Around here - June 2026

This blog was born out of the "simple living" mantr after coming across Rhonda Hetzel from Down to Earth in an magazine back in 2008.  Sadly I have just discovered that Rhonda has closed her blog completely and is no longer on IG either.  I knew she was not wanting to contribute anymore to the blog or comments but I had hoped her blog would remain online as it was a huge source of information for me over the last nearly 18 years.

I was just going through my blogs I used to read which are linked on the side and so many of them have closed over the years.  Todays fast paced social media is so different than the days of blog posts.  Every morning I would make a coffee and read through my favourite blog posts with words and photos and recipes, crocheting and life of other Mums.  Then Instagram [IG] came along and it was back then a photo sharing app which was also nice but then because of Tik Tok [I've never been on it nor do I have any desire to] IG made everyone do reels [little videos] and hence the fast pace quick vidoes and stories which are gone in 24 hours took over from people's blogs.  It's actually so sad because we are consuming more and more social media than ever before and short form content like reels on IG is just that short form.

I have been getting into watching long form content on Youtube which is more enjoyable, sitting down with a cuppa and watching a 30 minute video about gardening, cooking, homesteading, camping or people's lives from the opposite side of the world.  I find it interesting and worth while rather than scrolling on my phone however I still do that way more than I should which I think everyone can relate to in 2026.

A few people I follow on IG have started saying they feel that photos on IG is what we are all missing where you can look at an image and study it and appreciate it rather then a half a second of an image in a reel, I think we are all getting sick of the fast pase of social media but it's also very addictive to scroll as well.

Not too sure how many people read my blog these days but this blog is a record of our lives and recipes over the years.  I often refer back to things I've posted here and more than likely it's a recipe of some sort.  I did print out my blog each couple of years which a company called "blog to print" and sadly they shut down too because blogs were a thing of the past.  Here's a few photos from recent times.

Home made sourdough bread.

My sister bought this when we were at Woodford on the way back from camping.

This is my caramel fudge recipe.

Meal prepping.

My new water bottle.

I made this Elderberry Syrup after going to a

Winter Wellness Workshop at Vitalia in Brisbane.

You have 10ml a day unless you are sick in which case you have it every 2-3 hours.

This crustless quice was really lovely from Carly Fowler on IG.

See recipe below this pic.

Carly Flower’s Crustless Spinach Quiche

📝 Ingredients

• 6 large eggs
• 4 egg whites
• 1 cup fresh spinach (roughly chopped)
• 1 medium tomato (sliced or chopped)
• ½ cup cottage cheese
• ¼ cup sour cream
• ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
• ½ cup grated cheddar cheese
• 2 tbsp whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Salt & pepper, to taste

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👩‍🍳 Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Grease a medium baking dish.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs and egg whites.
3. Stir in cottage cheese, sour cream, parmesan, cheddar, flour, and baking powder.
4. Fold through spinach and tomato. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Pour mixture into prepared dish and smooth the top.
6. Bake for 30–40 minutes, or until set and lightly golden on top.
7. Rest for 5–10 minutes before slicing.

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💡 Notes

• Great for meal prep (keeps 3–4 days in fridge)
• Can swap spinach for zucchini or kale
• Serve warm or cold with salad

One of my favourite books.

Home made date loaf which is delicious.

I'll have to do a post on the lovely date loaf recipe as it's super quick and easy so stay tuned.

Around here May 2026

My last post was in January and here we are nearly at the end of May.  Time just seems to fly by and I have already been in my new place 9 months now which seems to have gone so fast.

One of the downsides to living in a townhouse is being close to the neighbours which for first 6 of the 9 months has been a nightmare with a barking sausage dog right next door to me.  We have 7 dogs in 8 townhouses so we are all very dog friendly and have no problems with dogs.

We understand dogs will bark from time to time however the townhouse next door had a sausage dog that barked night and day.  Everyone complained for many months and finally the tenants were asked to leave at the 6 month mark so life has been very peaceful since then thank goodness.  The main problem was they were out all day and the dog was left outside and just constanly barked.  I also had never heard them call the dogs name in that whole time which is so weird ie they never told it off for barking or called it inside.  Life is very peaceful again and I'm thankful they were tenants and not owners.

