Spades and Spoons

Rock cakes - school must be back in

2012-02-02T15:53:00.001+11:00

How many rock cakes have I made in my lifetime? Answer: A lot.
School is back in, and here is another batch. Myyounger child, Amelia, started high school on Monday. Monday night I was bagging up unneeded primary school uniforms to take in for the clothing pool. I had polo shirts too that were too tatty or too daubed with paint to include, so I sat and painstakingly cut them into rags. I had a bit of tear in my eye as I did. Primary school stage is over. Whoosh. How fast did that go?
I think every year has a different rhythm. This year I will have quiet mornings. Both children are out the door at 7.15am to catch the bus. They get home about 4.15pm, so there is extra quiet there too.
Meanwhile, I've dropped a day's work. I am very happy about this. Toward the end of last year I was tired and not feeling that well, really (as evidenced by negligent blogging habits). I was feeling out of whack. Another day to keep on top of things around here will make all the difference. I've also booked into yoga classes again for this term, after a break of 10 months, and have joined the local tennis club. I haven't hit a tennis ball in years - we'll see how this goes!
So 2012 is shaping up well. There is a lot to look forward to and be thankful for. Hope it is the same in your neck of the woods.

White peaches

2012-01-31T17:07:00.000+11:00

Luxury. A sinkful of peaches - white (can't remember the variety) and Golden Queens. You have to be careful with the white peaches. They drip with juice, and are so sweet. The Golden Queens don't drip juice. They are firm and yellow. Mainly used for canning.
My big regret when I chose the varieties of peach to plant was that I didn't go for freestone varieties. Both are clingstone. Not a big deal when you eat them fresh, but a little harder to work with when you are looking to cook or preserve.
Vegies and fruit are coming in the door thick and fast: tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, beans, figs, grapes, passionfruit, lemons, beetroot. No lettuces - they just go straight to seed in this hot, humid weather.
Meanwhile, mildew has attacked the zucchini. It's been really wet, and the last few days have been hot, so mildews and fungus are everywhere.
February is our most productive month by far - would that it came 12 times a year.

Kushari

2012-01-28T08:28:00.002+11:00

I try to have one vegetarian night a week around here, sometimes we have two. Personally, I would do more, but the meatlovers around here bleat. I would make myself a vegie alternative, but know they would want to eat that as well so I would end up making two full meals each night. Too ridiculous, so I stick with the once-or-twice-a-week plan. (I have, though, basically cut out meat at breakfast and lunch, so I keep meat to dinners only).
This week, the family decamped to Brisbane to visit my mother-in-law, so I had four veggo nights. I made tofu and vegie burgers, a vegie curry, and tried out this recipe from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian book. She calls it Palestinian Lentils and Rice with crisp fried onions. I call it kushari, as I recognise it as the lentil and rice dish we ate when we travelled around Egypt, and that is what they called it.
How cheap is this dish: lentils, rice, onion, a bit of oil, salt and a pinch of cumin. And yet, very moreish - I'll make this again, definitely.

Kushari

1/2 cup lentils
1 cup basmati rice
1 onion, finely sliced
2 cups water
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin.

Cover lentils and rice with water and soak for about an hour.
In a heavy saucepan, fry the onion in oil over medium heat until brown and crisp around the edges - this takes about 10-15 minutes. Lift with a slotted spoon and put onto paper towel.
Drain the rice and lentils. Stir into the oil left over in the saucepan for a few minutes until the rice is coated in oil. Add salt and cumin. Add water and bring to boil. When it boils, cover with a well fitting lid, turn the heat down to its lowest point, and cook for 25 minutes.
Fluff with a fork, and garnish with fried onion.

Feeds 4, I would guess.
P.S> I wouldn't miss out the onion step. It pretty much gives the dish it's flavour.

Happy Australia Day

2012-01-26T12:26:00.004+11:00

Local identity, Sheepie, celebrates Australia in the same way many thousands will today- a barbie and the beach.

Without wishing to sound jingoistic at all, I think Australians would all do well to spend a few moments of quiet contemplation and count up the many reasons we should be grateful to live here. Here's a few to start: we enjoy a democracy; peace; a working judiciary; a free press; we've managed to combine all that is good about capitalism with enough safety nets to catch the not so well off; an education system; health services for all; clean water; reliable electricity. etc etc.

Recently I read Peter Hartcher's The Sweet Spot. It is a wide ranging read through Australia's political and economic history to show how we got here. Here's a bit from the blurb,

"Hartcher argues that Australia's prosperity was not built on dumb luck. In a time when the authoritarian success story of China is strong, Australia offers a better model: a democratic success story. Is it perfect? Of course not. But on some of the most important and appraently intractable problems of the modern world, Australia, believe it or not, is as good as it gets. And the beaches aren't bad either."

In a time where our politicians and media seem hell bent on pushing why things are so bad in this country, and will get worse, and why we should be fearful, Hartcher's book is an welcome antidote. We have challenges and inequalities, no doubt, and we shouldn't rest on our laurels. But I can't think of a country in the world better placed to rise up and meet them. Far from being fearful, and as hokey as it sounds, we need to count our blessings.

Happy Australia Day to all. Be thankful. And enjoy your day whatever you're up to.

A new addition

2012-01-24T20:08:00.003+11:00

No, not what you might think.
Here's the new addition - a Bernina 330 sewing machine.
After enduring one too many frustrating sessions at my old machine, with its self-adjusting tension and stitch length, usually mid- seam (yes, it was regularly serviced), I took myself off and treated myself to this little beauty.
My mother sewed nearly all my clothes from primary school to wedding dress on her manual Bernina. It sewed like a dream. A couple of years ago, I bought a Bernina overlocker, and it too is a pleasure to sew with.
Since I brought this home last week I have spent a bit of time getting to know this beautiful thing. It's seam is brilliant. I can't think of a purchase I have made in my life that has made me smile more.
Another reason I was hanging out for a new machine was this pattern the Beignet skirt from Colette Patterns. Twelve buttons and buttonholes down the front. Completely undoable with my old machine, which had a woeful buttonhole from the get-go.
Stay tuned projects off the new machine..

Exclusion bags - the verdict

2012-01-22T10:22:00.003+11:00

Our ongoing battle with fruit fly is familiar to long-time readers of this blog. Even though we didn't know it at the time, our decision to plant stone fruit set us on the path of a long and frustrating battle with these pesky buggers, usually ending in victory for the fruit fly. It was a case of to the defeated the spoils, as we bagged up kilos and kilos of spoilt peaches, plums and feijoa over the years.

This year, we decided to conduct a controlled experiment with the use of exclusion bags. These are little paper bags with a wire insert that allows you to cover up each fruit totally closed, keeping the little buggers out. Not much hope though. Fruit fly are insidious little things.

We bought 6 packets of 25 bags at the cost of about $35 dollars, and used them on our plums, white peach and nectarine. We had fantastic fruit set this year, so we knocked off heaps of small fruit and kept the rest of the fruit uncovered with the intent of spraying with Eco-naturalure.

Unfortunately, our plan to spray was totally nixed by a very wet spring - we barely had two days running of dry weather for a couple of months. So in the end, the uncovered fruit wasn't treated at all.

The result - hooray, the exclusion bags worked! For the first time, we are eating our own unspoilt white peaches. And yes, the uncovered fruit has been spoilt. Unsurprisingly.

If you're interested, you can purchase exclusion bags on line here at the Green Harvest website.

Actually, this is an interesting little website offering all sorts of organic gardening supplies.

Laundry Liquid

2012-01-20T12:39:00.003+11:00

Every three months or so, it's time to make another batch of laundry liquid. I've been doing this for about two years using the recipe from Rhonda's Down to Earth blog here.

With only three ingredients: pure soap, washing soda and borax, it isn't complicated and it doesn't take all that long to make. The total amount of time required directly is about 30 minutes from go to bottling, with some time in between to let the mixture cool.

I do have difficulty tracking down washing soda locally - even the hardware stores don't have it. The hardware stores suggested the local chemical suppliers. They have washing soda, but only in 40kg bags! Enough to last me - oh, a lifetime I should think!

I ended up tracking down washing soda crystals, and even though Rhonda specifies not to use them, I have with no problem.

I also find that the mixture cools to form a large jelly-like blob. It has the most interesting slimy texture! At this point, before I decant from bucket to 10 litre bottle, I put a litre at a time into a plastic jug and then I use a stick-blender to turn the jelly into liquid.

But the bottom line is...does it work?? Well, the fact I've been making this for two years says that I think it does pretty well forthe most part. However, after a while of using it I decided I needed to soak my husband and son's work/school shirts in Napisan prior to washing as the laundry liquid alone didn't seem to deal with the grime around the collar and cuffs in paricular. I ask you, how the heck do they get so grubby?

Staycation

2012-01-17T20:06:00.002+11:00

Over the last few weeks I've been enjoying one of my favourite types of holiday - the staycation.

What have I been up to? Not very much, actually. I've been sleeping in, cooking, reading, pottering in the garden, sewing, listening to the cricket, and going to the beach almost daily to walk the dog. For the first time in ages I feel rested instead of teetering between tired and exhausted.

The picture above is taken at Jervis Bay. Look at it - pure white sand, crystal seas, almost deserted. Why would I need to go anywhere else?

The weather has been pretty cool for summer, which is fine by me! We've had very few days that have cracked 30 degrees, mostly hovering around 25 degrees. Would that summers were always this pleasant!

Had two forays to Sydney - first to the first day of the Second Test between Australia and India at the SCG. I go with two girlfriends, Jane and Therese, and this year Jane brought her daughter. Just looking around, I can confidently say we were the only all-female group. Watching cricket is only part of the fun, we also get six hours uninterrupted chat time, and I brought a picnic so there was some good food to be had. Too good.

The second trip was to see Ira Glass, the host of my very favourite podcast This American Life, present a show/talk Reinventing Radio. I was really looking forward to this one. Sadly, I was a little disappointed. For one thing, the show could have done with an edit. It was about 30 minutes too long. For another, the sound was pretty bad, and his rapid fire delivery made it hard to understand him at times. And the seats at the Town Hall, where I sat with my knees hard up against the seat in front were torture. Sigh.

Been surfing around the blogs too. So much to inspire out there. Apart from the simple living blogs, I am a big fan of sewing/craft blogs, and I've been toying with starting up my own sewing blog. Then I give myself a good talking to - I can barely give proper attention to the blog I have. And I don't really want to finish up this blog. Maybe a bit of sewing on this blog?? Stay tuned.

Happy Christmas, everybody

2011-12-24T09:32:00.002+11:00

A short post to wish everyone who happens past a Happy Christmas. I hope you all have a lovely day.

If you have a minute or two, check out Stephanie Dowrick's 10 tips for Christmas calm here. Says it all, really, about what Christmas is about.

Here's to plenty of Christmas calm out there - catch you on the other side!

