Autumn flowers

The roses are going bananas since the flood and even the usually summer flowering gums have gotten a bit confused and are coming out in bloom. They have got to be one of my favorite flowers, with their little pink tutu's of subtle heaven scent. The pear knows what it's doing though and is going gorgeous flame colours and loosing it leaves - all from my parents garden. I do love autumn.

Things to be Thankful for*

Yes I'm back. I feel ready to do this again. It has been too hard (as well as the whole not much internet thing) to write this post. But I'm here again, and there is so much to be thankful for.

* How pretty fog is.
* How much I love autumn (and its clothes)
* That my students are starting to trust me a bit more.
* The exciting 2 weeks of work we have coming up.
* I get a whole new kitchen and oven (sometime this year!)
* Our unbelievably generous friends.
* Our awesome veggie patch.
* The heat and smell of a wood fire.
* Getting to explore the wee towns around here and consequently feeling a lot more orientated.
* My cute as a button doggy.

Linking up with Maxabella.

Link Love for Friday*

* How marvelous is this colour palette!
* Pretty, pretty, pretty fabric.
* The happiest spoons I ever did see.
* A gorgeous online gardening magazine.
* 50 things to do before you are 12
* The rudest dog on the internet? *rude words warning*
* This looks yummy.

Discoveries

The Hunter.
Who knew that behind this kitchen pantry:

 Was This:

Score eh what? It is the original stove from the house, which was built in the late 1920's - whilst I appreciate it's beauty, I don't think I will be switching to wood fired cooking any time soon. We are planning on turning it into a barbeque and pizza oven outside, what do you think?!

Retreat

Tim and I ran away for a few days. We thought, well we have no internet, how about lets go the whole hog and have no phone reception either. It was blissful. To have an excuse to not think about it all, to not worry about it all and to not bicker about it all. We ate cheese, and watched crap movies and I re-read some of my favorite teen fiction. Enough talking have some pictures.

May I recommend Mannus Lake B&B to anyone wanting to stay somewhere quiet and peaceful in the snowy mountains. It’s just 10 minutes out of Tumbarumba but feels (and is) completely secluded. It’s a cottage just for couples, it has a spa, a fully equipped kitchen, a music system and dvd player, plus gorgeous views and horses to chat to whenever you like. Although there is no longer a lake as its walls got washed away in the 2010 floods, the Mannus creek is very pretty and you really do have a whole cottage and the view all to yourself.

Feijoa Jam

Yup - A girl moves to the country for no more than two months and she’s already producing jam like the village show is on. We discovered that the rather scrappy looking bush next to our house is actually a feijoa tree, the discovery was made by seeing a large amount of this strange looking fruit on the ground after the flood, apparently they like flood waters too. If you havn't had them/heard of them, that's fair enough. They are a rather strange fruit, which kind of taste like a cross between a kiwi and a passion fruit. Anyway, we have so so many of them, and there only so many of them you can eat raw, so I looked into whether they make jam - et voila - they do.

You Need:
* 1.5 kilos of Feijoa’s (just the flesh)
* 700gs of Sugar
* 1 lemon
This makes 4 x 300g jars worth.

I did the same as I did with the fig jam, pop X number of kilos of fruit in a heavy based pan and add half the amount of kilos of sugar to fruit, plus the rind of one lemon and boiled until thick. You test the thickness of jam by popping a little on a plate and running your finger through it. If it stays separated where your finger ran then it’s ready.
The recipes I read for feijoa jam said to peel and slice them. This sounded like an awful lot of hard work to me so I did what I do when I eat them raw: chopped them in half and scooped out the flesh with a teaspoon. Stir it occasionally, mine took about an hour.

Easter

A tad late. See the previous post about us not having internet. I thought I'd share the festivities here anyway! I made chocolate crackle Easter egg nests for everybody, including myself. How good are chocolate crackle?? We went olive picking again, said hi to some horses, had a bonfire and picked roses. Glorious roses! Now I have ambitions for a huge rose garden so that I can have any colour flower in my house when I like.

Flea Market Finds

My new blue suitcase: A bargain for $5. Yup from the same Vinnies in Wagga. Gosh I love that shop.
I just took it on holiday the other day and it worked a treat. It held my stuff. All the cows and horses thought I looked retro cool (it’s so easy to be the trendy one when not in Surry Hills - Hurray!). Hubby likes it so much he doesn’t mind about the collection being expanded! (up to 7 now). Win win win.

More Flea market finds over here.

Link Love For Friday*

Just a few that I have managed to collect over the last couple of weeks! 

* Ahhhhh sexism...
* Poems made from book spines.
* Victorian photos like you've never seen before.

* Beautiful bicycle basket.

No internet today

The Murrumbidgee took my internet access. And it's killing me. I used my peasly 200mb of phone data in about an hour. We're meant to have been reconnected but it hasn't yet because (insert large telecommunications company name here) ra-dee-ra-dee-raa yawn.
Anyway. Husbando and I are escaping the mud for a few days starting in about mmmm 10 hours. All my digits are crossed that we will be back online when we get home on Thursday morning so I can post my Easter pictures, house pictures... just any old post at all actually - apart from a whiney excuse-y one like this. Bleurghstupidfloodruiningeverythingbleurgh.

House update: No work to commence for at least 2 months. We have no kitchen, no bathroom, missing a lot of interior walls. Waiting waiting. Living with my folks (thanks ma and pa!!). Meanwhile we are gardening up a freakin' storm and I can't wait to show you!

Thanks for your patience. I miss you as much as you miss me. Promise ;)

{picture}

Autumn Birthday Cake

I’ve noticed the leaves turning yellow this week and driving home late at night from work there are patches of fog over the North Wagga Wetlands - those bits of flood that still havn’t dried up. Perhaps this is why Nigella’s 'Autumnal Birthday Cake' (from How To Be A Domestic Goddess) sounded just perfect to me for my muma’s birthday last week. Of course, I can’t help but tweak just a little and I’m glad I did as I can’t imagine how over sweet this cake would be with its original 350mls of maple syrup, but it’s delightfully moist and hearty, and who would resist adding free (from that secret tree of ours!) figs to make the maple syrup have the tiniest crunch and a more complex flavour. I’ve eaten a lot of icing - like just icing - on it’s own - in my time and this is the best I’ve ever had, and in terms of fancy icing it’s not that hard to make. Oh yes and the optional extra is, no not the pecans - you have to put them on - a golden horse to go on top - if your mum is into that kind of thing.

Recipe after the jump...