Slow living month - August

I'm not fond of winter, I blossom in the warmer seasons, but August turned out the be a pretty fabulous month for me.  Here is the Slow Living linkup summary.

~Nourish~
I've continued to try lots of vegetarian meals in amongst our few meaty meals each week.  Some have been a success, others have been met with less interest, especially from the kids it is not that they are real carnivores, but just not keen on a few of the flavours and textures we've tried.  But a huge hit was the vegetarian 'chop suey' (perhaps you know it as chow mein?) that the boys helped me cook using our homegrown cabbages.  It was scoffled up in no time by everyone!

And my bread is getting better each month - love it!

~Grow~
We've harvested cabbages (I think they were savoys?), a few dingy looking sugar snap peas (growing peas is not my thing), more rainbow silverbeet, lettuce, coriander, leeks and lots of lovely lemons.  I feel like our winter garden could be more productive, but I manage to still use something from the garden every day.  Next year it'll be better!

Seeds were planted in newspaper pots for the summer crops, and it is lovely watching the tiny sprouts pop through the soil.

Also, a few more trees went in - a satsuma plum, a navel orange and a feijoa.

~Create~

Again, there has been more work done on creating items for birthdays that are yet to happen and Christmas, but I have a few little gifts that I have already given, so can show you!

A garden bag made for a girlfriend using a recycled chook food bag.  It is designed to be filled with veg from her garden, and has a pocket on the back for her seed packs.  Inspired by this.

These spunky crochet high tops for Clover!  too cute!  I gave them to her today and they fit her little not quite 2 week old feet.  I used this pattern.

A crocheted owl rattle for baby Clover - made before she was born out of soft cotton from this pattern.

 

~Green~
Our 12 months of greening project was to not buy anything new all month.  We succeeded, finding loads of great alternatives to new items all through the month.  Then my ipod died.  For those of you who don't know, I teach belly dance, and without an ipod, I can't teach.  So on the 31st, I had to go and buy a new one :(

 

~Prepare~
This month I got busy with some more making.  I made some deodorant using this recipe, and I love it! It really works! And Stu uses it too, so I'm really pleased with that.  I also made some toothpaste with this recipe.  It isn't very sweet, the boys say it tastes like seawater, but it makes for lovely clean white teeth and we're all using it, so another success!  And can I just say again that I LOVE Crunchy Betty :)  I am also still making the citrus cleaners as it is the right season for lots of citrus peel.

We've started using these lovely bamboo toothbrushes! image from here

In food prep, I have blanched and frozen cabbage and silverbeet, so it lasts us through the 'hunger gap' in the garden a bit better, and have been buying free range chicken when it is cheap for the freezer.

 

~Enjoy/Enhance~

There have been some great moments this month.  Stu's birthday was a lot of fun.  As was running the kitchen garden program again with my kids class.  All of my belly dance classes have been doing really well and I feel as if I have my belly dance mojo back (it always goes quiet in term 2 and I wonder if it will come back, it always seems to!).  I've been working with my troupe members on a special dance that will see us linking up with dancers from all over the state in October which is exciting too.

 

But this month's biggest enjoy moment has to go to Clover Mae's arrival.  How can anything top being a birthing partner at the birth of your precious baby niece?  I went and visited again today to sneak some more Aunty cuddles - she is simply divine! 

Clover Mae with her adoring big cousins. Naw.....

~Discover~

My reading this month has been strictly for leisure....  a few chicklit novels on the bedside table for pure escapism.  But I've also been reading up on the internet on how to build our pizza oven, and have signed up for online belly dance classes, so I'm learning a lot there and enjoying the extra exercise I get a few times a week.