Country Style For February

I have always loved houses with verandahs.  Something about them looks particularly gracious and welcoming.  So I was impressed when I picked up this month's Country Style. It comes complete with a stylish verandah on the cover.  This appeals to me particularly, as on the stylish veranda there is a gorgeous cane armchair with Nanna flowers and Nanna cushions.

A Very Lovely Place To Sit

Unfortunately sitting on such a chair on the The Farmhouse verandah in February would not be a stylish option. There would be so many flies they may well carry away the flowers and the cushion.  It would also be super hot, even under a shady verandah.  Oh well, I will keep dreaming.  As always my authentic Australian Country Style lifestyle does not live up to magazine standard....

With the mid week public holiday, things have been pretty busy at the beach.  All the houses in our little street have been full.   On Tuesday night the house next door was full of young guys in their late teens.  As you would expect they got quite rowdy.  I did get the giggles at one point when we overheard a word by word argument between one guy and his (potentially ex) girlfriend about whether he had or hadn't "hooked up" with someone else on New Year's Eve. (Surely it is not eavesdropping when people are shouting about 10 metres away from your bedroom window?!?).  Just when things were getting interesting she stormed off.  I keep wanting to wander next door and ask how the fight ended.  Neighbours take some getting used to when you usually live in the middle of a paddock...

I have been mulling over topics for potential blog posts.  I always have lots of ideas, but was thinking I may ask all of you out there if there is anything in particular about being on a farm you would like to know. Let me know any ideas you have...  And once again, thank you for reading.  I am still continually amazed by the amount of support my blog gets!

2011 Here We Come

As sometimes happens our quiet New Year's Eve got hijacked by some friends and turned into a much bigger night than was planned.  The Farmer is still in bed and looks like he may be there for sometime...

We had a great evening.  Some friends plus a neighbour (who just happened to be passing by at about 6pm) spent the evening at The Beach House with us.  We sat under the back verandah and drank champagne and ate seafood.  I went to bed at the very respectable time of 12.45am.  At this point I decided discretion was the better part of valour.  This was a decision I was super glad of at about 7am when The Farmchildren woke up.    I can honestly say I don't know what time The Farmer came to bed. That's OK - I asked him and apparently he doesn't know either...

Our evening started with these excellent nibbles...

Nibbles For New Year's Eve At The Beach House

I made some yummy crayfish.  I will post the recipe on another day. (I am seriously considering a whole post devoted to "The Western Rock Lobster"!!)

I love it when a low key evening spontaneously turns into a great party.  Some of my best New Year's Eves have been in that vein.  The reverse being also true, sometimes when I have had huge plans I have been disappointed.

I have been reading lots of blog posts and really enjoyed seeing others resolutions and recaps of 2010.  I haven't really made any huge resolutions for 2011.

This is for a couple of reasons.  The first being that I often make plans and they get thrown completely awry by life, the universe, whatever...

The second being that unfortunately I suffered some health issues in 2011 that resulted in lots of time in hospital and surgery etc.  They are resolved now but have left me thinking that just being myself, being  healthy and spending lots of time with my family and friends will be more than enough for me in 2011.

Happy New Year Everyone!

The House Paddock

All Partied Out

The party yesterday was a great success.  Yay!  We love a good party here on The Farm.

I managed to resurrect the cupcakes so they looked like this.

Resurrected Cupcakes

I used my best Nanna china.

Nannaware

I got some baby bocconcini, grape tomatoes and fresh basil and made some mini Caprese salads on cocktail sticks.  They were yummy, healthy and looked very Christmassy.

Mini Salads

Farmgirl channeled Sarah Jessica Parker and rocked this somewhat eclectic party look.

And halfway through my kitchen looked like this.

Farmhouse Kitchen In Party Mode

Overall a wonderful time was had by all.

Friends are very important when you are a farmer's wife.  Their support is invaluable.  I love it when we all get together.  And have a champagne or two.

Cupcake Carnage aka The Baking Gods Are Cross

Today I am hosting a ladies brunch for one of my dearest friend's birthday.  All of my friends are getting pretty tired and a bit fed up with harvest and the endless hours of work being done by their husbands.  So I thought a little celebration would be a nice idea.

