the beast with two backs

How awesome is this? Have to believe that this is ladybird love and not just one ladybird getting all road rage with another. I've been amazed at how many ladybirds have flocked to my zucchini plant, the one of wrote of in my last post was obviously the scouting party! You can see in this shot how much they've enjoyed feasting on the leaves, plus in the background is the second flush of Hula Lady at Sunset. I feel a real kinship with these little beauties as I'm snapping off the zucchini bounty they leave behind. For a first attempt with zucchini, I am thrilled with the results and am now in the thick of a zucchini cuisine crusade. A personal favourite is Zucchini Slice, a recipe perfected by my fabulous mother-in-law which is perfect for lunch or light dinners, especially on days as stinking hot as this.

You need:

3 decent zucchinis, grated and preferably homegrown - I feel entitled to gloat!

1/2 cup oil of your choice

5 eggs

1 cup SR flour

1 cup grated cheese

1 onion

3 bacon rashers or equivalent of ham

Handful of cherry tomatoes, halved

2 grated carrots

Salt and Pepper

Ground Cumin

Mix oil and eggs, add the flour and then mix in all the other ingredients, slap in a loaf tin, lined with baking paper. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180degrees C for 45mins or until cooked through. Serve with a flourish and a handpicked green salad just because you can and aren't afraid of being called a show-off.

Roaming in the Gloaming

Apparently dusk in Australia is quite abrupt in comparison to that of the Northern Hemisphere, where that precious part of the day's end is called the gloaming. I feel there's something very Tolkien, very middle earth about the notion. On a perfect summer's evening mountainside, these are some of the things a hobbit might see in Magic Garden, before dawdling back to their burrow and pouring themselves a large G & T.

I do so love the passionfruit flower. I like how obvious the structure is and how neatly each component overlaps and layers the next. I found this one in tangle with a Daphne halfway down the garden path and neither plant could be said to be flourishing. The passionfruit is super straggly and is suckering everywhere and the Daphne is yellowing and lacklustre. Whilst Daphne usually thrives in this cool climate, sadly, it isn't really appropriate for passionfruit, a truth I learnt the hard way in my first garden at the Gospel Hall.

However this provides a fabulous segue to one of my reading highlights from last year was a book called Indelible Ink by Fiona McGregor. The main character reinvents herself, empowers herself through a late in life tattoo addiction and the designs she chooses are very botanically correct impressions of her favourite plants. In effect, she becomes her garden, the vine and flower of the passionfruit feature prominently as her confidence grows. I'm too much of a scaredy cat to ever contemplate a tattoo (and I'm not so secretly thrilled I never acquired one during my misspent youth) but McGregor's prose had me seeing so clearly how beautifully the passionfruit vine could adorn a body.

Leeks apparently enjoy the company of carrots, celery and apple trees and whenever I can, I do like to companion plant. However, leeks also like similar situations to the Allium family so in theory, lettuce and salad leaves should work as well. As these greens are pretty low impact, I hope I'll be supplementing my salad bowl in time.

If you were a tiny creature beneath this cathedral like canopy, perhaps you'd feel inspired to religious conversion...or maybe you'd wonder who'd put the acid in your drink?


All hail my Zucchini triumph! This is my first attempt with these magical members or the Curcurbita family and I am thrilled with the results. Both the male and female flowers can be eaten but only the female flower will bear fruit. According to Wikipedia, strictly speaking, the zucchini is an immature fruit as it is technically the swollen ovary of the female flower. Which is a somewhat disturbing thought...if your zucchini plants are producing too many swollen ovaries, this provides a perfect excuse to pick and stuff the flowers and then flash fry in a light batter.


And as I say goodbye, I invite you to say hullo to a lovely ladybird friend, I think my favourite of all the insect visitors. This little lady was obviously very happy with a zucchini leaf dinner as she hung around for over 2 days!

Snakes in a motherfu*kin' orchard!

In an effort to follow through on an important resolution; which is to actually do the cool things we see advertised*, rather than just say 'Oh, that looks interesting, I must put that in the diary, I must book tickets,' and then not, the day after New Year's Day (aka January 2), we packed up the children and gathered some friends to go berry picking at Cloud Farm orchard in Mt Tomah. The title of this post doesn't quite cover the degree to which Husbando and I had bought into the romance of fruit picking as neither of us had quite computed that when the ad in the local paper says, wear protective footwear that actually translates as a warning about snakes. However, when I mentioned this to the lovely Kellie, she said she was petrified the entire time but that no-one else seemed concerned. But as she said, everyone but us was wearing serious boots...hmm, live and learn?

