Ep 026 - Christmas Criac, New Year Plans and What's Happening in Our Gardens

In this end of year wrap up, Averill & Bernadette enjoy a well overdue chitty chat together.  Reflecting on their achievements in 2023, exciting plans for 2024 and share what is happening in their gardens this summer.  Lastly, Averill & Bernadette wish all our listeners a Merry Christmas and a joyful and prosperous New Year!

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Transcript

All right, Bernadette, hello. Here we are, Avril. Here we are. We're going to have a little chitty chat today, Bernadette, aren't we? A little chitty chat. We haven't had a chitty chat in a while, have we? We're actually taking a little walk down memory lane and doing a wrap up for the year that has been 2023. And what a year it's been for us, Avril. We have had some amazing guests, haven't we? Just the whole growth in general. Can you believe that just over a year ago, you and I wandered into the... into the local library with their free little podcast studio, somehow recorded the intro that we still use today. I know I go on about this, but I think we did a very good job considering we had no idea what we were doing. We did, we were very professional on the very first day. And to think where we were all the way back then when we didn't even know how to do anything, and what if we, like we've taught ourselves how to podcast, how to edit, all... The social media side of things. It blows your mind. I could, it's, it's all a whole new world, completely different to my career. Mine. Your career. It's, I'm actually surprised that you met me at the library that day. What, what was going through your head the day that? I think you promised me a coffee. We used to wait outside and then, and then Brenda would, would rock up to the library with them. with danishes for their guys. They were the days when I could eat carbohydrates and I didn't have gestational diabetes, yes. Oh. Yes, and we'd bribe them with our danishes so they'd teach us how to use everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then the days that we didn't need them to come in, you were nearly tempted to ask for the danishes bag. Yeah, yeah. Oh, there, and it was great. It was, you know, we have done, we think we've done really, really well. Oh. extremely proud of both of us. Yeah. And what we've built in this year. We built Seedy Chats, we wanted to learn and share our learning with the wider community and we think we had all these amazing reviews, people enjoying us, so thank you so much. Guest experiences, I never thought it would be. what it is now, did you? Not at all. Not that I didn't have faith in us, but I'm pretty surprised. No, I know, I know. I've learned so much and I've changed my day-to-day life from just learning from the people that we've podcasted with. Yes, isn't it interesting? You've got all these different forks in the road in your life and you meet some people and they have impacts, but I think you and I doing this has drastically changed both of our lives. Hasn't it? It has. It has completely. And our families. And our friends. And our friends. I have said too, we were talking about purchasing Christmas presents, Christmas gifts earlier and I said to Bernadette, you've got to be really careful sometimes as you start to lose friends when you're becoming so sustainable, you know. I'm thinking to myself, do we really need that? And no we don't and we live in a world that we've, everything is so disposable but It's small incremental steps that if you look at the bigger picture, that can make a massive difference. Like how we shop. Yes, where we shop, where we shop. We know from talking to Hannah Maloney that you can vote with your money. Yeah. For me, it's cleaning products. I I've delved into even making my own. I'm very, very happy to continue to do that. And and once you start doing some of those things. you get a new, we've talked about the smug factor. Yes. But you also have, on the other hand, when you start doing some of these new behaviors, the guilt factor. If you go, but if you buy something and it's this big, thick, or non-recyclable plastic, or you see the groceries coming in and they come in and then you just fill your rubbish bin up with all the waste and you think. So that's where it's changed me a lot, to things that I used to not think about or not bother me. Now, consciously, I just can't do it anymore. And it's a great effect on the people around you, I think, as well. They see you doing that. Yeah. And a lot of the time, my daughter Ava, or my little boy, Callan, will say to me, but mommy, it's plastic. And it's taken us a long time. And now they just don't even ask anymore where they just don't even want a kinder surprise. Hey, that is a nice hurdle when you get there when they stop questioning you and they're just like, oh, this is just, this