Country Style Luncheon, Balmoral Beach, Sydney

We dined on mince and slices of quince,
Which we ate with a runcible spoon;

And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
we danced by the light of the moon..........

The moon,
The moon,

We danced by the light of the moon.......



The Owl and The Pussycat -
Edward Lear

The Bathers' Pavilion, Country Style, "Country Chefs" Cookbook Launch, Balmoral Beach

Well no, it wasn't quince actually, but rather, citrus. And it was light and crunchy and refreshing. There was a huge glass bowl of quince at the door of the Bathers' Pavilion, as you entered. The quince reminded me of Lear's poem.

Incidentally, quince are a symbol of love and fertility - perhaps a good omen for me? Fingers crossed!

Country Style Luncheon, Balmoral Beach, Sydney

I won't subject you to an up close and personal portrait of myself.

Red and Purple - I always remember what colours I wore on memorable days. Do you?

Did I mention that there was a complimentary magazine from this month, on every chair? What a glorious, little treat!

Tatachilla Wines

Tatachilla wine flowed freely on the day (literally). Thank you Tatachilla - a South Australian Vineyard.

I have my mother's hands.

Country Style Luncheon, Balmoral Beach, Sydney

At the end of the day we took off our high heels and walked in the sand, a little heady from chardonnay.

Not just random acts of kindness, but someone going completely out of their way for another...

Last week I mentioned to Sandy, our librarian at school, that I was trying to find the story book of the 'Town and the Country Mouse', as I love that fable and I wanted to read it to my daughter, Lily.


Sandy looked in our school library and found a version as old as Aesop himself.

Yesterday, I sat down to our morning, staff meeting and Sandy handed me a big, white, bubble-wrapped package, containing a beautifully illustrated, brand new copy of 'the Town and the Country Mouse'.

This gorgeous woman went online, in her own time, using her own money and waded through various versions of the book and bought me the very best copy that was available! Lily received it today for her birthday.


What a thoughtful and immense act of kindness. An act that invloved someone going totally and completely out of their way for another.

And another thing ------ one day I was at school and I said to a fellow teacher, "I love that grey, wool dress that you are wearing!" The next day, that very same, grey, wool dress - appeared in my pigeon hole with a note saying:

"For you Tracey... when I wore this dress yesterday I decided it would be the last time I ever wear it again!" Love Barbie x o

Thus, the grey, wool dress is now mine!

Times like these amaze and bemuse me!

Have you ever experienced another human being showering you with an almost sentimentally sigificant act of kindness?

Would you ever register as being the person behind someones' gift of kindness?

A lady, a complete stranger offered to pay for my coffee the other day, when I got to the counter at Gloria Jeans with no change and only my credit card. I kindly declined her offer and told her what a wonderfully generous woman she was.

Sometimes, just giving credit where credit is due - is sufficient enough. I am a real believer in always giving credit where credit is due. Complimenting someones' necklace at work if it catches your eye as you pour your coffee. Acknowledging everyones' presence in a room, in some small way.

Interestingly, we often bemoan being at work, but as my friend Lynelle pointed out from my previous post, sometimes those little compliments from colleagues at work, a little chat, light banter or a a commiseration of life's daily grind- is a necessary burst of energy and adult human contact and sharing, THAT JUST MAKES OUR DAY.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEAUTIFUL GIRL - 30th April, 5 years ago, you were born.

What were the 6 best things you did today?

About 10 years ago, I was given these 6 questions on the back of a tiny business card at the end of a forum on teaching, in which this keynote speaker talked about the importance of maintaining and identifying your own happinesses at the end of the working day (which, as we know, can be quite gruelling).

I don't speak work on my blog, as I try to separate work from home, but the 2 often intertwine don't they? Plus, I must remain professional and confidential regarding work, however, this is the very most that you will hear me talk work -

Please, ask yourself these questions. I'd love to hear your comments/responses on my blog.

TODAY, WHAT WAS THE BEST THING ......................................................................................

