these days

I love school holidays, I love the sleep ins, the lack of urgency, the gentle rhythm of the days and all that kind of stuff, but most of all what I have loved the most is the total love fest that Poe and Ilo slip into (there was a lot of love in that sentence). These two have been such a delight, their whisperings to each other, their beautiful ideas, seeing them lost in their worlds for hours. Countless times throughout the day they profess their love to each other as they walk about arm in arm, oh my heart has just been so full of squishy delight. This love fest obviously flows onto the whole family and right back again, I couldn't imagine a better start to the year. 

Amongst all the lovin, we have been swimming, both at the beach and river, whipping up a whole batch of Kasundi, celebrating birthdays, planning a curry night, embroidering a raspberry and counting the number of sleeps until some very special loved ones come and visit.

The Kasundi (indian tomato relish) that Woo and I made was a new recipe from Simon Bryant's Vegie's, we did tweak it a bit based on what we had available; not enough cumin, we used chilli flakes not chilli powder, rapadura not white sugar, apple cider vinegar not malt and only added 3 jalapenos (we had to double the recipe as we had about 5kgs of tomatoes), we changed quite a bit actually, hmmm. Anyway, I really liked this new recipe, it is a bit sweeter and hotter than usual and is totally addictive,  I have been adding it to everything, but my particular favourite has been a breakfast of a boiled egg, toast, sauerkraut and kasundi, with a drizzle of flaxseed oil, yep, doesn't get much better than that .

Here is Simon's recipe:

makes 600g

Ingredients:

2 tbs black mustard seeds

2 cups of malt vinegar 

250g fresh ginger

20 cloves garlic

30ml vegetable oil

30 fresh mild large red chillies

2.5kg fresh ripe tomatoes

2tbs ground tumeric

6tbs ground cumin

2tbs chilli powder

1 1/2cups of sugar

1 1/2tbs salt to taste

Method:

Soak mustard seeds overnight in vinegar. Puree in blender. Add ginger and garlic and blend until smooth. Halve chillies and remove seeds. Blanch tomatoes, peel and remove seeds and dice. 

Heat oil until smoking. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Stir in turmeric, cumin,chili powder. Add garlic and ginger/mustard mix, tomatoes, halved chillies and blended sugar and salt mix. 

Simmer for about an hour until a pulp and oil starts to float on the top. 

Pour into sterilized jars and allow to stand at a least a week (yeah, good luck with that one) before using to develop character. This will keep for months, but will probably be eaten in weeks. 

Oh and yeah I also managed to somehow bump my precious 50mm camera lens, which meant that it decided to stop focusing...yikes. After checking in with a camera shop and hearing numbers like 100, 200, 300 being bounced around, we did some internet checking and realised it is possible, albeit possibly highly stressful to fix ourselves. Scott graciously volunteered, luckily, as he is definitely more meticulous than I am. So off her went armed with the computer and step by step instructions, latex gloves, and screwdrivers, he literally pulled the whole thing apart, put the bent lens ring in a vice, straightened it and put it all back together and woohooo, it worked. My heart dislodged itself from my throat and I did a few leaps for joy, whilst showing a huge amount of appreciation at Scott's awesomeness.

in this home

The other day we were invited over for a band dinner at John (mandolin/fiddle player) and Laurel's home. As soon as I walked in, I stopped, my eyes were darting everywhere, I quickly (and warmly) got the usual niceties out of the way and then I got busy with my camera, what a visual feast. I was mostly filming but managed to sneak a few snaps in as well. It was such a delightful, interesting and lived in home, just gorgeous, exuding love and a wonderful and full life. Once I felt sated, we sat and chatted about John and Laurel's homeschooling adventures with their four (now adult) children, we made a lovely and surprising connection; Laurel's midwife for two of her children also delivered my sister and the midwife who delivered me (my sister, brother and I were all home births) delivered a good friend of theirs children, funnily enough these are the second people we have met up here who have shared our midwife, oh I love that.
It was a warm and delicious (can you ever have too many curries in your life, uh, I say no) evening. The kids, eight in total, were kept enthralled by Isaac, Banjo Bill's thirteen year old, who was so awesome, they were creating and looking for treasure maps, fossicking in the garden and rolling about in peals of laughter.

