We have had another busy week at the Gower Abundant Cottage. Darren continues to get plenty of work with his new job. It seems the more he works, the more shifts he gets offered. He also started a new job at our church as Pastoral Care Director. He's so excited with this new role and looks forward to helping care for the needs of others. Darren also continue to help with most of my cleaning jobs. God is good and we are blessed to have all this work.
We took a much deserved day off on Thursday to attend the Melbourne Flower Show. We enjoyed a beautiful Autumn day with a light breeze as we viewed all the displays and stalls. There seemed to be a big focus of native plants ( not my cup of tea ) this year and a florist friend revealed that there is a rose shortage in Australia. I did wonder why the displays indoors were not as spectacular as usual. Still, it was wonderful to have a day out. I did take lots of photos and I'll share a few below.
Here's what else we got up to this week -
* Made a quadruple batch of choc chip biscuit dough. I baked 2 trays of biscuits and the rest of the dough went into the freezer.
* Gave Megan a haircut, then Luka ' helped ' bake bread with me.
* Baked 3 loaves of wholemeal bread with extra goodness.
* Gratefully received a bunch of parsley from my Dad's garden. I used my dehydrator to dry it.
* Refilled all the foaming soap hand pumps around our home with diluted shower gel.
* I made 2 hand towels from an old towel. It was looking a little dirty in the middle of the towel and I couldn't shift the dirt no matter what I sprayed on it. So I cut off each end of the towel and sewed new hems to make hand towels.
* Darren picked another bunch of hot pink roses from our garden.
* Made 1 kilo of brown sugar using white sugar and molasses.
* Saved the shower warm up water, kitchen water, washing machine rinse water and water from drink bottles. All was reused to water plants and pour into the washing machine.
* Reused old bread bags to line bathroom bins and double wrap food to go into the freezer.
* Planted broccoli seedlings and seeds into one of our veggie garden beds.
* Dehydrated lots of pears from our tree. Some of these dried pears will be used in the hot cross buns we will be making shortly. We are not fans of mixed peel and sultana hot cross buns. Instead we use dried apricots, cranberries, pears, peaches and a few sultanas.
 |
| Parsley from Dad |
 |
| Making hand towels |
 |
| My dehydrator |
 |
| Drying pears |
 |
| Lots of biscuit dough |
 |
| Making brown sugar |
Photos from the Melbourne Flower Show
What beautiful flowers at the show, Wendy. Lovely photos! It's school holidays here now and we are staying home. We will do some inexpensive local outings, like a picnic at the Botanic Gardens, which we enjoy but cost nothing or not very much. Here's my list this week:
ReplyDelete* ate some meals from freezer as very busy week - chickpea curry and rice, spaghetti bolognese, green mac 'n' cheese.
* made 2x zucchini slices, topped one with tomato
* made a red potato, celery and radish salad to use up celery from crisper
* made french toast and pear pancakes for something different for breakfasts this week
* bought large packet of garlic bread slices reduced to 50c (almost past use by date) - one of smaller supermarkets close by has a section in cold cabinet where they put markdowns. Froze slices as soon as I got home - this will be eaten with soups and spag bolognese.
* bought a large, single piece of chuck steak, reduced price to $9, to make stew. Will add lots of veg, herbs from our garden and pasta shells to bulk this stew up and have extra to freeze.
* picked thyme from our garden to use in salad
* packed morning tea and water bottles for snack after specialist medical appointment over other side of city so didn't have to buy food.
* received 4x cherry tomato plants through our Buy Nothing Group. I will plant these into pots today. I already have pots.
* worked an extra relief day so some extra $ came in which is always welcome.
I need to make a few handtowels too. I want to try making ones with fabric at top and a button so I can hang off my oven handle.
Have a good week!
Meg Xx
A lovely post to read this morning Wendy, great news that Darren has been picking up work and how nice to take the day off to go to the flower show.
ReplyDeleteI’ve enjoyed reading your posts on how to offset rising grocery prices.
This week I added up my spending for the month of March (I write everything down and sort into categories) and was astounded to see I had spent double what I had aimed for on groceries for the month. Felt very despondent but am aiming for better this month, and also have realised I need to be more realistic with my goal. I have 2 young children, both who have allergies and one in nappies. For example, I am finding that I am probably spending $10 a week alone on bananas. But we all love bananas, they are healthy, filling and easy so I accept that.
So will aim to try my best and stick to a meal plan.
I don’t know how people are getting on when you see their trolleys packed full of packaged kids foods, expensive juices, meats etc. It must just all go on credit card and not paid off??
This week I:
-picked limes, lettuce, basil, silverbeet
-sowed beetroot seeds and prepared more veggie beds
-borrowed 3 magazines on the library app, and 3 magazines from in the library
-went through my babies clothes and boxed up what was too small for a neighbour having their first child. All in good condition and all were hand me downs from various friends. Thought about how I have not had to buy anything for my baby due to generosity and smiled.
-took lots of cuttings from a friends garden
-realised I am 1/4 way through my “no buying new clothes” for my family for the year, and am doing it easy!
Am looking forward to doing some decluttering and cleaning this weekend. Thanks for the inspiration Wendy.
Hi Wendy the flowers look beautiful, I too work in the heath sector their is so much work available in this field,,I started with a new company when we moved & iam very happy with the new company,they give me time to take my breath,, but I need to slow down and learn to say no occasionally lol ways we saved this week I cut johns hair made some of your recipes chicken soup was one,,eat from our garden and just today filled my car with petrol what a relief to finally see it come down :) have a gr8 weekend
ReplyDeleteMost of our meals this week have been had a home and a pot of lamb and barley soup figured largely most days. We haven't had our car for a few weeks and I truly did not like the rental car so since our car is home ewe hav employed catch up. Mum is pretty much housebound due to illnesses that make her very susceptible to Covid. She has friends in the same boat. This week we saw many people we haven't seen for months. We kept these outing as frugal as possible by taking fixings to make rolls for lunch and fruit for afters. I bought my daughter a coffee today and I almost died form sticker shock. Such a tiny cup for $5.50. I have dragged out more seeds and need to start planting. If I succeed a little it will help.
ReplyDeleteGod bless and stay safe.
Good morning Wendy, congratulations to Darren on his new well deserved position at your church, I know he has worked hard over the years. I had heard that prior to the pandemic most of the roses that you could purchase in Australia were from South America, so I hope that Australian flower growers are getting a better market share now and a fair price and people may be able to make a better living at this again. Have a lovely week 🌹
ReplyDeleteNever mind -- found the recipe!
ReplyDeletehttps://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com/2017/08/anzac-biscuits.html