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!

Shhh, a little secret...

My secret will only be of interest to those of you who are lucky enough to live in Southern Tasmania, within driving distance of the patisserie Sweet Envy.
Last weekend we discovered Alistair Wise's potato bread.
This weekend we headed straight to Sweet Envy on Saturday morning.

Of course we meant only to buy the Potato bread.
But the guy serving us asked the question "have you tried the other breads?"
When we said no, he proceeded to describe all of the loaves.

Rob listened attentively, I watched for his reaction.
"we'll have one of each then!"

So we ended up with a lovely chewy ciabatta, a dense potato and bush honey sourdough and the potato bread. Oh and a lemon macaron and a pecan sticky bun.

Our pile of white paper bags on the countertop caught the attention of Alistair himself as he wandered in, he exclaimed "now that's the way to go!"
I recognised him from magazine photos, and I have to admit, I may have gushed just a little, when I told him how "amazing" the potato bread is. (Afterwards I thought I could have thought of something a bit better than amazing, obviously I have been watching too much of a certain reality cooking show at the moment!)

It's chewy, salty, buttery, crisp, like a giant chip with olives and rosemary.
Apparently it's better warm (according to the guy serving us), although we had to admit it didn't have a chance on getting anywhere near an oven before we were going to devour it.



Claudia approved too.

I had to share it with you- but please don't tell too many people!

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.