Produce

The first tomato from the garden.

It became a very nice tomato salad eaten with some grilled goat kebabs, home made tzatziki and flatbread. Yum.

And the good thing is, plenty more where that came from!

What I did on my holidays

School finally starts today for new students. For everyone else it is tomorrow. Hip hip hooray say all the parents, being thankful that we do not live in Tasmania where they don't go back for weeks.

So in true start of term style, here is the mandatory first week back exercise.

What I did on my holidays - a trip to the country

Mid January we were lucky enough to have a few days down south. Bronwen has friends with a house at Tilba Tilba who put it at our disposal. It's a lovely old timber cottage on some acres, with some cows, mountains to look at, lots of green, lots of frogs croaking at night, very quiet and peaceful.

A perfect verandah for eating, drinking and playing games, a great collection of books, with many old childhood favourites, a great big bath and a collection of games in the cupboard (Star Wars Monopoly anyone?)

We had a lovely time doing not much interspersed with trips to the beach.

We discovered sea anemones in the tide pools and bluebottles on the beach at Bermagui, had a lovely time at Mystery Bay in the big rockpools, which when the tide is in are deep and freezing but fantastic to swim in, built sandcastles, made origami frogs, had fish and chips at Tathra and Narooma and did a lot of kicking back and relaxing.

It was great.

One Fear Finally Faced

It's been a long time coming, but Claire finally conquered her fear and did the Freefall at Questacon. Needless to say, Iwasn't there to see the first time she went down, but when I turned up to collect them all, I was dragged inside to watch. Sorry, no pics.

Well done Claire!

Summer holidays that stretch forever...

These holidays still have one week to go. I've been keeping the children amused with the support of several others.

Bronwen very kindly held the reins for my first week back at work.

Tie dying, dress ups at Old Parliament House.

We also helped her to build the new chicken house.

January in Canberra means jazz concerts at the Australian Botanic Gardens. Take a picnic, meet a friend.

Drives in the country, swims, days at home doing not much in particular.

Then it will be back to school to begin a whole different juggling act.

Australians all

Australia Day, Canberra style. It's hot. We don't do the Australia Day eve concert, except this year the Woden Valley Youth Choir were singing at the Australian of the Year ceremony which was on before the concert. So there was a bit of faffing around dropping off Claire at the right place and right time. I sat in the shade in the Senate Rose Gardens for an hour and a half until it was time to collect her again. As we left people were flooding in from everywhere. We were much happier at home eating a spectacular meal of duck legs cooked with plums.

Our Australia Day tradition, when in Canberra, involves a visit to the National Museum in the morning and then the fireworks in the evening.

We did artworks with rubbing and made amazing hats. We love the museum because it is air conditioned!

(Claire wears a fez now. Fezes are cool.)

Home to prepare a picnic and then off to the lake for the fireworks where we met friends we had planned to meet, and others who just happened to be sitting next to us.

A good day all around.

The story of the Arkansas Traveller tomato

Or why I love Farmers Markets.

I've been going to the Farmers Market for years now. Two summers ago, I bought an heirloom tomato seedling from the Myrtle Creek garlic people. Admittedly I bought it for the name - Arkansas Traveller, which is the name of one of my favourite Michelle Shocked albums. However, it also grew the most delicious tomatoes. Last summer, when the garlic people turned up at the markets again, I asked about the Arkansas Traveller, and whether they had any plants this year. Sadly, they didn't have any for sale, but had one planted in their garden and when it fruited, Josh brought me in a bag of these pinky red beauties.

This summer, when I spied the familiar Myrtle Creek sign up at the markets, I wandered over to buy garlic. 'Hello' said Josh "I've got a tomato plant for you!". And sure enough, the following week, not one, but two Arkansas Traveller tomato seedlings were passed over to me.

Some one I don't know, who doesn't really know me, thought about me during the year and planted out tomatoes for me. That's why I love farmers markets.

The Arkansas Travellers and now tucked into the new vege bed and are madly flowering. This year, I will find out how to save seeds so I can grow my own next year.

Here are gratuitous vege garden pics. Do you think I over planted?

What happened to the end of 2010?

Time seemed to vanish and the poor blog got a bit neglected. Here's a collection of snaps from the end of the year.

Steph dressed as a zebra for her class assembly

Round two of eggs in the nest in the carport

My early birthday present from Edward and Bronwen - a new vegetable garden

Rosemary in the Woden Valley Youth Choir end of year concert. Singing is a very serious business, you know!

Claire at her graduation disco with some friends

The end of year six

Spending post Christmas as it should be - Lake Macquarie, some knitting and a lot of fun in the water.