favourite places

I love being at home. I'm actually more of a homebody than I generally like to admit. As much as I enjoy being out and about in Melbourne, I find myself drawn more and more to the nurturing environment of home.

Our house isn't big but it is an oasis. The sun comes into the back room in the afternoon so when I come to the kitchen to cook, it's always warm. The back garden is completely private and the trees that I brought home in my car fifteen years ago are now well established.

The grass is green again since Chris hooked up a pump and hose to the washing machine outlet - I can't believe how much I appreciate the transformation from the dust bowl it was not so long ago. The herbs are flourishing from their bed of sugar cane mulch and I'm getting back to the market each week to buy flowers and fruit that are in season.

There's firewood in the wood box ready for a few fires in winter and I'm digging out recipes for osso bucco and 'forty cloves of garlic chicken' (sounds outrageous I know, but it's divine). I've topped up the tea jars with my favourites - Irish Breakfast, Orange Pekoe, T2's Tummy Tea and Sleep Tight. If you've never had proper herbal leaf tea, you must try it. It's so much nicer than the dusty tea bag stuff!

And of course, it's where Chris, the girls and Poppy are.