Kitchen.

This is my kitchen this morning, complete with my sidekick:

This is my kitchen now having just cooked chocolate brownie for afternoon tea:

I cheated and used a packet - if you know me pick yourself up off the floor as you know that I have NEVER done this before as I usually cook EVERYTHING from scratch. For $8 I bought this:

After five minutes of everyone having a stir, followed by half an hour in the oven (the box said 40 minutes yet mine was possibly a tad overdone even after 30 minutes) we ended up with this:

And considering the almost zero effort that was involved, it was not bad. Although I shudder to think of what might have been in it. I couldn't help myself and tried to salvage it with organic butter and free range eggs.

I spend a significant part of my life in this room:

I always coveted a chandelier in the kitchen and this house came with one in every room. My mum said it was a ridiculous thing to have in a kitchen as chandeliers are notorious dust collectors. She was right, but I still think it's beautiful.

This is the view of the backyard from the window:

You can see my veggie patch reproaching me for it's neglect. As are my cumquats which are desperate to be turned into Moira's cumquat compote:

This is my narcissistic collection of 'R's':

I bought the elephant as a souvenir of our trip to India last year:

On our way out of Udaipur I had the car stopped so that I could run into the shop to negotiate it's purchase thinking I would never see it's like again. I shouldn't have bothered as they were for sale at Mumbai airport......for less. It was worth it though as it conjures up memories of this.......sigh:

Because I am a creature of habit, I went to Bikram Yoga this morning.....my sixth class in as many days:

It may have been five degrees in downtown Hobart yet it is always 40 degrees in the hot room. So if you feel like a tropical interlude that also works out your mind and body, why not give it a try? I go for preventative healthcare and because it is cheaper than therapy. I take my medicine here. If you live somewhere other than Hobart, find your closest Bikram Yoga studio here. Later tonight, once I've fed the masses, I think I might go back for a second dose. Well, I'm wagging tomorrow as I'm going out for lunch.

R

Wintery.

Look, this morning there was snow on Mt Wellington:

Although it's difficult to see as the top of the mountain has been shrouded in cloud for most of the day. Don't worry though as the temperature is still in double digits (only just).

Three of my children went back to school today (yes, two were wearing shorts). One was so keen to go that she had already left by the time I took this photo:

The one that riffles through all drawers, puts toilet rolls in the loo and tries to stick her fingers in power points stayed at home. I was glad of her company as all of a sudden, it was lonely.

As usual, I left all back to school preparation until the last minute. Yesterday, we did hair:

And then we had to go and buy school shoes. Yes, after only ONE term of wear the Midford school shoes that I bought at the start of the year had to go in the bin as they were worn out. So at my husband's suggestion we went to Tradewear in Elizabeth Street. This is where you would usually go to buy industrial and protective clothing if you are in a line of work that requires such clobber. So, in I go with my four children and a pram in the quest for industrial strength school shoes. We had received a tip off that the iconic Tasmanian bookmaker, Blundstone, now makes school shoes. They do, although we were nearly talked into 'the shoes that the Royal Family wear to school'. Except, they had flowers on the bottom of the soles and I wasn't sure how that would go down in an all boys school. So we bought the Blunnies and am hoping that they will last until this time next year. Fingers crossed.

R

Jane.

So I'm going to ask you to cast your minds back into the mists of time. Way back to the mid 1990's. Do you remember when Pride and Prejudice was on the tele and Colin Firth was Mr Darcy? I will admit that I was besotted. It coincided with when I met my (now) husband - we went on a date the night the first episode screened and during our courtship he gave me this:

I knew it was serious. Even more so when we went on a five week motoring holiday in the UK - fourteen years ago. As a sign of his devotion he drove the car to these destinations on a Jane Austen/Pride and Prejudice pilgrimage.

The Jane Austen House Museum at Chawton:

Jane Austen actually lived here. Admittedly, it was only for the last eight years of her life, yet this is the only residence that you can visit. The house that she grew up in and spent most of her life in, the Rectory at Steventon, was pulled down - supposedly a tree planted by one of her brothers marks the location.

From there we moved on to Bath:

And Lyme Regis:

Where walked along the Cobb - the site of Louisa Musgrove's fateful accident in Persuasion.

Then we moved on to the Piece de resistance - Lyme Park:

Aka Pemberley where the Pride and Prejudice TV series had been filmed. I stood by the actual lake where Mr Darcy (Colin Firth) stripped off and went for a dip:

In case you have forgotten, or never seen (quelle horreur) this piece of television mastery, you can watch it here.

Here's my own Mr Darcy - fourteen years ago:

Needless to say I married him and I can't say that I fancy Colin Firth anymore. Do you?

R

Back.

