Snapshots from our week

We have winter potatoes. These spuds grew from forgotten potatoes that sprung up in my garden in Autumn, I replanted them in a sheltered place and they have soldiered on through the chilly winter. It's not a huge harvest, but enough for a couple of meals. They were a great find as we have just eaten our way through the Autumn harvest, the purple congos were the potato hero, storing the best of all the varieties we have grown. There are still plenty of potatoes growing, we are pretty self sufficient in spuds these days.

When life gives you lemons, there's nothing better than lemon butter. Made using this recipe, I feel like a traitor not using my Nannas recipe, but have to say this one was slightly easier.

I am working on a sourdough starter, it is only 2 days old and is yet to show signs of life. Hello wild yeast, please come to my jar.

The littlest is helping me make scones, a great winter treat to warm the house and our tummies. Made using my favourite scone recipe here, it uses cream and iced water. We had a stunning sunny weekend and ate outdoors. This is the cheats way to make scones.

There has been some bug antenna making, a practice run for a future Junior Landcare activity. The middle bowerbird found some unmade projects to play with in his room, a solar plane and a dragon lurking amongst the mess.

the fire is burning non stop, Drying our washing and warming our toes, I look forward to days when we can leave the doors open and let the fresh air in.

We got another box of delicious citrus, straight from the grower. I'm thinking about making mandarin marmalade.

Each day we run to the gate, the littlest staking first claim on checking the letter box, it's currently filled with mind numbingly dull election material. Does all that campaign paper really gain more votes?

Indian minors are a pesky aggressive bird, but this one peering through my window at me made me smile. I had the feeling someone was watching me, and when I turned around there was a beady yellow eye.

I have finally gotten around to making my own clothes washing detergent, using Rhonda from Down to Earths recipe. So cheap and working a treat.

Trentham Spudfest

I love a good country festival, all that town pride and community getting togetherness. The Trentham Spudfest did not disappoint. Delicious food, music, art, great market stalls, rock climbing, kooky entertainers, potato digging, potato pancakes, potato everything. I thought it was going to be a small affair but it was huge.

The Trentham community volunteered to become potato heads en masse, oodles of spuds with smiling faces, proud of their potato heritage.

 Bags and bags of freshly dug potatoes.

 

 Saffron Milk Caps must be a hard item to sell.  When you bump them they turn green and don't look terribly appetising.

 

The day was bitterly cold, it had a biting sharpness that Trentham does so well, pink cheeks and beanies were de rigueur and we were grateful for the extra clothes we scrounged from the boot.

We came home with lots of Kennebecs, Nicolas for roasting and these Crimson Purples - a new one to try.

Even though its the wrong time of year for planting, potatoes don't like frost, I was inspired, and came home and dug in some very sad sprouting spuds that had been sitting around for months, waiting for some attention.

Hopefully this bed will burst alive in Spring with a frenzy of all manner of spuds. I plan on covering it with some manure and Autumn leaves to help improve the soil over winter.

I have some crazy pictures of these two dogs at play, the one closer to the pole is ours (Zef) and Taco our neighbours dog is visiting after climbing the fence. Stay tuned for some puppy antics.

Good for the Soul

My golden ticket, little did I know when purchasing it, that this would quickly become a sell out gig.  There were many hopefuls outside the Palace begging for tickets, Melbourne loves Manu Chao, the atmosphere inside the Palace was electric. Today I am sore after dancing like a teenager, I'm feeling more like a mummy - in all senses of the word. No regrets though, it is sooo good for the soul, a night of dancing with friends.

Hmm how to segue my random thoughts. Also good for the soul is an evening stroll. The middle Bowerbird took my old camera for a photo stroll, he was meant to be capturing weather photos for an assignment, but he also took some beautiful pictures of his little sister.

 Not wanting to miss out on the action, the little Bowerbird created a camera out of fallen leaves and took imaginary photos of him.

  

How's that lip curl camera action technique.

I even like this blurry shot with Zef's eyes glowing, a little mysterious. I will miss the warm night walks and longer days as winter and daylight savings approaches. 

 Eating lots of yummy home grown potatoes, nice to have the oven on to warm the house, also good for the soul, though perhaps less good for the tummy. : )