Tassie part 2

Following on from last week's post...

The Bay of Fires, which truly lived up to it's name, you can see the very heavy smoke in the background from burning off nearby...

The penguins that come in each night at Bicheno, it was a wet and horrendously cold evening so we didn't stick around long enough to get any more photos!

Oysters at Freycinet...

and then back to Hobart where the weather cam showed snow on Mt Wellington and the clouds looked promising, so we headed straight up there...

... for an enormous snow fight! The kids (and myself) hadn't seen snow before so there were snow angels and snow men and bloody cold hands! We were so incredibly lucky, we had heard the mountain had been closed off but it was still open when we got there however the snow quickly turned to ice and the road, which is incredibly steep and narrow, was closed the next day.

Then next morning it was off to the world famous Salamanca markets and then on to Port Arthur...

... which is no doubt one of the saddest places in the world.

But we also had some fun there, with the ghost tour that night. Port Arthur is home to the second most haunted house in Australia. Bloody scary!

Then it was back to Hobart and home again!

Heaps of fun had by all.

xoxo

The sourdough starter

I started my sourdough starter a couple of weeks ago and quickly learnt what happens when you don't feed it everyday... it gets mouldy!

So I threw it away and started another, this time making sure I feed it every morning and after almost a week I am pleasantly surprised with the results. It smells very fruity and has lots of tiny bubbles, something I was sure wouldn't happen for a lot longer as it is winter here.

I have now reached the stage that always bothered me about sourdough starters, throwing most of it away each day. Argh! But this is also the stage where I am adding 100g of flour and 100ml of water to it every day, if I wasn't throwing some of it away it would fast take over the kitchen!

I have also been utilising this site to help me along the way. I didn't get the rye and spelt flours I originally planned simply because the supermarket I shop at doesn't have rye flour and their spelt flour is ridiculously expensive! So I am just using plain old plain flour. I have heard that if you use just one type of flour your sourdough has a sharper taste so I will eventually add different flours at some time, one of the things I love about sourdough starters is that they can stick around for years!

But only if you feed them...

xoxo

Tassie Part 1

I know I've been promising it for a while, but here's our Tassie holiday! This post is very heavy on the photos.

We went to Tassie with Mr Homespun's parents and his sister (and her family, minus one niece and one nephew) and we had a ball!

At Sydney airport, ready to go!

Our campers, ready to set off.

At the Salmon Ponds I spotted this and commented to Mr Homespun that it looked like the perfect spot for a...

platypus!!! We were all very excited to see this fella.

Then to Russell Falls...

then Nelson Falls.

We stayed in Strahan...

... visited Cradle Mountain...

and then we went to Beaconsfield, did the chairlift over Cataract Gorge, visited a cheese farm and a lavender farm, saw part of the Targa Rally (we had managed to miss it for the first few days and just when we thought we had avoided the road closes we crossed paths with it, ironically just outside of Targa!) and that was just the first few days!

More soon.

xoxo

Today's kids

Whilst weeding the vege garden on the weekend, I came across this plastic fork. When questioned Miss 14 advised me it was from a game of Masterchef they were playing in the backyard a while ago.

Today's version of mud pies, perhaps?

xoxo

The winter garden

Our vege garden has been a little neglected over the past few weeks, so this past weekend I got in and gave it a little TLC. A little weeding and planting some spinach plants given to me by Naomi.

I was very happy to see the first peas of the season. I haven't grown peas before, snow peas, but not peas for shelling.

Not so happy to see signs of chicken attack!

xoxo

River Cottage Australia

Are you a fan of River Cottage? I have been for many years, I love Hugh's passion and commitment to living as sustainably as he can. So when I heard there was to be an Australian version, I was very excited. Seeing the River Cottage principles with an Australian twist will no doubt inspire me to take on some of the ideas for around my own home. Especially the veggie garden, or veg garden as Hugh would call it.

The first episode aired last week and featured a sourdough starter, something I have had on my list of 'one day I'll get around to it'. It seemed remarkably easy so I have added the ingredients Paul used (whole wheat, spelt and rye flours) to this week's shopping list and hope to get it started in the next few days.

xoxo

I did not receive anything for this post! I just love the show! Cheers.

Goodbye Tigger

Yesterday we lost our cat Tigger. We are all devastated, even though we knew it was coming, she had been unwell for just over a month, but we did our best to make her comfortable in her last weeks. She was almost 15 years old, so that's not too bad an innings for a cat. But it also means that I have had her longer than I have had my kids, and they are finding it difficult as they don't have any memories of our home without her.

Tigger was a housewarming gift from two of my cousins (and best friends). She was tiny when she arrived, so tiny that my cousins didn't believe the seller when they said she was 6 weeks old. But she was and she remained a tiny cat even fully grown. We called her Tigger because she was orange and stripey (just like the real Tigger) and because we had just moved into our first home, 6 months pregnant with our first baby and were decorating the nursery with a classic Pooh theme.

Tigger had an accident when she was around 6 months old, we still aren't sure what happened, but it resulted in her having to have her tail amputated, something she never got over. Cat's have too much pride and are far too vain to ever get over losing their precious tail. We used to joke that she had been in a bad mood since that happened.

Goodbye my sweet, cranky, teeny tiny Tigger, we will miss you dreadfully.

Are you kidding me?

It has been a wet and cold couple of weeks here at Homespun Headquarters so I have spent quite a few hours doing something I don't normally do - watching TV. I have recently bought the three seasons of Downton Abbey (what a brilliant show) and just this weekend finished Season 3 and without giving anything away for those who haven't watched it - Are you freaking kidding?????!!!!!

What the devil are they doing to us? I am utterly devastated by the final scenes.

Are you a fan? Are you as shattered as me?

xoxo