Fiona's Ramblings

Garden Project

admin — Sat, 05 May 2012 18:06:21 +0000

May 2012, Waves edge, Bloubergrant, Cape Town

Callum has developed a keen interest in gardening, and loves nothing better than getting into the garden and planting. His big love is his sprinkler system. I have managed to make him understand that it is winter and we do not need to water.

The initial attempts all ended with several overwatered plants. So after repotting and relocating we had them in a sunny spot on the balcony and they recovered. So I then agreed to look planting a small herb garden on the front terrace. This would cover the ugly drain. And give Callum a nice little garden to practice with as herbs can be quite hardy.
The repotted plants were rather scruffy, but the plants were growing
Beforenicely. We had rescued the baby tomatoes and even had a few little tomatoes showing up.
Anthony had seen these stack-a-pot system at the decorex show and this seemed like a nice way of using a small space and getting some height. We have replanted all the herbs and the tomatoes into this system and look forward to seeing them grow nicely. I have already enjoyed some fresh mint and basil from the garden.

Being more environmentally aware

admin — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 20:15:57 +0000

Most of us living this world are so use to the high amount of automation and convenience we shudder to think what we would do without these finer items in life, with the recent world water day & world environment day, I must say I am continually looking for ideas to “do my bit” here is a nice idea to collect water that I found linked from a friends site. This idea is great easy idea to start water collection projects – link here.

So what are your ideas. We have also put a sprinkler system in which gives a fine spray, and using the well point water, which from my house flows into the sea saves us using municipal water. This is also a great source of lean water as it is filtered through sand and does not have the clay that many that have deeper bore holes have. We use this water for all outside activities.

We also bought a few more cacti for my son to plant in his “dry” garden and he is really enjoying making up these mixed bowls with little cactus plants. I will post a few pics when settled in.

Reading on an iPad

admin — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 15:32:47 +0000

Many of us follow several blogs and at some point it gets very difficult to keep track. On my desktop PC I use to use the feedly application and must say it is a great way of following your favorite blogs or even finding new blogs matching our interests.
I recently listened to a podcast on readers and discovered that they now have a version for the iPad.
Check out this application on the App Store:

feedly

Sent from my iPad

The Cookie Cheer Tweetup–December 2011

admin — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 18:26:06 +0000

For my records I decided to post everyone’s twitter details.

Please can you send me your web links if I have omitted and names if not listed.

@NicolaGeorge Nicola George Web Link

@rememberyoulive Marcia Joubert

@shakeface Megan Du Plessis

@ShawnGraaff Shawn Graaff

@Squidsquirt Scott Dunlop

@stephbwr Steph

@viewfromthebus Tami Magnin

@Winesalittle Kaptein Wyn

@_realmencancook Fritz Brand Web Link

@AddToTaste Lady Raven Web Link

@ads_infinitum Adeline Levescot Web Link

@AnsieAns Anneli Web Link

@CapeTownMuse Angelique

@cayleegrey Caylee Grey Web Link

@cheviot_publish Elmari Swart

@dan_mae Danya Philander Web Link

@Foodandthefab Ishay Govender-Ypma Web Link

@GREEDYtweets Oliver Wagener

@JulyAte Jessica Ulyate Web Link

@kambabe Karen Meyer

@Katie_Coetzee Katie Leigh Coetzee Web Link

@flavourtism Hein van Tonder

@rumtumtiggs Tami Magnin Web Link

Cookie Cheer

admin — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 17:23:35 +0000

Had great fun the last few days baking cookies and then attending a Cookie Swop. I have posted my recipes on my cooking blog and added some photos on Flickr. The links are here.

Recipes

Photos

Flu or cold

admin — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 17:53:34 +0000

I recently found myself suffering from flu, although I thought I just had a temp. And as most of us i just dismissed it and thought I would get over in 48hrs. When 4 days had passed and I still had the high temperature, body aches, shivers and a sore throat to the extent I could not even swallow water, I took myself off to the doctors. He diagnosed that I had suffered from flu that had progressed to a sever infection of the throat and that I was badly dehydrated, i also had swollen glands (glandular fever) He sent me home with instructions to rest, take strong pain killers, anti inflam meds and an antibiotic to cure the infection. Well it then took another few days and I can say that 2 weeks in and I still feel the effects of my illness. I am tired and still feel flu-ish. So why am I writing this post, well mainly to advise that flu is not to be taken lightly and left untreated it can lead to worse illness. I am not saying we should all rush off to the doctors, only to say, know what treatments are right for which illness and to take care if you feel ill in my case I stopped hydrating as my throat was so sore, this worsened my condition. If I had taken pain and anti inflam meds I would have been able to cope earlier and could have prevented needing the antibiotic. And on that point we live in this wonderful world of supplements, and I can truly recommend you remember to add a probiotic if you are not well and especially if taking antibiotic medication.

Do you have the flu, or is it merely a common cold? Here is how to tell which is which,

It’s a cold if…
▪ Your symptoms appear gradually (over the span of a few days).
▪ You’re feeling just a little “under the weather”.
▪ You sneeze a lot.
▪ You have a sore throat.
▪ You have a stuffy nose.
▪ You have a deep, hacky cough.
▪ It only lasts a few days.

It’s the flu if…
▪ You have a fever.
▪ Your symptoms appear suddenly (within a few hours).
▪ You feel extremely tired.
▪ You have the chills.
▪ You have a dry cough.
▪ You have a headache.
▪ Your whole body aches.
▪ It can last up to several weeks.

Another point to remember is that although these are more common in colder months they can stick in the middle of summer. Keep well.

Getting my blogs updated

admin — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 18:41:51 +0000

Well I am having a clean up of my blogs, domain names and online life. I will post the list when done.

SA Blogger awards

admin — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 15:14:31 +0000

It is that time of year again when you can vote for your best South African blogs. I will post a list of my favourites here over text few days. Loom out for this badge of your favourite local blog.

South African blogging

admin — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 15:08:01 +0000

For some time now the south African food blogging community has been growing. I have noticed more and more blogs from South African foodies. The quality an originality has increase to be on par with the best out there on the web. What I have enjoyed is seeing recipes for local tastes and ingredients, the photography has also improved and many sites have stunning photography.
I have recently been more focused on my photography and have not been getting the time I had previously to do my photography, something I plan to rectify very soon. While cleaning my office I realized that I have loads of research and recipes just waiting to be tried that have been put on hold. So moving forward the next few weeks I plan to clean out and organize things so that it is not such an overwhelming mess which discourages me each time I sit down to plan a shoot and create a recipe.

Check back for more details………coming soon.

Testing Blogsy

admin — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 04:57:40 +0000

Blogsy is one of my newest blogging app finds for the iPad. Initially I was having issues authenticating, but within days of raising the issue a new update was available and working. So here is a test post adding one of my Flickr pics.

Loving the drag and drop option really great for photography blogs. To find the app search on AppStore or from the site
http://blogsyapp.com/.