is just mom. If you're not there, you'll get there. It definitely, but it's, it's how our society is built, right? Like, you know, these things are positioned in certain parts of the store. Oh, yeah. And so I want to get through the checkout. Yeah. Yeah and again I don't even I do a lot of my I co-op by with people locally. Yes. So a lot of going to the stores has been minimized for me which has been fantastic. That's changed big time for both of us hasn't it so we've got a lot less since we started we both were had a lot more reliance on the major supermarkets. And it's interesting in Australia because we've got a duopoly in that market too, so there's really only two places that most people do their shopping. So it can be, there's not a whole lot of choice and variety out there for consumers in Australia. That's what I thought, but actually there are a lot more alternatives when you go out there and you look and where you can get things. You do your to get your fruit and veg. I do the farmer's pick, which is sort of produce which has been potentially rejected by the supermarkets or is in surplus, but the farmers haven't been able to sell it, so I just take all, what do you call it? The odds and uglies. The odds and uglies, yeah. Box TV does a good bit of that as well. But when you grow your own produce, you're used to dealing with odds and uglies, aren't you? That's right. They're probably tastes a lot better actually. Yeah, and it's so affordable. I must say it's been extremely affordable. And so now I see, I'm relying less and less and less. It's been a really big change for our family on how we're shopping and where we get things from and even all the flowers and things like that we source from more, from, I do quite a lot of baking as you're aware. Yes. sustainable flour that I get is flour for baking. I'm thinking of your beautiful flowers from your garden because even that you're just a backyard florist. A slow florist, if Abigail's asked. Yeah, it's a slow forest. So it's all those small little incremental steps and even just supporting our local farmers markets or our handmade markets. And I would say it's not as hard. It hasn't been very hard, has it? All these things we've done, it's thinking about it for a second, looking at alternatives, making a different choice. Once you've made a different choice once, you don't go back. And there's lots of things that we've talked about on the pod over this year that actually, I prefer to what we were doing before. That's right. I know I go on about it, but the shampoo bar for my hair, I much prefer it. You're looking quite healthy. Thank you, thank you, Avril. And I've been using a cream deodorant that I just pick up in the, it's made in Australia as well. And even that, like I'm not smelly, am I, Brenda? No, but that's very interesting, because I've been, you know, deodorant's a big one, isn't it, because you wanna make, I've been looking for an alternative, but not at the cost. of being the stinky girl. You don't want to be the stinky girl. And deodorant is one of those things that you have to get right. Yes. I've gone through a few natural ones and some of them can be really, really expensive to the point where... And they're not necessarily very effective. They're not necessarily that great. But the one that I am using at the moment, it comes in a beautiful little tin. And I do just pick it up in the supermarket. Wow, that's so... No, huh? No pong, that sounds direct. Yeah, I've been using it for a while. Now it is a little cream. As you can see, it comes in a little tin and you just take the lid off. Oh, oh, rub it on. So what, you use your fingers? You do use your fingers. Oh, straight into my little sweaty pit. That's it. Well, I'll apply it post shower when you're not sweaty. Well, that's right. So I normally, if I shower in the evening time, I'll pop a little bit on so it's on there and then I'll pop a little bit on in the morning time when I wake up. I don't shower every morning and every night. I have become very aware of my water. Yes, well you've had some challenges in that regard. I have had some challenges. I've had a leaky tank. My tank is fixed. I had to get a beautiful liner in and that's been great so far. And the same with my children. I will encourage them to definitely have a bath. once a week, but I don't share them every day because. Oh no goodness, we, look, we don't either. If Charlotte comes back from daycare, she has to have a bath or a shower because she's just filthy from head to toe. That's a bit like Callan, yeah, they're a bit gross, aren't they? Oh yeah, and you know what it's like, you open their little shoe and tip out half a sand pit. Yeah, Callan has black mud, like it escalates. And especially with boys like, play in the mock but Callan is in his feet it's all under his toenails oh god and then he's like don't clean my toenails