocomare. Celtic Sea Salt is natural salt, scraped off the salt ponds with wooden ladles. It’s a pale grey colour and has minerals and nutrients in it!!! Particularly iodine (from kelp). Trocomare is a seasoning, based on salt and herbs. It’s only 30% salt, the rest of the flavour is from the herbs. Tastes wonderful on vegies and in soups! We’re still working on convincing Dian that just because it’s low in salt doesn’t mean you can cover your food in it. Repeat after me, salt is a flavouring, not a food!