Spring Greens

The green of early spring is the greenest, most vivid, most emerald green there is, isn't it?

Unfortunately, early spring is not a great time in the vegetable garden.  None of the fun, showstopper crops like tomatoes or eggplants are producing.  We don't even have peas or broadbeans yet, although they are growing like crazy.

What we do have is lots of greens, which makes for great salads and stir fries (and looks of despair from some of my children who think I am trying to poison them, green being their least favourite colour in the food world).

Yesterday's harvest for a chicken stir fry, shown above, was fenugreek greens, silverbeet, garlic scapes, green onions and coriander.  Yum!

A Very Special Housewarming Gift

When my father-in-law came to visit a few weeks ago he brought a very special housewarming gift - a map of Asia drawn by his grandfather when he was a schoolboy in 1889.

Old and faded and watermarked, this map is nonetheless a treasure.  Its elegant, spidery writing draws us back to an era when the British Empire ruled, when Iran was Persia and Thailand was Siam; an era when beautiful handwriting was a skill to be developed and admired.

The map doesn't have a permanent home yet.  At present it's on our sitting room mantelpiece.  However, it is the kind of treasure that we want to keep forever.

Spring Walk with Flowers

Today three happy, laughing kids came home from the park with spring bouquets for their (equally happy) mother.

They then set about some creative, collective flower arranging in tiny cups.  Just perfect for the middle of the table at afternoon tea time.

My Pretty Bedroom

I had so much fun joining in Show Us Your Life Friday at Kelly's Korner last week that I have decided to join in again with a tour of our master bedroom.  

Green, pink and cream has always been my favourite bedroom colour combination, and this room was already painted in these colours when we moved in last March. (The previous owners had fabulous taste!)

The master bedroom is in the original part of our 1915 house and has a 12 foot high ceiling and lovely old-fashioned windows that open outwards.  Are these called dormer windows?  Although you can't see in these pictures because of the bright light, the top row of panes is tinted pink.  

The green coverlet came from Laura Ashley a few years ago and the quilt cover, which is difficult to see, is green and pink on a white background - light and fresh and pretty for our Australian spring.

I don't like a lot of clutter in a bedroom, nor do I like bedroom televisions or other technology.  There is so much stress in our lives these days that I think it is worth making bedrooms as peaceful and restful as possible.  Anything I bring into my bedroom has to earn its place.

Our dressing table and bedside tables belonged to my husband's grandparents who married in the 1930s and I think they date from that period.  The cover on the dressing table is a scarf that belonged to my grandmother.  The silver picture frame was given to us by some Melbourne friends at our farewell party and I still haven't put a picture of us in it yet!

You can find some bedroom pictures that I took just after we moved in here. 

Thank you for visiting.  I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Miss Ladybird

ladybird on one of my rosebushes

'Oh my!' said the Ladybird primly.  'What a heavenly taste!'  She looked up at James, and she smiled, and James smiled back at her.  They sat down on the deck together, both of them chewing away happily. 'You know, James,' the Ladybird said, 'up until this moment, I have never in my life tasted anything except those tiny little green flies that live on rosebushes.  They have a perfectly delightful flavour.  But this peach is even better.'

Roald Dahl, James and the Giant Peach

Popcorn: A Cheap and Delicious Snack

On a cold day, popcorn is the perfect afternoon snack. We cook ours the old-fashioned way, in a saucepan, which makes it a very economical snack too.  

Just heat a little oil and butter in a large saucepan and add a pinch of salt.  Put in one kernel of corn and when it starts to dance and sizzle add in the rest.  Half a cup of kernels will feed a crowd.  Put the lid on tight and shake the pan over the heat until the popping finishes.  Add extra salt if you like and serve.

I think popcorn is at its best this way: hot, salty, buttery and fresh.

How do you like your popcorn?

The Joy of Natural Light

One of the commenters on my last post noted how bright with natural light my family room is, and how she wished she had known more about natural light when she bought her first home.  I agree with her.  Having plenty of natural light really does make a difference, and we often only realise this when we are forced to live in a dark house.

Our last house was very, very dark.  There were few windows and the rooms were painted in dark colours.  Of particular note was the windowless, blood-red dining room.  While by candlelight that room could be atmospheric and dramatic, the rest of the time it was off-putting.  

Frustratingly, there was nothing I could do about the paint colours because we were renting.  However, one of the things I was looking for when we bought a home of our own again was natural light.  

Looking to buy in an old, established area with many 19th and early 20th century homes, good natural light was not a given.  Many of the old houses we inspected were very dark - a combination of a Victorian unwillingness to bring the outside in and a natural reaction to Adelaide's hot climate which led to wide eaves and wide, shady verandahs.

