Me through much younger eyes

I arrived at work today to find this wonderful portrait laminated and on my office wall. Love it!  It was a joint collaboration between two gorgeous budding artists who are sisters.  It is actually quite an accurate portrait of me, they have got every detail just right.  A little unsure why I don't have eyes but they recreated my new glasses perfectly. I love all the flowers and celestial details.  Thank you girls. xo

Flourishing garden and a new friendship

Sage in full flower, beetroot ready to eat, oregano, thyme and basil.

My little vege garden is thriving and I'm going to plant out a few more seeds today.

Rosemary, basil and chives.

My gardening assistant is close by as usual.

Lemons to pick, green ones growing and also full of blossoms.  Rhubard is coming back into production.

Re-planted the strawberries after last season and the first two fruit are almost ready to pick. I wonder who will find them first Miss Ruby or the brush tail possum who visits every evening?

We've already had several feeds of asparagus and given away a bagful, this little patch has produced so much over it's first 5 years.

Roast beetroot for dinner tonight!

A little self seeded tomato is coming along well.

Purple King climbing beans are taking off up the trellis.

Time spent in my little garden feels good and we love the bonus of eating some fresh produce too!

I'm feeling inspired to get my garden into full production and grow as much of our own food as possible on our 600 square metre block.  

Yesterday I made a brand new friend in real life and she is an amazing gardener, crafter, home schooling mum and cook.  Pop on over to her beautiful fresh blog Country Living Beside the Sea and you will see what I mean.  I'm still in shock I've made a new friend when I'm almost 48 and we have so much in common.  We can't wait to sit and crochet or do a bit of gardening the next time we meet.  Strangely we met through social media and a yarn club we both belong to, amazingly we only live 15 minutes apart.  I have to send out a big thank you to Jodie from Jellyware's who brought Julie and I together.  Real friendships are a rare and beautiful thing.  I'm feeling very grateful today.  

Back to Cocoparra National Park

After loving our day at Cocoparra National Park last weekend we decided to head back out there again, this time we took some good friends with us.  We decided to conquer Mt. Brogden, documented as a "2 hour hard walk'' in the brochure.  

We made it to the first lookout!

Fabulous rocks, I'm a bit of a rock freak, just love them.

We made it to the trig station at the top and Dear Husband had to climb atop the dry packed rock cairn.

Our good friends preparing for the descent. tighten the shoelaces!

Very proud of her mountain climbing effort!

Our reward, an authentic wood fired BBQ lunch in the wilderness.

How civilised is this?  A tablecloth and a great sparkling wine served in yellow plastic tumblers!  All class and no style!  A great day out and a wonderful winter time activity.  After a few drinks we've discussed a few more outing ideas and it's my job to find a good map!  I can do that!

A pink post after a girly night in

A completed small slouchy beret for our shop

I've always wanted one of these.  I found this little pink pig locally yesterday and it will be very useful now I have something special to save for!  Large birthday coming up in a few years and a group of high school friends have decided that we should meet in Europe to celebrate!

I started this wonderfully soft mohair scarf/shawl/wrap last night.  I think this is destined for Kindrawares too but I might like it too much!!!  I'm using Patons Lush Luxury Mohair Blend and making up my pattern as I go.  I love knitting triangular knits, there is a basic recipe and then you just do what you want with it.  Because this is a chunky yarn and there are lots of subtle colours I decided on just a few rows of eyelets throughout would to keep this knit light and airy.  One ball finished two to go, see what a night home alone while Dear Husband is out watching State of Origin can do for my knitting.  I also caught up on a few TV shows on the internet while nibbling on some chocolate!  Bliss!  He was happy too, NSW won and he also won the tipping comp at work for guessing they would win by 8 points.  

The Vinnies store next to our shop is tiny but has so many great treasures.  I found this Royal Winton sauce jug and plate last time I was over at our shop.  After a really thorough washing last night it has come up wonderfully.  I don't have any other pieces of this ware but it is very similar to the Carltonware that I have several pieces of so I thought it should come home with me for $3. 

I began this shawl last year and it's just sooooooo soft, it's a hand painted 2 ply lace weight Misti Alpaca 100% baby alpaca by Naturally Handknit Yarns of NZ made in Peru.  I'm knitting the Ashton Shawlette pattern by Dee O'Keefe that I've used once before. The pattern in freely available on Ravelry.  It's an excellent pattern for a novice shawl knitter, so much extra information and a great help to those wanting to knit from graphs, I can highly recommend it. Mine of course doesn't look great at the moment but after a soak and a good blocking when it's complete it will be absolutely gorgeous.  

Here she is all grown up at her Year 12 Formal

iPhone photos taken by Dear Husband, and he only took four photos so not much to choose from.  As you can see Darling Daughter and Jack Sparrow are still an item, it's coming up to two years very soon.

 



 

 

Olivia with one of her oldest friends Ellie.  When I was in hospital having Olivia, Ellie was in the Childrens Ward at 8 months of age with her mum, so they did meet at a very early age.