GSM

2011-12-18T08:25:00.004+11:00

Pretty exciting developments in the winemaking department - "proper" labels! We had the above label designed by a friend who is a graphic designer. The motif is homage to our dog, Dash, who of course had nothing whatsoever to do with the making of the wine, but he's pretty darn cute, so why not?

GSM is a blend of Grenache, Shiraz and Mouvedre grapes - unfortunately the grapes are not our own. The 2010 season was rained out, as was the 2011 and it looks like, the 2012. At the stage of considering ripping out half our vines (we have about 100) but after eight years it's a bit of heart wrenching decision.

Fruit in general presents a bit of a challenge where we are: south of Sydney, near the coast. I guess you would call us maritime temperate - coolish winters, warm humid summers (except at the moment - cool and humid). It doesn't get cool enough for good stone fruit, apples and pears. It doesn't get warm enough for tropical fruit. Citrus does well enough, and figs and passionfruit. The rest we fight for. And of course, fruit fly loves our climate, so it's a constant battle with them too.

On the upside, we have good soil and rain, even when the rest of the country is in drought. So we keep going on, although treacherous thoughts of the ultimate prune do flash through my mind at times!

New season garlic

2011-12-12T20:32:00.004+11:00

Whoops - that's another month gone without blogging. Where did that go?

Happy days a few weeks ago. Just as last year's garlic was starting to look really sad and sorry, the new season garlic was ready to pick.
Of all the things we grow here, if I was asked to pick just one crop to grow, it would be garlic. It goes without saying that the fresh stuff is better than the stuff we get from China, Spain or Peru. Did you know fresh garlic is juicy? It is! I don't think I every saw juice come out of any garlic clove I ever bought.
It's also incredibly easy and hassle free. Just stick your cloves in the ground pointy side up and wait. Really. That's all I ever did.
The garden is a bit of a mixed bag at the moment. After a few oppressively hot days in November, interspersed with cool, wet days, we've had a run of cold weather, the coldest start to summer in 51 years. I am sitting here in December in my trackies. Unheard of. Not being a particular lover of hot weather, I'm quite happy with this state of affairs except that the garden doesn't seem to know what to do. Growth and ripening is a bit slow. By now we are hitting the most productive time of year in the vegie patch here, but I can see peak vegie harvesting is going to be a bit late this year.
After eight years here I can say no two years are ever the same in the garden.

Appliance woes

2011-11-15T16:44:00.004+11:00

Sigh. I really need to be in the kitchen at the moment, but I had to get away. The breadmaker is on its knead cycle and is emitting loud squeals with each turn of the paddle. The noise is enough to make my fillings vibrate. I fear this development does not bode well for its future. It's only 18 months old, heavens! OK it's probably done 5 loaves a week average since then, but I hoped it would last a bit longer.
Back in the kitchen I've had a run of appliance blowouts. My rice cooker (10 years old) blew up, so I got another. And now my much loved electric frypan (5 years old) has also gone the same way.
I should point out that I rely a lot on appliances, as I only have a two burner stove. I actually have three burners (Why only three? I don't know!I didn't build this kitchen), but the wok burner also blew up about two years ago, and the quote to fix it would buy me a new stovetop. But that would also mean a kitchen reno, which I am disinclined to do. So I muddle along in the kitchen with careful planning, bolstered by appliances. And you know, 99% of the time it's not a problem. Maybe we don't need the full palaver anyway.
What annoys me though, is not so much that these things break, but that it is almost impossible to have them repaired. The sheer, utter waste of it really gets my goat!
Meanwhile, next door in the laundry, my 10 year old Fisher and Paykel is churning out yet another load of washing. It hasn't missed a beat in all that time. I love my washing machine. (she writes with fingers crossed, not a bad achievement).

Friday night soup - Potage Bonne Femme

2011-11-12T09:19:00.004+11:00

I've explained before that Friday night is soup night around here, served about 5.15pm just before we head out to swimming club night. AM and the kids swim, I take up my post in Lane 4 and timekeep.

Soup fills a hole, but not so much as to weigh the swimmers down.

This soup is described in one of my French cookbooks as Potage Bonne Femme - Good Woman Soup - which I rather like over the more prosaic Vegetable soup.

I use whatever's around and ready to eat in Potage Bonne Femme - this one had leeks, potatoes, celery, silverbeet and zucchini, all sweated off for 10 minutes slowly in a bit of olive oil, then water and salt, and 5 minutes at low pressure in my beloved pressure cooker. Then add lots of pepper.

Thanks for the comments on my last post on my recently discovered Vitamin D deficiency.
Achan, I've heard of a couple of people with the same thing since sharing this diagnosis. I've never heard of it as a problem here in Aus but obviously things are changing. As Belinda points out, it is now a screening test in pregnancy - I don't recall this when I was having my kids 13 and 11 years ago.
Africanaussie, I don't think I'm diabetic. The blood test was a comprehensive one and blood sugar was good.
Anyway, I am feeling much less tired, and I think that my summer activities will help top up my levels, so hopefully I will keep on top of it now.

Vitamin D Deficient! Who knew?

2011-11-10T20:00:00.004+11:00

I've been feeling rather less than perfect lately. Tired, so tired. The sort of tired that had me craving 10 hours sleep after a ten hour sleep.
At first I just ignored it. You know, I'm of a certain age, with kids, a job, a dog, 5 acres to look after, a (neglected) blog, parents and the whole palaver. Life's tiring, after all.
Well, I just got sick of it. I hauled myself to the doctor.
"So why are you here to day?" says my charming German lady doctor.
"Well, I've been feeling very tired lately.."
"You are of a certain age..."she says.
"But I can hardly haul myself out of bed in the morning".
Being charming, she agrees to do a blood test.
And I am Vitamin D deficient. Very much so. And tiredness is a symptom.
How can this be? I live in Australia after all. Everything's about staying out of the sun- melanoma, you know! I thought the only people who had Vitamin D deficiency in these partswere the very elderly frail folk, Goth emos who sleep during the day and Muslim ladies who wear hijab.
But no, it seems you can be of a certain age, walk your dog daily, work in the garden often and still have Vitamin D deficiency.
Admittedly, while I do these things I am obsessively covered up - long pants and sleeves, hat, sunblock. I don't want skin cancer (and ok, I am trying to avoid the wrinkles too).
So now I am on Vitamin D supplements, and have been ordered to get into the sun for ten minutes morning and afternoon without sunblock.
So I've been on 3000mg of Vitamin D a day, and have been out and about without sunscreen, which I don't enjoy frankly(the sans sunscreen thing- not the out and about. I swear I can feel myself cooking).
I feel better already.

Berry Garden Festival

2011-10-16T20:19:00.003+11:00

Ok, so I've tried twice to upload a series of photos from today's visit to the Berry Garden Festival. I had a picture of the Taj Mahal of chook sheds, a vege patch to make you salivate, gorgeous garden borders, an enormous bougainvillea climbing up a tree, shady groves, a croquet lawn and a lily pond.

But no, Google and my lazy satellite connection don't want to play that game. So in the end, I'm posting just one photo from my trawl around the gardens on show - this outdoor shower, with hot and cold running water. This really appeals to me. I could get AM to shower outside, instead of trailing bits of grass through the house after he's been in the garden. I'm imagining lovely cool showers outside on hot summer nights. One of my most vivid memories of a trip we did to Malaysia 20 years ago was taking outdoor showers at one of the cheap-and-cheerful places we stayed on Langkawi Island, just like this one. It was fantastic. ...now where should it go?

New for me cooking - Quinoa pudding

2011-10-12T09:53:00.002+11:00

Another new-for-me dish and ingredient, quinoa pudding with cranberry compote, which I ate for breakfast on the weekend.

Sweet, kind of like rice pudding, really. You could eat this for dessert. Rating: Three thumbs up, one down (son, an adventurous eater, but not into this). A nice introduction to quinoa.

Quinoa pudding

200g quinoa

2 cups milk

1 cinnamon quill

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbs maple syrup

1/2 cup raisins

Rinse quinoa and place in a saucepan with 500mL water. Bring to boil and simmer for 10-12 minutes or until or the water has evaporated.

Add the remaining ingredients, bring to boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for anout 20 minutes or so, until thick.

Serve with natural yogurt and cranberry compote (below):

Cranberry compote : Place dried cranberries, 1/4 cup caster sugar, 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon and 1 cup of water in a small saucepan. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes or so, until the liquid is thick and syrupy.

On my mind - decluttering

2011-10-07T15:11:00.004+11:00

This is my first contribution to Rhonda's On My Mind series.
This corner of my study has been on my mind for a while. Its a disaster. It badly needs a decluttering. The filing cabinet is packed with old paper work that I really need to go through. The cupboard is full of old books and textbooks, wrapping paper, brown paper, bubble wrap etc etc - the sort of stuff that you keep because it "might come in handy one day" and "one day" rarely comes. That paperwork stacked on the computer desk is old school stuff - it too needs a purge. Propped up against the filing cabinet is a white board Action Man rescued from a renovation at work. It needs to find a home or its "out". There is a stack of files on the floor that belong to AM. On top of the cupboard are boxes for various bits of computer/camera equipment. On the computer desk is two old desktop computers and a defunct printer and busted shredder, as well as discs from the last eleventy years.
Sigh. There's a day's work there.
This corner of doom really sucks the energy out of this room (it is behind me as I write). Maybe that's why I don't blog as often as I should. That corner of doom is like a silent admonishment to me every time I sit at the computer!
Oh well, it looks like another rainy weekend. Maybe - this is the weekend to tackle it.

Footy and Pizza night

2011-10-03T09:48:00.002+11:00

We've had a long weekend here in NSW. We don't tend to go anywhere on long weekends. Our town is overrun with Sydneysiders, so the traffic is diabolical. Far better to stay here.
This weekend has also been quite wet, so I haven't done as much gardening as I had planned. Rather, I've started on a dress, and we've cooked.
Sunday night saw us watching the NRL Grand Final between Manly and the NZ Warriors. Being St George fans, naturally we went for the Warriors. If you're team is out of the comp, you go for whoever is playing Manly.
Sunday in front of the telly? Pizza night in order.

Here is what we had:
Margarita: tomato, bocconcini, basil
Vegie: Chargrilled eggplant, onion, mushroom, bocconcini
Salami: salami, grilled capsisum, bocconcini
Hawaiian: ham, pineapple and mozzarella (requested by kids)
Last of all was a new one for me, potato pizza - I know carb city! First of all I sauteed two sliced leeks in butter and oil for 10 minutes or so until very soft. Put this as a first layer on the pizza dough. Finely sliced two small potatoes in the food processor and put this on the pizza. Sea salt, finely chopped rosemary and a dousing of olive oil to finish. Took a little longer than the other pizzas to cook - about 20 minutes- but very nice. Pizzas do not have to be all about tomato and cheese.
All the pizza were devoured. Potato pizza got thumbs up from all. Unfortunately, though, Manly won.
Life is not always fair.

