Where we left off...

Is it a furniture ad?!!

The funny thing is…it already seems like an eternity ago…and yet I haven’t completed the task…uggghhhh! What a flurry of sheer chaos….the remnants of the repainting episode quickly replaced the following morning by the removal of every small item through to hefty furniture, so the 36 year old seagrass could be taken up and replaced. Thursday morning was a whirlwind…my head literally spinning as I seemed to be moving in never ending circles! And then…to wash loose covers whilst I had the opportunity of furniture basking in the sun, though covering other pieces with towels and dust sheets to protect them from the same fate. A giddy morning indeed!

How bizarre it was, to have all our furniture sitting out in the front courtyard; that space temporarily resembling a cross between an outdoor antiques market (the like of which you’d find at L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue) and some kind of not-quite believable advertising campaign from the pages of an Interiors magazine!

The funny thing is…the basis of my design practice has always been to create a connection between outside and in, inside and out. Take any small detail here and you will find a reflection between the two. During the dreaded lockdown months, when I gave a series of online Zoom presentations, one was titled Inside/Out “elaborating on the relationship between the vernacular buildings, interiors and the garden at Glenmore House: how one influences the other and vice versa, a story of vignettes through a decorator’s eye”. It was one of a series of Sunday morning conversations that seemingly alleviated the boredom threshold of a lot of peeps!

Don’t panic…the sun hadn’t yet peeped out from behind the early morning cloud cover!

But never before have I actually put the furniture in the garden…where it looked perfectly at home (just add the heading ‘notebook’ and a swathe of sources and prices!). The turqoise stripes of the sofa in harmony with the glaucous blue-grey Agave leaves (the decision for both collided in a happy marriage of research and discovery around the turn of the century!); the bronze studded, tan leather ottoman picking up the bullrush candles in the pond. I won’t keep going…I’ll bore you rigid! But I do believe it’s all these things that go towards creating a sense of connection and belonging. Of authenticity over superficiality. Of anchoring a house, transforming it, and then once done…the stage is set for life itself…for the people, the quiet moments…the celebrations, the welcome and stability…of home.

Bare bones…and oh the smell of just-laid seagrass…as good as a just-baked cake from the oven!

That said, how part of me would simply love to leave the interior bare! Were this a ‘project’ rather than our home…a stage set for soirées perhaps, I’d be tempted to do just that. Unfurnished, it’s the sturdy bones that suggest the story of time…the locally hewn sandstone, the wide ceiling timber boards that may (or may not be!) from the Dunbar which was shipwrecked off Sydney Heads in 1857 (local lore says they are but apparently it was a widespread, commonly told tale of the era!).

Thought I’d swing the desk into a new position instead of in front of the window where it’s sat all these years…

Oh how I love that moment generally referred to as ‘lockup’ - with the builders out, clean as a whistle (it wasn’t…I still had dusters in hand!) and ready for the next stage. It’s a brief period I’ve always just adored and particularly when seagrass has been newly laid…the smell! Sadly on this occasion there was no time to imbibe. Usually it’s the case that furniture might arrive the next day, and so one can appreciate the blank canvas, digest the bones as they are. But on this occasion, no sooner had the terrific team from International Floorcoverings packed up the last of their tools than they were manhandling the big pieces of furniture back inside for me - the desk here, the sofa there…the armchairs, the ottoman…and then, they were gone. But for me…

All the smalls landed in the Gallery...

The work had only just begun! One painting at a time…dust, hang. Curtain rods, rings and finials, dust. Curtains….vacuum front, vacuum back, hang…one hook at a time; blinds…vacuum, hang. Then each small piece of furniture, book and ornament…dust, place. Giddy all over again! I don’t think I’ve ever walked in so many circles!

Side tables and all the stuff of life yet to come…

Although I had one wall of paintings and even the lamps back in the Sitting Room before dinner on the same evening the seagrass went down…it’s taken the best part of this week to (not yet!) complete the bulk. The initial frenzy was fun - but the next phase?

