The Apple Shed ( Willie Smith And Sons)

A story from a while ago but such great photos.

I had to celebrate the apple isle Tasmania yet again, especially as we are flush with our northern NSW apples now.

It’s all about baked apples (recipe below) and apple crumble at our house right now.

Just out of Huonville lies the recently renovated Apple Shed and museum

Surrounded by the extensive organic Willie Smith apple orchards.

It’s a great old shed converted into cafe, bar, museum and brewery.

I am very fond of industrial building conversions.

In the wood grain is the echoes of clashing machines and chatter and shouts, dust, busy-ness, productivity and apple perfume.

   
   
The great Apple wall had us captivated with such a quantity of names! Quite poetic really.

   
    
 The old sorting and packing relics are beautifully preserved, I particularly liked the sorting bench with the different sized holes for apples to drop through and land in soft hessian baskets.

   
  

It’s fabulous getting around with someone who knows so much!  
    
    
   
When we got home, Keith’s home made apple pie was yummier than theirs…. 

 

Baked Apples x 8

8 large apples cored and with a belt line scored around their tummy

Almonds up to 16 of them

1/4 cup each of

Desiccated coconut

And

Almond meal
Mixed with 

2 tablespoons rapadura sugar 

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Mix dry things with about

 1/4 cup of melted butter

To get a stiff pasty mix

Plug the bottom of each cored apple with an almond or two

and line them up in a baking dish

Stuff with your yummy mixture and bake for about 1/2 an hour at 180’c

Or Until You can’t wait any longer! You could always make more as they are delicious cold the next day, put in the lunch boxes.

Enjoy x

Roselinde

snapshot #1

  
Welcome to the snapshot series,  number 1

A snapshot is popularly defined as a photograph that is “shot” spontaneously and quickly… Celebrate the moments of your life. Wikipedia

I will endeavour to post one special snapshot each week this year

One precious moment I cherished this week 

Simply a snapshot, no words (if I can resist)

I used to do a Friday, this moment,  but now I want to do snapshots! 

My photographs are nearly always spontaneous, (I’m not always quick though!)

Join me if you care to and comment with a link to your snapshot.

Enjoy

Roselinde

Xx

PS I wish I had a really gorgeous watercolour snapshot banner to post here…

A Berry Good Birthday 

   
   
    
   This berry good birthday for me included **
Being in Tasmania !!!!!

With Beloved family

A wildflower and moss wreath around my table place

Sweet gifts, something from nature something to read something to wear something to eat something to enjoy

Savoury colourful breakfast

Tasmanian cheese platter for lunch ( lots of Tongola goat milk cheeses) mmm

Berry berry delicious berries and cream with an almond meal sponge cake ( thankyou mama and Lily)

Games

Walks in the bush

Swims in the icy southern sea

Fossicking amongst sea rocks for urchins and shells

Kisses and hugs 

Berries

Lucky me

Xx

Roselinde

PS welcome to the New Year everybody! 

 As my writing is sporadic here, I do wonder who’s out there reading my posts (aside from my family and friends) and what your life looks like. Do blogs still get read and cherished, when they are so much longer than other social contacts?

Having this blog has been so important to me and aside from a nostalgic look book for myself and family it has been a place of creative expression, expansion, glimpses of life’s gold and sharing with a bigger world than my home life. It’s been wonderful to have something all my own amidst family life and  It’s incredible to feel connected to  folk near and far!

I’m dreaming up spending more time here this year, and to do more of this thing I love to do yet seem to be struggling with. Words are being clunky in me, the songs of expression hushed and I can only overcome that with writing more, and anticipate the joy that brings me.

If you are still out there reading along  I’d love to hear about what you enjoy seeing here on my blog!

if I don’t know you personally I’d love to know where you are from and how your days are shaped. Tell me if you have a blog and I will come and have a visit!

Blessings upon the coming year.

May peace reign within and without 

***

Meals on Wheels

A grand part of this adventurous lifestyle is the diversification of our diet.