1. I SAW........... I awoke to the fire burning. Paul had surprised me and got it going. Winter is setting in!

2. I ATE............ I took a left over curry for lunch and ate it in the staff room, at school, at second half, on what was turning into a cool and grey day.

3. I RECEIVED...........My usual breakfast (made by Paul-I am not a morning person) of a plunger coffee and a blueberry smoothie, except this morning I took it by the fire... I also got a warm hug from Paul this afternoon and a beautiful and upbeat phone call from Lily x o

4. I DID FOR ME.............The moment of peace beside the fire this morning, plus now, I guess, writing and clarifying my thoughts at the end of the day.

5. I DID FOR SOMEONE ELSE.............. Not enough I don't think?? I came home before Paul (which never happens) and turned the lamps on and made it warm and inviting. I then fed the dogs (who were virtually leaping through the glass door) and this made Paul happy, as feeding the dogs is always his job. I was also genuinely pleased to see my class this morning and told them so about a million times. I also welcomed a new student to our school who I taught in Kindy, 5 years ago at a different school !! That was special and I told her so.

6.I FOUND FUNNY.................... Something cute that one of the kids said at school.

I hope that you too, could find some peace and beauty in the chaos of your day x o Tracey

The best part of baking a chocolate cake...

We are able to be safe and happy in our homes on Anzac Day because of all the people who died at war, for us. We are so lucky.

So lovely to have shops closed on a Sunday.

"Contented people don't need to buy anything much. To make people buy, first you need to make them discontented".

Due to ANZAC Day, it is so lovely to have the shops closed on a Sunday. Erina Fair is usually jumping
24 -7.

Don't get me wrong, I love a little retail therapy but my fetish is books, most of which I buy online en mass (or I save up and buy a small carton of them every 6 months). $6 delivered to your door for as many books as you wish [see Booktopia, Lane Cove, Sydney].

Anyway, due to shops closed and hanging around the house reading papers and listening to Paul and Lily cooking, I feel very happy to be home.

I read a couple of 'Home' magazines today and although I do love them, I was amazed at the level of expense and waste attributed to so many new products on the market.

Style to me, has never been about gargantuan, plastic candelabras or hideously expensive cushions that in one foul swoop with a toddler or our Labrador can be reduced to rags. A dining table for the price of a very large car, is just ridiculous. Handbags the price of a salary is extravagant. How long do the cushions or the hand bag keep the purchaser happy for?

I love our sturdy, solid, wooden dining table that was hand made with love over 10 years ago. I love looking out to the garden today, waiting for a bird to land in Myrtle, our Crepe Myrtle. I like hearing Lily licking the batter from the bowl of the chocolate cake. All relatively simple and frugal little joys.

Writing also seems to save me money? So impassioned am I by the process that I don't need to be sourcing things off site or seeking fulfillment or enrichment from material things.

I love natural fibres and vintage items. The pared back look, with a beach or country twist. I love pre-loved and precious trinkets that tell a story. Creating something 'new' from something old. I don't like contemporary or industrial. I like calm and peaceful, warm and smooth.

Lily and I collected drift wood from the beach before the cold started to set in. We have bowls of shells in our house. We try to be minimalists but it's difficult with a nearly 5 year old.

I made a poster on the computer and framed it. It said:

"There's no place like home"...
-Dorothy
- The Wizard of Oz, by L.Frank Baum

I LOVE OUR HOME x o x o x Enjoy your day at home, if you are back after marching.
Lest we forget.

Prune the tree of your life...

Prune the tree of your life...... I like that. I read that over the last couple of days. In other words, get rid of situations and circumstances, people and events who bring no value to you at all. Sounds harsh? I don't think so. What slows you down, drags you down, inhibits your growth and health or peace of mind? Write a list. Clarify your thoughts. I did, but then I love lists.

Paul has just looked over my shoulder and read this post and is concerned that the anaesthesia has left some lasting, long term effects (thus my deep, spiritual philosophizing). I am assuring him that no, I was actually this crazy before the operation.

