Archive for the ‘home’ Category
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Gone Fishing
Today I skipped work and planned to go fishing. One of the advantages of owning your own business is you can make decisions like that! Anyway, I thought that first I should go and try and do a bit of Christmas shopping. I drove around and around looking for a car park. I battled my way through other weary Christmas shoppers and over whelming shelves full of Christmas bling, to the point where I said enough! I drove just a little way out of town to this beautiful, serene and very lovely place.
I took mum too! Now I come from a long line of fisher folk. My grandparents were keen fishing people, so too was my mum and dad. They in turn passed on the passion to my brother and I and now all our kids are keen too. I think for me though, most of the pleasure is derived from just being peaceful by the waters edge. I love sitting in the sun on a quiet river bank, watching the birds flying by and all the little insects flitting about. It is often time just to unwind and relax. If I catch dinner then that’s a bonus!
It was just coming onto dusk when the fish started to bite. Now like every good fishing story, I have to tell you about “the one that got away.” I caught a really, really big flathead. Beautiful eating fish and they can grow very large. Anyway because we didn’t have a net, I couldn’t lift it onto the little jetty so my fishing line snapped and I lost it. I was happy to see him swim away, he was a very beautiful and very big fish!
We caught other fish too, such as trevalley, bream and luderick. But these were all too small too keep and so were released back into the water.
Now at this particular spot there are many pelicans who swim very close by when they feel there may be a feed of fish heads on the menu.
They have such amazing large beaks for holding lots and lots of fish. They also make the most amazing guttural kind of noise which I think actually resembles the noise a camel makes! Pelicans are much loved and admired.
Oh I nearly forgot! Mum caught a puffer fish too! Even the pelicans wont eat this one.
There are also lots of Australian Seagulls around. Many people are not fans of the seagull as they are considered to be scavenger birds. Personally, I think they are very beautiful. This poor one had a missing foot. This appears to be a common occurrence with seagulls and someone once told me it is because fish bite them off when they are sitting on the water. I don’t know how much truth is in that.
It was a beautiful and relaxing way to spend an afternoon and early evening.
Upon arriving home I decided there was no escaping my Christmas list. So I made a start on my traditional Christmas fruit cake. All the yummy fruit when into the bowl with a good splash ( or two or three…) of French brandy. I’ll let it macerate for a few days and then cook a big, delicious cake.
I guess things can get pretty hectic at this time of year, so I hope you can all take some time out like I did today. In fact, I reckon I might try and get back there tomorrow….
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Rainy Days
While many parts of Australia are still very much in the grip of drought, we experienced the wettest week in months.
It was just divine! The rain was lovely and steady, a good soaking rain many people commented. I think we had just over 100mm of rain in the week. This is great for my parched garden and brown lawn. Most of my plants appear to have a new lease and are vigorously striving onwards and upwards!
We rely on tank water too for all our water needs, washing, drinking, etc. So it was nice to see so many gallons of it going into the rainwater tanks.
This is the view looking outside our front door on a wet, rainy day.
Thats rain on my window pane!
I know that this is now completely off topic, but I am finding it actually quite difficult to be inspired to write anything at all in the light of what has been happening in India.
My thoughts tonight and over the last few days have been with the people of India. Having travelled through India twice in my lifetime and experiencing the most sincere hospitality and human kindness, I am devastated by the news of the terror attacks there. I always remember a gentleman in India telling me “India is very poor, but we are also very rich”. My sincere condolences to each and every person affected at this very difficult and heart breaking time.
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On Mulberry’s and Wildflowers
Just today I was out in the garden, lamenting the inevitable loss of my beautiful black Mulberry tree. The tree was bought just this Winter, as a bare rooted, dormant fruit tree. I actually bought it as a gift for my father, on Father’s Day. But, it has never taken off or grown any new leaves.. I keep scratching back the bark and checking that the cambium layer is green…it is. The little buds continue to promise withholding green growth but they never burst forth
I cut back about half of the growth two weeks ago, hoping to encourage it to grow…but alas…nothing.Anyway as I mourned the loss today, I wandered over a few feet to the fence line. There it was that a scarlet stunner caught my eye! A beautiful, graceful native wildflower, growing on the fence and climbing sky ward. She is one of my favourites and grows very well around here. The dusky coral pea or Kennedia rubicunda.
Her breath taking beauty combined with the lovely sunshine on my back after three full days of rain, certainly lifted my spirits.
I guess I’m going to the nursery to buy another Mulberry tree
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One Day I Will Have A Bathroom
Yes, One day I will have a bathroom…. But I have been saying that now for oh about four years!
