Friday Flowers

It's back. I just got a download of photos Rob took awhile back with the real camera. Ahem. It makes me realise how much better these photos are than my iPhone, and that I should stop being so damn lazy and use the real camera!

Anyway these were the last of my lilies for the year, these oriental lilies not only looks stunning but also are scented.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, we have a long weekend in Australia, so I'm planning some sleeping in (hopefully Rob doesn't read this), gardening, and some hut maintenance jobs.
We need to re-coat the timber, as the original coat has finally soaked in.
I'm sure I'll be back here over the weekend anyway.

Liebster

The lovely Mel from Coal Valley View has nominated my blog for a 

Some background: Liebster is a German word, meaning favourite, dearest or beloved and the Liebster is awarded by bloggers to other, newer bloggers, who have fewer than 200 followers, to spread the word and help the new(er)bies gain wider recognition. The award comes with four conditions that each recipient must satisfy when accepting:

1. Choose five up-and-coming blogs (with fewer than 200 followers) to award the Liebster to.
2. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
3. Post the award on your blog. List the bloggers you are giving the award to with links to their sites. Leave comments on their blogs so they know about the award.
4. Share 5 random facts about yourself that people don't know about you.

I hope none of my nominees take this the wrong way; like me some of them have been blogging for awhile. You know what? I don't measure the success of my blog by the number of followers I have. I started blogging to document our life at the hut, I had always been a diary writer and it seemed a more efficient and attractive way of keeping track of what we have gotten up to. But meeting like-minded people both here and around the world is certainly a great bonus and I certainly am inspired by others blogs. It is lovely to have a blogging community and I often feel closer to some of my online friends than some people I see everyday!

My five nominations are:

1. Roberta from Rowantree Design
2. Pauline from Occasional Food Fairy
3. Ally from Everyday Miracles
4. Phoebe from Ballynoe Cottage
5. Julie from Four Leaves

My 5 random facts? Now that's the part that has been stumped.

1. I am very short sighted. Without my contact lenses or glasses I can barely see past my nose. Needless to say I detest wearing my glasses and will avoid that at all costs. Rob doesn't mean to tease me, but often he'll say at night- wow look at all those stars! I can't see the window frame clearly let alone the night sky! 
2. I really don't like getting my hands sticky. So the other night when I was rolling minute meatballs I really couldn't wait until it was over and could wash it off. A bit obsessive compulsive, but there you have it. But for some reason dirty/muddy hands in the garden is different?
3. I don't enjoy hot (spicy) food. Give me anything remotely hot with chilli, and I will always manage to breathe in exactly when the chilli hits the back of my throat causing a coughing fit and a very red face. This is bad enough at home, but most embarrassing when out!
4. I always wanted to live in the country. I tried to convince my parents to move out of suburbia when I was a teenager. I designed a grand country home. I avidly read my mother's Country Style magazines. Living at our little hut is much better than I hoped. I feel comfortable and relaxed there.
5. Not so much a fact but a silly story that will hopefully make you laugh. I was in Sydney a couple of years ago for a work trip, and had to pay for my ferry fare in a ticket machine. God knows what came over me but I paid for a single trip with a $50 note. It was like winning at the pokies. I watched in horror as my change started flying out of the the machine in $1 coins! At first I just put my hands under the slot but in the end just opened up my handbag and let the coins fall in. This of course caused much amusement to my fellow commuters.

There you go. Thanks again Mel.

Monday's Menu

A varied menu at the hut this week-
Lamb ribs with mash and peas
Beef curry with pappadums and beer.
Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.
Oysters with chilli, lime and salt.
Seafood paella.
Boiled eggs on toast.
Roast lamb for one: quince jelly roasted lamb shanks with vegetables.
One-pan chicken, sausages and sage (marinade the chicken for a couple of hours then throw it in a pan with some sausages, very tasty, a Nigella recipe from Feast).
Lamb and vegetable soup - I promised the recipe to Ally on Instagram but I'm running short on time so I might post it later or tomorrow.


The Easter bunny arrived at the hut a little early this week. I'd better stop eating them though cause Easter is still over a month away!

Our Sunday

We woke this morning to rain, which made us quite happy our tank was running a little low.
After breakfast we headed down the road to the farmer's market at Cygnet. First priority was some Red Velvet Lounge sourdough and a fruit loaf. Greedy I know! Then we picked up some rhubarb and vegetables. There was an art exhibition in the hall. My favourite was this barbed wire horse. He was gorgeous with his coppery wire mane and tail. We looked in a few of the gift shops, and I found a raspberry red skirt in an op shop. We couldn't resist an Eccles cake each from Lotus eaters. We took our spoils home. The sun came out so Rob did some digging in his veggie patch. I made granola and a vegetable soup for dinner.
A pretty perfect day.
P.S. like many others I'm totally addicted to instagram: my name there is hazelnigella. But I've decided to join in Fatmumslim's March photo a day game. Today's theme was bedside. Let me know if you're equally as addicted and I'll follow along.

Friday...wardrobe

Sorry no flowers this week.
A quiet week for me.
A little baking; Rob's favourite carrot cake recipe (Vogue Living from 1978) with, of course, cream cheese frosting. Our friend came to stay last night, so we ate soy baked almonds and huge fresh oysters with chilli, lime zest and juice and salt whilst Rob prepared a seafood paella. (We're still getting through the 5 kilos of Spanish paella rice I bought last year!) Throw in a bottle of bubbly and a Spanish Albarino and we had a very nice evening thank you very much.
Yesterday the builder delivered a myrtle wardrobe we bought well over a year ago. He has been storing it in his shed, and we've never gotten around to picking it up. I'd forgotten how stunning it is. It is a beautiful piece of furniture, although not mid-century like the rest of our collection. It has a bit of a story behind it, and I love that. When we went to look at it, we realized the man was speaking in the past tense about his wife, "my wife loved Tasmanian timber furniture", sadly he told us that she had passed away a few months before from cancer. They had only just moved into a brand new house when she was diagnosed, so he was selling off the large pieces as he wanted to downsize to a smaller home. That was it for me, I wanted to look after this wardrobe and appreciate it just as much as his wife. It was a well travelled robe too, made by Lifestyle furniture in Salamanca, it was then shipped to the United States and back as they moved around because of his work.
There is only one little problem, and this is partly why we have been reluctant to pick it up. We envisage it in our spare room, and deliberately didn't have a built-in installed. But it is too big to move into the room! So we are going to attempt to take it apart and then rebuild it in the room. A little crazy maybe. Stay tuned, I hope it works out ok!
Happy weekend, I'll try to get back into a blogging groove again.