Tina's Wedding

I was very excited to be invited to go to Tina's (one of the girls I work with) wedding. No only is Tina awesome, gorgeous and deserves every happiness in life, she and her now husband John, are Aussie-Greek and we had heard at work all about the plans for their a smallish (375!) Greek Orthodox wedding. My first Greek wedding.

February in the Kitchen Garden

The garden was really starting to thrive in Dec-Jan, when, we moved. I kept a few smaller things (capsicum plant, herbs) but ripped most of it out (and into the worm farm) as we were concerned about how we were going to move it all. We need not have worried, our friendly removalists berated me for having removed most of the plants and some of the soil (quote from one of the guys "have you seen the muscles on that guy?!"), but, too late, it was done.

So, Jan was pretty much start all over again. I do have some photos of 'January in the Kitchen Garden' however I think they are currently 'stuck' on my old phone, hopefully I can get them later.

We jump straight to February:

Left to right:

Smokey's pot - Bottle Brush & Cat Grass

Square Foot Garden - Tomato x2, Capsicum, Bean, Corn, Carrots x3 'plots', Marigolds

Large pot - Zuchini

Four white herb pots - Lettuce, Rosemary & Mint, Parsley & Thyme, Oregano & something that repels mozzies

Large pot & climbing - Sweet Potato

Little white pot - Strawberry

From the other direction

 Because I had to hit 'reset' on the garden, apart from the odd herbs, I had not really harvested anything from the garden... until late Feb. These cheesy zuchini enchiladas were the first meal made using produce from the garden, a HUGE zuchini.

Since then I have also bought myself (another) cooking book... Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden Cooking with Kids. With ideas from this book I have massively increased the amount of herbs I am using and it has helped shape my plans for what to plant next. Anyone interested in kitchen gardening and simple cooking from scratch, especially a novice like me, I can't recommend it highly enough!

Smokey update - Jan-Mar 2012

We might love the new house, but there is one member of our family who does not. His-Royal-Highness, Sir Bugalugs, Mr Smokey. He has become uber-demanding and crying frequently especially at night. He didn't seem to mind being shifted interstate but down the road...

It has been so bad at times that we were worried our neighbours might complain and we get evicted (we do have permission to have him here). We have tried all sorts of things, lots of cuddles, making designated Smokey places, bowls of water all over the house, initially keeping him inside only... then rigging up chicken wire and his own climbing frame so he can at least explore the backyard and (from the vet) pheromone spray and diffuser.

He does seem to be settling down bit by bit, we are now having 'good nights' and 'bad nights'. Last night we had less crying and back to the smoochy Smokey we know, though, it was a bit tricky at times to sleep with him on our chest, back or feet.

 Smokey's stairs/climbing frame. That is our bedroom window.

Whatcha doin Matt? Can I play too?

 He is cute, when sleeping.

New Home (and no phone)

Sorry I have been a bit slack of late. Life has been busy and a bit disorganised. I have finally nabbed some computer time from Matt and Liam and will hopefully do a couple of posts tonight.

To further complicate things slightly, my (smart) phone has died (i.e. it was often my camera and browser). It was on its last legs for a while and a repair under warranty kept it going for a bit longer, but it has now completely gone (RIP Nexus One). I did toy with the idea of getting another, I think Matt was drooling at the thought of having a Nexus Prime in the house, but I have decided (with permission from work) to consolidate my work and personal mobiles. For the past 2.5 years I have been juggling with two mobiles... keeping both of them charged and available when needed. The downside is a change of personal mobile number. I will do a mass email and continue to forward my old phone to my new one for a couple more weeks.

On to the fun stuff... our new home. It's great! Exactly what we had been looking for. Has made waiting for the right thing to come by worth it. It is still in the Inner West (next suburb over but not quite as close to my work as we were hoping), terrace/duplex, single story, we think federation (not too hard to work out which part of the house is original and which came later), two bedrooms, small but adequate bathroom, massive retro-awesome kitchen, concrete back yard and separate garage. Let's have a walk-thru:

Front door, hallway with Liam's bedroom door on the left. This is one half of the hallway... it is huge.
This part (the original part) of the house also has beautiful, ornate and high ceilings.
The lighting is bad (phone camera), but the walls are grey, with white ceilings and a darker grey trim.
The carpet is a grey-cream, tawny according to Matt.

Our room, again, huge!  (please excuse the mess)
We have furniture from 1.5 rooms of our old place and it still feels nice and spacious.
Yes, that is an air-con on the wall too :)
Liam's room is roughly the same size, just no built-ins or air con.

Living space number one, our lounge room.
To the left (out of shot) is a non-functional fireplace.
 We have our TV etc there.

I am standing in the doorway you can see in the previous shot.
2nd living space, that we are using as a study, and thru the archway to the kitchen.
We have mentally divided the room in half with a desk and bookshelf each.
Matt is sitting at his desk, studying.
Mine is to the right (out of shot) where the red guitar is.

So much bench space. This is about 2/5ths - the rest is to the left, you can see some in the last picture.
Also, beautiful big windows and cooking with gas!

The necessities: toilet - left, bathroom - middle, laundry - right (you can just see it in the previous shot).
Not as nice as the rest of the place and our old unit, but functional.