Supermoon gardening

The moon was amazing last weekend, wasn't it? So bright. You could see everything. The gardens are even beautiful by moonlight. Rob took these photos on Saturday night and had a bit of a play in Lightroom afterwards. It does look like the hut is on fire though!



Apart from our bulb planting session last weekend (which isn't very interesting photographically until they pop up in a few months time) not much else to report in the garden. I found some cheap red Ranunculus bulbs last night, as unfortunately Tesselaar had run out and they weren't in my order.

What's been happening this week at the hut?

• We made a curry last three dinners and one lunch. It kept getting better, with added silver beet, pumpkin and potatoes! I made papadams in the microwave (hardly taxing).
• Probably good we saved money on food, cause we took Nigella to the vet yesterday. Nigella is plagued by a common German Shepherd problem: sensitive skin. She gets these terrible hotspots that she will lick and lick. Yuk. Usually we can just spray them with a topical treatment and they clear up. But I noticed one on her front leg had become a bump. I'm my mother's daughter, which means my first assumption is, oh no she's got cancer! So we visited our local vet yesterday, more for my peace of mind. Verdict was an infected hotspot. Two weeks of antibiotics combined with the drugs should clear it up. Poor Nigella she really hates the vet. But she was quite good (by that I mean she actually walked in the building, she has been known to lie down in the car, passive resistance like and refuse to get out, 40kg dogs are hard to move). She shook while the vet shaved her leg to take a sample. 
• We have mice in the hut. Eww. Cheeky buggers are getting up under the vertical boards we think. One has made a nice home in our heat pump. Although I haven't heard squeaking the last few days from there. They have moved onto our kitchen cupboards. Rob is a man possessed. Filling up gaps with steel wool. I was in the breezeway the other night and I heard some gnawing noises coming from behind the wardrobe (yes it's still there). We pulled out the robe to find very obvious signs of mice and they have been stealing the dogs biscuits and lining them up along the skirting board. There are a lot of knot holes in the interior cladding and they must be in the wall. Last night one ran the gauntlet along the bifold door and dove into our library basket. They are so damn fast our dogs don't even see them. Rob took the basket outside to release the mouse (and I hate to say it we both thought it was so cute) and the cheeky bugger leapt out and headed straight for the hut (outside the kitchen) so we suspect there is a hole there for them to enter the hut. Rob has some flyscreen wire that the hardware store recommended. I think there will be some mouse proofing this weekend (oh a tube of selleys to plug up knot holes!)

So looking forward to the weekend, we're off to Red Velvet Lounge for dinner tonight.

Tomorrow mouse proofing and some baking, and on Sunday my Mum and Dad are coming down for a Mother's Day lunch of roast chicken.

Hope you have a lovely weekend.

Snap it {black & white}

I have some great night photos of the hut that Rob took during the amazing light of the supermoon that I'm dying to share, but perhaps tomorrow.

I don't take a lot of black and white photos, I rely on the subject and colour to make a photo memorable.
I'm a one trick pony, this is a photo I recently posted on Instagram for Fat Mum Slim's photo a day challenge.

These are our Neil Poulton designed Surf uplights.
When the lovely sales person suggested them, we were doubtful. Would three of them (with some task orientated lighting in the kitchen and over the window seat) really light up the whole 12 x 4m area in our main room?
The answer is yes. Not only yes, but they light up the whole cathedral ceiling in a way that our proposed down lights would never have done. During the day they disappear as they are white like our walls. Although I baulked at their price, I have not regretted them once.

As an aside, the spiders have been happily making webs up in the peak of our ceiling. Over summer as we left windows and the bifold door open zillions of tiny flies and bugs flew in, and those that didn't roast themselves on the Surf lights ended up in the spider webs. It was starting to look a bit untidy.
Rob let me know he had a genius plan for removing them, he would attached the vacuum cleaner to some 4m lengths of electrical conduit pipe and suck them up! I did express some doubt about this plan. I knew I wouldn't be game to wave a 4m pipe above my head without fear of marking the ceiling.
But on Sunday he proved me wrong, I admit. It seems the pipe was made for it, as the vacuum cleaner brush fitted neatly on one end and the nozzle on the other. Webs and flies all gone, but our friendly spider was determined to stay, so he's up in the corner above the window seat biding his time!

Playing along here.