Look at my cute dogs face, little Teddy.

On the downsizing front, my single garage still has lots of boxes to go through but I'm taking my time because there's decluttering and there's decluttering.  I have a whole china cabinet of stuff in 2 large boxes which I haven't even unpacked.  I sold my china cabinet from my old house as there is no room in my small living area so there's no point getting those things out of the boxes as there is no where to put them.  I don't want to donate all of it because they are my things that I love so for now my single car garage is my storage area.  It's a process and over time I'll go through them again but for now I'm giving myself grace as it was a huge year in 2025 getting the house ready for sale, getting rid of 90% of my furniture.  Also moving to a smaller space takes time to rework where things can go and adopting new storage solutions in a small space takes some creativity.

The back garden has grown heaps and is lovely and green and I've finally planted my Glen Large Garlic which I got a couple of months ago.  I've got seedlings to plant however I've run out of space so I'll have to remove a few of the summer basil and rocket in order to do so.  

As you know I love photography but haven't done much since the kids are now young adults and it's been a big part of my life that has been missing which brought me so much joy.  I'm not really into food photography as in styling for food photography even though I take pictures of things I bake.  Recently I came across a youtube channel of a Street Photographer called Mike Chudley and I would like to try of this out at some point.  I love the way he talks about his street photography like it's a lovely way to get out of the house, getting a good coffee, getting in your step count for the day and if you get some good pics it's a bonus.  He says if he didn't have a camera he wouldn't be at some lonely seaside town in the rain looking for things to photograph.   He said he has visited lots of places because he has a camera and he gets out and about to explore places he otherwise wouldn't.  I love this way of thinking and would have to agree.

For the last few months my friend and I have been doing a little iPhone project sending each other a photo a day.  I pop them side by side in a little grid with the date and send it back to her.  It's so simple and a lovely way to keep in touch daily without the need for a full on phone conversation in between coffee catch ups.

Another thing I have had to downsize is my camping equipment as we are no longer camping as a family.  We had a 3 room tent which I sold before I moved house and I also sold 4 large stetcher beds that were really heavy and took up a lot of space. I have now bought a Coleman Northstar Instant Up 6 Lighted Darkroom Tent which I love. My friend and I are going to start going camping and we went in March to test out the new tent.

It's weird to me that the camping industry still measures tent capacity using the absolute maximum number of sleeping bodies that can physically fit on the floor — not how people actually camp.  The rating system came from lightweight hiking/backpacking logic, where saving weight mattered more than comfort. Manufacturers kept using those numbers because bigger capacity figures sell better.  Ideally you half the number so a 6 person tent in reality holds 3 people and in our case one stretcher on one side, one on the other and a walkway between the two with Teddy in between at the head of the stretcher.

I was going to go for the 4 person tent as it packed up smaller however the inside measurements would only fit the stretchers and there would be no room for a back pack at the end of the bed.  I'm super happy with what I got because it's a good internal size and it comes with strip lighting on the ceiling that you either pop batteries in the battery pack or use a USB power bank which is very handy having lighting already installed.  Also it has darkroom technology and I swear when your eyes were open or shut in the tent it was the same darkness so makes it easy to go to sleep at night.

I also bought a small stretcher which packs up to 28cm so it all helps with having smaller items to store in the garage and having smaller items to pack in the car to go camping.  Here's a few photos from the first camping trip in about 5 years.

Our camp site set up.

Beautiful and shady area.

A bit of crosswords and a snack, I think Teddy was wanting some too.

Sitting by the campfire.

Nothing better than sitting by a campfire.

Camp dinner of spaghetti bolognese.

Until next time...Kathy

Around here January 2026

Well January is nearly over and it's been a hot one in Brisbane and while the garden is growing well the hot days certainly were hard on the veggies.  I'm so thrilled with the progress my veggie garden has made in 2 short months.  I wish I was able to have more veggie boxes however I like also having the greenery in the courtyard as well.  Still, this little veggie garden has already brought me so much joy and thrilled that it finally got set up 3 months after I moved into my new townhouse.