like he just hates you know he hates anything going under his nails to clean them or anyway yes it's disaster but just trying to save that little bit of water, especially for us, because we're on tank water. But it shows you the power of what we're doing, right? Because from little things, big things grow. And the ripple effect from where we started to where we are now has been huge. And the more you do and the behaviors you change, they're sort of set and done. And then you move on to the next thing and the next thing and the next thing and you realize, as we always say, Avril, progress, not perfection. That's right. That you can. live a mindful and considerate life with not that much extra effort. You can, absolutely. And we look forward to having more relevant conversations so that we can learn and we can share our little learning experience as well. Yeah and see where it takes us for the next year. So what's happening next year with you Bernadette? Well I'm having a baby. You are? Uh which is... Bernadette baby. Yeah we've got a new baby, another little baby on the way, we can't wait to meet him. We can't wait to meet the Bubba. We can't wait to meet our little baby and our family unit will change. So we'll settle in and do all of that. I'm going to Ireland Bernadette to spend some time with my family because my mum has been unwell and she has moved into an aged care facility so I'm going to spend some lovely time with her and some extended family. And taking the kids with you Avril. I'm going over with the kids Avril and Callan are going to come over with me. I think it will be such an amazing experience for them that they'll just look back and yeah amazing to have that time over. I never thought that I would have the opportunity to do this. I never thought that my children will go to the same school that I went to. Yeah! And yes, I never really thought about it. I never thought that I would have this opportunity. So I'm very fortunate that we can go over and Craig will come and join us at some stage, but he will stay here in Australia and look after the alpacas and bees and dogs and snakes. And the 180 houseplants. How many will he kill? Brain is out. I've got a lot going on actually. Yeah, I know you too. Craig does like murdering. The understatement of the century. Well, shall I move them up here? Into my place. I was thinking, do you need some? I'm like, what is she gonna do with the garden? Probably shut, you're probably gonna shut it down a bit and just hibernate. I think, yeah, so my veggie patch, I will, I've got a lot of perennials in there, like my artichoke, they will just all look after themselves, all my herbs. So I've got some tomatoes in there at the moment that Craig will just have to bring to fruition. Well he'll need something to keep him going. He will need some sustenance but then you'll get the exciting opportunity to share with us gardening from the UK. Yes, gardening from the UK. And we've got some really exciting collaborations happening haven't we? Yes we do. Over in the UK so... A few people have reached out to us and want to do a little bit of work with us. So we're really, really excited about that. So I don't know if you know Seedy Charmers, but it hasn't just been a big year for us. It's been a huge year. In fact, Avril and I were lucky enough recently to rank as the number one home and garden lifestyle podcast in Australia and Ireland, which we thank you so much for, and we're so grateful for. And we're going to keep that momentum going with getting some great chats and interviews in the UK. And we won't. um let too much out of our hats at this stage but let's just say exciting things are on the horizon. Stay tuned. Stay tuned for that. Uh yeah so we'll have a little break. We'll have Christmas. We'll have a little break. I don't know when we'll be back Avril. We'll just do what we can when we can as we can. Yes. Does that sound good? The best we can. The best we can. The best we can is two working mums with kids and lives and all the rest. And we're very lucky we have set ourselves up that we can. podcast anywhere in the world. Well we're basically professionals at this lights, yeah. Just call us the pros. Yeah. We're really excited we really look forward to it and we will keep up with our social media so our Instagram and our Facebook and we might grow some of our handles as well. Yeah I'm very interested to see some of these herbaceous borders I've heard you talk so much about. Yes. And it will be nice for us to be able to enjoy each other's seasons. So while I'm here sweltering in the heat, you can show me a snow angel. How cold I am. As they all say in Ireland, it would freeze the balls of a brass monkey. We could live vicariously through each other. Brainerd dad, tell me what's going on in your garden at the moment. It's a busy part of the season at the moment for everyone