Twenty third

On the twenty third morning of the new year I took my camera into the kitchen and snapped six shots.

Well actually that's not entirely true, let me rephrase it. On the twenty third morning of the new year I took photos of six little scenes in my kitchen. Some I felt happy with just the one shot, but others I had to take from a few different angles just to be sure. You know, one from above, one from down low up close and one from the other side of the table. Thank goodness for digital I say, I am such an indecisive photograph taker.

Anyway as I was saying, my kitchen, this morning, six photos. And yes, I did sweep the floor and wipe down the benches first.

Photo one - one massive jar of honey we took from our bees last week and two jars of granola my farmer boy made last night while I was writing my blog. There was a third jar of granola but it was gone by the time breakfast was done.



Photo two - an upside down plum cake. I used the recipe from this blog post, can you believe how small and cute my baby once was.



Photo three - I have a little nest up the far end of the kitchen table filled with craft odds and ends I'm working on, bits and pieces I'm reading and other random collections I'm not yet done with.



Photo four - bowls filled with the fruit we picked on our walk in the orchards last night. I love this time of year, and this is just the beginning.



Photo five - a bunch of roses I picked from Bren's Mum's garden last night. I don't know much about roses but it feels like every time I think they are over for the season, they come back and get better.



Photo six - and of course no scene would be complete anymore without a collection of knives and spoons. The big club on the left is a salad server in the making, the piece of wood is something Miss Pepper is working on, the knife is one of a collection of old butcher knives, and the three spoons are beautiful.


Just out of curiosity, do you take one shot of what you're focused on, or several from different angles like me? Oh and then once I think I've got it I have to start the process off again with my iPhone for instagram. Do you do that too? What's with that anyway?

Love to you guys, I hope your light is just right.

xxxx

Fifteenth

Wohoo, I'm halfway through my blog-a-day month!!! To celebrate I baked us all a cake. It's chocolatey, and smoodgy and dense and goes perfectly with a bite of strawberry to cut right through the richness. Can I cut you a big chunk, or will you have a slither? Cream or ice-cream?

While you're eating I'd like to thank you so much for coming along on this January blog-a-thon with me so far. I'm almost certain that if you weren't reading, commenting, face booking and liking my posts, that I probably would have run out of steam by now. But instead I am really enjoying it.

I'm loving the fact that I am carrying my big camera around with me again, that I am thinking about what the story might be during the day, that I am documenting this time in our lives, that I am prioritising something that I want to do everyday and making time for it even when it's a struggle, that I am writing words and sentences and paragraphs, and that I am doing something creative, something that I love, every single day.

When I decided to do this I had hoped that it would help me feel creatively fulfilled no matter what I was doing with the rest of my days, that it would make me feel balanced and like I was expressing a part of myself in amongst the chaos. I am happy to announce that all my hopes have been realised.

I guess my only concern is that it's too much and too often for you guys, but I think one of the best parts of a blog is that you can skip on past it if you don't feel like it.



So here's to the next fourteen posts in fourteen days.

Hopefully there'll be as much to write about and photograph. And hopefully by the time this month ends I'll be in a habit of posting often and will be able to maintain a much fuller blog life than in the past few years.

So tell me loveliest one, if you will; How often do you read my blog? Is every single day too often for you? Do you read my blog at the same time each day? Do you like it when I blog about some subjects more than others? What posts of mine do you skip on past? Do you wish that I'd post about some things more?

I guess all that's left to say is  - see ya tomorrow!

LoveLoveLove xx

(Truth - I baked this particular cake for our EOS - end of school celebration - but I would totally bake you one just like it if I could. xx)

Upside-down plum cake.

