Let's all light up...and in the garden

I haven't been posting much lately.  I've not been at my best, because of my new neighbour who is a heavy smoker, and spends her days on her deck, enjoying the sunshine and fresh air, and smokes the day away.  While I have to close my house up tight to try and prevent the smoke coming in.  It doesn't work.  I'm living in a dirty ashtray!  And the smoke makes me terribly, horribly sick.  And sad, and mad.....in varying degrees at varying times.  The smoke has infiltrated my whole life......my house and yard smell, my animal's coats smell, my car parked under the house, smells, my clothes, fabrics and knitting wools smell.  I can't use my deck, because the fresh smoke blows across onto it.  I'm not in a good place, physically and emotionally. I've spoken to her about how her smoking so close to my house affects me, but there's been no change.

But I can still escape to my garden.  I've been slowly turning this weedy area that I've fenced off, into garden beds, it's my space where no feathered or 4 legged creatures are allowed.  There was really nice lawn growing here, but this side of the yard gets the most sun, so it seemed silly to waste it on lawn.  It's been hard work though, and it seemed as quickly as I  dug the grass out, the weeds crowded in because I wasn't able to get to the next stage quickly enough.

 

But here it is, a week later, and I've cleared a large area and put two beds in.  They've been prepared  with compost, composted horse and chook poo, and rock minerals.  Today I finished putting trellises in for the beans, peas and broad beans that'll be planted here, with greens.....kale, bok choy and Asian cabbage .....planted in front.  Photos of that in another post when I've planted up.

 

..............and here's one I prepared earlier.  In here there's cabbage, rocket, kale, silver beet and collards, a couple of parsley plants and climbing the wire fence on the left are sweet peas.  It's very satisfying to wander out and gather a good handful of greens for a meal.  The cabbages will be shared with the chooks!

 

On the other side I've started potatoes in used chicken food bags.  These are Nicolas, and I noticed today they're sending up shoots already.  I'll keep covering the shoots with soil and rolling the bags up, until the shoots reach the top......then I'll wait for the yummy harvest.  I grew potatoes this way a couple of years ago, and had a wonderful crop. 

 

And here's a couple of things that remind me there's lots to be happy and thankful for when I feel like I'm taking my last gasp through the smoke haze......this beautiful face

 

and the colours of an autumn sunrise...............

 

 

.....till next time.

Bentley Battle Won

 Bentley at dawn .(Source Knitting Nannas against Gas Facebook)

 I have no photos from the day at the blockade camp yesterday.  I can't believe it.  I took plenty, but loading them tonight there was a funny google glitch and poof! all gone!

The camp was amazing.  Tents and camper vans everywhere.  People sleeping wherever they could squeeze into a small space.  It was all very well organised, with rosters for dish washing, toilet cleaning,  and serving meals.   There was a timetable of activities on offer throughout the day.....yoga and meditation,  information sessions for newbies at the camp, and workshops on non-violent action, and dealing with police presence. 

I met the Knitting Nannas, who've done some wonderful work with their peaceful knit-ins outside the local Member of Parliament's office, and keeping the task at hand in the public's face in a fun and non-threatening way.

Knitting nannas at the Nannadome - their slogan 'Knot the gate'(Source Knitting Nannas against Gas)

We were directed to join others at Gate A, to increase the public presence should the police turn up.  They didn't, but it felt good to be sitting in solidarity, all of us with a common purpose.

Gate A at dawn (Source Knitting Nannas against Gas)

The good news though is while we were quietly guarding the gates, talks were going on 1,000 kms away behind closed doors.  It was announced this morning that the mining company's licence to drill at the Rosella well at Bentley was suspended on the grounds that they didn't undertake effective and genuine consultation with the community as required.

 Source: Northern Star newspaper

The war isn't over, but we've had a great victory and have proved that non-violent, direct action, civil disobedience  and (in theory) democracy works.  Our victory sets a precedence for others in Australia and overseas fighting dodgy gas companies and hopefully will give them heart to not give up.

 
Source Northern Star newspaper

.......very satisfying



Joining the Battle for Bentley

Source : Lock the Gate Alliance

I'm off to the blockade at Bentley tomorrow, a camp of up to 2,000 people, who are fighting to delay drilling for coal seam gas in this beautiful and productive farmland, a few hours south of here.  I've written before about attending protests to keep our Northern Rivers free of the destructive and invasive fracking process. http://www.dangersoffracking.com/ 

Go here if you'd like to read some more about the camp at Bentley.  There have been rumours all week that the police will be turning up in force this week to disperse protesters and allow the drilling rig through.  This is a peaceful protest, but I don't think the police will hesitate to do whatever they can to clear the roads..........I hope tomorrow's not the day!!

I have no idea what to expect, people I know who have been camping there for weeks say it's inspiring to be in company with so many people who are passionate and committed to stopping the mining.

I'll find out for myself tomorrow !! 