The beauteous, bountiful, delight of flavoursome flavours and seasonal sensations….

What we eat and when we eat and where we are at the time, becomes significant in our days and our memories.

Meals shared, simple or imaginative become one of the threads woven into our travels.

“remember the first cherries of the season, fat and almost black, on that 42’c day, edging closer to Melbourne with bushfire smoke in the breeze and a trail of cherry pips behind us like Hansel and Gretel…”

There is simply more time to apply to our meals, and where and how we procure them {usually}

Sometimes we gather our own.

Often we go grower direct at farmers markets or roadside stalls or community gardens or your garden…

we may invite our hosts, our neighbours, strangers or friends…

I am patient enough to include the children in the preparation when they are interested.

I am relaxed enough to leave the pancake making to Lily and not fret about the floury kiss she leaves.

We often times eat outdoors which brings it’s own magic to dining.

Splendid sky shows or animal shows, scents or sand or sweet water trickling, the diversity of our surrounds keeps us amused as we are cosied up in our own dining room watching the world.

Places are noted by what we ate or found there.

Mealtimes become a simple time of togetherness and sharing.

we may sing or say a blessing while holding hands or we may dig in

we may play apples and onions, a game in which each shares the apple {high point} and onion {challenge} of their day

we may not talk at all or there may be silliness and giggles, playing with food creatively or coaxing children to eat what they aren’t interested in. there may be sadness or stillness, tiredness or crying, tantrums and food on the floor, abandoned plates or plates licked clean, cosy inside, crammed inside, on the ground mat, in someone else’s home, in a carpark, by the sea the creek or the sand, we may be in the park or in your garden, it’s not like the rhythm of our table at home, but in it all there is a rhythm and hum of family time wherever we are sharing food and the making of memories.

sometimes it’s the gratitude of cooking in a kitchen provided by a generous friend, the joy of baking in ovens and hot water on tap and the warmth of friendship around the table

thankyou to all of you out in the world who support our journey, it means so much to me xx

some glimpses…

Oatlands, salmon pasta, each of us making our plate uniquely and organic Callington mill woodfired bread.

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Circus Festival, 4 kg organic Blueberries picked ourselves and as big a grapes {well small grapes}

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Cockle Creek, cockles found with our toes and served with risotto, tomato mussels and watching Jesse slurp palm sized oystersIMG_0017 IMG_0019

Hobart playground, 4kg sweetest apricots, 1 kg silvanberries, 1kg blackberries, 1 kg cherries, and oh more blueberries… mmmmm

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Hobart dock front, fresh bread and eggs, kale and tomatoes and basil fresh from market while the others are in bed still, hands cold from the chill morning wind

porridge porridge lots of porridge {and stirred with my new Huon Pine Spurtle to replace my hand lathed NZ pear wood  spurtle from 2008}

Niyahitiny’s, pancakes and pancakes and pancakes and hot potato chips salty with rosemary and fresh garden salads and also berry sago coconut pudding

IMG_0520 IMG_0243 IMG_0246and let’s not forget the yumminess of vanilla icecreams in mini cones with fresh rasberries mashed into it found on the way there…

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Cloudy Bay, abalone and fish and 40 strawberries

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Ferry off Bruny Island, $50 of cheeses and fresh bread warm from the oven

each cheese round has it’s ‘birthday’ inscribed on it
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Liffey Falls, picnic with Lily in the middle of the river on a wide rock, nori rolls and dried fruit

Tasmazia, popcorn in the middle of the hexagon maze, flopping in the sunshine feeling glorious
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Cygnet, savory pancakes with punchy Swiss style goats cheese

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Port Huon, more pancakes with blueberries watching the sunset over sailing boats and golden hills and then an invitation to go sailing on Thursday afternoons if we return…

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Hobart Italian Street fiesta, huddled in the shade with fresh pizza and the italian chatter over our heads

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Warburton, raw zucchini pasta salad with all ingredients picked from the public gardens except olives and cheese

