Nesting

Hubby has been away for a week helping to restore power to those affected by the floods along the north coast. I was hoping to use this time to get a bit done on the house so when he came home it would be a pleasant surprise. Did I seal the bricks in the kitchen? No. Did I clean up the workshop? No. Did I in fact do anything to improve the house? Well no, I didn’t. Miss ‘I’m almost 4’ has been sick and coughing throughout the night and at 25 weeks pregnant I am really missing the sleep. So throughout the days I’ve been wandering around in search of some motivation. What I found and kept going back to wasn’t anything to do with house construction and more to do with nesting….

I’ve started knitting my first real project – a blanket for the bub using this cotton from Jo Sharp. Once I got the hang of circular needles, I’ve found the project quite easy and have only had to take the project into my knitting guru mother once for correction. I’m quite proud of myself and have already started looking around for another project.

Apart from knitting, I’m also hoping to preserve some pears this afternoon and there’s also a mountain of lemons begging me to do something with them. Hubby has taken a liking to preserved lemons to perhaps there in lies the perfect welcome home present – not another job finished on the house, but jars of preserved lemons for him to enjoy!

Making

I love autumn. It is my favourite time of the year. With the cool weather I love rediscovering being outside, wood collecting, fires and BBQs in the paddock. I can turn the oven on in the house or slave over the cook top without breaking out in a sweat. With the change of season comes a change in attitude and I love it. This week I've started making.

I don't know why I leave baking Hot Cross Buns until Easter time because they are a family favourite. They should be baked all year around and instead of crosses, pictures could be drawn on top! I've a breville bread maker and use the dough recipe in the book that came with it. I've only made one change and that is to use white sugar instead of brown as I think they keep better.

I've also been trying to use up a glut of tomatoes and even though I've been slightly nervous at trying to make my Grandmother's Tomato Sauce, I gave it a go on the weekend. I enjoyed my first taste of it over the first fire and BBQ of the season and boy oh boy was it good!

Grandma's Tomato Sauce

8lbs tomatoes

6 onions

3 or 4 apples

2lbs sugar

1/3oz all spice

2oz salt

1 pint vinegar

1oz cloves

1t cayenne pepper

Method - Dice the tomatoes, onions and apples and cook down until soft. Puree before adding all other ingredients. Cook until it thickens and bottle.

And some other news, I'm pregnant. At 16 weeks, I'm relieved that the first trimester is behind me and I can start to enjoy the feeling of not being sick and the thought of getting to know another very special person in my life. I've started knitting and just like my Grandma, it's squares. I thought I'd just keep knitting them until I had enough for a blanket for the new bub. Squares are also on the mind of Rhonda over at Down to Earth. There's a group of us knitting them so if you're keen to join the group, head over to her blog for some easy patterns.

Consolidating

Being the middle of summer I have no right to complain about the heat. We’ve been spoilt over the past few years by having a mild summer but this year, my goodness me, the heat has struck and I remember now why it is that I dread this time of year. Thankfully, I’m able to escape the heat in our mudbrick home. It’s cooler inside, despite the fact there are no blinds or curtains up or fly screens on any windows and doors. With temperatures in the high 30s (Celsius) outside, inside is quite comfortable. I’m relieved that the house ‘works’ and I’m not reliant upon a temperature control system that costs a fortune to run.

Owner Building - On the weekend, hubby moved the clothes line from our old home to our newly being built home. With that, I’m no longer reliant on that little 6 x 9 cabin or its yard which in itself should be cause for celebration. We didn’t celebrate though, just kept looking around at all the jobs that need to be done. Now that we can live totally in our new home, we’ve decided to stop building and start cleaning. There’s piles of timber, tools, ladders, bricks, and over all junk scattered all around the house. The time has come to stop and consolidate a little and look at what we have achieved rather than what we haven’t. We started at the front door.

Enough was enough and finally we took the time to cover up the finely powdered dust that kept being tramped and blown into the house. I originally wanted a deck to the front door but there wasn’t enough space between deck and ground to make it worth while so we settled on this look – concrete slabs and pebbles. Affordable and much better than the bare earth. Now, just need to bag the mudbrick walls and paint the front door!

Over the weekend we went to Janelli Nursery just outside of Gooloogong and bought some plants. It’s nice to have some green at the front door.

Cooking - Despite the heat, I turned the oven on today and baked some banana bread and cupcakes to take to a friend’s house tomorrow.

I’ve only recently discovered banana bread and have to say that I much prefer it to banana cake or muffins. The recipe can be found here for anyone who is interested.

The every day

With the passing of the festive season and polite people asking of my new year resolutions, I’ve been thinking how quickly a year can pass by. I’ve been disturbed by the fact that I may or may not be able to tell you what happened in any given year. Sure there may have been a birth, wedding, holiday or other significant date to remember, but what of the days that are life – the every day?
I’ve decided to combine my desperate search for the perfect calendar with the new found need to document my year and create a family calendar of photos and events. I’m going to snap precious moments that I want to remember, print them out and stick them along with drawings, quotes, recipes etc that have all been found in that particular month. Hopefully by the end of 2009, I’ll be able to flick back through the calendar and be reminded of my every day of the past year and smile. And the first photo that makes the cut is…..

Rusty, a 6 year old Labrador Staffy cross who has found a home with us. Thankyou to Andy, Shan, Ellie and Kaiden who have trusted us to care for their gorgeous boy. For Rusty there has been lots of excitement - getting to know that trips in the back of the ute lead to lots of fun and adventure, that there's a creek and dam, endless sticks to be thrown, retrieved and subsequently chewed and an endless array of company to meet including a magpie, the cats, the cows and the chickens. Welcome to our home Rusty Dog.