Day 25 - On the road

We'll be travelling tomorrow, so here's a post I prepared earlier!

Thinking of our dogs, Nigella and Claudia, as they have gone to stay with my parents for the weekend. They'll be having a great old time!

Day 4 - the GSDs

Today was a good day. After a breakfast of pancakes we headed into town to pick up Rob's eldest daughter. We headed to BigW as nappies and wipes were on sale, and after touring around in the trolleys we ended up at the toy section. We were looking at trikes and then let the girls sit on one each. Should have just put them straight into the trolley, they weren't going to leave the shop without them. Elisabeth even clambered onto hers in the trolley!

Home to have bottle Rob's cider together and eat a BBQ lunch. A relaxed afternoon, and it was so good to have help with looking after them.

I managed to take these photos of Nigella and Claudia in the golden hour just before dinner. They haven't forgotten how to pose. Tomorrow we start daylight savings, I love it. 

13/52

Maggie: her pixie face. A baby of contrasts. Recently swinging between funny, laughing clown to growling rage-filled, frustrated baby in seconds. Her new teeth are proving useful for eating. Today she stood up from squatting without anything to hold onto. We all clapped her achievement, Elisabeth included, and her face broke into the proudest smile.
Elisabeth: nothing heralds the start of autumn to me as much as the sweet and distinctive perfume of ripe quinces. These are from a friend's tree, Rob is using them to make quince jelly, a favourite conserve at the hut. 

Her little hands here remind me of her father; this link between generations is particularly poignant to me this week as Rob's own father passed away last Sunday. We farewelled him on Thursday, with a celebration of his life with family and friends. I took this photo of him with Nigella in 2009 walking amongst the vineyard he planted 30 years earlier. Vale Graham.


Joining in with Jodi's 52 portrait project at her blog Practising Simplicity. Can you believe we are a quarter of the way through the year?

Hut Christmas 2013 - the big day

It may just go down as one of my most favourite Christmas days ever, despite not meeting up with family for the traditional lunch feast (my family is overseas and Rob's were having a quiet Christmas.) It meant we didn't have to rush, and with two babies who need feeding and naps at regular intervals it was a relaxing day without an agenda.

But it also felt right this year to be just us. We had an early Christmas lunch on Sunday with Rob's elder daughter, the girls excitedly helping her to open presents, and enjoying the books she gave them.

When the girls woke early on Wednesday for their first feed I got Rob to pop a few presents from us in their stockings. After their birthday we kept their gifts simple for Christmas, a read, a wear and a play each. He brought them into our bedroom. The girls were still a little sleepy.

A cute pair of suede slippers each and a pink onesie. The girls were sure they were edible.

Claudia wasn't really impressed.

The girls like their breakfast as soon as they wake, snacking on bananas, peaches, ham and a little cooked egg yolks. Rob and I settled for ham and fried eggs with coffee.

The dogs added to the festive ambiance as I had tied a bell to their collars. We could hear them jingling all day, which I love.

We decided to bathe the girls as they had smeared egg yolks all over their faces (the joys of baby led weaning!) They get quite excited by their big girl baths, splashing, chatting and babbling away. The day was already warming up so we let them play for awhile before wrapping them up in white towels to dry and dress.

We continued to open gifts, slowly getting through the pile. Rob looked quite sheepish about a box for me. So he should, it was a hand held vacuum cleaner!

Luckily he made up for it with 500g of Belgian chocolate, some Italian Torrone and a gorgeous marble pear.

I must admit I thought he would do that, so I returned the favour with new socks and jocks. 

The girls understand the presents are for them, and are interested in the wrapping and the very tasty gift tags! 

But it was so exciting they did need a nap!

The day was sunny and warm. We drank coffee and tea, listened to Handel's Messiah on the radio, rang family to wish them a Merry Christmas. Eventually the pile of presents under the tree all ended up unwrapped and spread over the table. We were all spoilt. 

By now it was lunch time. So we ate a simple salad with some cheese. The girls were happy in their high chairs, looking out the open bifold doors. 

