Little garden of delights

Rainy old morning - lucky I got out into the front garden yesterday for a little while with dog, wheelbarrow and radio, flat battery! Have'nt been out there for a while to review colours and progress. Had been looking a bit ratty. So, so pleased the developing colour combinations and the softening of what was a very masculine space. How to soften the blaring reds of the photinias and nandinas? Usually the sunflowers, Californian poppies and nasturtiums can shout just as loudly, but with the introduction of soft creamy yellows of these easy care self spreading - potentially dominating - cottage plants the harsh reds are tempered. Delighted to see the white foxgloves have self seeded quite happily too. The pink brown of the echinaceas look spectacular with the bronzey brown reds of the flax and phormiums. All colours complementing very nicely our steely grey rendered house. Pleasing. Whilst at Lanyon on Sunday I bought 3 creamy lilies, purported to have maroony claret casings, and to grow 2m tall, from the lovely Lambley Gardens Nursery. I underplanted the Forest Pansy with some extra alliums and these lilies to further add to this pleasing scheme.

Just as an aside. Gorgeous dinner last night - vegan again. Bill Granger recipe - always reliable. Asian inspired stir fry, eggs replaced with soft tofu. Pumpkin cut into wedges stir fried with garlic and chili and tofu, topped with some garden greens and basil at the end and served with seasonings of soy sauce (or fish sauce), sugar and lime and steamed plain rice. All vegies were from the garden. Quite pleased with myself.

Preparing vegan snacks for my daughter to take on camp produced some very light egg free chocolate and banana muffins and almonds roasted in maple syrup and paprika. Nice.

Bit of a late whirlwind in the kitchen yesterday afternoon as I, too late really, decided to make a rosemary and salt encrusted foccacia to accompany the lovely light, but spicy zucchini and basil soup Mark made and we finally ate at 8.30. The girls followed that with vegan mini plum crumbles. And I packed away in the fridge some vanilla poached plums for this morning's breakfast. BTW a plum thrown into the apple and orange juice mix with a thin slice of ginger - mmmm. (Still going on the stonker of a chocolate and beetroot cake - oh my!)

Lanyon Homestead might be encroached by the brick veneer boxes of Canberra's far flung outer suburbs, but boy, with your back to turned the setting is a magical one. Set amongst pasture, but surrounded by the distant magnificent mountains of the Brindabella range and Namadgi National Park the old homestead and surrounding remant outbuildings has a very picturesque outlook. Today it was swarming with people, mostly much older than me, as it was open with a plant fair. Loved seeing and hearing about the vegie patch - now re-instated as a working garden supplying the cafe. It was a vegie patch after my own heart. Old fashioned, decorative, magical.

Home again later to plant out my garlic for this year. Lovely sitting in the sun warming my legs as I split open the large bulbs I had purchased from the Diggers' Club. Put in some carrot seeds for good measure and re-planted some baby beets.

Back inside post sunset as the sky fades to a pale blue pink gold on the horizon. The air still, cooling quickly. The end of a very nice day.

Oh my - YUMMY!

Well, after a baking free week I have certainly made up for it today - good on you Nigel Slater. The girls are on a vegan diet for a month so have scuppered baking for all and sundry. Although I did have success with egg free rhubarb and apple muffins earlier this week - oh yeah, that is baking isnt it? Anyway, I have wanted to make a beetroot and choc cake since the success of the muffins mentioned previously. And so with 200g butter, 200g chocolate, dash of espresso and 5 eggs it is in the oven. Fingers crossed - will let you know.

So, finally my one of my two zucchini (courgettes) plants is regularly producing fruit. 3 zucchini meals had of the last 4. Do I hear groans? Oh, but yum. Yesterday lunch I diced a small portion of cacciotore (sp?) sausage and fried it gently, added diced 1 baby zucchini and a sprinkle of salt and crumbled thyme - served with thin toasted rounds of baguette. Dinner - appetiser - 2 tiny tiny zucch...inis sliced very thinly from head to toe, their voluptuous yellow flowers sliced thus, sprinkling of baby basil leaves and walnut oil topped with fine shards of parmesan - oh my - oh yum. Lunch today - a chopped spring onion 1 egg omelette stuffed with gently sliced zucchini flowers, dressed with a soy and fish sauce dressing, drizzled with lime, sliced and rolled in freshly picked lettuce leaves oh my, oh my!