Well, it's finally happened !! Darren and I are officially out of lockdown and isolation as of last Sunday night and we have rejoined civilization. Melbourne started opening up Thursday night last week but unfortunately we had to wait another few days until Darren had a negative test result. By the time he had confirmation all the shops had closed for the day. Then both Darren and I were at work on Monday.
So Tuesday was our big day out. Darren went and got his haircut then we headed down to Sorrento for lunch and a world famous vanilla slice. Then we had a lovely walk along the pier and watched the fishermen wrestling with seaweed on their lines. I'm not normally a beach person but being at the beach gives a wonderful sense of freedom after such a long lockdown.
Here's what else we got up to this week -
* Mixed up a quadruple batch of choc chip biscuit dough for the freezer. I'm trying to get lots of dough into the freezer ahead of Christmas and the hot weather. There are a few people I'll be giving home baked biscuits ( cookies ) to as part of their present.
* Gratefully received a food dehydrator from a friend. This will be wonderful to use for our garden produce and for vegetable specials I find at our local fruit and veg shop.
* Darren and I made pizza from scratch including the base. This is quite a saving compared to takeaway pizza and tastes so much better then anything I've ever bought.
* Darren has been picking hot pink perfumed roses from our garden for my bedside table. With such beauty in our garden, we rarely buy flowers for our home.
* Luka our 2 1/2 year old grandson picked flowers for me from our garden. He said " Nanny, you need a barse ( vase ).
* Dried all the washing on the line. Sometimes I change my wash day to suit the weather.
* Used some of our shower warm up water to water our plants. The rest of the water went into the washing machine.
* Dug up 18.7 kilos of potatoes from the garden. These potatoes were grown from supermarket potatoes that had sprouted in my pantry. Free food worth at least $18 and chemical free.
* Fed lots of snail to the chickens as well as old lettuce plants.
* Picked sugar snap peas and a mini cauliflower from our garden.
* Used the thermos to make cuppas during the day. Turned all standby lights and unused appliances off when not needed. Stuck to the two light rule.
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| From our garden |
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| Digging for potatoes |
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| The first bucketful. |
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| The 18.7 kilo haul. |
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| My gifted dehydrator. |
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| Out and about in Sorrento. |
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| THE vanilla slice |
Good morning Wendy, it is so exciting to be able to see those grandchildren in person.I always love garden pictures, home grown potatoes are a million times better than shop bought. I'm planning on soaking fruit for Christmas cakes this week and doing some serious list making.Take care
ReplyDeleteWow! Well done with the potato harvest! Our garden season is coming to an end, but we will be planting for spring in a couple of months. Time to get the beds ready to go!
ReplyDeleteOmg that vanilla slice is huge! Welcome back to being able to get out and about.
ReplyDeleteHi Wendy,
ReplyDeleteIt's wonderful news to hear Melbourne is out of lockdown. Your day out sounds lovely and that vanilla slice looks amazing. My hips say otherwise :)
We were in need of new sheets and I found some good bargains at Spotlight. I also wanted a king size doona for our queen bed in our spare/guest room. Found a bargain for $60. I've been looking for a while and felt it was good quality for the price. I had picked up 2 extra days work so I decided to treat myself to new linen. I try to keep the budget rolling along and pick up needed household items etc with overtime.
We made everything from scratch this week and took our lunches. I am line drying all of our washing as I type this. The heat has already arrived in SE Qld, and I'm trying very hard to not use the air conditioning.
Christmas is rocketing towards us and we've decided to give mostly gift cards. I think many will enjoy shopping the January sales.
As we open back up I pray we return to some resemblance of normality.
Take care
Rachel:)
I live in Queensland so life hasn't changed much. You have done so well with your potatoes. I love reading how you manage.
ReplyDeleteI have been enjoying my granddaughters. The four year old is so much fun and so gentle and caring. I took her to a movie yesterday as she has spent three days with me this week. This is three times more than usual. She loved her movie and we saved money by eating before we left and packing one little sweet treat for her. We were going to have lunch out but she wanted to eat at home. She has her own little words which delight me. New words include scarecrow for velcro, "this is frustrating", flingo for flamingo and the long lasting sump-ping for something. This afternoon I took a little dress to my new granddaughter. I need to practice sewing much more. I have not seen as much of her as I did with you elder cousin. But the baby at ten weeks was delighted with my silly songs and action games. She was chuckling delightedly. Then she fell asleep as I sang Teddy Bears Picnic. I soaked it all in and loved her precious moment.
I am afraid the electricity will be up. My son's housemate is being very difficult and Will's desperately needed to clean his work clothing. So last night a 60 degree wash and subsequent machine drying of gross chef clothes happened. I hope things improve soon because last night was rather ridiculous.
Stay well and safe everyone.
The vanilla slice looks amazing! What an excellent way to celebrate new found freedom! This week I made a birthday card, blanched and froze some gifted vegetables and also decanted my moisturiser from a squeezy plastic bottle into a beautiful antique silver-topped glass jar. I discovered that this is an excellent way to use less, firstly because I can scoop out exactly the right amount and secondly because the classy jar makes it seem more expensive. I am now eyeing up some other pretty containers and wondering what I could put into them.
ReplyDeleteTracey, that's a lovely idea to put the moisturiser into a jar.
DeleteOh THAT slice! I've not had one in years.
ReplyDeleteI am in Greater Sydney and worked reduced hours onsite right through our lock down. I drove past a major local hospital yesterday and noticed the staff coming and going for shifts wearing masks. This indicated to me that my desire to continue wearing my mask at work and shopping (inside and outside) is still the best choice.
Oh my, that dessert! I had to go & look up vanilla slice, & that looks amazing. Yum!
ReplyDeleteIt certainly is and was YUM !!
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