A new toy has arrived!

Winter is nearly here and I'm really looking forward to our second Arctic winter. I thought I would hate it last year but I just loved it! All the mist, the snow, the crisp sunny days, the cold hard rain, it was all unlike anything I'd ever experienced so I loved it, and this year I can't wait to do it all over again. 

Recently we purchased a new toy for the kitchen. We hosted a thermomix demo for a friend who was training to become a saleswoman, and ended up buying one. It arrived last week and since then I've done a lot of cooking and been totally amazed at just how versatile they are. 

So far we've made a few curries, lemon meringue pie, playdoh (which I dyed with beetroot and tumeric) walnut bread, dips, porridge, custard, soup, curry pastes, sorbet, and other miscellaneous things as well. 

Today I made the lemon meringue pie and I was blown away at how easy it was, and how fast it was done, not to mention how perfectly it all turned out. I normally avoid making anything with pastry but having made this pastry today I can see I'll be making a lot more pies and pastries! 

Here's the playdoh

Winter is sweet in Antarctica

Click here to read about snow hunting

We're two thirds of the way through winter now, and by all accounts it was a pretty harsh winter in spots, but now it's turned quite warm. This evening it's hardly cold outside. We had a few weeks where it just rained non stop, the yard turned into a swamp, but it's dried out pretty well now.

Our side garden beds are nearly ready to have things planted in them, so over the next couple of days I plan on getting some seeds planted in seedling starter pots. We've planted a cherry tree, a plum tree, and a nectarine tree out the back and a sundowner apple out the front, and this coming week we're adding a pink lady apple to our orchard. 

We're also in the process of choosing some paint to painting inside the house. We have a whole selection of greens to choose from, and our aim is to select one that matches the greenery outside the window so that we're really extending the out door space to inside. 

The chooks had a few weeks off laying but are now laying up a storm! We gave 6 eggs away yesterday and still had enough for Spikee to eat four last night (yes you read that right, 2 were bantam eggs) and eggs benedict this morning.  

So in summary, all is well in Antarctica!

 The elected spokeswoman demanding food

 The fence A built

Where the outdoor veggie garden will be

What's white and fluffy?

SNOW!!! 

The hill with snow icing on top, taken from our front doorstep by Stylish

Mount Wellington, taken from the Tasman bridge while we drove over it.

The day before Spikee's birthday we went to get last minute party supplies and when we drove through Longley there was snow beside the road so we pulled over and threw it at each other. Stylish had decided to stay home that day so she missed out, but she noticed snow on the hill so she took pics of it for us. Spikee thought snow was excellent! 

Today we're more or less stuck in the town because the rain has caused the Huon River to burst its' banks and the roads are flooded, and who wants to drive on the icy roads anyway! Luckily we're well supplied. The weather has been crazy, much more extreme that locals can remember it being for about 20 years. We had several black outs the other night, one on Spikee's birthday night when we were without power (thank heavens for the wood heater!) for a couple of hours. We played snakes and ladders by candle light. It was actually nice being all snug and warm and just being a family with no technology however we didn't complain when it all came back on. 

Cooling down

The weather has been cooling down rather fast, and this morning we had our first serious frost. The fire is keeping us lovely and toasty warm of an evening and my new slippers are a very welcome addition to my slothful wardrobe.

Some of our recently planted seeds are sprouting up in their planter pots, keeping warm in the hothouse. The tomatoes are still giving us plenty of juicy harvest and when the weather gets too seriously cold for them to keep ripening we're going to make green tomato pickles with them. Spikee is very keen to help pick the green tomatoes. He'll be less keen to eat them if history can offer us any clues.

Vinnie and Ra seem to be embroiled in an ongoing war for top cat. Ra is winning by virtue of his sharper claws and nasty disposition. Angus has been driving Ra mad pulling his fur out and trying to get into his bowl when he's eating, but sometimes Vinnie and Ra have quite long standoffs near the cat bowl where Ra decided he's finished eating but won't let Vinnie finish off the scraps. it's almost as if Ra likes flirting with the dog. The dog is very keen to befriend him, and often rolls around in a submissive way trying to get Ra to acquiesce, and sometimes Ra will actually chase the dog around playfully.

Autumn is upon us

You can feel a definite chill in the air now, but for the last few days the weather has been beautiful in the afternoons. Last night before bed I let Vinnie out to pee and I could hardly see the front fenc through the mist. I love mist! I never knew how much I loved it til it was a regular part of my life. It was cooooold out there standing in it, but I think I'm going to enjoy winter with the fire, and weather watching on the hill.


We've been taking Vinnie out as much as we can, knowing that soon it'll be dark and rainy and too cold to enjoy the out doors as much as we have been over the Summer months. He's improved so much with his training. It's a beautiful sight to see him running freely at the park, he runs so fast, you can really see the cattle dog in him when he's running.

We went for a walk over the Easter long weekend and discovered a new park near the bowling club. The river goes through it and it's beautiful, open and sunny. We've spent every day over there since then, with Vinnie running wild and the kids skipping stones on the river. Today they banked lots of them up in the current to see how the water changed course. There are lots of toadstools there and they look so pretty, Spikee thinks that faeries live in them, and was very upset to see one that had been deliberately smashed. 

We had a wonderful Easter weekend, we made a big pink marshmallow rabbit and a berry jelly one, too. And we enjoyed lots of other tasty treats like home made hot angry buns and, melting moments with mandarin icing. The family were planning on coming down but they ended up canceling, but they're coming over next weekend instead and everyone is really looking forward to it. We also celebrated Mabon, just to completely confuse things! We went walking and collected a basket of beautiful coloured leaves, red, yellow, brown, faded green, and sticks and some rocks, which we had in a basket on the coffee table. We're going to tie the sticks in a bundle and put them in the fire to welcome the Dark Mother, next weekend, and the kids are going to read Mabon poems.

hot x buns

where the faeries live

the dog, enjoying the park

pink rabbit with crazy son!

latest harvest

pink rabbit with jelly rabbit

kids at the river

What's happening in Antarctica

The front of the house is ready to paint, it's been sanded and had a white undercoat and puttied and sanded some more, so now we just need a few fine days in a row so we can dash out there with some paint and some brushes.

We've started killing off the grass out the side in preparation for starting our garden bed out there, we're using a salt thing that washes away after a good rain. We're also getting lots of lovely plump, dark green zucchinis and broad beans and gorgeous tomatoes out of the hot house.

There is a definite chill in the air, I can feel winter is on the way. We've been glad of the fire in the evenings. We took out thermometre outside and read it the other night, it was 9 just before the kids dropped it and it smashed, but I think it would have gone lower. Every time I'm in the yard at night I'm struck by how many stars there are and how much I love the night sky. In Sydney you couldn't see the stars, but here you can see lots of them and they're so beautiful *happy sigh*. I'm looking forward to winter in a way, I love it when it's misty, it makes me feel like I'm in a celtic fantasy. Looking out the window and watching the weather changing on the hill is my new favourite hobby!