Happiness is...

Finding roadside horse poo for the garden on an unexpected detour in the country one Monday afternoon...

Seeing free-range eggs for sale next door to the distillery down the road that not only makes a terrific gin, but a coffee liqueur so good Graeme has been having it for breakfast...

Making friends with the people who make the best coffee in town and discovering it's their coffee in that liqueur...

Watching the garden grow before my eyes. Feasting on falafel and kofta spiked with our very own coriander and parsley... mint and lemon in the salad... flowering thyme to go on the sumac flatbreads...

Hearing Luca say to Graeme yesterday: can we go and live in a forest? Mummy won't mind living in a forest. She likes trees. Trees relax Mummy.

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I'm thinking I might change the name of this blog. I think it's time. Something snazzier.

Graeme has come up with something for me. The Fork 'n' Blog.

He's a funny man my husband.





September giveaway: Australia Walkabout Park

While my brother was visiting, we spent half a day at the Australia Walkabout Wildlife Park. This is the place to see Australia's wildlife. Reptiles, koalas, flying foxes and dingoes are all here. But we come for the indigenous marsupials who roam. Free-ranging kangaroos, wallaroos (not quite a wallaby, not quite a kangaroo), wallabies and pademelons in a peaceful bush sanctuary.

We arrived just in time to watch all the kangaroos and emus gather for their 10am feed.

Luca was three and Kian a few months old when we visited last. It was a different experience this time round with a toddler who charges everything in sight.

What I remember from our first visit were the incredibly tame kangaroos – I was amazed at how comfortable they were with children running around. They lie about while you pat them and snuggle up to them, and when they've had enough, they just jump away.

What I don't remember is their cheek. One madly rummages through the picnic bags in the buggy and steals an apple, while another buries its head in my lap looking for the last cream cheese sandwich. I try and guide it away but I am too busy laughing.

Meanwhile, an emu chases Luca and his lunch around the picnic table. Kian just watches in his own way.

We think we have it all under control and turn our backs for a second, and there are kangaroos all over the buggy. Heads buried in the bags. Graeme has to literally pull them away. Very gently, of course.

So, naturally, we give up and pack up our food.

After a long walk along bush tracks and ancient Aboriginal sites, Luca gets a lesson in throwing a boomerang. The boomerang-throwing workshop is held every day at 12pm.

The lovely people at the park have given me a family ticket worth $60 to give away to one of my readers who'd like to experience kangaroos in their element and emus peering over your shoulder as you picnic.

Look at that beautiful face... All you have to do is leave me a comment and be a follower (the grey 'follow' button up there on the right). Did you know I have a Facebook page by the way? You could earn yourself an extra entry by joining me there too. Just leave me an additional comment to say you have. I'll pick the winner a week from today.

Oh, look at that, the boys are wearing stripes again. The same stripes. At least you know I don't plan my children's wardrobe...

Update: giveaway now closed. Congratulations Anna!





Food styling minus the food

Remember my mentioning a while back about the food styling and photography course? It was today.

I went to bed last night like a kid on Christmas Eve. The alarm was set to go off at 5.45am at which point I was going to leap out of bed, shower and dress, grab my camera and catch the train to Sydney.

I was going to arrive on time, shake hands with interesting people, swap stories and learn from an expert. I imagined beautiful ingredients, an array of props and the sound of everyone's camera click-clicking away.

The hours would fly by and I would be dancing around silly with someone watching over my shoulder suggesting ways to improve my exposure, pointing out the shadows dancing on the food and helping me compose the shot in such a way that a little light bounces off here and there.

I was to come back inspired, giddy with ideas for shooting the next lot of recipes I'm working on for a magazine, with lots of images to show you.

I'd feel like I had a great day out. Worth every penny. Worth the time away from my husband and children.

You know what's coming, don't you?

The alarm did go off, I did leap into the shower and I enjoyed a peaceful journey into the city. Oh, I did arrive on time and there was some shaking of hands.

The rest was very different.

I was conned. And so were the other five people there. Someone out to make a fast buck and stroke his own ego in the process.

I realised today that most of us are trying to make a worthy living out of something we love doing. Maybe from home, from a studio or from the shed out the back. That's what I did for years in the UK and what I'm trying to do here.

It is honourable thing to do. What isn't honourable is when you take someone's money and offer very little in return, which then sullies the integrity of everyone else's work. But I won't let it. 

I only took a handful of pictures. This was one of them. A food photography course, and my best shot has no food in it.

I did, however, get an awesome welcome from my three boys when I got back. And we do have some giddiness resulting from one or two glasses of red...

How do you handle disappointment? Does writing it down help you too? Wine?





If we hadn't come to Australia...

My sister and brother have left. It's just the four of us again. And Sydney, of course.

That's the downside of anyone coming to visit. It's the goodbyes. They're crushing. Here one minute, gone the next. With no idea when the next time will be.