That said, go forth - and Prune the tree of your life.....

x o x o

Repair and Rejuvinate

Perhaps everyone should be booked in for compulsory surgery every now and again to slow down our bodies and remind us of how to rest and recuperate? Not really, but it's a thought.

I have slept and read and been warm and cocooned. It makes you wonder how much rest our bodies and our minds actual need, in comparison to how much we actually get.

I have emerged calmer and well rested. How peculiar it is not to be in control and to just let go...

Thank you Paul and Lily, for being my very attentive nurses, albeit, one a little more haphazard in the quality of her care than the other! I love you both! Mummy is back x o

Surgery and Music

I went in to hospital for day surgery yesterday, and have come home feeling like they took out my spleen and replaced it with an operating instrument. As I sit here with my heat pack on my tummy (Lily having gone off to high school with Paul for the day), I have been listening to my talented friend's music compositions.

Fancy actually being a composer! Claire Deak is a composer, and a humble one at that. I urge you to drop into her website - Claire Deak Music and Meanderings - and listen to the amazing music that she creates for SBS and other films/theatre. Claire, listening to your music today has been so soothing and comforting. Thank you beautiful girl.

For the rest of the day I am going to sleep and then hopefully wake and continue editing my book in bed. The yucky part (not the in bed bit, the editing bit) I would much rather just write.

I am currently reading 'Why People Fail' by Simon Reynolds and I am reading it in terms of writing my book and bringing its publication to fruition.

He sights these reasons as the most common reasons why people fail:

-lack of belief in yourself
-not knowing your purpose and therefore not planning ahead and seeing through the strategies and steps required to fulfill your purpose
-not making a commitment and factoring in time and routine
-lack of persistence

Seize everyday he says, even if your spleen is hanging out!

I hope you fulfill your dreams and see through your goals, in light of these pathways to success. We all have dreams. What are yours? I have come to realise after 33 years, that it's not arrogant to believe in yourself. Medication kicked in................ sleepy x o x o x..............................

Grammar, Rhubarb, Squash and Potkin

We rarely get un-announced visitors anymore. When I grew up, on farms, every visitor was un-announced. No one phoned through first on their tin can.

The old mate from up the road would pop in and drop off a basket of almost warm eggs (due to an over abundance from the hens that week), or an Uncle would call in for a cuppa, brandishing a home grown grammar and a bright, candy, crimson bunch of rhubarb. My Aunty, Norma, would bake a sponge drizzling in passionfruit icing and sliced full of fresh cream and Mum would "put the jug on" for a cup of tea.

Have these days gone, in the semi-metropolitan area where I now live? The practice still lives on at Wingham, the friendly rural town, where Mum and Dad still live.

My cousin Lisa called in the other day (announced -via phone call and then confirmed via text message) and brought with her (from my Uncle's farm) a home grown squash and a bowl full of sweet and tiny Bantam eggs, still laced in dirt and feathers. I marvelled at these offerings as if I was looking at father time himself.

We buttered and salted the squash after it had been boiled and Paul served it with a fillet of baked salmon and roasted potatoes (or in contemporary terms, 'smashed' potatoes). I used the rest of the eggs up in a zucchini slice as well as in several meals of boiled eggs with soldiers.

It felt good to use fresh produce. It felt good to use every last drop. These days if we go on holidays we try to eat the fridge down to its bearest bones, even so, when I see a half a bag of beans and a nub of broccoli in the crisper on the day before we leave- I don't give them to the neighbours - I shake my head, feel bad and close the fridge.

Times have changed. Then again - the man in our house does the sewing - not all is for the worst is it?!

A Tablecloth and a Teapot

There are 2 things that my grandmother holds in high esteem - a tablecloth and a teapot. When she comes to stay at the end of this month, she will insist that both of these items are on the table.

I am back to the grind, back to work this week and to dull the routine, I am ordering some vintage material online. Ma is going to sew a couple of table cloths and pillow cases for me during her stay. Much to her disappointment (even though she bought me a brand new sewing machine before Lily was born) - I am not a sewer -at all.

