Sunday Selections #351

Welcome back to Sunday Selections.

Begun way back in the mist of time by Kim of Frog Ponds Rock and now continued by me, with a drastic relaxation of rules.


Originally meant for showcasing old photos lost on your files, never seeing the light of day, the meme has morphed into photos of your choice, new or old, good or not-so-good, anything you please, but nothing rude please.


If you are participating, please leave me a comment so I can buzz along and have a look.
Elephant's Child always participates, and her pictures are always worth seeing.


a small selection today, beginning with something I noticed in my kitchen>>

We have hard water here in Adelaide and mineral deposits are frequent in our kettles:

there it is beginning to coat the bottom and creeping up the sides.

this is the removable filter that filters the water as you pour it into your cup, you can see it is also coated.

time for the vinegar treatment.

soaking in a bowl of 50-50 water and vinegar and the filter is clean three hours later, ready to be scrubbed and rinsed well.

into the kettle goes one cup of white vinegar, then fill it to maximum level with water, turn it on.

when it gets to a rolling boil, switch it off manually and quickly open the lid before it boils all over your sink, which it will do because of the vinegar if you don't watch and turn it off.
Then close the lid and let it stand for several hours or overnight. I always do overnight.

In the morning, empty out the vinegar-water mix, fill your kettle to maximum and boil it, then empty it. This removes traces of vinegar. Then repeat this step to fully remove all traces of any vinegar still remaining.
yes, that's right, empty the vinegar-water mix, then fill and boil the kettle TWICE. Empty and then your kettle is clean and ready to use again.

ready for my morning coffee.

my new bar of hand soap is very pretty and smells like roses, I've noticed too, that the roses fragrance stays on my skin for quite a while after.

neighbour V has a pot of lovely cyclamen right by her front door. I spend quite a bit of time with her every Wednesday. I'm not usually a chatty person, managing a few sentences before wishing I could run away home, but with V I lose track of time as we talk for hours.

here is Lola, making herself comfortable in my spot, again with the crossed paws :)

across town, the new houses in a block very near my daughter,

have the second story construction begun. This is the back of the townhouses,


and this is the front.

lastly, the lemon verbena that survived such a rough pruning,

is beginning to flower :)












Comments

  1. We have hard water here too, although we don't have an electric kettle.
    Some people are like that, you can literally forget what time it is. Pretty plant! I didn't know they even made Lux soap anymore!
    Have a great rest of the day, night, whatever ...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sharon; it's morning here and the rest of the day is looking good, nothing planned, lots to read. Sunny and windy too, great for drying washing.

      Delete
  2. Where will we all live, on this planet. More and more houses.
    I should be so meticulous about what needs done. Good for you, and I promise I won't be sending you my filters to clean.
    I love cyclamen. They are popular here from the greenhouses about December. I must restrain myself this year, as I'll be in Wisconsin.
    Happy cat.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joanne; these houses are replacing an older single-home-on-a-large-block, it was deteriorated to falling down point, and now four families can live where once was one.
      Thank you for not sending your filters. I'd clean them, but the return postage would cripple my budget.

      Delete
  3. I don't have hard water but will remember that tip should I move. Hum, that Lux soap sounds great. I'll Google that and see if I can find it. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Arkansas Patti; Lux soap is an older brand, once very popular and one of the more expensive brands, now it's available in places like Big W, the Woolworths owned variety department store, in packs of eight for just $4 when there is a sale on.

      Delete
  4. Vinegar is what I use too. A fraction of the price of 'commercial cleaners' and more effective.
    Love the cyclamen and your crossed paw beauty.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Elephant's Child; and it smells better than those chemical cleaners that too often leave me gasping and coughing, reaching for my inhaler. The crossed paw beauty is annoying the heck out of me this morning. She wants something and I don't know what. If only she spoke English...

      Delete
  5. We fight the hard water battler here, too. Vinegar works like a charm.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Val; it's one of the cheapest and easiest cleaners I know. Soak, scrub if needed, rinse, done.

      Delete
  6. Fortunately, up here on the mountain our water is beautiful, pure and soft. On this property we are dependent on rainwater, and we also have a bore. Not every property has a bore, though. However, the mountain is solely dependent on their own water supply, either bore, rainwater or both...there is no "town" supply.

    The mountain aquifer gives us crystal clear water,in abundance. We're very lucky. Even so, I still never waste water. Habits of old never die.

    Many water trucks come up to this plateau to "steal" our water taking it back to Brisbane to the Castlemaine XXXX brewery for beer-making; and also Coco Cola have their hands on our water, too.

    Good old vinegar is a must in every home. White vinegar and bicarb soda, both...and both, together, are great toilet cleaners, too.

    Lola knows when she's on a good thing... she is a lucky girl. I hope you both have a great week, River...give her a cuddle for me. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lee; I've lived in Brisbane and remember the water I could drink from the tap and it was so soft for hair washing too, my hair was always silky then. Vinegar and bicarb mixed smells like vomit to me for some reason, maybe the hayfever, so I never do that. Lola is here giving me a look, she wants something and I don't know what.

      Delete
  7. Vinegar has a lot of benifit and I don't know if we here in United States they steel have lux soap.
    Coffee is on

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. peppylady (Dora); ask around or google, maybe you can find Lux soap. We have it here in supermarkets in a twin pack or a four pack, but in other shops a pack of eight is only $4.

      Delete
  8. I just threw out our cyclamen with its sole remaining flower this morning. I would get up half asleep in the morning and forget about the vinegar in the kettle and make myself a nice cup of vinegar coffee.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Andrew; your poor cyclamen. Did you throw it far enough to land at my house?(flat, unit, apartment)
      You need to leave the vinegar bottle standing by the kettle until you do the rinse, that way you'll remember.

      Delete
  9. I have to do the vinegar treatment to our coffee maker occasionally when it starts running slowly, it is really something how well it works.

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  10. Cyclamens are always a good blooming flower but can never get one to grow back but so many people can :)
    Vinegar so good for so many things.

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  11. I have a red jug so I don't know if it has stains but my cup stains with tea .
    I'm still chuckling thinking of Andrew having vinegar coffee.
    Merle...........

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  12. Our water is quite hard ...
    I've always loved cyclamens, I enjoyed seeing them in your photograph.

    All the best Jan

    ReplyDelete

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