surprises like this I adore!

I dont know what was going on in the skies this past week or two but its been like I've been blessed from on high... so many lovely happenings... from the tiny to quite significant!

Now for some photos to tell some stories!

A dear friend across the Pacific sent me this appealing envelope - inside were a series of postcards based on her paintings - AND this decorative packet of poppy seeds from the famous Seed-Savers exchange in Iowa - her home state.

I posted these two postcards by Mary Zeran from the collection she sent me because I am particularly enamoured of the colours in these ones below ... liquid colours ... reminiscent of stormy skies and days at the beach without much sun - the one on the left! Mary blogs about her painting, process and I must say... loved her recent post on the Seed-Savers farm. Thank you Mary!!! The cards were such high quality that i could really appreciate the compositions of her works so much more than seeing it on the blog... made my heart sing! And I love the seeds ...even the envelope felt special!

Mary Zeran

Mary at Flickr - go see whats here!

Thank you for a lovely surprise Mary. It was such a delight to find this mail waiting!

This is a friend who is one of those deeply thoughtful people whom you are so glad the internet was invented so you could meet and swap notes across the miles

The very next day I think... a parcel arrived from the southern city of Melbourne... actually posted from the country... even better. A book... but not just any book! One that I recently blogged on and commented that I was dying to read.

Patience Grey is one of the authors

The book is 'Plats du Jour' by Patience Grey and Primrose Boyd

I wrote on this blog's sidebar (near the bottom) about another book by Grey which is an old favourite of mine. This was a slide I prepared for a recent event below which also gives an account of the book. If you clock on it to enlarge you might read it more easily.

Add caption

But where did it come from? 

well... it came from the person who took these photos...

see here.

and here.

and here at the most wonderful post called Rose Salt, Rose Sugar.

Rose salt

Though inordinately proud that for once I have a finished picture of a recipe to share, I'm not convinced that this salt is as good as Silvena Rowe's beautiful Purple Citrus & Sweet Perfume suggests. Good with fish, she says, but I wouldn't go out of my way to make it again. The fragrance improves after a week; prior to that, it has a grassy, earthy smell, one not entirely unpleasant, but not exactly inspiring either. Still blogworthy for its edible use of roses.

Gently pull the petals from 1 large, unsprayed red rose. Wash and dry the petals with care. Using fingers, rub the petals with 2 tblsp of sea salt crystals, keeping things a little chunky. Store in a lidded jar and allow a few days for the flavours to get to know one another. Keeps for at least a couple of weeks at (cool-ish) room temperature.

Who's the wonderfully clever person who could have written a page in Plats du Jour?

Well Lucy of course... from nourish me. I've put up photos of Lucy's work a number of times... big fan.

Weve chatted...she sent a postcard to the mnail art postcards show last year... and believe me a few minutes at Lucy's blog and you will come away feeling a little nourished and thinking...what could i do to create that sense of ambience or nurturing and domesticity at its best.

A very warm thank you also to my southern friend Lucy who knows how to turn a phrase ... and make one smile! I'm coming down to see your pizza oven working at your place in the country at some point in the future Lucy... red or white?

There are more surprises to post but... its very late so i'll hint a little.

???

ON Saturday someone came to visit and we had a great old day... chinwagged for 8 hours straight and painted the whole time. I'd not met her in real life before ... she's a blogger. Who knows those marks... anyone?

...well as its very late and I'm dropping off the sleep virtually... I'll say good night and come back soon wth more photos of this day.

It been a ridiculously busy week or two... I keep forgetting things and there's not been any time to blog or visit anyone... so please excuse me for this. More news soon!

Have a great week all!

sharing...

Sharing is the joint use of a resource or space. In its narrow sense, it refers to joint or alternating use of an inherently finite good, such as a common pasture or a shared residence. It is also the process of dividing and distributing. Apart from obvious instances, which we can observe in human activity, we can also find many examples of this happening naturally in nature. When an organism takes in nutrition or oxygen for instance, its internal organs are designed to divide and distribute the energy taken in, to supply parts of its body that need it. Flowers divide and distribute their seeds. In a broader sense, it can also include the free granting of use rights to a good that is capable of being treated as a nonrival good, such as information. Still more loosely, “sharing” can actually mean giving something as an outright gift: for example, to “share” one's food really means to give some of it as a gift.

text and image from wikipedia

I have  just downloaded photos... however ... being late (how unusual for me!) I am going to quickly share a few images of yesterday's special event which I told you of in the post from yesterday.
I also gave mention to the "postcards from the blogosphere" show I recently launched a call out for ... today I was absolutely delighted to be told "you've got mail" on my trip to the gardens. I have photos for you very soon... I want to link all the blogs with cards...so need time for that...