We rugged up, put our boots on and set off down the hill.
She and I.
We carried a bucket we had high hopes of filling.
We tried to identify the different animal poo we came across on the way.
She liked to use a stick to flick the poo off the path.
I preferred to step over it.
She played sword fights with sticks and hanging vines.
She made funny karate noises.
She always won.
We found our purple plummed trees.
The fruit was not always ripe but we picked it anyway because the birds were enjoying it too.
She loved to chuck the bird eaten plums as far as she could.
She picked the low fruit and I picked the high.
She liked me to pass her my plums so she could put them in the bucket herself.
When she had finished picking the plums she could reach, she pointed the tippy toe ones out to me.
We danced from tree to tree and filled our bucket.
We walked up the hill home.
I carried the bucket and she carried a branch with some plums on it.
She called it her magic wand.
She turned me into a frog and a princess and a baby and a dinosaur.
At home, in the kitchen together, we cut up some plums.
We weighed out 800grams.
And we made this cake.
It is delicious.
The perfect mix of sweet and sour.
We believe that if you use great ingredients and bake with love, that sweet treats are good.
That a piece of cake can rival a friend's packet of branded chips in a lunch box.
That a piece of cake can fill a tired school afternoon with love and comfort.
That a slice with tea after lunch, can make the farmer boys' afternoon all the more sweet.
That the girl and the mama will feel proud every time someone has a piece of their cake and tells them how good it is.
That the mama who is struggling with being a school mama, will feel like she did something good.

Sweet Wednesday to you.
xx

Blackberry & yoghurt cake. A recipe.

It's blackberry season here in southern Australia. And what that traditionally means for us landholders and farmers, is that for the next few weeks we can stop stressing about this prickly weed that takes over everything, and start enjoying her fruits. For a short amount of time we can reap the rewards of this crop that we didn't pay for, or spend time weeding, fertilising or maintaining.

The blackberry fruit is like something for nothing. Like a thank you for putting up with it.

And so for a few weeks of every year, we get about with scratches up and down our arms and purple stained fingers. And during this time, there are always bowls of berries on the kitchen bench. There is always a big heavy pot simmering on the stove. There are saucers for testing jam readiness in the freezer. There are jars and jar lids being sterilised in the dish washer and in the oven. And there are always piles and stacks of jars of fresh, just bottled blackberry jam.

Every year I make jam. Hundreds of 300ml jars. Some for us, some for family and friends and some to be sold at farmers' markets. This year I've made about 30 so far.

But this year I've got a bee in my bonnet about expanding my blackberry horizons. This year I want to make blackberry other things too. Blackberry everythings.

It's just the start of the season, but so far I have made blackberry cordial with this recipe.

And blackberry and yoghurt cake.

This cake has been such a success that I've made it twice already. It's just so moist and delicious.
And most importantly, it's super dooper simple to bake.

Blackberry and yoghurt cake

• A small bowl of blackberries.
• A cup of yoghurt.
• A third of a cup of oil.
• Half a cup of sugar.
• One lemon (juice and zest).
• Two eggs.
• One and 2/3 cups of self raising flour.

Preheat your oven to 190 degrees.

Line a cake tin with baking paper.

Measure and then whisk together the yoghurt, oil, sugar, lemon juice and zest until all combined.

Add the two eggs and whisk until combined.

Add self raising flour and keep mixing until you've made a smooth batter.

Pour a layer of mixture into your lined tin.

Sprinkle the blackberries over the mixture.

Pour the rest of the mixture out to cover the blackberries.

Put your tin in the over to cook for one hour or until the top of the cake is golden.

Pop the kettle on and enjoy a piece. Yum!

Next up for me is blackberry ice cream I think.

And then...who knows.

Do you have a favourite berry recipe?

A blackberry recipe suggestion?

Do you pick them?

Do you like them?

If you are in the other hemisphere, do you miss them?
Do you ever cook recipes you read on blogs?

Happy cake baking and happy, happy new week. xx

Our Indi is 11.

Our beautiful Indigo Apple is 11!!

Eleven. Wow!

Yallingup caravan park, prezzies, i-shaped pancakes, roller blading, fish plaiting, Dunsborough, surfy shopping, sushi lunch, horse riding, game shopping, back to Yallingup, talking and texting and Ichatting, ice cream cake, running races, handstands, kites, pasta bake...fun.

We adore you.

We are so proud of you.

You drive us crazy sometimes.

You rock our socks.

Happy birthday our angel. xx

Indi is nine here.
Indi is 10 here.