I am so happy that the house we eventually bought has plenty of windows, and many of those windows are large.  As you can see, our family room has huge windows which provide wonderful natural light.  Those windows extend right across the back of the house and mean that we don't need lights on in the daytime even in midwinter.  The pergola outside will hopefully provide some shade in summer whilst still letting light in.  The room faces south east, so gets morning sun (we're in the Southern Hemisphere so the north-western side is the hottest part of the house.)

Every time I enter this room I feel like smiling.  I'm sure it's the light brightening my mood.

Show Us Your Life: Living Rooms

Kelly over at Kelly's Korner is doing a series called "Show us Your Life Friday".  Well, it's Saturday here in Australia but I thought I'd join in anyway!

Our house is a traditional 1915 South Australian villa.  It has a formal sitting room at the front of the house and  there is a family room extension at the back. (You can see our formal sitting room here.)  Today I am featuring the family room as it is where we spend most of our time - largely because we haven't bought a sofa for the front room yet!

We are very fortunate that the previous owners of this house renovated it so beautifully, maintaining the high ceilings, cornices and double-brick structure.

One of the things I love about this room is the natural light.  The windows are huge - they go almost all the way up to the 12 foot ceiling.  The last house we lived in (a rental) was very dark so this is a vast improvement.

The room below forms part of a great room that includes our kitchen and a dining area.  There are still things that I want to do to the family room, but that will take time - we have only been living here since March.  The coffee table is wrong - a larger square one would look better - and a large area rug would also be an improvement.  At present the pictures are too high because we have used existing hooks, but I'll get some picture wire soon and lower them.

The cream bookcase has only been there since last weekend.  I found it during our district's hard rubbish collection and painted it.  It holds some of the very tall books that don't fit anywhere else.

I'm not rushing to buy anything for this house because I only want to buy things that I really love and want to keep for a long time - I would *love* this to be my forever home.

This ceiling rose is really lovely and was commissioned by the previous owner.  We think the leaves on it are either oak or fig leaves.

Well, that's it from me for today!  If you'd like to see more living room tours go and visit Kelly.

Have a great weekend!

Backyard Harvest: Coriander

 coriander flowers

I hope the weather warms up soon or I won't have anything to do my Friday "Backyard Harvest" posts on!  I am starting my spring and summer vegetable and flower seeds in egg cartons outdoors and they are germinating very slowly at present.  I have only lived in Adelaide for two years so I don't know if this cool spring weather is typical.  

The subject of this week's post is coriander.  In Australia coriander is usually grown as a cool season crop because in warmer weather it goes to seed too quickly.  I use fresh coriander leaves in all the usual ways: in curries and salsas, as a garnish and to make coriander pesto.

Some people think coriander smells disgusting, like squashed bugs, but I really like it.  Once the plants set seed I collect the seeds and use them in cooking and for next year's crop.

Teaching Children to Be Good Friends

blueberry flowers and nasturtiums

When I went to pick up my first-grader at school today he was hiding as usual with his two best buddies near the boys' toilets.    After I extracted my son from his (very stinky) hiding spot, I noticed that a new little boy from Pakistan was sitting all by himself, with no one to play with.  

Expecting his usual, sweet-natured compliance, I asked my son to go over to Abdullah and ask him to play.  To my shock, the response was, "No, I don't want to play with him.  He's stinky.  He doesn't play any good games, only boring ones like chasey."  Then he laughed with his friends, who repeated what he said.

I was appalled.  I couldn't believe my kind, loving, generous child could say such a thing.  Or be so thoughtlessly cruel, even if he was just being silly and showing off.  Fortunately, none of this was said within earshot of Abdullah.

Needless to say, I have talked to my son about how hard it is to be a new person and not have many friends.  And that I expect him to be kind and let Abdullah join in, in future.  I will also be speaking to their teacher tomorrow to see if the boys can do some activities together in class.  Hopefully I will have the opportunity to introduce myself to Abdullah's parents in the near future.
 

Have you ever dealt with an issue like this?  What did you do?  How do we teach young children to be sensitive to the needs of others?

Postscript: When I arrived at school yesterday my son ran over to say that he played chasey with Abdullah all through lunchtime and they're friends now.  I'll continue to keep an eye on this situation. 

Nasturtiums

I used not to like nasturtiums much because I thought they were too garish in their vivid oranges, reds and yellows.   However, now I like them.  A lot.

They quickly fill patches of bare earth between bigger plants, they cascade down rockeries, and they happily thrive in scorching sunshine.  Moreover, nasturtiums are very low maintenance, requiring little in the way of fertiliser and water.  The seeds are large and germinate quickly, which makes growing nasturtiums a great project for little people.

Even better, just about every part of a nasturtium is edible.  The leaves and flowers can go in salads, and the seed pods can be pickled like capers - or so I'm told, I haven't tried this.

