Feather your Nest Friday, 4th August, 2023.

A new month!  And for us the last weeks of winter have arrived.   We had several days that felt like early spring and there are signs everywhere... blossoms on all the fruit trees and wattle flowering.  I have enjoyed winter so much and hope to make the most of the last of it.   I am thinking now of planting and have determined to try quite a few new things and try and not re do the things that did not work last year.   I had more and success  with veggie gardening in raised beds and big containers and will continue on with what was working.  

We cannot buy GreenStalk planters here unless we are prepared to pay over $1000 each.  Last year I bought small stack planters but they are only an eighth  of the size of a GreenStalk and they are ok for some herbs but just not big enough overall.   I have found an Aussie company making something bigger and similar to GreenStalks and I ordered two.  When they arrive I will set them up and report what I think.  These will be for various lettuces and salad greens.  

I did a heap of work on my fridge and put all my "keep veggies fresh" containers into work.  I also have a pattern and design for some veggie bags that are three layers of cotton that you keep damp... when I make those up I will test them and report on how they go!  

Tiredness really got me this week so I got more sewing and less big things done.   I made up Gumnut 2 and 3!   Now I am enjoying them.  I am using only fabrics and trims I have and just need to buy stuffing and eyes.  Each one is different and I have a few more cut out.  The one I am working on now is a pink and floral girl Koala with a flocked leaf and pansy decoration.  So it is really fun.

When there is less light in the evenings  (and I can't see what the heck I am doing)  I crochet!  I love that too.  I think having something you really enjoy to work on is so good.  

My use it up baking took care of a dozen oranges.  I made two huge Orange cakes.   This recipe is on my old blog The Bluebirds are Nesting and called Winter Sunshine Cake.  It can be make up as muffins.   I think it maybe should be called Vitamin C cake as each took 6 oranges and lots of eggs too!

I used the very last orange juice to make the icing.   

My other baking was a couple of trays of Tuna Mornay.  

I have reviewed my seed collection and have a couple of types of pumpkin seeds drying on the kitchen window shelf.   In the garden my celery,  silverbeet, parsley and spinach are all growing.

I wish I had written down last year what happened with my celery.  I know I planted it in winter and in Spring and into Summer it was a mile high and I harvested continually huge bunches.   I just hope this year it works out the same! 

In the pots and raised beds there are loads of little self sown seedlings coming up.  These are Parsley...

In another spot I have hundreds of tiny baby cherry tomatoes.   When they grow a bit I will move some around to empty pots and spaces.  They know it is nearly Spring and it's their big chance!

I kept on working on my cupboards and organising.  Today I gave Chloe the royal tour and I thought wow for all that work I don't have a lot to show.  (Although I am still admiring my shelves and fridge!)   You kind of have to see the before to appreciate the after!   BUT I much better know what I have,  how many I have, where things are located .. and I created a lot of space.   When I cleaned on top of the fridges and freezers I found a huge tin that was empty.   Fill those empty containers!  I washed it up and now it is full of bags of flour.  

On marketplace I saw a huge and ornate old cupboard.  Like all my dreams come true in a cupboard!  I made an inquiry and next thing I had a deal!  This is going to be an ordeal for Andy and whoever else I can rope in to help as it is enormous.   I am going to use it as a storage cupboard/extended pantry/utility cupboard or some combination of these.    So my plans for next week are shaping up... filling the new garden containers,  shifting seedlings,  filling my new cupboard... 

In our news we had more financial warnings such as "RBA's major warning of economic carnage" and I really noticed a big increase in social media posts where people were asking for help and advice on how they could get through the week with the ingredients they had.  Some had no pantry at all to draw from.   A pantry is more important than a holiday,  more important than a party,  more important than the weekly lotto ticket or coffee!   

How did you build up your home, garden or pantry this week?  We love to hear!  

Thank you to everyone for the amazing comments on the Nana post on Tuesday.   We came up with so many things to use leftovers and waste nothing! xxx

Gumnut pattern...   it is available in the files section of this group Animal Rescue Craft Guild.   We printed the patten A4 but I found it very fiddly to make so now I make a bigger version which is so much easier! xxx