Great Ocean Quarterly. Technically I got this subscription for someone else. Technically I should wait until these pages have been devoured by another before I devour them myself…technically.
(I’ve never been much good at technical things really.)
This little blog is now five years old. I’ve been writing, musing, dropping kitchen crumbs, taking pictures and sitting under the name cityhippyfarmgirl for five years now. Now how did half a decade zip by while I sat next to my computer? Well to be honest, I’m not really sure. What I do know though, is that five years is a wonderful amount of time to have learnt lots of bloggy lessons…Lots of them!
If you would like to pull up a chair, grab an apple or perhaps a slice of shortcake and linger awhile, I’ll share with you five lessons I’ve learnt in that time.
1/ Always write down your thoughts or recipes as you go along.
For recipes, I will never, ever remember the quantities and cooking times of what ever I am making. For thoughts, that seem so clear and unforgettable, they seem to disappear without even an audible “poofff” (despite all the very best intentions.) Five years on, you think I would have had this one firmly embedded in my brain. Nope, it isn’t though, I still occasionally forget and think that my memory can’t honestly be that bad, and of course I will remember. (It is that bad, and I do forget.)
Note to self, don’t forget, that I…well, forget.
2/ There is always more to learn with bread baking.
What an amazing thing bread baking can be. To be always learning from and tweaking something as simple as flour, water, salt. I still get bubbles of excitement bringing a loaf out of the oven. What will it look like, how much of a spring will it have? No loaf is ever the same. Never. Not a one.
Life gives different loaves. In ways of weather, timing, distractions, commitments, forgetfulness, ingredients, new flour- they all play a part in my sourdough being different every single time. And really, how awesome is that!
3/ Photography, another big lesson.
I look back on photos I thought were pretty much ok, and can’t help but chuckle. Cameras have been and gone, techniques have changed along with them and knowledge is still to be gained in abundance with my photography. What I do know is that I get a kick out of taking photos and I can’t imagine that changing for a long time. I don’t think this photo from my first month of blogging back in 2010 would have been pinned too often. I do know it was a delicious pie though (recipe here) and remember all of us eating it with much gusto.
1st edition Jan 2010
2nd edition Jan 2013
3rd edition Feb 2015
4/ Which leads me to my next lesson. Remembering.
Now I’ve already established at times, I’m not so good at remembering things. This is where having a blog is truly wonderful. It does the remembering for you. It’s my online diary of a sort. It stores many more day to day things, words, pictures, memories than I would have ever thought to remember.
Not to mention my recipes. I cook and bake a lot. Before having a blog I would have countless scrappy bits of paper dotted about the place, usually being lost between other bits of paper. Now I have them all here. Sure It’s a little weird having to go to the internet for your own recipes but hey it seems to work. I usually put a lot of time and effort into my recipes, bringing a concept to life, tweaking, changing, experimenting until I’ve got it just right. Sometimes they can be months and months in the making. I still feel slightly uneasy about other people using those recipes and putting them up on their own site without any reference, words or thanks given, a recipe now it’s their very own- it seems a murky copyright world, with well pretty much everything these days. So all I can do is know that what I’m doing sits right with me, and that’s what matters right?
Another wonderful thing about having a blog to help you remember is the feelings and emotions that might have slipped between the metaphorical pages. Tiny moments captured, which in another time would have been swept away to live only in my own memory bank…or to simply slip between the cracks altogether.
5/ Community.
I’ve waxed lyrical about the online community many, many times before. It will never get old speaking enthusiastically of all the people who make up this always evolving digital community. It’s pretty wonderful to be a part of that. When digital names spill over to lovely long emails, or names on the backs of envelopes, plump packages from people half a world away. Or coffee and picnics with people who were once just a gravatar. That’s pretty darn wonderful.
Through the online community I’ve also discovered more and more small businesses and people who I want to support with my careful dollar. Conscious shopping the way it should be- Instead of those coins going to a blank face that means nothing to me. I will repeat these words a thousand times, as it really is incredibly important to me.
6/ Evolve and make your own rules up.
