Thoughts And Recollections Of A Tree Spirit

Our First Home

Sunday, November 13th, 2011

Most of our family and close friends will now be aware that Mat and and I have been looking to buy a property here in Australia and that we have now done so. Well, we have paid our deposit and exchanged contracts anyway, and are set to complete and move in on 16 December, a week before christmas.

“Does that mean we are never moving back to the UK?” some of you may ask. Well, the answer I’ll give is “Never say never” and “who knows what’s round the corner?” I moved out here for an intended duration of six months and here I am still, having had my four year anniversary of landing in Sydney just yesterday! One thing I have learnt is that the only constant in Life is change. Things rarely turn out the way we plan and my ultimate goal is to live with my feet planted firmly in the Present and embrace every moment.

Ok, so enough of the philosophy and on with the pictures.

Firstly we have a video that Mat took when we inspected the unit again before putting in an offer. As you can see, Mat is especially excited at having twin sinks in the bathroom!

The lounge/dining room

The lounge/dining room

(more…)

13.11.2011 Personal, Pictures, Videos 5 Comments

I Made Soap

Friday, March 11th, 2011

I have been using natural hand made soap for around five years now and have been interesting in learning how to make my own for ages. However, all the books and online information make it sound quite complicated. When I went to the Avalon Fair last November there was a stall I was instantly attracted to as it sold, not only hand made soap but Palm Oil Free soap (hurrah for the orangutans) into the bargain! I had an interesting chat with the two ladies who made the soap and jumped at the chance to sign up for their soap making course.

After a long wait I finally went on the course at the end of February. It was an all day event at their house where all the ingredients and tools were provided as well as a delicious lunch and refreshments. There were only four participants which meant it was nice and intimate and we got to ask loads of questions. We worked in pairs and made four different recipes with a total of twenty four soaps to take home each.

Cold-press natural palm oil free handmade soap

The method we learnt – cold-press soap making – was nowhere near as complicated as it had previously sounded and I shall definitely be trying it again at home soon. The soaps will take three to four weeks to cure and then the big test – will they be as good to use as they look and smell?

Here are my curing soaps. From left to right they are:

  • Honey, almond meal and cinnamon soap
  • Goats milk, lavender and patchouli soap
  • Healing bentonite clay and lemon myrtle soap
  • Orange, ginger and wattle seed soap


11.03.2011 Personal, Pictures, The Green Area 8 Comments

Spanish Chicken Breasts

Friday, February 11th, 2011

On Wednesday I decided to be extra domestic and try my hand at some “proper” cooking. I say cooking but actually it was a marinade that I prepared. And I should point out that it wasn’t really my idea either; Mat deemed that as I wasn’t working in the office, this was what he would like for tea and I could perhaps give it a whirl.

Well, after popping into the village to get extra ingredients I set to the task with surprising enthusiasm. Here is the recipe, taken from the little, and rather brilliant, book that came with our barbeque, “Australian Cooking with the Weber Big Family Q”:

Spanish chicken breasts marinaded in citrus and tarragon
Chicken breasts (obviously), then for the marinade:
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup roughly chopped fresh tarragon
2 tblsps white-wine vinegar
Zest and juice of 1 orange
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 tsp salt
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp grated ginger
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Whisk all ingredients up (I stirred) and put into plastic bag with chicken breasts (rinsed under cold water). Press out air and seal, turn and squidge bag to distribute marinade evenly, then refridgerate for 3-4 hours.
When ready to cook throw breasts onto barbie for 5-6 minutes each side (until juices run clear) whilst boiling leftover marinade in pan for a minute. Then halfway through barbequeuing baste chicken with marinade.

Here is my finished marinade:
Spanish Chicken Marinade

Mat generally is in charge of the BBQ and I’m not sure that he actually boiled the marinade (this is the first time I have read this bit, lol, as I only read the marinade bit before) as I don’t remember seeing a dirty saucepan when I was washing up. However it was finished it tasted, though I do say so myself, rather delicious and would highly recommend it.

11.02.2011 Personal, Pictures, Recipes 2 Comments

How to get an Eco Swimming Pool in your Kitchen

Thursday, February 3rd, 2011

I was going to blog today about how I haven’t blogged for ages and how I must post more this year – heck, I missed my birthday, Christmas, our holiday to Seal Rocks, Australia Day and Mat’s birthday! But no, instead I have something else to tell you that has so far filled my morning since about 6.45am!

Yesterday I had the idea that if I bought a great big bucket, a 42 litre flexi tub to be precise, I could fill it up with grey water every time I did a load of washing and then use it to water the garden – another tick on my list of green and eco habits! I did this yesterday and was so pleased with myself that I decided to do it again today (I have a few days off and am making the most of it by getting lots of washing done that I normally put off: bed sheets etc).

