I remember one year when Autumn began while we were in Switzerland. It was dramatic. The forest turned from a rich and vibrant green to brilliant oranges, red and yellows and I simply loved it. I loved it because having lived in Australia or other tropical countries my entire life, I had never seen such a transformation. It was almost like magic. Here, in Northern New South Wales, I have no photos to share with you of orange, red and yellow leaves littering the floor, for (unless it doesn’t rain... Read The Rest →

This week I am guest posting over at Golubka. If you’ve never been there before click here and have a look. As you will see, the recipes, photography and stories are just amazing. I felt a little like an adolescent school boy asking a young girl he’d been secretly admiring out on a date as as I sat at the computer, trying to write Anya an email. ”Errrm…do you…think that ummm…you might…sort of like to hmmm…consider me for a guest post?”  I wrote the words without in any way expecting a... Read The Rest →

“Where have you two been?” asked an Israeli boy, his lip slightly curled as he looked at us from behind the bar at a cheap backpackers in one of the northern most towns of Laos. The poms sitting next to him turned around, their eyes wide as they looked us up and down. Stefan and I had been at least three weeks living and sleeping in the surrounding forests and rice fields…hair matted into the first stages of dreadlocks (or more like a beaver tail), bodies encaked in mud, bitten,... Read The Rest →

We have been so busy lately preparing a video with our dear friends and favourite bloggers Errol and Georgia from Document Delight (exciting!!!!!) that my recipe creating and documenting has fallen a little by the way-side. So here I have for you just a little post… Lately, Bhumi and I have been playing with colour. Colour on our paper… and colour on our plates… Ingredients: For the salad… 1 yellow carrot 1 purple carrot 1 green zucchini 1 red capsicum Finely slice the red capsicum. Turn all of the remaining vegetables... Read The Rest →

Since returning home from our journey south the garden has flourished into a forest of food. Flowers from the male papaya trees are falling onto the leaves of wandering pumpkin vines that trail throughout flourishing galangal. The kaffir lime tree is dancing with glossy green leaves. The okra that I mentioned in this post are giving a modest but delicious harvest. Most of its leaves now eaten away by grasshoppers but its soft and feminine flowers and crunchy beans are like shining actors on a stage. Recently we planted bunches... Read The Rest →

We went south, really far south. Past Bangalow, where we collected bag loads of free organic limes from a friend’s garden. Past Sydney, where we bagged baskets of organic oranges from my dad’s farm and almost endless little purple thai eggplants from my brother’s now self-sowing vegetable garden. Past Moreton national park where we camped in a sheltered clearing high up on the edge of a sharply descending ridge, waking through the night to hear the wind howling through the valleys below, but so protected in the arms of the surrounding... Read The Rest →

It seems like only yesterday, Bhumi and I were playing in our little house by the sea and summer was just beginning. Now, the air is beginning to cool and light is beginning to soften. In under an hour we will be leaving for a big trip down south. By the time we return, summer will be well and truly over. Perhaps you can see in the mood of my photographs, Im a little gloomy about it. Our last little house by the sea has been taken by the recent... Read The Rest →

“Mumma booby?” asked Bhumi in the sweetest tone as she smiled at me with all of her teeth, wrapping her arms around my neck, bringing her face close to mine and dropping her head back in a way she knows will take my every ounce of constraint to refuse. “No sweety” I said. Ultimately knowing that those words point to an impending battle, one which will probably lead to my surrender, hands down…or shirt down, which ever one comes first. “Ask papa..?” Says Bhumi, still sweet. “Ok, you can ask... Read The Rest →

Giant pots of soup have been filling our bowls on the kitchen table, warming our bellies with lentils, beetroot and ginger. Stars have been falling from the sky…night and day. Remember our twinkling babies from this post? Look at them now… Our carambola (starfruit) tree is growing on the ridge of our small dam amongst many native tress. It seems to be very much enjoying the wet weather and micro-climate created around the dam. The fruits are such a delicious delight…firm and delicately sweet, crispy and intensely juicy and so pretty... Read The Rest →

In all of the crazy rain we are having our garden is turning into a mesh of delicious jungle. Everything is so leafy and green that even the giant grasshoppers can’t keep up. We will soon be harvesting okra, pumpkins and thousands of cucumbers. Stefan is also tending a self-seeded passionfruit vine growing over a self-seeded avocado tree (pictured below right). Yesterday afternoon he beckoned me excitedly to come and see how many “big, round, juicy ripe fruits there are all over this vine…these you will definitely want to picture... Read The Rest →