I made this!

Birthday cake
Originally uploaded by Mistress B.

In celebration of Phil's 38th year on this earth, he requested a black forest gateau as a birthday cake. This request was actually made a few months ago, and I think he's been dreaming about it since then and drooling in anticipation.
Arrggg, the culinary pressure! Not to be cowed, I delved into the wonderous Stephanie Alexander's "The cook's companion' to produce this monster of a naughty cake. It was surprisingly easy to cook and a heck of a lot of fun to assemble, particularly as I whipped up way too much chocolate cream and soaked way too many cherries in brandy and made way too much chocolate icing, so of course all those extra ingredients had to be disposed of appropriately along the way.
The end result received a big chocolatey thumbs up from the Birthday Boy, although it was kinda hard to top the novelty of having Happy Birthday sung to him by the two staff at Kristi's Video Store (complete with dancing).
Happy birthday, my love!

What NOT to eat

What NOT to eat
Originally uploaded by Mistress B.

It's fairly safe to say these are NOT for human consumption. As a golden rule - if it looks like it's transposed from Alice In Wonderland (and especially if there's a little grub smoking a hookah pipe on top), best steer clear of it and go to the shops for your mushroom fix.

Mushrooms...wanna risk it?

Bianca and I were at our favourite vegi café in the blue mountains, Niche Nosh, when 2 hairy mountain types walk in with a box of mushies. Now I am pretty sure that I have bought these before in an organic shop in the northern beaches and I seemed to remember them coming from pine forests and that they are very yellow. The owners of Niche Nosh looked a bit sidewards at the box and I think it was their first dealings with wild (grrrr) mushrooms. After chatting with the Niche Nosh people, and having a good feed, we left with a big bag of mushies for ourselves =)
This is where the in-built fear kicks in. Snakes, crocs, spiders and funny coloured mushies…there is a reason for it you know. So at home lunchtime the next day I find I keep asking Bianca ‘so what do you think?’ while reminding her that it is her fiancé that is asking and she doesn’t want to loose me (I hope). So after checking the oracle of all knowledge, google images, she gave me the go ahead. Mmmmm field mushrooms and milk saffron mushrooms fried in garlic on fresh sour dough bread coated with fresh goat’s curd.

Who's a pretty robin then?

Rose robin
Originally uploaded by Mistress B.

This gorgeous little fella is having a great time flirting with his reflection in my office window. Making it a tad difficult to focus on work though! And if that isn't beauty enough, a female King parrot just parked herself outside the window for a few minutes, and there's an Eastern Whipbird singing up a romantic storm outside.

Fertilising

Fertilising
Originally uploaded by nospuds.

Bianca writes:
You can take the girl out of the country ...
I've taken a particularly hands-on (or is that bums-on) approach to fertilising our soil. Staggering back late one evening after a very indulgent meal at Vulcans - a FAAAABULOUS local restaurant - after having consumed the better part of a bottle of red, Phil was taking an inordinately long time to unlock the front door. Nature was calling, urgently, so I decided to add a bit of nitrogen to the front garden.
I love living in the bush. I can piddle in my own front garden and no one can see!

My new wellies

My new wellies
Originally uploaded by Mistress B.

I'm very excited about my new wellies, because it means I can happily wade around in our very wet and mucky garden without ruining my sneakers AND without getting bitten by leeches or mozzies.
Thanks to a couple of weeks of tropical-style thunderstorms, our land is sodden and half the dirt behind the house has been washed down under the house. But the upside is the tree ferns are going mental and it makes it easier to rip out the masses of weeds that have been growing very happily while we've been away. I've been going psycho with the weed killer while Phil's doing the handyman thing and building us some bookshelves. He also cooks, ladies!

Home!

Treetops
Originally uploaded by Mistress B.

We've walked the Great Wall of China, touched Mt Everest, visited the Taj Mahal, ogled the Pyramids and climbed to Machu Picchu, but nothing touched our hearts like the sight of our beloved house Treetops when we arrived home yesterday afternoon. There ain't no place like home.
So the Hairy Mountain Folk are finally back in Terror Australis and it's bloody good to be back. Our house is in such great shape - it's even cleaner than when we left it and it was so lovely to find some drinkable goodies and cards here from you. Thank you all for looking after our home so well and hope to see y'all up here again soon.
And a specially big thank you and huge hugs to Lisa and Dean, who have been caretakers of Treetops, loved it, cleaned it and were even prepared to brave raging bushfires to rescue our belongings when fire threatened. Love yous!
This is just the beginning of our little blog, and we hope over the forthcoming years to be posting stories of weddings, parties, renovations and maybe even the patter of tiny hairy mountain feet.
Stay tuned.