WEEKEND ARRANGEMENTS

My weekend started with a sleep in (thank you Matty), a coffee and a kiss-kiss on each cheek from my family before I bounced out of the door to meet a gorgeous friend (and her micro-babe) for a long lunch and a shop before we embarked on a floral workshop at the Octopuss Garden.

The Octopuss Garden is inside an A-frame building. Need I say more. There was so much inspiration and beauty to choose from once inside. We were welcomed in by the amazing girls who shared some of their home made Sangria with all of us while encouraging us to enjoy the delicious cheese and dip spread. This is a slippery slope, once I start with food, particularly cheese....it can be tricky for me to move away, let alone concentrate on something else.

 

After choosing our stems we moved right into the stripping, snipping and spiral holding our stems into beautiful posies and bouquets. Working with flowers is therapeutic and there is great pleasure in working directly with beauty. Whilst we all wanted to work on more organic and flowing bouquets and posies, there was one who made a gorgeous structured posie with some cute little buds sticking out.

 (The above one is my little posie)

 (The token Kinfolky shot. Nailed it.)

My style is similar to my hair...kind of everywhere and loose, a bit bushy with a stick poking out. I made my bouquet with a good friend in mind - she was having her baby reveal the following day and I was hoping to style a bouquet that would flow with either a blue or pink sponge cake upon the gender reveal at the cutting of the cake. Lately I have really been noticing the colours purple and green in my life (they also happen to be my favourite colours) and they seem to be appearing everywhere. I couldn't resist using flowers with the captivating purple colour and I am just almost obsessed with the velvety looking gums. My large bouquet is pictured below and modelled by the lovely Laura.

My friend's wonderfully abundant bouquet below!! Gorgeous. It was interesting seeing how differently we all styled out bouquets and posies.

The day ended with two smiling mama's, a pram full of shopped items, freshly baked bread (thank you Kath!!!), bunches of fresh flowers and a sleeping baby. Is this not the best way to end the day?

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Images taken using Canon 5D Markiii//50mm 1.4

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THE LEMONADE TREE

 

Just like a lemon, but without the bitterness. The lemonade tree at Nana and Pop's started to sprout fruit after only two seasons from when they were planted. They are welcomed by them, us and the local possums. Their fruit is sweet tasting and mild compared to the citrussy bang that you would get from a lemon.

We had been at the beach all morning and when we got back at Nana and Pop's we wandered down to the back of their place to shake off the sand from our feet and we spied a couple of pastel yellow lemonades ready to be picked. Being too short to pick them, Pat was marching out the directions as I navigated with squinted eyes around the branches and it's thorny stems trying to pinch the ripe ones. A couple of them had already been half snacked on by the possums - a midnight snack perhaps. We sat down by the pond and bit into them so that we could peel the thick skin off and enjoy them as our mid afternoon snack.

This is what summer dreams are made of.

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NANA & POP'S GARDEN

This is Spring at Nana and Pop's place. A tropical landscape of palm trees, elephant ears, shrubs, climbing vines, succulents and fruit trees. Randomly placed fruit trees. They are a result of birds and bats pooping out their seeds and then germinating into the ground if the conditions are just right. If you are careful enough to look around, you will spy little tomato vines growing up trees and pineapple tops growing out from underneath shrubs.

Home is always at Nana and Pop's place. A quaint little cottage sunken into a green foliage of bushy shrubs and plants which carpet the lower legs of the tall assortment of palm trees and eucalyptus trees who stand tall above their house. Green and pink are the colours that your eyes recognise as you walk closer down the drive. They are the decorative petals of the Azalea, a plant once known as the "thinking of home" bush and also once infamous for it's levels of toxicity. But I think that they are mostly known for their beauty. Well, that's how I know of them. It is very tempting to break off a branch and shake the petals off, just because they look so soft and delicate and somehow even more beautiful when the deep pink petals are scattered acrossed the stone pavement. I let them be and enjoyed their cheerful beauty everytime I walked through the front door.

What flowers do you most admire for their beauty? Camellia's and Marigolds would have to be some of my other favourites.

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Images taken using Canon 5D Markiii//50mm 1.4

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NATURAL THERAPY

 

Stepping out into the salty air, sprinkles of sand made their way inbetween my foot and my sandal. If I were anywhere else, I would find that sensation to be annoying. The long and narrow path from the car park led us into the bush where patches of light and darkness balanced each other out. We spied lots of things; spiders webs, shells, crabs, make shift chairs, pumice stones and somewhere in the distance the glittering movements of the sea peeking through the tall scrubbery. Up a newly constructed boardwalk, the sandy dunes peaked up and down and led us down into a flat silky smooth beach. The water was several shades of blue and the grass dunes were a patchwork of greens and browns, dulling as the sun brightened in the sky. We all had a dip into the ocean, it was cold and fresh and just the type of sensation you crave when you are transitioning into a new phase.

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ROASTED CAULIFLOWER AND CURRIED COCONUT & LEEK SOUP

This recipe came into existence from a matter of praticality. I was roasting the cauliflower in the oven and prepping the other ingredients when I realised that I had no onions. I called my neighbour and she only had a quarter of one inside of her fridge. Home alone with two kids at witching hour, there was no way I was going to risk bundling everyone into the car to buy one onion. Inside of my fridge I spied two flat leek tops sticking out from the bottom drawer, they would do. I usually use vegetable stock, but today I used a beef stock just because it was found inside of my pantry during my search for an onion and I had dreams of making a bacon dust to top the soup, but I got impatient and just diced and fried the bacon and placed it on top of the soup in a heap.

CURRIED ROASTED CAULIFLOWER, COCONUT & LEEK SOUP

(Serves 4 - 5, prep 10 mins and cooking time 30 mins)

A dollop of coconut oil

A splash of olive oil

1 head of cauliflower

**1 can of coconut milk

1 litre stock

1 leek, sliced
***1 potato, diced

2 garlic cloves, sliced

1 heaped tbs dried cumin

1 heaped tbs dried corriander

1 heaped tbs tumeric

large pinch of salt

pepper to taste

4 - 5 rashers of bacon

1. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees

2. Cut cauliflower into chunks and lay out onto a baking

 tray and drizzle with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt 

3.  Roast the cauliflower in the oven for 15 - 20 minutes, or until it is lightly browned. 

Remove from oven and rest on the bench

4. Heat coconut oil on a medium heat in a large pot, then add the sliced leek, diced potato and sliced garlic and stir around for about five minutes and then add the spices and coat the leek and garlic in the spices, keep doing this until the spices become fragrant, about 3 - 5 minutes

5. Toss the roasted cauliflower into the pot with the curried leek and garlic, 

add the stock and bring to the boil and then lower the heat to a gentle simmer, 

then add the can of coconut milk

6. Stir to combine, and then either blend with a handheld mixer or blender

7. Heat a small fry pan on a medium high heat, thinly dice the bacon and then add to the hot fry pan,

stiry fry until browned and crispy

8. Serve soup in generous bowls and top with handfuls of fried bacon.

**To make it a creamier soup, half the amount of stock and add an extra can of coconut milk and a half a cup of water.
*** A potato is used to thicken the soup, this can be replaced with 1/4 cup of any type of cooked bean 
or uncooked lentils or rice

 

This recipe was adapted from one of my favourites from when I used to be strictly vegan, just leave out the bacon and be sure to use a vegetable stock, or just plain water with a bit of extra salt if you are making this for your vegan friends.

 

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Images taken using Canon 5D Markiii//50mm 1.4

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