Despite very humid conditions beneath the netting, we escaped with our berry booty unscathed. I felt very mother earth as I dallied, delicately placing my treasures into my very modern earth mother's green recyclable bag - another oversight as I hadn't thought of bringing a more appropriate collecting container! We came home with raspberries, both red and yellow, blueberries and gooseberries (which I'd never tried and found rather tart) and whilst I had rather grandiose plans for a berry tart, using a shortbread biscuit base and a marscapone filling, funnily enough, it didn't eventuate.

This foray to Cloud Farm was organised by the Blue Mountains Fruit and Nut Network. Their aim is to document and protect the region's rich heritage of fruit and nut cultivation through hosting events such as this and their blog, which can be found here at blogspot (the full address can be found below). Next up in the ripening rotation at Cloud Farm are apples and figs and so I'll be keeping an eye on the blog as I do love to make an apple jelly. Slowfood and the word locavore have become so overused that it's nice to see examples of these catch phrases in practise.

http://bmfruitandnuttreenetwork.blogspot.com/

If you head to their blog, you'll see that I have used 2 of their lovely images, immediately above and below. I hope this is ok and thankyou!

*I've come to the conclusion that this is vital when you live just outside a major metropolitan area. So near and yet so far! A city in a national park, a world heritage area no less! Supporting regional initiatives is a priority and one I take very seriously but it also means taking yourself further afield and making an effort to stay in touch with what the wider world has to offer. If you don't, it becomes really easy to feel that life is passing you by and that you're not a particularly interesting person. Guess it's that old classic, you reap what you sow and as our excursion to Cloud Farm proves, it doesn't have to cost the earth.

hello from hiatus!

I worked in television long enough to know that a hello from hiatus is somewhat of an oxymoron. But as I am also celebrating New Year's Eve at home, alone and sober, I feel such contradictions are totally permissible. If only there was a Gilmore Girls marathon on... oh my not-so-secret shame!

Since last I wrote, it's fair to say the world has changed and then changed again. And it's made me slightly melancholy, which it shouldn't because everything and everyone is on the up. So in an effort to get to take emotional charge, I'm getting all Pollyanna on myself and I'm making a list. I'm calling it my "All kinds of Awesomeness" list, I want to remind myself of 2010's highlights.

1: Bringing home our new baby from hospital...twice. The first time, she was 3 days old and I couldn't wait to welcome her into our space. I'm pleased to report that the divine Miss E is doll baby one moment and then, old man, alien face the next - a most beguiling mix with very low monkey factor. She is just perfect and I feel quite bewitched.

2: The second involved a frightening bout of viral meningitis over Christmas and I'm so glad she's alive for us to tell the tale. It's this episode that has me so reflective.

3: Introducing our newly minted big sister to her baby sister. Being a big sister myself, I was very keen for this to go well. Husbando and I invested a lot of time telling Miss C how the baby couldn't wait to meet it's big sister, how much it loved her already, how much fun they're going to have and whilst the transition hasn't been seamless, I don't know that it could have gone much better. Husbando has already been banished to the end of the bed with the (male) cat as "this is the girl boat, Daddy!"

4: Seeing the divine Miss C dance to Phoenix's Too Young. This track would feature prominently on the soundtrack of my life. Watching your 3yr old discover her inner ballerina to it, counts as one of 2010's great laughs. Truly hysterical, one of those moments that makes you wish you were part cyborg, recording and downloading any data that you'd like to revisit whenever the desire takes you.

5: Driving with my darling Husbando. We've been lucky enough to have a couple of weekends away this year without Miss C and silly as it sounds, being together on the way to wherever, has been just a nice as when we got to our destination. There's something about the anticipation, in being in the car together, without having to keep a small person entertained, that has been a lovely reminder of who we

are. I don't want to look at Husbando and see only my children's father, nor for him to only see me as a mother.

6: Starting this blog and committing to it...and slowly telling people it exsists. In the new year, I'm going to get braver with my writing and more assertive again. I need to show more discipline if I want to make this happen.

7: Through the success of BookClub/Ladies who drink and dine, I have made some fabulous new friends this year and cemented some old ones. I feel really lucky to have such a wonderful group of women in my life. Thank-you ladies! And to my darlings who don't live so close, let's just keep those phone dates coming...friday night with a glass of wine in hand, it's almost as good...not quite!

8: I do not see nearly as much music as I used to but I like to think that now I cherry pick the gigs...this year I finally saw the Polyphonic Spree (I cried) and also Florence and the Machine. All kinds of awesome, indeed! And for Christmas, I got tickets to see Cat Power at the Opera House at the end of the month. Lucky me!

