A Day with Plants and Family and Friends

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Recently I spent the morning working with my pot plants just out the back door.  I had sad tomato plants that needed to be potted up before I lost them, and a cucumber similarly needing potting.  Soon enough I was spending the morning working with plants, repotting, weeding, tidying, even a little painting, and all the time I was with my family and friends!  A storm was looming, due around lunch time, so I knew that my time was limited, but planned to work until driven indoors.

I spent time with my late mum via the beautiful yellow gerbera that she had given me eight years ago, and the lavender that I had dug from her garden after she passed, there’s even a juvenile lavender now growing in a large pot, home to a small mandarin tree.

Yellow Gerbera – a gift from mum -2016
Lavender dug up from mum’s garden.
Self sown lavender in the mandarin tree pot.

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A “Beautifully Blended Family” Christmas

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I’m not quite sure why time seems to get away from me, but it does!

The lead up to Christmas was, as I recently said to someone, frantic!  There were cooking classes/knowledge sharing sessions to deliver throughout the region, cooking for a local café to be done, trips to Melbourne for family gatherings, an unexpected medical issue, hampers to prepare and get into the post for family up north, gifts to purchase and our preparations for our contributions to the Christmas Day Family Feast!

This year in the Christmas hamper I included a few new items, coffee liqueur, flavour bombs/simmer pot pouches and a new biscuit (cookie).  The coffee liqueur was a recipe given to me by a host at a B&B in central France, the flavour bombs/simmer pot pouches were made up of my dehydrated citrus, some spices and a little candied ginger (I think that I will dehydrate ginger for them in future), and the new biscuit is based on a commercially available biscuit available here in Aus, but made using a recipe from my mum’s recipe book.

Goodies packaged ready to boxed up and posted off…
Christmas baking…
Mulled Wine Simmer Pot Bags
Butternut Chocolate Cream Biscuits

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Violets and Memories

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I was wandering around the garden in the first week of August, something I rarely find time for any more, which saddens me, as I love my garden and I love being outdoors.

As I rounded the corner, past the spring bulb bed, trying to ignore the weeds, my attention was immediately drawn to a dark space where there was a carpet of flowering violets, and a few snowflakes in bloom as well.  Memories of my late mum, our family home, and my childhood came flooding back, and the snowflakes brought memories of my Gran.  Let me share a little of my memories with you.

Snow Flake in the Garden
Violets in the garden
Violet in the garden
Snow Flake in the Garden

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Snack pots to go.

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I love this book, I’ve had it on my shelf for about five years now, and it regularly comes out for ideas and inspiration.

Bento Power by Sara Kiyo Popowa

I was asked to run a few classes for home-schooled children recently, and wanted to bring healthy delicious food for them to enjoy, and be a little creative with.  The final session this term was Bento Boxes.

Bento boxes created by kids.
Reds, blacks & whites
Yellow, orange, green & white

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A Beautiful Rainbow – All is well

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It’s been a whirlwind week – three trips to Melbourne and more…

My final private catering job – and as it turned out, the perfect event to finish this chapter of my SBA’s Kitchen journey.  The event, a celebratory afternoon tea in the theme of the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, with a fabulous story, and a few unexpected coincidences, and I absolutely know that this event is one that I will never forget!   And all the food was Gluten Free!

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I will continue to supply the beautiful café The Pickle Pot, here in Maffra, with my gluten free offerings, and am excited to be out and about sharing my food knowledge at various Neighbourhood Houses/Community Centres, in my Knowledge Sharing Sessions.

A visit with our son and his family at their new home – a move from suburbia to a home with space, room to run, a little wildlife, space to start a vegetable garden,  and more.  The day finished with an unexpected invitation to a family dinner – a beautiful evening, before making the 2½ hour journey home. Continue reading →