Gathering the Fragments 14/2/2021

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

We started another five days of hard lockdown at midnight on Thursday night. That means we can't travel more than 5km from our homes, can only shop once a day, and then only for essential food and medicines, are back to working from home (I was just starting to get the house back into order from the last work at home fiasco), can only leave the house for two hours a day and must wear masks indoors and outdoors when away from home.

Botheration! It ruined our plans, but we've been able to make other plans to use the time.

Some of the fragments gathered last week came from the garden. My garden isn't doing so well this summer. There has been a lot of rain (a good thing) but not enough direct sunlight or heat (personally that suits me, but the tomatoes are hating it). So I've picked a few beans every day. Picked a zucchini or two each day, and plucked basil leaves every morning.

No tomatoes, no eggplant and no capsicums - the three things I'm waiting on to make sauce and focaccia filling for the year. I have the jars. I have the lids. The pressure canner and stockpot are ready and waiting. Now I just need the produce. We have sun and heat predicted for this week so I'm praying it will be enough to get this produce ripe enough to use.

Other fragments used up were three almost stale wraps to make a small lasagne, just enough for our dinner, with two serves of leftover lasagne for lunches. Hannah took one serve with some salad for her lunch, I shared the other serve with Thomas for our lunch with some salad.

I grated up some bars of soap we don't especially like to use in washing powder. That filled the soap container and cleared a spot on the bathroom shelf.

Wayne repurposed the side of an awning into a tropical roof for our camper. Now it will help to keep the heat off, and also the sap and leaves and bird droppings that can stain. Cost: zero, he used materials he had. Saved: around $1,500 to buy what he made.

It's no spending month so I've been making cards using what is on hand. I challenged myself to see how many different cards I could get from one sheet of DSP. I think I did well, cards, a bookmark and some embellishments, and no scraps!

I used about two tablespoons of sour cream left in the container to make honey mustard chicken for dinner instead of using cream. I couldn't tell the difference and it meant not having to buy cream.

I've been saving the tea bags and letting them dry. They go into an old glass jar and I drizzle used cooking oil over them, just enough to moisten them. They'll be used for firelighters in winter. Firelighters aren't expensive to buy but they smell awful, so I'd rather use dry tea bags.

What fragments were you able to gather and put to use this week?