the cat, knitting, & the pantry

my day started off nice & cool, lovely change from the humidity, spent the morning down at my local markets helping to re arrange & sort, we start up again this sunday, there will be more to do tomorrow. 
it started to rain when i came home (pouring hard as i write this) so thought i'd get into putting some of the cardigan i'm making for my 2nd dd together, got one side done & needed a break so started the sleeves til i was interrupted by someone wanting all the attention ...

my turn now

as you can see he is a little hard to resist & very insistent! every time i left & went back he would almost beat me to the table ready to jump up on there again, so i give up for now.

remember the pantry challenge? well i finally got mine finished yesterday. the shelves & walls were washed, (as far as i could reach) then left to dry for a few hours, by dinner time all was back in the pantry.

finally emptied

 

lots of containers waiting to be washed

   










then the final re organising with the empty tupperware all put at the far end, it's not great but a little better than it was, the herb rack is where it was before & all the flours & condiments are more accessible now.

everything put back 

empty containers up the far end

i also brought the other storage container in & rolled it under the shelf, it has all the pastas in it. 

it's not a very pretty pantry but at least for now it's practical.

just another job that needs to be done here some time in the future.

hope you all had a good week

thanx for visiting

butterfly beauties

last week just after the rain there was a population boom of hundreds of blue & black butterflies here, before i did the mowing they were everywhere, masses are still in the chook pen where i haven't mowed, they like the wild (weedy) purple flowers that come up here.

there were hundreds of these, it was quite a sight

tried to get a close up

i think they are quite beautiful, there were some other butterflies hanging around but these took the floor.

thanx for visiting

poor pantry

rhonda over at DTE blog is having a Pantry Challenge & i have put my foot in it, thinking it would get me motivated to at least clean it up a bit,
well, i took the photos then i just closed the doors & forgot about it ...

forgotten behind closed doors

here is the 'before';

i have a huge tall pantry, most of which is just wasted space & think it was just an extended part of the wooden kitchen that was put here, with only 2 usable shelves & one that's so high you need to be 10 foot tall just to use it! 

high empty shelf

too much wasted space

not sure if the previous owner even gave the room any thought, i did, this morning as i was making my porridge & came to the conclusion that it would probably be best if it was removed & the space used for more bench tops & cupboards but that will be a post for another day.

not much on the shelves

so... the challenge is for this weekend & results due on monday, mmm, did i mention that i'm also claustrophobic & afraid of the dark? there's no lights in it, think this is why i keep putting the cleaning off but it is well over due...

old spice rack i scored years ago

the old spice rack is one item in there that gets well used & is right near the door but to the side so it's out of the direct light. 

okay now that's all the 'before' done, will post 'results' sometime after the weekend. (there's never-ending mowing to do here again)


is anyone else taking on rhondas challenge? 


have a great weekend

thanx for visiting 

thanx

ohhh my goodness! 

i've had just over 1000 visitors to my little blog! 

thanx to all that visit

after the rain

since the rain everything is lush, green & growing!

a couple of years ago my next door neighbour inspired me to do my gardens, his gardens are so colourful! my place was very bleak at the time, he gave me some seeds to start & allowed me to collect more as they came available. some have come up, the zinnias, a lovely yellow daisy, which has since died back, some dianthus also came up with lovely crimson flowers. not all the seeds came up, am hoping to get more from Green Harvest eventually.

Cosmos & Zinnias are as tall as i am! soon to burst into more flowers

 i love Zinnias & Cosmos, they are so easy to grow, they self seed readily & give you a beautiful show of flowers.

pretty pink Zinnia

i love lots of different flowers, roses, lilies, daisies, zinnias, cosmos, iris, dahlias, hippeastrum, agapanthus, flowering herbs, lot's more that i can't think of, etc, one day i will have lots & lots of variety out in the garden. went looking online for the 'granny bonnets', columbines i think they are, that rhonda has in her garden, so pretty! but alas there weren't any in season, so no seeds.

the beautiful 'Lily of the Nile' - agapanthus

what i want to do is slowly get these flowers growing in other areas of the gardens, under the trees & over on the west side for more colour. i also want to get various herbs growing in between too. so this will probably be a slow project for this year.

crocus, people around here call them storm lilies

Solanum crispum 'Glasnevin' potato vine

well that's just a little of whats growing in my front garden at the moment. will post more later as they come into flower. flowers keep me smiling.

i had some visitors who were a little surprised to see me so close. 

right out front of the window. never been this close to them. 

hope you all had a great weekend 

thanx for visiting

URGENT HELP WITH SEWING NEEDED

no longer needing help, they have plenty of mittens now



Koalas needing help urgently


it is sad for all the losses in the recent bushfires & still are many that need help, please if you can sew, please help out these poor animals
Rhonda has also posted this on her blog too, if you have a blog please share this around to as many readers as possible, wish i could sew, i don't have any 100% cotton here anyway, so this is how i will help.



