Three Girls Skipping

21/10/2026

Happy Thursday.

It is raining. Properly raining. The heavy kind that makes the whole garden look instantly greener and a little happier.

It is my first midweek day off in forever, which feels like a small gift. The to-do list is long, as it always is. Emails to answer, plans for Melbourne Cup, Christmas catering menus scattered across my desk and a mountain of washing to tackle. The plan for the day is almost set.

(I could not bear for the indoor plants to miss out on this rain, so I have carried every last one outside to soak it up. I rather suspect they are sitting there wondering what on earth is going on. Outside, in the wet, leaves blowing in the wind... I like to think they are quietly loving it.)

So here's to slower mornings, staying in pyjamas and a cup of tea in hand. It feels like a win win.

Have a great one...whatever you get up to.

Caroline

Image: Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Biscuits. X

19/09/2026

Happy Sunday...

One of the first things to be neglected when my life gets a little crazy, or goes slightly wayward, is the garden.

Early mornings. Late afternoons. The chill of winter winds. A to-do list that never gets done. A drama or two! Dinner to cook. Lach to pick up from somewhere. Emails to answer. Something always seems more pressing, and time pottering in the garden is very easily pushed to another day... and then another.

Then one day you look outside and realise the herbs have given up, the pots are looking decidedly sad, and the plants that have somehow survived deserve a medal.

So last week, tired of looking at one particularly dead plant in a pot, I went to the nursery and had a field day.

Nothing terribly exciting. Some new herbs. A few hardy plants with a bit of colour. Some potting mix. And slow release fertiliser as a peace offering to everything that had managed to survive my neglect (a small reward for their efforts!).

I probably spent longer wandering around the nursery than I did actually planting everything, but what a difference it has made.

The plan is ten or fifteen minutes every day. Nothing ambitious. A little watering, pulling out a w**d or ten, moving a pot because it suddenly looks better somewhere else. Noticing that something new has flowered. And, most importantly, standing back with a cup of tea or a glass of w**e, feeling ridiculously pleased with my very modest efforts.

Such ordinary little things, but perhaps that is the point.

Life at three girls feels as though it is slowly finding its way back to an even keel. And somehow, making those few minutes each day to tend to something that isn't urgent, isn't work, and doesn't really matter to anyone but me has felt like a little bit of life returning.

And it has me wanting to do other things again too. Cook something just because. Tidy a cupboard. Go for a walk. Sit outside. Notice the afternoon light.

Maybe getting back on track isn't always one enormous decision or a grand new plan.

Maybe sometimes it is buying a few herbs.

Watering the garden.

Doing one small thing that makes you happy... and then another.

A new season, in more ways than one.

And what a joy that is.

Here's to a great day... whatever you get up to.

Caroline
Image: When you know it is just easier to do the job yourself!!

18/09/2026

Happy Saturday...

One of my favourite places to be. X

Here's to a great day...whatever you get up to.

Caroline and the teams that are three girls

PS. Yes, new glasses!!!

05/09/2026

Happy Sunday...

It is Father’s Day today, though somehow it hasn’t quite felt like it. I’m not sure why. Perhaps life has simply been too busy to properly notice the date until it arrived.

I did manage to buy matching pyjamas for Lach and his Dad. Really, they both needed new PJs, so it was probably more of a two birds, one stone kind of present... but I’m counting it!

My own Dad has been gone for more than thirty years now.

There are still moments when I catch myself totting up all that he missed, and all that we missed by not having him here. The big things, of course, but perhaps even more, the ordinary things.

The conversations around the dinner table. The hugs. The laughs. Early morning breakfasts in bed, cooked by Dad. The marching band record playing far too loudly. Watching Lach grow up. Seeing who we all became.

And yet, just as often, I’m struck by how much of him remains. How much can still move through the world simply because he was once in it.

They say I’m a chip off the old block. But Lach... Lach sometimes feels like something closer to a return.

That same easy empathy. The same big, unguarded heart. The same ability to make people feel comfortable. That quick wit that catches you off guard before you’ve quite realised you’re laughing.

It’s a peculiar kind of grace, watching someone you love carry pieces of someone they never had the chance to meet.

I wish he had.

But there is something incredibly comforting in knowing that love, and goodness, and all those little pieces that make a person them, don’t simply disappear. They find their way forward.

So Happy Father’s Day to the dads who are here, to the ones we miss, and to the ones we go on loving from a distance.

And to Darren, who gets to wear matching pyjamas with a fourteen-year-old tonight whether he likes it or not!

Here’s to a great day... whatever you get up to.

Caroline X
Image: My Dad - Brian Jones X

02/09/2026

Happy Thursday...

It seems I haven’t written anything here in forever!

I am not entirely sure how that happened.

Actually, I am.

There has been a lot of change at three girls. People coming and going, long days, very early mornings, cakes to bake, lunches to make, functions to cater for and the usual business of keeping a small café moving along.

Then there is the attempt at life outside these walls. Running around after Lach (when I can!!), trying rather unsuccessfully to get more than four hours sleep, and, occasionally, remembering there is a world beyond the kitchen door.

