Sunday in Orange

We had a very interesting Sunday in Orange which kicked off with yoga in Cook Park. About 50 of us gathered at 9am to start the day with a stretch and some fresh air.

Spot the L'Orange!

The class was hosted by the lovely Emma from Positively Yoga to show off what she does best in a unique setting.

Looking up at the beautiful blue sky and huge trees made the yoga poses all the more enjoyable, Mr L'Orange even gave it a go!

Next stop was Burns and Co for one for their big auctions and where we hoped to pick up some pieces of furniture. I have been honing my auction bargain hunting skills by watching many house renovation and antique shows from the UK and felt ready to put my new found talents into action.

To our slight alarm the auction shed was completely full of keen buyers, however they all seemed to want hunting gear, mowers or kayaks so we had relatively little competition when it came to the furniture and sofas. The downside was that we had to wait 2.5 hours for the bidding to start on the items we wanted! Anyway at least we know for next time, we can go away, get a heap of jobs done and then come back.

I was loving holding up my little card and bidding against people, it was a total adrenaline inducing thrill and we picked up lots of bargains! We have spent so many weekends looking at the prices of furniture that we felt we had a really good idea of what we could expect to pay in a standard shop or on ebay.

To give you an idea, for $650 - we ended up walking away with the following brand new items:
wooden double wardrobe
2 seater sofa
3 cushions (that match the sofa)
wooden blanket box
wooden book shelf with some drawers
3 cube wooden stand
2 cube wooden stand

When collecting everything there were even some cushions left over that nobody seemed to want so Mr L'Orange just brought them home as well. We are thrilled with our garage full of goodies and relieved we could get everything locally rather than making another trek to Bathurst or Sydney.

After all the excitement, we relaxed by doing a heap of gardening and diy tasks before beer and the men's tennis finals to finish off the day.

The Sugar Mill - Orange

I can honestly tell you dear readers, that I have been waiting in a state of extreme anticipation for The Sugar Mill to open in Orange since September!

At long last, I am pleased to tell you that the doors are open and the selection of homemade cakes, pies and other calorie inducing delights are now available seven days a week – heaven!

I have even found myself taking Dog A L’Orange on a new walking route past The Sugar Mill, so I can stock up on goodies and then work off a few calories on the way home! 

I can highly recommend the lamb, tomato & rosemary pie and also the hazelnut & chocolate cups.

Stacey and Darren, owners of The Old Mill in Millthorpe have opened their new Orange shop in the Summer Centre close to Dan Murphy’s. This brand new space is completely different from those familiar with The Old Mill building which has lots of vintage charm.

You can find all your favourites in The Sugar Mill including, the crowd pleasing lemon meringue tarts, pies, cakes, eclairs although not quite the range and selection as in Millthorpe – I’m sure this will build over the coming weeks.

As a huge fan of pretty much everything sold by The Old Mill, I’m thrilled that I no longer have to drive 20 minutes whenever I want a divine pastry treat. Fingers crossed, the gingerbread stars will be in store soon.

There is seating available should you wish to dine in, everything is bright, modern & tastefully decorated, with the only downsides being the view of the car park & no air conditioning. Also be warned there are lots of mums and babies there during the day so it can get quite noisy.

Located at 82 - 102 Summer St & open Monday to Friday from 7am- 6pm, Weekends from 9am -  4pm.

Orange Picnic Races 2014

Just over a week to go before the Orange Picnic Races kick off on Saturday 18th January. The Picnics (as they are known locally) are a big thing out in the country and provide the perfect excuse to dress up and get together with friends for a good old fashioned day of entertainment.

Sitting in the shade enjoying a gorgeous picnic, sparkling wine and good company is almost more fun than the horses. Tickets cost $20 on the gate so it works out as a cheap day out, especially if you get lucky on a race!

Typically ladies go all out in the fashion department, after all, this year there is up to $3000 worth of prizes so it is worth making a bit of effort.

Fashions on the Field is taken very seriously with the top contestants being selected by a panel of judges who scout around throughout the day choosing only the most cutting edge dresses, hats & fascinators worn by the most stylish ladies.

I always feel the gentleman have far less competition and basically just need to put on a suit and hat and perhaps have a shower to be in with a chance. Headwear is all important for a chance of success, so dust off those hats gents and think of all the prizes to be won!

This year the Orange Picnic Races have got some local caterers helping out, so no need to worry about a picnic just turn up and enjoy Byng St Store or The Agrestic Grocer gourmet fare. Millamolong are setting up a country themed lounge for relaxing in between races and I'm sure will be very popular this year.

If you have friends from out of town bring them along to the Picnics to see what a country day out is really all about, plus it means you don't have to organise much - just turn up! There are buses back to Orange after the races so nobody needs to worry about transport - perfect!

Apricot Delight

Happy New Year! Wishing you all the very best for 2014 and hopefully many more joyous hours reading this little blog.

The start of 2014 has brought with it ripe and ready to pick apricots from our tree. 

They may not be the biggest, juiciest or best looking apricots but there are certainly plenty of them. In fact just the huge number of apricots to deal with is a bit overwhelming.

Mr L'Orange and I have packed up all our cherry boxes (I knew it would be worthwhile to save them (and have filled them with fruit for our friends around town). 

