Africanaussie

  Here in tropical North Queensland I am so happy with my raised beds to grow my vegetables this year.  I grow from seed so didnt want to miss the beginning of the growing season.  Of course we never really know when the wet season is going to end, but most people rely on April or May being the time when one can plant out seedlings.   I started early, but wanted to stagger my plantings, so started off a few each weekend The greenhouse where I start the seeds is semi shaded, and I am made sure to water every day.  The greenhouse was a great buy, and I have had the first one for about three years.  I recently purchased a new one and then took the plastic off this one and added shadecloth so that is a place teenage seedlings go, where they have a little more freedom and exposure the wind and the rain, but not the hot sun. I mostly order all my seeds from https://www.theseedcollection.com.au/ - below is the list of seeds I recently received. They have a bit of a backlog at the momen

  Most people that grew up in the sixties would have explored the world of tie die.   Our tie dye t shirts proclaimed to the world that we were a new generation. Peace and Love!     Unfortunately, that dye was not very environmentally friendly and so I started researching the world of botanical dyeing.    Fabric choice: It turns out that fabric is either cellulose (plant based) or animal based.   Cotton and linen come from plants, and silk and wool come from an animal – the silk worm, or wool of an animal.   Animal fabric accepts dye much easier, and so does not need to be scoured, just washed gently. Scouring : In order to open the fibres to ready the cloth for dyeing, it has to be scoured, which means the fabric needs to be boiled in a mixture of washing soda and soap.    Use a large pot, preferably stainless steel, and only do as much fabric as will allow movement. In my large pot I scoured 5 dishcloths, 5 tote bags and one cushion cover.   I half filled the pot with w

  For a while now I have been wanting to liven up the living room.   We recently purchased new furniture, but I was looking for a bigger change, and somehow thought that I wanted to incorporate the garden more into the room. Here you can see the garden through all three sliding glass doors in the room, but I wanted to bring that inside as well.   I began to bring more plants inside, but then what to do about the artwork?    I received an e-mail a couple of weeks ago that seemed to be the answer to my searching. Photowall, a Swedish company, contacted me and asked if I would like to try out one of their products.  I had been mulling over wallpaper or canvas prints, so to say I was super excited was putting it mildly.  In the end I decided on a canvas print to install behind the couch.   I thought committing to wallpaper was something I might regret, although looking at their gallery I was very temped. Our combined living/ dining room is rather small and I think a whole wall might be ove