Friday Flowers

We've had a quiet week this week at the hut. We're both busy at work. Rob's had a slight cold all week which is making him feel a little droopy. The weather has been a bit cool and damp and grey. So we've just hibernated a bit in the evenings, eating warming foods and reading on the window seat. I can't wait for daylight savings to begin this Sunday!

I thought I'd do a native plant post today. Although I don't work as a botanist at the moment, I can't help myself, as we walked (well raced as the dogs were so keen) along the path to Snug Falls last week, I kept checking with Rob I hadn't lost it. Picking out pretty wildflowers, checking I still knew their names (well at least the name I knew them as, damn taxonomists keep changing them!)

Rob's Monday practical was looking at three families of plants Myrtaceae, Ericaceae and Rhamnaceae. So after our little walk we found a few specimens to take into work the next day.
I thought I'd share a few of my favourite pictures from each family (all photos are Rob's of course!)




This little cutie is Euryomyrtus ramossissima, part of the Myrtaceae family, which is better known for the more showy eucalypts, melaleucas and callistemons. The leaves of this family all have that distinctive eucalypt smell if crushed. This particular plant is common in coastal heath vegetation, and is easy to pick out with the five white/pale pink petals.


The next two are both members of the Ericaceae family, known for their tough, often sharp little leaves. The one above is Leucopogon virgatus, I love their fluffy white petals, or more correctly their hairy corolla tube. Leucopogon is latin for white beard. The petals of all the species in this family are fused into a tube, sometimes they are open like this species, but the tube can also be shut like in Richea.

This even furrier flower is actually another species Pentachondra involucrata found in heathy woodlands.


Finally this little plant is part of the Rhamnaceae family, which contains some of my favourite plants. This is the species Stenanthemum pimeleoides, a rare prostrate shrub found on the east coast. It has tiny little flowers which are quite inconspicuous compared to the larger showy white bracts. Bract is just a term for a modified or specialised leaf associated with a flower (botanists love descriptive terms). Aren't the little heart shaped bracts adorable? I often pick the leaves of plants in this family just to rub their softness against my skin, if they could make lingerie out of them, I'd be the first in line to buy some!

Well there ends today's little botany lesson, hope you have a lovely weekend, so far we don't have any plans and that doesn't worry me a bit!

Monday's Menu

Well after looking at last weeks pictures I did tell Rob we should try not to eat cheese for a week. We almost got there, but on Friday we needed a quick last minute birthday gift, so we headed straight for Bottega Rotolo, and I knew we'd be walking out of there with some cheese.
Sure enough we did, a small washed rind and a hard cheese called Chebris Brebis that was made from a mixture of ewe and goat milk. Both excellent.

Top row: Spaghetti alla puttanesca, Rolled loin of pork stuffed with prunes, sage, breadcrumbs, garlic and onions, Friday's cheese platter with salad and bread.
Middle row: Strawberry Lemon Curd Puff, Left over pork on Tuesday :), Mini-roast lamb (shanks) with baked potatoes and carrots.
Bottom row: Stir fry with rice noodles and the last bit of pork, lamb soup, and roast potatoes.

Our weekend:

We've had a quiet weekend, apart from this afternoon we stayed in at the hut the whole time, it was lovely.
But we made the most of our time, yesterday we weeded my lilies (some are still in pots); I seem to have a zillion, and that's only a slight exaggeration, several hundred at least.
Rob made a batch of Seville marmalade, I made lemon curd to put into a doughnut shaped puff (choux pastry again), and we mixed the rest with whipped cream to churn into the most wicked ice-cream.
Today was sunny but cool, after a morning perimeter walk with the dogs, Rob made a big pot of lamb shank and vegetable soup and I used up the egg whites to make almond and also coconut macaroons.
Whilst Rob did some digging, I admit I had a post lunch snooze on the window seat.
But later we headed for a walk at nearby Snug Falls. Both dogs love to walk in the bush, but Claudia got herself all scared over two little girls on the track! It was sort of funny, maybe their tartan dresses were too frightening for her?
She has been a little naughty this weekend, Rob spread some blood and bone under all the trees and she keeps sneaking off to eat it!! Cheeky bugger, it didn't seem to matter if we growled at her, she just couldn't help herself!
Although at least it distracted her from the dam, where a mother duck and 11 of the cutest ducklings have been keeping us entertained with their antics!
Hope your weekend was as relaxing as ours.

