Another gorgeous day...

...shooting at the farm.  Styling, learning, laughing and of course, eating! 

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And so it begins...

It's a bittersweet moment when your littlest baby loses his first tooth.  A significant milestone on that path to growing up.  A giant step away from infancy and towards big kidness.  Sob.

Yesterday, that first wobbly tooth fell out, while Hugo was munching on our first loaf of bread baked in the new oven, not an insignificant event either.   In anticipation of a special visit from the magic folk,  last week I helped Hugo sew a little pillow with a pocket on the front   Before bed he carefully tucked his tooth in the pocket and placed the pillow next to his head.   In the darkness this morning, I was woken by a boy showing a me a coin in one hand and a gem in the other, with a look on his face so beautiful it made this growing up caper a little sweeter for one mama to bear.

Steam punk kitchen...

The kitchen's looking a little steam punk here today with copper pipes, brass fittings and gauges cluttering up the space.  We're on the home stretch now. I think we can light the oven tonight.

Meanwhile, the table is covered with the creative mess of sickly peeps making paper dolls :: pencils, sharpenings, tracing paper and scissors.

It feels truly autumnal today, cold and rainy, with a chill inside caused by the wide open doors to allow the plumbers' lengths of hoses, pipes and lagging to flow out the kitchen.

Hugo is home sick with a cold, but we have the fire on, apple sauce simmering, (from our own apples!) and our tomatoes ripening on the window sill.  A perfect day to light the Rayburn. Yes, all is well here in the steam punk kitchen.

White on White

After the great bedroom swap of December, we moved into the kids old room, which has a wonderful big window and built in cupboards. Trouble was, I hadn't got around to clearing out the clutter from our now lost study so we were sleeping in half bedroom half office.   The walls, painted a greeny icy blue, were cruddy and marked with little and not so little kid scribbles, beeswax sculptures and glitter glue.  Not the calm and soothing sanctuary of my dreams.

Yesterday, I had ten kid free hours, the perfect time to tackle painting the room and clearing out the mess.  Our whole house is pretty much painted Antique White USA, which is lovely when it's freshly painted but I'm finding that it tends to look too yellow after a time, so I went for a brighter white.  Dulux White on White.  I love it.  It's my new favourite white.  The only trouble was I couldn't reach the top of the walls so I had to leave it blue.  I don't mind it but I don't think the Mister does.

I will wait a few days before a hand some pictures, but for now I'm loving the clean white clutter free space.  We bought the old ladder years ago from a country fair in NSW somewhere.  We were living in a modern studio apartment in Sydney's Chippendale, it only just fit through the door and our friends thought we were nuts.  After carting it around for years, I think it's finally found a home.  A place to hang my new Cabbages and Roses coat, that I just can't wait to wear once the weather turns cooler.

Next week, we have some final renovations of the kitchen kind.  I can't wait to show you.

Right now...
Loving this space...via 
Can't wait for my copy of this to arrive...
Excited to be meeting this lovely lady soon...
Scared but hopeful by this talk

An extra summer's day

An extra summer day today, before autumn arrives tomorrow.  A late night of playing, practicing, quick dinners and being out in the garden later than we should.  Happy Leap Year Day.

Getaway

With the mercury rising over 40 degrees this weekend, I was so grateful to be invited away for a night at a beach house for a ladies getaway.   A stunning location, delightful friends, delicious food, wine and a warm (ish) sea to swim in.  It doesn't get any better.

Perfection.

Minnie Mouse and beekeeping

I know most of posts seem to revolve around the market lately but it is such a huge part of my life right now, it's hard to think about anything else.

Last Saturday, we unveiled the Minnie Mouse Gangster Feathered Serpent Diamond Grill tent installation.  Where NY artist Daphane Park transformed the stalls into the most amazing Quetzalcoatl inspired creature.  It looks so amazing and festive, and was a creation that pulled in the talents of so many local welders, die castors, powder coaters, ceramists and crafts people to complete.  It really is quite magical.

Over in the corner, my role has been to curate the workshops that we are running each week.  So far we have covered "how to" topics like sourdough starters, portioning a rabbit, cool climate wines and edible weeds.  This week we have traditional bread shaping, pasta making and next week I am super excited to have a backyard biodiesel workshop.  Can you imagine making your own petrol? I'm keen to get my scything mates to do a workshop too, just not sure what they could cut...there's not a blade of grass out of place on the MONA grounds.