The swimming pool at our complex was a welcome relief with the hot days here in Queensland.  My sister was visiting from Perth for a week so it was nice catching up with her.  We did a day trip to Montville one day and honestly it's been years since I've been up that way.  Coffees and BBQ's and chats for the week was great.

This week I picked up an old cross stitch [UFO - Unfinished Object] which was done on linen.  It's probably pre-kids that I was doing this which means it's at least 22 years since I picked it up and my eyesight was struggling a bit as it's so fine.  My friend has a little lamp which has a light and magnifying glass so I went to Spotlight and bought myself one of those to make it a little bit easier.  I ropped in two friends for a once a month craft night catch up which is how it all started finding the cross stitch in my craft boxes.

The living/dining/kitchen area is finished and upstairs boxes have been unpacked but not put away as I have to figure out the organization part of it.  When you downsize you have to get rid of lots of furniture that used to store photo albums, books, china etc. so when those things don't exist anymore a new system has to be created which takes time.  Also pretty much 6-8 months of 2025 was working on getting my house ready to sell, cleaning, fixing things, decluttering, getting rid of furniture etc. Then moving in here without lounge/dining furniture for 3-4 months until it arrived honestly you just burn out from it all and need a break.  The main things that need doing is sorting out the spare room and study desk which is a 4 metre built in desktop but no storage which is in the hallway and then of course the single car garage which has 2 cupboards of kitchen stuff and everything else that was in the garage storage at my old house.  It's certainly a process and one that requires a lot of energy so I'm just having a little break from that and then will get stuck into either upstairs or the garage.  I think upstairs is probably easier because the garage everything will have to come out and declutter, and sort so that will require my sisters help and a couple of days.  

Do I miss my old place?  I don't miss the upkeep of the lawn that's for sure however I do miss my beautiful next door neighbours and the dog park.   I still drive back to the dog park as that's were we have made friends and Teddy knows the other dogs and there is not a fenced in dog park near me that I have found I like so it's just as easy to drive back to the old one.

I love my new place and when the construction next door is finished it will be a lot quieter.  They shut down for Christmas and it was so lovely and quiet.  I'm in Stage 1 of our complex and Stage two which is the rest of the townhouses will be finished mid year so there is construction on our site but it's a far way up the hill.  Right next door to my townhouse is another complex which is the one that is more noisy as it's right next to me and that is expected to be finished mid/late 2026.  I knew it would be like this for a little while so you just have to be a patient until it's all finished.  Teddy is much easier to manage here as well because the backyard at our old place was large and he was always getting into things and you couldn't catch him whereas I have a tiny courtyard so it just seems easier.  I certainly don't miss mowing the big backyard.  I have a small patch of grass out the back here and a tiny patch near the carport about the size of the two rubbish bins and it takes me about 30 mins all up to whipper snipper both, edge it and blower vac so that I love.

I hope you are all having a great start to 2026 here's some photos of January musings.

Breakfast at home.

Breakfast out with the family while my sister was here from interstate.

First home grown minature cucumbers.

Home made wraps with home grown cucumber and tomatoes.

Home made wraps.

The corn is coming along.

Home made English Muffins made into Bacon & Egg Muffins.

The two veggie garden boxes 2m x half a metre.  The tomatoes are much taller now than in this pic.

Of course any photo of Teddy is pretty cute.

Around here - Christmas 2025

Christmas is over for another year, and this one felt especially memorable as it was our very first Christmas in the townhouse. I had envisioned turning the dining table the opposite way and adding a camping table on the end so we could all sit together, as we’ve done in previous years. However, with a much smaller dining space, it quickly became clear that it just wasn’t going to work.

The plan was to set up the camping table just before lunch was served, but the kids (aka my very grown-up adult children) decided they were quite happy to sit on the rug around the coffee table instead. In the end, we had 12 people for lunch, so we squeezed in one extra chair around the dining table and made it work — cosy, relaxed, and very much in the spirit of the day.

