A day at the WhiteCottage

Today we decided to stay home and pot around the grounds Farmer Joe and the Munchkins spend the morning planting the winter crop in the vegie patch and me well I was a Domestic Goddess yes that was me I like to embellish on the name because in reality who wants to say "yes I cleaned, I moped, I cooked I Blah blah blah" I enjoyed of course. 

We let the chickens run around the grounds and it made me think these chickens are living the life they get fed organic food I tell them every morning how much I love them in the hope they will lay an egg in return, so today when I was busily being a Domestic Goddess I saw them and thought these chickens are onto something " a nice Saturday morning sun bathing in the warm sun" If only....

 

I love spending time at home I love the chaos of the children exploring (or making a mess as mothers call it ) while the boys were working hard on the vegie patch  I enjoyed a cup of coffee a homemade chocolate truffle and a read of the latest Australian Country Magazine in between loads of washing.

and that was today a good day a sunny a day with the family and nothing beats that!

I hope you also had a great day

An instant picnic at the park

The other day I decided to take the munchkins to the park after school it was getting close to the time to pick them up from school and kindy so what is a woman to do but to rustle up things from the pantry and who knew I felt like that cooking show where the chef stops you at the supermarket and invites himself to your house and cooks a 3 course meal out of a spud a carrot and mince meat, that was me I was the Mcgiver of the pantry a can of this a dash of that a lot of prayers and VOILA!!!!!!!!

I present you Iris's homemade Hummus 

Ingredients  

600g canned chickpeas, drained, rinsed 
3 garlic cloves, crushed 
100ml olive oil 
2 tbs tahini paste
1 tsp ground cumin 
Juice of 1 lemon                                                                                                                                         
Method

Place all the ingredients in a food processor and process until combined. Add some water and process again until quite smooth.

We had carrots, cucumbers and crackers, the boys loved it.

While at the park we met some friends we made new friends and before I knew it we were having an instant picnic

Enjoy!!!! as much as we did x0x0x

PS. I also made the jam drops and raspberry cordial in the picture.

New Discoverings

Today was the first day in a little while where we have seen the sun. A friend of mine told me a while ago that she regularly takes her children for a walk through a path towards the Community Garden, the same garden depicted on the children's mural.



This afternoon we all make our way to find the walkway and to spend sometime at the community garden, who knew we had such wonders at our doorstep. we have been living at the cottage for 3 years and never been to the walkway we have visited the community garden several times but have never walked there.


On our journey we met many people walking their dogs I love how friendly people are they greeted us , they smiled, they googled over the children who looked adorable riding their bikes

 

We could not believe it there was a creek and ducks and the amazing noise of the water running downstream we finally reached our destination the community garden when we  saw the most spectacular thing in the middle of nowhere there was a huge marquee Oxfam is having a trailwalk for 48 hours we stumble on check point 6 I loved  seeing these people coming from the middle of the bush and the Oxfam people cheering and giving words of encouragement as they still have a long way to get to the finishing line.

We had a wander in the garden each plot looked incredible the different variety of vegetables and edible flowers, the munchkins had a play in the sandpit and then it was time to get back home.

What a great end to a sunny day. 

Our Vege Patch on a Winter's Day

It is winter at the moment at the white cottage and of late all I want to do is sing " I am singing in the rain" for the last couples of weeks it has been raining which has prevented us to attend to all things garden and green thumb, this afternoon I put on my gumboots had my cup of coffee in hand  and wandered around the garden to see the new things that have grown and to check the things that need attending to, I was pleasantly surprised to find some of the plants have thrived really well  in this weather and as expected some have not.
I found some new shoots of basil plants and some ripe cherry tomatoes I think a homemade Margarita pizza with  basil  and cherry tomatoes  might be in the cards for this weekend I think....

 I was sitting in the vegie patch and I was thinking that only 30 minutes before I was in the middle of the CBD and now I was enjoying a cuppa before dinner, enjoying looking at the green lush plants and vegies I was enjoying the serenity if only for a moment.... and then the chit chatter from the munchkins yelling out "where is dinner mum we are ready"

With that I knew that was my cue to get back inside

What's your garden or Vegie patch like on a winter's day?

Remembering a Vintage Fair

Today around the White Cottage it's cold, rainy, foggy and i think i am coming down with the cold so to cheer me up I want to share and remember last week when I went for a wander around to the shopping district not far from the cottage I love it as it is a stones throw away from the CBD and I can just pop in for a quick cuppa and scone I can browse all things beautiful, homewares from times gone by or admire and make a mental list for birthdays and Christmas presents.

When I was having my coffee and scone my mind wandered to Paris or Europe it was probably a combination of my imagination, the sound of French Jazz music and my eyes going into overdrive looking at the French and vintage homewares. I am a keen vintage collector I much prefer something from times gone by I wonder about the story of the piece and it never ceases to amaze me that they can still look so beautiful after a lifetime.

On my shopping expedition I found a milk glass bottle from the 1950's when milk was home delivered fresh daily although i was no where near being born in those days the home delivering  tradition only finished not long ago I remember we would leave the money on the front porch and our milk and the newspaper would magically appear every morning. I just had to have it and maybe it is my imagination but the little munchkin and myself think the milk taste super delish.

Oh I think another cuppa is calling my name.....

What are your vintage love and finds.

The Funny moments in lfe

I bumped into my neighbour outside the white cottage, she was walking her Jack Russell we struck up our usual conversation of the daily hustle and bustle, let me tell you about my neighbours Tom and Dawn they live in the property across the road from us they have 9 acres and 4 horses, my neighbours are 85ish years old, I commented to Dawn that I had started to write on this blog and I had mentioned her horses in one of my posts she smiled but did not seem too fazed by it. I thought the least she could do was to ask what is a blog? what are you talking about dear?  that sort of thing and then I would rant on about the internet and so on BUT instead I was told by Dawn "oh that's nice you mentioned the horses on your blog, we also have a webpage talking about the horses you can follow us on Facebook if you want" WHAT!!!!!! It just goes to show you, you can never be too old to learn new things and as for me I now have Dawn to help me troubleshoot my internet problems.

Have a great Saturday. What are you up to today?.

Stefano's Trattoria

Mangia Mangia that was tonight's theme, we went to the Italian soccer club where they not only take soccer serious but on friday nights is all about Football (as they call it) Ribs Cannolies and Woodfired pizzas. We decided to make a night of it we were joined by four other couples and 11 children. The food was flowing the children were running around playing hide and seek, for an instant moment I felt I was Italian we had the coach acting as the Trattoria Maestro calling our order number in Bingo style threatening the customers if they didn't eat those cannolies quickly he would do the job for us and then we had Stefano the singing chef I think the secret ingredient to his food was his off key opera singing very loud and comical. The highlight of the night was when cafe aficionado and our friend filippo got behind the coffee machine and made the perfect coffee, our kids fell asleep as soon as we got into the car as for me i am having a Nigella Lawson moment I am eating a left over Cannoli as I type.

I hope your Friday night was as delightful as ours.

My Community

 Tom's Horses

I went for a walk the other day and saw this community mural painted by some local children. The mural depicted why I love it here although we are only a short drive(8k)  into the CBD we have a sense of rural living, we are surrounded by bushland and wildlife the people are so helpful and friendly. I love these guys, these are Tom's horses (our neighbour) most morning the children go around to say hello and give them carrots.