Slow Living July

This is only my second month participating in the slow living challenge so am still behind on most of the other participants.

Chicken noodle soup

 Nourish
July  has been a real challenge in this area as I have been rather sick so probably not as much achieved in this area as I would like. Still we have had numerous home made soups and loads of slow cooked meals. My family always feels that chicken noodle soup heals and I can vouch for its power this month.
As well as this I have found an old recipe for corn fritters but at our house they are always corn  bacon and zucchini fritter, simply made they make a good breakfast or snack. If I serve them for dinner then I fry some eggplant and serve on top along with salad we find it a good takeaway alternative. If you leave out the bacon you have a great meal for vegetarians. We are still eating our Mandarins but they are coming to an end.

Rabbit casserole whats left of it anyway.

Prepare
This is another are I came up a little short on. The only things that were prepared and frozen for later was a Rabbit casserole cooked in the slow cooker.A batch of the fritters also made it into the freezer for later use.

Reduce
This month I only did a little up cycling  and am crocheting a basket from plastic shopping bags so have reduced the pile of plastic bags,


Green
In this department I think that we are doing much better haven't used the air con or the electric heater. Keeping the house warm by using wood and kindling that we collect during the year. Everything in our house is turned of at the power point as soon as it is not needed and we have noticed  that our electricity usage has crept down much to my husbands delight.
My shopping habits are definitely improving too. Any fruit and vegetables that we do not grow our selves is brought from a stall just down the road from us.

Grow
This is another one that we are doing well on we are eating lettuce silver beet rocket cabbage and broccoli.
Our experiment with growing early potato's is working well under the cover of shade cloth they are doing well and as soon as the frosts are over we can take the shade cloth off. This should give us potatoes at least two months earlier.There is also garlic and werrigal greens along with carrots, celeriac and beetroot and the sugar snap peas are almost ready for picking.



Create
I have to admit that this one is always easy for me. Crocheted a few more flowers for hair clips and sowed
bibs and matching burp cloths for a friends baby shower. Along with this there was a chenille blanket backed with flannelet it was a piece left from the blanket that i made for my granddaughter.Also made a pillow and blanket set for two little girls birthday presents.Added a book and they were both happy with their little presents.

Discover
This one is more of a re discover as it involves the beautiful native plants that are flowering right now. The other day I left work a little earlier than usual and saw how beautiful the bush was looking so I pulled over and took some photos. I always think that we under value the beauty of our local natives. So next time you drive somewhere have a look around you and see what native plants are in their glory right now. It will gladden your hear.

Enhance
This month I have been helping an elderly neighbour with his garden which was once magnificent but he has been unable to keep it up. So hoping that this will bring some of the glory back. I am also now officially working on our church fete,craft of course is what I will be running. Have been making a list of all the things that we can make using recycled materials so that we do not need to spend much money.

How could this not make you enjoy life.

Enjoy
My grandchildren have been giving me a huge amount of enjoyment at the moment. Also spent  a wonderful day at the Rouse hill boutique markets.
This is it for this month will endeavour to do better next month.

Till next time