I started filling the tub on the first drain cycle but it was rather susdsy so decided to start again with the second draining. As I was also in the middle of checking emails etc I decided to leave the outflow hose in the tub and then get ready to swap it back to the sink when I heard the drain cycle start (the flexi tub, although large, is not large enough to contain the entire drainage from the washing machine). It wasn’t long before I came out of my internet cloud and realised that the washing had finished. Without thinking much I stepped into the kitchen and instantly fell flat on my arse in about two inches of water.

HINT: Don’t ever leave a washing machine unattended when all that is standing between a nice green project and a flooded kitchen is your ability to stay aware of the present situation.

In my case my complete inablility to stay aware should have been obvious when there can be chainsaws and chippers going full belt a few streets away on a quiet Sunday afternoon and I won’t notice until someone else points it out!

kitchen flood when attempting to be green

It doesn't look much but this was 1.5 mop buckets later!

Overflow of flexi tub

It's all the flexi tub's fault!




Bizarrely the water seemed to drain from the laundry room in a straight line into the kitchen and then pool in the centre. Only a little bit escaped into the carpeted area of the hall and none whatsoever into the living room and onto the wooden floor – thank heavens! Maybe it was designed this way.

The other “bright sides” to look at are:

  • the kitchen was in serious need of mopping anyway
  • I’ve never mopped the laundry since we moved in here
  • the plants have all had a jolly good water
  • I have discovered another use for the grey water – mopping the floors!

All in all it has been a learning experience. I need to listen to my little nagging thoughts at the back of my brain more and I also think I shall try and source an extension pipe so the outflow can stretch through the window to outside.

The one irony is it looks like it may rain!!!

03.02.2011 Personal, Pictures, The Green Area 6 Comments

First Paddle of the Season

Monday, September 27th, 2010

Yesterday morning (Sunday) Mat and I were up early and as it was such a beautiful morning decided to go for a walk on the beach before treating ourselves to breakfast in Avalon.

The weather really has warmed up since the arrival of Spring and so we left our shoes in the car and went for our first paddle of the season. The sea really wasn’t too cold at all and I think I could have gone in for a swim quite comfortably. There were in fact a couple of people that had gone for a dip with no wetsuits.

As it was our first, I got out my camera to snap a picture of us both. The first one resulted in a rather wonky horizon and serious expression on my face due to concentration.

First paddle of season at Avalon Beach, NSW

First paddle of season at Avalon Beach, NSW

I took another one (above right) but wasn’t sure if I had pressed the button properly so got Mat to stay where he was while I tried again. Woops! As we had our back to the waves so they would appear in the picture we failed to see the big wave coming up behind us until it was too late. We both got rather drenched but the picture I had taken just as the wave hit enabled us to see the funny side :-)

An unsuspecting wave, AValon Beach, NSW

27.09.2010 Personal, Pictures 1 Comment

Dee Why Armed Robbery

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

Dee Why Armed Robbery News Headlines

This was yesterday’s new headlines in the local Manly Daily yesterday after the terrible event on Monday. It seems that the Northern Beaches is fast becoming as unsafe a place to live as the rest of the world.

Dee Why is very local to us and we have a fair few friends living there so we were all a bit shocked to hear the news. Fortunately no innocent parties lost their lives.

The armed robber was shot dead by a guard when he tried to rob an armoured van outside Dee Why RSL. He has not yet been identified. There was one innocent bystander injured by a shot in the foot but luckily no one else was injured.

For the full story go here.

28.07.2010 News Topics, Personal, Pictures No Comments

Belated Birthday Celebrations in Manly

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

On Sunday Mat and I actually left the Insular Peninsular and ventured all the way down to Manly for Ruth’s belated birthday celebration.

She chose the 4 Pines in Manly for a relaxing Sunday afternoon lunch and sample of the beer; the 4 Pines is also a brewery and have a fine selection of their own beers. Mat and I had given Ruth, Henry and Cam a lift so they could drink and we met up with Wayland & Kirstie and Phil & Teri there. It worked out quite well as Manly is a good middle point for all of us and I had assumed this was the reason behind the choice in venue, though apparently it wasn’t; Ruth wasn’t as thoughtful as she appeared and had picked it simply because she had gone there the week before and liked it (I mean to say, how selfish :-P lol)!

It was a beautifully sunny day but not quite warm enough to sit outside. The inside of the place was very nice though and they sold the beer in pints which made a refreshing change from the usual Aussie scooners. The beer wasn’t particularly cheap at around $9 a pint but the general consensus was that it was very good beer and worth the extra money for something a bit different and a pleasant atmosphere.

