Flowers in a Vase

Beautiful roses too hot to survive outside in the 40 degree heat, so bring them in where they can be admired and their divine perfume appreciated.

Lillies from a bouquet given by Ian's collegues, greens from our fernery and the roses Iceberg and Martine Guillot. A D.A. Mary Rose is peeping in from another vase.

Nectarine Tart

A previous post below showed our nice little crop of nectarines which 'somehow' became a tart.

Lemons

A small harvest of lemons provided an opportunity to take some photos of lemons.

Lemons and Gold Bunny roses

Lemons and Olives in a courtyard

Montalto Food on the Menu 10

The vineyards Montalto has a very good restaurant with one chefs hat from the Age Good Food Guide.

The following is some of the food we had.

Scallops on a bed of tomato Ratatoullie




















Smoked salmon surrounding a crab mouse, with baby peas and broad beans




















Duck with baby beets and a red wine jus



















Chocolate Molten lava with chocolate ice cream and summer fruits

Riccotta Soufle with Earl Grey Tea icecream

All totally delicious and the best service I've had for ages.

Oh and by the way Montalto Chardonnay is gorgeous.

Montalto

We had a visit to this beautiful vineyard on the Mornington Pennisular.

Beautiful location, sea views and an excellent restaurant.

They have a sculpture exhibition every year Feb to April and some of the exhibitions have remained

What's been on the Menu 9

A few of the meals we 've been having lately

Vegeburger with sweet Japanese soy sauce and Japanese Mayo...shown in the container.




















Salad with olives, cherry tomatoes, greens and fetta.
























Salmon with boiled potatoes and beans

Nectarines

There has been an abundance of nectarines growing on a little tree in the courtyard of the Hampton place.

Beautiful, blemish free fruit to make tarts, jam and just cold stewed fruit with a little sugar and a few cardamon pods.

Christmas Morning Surprise (Again)

As I mentioned in a previous post on 30th November .... last year at Christmas (2007) a family of four tawny frogmouth owls ( I know they aren’t really owls but poetic license please ) arrived for Christmas morning on a branch near the house and blow me down if two of them weren’t here again this Christmas morning.





I guess it’s got to do with temperature and possibly sun equinox etc… but it sure was strange to see them there again Christmas morning. Ian said they were "us"

A Pair of Tawny Frogmouths trying to look like tree branches but with an eye on me.

OWLS

Stay focused

Be ‘whoo’ you are

Trust in a wise friend

Live off the land

Glide through the dark times

Be observant

Life’s a Hoot (love this one)

***

Another Poem via a friend ..... thanks F

***

A Barred Owl by Richard Wilbur

The warping night-air having brought the boom

Of an owl's voice into her darkened room,

We tell the wakened child that all she heard

Was an odd question from a forest bird,

Asking of us, if rightly listened to,"Who cooks for you?"

and then "Who cooks for you?"

Words, which can make our terrors bravely clear,

Can also thus domesticate a fear,

And send a small child back to sleep at night

Not listening for the sound of stealthy flight

Or dreaming of some small thing in a claw

Borne up to some dark branch and eaten raw.

To Market

I love it when I have to go to the dentist, no not some sort of masochist, but it means I must travel to a suburb which has a great Market.


Footscray Market. The surrounding area has a great variety of ethnic residents, Vietnamese, Nigerians, Indians, Chinese, Ethiopians and the market reflects the different cuisine from these countries.










There I can buy filleted duck breast, duck maryland, any sort of pigeon, quail, pheasant. The variety of fish and shell fish is amazing and very fresh. Love the fish balls.






















All kinds of meats cut in different ways to inspire new recipes. ..



















and vegetables, well there are the tried and true plus varieties that I've never seen before. They had these unusual Asian greens which look like a cross between a coleus and a plectranthus (only kidding I really wouldn't eat those... promise) but at 80 cents for a huge bunch, I thought I'd try them. I asked the woman "Stir fry" ? she said "NO Soup"!!! You can see the Duck soup in the previous post.

What's been on the Menu 8

Just a few of the meals we've been having:-

Moroccan Lamb

Duck Soup...Steamy as opposed to out of focus

Duck Pancakes with Plum sauce and Hoisin sauce

Aussie Bar B Q Italian style with Tuscany sausages and a salad with.....

watermelon, olives, ricotta & prosciutto

The Sleeping Buffalo

Mt Buffalo near Myrtleford and Bright in north west Victoria was named by explorers William Hovel and Hamilton Hume in 1824 from it's supposed resemblance to a sleeping buffalo.

Ian and I explored this astonishing place over a short time taken in the area over the Christmas period. Upon reaching the upper plateau we were pleased to see that it flattens out and there is a lake.

In times past the Aboriginal people made summer ascents to this plateau to meet and gather the protein rich Bogong moths' that cluster in the rocks. How they ever travelled up the steep inclines with elders and children we will never know.

It was sad to see the Mt Buffalo Chalet built 1910 is now closed having fallen into disrepair.

I was delighted to see many alpine flowers blooming in the cool air with intense sunlight.

Alpine Daisy

Kathleen

R.I.P. Kate 29/12/2008 Wonderful lady of 3 Continents.
















Wreath: Bougainvillea for Burma, roses & sweet peas for England and kangeroo paw for Australia