My Simple Living Progress

Well, here I go again with my visual diary for August to document my "Simple living" progress for this month........and boy, what a busy month it has been.

I baked and made a great meal of...... Chicken with Sun Dried Tomato Cream Sauce.  This was an amazingly easy and very tasty dish that allowed me to use some of the many dried tomatoes I have in the fridge.   Here is a link to the recipe over at "Damn Delicious"

I preserved..........hundreds and hundreds of cherry tomatoes.  I froze lots, oven dried more, made homemade tomato sauce and bolognaise sauce, froze more and ate copious amounts fresh in salads.  I am actually pleased that the bushes have finished fruiting now so I can direct my preserving efforts elsewhere.

I handmade.........some lacy crochet jug covers that are a great gift for simple living friends. Not only do they come in handy for covering the milk jug but are great on top of jars of sourdough starters, kefir cultures and other fermenting treasures that can be found in a busy kitchen.

I repurposed/recycled...........some old T-shirts into garden ties.   The stretchknit fabric is great in the garden as its softness and flexibility doesn't damage the stems of plants that have been tied up.

I saved money by.............planting some lavender cuttings.  The beginning of Spring is a great time to do this.  My lavender bush, as usual, will die off shortly when the wet season starts.  A Queensland Summer is definitely not the best situation for lavender, but my little cuttings will grow healthy during this time in their little pots ready to be planted out again next Autumn.

I planted seeds/seedlings of..............quite a number of compact, flowering shrubs and ground covers during the revamp of the garden outside my front door.  Hutchy and I get together each week and "stitch" in this area so I wanted to give the area a flowery cottage feel.

I harvested...........the last of the Winter crops.  I am now in the process of turning over the garden beds, fertilising, mulching and preparing for the Spring planting.

I tried something new.............each year at this time I have swallows that like to try and nest on my verandah.  Not only are they extremely noisy but they also leave huge amounts of bird droppings at the back door.  This year I purchased a fake, resin "bird of prey" look-a-like from Bunnings and have swung it from the rafters........................it is working well.

I read and was inspired by..................The Readers Digest "Complete Book of Herbs" that I borrowed from my local library.  This is a great book for the herb enthusiast and contains not only loads of info of herb growing but an awesome selection of recipes, preserving techniques and loads of craft ideas too.

I finally tackled................the pruning of the grape vine.  For those who have done it before you will know that this is not an easy or pleasant job and certainly one that keeps getting put to the bottom of the list.

I really enjoyed............Getting back out in the garden now that the weather has warmed up.   I find it very soothing to have some dirt under my fingernails again.

On that note I will sign off with a lovely quote from David Hobson.