It’s one of the small (and many) annoyances of being an owner builder…things just seem to take time. Especially when a baby pops in halfway through the scenario and then too a business opportunity also arises! What can you do?
Well we used to have a lovely solar shower surrounded by hessian for privacy. Mind you we do live on many acres so the neighbours are a fair distance over them there hills!
Now we have a bucket.
Here are the latest scintillating pics of my bathroom in progress… and any parent with two young ankle biters can relate as to how imperative a bathroom is for not only cleansing your young but a deep bath at the end of the day…I can only dream.
You can actually see the bath there, hidden under all those paint cans, extension leads,tools and cement! So I guess technically we do have one..unfortunately it is not in operation yet! I’m hoping Christmas time, that would be really nice
This corner is where our shower will be.
The taps are in the wall waiting for the vanity unit. We are still to plumb in all the water. We will be using a solar hot water system. It is the type with tubes rather than panels.
Well I guess I have waited this long…some people find it incredulous that we have lived for four years without hot running water. I am so used to boiling the kettle now to do things like wash the kids faces, bathe them, clean and tidy the house etc.
It will be just divine though when I can finally have a nice hot bath, with lovely bubble bath and just a few candles to light the room. Not long now….
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Nesting Welcome Swallows
We have a pair of Welcome Swallows nesting at the moment. They return every year and in the past have nested in the unfinished section of our home. This year though, the mud brick walls were up and a door in place, so their usual spot was thwarted. They are a pretty industrious pair though and have found the perfect spot under the alcove at the entrance to our composting toilet.
In the following pic you can just see mum as she flys up into her nest to check on her cute little babies.
Their nest is just so amazing and I am always entranced with the beauty of such things. These little birds are just so clever. It is made of lots of mud and lined with soft downy feathers for ultimate baby bird comfort.
The only thing is they are very territorial! It can be a shock when stumbling out to use the toilet in the mornings first light only to be dive bombed and snapped at by a couple of protective swallows! I am always half asleep and usually always nearly fall off the verandah!
But they provide me and my son with much enjoyment as we sit in the sun watching their antics and superb aerial displays. They certainly are very welcome.
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Melbourne Cup…Horses…and Roses!
Today was Melbourne Cup day. The Melbourne Cup is Australia’s biggest annual horse race. It is quite literally ‘The race that stops a nation.’ Many people will have a bet or wager on the Cup, even when they are not normally the gambling type. It’s a bit like people who don’t usually garden but when Spring time rolls around, they just have to grow a tomato!
Anyway, I checked out the race guide and picked my horse out early in the day. I planned to drive into town, go and do the groceries and a few errands with my 3 y.o son in tow. I then thought I would go and place the bet on and grab a bottle of champagne.(just in case)…but alas, all did not go to plan. I ended up back at home without placing my bet and sat down with my family to watch the race. You know what I’m going to say, don’t you??? Yes, the horse I had picked, Viewed, won the race! Aaaargh!
So feeling a bit sorry for myself, calculating the money I could have won, I decided to take a walk around the garden.
Pierre De Ronsard
The Melbourne Cup is also famous for the stunning rose gardens at the racecourse in Flemington. The race course has around 12, 000 roses on site and during the Spring racing carnival they are all out in bloom. There is even a rose named “Fosters Melbourne Cup.”
Margaret Merril
Apparently they have over 200 varieties of roses and a dedicated team of gardeners who make sure they are in top condition. We had some rain( just lovely) early in the week and I wondered how much havoc it played with mildews, etc. Anyway, watching the horses in the winners circle today, I must say the roses looked superb. One of the roses that was flowering along the fences looked a lot like Crepescule.
Crepescule
A beautiful rose with a sprawling habit and a prolific bloomer. This one is growing on the post and rail fence behind my mothers place.
Well the roses certainly cheered me up and made me smile. You know I am usually not so much of a fan of roses. I have had to prune my fair share of them in the past and they can be nasty…you know, with those big fat thorns! But in the Spring and through the Summer, their exquisite perfume and delicate blooms are a sight to behold.
Lilli Marlene
Maybe next year I will be able to toast the roses with a nice bottle of French bubbly! Here’s hoping.
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Mussels On The Beach
I live very close by to some of the most spectacular coastline in Australia. This is a picture of one such beautiful swimming beach only a very short distance from our home.
This is also a great beach for fishing, we have caught some lovely big Australian Salmon here on numerous occasions.
The area where I live also has many oyster and mussel farmers. There are many oyster leases in the surrounding lakes and when you are out in the boat you can often see the bream enjoying a good feed!
