the cost of organic vegies... & who wants to make a cloth bag? sharing my talents.... a step to helping the environment...recycle, reuse

I just took it for granted that everyone had access to the organic produce like I do.. I guess all over the world, the cost of organic produce varies.. after reading comments on my previous post, it seems I am very lucky & blessed to have our Food Co-op here in the Blue Mountains. Blue Mts. Food co-op

for me: to eat organically is a decision that I made awhile ago when I had cancer and I would rather go without than eat chemically treated vegies. .. the most important thing is that we each do the best we can with what we have and follow as much as possible what we believe. And of course any kind of fresh vegie or fruit is so much better than processed food.
every little thing that each of us do adds up and is alot more than if we each did nothing. and I definately don't want to sound like i am preaching..

this week, when I went to the Co-op I kept the receipt and then took it to the locally owned supermarket to do a price comparison..to see how much more organic produce costs.
this week:
bananas had the biggest price difference with supermarket costing $1.99 a kilo in comparison to organic which were $4.25 kilo - that is a huge difference but I only buy about 6 bananas a week.
broccoli, carrots, sweet potato and onions were all more expensive at the Organic co-op
whereas pumpkin, dates, pears & beans were considerably cheaper than at the supermarket.
it all balances out in the end. of course, if I would like blueberries and they are $9 a punnet, then I put them back onto the shelf and go without.

onto the bag that I would like to share...

I collect old shopping carry bags - much like the bags my Nana use to take shopping to West Ryde on the bus. Nan mostly had string bags, with plastic handles that rolled up into a very small ball and were kept in her handbag.


a few years ago, I started making my own cloth bags, or totes as they are called now, out of vintage fabrics, old tablecloths and gorgeous trims and tassels. Mine look different to the ones my Nan had but used for the same purpose.....

and I would love to share how to make one.. I can share the process here on my blog, hopefully. I just have to sit down and start the process, taking photos as I go, I guess.

so start gathering.. you will need about half a metre of two different fabrics: one for the outside and one for the lining. You can use an old tablecloth, some old tea-towels or old curtains. Hunt the op-shops for some quirky fabric, don't spend lots on new fabric.. that will defeat the whole purpose... some braid or pompom trim to put around the edge and a big button for the clasp. also 4 large wooden beads if you can find them, these will be used to put on the handles, they are optional, the bag will still 'work' if you don't use them. oh and some very thin wadding to put in between the layers. Once I get myself sorted with making it, I will post the method. Next, I hope to work out a bag using knitting and fabric together..but that is down the track a bit yet.

It has been raining here at Inglewood for a week, drenching rain and I haven't been in the garden all week.

This morning when the sun was shining, I raced out and constructed a primitive looking net contraption around my cabbages & broccoli.. to keep those damn white cabbage moths out.. they look so innocent flitting around the garden, but if they get a chance to lay an egg on my plants they would be destroyed overnight by the green caterpillars.. the plants are growing quite well although they could do with some sunshine. These plants are the beginning of my plan to grow as much as I can. I picked two large pumpkins which are on my verandah in a warm sheltered spot and I know there are two more apples on my tree. They taste absolutely exquisite. Just like apples should.

oh, and Paul is home for the weekend.. he starts his radiation & chemo tomorrow, which I believe is for about 4 weeks. He will be in a Sydney hospital while he undergoes his treatment.

ahhh Midsummer

the very first thing that I heard this morning when I woke was the blackbird, singing it's little heart out and is still going right now as I type. The blackbird as you know, I believe is a sign from Daisy. A blackbird singing at Midsummer. Daisy's favourite time of year - a sign perhaps? a magickal sign? it gladdens my heart when the blackbird visits... . We are off to do our last minute christmas shopping today, to buy gifts for those people who insist on wishing me a wonderful Christmas.. I feel like screaming. I wandered around the garden early this morning and thought i would leave you with some photos.....