9: That despite my grief over garlic, some bulbs have sprouted! There's a tomato ripening on the vine! Hydrangeas have been uncovered! Magic Garden has taken more of a back seat than I would have liked this year, partly due to pregnancy and partly because that was part of the plan. I now have a better understanding of the garden's composition and more of an idea as to Magic Garden's future. Stay tuned in 2011!

Hula Lady at Sunset

Big day today! The baby is due, in theory, the divine Miss C is off with her grandparents and so there are few better things to do other than potter in Magic Garden. Roses aplenty to deadhead and I've planted out some yellow pear seedlings, courtesy of the lovely Kellie. Am off to my favourite cafe for lunch with 2 of my favourite ladies and then it's home for a sleep. I am blooming with possiblity and the rose above is a reminder of that process...yes, I think the hypnobirthing affirmations are taking root. In time, I intend to get all Magnun PI with the nomenclature but today's not really the day. In the meantime, I call her Hula Lady at Sunset and remember good times.

Purple Sage, Purple Haze

With apologies to His Royal Highness, Hendrix and the Artist formerly known as Prince, this post celebrates the very purpleness of certain parts of Magic Garden. It's kinda happened by accident and when I pointed this out to my Mum, she said how lovely it was to see just how many different shades there were in the one place. Stupidly, I'd been beating myself up abit for not "considering" my planting scheme, when in truth, there was no plan at all. Mum's call has made me see the beauty in this situation. There's five different shades of purple in this picture, the sage, lavender, chives, catmint and sweetpeas but what I really love is that this shot shows just how much my Hills Hoist garden has grown since my first post. I do need to think of some way to break up the purple haze. I'm feeling blue, simply because spring has revealed Magic Garden's very garish heart and the front yard already has the opposing purple/yellow nexus covered. These questions of colouration remind me that I've been meaning to post about the concept of the "fashionable" in garden design. What happens when your garden is so well established that such notions are irrelevant? And more to the point, is the true nature of gardening beyond such frivolous concerns? Fashion is defined by its seasonality and infers a sense of the replaceable whereas a garden must transcend the 4 seasons and continue to evolve in spite of them. As with any good design, a successful garden will invoke a sense of timelessness, I guess but then what does this really mean? All this and more, I shall discuss in a future post...

In between, I shall be making up a batch of this very delicious Pumpkin, Sage & Ricotta Lasagne. It was the cover recipe from the ABC's delicious magazine from July 2007, so that should give you some indication as to how long I've been perfecting this rather decadent dish. For entertaining the non-vegan of your vegetarian friends, it is an absolute lifesaver and very well received by meat eaters alike. It freezes really well so make 2 batches and freeze one to be popped in the oven at a later date. Serve with a fresh green salad and maybe some crusty bread, if you feel like carb loading. Also, very tasty as leftovers the next day.

To serve 4, you'll need:
1.2kg butternut pumpkin, peeled and cut into 2cm pieces
2 tbs olive oil
1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes*
1 tbs chopped fresh sage, plus 12 leaves to garnish
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
350g ricotta
1 egg
1 cup grated parmesan, plus extra to serve
8 lasagne sheets
100g unsalted butter
2 tbs chopped walnuts or pinenuts

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C.

Place pumpkin on a baking tray, drizzle with oil, sprinkle with chilli flakes & season with seas salt & freshly ground pepper. Cover with foil and bake for 25minutes until the pumpkin is tender. Allow to cool slightly then puree in a food processor, with the sage and nutmeg or mash by hand. Set aside.

Combine ricotta, egg & parmesan and season with salt & pepper.

Lightly grease a 24cm square baking pan, lay 2 lasagne sheets and spread with half the pumpkin puree. Then lay another 2 sheets and spread with half the ricotta. Repeat and then sprinkle the final layer of ricotta with the grated parmesan.

Lay a sheet of baking paper over the surface, cover with foil and bake for 35mins. Uncover and bake for a further 15mins or until golden. Stand for 5mins and in the meantime, heat the butter, nuts & sage until the butter begins to foam. Remove from the heat, drizzle over the rested lasagne and finally, artfully scatter with the additional parmesan.

*Please note, I tend to the cavalier when it comes to measuring and in this instance, the dried chilli can really pack a punch once it's mixed with the sage, so be a bit careful unless you're confident you & your guests like it HOT.

Bon Appetit!

John, the Rabbit!

It's been one of those days but somewhere along the way, the divine Miss C and I came across this gorgeous clip by Elizabeth Mitchell...it made me smile, enjoy!

Apologies that the clip is cropped by my template set-up...even if it hadn't been one of those days, I'm not sure I could've fixed it. I'm just not that savy and you still get the general cuteness, I reckon!