Last week, Yves the lovely bee keeper spoke in his gorgeous French accent about backyard beekeeping.   I learnt that if I raise my hives a foot off the ground, the bees will start working around two hours earlier.  With a workforce of 50 000, that's 700 000 extra work hours a week.  That's a lot of honey!

I still have a few more workshop slots to fill.  So do you have any ideas?  What would like to see and learn about in a 30 minute workshop? 

A 'sort of' way to garden

 

If there is one thing I've been giving my garden plenty of this summer, it is neglect. A crippling bout of hay fever, coupled with a new job, has meant that really I haven't spent any time in the garden at all.  But you know what?  Despite my indifference, the vegetable patch is thriving.   The hard yakka of planting, mulching, weeding and feeding in early spring has meant that yes, whilst there's LOADS of weeds, there is also loads to eat.  Potatoes, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, basil, lettuces and chives are just some of the foods we're eating right now.   The tomatillos whilst not ready yet, are going nuts.   The apples trees are groaning with fruit and well, the blackberries are rambling and wild and sweet, if not painfully prickly.  Amazing! Imagine what I could do if I put some effort in!

The greenhouse, hasn't been a complete success, there are some tomatoes and chilies happily fruiting away in there, but the weeds are so tall and so vigorous that I can barely get inside.   Over the winter I'll have to start again, build some raised beds and fill them with clean soil.  Those pasture grasses that come up all over the garden (we're surrounded by cow paddocks), chosen to withstand heavy cattle grazing, love it in the green house and I'm no match for their tenacity.  But you know, we'll just keep going, and that's the secret to this gardening caper.   

I miss spending time in my garden, and I could certainly use some motivation, (like this Turkey's great post) along with a good dose of antihistamines to get me outside.  So today I splurged on two long-coveted books by one of my favourite writers.   Twelve hundred odd pages of inspiring gardening and kitchen prose, the first volume on vegetables, the second on fruit. I shall relish every page.  

Mmmm, my garden may to have to endure a little more neglect...

Here and now

The not so smalls went back to school this week, brown as berries with sun bleached hair. Now I find myself child free for 5 days of the week!   And while I do miss them during the day, I think they were well and truly ready to go back, see their friends and get on with the important job of learning.

With all this "free time" on my hands I had hoped to resume regular posting this week, but those intentions have been thrown out the window as I've been busy catching up on chores. My first mission is to give my house some lovin', which has been sorely neglected over the summer and to turn my attention to the wild and overgrown garden.  But more likely, I'll be heading to my favourite spots for some blackberry picking. A quiet country lane and a few buckets and I'm as happy as can be, no hardship at all, just need to watch for snakes.

Today I'll be printing labels, making more jam with those luscious fat and juicy late summer peaches, and getting ready for the market tomorrow.

Despite my lack of updates in this space, I am a very prolific Instagram (@hugoandelsa) user, and seem to be more there than here.  Is it just me I wonder, but is the Iphone killing blogging?

MoMa

Two weeks down and the market at MONA has been amazing.  There have been so many people coming to enjoy the market, the music and produce available.  The beanbags on the grass have been a huge hit with families and young hipsters alike, settling into an afternoon of music and good food, whilst leaving their shopping in the free fridge cloak room.  I've eaten Asian omelettes full of crunchy vegetables, ice cream that makes you moan it's so good, incredible cheeses, crusty bread, cold pear cider and I think my children have eaten their body weight in Gillian's chocolates.   Establishing a market is not without its teething problems, and we've still loads of work to do until the market finishes for the year at Easter to maintain the momentum.   There are lots of more exciting things to look forward to over the coming weeks, new stallholders, new art installations and lots more delicious things to eat. I'm having a couple of weeks off selling jam, and will get back into it once school holidays are finished.  In the meantime, Saturday was a good excuse to be a shopper, listen to Guy and Eliza's entertaining talk and take lots of pics.  It's incredible to be working at Mona, and to be part of such an inspiring beast, we are very lucky to have it here in Tasmania.