Monday's Menu, with a side of beach walk

The menu was for warming comfort food this week, with grey skies and plenty of rain, we get home in the dark and need something to warm ourselves up. Autumn is slipping into winter. For some reason, this year I don't mind as much as normal. Although I do mind the mouse that has set up home in our heat pump!

Monday: we ate left over French onion soup (which was so rich for such a small serve), potato gratin with a salad.
Tuesday: we had a late lunch, so all I could contemplate was a rocket salad with pear, walnuts and shaved parmesan.
Wednesday: Pasta puttanesca.
Thursday: we stopped at my parents place for dinner. Mum made us her Italian beef with potatoes, and a delicious lemon cream dessert (I ate it too quickly to take a photo).
Friday: Baked potatoes topped with cheese and bacon.
Saturday: Beef curry with rice and papadams. The sauce was thick with spices, lentils, onions, garlic and chickpeas.
Sunday: Shepherds pie.
Baking wise, Rob made some rye baguettes and I made a cherry, almond and coconut slice from the Primrose Bakery cookbook. The slice hasn't lasted long, the container is nearly empty!
What have you been cooking recently?


We spent a happy afternoon on Saturday planting out my spring bulbs, carefully lining the paths with the tulips, and the ranunculus and anemones are spread randomly around the triangular beds. Now I just have to wait to see them pop up.
Yesterday after cleaning the hut, we realised that we were free to do anything, as the garden didn't need any further attention. It was an unusual feeling. We decided to go find some plants for Rob's botany practical, he wanted something new. So we grabbed the dogs and headed south. We didn't go far. stopping at Trial Bay. The dogs were super keen, after being cooped up all week because of the weather. Once off their leads they ran around on the rocky beach, sniffing seaweed, and cheekily looking over their shoulder to see if we approved as they waded into the water. I made a pathetic attempt at only letting them go in up to their legs, but as you can see that didn't work.
Rob walked at the back, taking photos of the plants, while I went ahead, determined to get to a jetty that I could see at the point. The rocks were beautiful colours, one even a bright aqua colour. Others were covered in bright yellow and orange lichen. I got to the jetty with two dogs hot on my heels, it was a bit rickety, but I encouraged them to walk along it, so I could take some photos. Those brave dogs, they ran up and down the jetty and looked back to where Rob was wandering along.
Once he got there I think they both wanted to show off a bit, Nigella spied a submerged branch and she swam out to get it, Claudia (who isn't as keen on swimming) even followed her out there. The water was so clear (and must have been freezing) but Nigella loved swimming around us out on the jetty even swimming under it. From our highpoint on the jetty, we were able to see her cute legs purposefully swimming under the surface. Nigella has hip dysplasia, so can't actually run very well anymore, but you could tell she was so happy to be swimming so freely in the water.
We could see a misty grey cloud coming so high tailed it back to the car. But it was a lovely way to spend the afternoon.

Photo collage from my iPhone. Some tweaked in Instagram.



These last three taken by Rob with the real camera.

Orchards and a Birdsnest

It rained a lot yesterday. I meant to take a photo of our new little broad bean seedlings popping up, but I ran out of time this morning.
On Wednesday we ordered nine new fruit trees for our collection from here, they were:
Gravenstein apple
Huonville crabapple
Mcintosh apple
Coe's Golden Drop plum
Sloe
Damson
Fullers quince
Van de Man quince
Medlar
We had stalked the website for weeks waiting for the new trees to be available and as soon as the site was live we went crazy.

Yesterday I was killing some time in Hobart while poor Rob had a dental appointment. I was looking for a top to go with my raspberry skirt I found in a second hand shop a couple of months ago. I had a very specific colour of blue in mind. I went into Espirit and found several tops in the perfect blue. But sadly not in my size.
I was a little disappointed, but when I got back to a computer I looked up Birdsnest, and found the top in my size.  It was my first purchase via Birdsnest, and I clicked the button at about 11am . I can't tell you how delighted I was to find it already at my doorstep this morning. But it was not just the promptness, or the cute bag it came in that made me happy. I can't believe they took the time to write me a personalised handwritten note. This is by far the best service I've had in person or online, and it has made my day. (I've sent them an email to let them know this). I like to recognise people or companies that impress me, and these girls are doing a fantastic job.
There was also a big box full of my bulbs, so we'll be busy planting in my flower garden this weekend.
What are you up to this weekend?

Snap it {yellow}

Looking back in my albums I found a little bit of yellow. I need to see these photos, it's a grey old day here in Tasmania. Unsurprisingly all were photos of flowers!

Playing along over here today.