Los campesinos desayuno (Peasant's Breakfast)

Last May I was knee deep in house renovations. It was cold lonely work. So a wedding job in Dunkeld was a welcome respite for my plaster and paint covered hands. The clients I photographed that day have turned into great friends who I stay with for every wedding job I have in 'Dunkers'. And to make things even more interesting Conchi and Clinton (pronounced Clint-tone) share a passion for great food and wine. Conchi like myself has a Spanish background and it seems she has the innate ability to cook amazingly delish food with what ever she has in the stores. Conchi's Saturday peasant style meal was a late night supper to comfort the most restless of souls. I was so impressed with her side dish of chickpeas with tomato and herbs, and all my ooo's and aaarrr's convinced Conch to give me the left overs for my morning Kombi breakfast. What a darling!

Since then I've made two versions, one with Borlotti beans and one with Chickpeas, both incarnations are equally delish. It's a simple rustic dish, with as much garlic as you desire, whatever fresh herbs you like (Rosemary, Parsley, Oregano or Thyme), some Spinach, Borlotti Beans or Chickpeas and a tin of diced tomatoes. Heat olive oil in the pan, then add chopped garlic (I use 4 big cloves), then in with the beans and tomato. Simmer and then add you herbs and pepper to taste. Best served on crusty toasted bread, I used 2 day old Sourdough left overs......so yummy and crunchy when toasted.

It's the best winter comfort food, breakfast, lunch or dinner.

So thanks to my Spanish friend Conchi!

Ro

I love these kids!

The view from the Kombi looking north to Mt Sturgeon. A photo taken with an iPhone does it no justice.

Every time I stay at Conchi's she is miffed by my determination to stay in the Kombi. But waking up to a view like this is just perfect. Although it wasn't warm.

Farewell thaw

Lots has been going on here, and I am happy to say that very soon we will have less on and more time for relaxation. We have made a big decision here, and decided to stop making Thaw.  This will mean more time for the more important things. And even though we are sad to see the end of thaw (although it may not be the end, if we manage to sell it) we are very happy with our decision, and ever since making the decision we've felt really excited at the idea of having all that time to do other things.  Basically, family is the priority.

So, when we had a small party for Thaw contributors this weekend, to say thanks for all their hard work, it was perfect timing for a farewell drink as well.  We had a ball with so many of our thaw friends under the same roof for the night, and the merriment lasted well into the night and the next morning.  

It has also been a big week for Helena who had her first transition day for school next year - (oh my, I can't believe she will be at school soon!) - and had a ball meeting and playing with other kids who will be preppies with her next year.

On the crochet front, I have about a million new projects, but none of them finished, so I will take some pics soon to post.

Ro and I are looking forward to putting this issue to bed this weekend, and settling into a more organised and fun household. I have already thought of many little household jobs that I will now have time for! Yay. (And that was serious people, not even sarcastic.)

Kim x

A few of our favourite Thaw gals!

Marce and Steph at our little soiree.

Sophie and Teags

The awesome school Laney will be going to next year.

Tia enjoyed the games, too.

This is what my cosy little crochet corner used to look like, but I have been getting excited....

and you can no longer see my basket.

My weekend

I know it's been a while since the weekend, and I am about to start a new one, but I have to comment on my mothers day even though Ro has already covered it with his beautiful pictures.

I had a gorgeous weekend. Ercildoune was a wonderful way to spend the mothers day, but prior to that I got to spend a lovely day with my Mum and Sister at the Stitches and Craft show. I had so much fun, got very inspired, and really loved spending the day with my awesome mum and sister. It was a day full of laughs, love and craft, what more could I ask for?

Then I got to spend the night hanging out with one of my oldest friends - we've been friends since we were 15. I loved hanging out, and felt like there just wasn't enough time in the night to have all the conversations we wanted. We gave it a red-hot go though. I don't think either of us paused for breath the whole night. I have to admit I was a little hungover the next day too. But I needed the wine for lubrication of my vocal cords!

Don't you just love spending time with great friends.

Kim x

A cute present from Ro for our anniversary.

The apron I made for Mum - bit dodgy, but made with love.

Laney and I made her Nan's a pasta necklace. This is the dying process

This is the receiving part

My beautiful photo's are framed and hanging on the wall

My favourite part of Mothers Day... hanging out with our girls on the grass in the Autumn sunshine.

Backyard Produce swap

I have a few fresh jars of my home made Zucchini Relish......grown in my backyard and now turned into a delish relish perfect on cooked meat, in toasted sandwiches or my favorite, on beagle with roast lamb and melted cheese.

