Good morning!

Summer is peak preserving time. It feels like every day there is something that needs to be processed and preserved, because there is. This week I've been busy with tomatoes. Lots of tomatoes. 

I am over the moon excited because this is the best year for tomatoes in ages. The bushes are just full, and still flowering and producing. And I am not wasting a one. 

​Of course we are eating them fresh, but there are enough to make relish and salsa and passata.
On Monday I made tomato relish and zucchini pickle, before the weather turned to searing heat.

​All our meals were made using ingredients in the pantry. I'm trying to use up what's in one of the freezers, so the meal plan is a guide and our meals have been slightly different to the plan. They've been good though!

Then on Wednesday it all ground to a halt. On and off over the last couple of weeks I've had vertigo. Since last Wednesday the head spins and nausea have just about brought me to a halt so there has been no crocheting, sewing, knitting or preserving done. 

Everything has just kept rolling on though. That's the beauty of a routine, even for household chores. Washing has been done. Meals prepared. Bathrooms cleaned. Floors swept and washed. Even the shopping was done.

Everyone knows what has to be done when, and just gets on with it. 

This week, vertigo and weather permitting, the plan is to get the cucumbers and tiny tomatoes pulled out, and those beds turned over and compost added to them, ready for planting in a couple of weeks. 

What did you make, bake, sew and grow last week?

It's Monday again, that week goes so quickly.

Last week was mostly preserving.

I canned mince.

I canned carrots.

I canned potatoes.

I did get some cards started. 

We ate all our meals at home, tempting though it was a couple of times to go out to eat - even getting take-away felt too hard because there would still be dishes to clean up. In the end, I looked at the meal plan on the fridge, gave everyone a job to do and dinner (and the dishes) was done.

We ate silverbeet and cauliflower from the garden. I picked oranges from our trees. I picked rosemary and hung it to dry. 

Wayne dug out the compost heap and topped up two garden beds. Now we'll let them sit for a fortnight then they'll be ready to plant out.

I didn't get any sewing done. My hands weren't co-operating; I'm hoping this week I'll get my hour a day at the sewing machine.