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Little Peninsula, bean tortillas, the benches are all rotted out and wet so we all perch on the table, it’s really messy and the kids have their feet on the table and love it…

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Dancing Ground Festival,400 people, happy queues for wholesome catering under a glowing red tent, kids and parents to the front!

endless delicious meals in the grandparents kitchen, sitting on the stools playing ‘whats your favorite pottery’ with Lily

many meals in our welcoming friends homes and gardens

many meals quietly and unremarkably pass by also…

hmm reflecting on this above, it’s an awful lot of fruit, pancakes, cheese and bread… varied diet?

{absolutely, I just don’t photograph the steamed veg and rice meals and other as they are all too familiar …}

are you hungry now?

is food central in your family connection?

do you grow/make/forage your own?

do you have a lovely foodie memory with us?

xx

peace and mung beans

an alternate first aid kit

Our travelling first aid kit

I have had multiple requests lately to share details of what I stock in our family health care/first aid kit

so below you will find a comprehensive list of many natural products we reach for first

it is often changing as I discover new {or sometimes very old} approaches to health care

wattle blossoms

 

Homeopathic kit

Ainsworths 42 essential remedies (mini kit in a hard case with a comprehensive book)

Essential oils

Preferred organic and Australian where possible, The Oil Garden and Warbotanicals are favorites

{i travel with over 30 essential oils, below are the most oft used, i must get them a lovely case to store them in one day.}

I frequently refer to The Fragrant Pharmacy for guidance on essential oil usage

Lavender

Eaucalyptus

Tea tree

Chamomile

Arnica

Calendula

Peppermint

geranium

Dottera essential oil blends

Therapeutic quality oils so some can be ingested, follow instructions only

On guard {immune boost, preventative}

Breathe {clears congestion, soothes chest complaints, clears the head}

Past tense {de stress, clear the mind, perspective}

Thanks Jane

Small first aid kit from pharmacy

Updated with fabric bandaids

Good tweezers

nail scissors

Non adhesive pads (good for covering wounds, cuts, scrapes, this helps keep them clean when we are outdoors a lot)

Paper tape to seal the pads on

Herb teas

{i currently have a supply from Highland Herbs in Tasmania}

Cold and flu blend {peppermint, yarrow, elderflower, thyme, hyssop. Echinacea, fennel, ginger}

Calm kids blend {nettle, lemon balm , spearmint, alfalfa, chamomile, calendula}

Licorice (coughs)

Herb tincture

Coughs and colds blend

olive leaf extract

echinachea tincture

Balms and ointments

Pawpaw ointment

Calendula ointment

Arnica ointment

Insect repellant (my own)

Burns cream Martin & Pleasance (homeopathic)

Cold sore cream (from Alchemy Bellingen {Hypericum &calendula tinctures, bergamot tea tree and

hypericum ess oils in vitamin e cream})

 

we also use

vitamin c powder with Hesperidin

apple cider vinegar

raw honey

organic garlic

 

Flower essences

Physical, mental and emotional well being

{I have my stock from Living Flower Essences in Western Australia}

Rescue remedy

Accident relief cream (bumps, bruises, aches, sore throat, sore belly) Living Essences 1ltr

Body bliss cream (relaxant, kids massage, anxiety, asthma) Living Essences 1ltr

Serenity for Women spray

Contentment for Men spray

Sneeze Ease spray

Travel ease spray

Harmony and Relaxation spray

WA living flower essences practitioner kit to create our own personalized remedies of these beautiful subtle helpers

 

I often refer to The Guide to Child’s Health if I am presented with a circumstance which is unfamiliar.

