skip to main |
skip to sidebar
So in between work, renovating, parenting, partnering, house keeping, and just generally living, I managed to squeeze in a trip to Sydney to catch up with some WONDERFUL and talented friends. Check out some of their work here...
We were planning to go to the incredible Greenhouse, but alas it was closed for a private function (booooo!!!) So instead, we dined at the surprising Berta... Wow. I say surprising, because it seems so un-Sydney... tucked away in a non-descript back alley - and I mean non-descript - I'd walked past this alley hundreds of times and never even thought to wander down into its dark, murky depths.
Nestled underneath a neat new building of apartments, this lovely little space looks out onto an urban view, complete with graffitti and chain wire fences. But somehow, that view is strangely comforting and exciting... simply because it's not the water.
And the food... whoa. Nibbles of olives and deliciously salty home-made grissini, and roasted almonds, fennel seeds and fava beans were scoffed while catching up on news. Saffron and prawn rissotto, which was eaten so quickly I didn't get to photograph it!! And what can be done with an iceberg lettuce blew my mind... Then there was the soft polenta with mushrooms... bestill my tastebuds! 
The empty risotto dish...
The soft polenta with mushrooms and iceberg lettuce salad... mmmmmmm
The experience was totally delightful, as meals with great friends often are, but the staff in front and behind the scenes helped make this dinner a memorable one. I'll definitely be back to Berta.
One not so great thing about moving is leaving our cherished garden, built up over the last eight years.
It's evolved from a plain block of grass with a few ornamentals, surrounded by lantana and bush, to a lush, flower filled and sometimes edible expression of who we are as gardeners.
We couldn't have done it without the help of some talented wildlife - bees, spiders, tadpoles, our chooks, ladybirds, lacewings, earthworms (oh how I love them)... the list goes on and on...
Some of the beautiful produce we've enjoyed from our small plot...
Potatoes: once grown with the no-dig method, once in the ground and once in tyres...
Mulberries: a favourite sweet treat while garden wandering
Nectarines: got to get these early before the fruit flies do!
And lastly our ever faithful grapefruit: this old girl just keeps on giving... and giving... and giving!
Thank you my lovely garden, I hope the next people who live here tend you with as much love as we have...
A new old bike for me, to go with our new old house! So this is my new little obsession... actually it's more a rediscovered one, as when I lived in Sydney in the 90s, I never drove my car. I only ever travelled by foot or bike, and it felt great.
I'd forgotten how great, until I picked up my layby on this little beauty and rode around my street. Fantastic.
As I was painting away this week, I was listening (as usual) to something on the ABC radio that I'd downloaded as a podcast. This week, it was By Design, and the episode I was listening to had two great interviewees - Mike Rubbo, a film maker and blogger, and Mikael Colville Andersen, the blogger behind Cycle Chic.
Having just checked out Mikael's blog, I'm now a certified afficionado... bookmark it, like NOW!
I'm inspired to try this at home... just need to get me some of them red booties!
And leg warmers... perfect for the impending Australian winter.
That basket has my name on it...
And one for the men-folk... a Danish Pedersen - whoa!
Classic builders' fare for lunch
Classic linoleum found under the festy carpet.
Classic linoleum version 2, found under more festy carpet. I think this may have been the original living room, because under the window, we found a concrete hearth.
And you remember those "classic" timber panelled arches, lined with "classic" faux brickwork?
Gone, baby, gone. Now, for that turquoise shagpile...
And how about that flesh pink coloured front room? Also GONE!! And good riddance!
While I was away visiting my family, I checked my facebook page, only to discover Mr Fixit had (single handedly) demolished the laundry... Today he discovered the joys of yellow tongue... How NEAT is that worksite?
As I write this tonight, Mr Fixit is back at the worksite, getting some more done before work tomorrow. He really is a classic!!
My family always used to poke fun at my dad's collection of "junk" that he would add to almost daily, collecting odd bits and pieces found in all sorts of strange places... walking to the bus stop, the caravan of an old film buff who lived at the back of a drive-in, dusty junk shops...
It's only now that I look back on his bower bird behaviour and see it as a worthwhile pursuit. One of his many hobbies was 16mm film. He made some really cool films, that he's transferred now to dvd. Some are of family holidays, and some are funny little stories he'd thought up and shot with some mates in the 1950s...
This is his 16mm film projector... Dad would set it up sometimes after dinner, and we would sit on the steps and watch ourselves prance and dash around the screen, the sound echoing around, laughing at ourselves and each other...
Some other choice pieces in his collection:
Mechano, c.1940,
WW2 aircraft cameras,
and some strange hybrid gadget made from a gramophone turntable and two gramdeck reel to reel tapedecks... I'm not exactly sure what it does, but it worked!
Renovating genius Mr Fixit has fitted some doors we scrounged (from a project I've been working on). Painting them almost felt like sacrilege... but I really think they look better painted, don't you?
More amazing repairs by Mr Fixit, in the form of rotten floorboard replacement. Is there no end to his fixiness??
Lucky we decided to paint those floors huh? We're at that point where big effect things like painting have kind of lost their impact... now it's time for all the little nitty gritty details that seem to take ages.
Posts
