Slow Living January 2013

 Well, I have decided to continue on with my Slow Living reports for 2013, even though I missed December.  Happily, Christine at Slow Living Essentials is going to continue with the linky thing so it is a good reason to keep going.

Having said that, I don't think I have much to tell in a few of these categories, January was a time of holidays, sun, heat, and general laid back living, very slow actually, but maybe not so green and reducing!

Nourish - January was the month of The Barbeque in our place, a lot of our cooking was done outside and it was quite traditionally Australian i.e., lots of meat, charred snags, a bit of seafood and raw salad type veggies.

We were able to eat a lot of things out of our garden which was gratifying.  The lettuce mix patch was great and we had lots of green beans, capsicums and zucchinis and the start of cucumbers.  Also ate more summer fruit which was lovely, my favourite fruit salad of strawberries, watermelon and pineapple was a star for breakfast. (and makes a delicious juice mix too).

Green - Umm........Well, I did all the watering of my main vegie patch from my tanks, so saved water, and tried to use passive methods for keeping the house cool on the hot days, or else we just went to the beach for a cool off. And we ate out of the garden. Does that count?

Reduce - I spent the last week of January going cold turkey to stop my diet coke habit, I also reduced my vegetable bill quite a lot as the garden became more harvestable. 

Grow - January was a good month in the garden, lots of vegies started to be available to eat, and the pumpkins started getting bigger, tomatoes are going strong, but still green, I have about 15 cantaloupes getting bigger in my melon patch, fingers crossed they will ripen and we will have homegrown melons! Not bad for Melbourne! 

What else?  Sweetcorn are putting out their tassels and looking lush, although the cobs are still a while away I think.  Carrots are getting bigger and need thinning. The rattle snake beans have been delicious, although I am leaving the rest to save seed for next year.  I was looking on the Diggers website and the rattlesnake bean seed was nearly $15.00 a pack!!!( and it was sold out!) It is an heirloom that is so yummy!  Hopefully I'll have heaps of seeds to swap with anyone inVictoria who'd like to try them.

On the fail side of the ledger, my potatoes did not do well, I think  the compost I grew them in stayed too moist and they have started dying back too early. :( 

On the plus side, my dahlias started blooming in January. Yay!

We had lots of feathered visitors to the garden too, the rosellas, parrots, cockatoos and galahs have made a mess of my apple trees, I don't think we will be getting many apples this year.  We did get a couple of super delicious peaches though, I beat the birds to those!

Create - I have been playing around with a few new to me patterns and crocheted some hexie balls. I also received a commission in January to make a star stitch blanket, so have been hooking away at that too.

Enhance - Started back at the community garden, made a bit more progress on my crochet along and posted it for the group who are making a stripy blanket with me. Started a facebook page for little woollie, still trying to decide how to use this best.

Discover - We spent the long weekend at Cumberland River on the west coast of Victoria and found some lovely places to visit, stunning scenery and amazing views.  I read a great book about the Vietnam War, very engrossing, and it stayed with me long after I had finished it.

Enjoy-  Well, the whole month was a holiday from school and a great break from the normal hustle and bustle of our lives, we spent time with family and friends, went away and saw other parts of our state, had evening swims, lounged around reading and crocheting, slept in, ate and drank too much, went to the drive in, and celebrated a birthday.  All in all a pretty good month!

So that is a bit of a summary of our January, how did the first month of 2013 go for you?