All the way from North Carolina today ...Lisa... if you are around... I was thrilled to find my way into the layers inside your large envelope... Biz and Tiffany in Reception at the Gardens were as excited as I was to discover what was inside! Come back to the next post for that revelation... sorry to tease... but I want to pay tribute properly to these lovely people who have found enough time in their day to share their wonderful thoughts with those of us who will have the pleasure of viewing the small works.

I have become very poor at making snail mail gestures like this myself. Once upon a time I had mail going off in many directions - often something creative and hand-made. I thought nothing of making calendars for friends... journal pages...

So this is NOT going to be taken for granted... not for a minute! 

Now to yesterday... the wildly delicious and colourful Winter Feast hosted by the prolifically creative and green-thumbed Diane and Guy... for the lively bunch at Samford Local Growers -  a group from the semi-rural north west Brisbane area.

Cooking with ingredients from "one's own back yard"... ethical eating... whatever name you give to this dinner concept... it was about very fresh and completely local food ( as far as possible) that you knew exactly how and where it had been grown - thoughtfully prepared and shared with a large table of delightful companions. The challenge was to see who could create a dish with the most ingredients grown in their back yard... or the dish with the least externally found ingredients. The first image has a list of ingredients that go with the spinach frittata and a salad... an amount of 14 or so items.... an excellent achievement I would say!

the stuffed nasturtium flowers and leaves were as good as they look!

these 2 salads contained a long list of ingredients....take the salad below:

a variety of salad greens

snow pea shoots

pumpkin

eggplant

saba nuts

eggs

cucumber

eshallot

dill

avocado

radishes

dressed with lime juice

chilli

honey

nb: only the avocado and honey came from beyond 

the backyard...and it was still organic and local!

frittatas above and quiche below were both full of good things! 

this cake had a glorious aroma... australian native honey from these small bees ( I must get more on this) was the main ingredient in both cake and icing. I cant recall the last time I encountered anything quite like this with such a heady but stunningly delicious aroma... and taste!  Diane... amazing!

Note:  my lime delicious pudding up above... it worked out quite nicely despite a few little issues... like ants in the sugar...which is really local  but is it ethical?

This beautiful blog seed pod form vase was a gift from a dear friend for a recent quiet sort of "been there, done that" b'day... her hand made card... of course... seedpods! ... and the lovely envelope on the left was a recycled page from a book with  delightful botanical drawings ...I felt rather spoilt but touched at the personal nature of the gift ... She's a very clever creative person and generous to a fault I must say!

...the table set and with each persons contribution!

The lovely group below ... at the end of dinner plans were made for a spring feast! Huge thanks to all for such welcoming hospitality...I was included so I could experience and see first hand what these local growers are getting up to... living half an hour away from my city home! What a treat to be made so welcome!

Well stay tuned for what's soon to come!

guess who's coming to dinner?

Well your guess is as good as mine... but doesn't it look spectacular?

I love long tables...




this long you ask?

 as long as Im not waiting on the table I guess it could be that long!



This food just has to be fresh.... look at that field of vegetables.


Arugula's Star Farm, Columbia, TN



Shady trees ... looks idyllic

I found all these pics at the outstanding outstanding in the field's picture gallery.

What they do at Outstanding in the Field:

Our mission is to re-connect diners to the land and the origins of their food, and to honor the local farmers and food artisans who cultivate it.

Outstanding in the Field is a roving culinary adventure – literally a restaurant without walls. Since 1999 we have set the long table at farms or gardens, on mountain tops or in sea caves, on islands or at ranches. Occasionally the table is set indoors: a beautiful refurbished barn, a cool greenhouse or a stately museum. Wherever the location, the consistent theme of each dinner is to honor the people whose good work brings nourishment to the table.

Ingredients for the meal are almost all local (sometimes sourced within inches of your seat at the table!) and generally prepared by a celebrated chef of the region. After a tour of the site, we all settle in: farmers, producers, culinary artisans, and diners sharing the long table.

OK...I showed this image already



...but read this:

Sunday June 6, 2010

Secret Sea Cove, Bay Area Coast, CA

PRICE: $240.00

GUEST CHEF: Mourad Lahlou, Aziza, San Francisco

TIME: 3:00PM

Mourad is back. Past Iron Chef winner and returning Sea Cove chef Mourad Lahlou took to the sand in 2009 providing a fantastic meal right on the beach. The scenic California coastal surroundings will compete for attention as waitstaff bring out courses composed of the best ingredients of sea and shore. Fisherman, farmer and winemaker join us on the sand. Our long curving table will be positioned to take advantage of the afternoon sun and incoming tide. Those seated closest to the water might experience a wave or two!