Positional problems

2011-09-28T13:57:00.004+10:00

One of my goals in the garden this season is to grow a lot more of my veg from seed. So far, I've only done this with beans, lettuce and sometimes tomatoes.

So I planted my first lot of seeds - zucchini, watermelon (courtesy of Tracy) and various lettuces - into a seed tray about ten days ago.

First of all germination has been patchy. Out of six seeds, only one zucchini has germinated. Ditto watermelon. Lettuces about 50-50. Then the other day we had a very warm day (its been very cold, then very warm, then very cold again), and it fried some of the lettuces

I think the main problem is where to position the tray. Its under our verandah, which gets a bit of morning sun. Last Friday it would have been in direct sun (I was at work) for a few hours. With this cold weather, it's not getting sun, but it is well, cold!

Placing the seed tray is a bit of head scratcher - somewhere with even temperatures, close enough to the house for me to remember to tend it, out of the ways of chooks, dogs and bower birds.

Hmmm. Maybe direct sowing would be easier? Maybe I should just be patient and wait for it to warm up a bit? Any thoughts out there?

Meanwhile, flowering this week is the banksia rose all along our boundary fence, an example above. It's really magnificent, but unfortunately not in a position to be readily appreciated!

Little by little

2011-09-24T07:00:00.002+10:00

Dash and half a bucket of bindies

Over the last month or two, Action Man and I have been busy in the garden, not just the vegie patch but the rest of the garden too. We've pruned and pruned our shrubs - long overdue. We've pulled out one of the beds and replanted. Most amazingly, I have been paying attention to the lawn around the house.Little by little I've been pulling out the bindies. I've killed off the weeds with a mixture of river sand and sulphate of ammonia.I've spent a few hours criss crossing the lawn with the garden fork to aerate the lawn. And today, it is looking like rain so I'll be out flinging blood and bone to encourage some growth. I'm even thinking that it could use a bit of top dressing.

This patch of lawn gets a lot of use, but precious little of my time, so I hope it appreciates the sudden burst of love!

Meanwhile in the orchard, I've stunned myself by getting on with putting the exclusion bags for fruit fly on the stone fruit exactly on time - when the petals drop. Little by little, I'm getting around to all the trees.

Fruit set this year has been impressive - too impressive. I'm doing the counter-intuitive things and knocking off some of the fruit, in order to encourage few, bigger fruits. Also, fewer fruit make it easier to fit the exclusion bags. With a little luck, I will have foiled the ***!!$$ fruit fly this year.

Let's hope so!

Carrot salad

2011-09-21T19:30:00.004+10:00

OK, so I don't blame you if you're thinking "Gee, Paola can't be up to much if she is offering up posts on bowls of grated carrot".
Fair enough. It is a bowl of grated carrot, festooned with poorly chopped parsley (must have been in a hurry that day), and a couple of pine nuts. But I post this recipe simply because this simple salad has got me out of "I don't know what vegetable to serve this with" moments, and "I have hardly anything in the fridge or garden to prepare" moments and "I have no energy to think. let alone cook"moments. A faithful recipe that has never let me down. Plus, it never fails to enliven any plate it graces. Enjoy.

Carrot salad

4 (or so) carrots, grated
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice (I just squeeze half a lemon)
1 crushed garlic clove
Sea Salt and pepper
1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted
2 tablespoons parsely or mint, chopped

Carrots in bowl. Oil, lemon juice, garlic, sea salt and pepper in jar - shake it up! Toast the pine nuts and add to carrot. When ready to serve drizzle the dressing give it a good stir and strew with chopped parsley.

I could eats plateloads of this.

Springtime

2011-09-13T16:45:00.002+10:00

It's as perfect a day as you could wish for out there - sunny, gentle breeze. The garden is looking it's absolute best - a feast for the eyes, ears (with bees buzzing busily) and nose. This port wine magnolia is a case in point. It is a fairly modest looking flower but the smell of lollies out there is intoxicating!

The wisteria is suddenly in flower, which heralds the beginning of spending the next few months keeping it on its trellis and not taking over the garden.

The maybush looks magnificent. It's a pretty dowdy looking plant for most of the year, but in these few weeks it definitely pays it keep.

I like this weigela with its two tone leaves. Unfortunately it's in an out-of-the-way part of the garden. Need to strike some cuttings and address this.

The last of the stone fruit - this one a white peach to flower. Which makes me think of fruit fly, my nemesis. Off now to order some exclusion bags - I will eat stone fruit this year!

More lambs

2011-09-11T13:44:00.003+10:00

Well, the sheep population of this place has increased by 66% over the last few weeks with the birth of three more lambs.
This picture was taken a few minutes after this little girl was born. For the first time, I happened to be present at the birth, although I didn't realise the sheep was in labour until just before this lamb appeared. I'd just arrived home on Sunday two weeks ago, and went out the back to talk to Action Man who was pruning buddleia. We were talking about this and that, when AM pointed out Ruth - "I think she's in labour". She was doing some unsheeplike things - pacing up and down, lying down and getting up, and acting in a distracted manner. A minute or so of this then I said "Are those feet I can see?" (we were probably 20 metres away). As AM said "I think they are!", plop! out came the lamb. Amazing. I raced up to the house for the camera, and here she is still covered in birth mucus.

A week later, these two girls arrived to Susy. They are a few hours old here - you can still see the umbilical chords. We thought (hoped) Susy was carrying twins, she was so big, and sure enough here they are.

Meanwhile, our male lamb from my post a few weeks ago is a bit of a boombah.

The best part - all arehealthy and thriving. Last year we lost two lambs, but this year it looks like they will all last the distance.

Chorizo pilaf

2011-09-07T13:26:00.006+10:00

Saturday night, 7pm. We arrive home from a swimming carnival. We are starving. Lack of forethought means nothing is in fridge. Had pasta for lunch - won't do that again. Eggs needed for Father's Day breakfast. Too much to do - three loads of washing to sort, dog to walk. Tired. All the omens point to a rare take away pizza.

Ring pizza shop to place order. One hour's wait for a pizza! Forget it!

Fortunately, I remembered I had three chorizo sausages in the freezer. Five minutes in the microwave to defrost. Half an hour later we were eating this chorizo pilaf.

Chorizo Pilaf

Put the oven on to 180 degrees.

2 red onions

2 carrots

2/3 chorizo sausages

Slice these up and soften in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil for 5 minutes or so over medium heat in an ovenproof casserole dish.

2 cloves garlic

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1/2 tsp chilli flakes

Add these and soften for a minute or so.

1 1/2 cups basmati rice

Add this and stir so the rice is covered with oil.

3 cups boiling stock or water)

1/2 cup frozen peas

Add these. Bring to boil (this shouldn't take long). Cover with lid and put in oven for 30 minutes or so.

Crisis averted.

New lamb

2011-08-20T13:55:00.002+10:00

Here is the Houdini of sheep, Woolly Jumper (the main culprit of the great vegetable patch sheep rampage of the previous post) and her brand-new lamb born last Monday. He's a beauty, nice and strong and putting on weight at a great rate. This photo was taken on Wednesday, and his body has filled out a lot in three days. He is also much too fast to catch and cuddle. Sigh. They grow up too quickly.
It's lovely when we start the new lambs are born. This year, though, it is bittersweet. This year's batch of lambs will be the last sired by our ram-of-long-standing, Rambo. We had him for seven years and he was pretty old then. So it wasn't too surprising when about 6 weeks ago, without any warning, we found him in the paddock. Very sad - Rambo was our friendliest sheep, and he always came up to say hello when you went out. More likely, he was checking out whether you had anything to eat. Never mind, we miss him.

Getting ready for spring

2011-08-17T10:02:00.003+10:00

Don't blink or you'll miss it - our vegie patch looking tidy!

I call myself a slapdash gardener mainly because although I enjoy gardening, I'm not very consistent. I tend to have massive days in the vegie patch working like a maniac, interspersed with utter neglect except for picking. Our vegies have to be tough, because once they are in, it's every vegie for itself. Even with such shocking neglect, though, we manage to harvest quite a bit.

Here is how it looked yesterday after one of those massive days on Sunday. I should have taken a "before" photo. Picture these beds covered with weeds and the fence posts askew, spent eggplant, tomato and capsicum bushes (I wanted to see how long they would last before they threw in the towel - mid July is the answer), with lettuces struggling to maintain their foothold, after being shorn by the sheep who got in a few weeks ago and being smothered by weeds. Not a good look.

So I got the 13 year old to start hammering in those fence posts straight again, and fixing the holes in the fence. Meanwhile I weeded. And weeded. And weeded. Heartening to see the garden full of earthworms, so while it doesn't look like much, good stuff is happening where it counts. Then I sent the 13 year old to pick up buckets of sheep poo (I bribed him with his favourite Caramel Banana pudding for dessert that night- using my very last pre Cyclone Yasi frozen banana.) and flung that on the weeded soil. Meanwhile I was harvesting chicken poo (the glamour doesn't stop here) and flung that dung as well. Took the weeds up to the compost heap, brought back compost and stuck that on too. By now I was coming over all Peter Cundall-like. "Look at that!" I said to Action Man. "That's beautiful stuff that is!" And it was.

Lastly I mulched everything, because even though weeds grow through the mulch, it does slow their growth - somewhat.

Now I am thinking about what to plant in a few weeks time when it starts to warm up. This year I'd like to really get into growing more plants from seed. So far I've only really grown dwarf beans, lettuce and tomatoes from seed. The rest of the time I cheat with seedlings I buy at the local market.

In light of that, it was a very timely surprise to receive a gift of seeds - watermelon and yin yang beans - from Tracy at Sunny Corner Farm, along with a dishcloth too nice to use. Looking forward to trying out this seed growing caper, especially with watermelon which we have never grown before. Thank you, Tracy!

Preserved lemons

2011-07-23T08:01:00.003+10:00

Yoo-hoo! Netball has been cancelled today due to very nasty weather so I've been given back a day I wasn't counting on. Every day seems to be spoken for lately, so this is a priceless gift!
I'm planning to nick into town to return some (very) late library books, pick up some zips and thread for some projects I'm planning and buy the 13 year old some clothes. He has grown at least 6 inches in the last few months - he looks me square in the eye, and I am 5'9" - and nothing fits him. When he spent his school holidays wearing his school trackpants - because they are the only ones that fit - it's time to do something, Mum.
I'll probably then make a start on preserving some of the citrus we have out there. You'll hear me whingeing about our lack of success with stone fruit (fruit fly), but citrus - we can do that without too much angst.
I'll get the kids to squeeze lots of lemons for freezing. I'll cut up some limes, lemons and oranges and soak them for marmalade. Then I think I'll make another batch of Moroccan preserved lemons, based on this recipe:

1kg lemons
Sea salt
Bay leaves
Lemon juice

Wash the lemons, dry and cut into quarters.
Spoon 1 tablespoon of sea salt into a sterilised preserving jar.
Dip the lemons into salt and pack them into the jar. Tuck a few bay leaves in as you go.
Pour in enough lemon juice (from about 8 lemons) to cover the lemons.
Seal, and leave for 6-8 weeks before using in tagines, chicken dishes and salad.