If you have some produce you'd like to swap just contact me and we can work out a fair swap. What I'm after is backyard produce, eggs, veggies or jams for winter, which I have bugger ll left.

Also if anyone wants to swap for some fresh Rhubarb I have a batch ready. Let me know if your keen and I'll cut them and swap them.

I have a swap box going on my front veranda. If you're a local I'll pop my stuff in it and just leave your swap item in the box. Easy!

I start with 2.2kg of my home grown Zucchini

Add some heat with Kims Dad's home grown chili

Add some colour (one of these onions I grew myself)

The bright colour comes from the peppers, the green capsicum I grew myself.

With some secret spices and lots of love.......

Heritage at Ercildoune Homestead

Mothers day was supposed to be spent with Mum and Dad and our family at Ercildoune Homestead, but Mums back went out during the week so we popped in to their house for a cuppa and then we went off for our afternoon adventure. We pulled into the car park and started our lunch picnic. Within 5 minutes we had people all over us seemingly drooling over the kombi.......it's always a nice thing when folks tell us of their kombi stories. Post kombi conversation we had a ball walking through the homesteads garden and buildings and where in heaven. The place is so dreamy, every little detail oozing with tales from the old days. The current owners have done so much work over the years it's mind blowing. They must get so much joy from the place.

By the end of the day the girls were so exhausted it turned feral and slightly hilarious. We packed up and made the most of what was left of our 12th wedding anniversary. It's been a big wearing week with a few mishaps here and there........slumping on the couch with the one person in this world that understands me is just sublime.

xo Ro

Mind racing

I have just been catching up on a few blogs, and found myself back at Attic24.  I am in love with the interiors of these awesome old caravans and campers.  It has made my mind race with ideas for our Dottie.  And since I bought some vintage fabric at the Stitches and Craft show the other day, I am thinking about new curtains or bunting, and of course crocheted blankets...

Our Dottie. I will post some interior shots when I start the make-over. 

Hacker Husband

Hi guys, it's Ro here. You remember me? I used to hang out on another blog but fell out of love with it, caused some major family disputes and thus decided not to have an online opinion. I've deleted my blog of 4 years, deleted my Facebook page and twitter, don't get me started. All in the name of limiting my online life. It was just taking up far to much valuable time. I'm in the process of cutting out a few things in my life that waste my time. However.....

After consultation with my better half, we've decided that I can be a guest blogger here. But I'm only allowed to put pretty pictures and talk about our life minus the attitude. We'll see how long that lasts. I am a cranky old bugger. Example....this Saturday morning I find myself cursing RAGE. The music is becoming pre-packaged uber hipster. Every Gen-Y seems to like dressing up in American Indian head gear with feathers and beads or the super 'original' style of wearing animal faces masks. It appears that 'they' are scared to be original and just follow someone else's clever idea. And that poor interpretation/eighties music revival is just as annoying as those tights that look like jeans. You know the ones I mean. Man am I over seeing tights on the wrong legs. And I'm sick and tired of shallow people so concerned about how people view them. They seem to go to great lengths to tick all the cool boxes. You know what I mean, those kids that HAVE to be seen at the rights festivals, shows, cafes etc...AAARRRGGGG.

So I failed on my first guest post. Do I look boooovered? I have so much to be happy about with our lovely life so I'm going to share that.....mostly. The fun times, the food, the garden and our dream project of one day finding that block of land and building a dream cottage and planting a vineyard and orchard.

I wanted to start my first post with something nice....a Saturday breakfast. But now I can see my word count getting out of control so I'll stop ranting and talk about my breaky.

Yesterday I had the kids to look after while Kim was out of action for the day. After a bit of cabin fever locked in the house I thought I'd take the girls out to a special secret spot that I love about 20 minutes out of town and takes some nice pics for Kim's mothers day gift. This special spot just happens to have heaps of mushrooms of all varieties growing under the pine tree's. And keeping inline with my ever growing hobby of foraging for free food I picked a few Saffron Milk Cap's (Lactarius delicious) for the next days breakfast. These little treasures are really a meaty mushie. They seem to take on the flavours of whatever else is in the pan, and this morning I kept it very simple by frying them with some butter, garlic (Daylesford Organics of course) and Chirizo (Vic Market). And what better to place it on but a bagel from Glicks (which we now get home delivered with the milk!)

These are the ingredients.....

And this is the dish.

These are the pics I took for Kims pressie.

These are pics of my 'special spot'