house of two halves

We've been working on he outside,just what w can afford, so lots of our own blood sweat and tears, a bit of help from Struan's father and a tiny bit for a builder-man to do. The brick work is just cladding and underneath we discovered weatherboards, mostly in good nick, just some splits from where they nailed in the supports for the cladding and a few rotten boards. We are working on the bits, the kids have started off for us, trying to be helpful they said, ha!  

 

 These pictures are a "during" moment, obviously "before" is the brick cladding, and "after" will be due for 'reveal "  soon.

And the jungle I call my "kitchen garden".  Anyone got ideas for vegetable(stink) bugs? Someone said water stress, and true its been hot and i've been distracted with house stuff, but I don't think they'll go away now just because i'm watering more?

holidays

 We've been doing some more work around the place; taking out the carpet and painting the hallway and sealing the floor etc, ( not to  mention the work happening outside ; we've taken off some of the fake brick cladding to restore the weatherboards... that will take a while...). I did most of the work inside but I've been taking the kids to  the local park to get out of Struan's way while he works outside. In the park we've been: playing pooh sticks, Building fairyhouses, a tiny

bit of knitting and swinging, and picnicking. what have you been up to?

garlic pickle

Here's a recipe for garlic pickle that I made recently to use up last years garlic as I recently harvested this years. But before that I want to say WHEW my kids all came home this morning. For their first nights away from home we sure picked the wrong one! The area Anoushka was in was subjected to heavy rain and massive electrical storm that lasted for ages and we didn't sleep as our area was battered by extreme winds and heavy rain, while hoping that they were all alright in their tin hut. It snowed a wee bit higher than they were too, so they were all cold! Right, now to garlic pickle:

 1 cup peeled garlic cloves
1/4 cup lemon juice
2Tbsp coriander seeds
2Tbsp fenugreek seeds
1Tbsp cumin seeds
3Tbsp chilli powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp tumeric
1/2 cup mustard oil

dry roast and grind the seeds. heat oil in a pan and saute  for a while. add ground seeds to oil and garlic and fr for a bit longer. Add other ingredients and cook until it thickens slightly the bottle in sterilised jars.

 I tripled the recipe and didn't put as much chilli in as  the recipe says because the kids like it less spicy. A word of warning though, it took me three hours to  peel the garlic!

and a happy new year....

 ...so on December 6 there was a storm and we got struck by lightening and lost our phone line and then our internet connection.... it took three weeks of to and fro-ing to be reconnected and here I am! It was quite nice to have a christmas completely cut off from any kind of 'keeping up with the Joneses' and just quiet crafts and friends etc
 Its also nice to be reinspired by blogland and  able to be in touch with family overseas.

Our kids aer growing up, well some of them anyway... All this time the older three have shared a queen bed ( after moving out of ours), but with the heat  this summer  and their growing length its been keeping them awake... They aren't quite ready for own rooms but we came up with these instead!
 We modeled them on  plans available here
 But ended up changing almost everything except the direction they are facing!

We got three old wooden bed bases and heads and foot boards and mattresses for 70 dollars and bolts etc cost about 50. We cut the beds down a bit so A wasn't sleeping in the stars too much, and they are anchored into the studs and on the floor and eah other. They love them! They also now have shelves courtesy of googling 'pallets!'

NOt bad for some technically challenged parents!

A is up the mountain at Flora Hut tonight with her grandparents on her first ever sleepover/overnight tramp and Tobin is staying with his nannie for the first time ever too! See what I mean by growing up!? Maaike unfortunately had a  fever yesterday so is having a nice day with us instead ( poor girl). I have more to show but that will have to wait for uanother day.

I have just found India Flint and am completely inspired!