I have decided to use all of my best "Nanna Style" china and want things to look all lovely and flowery.

 I managed to find these gorgeous cupcake cases.

Gorgeous Nanna Style Patty Pan

Whilst they may be super cute, they are also about half a cupcake larger than the cases I would usually use.

I busily got baking yesterday afternoon.

Busy Baking Scene In The Farmhouse Kitchen

Unfortunately I misjudged the baking time due to the bigger cases. Or The Baking Gods were frowning on me.  Either way I pulled cupcakes out of the oven that looked like this.

Cupcake With Big Crater In Middle

I quickly whipped up another batch and made a few adjustments and had a little word with The Baking Gods.  The next lot looked like this.

Lovely Craterless Cupcake

Unfortunately there are not enough nice ones.  I can't be bothered baking anymore.  I have a couple of standard recovery methods from baking failures.  The first is to give everyone enough champagne that they don't even notice.  The second is to cover the failed baked goods with mountains of whipped cream and rose petals...

Here is a photo of how I rescued some dodgy cupcakes and turned them into Farmgirl's Christening Cake.

Puddings At Farmgirl's Christening

I am going to get onto the whipped cream first thing this morning.

If all else fails I have one other plan.... Fussy Eater's Mum is coming today and has made this beautiful chocolate ball tree.  If I can't come up with anything else I am going to give people lots of champagne.  And try and persuade them I made it.

A Red Dress For A Farm Christmas

I am very excited as I went to the Post Office yesterday and there was a present. For Me!  Admittedly from me too, but that is how internet shopping goes.  I had ordered a dress to wear on Christmas Day.  I have longheld the belief that Christmas is as good an excuse as any for a new dress.

Just for a little while I want everyone to pretend I am a stylish fashion blogger type person.  The lovely Sydney Shop Girl posts beautiful pictures of her outfits and I thought I would channel her.  Only for today though, I think if I posted what I wore every day people would get sick of T-shirts, jeans, boots and thongs....

Incidentally I am lucky enough to have known SSG for many years ( we went to the same Uni ) and she is just as sweet and glamorous in real life as she is in the blogging world.

Anyway, back to the dress.  I searched a big shopping centre in Perth a week or so ago for what I wanted and found absolutely nothing.  That night I hopped online and found exactly what I wanted in ten minutes. It was a sign from The Shopping Gods.  So I click clacked away and bought it.  Should I be concerned I know my Visa details by heart?

Here it is.

My New Red Dress

It is made of a soft swishy jersey.  I love it.  On Christmas Day I am going to wear it with my Holster sparkly thongs.  I have had them for a long time and they make me happy.  They have a strong "Nanna On The Gold Coast" vibe which I adore. They even have glitter embedded in the clear rubber.  If ever there is a time for plastic-fantastic blingy footwear it is Christmas in Australia.

I bought the dress from Max Shop which is a NZ based company.  The prices are reasonable, the delivery time is rapid and the quality (particularly of their knitwear) is amazing.  Their range is huge, not all of it is to my taste, but I can always find something I like....

So there you have it - what I will be wearing on Christmas Day.

New Shoes

Nothing cheers me up quite like new shoes.  Farmgirl shares this characteristic.  She has a new pair.

Farmgirl's Cute Foot, Painted Toes and New Sandal (very pink)

And I am very jealous.

There is no such thing as too much pink in Farmgirl's world.

A Christmas Tree Snob No More

After saying just recently that I would hold off on putting up our tree, I gave in yesterday.  Not just because we were all excited but also as The Farmer had his first day off in ages and wanted to be involved.

I must admit to being a bit of a real Christmas tree snob.  I, ever so slightly, turned my nose up at fake trees. When at home on The Farm for Christmas we have always had a real Christmas tree.  We have a special expedition and cut down our tree, sometimes a gum tree, sometimes not.  This year I decided the time had come to give in and buy a fake tree.  I was sick of the mess from real trees. They were also often well past their use by date by Christmas Eve.

The romance of a real tree has well and truly gone for me....

