1st weekend

A bit like the Lord of the Rings, I'm having a 1st weekend (rather than a 1st breakfast), tomorrow is a public holiday in southern Tasmania. What do I plan to do?
It depends a bit on the weather. Spring in Tassie is crazy, it rained most of the weekend, there was snow on the mountain on Monday, and then yesterday and today have been perfectly warm, summer days, 28 degrees. I think it is meant to rain tomorrow evening.
But on my to do list tomorrow at the hut:
1. Sleep in (well a little)
2. Lazy breakfast.
3. A little stitching of the Maisy birth sampler (I may have accepted defeat about it being for Christmas- I think it might be a 1st birthday gift now).
4. Help Rob clean out the leaf litter from the driveway drains.
5. Keep the dogs away from Rob whilst he uses the brush-cutter to tidy up the orchard.
6. Make some cake bunting for a friend's birthday cake we're making on the weekend (this is as crafty as I get I guess!)

I think that's enough for my 1st weekend, stay tuned for the 2nd!

I have to share the following picture. This is the two of them waiting before our guests arrived on Sunday. Our two have worked out when we're having people over to the hut- as it usually involves us running around cleaning manically and getting food prepared. No fun for puppies. So they sit and sulk. Up until now it has been on their mat, but now, we have the dog bed, opps I mean our window seat, that is their preferred location for sulking. Claudia was hilarious, whenever one of our visitors went to sit on the window seat on Sunday she would rush up, barge past and take her position (actually where Rob normally sits). I think she just wanted them to know she was the top dog, and that was her space. Dog behaviour totally cracks me up, and these two give us plenty of opportunities to laugh. It doesn't matter how boring/crappy/annoying my work day has been they never fail to make me happier.
P.S. The leopard print is only a temporary cover for our window seat, I'm hoping that the upholsterer will arrive on Monday and take away the cushions to cover them properly. Excited about that!

Monday's Menu, and taking things to heart

Hello, just a brief Monday's Menu...Stir fry rice, pork belly noodle soup, spaghetti ala puttanesca, rump steak with little garlic and rosemary roasted potatoes and salad, Spanakopitta, and a Friday night cheese platter.


We had a lot of rain at the hut on Saturday afternoon, it pelted down. Rob and I ran inside and felt quite smug in our nice warm hut. On Sunday morning we headed out for a mid-morning perimter. At the end we headed over to our drive way where it crosses the creek (with a culvert underneath) in the gully, and the side of the bank had slumped down by over a metre! Right next to the edge of the driveway. The clay had become a terrible goopy mess that is now bulging untidily. So for the rest of the weekend I obsessively checked the bank for further damage. I know far worse things could happen, that Rob and I are well, the hut is ok etc, but I was kind of hoping that days of stressing over the hut and future expenses were over. My heart has been aching ever since, and I barely slept a wink last night, just tossed and turned envisaging waking to find the driveway impassable! So at 6am this morning I had to go see, dragging Rob and the dogs with me, relieved at least that it hasn't gotten any worse.  Our good friend who built our driveway two years ago is heading down this afternoon for a diagnosis and to suggest a solution. Fingers crossed the repairs are not too extensive or expensive! I feel so silly for worrying, and that I'm going to turn into an obsessive worrier like my mother, and that really it's not a big deal compared to what others have to face (like after Cyclone Yasi or the Victorian bushfires) but still my weekend would have been much better without it! Any suggestions for reducing anxiety?!

Spring hut

The trees in the orchard are flowering, the grass has started to grow, we've got a family of ducklings in the dam, the swallows are trying to come inside the hut to make a nest, it must be spring!
A couple of shots of the hut as we walk around the block.

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!

Red

My clandestine love affair with the colour red had remained hidden until recently. I don’t think I can deny it any longer. I thought perhaps I’d moved on from red. The hut was going to be cream, blue, and sandy yellow.
But red has been creeping back into our life.

It started when I unpacked our favourite red stoneware plates and bowls. Suddenly, I wanted to serve all our food on them. I know white dinnerware is more chic, that most food looks better on white. But every time I opened the crockery draw (that in itself is quite a novelty!) my hands would pass over the neat stack of white plates and choose the lovely glossy red plates.

Then I remembered a happy afternoon spent in an Italian café at Cottesloe Beach, and loving the look of their bright red napkins on the long communal timber tables, and thinking one day I’m going to have a table just like that. So I picked up a set of plain red cotton napkins recently.

