Hi All,
“Let’s do the time-warp again…!” Err…maybe not! Who has time to do the Time Warp eh? Certainly not old narf7! I have just dropped in for a very quick visit to share an awesome website that I found recently and clamped down into my RSS Feed Reader as its pure gold. For those of you dear constant readers (who are still reading my posts) who garden, this is MAGIC! Go here, revel in this generous souls amazing adventures into creating awesomeness for the garden from bugger all and the smelly bits that would otherwise get shuffled shamefully into the bin or hoarded behind the shed and buried on a moonlit night furtively (outside the compound so that Earl couldn’t dig them up and bring them into bed as his trophies…sigh…). I bring you “The Unconventional Farmer”!
http://theunconventionalfarmer.com/
That’s pretty much all I have time for at the moment folks. Life is crazy and time is fleeting. Sanctuary has gone over to the white fly’s and rats (for now) but no possums have invaded so I am calling that a sort of win. Stevie-boy and I have been hauling trailer loads of wood up from where they were cut and dried and stashing them under the deck for the promise of a cold winter. No log splitting for Stevie-boy this winter :). The front “garden” (jungle?) has run amok…even more amok than usual thanks to our 3 weeks worth of summer that went straight into winter and TAFE has seen us cramming so much information into our middle-aged heads that we are wondering if they can hold it all.
Pretty soon “The Road to Serendipity” is going to move to her new forever home. Stevie-boy, in all of his newfound wisdom (that man is a technical maestro) signed us up to self-host and as part of that dealeo, we get as many websites as we want. I just want “1” and so we bought the domain name “The Road to Serendipity” and sometime soon, when the whitefly have shuffled off, the rats have all been eviscerated by the feral cats and life has settled into shuffling from the warmth of Brunhilda to the frigid cold of the car for our 30 minute trip into the city for school, we will move the blog from WordPress.com to WordPress.org. I will let the three of you who are still following know well in advance.
I hope you all had a lovely Easter and that at least some of you got to put your feet up and give thanks. Catch you soon and please make time to visit that site if you garden in the slightest. You won’t be sorry 🙂
theroadtoserendipity 
Apr 06, 2015 @ 04:59:12
Wow.. now that sounds exiting… your very own named Website.. I am still enjoying my Late Easter Sunday Evening Narf,.. So I will be sure to go check out the link.. Enjoy your week.. And don’t work too hard.. xxx Hugs Sue xxx
Apr 06, 2015 @ 17:16:07
Cheers Sue. It won’t be happening for a while as we have to get everything sorted out behind the scenes prior to moving but we will make sure to let everyone know when and where we are moving. Enjoy that lovely late Easter Sunday evening 🙂
Apr 06, 2015 @ 06:49:55
You two are getting too clever!! Am at Greens with Kaye and Peta and four dogs. Not much action happening except eating, drinking and reading. Back to Westbury and husband tomorrow. Xx
Apr 06, 2015 @ 17:14:46
Give Kaye and Peta a hug from us and a big cuddle to Badger, Cora, Bonnie and Molly from us both 🙂
Apr 06, 2015 @ 07:40:16
Very impressive; your own website! Hope you are managing to do some relaxing this Easter weekend :-). Hmmm rats and whitefly…substitute with bush turkeys and fruit fly and that’s my garden! Lol
Apr 06, 2015 @ 17:14:16
There is always something out there trying to eat your grub eh? Oh well…I will just have to train Earl up to catch (lure?!) whitefly. Maybe I could cover him with those sticky yellow traps and he can grab the odd rat on the fly? 😉
Apr 06, 2015 @ 07:55:57
You know you’ve made it when you’ve got your own website….the next step is, of course, world domination 😉 Don’t work too hard, and I hope the short break from TAFE will help you both digest all of the newly found info!
Apr 06, 2015 @ 17:13:21
Cheers Matt, that short gap is being filled up with carting wood and getting stuck into the garden that has been running riot while we have been AWOL. World Domination eh?…Hmmm…. 😉
Apr 06, 2015 @ 10:11:19
You’d better let me know Fronkiii! Will it still come up in my reader under the new domain name or will it be emailed?
Apr 06, 2015 @ 17:12:22
Probably not as it will be a completely new site but we have a lot of sorting before we move. I will make sure to let everyone know where we are and how to get there well before we move 🙂
Apr 06, 2015 @ 10:20:28
Oh, there should really be a blog warming party when you move to your new address! I think that a virtual potluck is in order, at the very least. I’ll bring the dessert! 😉
Apr 06, 2015 @ 17:11:44
You are ON. You make the most delicious desserts this side of the Pecos :).
Apr 06, 2015 @ 12:17:15
Still WordPress? Does that mean you’ll now be paying for all the problems it creates?
