Rummage

I find myself the custodian of a substantial collection of old fashioned roses in our new house. Most of these, (avert your eyes now, all rose lovers), have been earmarked for disposal. I don't relish the thought of doing this but thorns and small children are not a match made in heaven.

I took to them with loppers and a pair of secateurs not long after we moved in as a precurser to The Big Cull. Of course, when we returned from overseas I was greeted by the waxy luxuriant growth of rosebushes in their prime with buds poised for extravagant display. Extravagance being the key word here, the rose below is somewhere between a large side plate and a dinner plate in size and suffused with shades of magenta, crimson and lolly pink. I am trying to ignore it's magnificence. I cast brief, sidelong glances at it as I pass.

"Keep me, keep me!", I hear in rosy tones. Or was it the wind?

Damn! I am in torment.

Maybe I could act the proper gardener and take cuttings to grow them elsewhere, away from the small people. I could purchase some old world climbers with magnificent fragrance - I see them now tumbling over a wicker arbor. But what of my plans for a dry, water-wise garden - olive trees, succulents, Australian natives?

It's just that I'm coming round to the idea of roses - I like my pretty mixed up with a bit of thorn.

Look, I've even made a rose for my gardening hat.

I think they're staying.
x

I'm suffering from some general camera lethargy. What better way to get one's eye in shape then to dedicate a week to prettiness or my version of pretty. These images were shot this morning in the National Botanic Gardens - DON'T come to Canberra without visiting.
PS Allsun Farm is open for the first Open Garden Organic festival this weekend!
x
 

 

Thanks for all the good wishes about the shop shenanigans. Don't worry, I'm not going to rattle on about it ad infinitum. Just every now and then if that's ok with you. For those who asked, 'Am Stram Gram' is a nonsense rhyme, the equivalent of which would be 'eeni meeni mini mo' in English. You can hear the small people and the Frenchman performing it if you click on the soundtrack button on the right. You might also hear a shrieking banshee as well, I have no idea who that was. There's going to be more handmade stuff in the shop when I am able to find the exact location of my sewing machine in the craft room. Also, I'm still having a few dramas with the shipping stuff - for some reason it is presenting in US dollars when it should be in Aus. dollars - I'm just refunding any difference in costs to work around it at the moment.

Did you notice the nest? We were pruning a rather dishevelled magnolia when the Frenchman discovered this on the ground. We are almost sure that it's an old one. Or at least we are telling ourselves that. Isn't it magnificent?

Also, (more horn blowing), I was thrilled to get the latest Mixtape, from those clever Melbourne girls, Justine and Nichola. It is definitely going from strength to strength and I was gobsmacked to be asked to write their 'crafty lady' section for this edition. There are some people in this lovely, handyholdy, craft blogging world who are gold and Justine has always been a great blog friend to me. Thanks, darlin'.

So how about you? Is it well with you?
Hope so!
x

Pique et pique et colegram
Bourre et bourre et ratatam
Am stram gram
The shop's open and there's a little soundtrack too, (look over to the right).
No pressure or nuthin..
xx

Setting up a wee shop is harder than it looks. I salute all you clever gels out there who have one. I've just been trying to sort out postage info and I got so confused I had to retire to a darkened room with a wet flannel over my ankles. So contrary to my overly-optimistic posturing about opening the shop yesterday, it didn't happen and I think it's going to be a few days before things are running smoothly. Also I have a few parcels going out to some lovely bloggers who have waited patiently - hope you like them!
 
I hope you have a brilliant weekend and get up to heaps of mischief.
PS. the photos show some of the things going in the shop. I've got a few handymadey things too.
x

What an excellent phrase. And I'm not going to even try and connect it to this post which is a bit all over the show, random bits of fluff - you know the drill. Here are some thoughts:

I think these wee dollies were made to represent the emotional states of a toddler over a two minute period;
I am opening an online shop tomorrow;
I am looking forward to watching 'Lemon Tree', 'W', and 'Man on Wire';
I have been to one of those fancyschmancy cinemas where you sip champagne and recline your chair;
I felt like a class traitor but I bloody loved it;
I am now a bona fide member of the Hoi Palloi (did ya see it coming?);
I am pleased you liked the potato dish;
I love the voice of Gurrumul Yunupingu - you can listen to him here
I like the fact that you come here and read stuff
x