Now wait a second, didn’t I say this was to be five? Yes, I did but this is the beauty of lesson number six. If I want to put six up I can, I can do that, I can make my own rules up here. Yes I can.
I’ve also learnt to roll with it all. If something is bugging me I’ll change it. If I don’t want to do something, I don’t. I’ve learnt over these five years that for a blog to evolve you really have to ride with it, social media is an ever evolving thing and with that, well you have to be as well.
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How about you, if you have a blog what lessons have you learnt as a blogger. Or, if you are a reader what lessons have you learnt from reading blogs?
Vanilla Plum Jam. It’s my all time favouritey-favourite kinda jam. It’s tarty, has vanilla tones and dollops particularly well onto, well anything that I match it with really.
Lucky for me I like it a lot as I’ve made batch after batch of these babies. It’s that time of year. Vanilla Plum Jam time.
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Have a read here if you are new to jam making or are a bit hit and miss with your jam making methods. It really is a wonderful skill to be able to preserve the season and have even just a little of that knowledge under your belt.
Go on, give it a whirl. Try your hand at jam making.
This weekend was a long time coming, and boy was it worth the wait. Those two days were an absolute cracker. You know what the excellent thing about social media is? Connecting with amazing people in an online environment all over the place kind of way. You know what the next best thing after that is? Meeting them in real life and hanging out doing things you are all interested in. Also throwing a delicious sprinkling of creativity into the mix to keep you going for quite awhile. Yep weekends like that? They rock. 
The weekend originally came about over thinking of the multitude of wonderful creative courses that are available around the place, without the exceptional price tag. Everyone has something to offer and things for others to learn from. In a collaborative type environment, ideas, options, thoughts, creativity can be expanded on. All those things jumped on and most beautifully run with. (At the very least, encouragement from some like minded souls, and a little recharging of the batteries.)
How it all came together… A group of instagram and online buddies coming together in Sydney. Accommodation was through AirBnB, which served as a bed for our interstate friend and a place for us to gather during the day. Cameras? Yes, they were essential. Awesome food brought in for the first day, and awesome food sought for the second day. Win win there.
Creative challenges, sharing of knowledge, a wonderful goodie bag to be taken home each, and more laughs squashed into a two day period than I’ve had for a long time. So. Damn. Good.
For anyone else who has looked longingly at a seemingly unachievable course that they would love to do due to finances, where they live or just general unsureness.
Jump in, create your own course. Find some like minded people and bring it all together. Collaboration is a wonderful thing, create what you want rather than staring wistfully in from the side lines.
Like I said, this weekend was a long time coming, and there were rather a lot of speed humps along the way. But it was worth every bump, and there are already plans for another.
Wonderful places we went, and awesome things we utilised
Mitchell Rd Antiques, Alexandria
Clovelly Beach
The last few months have seen a lot of these crackers being made. Dead easy to make, with only a handful of ingredients in them. My recipe is over on the forever wonderful Milkwood blog if you are interested. (Just quietly, you’ll never walk down the cracker aisle again…this is an excellent thing.)
Tomatoes in all shapes and sizes, forms and colours, (and just as they should be) are working their way on to my kitchen bench top. Some grown by me and some via my OOOOBY box.
Ahh, now what’s this beauty I hear you say? Which is pretty much what I said when I walked passed a particularly enticing window display that I hadn’t seen before. I quietly go to the chiropractor one evening with no expectations of purchasing anything besides ongoing good healthy (thank you chiropractic care) and come home with this divine little chocolate encased creature. I hadn’t seen apples done like this before…how on earth could I say no? (And yes, there was a crispy, crispy fresh apple under there.)
There has also been some Eton Mess experimenting done. This experimenting shall continue as much like the apple above, I was impressed, oh yes I was.
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How about you? What’s been happening in your kitchen lately? Have you seen apples like this before? Are you a fan of Eton Mess? And crackers- do you make your own? (ps. If you would like to give this recipe a go and are on instagram tag them #supermarketcrackerspffft I’d love to see them!)
Linking in with Ms Celia today and lots of other amazing kitchen goodies.
