Why yes ... that wonderful smell is coming from our kitchen.
As I write here, downstairs there is this stunning concoction that combines the best of Belgian and New Zealand cuisine, simmering away in the great big pot.
2.5kgs of Pure South New Zealand venison is cooking with a rather special bottle of Belgian beer. There are onions, jenever (juniper) berries, cloves, fresh thyme, a pear and apple syrup-style spread, and bay leaves too.
It's Armistice Day here in Belgium and a public holiday. How better to celebrate the end of that war that saw so many New Zealanders pour into Belgium, along with the rest of the 'Allies', in an attempt to save Belgium from the 'other side'.
I have fresh bread baking for the morning and the laundry is in, after a day spent hanging in biting sunshine.
It's all happening here tonight. I don't quite recall how it was to spend spring, summer and autumn out and wandering. It's fading ...
Oh, liked the look of this documentary by Leon McCarron and Al Humphreys.
In November and December 2012, Leon crossed 1000 miles of the Empty Quarter desert in Oman and the United Arab Emirates. The journey began in Salalah, Oman and finished six weeks later in the glitz and glamour of Dubai, UAE. The trip roughly traced some of the routes famously trodden by the British explorer Sir Wilfred Thesiger, who criss-crossed the desert in the 1940's.