Our bedroom also got the red makeover. We’d always had a cream bedspread. But then we got Claudia. She can’t help herself, she loves beds. But she also loves mud. So we thought this red check would camouflage the worst of the paw prints.

My favourite jam just came back in stock at Coles, I love their gingham lids, as you can tell.

Rob found us these Fler Narvik chairs on ebay, we’d be on the look out for pair, and happily for us they came newly upholstered, in lovely soft red chenille corduroy.

So now that Rob shares my love affair, I can quite openly sneak some more red into the hut. I found these red reindeer tealight holders at Spotlight on Saturday. Kitsch I know, but also beautiful at night. It’s going to take all my will power not to keep using them every day until Christmas.

Finally the window seat arrived last week. We’d oscillated over the colour of our cushions for over a year. Blue? Sandy yellow? I’ve ordered enough samples from Warwick to make a bedspread! But none of them were quite right.

We sat on our makeshift cushions. We looked at the samples. I looked at Rob. “You know what I’d really like?” He laughed, I think he already knew, “I’d like a red check just like our bedspread!” Not quite as elegant as we were originally planning, perhaps a bit clichéd, but at the moment it feels right for our little hut in the country.

Welcome back red, I’ve always loved you.

Finally...

Before

After

A few close ups

Sorry only took them with the phone will need to do a photo shoot with a real camera! We are quite smitten. Last night we dragged a few make-do mattresses as cushions, grabbed a drink and didn't move, not even to make dinner.

I live here

I am already counting down the days to the start of daylight savings (58 days).

At the moment I'm enjoying every extra minute of daylight at the hut.

I woke up yesterday and saw the sun rise and I realised how extremely happy I am to be living at the hut.

It's my home.

Learning to slow down...

I couldn't go through another weekend of frantic jobs, just to ensure I ticked them all off my list. We tried to be better at slowing down. Friday night was a good start, a bottle of French red with a lovely French Brie and an Italian hard cheese pressed inside grapes. We lingered at our table chatting and enjoying the cheeses.

The weather was a little kinder this weekend- warmer, some sun, although the occasional shower did catch us unawares. Rob did have an important project- building a compost bin- our compost has been going to waste, and as we don't have rubbish collected making sure we cut down on our waste is paramount. So while he started sawing and measuring, I baked a chocolate cake- after watching Annabel Langbein's tv show, the Free Range Cook, we couldn't resist the book. For once I am trying to be good and cook all the things we'd like to try from a new book- this resolution may be sorely tested soon, Rob has just ordered 15 news books from Amazon (only 13 are cookbooks!)

I made sure we took the time to enjoy a cup of tea, and a few walks around the block to watch the dogs wrestle in the mud.

The hut is quite peaceful- although this weekend we had several types of bird visitors, our resident pair of geese (they have adopted us), flocks of native ducks who appeared to be fighting over the dam, cheeky currawongs that liked to tease Claudia and the occasional robin. I'd love to get clever enough to recognise all their calls and songs. But at the moment I just listen and wonder what they're trying to say.

We did go shopping on Saturday, we've been living without a mirror in our bathroom since we moved in. As someone who is extremely short sighted and has to put in contact lenses every day this has been a bit of a trial- the little hand mirror on the bench top wasn't going to cut it for much longer. So we headed into town to visit our favourite second hand furniture shop, after looking around we couldn't really find the right one, but we had a chat to the owner, and knowing our fondness for retro he ran out the back and came back with a simple blackwood framed mirror. Back home it was actually a bit big for our bathroom, but suited the guest bathroom better so we swapped the round mirror to our room and hung the new mirror up. It was a little marked from water or the sun, but as I was oiling the kitchen joinery I just ran the cloth over the frame and it improved it markedly.

We made good use of our kitchen on Saturday night and cooked a special meal, just for us. I steamed some mussels open, then topped them with a salsa of lemon rind and flesh, roasted and chopped up almonds, garlic and parsley. Then we blitzed them under our grill. I was quite proud of these, sorry I didn't get a picture, they were begging to be eaten. Rob tea smoked a piece of Salmon in the Weber, it just had a marinade of whiskey, sugar and salt. We ate it with a potato bread from Sweet Envy and a bottle of bubbles. The salmon was so tender, meltingly so, like it was confit. A slice of chocolate cake with a wicked ganache icing and a cup of chocolate tea for dessert. Another excellent meal together. It's still such a novelty for us both to be able to cook in the kitchen together. We love it.