Usually the next few days are slow and rather joyless.

But I prepared myself for this one beforehand. I'm reframing it (a word my brother taught me this week).

Instead of mourning a time when my family lived down the road, I'm focusing on what we would have missed out on had we not moved to this beautiful land.

In no particular order then:

Play School. Many a meal wouldn't have made it to the table if the clever ABC4 people hadn't scheduled this for 4.30pm. The likes of Justine and Jay singing Let's play together on the guitar and harmonica with Peter on piano has us all dancing around the sofa. If it's the right mix of presenters, I'll rush the cooking so I can join in with the catchy tunes. Many months on and we still sing If all the world were paper. They hardly watch any TV, but we do love this. Play School, you have made afternoons at home much sweeter.

Catching our own fish. Graeme is in his element freediving in these oceans. The fact he comes home with red morwong, luderick, trevally (and sometimes bream) is the icing on the cake. Lots of tender abalone lately and Australian salmon for the first time.

A proper food garden. Wanting desperately to grow leafy greens and herbs led me to Nicola Chatham. Not only am I actually doing it, but I enjoy it. I never thought gardening would have the effect it does on me. I retreat there and just while away whatever time I have.

The chance to make school wait. This is a big one. I'm so glad we can put school off for another year.

Swimming with dolphins. Last week, Graeme got off his friend's boat to play chase with a pod of dolphins. He said it was magic. I'm hoping I can go next time.

Garage sales. Oh, I do love them.

Family daycare. A life-saver for us without any family to fall back on. Not sure what I would have done without that time to myself each week.

Glorious winters. Especially down the beach. No need for icky sunscreen. Just warm, long sleeves and a hat to shield our eyes. Even better if we've got music in the background.

A local food co-op. This week I bought something else other than fruit and veg. A jar of pure, unheated, pesticide-and-chemical-free bush honey. The best bit is it comes from less than two hours away.

There's more I'm sure, but there's washing to hang out and dinner to make.

What do you love about where you live? Do you love Play School too? 





Auntie Jennifer

She calls them poppet. She calls to Kian to fetch a book or two and reads to him on the sofa. Luca joins them and they sit there all huddled together, pointing, reading and discussing, while I make a Morrocan tagine. Calmly in the kitchen. Oh, the bliss.

She helps Luca as he sounds new words and puts pencil to paper. She bounces Kian on her lap, plays this little piggy again and again, then knows just how to pat him to sleep when he can't quite manage to nod off.

Even though she hasn't seen them for nine months, she knows.

She knows it all. Thank you sis.





Stripes

I didn't know it, but I'm quite fond of stripes. My mum buys most of the boys' clothes and luckily we share the same taste. Classic stripes, French blues and a softness that I find missing in a lot of children's clothes.

I like breaking the rules, and I often pair stripes with stripes. What I also do a lot is step out of the house and realise when we've walked into preschool or something that all three of us are dressed in stripes. Again.

Oh, it's the stripe brigade. 

Just like when we've all stepped out in brown. Or in red. I often wonder if, subconsciously, I wake up feeling a certain colour and pick the same for the boys' clothes. 

Except that Luca picks out his own clothes nowadays.

And on this fine sunny day, he picked out blue-and-white stripey shorts to go with his new blue-and-white stripey cardigan flown all the way from Grandma's house in Uncle Matthew's suitcase.

I could stare at that last picture for hours. All those blues and greens. And those stripes.




A big surprise

I thought my brother was leaving today. He was laying about with the flu for the first week, so it's felt like a very short visit. We had such a lovely couple of days this week driving around the area, stopping for lunch in one place and coffee in another. Just the two of us. A highlight was watching him one evening teach Luca how to play noughts and crosses, only to have Luca make up a completely new noughts and crosses game where they each get to win every time. Uncle Matthew has to win, too.

Yesterday morning, Graeme left us at home and took Luca out. I suspected nothing. Half an hour later, he brings in a birthday card from my sister. Must have got stuck in the post, I thought.

Inside it read: I had the presence of mind to bring presence of mine.

She's got presence and presents mixed up. 

Has she?

Yes look, she means presents e-n-t-s but she's written presence e-n-c-e. She's written it wrong. 

Has she?

I stopped. Graeme was half grinning and rushed downstairs.

No way. No way. I kept saying.

And there she was. My sister hiding in the car with Luca. All the way from Perth to spend a few days so we could all be together. The other surprise was that my brother is staying till Wednesday.

The three of us haven't been together for over three years.

Luca was beyond excited. Auntie Jennifer is another great playmate. Within minutes, they were playing another made-up game of Luca's. It took Kian a few minutes, but he knew this was someone special just like when Uncle Matthew arrived. It wasn't long before he was giving out more of his cuddles.

I don't think I've ever been this surprised. And I thought I didn't like surprises.