Podcasts to prune by

2011-07-09T10:54:00.002+10:00

We have over 100 grape vines, all that need to be pruned around this time of year. Painstaking stuff. Guess who got that job?
Actually, it's not too bad. I pick my days - nice sunny ones, preferably. There's something kind of soothing about doing the same thing over and over, and you can look back along your row to see how much you've done. Still - it takes me hours -something like 8.
This is where I thank my lucky stars I've come into this job in the age of podcasts. Here are a few of my favourite podcasts to prune by:

This American Life - each week this show presents 3-4 stories on a theme, mostly centred around stories of "normal" Americans (ie. not movie stars, shock jocks and Barack Obama - not that they are abnormal, necessarily). You don't need to be American to be rivetted.

Planet Money - another podcast from US Public Radio. Complex and wide-ranging enough to appeal to my inner economics geek, but engaging enough I believe for anyone with the slightest interest in the way the world works. Great stuff.

The Life with Roy and HG - and for something completely different. I spent many Sundays afternoons listening to Roy and HG burble on about sport on JJJ-FM whilst writing university essays. That was a long time ago, ahem. They were funny then, they are funny now. It helps, though, to have a working knowledge of rugby league, which I suppose limits their audiences to those in NSW, Queensland and maybe, maybe New Zealand. Princes of the leg-pull.

Life Matters - If I am at home at 9am on a weekday, I'll put this on ABC Radio National. Now I am working 4 days a week, I don't get to listen, but hooray, can podcast. All sorts of discussions on all sorts of life matters. And you can choose the segments you listen to.

There are others but that enough for now. I've linked to each website, but you can download all of these as I do on iTunes.

Any other must-listen podcasts out there? I'm always on the hunt for new ones.

Blustery day

2011-07-06T08:42:00.003+10:00

Heavens above! Is a blowing a gale out there!
Yesterday afternoon I drove home from town after dodging half a dozen fallen trees and branches on the road. When I got home, I found our silky chickens out and about - their chook house had blown over. Fortunately, they didn't seem too shocked by the experience.
I rang Action Man, telling him to be careful on the way home - he used it as an excuse to knock off early. He didn't want to be stuck in Wollongong.
When he got home around 5pm I said, "Next the electricity will go". It always does when we have a bit of "weather". The electricity gods heard, because not 10 seconds later - bingo.
So we got out the candles and torches. I cooked on our gas stove and on the wood stove. Here is the dinner table set, under flickering candlelight. AM said I wouldn't get a decent photo without a tripod. Well, I would use a tripod, if I could find it in the dark.
I washed dishes by candlelight, then we sat and listened to the quiz on the ABC. I did a sudoku, then we finally went to bed around 8.30pm.
The electricity came back on about 11pm - thank you electricity guys out there in this wind. It's still blowing quite a bit, but it looks like I'll post this before the electricity goes off again!

If you want something done, do it yourself

2011-06-29T20:17:00.002+10:00

A couple of months ago, I wrote a post berating myself for having volunteered to become the umpire convenor for our local netball club.
The problem was (is) we had few umpires to convene, which meant I was wasting precious hours phoning around other clubs to borrow their umpires. The first couple of weeks of the season were very stressful as I was on this roundabout of phone calls (I'm not a big phone talker either). I was counting down the weeks until I hung up the convenor badge.
Then, one day - no umpires were to be had. Minor crisis, as games don't go ahead without two umpires.
It was then I decided to become an umpire myself, on the basis that if you want something done, do it yourself.
So for the last few rounds, I've been running around with a whistle, sometimes for three games every Saturday.
And get this: far from resenting it, I'm enjoying myself!
Blowing a whistle on misdemeanours and handing out the punishment is strangely satisfying. If only life were so simple!
I get plenty of exercise, running up and down the sidelines eleventy squillion times a game. Zumba - who needs it!
I have my weeknights to myself again, as I roster myself where we have umpiring holes. No more humiliating appeals to the niceness of others!
I've met plenty of nice people along the way.
In fact, I've enjoyed it so much that I've decided to coach next year as well.

I played netball from 7 until I was 17, and haven't touched it since. I'm not a typical netball, or sporty, type. I like to keep fit, but sporting competition isn't something I've been involved in for a very long time.
If you had said to me at the start of the year that by the end of June I would be umpiring and committing to coaching netball I would have said , "you're nuts". But there you go, there was a need in the community and somehow I'm there to fill it, and enjoying it.
Funny how life works out sometimes, doesn't it?

Gardening mistakes No. 2 - not enough garlic

2011-06-27T19:44:00.002+10:00

I was in the vegie patch yesterday, doing a spot of weeding when my eye drifted across the garlic planting.
It seemed a bit sparse. I started counting. Sixty plants. Not enough! eek!
I do love my home grown garlic. Even six months after harvesting, our garlic beats most garlic you can buy hands down.
Quick maths - I average about 2 heads of garlic a week - I'm w-a-a-y-y short of garlic self-sufficiency.
I quickly hightailed down to the pantry and brought back with me three heads of garlic, and planted them there and then.
No preparation, nothing. In they went, pointy end up. I'm probably way too late, so there is not a moment to spare!
We'll seee how this late garlic fares. My books say warm temperate planting season for garlic is April to June, but it's been a particularly cold June here so I do not have high hopes.

Friday night soup - Pea and Ham

2011-06-24T17:39:00.004+10:00

Nigella Lawson writes in How to be a Domestic Goddess that winter has its compensations, most of them culinary.
You have it in one Nigella.
The stuff I most like to cook and most like to eat is stuff that is winter fare : soups, stews, roasts and pudding.
Although it's winter, we still plough on with swimming club on Friday nights- yes, I know, nuts.
Friday nights is therefore designated soup night around here, the reason being it's warm and filling without weighing down the swimmers.

This is Pea and Ham soup made in 15 minutes in my trusty pressure cooker. It is improved from your normal run-of-the-mill by the inclusion of garlic, ginger, chili and lemon juice. Come to think of it, for me there is not a legume soup that doesn't benefit from the judicious squeeze of a lemon.

Here's the recipe:

Pea and Ham soup

500g split yellow peas
1 ham hock
2 garlic cloves finely minced
a knob of ginger, finely chopped
1/2 tsp chili flakes
water
salt
lemon juice

1. Gently sweat ginger and garlic over medium heat for a few minutes. Add the chili flakes
2. Tip in split peas and ham hock. Cover with water.
3. Bring to low pressure over medium heat. Cook for 15 minutes, then take off the heat to release pressure.
4. Open the cooker. Remove the hock and take meat from the bones, and finely chop. Return to the soup. Add a bit more water if needed. Bring back up to heat over medium heat.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste, and the juice of half a lemon.

Do you KIP?*

2011-06-19T16:48:00.004+10:00

Do you KIP - knit in public?
I was thinking about this recently. You don't seem to see as many kippers as you used to.
When I was a kid, you always saw women with their knitting out. I remember mums knitting as they waited to pick up kids at school. Kippers would be on the sidelines when I played netball. If you got on a train, the carriage would have at least one kipper. Every winter we had knitting crazes at school, as we all worked on our wonky knitted scarves at school lunchtimes.
Now - not so much it seems.
I have two kids that swim - that means lots of waiting around for training sessions, and lots of long waits at carnivals.
Recently I took my son to the NSW All Schools Carnival at Homebush and I took my knitting. He had one event at about 9.30am and one event a 1.30pm. A long time to wait sitting around - perfect opportunity to knit. ( I go quite a bit done too - uninterrupted time, bliss!) There would have been hundreds of people at that carnival doing what I was doing - waiting. Some were playing with their phones/iPods/iPads, the modern form of distraction/entertainment. A few were reading. From what I could see, though, I was the only kipper.
Recently, World Wide Knit in Public Day was celebrated. Do you KIP? Are we about to see the resurrection of kipping?

A different paradigm

2011-06-15T20:06:00.002+10:00

Today's post on Rhonda's blog Down to Earth has got me thinking.
She was writing about an article that said compared to UK immigrants, Greek and Italian immigrants to Australia after the war paid off their houses faster, even though both migrants worked equally hard. This was due to the fact that Greeks and Italians grew and cooked most of their own food, and made savings by preserving, recycling etc.
My first observation is that this isn't surprising. A lot of Greek and Italian migrants came from rural backgrounds so were well versed in growing and raising food. For them, if you didn't grow it, you didn't eat. Whereas it seems most UK migrants would have come from cities and towns and had already lost that connection with the earth.
As the granddaughter and daughter of migrants from Italy, I can say categorically that to them growing and cooking your own food is like breathing. It wouldn't have occurred to my grandmother to do anything but grow her food. Her backyard in Moss Vale was hardworking - chooks, fruit trees, vege patch. She had it all. She chopped her wood. She made her own bread from scratch every day in the wood stove. She baked. In her down time she sewed, crocheted and knitted. She was always productively busy, right into her mid-eighties. Man, what a woman!
My parents aren't as hardcore as my grandparents. They don't have a wood stove and don't bake their own bread. They live in Sydney, but on their block have chooks and vegies. Mum always, always cooks from scratch, and always has the wherewithal to make meals for numbers of people at the drop of a hat (with 5 kids, daughters and son-in-law and 9 grandchildren, she always cooks in numbers). And she is as talented a sewer and knitter as my Nonna.
Even though I knew money was tight for my parents as I was growing up, we always ate well, and were well dressed. Most importantly, every night we ate together as a family, and those bonds forged with my parents and siblings around the dinner table are bonds that I treasure today.
I grew up I took all this for granted. In fact, although I felt all the benefits of being cared for, I pretty much disdained the "domestic arts" being a bit of an academic girl and convinced I would never have to cook for myself! I'm not sure who I thought would be doing this stuff.
But now I look at my life and it is very different to what I envisaged. I am trying to recreate for my family what I grew up with. Home cooked meals, gardens and keeping chooks are only part of the picture. Behind these are values of simplicity, productive work and firm family bonds that drive what I do here. But most of all, I felt loved and cared for in this work, and am looking to do the same for my kids.

Rhonda's article mentions paying off mortgages quickly. My grandparents borrowed some money to buy their block of land. Then my grandfather built a two room dwelling (later the garage/garden shed), where a family of six lived while he built the main house by himself - after working as a builder all day on other houses - from scratch. He even made his own bricks. He only called in a plumber and electricity. I never met him - he died 5 years before I was born - but I am in awe of this achievement. What a bloke!