for those of you who live below the Equator, have a wonderful Midsummer, full of magick.... and for those in the Northern Hemisphere a blessed Winter Solstice xoxo.... later today, make sure you visit FaeryLand for a special surprise!!

leading up to Midsummer

I woke early this morning and went into my garden, to water and as i turned the hose on, a magpie greeted me with his divine carolling.... there were butterflies galore, the warm days must be helping them to escape their cocoons in readiness to greet Midsummer which is coming up on Sunday - flitting around the garden, fluttering around and around me... ... and while all this was happening, I was standing in the most magickal perfume of the gardenias. Pure and absolute bliss... I am sure this is what heaven must smell like. A true summer perfume. I was in awe of Mother Nature.. forgiving her for the destruction she had wreaked upon my garden last week

I am puttering around my home today, putting up some of the obligatory Christmas decorations - very simple with lots of candles. And my tree this year is a Camellia. I bought it on Sunday and have some divine fabric rose lights to put in the branches.. then a few birdies that I am yet to make and it will be done. Tonight we are off to the city of Sydney with our children and grandchildren, to see the shop window display and the Christmas tree in Martin place....

is it beginning to look like Christmas? well, yes I guess so... I must find a way to accept that Christmas is now... but it is just wrong to celebrate this in summer. The coming of the sun? that is at winter solstice... but I won't go on about it any longer.. I am beginning to sound like a broken record

On Monday, I spent 4 hours in the garden, tidying up. It was like a meditation. My plants survived... a little worse for wear but they were tended and loved yesterday. I gave them a feed of my bio dynamic comfrey tea, trimmed their broken bones, tied them up and loved them and yes, there are more flowers and fruit forming.. the whole while I did this, a blackbird sat in my ancient apple tree and sang.


a big thankyou to: Tori - an amazing 18 year old young woman. who has given me this friendship award. I feel blessed and honoured that she thinks that my blog is an inspiration.... I am not good at choosing who to give these to, so I would like to give it to each and every person who visits Inglewood, you make me smile with your comments and your words help me on my journey. xo

how can I make my Liver smile ? or do I need a dose of cod liver oil

when I was little, you could always, always count on this time of year being very warm to hot... so you planted tomatoes, cucumbers & zucchinis, beans and other summer vegetables.. knowing that the warmth would help them to grow.... but the past few years the weather has been, well lets say, different. Odd. You cannot count on the seasons as we knew them. a few months ago, I planted my tomato plants and bean seeds. Then it rained for days on and off.. cold, misty rain. Cold enough to light the fire. And the tomatoes sat, doing nothing, thinking it was winter.. and the beans stayed snug beneath the earth.. warm and safe from the unseasonal cold. Then it was hot for a few days.. hot and humid and of course I complained but the tomatoes started to produce fruit and ripen.. the beans sprouted and started to grow. Then it rained some more.... torrential rain.... and cold. Tomatoes and beans need warmth and sun to grow and with this kind of weather.. well they are not doing too good..... Yesterday, I spent hours in my garden - tying up my tomato plants securely, so that they would be supported as they grow, picking up the millions of gum sticks from my garden - enjoying it so much after days of rain... I even harvested my first two zucchinis! last night the wind started. Destructive wind. Gusts of wind, whipping through my garden - I woke this morning to total devastation. My tomato plants have snapped off, my zucchini leaves have twisted and turned in the wind and now hang limply, the small developing fruits laying on the ground. Apples strewn across the lawn. And I could cry. Right now i hate Mother Nature for what she has done. I am angry. Angry enough to shake my fist at the elements.

And of course wind affects the liver... and when the liver is out of balance, I get angry. And not just angry at the weather, I get angry at everyone.. my poor Joe.. he really cops it, I walk around like I have black cloud hanging over my head ......stamping and muttering. It is quite laughable really. except that I am not a nice person when I am angry and I don't like that at all.