In fact Paul had to take up sewing in our household, some time ago, after we returned from Sydney one weekend, with me crying in the car, having bought reems of material and not having the foggiest idea of how to sew, nor the inclination or the patience.

Ever patient and calm, in order to alleviate my heartbreak, Paul taught himself how to wind the bobbin, change the cotton, buy and replace broken needles etc, thus sewing and outfitting our entire campervan, Rosie, with a full set of curtains and making the cushions and tablecloths that I envisaged out of the reems of material that I had selected. When Lily or I have "repairs" now, we put them on "Paul's repair pile". So although it's fair to say that Paul got into this vocation out of obligation rather than pleasure, I am grateful.

Paul cuts the material with a stanley knife - Ma, will not approve of this method!

My beautiful, beautiful, surfing girl x o

The little, beach babe, at our beach.

Out To Sea

Lil insists on "going out far" on the board, then she jumps off on her own, has a swim and scrambles back on the board.

Singing As She Paddles...la,la,la,la,la...

Lily can be heard singing as she sits at the front of the paddle board. Could life be sweeter for a nearly 5 and nearly 35 year-old?

Our little surfer girl

Lily loves paddle boarding with Paul! We go to our local beach at the end of our street. Mummy has started taking a book and my chair, as it gets closer to May. Even in winter, I don't think the water will ever be too cold for these two.

I am writing my own book. Stay tuned to my blog to see, purchase and read it.

Well the cat is out of the bag. I am writing a book. I guess really, it is close to completion - thousands of words long and very explicit and intimate and personal. I have been writing it for years, since I was at Griffith, so I have much to chop out and alter and edit. Any editors out there? It's a memoir - interesting for other females to read. Very feminine in style. I am currently reading 'The Gastronomy of Marriage' by Michelle Maisto (image shown) and I guess my book may be in a similar vein? About love, relationships, food and friends. My book is certainly more explicit and certainly not something that I would want my parents to read! It is honest and open, self-consciously so, which means it is a real page turner, however also difficult in a way for me to reveal the whole me and my story to the world. Being respectful and protective of the people close to me is something I care very much about. My blog is an escape or a little creative outlet that I wander to, inorder to have a break from my writing. I want to thank my friends Simon and Lynelle, who when I told them what I was doing promised that even if they were the only 2 people in the room (other than myself) that they would BE AT MY BOOK LAUNCH WITH BELLS ON !!!!!!!!!! I WILL SEND OUT PERSONAL INVITATIONS TO MY BOOK LAUNCH. I am trying to decide where I will have my book launch????!!! It would have to invlove decadent fingerfood - perhaps at home, or at the Japanese Gardens or at our local surf club, at the end of the street overlooking the ocean, serving crisp chardonnay and fancy canapes. Contact me if you would be interested in attending. Lynelle and Simon- I have pencilled you in! Thank you, you dear old, loyal characters for your support.

Even washing up can be pleasant in the sunlight of these mornings...

I took off my ceramic rose ring that I just bought in Paddington on the weekend, and washed up in the sunlight of a beautiful morning.

Anzac biscuits and a coffee, as I write in the sun light of the morning...

Warm and comforting... nourishing my writing and my soul.

Chewy, half cooked in the middle anzac biscuits...

After we ate the Rosti with Smoked salmon and Horseradish Cream - whilst the kitchen was still warm and full of pungent aroma, Lily and I baked a batch of syrupy, buttery, Aussie Anzac Biscuits. The smell still wafted through the house when I woke up this morning.

The little cook in action...

Lily verbalises what she is doing like she is on a cooking show!

Home cooked Smoked Salmon and Horeradish Cream...

The Horseradish cream is the secret, key ingredient that makes the flavours of the crispy potato rosti and the smoked salmon and avocado irresistable.

Last night Lily and I cooked Rosti with Smoked Salmon and Horesradish Cream...

