Our weekend was:

A quick beach walk with Nigella, where taken up in the moment I decided to leap over the creek. Convinced of my athletic prowess I ran and jumped. Sadly I didn’t quite make it, landed in the water and somehow ended up rolling over and landing on my back? Apparently graceless, according to Rob. It was funny though. I then dared him to do better, his leap was just as unsuccessful and he ended up with water and sand splattered up his legs. Nigella disowned us, how embarrassing!

A drive north, punctuated by a stop at Oatlands for bread (Apple, walnut and fruit loaf and rye) and coffee, a little wander along to look at the antique shops. The Fruit bread torn into chunks and devoured as we drove along in the car.

A belated birthday dinner for Rob’s mother of perfect winter oysters with sparkling, sticky maple pork ribs with rice and sautéed cavolo nero from our garden. Dessert was a date and dark chocolate meringue cake with cream. Sticky and delicious, but light at the same time.

I picked a bucket of slightly frozen cumquats from the tree in the early morning sun to take back home to make cumquat marmalade.

The drive back home through Evandale and Nile is much prettier than the highway. We pretended to ourselves that we would not stop again for Companion bakery bread on the way home. I did smirk slightly and was secretly relieved as Rob slowed down and ducked into Oatlands again. Oatlands is looking pretty smart at the moment, new shops, renovations, new mill. For once a Tasmanian township that hasn’t been bastardised with modern buildings (well at least on their main road anyway!) In the warmth of the bakery we decided to eat steak pies and drink more coffee. We got a country batard loaf and I was quite firm with Rob that it could stay in the back where it wouldn’t disappear!

On the way back we decided to bypass the whole Brighton bypass debacle and went through Colebrook and Campania. It was nice to have the time to chat about our garden. Rob and I talked about our most favourite fruits, the ones that are hard to buy, or are prohibitively expensive. Now the orchard at the block already has 33 trees that include apples, pears, plums, apricots, almonds, mulberries, pomegranates (optimistic I know), cherries, a peach, a nectarine and a fig. Plants are our thing really, so we’d like to be a bit more serious about producing four of our favourites. We decided upon in no particular order: cumquats, quinces, raspberries and rhubarb (not technically a fruit but close enough!) Maybe we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves, but it’s nice to dream.