I quickly made up Maggie Beer's almond and cumquat pudding and set it on the stove to steam for 4 hours. Then we retreated to the bedroom where it was a little cooler. At first the girls were so excited they just sat on our bed laughing and flapping their arms in delight. It was so lovely to see, and Rob and I both were taken back to last Christmas in the NICU, to our first cuddles with two tiny premmie babies. Last year we dared to hope that we would spend a second Christmas with them, and to see them happy and healthy together at home is the best gift we could receive. We are so grateful for our two miracle babies. After a feed from me the girls fell asleep between us and I even snoozed til 5pm. 

It was still warm so we packed up the girls and the dogs and drove to a nearby dog beach. The dogs chased sticks (and some poor little dog!) and we waded in the surprisingly warm water with the girls in our back pack carriers. It really was a serene evening. 

Back home we ate another salad with some cold ham, the girls munched on cold potatoes and a little ham too.

My pudding was unveiled and covered in the candied cumquats I'd made a few days previously. For a gluten free adaptation it was pretty good!

After one last cuddle and feed the girls were ready for bed, and Rob and I after reflecting together on our day fell asleep not long afterwards.

How was your Christmas? 

Today I know:

That winter is over. Spring has arrived. Sure we may still get the occasional cold day, but the longer days, the wattle blossom, the frogs chirping, the garden coming to life, the almonds flowering, are all heralding a new season.

Never walk away and leave a rice pudding to cook in a rice cooker. Hot cream inside all the drawers as it overflowed on the way to the kitchen floor is not fun to clean up.

Sleep is precious. Very precious.

Elisabeth loves food. Despite the early intervention guys saying to wait until 6 months corrected, (our paediatrician did admit premmies can go early), Elisabeth is ready now at 5 months corrected. She lunges for our food, drools while she watches us eat, and looks longingly at my water bottle (she thinks it's a giant milk bottle). The other night Rob was eating some home made coffee ice cream, and she kept trying to swipe it! He had to hold it above his head. We are combining purée with baby led weaning, as she prefers her own spoon or hands but will happily accept rice cereal or mashed banana from me at the same time. I haven't noticed any great difference in her breastfeeding yet!

Maggie is such a dear. Elisabeth will only sleep during the day if we hold her, so Maggie waits patiently beside me. She talks in this cute breathy way, starting off quietly but getting louder as she gets going. She loves my silly ditties and smiles every time I sing her favourite one.  I have been coaching her on rolling, so she can catch up to Elisabeth. She humours me but I suspect she will do it when she is ready.

Nigella and Claudia are still hiding out in the breezeway, snuggling each other when they think no one is watching. If they didn't eat so much wallaby poop I may let them lick the babies as much as they'd like! 

Rob is looking after all of us so well. Shopping, cooking, cleaning, washing, working, gardening, nappy changing. Most importantly,  he is the best baby cuddler, a skill most needed here at the moment. Both girls are lulled to sleep in his arms, a smile twitching at their lips.

I love our little hut. It has been the perfect place for our babymoon. I return to work part time in late January, so I still have five months to make the most of. I am so lucky to call the hut home. 

Friday Flowers

The grass is taking off at the moment at the hut. Rob spent a happy day in the orchard with his scythe getting the grass down, although I suspect he'll need to be back not before long at the rate it seems to be growing!

I quickly snapped a photo looking from the orchard into my flower garden and onto the hut. It's starting to look really good now, the lilies have started to get growing and my beds are filling up with flowers.


Nigella and Claudia always like to follow us about when we garden, they particularly like to sit on the paths and sniff the breeze. You can see my nicely mulched rose beds (with pea straw) and behind them our happy almond trees.

I think I will see my first rose over the weekend, I've been impatiently watching this bud develop and colour up- appropriately the rose is called "First Prize".

The roses seem very happy in the clay soil, they certainly get plenty of sun and now they are mulched we shouldn't need to water them much. Finally the ranunculi are going crazy, neither Rob or myself can pick a favourite colour, each is so perfect.


Hope you have a lovely weekend whatever you get up to.

Friday Flowers

Today has been a long day.
Claudia woke us at 5am with persistent whining. This is not totally unusual, she jumped up on Rob, yet we still ignored her. She even tried to wake me (this is unheard of, she knows I won't usually get up). Rob looked out the window and saw some wallabies on the lawn in front of the hut and we assumed she wanted to chase them.
The next thing we heard as we tried to fall back asleep was Niagara Falls. Poor Claudia must have been absolutely busting! Luckily she picked the dog bed in our breezeway (with a concrete floor) as a spot to christen when her silly humans wouldn't let her out. We felt so mean.