I said farewell to Summer holidays and reluctantly got out school lunch boxes again. New school shoes made the transition entirely acceptable for the school ones…large cups of gulped tea made it acceptable for me.
This week…
I said hello again to a friend I hadn’t seen for a couple of years. For 34 years we have known each other, (that’s rather magnificent really.)
This week,
I said Happy 85th birthday to my Grandma, that is also completely magnificent, (just like her beautiful flower filled garden.)
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What have you been up to this week?
This isn’t rocket science here. It may not even be life changing…
but it might just be helpful!
What to do- Make your every day banana smoothie as you normally would (go on, add in an extra banana for good measure.) Now pop it in the freezer and leave it for a little. For ease of eating, don’t wait until it’s frozen through.
Guaranteed to make small people happy on hot summer days, and big people rather content.
To make this, I whack in…
4 bananas
1 tsp vanilla
some milk
Whizz it all up and into the freezer. Drizzle on some honey just before eating and spoon out as you would regular ice cream. Just the thing for cooling off on a hot day.
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Do you have any regular foods you tweak for extra hot days?
I had grand plans of taking lots of pictures when I visited Cobargo. I didn’t though. It seems I got caught up in the charm of this lovely little south coast NSW town instead.
When I should have been taking beautiful pictures of the rolling green lush hills surrounding the town, I was hanging half out of the car window drinking it all in instead.
With locally made ice cream, a health food cafe to rival any big city-sider one, an abundance of yoga classes to choose from, retro clothing shop, and an intriguing Old Butter Factory that surely is begging for someone to reside in and write their adventure filled memoirs.
This is a tiny town that I whole heartedly want to visit again. Cobargo and all your lovely charm, I will be back.
What’s a favourite tiny charm filled town of yours?
Our gardens couldn’t be more different. Mine in small pots, neatly aligned along a big city urban fence. A tiny garden that grows intwined with the sound of other city dwellers, the soft murmur of traffic and the occasional summertime song of hidden cicadas.
Her garden? It meanders. Through seemingly endless acres, aligned with a neighbouring rugged, blue coastline. The gentle honking song of Cape Barren Geese flying over head at dusk and dawn, and frogs…lots of frogs.
Now who’s garden am I speaking of? Well that would be Tanya from Ecolosophy (remember the one I wanted to face plant into last year?) I caught up with her recently to hear how her garden was growing and also to find out who won the giveaway.
So it’s been a little while since I face planted in your garden because of the sheer beauty of it all. What’s been growing since we last caught up?
Oh Brydie, we’ve been pretty lucky this year. Ordinarily at this time of year, our patch would have been burnt to a crisp by a few blazing hot days with northerly winds and no rain but so far we’ve had an exceptionally mild summer in Esperance, most days mid twenties, rain every so often, not a single day so far over 40 (please don’t jinx me weather fairy!) The Patch is churning out tomatoes by the bucket load so I’ve been making lots of slow roasted tomato sauce. I’ve been as inventive as possible but the yellow button squash have (FINALLY) come to an end so I can relax on finding new and exciting ways to hide them in the family meals.
My black frilly kale and I are at a standoff of sorts because on one hand, I learned how to make kale chips…and they’re lovely but on the other hand my kale just keeps getting prettier and prettier so I’m loath to remove a single leaf. Most of the greenery in the Patch now is assorted pumpkins, melons and gourds that are the obsession of my other half.
Every summertime there is a quest to grow the worlds largest vegetables (so far the biggest pumpkin has only got to about 50kg which is a few hundred kilos off the world record) but we do grow a nice big New Guinea Bean (here’s a snap of last years beans with my boys) We eat them when they’re small (about zucchini sized) but then we let them grow and grow and grow.
That bean picture is amazing. I’ll bet the boys were impressed with them. I’m certainly impressed! Now tell me also, who won the giveaway?
Well quite a few of your lovely readers popped in to the Ecolosophy Shop and had a wander through. And one of those lucky shoppers has won themselves a sweet eco giveaway of Ecolosophy goodness. Can I get a drum roll please?….. the winner is…..Diana Sayes.