Apr 06, 2015 @ 17:11:09
Not WordPress.com, WordPress.org where you get to choose what you do and don’t have and we are building our own websites with blogs from the ground up. Any problems will be all our own fault 😉
Apr 06, 2015 @ 22:37:58
We have not had internet for about a month. Waiting for a techy to come fix the problem… very slow when you miles away from anywhere. Can only use Bruce’s ipad internet and work which isn’t the same as the computer but lets me keep in touch… Anyway looking forward to seeing your exciting new web space x
Apr 07, 2015 @ 05:27:39
Bugger! I would be turning into a squeaky wheel and phoning them up every day if I was you but then we need the net for our course. One of the kids in our class gave us an ADSL wireless modem as they had just upgraded to the NBN and they were going to throw it out. It has certainly opened up our house and I can use a little Samsung tablet that we bought at the beginning of the year (we needed something to check out the apps that we will be working on later in the year and our phone is a windows phone so is no good for that purpose) and carry it around the house with me when I am crocheting etc. with my patterns on it, and if I need to look anything up to do with what I am doing, I can use our unlimited internet to do so rather than the few meg we are given on the phone. This course has been a REAL eye opener and Steve has just created himself a stunning website with all of the bells and whistles that he hasn’t uploaded to the net yet. I will do the same and The Road to Serendipity (the blog) will be part of the site. It will allow me to expand the blog into other areas and I can have pages for crochet, recipes and all kinds of things. I am actually excited about it! Steve did pinch the very BEST template but now I have a challenge set to find a better one. Wish me luck! 😉
Apr 07, 2015 @ 20:25:03
Sorry I have only just got to read this one. Yes lots of luck you can’t let that nasty old Stevie boy beat you 🙂 Well they finally got back to us and have booked the techy in for while we are away!!!! Bruce had given them the dates we weren’t there… sigh. Have emailed back asking them to change the date, so frustrating. The ADSL wireless is great eh. We have that too, well we will have if we can just get the techy to come at the right time….
Apr 08, 2015 @ 03:55:59
Are you ADSL1 or 2? We just upgraded from 1 to 2 and are promised much faster speeds BUT as it is the Easter holidays we have to wait up to 10 days before they swap us over…flick a switch…yeah, they are going to make us wait till the last minute ;). We can wait 🙂
Apr 08, 2015 @ 22:19:54
We are ADSL2 with ADSL1 speed because of the area we are in (so says my eldest :D). Patience was never one of my virtues but I have been forced to accept it whilst living in “the country”. Hope they flick your switch soon x
Apr 09, 2015 @ 03:55:32
Me too! I reckon they wait till the last minute 😉
Apr 11, 2015 @ 16:55:14
Who knows??? Unless you can talk to someone who is willing to share the inside goss…
Apr 06, 2015 @ 23:02:56
Love the link – gardening gold. Thanks:) Chin up, just think, with all this brain gym you will be staving off dementia for another decade at least..
Apr 07, 2015 @ 05:28:32
Even if I don’t, at least I will look like I am doing something productive in the garden even when I am just wandering around lost, and I should be able to find something edible to keep me sustained ;).
Apr 07, 2015 @ 19:22:03
You Jest, 3 followers. Im still here Fran, just being quiet (for a change).
Apr 08, 2015 @ 03:54:32
That makes 4 then? ;). I just picked up another “dear constant reader”. Lindon from the “Fans of Grassroots Magazine” Facebook page that I follow has decided to throw his hat into the ring so that’s 5 of you. We could almost have a dinner party! Cheers for the support Lynda, I truly appreciate it 🙂
Apr 07, 2015 @ 23:21:34
Cheers to the new website to be … 🙂 … What temps are considered cold in your area?
Apr 08, 2015 @ 03:58:10
Cold is in the single “C” digits Mr Frank which are balmy 30 – high 40F’s. We rarely get below 0C here on Serendipity Farm (34F) so any complaining about “the cold” should be met with condescending snickers by you snow bound North Americans 😉
Apr 08, 2015 @ 07:56:04
I figured your winter would be relatively mild compared to mine, then again … it’s cold for you.
Apr 08, 2015 @ 06:30:19
Will check out the link when I get a chance to come up for air. 😊Keep us posted on the website as you get closer. Will be interesting to see how it works out.
Apr 08, 2015 @ 07:07:50
🙂
Apr 08, 2015 @ 10:41:32
Congratulations for your new domain… hope it works well for you… in my case, too many ‘hobbies’ competing for the same time slot… blogging at the moment, is probably number 9 down the line? As I age, it may move up to number 3 or 4, perhaps? 🙂
Apr 08, 2015 @ 12:23:35
With you there Lrong. At the moment I am struggling to find time to blog but that will change with winter setting in and less time in the garden 🙂
Apr 08, 2015 @ 23:26:56
Hi Fran!!!
Just stopped by to see if you had some time to post:-) Now that is a pretty neat site to check out. I can see why you were so excited about that site-will be ( on their list)checking that out after I get my garden planted. I put in most of my cole crops this week, but it is wet out there this morning-so thought I would blog. ‘
All “us” that grow- by end of summer-the “jungle” is what we call our garden-LOL..time to put on the fire, feed up and rest until it all starts over again…but for you, no rest since you are filling that brain full-
Congrats on your domain!