but it's also we've had heaps of rain and then we've had heaps of heat. We have had a lot of rain. Is this, so Bernadette's berries, anyone that has been looking at our Instagram and our Facebook will see that Bernadette is getting kilos of berries. Kilos, she's all jammed out. I'm all jammed out. I'm actually at the point where I'm sick of making jam in it. has taken, I think I've made 75 jars, we're up two. Strawberry and rhubarb, mango and raspberry, raspberry and boysenberry. There's only so much jam you can have, Avril. Did you buy your mangoes in bulk? We got them through the farmer's pick. Oh yeah, okay. They were part of a farmer's pick and I've been eyeing that. It's actually one of the nicest jams I've ever made. The raspberry and mango because the mango is very sweet. Of course. And then the raspberry is quite tart. So it's a very nice compliment. Andrew's favourite used to be, his favourite used to be my strawberry. Now it's taken over. Raspberry and mango. Oh right, okay. Interesting. But yeah, we've got kilos and kilos. So every other day we're harvesting about a kilo and a half. to two kilos of berries. Wow. And then we've, I've been... Oh, I can see there's some Rosellas out there eating them at the moment. I'm letting them have at it. Pigeon care. I'm letting them have... Yeah, those two come all the time. They're quite cute actually. They just sit there and have a natter and have a feed. Look at them. It's, and it just shows you that, so berries are quite water heavy. So the rain, I would think, would be loving them. They grow extremely... They're loving the rain. They grow extremely well in this climate. Yes. And... Yeah, I mean, when you put the right thing in the right spot. Yeah, because they're all trellised around Bernadette's backyard. Along our fence lines. Your fence lines. Our fence lines of the property. Like, it's fantastic coverage. Like, it's brilliant. And a great use of that space too. And honestly, I do hardly anything with them. And then you just take down whatever canes are looking messy, leave what you can for next year. And yeah, and the bees loved them too when they all came out to flower. They do such a good job. So. There are no brainer for you. So we're processing a lot of berries here at the moment. I've been doing a lot of, you know, we've been transplanting our zucchinis and squash and cucumbers and things like that into the main beds. Yes. Pruning tomatoes, pruning tomatoes, pruning tomatoes. I'm a bit sick of pruning the tomatoes and I'm a bit. You know, third trimester, it's hot out there, I'm getting over it. I've pretty much given up working in the greenhouse period, it's just too hot in there. And enjoying flowers and all the things that are coming up, but also feeling... I feel a bit of pressure this time of year, like I'm not... Because you're doing so much maintenance. Yes. That I'm not doing enough like succession sewing and seed starting and things like that for the next season. Yes, of course. Yeah, because you're going to be preparing soon for winter. And we've only just arrived in summer. Yes, and because we've got the new baby coming, I want to sort of maximise the most out of all of this. But yeah, in an ultimate tragic turn of events, Avril, on a very serious note, the baby is due to come the day before the annual horticultural show of Canberra. And this year I shall not be participating. At all. I don't think so. I don't see how in any world. Is your mum going in? Well, mum might enter a few things on my behalf for me, but... Ah, yes, I might have to... Well, so good news, if you want to have a shot at winning anything this year, I'm not entering. chance I've been of being the garlic champion. Champion garlic. But didn't we have a stinker of a year with the garlic? We did. We did. We haven't really shared that. I'm going to share a picture. I've cleaned mine up. I have probably got a tenth of the garlic that I usually harvest and it looks, I mean none of it is show entry worthy. Let me tell you it's an embarrassment. And you have the same thing with your garlic this year. Have the same. So... We started them really well, they started really well. I went away for three weeks overseas and I'm thinking that the watering played a big part of those three weeks because the seed stock, the garlic itself. Remember we had the weed in just before, we had a very hot spring. Yeah. Remember we had a really hot spring, so I think it was hotter sooner too. So you know when normally our first leaves would turn brown and wither back and things, that all happened really early this year. Really quickly. Yeah. Yeah, I just have, because I gave some of my friend the same garlic seeds. So did I. And hers is doing really well. I know. I nearly had to ask for it back. But you know what? That's what happens. That is what happens. And you know what? It makes me more grateful