I’ve often joked that Larry came with a dowry…except it’s true! Remnants of his grandmother’s home in France, his parents home in Scotland, his life before me. I’ve dusted all those things a million times over since we met - they’ve been familiar to me for more than forty years…but I have a feeling that one day there will be an enormous sale of some kind! And here is a note of advice to all young women…do not ever agree to help a man move house - (even if he promises you dinner!). Look what can happen!

An envelope filled today with newspaper cuttings of years gone by…

I’ve not yet tackled the contents I had to remove from cupboards in order to shift those pieces off the floor and out the door. It was the contents that weighed a tonne! Box files and papers of mine (from the preparation for our wedding to children’s drawings, a million things before and since), to scrapbooks and so much of my parents’ lives too - file covers that read the like of ‘photos 1930 - 1950’ and all manner of certificates and yellowing newspaper articles.

I did smile though, when by pure chance a little message surfaced (in a pile about to topple so I halved it) from beyond the grave if you like, in my grandfather’s familiar curly script, written to me literally on the back of an envelope. Perhaps it was an afterthought to a card the envelope once contained…marking some occasion - maybe I’d passed an exam or some such…that would be typically him….he was always writing little poems and messages. It reads: Honors to those who work and play & try doing things the proper way, for them the sun will always shine, may success and happiness always be thine. Garg. (Apparently when I was not yet quite verbal, my attempt at something along the lines of grandfather came out as Gargie…a name that stuck with him for the rest of his days!).

When does one go through all this stuff? If not now? Part of me would love to sit on the floor and spread it all out and sort through it and put it in proper order. Reminisce, dwell. Perhaps the day will never come? Perhaps I should do it now? It’s still in a sprawl…off the floor but on the dining table now which is finally back in position, rendering the Gallery almost back to normal after six weeks of shambles. I’ll hazard a guess that this time around though, I’ll stuff the lot back in the cupboard unread, where at least it’s safe. Therein lies a job for a very rainy day.

But I had a workshop to prepare…

A menu to cook!

Conveying all the information the Kitchen Garden has to share at this pivotal moment in the season with a group of eager participants was where my head needed to be on Saturday morning, so on Friday…the house catastrophe was put out of my mind and I turned my hands instead, to cooking the contents of the garden!

The season in a bowl…

I know I missed giving you this favourite seasonal recipe for Sicilian Caponata last year. Not only did we enjoy it for lunch as a group last Saturday, but Larry and I have been eating the leftovers ever since. The effort put into making this recipe yields a very worthwhile result! It makes one very big bowl and keeps well in the fridge for up to a week…so if you have guests to feed at this time of year, it’s a perfect one to prepare a day or two in advance, freeing you up to do other things. It makes a delicious accompaniment to meat, chicken or fish; or perhaps with a little prosciutto, or chèvre or fetta….and is also delicious folded through pasta. In fact I did that just last night…adding some extra ribbons of chard); though on Saturday we enjoyed it as is, with a dollop of Baba Ghanoush, a splosh of Basil Pesto and slices of Pumpernickel Soda Bread!

The recipe is another given by Anastasia Georgeu (foodologygrams) at a workshop she gave here all those moons ago. So many of her recipes became Glenmore staples and I know I’ll use them forevermore. I rather wish she hadn’t moved home to South Africa! I know I’d be inviting her back here to give workshop after workshop…

Sicilian Caponata

Ingredients

• olive oil

• 3 small / medium aubergines cut into chunks

• 2 sticks celery, sliced

• 1 large red onion, chopped

• 2 large garlic cloves, finely sliced

• 1 bunch flat leaf parsley, stems finely chopped, (leaves chopped & set aside)

• 1 medium red capsicum cut into cubes

• 1 yellow capsicum cut into cubes

• 5 medium / large ripe tomatoes

• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

• big handful green olives rinsed, drained, pitted and chopped

• 2 big tablespoons salted capers, rinsed and drained

• handful raisins

• handful pine nuts lightly toasted

• 1 big tablespoon rapadura sugar

• sea salt & black pepper

Method

• heat olive oil in a large, heavy based pan and fry aubergine chunks ‘til golden (in batches) and remove from the pan