 

 

 

Olivia and some of her closest friends all looking lovely for their special night.

 

 

 

She had an 'up-do' which looked very elegant, not sure how you do it.  I took it down when we got home and it was a mass of pins and actual knots. 

 

 

 

 

Just for fun here is a photo of Ellie and Olivia when they started school, it seems Olivia has finally caught up to Ellie 13 years later!

Crochet tea light lanterns

I am really starting to enjoy crochet.  On Saturday I whipped up these two little tea light lantern covers with 4ply cotton from a fabulous free pattern from Nature Nut Notes blog.  The pattern is written in American crochet terminology but luckily for me it has fabulous photos so I found it really easy to follow.  Michelle's blog is gorgeous, she calls herself the Queen of the Backyard and she is a great photographer.  I found Michelle's wonderful little pattern through the fabulous knit and crochet website Ravelry.  I have made these two little tea light lanterns for two dear friends who have suffered great losses in their lives recently and I think a little bit of candlelight will help them to remember all the wonderful times they had with their Nanny and big sister. Oops, nearly forgot, the cotton and the glasses were all thrifted locally, so a great recycling project too.

Belated birthday post

My half century other half was lopping trees last week and I saw that he was wearing the fabulous birthday shirt that my sister found for him and it reminded that I hadn't shown you another of his gifts. Dear Husband has pair of very good friends that went to school with him, honeymooned with him tagging along, were in our wedding party and they also made a trip down here to celebrate with him back in April...................very good friends! Suzie is from a well known Griffith restauranting family and she whipped up a birthday dinner in the holiday shack they were staying in. A gourmet roast dinner for our two families that was so scrumptious and there on the table Marty had decanted into a glass coffee percolator a 1980 bottle of Penfolds Grange Hermitage. For thos who don't know this is a very special bottle of Australian red that they've had stored away for many years......................it smelled so good and tasted even better. What a lucky boy Dear Husband is to have these lifelong friends who are will also turn 50 next year..............so how do we top a $600 bottle of wine! Ideas please!

Moroccan night out

Busy week but made time to whip this little scarf up for the hostess of our Moroccan themed Gourmet night. I'm starting to get the hang of crochet and working with this lovely Cleckheaton Vintage Hues wool (not available any more) made it work up faster, really nice seeing how all the colours come up throughout the piece. Photo taken by Darling Daughter while I was crashing around in the kitchen getting the Moroccan entree sorted after work last night. Great night with a fun group of girls....................late night full of lots of laughs, great food and wine. Thanks Robyn!

You might also like to check out our Gourmet Club Girls blog, we've been meeting since June last year and finally I've got the blog started, lots more recipes to come I'm sure.

Stitching friends

Lunch with a stitching friend last week was a lovely interlude in the working week. I was also gifted a belated Christmas present, the cutest little Pandora charm which almost completes my charm laden bracelet. As we are 'stitching friends' we decided the picnic hamper charm complete with wine, glasses, baguette and fruit could quite easily be a stitching basket filled with sewing accessories which is most appropriate for either of us.

Yesterday I caught up with another friend on the spur of the moment and we raced into town and saw a movie, 'It's Complicated' which is a lovely funny movie to share with a friend. The last 3 movies I've seen have had Meryl Streep in them, what an actress she has become as she has aged gracefully without botox.

My resolution, 2010 will be a year of keeping up with my friends. I so enjoy their company and I'm a bit slack in making the effort to keep friendships alive.

Recycled, handmade or secondhand...............

...........Miss Brigid set the challenge. A Kris Kringle gift for one of the gourmet club girls...............oh and it should be kitchen related! A bit of fun for our final night of our first year of Gourmet Club. There were some very creative gifts being exchanged and I so wished I wasn't so tired out of my brain that I could have remembered to photograph the evening to share with you. Anyway this was the gorgeous gift I received from the very talented artist and art teacher Lizette Richards, homemade white chocolate paneforte (must get the recipe) presented in gorgeous patty pans on a beautiful plate and a pair of her great silver earrings. I guess now I have to wear my handmade earrings while cooking, aren't they just beautiful.

It was a wonderful balmy night in our back garden with me being a very bad hostess.............way too tired, burnt the first pizza!! It wasn't my finest hour of pizza cooking by any means..............wish I could do it all again but not on a Friday night after a very business week in the clinic. Anyway my guest did seem to relax and enjoy even if I did forget to offer coffee.............I'm notorious for this! I don't drink tea or coffee so it just never enters my head..............hope they all had enough wine so they didn't notice.

Oh, and the table looked gorgeous, I found some pink roses and we toasted pink and white marshmallows in the embers of the pizza oven. A good night I think.

Starting to stress a tiny bit,............