thanx for visiting

friends

ohhh i love my friends! 
just after i published my earlier post i got a phone call from one of my best friends, H & J who are holidaying over here from their work/stay in NZ. wanted to know if i was going to be home today & i was, they said it would be later in the day when they come to visit & i said that will be fine, haven't seen them for almost 2yrs & looking around my house & seeing nothing but mess that needed to be cleaned up & floors swept... uuuggghhh! well i picked myself up & got into it just after i fed & let the chooks out, went through & brushed down many of the cobwebs, those i could reach & swept as well, it will do, didn't look so bad then. then i sat & knitted for a bit while i waited, later in the arvo it was after 4:30pm, thought they may not be coming, decided i would go plant some pumpkin seeds up the back paddock & who should turn up? yep, my friends did & they discovered i had a split pipe too, (i'm almost deaf & didn't hear it) so after many hugs & a dash to the water mains to turn water off i rang a friend & neighbour who is good in a crisis. pipe fixed. H decided to jump up on to the roof & clean out my gutters & she put in some mesh too! 

afterwards we wandered around the yard chatting about this & that, then in the house about things i was doing, from turning fabric into yarn, making mats, to knitting cardigans & dishcloths, to making soaps & herbal teas. while drinking a freshly made herbal tea i threw together from the garden with lemon grass, lemon verbena & peppermint geranium, tasted great! i gave them a doz eggs to take back with them, they are over here for a couple of weeks i think, or possibly a month, they like to get back to aus about every 2 yrs to visit family & friends.

it was a great arvo

ohhh darn & i just realised i forgot to take photos! bugga!

they are family too

if you haven't gathered by the title of my blog, cats are my most favourite animals in the world & i used to have a lot of them...

was going to acquire a new addition to the family this month but decided against it as was worried something might happen to him. well the story there is about 18mths-2yrs ago i lost some of my fur-friends to domestic dogs (& all my chooks), i was devastated, what made it worse council wouldn't do anything about these roaming dogs! my beloved 'mummacat' Minka, was among them (she is on my FB timeline). i was a miserable wreck for over a year.

anyway, last year i thought it might be time i got myself another fur baby, to grow old with, my dd picked one up with me in mind (rescue) & was to be brought up this month. i've since changed my mind, i don't want to bring another animal here while i don't have any fences in place, 2 are left out of my original 7 (one died from snake bite) as gorgeous as the little guy is, i don't want to risk it. plus he seems so happy where he is, also dd's hubby has fallen for the little guy too. just couldn't break that up.

who could resist that face?

i mean really, look at those gorgeous eyes

sleepy

it's no wonder my dd took him home & as soon as she showed him to me, i fell in love with him. look at those markings & his unusual colouring, part Abyssinian for sure? 





plus i really think he has settled right in at dd's place with her other two cats, Louis keeping him frisky, with her oldest cat Paris keeping them both in line.

Louis teaching him some wrestling tips

Peanuts keeping his eyes on the BOSS Paris

doesn't Paris look absolutely lovely wearing fur boots? dd gets him shaved every summer due to his really long coat. need to think about getting one of the ones here done too but he's never been shaved & is 14, might have a few issues getting that done, whereas Paris has been done since a kitten.

i'm sure i'm going the right way with leaving him in my dds' capable hands. think i will still help her out with feeding & vet visits what little i can, he is just too adorable to ignore.

i still miss my fur friends terribly, they are all buried down in the herb garden.



thanx for visiting

wondering about ...

my days aren't filled with much, i potter around my little house, wondering what i'm supposed to do with my time, being on my own with too much time & not enough time. a little gardening, a bit of knitting, reading about how to use my herbs, of those i have growing & those i want to grow. wishing i was better at doing things, comprehension of self sufficiency, etc.
i don't bake, haven't since i gave up wheat, the children not living at home anymore is another. looking for other recipes for munchie foods, biscuits, slices, etc. most use almond flour which is not available where i live, i just want something where i can substitute wheat for rice flour which i can buy at my local store. i have tried to just swap it out but some recipes just don't work & i'm not a cook so not sure how to make it work. like i said, i'm not a cook & i don't bake often if at all. just sometimes a snack would be nice...

my days lately have been filled with mowing, the wet weather we seem to be blessed with is not going away & the grass won't stop growing, i mow in sections, yesterday i did the east side, front & driveway, today i want to do the west side & back around the clothes line but as i type this, it's starting to rain & there's a wall of grey coming our way. now it's pissing down. no mowing today by the sounds of this, love the sound of rain on a tin roof! 

pouring down & blowing against the window north facing

 

at front door can just make out the small pool of water at bottom, very blowy

it's been raining on & off here & now i'm procrastinating, will i go & mow or will it be too wet? it's just such an easy decision, yet i can not decide one way or the other ... 

yep, it's too wet, ohhh well there's always tomorrow.



thanx for visiting

welcome 2015

            HAPPY NEW YEAR!

                      hope it's a healthy & prosperous one for all

i'm originally from sydney so will leave you with this Fireworks display which just seems to get bigger every year

enjoy


thanx for visiting