Somewhere along the way, my regular ramblings found their way to the bottom of the to-do list. Then quietly slipped into the too hard basket altogether.

But finely, finely!!, it feels that we are finding our feet again.

There is a little more calm in the kitchen. Some wonderful people, beside us, joining the team. New things we want to cook and old things we still love making. I find myself looking around three girls again and feeling excited about what comes next.

And perhaps that is reason enough to start writing again.

Nothing terribly grand. Just the food we are cooking, the people who make it, the things we love, and the small everyday moments that make this little cafe on the corner what it is.

So, after a rather long silence, hello again! I am sorry it has been a while. X

Here's to a great day...whatever you get up to.

Caroline and the AMAZING team that is three girls X

IMAGE: Blueberry, Macadamia Nut and Coconut Granola I made yesterday. I could have probably made it a little sweeter, so am thinking this to be the "healthier" version of what I could have made!!

11/08/2026

16/06/2026

Happy Wednesday...

The sun is shining...the cooler morning has given way to a tshirt kind of day (so much for winter!).

The kitchen smells of the just baked chocolate chip biscuits... and there is the temptation to eat one from the rack just beside me!

A big day ahead. Ann's Dad bought us a bucket of his home grown passionfruit - the smell and colour are amazing. Maybe they will become a Curd to layer through a sponge... maybe a Jam!

My sister, Kate, is visiting and she bought with her a bucket of limes! Marmalade? A syrup for a cake... the possibilities are endless!

And that is the joy of a small kitchen... every morning is a chance to ask, what do I want to make today (and maybe!, what do I want to eat!).

So here's to a great day...whatever you get up to.

Caroline and the teams that ARE three girls

Image: Vanilla Butter Cake with Raspberry Buttercream

06/06/2026

Happy Sunday...

And a big hello from the Scenic Rim Farm Shop & Cafe Eat Local Long Lunch 2026.

I always look forward to this lunch. It has now become a marker of time in the year... a way to stop, albeit for a moment, get out of Brisbane, and literally fill our cups.

It is a crisp morning here. Light is breaking over the hills, birds greet the day. The sky is big. Corn custard tarts (for dessert) have just come out of the oven. I can smell Ann cooking onions on the grill plate. The list is long, and we will be racing the clock... but for now, we are so grateful to be here and to celebrate the growers, producers and makers of this amazing region.

How lucky are we.

Here's to a great day...whatever you get up to.

Caroline

29/05/2026

Happy Saturday...

With a function on later today, I have a slightly slower start to the day. Well, I say slower... I've been up for hours, the boys have just headed off to soccer, and the breakfast dishes are still sitting on the bench waiting patiently for me!

But for a few minutes, I'm sitting here with a cup of tea and a butter-and-honey-soaked crumpet beside me, and it has me thinking...

Are crumpets a winter food?

In our house, they absolutely are.

For ten months of the year, they barely get a look in. Then the temperature drops, the mornings turn grey, the kettle goes on a little more often... and suddenly someone suggests crumpets and we are in full crumpet mode.

Perhaps it's because they're best eaten hot, with far too much butter and honey melting into all those little holes. Comfort food. Perhaps they remind me of childhood mornings - standing in front of the heater, cartoons on the television, Dad in the kitchen, with no rush to be anywhere.

Whatever the reason, crumpets mean winter to me.

So, here's to a great Saturday, whatever you're up to... and don't worry too much about doing your hair this morning, with this wind, it seems a slightly optimistic exercise!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I should probably deal with those breakfast dishes...

Caroline x

PS. three girls skipping is OPEN until 2pm today and three girls fishing is OPEN from 4pm.

26/05/2026

Happy Wednesday...

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about change... and how rarely it arrives all at once.

Most of the time it comes quietly... sometimes almost unnoticed... and only rarely (thank goodness!) loudly.

It comes in small (and occasionally big!) decisions... not always of my own making.
Different conversations.
Learning new things.
Letting go of things.
Making room for something new before you fully understand what it is, or what it might look like yet.

On Mondays lately, I’ve found myself spending more time back in the kitchen... often by myself... playing with ideas, trying new recipes, making a mess, washing dishes, listening to podcasts and remembering just how much I love three girls in all her guises.

And somewhere in amongst the butter, flour and sugar, I’ve realised something... sometimes change doesn’t feel dramatic at all.

Sometimes it simply feels, in part, like returning to the parts of yourself that always made sense.

Change can look like...
A different approach.
A recipe revisited... or a new one trialled (disasters included!)
A day spent differently.
New faces.
Less time in front of a computer.
More time spent building the things that matter slowly.
Remembering the comfort, for me, of being in the kitchen.

Not every season is comfortable... but there can still be something very exciting about standing at the edge of change and quietly knowing life is shifting again.

Not perfectly.
Not instantly.
Just steadily.

And maybe that’s enough. Maybe that’s where all the good things begin.

Anyway... just a little thought for the middle of the week.

Here’s to a great day... whatever you get up to.

Caroline X

Image: A lemon and blackberry cake with lemon curd buttercream I made this week. (I did make it much higher than she need to be... but it looked so grand I loved it!)