Lily peeled and mashed the potatoes and despite the kitchen floor looking like the bottom of a pig pen, covered in vegetable peelings and scraps - she did a very good job and she was very proud of herself! She loved serving up our creation to Paul, who gave our concotion 5 stars. Note to friends- book this meal in when you choose to stay next time. Simon P - we really must get the 'Friends Cook Book' up and running. We can send you digital images of the food as well as the recipe. Must do before Christmas this year, to give copies to friends!

A brief vignette from home...off to Clovelly!

Paul and I are home from our night away with our dearest and oldest friends and my sister. We absolutely cracked ourselves up -laughing so hard and relaxing with excellent food, wine and music in their company. We dined at Lizotte's Theatre Restaurant.

We then went back to the apartment in Newcastle and talked late into the night and badgered anyone to death who tried to go to sleep, by throwing the complimentary, wrapped, motel soaps at them.

Some of us who were there last night and who have babies and therefore hold sleep in higher esteem than gold, sacrificed it all to catch up with each other - talking school and Uni memories, each one funnier than the last. I feel refreshed and relaxed and revived. Belly laughs, the company of friends who know you better than you know yourself and taking this all off site and away from home - made me levitate!

Lily and I are now off to to Clovelly for a 3 day sabbatical at my sister's place. Can't wait to see the produce/cake craft pavillion at the Royal Easter Show in Sydney on Saturday!

"April is the cruellest month..." T S Eliot

T.S Eliot said..."April is the cruellest month..." , I love T.S but I disagree. Now is the snuggly time of year that I love.

Yes, that is a picture of my bum in the shot - my Paul was the photographer. I think we should be taking these shots whilst our bums and bodies are still standing and not drooping. Being in my 30s now, my body is not going to get better. Capture it while we can!

Off for drinks and a 3 course dinner and music tonight with friends. The in-laws are baby sitting, bless their beautiful hearts. This is a rare and special event for Paul and I! We will be listening to Steve Earle's son play to us over dinner. Enjoy your evening what ever you are doing.

Regarding my fire place still life on the mantle, sorry Megan, I know you could do a much better job. A work in progress.

Of hearth and home...

This space in our living room DID NOT HAVE A FIREPLACE OR SHELVING in it. It was a plain, blank wall. A clever cabinet maker, electrician and fitter changed all of that for us. Still working on this space! Can't wait until the cosiness of Winter! This year, we will be warm little mice x o

Rubies Place: A Thrifty Easter Find And Some Eggs Of A Different Kind...

Rubies Place: A Thrifty Easter Find And Some Eggs Of A Different Kind...

My House of Giggles: Atlanta Bartlett "At Home with White" GIVEAWAY

My House of Giggles: Atlanta Bartlett "At Home with White" GIVEAWAY: "sidebar"

Megan Morton - Home Love

I am just reading through Megan's new book, 'Home Love' it is so warm and beautiful and heart felt. Megan - your wish has been granted - my copy of your book is well thumbed, dog eared and very much in use. I have taken to scribbling notes in the margin and underlining important websites and information. Megan, I almost need to do what you did with 'Arranging Things: The Rhetoric of Object Placement' having a copy for 'use' and a copy for 'glam'.

Image from the cover of Megan Morton's latest book 'Home Love'

The view from where I write...

An Autumnal Morning...

Good morning and welcome to my blog, Velvetine Lily. Most bloggers have a themed blog space, perhaps about food (blog Stone Soup) or home, (Rubies Place) or life in general (see Sarah Wilson's blog). I love food, home and life so my blog is a melange of all 3.

Enjoy - as I diarise the figments of daily life. Please communicate via my blog or via email if you wish to comment. Apologies for temporarily including myself as a follower, I needed to see if infact what I had set up actually worked and could be sent to a real live person.

Bear with me as I get this special blog up and running - still learning to navigate the blogging world, still coming to terms with blogging etiquette and rumaging for and taking inspiring pictorials for your blogging pleasure x o x o.

Happy blogging! How wonderful that like-minded people (albeit friends) can connect in this magical way, through writing.

Kind regards,
Tracey velvetinelily@hotmail.com