Creative Space - in the kitchen

Baking Christmas gifts.....

Max asked if it was a chocolate stir fry, no it isn't but I like the sentiment.


It's actually going to be panforte. I'm not giving much away as I make it every year.

I've also started the garlic harvest (after feasting on garlic shoots for a few weeks)


How I LOVE fresh organic garlic (there's also the fact it is dead easy to grow in Tasmania and after planting you basically ignore it). We all have permanent garlic breath and despite growing more and more every year I still don't think we planted enough



And the veggies for tonight's dinner





Thanks to Kristy for hosting Creative Space this year...go and look at some crafty spaces!

Stripe fest and broad bean feast

I think I've mentioned my penchant for stripes before, however it wasn't until I was downloading these photos that I realised how many stripes we had going on today!


and in case you were wondering, we are not sponsored by Bonds

Our broad bean crop is being harvested almost daily at the moment, Adelaide happily chomps through them while playing out the back....leaving a trail of pods in her wake. The few plants that popped up in the lawn (spilling things can be good) produced great big pods.


And the best bit is the smalls love to shell them for me, of course there is a small commission charged (the occasional nibble) and it keeps them amused for quite a while (not sure if this will last the season out)


I forgot to get a photo of them, in all there bright green splendour (when double shelled), cooked up with new garlic, yummmmmm.

Yesterday - a wish

Creative Space - Advent

With no sewing machine set up at the moment we went for a no-sew advent this year (envelopes stamped in one feeding session!)


It is proving a hit with the smalls and is the first thing we do in the morning while preparing breakfast as it is hung in the kitchen (on a line usually used for more domestic tasks like drying out plastic bags for reuse).



I've only managed to fill the first weeks worth, at this stage it is mostly with seeds for the smalls to plant out in the garden. I'll be putting the thinking cap on (and looking around for ideas) to fill the rest soon.

Yesterdays goodness:




More Creative Spaces here.

Summertime

Welcome summer, make yourself at home, put your feet up and stay a while.

I'm breathing a huge sigh of relief after all my photos (and other less important stuff) was rescued from my old computer, I'm making all sorts of promises about backing-up more regularly (as you do).

I've been finding it hard to squeeze blogging in lately, we have been having fun with family visitors plus the Christmas rush is surely on. For me it is more of a summer rush as there is so much to do on the days when we actually get summer weather. Successful life in Tasmania means making the most of sunny days by dropping whatever else you planned to do.

So here's a quick wrap up of what we have been up to lately.....

Taking Leo on his first camping trip


Eating flowers from the garden



Going to the beach



Taking lots over-my-shoulder photos to see if Leo is sleeping


Summer time baths


Preserving.....


And so many other things like spending time in the garden; harvesting, planting, carting soil, weeding, cutting, planning and dreaming of the summer to come

Tech wrecks

Technology has gotten the better of me, my computer decided to up & died just before I did my biennial backing up! After a week of sweating over whether I had 'lost' all our photos from the last 2 years a tech-savvy knight-in-shining-armour reckons he can get it all back.....yippee.

So I hope to be back online soon......in the mean time go & backup your photos!

image above from here.

Dolly, Kudjekbinj, Bing, JP

When I first picked her up her name was Dolly. I was living in Darwin at the time and she was the pride and joy of a big burly biker living next to the Nightcliff Tavern. He seemed devastated when I told him I didn't plan to breed her (Staffy-Dingo-Bully?!?)

She was classified by the vet as a Humpty Doo-Brown-Dog.

She grew up surrounded by the camp dogs of Gunbalunya where her days were spent keeping cool amongst the lemon grass clumps and wisely avoiding the croc-infested waters around the town. It was here she was given the name Kudjekbinj, a place name in Arnhem Land. Visits to Darwin were always interesting as calling out "Kudjekbinj" on a walk always elicited amazement among any Bininj (Aboriginal people of that area in Arnhem Land).

We moved to Sydney where we walked daily around Callan Park, marvelling at the pace of city life and quickly realising it was not the place for us. While she remained Kudjekbinj to me she was usually just introduced as Bing.

She then went to live on the farm with my parents in Northern NSW while I was overseas, learning the joys of chasing rabbits and NOT chasing chooks (chook-chasing dogs don't last long on farms).

We then moved to Hobart and I'm certain she was the only Humpty Doo brown-dog in town. Somehow she then became known as JP, which was supposed to be a shortening of Kudjekbinj??

It was not the weather that brought the biggest changes in Hobart, it was the arrival of children. As more babies arrived, less walks were had. Thankfully JP was ball-crazy and we live next to a reserve so chasing the footy or a tennis ball replaced proper walks. Even so I often went to bed feeling guilty about yet another day with very little time spent with her.

Last weekend we had JP put down. She had a very large tumour on her spleen and while one vet encouraged us to operate I did not want her remaining time to be spent recovering from such major surgery. A second vet agreed and advised against an operation like that at her age.

It was a sad day for me but it was tempered by the knowledge that it was the right thing to do and she had had a great life and had not suffered at the end. We buried her in the backyard with her footy (or what remained of it) and a tennis ball. I've planted some sunflowers there and look forward to seeing them throughout the summer ahead, each one reminding me of my old mate.

I'll leave the kids reactions for another post but they sure do ask the curliest questions!