The Chills
It's minus 2.2C here in Goulburn at present! Surely this warrants the Helm on Fire userpic, if not to give me some semblance of warmth. We've just driven back from Alex (the Potter's) place in Murrumbateman (between Yass and Canberra) and when we left we had to remove ice from the windscreen. Luckily we didn't have to resort to using a credit card outside the car. Windscreen washers and wipers worked, after a while, and we remained inside the car.
Lovely day to start with. Sunshine abungo and no wind for a change. Made for a pleasant drive to Alex's. Hung about shooting the breeze, nibbling on the lamb prosciutto and Wily Trout champagne we picked up from the Poacher's Pantry on the way. Well, all right, it's past his place but N hadn't been there before and I knew he'd enjoy it. Talk about a kid in a candy store! Raspberry Vinegar, Lavender and Rose Petal Jam, Orange Chocolate, a chunk of ham, the prosciutto and champers later, I finally managed to escort him from the premises :)
Anyway, we munched on Alex's home made Piragi (a Latvian delight he made for us at Festival), cheese, quince paste, bikkies, cherry port and just generally caught up with each other. It was great to see their quarter acre and what they've done with it. King Pigeons for eating, partridges (the pear tree is next door), chickens of several denominations and three muscovy ducks and lots of lovely edible plants. We were presented with a pot ful of Joster Berry sprigs that he's managed to strike from the parent plant, along with a striking of Pineapple Sage, a Japanese Pumpkin and another type I forget the name of.
We wandered down to the pub behind their block and ate our way through four huge platefuls of yummyness (Lamb Shanks, Atlantic Salmon etc) and then wandered back for a nice brew of coffee. Alex and I discussed the formalities of walnut processing as he's managed to harvest and pickle some from a tree a few blocks over and we have two huge trees on our block. Looks like I'll be able to get a nice brown dye for either using as an ink or for dyeing, as well as pickling and not to mention fresh walnuts whenever we want. To pickle them you need to harvest before the shell starts forming and the date is carved here to remind me - 15th December at the latest!
A lovely day and a freezing night but the gas is starting to warm us up again. Must get some more firewood. It's so much more fun than the gas heater which isn't pretty at all :-)
Lovely day to start with. Sunshine abungo and no wind for a change. Made for a pleasant drive to Alex's. Hung about shooting the breeze, nibbling on the lamb prosciutto and Wily Trout champagne we picked up from the Poacher's Pantry on the way. Well, all right, it's past his place but N hadn't been there before and I knew he'd enjoy it. Talk about a kid in a candy store! Raspberry Vinegar, Lavender and Rose Petal Jam, Orange Chocolate, a chunk of ham, the prosciutto and champers later, I finally managed to escort him from the premises :)
Anyway, we munched on Alex's home made Piragi (a Latvian delight he made for us at Festival), cheese, quince paste, bikkies, cherry port and just generally caught up with each other. It was great to see their quarter acre and what they've done with it. King Pigeons for eating, partridges (the pear tree is next door), chickens of several denominations and three muscovy ducks and lots of lovely edible plants. We were presented with a pot ful of Joster Berry sprigs that he's managed to strike from the parent plant, along with a striking of Pineapple Sage, a Japanese Pumpkin and another type I forget the name of.
We wandered down to the pub behind their block and ate our way through four huge platefuls of yummyness (Lamb Shanks, Atlantic Salmon etc) and then wandered back for a nice brew of coffee. Alex and I discussed the formalities of walnut processing as he's managed to harvest and pickle some from a tree a few blocks over and we have two huge trees on our block. Looks like I'll be able to get a nice brown dye for either using as an ink or for dyeing, as well as pickling and not to mention fresh walnuts whenever we want. To pickle them you need to harvest before the shell starts forming and the date is carved here to remind me - 15th December at the latest!
A lovely day and a freezing night but the gas is starting to warm us up again. Must get some more firewood. It's so much more fun than the gas heater which isn't pretty at all :-)