A trip to the farm

I went to The Farm on Sunday and  I came back with a boot load of delicious goods and plenty of splinters in my hands (one day, I will actually remember to wear gloves whilst sorting through the macadamia leaves seeking out the nuts). I returned with oranges (Navels and Valencias), mandarins, bush (macadamia) nuts, a pumpkin and some flowers.

I was a little late picking up the bush nuts this year, mostly due to Uni commitments and also in part I guess to not wanting to go to The Farm as I wasn’t sure what my emotions  would be, particularly as a lot of my memories of Grandad in the recent years have been around macadamia harvesting process. I got three boxes full of bush nuts. I husked the two smaller boxes this afternoon and have the large box to go. I should end up with a bit more than a milk crate worth of bush nuts in their shells. Then they will go into the deep freeze for a couple of  months before I start shelling them. Whilst the bush nuts waited for me, the mandarin tree didn’t and I only got a very small box of mandarins. I won’t have enough mandarins to make any more mandarin jam 🙁 🙁 I’ll have to be conservative with the mandarin jam till next year. I did however get plenty of oranges 🙂 which means there will be plenty of orange cakes, eating oranges and who knows what else.  I’ve already got a bottle of orange extract steeping in the cupboard and I’m most certainly getting my daily vitamin C intake at the moment 🙂

Semester 1, finished.

My life from the last post until this past Tuesday has looked like this.

Books, paper, pens etc covering the study desk kitchen table. It’s been a tough semester as I’ve juggled the renovations, upheavals at work, another death in the family and life whilst doing my two subjects. It’s been fun 🙂 and now I have just two subjects to go 😀

However, I had my last exam for the semester on Tuesday 🙂 🙂 🙂 and it also meant that the group of us four girls who all started together last year is now down to two, as S finished mid-year. The four of us grouped together again on Tuesday after the exam for a  lunch celebration at Vapiano.

I had a Caprese pizza, it was 210 times delish. It was at least three times as good as the spinach and ricotta pizza I had at  Giardinetto’s on Friday night with the girls ladies (when I was the youngest by almost 20 years, I don’t think girls is the correct word) from work.

Keeping on the food theme, a random assortment of food photos from my phone.

Mushroom risotto. I ♥ mushroom risotto.

 

Vegetable minestrone soup with a good dash of Pimentón Dulce. So so so so good.

 

Possibly one of my favourite quick dinners. Spaghetti with carrot and zucchini. You cook the spaghetti and just before the spaghetti is cooked, you add in the zucchini and carrot which has been julienned with a  julienne peeler. Once the they are all cooked, drain, drizzle with a some olive oil and top with a good crack of pepper and some ricotta (props if you “make” it yourself). Eat.

How cute is this Siamese mushroom I got in my Food Connect box the other week?

 

To finish it off. Some avocados of the ornamental variety…. I spotted these at WAC yesterday and just had to take a photo.

Reading chair

image

I finally set up my reading area again today. Exams are fast approaching and there is serious study to be done. Oh I so do love the new polished floors 🙂 I’ll have to take some photos of the house when the painting is finished (our painter is currently overseas on a holiday), gosh it looks different.

Chrysanthemum still life

Stair shelf

One thing I will miss about my current work place when I leave next year is the half price chrysanthemums I pick up from the Woolies across the back. Chrysanthemums are the cut flowers I remember most of my childhood and there is something lovely in their simple petals and colours.

At the moment there is chryssies throughout the house. There is a vase on my duchess, a jam jar on the counter in the bathroom, some jam jars on the shelf above the steps (as seen above), a vase on the sideboard in the living room, another vase and some jam jars on the counter in the kitchen and lastly a single bloom in a Brennivín shot glass beside the kitchen sink.

Winter Days

On the beach

I took some photos for a friend of her little family down the coast and gave my camera some love last weekend. It has been some time between shots for my baby. Was quite good to have fun with the camera again as uni/work/house “reno” has pretty much consumed my life for the last X weeks. Uni however is just about finished for the semester and I’m looking forward to that day in 2.5 weeks or so when it is all over 🙂