My favourite part of hosting Christmas is always setting the table. This year, I swapped my usual white tablecloth for a green linen one, layered with paper placemats and matching serviettes. On Christmas Eve morning, I made a last-minute trip to the local flower market and picked up some Christmas bush and evergreens to decorate the table. I absolutely loved how it all came together and was thrilled with the final result.

We’ve kept the same set Christmas menu for years now because it simply works — and more importantly, we all love it. I host Christmas at my place and take care of the pasta salad, an Asian noodle salad, and bake at home bread rolls.

My sister makes individual plum puddings filled with chocolate and serves them with brandy custard, which are always a highlight. This year, my other sister had a bit of luck and won a ham in a raffle the week before Christmas, so we enjoyed that along with fresh prawns.

When everyone first arrives, we always start with Christmas slices. I made my Belgian Chocolate Slice, a tradition I’ve kept up for at least the past 25 years. It’s always such a treat and has become one of those special little rituals that holds so many memories for our family.

As it was a very hot day we had the air-conditioning going all day and stayed inside.  Another Christmas is over and forever grateful I get to enjoy this special day with my family.

Here's some Christmas photos for 2025.

Hope you all had a great Christmas and lots of family time.

Around here - November 2025

Well it's been officially 3 months since I downsized and moved into my townhouse and honestly it feels like I've only been here for a month.  I think mainly because my couch and dining table and chairs only arrived a couple of weeks ago so downstairs feels more like a lounge/dining room now.  The room itself is only 4.9mt x 4.2mt so had to fit in a TV unit, couch, dining table and a walk way to the outside area.

I still have stuff on the floor and slowing trying to work out where to put things.  Downsizing is quite difficult to be honest in terms of you are not packing up your things and moving to a new house and putting those things exactly where they were.  After selling my big furniture like my TV cabinet which had heaps of storage creates the problem of where does that stuff go now you don't own it ie like books and photo albums etc. had somewhere to live now they don't.

On the whole I'm thrilled with my new place and each day I get a couple of things ticked off the list.  Yesterday I hung a picture up and also put little felt furniture pads under my 8 new dining chairs so they don't make a noise when moving them and/or scratch the floor.  I ended up getting these from Bunnings because the actual legs have small feet so to speak and are not square so I had to get the small size.  With 8 chairs and 4 legs a chair I need 32 pieces.  It took me about 10 minutes to put them on and now there is no noise when pulling out the chair and my floors won't get scratched.  The table looks a little bit orange in the photo but it's more blonde, it's just the lighting at that time of the day.  Beautiful Australian hardwood timber so special to have such lovely pieces of furniture.  I love the detail at the top of the legs, such a beautiful piece.  I've got a large mirror to go above the console however I need to get an electrician to move the light switch over first and I also need a powerpoint in the garage for the garage fridge which is currently running off an extension lead.

Last weekend I did 3 trips to the dump and 2 trips to Bunnings as I had huge boxes from the furniture delivery and whilst I have kept quite a bit of cardboard to go into the veggie boxes I couldn't move in my small backyard from all the large boxes.  I had 4 big ones from the chairs, a huge 2 mt table top box, a console box.  I also finally got my pizza oven out of it's original box after moving so I had that box and I bought a new BBQ which came with 2 large boxes.  My recyle bin was full and it was the only way to get some order back into the outside area as it's so small and with the rain we had and Teddy trying to walk around it was impossible.

My next outside project is to dig out 5 plants and move them to the other side of the garden so my veggie boxes can go in the one area.  The boxes are 2mt x half a mt and I have 2 of them and I'm so excited to get this underway.  This week I joined The Diggers Club Annual Membership and have ordered heritage seeds for my veggie garden and this really does bring me joy thinking about what veggies to grow and get all my herbs underway.