.............this Friday night is my turn to host our Gourmet Girls monthly dinner party! I was OK a couple of days ago, I hadn't really given it much thought, but since then things have been turning against me and I've had a couple of wakeful periods over the last couple of nights. We renovated our kitchen about 5 years ago and we installed our fist dishwasher and a giant new refrigerator, both made by Fisher & Paykel and two weeks ago the fridge started to go beep in the night, a fault warning that requires someone to leap out of bed and manually shut if off only for it to recur later in the night!!! Next while eating dinner on the veranda one night last week our dishwasher ceased to operate...............apparently you need a surge protector on these, we would have protected it if the manual had told us to!! Anyway after much ringing around I am sitting here waiting for the appliance repair guy to arrive for $85 and then he will be $25/15min once he gets to work..............I don't really care so long as he fixes the dishwasher which is jammed closed and the fridge that has rotting and defrosting food in it!

No opportunity for this hostess to do any food prep on her days off and I'm working for the next 3 days and won't arrive home until an hour before the dinner..................I'm not stressing too much just yet!

Anyway I headed into town today to do some banking, bill paying, Christmas shopping and general bits and pieces. I decided I just don't have enough of anything to make our table look great on Friday.............I'm not worrying about the food yet, so long as the table looks great............first impressions are important, right! We don't have any great home wares stores around this little coastal area so I decided to check out the thrift stores and the thrift gods were with me today. I found 6 matching Bohemia made in Czechoslovakia wine glasses, and the best of all some 1953 Noritake two handles soup bowls and under plates which I can utilise for dessert on Friday. I love the pale dove grey band and everyone knows I'm a pink girl so pink roses are just perfect in my eyes. Also picked up another 6 Japanese side plates which will co-ordinate well with the Noritake and my white dinner set. Picked up some hot pink serviettes and a new white tablecloth at Hellmart so the table is just about sorted.

Now my motto for the week is one of my sisters favourites.

"KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON"

I'll shop for anyone...............

..........if I receive a handmade gift as lovely as this. This gorgeous apron was made for me by a dear friend who unfortunately lives on an idyllic tropical island that doesn't have a fabric store so I helped he out with a bit of shopping a while back. All the little cupcakes are machine appliqued and look yummy enough to eat, my friends workmanship is amazing, she's a true perfectionist. I was so delighted when I found this surprise parcel in my mail box this week and then to find a hand made gift inside well that really made it so much more special. My friend bakes up a cupcake storm every week for the local island markets. She also makes cupcake gifts to sell, so if you too want one her fab aprons then pop over to Lord Howe Island and find Glenys. Now, does anyone else need some shopping done for them?

Halloween hopefuls

Here in Australia Halloween isn't celebrated much at all but this year Darling Daughter and her two friends hatched a plan on the school bus home this afternoon. They decided to dress up and give it a shot in our little village, not sure what sort of reception they will get, I don't think they even really understand what Halloween is about or what they are supposed to do regarding 'Trick or Treat'............I think all they are keen on are the goodies that they may or may not receive. I just wish I had thought of it today when I was in town and then I would've had some treats ready for any visitors we might have tonight. We've had two little boys on bicycles not dressed up but toting plastic bags attempt to enter our yard but our very scary deaf and blind old dog prevented them from lifting the latch........................scary dog must mean scarier people so they didn't hang around for long!

Willow Pattern poem

'Two birds flying high,

A Chinese vessel, sailing by.

A bridge with three men, sometimes four,

A willow tree, hanging o'er.

A Chinese temple, there it stands,

Built upon the river sands.

An apple tree, with apples on,

A crooked fence to end my song.'

The poem tells of Knoon-shee, a lovely Chinese maiden, whose affections were bestowed upon her father's secretary, Chang, but who was commanded by her parents to wed a wealthy rival suitor. She refused to comply with their wishes, whereupon her enraged father locked her up in the little house just visible on the left of the temple. From here she contrived to send a message to her lover, 'Gather thy blossom, ere it be stolen.' Thus encouraged, Chang succeeded in entering the apple orchard and carrying off his beloved.So we see them hurrying over the bridge. Knoon-shee with a distaff, and Chang carrying her box of jewels, pursued by the angry father brandishing a whip. The lovers made good their escape in the 'little ship sailing by' and landed on the island, which can be seen on the left of the picture, where they took refuge in the little wooden house. But the father and discarded suitor tracked them and set fire to the house while they were sleeping and so the lovers perished. Next morning their spirits rose, Phoenix-like, in the form of two doves and we see them, with out-stretched wings, flying off to the realms of eternal happiness.

Of course no one knows if this story is true as it is over 2000 years old.

I don't own one piece of Willow pattern china but I have fond memories of my Nana reciting a version of the little Willow poem when I was young. Today I received this card in the post and it brought lovely memories of Nana flooding back. The card came from an 85 year old Yorkshire Rose friend of mine who had recently needed a little help with the felting of her 'Opera Bag' which I was more than pleased to help her with. She is a dear friend who reminds me of my little English Nana on many occasions. I'll let you into a little secret, this particular friend when turning 80 told me she had something to show me, she pulled her blouse open and showed me a little white rose for Yorkshire tattoo on her shoulder she had just had done because she said she was too old to go Bungee jumping!