Excellent! Well done Diana*. Tanya your garden is once again enviable and sadly, I’m now hesitantly going to go back to my small collection of pots…hmmm, three tomatoes anyone?
* Diana- Ecolosophy will be sending out your lovely little package soon.
There’s a warmth to the air at 5.25am. If I close my eyes it almost feels like a soft sheet brushing over my skin. I don’t though, for I’m riding. Riding to catch a sunrise. Riding in the quiet of the pre-dawn. The city around me is quiet, nobody needs my attention at this time. Too early to start the day, I have left my loved ones at home, while I ride to welcome in the sun.
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It’s 12pm and it’s quiet. The chaos creators have paused in their carnage and instead direct it to their lunch plates. After a busy morning doing busyness. They have stopped for a minute or two and hungrily wolf down their food, it’s good to see after so long of sickness and not wanting to eat.
Quiet except for the odd slurp, munch and muffled noises of food appreciation. It won’t last long, their recharge time is blink and you’ll miss it.
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It’s 2pm and it’s quiet. Small girls still need naps to enable them to conquer the afternoon of possible dragons, rumbles, leaping, soccer and tea parties. Air outside so hot, it drapes itself over your shoulders, if you dare to step out that is. Lulling you and everyone in its path into a sleepy slumber. Summer holiday time, and those hot weekend siestas are a welcome respite.
It’s 9pm, and it’s quiet. A candle flickers. A summer time bug gets lured a little closer. The small ones sleep, the sleep of the contented. Nightmares have been banished for tonight as there is a small posse of dinosaurs and lego figures standing guard. The night-time sleep of summer holiday children.
Our adult voices are lowered and our thoughts quieted. Sandy shoes at the door, tell a story of late evening beach wanderings. Another hot day, but this one ending with deep chuckles and muffled belly laughs. Loving that.
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[“Often life’s pleasures pass us by simply because we don’t take a moment to focus on them… Make a point of noticing everyday something that uplifts your spirit or tickles your heart… Stop to breathe in the joy of this moment and then tell someone about it. Share your joy and revel in it. When your joy is savoured, and then shared, it is magnified…” ROBIN GRILLE]
A few months ago, I was lucky enough to be invited to the beautiful occasion of a baby being born. Being invited as a doula and as a birth photographer, gave me the wonderful priviledge of being both support person and memory capturer.
While I would adore to tell you all of the gentle birthing story of this beautiful couple, it’s not my story to tell.
What I can say though is, it was an honour to be there. And it was an honour to be a tiny part of their parenting journey.
I can also say that mama, midwife and I all have the same tea cups. These ones, that I absolutely love, and get comments on all the time. Quite a beautiful coincidence really.
When meals are made up of bits and pieces like chocolate, pickles, thyme, plums and wine, you know life is treating you ok.
Last year I challenged myself to an Eat Local challenge throughout the year. While this year, I won’t be continuing with the same challenge, I will still be eating as much locally produced food as I can possibly get my hands on.
Summer holiday time is a great time for local and seasonal goodies. Wonderful things given as gifts, deliciousness made available because of the season, and sometimes just a matter of being in the right place at the right time.
These are a few of the things that have been gracing our bench tops lately.
Gifted Spencer Cocoa, (cocoa beans grown in Vanuatu and made in Mudgee, NSW)
Pickles bought at Moruya Markets, with cucumbers grown a couple of hundred metres down the road.
Thyme from my window sill.
Plums from an organic laden orchard I was lucky enough to visit.
A wonderful bottle of Elysium wine. Bought direct from the makers, this company uses Australian natives for their wine making.
So good, all of them.
I didn’t enter a super market for any of those goodies, and damn, that felt good. It makes me so incredibly happy to be eating a fair chunk of our food like this.
Have a look around you, see what locally produced food you can find, let me know and let’s spread the word even further. I’m always on the look out for more small and local producers, and they in turn are always on the look out for more consumer support for their products.
Happiness really just might be, in supporting and eating local.
cityhippyfarmgirl 