 

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wishing you all happiness and good health

always get help on how to use health products from a qualified practitioner you trust

xx

what do you reach for to promote good health?

what would you add to this list?

what magic remedy have you discovered to share with us all?

if I remember anything else I will update this list…

Bruny Island bliss

Bruny Island adventures

a long story with lots of photographs

It begins with

crankiness along the coast

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tired and tetchy

itchy and scratchy

we are at a frictious all time low {i think that every time we hit the downside of our cycle}

finally a camp at the neck campground and some play

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i remember to bring out the watercolour paints and pencils

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Jesse remembers to play music

(note the kids cubby next door)

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which i tried to help with by request and ended up being screamed at

tempers are frayed these days

but Lily finds meditation in making a bush home for Cedar’s leopard

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we look for penguins late into the night

and are just cold and disappointed

{take a red light torch and lots of warm clothes, a flask of hot tea and make everyone be silent or the penguins will wait until the noisy crowd gives up and not come to everyone else leaves! making their young wait hours while they wait in the water until it’s safe}

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adventure bay offers us a little respite simply by being beautiful and we split up and take a child each and some space

but things are stilted and we are not flowing together

even filling our water tank becomes an issue

i am reminded that despite external surroundings it is one’s inner state which dictates one’s happiness

and that when one is happy one doesn’t mind so much where one is!

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i start to pray

help us find a safe place to unfold

find a friend for Lily

find a supportive friend for Jesse

find me a hot shower and some nurturing

and then

like a mirage is Michael running down the road

ask and ye shall receive

oh thankyou!

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Michaels blue bush palace has evidence of his seabound joy everywhere

boats, diving gear, surfboards, fishing tackle, shells, paddles, wetsuits, seaweed…..

He and Jesse met nearly 15 years ago and he generously invites us to stay a night

{which becomes two}

he has an abundant garden including a hothouse for the cold season

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and thrives on this and seafood of all varieties

he collects and dries his own wild seaweed for added nutrition!

Michael shares his warm heart and uplifting life values so openly

we can’t help but ease open too.

Lily and his son Brody become instant mates and Cedar is happy playing with his tonka truck

or shovelling sand

I luxuriate in a long hot riverwater shower…

We are blown away to have abalone prepared for us {me first time! ahhhh yum}

though at first i can’t believe these yucky slimy mess are so coveted

the bounty of Michael and Flo’s {current French WWOOFer}  recent dive

prepared with Michaels incredible {unusual} experienced process

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{not what they do in restaurents}

we are soon feasting

Cedar decides to eat nothing else!

luxury tender surprising salty deliciousness!

i cant quite fathom we are eating about $300 worth of abalone!

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Jesse and I look at each other and wonder how we got here?

while the men are cooking I wander about photographing the property

it is all blue, light, timber trims, glass and mirrors

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a lush oasis on Bruny island

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and then morning and Michael shares his passion for surfing with us

his clear enthusiasm is infectious and transparent

we meet the only other family on the beach on holiday from Sydney and wishing they lived here

i am fascinated by his {holiday fellow} hollow wooden surfboard, a beautiful play thing

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Lily gets her first wave! she is helped up to standing and then pushed off to ride to shore again and again

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she is totally high

and freezing

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while the others are in the icy seaweedy water {swim anyone?}

i play ashore with Cedar

and engage myself with unknotting a 15m tangle of kelp I love this giant sea tree

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i slice some of the new growth to take home and dry

to add to soups

next is our beach drive tour of Cloudy bay

ending with a paradisical swim in the pristine turquoise calm side of the bay

the land is a stunning contrast of sea sky and forest

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it feels untouched and still enchanted here and i am deeply touched by the peace and bounty of this area

the children slide down a massive sand dune endlessly

Jesse and I swim and chase

while Michael catches up on some internet work

{and if y’all get over there quick you too can meet Michael at the awesome festival which he organizes!}

what a beautiful friend living an incredible lifestyle

I am so inspired by this man who is living his bliss

sharing his bliss

caring for and inspiring others

Thankyou for welcoming us in and encouraging the joy back into our hearts

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so a long story that started painfully, had a happy ending

and the finale was sailing the bus and eating a pile of fresh baguettes and cheese…

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sometimes i feel like the luckiest woman