The trick to olives is to buy a jar, and eat one every day, by the time the jar is finished you will be an olive person!
Took me three jars, my friends kept stealing them before I ate the lot.

Theres probably a place in hell reserved for using south american ingredients with indian methods and middle eastern sauce, oh, well I will be in good company!
Lets just call it multiculturalism and move quietly along.

The most brilliant use for them we found was pakoras, coated in chickpea flour, a little chilli and deepfried with mint/yogurt sauce to dip, yum. Better than potatoes as they are firmer

Theres a method of calculating alcohol content from the change in specific gravity of a brew between when it starts and when it is bottled.

True wormwood is Artemesia absinthum, the one absinthe was made from. Probably the original medicinal version, but others seem just as effective.
Tree wormwood (A abrotanum)is very similar, but grows a bit larger, often see it as country hedges. The African (A. afra) has a finer leaf, bit prettier, and similar uses. The Roman (A. pontica)has a…[Read more]

Have plants in pots and can send if not a restricted state. Not sure about true wormwood atm, have tree wormwood, african and roman I think ready to go. Could send buckets of dead flower heads, but no idea whether it will grow from seed readily, doesnt seem to self seed.
If no plants in pots could send cuttings of true or roman. takes very readily…[Read more]

testing out the ginger beer brew that DH made, 5% alc. I added lemon balm but think the flavour got lost a bit!

Lavender has never been a problem here
Wattles, juniper, eremophila, snapdragons, english box, elder, citrus, costmary.
But, they seem to eat what they know, around here very few gardens so they wary of strange plants. In more populated areas they learn to be a bit more adventurous, heard of them eating all sorts of things.

Apples are fine, baked with butterscotch or sultana stuffing and buried in cream. 😛

Pig-and-stuff on Toast
bacon, some shredded
pasta sauce or salsa something like that
Cheese, grated,
Herbs.
Mix stuff together put on bread and toast.

We have cotton weed that the caterpillars also eat, but cant send seed to WA, sorry.

Our lady cat recently had kittens, of course while feeding she is ravenous, been bolting down a couple of tins of commercial food daily.
Then she suddenly decided not to eat it, switched to chicken necks.
We have been trying to wean the kittens onto soft food, tried cooked chicken and gravy, some liked it some didnt. Tiger was the biggest kitten,…[Read more]

When I started here I had roo problems, mostly the roses and fruit trees. Now I still have roos, nothing is fenced away from them, but seem to be no problems. If I knew what I did right I could market it, lol. Ours are very wild, not used to cultivated plants, and I did hear they dont like strange smells/tastes. I have lots of scented geraniums,…[Read more]

We get the dragon lizards too, but pretty rarely, the sleepys are all over the place. Occasional blue tongues, and one interesting one is the barking gecko, actually makes a noise like a frog croaking. Also lives in groups, not just solitary, and they have special toilet areas, very civilised! The old scientific name was Underwoodisaurus (really),…[Read more]

Really annoyed that morning playschool moved off ABC 1, now instead of snowy Playschool we cant have any.

Judy, we had same problem with internet, we contacted Skymesh and now managed to prove eligible for NBN, so getting new better service. Suggest you talk to them.
Cant help with the TV, we only get two channels well, digital is a total fail.

Where did you get your hand mill, lol. I have one on order for Christmas…2008. Still hasnt arrived and the shop people are not moving on it at all.

Groceries, petrol, bills, do ppl actually spend money on anything else?

WE have carpets, not enough solar power for a vacuum usually. Just a stiff brush and hard work will clean them up fairly well.
Even if you have vacuum you will find it doesnt pick up hairs etc, so should brush them anyway.

Im surrounded by normal people too. My family is so sick of random junk christmas presents that they wont give anything to my little ones, 3 and 6. Neither knows what it feels like to get a pressie from an uncle, aunt, grandparent, cousin.
This year I want them to feel special, so we getting a charity hamper. At least someone cares…
In my pic,…[Read more]