Then we had to take our car to be serviced, something we always put off as long as we can (maybe we have learnt our lesson here), the brakes haven't been all that great recently. Sure enough they needed replacing, ahem as well as all four tyres. Hmm. An expensive day out for the commodore wagon.

So I wil distract myself and you with pretty photos of the block and garden.

Rob took these last weekend, while I was still snoozing.

I have saved the best tulip to last, the Queen of the Night has just started to flower.

The ranunculus is just starting to get going too.

And these two? They love their early morning rambles in the wet grass, wrestling with each other and munching on fresh wallaby poop.

This weekend I need to get writing, I'm joining in with Sarah's Good Mail Club, so I need to decorate some envelopes and write a few notes. Also on the agenda is spring cleaning the shed and the pantry, both of which have gotten out of control over winter.
What do you have planned this weekend?

Monday's Menu with a side of our Spring garden and Cinnamon tea cake.

I like the ying and yang of this weeks Monday's Menu photo collage. Chocolate cherry cupcakes made with a jar of Bonne Maman cherry preserve right next to a very virtuous meal of steamed greens from the garden. The greens are starting to get going now, we ate three types of broccoli in our soup on Saturday, the ever present silver beet, as well as the tops of the Savoy cabbages.
I can not wait for the broad beans and peas to start. Yesterday we planted some more seedlings and seeds: lettuce, chives, sweetcorn, beetroot, rocket, radishes, and parsnips.

Anyway the menu:

Monday: Baked ziti with silver beet.
Tuesday: ahem, baked ziti with broccoli.
Wednesday: Steamed broccoli, silver beet and cabbage tops with soy sauce.
Thursday: Pork and fennel sausages on silver beet and fresh sourdough bread with home made tomato sauce.
Friday: Decided to live in the moment and headed down to Cygnet for dinner at the Red Velvet Lounge. Rob enjoyed a rump steak, with old-school chips and salad. I had the famous pork cotoletta. We shared a dessert of cherry ice cream and chocolate sauce, and we were back home by 8pm.
Saturday: The big grand final day with our annual consumption of footy food. We ate the footy franks in white squishy buns with mustard, tomato sauce and butter (that sentence confused a few of my international Instagram followers- they eventually worked out I was talking about a hot dog!) I'm afraid that they didn't make for a very photogenic food picture, but they were tasty. We used the remainder in a tomato and vegetable soup.
Sunday: Rob cooked us Patricia Well's Chicken breasts with sage and potatoes (parboiled, then sliced and cooked in butter).

My sister, her husband and my niece visited for afternoon tea yesterday, we had chocolate caramel and almond slice (similar to this recipe but with almonds), those cherry chocolate cupcakes and a simple cinnamon teacake. Which was probably the most popular! See the very simple recipe below.

Cinnamon Teacake {From Women's Weekly}

Ingredients:

60g butter, softened
2/3 cup castor sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup self-raising flour
1/3 cup milk
15g butter, extra
3 tablespoon castor sugar, extra
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Method
Preheat oven to 160deg C (fan-forced oven)
Grease and line a 20cm cake tin.
Beat butter, sugar, egg and vanilla until light and fluffy (about 5 mins).
Stir in sifted flour and milk with a wooden spoon, beat lightly until smooth.
Spread mixture into the tin, bake for approx. 30 minutes.
Turn onto wire rack, pour over extra melted butter, sprinkle with combined extra sugar and cinnamon. Serve warm with butter.

Finally Rob headed out when it wasn't blowing a gale or pouring with rain (not many opportunities over the weekend!) and took some photos of the flower and vegetable gardens with a real camera. I'll share them on Friday, but in the mean time I'll leave you with a photo of the dogs in the flower garden. Everything is starting to look very green and lush.

Snap it {straight lines}

Sorry guys I seem to have lost my blogging mojo. Hoping it comes back soon. I'm still reading and enjoying your blogs and I hope to post that risotto recipe soon.

So a short post tonight.
Straight lines. Our hut is full of them. In fact the only curved items are the sinks in the bathrooms and the round mirror above one of them. Everything else is angular. I like it that way. The builder told us he'd never built a house with such long external walls (27m)! I love this photo of our hut taken last summer after the great terrace building. Gosh I miss those long sunny days.


Playing along here.