I took myself off to Big W and purchased a "Hudson".  I chose it for the simple reason that it was the biggest tree they had.  I have decided that fake trees are like fake diamonds.  If you are going to have one, you might as well have a really big one.

So here it is.

The Farm Christmas Tree

I think it needs a few more decorations.  Other than that I love it.  I am a fake tree convert.   The Farmchildren love it too.  Farmgirl woke up this morning and ran straight in to check it hadn't gone anywhere in the night.  She has also disappeared a few times today and I have found her lying underneath it "just looking".

Here are my two favorite decorations.

Pretty Gold Bird

Egg With Bird, Also Very Pretty

Interestingly both of these decorations were gifts from different Danish friends.  The fact that they were given to us by such lovely people makes them super special.

Farmgirl loves anything sparkly.  I noticed a few decorations were missing.  She had removed her favorites from the tree and chosen to decorate her bed with them.

Evidence of Farmgirl's Magpie Tendencies

I asked her why she chose those ones and she said.

"Because they are pretty."

I haven't had the heart to put them back on the tree...

A Farm Christmas

This year I am getting very excited about Christmas.  The reason for this is The Farmchildren.  Farmboy is almost six and Farmgirl is three and a half.  They are at the stage where they are completely enraptured by the concept of Christmas.  Last year was magical - even if they did wake up initially at 2.45 am and The Farmer and I had to put them in our bed to stop them getting up...

I have been thinking that there will probably not be that many Christmases left where there is this level of magic.  So The Farmer and I have decided to milk every bit of a joy out of this one we possibly can.

It has started already.  Farmboy's class are doing "Hark The Herald Angels Sing" for their item at the Christmas concert.  I know the sight of Farmboy and his gorgeous classmates dressed as angels will make me want to cry.  Farmboy himself is interested in the word "hark".  We have explained it means something along the lines of "stop and listen".  He now walks in the kitchen and says

"Hark.  I would like an apple."

It makes me laugh everytime (and is better than a few other words he has picked up at school lately).

The Farmchildren's Christmas wish list changes daily.  This morning Farmgirl wanted a penguin, but only a small one.  Farmboy wanted a leopard seal.  When asked why he replied

"Because they eat penguins"

The potential of the almost six year old mind for evil is astonishing...

I have gone overboard on the planned decorations for the house.  We will have a big tree and lots of traditional decorations in our formal dining/lounge room.  I have a funkier theme planned for the kitchen and TV room.  I am resisting the urge to put all the decorations up until early December.  I think the wait for Christmas is going to seem long enough for The Farmchildren as it is, without going too hard, too early.  There is also only so many times I want to redecorate that tree..

The Farmer bought Freddo Frog advent calenders.  So I have hyperactive Farmchildren to look forward to every day for 25 days.  The Farmer has also decided he wants lots of lights outside.  It has been suggested I make a trip to the local hardware and stock up on supplies.

With the exception of a few items, I have tried to do as much Christmas shopping as I can in our small town this year.  Like many towns dependent on agriculture for business, it is suffering somewhat because of the poor season this year.  I also like wandering into the local butcher and discussing the size and type of ham and turkey I need.  Or chatting with the post office ladies about the best wrapping options for a lazy farmer's wife...

We have close and extended family coming to The Farm on Christmas Day.  And some friends too.  I am looking forward to planning our menu and cooking for them all.  I have decided to do the traditional Christmas dinner and all the trimmings.  I think that simple things done beautifully is the best way to go.

A Small Christmas Tree - Very Cute According to Farmgirl

I am hoping we have a Christmas to remember.

You've Got To Have Friends.

I have been living on The Farm now for quite a few years.  In that time I have been privileged enough to make some gorgeous friends.  When I first came here I already had a group of wonderful, close friends ( and we are still very close and they are still very wonderful)  but I realised for day to day survival I was going to need to find some friends who lived nearby.

I was dwelling on this today because I had morning tea with two of my absolute closest farmer's wife friends.  And I mean real friends.  Not the sort that you have to tidy the house and bake up a gourmet storm before they arrive.  More the ones that you can drop in and see when you are filthy dirty, in your oldest farm clothes  and your kids look like they haven't seen the inside of a bath for a week.  And know they will be happy to see you.

