Nightwolf's Den

January 9, 2023

2022 – a year in review

So 9 days into 2023 and I’m finally getting around to doing my year in review.

2022 was an … interesting year.

January – school holidays. Crafting. fatal car accident out the front of our house.Lots of foster kittens.Kids got first covid jabs. Dad’s birthday. my birthday. Dylan Alcott got Australian of the Year.
February – Covid boosters. Chinese New Year. Started setting up the craft room. Back to school (Grade 2 & Grade 6!!). Kara’s birthday. 2nd Covid jab for her. Dad had a heart attack.
March – Statewide internet & mobile phone outage. Kara trialled contact. My uncle (Mum’s brother) passed away. School athletics. 2nd Covid jab for Anastasia. My niece turned 1.
April – Kara started club hockey.School holidays. workshop at Bev’s playing with polymer clay. Kittens with ringworm.
May – Artist trading card workshops. First game of club hockey. Rangers FC made the Europa League final, lost on penalties. But then made Scottish Cup final & won. Federal election, Labour won. School cross country. First trip away without kids. Battle of Crete memorial.
June – TPSSA Cross Country for Kara. Crystal workshop. Would have been Mum’s birthday.
July – School hockey. Flu vax for me & James. Paper making. School holidays. Children’s Uni event at AMC. Cousin got married, we were sick & couldn’t go. Arm warmer workshop at Rascal Robot. Kids sick
August – me sick. bought a new dishwasher, washing machine & dryer with tax return. Anastasia’s birthday. James finally got to see specialist about his knee (only taken a year & a half!). Book week.
September – James sick. Queen Elizabeth II dies and Charles becomes king. Applied to the high school Kara wants to go to. Club hockey finals, lost but Kara scored a goal. Hockey presentation evening. James had MRI on his knee. TPSSA Athletics for Kara.
October – School holidays. Council elections. New dishwasher, washing machine & dryer delivered. James collapsed, ambulance trip to A&E. Blood clots to 90% of his lungs. Stayed in hospital for a week. Stem Club for Kara. Mental health issues for Kara.
November – James started physio. School Hobart trip with the Grade 5/6 classes. Social club hockey. TPSSA Swimming carnival for Kara. High school transition days.
December – End of year school stuff. Grade 6 leaver’s dinner. Presentation assembly, both girls got an award. Christmas stuff. Annual Christmas dinner with friends. Quiet Christmas day, short visits with immediate family. Set up the tent in the backyard & the kids pretty much stayed there every night. Quiet NYE.

So that is pretty much what happened in 2022 for us. Here’s hoping to a healthier 2023 and a good start to high school for Kara.

December 1, 2022

Um, hi there

It’s been a little while and here we are in December already.
I’ve got my Christmas pretties on and over the next few weeks I’ll be doing a bunch of catching up.
We’ve had a few major life changes but that’s another few posts for another day.

September 9, 2022

RIP

Thank you Ma’am. May you rest in piece

August 2, 2022

In my planner – May & June 2022

Disclaimer: Some links include my referral code. If you use my link it helps me buy more planner goodies 😉

Back into my planner for the next two months – May & June.

May was the Planners Anonymous Chapter 3 Luxe B6 wide insert. June was the new Bujo layout of inserts for Planners Anonymous, this one is for Planner Love. It’s been fun playing with bujo layouts again.

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Stickers used come from Planners Anonymous, Luscious Labels, The Printable Collection, Victoria Thatcher, KHD Stickers and my personal junk journal supplies

May 24, 2022

In my planner – March & April 2022

I’ve moved into my Planners Anonymous Northern Lights melody for the Autumn/Winter period. I love the watercolour images and the purples in this planner.

Inserts are from Planners Anonymous. March was Tropicanna luxe (holding on to summer as long as I can) and April was Hygge Life luxe.
Stickers and washi from Planners Anonymous, Luscious Labels, KHD Studios, Min Van Dreams, The Printable Collection, Victoria Thatcher & Pink Pixel Graphics

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Want to check out Planners Anonymous AND get 10% off your first subscription order? Click on this link and sign up.

March 31, 2022

In my planner–January & February 2022

This year I thought I’d share my planner spreads each quarter. Hopefully it might give someone some inspiration for how they can use planner kits – the majority of my pages are created using the subscription boxes from Planners Anonymous.

January and February rounded out Summer in my Note to Self melody. January I used the Planners Anonymous Masquerade luxe B6 wide insert and February I used an older luxe B6 insert from the Planners Anonymous kit Love Bug.

Stickers are from Planners Anonymous, Luscious Labels, Mom Envy and Pink Pixel Graphics.

For Autumn & Winter (March through August) I’m moving into my Northern Lights melody from Planners Anon.

Want to check out Planners Anonymous AND get 10% off your first subscription order? Click on this link and sign up.

