Our new Pizza oven

 

WOOD FIRED PIZZA OVEN

It had been a few years since our last wood fired oven cooked it's final pizza and we finally decided it was time to build a new one. With a party coming up we went into overdrive mode and within one weekend had extended the deck, with extra reinforcing to cope with the extra weight and built the base of the oven. Our new oven is all concrete, a stark contrast to the old fashioned mud oven we've built before, but we want to see if it will last longer.
We were extremely lucky to be given a couple of bags of refectory cement, which is great for the high temps, but super expensive (huge thanks to Brendan x) All up with the deck extension and oven build it took us a week....and she cooks GREAT pizzas---YUM!

The adventures of Poppy and Martin...the silliest sausage dogs in the southern hemisphere

Lofty Meadow's Mascots

Poppy & Martin

If you come to Lofty Meadow's, these two silly sausages will be right there ready to greet you. Most likely they will bark at first but then as they realise that this could be the start of a beautiful friendship that involves pats, rubs, scratches, food, cuddles, attention and more pats.....and more food, they soften up and grovel at your feet, showing you their most favourite places to be rubbed. 

If you like small furry creatures then these guys will keep you company most days at Lofty Meadows. As soon as you sit down they will be at your side and if you permit, in your lap in a flash. But don't be fooled these funny little furry sausages have a mischievous side and all our guests are warned not to leave food unattended for any length of time.

 

 Those legs may look short but in the blink of an eye they will be on the table devouring your steak/porridge/toast/sausage and licking the plate clean before you realise.  Martin even eats capsicum and other assorted vegetables...but Martin will eat just about anything. In fact he is so motivated by food, we had to get a child lock for our fridge as he is able to open it with his pointy little sausage nose! He's also been known to steal boxes of Mother's day chocolates, gorge himself stupid and the hiding the rest in piles of laundry, under cushions and under herbs in the garden. He loves to make a big raid and hide things for later, so no surprises he is the fatter of the two sausages. Sometimes we even call him burger because he's just too fat to a sausage.

Adding to the eating disorder he seems to have, Martin is also known to hide from a walk. Poppy loves a good walk, usually running the whole way, but not Martin, he'd usually much prefer scouring the kitchen floor for crumbs or just laying around in a food coma. When the leads are rattled, Poppy comes bounding in, in pure doggy excitement, but Martin will hide...anywhere he can. And even after you've dragged him out from the hiding place and secured him on the lead, he'll dig his heals in and play dead. He's a very lazy sausage!

 But we love them and I'm sure you will too!

                   Poppy looking dreamy

Poppy (left) & Martin (right)

We love the rain

Sometime it doesn't rain, at all, for weeks and weeks or even months and months. I'm sure this sounds like heaven for some people but it is torture for us. We have no town water at all and rely completely on rain water, as do the gardens, forests, creeks, rivers etc. With a relatively small house we also have limited roof space to collect the water and limited storage tanks for the liquid gold of life. I'm guessing a lot of people have no idea what this means when the tanks run dry...empty tanks=no drinking water, no washing water, no toilet, no shower...life grinds to a holt.

When it does finally rain-We rejoice, shout Hooray, breathe longs sighs of grateful relief and we just want to stand in the wet. I see beauty in reflections, puddles, rainbows, clouds, mud, and love the way it washes everything clean. Balance is returning, well let's hope it is a balance and not a flood!

K'gari- AKA Fraser Island

Living in South East Qld we are so close to one of Australia's many natural beauties. K'Gari, as she is called by her indigenous folk, or Fraser Island by white folk. Having Agathe here from France once more, I wanted to make sure we showed her some special places and we joined up with our good mate Gerard, packed up the 4WD's and took to the open roads. I will not lie, it is quite a mission to get there, about 4 hours to drive, wait for the ferry, and then another hour drive to camp, but so worth it. Such wild beauty.
The weekend we were there there was a real ship wreck, a fifty foot luxury catamaran, sunk in a rough storm on the friday night, and when we returned south on Sunday, the was broken us on the beach-absolutely smashed to pieces.  We spent the weekend just enjoying the sun, sand, sky and water.
Absolute bliss.

Big Little Paris

Street ART!!! Paris, I love you, You are so big and full, yet so short and alive. Walking to Poissonnerie Metro station I found the coolest flying Golfish, and this is how I feel, I have been swimming all my life and now I have these fantastic wings that are carrying me through these streets. So much to see and we have only a few days, but we will make the most of it.