Thoughts And Recollections Of A Tree Spirit

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

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

Gotta Love Council Clean-Ups

Tuesday, December 9th, 2008

It’s Council Clean-up time again in our suburb and due to our pending move, it couldn’t have come at a more opportune moment.

Council Clean-Up comes around every six months and allows everyone to throw away any junk that they don’t need anymore and won’t fit in the normal waste bin. People pile up all their unwanted items outside their houses on the nature strip (grass by pavement or curb) and then the council comes along and removes it.

It’s a brilliant service for so many reasons. We bought a new (second hand from Vinnie’s) three piece suite on Saturday ready for our move as our old one, which was kindly donated to us by Ant when we had nothing, is now more than a little past it’s best. We were thinking we were going to have to take it to the tip but Council Clean-Up means all we had to do was drag it up the drive and start a pile to which we can now add more stuff we no longer need.

Another huge bonus is that Council Clean-Up = FREE STUFF!!!

We spent Sunday morning driving up and down the roads looking for anything that we could make use of, and we sure found some little gems:

A big and wonderfully solid outdoor wooden table – perfect for our new communal BBQ area.
Two solid pine desks with drawers – in need of a little rub down but otherwise perfect for our respective spare rooms; one for me and Mat and one for Kat & Nick (if they wish).
A perfectly good plastic full-length reclining chair – just missing a cushion which will be easy enough to get from somewhere.
A funky wicker box with lid – perfect for storing stuff in.
A little wooden table – ideal as a coffee table or possibly a bedside table.
The top part to a pine Welsh dresser which I will use as a bookshelf.
A lap top – missing it’s power cable and without an operating system but certainly worth looking at.

The list goes on and people are still adding to the piles so depending on when the Council picks everything up, we may aqcuire some more free stuff yet.

On top of it being a massive free-for-all it’s got to be one of the best ways to recycle and re-use. You find all sorts of people trawling through the piles from tramps to people out to make a quick buck by re-selling others’ cast-outs. As you can tell, I’m very enthusiastic about it, but then how could you not be?

09.12.2008 Aussie places/info of interest, Personal, The Green Area No Comments

Today is International Earth Day!

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008

I opened my internet browser today to be greeted by the usual ‘Google’ on the Google homepage looking a little different – you know how they change their standard format when it is a special day and decorate the ‘Google’ with something relevant? – well today the ‘Google’ was in the form of trees with grass, a waterfall and mountains in the background, thus:

Earth Day Google

“How cool” I thought to myself, “I wonder what that can mean”? Well, when you run your cursor over the customized ‘Google’ it tells you what the special occasion is and today is Earth Day! Being a “greenie” I should have known that and now I come to think of it a good friend of mine mentioned it a while ago as her birthday falls on the same day (now I should never forget either).

So what is Earth Day all about? (more…)

22.04.2008 Personal, The Green Area No Comments