ALS members Blogs

I know a couple of people that care for native animals with a local wildlife shelter and they are almost addicted to taking on new animals to care for.  I think I have a similar addiction but this time for stray veggie plants!  I can't walk past a self set tomato without wanting to give it a new home.  This morning I have been busy moving a group of pumpkin plants that have sprung up in front of the chicken coop to a new home in a unused corner of the garden.  If they all grow we are going to have more pumpkins than we can possibly eat but I just can't help myself - I can see the potential that they have and want to give them a chance to thrive.  We can always share the excess with friends and neighbours or preserve them for future use - pumpkin chutney...

My little baby boy turns 7 today.  I can?t believe how quickly these last 7 years have gone!  He has grown so much and is turning into a really nice young man that cares for other people and has a very inquisitive mind.  His thirst for knowledge knows no boundaries and is fuelled by his love of reading books.  I am very proud of his understanding of the world and the impact of humans on the environment.  I hope that we manage to slow down the environmental degradation of our planet ? for him, his sister, his generation and all those to come.  I?ll do my very best to help? sounds like it is time for Mummy to put on her eco warrior super hero cape again!He is having a birthday party tomorrow which he is very excited about.  It has thrown up a few challenges for me as...

Sustainable Living: catching upcatching upSchool summer holidays are in full swing, the Christmas frenzy has died down, the man of the house has returned to work leaving me and the children at home for the week.   Lots of new toys to play with so while the children were amusing themselves I caught up on a few gardening jobs.Tomatoes were pinched out and tied to stakes.  More seeds were sown... zucchini, tomatoes, cumin, celery, sunflowers and bush pickles.  We have visitors for 5 weeks in January / February and I am a little worried that they are going to eat all our lovely produce leaving nothing left for the end of the harvest.  To reduce this worry, I've decided to get some more veggies on the go so that we have more than enough to go round!Christmas day was a very stormy day here.  I am a big fan of...

... in photos:Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne Tesselaar Tulip FestivalTesselaar Tulip FestivalKing Parrot feeding in the back gardenView of the sky from my back gardenCamping trip to InverlochChocolate feast at the Philip Island Chocolate FactoryBeauty on the beachRock pool full of lifeThe wiggly treeI had a BIG birthdayMy birthday present - I love it!Crafting with kids - felt monstersCrafting with kids - pet rocks!The veggie patch bursting into productionUsing up recent harvestsCrafting with kids - pom pomOld school homemade christmas decorationsThe christmas season is upon usA seaside sunhatThe pink starry sunhatA sunhat for the little boy of the houseOriginal link...

Lemon, lemons, lemons everywhere!  Lately we've been lucky enough to have a tree heavily laden with lemons and also lots of colleagues at work that have been bringing in their excess lemons to give away.Now, I have a really rather yummy lemon drizzle cake recipe but there really is only so much lemon cake you can eat... well, I'm pretty sure I could eat more but I would then have to visit the gym more than my current twice weekly dose!!  So, I've been trying to find new creative ways of using lemons and stumbled across a recipe for pickled lemons so decided to give it a go.The recipe is really rather easy... I'll insert recipe here shortly!  I'm particularly tempted by the suggestion of using the spicy lemon vinegar on my fish and chips, or maybe in a salad dressing in the summer.  yummy yums!We now have 2...

Now that spring is here, it's time to start thinking about getting ready for summer.  Seeds have been planted and some tender seedlings are growing on the sunny dining table waiting until reliably warm weather so that they can be planted out into the garden.There's all sort of preparation that needs to be done before summer arrives, not least the need to do some bushfire preparation.  Last year we were blessed (?) with a wet and not too hot summer so we never finalised our bushfire preparations.  As this was our first year living in a bushfire risk area we were relieved to not have to evacuate or worry too much... though we did check the CFA website every time we heard the siren go off at the nearby CFA station just to be on the safe side.As the proud owner of two young children, the main preparation for summer is making sure...

Sustainable Living: garden delightsgarden delightsI'm lucky to have a day to myself today, time in lieu for working a Saturday a few weeks ago.  I had big plans to spend the day getting the veggie patch into shape, basking in the spring sun, but it's raining today so I'm enjoying some quiet time indoors instead.  I love quiet "me-time" but it is such a rare event, with two young children in the house my brain is generally overloaded with constant chatter in stereo, surround sound with volume turned to 11!  I love my children, don't get me wrong, but sometimes I just crave a bit of peace and quiet to let my thoughts wander unhindered.  Sometimes I feel like screaming "Stop the voices!!!"  but I'm not sure anyone would actually hear me!Yesterday, the weather was gloriously sunny.  So, after a spot of weeding (which was met with great excitement...

Sustainable Living: I'm back!!!I'm back!!!Wow!  I knew it had been a while since my last post but I had no idea it was such a long time ago.... I have thought about posting numerous times but just haven't got around to putting fingers to keyboard.  Since I was here last, lots has been happening at home and in the garden, and I have managed to make some progress with some of the items on my sustainable living wishlist.  I'll update on some of those actions another time (and I promise to not be away for so long!!).Spring has now arrived and I have spent most of the day busying myself in the garden.  Potatoes are now popping their leaves up through the mulched veggie patch, beans have gone into the ground, buds and flowers are forming on our fruit trees and there are bees buzzing around pollenating everything in...

