visiting

We took a trip to Melbourne to pick up a chair purchased on ebay, which didn't look quite as fabulous in the flesh as on the screen and in my imagination, but they never do, do they? We had a hour to fill and did so with lunch at a little Malvern cafe. Martha was trying her best to be inner city cool and aloof, so was of course mortified when I tried to take her photo in front of the other patrons. Had a moment to drop by bes62 which, unlike the chair, was every bit as lovely as I thought it would be, jammed to the rafters with that wonderful old furniture in painted huon pine and red cedar. Much as I am seduced by Danish modern with all its fancy designer credentials, when I go to a place like that I realise that that is the kind of furniture that I'd most love to rest my elbows on - straightforward, solid, utilitarian, homey...furniture for kneading dough on. Got home to find the new Diggers catalogue (Winter issue) in the letterbox. Citrus! Potatoes! Berries! Self pollinating almonds! Yeah, Melbourne was great and all that, but really, I'm a country girl at heart.

seeing the light

Martha's solution for low hanging early winter sun.

chook food and cinos

Took a trip to town for more chook food and library books. The cook book section is a bit hit and miss but today we found a whole volume of pudding recipes by Phil Vickery. Lucky the hens are laying again! We managed to sneak in a 'cino as well.

funny old day

A funny up and down day. Got dressed up to go out and have a great day at the Antiques Fair, only to realise, when we got there, that it was yesterday. Ate ice-cream, came home, felt cold and sad. Caught up with neighbours in the afternoon, drank tea from fine china and admired Cheryl's splendid chooks, roses, recipe books and veges. In between we grew wings.

slowness

I am slow. Too little sleep (thanks to Medium ending with 'to be continued') and too much french toast. Still, we managed to make it to the 'tunnel' this morning and not even any piggybacking.
Some strangely coloured wool (dyed with acorns) is waiting to be spun, but not sure if my mind is steady enough for four hands and feet at the wheel. Plus the house is full of autumn flies. I don't feel inspired with flies in my ears. Maybe we'll plant snowpeas instead.

lying about

We were meant to have visitors today but mysteriously they never arrived.
We didn't mind - we were happy to talk less and instead rest and read the paper after our week of coughing and wasp stings to the head.

A proud man and his compost bin

We love compost around here, but we've never had much success with producing our own. We have a mulch heap, but it's also our repository for green waste from the garden and the chooks love to scratch around in there too. The end result is a scattered heap of passionfruit prunings adorned with old Twinings teabags. Neither have we ever really taken the time to learn about the science of composting. The idea of there being a 'right' way to dispose of last night's dinner scraps has never really sat well with me. However after glimpsing the world's most perfect compost bin ever (or so we surmised) on an episode of that new backyards show on Sunday nights, Mark was inspired to create...this.
Two compartments, on stilts above the ground and with lids (to foil the rats), with wire on the bottom, which will allow the compost as it's formed to fall into a neat and elegant pile on a platform underneath the bins, from where it can be easily shoveled into a waiting wheelbarrow. In theory. We know there are no certainties when it comes to the dark art of composting, especially if you're as slapdash as we are. But we're hopeful. If nothing else, we have finally managed to engage Martha with the world of decomposing organic matter (isn't this every parent's dream?). We're not sure yet whether this will prove to be a good or bad thing. I guess this will only become obvious in a month or two...once she has learnt how to clamber up those slats.

PS No, Martha did not retrieve that piece of cake from the slops!