soup weather

The autumn winter weather has finally arrived in Sydney.

I'm taking credit! We went west on the weekend to our nephew Fin's 18th birthday party and brought the chilly temps back with us over the mountains on Sunday.

Our flying visit to the country was a breath of fresh air literally. Its always such a treat to have the whole family in one place. We got to catch up with the new babies in the family, the teenagers, the young adults and the oldies. Mr Flowerpress is the youngest of four kids which means lots of family in all shapes and sizes.

We made a quick trip out to his sister's bush block where she is building and decided to come back soon, hopefully in the next holidays, to help build a crushed granite floor in her straw bale house.

On Sunday we fitted in a visit to see our nephews' collaboration. They are milling sustainable timbers from a wide range of amazing trees, including bunya pine, casuarina, pin oak, English elm and poplar.

Autumn means soup weather and slow cooking and crusty bread and bakes (including Hugh Grant macaroni!). I have unconsciously changed what I'm cooking as the days get colder.

Off to the Etsy Craft Party tomorrow for a bloggy/craft catchup. Can't wait.

Oh and good news on the ceramics front, but more about that next week!

exhale

I've been meaning to come back and post these extra photos of our trip down south. It seems a long time ago now, but I wanted to have a record here on my blog of our week in that magic place.

I love Ms A's collage of the corners of this sweet house, trapped in time, just the way we like it! Check out too the amazing queen sized flannelette doona cover and pillowslips I thrifted. They were virtually unused. I'm just worried now that I won't be able to get out of bed when they're on!

Happy weekend peoples. I am back next week with some new things (about time I hear you say!). Some stuff I have been working towards for a while now. I'm really looking forward to sharing it with you.

leaving the nest

Do you remember the other day I told you about the birdie neighbours who moved in while we were away. The spot they chose was right next to our back door. Unfortunately for them, not only are we noisy, but we are nosy too! We couldn't resist sidling in close a couple of times to peer inside the nest, to see how those cute little babies were going.

I am pleased to say Mum and Dad BulBul were fantastic parents, really wonderful. The feeding schedule they kept up with insects and berries was very impressive. And when they couldn't fly in for a feed they would sit patiently by until the coast was clear. That was usually our cue to get out of the way, however by the end they got much braver and would fly in whether you were sitting on the deck nearby or not, and whether I was pointing my camera at them or not. So I managed to get a couple of pics as the babies grew.

And grow they did! All too quickly it seemed they were growing out of their little nest, opening their eyes and stretching up to ask for food. I wasn't ready for them to grow up so quickly! (Every mother's lament!)

Suddenly the other day they were sitting right up on the edge of the nest, stretching their wings, it looked precarious. And then one of them ventured out on to the surrounding branches. The rain had just started and the forecast was for torrential rain and strong winds. I tried to explain to them it wasn't a good time to be leaving that warm hidey hole!

You can see in my photos that those loving parents though were urging them on. Suddenly one of the babies slipped through the leaves and flew across to the nearest tree, and then the next and then the last.

They sat for a while, bedraggled, in the rain and I managed to get some photos. They looked way too little and defenceless to be out there on their own. I kept going out to check on them but all at once the family had disappeared into the darkening afternoon.

The storm came after that, perhaps it came to your place too. It was wild, and wet and fierce. I lay awake and worried about them as the rain beat down. The next day I searched the sodden garden but there was no sign of them.

Today, I heard twittering outside my room. A camellia and magnolia grow right beside the window and sometimes the birds come inside to feed on the flowers. I crept up to to look out through the blinds and look who was there. Just two babies I'm afraid, but growing strongly and accompanied by their careful parents (below).

I've been watching this week on instagram other babies leaving the nest, off to preschool or prep, to kindie or high school. I've watched their mothers care for them and guide them on their journey, often with tears in their eyes. My boys started year six this week, which is hard to believe. Its taking some getting used to all round. Love to everyone with new beginnings - I wish you the happiest transitions!

Next week I'm hosting another giveaway here on Flower Press, with a creative prize to get you organised for the year. So please come back and join the fun next week.

snow

My kids have never seen or touched snow, so a week before the school holidays we decided on the spur of the moment to remedy that, and luckily managed to find some last minute accomodation for our southern roadtrip. I'm so glad we did, it was great fun!

On the drive down we stayed a couple of nights in Canberra and visited Questacon (a great interactive science museum) and the National Art Gallery. We also squeezed in a quick trip to the Australian War Memorial, and while I would have loved to have had longer here we got to see some of the WWI galleries and dioramas (which A is studying) and were there to see a lone bugler play the Last Post as it closed, so moving.

We caught up with two lots of lovely friends in between, and then drove south through the beautiful Snowy Mountains country to Jindabyne, a small town on a big lake which is down the mountain from the NSW ski resorts. From here we made day trips to Perisher where we clomped around in our snow gear and tobogganed in the fresh snow. It was great, especially the second day when we moved across and found our own hill away from the madness and had races down the mountain. We ate picnic lunch amongst the snow gums at the top of the hill and Mr D and I made this snow lady.

Some other favourite things about the trip were the huge skies and incredible clouds in this part of the world, those very Australian landscapes and small town streets, where we op shopped and bought lunch at the local bakeries.

bonfire night

We took a long weekend trip out West last week for a big family birthday bonfire party. The predicted minus temperatures emphasised that winter has well and truly set in here and we made sure to pack all our warmest clothes. As Sydneysiders we are never really prepared for cold weather! We have such mild quick winters here that we don't have those really thick coats that keep out the wind, we don't have thermals or proper boots. So I worried a bit that we were going to freeze!

Luckily the heavy rain in Sydney didn't follow us and we had beautiful bright sunny days out west and that huge big bonfire to keep us warm. We survived quite well, truth is out west they have beautiful central heating and toasty radiators, when we ventured outside we had all our winter stuff on and it was only cold at night.

What a wonderful night it was packed with lots of old friends and extended family we haven't seen for ages, young and old. It was so good to see everyone and toast our lovely brother-in-law on his big day. And that bonfire was epic!

My Diggers garlic finally came and helped me finish off my winter vegie planting. I already have some gifted plants up and growing but I really want to give garlic a good try this year. The three packages of different garlic varieties were fun to unwrap and I've planted them all out together in in a large raised garden box. Little shoots are just starting to emerge, yay, and I just hope our winters are cold enough and summer dry enough for the garlic to be productive.

My new beds have spinach, silver beet, beetroot, broad beans, radishes, spring onions and peas planted. They don't want for rain - we returned to the wettest June day in forty years, driving home through fog and torrential downpours - but they seem to be surviving. The worm towers have luckily stayed warm and dry but not very active yet. I don't blame them, I'd be tucked up too!

In winter mode I am still having fun cooking and eating at the moment so thanks for all your slow cook suggestions. I came home with a new cake recipe too, which I will share once I've cooked it. Which reminds me, I have the most fantastic Show & Tell coming up next Tuesday and I've really been looking forward to this interview. Say that every month I know but this one you are going to love!

So if I don't make it back here before then, make sure you drop in then and meet this month's guest!