What a wonderfully long weekend we've just had - 5 whole days accompanied by mostly wonderful weather.  We finished building our no dig veggie patch which has doubled the area that we can grow in, which is very exciting and has me dreaming of bountiful harvests to come.We found time to visit the creepy crawly sand sculptures where the kids had a whale of a time hunting for sand eggs.An easter egg hunt in the back garden followed by a trip to the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne where we admired the 400 year old grass trees and found out all about eucalyptus oil.A trip to my favourite new discovery - the local garden centre, where we stocked up on new plants.... a fig tree, a pair of kiwifruit plants, blackcurrant bushes, tropical guava and pineapple guava plants.new plants waiting to be put into the groundWe still had enough energy left for...

Today was such a gorgeously sunny autumn day that I was pleased to have a day off work (mainly to cover school holiday care but who says it means that I can't indulge my love of gardening at the same time?!?!).Yesterday we were busy constructing our new no dig veggie bed and then relaxed with a trip to our local garden centre which saw us leave complete with new apricot tree, passionfruit and some herb plants.  There would have been more purchases but we had to leave room in the car to collect bags of horse manure on the way home!  Oh well, means we'll have to go back to the garden centre again soon....  The no dig veggie bed - soon to be expanded to cover the lawn at the front of this photoI'm trying to follow Jackie French's rule of planting something every week... so this today I sowed...

Fabulous pumpkin harvest!! How will you eat it all!Thanks Mrs Bok. We've made a start, with pumpkin going into a lot of meals... curry, potato and pumpkin mash, roast pumpkin. Might have to make some pumpkin soup too! Yum!It is my goal to go around and locate our main draught points and further block them as winter is fast approaching. We sealed doors last year but I would like to check how well it is working and which windows are our worst draught makers.We have started on pumpkin soup here too... think its some roast pumpkin tonight.Original link...

I soooo love that book!I'd like a deep litter system but my chooks aren't in their run enough. When we renovate...one day...we'll put in a chook palace and that'll be the end of the fluffy bum wanderings all over my Vegie patch!! :)We were lucky enough to inherit a chook mansion when we bought our house. Our cheeky chooks still get to free range too but have to go back into their coop if they get a little too friendly with my veggies!Original link...

Sustainable Living: keeping it localkeeping it localAs the weekend draws to a close it's time to reflect on the family activities of the last 2 days.  With the man of the house taking to his bed with flu, it was up to me, little monkey and little fairy to amuse ourselves.  I've been aiming to keep as many of our activities as local as possible so Saturday morning we went to the local community market.  It was great to see so many stalls laden with home made goodies - yummy food, lovely crafts and plenty for all three of us to look at.  We came away with very satisfied tummies and a (reusable!) bag full of local apples and some home made soap.  On our way back to the house we stopped by the local playground to burn off some excess energy....... then popped into the veggie shop for...

Sustainable Living: thankfulthankfulIt's the end of a long and busy week at work.  The weekend has just begun and I am feeling thankful.  Thankful that (so far) I seem to have escaped the flu which has now struck the man of the house and had our little monkey away from school all last week.  Thankful that the little monkey and little fairy both went straight to bed tonight without messing me about.Thankful that we had some frozen portions of home cooked food in the freezer so I had a no effort meal (even if I have just realised that I have had leftover curry 2 nights in a row!).Thankful for art work brought home from school to brighten up the house.Thankful for an evening of peace and quiet all to myself.  Time to switch off the laptop, open a bar of my favourite chocolate and indulge my passion for...

Sustainable Living: The ever growing things to do listThe ever growing things to do listI don't know about you but I am one of those list people!  I love lists!  I need lists - as a working mother I would be totally lost without my lists.  Saying that, I still forget to do or buy things that are on my lists but who knows what chaos would unfold if I were to ditch the lists?!The trouble is they never seem to get any shorter... no sooner has one thing been crossed off than another thing sneaks on to the end of the list while I'm not looking and I am right back to where I started.  My sustainable living wish list is growing by the day.  Some of my ideas are longer term (or expensive) whilst others are more easily achieved. Several ideas are already in progress.  So here...

Hello everyone and welcome to my latest blog.  It has been in the 'thinking about' stage for a while now so today I've decided to get on with it otherwise it will never happen!  I'll be tinkering around with the style of the site until I'm happy with it so please bear with me.  I've been blogging on and off now for about 3 years now and enjoy sharing my experiences and also LOVE reading other people's blogs.  This time my blog is going to focus on my real passion in life and that is the environment.I have been interested in the environment and caring for the earth for longer than I care to remember.  I have fond memories of collecting autumn leaves and tracing over them with crayons, walks in the woods, harvesting blackberries from the hedgerows, helping my parents in the vegetable patch, walks at the seaside and...