Sunday was spent finishing the compost bin, I was even allowed to use the power tools to help! Then we put a second coat of tung oil on the kitchen cabinets, and then while we were at it we decided to oil all our retro furniture, rejuvenating them beautifully.

We're getting better at living at the hut now, maybe we'll be able to relax once the long awaited window seat is finished, which I'm hoping is soon!

May I have a weekend now?

Rob and I are in a rush, obviously. Although we'd been organised enough to do our shopping on Friday night so we didn't waste time through the weekend, our weekend disappeared in a flash.
We'd picked up some Comte, Brillat Savarin and a third French cheese with some Pigeon Hole bread from Bottega Rottolo. We scurried home to savour our cheeses with some wine and just sat and chatted. Very civilised, we decided it might have to become our Friday ritual.
Saturday dawned, with the promise of sun once the frost melted and the fog lifted. An early morning delivery of fine crushed rock got Rob excited.
I took a moment to take a picture of our new arm chairs. We're qutie happy with these little beauties, 1961 Fler Narvik chairs in blackwood, with new upholstery, webbing and cushions? A bargain even with the freight from Adelaide SA!

Sadly my photo shoot was cut short by an impatient puppy.

I kepy myself busy inside with baking bread following this recipe, cleaning our hut, making some vegetable soup for lunch, baking a tea cake, and making spanokopita for our dinner.
By the end of the first day after extensive excavations most of the gravel was laid out.

On Sunday I oiled all the kitchen joinery with Chinawood oil. A job that had been on the to do list since we moved in 3 weeks ago. It doesn't actually smell so bad, and is very forgiving of my painting technique.


With the gravel done and the oiling we did drive off to pick up our fruit trees from Woodbridge Fruit Tree farm, with the hoped for bounty of quinces and cider apples.
Rob moved onto letterbox building while I did a little baking which is quite a delight in our new kitchen.

At the end of the day we sat exhausted over a dinner of baked potatoes with Cygnet bacon and cheese. We crawled off to bed early as we could barely keep our eyes open. I hope we learn to slow down a little at the hut!

The best news

Sorry I have been a very slack blogger of late.

I do have a pretty good excuse- we have finally moved into our brand spanking new hut.

For the first couple of days it was quite surreal. We've waited a long time for this (4.5 years) and it didn't seem to matter how many times we've imagined it, the real thing is something else entirely.

Waking up during the night and looking out at the stars, I've forgotten how they are so much more spectacular away from a city.
Looking out the french doors in our bedroom at the bush opposite.
Watching Rob and the dogs go on their morning perimeter walk over the frosty grass.
Catching glimpses of the geese in our garden through a window as I wander by.
It is so quiet- which I love.

Everyone keeps asking us what's it like to finally be in; Rob and I decided it's like we're big children "playing" house.

We love our kitchen. Having everything in its proper place. A pantry where you can see everything. The perfect bench height for us. What seems likes acres of bench space. A new oven that works!

We've been so good since we've moved, we've been eating all of our meals at the table (we had slipped into couch meals before).

Our first weekend has been a whirl of cleaning, unpacking (still), baking, visits, planning for a high tea next week for Rob's daughter's 16th birthday, and a lovely dinner at Red Velvet Lounge in Cygnet (which as an aside was the best steak we've eaten in ages, with of course Béarnaise sauce, chips and salad- Rob commented that he wanted his last meal to be steak and chips cooked by Steve!)

So busy I didn't take any photos! So I will have to get myself organised pronto.

Finally this blog can begin properly- the hut chronicles have started for real.

Mini-break

Rob and I took a week off. We jokingly called it our honeymoon.
We spent the entire week at the hut.
We (well mainly Rob!) painted the shed doors blue, painted the down pipes to match the roof, coated the remaining timber boards on the back of the laundry hut, oiled the internal timber walls, moved some furniture, moved the rest of our pot plants and planted them in the garden, and helped with the installation of our kitchen, which was very exciting.
It is so very close now.
We had perfect blue skies for most of the week, so one evening we took some shots of the hut with the lights on (mainly just for the novelty of switching them on!)