Whilst viewing this sandy dining location the sand drawings of Jim Denevan came to mind. Last year I posted on both his large scale sand drawings and his foodworks - Jim Denevan is both sand artist and the man behind Outstanding in the Field.




The world's largest single artwork, Black Rock Desert in Nevada made by Jim Denevan

Big enough to contain over 176 Wembley Stadiums, the giant drawing by Jim Denevan is visible from 40,000 feet up in the sky.

Taking 15 days to complete, Mr Denevan and a team of three colleagues worked day and night on the stunning piece in May of this year, which has a diameter of just over three miles.

Containing more than 1000 individual circles, Mr Denevan, 48, built up the giant circle using a roll of chain fencing six feet across pulled by a truck round repeatedly to dig into the desert sand.

Based on a mathematical theorem called an Apollonian Gasket, the design is set around triples of circles at tangents to others.

"I set out to build the largest artwork in the world and I am extremely proud that I have managed to do this," said Jim from his Santa Cruz home.

"This individual piece is larger than the famous lines of Nazca in Peru and that is something that excites me.

"Me and my long time collaborator Caleb Cole have been planning this for over two years and it was a pleasure to complete it."

The largest lines etched into the sand of the drawing are 28 feet wide and almost three feet deep in places.

Using high tech GPS technology to organise their co-ordinates to create a perfect circle, the team braved the intense desert heat and night-time cold to construct their masterpiece.

"We began at what we termed our centre point and worked out diametrically from there," Mr Denevan said.

"We had to dig out each line four or five times to mould it into the sand. It was tough, tiring, but of course it was ultimately fun."

He has been creating beautiful sand art for the past 17 years and sees this piece as the next step in his ultimate plan to work with NASA to draw on the plains of Mars.

Mr Denevan discovered his talent for sand art when he idly picked up a stick and drew a 12ft long fish.

"In the future I would love to see if NASA would let me use their Mars rovers, so that I could attempt the first interplanetary artwork," explained Jim.

"That would be fun."       Daily Telegraph 16 dec 2009

 where did those things come from??




loved these images of life on the road... travelling around from place to place to hold these amazing dinners. Images form 2008 blog.... oustandingontour.blogspot.com

propagating in the pineapple state...

I loved this indoor pineapple farm put together by Vicki (an artist you can see more on in the next post). Queensland is sometimes identified with pineapples which grow in abundance in this region north of Brisbane. Ginger and macadamia nuts are also well suited to this climate. I apparently arrived too late to see the dozen(s) of pinapple tops lined up in glass jars on the table. I loved trying to photograph these with my not so trusty camera ... (my intimacy with the instruction book is not significant either!)

Ok I think you get the picture... with or without good camera technique - and photo-shopping skills. There's something about seeing plants taking root like this that I find very compelling!

a chance to unwind...

This fascinating vine-like growth - orange above and yellow green below - was used in basket weaving by indigenous people. This was found in the bush beside the ocean. The name I will rack down later.

The sign here next to the beach is a useful warning for obvious reasons but also keeps many from wondering onto the fragile sand dunes.... something the locals who work on caring for this fragile strip hope for. 

Close to the beach was a market on Sunday - where I came across this delightful stall selling clothing.

Visiting an artist living near this wonderful beach on the weekend just gone was a reminder I now live in a subtropical region and the coast and rainforest areas leave quite an impression. The work below was painted (if memory serves me) 30 years ago when the artist Vicki and young family were living in this beautiful region of the Atherton Tablelands in northern Queensland. This watercolour was framed and under glass - hence the distracting light in the centre - as if the sun were coming up in the distance! I was struck by the detailed vines and growth of the tree. A vvid story accompanied this work of the time past when one could set up camp beside the water without breaking any rules and needing facilities of any kind.

This watercolor image above on paper was from the same time whereas the image below is a recent work - and after walking in that area near the beach this both recalls that walk and the past almost dream like imagery. In the growth you can see blue quandongs, a native fruit. The photo does not do justice here to the details and colours found in this work. 

And now to lunch for 3...

Vicki in her kitchen preparing a delicious fresh salad. 

Lunch in the garden...

...Just one of the enjoyable moments of a weekend of meeting people and seeing new places.  More photos to come...