• add another glug of olive oil to the pan and gently fry celery, onion, garlic and parsley stems with a pinch of salt

• add the capsicums and fry gently for a minute or so then

• add the tomatoes, vinegar and gently cook through for another few minutes

• add the olives, capers, raisins and rapadura…stir

• add the pine nuts, a good grind of black pepper… return the aubergines and allow to cook for another few minutes - giving the whole lot a very good stir

• remove from the pan, add a good glug of olive oil, give a very good stir and allow to cool

• when you serve, stir through the parsley leaves

• rest for at least a few hours for the flavours to infuse…but it’s best made the day before

Anastasia notes that capers and olives can be very salty, so be careful when adding more salt and that…you may want to add more or less sugar and vinegar to your taste - it should have a good sweet/sour balance.

I’m not committed to following the ingredients precisely! This time I had lots of different tomatoes that were ripe - from tiny yellow pears to big black krims and this year I opted not to grow capsicums for the first time ever (I’ve decided they’re not worth the space and effort and water for the return I get) so I had to buy them and used only red (afterall, I had yellow toms!). At least capsicums are in season! And I sure do have aubergines!

Thinking right back to Anastasia and her recipes…(she gave the very first cooking workshops at Glenmore and I think I may have mentioned it before but…) it was a revelation to her at the time, that some of the recipe ingredients she wanted to present, that seemed logical to her given she was buying her produce (and the very best she could get her hands on) at the shops rather than growing, were in fact not a true representation of the season at all. We got her growing, rather than just shopping, which put a whole new perspective on her determination to cook seasonally. I will always remember the ‘thank you’ email she sent following her participation at one of our earliest ‘kitchen gardening workshops’ which is how we met. I’d begun running the days with all kinds of good intentions, but the word ‘empowering’ was not one I’d considered as the likely result of an attendee’s experience. On reflection though, it’s exactly what attending those days has been doing all these years: empowering people to take food security into their own hands. Alongside bringing them tremendous amounts of joy.

As the fog lifts, the dew still heavy on the ground…

Saturday’s dawn was exquisite. Foggy to begin, after Friday’s heatwave conditions and with another scorcher on the way…summer certainly went out with a whammy and autumn began with a swelter. But the early morning? It was pure magic!

Newly planted radicchio, lettuce and fennel seedlings in the space vacated by the previous season’s crops…one side of this bed complete while to the left, there’s a whole lot of food still growing on!

From the nuances of early crop rotation through companion planting, to discussions of traditional versus the guild method of growing, from aesthetics and design principles to supports and structures, from pest control to seed collecting, successional sowing; and from compost to soil (which is everything); and everything in between…Saturday was a day of pure immersion in Kitchen Gardening! A whole way of life….

Up, up and away…

And on Monday, the first Jerusalem artichoke flowers opened their happy faces to the sky! The clearest signal of all that a new season is on the way…

Thank you to everyone who sent messages following last week’s first anniversary mark of my substacking efforts! And to those who have very, very kindly resubscribed - I can’t be letting you down now - Gargie would have something to say on that score!

I had promised more detail on interiors - especially to those who were following along on instagram as I trundled things about. From paint colours to parquet floors so…I might do a little segment each week on one aspect, one detail. If it interests you?

In the meantime, I hope everyone stays safe over the coming days. With cyclone Alfred hovering off the Queensland coast, all of you reading here vicariously know peeps likely to be impacted - my oldest friend moved to Bribie Island just over a year ago and so is pretty much directly in the oncoming path. Zara (Las Ninas Textiles) who was here just a fortnight ago whirling and twirling her glorious outfits in front of the mirror is back home in the Northern Rivers where my old business partner Paul Arrowsmith who I mentioned in last week’s post also resides and…not least, Bonnie who lives up there too and though she was here briefly last weekend, had to get back earlier in the week. A couple of years ago I flew up to Brisbane for an ‘in conversation’ at Robyn McKendry’s eponymous shop ‘Magnolia Interiors’. It was impacted very badly in the last floods and she’s studiously prepared that wonderful space in case the same should occur again - here’s a link to her enormous efforts. I’m sure that you, like me, know others too. Belinda Jeffery who gave such a glorious workshop here some years ago and whose Pumpernickel Soda Bread I so often refer to…also lives up there, and I’ve heard it suggested it’s the areas to the southern sweep of the eye of the cyclone (the Northern Rivers then) that are likely to sustain the longest time of its wrath. So they and everyone else in that part of the world are in my thoughts.