Last weekend I potted my dwarf lemon tree, dwarf lime tree and a grafted small avocado tree [type A].  New to me was type A does not need a mate to pollinate but type B needs A+B.  It says it can be in a pot which is what I have done for the time being however I might end up planting it in the garden at the back.  Apparently it can take 3-4 years to get avocados however it will be an interesting experiement.  I also bought some what I like to call Christmas Tree flowers which I always plant at this time of the year as they are so pretty.  They come in red, yellow and orange but this time I just got the punnet of red ones.

I was originally going to get a new BBQ when I moved house as my other one was 14 years old and looking a bit worse for wear.  I had picked one out from Bunnings that I wanted and it also had a wok burner on the side.  Once I moved here and realized the brick wall at the end of the alfresco wasn't as long as I thought I decided not to buy it.  The BBQ was cleaned before I moved however with the dust from the construction site next door I gave it a good clean and then looking at the BBQ plate realized it was a bit rusty and not looking great so I thought I would just outlay the money for a new plate.

Since it's 14 years old Everdue have changed the shape of their BBQ's and you can't get one to fit so I sold that on marketplace with the extra spare grill plate [I never used that as I needed a flat plate on one side and the grill on the other side] and bought myself a new BBQ.  Came home and put the stand together with my sister and as we ran out of light finished it off the next morning.  The good thing is it has 4 wheels [last one had 2 which went straight so it was difficult to move to clean etc] and this one it's so easy to move.  I think when having BBQ's I'll pop the clothesline down and put it over there so it's out of the under cover area and more room for guests.  I'm very keen to have a BBQ so I just need to season the plates first.  This is my new BBQ which I also bought a baking tray that sits inside the BBQ for roasts etc. 

Until next time, I would say I am content here and each day trying to get more organized.  Upstairs has not been touched since the day I moved in and I have boxes in the study area and also my bedroom however downstairs is the priority and to be honest I've got all the time in the world.  I will be hosting Christmas as usual so want to make sure downstairs has no extra items laying around so people can get around.  

Around here - 25th September, 2025

I'm back from my amazing holiday in Italy which honestly felt so surreal when I was there [a word that gets thrown around a lot] however we were pinching ourselves swimming in the ocean with the Italian scenery all around like we were on the set of a movie or something.  There were 7 ladies plus the host and our photographer so 9 of us altogether staying in a renovated monastery and we were the first guests in over 200 years.  The monastery has taken 6 years to renovate to this stage and it's not finished yet however we were the first guests and had the whole place to ourselves which was very special.

Italy is a long long away and it takes forever to get there with flight times and in between.  I left Brisbane at 2.00 am in the morning having to arrive at the airport at 10.00 pm and the first leg to Dubai was 14 hours which after 7.5 I thought we had 1 hour to go and I asked the hostess how long to go and she said 6.5 hours to which I thought OMG how am I going to sit in this position for another 6.5 hours.  We were actually very lucky because the plane was half full so the middle section of 4 seats where I was seated, I was on the right isle and there were 2 spare seats and then another passenger was on the left isle side.

Once I got off the plane in Dubai I just followed the crowd including catching the internal airport train to the correct terminal to head off to Rome and I had about 5 hours or so until I boarded the next plane.  The flight to Rome was about 6.5 hours and then went through customs and I got in the wrong passport queue so was in a queue for about 45 mins [following the crowd] when in fact I could have gone to the other self service line for the Aussies.  I had been travelling for over 30 hours by this stage and given I haven't been out of the country for 23 year this was all new to me and could have saved me standing in that queue.  When I got to the top of the queue the lady pointed to the right to the self service passport machines and I said I'm here now can they just stamp it for me which they did.

I then collected my luggage and got pulled up about 4 metres from the front of the airport - show me your passport, how long are you here for, how much money do you have.  After a couple of minutes I left the airport terminal and waited in the taxi queue to go to my hotel.   As the hotel was in the inner city the taxi is a set fee of 55 Euro [$98 AUD].  I finally arrived and checked into my hotel and I think it was around 9.45 pm Rome time.

I had a sleep in and went upstairs to the breakfast room which was lovely and had a meal and then headed out to the Spanish Steps which was half a km from my hotel.  This was the only thing I had planned and knew it was near my hotel so I did that first.  Here's a few photos to start with.