I remember my grandmother saying (when someone was angry) that they needed a dose of cod liver oil.. as they were suffering from SOL... which I found out later if in life, meant shit on the liver... and of course now i know what that really means.. so do I need to race out and buy some cod liver oil and take a spoonful.. not something that I really want to do, but I will try anything to rid myself of this anger... *sigh* I was doing so well after Soul Coaching.....anyhow, I wish to make my liver smile again... I remember reading in Eat, Love, Pray about smiling in the liver.... I wonder how I can do that??

daphne ~ in a vintage garden

I know that i have mentioned daphne before... but I could not ignore posting about it again.. bringing back more memories of my fragrant childhood garden memories...
I can't remember either of my grandma's having this plant growing in their own gardens (although I am sure they did), but I do remember the plant growing at Auntie Elsies place.. she was my Nan's sister and lived in an old federation house in a suburb of Sydney. She was 'proper'... when we went to visit her, we had to be on our best behaviour and wore our good clothes. We weren't allowed to run amok in the garden but had to behave like ladies.

We were given lemon cordial served in a glass jug with matching glasses. Lunch was always in the 'formal' dining room, never on the scrubbed pine table in the kitchen. The table was set with various knives and forks and the cucumber was peeled and scraped with a fork, putting ridges in the slices... onion was served in vinegar and sprinkled with sugar... as only the rich do. Oh yes, Auntie Elsie certainly had airs and graces. I was in awe of her. Smelling very much like ladies do, of lavender and violets..
her garden was a delight.. we were allowed to wander around after lunch...I remember when we arrived at her home, the brick fence with a gate that opened onto a path that lead to the front door... a gorgeous russet and cream tesselated tile path... and my little feet would walk up that path, feeling very grand in their patented leather shoes, with white lace topped socks of course. I can remember wanting to skip up that path but the serious, perfect little capricorn in me, would not allow that... oh no.. I had to behave so that I would be a good little girl... so, I walked demurely along, trying to stop those shoes from dancing! all the time, tut-tutting at my sister who let her inner child run!
at the step grew a magnificent daphne plant that greeted you with the most delightful perfume. a perfume that after all these years, still whisks me back to my little girl memories. Auntie Elsie had a cut glass bowl that was placed in the middle of the dining room table, filled with daphne during winter and gardenias during summer.

I found this in my research on violets, it seems easy enough.. I might just make some for that dreadful dry winter skin that I seem to develop in this cold windy weather...

a simple recipe for violet salve which can be applied to the skin to help sooth it.

8 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon natural bees wax
1/2 Cup fresh violet flowers
2 drops Roman camomile 1/2 teaspoon honey

In a sauce pan or small pot, heat oil. Add flowers, wax & honey. Mix until well incorporated. Let simmer for 5 minutes. Turn heat off. Let stand for another 10 minutes. Strain off flowers & add essential oil. Pour into a clean container & let cool in the refrigerator.

Life at Inglewood today is cold, bitterly cold. My fire has been going non-stop for a week. Oh I know, it is not cold compared to many of my friends who live in the Northern hemisphere, but to us who live in the Land of sunshine & flowers... well, it is cold. I have been puttering around my home over the last week, seeing it with different eyes. I do love my home, but lately it has taken on an extra sacredness, like it is cocooning me from the world... I come into my own space that is my yard, surrounded by fences, close the gate and shut out the worries of the world. Then opening my door into my inner sanctum and come into my place of peace. Looking back over my soul journal the past year... I wrote: 'what do I wish to create?..... I wish to create a peaceful haven in my home......' and you know, I think I have done it.