One particular day, my mother and I were also lucky enough to get a big feed of fresh mussels. It had been a really windy night and one of the mussel leases had broken off shore. They grow the mussels about 100 metres out in the water on big nets and ropes. When the mussel lease broke, all the mussels washed up on the beach in the morning. We weren’t the only ones down there, some people were filling up their eskys as the whole beach was littered with beautiful, big, glossy black mussels. When they fall to the sand and are rolling around under the water, they ingest a lot of sand, thus making them useless for the commercial trade. So the locals score big time!
This was our haul! We made a delicious dish of chili mussels. Sort of like a Spanish tomato and saffron dish. It was very yummy…but if truth be told, it was a little gritty….!
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The Sweet Country Life
I guess for a lot of people, the idea of living in the country is pretty idyllic. That was certainly my thoughts when I was living in the big city and doing the 9 to 5 job, day in, day out. I would daydream of my country kitchen. My days filled with the warmth of a wood fire and making jars of homemade plum jam. My trusty dog by my side and oh the smiles…so many happy smiles
Well it came to ‘crunch’ time living in the city. Rent was becoming really expensive and our family was growing. We either buy a house in the city or we make the move, our very own ‘sea change’. At first we thought a cool little inner city abode would be just lovely. Somewhere close to the groovy cafe’s and the retro furniture stores. But alas our funds could only really afford us to be living way out beyond any kind of civilisation. We would be known as ‘fringe dwellers.’ Now I guess for some people, this would be ok but I’m a kinda all or nothing girl…so we decided to ‘bite the bullet’ and move to the country!
And this gives you an idea of our very first home, which we lived in for a good 2 years or more.
I went through my 2nd pregnancy in the caravan with no hot water, no proper toilet facilities and no tv! Argh!! The whole time we were living in the caravan we were busy building our mudbrick home. We have a gorgeous bush block in country NSW. We are close to the mountains and the beaches are just sublime. I will post up some pics soon of our gorgeous beaches. Anyway, we decided to make all our own mudbricks! Some people looked at us like we were kinda crazy. Especially because we had no experience in what we were doing and it is super heavy work..each mudbrick weighs on average about 20kg. We made them all by hand.
We laid them out on hessian in the sun to dry and would turn them every day so they could dry evenly. It was usually a stinking hot day when we would make ‘muddies’. We designed the house we were building all ourselves also, we wanted to try and keep the costs down and use recycled materials as much as possible. I think we have done pretty well and it just continually evolves. It is now 4 years since we started building and we still havent finished yet! I have decided to share the journey with you all and keep you posted with our story and our progress. By the way, I still don’t have hot running water!
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Weeds and Pansies
We have been very lucky to have a little bit of rain over the past few weeks. Not a lot mind you, but just a little…Enough for all those horrid little weeds to try and take over, thats for sure! So I have been busy trying to keep up with weeding the garden.
Wow!! A barrow load full of ‘em. We have a real problem with kikuyu, which is a tenacious little weed that spreads by underground rhizomes. It literally takes hold of the soil wherever it grows and can become a real nuisance. We also have all the other standard weeds, capeweed, chickweed, dandelion.. If I was a gourmet cook I could whip up a lovely wild weed pie no problems
On a much lovelier note, I want to share with you a pic of my beautiful pansies. They are sitting on our front verandah in lovely green glazed pots. Our verandah is made from wood pallets…thats another story for another time. I did say we were owner builders!
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The Books On My Bedside Table
I always seem to have an ongoing collection of books on my bedside table. Depending on where I am at, the collection changes regularly. Often I have a magazine or two there also, one of my favourite’s being NW magazine. Best for catching up on all the latest celebrity gossip and dramas! I know it’s ‘fluff’ but like a good reality tv program, it is a form of escapism!
Anyway, this is my current collection:
I have just finished reading Twilight. I guess it is not a book that I would normally read, but it was recommended to me by a very good friend. It is set in a high school in the U.S.A and is about teenage love and Vampires. It’s actually written for teenagers and for the target audience I think it is excellent. I found it well written but a little simplistic for adult readers. But then as I said, it is written for a younger audience. I am a big fan of the Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles and if you are looking for a good read, I would highly recommend these!
And of course, my ever present Gardening books. The Origins of Fruit & Vegetables was a gift from my mother. It’s a really interesting little book with lots of history and stuff about certain fruit & vegies.
The fern book was written by one of Australia’s leading botanists, David Jones. He is a font of knowledge and always writes very helpful and insightful books. He is the definitive author on Australian plants, including palms, orchids and ferns.
Now tell me what books you are reading right now. I always love a good book recommendation.
Now as I promised, a pic of my sweet peas! I have them growing in an old concrete laundry tub, filled with potting mix.
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