Home sweet home. In the three weeks we have been away every leaf has fallen off our trees - it's definitely winter in Hobart:

So I've had to dig out the winter woolies:

The brown leather jacket and knitted dress are from Gerard Darel which I bought, pregnant, eighteen months ago in Montpellier. I love them because they are French, (fickle, I know) yet at the same time they still carry the association of pregnancy, and, without beating about the bush, I was enormous with my 4th child. The jeans are Sass and Bide and the pashmina I bought for about $15 at the Crawford Market in downtown Mumbai. It is impossible to go to India and not buy a pashmina - they have all tourists picked as being desperate to own a pashmina and flog them at every possible opportunity. I am still regretting that I didn't buy a gorgeously embroidered 100 per cent cashmere pashmina, yet after two hours at the Crawford Market my husband was showing early onset signs of pashmina fatigue, from which he never fully recovered. I was lucky to get this one....and a pink one before the rot set in. While I was coveting pashminas he was coveting G & Ts at the Air Bar at the Four Seasons.

Don't be deluded into thinking that, due to my blogging silence, the last week of our family road trip was uneventful. Far from it. After Port Fairy we drove two hours inland to hang out with old friends from school at their farm. Isn't it nice catching up with friends who you don't see very often due to the tyranny of distance? We had gossiped, driven to the paddock by the river where the picnic was set up and were just embarking on our first wine.......when Felix almost severed his ear off on a protruding stick. A trip to hospital and eight stitches later...... I'm very happy to report that Felix has made a great recovery. And a monumentally big thank you to Orge, who, with her exceedingly good nursing skills saved the day.

Our last day was spent in Melbourne en route to the Spirit of Tasmania:

Melbourne at this time of year dragged me back to this same time four years ago, when my Dad was being treated for Acute Myeloid Leukaemia at the Alfred Hospital. It was a harrowing time yet the Leukaemia Foundation offered wonderful support to our family, if you feel like making a donation. Then it was Toby in the pram. During those bleak days we had no idea that one day we'd be pushing the pram around Melbourne with another little person. I miss my Dad yet at the same time I feel so incredibly blessed to have welcomed Camelia to our family. It's a strange combination of feelings.

We bought a ticket to see this:

The Napoleon exhibition at the NGV.  If you can, go. It was brilliant. Amongst all of the fabulous things on display, and there were lots - Napoleon's hat, Josephine's coronation ring, a lock of Louis XVI's hair and a miniature of Marie Antoinette's close friend the Princesse de Lamballe fittingly on display next to a revolutionary's pike (she met a gruesome end being decapitated and her head was then impaled on a pike and paraded under Marie Antoinette's window) - was this:

(photo from the NGV catalogue)

A Sevres 'Nipple Cup' or 'Breast Bowl' from a service made for Marie Antoinette's pleasure dairy at Rambouillet. Yes, a pleasure dairy. When you already have a cubby house on the scale of the Petit Trianon and it's accompanying hameau why not have a dairy to play milk maids in? It was from these cups, rumoured to have been modelled on Marie Antoinette's own breast, that visitor's to the dairy drank milk. I admit to being fascinated by this period of French history and it's utter decadence. Does anyone know where you can buy a reproduction of one of these....I would like one for my birthday.

R

PS If you would like a 'Nipple Cup', you can buy one here for US$925......unfortunately, all of my four children combined don't make that much pocket money!

Nice.

Look how nice it is here in Port Fairy:

This has been the view from our beach house for the last ten days:

It has been a shame about the weather. I had deluded myself into believing that Port Fairy existed in it's own unique Gulf Stream which meant that it would be warm and sunny. It doesn't. It has been cold and wet. I've reached the conclusion that sometimes the ocean is at it's most beautiful and dramatic when the clouds are dark grey and the wind shrieks.

Last night the babysitter came good so we went on a dinner date to the Merrijig Inn. If you ever find yourself in Port Fairy you MUST have dinner here. It was monumentally good. Their use of the heirloom vegetable and garden grown fruit was impressive. In the Spirit of the Famous Five we ate tongue - not in a sandwich but in a terrine:

This charcuterie platter also had fromage de tete (which loosely translates as head cheese.....it is all the bits of a pig's head cut up and set in aspic). I hesitated, yet in the quest to add another first to my already impressive list, I ate it.

Look at what we had for main course. Pork chop with crackling, anchovy butter, roasted root vegetables and cheesy polenta:

Kim had duck, three ways:

And then for desert, quince and gingerbread trifle:

And apple and quince crumble:

Today was market day in the village:

Look at Camelia's cute new hat, knitted from alpaca no less:

The very talented Granddad's from the Port Fairy Men's Shed had a stall all set up where they were helping children make toys out of wood offcuts. They weren't scared to share their drills and hammers and expertise:

What a fabulous idea. It was an incredibly touching and generous act of public spirit. Our boys were in seventh heaven.....and the old boys were really enjoying themselves too. Three cheers for the Port Fairy Men's Shed!

Needless to say we spent most of the afternoon floating boats in the river:

Tomorrow it's back in the car, no doubt to the accompaniment of The Very Best of Cold Chisel (thank's Meigs). We are struggling with what else to listen to on an Aussie road trip? All suggestions warmly welcome. Just so long as our children don't know all the words to Khe Sanh by the time we get all the way back to Hobart.

R