for garlic. Yes. I think growing keeps you in touch with what's happening that you're not so willy-nilly off to the shop to buy a clove of garlic. But do I need to take champion garlic grower off my AML signature, Avril? Not at the moment, Brenda. Not yet, but if we have another dad season, it's up. Yes, because you still had some good bulbs. We'll share some photographs. We've got some coverage of us harvesting them as well. We'll do a little reel and show you what came out, what happened and yeah. And so that's mainly what I've been doing in my garden. I've been harvesting some potatoes as well, just as our families needed them. Beautiful, is that what I see in your countertop over there? Yes, yes, that were just some cute little Kipflah potatoes. That was just literally three potatoes that went moldy in the cupboard that I threw in a bit of soil that have fed us for a couple of meals. And then just thinking about, you know, just about to get ready for doing a lot of more direct sewing for summer. So I'm going to do some direct sewn bush beans, peas, climbing runner beans, things like that. Carrots? I might give the carrots a shot, but I haven't had a lot of luck with carrots in my time. My soil is very dense. It's not very loamy. So I do struggle. How about you? What are you doing in your garden? So at the moment... Few tomato plants in, not that many, even though I probably had about 100 seedlings, I did give a lot away. I've still got bloody 50 in the greenhouse. My potatoes are still in the soil, so I will harvest some of them for Christmas. So I'm quite excited about that. And well, I mean, last year, just after like a rain Christmas, you could almost leave the rest of them until you got back, couldn't you? I possibly could actually. In the ground, you know? Well, they are in the coffin, remember? The coffin. But I planted, they're in there. Yes, they're in that metal old tool container. Oh, just come and help yourself. Just come and help yourself. So I've got them, I've got my... The potato pinchers. I've got a lot of them. I talk about my artichokes a lot, but they're going strong. They're flowering beautifully. All around them is calendula. I've got beautiful herbs at the moment. And I haven't put anything else in my soil because I'm going away. So I leave on the 27th of December. Are you gonna do anything with your soil? Like we're coming into a big, everyone's talking about the big, hot drought. Yes. Are you gonna do anything different with your soil this year while you're away? I don't think I'm going to put as much mulch on it because I used to be a big mulcher. And I would use sugar cane, because I know we went down that rabbit hole. And I feel, so the next podcast that we're launching, we did talk to Jackie French about mulching, and she did make me aware that maybe, coming into the hot season, that not to mulch as much. Yeah, she was saying, which was quite... counterintuitive that when she's preparing for drought, she mulches less or she changes how she mulches because the mulch itself can suck moisture out of the soil. Is that what she was saying? Well it prevents it. Or prevents it from getting down. If you have a little bit of rainfall, it's not going to get down to your actual soil. Right, so it's settling in the mulch layer instead of settling further down. Yeah, and obviously now reading a lot more into notes. no dig like a Charles Dowding after talking to Rachel and Damien and looking at regenerating the soil. I now know that... you know, a lot of mulches can actually attract some pests that you don't want. Oh, definitely. Like how much I had so much slug pressure when I was using the sugar cane mulch, which essentially is completely gone now. But look, every time you get rid of one problem, you tend to create another one. So I think for me, it's just balancing, keeping my soil still healthy. Yes. My theory has always been always get something. Don't have your soil. naked always have something on there don't have naked soil no nudie no nudie soil well i've got a lot of nudie rudie soil but it's not actually nudie rudie it just looks nudie rudie but the compost itself on top of it is the mulch this year which is the difference which is great you see i haven't had enough of compost and i didn't get anything brought in brought in so look when i come back i'll be really excited do you know what you ought to do what if you can you've got no time but If you could put a really decent layer of compost on everything before you go, that'll be rip snorting and ready to dig into when you get back. Do you know what I mean? Because it does so well when you give it that few months to really settle in. Really settle in. I have a mound that I could actually, you know, my compost heap that I just take everything out, like a chop and drop outside. And I tend to just leave it there and then it just kind