July is for - breaking down the barriers

It's winter, and for me that means woolly beanie and gloves on the way to work in the morning, and wrapping up on the lounge in a blanket at night. Hopefully at least one of the cats will join me as a living hot water bottle. The real struggle for me comes when I have a day off - though it sounds exciting or relaxing, or both, often it isn't either. The house is just too cold during the day. I'm all for getting out in the garden to warm up, after taking the dog for a brisk walk (often with a bacon and egg roll stop) and maybe painting the walls for a while. But there's really only so much tea you can drink, and so many warm things to do.
The main issue is the house design, as there is only one window on the northern side (where all the sun is at this time of year). We are hoping to add another window in the bedroom  when time and budget allow, but for this season we have simply made better use of the one window we have.
Without boring you with the details of our strange house layout, let me just say that the living room is far too small and entirely the wrong shape, and along it runs an equally unusable and oddly shaped 'bedroom'. I'm sure you COULD fit a bed in there and my neighbour tells me that many years ago two young brothers shared it (a lesson in making do, if ever I needed one).

 

 

After taking a climb on the ladder into the roof, we confirmed that the wall separating these two 'rooms' wasn't loadbearing, and took to it with the nearest tools.

 

 My hammer hardly made a dent, and we discovered that it was composed of 2 layers, with thick gyprock covering horsehair plaster at the top, and plywood on the bottom half. Progress was slower than we expected, but the light that began streaming into the dingy living room was wonderful. Now at the centre of our house is a large, lightfilled room. 

Let there be light!

  Unfortunately, the walls and ceiling of the two rooms don't quite match up, so there is more work to be done disguising the join or at least making it presentable.

 

 

But we don't care. At the moment it's just nice to sit in a sunny room, have a read and a cup of tea. By summer we will hang some curtains to keep it cool, but that can wait. Before then there are floorboards to sand and polish and walls to paint. At least now our precious sunshine isn't wasted on that funny little side room, and we have a lounge room that can actually fit our lounge in it. How luxurious!

And here is a sneak peek of what we have planned for next Winter:

Photo of the week - friends in the garden

We visited the Hunter Region Botanic Gardens last December, and bought a few plants on the way out. A definite favourite was Guichenotia macrantha, with velvety purple ballgown-shapes flowers, and brown fuzzy seed capsules. This one has grown beautifully in the garden ever since, in a dry sunny part of the new native garden. It's now covered in these stunning flowers, and insects like this friendly spider are hanging about in it. What a winner!

When life gives you green tomatoes

The late yet abrupt change of season has left me with pile of green tomatoes that may never ripen... luckily I'm a fan of pickles in general, and green tomato pickles in particular.

We used Sally Wise's recipe from her book 'A Year in a Bottle', which worked wonders 2 seasons back when I reluctantly pulled up unripe tomatoes due to a garden bed being removed. It seems this recipe comes in handy when I'm harvesting against my will - the ultimate comfort food in times of horticultural heartbreak. Nothing like a cheese and pickles sandwich to brighten your day.

Loved ones - we have a few spare jars, so let me know if you'd like one - first in, best dressed!

Photo of the week - Gramma pie

We picked up a gorgeous gramma at the local farmers market, and accepted the challenge to cook my first gramma pie. I used This recipe from The Little Black Cow Blog and found the spice balance and citrus flavour to be divine. I must admit, I didn't have any oranges so I used mandarin rind instead, and also sprinkled raw sugar on the lattice top. I think it made it even better.

 

 

The pie was so warming and scrumptious, especially with a sneaky blob of cream. But a big part of the magic was watching how a 'pumpkin' became such a decadent meal. Breaking it open, the smell was so sweet it was almost like a melon. Before I even cut it , it was like a work of art - the veins and patterns on the skin had me so in awe that I was reluctant to cut it off and feed it to the worms. I'm sure they appreciated it.

 

 

For some reason the pattern put me in mind of this lovely blue swimmer crab my Dad recently caught. It must be the light/dark interactions and the wonderful detail. Entirely different meal though, I would think...

 

And yes, I just may have to find room to grow some next season... the grammas that is, I'll leave the crabs to the experts.