Over the years these sorts of friends have kept me sane.

They have babysat the Farmchildren.

They have  cooked for my family when I have been ill.

We have had the sort of phone conversations that go along the lines of:

Hello, It's me.

What are you having for dinner?

Apricot chicken, what about you?

Spaghetti Bolognaise.

OK. Bye, talk tomorrow

Bye

We have drunk too much coffee and too much wine.

We have happily helped ourselves to the contents of each others fridges.

They have laughed when I do things like superglue my hair to the telephone.  I have laughed when they do things like put roast lamb in the oven and forget to turn it on.

We have gone through the ups and downs of pregnancies and miscarriages together. And we have learnt how to be someone's mother together.

There isn't much you can say to these sort of friends.  Except thank you.

Farmboy for PM, The Arrival of Country Style.

Breaking news on The Farm is the fact that Farmboy wants to be Prime Minister.  He has been very interested in the concept of politics recently.  The Farmer and I have tried to explain the way voting works. We think he has got the picture.  He was explaining to me recently that he would do "good things" but only if people voted for him.  He was also not going to let his friends know too much about his plans in case they wanted to be Prime Minister too.  He is quite sensible in considering this (look what happened to Kevin).  Most importantly he knew he had two votes already, his Mum and his Dad.

Incidentally Farmboy has also expressed a wish to marry Julia Gillard.  His Dad said no (and a few other things).

My copy of Country Style magazine has arrived.  I love reading it - it is always full of pretty pictures and makes me see the best side of living in the country.  I particularly like looking at the gardening articles/photos.

This months copy shows a gorgeous evening setting on the cover.  I am concerned about what to do about the mosquitos that would surely be around though.  I guess you would just pop some Rid on and relax with a book and a drink.

Evenings are my favorite time on The Farm.  They are beautiful but not quite this glamorous.  Obviously I just need a few more props.

The first gardenia has appeared in my garden.

It smells beautiful.

In The Pink

I never used to be much of a pink girl.  Then Farmgirl arrived on the scene and seemed to bring with a her a selection of pink paraphernalia.  Numerous pink baby presents arrived and pink objects seemed to have bred in the Farmhouse since then.

What I have discovered is the power of pink to lift everyday objects to a higher plane of prettiness.  So, in the spirit of this discovery, I will take you on a little tour of my favorite pink things in and around the Farmhouse.

Pink Cyclamen On Kitchen Table

This pink cyclamen is very pink, cheery and was giving to me recently by a lovely friend when I was unwell.  This means it ticks all the boxes in the pink feel good stakes.

Mini Fry's Turkish Delight

I found a bag of these hidden in the Farmhouse lolly cupboard.  They are the mini versions because we advocate portion control on the Farm.  Except for the Farmer, he just has 3 of them at a time.  They are yummy and help deal with Bad Days.  Admittedly Bombay Sapphire Gin, Schweppes Tonic and any NZ white of the dry variety are also useful things to have around for Bad Days.  As they aren't pink though I will save them for another post.

Teacup and Saucer

I love this teacup and saucer because it was my grandmothers and I can remember being allowed to drink tea out of it as a little girl.  It is very special.  One day Farmgirl can have it.

Pink peg, fundraisers for breast cancer research

I like these pink breast cancer fundraising pegs.  They make hanging out the washing seem marginally more glamorous.

Pink New Holland Tractor (portion controlled)

Now this is one great bit of gear.  It is Farmgirl's weapon of choice in a variety of situations.  She uses it as transport to and from the school bus stop.  She is also pretty good at direct heading canola with it.  She just tends to do this at the wrong time of the season.  I think the reason the house paddock didn't yield as well as it could may be Farmgirls earlier efforts at harvesting.  I am sure it had nothing to do with the lack of rain.

Farmgirl Getting Dirty

This is my all time favorite pink object on, and off, the Farm.  This is Farmgirl!  She loves to wear highly unsuitable clothes out to the paddock.  She then gets them filthy dirty.  The battle to get her to wear jeans and T-shirt is ongoing.   We do have a strict closed-in shoe rule for safety reasons and at least she chose to accesorise this ensemble with hot pink gumboots.