Strawberry guava jelly - the update

2011-06-14T18:45:00.003+10:00

I can't make up my mind whether I am happy or annoyed with myself that the post that elicits the most hits on this blog by far is one that I did over two years ago on making Strawberry Guava Jelly.

At the time, I wrote that I hadn't taken a photo of how I set up the guavas to drain through a muslin cloth. Two years later, I get around to it.

This weekend, I dragged out a couple of bags of strawberry guavas from the freezer to make jelly. They've been in there since March, when I wasn't in the mood to do anything much.

We had a long weekend here, windy, wet and cold, so it was a good opportunity to catch up on some preserving. I used the same method as in the original post, and gained a couple of jars of guava jelly, much to the delight of Action Man who grew up on the stuff in rural Queensland.

Meanwhile...to all those visitors who find their way here through Google. Stay a while, check out the blog.. leave a comment. Let me know how your guava jelly goes!

The last of the Autumn leaves - and coffee bean brittle

2011-06-11T15:22:00.003+10:00

....which looks a bit like Autumn leaves.

Bridget asked me how to make coffee bean brittle, mentioned in the previous post.
Coffee bean brittle works really well with the mocha cake, but also over ice cream. It's not too difficult to make, but you need to be careful. Hot sugar - ouch. I have a scar on my right hand to prove it.
Here's how you make it:

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon coffee beans

Crush the coffee beans in a mortar and pestle. You don't have to be too assiduous - just a coarse crush will do.
Dissolve the sugar into the water in a small saucepan, over a medium-high heat. Use a pastry brush to brush sugar crystal from the sides of the pan as it comes to the boil.
One the sugar is dissolved, and the mixture is at a boil, keep an eye on it. It will take a while, but the liquid will become thicker.
Once it changes colour to a pale yellow, tip in the coffee beans and give it a swirl around. Then watch it carefully - as soon as it turns amber, pour the mixture onto a baking tray lined with baking paper or foil. (I use an oven glove to protect my hands at this point).
Leave to cool, then break into shards.

Mmm...Mocha cake

2011-06-09T20:11:00.004+10:00

Action Man and I have birthdays within a fortnight of each other, so it's been a chocolate cake-fest around here lately.
This Mocha cake was made for AM's *cough*cough* birthday on Tuesday. It is based on Belinda Jeffrey's recipe in her book Mix and Bake. (NB. I notice this book is out now in paperback. If you are a baker, I can recommend this book. ) One of the best things about this recipe is that it is a melt-and-mix cake, so everything is mixed in one saucepan. Too easy. And it tastes good too.
My cake was decorated with cream and coffee bean brittle. The coffee bean brittle got the thumbs down from the kids, so AM's cake is iced with chocolate ganache. Not a bad alternative.

Mocha cake

40g cocoa
80g unsalted butter
1/3 cup olive oil
2/3 cup strong black coffee
100g dark chocolate
250g castor sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup sour cream

Heat oven to 150 degrees.
Grease and line a 24cm springform tin.
Put cocoa, oil , coffee and butter into a large saucepan. Bring to boil over medium heat, stirring frequently. Once smooth, take off heat and let cool.
Once cool add sugar and egg. Mix.
Sift in plain flour and baking powder. Mix in and then add sour cream.
Mix until smooth, transfer to tin and bake for 50 minutes or so.

Chocolate ganache: Melt 200g dark chocolate and 100g unsalted butter with a little water in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Mix until smooth and let cool slightlly before covering the cake.

Enjoy!

Gardening Mistakes No.1 - Galangal

2011-06-08T11:27:00.002+10:00

Here is a picture of our galangal patch, taken a few months ago now.
It is now bigger, (at least as tall as me at 175cms) and threatening to take over the vegie patch.
We were given a few tubers by one of Action Man's workmates. His wife is Thai, and he had to rip up a patch of galangal in his backyard. Now I know why.
This is major machete stuff, and I have a feeling that this is the sort of plant if you leave the merest skerrick of a tuber, you'll continue to beat it back with sticks for years to come.
Sigh.
And I rarely use the stuff.
Take it from me - don't plant galangal unless you have a major Thai cooking fetish.

Out of the blogging habit

2011-06-07T10:16:00.005+10:00

It's been a while, and I have completely got out of the blogging habit.
First I had a case of the blahs.
Then the computer hard disk was full, and I couldn't download photos until I dealt with that.
Then I got frustrated with my satellite internet connection, which doesn't appreciate doing stuff like..uploading photos to Blogger (like today...grrrr).
Then I couldn't take photos, because the batteries always seemed to be flat at the moment of inspiration.
Then I got out of the habit of taking photos.
Then I thought - no photos- no blog entry.
Then I stopped thinking about what I would blog about next.
Then I was out of the habit.

Yep, excuses. I'm full of 'em!

I've realised I miss blogging - so here's hoping I can get back in the habit.

What I'm knitting now

2011-05-05T14:09:00.002+10:00

After last year's success with my first ever attempt at knitting a jumper, I was keen to get cracking on another knitted item this year.
This is the back of a waistcoat I am knitting in Sirdar Indie (Arizona) colour. I love the colours this yarn comes in. Its a very thick yarn as well, so it knits up quickly, although I still make a meal of it. I'm half way through the left front, so I have high hopes I'll be wearing this waistcoat this winter.

On other matters...
Ever volunteer for something on the spur of the moment and come to regret it? I have.
In February this year I went to register my daughter for netball.
I was ambushed.
"We need an umpires convenor. Would you like to do it?" she said innocently.
I should have said "Absolutely not" straight away. Instead, my civic mindedness caused me to say,
"What's an umpires convenor?"
She then went to explain that it was the person who organised the umpires every Saturday. "It's just a few phone calls, it's really easy!"
My scepticism should have kicked in at this point but it failed me. I should have said, "So why hasn't someone volunteered yet?"
Instead , I heard myself say, "OK I'll give it a try!"
D'oh and double d'oh.
Far from easy, it's extremely frustrating as there are fewer umpires than there are games and necessitates more time on the phone every week than it takes to umpire the games themselves.
Note to self:
DO NOT volunteer for any job without a thorough understanding of what that job entails. If a job is left vacant after the AGM, it's normally for a reason!

I'm back

2011-04-27T11:37:00.003+10:00

Looking over the last few months, I've been rather discombobulated. Without going into details, it seems that every aspect of life has gone through some change over the last few months. That earthquake/tsunami/nuclear accident in Japan really affected me in a way that I'm not sure it would have if things here had been going on as normal.
At the time of writing my last post, I feared I was on the brink of a bout of depression. Things that I enjoyed doing - like blogging - all seemed too much effort. I had prolonged post-natal depression after my daughter was born, and immediately recognised that feeling of hopelessness, the "black cloud" that seems to follow you around.

This time, though, I was able to recognise that feeling for what it was. I muttered my motto - "this too shall pass" - to myself a lot. I let my family know how I was feeling. I made sure I got enough rest, and got myself outdoors exercising every day. Having a dog that needs to be walked twice a day certainly helped. I made myself do stuff and talk to people, even though a lot of the time that is the last thing I wanted to do.

And so, it has passed. And I'm back.

A few posts ago, I wrote about our disappointing grape situation, and wrote that this year we would not be making wine. I should have known that would never happen, not when Action Man has his winery set up just so.

On Easter Saturday we went up to my uncle's property just west of Berrima and picked a couple of hundred kilos of merlot grapes. On Easter Sunday, we crushed them. Today I am babysitting the ferment, punching down the skins in the fermenting tank every couple of hours.

The Chief Winemaker is not hopeful. The grapes weren't great - it really hasn't been a warm enough summer for the sugars to get to where they need to be. On Sunday afternoon I went on an emergency mission to buy 10 kilos of white sugar to get the sugar levels up (yes, professionals do this too). Other tests run by the Chief Winemaker don't bode well either, but he has a few more tricks up his sleeve, so here's hoping for the best.

Thoughts on Japan

2011-03-17T11:09:00.003+11:00

I've been meaning to post for a few days now, posts on my usual fare - cooking, preserving, family stuff and my new knitting project. Each time I've started I've been stopped by the overwhelming thought of how inconsequential and trivial this all is when compared to the disaster that is engulfing north west Japan. I've gone around all week with a knot in my stomach, contemplating the nightmare of the tsunami and earthquake and the unfolding catastrophe of the nuclear electricity plants.
I've been close to tears all week, and I'm sure this is why.
I've had to put myself on a media diet. Normally if I'm home, ABC Local Radio is on, with half hourly news reports, AM, The World Today, PM and stuff in between. This week it's all too overwhelming. I've flicked over to ABC Classic, trying to get some beautiful music to soothe my soul. Then I listen to 2 news reports in the morning and evening and that's it. That's enough to have me thinking about the dead, bereaved, the displaced and the long term damage that is likely occurring right now.

I feel I need to do something,yet I feel so impotent. What though, here in my safe corner of Australia?
Does anyone else feel this?

Dog days

2011-03-10T16:27:00.002+11:00

After lobbying consistently for at least a year, our daughter Amelia finally achieved her heart's desire when we acquired our new family member, Dash the daschund, in time for her birthday yesterday.
Pardon if the blogging has been a bit sporadic lately. Settling into a routine with our new pup has taken me straight back to the days when our children were babies. Same issues: sleep, feeding, toilet, discipline. After a few nights broken sleep, we've all been a bit tired, but Dash is settling down nicely.
The arrival of the dog has highlighted a difference in dog philosophy between me and Action Man. You see, he had a daschund too as a kid, who basically went wherever he wanted inside and out. On the other hand, I grew up with dogs too, who were strictly outside dogs. So part of the adjustment has been deciding on the rules for Dash that we can both live with. So far, he can come inside when we are here, but not on furniture. At night to sleep, though, he is outside. Early days yet, but I want to set the ground rules early.
The arrival of the dog has also given us a ticket to the dog owners club, it seems. We've been taking Dash for twice daily short walks. A neighbour up the street who owns three border collies, and has barely acknowledged our presence in eight years stopped to talk at length to Action Man today, purely because he had Dash with him. Who knew?
Our newly friendly neighbour told us that new residents set to move into their new house across the road shortly used to breed Daschunds. Can't wait to meet them, to talk daschund talk.

So, dog people, especially those who've had puppies. What's the advice? This is the first dog I've ever been responsible for and I'm sure you have some.

