There's nothing like geting things for free. I'm a big fan of free heat in winter. 

Every square metre of glass hit directly by the sun delivers about 1kWh of heat. That's like having a one bar radiator (old school style heating) in the room. For free!

To be clear - the sun has to hit the windows for the heat to get in, It's through the East facing windows in the morning, the North facing ones during the day and for the winter, those West facing ones actually are a small bonus.

Welcome to the home of Chick-in Canberra.

We have a small scratching of happy hens who, during the COVID 19 cluckdown, have grown fond of visiting unfeathered friends of the local neighbourhood.

Despite the restrictions on gatherings in the ACT, the chickens are able to keep their social distance and adhere to strict safety r-egg-ulations.

How are you feeling going into the new decade?

It's the time of the year where you wonder why you get so much condensation on your windows. 

Condensation happens when warm moist air in your home hits a cold surface.  It turns from a water vapour (water as a gas) and becomes water droplets on cold surfaces. Windows are often the first place you will notice it but it will also be on cold uninsulated walls, metal window frames and sometimes even door-handles.

In celebration of the fabulous work that 1MW have been doing for the past 10 years they're having a 'Love Earth' birthday bash in Sydney this weekend.

I'll be presenting a workshop on how to set up a simple worm farm for waste warriors/worriers.

If you don't know the work of 1MW - sign up now. They are doing excellent things (in many ways just like worms - quiet revolution and evolution).

This delicious warming blend of spices is easy to make yourself. The secret is in the use of cardamom ... and for a true masala chai, you have to bring the milk to the boil..

This ice-cream is the easiest, creamiest and most delicious thing. No crazy churning, no freaky custards, no time-wasting machinations - just 4 ingredients and 5 minutes is all it takes to make. And HEALTHY! It's like egg-nog, only colder!

Ingredients:

I’ve always found comedy in the excessive production of utterly useless electric appliances. The butterfly tin opener replaced by the electric can opener, ugg boots replaced by heated slippers, a trip to the pie shop replaced by a pie making machine and only a few years ago rug-crocheting grannies were trumped by the introduction of the heated electric throw blanket.

It's just like an electric blanket but instead of being restricted to your bed, you can use it anywhere there is a powerpoint! 

Oh, how I mocked the early adopters of that technology.  What would our pioneering grand-women make of such folly?