I've got a Sunday-night-lordy-what-the-hell-am-i-going-to-cook recipe for you.
Here's what you do:

Take an assortment of potatoes medium to smallish, enough to feed the starving hordes, give them a wee rinse and pat them dry. Next pop them in a covered microwave dish for about 12ish minutes or whatever your microwave tells you is a suitable time for jacket potatoes. Turn on the oven and ramp the temperature up to the highest possible. After the microwave has finished take the potatoes out and give them a bit of a poke, if they're softish you're on the money. Put them on a lined baking tray and, (here's the fun bit), smash them down with your potato masher - don't obliterate them, we're aiming for a kind of perky flatness. Splash about some olive oil and season with salt and pepper. If you're feeling flash you could throw in a bit of thyme but it is Sunday night afterall. Pop these babies in the oven for 15/20 minutes. Now slice up bits of tomato, avocado, carrots, lettuce, whatever hasn't begun to mildew in the bottom of the fridge, arrange these on plates. When the potatoes are done ie. crispy/crunchy looking, pop a couple on each plate. If you were me, at this stage you would add the pièce de résistance in the form of a couple of dollops of blue cheese right in the middle of each potato. Heaven.

Enjoy!xx

Taking a break from Japan briefly to show you a skirt/top/dress affair that I just finished for a beloved seven-year-old. Indulge me here, frills are not my area of expertise.

Hope you're having a really lovely day! x

Here is my tip for families with young children visiting the centre of Tokyo: get to know your local depachika. We fell upon this idea after the Soy Sauce Bottle Incident, (I don't think I need say any more on this), when I recalled Suzy's sage advice. She had mentioned these extraordinary food halls in the bowels of department stores as being worthy of a visit and she wasn't wrong.

Depending on which department store you visit, Depachika can be spread over a number of levels with some of the highest quality and most dizzying array of food products I have ever seen. There is a wonderous array of traditional Japanese fare  but being the great imitators that they are, there are foods from almost any culture you could wish for with some of the biggest food names in the world represented. Looking for some Iberico ham? Or how about some mariage freres tea? It's ALL there and more. We ate better croissant from the Mitsukoshi depachika than we had travelling the length and breadth of France. Sad, but true.

For me, the beauty of the depachika  was that it allowed us to experiment freely with a lot of small morsels of interesting food that we had never eaten before. We selected what we wanted, paid and then made our way to one of the many beautiful oases of parklands around the centre of Tokyo to consume our delightful picnic. The small people loved it because they had the freedom to run around, spill and squeal with gay abandon and the adults loved it because it still had that edge of luxe to it without the ever present fear of the soy sauce bottle.

I can't write about Tokyo before first telling you about the hotel we had the good fortune to stay in.

Yoshimizu is a traditional inn in the ryokan style. The rooms are exquisitely simple, tatami matting and shoji screens with futon mattresses that are secreted away during the day. There are cushions and low tables for relaxing and a permanent supply of green tea in each room. The hotel was designed to be, as much as possible, free of any chemicals down to the organic cotton linens and the meals made from organic produce. It is an absolute haven in the midst of Ginza, one of the busiest and most monied shopping districts in Tokyo.

Our intention in booking this hotel was to give the small people a taste of a traditional Japanese lifestyle but we got so much more out of it as well. The staff of the hotel are some of the most gorgeous people I've ever met, they were incredibly helpful with the day to day business of being a tourist but it was their warmth and humour that really captured us. To say this place is child-friendly is an understatement, they adore kids in spite of the fragile nature of the shoji screens (I can't believe we  avoided the whirling dervish busting through one). There is absolutely no preciousness despite the enlightened surroundings which is a panacea for a stressed-out parent such as myself. AND, there is a glorious cedar and stone bath on the top floor where one can go, lock the door and forget all about parenting for a little while.

This place was a bit of a splurge for us but not gobsmackingly so. No vital organs were mortgaged in order to stay here and it is spectacularly central. My only word of warning would be if you are particularly partial to a soft mattress - I reached a new and deeply intimate relationship with my hip bones! Definitely worth it though.

PS this is a picture of the breakfast I had every morning. Unusual but delicious.