Grapes - a sad story

2011-03-09T13:54:00.002+11:00

Long time readers of this blog will know that we have a small vineyard, in which we have about 100 shiraz and about 20 chambourcin vines. We use our grapes to make our own wine. Well, that's the theory.
2010 was a blowout because we had extremely heavy rains in February, which caused the grapes to split, and thus ruined the crop. No winegrapes to make wine then, but Action Man was not deterred. He ended up buying boxes of shiraz, mouvedre and grenache and used them to make 2010's wine. Not bottled yet, but tasting very nice so far!
2011 unfortunately has also ended up being a washout as far as grapes are concerned. This time, the heavy rains in December meant that our grapes succumbed to mildew, because the constant rain meant that we could spray effectively. Action Man didn't even bother netting the shiraz this year.
The chambourcin, though, is more naturally mildew and fungus resistant so he netted those(we should have planted more of this variety), and it is these grapes that you see above. Don't they look gorgeous? And let me tell you, they taste gorgeous too.
We don't have enough grapes though to warrant a wine making session. Never mind, given our barrel is still full of last year's wine, and that we are busy as all get out, and that we are both getting over a weird virusy cold, we aren't too despondent.
Sometimes, you just have to rest on your laurels.

Almond Butter

2011-03-02T07:48:00.002+11:00

Well, I suppose it doesn't look very inspiring, but I had this home made almond butter with banana and honey on toast this morning and it was dee-licious.
Being partial to nuts, I've been wanting to try making almond butter for a while now. It couldn't be easier. All you need is a fairly robust food processor. You just grind a couple of handfuls of nuts (the above example was made out of 1/2 cup roasted almonds), for some minutes (maybe 4-5? I wasn't timing myself) until it starts to come together in a ball. It does this quite suddenly, so don't despair if your batch stays in crumbs for what seems forever. I possibly could have kept the processor on for a bit longer until a bit more oil was released to make a smoother paste, but this was ok.
BTW, I saw a small jar of almond butter in Coles for over $6, so this is another thing that is definitely cost effective to make yourself.
This batch is gone now. Action Man ate most of it, as is with a spoon, as he normally does with peanut butter.
I buy my nuts in bulk from a supplier in Sydney - Nut Roasters in Chapel Street Lakemba. This is my favourite food shop in the world. They roast their nuts on site and the smell of the place is incredible. They also have super-fresh pulses grains , dried fruit and what seems 20 types of olives too. I also buy my flour for breadmaking in bulk here (10kg for $11 or so). The company is run by a Lebanese family, and a lot of the clientele is Lebanese and Greek, people who appreciate a good nut. The turnover is high, so everything is top quality, and compared to supermarkets and health food shops, cheap. I get up there a couple of times a year and stock up.

Blogging synchronicity

2011-03-01T08:17:00.003+11:00

Well, like Tracy at Sunny Corner Farm I've been out for the count over the last few days. Starting with sore throat and ears, and violent sneezing on Friday, by Saturday I was welded to the couch. Sunday I stirred to do the grocery shopping but only because the food situation was getting serious. Yesterday I should have been doing some housework, but instead spent a lot of time wasting time. Today I'm up and about, but still not tip-top. I have seedlings to plant but bending down sends me dizzy, so they'll have to survive in their punnets another few days. There is something about summer colds that is very "wrong". When you have a cold you just want to retreat into a shell. Easy to do in winter, with doonas and pillows. With high humidity and temperatures, cocooning in a doona it impossible and the comfort offered by a sheet is cold comfort indeed.
Last week I wrote that I'd been making tomato relish. Here's the photo that I tried (and tried and tried) to publish last week. In another case of blogging synchronicity, Sonia at Lighter Shade of Green posted about the tomato relish she'd made. Like me, she'd used the recipe in Sally Wise's book A Year in a Bottle (I think). The results are very similar aren't they?
Making relishes and chutneys I find a lot easier and more forgiving than making jams, which require more vigilance and good timing to get the setting point right.

Unsung heroes - the worms

2011-02-25T10:46:00.004+11:00

This morning I took some scraps up to the worm farm, and it occurred to me that I'd never posted about my worms. Quite an oversight, as I depend on these little blighters a lot, and probably don't appreciate them as much as I should.
They sit in the worm farm (one we bought from the local hardware store) up behind the compost bins. They mind their own business, get about their business, and all that's required from us is that we throw them some scraps occasionally. In return we get fabulous worm castings, and worm tea, which I use with abandon on the vegie patch. The cost to benefit ratio is heavily in favour of us in this relationship.

Every home should have a worm farm.

Blog housekeeping...

Congratulations to Bridget at Cabbage Patch Farm and Cathy at still waters, for winning the books in my blog giveaway. Hope you enjoy the books!

A week of preserves - no pictures

2011-02-20T14:33:00.002+11:00

Sheesh. I've tried on three separate occasions on three days to upload photos to Blogger and still haven't managed to. I don't know what the problem is, although I suspect it has something to do with my sleepy satellite broadband connection. (How sleepy is my connection? Put it this way, I always have reading matter next to the computer, so I can spend the time it takes to upload and download things profitably. Sleepy internet connections is one of the drawbacks of living in rural Australia. Roll on, National Broadband Network. I know my life will change when we finally get it, although I won't get through as many books).
Much as I prefer to post photos as well as text, until I sort this issue out, it will be photo-less posts.
This week has seen the start of the preserving season. We've picked buckets of tomatoes and figs, which I have turned into tomato relish, fig jam and jars of figs in grappa. Still managing to eat plenty of figs au naturel though.
We've also been picking peaches and grapes.
Seems strange to be posting about preserving and not have any photos to illustrate. I'll leave it there then.
BTW, if you are interested in either of the two books from the previous post, drop me a comment before Tuesday.

Giveaway!

2011-02-15T08:55:00.002+11:00

I mentioned in my last post that I had decluttered my books. Most I am donating to

a local charity book sale. However, I thought readers of this blog might be interested in the two books above. They are "Vasili's Garden" by Vasili Kanidiadis and "How to Store your Garden Produce" by Piers Warren. Both are pretty good books, but their subject matter doubles up with other books I have...so they should go to a home that might appreciate them better.

If you would like either one or both of the books, pop a comment by next Tuesday 22nd Feb. If necessary, I'll run a draw..

My recipe book collection

2011-02-14T10:35:00.004+11:00

I'm not a much of a collector. To me, if something hasn't been used in the last 12 months, I'm quite happy to pass it on or charity bin it.
The closest thing I have a collection is my recipe books. I've just had a declutter here too, so the books above are those that I actually use.
I love my recipe books. If I'm stuck for something to read, I'll read one of my books. They are a constant source of inspiration.
I've collected these books over the past 20 years. The first book I bought was Delia Smith's Complete Illustrated Cookery Course, which is the spineless book on the top shelf. This book really taught me to cook, and though the recipes are a bit dated now, I still refer to it.
The latest addition to the collection was Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals. I haven't used this yet at all, but that will change. OK, but not a must have.
I think I have enough books now, so I try to be discriminating when I buy any new additions. I don't have much truck with books that aren't practical in my situation, so I don't have any "celebrity chef" books, as I think they are more about being a chef, not a cook. These days, I look for books that are both practical and cover new ground in my collection. It also helps if I think the recipes will appeal to the family.
I use all my books, but my Top 3 (at the moment, because this constantly changes) would be:
Complete Perfect Recipes, by David Herbert. I think this has been reprinted recently, and is certainly worth seeking out for its comprehensive collection of simple recipes. Anything you might want to cook is here. Great for beginner cooks too, with clear instructions.
Mix and Bake by Belinda Jeffery. A great book for enthusiastic bakers like me. Every recipe I've tried out of this has been a winner.
The Pressure Cooker Recipe Book, by Suzanne Gibbs. Started my love affair with my pressure cooker nearly two years ago, and still in constant use.

The least useful? How to Eat by Nigella Lawson. I haven't cooked one recipe out of this tome, but it earns its place simply for the fabulous writing about cooking and eating. Nigella's prose always puts a smile on my face. I love anyone who loves her food as much as I do!
Do you have a favourite cookbook? What is it, and why?

Hot weather cooking: Potato and Leek Soup

2011-02-05T14:11:00.003+11:00

We're still having that revolting weather - 38'C (pushing 100'F, I guess) and very high humidity -I moaned about two posts ago. At 7am I ventured out for an early morning trundle and returned 45 minutes drenched in sweat. Sorry, can't think of a more delicate way to put it. Meanwhile, Action Man was doing his chores around the place, and came inside similarly moist. He was in Darwin in October during the notorious buildup to the Wet season and he reckons today was worse than the weather he experiencexd up there.

So we've had this stuff for a week, no respite. Unsurprisingly, I'm craving cold food, especially cold soup.

Cold soup doesn't sound very appetising does it? Just as hot soup warms your innards in cold weather though, cold soup is like a liquid ice pack for your insides, and cools you down better than anything else, I reckon.

I made some leek and potato, or vichysoisse, soup in the pressure cooker last night and cooled it in the fridge for lunch today. I love my pressure cooker, and in this weather it shows how useful it is yet again. I cooked this over lowest heat for 5 minutes, so I wasn't heating up the kitchen.

I followed the recipe for vichysoisse in Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child et al. It's the very first recipe in the book and super-easy, and come to think of it, low-fat. Here's my version:

Potato and Leek Soup

6 potatoes, peeled and diced

2 leeks,green part removed,sliced and washed

1.5litres water

Salt

Simply bring all the ingredients to the boil, and simmer for 45 minutes. Or if cooking in a pressure cooker, bring to low pressure and cook for 5 minutes. Liquidise in a blender or with a stick blender or mouli. Cool, and eat with yogurt, if desired.

Just as nice served hot, for you in the northern hemisphere!

An aside:

So I've changed my photo to one a bit-less-old. This was taken six months ago, as I was getting ready to go to fancy dinner - hence neat hair and make up, a bit unusual for me.

This photo brings home to me how much I am changing to resemble my maternal grandmother as I age - that nose and chin are hers! All good - Nonna, who died 11 years ago - was a great person.

Day of firsts

2011-02-04T13:34:00.006+11:00

Normally I wouldn't publish a photo on my blog so badly out of focus, but today I make an exception.
Today I had my first ever blogger meet up with Libby, whose blog Life is a Journey not a Destination

I have followed for some time. We had a lovely morning chatting over a tea in the Berry Tea Shop, followed by a browse in Sew and Tell.

It was great to meet up with Libby. The internet is a marvellous thing, isn't it?

The other first is that this is the first time I have published a photo of myself (if out-of-focus) on this blog, apart from the tiny thumbnail in the side column. It made me realise how old that photo is (at least 18 months). Better get on to that. Maybe.

It's hot, hot, hot

2011-02-03T09:52:00.002+11:00

Ugh. The weather has been revolting and strange lately. The heat settling down on you like a doona you can't kick off. Hardly a breath of wind. This morning we are having rain, but the heat is still there. I've thrown open all the doors and windows to try and cool the house down, but the heat is still radiating from the walls and the floors.
I've always maintained that we should skip from Christmas straight to mid-March, so we can avoid this stuff.
I've been wanting to do some sewing, but trying to fit something when I'm a ball of sweat - erk. I've been wanting to make some plum jam and preserve some tomatoes but I don't want to switch on an oven or a stove. Our kitchen is the hottest room in the house, thanks to windows in the ceiling. Great in winter, stupidly hot in summer. No, we didn't put them there. That's one thing I'd like to change about this house.
Gardening...mmm, no thanks, although the weeds are running amok. It's enough to pick the last of the white peaches. Note...peaches unaffected by my nemesis, the dreaded fruit fly.
So, overall, a good day.