Now that the nasturtiums I planted during winter are starting to flower, it feels like spring is really here!

Ugly Lemon

I think this is the ugliest lemon that I have ever seen.  It's ugly and lumpy and looks like it has dilated pores, like an unfortunate teenager recovering from acne.  Let's hope it's prettier on the inside!

It was the last lemon on our tree.  Admittedly, this winter's crop was a measly total of seven lemons.  The tree, which has looked sick ever since we moved here, is now covered in hundreds of tiny purple flower buds and a few baby purple leaves.  I am giving the poor tree as much TLC as I can, to get it back on its feet (I know that's a silly metaphor for a tree!).  Last week I fed it with blood and bone mixed with potash and I've been giving it regular doses of worm juice. 

And I've been encouraging the boys to, ahem, 'water' it themselves, if you know what I mean.

Backyard Harvest: Garlic Scapes

I think my favourite thing about garlic scapes is their name.  It is such a great name.  It always reminds me of Severus Snape from Harry Potter, although of course that's Snape, not Scape.

Garlic scapes are really just the greens that shoot up when you plant garlic cloves. The scapes taste strongly of garlic and can be used any time you would normally use garlic.  I have also used them in place of spring onions.

My little boy and I planted a row of garlic just outside my back door so, as my husband jokes, there will be no problems with vampires in this house!

My Favourite Time of the Week

Three p.m. on Thursday afternoons is my favourite time of the week.  I walk out of my office, pick up my son from school, then go home for three days with my family.  

On Thursday afternoons I wander around my garden thinking about what I want to do over the next few days.  Will I plant more seeds?  Will I thin the lettuce seedlings?  I also think about what I need to do around the house.  I start planning shopping lists and think about any organising that is needed.  And I face the mountains of laundry that have built up over the past four days.

My freedom seems to stretch out forever.

Gran's Folding Bed

When I was a little girl I used to sleep on Gran's old metal folding bed when I stayed at her house.  It had a lovely, musty, friendly smell.

When Gran came to stay at our house she was often given my room and I had the privilege of sleeping in the lounge room on our folding bed.  How lucky I thought I was to be able to sleep in the lounge room on the folding bed!

My grandmother gave me her folding bed just before she died and we have used it for many years.  It has survived many sleepovers and never seems to be the worse-for-wear.

We got the old bed out last week for a young house guest whose parents had to go away for a few days.

Just looking at it makes me happy.

Father's Day Weekend

We were thrilled this weekend to show our new home to family members for the first time.  My parents-in-law came to visit all the way from Oamaru in NewZealand.

It was a strange weekend, with torrential rain and falling trees on the one hand, and celebrations on the other as we shared our home with others and enjoyed a rare (for us) three generations Father's Day.

For a while on Saturday there were about fifteen in the house, as along with grandparents there were a couple of teenage gatherings, as some headed off to the Royal Adelaide show and others rehearsed for a school performance.  Needless to say, an enormous amount of food was consumed!

We also fitted in a spot of antiquing (my mother-in-law's favourite pastime), and this morning I attended the first Essential Edibles event in Adelaide.  The second photo in this post shows the back of my head.  With uncanny foresightedness, Lisa from Sustainable Communities SA picked the only sunny, non-wet or windy period the entire weekend for our gathering.  It was a wonderful time and I came home with lemongrass and rose seedlings, some mandarins and some lemons.

Happy Father's Day to all the Aussie Dads out there!

Backyard Harvest: Italian Parsley

Parsley is one of those wonderfully useful herbs that everyone should grow in their garden. Indeed, a garden is not necessary; parsley is easily grown in a pot on a sunny windowsill, on a balcony or in a courtyard.  

A friend once told me that parsley will either love you or hate you - and if it loves you (or your land) you won't be able to get rid of it; it'll keep self-seeding forever. 

I much prefer the flat Italian parsley to the curly variety, which seems to be used mostly for garnishes.  I use fresh parsley to lift pasta sauces in the cooler months when sweet basil is out of season, to make homemade stuffing for roast chicken, and to flavour simple dishes such as boiled new potatoes.  It works especially well in garlicky dishes.  In summer I use parsley to make taboulleh.

What did you make or grow this week?

First Day of Spring

Spring has returned.  The Earth is like a child that knows poems.  

Rainer Maria Rilke

Please don't be mad if I confess that the photo above is not a spring picture at all, but was taken last autumn.  There is not a rose in bloom to be found at present.

I am so ready for spring, for lush spring growth and blossom trees and baby peas and gentle sunshine.  For roses in bloom and fuzzy ducklings in the creek and the first local strawberries and golden wattle.

However, today was cold and grey and did not feel like spring at all.  It felt so wintry I spoiled the kids with popcorn and hot chocolate with whipped cream for afternoon tea.  Clearly, nobody told the weather that the season had changed!