Gadding about..... again!

I think I've said before that there is always something happening here, just recently there has been a flurry of birthdays to celebrate (always fun) and swap meets to attend... you never know what necessities may be uncovered.

To start with the Horsham Swap meet; we thought at first we'd not be taking much home but how wrong were we.  Luckily I found a lovely old wheel barrow which I eventually had to go back and buy when our pile of treasures became to many to carry. It was piled high with Ricks bargains amongst which was almost a wood lathe. Slowly the carpenters equipment is being gathered and repaired. Crossing the road on the way out Rick almost walked into a vintage Rolls Royce, much to the amusement of the Coppers following behind.

We did a couple of stops on the way home first one being an Art Gallery just outside of Horsham with some interesting sculptures and beautiful old houses in the grounds.

And then on through Natimuk, which seems to be tiny but really interesting little place full of character. The Cafe below offered some delicious 'everything free' food. It would have been very rude to refuse it and as we didn't to upset anyone we had some lunch there. Delish......

They are such a creative community in Natimuk, I loved this Recycled Bug inviting the kids to push buttons and work levers but not to climb on.

An invitation the kid in me could obviously not resist!

Below is a photo of the original Coach House and Hotel built in 1876 of local stone, I think it has been modernised a wee bit and now looks like a very well loved home.

And then in a blink of an eye we were off to Adelaide.......
where we caught up with a lot of lovely friends, visited the reclamation place, managed to source other 'things' we can't find down here AND, joy of joys, went to the Central Market... three times.

It really is Autumn here and along with the cooler... slightly wetter weather the chestnuts have arrived. In my excitement to cook them I forgot to take a photo of the basket loaded up..... I'd also forgotten just how hard they can be to peel! In the past I have been used to roasting a small bag full... which is dooable. But I have to say I found preparing 2.5kg is a little challenging... it's a good thing they are soooooo delicious to eat and such a lovely once a year treat. We haven't eaten all of them yet, some have gone into a butternut squash and apple soup, some have been dried and there are still some yet to roast. Deep joy....

It is funny how you forget that something which has been such a familiar part of your life may be a mystery for others. More than once I have been asked what I was going to do with them and how to prepare them.

We left the CBD and head up into the beautiful misty Adelaide Hills to meet up with our lovely friends, Brian and Vicki. Brian is a bit of a genius with natural stone floors and he had very kindly found these beautiful natural stone tiles for us. Perfect for the outside shower, they (Vicki and Brian) are going to pay a visit and lay them for us in the outside shower. The slight grey pattern on this tile is a fossilised plant. Mind boggling just how old they are.

While we were there it poured with rain and was so windy, such a shame as they have a beautiful garden. But then Vicki pointed out this dear little Koala, sound asleep in one of their trees, back to the wind an quite secure. She did look a tad soggy, poor thing. And this little one seems to have a very interested male Koala which has recently visited. Having just one Koala in our backyard would be fantastic but two!! WOW sadly though Koalas don't seem to frequent our corner of Aus.

As much as it is good to catch up with people and always good to see friends there is something really magical knowing we are coming back here.