Freud would call it displacement activity

........my friend Lajla says it's creative procrastination, which I like much better.  I didn't want to finish sorting out my sewing room, couldn't find the blocks I had cut out ready to sew for my pink quilt, didn't know where the pink fabrics to cut more from were, ......what to do!

Go through the scrap bins, find whatever fabric has pink in it ...different pinks this time.... and start  another quilt of course!  This scrappy number will go with the bunting for the little one's cubby house next door.....something she can throw on the floor and have tea parties with her dollies on, or snuggle in to look at a book.  I'm betting though her mum will want to carry it off to her bedroom to keep "special"....I hope not.

 Quilt top finished

 

I found the fine pink corduroy at the op shop (thrift store).  there's quite a few metres in this piece and it cost me one dollar!  I'll back it with this and quilt it simply.

 

***

 

A golden Easter horse also tripped off my needle

 

.  Organic, hand-dyed wool felt, filled with clean carded wool..... perfect for a baby to chew on

 

I didn't take a photo when I gave it to him, too busy watching his reaction.  His mum kindly staged this photo of him with it while he was napping,  as we weren't sure if he'd be awake before I left.

 

***

And freshly picked from my garden.....beautiful glossy eggplants, spring onions and greens...bok choy and spinach.

Cooked up into a delicious stir fry with tofu and rice noodles.  Yum!

....until next time

Easter swap

I mentioned in another post that I'd joined Julie's Easter Swap, where we had to send gifts starting with the letters of Easter Time.  Sharon  sent to me, and she was very clever and creative with what she sent.  I was so impatient to open all the little parcels that I didn't take a photo, but they were beautifully wrapped.  And what I liked was that Sharon had made the little gift tags with each letter on it, and the cute little duck.  A really nice extra touch.

Sharon sent chocolate eggs, an egg timer, ice cube tray, apron panel for me to make up, serviettes, and ribbon and trims.  Thank you Sharon, I feel very spoilt with all the gifts you sent.  You can go to Sharon's blog http://sharoneujones.blogspot.com.au/ if you'd like to see what she was sent.

Thanks Julie for organising this swap.

A lot of work....

 ........and still not quite finished.  Not even half way through and I was wondering why was I doing this. 

  Plenty of books still to be shelved.....maybe some culling first?

  

This being swapping rooms.......my bedroom into what was the sewing room.  Behind a huge cupboard that was in the room when I moved here was quite a few years worth of dust and cobwebs!   So there was heavy duty cleaning to be done as well.  Moving the bedroom , not so bad.....the packing up of the sewing room......oh dear!  It all took me the better part of two weeks, and felt quite overwhelming at times.  The sewing room is still not shipshape, I promised myself there'll be no shoving things in a cupboard out of the way, I want it all to be organised and everything where I can easily find it all....ha ha, famous last words?  We shall see. 

 

Overall though, now that my bedroom is organised, I'm glad I did it.  My 'new' bedroom is now at the front of the house in the larger room.....feeling quite grown up about that!....and away from the noise of one of my neighbours who goes out at 4.30 most mornings to do triathlon training.  Her car is parked quite close to my old bedroom, and I was woken by the click of their back door closing or the sound of the car starting up.  I know she tries hard to be quiet, but in the stillness of the early morning sound travels clearly.  So no more being woken too early, I'm cranky all day when that happens.  And my sewing machine is in place, as is my worktable, so at least I can step around the waiting assortment of who-knows-what and have a little fun in between the sorting and organising

 

Some of the fun included sewing for  Jewell's  Easter swap, which I joined. This involved finding gifts for your partner beginning with the letters of Easter Time. A lot of fun, and a bit of a brain stretcher to come up with interesting items.  I was very creative with some of mine!!  I can't show you the gifts as it's a secret swap, but here they all are wrapped up ready to go. They were posted last week.   I hope my partner likes them! 

 

 

 a sneak peek at one of the items I made for the swap 

 

I managed to find some time to sit and relax and do some kantha stitching on the little patched piece I showed in a previous post.  It was very tempting to just sit and work on this rather than sort out my moving mess, but I resisted. I'll get back to it tomorrow at sewing group.

  

 And during the move, before I took my work table down and packed up the sewing machine, I quickly put together this bunting for my neighbour's little girl (yes, the same one who's noisy in the mornings)  She's just had a cubby (play) house built, so this will look pretty strung across the front. 

 

 

 I'll leave you with this sweet kitty face, the last thing I see at night as I turn out the bedside lamp, this is Neesa,  stretching across to give me a kiss ..... she was treated very cruelly as a tiny kitten, poor love, and sadly, isn't keen on being held or sleeping with me, so the bedside table is as close as she gets.  

 

 

 

 Until next time............

juggling

                            image source fanpop

I'm not finding time to blog at the moment, as, on top of regular daily chores,  I juggle trying to get things done in the garden,  and inside as well....cleaning walls and rearranging rooms, clearing my lounge and hallway of sewing room stuff, so just talk amongst yourselves until I'm done.

be back soon