Friday Flowers

I'm afraid I'm cheating a little with today's flower pictures.
Although our quince trees have just started to flower, the weather has been terrible in the mornings so I haven't managed to get a photo. Luckily for me Rob has a vast collection of pictures so he dug a few out for me to share.

Quinces, we love their fruit, the perfume is like nothing else, we often buy a couple just to pop in the fruit bowl, so that the perfume wafts around the house. One of the first things Rob and I did together as a couple was take cuttings of a favourite quince tree at a friends place. Our success wasn't brilliant, but we ended up with four trees which are now planted at the block, perfectly positioned so that you can sit on the window seat and gaze at them.

Their flowers are quite beautiful don't you think? I especially love the buds, how they are all whorled up. You can see the similarity to roses can't you? Rob is running his Tasmanian plant taxonomy practicals at the moment, so we're in flower collecting mode (really just Sunday afternoon strolls finding flowers!) His introductory prac is called Supermarket Systematics. We go shopping and buy a trolley full of fruit and vegetables, and then the students get to classify the produce into their families (with the help of some of these photos as the flowers are the key to grouping plants). After the prac is over the students get to pick one of the items to take home! I miss helping Rob with these pracs, I used to quite like demonstrating in the classes.

Midweek musing

I had a lovely long weekend, as I took Monday off, and got really lucky with the weather, Monday was absolutely perfect, blue sky, warm, a slight breeze. Rob and I went for a morning stroll around the block before he had to head into work. He’s trained the dogs to react to the word “perimeter”, as soon as he says it they get all excited and start heading for the fence behind the hut to start their walk. They actually don’t like to go on a walk without us. The pack instinct is pretty strong in German Shepherds, they like us all to be together when we’re doing things.

Then I spent the day catching up on washing (perfect weather for it) and cleaning up the hut. I guess that doesn’t sound very exciting, but I quite liked the space and quiet, and was happy enough getting our hut back into order, and I had the dogs for company. It was warm enough that I could open up all the windows, the big bifold doors in the main room, and the French doors in the breezeway, and the hut stayed just the right temperature. I even walked around barefoot on the polished concrete and it was just fine.

Rob did come home early to help prepare dinner for my family. With my niece being baptized on Sunday, my grandmother and aunt were over visiting for a few days from Melbourne. They were keen to see the hut, cause the last time they’d visited was for our wedding, and it was nowhere near complete then. We served soy-toasted almonds, baked olives and gougères (I was hooked on choux pastry after the profiterole tower). Rob cooked a rolled loin of pork stuffed with sage, onions, garlic and prunes in the Weber, and he served it with roast potatoes and red cabbage and apple. I had made my go-to dessert: a steamed marmalade pudding. It was nice to have them visit (with my parents and brother too), to just sit around the table and chat.

After tidying up the breezeway I took a few shots of it. Which is quite hard cause it’s got a cathedral ceiling and is only 3m wide, I tried to lie down to take a shot, but Claudia thought that meant she could come and chew on my ears! We’re pretty happy with this space, our front entrance, we can come in and dump coats, bags and shoes. The dogs love it too; cause the concrete is cool to lie on. It doesn’t normally look this tidy, usually there are baskets of shoes and dog drying towels, and a dog mat, but it’s nice to get it back to it’s original state once a week!

I can’t help but share these two pictures of Nigella and Claudia, you can’t deny they have character!