Shroom Season

One of the joys of this time of the year in the Marsh, apart from warm fires and dark ale, is the Plethora of fungi. No where else have we seen such a huge variety of freaky shapes and colours in these strange creatures from the dark side.

I am sure, to the knowledgeable and the appreciative, these would provide a trove of culinary delights. Unfortunately Lily and I agree on this one culinary fact, mushrooms taste like death. Coupled with the fact that some of them can actually kill you, we content ourselves with looking. For an awesome literary investigation of the magic and symbolism of mushrooms try Gunter Grass' 'The Flounder'

Nectar

In november last year we resurrected my lifelong dream to be a bee man. Building on some misdirected adventures with bees back in my twenties, I read some more books and bought two hives from Colin at Corio. Since then we have collected a swarm from Bob & Jeannie's in Barwon Heads (not as scary as it sounds).

"Smoke em if you've got em" Bob says. So he is.

Bob and Me cracking the seal on a hive.

Bob checking a frame of honey stores. 2/3 eaten as it is winter and the girls are living on rations.

A few jars harvest in late Summer this year. At present the girls (150,000 or so) are living on stores gathered in better weather. Hopefully another harvest at the end of Spring after some warm weather and blossom.

Another pastime resurrected from my twenties, thanks to our lovely daughter Rose by way of a xmas present in kit form, beer making. The two activities go nicely, as a bit of honey finds its way into brews. Pictured are a dark ale "Pelt", "Honey Wheat" & "Riddell's Creek Massacre" - a dark ale infused with Shiraz.

Cold out, stay in and paint

Shocking weather, cold and wet. So the past week has seen us inside by the fire, oil paint fumes notwithstanding, having fun. Inspired by the Cloud Appreciation Society, I have been painting clouds. See below Cumulo-Nimbus over Whoorel, Cumulo-stratos over Mt. Gellibrand, Bulbous Cumulo over Wendsleydale and others. Lily has been looking at creepy tiny worlds under glass.

Not an Island

Ghastly right? The damn pine panelling adorns every surface in the kitchen, including the hideous bench (pictured here with the saloon stools awaiting the howdys). But for the undeniable functional ease that an island bench brings, we would have knocked this bastard down for a start. Coming to terms with the necessity of bench space, we embarked on a quest to come up with an answer. How to have a bench, indeed a kitchen, that was at once functional and aesthetically okay. I guess this is a pretty common journey but one which, by the looks of the images on the internet, often ends in failure if not heartbreak. We had toyed with concrete benchtop, a company called Concrete Blonde do incredibly sexy patinations. We even considered some kind of faux stone which I could never quite deal with at a gut level. At one point we thought we had found the solution in a piece by Gitta Gschwendtner that really pushes the boundaries of outlandish functionality. "Why not make it a sculpture" came the not unfamiliar refrain from my beautiful wife.

We decided however that our space was not big enough to accomodate such a statement. The perennial question also raised its head, we have no money. We started looking at what we could do with the existing structure and cupboards and had a fun 24 hours brainstorming different solutions. We figured if we pulled out the beading and covered the bevelled panels, the existing structure could work. Pegboard was a front runner for a while, and we considered all things from collage to metal.
In the end, this assemblage/painting by Rosalie Gasgoigne provided the inspiration.

Several sheets of ply later, and some nips and tucks with the circular saw, this is the result. As for the top, we kept thinking stainless steel. Despite the nay sayers, I have always hankered for this easy wipedown slick surface. Again, money remained an issue until a neighbour said, "go see Rob in Colac". We did and he whipped up this top in a few days at a price that was unbeleivable. Almost incredibly, the top slipped on like a glove having been expertly made from my crappy drawings.