a (Fri)day in my life

Yesterday.

After the girls were fed, dressed, braided and driven off to school, I started the day with a couple of batches of pesto. I put Lisa Mitchell on the stereo and enjoyed the warmth of the sun on my back as I snipped the basil leaves off their stems and inhaled their delicious summery aroma.

After I had jarred the pesto and done the dishes I moved onto the tomatoes.

Thursday's tomatoes.

I cooked them quickly on the stove to soften them, moulied them, cooked them up with some onion, garlic, rosemary and basil and then I labelled them and popped them in two containers into the chest freezer.

Then my farmer boy came home and we drank coffee. Ahhhhhhh...

And we dressed in our white bee suits, lit the smoker and visited a few of our bee hives. We scraped a bit of their honey comb from their lids but nothing they would miss. And they looked good and happy so we left them to it.

Then it was time to pick up the girls. So we did. And we took them out for ice cream to celebrate Friday. Yay for Friday!

It had been a short week but a big week and our girlies were exhausted, so we came home and popped them in front of a movie with blankets and bowls of cut up apple.

And me and my farmer boy went out to prepare for the possibility of rain. First by chopping the stems off the onions and garlic we'd had hanging and drying and bringing them inside. It'll be soup season before we know it. Then we took the ute and a trailer and went out into the forest to collect a load of wood and kindling for the fire.

The wood we collected had been cut two years ago and was nice and dry and seasoned and will burn beautifully and keep us warm and cook our food over the next few weeks.

And then I picked Friday's tomatoes.

When the girls' movie finished we bundled them in the car and went down to the orchard to pick the Prima apples (my favourite so far) and the 20 Ounce apples (the biggest so far).

And somehow we lost track of time and to-do lists and stresses and dead lines and played for a while.

For a while, until it started to get dark and cold and hungry.

Then we came up to the house, rolled out some pasta, cut it into circles, filled each circle with last season's spinach and some ricotta, and then chopped up another tomato-ey sauce.

Home made ravioli with a bit of grated Parmesan and a few basil leaves on top....deeeeeeeeeeeelicious.

And then girls went to bed. Phew.

And me and my farmer boy got busy processing tomatoes again and making the first load of Fowlers for the season.

Then more dishes and a wipe down of the stickiest kitchen in town.

A vodka with ginger beer. An episode of Smash.

A shower.

BED!!!!

Autumn, you are bountiful and colourful and aromatic. You keep me crazy busy. My to-do list could fill a chapter book. And I feel happy.


How are you traveling lovely peeps?
What does a day in your life look like at the moment?
I hope your weekend is filled with wonderful.
I'm off to gather Saturday's tomatoes.

Happy travels x

Two days

Hooray for the weekend!!

I'm so excited. It's no secret that I had a bit of a crappy few days at the end of last week. I really did. Overemotional, sad, lost, empty...

This weekend feels a bit like a reward for getting through it. My light at the end of the back-to-school tunnel.

And I have big plans for this weekend.

I plan to clock up some hours on the crochet hook. My book deadline is in sight and that means so is the end of the book blanket. I bought a knitting magazine today, I think I'm getting ready to sew in the ends and move on.

I plan to watch these guys and their millions of green buddies and hope that the past few freeeeeeezing cold days have panicked them into thinking it's almost autumn and that they had better ripen their seeds quickly.

I plan to do a spot of treasure hunting. My farmer boy is threatening to send me to garage sale rehab, but  I think that a little bit of thrifting here and there keeps me sane.

 I plan to make pesto. And eat pesto. On everything. Mmmmmm summer.

I plan to enjoy the fruits of my past few days of baking frenzy. Farmer Bren called it nesting the other day, but the sad thing is that it was really empty nesting. They went to school and I baked. Sob!

I plan to admire these gorgeous avos we got in the mail from here. They're so fresh that they're not even ripe yet, but they sure are gorgeous.

And lastly, but firstly, I plan to spend so much time with my girlies. We've got two whole days with them and I don't plan to let them out of my sight.

There you go, that's my weekend all planned out.
I hope it goes oh so slowly.
I really need it to.

So how are you?
What have you got planned for your end of week days?
Are you making or baking or growing or sewing?

Later lovelies.
Lotsa love.
xx

The last pesto.

We spent this late afternoon in the kitchen garden. Him pulling out the last of the summer greens, digging the beds over and planting a bit of garlic. Me knitting some rows of rib on his new brown beanie. It was a glorious warm, autumnal afternoon. The air was sparkly and clear. The girls were busy inside. All felt good in our little world.

When the day started to grow cold he came to me by the window and handed me a bouquet of basil he'd just picked. The last of the season he told me.

So we went inside and whipped up some pasta (100grams of flour and one egg per person plus one extra yolk) and some pesto (we use Stephanie Alexander's recipe).

It was a celebration fit for the last bunch of basil. Only made better with a slice of Farmer Bren's sourdough. Yum! Did I tell you he's been talking to his starter? He has! But I'm not interrupting him because whatever he's doing is working, it's delicious.

For those who asked, he's been working from this great book.

I love it when a meal comes together like that. I love feeding our family food that was plucked from the garden not even half an hour before it was served. I love that my kids know the recipe for pasta by heart. I love homemade pesto so, so, so much.

Like we used to say when we were growing up Pesto is the besto!!!!

Happy days.

How are things with you?
What's your besto?

Lotsa love. x