Some shots of the kitchen in progress- the bench tops are incredibly smooth to touch. Since these photos we have timber cladding and drawers on the back of the main bench, the internal drawer parts have been fitted above, the sink has been plumbed in and the oven and hotplate are installed. Progress shots to come.

Frosty mornings and macarons

Clear blue skies over frost covered grass, I can scarcely believe we'll be living here soon.



The dogs thought the crunchy grass was excellent for chasing and wrestling on:



The leaves have nearly all dropped from our Candian Red Maple Tree- winter is definitely here now.



We are loving the sun coming into our living room early in the morning.



Finally on our flying trip to Melbourne we enjoyed tapas at Movida, shopping at Ikea, Myer, Typo, T2 and KikkiK, lunch at Earl Canteen and visiting this gorgeous little macaron shop in Hardware Lane, La Belle Miette. We bought 6 different flavours (Raspberry, 72% Cocoa Single Origin Chocolate, Caramel a la Fleur de Sel, Olive Oil & Vanilla, Pistachio & Violet & Blueberry). Not only were they beautiful to look at, but they were sublime to eat!

Big week...

May I just say that blogger is being so painful- I haven't been able to comment on any of my favourite blogs and it's killing me!

Progress this week at the hut includes:

Finishing off the secret door and cladding the door to the hot water cylinder in celery top. They look great.

Plumbing in the toilets and sinks, outdoor taps and our outdoor work sink (we inherited a second hand kitchen sink to use as a potting bench or to wash vegies one day).

Some more external lights (although there are a few left to finish off).

Finishing all the myrtle skirting boards.

Finally finishing the last bit of outdoor cladding on the laundry hut.

Sanding and coating the floorboards in the living room.

Finishing the flashing on the ends of the hut roof- it looks very smart.

Some progress (but probably not enough) on the kitchen build off site.

Best of all - the builder's portaloo has gone! It was quite a shock to drive down and not see the bright blue tardis!

The other big news is that I became an Aunty for the first time overnight, I'm just about to head off and meet my new neice, Maisy.

Hope you have a lovely weekend.

Nigella patiently waiting for the hut to be finished. She's much better than me!

Our weekend:

We made the most of an unseasonally warm weekend.
Lots of time outside at the block, we have started to move some pot plants (my lily collection) and some box plants for hedging (Claudia was starting to chew on the pots and the poor plants as well as bring them inside on the odd occasion).
Rob also started fixing up the back of the hut so that we can lay some weedmat and gravel as a path.

We stopped in at Sweet Envy on Saturday and bought a delicious Potato bread- salty, chewy, addictive. As well as a pecan sticky bun, a jam doughnut and two macarons. Sorry I didn't take any photos- but I think we'll be back there this weekend looking for that bread again!

Progress has been rapid at the hut site, after my poor me post last week. Sorry about that, sounds like everyone feels this way by the end of the build!
The builder is starting to whisper about occupancy certificates.
Most importantly they finally took delivery of the celery top cladding for the internal walls so they're up, and may I just say that the breezeway looks fantastic.





I can't resist sharing a photo of the view down our hallway either.


The new landscaping in front of the laundry hut, we'll have to encourage some grass to grow there, although that might prove tricky with the two mud puppies.

Hope you had a weekend as lovely as ours.

Impatient to be there

This photo was taken at Easter, some landscaping has happened since, but poor Rob has been flat chat trying to actually work as well as chase up numerous fitting choices such as lights and carpet etc., that I haven't had the heart to ask for a more recent photo.

I have to say I'm over this whole building caper. I should be more excited than I am.
But well, I'm not. Not excited by mess and mud. Not excited about chasing up lights because we didn't realise the house hadn't been wired for low voltage lights. Of the timber not turning up for the internal walls.

I walked around inside on my own yesterday, looking at each room. Trying to picture us there. It's so lovely and quiet inside our hut. It was blowing a gale outside but the sound was muted inside, I felt protected from the Autumn weather.

We were both happy to see our celery top kitchen benchtops start to take shape at the builders workshop. That was definitely pleasing to see! The myrtle window seat and bookshelves look gorgeous too.

I think I'll be excited when I hold that occupancy certificate in my hand. Or when I get to put our things into the kitchen or our wardrobe. Make our bed and go to sleep that first night in our bedroom.

Hopefully our wait is nearly over.