of... So I might actually throw all that back in. use that as a bit of a compass. Yeah nice nice. I might also empty my worm bin, my worm farms maybe in on top. And because I've got a feeling Craig won't be worm farming as much as I do. Yeah. So I think that might be a nice boost to the soil too. Yes, yes. To keep it while I'm going away. So are you going to put the worms straight into the soil and then start again when you get back? Yes, yeah. And the bees will look after themselves? They're, well they'll have to be checked. I will call upon friends, family. Well. I'm a bit of a besper now, April, so if you need anything, let me know. But, um... Have you ever Googled that word besper? No, it's probably copyrighted, is it? Don't. Oh. Okay, message received. Christmas. Are you doing anything cute for Christmas? It's such a nice time of the year. It is a great time of the year for Christmas, Seedy Chums. I have made my own Christmas cake. I've made some mince pies. What else have I done? And it's gorgeous. Yeah, they're very tasty. They always taste so much better. No packaging. Like, hello. It's great. I've done some dehydrators. They taste so good because you only have them at one time of the year. That's right. It's so exciting to have them. I said to her, oh do you want to try my cake because your cake will be public tastes the same. And she went, have you got it already? And I went, I have because I don't want to gorge on Christmas Day. I'm going to enjoy it from now right up until Christmas. So yeah, so and I have been, beautiful, beautiful cake. As far as I made some little gifts for people. So I've done some dehydrated oranges and jars. Cute. Yeah. So nice. Yeah. Cocktails and things like that. So really, I've really enjoyed that. I've even seen them tied up with little sticks of cinnamon made into gorgeous garlands. put on fireplaces or staircase railings and things like that. I've had a conversation with Ava and Callan. They were like, mommy, we don't have any tinsel. We need to get tinsel. And I was like, I have never had tinsel. We're a no tinsel house, kiddos, but here's a dehydrated orange slice and a piece of string. But it's actually really cute, like, because I've gone the brown paper on all of my presents this year. It's beautiful. How cute. Brown paper, dehydrated orange slice and a little cinnamon stick with some twine, with some nice twine avarole. That's great. I mean, that's gorgeous and aromatic. It's aromatic. You know when the oranges were dehydrating in the future? Oh, so divine. Yeah. It was divine. So I was so happy with myself. I had picked up the dehydrator. at an auction, believe it or not. Oh, I believe it, because you live in the auctions. I believe it, Avril. It was a very good one. And I had bought it because it wasn't even from me. If ever you went into witness protection, I would just turn up at an indoor plant auction and I'd find you. That's how you'd blow your car. Yeah, that's it. I was very impressed with the little dehydrator. I was very excited that I was able to... I have done vegetables before with it, but the fruit blew my mind, the dehydrated fruit. Loving that, loving that. I was actually trying to think of another homemade gift myself for something and that's just made me think that's a great little addition to put some of those. Yeah. And you can have them in a cocktail. Yeah. They even make a gorgeous decoration. them up and put them on top of a pavlova and things like that. They're quite beautiful. So you know, interesting, when I was, I quickly had to Google as to what you can use dehydrated fruit for and a lot of things come up, but people said casseroles and stew. Yes! And this day I had made a vegetable soup and I had just bottomed my fridge soup, right? Everything that was that needed to go. That needed to go. I thought worms or soup. I was like, soup. And worms. So cut it all up, put it all in, made this beautiful cream of vegetable soup. It was divine. And I had thrown one of the oranges in because it was probably too thick. And how did it go? Well, I forgot it was in there, Bernadette. And I blitzed it. Rind and all? Rind and all. Oh, oh. I blitzed it, I forgot it was in there. Oh. I blitzed it and then I went, holy shit. I've raged it. The orange. The orange. Well, I tasted it. It was spectacular. So hot. Could you taste the orange? Oh yeah, good. But in a really nice way. In a fresh. That was only one I remember. Oh, because it would have been like zest. It was just a fresh, zesty, it doesn't sound right. But it worked. My main consumer will be Craig. And I was like, what do you think of that soup? I'm like, in his face, what do you think of that soup? And he was like, it's really, it's lovely. What have you done? What's this thing called ingredient? He got it straight away. He's like, it's definitely citrus. But it's what you've done with it, Tom. It's