With warmest wishes to all,

Mickey x

ps I’ve just had the most irritating realisation! I always edit here by checking the email version I send to myself before hitting ‘send’ to all of you. (Extraordinary how the eye picks up details when viewed in a different format!). But today I can’t! Uggghhh…..as of yesterday morning there’s been a technical glitch with my emails that my web guy is still trying to get to the bottom of. There are no incoming or outgoing emails on the server and I gather peeps are receiving messages saying my email address cannot be found. SO RUDE! We’re waiting for Google to respond to him. So…I’m in unchartered editing territory! (Minor in the general scheme of things!). But…if you’ve been trying to email me…I’m still here and hopefully will be back on very soon! How I hate that we are all so beholden to systems beyond our control….and with no human to speak to for help. I do wonder how it all came to this….?

Productive garden notes:

Eating from the garden:

Potatoes, onions, garlic, aubergines, zucchinis, tomatoes, coloured chard and spinach, lettuce, rocket (the odd shower of rain has brought on a lovely flush of gentle rocket leaves!). Jelly Wine Palm fruits. Basil, lovage, mint, rosemary, thyme, chives. Beans…a handful from the ones growing inside the raspberry cage!

Going / gone: figs, cucumbers (I’d hoped for more of the latter but the Bower Birds seem to have taken a liking to their leaves now…having stripped all the bean leaves save the ones growing in the raspberry cage! The birds aren’t interested in either the beans or cucumbers themselves - just their leaves…but no leaves on the vines means no photosynthesis, which means no flower or fruit production…so the birds are a real pest)

Seed saving: parsnip, beetroot, spinach, chard, parsley, land cress

Sowing: it’s more a question of what’s self-sowing…fennel, parsley, land cress but still a bit too early here to sow on purpose (except for flowering ‘stock’ into punnets). That said, given the Bower bird situation…I might sow some peas into punnets which I don’t usually…I usually sow direct into the earth. Hmmm…

Planting: brassicas (kale, cavolo nero, cabbage, broccoli, kohl rabi, cauliflower), lettuce and fennel (bulbing) and bok choy seedlings. I have round one of all these in the ground now but will plant more in the coming weeks…successional sowing is everything as we don’t want it all ready to eat at the same time…

Ornamental garden notes:

Picking for the house: frangipanis, tansy, dahlias, Cottonwood hibiscus, amaranth, ginger

Perfumes and aromas: Still the frangipani, fig, nicotiana and Cistus ladanifer (sisal inside!). The first white flowering ginger stem of Hedychium coronarium has erupted in the pots between the wings and…swoon!

Pruning and other: Trent (another regular hedge-guy - who keeps the tallest and widest in check…well! They each have to be cut twice a year…if we could afford him we’d do it more regularly but they are now so big they’re beyond us) gave the Juniper hedge a tremendous ‘shock’ very early on Saturday morning for which I’m enormously grateful. Slowly, slowly it’s coming back (after having a very tough time during the drought those years ago). Another season and I reckon we’ll have it back in shape but it’s been a long road. Weeding and…I did all my usual Saturday tasks on Sunday…a big round of deadheading and barrowing and training and tying as well as planting out more of those seedlings. We dug out the last of the potatoes - Bonnie and I made a first pass when she was here last weekend and Thalia a second pass before prepping that bed for experimental grain seed. I tried Buckwheat in the spring with so/so results but at least I now know what to expect and I think it might be better sown now. And Rye…whilst it’s too early yet for the others I want to sow, the bed is prepared and with hessian on top to protect it. The hedge had a dose of Seasol…

The last of the potatoes…they should keep us going for awhile!