The food was exceedingly good and very reasonable averaging at $20 for a main course. There was a good selection ranging from the enormous mega burger, to fish & chips and Mushroom risotto. I chose the chicken pie and was not disappointed. In fact everyone reckoned mine was the best. There was heaps of chunky moist breast and pieces of bacon accompanying the vegetables topped with a lovely puff pastry lid. It was a good size and if I’d wondered whether I should have ordered chips to go with it I was very glad I hadn’t afterwards.

Henry surprised us all (apart from Ruth who has to cater for his bottomless pit on a daily basis) by ordering a mega burger and a main course dish of mussels and managing to eat them both but this was by no means a sign that the dishes were on the small size; they weren’t. Mat had the mussels as well and found them to be most satisfying, though I think he did pinch a few of Ruth’s chips!

Celebrating at the 4 Pines in Manly

Going round the table from the left: Phil, Teri, Ruth, Henry, Cam, Kirstie, Wayland, Mat and me.

After food we all went for a wander in the sun and I made myself incredibly sick by having an ice cream and large coffee. All in all it was a lovely day and great to catch up with everyone; Phil and Teri had just come back from two weeks home in the UK and we just don’t see Wayland and Kirstie as often as we would like because they live all the way out in the city (yes, we are very lazy – they don’t call Avalon the Insular Peninsular for nothing)!

22.06.2010 Aussie places/info of interest, Personal, Pictures 2 Comments

Permanent Residents At Last!

Friday, May 14th, 2010

I was just discussing with Mat this morning the sending of additional visa documentation to the Visa Office in support of our residency application when, looking up from the computer where he was checking his emails, he said that he didn’t think we would need to worry about that as our visas had been granted.

WOOH HOO!!! We both did a little woop and a skip and then re-read the email to make sure we were correct. Yes, as of the 13th May we are both now permanent residents of Australia! Grats to us! Who says the 13th is unlucky?

Abercrombie National Park

I like to add pictures to my posts so here are Mat and I in the Australian bush, Abercrombie National Park, back in March. We were camping at the Sink Campsite whilst on an off-roading trip with our friends Wayland and Kirstie and my brother – very Australian :-)

14.05.2010 Personal, Pictures 12 Comments

Project 365

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

On Tuesday, as I wasn’t working in the office, I went for a brisk early morning constitutional down to the beach. Of course I took my camera with me and after getting some interesting shots of an Ibis on the walking track to North Avalon I decided today would be a good day to start my Project 365.

What is Project 365? Well, if you are frequentor of Flickr.com you may be familiar with it as it is very popular among photographers. It’s basically a commitment that one makes to take a photograph for every day of the year (and then upload it to Flickr if that’s your choice of platform). I think if you are doing it seriously then there are other rules but I’m just going to do it for me so that’s as far as I’m going.

My main aim is to improve my composition and eye for an interesting photo by regular practice. As I only have a basic point and shoot I’m not expecting brilliant photography but I figure the science behind it is something I can learn at a later date when I get a manual SLR or the like. There is no point in being able to take a physically brilliant photo if my composition is shit. A good photo is a piece of art, in my opinion anyway.

So, you can find my photostream here for now and with any luck I will be able to add a Flickr feed to this blog later so that any new photos appear in the sidebar. Shown below are my photos for Tuesday, Wednesday and today:

Grafitti Ibis

The Ibis regards the somewhat jaded grafitti and is of the definite opinion that it is in need of an overhaul.

The first photo is already explained. Yesterday’s shows my brother’s amazing and wonderfully colourful piece of grafitti art that he did for Mat and I on his visit. I wasn’t sure whether to do a closeup or include all the surrounding rubbish. I opted for including some of the rubbish as I figured it depicted our “Life” which goes with the word “Life” on the art board.

This morning, as I was finishing tidying the kitchen I heard next door’s dog, Sparky, barking in the garden. I grabbed my camera and took the opportunity to snap some pics through the chain link fence and amazingly this one came out okay. He is the cutest little terrier (not sure what type) with the biggest sticky up ears I have ever seen :-)

Life grafitti

Our life surrounding Life

Sparky the terrier

Come and play with me, please please please...

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13.05.2010 Australian Flora & Fauna, Moggies & Doggies, Personal, Photography, Pictures 2 Comments

Thank You Bro!

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

Me & Rich at Avalon Beach A big thank you to my bro for finally making it over to Australia for a holiday.

The last month has been fantastic and it was with a heavy heart that me and Mat had to drop Rich at the airport yesterday. I will miss having him here very much but I have also gained a lot from our long chats and have much to think about. I vow to be more positive; positivity breeds content :-)

I shall, in time, get around to posting some pictures from our many adventures but for now this shows me and Rich at Avalon Beach on Monday just before we went for a refreshing swim.

25.03.2010 Personal, Pictures 2 Comments

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