Apr 09, 2015 @ 03:58:03
Cheers Robbie, now we just have to “do” something with that domain name and all of that space that we now have. Steve has made himself a very shmick website but I haven’t had the time to even look at it yet! Good luck with your coles. I am about to start working out what I want to pull out of Sanctuary (this morning actually) and what to plant this winter. I have a friend who is going to give me a bit of permaculture advice about Sanctuary and a few problems that I have been having with it being so dry so I have to take some photos of it today and send to her.
Apr 10, 2015 @ 14:33:17
Ooooh excited see your new site Ms Narfy! I still take the easy route with .com, I know I should move but…ah, you know. 6072 other things on my ‘to do’ list before that happens. Maybe one day.
(And you know you have a loyal following that love you to bits 🙂 way more than three I suspect.)
Apr 10, 2015 @ 14:53:53
🙂 Cheers for that Ms Cityhippyfarmgirl. We are studying how to create sites from scratch so the natural progression was for us to move from a hosted site, to hosting our own. Should be up and running in the next month or two. I found a really lovely template that saved me having to make it from scratch and I can’t wait to share it with you all 🙂
Apr 10, 2015 @ 21:46:53
I’m still here but for whatever reason I just never (and never have) get notifications so have to remember to pop over regularly 😦 and I currently have a very forgetful memory! Good luck with the blog transition!
Apr 11, 2015 @ 04:23:24
2015 has been a pretty busy year for almost everyone that I know and it has also been transitional. I haven’t been posting much at the moment as the blog needs moving as I have run out of space. Just made meringues out of the viscous water out of a can of kidney beans (drain off the beans and keep the water). Dead set amazing, it works just like egg whites and whips up! I whipped it straight from the can and added about 3/4 of a cup of sugar and some vanilla and baked it and you wouldn’t know it from egg white meringues. Magic 🙂
Apr 11, 2015 @ 04:43:53
That’s amazing – am going to give it a go!
Apr 11, 2015 @ 05:10:10
Do you need a recipe? We just measured out half a cup of the bean (in our case red kidney bean water from Steve’s can he was making chilli with. Thought it was the perfect time to give it the old college try 😉 ) straight into my stand mixer. I then put the balloon whisk on and let it go on top speed. Within 5 minutes it had whipped up to a billowy stiff fluff! I kept adding a teaspoonful of sugar at a time and a teaspoon of vanilla (just in case it tasted beany) and the fluff was perfect at the end. You could use it straight like that (no “raw egg problems) to thicken mousses or you could spread it on a lemon “meringue” pie or you can bake it into meringues. You need to make sure your oven is between 80 and 100C for the best results and they take about an hour and a half. Most people say that you should leave them in the oven with the oven door ajar till they cool. I just whacked them into Brunhilda’s cool oven and they ended up shattery crisp at despite a slight lemony taste (I added 1/4 tsp cream of tartar and a teaspoon of white vinegar as I wanted to be “sure” that they worked so that was probably my fault 😉 ) which I actually found pleasant, the results were amazing. The fact that the viscous liquid whipped up in the first place was amazing but that it could then be used like meringue made me squee! People on the Facebook page I am following have turned it into Italian meringue icing, royal icing, gum paste, nougat and the big thing at the moment is trying to make angel food cake which has so far eluded even the most adventurous vegan cook. Apparently the liquid can be used to improve the texture, bounce and moistness in vegan cakes as well that can turn out a bit dry or only last a day or so till they start to toughen up a bit. Amazing from something that we all used to wash down the sink eh? 😉 Let me know if you give it a try. Most people use chickpea water. I only used the red kidney as I had it to hand and Steve said “why not try it?”
Apr 11, 2015 @ 05:20:43
I’m really amazed by this – I tend to soak my own chickpeas as we eat large quantities but I do buy tinned kidney beans as Big Man is not so keen, so I always have a couple of tins in for me. I am not a natural meringue maker, never had much success and I always feel I have to make mayo with the leftover yolks or ice cream which is no good for the waistline 😉 This way I won’t need to waste eggs, AND I get to eat kidney beans. Can’t wait to try it! Thank you miss narf xxx
Apr 11, 2015 @ 05:30:07
You can use home soaked chickpea water, just boil it down (reduce it) till it is thicker and more viscous. You can do this with just about every bean or legume including lentils apparently. OH forgot to mention…you can make awesome mayo with this as well! Check out this macaron recipe!
http://floralfrosting.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/cookies-cream-macarons-step-by-step.html
Apr 11, 2015 @ 05:31:58
This is all amazing – thank you SO much!
Apr 11, 2015 @ 05:34:02
Have fun. Even if you just whip up the bean juice with sugar and a bit of vanilla and tip it over your head (like Steve did) and marvel at how it actually works and eat it with a spoon it’s a glorious adventure 🙂
Apr 11, 2015 @ 05:36:24
Of course I’ll tip it over my head – how else will I know if it’s ready?!!
Apr 11, 2015 @ 05:47:53
Make sure it IS ready first, although, with the magic of this stuff, it is probably AMAZING for your hair as well 😉
Apr 11, 2015 @ 05:31:00
And here is the vegan mayo recipe… http://peanutbutterandvegan.com/april-all-natural-day-5/
Again, everyone can use a recipe for eggless things. Perfect for if you run out of them (or your chooks stop laying because they are naked from moulting 😉 )