Tuesday, April 6, 2010

HARVEST TIME





The scones rose, the nuts were delivered, my Easter babies turned nine, the sun set on another beautiful Autumn day, but sadly the dog went home.......

EASTER HARVEST





EASTER HARVEST





HARVEST TIME





WAKEY WAKEY RISE AND SHINE IT'S HARVEST TIME IT'S HARVEST TIME.......

Thursday, April 1, 2010



A very dear friend of mine once said that the secret to a happy life was to aim low. I need to remind myself of this as my expectations start to creep back up only to result in disappointment and frustration. It's back to baking. Why why why am I so utterly and completely hopeless when it comes to this fine art of domesticity? The sponge that heralds "morning tea everyone, come in from your outside work and have a cuppa and a piece of me lovely sponge", or the bread that warms the home and just says simply "I love you all". Nope, the panic stricken teary expression that my poor eleven year old daughter is faced with as I turn from peering forlornly towards the oven door just does not fit the hope I have of the perfect morning tea. 

Let me put this into some context. It is harvest time at our walnut farm. The beginning of Autumn, Easter infact, the weather could not be more perfect and our farm is a hive of activity. As the girls are quite  young, my job is still to make sure they don't step infront of a tractor so my time as a woman of the land is probably a few years away yet. I am however, no longer breast feeding, changing nappies or have a babe on my hip so I decided that my contribution to this our forth harvest, would be food, beginnning with scones, jam and cream for morning tea. 

Well all I can say is thank goodness our pickers are French and probably have no idea what a scone looks like. Snags in bread with sauce and onions for lunch went down a treat which just goes to show that "aim low" does pay off. I am determined however, to perfect that bloody scone before the end of the weekend. "You up for another shot at those scones tomorrow Phemie? Ummm.....