Winter soup warmers in my winter garden

It is winter here in Western Australia. I went around my garden this morning and snapped some pics to show you. It is actually looking very green at the moment... 

In my front garden the last few roses are blooming, the hydrangeas are shooting, the lavender is pushing up a few flower heads, some winter bulbs are coming up, and the gorgeous Strelitzia (Bird of Paradise) growing by my neighbour's front driveway is really spectacular. The yellow flower you see in the top row is Hibbertia - a Western Australian native. 

In the back garden, 

 To keep reading and see more pics, please click on "read more" .....

Carrots, minestrone & flowers!

An interesting mix for today. 

I have been searching for some old soup plates for my food photography. A couple of weekends ago we went to the Nannup Flower and Garden Festival, and in the Nannup antique shop (what a glorious place) I found tucked away along the back wall these old French plates - Sarreguemines. The proprietor said they were from the 1850s, but my research tells me more likely early 1900s - but do I care? not a bit! I love them!
I have 4 plates and all 4 have a different designs - perfect!
Seen here photographed with pea & ham soup in natural kitchen light.

I made minestrone and served with herb scones last weekend, served in my French plates. I've made herb scones for years, they are a perfect accompaniment for soup on a cold winter's evening.  I use whatever herbs I have in my garden - parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme (sounds like a song...) and this time I also added sun dried tomatoes to make them a bit more Italian to go with the soup.

Photographed in natural light on my back patio on a cloudy morning. I would have really liked some light and shade, but it was a completely cloudy day, so I worked with that!

I couldn't decide which image I like the best, so here is a collage.
Perhaps you can tell me which image you like? thanks!

And a mosaic of baby carrots - photographed in natural light - cloudy morning. There is those French plates again, and my serving spoon courtesy of my mother-in-law.
The baked carrot recipe came from Fast Ed's new cookbook "The Food Clock".  First you brown them in a pan a bit, but I think 20 minutes in the oven was a bit too long.  You were supposed to cook sage with it, but my plant has disappeared! so I used rosemary - just as good.

 Congratulations to everyone who participated in the Bunbury annual Floral Art Exhibition "Blooming Art 2012" on show in the beautiful Chapel Gallery at the Bunbury Regional Art Gallery. Congratulations to the winners, and the organizers, and Floral Designers Club exhibition chairwoman, Eileen Wenn. That's Eileen's prize winning arrangement on the top left, and her necklace on the top right.
The arrangement you see second from the left by Sue Larkin - Best Contemporary Design, Best in Show & Best Use of Colour - congratulations Sue - stunning work

Below is from Kim's Beyond Layers Day 60 - creating a "scripted image" layer. Here I am showing you the original unedited image, and with the "scripted" image next to it. I also added a sepia photo filter.We are learning some great techniques in Kim's e-course.

 Have a wonderful week. I am linking up with Mary at Little Red House and other wonderful artists at Mosaic Monday. Click on the link here to see their work - Mosaic Monday

Finally how about a jar of smiles for when life is not treating you so well....

If you would like to see some more of my food photography, I would love you to come over to my Flickr site -  Jill's Food on Flickr

Thank you for taking the time to come to my blog. Your comments are valuable to me and I look forward to hearing from you.  Have a wonderful week.

Winter warmers - It's winter in Western Australia

It's mid winter in Australia, and I woke up this morning to the sound of the rain pouring down on our roof. So how about a bowl of hot home made winter soup to warm us up? I love making a big pot of hearty home made soup - there is nothing better on a cold wet winter's day. The delicious smell of the cooking soup seeps through my house - it is a welcoming smell - that says come in and have some!

I have some recipes of soups that my mother used to make - ie the Vegetable, Lamb Shank & Barley soup was always a standard in our house when I was growing up -  but now I like finding new recipes that reflect our multicultural Australia - ie Mulligatawny Soup and Minestrone Soup. During the summer when there are plenty of tomatoes, I make big batches of tomato soup, and freeze it in containers, then in the winter use it as the basis of the Minestrone Soup. It is wonderful on a cold Sunday night to have a bowl of Minestrone served with Italian Roll-up rolls, in front of the fire for tea.

I like a thick soup with lots of flavour. What is your favourite soup?

What sort would you choose? From top left clockwise - Pea & Ham, Moroccan, Minestrone, Vegetable & Barley, Pumpkin, and in the centre Mulligatawny  -

And we better have something to go with it - scones, Italian roll ups, and fresh crusty bread -

My sister reminded me today about making damper - I haven't made it for years - I will have to make some soon to go with our next pot of soup. For those who don't know what damper is - it really is a traditional Australian bread which was a staple food in colonial days, and now favored by people out camping, cooked in the camp fire - here is a link to find out more - Australian Damper

The sky is amazing in winter - What a glorious palette of colour it can be - these images in my collage were taken between lunch time one day and 5pm the next day a couple of weeks ago. In the first image - lunch time - the sky was blue, then in the evening there was beautiful pink colours in the late afternoon sky, threatening clouds next morning, rain at lunch time (the lighthouse pic), and then driving home that afternoon - a glorious sunset. What an ever changing colourful pallet the sky has!
These images are all totally straight out of camera.

Yesterday we went walking in the bush along the Timberline Trail in St John's Brook Conservation Park in Nannup - below is a pic. I love bush walking during winter or spring. We walked through some misty rain but it didn't bother us. There were a few wildflowers starting to open, hinting of the spring to come. We took a picnic and had lunch at the overnight hut along the trail. I hope to bring you the story later this week.

Until then take care, by happy, and have a wonderful week. I look forward to hearing from you and your comments which I always appreciate. I am linking up with Mary and the other wonderful contributors at Mosaic Monday at Little Red House - click here to see their work - Mosaic Monday at Little Red House

Interested in seeing what I was doing this time last year? - go here - The Oceans Edge - Yallingup Western Australia - The Oceans Edge