On a completely different topic a big thank you to my three followers, SSG, Not A Ballerina and Pilbara Chick.  Yay - it makes me happy to have followers...! I like your profile pic Pilbara Chick - we are big truck fans on the Farm.  I do know that there are quite a few readers out there from the blog stats.  If anyone else wants to follow you just need a google account which is free and easy to set up - (hint, hint).

Ladies Who Lunch

Yay - it's Melbourne Cup Day.  In true Melbourne Cup spirit the Farm Ladies are frocking up and heading out to lunch.  Farmgirl, my mother-in-law and myself have dusted off our hats and are ready to go to the races.

A country Melbourne Cup lunch is a beautiful thing.  The one we are going to today will tick all the boxes.  It is being held in the type of small town that consists of a wheatbin, a railway siding and an old hall.  Lunch will have been prepared by a team of country ladies and hence will be beyond excellent.  Country ladies can cook.  There will be a fashion parade,  a hat competition and lots of sweeps.  The race will be shown on a big screen and you may or may not be able to hear the commentary.  The absolute best thing about a country Melbourne Cup lunch is that all ages from newborns to retired ladies will be in attendance.

Farmgirl and I have put a lot of thought into our outfits.  Standards will be high and we do not want to let the team down.

Farmgirl is going in this ensemble

She likes lots of pink and flowers are always important.  You may notice she has chosen a fascinator and a hat.  She is of the opinion that you should not restrict yourself to one type of headwear on Cup Day.  She can, and will, frequently swap them over.  This is an excellent fashion option if you are three years old.  Once you hit about seven I wouldn't recommend it.  People will either think a. you have tickets on yourself or b. you need to get out more.

I have gone down the slightly less colourful route.

Now I know that black and white is more suitable for Derby Day but we maintain flexibility here in the country when it comes to racing fashion traditions.  You will note I have restricted myself to one type of headwear.  Unlike Farmgirl I am not a fan of the fascinator.  I always feel quite silly in one.  The concept of bits of feathers sticking off my head brings to mind deranged chooks or indeed alien antennae.  I admire other peoples fascinators but whenever I try one on in the David Jones millinery section I just feel vaguely stupid.

I have chosen the sensible wedge heel option.  Stiletto heels in gravel carparks make elegant walking difficult.  I also haven't put a handbag in the photo.  This is because I would love you all to think I took an elegant little black designer number.  Instead I will take something large to store all the requirements of a day out with Farmgirl.  Numerous muesli bars, juice boxes, spare clothes and suncream don't tend to fit in small elegant handbags.  I know, it's a shame.

We are all planning on having a wonderful day.  It will be just like Flemington, only without the horses.

Stroppy Roses and Other Pretty Things

I have a beautiful burgundy iceberg rose growing in my garden.  I always have a smile when I see it. It reminds me of the time I googled iceberg roses to find out about some kind of disease my roses had.   Whatever it was I fixed it but I can remember that one lady had written how she hated the burgundy iceberg because it was too "moody".  How can a rose be moody?  I had pictures in my head of one rosebush refusing to speak to any of the other plants because it had got itself in a bit of a strop.

There is no time for moodiness in this farmhouse garden because all the plants need to direct their attention solely toward survival!  It's a pretty tough gig out there and anyone who loses focus does so at their peril...

Anyway my burgundy iceberg seems very happy with its lot.  It is blooming beautifully and seems to be in accord with all other plants in its garden bed.

Here is my burgundy iceberg, no signs of stroppy tendencies whatsoever.

No matter what plans I have I always seem to wind up with what I call a Nanna Style garden.  I think there are two reasons for this.  The first is that I seem to have a strong "inner nanna".  I find myself drawn towards pretty and quite old fashioned plants.  The other reason is that many Nannas, particularly those on farms, picked plants that were super tough and good at surviving.  If you had to water your plants with a bucket of water you had drained out of your twin tub then you tended to plant wisely.

Their is also a big old Cape Lilac tree out the back of the farmhouse.  It is absolutely smothered with blossoms.

Here it is.

It smells lovely and when I open the windows near the kitchen table the smell wafts in.