After dinner the band got together and started on their first 'O'Brother Where Art Thou' rehearsal, they are sounding really great, despite it being their first run through. We watched the movie again the other night, it is so brilliant, Scott, Cath and I got very excited about costumes and set design, it is going to be a great evening. Oh and unfortunately for those who may have dilly dallied a bit on offer to come and visit, well our home is full, every room, sleeping surface and studio has been booked but for the adventurous there is plenty of green space if you want to pitch a tent. Woohooo. 

the old, the new

Over here we are in full laze about mode and it is wonderful. Yes, like the rest of the country we have been bound by the heat and have wonderfully been spending our days lazing under fans with books in our hands, fruit in bowls, an occasional sneaky movie and lots of ice and icy drinks. I love this enforced laziness. Poe and Ilo's swimming intensives for one hour each day, has been the only thing we have 'had' to do and it is brilliant, their confidence is growing and they/we are having so much fun. Peppered around the intensives have been eyerollingly delicious meals with friends (did somebody say curry night extravaganza), a smattering of op shopping and a very intimate Mid North gig at The Lodge and that's about it, ah happy days. I feel like I am in a really lovely holding pattern, waiting for the year to begin, but I would love to carry this through to the year. Looking ahead we already have a very busy year with Scott being pretty much booked out for the year as he works on three exciting new programs, so it will hold us in good stead to remember this calm and to take advantage of any downtime.

Here are the remaining photos from our Sydney trip, which includes a short but fun stopover with Gary, Sarah, Stella and Mira and then a few precious days with Jen, Rod, Lily and Saul, where we welcomed the New Year and farewelled the old year in a space full of love, understanding, delightful laughter and an amazing Thai inspired feast, thanks to Rod. It was perfect and yes a little emotional, but cleansing, affirming and safe.

 And to be extra sneaky, I am hurling you back to the deep, deep past, sorry to do this, you know especially as we have been sending our good riddance to 2012, but I had to include them, they were some pretty wonderful moments. So please forgive me and just think back. 
You may remember me mentioning that  Nadine and Sammy from the Foghorn Stringband were staying with us for a couple of nights and here they are, they were amazing, their voices, their skill as musicians, they were amazingly entertaining and a bit awe inspiring and to top it off they were really lovely. They are from Portland, Oregon (and yes for those readers out there that may be interested they do know The Decemberists, and as you would guess, they said they are really lovely) they spend most of their year touring around the world but we are hoping they come back for the Dorrigo Bluegrass Festival and so are they. Nadine's voice in particular is fantastic, she is from Quebec and has this raw, strong and passionate voice, she often sings in french and she just sounds so full on but so brilliant.
We have been really lucky to have had quite a few traveling musicians stay with us in 2012, we are definitely looking forward to more of the same in 2013.

The day after Nadine and Sammy I had my last market for 2012, which was great, I stayed with the white theme, which worked well but my highlight for the day was having the huge pleasure of sharing my stall with the very beautiful and extremely talented Nick Warfield. You can see each bird a bit closer here or you could even buy one, his pieces sell so quickly but I am sure he is open for commissions, he is so amazingly talented he makes me stare in wonder.



Thanks for sticking with me for this one, I promise from now on it's all about looking to the future or being in the now, or at least 2013.

Dipping in

There have been many days where I have sat (okay, by 'sat' I really mean, when I whilst I was 'lying down'), thinking about re-entering the blogworld for 2013 and every time the thought came into my head, I would see myself tentatively dipping my toe in, just testing the waters. I guess knowing that when I was ready, my words would be brief and what I needed would be an extremely gentle and very slow return.
So hi, hello there, hope you are all deliciously well and fresh with the possibilities of a new year.
I have never really been one for New Year resolutions and all that jazz, but this year I could not deny how awesome it was farewelling the old year and looking towards the new and as I looked forward I realised that I have a whole big swag of resolutions or ideas or a yearning for change. These are largely focused around healing, appreciation, a slowing down (mostly of what happens in my head but happy to put this down for everything) and the embarking of a deeper journey of growing in love (don't worry, it sounds good and makes total sense in my head).

So here's to a wonderful, new, exciting, beautiful and enlightening new year.

Here are a couple of snaps from some of our time in Sydney and at my parents on the Central Coast. Christmas, ah a distant but delightful memory, it was easy, beautifully child focused and totally delicious.
After Christmas we hot tailed it to Sydney to be loved up by the ever loving and totally dazzling, Tracey, Vince, Remy and Jenna, oh my goodness what a family before heading back up the coast. WHAT!! Yes, crazy but true, Scott and I had an awesome opportunity to hang out and perform at Peats Ridge Festival with the Samba Soul (or Drum Oz) drummers and dancers (Scott was on shakers), whilst my parents had the awesome opportunity of hanging out with Poe and Ilo. It was really lovely and fun, especially wandering about hand in hand, just checking out random musical acts and the parade was also a whole heap of fun. So much so, we both decided that we will do the whole festival this year, as a family (now, that's planning ahead).


* oh and that amazing and heartbreakingly beautiful egg in the nest was a gift from Nicole. I look at it every day and gasp, she found the nest and made the this superbly perfect ceramic egg. Not only is she immensely talented but she is a very dear and wondrous friend. I am so blessed to have her in my life.