definitely citrus. It was how I waved the wand over the pot. Yeah, so I was very impressed with that. And another thing is I'm big into, I made some beautiful rocky road as well. Yeah, lovely. And I put in, you know what I put in there? So we had traveled down the coast chocolate digestives that we sometimes buy and we nibble on the way down. But the car was so hot they had all melted together so it was just one bar. Digestive! It was just one digestive. And I went, we can't, that's ridiculous. So I broke it all up. Perfect. And I put it into my rocky road with pretzels and any sweets that were left over. Like jellies and everything from Halloween. It all went in. Yep. Great use, great to get those last few things out of the pantry. Oh you get my kids are always driving me crazy over, mom can we have a marshmallow, mom can we have one? No, no, no it's all gone now. It's all gone now. Have a dried orange floss. Or some veggie soup. Yes so yeah I think if I can try and make a reverse garbage we're on um the other morning on ABC, Bird of Death and they were making decorations out of everything. That was everything. And she had earrings, she had a bottle tops, didn't she? Bottle tops. Look, the earrings could have been slightly more creative, but I think it was, I think the earrings were there for the wow. The wow factor grab your attention. I thought it was very impressive. They were all different colors. I was thinking, no, that's milk, and that might be custard. And that. I was trying to guess what they actually were because the sheep pink would have been light milk. Well we've been, yeah, could have been kubis kim, kubis kim, yeah, or a protein milk. We've been doing, so we've done some salt dough ornaments, like a plate beater, salt dough. Plate-o salt dough, yes. And then every year we do one with Charlotte's little handprint and although she's getting so big now. I don't know if we'll be able to keep it up because the ornaments are pulling down the tree. They're getting too heavy. I've got to have to pivot. And hey, there's always the conversation of what type of tree do you have? Real tree? Do you cut down a tree? A plastic tree? What's your take on this, Brenna? We've got a... plastic reusable tree with all the lights built into it. Yep. Sort of plug in kind. It's a great tree. It's very tall. I love it. And I honestly think that tree will do us our whole lifetime. But I do, I must say, when we were kids, we used to get the real tree and I do miss. The smell. The smell. Yeah. The smell. But besides that. Yeah, I mean, it's gosh, it's so much easier and I couldn't bring myself to cut down a tree. I mean, they aren't purposely grown. I mean, I got a tree in a pot. I just got a beautiful native woody Christmas, like a little one. It's probably about maybe three foot tall if even that. And so, yes, that's what I went, just a little native tree. But I have seen people, and I think we can overthink it. I don't think it matters. I really don't think it matters. Whatever's right for your family, you gotta do. But I have seen people just do whole twigs. or pine like a whole arm of a pine tree. Get creative. Get creative with it. I saw the, you know, I saw one recently, which was the twig with just strings hung off it and the ornaments, which were, you know, natural bits of bark and wood and pine cones and things like that hanging at different lengths and it was gorgeous. Yeah, I think it's absolutely gorgeous. I always am. It's always a part of the conversation every Christmas. I see it on TV, on social media, on media, and you just do what's right. If you can be a little bit more, a little bit mindful, maybe with the glitter and tinsel and all those micro plastics. Yep. Perhaps what you're wrapping your presents in. If it can- Wrapping your presents. Yep, if you can think about that too. I mean, there's some pretty, and like I said, you can make some pretty easy swaps there that still look darn good and still, you know, don't take anything away from the special day. And remember at the end of the day, if you've got something and you've put love and time into it, what more? anyone ask for? That's right. That's right. Bernadette, Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas, Avril. Is there a Merry Christmas version of Slonlath? Oh, Nalakunnadich. That's right. Yes. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. And I would like to wish everyone, I suppose, peace. love and joy. We know there's some crazy stuff going on in the world and I wish for everyone to have a peaceful and a joyous Christmas. Yeah and we hope that everyone can slow down, get together with family, enjoy having a break. Yeah. And we look forward. Get outside, sit under a tree. Yep. Have a cup of tea. Smell a rose. Sing to a bee if it flies past. In the key of sea. And until next time, Seedy chums, Merry Christmas! And a happy new year.