The myth of family-friendly workplaces

2011-02-01T11:43:00.003+11:00

While I was on my blog hiatus, I gave a lot of thought to what I would do with it. I considered - briefly - stopping altogether, but realise I enjoy being a part of the blogging community too much. Still, I knew I wanted to shake things up a bit, so I've decided I will wander off topic of spades and spoons if I feel moved to, to write about stuff that is on my mind. Today..the myth that is the family friendly workplace.

Action Man works in Corporate Australia. You know, the type of company in the Top 10 market capitalisation in the ASX200. The type of company whose main ethos is "make a lot of money, and then some". The type of company that likes to position itself about how cutting edge it is when it comes to dealing with its employees (because they are so valuable). The type of company that introduces "family friendly workplace" policies to this end and trumpets them in annual reports.

Action Man's company has a policy in place where you can apply for 8 weeks' leave a year, 4 unpaid. Sounds great, doesn't it? If you can manage on 4 weeks' less pay a year, but get extra time with the kids, the aged parents etc, who wouldn't go for it? What they neglect to say, though, is that this policy is window dressing only. It is merely there to give the illusion that they care about their employees, their families and their communities. Because if you have the temerity to actually apply for such, be prepared for disappointment.

This is what Action Man found when he mentioned to his boss that he planned to apply for the "8 weeks' leave a year" under the scheme. The reply? Don't even bother, you won't get it. Further, the mere fact of applying would count as a "black mark" in the inevitable yearly performance reckoning.

Meanwhile AM's colleague works full-time and is the mother of a chronically sick child who is on a constant schedule of medical appointments. The scheme sounds perfect for her, right? A no-brainer, surely, on compassionate grounds if nothing else. Wrong. She was accepted into the scheme, but only after fierce lobbying on her part, the sort of lobbying that doesn't win you friends and allies.

If someone like her has to fight so hard to take advantage of a scheme that is ostensibly available to anyone for the asking, and if someone is advised not to apply for the scheme if they don't want their performance rating to be negatively affected, who the heck is it for?

The promise of family friendly workplaces has been around for yonks - since the early 1990s at least in the days when I worked in Personnel. And yet, while major companies seem to have made leaps in writing policies that gain them kudos from the Office for the Status of Women and others, family friendly workplaces seem to remain straw men, especially in the biggest companies.

The attitude of those who run these companies seems to be that employees are there to work all the hours that are available - there's always another billion to be made after all. As for all that touchy-feely family stuff, that's only so they can run smiley pictures of employees in the annual report with a straight face. (As for their own families, well, I guess they make enough to palm everything onto the nanny).

I'd like to be wrong on this. Am I too cynical? I'd like to find out that AM finds himself in a dimly lit corner of corporate world, and that in fact family friendly workplaces exist.

Anyone out there know of a company that is truly family friendly? That has policies and has been known to have employees take advantage of them without having to go to war for the right? I'd love to hear from you!

Back blogging

2011-01-31T10:15:00.003+11:00

Well, in my last post I wrote that I would get back to blogging when school resumed...and here I am.
Looking back at the last few posts brings back all the grumpiness I was feeling toward the end of last year. Happy to say that with having a break from everything - the day to day routine mainly, not blogging necessarily- the grumpiness has evaporated. Even better, my back is back up to scratch, which does a lot for my general frame of mind.

So January flew past. A few things I got up to:

Went for our annual Christmas camping trip to Jervis Bay with friends.
Suffered at the first day of the Fifth Test between Australia and England at the SCG, as a guest of my good friend Therese. Fortunately, there were lots of rain breaks, which meant we had plenty of opportunity to socialise with other friends who were also there. The cricket though...painful.
Went to Sydney Aquatic Centre to cheer on our son at the State Age Swimming Championships.
Travelled down to Merimbula with Action Man on one of his work trips. I've never been there before. It's a great part of Australia - I will be back.
Caught up with work in our sadly neglected garden.
Moved our 18 ducks to my parents' place just outside Sydney - 18 ducks was getting TOO much for our facilities here. I think the chooks are happy to get their run back to themselves.
Stayed with my parents while Action Man went to Queensland to help his mother move into new accommodation.
Worried about family members whose home was inundated in Yeronga, Brisbane. All fine ,except for a brother in law, who developed blood poisoning when he cut himself helping clean up the subsequent mess. He spent a week in hospital).
Sewed one skirt, one t-shirt and one top. Cut out a dress. Not as much sewing as I'd hoped.
Minimal housework.
Lots of exercise - swimming and walking in the early mornings, plus lots of yoga stretches for the back.
Cheered on Action Man at the Nowra Triathlon.
One weeks' family holiday in the Central part of the North Island in NZ - Rotorua, Taupo and Tongariro. The picture above is from a visit to the Waimangu Thermal area near Rotorua, taken last Monday, a very wet day. On Thursday,the boys did the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, a tough 20kms walking across a volcanic area. The girls meanwhile had High Tea. Overall, New Zealand is a great place to visit as a family - lots to keep everyone interested.

Today life returns to a new normal with the Son starting High School today. Meanwhile, I have some thinking to do about my work situation this year which has been on my mind for a while.

Still all is well. I'm happy to be back blogging.

Christmas Greetings and bye for now

2010-12-17T13:12:00.004+11:00

I thought I'd introduce you to a local identity, Sheepie. Sheepie takes on many personas and makes occasional appearances in his front yard, occasional because he has been sheepnapped before. During footy finals, he dresses up as a footy player. When the council was working on the road outside his house he dressed up as a road worker/lollipop man. The council blokes even parked their digger in his yard and he was up there operating it. A few weeks ago, when we were deluged with rain, and the whole area was turning into a lake, he was halfway up a tree with a snorkel. His latest guise is as Santa Claus going down a chimney. Although I couldn't get it in the photo, there is a sign nearby saying "Build it and he will come". And that is only some of the many faces of Sheepie. He even has a Facebook page! I don't know Sheepie's owners, but I often thank them silently for bringing a smile to my face.Heaven knows at times that smile has been hard to find recently!
I post this photo by way of saying an early Happy Christmas to all my blog readers, because it is my intention that I will take a break from blogging from now until schools go back here at the end of January .

The last few months have been manic to say the least, and I really feel the need to have a rest. Physically, I've been battling a painful back since my ill-fated flirtation with running earlier this year, and I really would like to reclaim some fitness over the summer break. More than that, though, with my son starting high school next year, and my daughter in 2012, there is a feeling in the air that changes are afoot. My role in life is surely changing, and my intuition is I need to clear the decks. I'll spend the next couple of weeks just doing things I enjoy and mulling over what is important to me, and what that means to how I spend my time

I will also be thinking about this blog, and what I want to do with it in the future. Will I keep blogging in the manner I've done to date? Change the emphasis? Start a new blog on new topics? Or stop blogging altogether? We'll see.

I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to comment on this blog, especially over the last few months. This is such a small blog, a speck of moondust in comparison to all those bright shining stars in the blogoverse out there, but it doesn't feel so small to me when so many kind people make contact. You are the reason I've blogged til now. Thank you all again.

Blessings and good wishes to all for 2011.

An Easy Christmas Cake

2010-12-12T14:09:00.004+11:00

Okay, so finally, in between the farewells, and thank you morning teas, and birthday get togethers, and Christmas parties, and Orientation Day, and Presentation Assembly and Graduation Assembly, and Graduation Dance, and volunteering for the above, and swimming carnivals, not to mention paid work and the work I do around here... a window of opportunity opened yesterday to make this year's Christmas cake.

When I mused about not having done anything regarding Christmas, Libby kindly suggested that I don't do the cake and the pudding this year, as we mums try to do too much sometimes. I agree with you, Libby, so I put my lack of time case to my mum and she volunteered to do the pudding this year. I don't think she minded one bit. But I like baking, and seem to have so little time to do things I like these days, that I really wanted to make the cake.

This is a really easy cake. Boil and bake, no fiddling about with creaming butter. The best part: everything is made in one saucepan. I love that. Here it is:

An Easy Christmas Cake

300 g butter

400g brown sugar

900g mixed fruit - I used a mixture of raisins, sultanas, glace cherries, currants, prunes and dates.

2 tsp bicarb of soda

1/2 cup rum or brandy

1 1/2 cups water

2 tsp each ground nutmeg and ground cinnamon

4 eggs

2 1/2 cups wholemeal plain flour

Melt the butter and sugar together in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Tip in the fruit, and give it a good mix. Add the bicarb, rum/brandy and water. Stir and bring to the boil. When the mixture is at the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Take off the heat and let cool completely. Add the eggs, spices and flour to the fruit mixture. Stir well, and place in a 23cm springform pan, lined with a double layer of baking paper. Cook for at least 2 1/2 hours at 150 degrees,or until a skewer comes out cleanly.

You could decorate your cake with nuts before baking - I used almonds.

Now, it's time to get on with Christmas shopping. When is Christmas again?

Catch up gardening

2010-12-10T12:57:00.003+11:00

Heaps of rain, busy work schedules and general silly season ridiculousness has kept me out of the vegie garden for weeks now. It's been dying for attention, and this morning it got some.
It wasn't a pretty sight up there. The snails have been sliming amok. The weeds are rampant. My lettuces have been turning to sludge. Not good.
So, in soupy humidity, this is what I did this morning:

Pulled out a heaped wheelbarrow full of weeds.
Took wheelbarrow up to compost heap. Dumped weeds and replaced with compost. Noted that those little fruit stickers don't break down. Is it too much to expect that stickers on fruit are compostable?
Took compost back to garden and spread into empty areas for replanting.
Picked dozens of snails off leeks, silverbeet, garlic and lettuce. Put in bucket and took down to ducks.
Went with bucket into sheep paddock to pick up manure (ah, the glamour!). Not much to pick up. The rain is probably breaking it down quickly.
Spread manure on garden.
Pruned grapevines and took prunings over to sheep - they lerve grape leaves.
Back in vegie garden, topped up mulch. Again, I think the rain is causing the mulch to break down faster than normal.
Noted sad state of cucumbers, eggplant and capsicum. No obvious problems with disease or pests, just very little growth in two months since planting.
Up to worm bin to get castings to make casting tea to give these sad sacks a bit of a perk up.
Fed vegies worm casting tea.
Made up Dipel spray to spray on the cabbages.
Harvested zucchinis and silverbeet.
Fed chooks and ducks spoiled lettuces. Sigh, will have to buy lettuce for the next couples of weeks.