The easiest recipe I've found involving apricots is just to poach them, so I'm planning to give that a go this weekend so we can have something home grown fruit with our muesli.

The apricots we failed to pick that Bailey & the ants are enjoying

Other garden news is that our very unhealthy tree at the end of the 'orchard' is not a plum or an apricot but a peach tree, this has only taken us 3 years to work out! The peaches are big and look lovely, only problem is that they are really high up so difficult to pick. Time for the ladder Mr L'Orange!

The plum tree is also fully laden and the plums are just sweetening up but I think will also be ready to pick next week, how exciting! Now who wants some plums?

Mum's potted flowers are starting to look really good and we got given a pink flamingo for the garden over Christmas which is currently happy residing with the raspberries.

Orange has had very little rain over the last few months so everything is really dry and watering duty takes up a fair bit of time each night, my goal is to let nothing else die. I've managed to restrain myself and only plant 4 new little things which are being closely monitored and everything else is just hanging in there - so glad we did all that mulching now!

Anyway that is it for me, hope you all have a great weekend.

Christmas in July

Our Christmas dinner held at the end of July (sorry for the tardy post), I'm happy to report, was excellent! We woke up to a beautiful frosty morning which I think set the scene for the whole day.

Mr L'Orange and I had prepared some of the courses in advance and were feeling pretty on top of the organisation for our 12 person Christmas dinner, how deluded we were!

We were busy in the kitchen from 1pm on the day with guests arriving from 4.30pm so it was the usual hectic race against the clock, with us feeling like we were filming an episode of 'My Kitchen Rules.'

I was still picking holly in my welly boots just before the guests arrived, so my top tip for anyone hosting a Christmas dinner is to get more done in advance! 

Highlights were having mulled wine around the bonfire in the garden then sitting down at the candlelit table in all its decorated glory. 

Mr L'Orange and I had never done turkey before or stuffing or pudding so it was a small miracle that every dish turned out really well. 

Here is a our Christmas in July menu:

Prawn Dumplings with Dipping Sauce

Leek & Blue Cheese Tarts

Sweet Potato & Bacon Soup & Crusty Bread

Roast Turkey with Stuffing

Chipolata Sausages wrapped in Bacon

Roasted Carrots, Parsnips, Pumpkin & Potatoes

Red Wine Gravy

Redcurrant Sauce

Christmas Pudding with Custard & Vanilla Ice Cream 

As usual, I was so engrossed in the cooking and serving that I failed to get good pictures of the food but you can use your imagination.

Mr L'Orange snapped this image just as my mouth was full.

Everyone agreed, it was so nice sharing a lovely evening with friends and non of the usual stress, drama and driving that typically accompanies Christmas. We will definitely be doing another one next year!

Frosty Orange

It has been very frosty in Orange this week, take a look at this photo evidence, certainly means that I walk Dog A L'Orange that bit faster so we can get back into the warm!

Wee Garden Update

Thought you might like to see some recent pictures of the garden. The veggie patch is producing lots of delicious fruit and veg at the moment and we are ready to plant in our new stock to enjoy over winter.

Cherry tomatoes in abundance

Lots of yummy zucchini

Our sole eggplant

The garden beds are looking really good after some recent rain and we are feeling as if all the plants are really starting to take to their new homes. Keeping on top of the weeds in the new beds is another challenge altogether, however it won't be long before winter is here and we can have a break from weeding.

New garden bed with daisy flower sculptures

We picked up the daisy sculptures at the Mudgee Garden Sculpture exhibition last October. They blend in really well with the garden, I'm very happy with my purchase.

White hibiscus with piggy sculpture

We had a huge pile of rocks that were cluttering up the garden so I decided to plonk them in the garden beds for now to give a bit of a rustic effect. We can always move them later when the plants get bigger and we get around to building a water feature.

Hope you have a great rest of the week.

Flix in the Stix - Orange

We eagerly packed our picnic basket, aired out the rugs and headed along to Flix in the Stix held in the Orange Botanic Gardens. This was the first time we had attended this event and were really looking forward to an evening of short film, music and socialising with friends. Mr L'Orange and I had even had a nap in the afternoon to prepare ourselves for a late night! Dog A L'Orange still wakes at 6am every weekend and has not learnt the concept of a 'lie in' as yet.

There were free boxes of popcorn as you walked in, a licensed bar, wood fired pizzas and of course a giant screen. We settled into position with our friends and started nibbling on the mountain of food that everyone had brought along. 

The atmosphere was lovely and everyone was in an excellent mood and keen to enjoy the entertainment.

I had just got a Little Creatures beer in hand when I felt the first few heavy raindrops. The grey clouds loomed and suddenly there was absolute pandamonium as the heavens opened and lightening flashed across the sky.

Everyone rushed to grab free ponchos hoping it would just be a passing shower, but as the storm showed no signs of abating the organisers had to cancel the event as the lightning was too dangerous. Hundreds of wet people gathered all their belongings and trudged out of the Botanic Gardens to the bedlam of the carpark.

On a positive note, whilst waiting to get out on to the road we watched the most amazing lightning storm and heard huge rolls of thunder and then headed home to drink wine and finish off the feast. Nobody went to bed until 1am so a pretty good night despite the weather!

Good news is that the Flix in the Stix - Orange has been rescheduled for March 2nd - see you there!