January 21, 2022

My planner set up in 2022

Not much is really changing this year in my planner (you can read my 2021 setup post here). I’ll still be using my combo of the Planners Anonymous Note to Self B6 Melody for Spring/Summer and Northern Lights B6 Melody for Autumn/Winter…… unless I get a new cover for my birthday at the end of January, or through the year *fingers crossed*

Inside I’ve got my B6 pocket in Water droplets (blue) from DesleyJane Plans to house my most used weekly stickers. At the moment they are stickers from Luscious Labels, KHD Stickers, Moby & Co and Kmart monthly planner stickers (sadly these are no longer available)

Page lifters at each end of the planner made by me using the Planners Anon Note to Self digital kit. Printed on 200gsm paper and glued to some cardstock.
Dashboards by DesleyJane Plans. I currently have Pink Petals and Water Droplets (blue). Dark Romance is in my Northern Lights planner.

and finally – Planners Anon luxe B6 inserts. January is Masquerade. I’m hoping Planner Love will be available soon so I can use that for February.

Want to check out Planners Anonymous AND get 10% off your first subscription order? Click on this link and sign up 🙂

December 6, 2021

Holiday baking – Shortbread

It’s Christmas time and I thought I’d share some of my favourites to cook during December. Seriously though these are good any time of year.

First on the list is Shortbread. This is the recipe my Mum used and it comes from my Grandmother on Dad’s side, so it’s a proper Scottish one. I can’t remember if I’ve shared this one before but if I have, oh well, here it is again.

Shortbread

My Grandmother's shortbread recipe

Electric mixer
Baking trays

185 g plain flour
60 g caster sugar
125 g butter
1 pinch salt

Preheat oven to 160℃.
Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Set aside.
Add all ingredients into mixer bowl.
Mix until well combined. Mixture should form a smooth ball.
Roll out until desired thickness (between 5mm and 15mm) and cut circles.
Place on tray. Re-roll remain mixture and repeat until all dough is used.
Cook for 20-30 minutes, until lightly golden.
Let sit on tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.
Optional: sprinkle with extra caster sugar once cooked.

Can be mixed in a Thermomix. Add all ingredients, mix speed 4 for 10 seconds or until well combined.
To cook in an air fryer – 180C for about 10 minutes.
To cook in a traditional wooden mould. Flour your mould well. Tip out extra flour. Press dough into mould then turn out onto baking paper. Tap hard to release the dough. You may need to tap a few times.

Biscuits

Scottish

baking, biscuits

December 1, 2021

Happy December

and happy first day of Summer (& nearly Winter). The weather here is gorgeous today and I’m enjoying the cool breeze from the air con.

Lots going on here this month

end of school shenanigans. Pool parties, presentation assembly, big finding out if she’s made student leader in 2022, getting end of year reports and finding out class placements for 2022.
Summer holidays. No big plans as yet. A few day or weekend trips around the state so be on the lookout for some new posts in our Travel Tasmania series.
Christmas and all that entails.
Summer solstice, thinking we might beach it this year.
I’ve got a few blog posts scheduled on different topics, the first will be up tomorrow.

That’s about it at this stage. Hope you all have a great month.

October 12, 2021

Travelling Tasmania: Lilydale Falls and the Abandoned Tunnel pt 2

In part 1 of the post, we visited Lilydale Falls. We travelled a few kilometres up the road to visit the Abandoned Tunnel.

The tunnel is part of the now unused North Eastern Line which opened in 1889 from Launceston to Scottsdale. According reports and newspaper articles I read looking into the history of the tunnel, work on the tunnel began in 1885 with the last brick being laid in 1888. It is 705 meters long and lined with one million bricks. Construction involved 70 men and no accidents were reported. The surrounding area became known as Tunnel and the nearby station, no longer standing, was Tunnel Station. With the increase in road travel, the line usage slowed from the 1960s and stopped all together in 1992.

Recently there has been discussion to open more parts of the line back up to walkers and cyclists, with a 24km section between Billycock Hill and Scottsdale is already in use since 2015.

Anyway, enough of the history. We wanted to visit after hearing stories about it and numerous photos on different tourist sites. Oh and it’s reportedly haunted.

To get there, from Lilydale Falls, follow Golconda Road for about 4 kms until you reach Tunnel Road. Drive for another 2km until you reach Tunnel Station Road and follow that for about 180m where you will see a small sign saying Tunnel. Park your car on the road side and follow the track towards the tunnel (about 200m).

The mood was perfect with the rainy weather. I would highly recommend wearing boots if you go in Winter or Spring. It was very wet in the tunnel and the kids and I came out with soaked feet.

Is it haunted? Well, the kids were making enough noise to wake the dead but we didn’t see or hear anything apart from running water and the crunch of gravel underfoot. There is a sense of something though about halfway along. This is were a lot of people report feeling ‘something’.
Hubby & I plan to go back another day and take another look. Who know maybe we’ll find something?

This is a great place to go for a walk, take a torch though and a great place to photograph for the architecture, the railway itself, the textures and the flora.

Where are we off to next? Who knows but I’ll be sharing it here.
Until next time!