The garden has virtually stopped, come to a standstill... resting, as it should in winter... the little finches are back, feeding on the grass seeds that are my lawn... I don't mow the grass during winter as the finches depend on it for their food...in one area of the grass, there is a whole patch of a tiny blue flower, I haven't a clue what it is.. but it is sweet, although a 'weed'.. I have seen it before.... perhaps in a previous life somewhere. Yesterday, while i was outside, I noticed the calendula and borage flowering in a tumbled confusion... blue & orange... such a perfect combination by Mother Earth... the daphne is still flowering profusely and the perfume is intoxicating... I can never understand why there wasn't a perfume made with this flower... or maybe there was...

but then again, what about violets?

another perfume that takes me instantly back to my Nan's home, into her garden and her bedroom is violets... ahh yes.. that delicious, sweet perfume that only violets have. I remember my Nan methodically, slowly and gently, picking a bunch of violets and surrounding the bunch with violet leaves, tying it up with cotton thread and putting it into a small glass vase on her bedside table.. and my little nose would sniff strongly, trying to absorb as much of that smell as I could. You know what I mean.. sniffing and not wanting to take a breath incase you lose the smell, sniffing until your lungs feel like they will burst.. I still do it sometimes

Funny, as I started to 'research' violets on the net, I came across Devon Violets.... "South Devon has always been associated with the growing and cultivation of sweet scented violets dating back to its peak in Victorian and Edwardian days.".... my Pa was born in Devon... East Stonehouse to be exact...I wonder if he planted his violets in his own garden in memory of the place that he left when he was a little boy of 5 years old.... I wonder if his mum, Laura had them growing in her garden in her new home here in Australia? I guess I will never know, so one must assume that she did. Even though she was born in Cornwall, she lived her married life in Devon until she came to Australia in 1915. So lucky me, I have the best of both worlds and of course I have digressed yet again...... but the words 'Devon Violets' has that same soul stirring that lavender does...

**I spoke to my mum about Laura and asked her if she could remember Laura growing violets and she said 'oh yes! they grew everywhere.. popping up between the brick paths where it was damp & moist. They were picked every Sunday and put into a little jar onto the mantle, near the saying "HOME, the place where you grumble the most but are treated the best"..'
..in my minds eye, I saw it.. I saw the jar of violets, I saw the saying .. beautiful words surrounded by vintage flowers, most probably framed and glassed....I saw Laura standing there, thinking of Devon & Cornwall...yes, I gotta go pick myself a bunch of violets this very minute and put them into one of the little vintage pecks paste jars that I have been collecting forever.......it is quite weird how very much like Laura I seem to be.. not ever knowing her in real life.

I now have my own violet patch that I inherited when we bought Inglewood. Under the apple tree.. the perfume right now is wonderful as i walk up my garden path towards my back door. It just wafts over me... much like the lavender does but in a gentler way... violets are genteel. softer... more ladylike.

"If you gather the first Violet in the season, your dearest wish will be granted. Ancient Greeks wore the violet to calm tempers and to induce sleep.A necklace of violets protects from deception and inebriation. Use them in spells to restore health after long illness. If you dream of violets, fortune is sure to smile on you before long. If violets bloom in autumn, they speak a warning. A lovely myth
tells us that violets first sprang where Orpheus laid his enchanted lute."

so what had been happening in Woodford the past few days? it has been bone chilling cold, the fire has been burning non-stop and I have been snuggling in my big pink chair, covered with my favourite vintage eiderdown & I thinking, as I do... eventually coming to yet another profound light bulb moment of those lovely moments in my garden, when I am utterly at peace, when I have a real stillness in my soul... it is those moments that I am in the presence of Spirit/Goddess/God/Universe.. call it what you will.. but I believe you know what I mean.. total peace and I wanted to bottle it but then realized that if I were like that all the time, in perfect stillness, then those moments would not be special, but I realised that they do actually happen to ME...all these thoughts really made alot of sense to me at the time, they probably don't now nor can I put them into words..... I moved the furniture around in my dining room last Thursday.. from here to there and back again.. then over there, oops not quite right, what about over there? all by myself..... cupboards, dressers, tables... lots of energy was moved that day... and I was absolutely exhausted on Friday.. I think I over did it.. so I did not a thing on Friday, ..except sleep and read back on some favourite blogs... felt guilty for doing nothing but I kept telling myself it was ok... honestly, I am so hard on myself sometimes.... the washing is out in the cold winter sunshine today, the garden can wait because it is too cold and I am going to pick that bunch of violets, surround them by leaves and tie them with string.