Two hours was quite enough for me, but fortunately that was enough to make things in the vegie garden respectable again.

Sweet victory

2010-12-07T07:55:00.002+11:00

Regular readers of this blog will know of my "thing", my long-running battle, with fruit fly, and my goal of eating my own stone fruit. This year I've pruned, sprayed and bagged in a last stand attempt to grow stone fruit and EAT them, instead of relegating them to garbage bags in the sun to kill fruit fly larvae. If after all the effort, we end up with fruit fly again, the next step will be a massive prune with a chainsaw.
Well, as you can see, we have sweet victory. These are only some of our own nectarines, none of which are fruit fly affected. Yay!
The taste is unbelievable. These nectarines are unbelievably sweet and juicy and as different from shop bought nectarines as Mickey Mouse is from Marilyn Monroe. Totally worth the fuss of growing and nurturing.
Having said this though, the real test will be in the new year when the later maturing varieties start to ripen. Then, we'll really know whether we have conquered the dreaded little buggers. Meanwhile, these beauties are a good sign that we might be on the right track..

Mum, dad and the kids

2010-12-04T16:41:00.002+11:00

It's been ridiculously busy around here lately. Normally, my casual teaching work starts to dry up around now which leaves me free to do some good stuff. This year, I am still hard at it. And over it. I'm dying for the holidays.
Not much has been happening in the spades and spoons department. Even if I wasn't working, I wouldn't be doing much outside, it's been SO wet. As for cooking, I'm still doing that. However busy I am, I always cook the evening meal, mainly of the 30 minute wonder variety. And I've kept up the breadmaking. But I'm w--a--yy behind in the Christmas cooking, to be more precise I haven't done any. I'm wondering if this year I should cut myself some slack and forget about the pudding and the cake.
The 15 ducklings of the last post are providing much joy in this headless-chook time. Amazingly, all have survived - so far. This photo was taken early on. Mum is the Indian Runner duck. Dad is the short-squat duck. Yes, the mind boggles how they managed it, right?
Cute as the ducklings are, the prospect of 18 grown ducks in the backyard is one that I don't care to contemplate, especially given I was thinking 3 ducks were quite enough, thank you. Thoughts are turning as to what to do with them. My 10 year old is lobbying to keep them, or at least to give some away to her friends . She assures me that ALL her many friends want to adopt a duck. I doubt ALL their parents agree.
Action Man, and my parents are having thoughts along the lines of Duck a l'orange, Roast Duckling, Duck fat roast potatoes, Red Curry Duckling. Yes, but who will do "the deed" and then the cooking, not to mention eating? I'm too emotionally involved to do either.
It's a bit of a conundrum. Meanwhile Mum, Dad and the kids waddle around and delight us with their antics.

15 Ducklings

2010-11-23T12:10:00.003+11:00

Little things have been niggling lately. In my last post, I was bemoaning my moulding coffee beans. My last couple of days at work have been quite challenging, not to mention exhausting. Outside work, things have been crazy-busy and I'm longing for a chance to do some stuff I enjoy. Christmas is around the corner and this year I don't want to know. I've been feeling a bit peevish, and fear I'm turning into a grump.
Fortunately, in a nick of time, our Indian Runner duck hatched a clutch of 15 eggs, our first batch of ducklings ever. It's impossible to stay peevish when you watch the antics of these little cuties as they cavort around the yard.

Grumpiness averted!

Coffee beans

2010-11-19T14:37:00.002+11:00

This year is looking to be our best crop yet with coffee. We've already harvested quite a bit, and there is still more to go out there.
The problem we are having this year is that the cool, wet weather is playing havoc with our attempts to process the beans. After husking the berries, we have been leaving the beans in the sun to dry out. This only works if you have sun for a few days at a stretch. Consistent sunshine has been at a premium around here the past few weeks. And it doesn't help when someone, okay me, leaves the beans out overnight and there is a big downpout. Back to square one.
So the beans aren't drying out, and instead are going mouldy. We tried been putting them in a very slow oven, but even the lowest temperatures seem to be too high, and instead of drying, they are cooking.
I'm conscious that I've been chronicling a lot of failures and challenges in the garden lately. I'm trying to see the bright side of things, really I am. But sometimes, in life and the garden, you get a run of outs.
Here's hoping for some more cheery news next time

Too much water

2010-11-12T07:49:00.005+11:00

Man alive. Has it been wet here lately. We've had a couple of late-afternoon tropics style downpours this week, on top of weeks of constant rain. The ground is absolutely saturated, so any new rainfall immediately forms enormous puddles.

Since we moved here in 2003, we've only had to deal with dry conditions. Looking longingly for rain year after year, it never occurred to me you can have too much of the stuff. You can.

Check out the garden. The weeds have run amok. The grapes are succumbing to fungus due to the extraordinary humidity, and it's too wet to spray. My valiant attempts to get one step ahead of the fruit fly have come to naught. Again, too wet to spray.

Over in the vegie patch, not much is happening. The seedlings I planted a few weeks ago have hardly moved, because until only a few days ago, it's been pretty cold too. The tomatoes are only about a foot tall, but are already fruiting, which is a bad sign. I've knocked off the tomatoes in an attempt to get them to put on some more growth.

The snails and slugs are having the party of the century, at the expense of whatever is in the garden. I've had to replant beans twice thanks to these blighters. Action Man picked up a bucketful of snails out of the agapanthus and fed them to the ducks. The sight was of a bucketful of snails was...mmmm..unusual. The sight of the ducks in a frenzy tucking into those snails was hilarious.

Meanwhile, I've been trying to raise seedlings for the first time. They've put on the first two leaves and stopped, and I have no idea why.

The only thing that seems to be thriving is the mushroom box.

Hope all your gardens are thriving...

Issues with mulberries

2010-11-05T07:38:00.003+11:00

Mulberries are causing me issues at the moment:

1) Age old problem of getting mulberry stains out of kids' clothes. I've tried using glycerine, as advised by Shannon Lush in Spotless. Purple stains reduced to small blue dots on fabric. Sigh.

2) At one of the schools I teach at, there is a big mulberry tree whose branches trail into the playing oval. Unfortunately, this tree belongs to a crochety old man who lets fly with the language at the kids, as they pick his mulberries. It is the thankless task of the teacher on duty (ie. more often than not - me) to keep the kids away from said tree. This turns you into a crochety old woman. Double sigh.

Still, we love our mulberries, although the cool spring weather has meant that they aren't as sweet as normal. I'll stew this lot up with a tablespoon of sugar, and we'll have them to eat with some baked custard tonight after we get home from swimming club night. (That is, if it is on. Talk about rain the last few days!)

Hope you all have fab weekends.

Dolmades

2010-11-03T13:43:00.003+11:00

We have about 100 shiraz, merlot and chambourcin vines out the back, as well as 5 vines growing under the verandah eaves around the house. A lot of vines, a lot of vine leaves.
I've thought that I should try and make dolmades for a long time. Today was the day.

Dolmades

About 30 vine leaves
2 finely chopped onions
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup currants
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1/3 cup basmati rice
salt and pepper
Juice of a lemon

Blanch the vine leaves for one minute in boiling water and leave to drain.
Soften the onions in about half the olive oil over medium heat for 10 minutes. Add the currants, pine nuts, parsley, and rice as season with salt and pepper. Add a cup of water, bring to the boil and simmer covered for about 5 minutes or so or until the water has been absorbed. Leave to cool.
Line the bottom of a large saucepan with a couple of the leaves.
Take a vine leaf,(cut out the thick centre if needed), put two teaspoons of mixture at one end. Fold over the two sides, and roll from one end to make tight little parcels.
Cover the dolmades with a cup of water and the lemon juice. Put a small plate over the dolmades. Simmer for about 45 minutes (I did these in the pressure cooker at low pressure for 7 minutes).

Thanks again to all those who left comments for my 200 posts blogmark. It seems that incognito blogging is quite common, and that the question of how much or how little to reveal on your blog is a dilemma for writers everywhere.

200 Posts

2010-10-31T20:03:00.002+11:00

This post marks my 200th post blogmark.
Reaching this blogmark has naturally got me thinking about blogging.
Firstly, even though I have been blogging for nearly three years, only a very few family and friends know I blog. I am happy for people I have never met to read about me, but not people I know. What does this say? Is this just me, or is this common?
Secondly, sometimes I wonder whether I should reveal more or less personal stuff in my blog posts. I find this a difficult line to draw. On one hand,the blogs that resonate most with me write openly and honestly about all sorts of issues. On the other hand, I am old enough to guard my privacy and that of my family (who didn't ask to be blogged about) tightly. Where do you draw the line? I'd be interested to read your thoughts.
Thirdly, checking out my stats, by far the most page views are generated by a single post I made in March 2009 on making strawberry guava jelly. Fortunately, world domination in blogging has never been a particular goal. For me blogging is a creative outlet (and it also acts as an on-line diary for me. It's amazing how often I refer back to my own posts for recipes and the like). The other pleasing part about blogging is the comments I receive from the blogging community: "regulars" such as Linda, Tracy, Libby and Emily as well and others from time to time. I write with you in mind, and love to read your comments, as well as check out your blogs, even though I don't always comment as much as I'd like. Thanks for your interest in my blog, it definitely keeps me motivated to continue when at times I've thought of stopping.

So, blogging? Why do you do it? I'd love to know.

China Kidz Christmas Project

2010-10-31T19:55:00.004+11:00

I've just signed up for the China Kidz Christmas Project being organised through Notes from the Frugal Trenches here. Frugal Trenches has some friends who care for orphans in China, and she is organising blog readers to knit, sew or crochet warm winter clothes, or simply buy a toy, all of which are sorely needed by the children. It sounds so simple and worthwhile. Please check out Frugal Trenches' blog, and volunteer to join in if you feel able.

Edited to add: I've just redone the link above, so hopefully it is working now. If not, click on the link to Note from the Frugal Trenches in my Bloglist at left, and check out the post from October 29.

The impossible tomato

2010-10-30T13:40:00.002+11:00

Last summer, we had a tomato grow from a crack in the concrete at the bottom of our front steps. It ended up being our highest yielding tomato bush ever. The summer, we have this contender, growing with no visible means of support from a crack between the house and the verandah. I don't have high hopes for this bush, because it only gets minimal morning sun whereas last year's impossible bush got lots of sun. But, hey, when it comes to gardening, I am constantly being proven wrong, so why listen to me?
I'll keep you posted.

Swallows

2010-10-27T16:27:00.002+11:00

Swallows have built this nest under the eaves, right over our front door. Cute. Now parenting some tiny birds, I get to spend a portion of every day cleaning swallow poo off my front door step. Not so cute.

I was starting to get exasperated, when my mother came to visit the other day. I pointed out the current bane of my life. Her reply? "That's lovely!" