The birthday party




A boys-only celebration with treasure hunts, balloons and plenty of cake ending with raining lollies from the must-have piñata.  Happy birthday Hugo!

Magic house








Did you ever visit a magic house as a child? You know the type, a huge old house surrounded by a lush rambling garden. A garden with lots of green rooms, where you could play for hours and never see the house, even though you were only a few steps away from the back door.

And when you stepped inside the house, and your eyes adjusted to the dim light, you saw impossibly high ceilings, ridiculously long hallways and far too many rooms to seem plausible.  A house full of laughing children and good food and happy times. A magic house.

We have friends living in a house just like that. Lucky for us. This morning, a perfectly warm and sunny day, we went to the magic house for an Easter egg hunt.   The eggs were hidden high up in willow trees, under the agapanthas, throughout the apple orchard and among the keys of the piano wreck.  And some were hidden in fairy town. A whole street of magic houses. Naturally, so perfectly a normal sight to see. At the magic house.

On his way...


... to meet Hugo.  An impish, mischievous and bold little guy. Part elf, part super hero and a little bit Tashi. I can't wait for Hugo to meet him. Made with love by this very clever lady. I hope Hugo loves him as much as I do.

This Easter




This Easter weekend we'll be ::
:: eating hot cross buns 
:: decorating our Easter table
:: sharing many happy times with friends
:: eating lots of chocolate and cake
:: preparing for and celebrating a special boy's birthday

Wishing you a safe and happy Easter

xx

Old news




This morning I thought to myself, "I must write a post about that Country Style article today," when the postie delivered the May edition.  It's now officially old news. We were in last month's Country Style.

We were thrilled to be included, especially Mabel.   She's enjoying her new found fame, and we've heard from good authority that Angus, a golden retriever from down the road has Mabel's picture stuck to the wall next to his basket.  She's a pinup pup!

I was so pleased that Lauren's skirt that Elsa was wearing got such good exposure.  I had asked Angie to make some pants for Hugo too, so both children could be showing off fab Tasmanian designers, but he refused to wear them on the day. All of a sudden there's a wardrobe tantrum from Mr Gumboots-and-undies.

The feedback we've received has been very much appreciated.  Thank you for all the lovely comments, messages and for coming to our stall to say hello and buy cakes.  And thank you to Millie for the sweet post too.

In other old news, last week's issue of Grazia magazine featured a wonderful write up about our cakes and one of our recipes in Matthew's column.  Very exciting for us to get a recipe published! Woo hoo!

Finally, the old news I'm most proud off.  I recently attended an incredible dinner at Garagistes for Slow Food Hobart.  You can read all about it here.  One of my photos was included in The Mercury article, in full colour, both online and in last week's paper. With a credit.  Yay! Pretty exciting for me.

Did I get paid a fortune? Not a penny.  Do I have ambitions to become a professional photographer?  Not if I have to learn the meaning of aperture.  Was I extremely very proud? Why yes I was!

Well dear reader, that's it for old news, you heard it here last. Come back soon for more up to the minute old news.

Movin' on up...






When we heard that Matthew and Ross were heading up to Flinders this weekend, Jo and I moved in on their site at Salamanca for the day.  Muscling in and sharing the turf with Bruny Island Cheese and Anne's legendary jam.  From Rare Foods to cupcakes, it's not such a big leap is it?

Salamanca Markets are big, really huge, with over 800 stalls it's a Saturday institution in Hobart that's been going strong for over thirty years.  Arriving at 7am to set up, already the coffee cart was doing a roaring trade amongst the buzz of zooming fork lifts, the clang of steel poles as stallholders built marquees and burly blokes unloaded box after box of fresh produce.  I found it very daunting and exciting at the same time, and almost, nearly felt like being at one of Paris' open air markets.

We had a great day, with wonderful feed back from lovely new customers, sold a lot of cakes and I got a real feel for the market, having never really spent a great deal of time there before.  It was a huge contrast to our regular Sunday gig, with thousands of people milling through the market, it was amazing to be a part of it for one day.

Today we were back at our home turf at the sunny Tas Farm Gate market, much smaller but I like it like that.  Today I stocked up on favourite sourdough, Jacinta's amazing pasta sauce and Paulette's delicious tomatillos for our Sunday night feast.

Who knows, maybe down the track we might consider being at both markets every week.  It'd be big. It'd be huge. Could we do it? We'd love too!

Hmmm..sorry guys, I don't think you're getting your stall back.

Green fuzz



Autumn has arrived.  After last week's Indian summer, it's now very cool and very wet.  All of a sudden those familiar autumnal smells of damp ground, wet leaves and wood smoke fill the air. And it's been raining.  A lot.  So much so, that I have been a little concerned about our brand new garden.

It's almost a week since all the action in the garden.  By some magic, a clever bloke with a spray can and another clever bloke driving (well it was more like dancing really, delicate moves whilst pivoting on his scoop) a large excavator has, using something like 18 cubic metres of clean fill, 16 cubic metres of compost,  8 cubic metres of gum mulch and 20 cubic metres of sawdust, turned our scruffy, hodgepodge of a yard, into the beginnings of a garden.

We now have 3 times as much flat lawn area (well, will be lawn when the seeds grow), a hedge made up of 140 westringias, and curves.  Lots of curves. We have snaky winding paths and curvy garden beds and a sweeping well defined driveway.  It's beautiful.  And very grown up.

Apart from the hedges, nothing else is planted and the garden beds have been thickly mulched to patiently wait until winter for their new plants.  No instant garden makeover here, these things take time. It's all looking a bit brown right now.  And a little autumnal.
But this morning, a delightful surprise.  Green fuzz. Baby grass.  All bright green amidst the brown. Almost spring like really.  A sign of things to come. Grow you good thing.

Pop up pho

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It's been a wonderfully full week of friends, food, flowers, fizz and fun. I was too busy to get the camera out to take many pics. But on Sunday morning I was inspired to take some snaps at a recovery  "Pop up" pho bar in a friend's back yard.

So delicious. I wish it was every week.

Tomato Gluttony...

...today at the Agrarian Kitchen. We picked them, preserved them, tasted them, put them on pizza then we took our booty home.  Perfect.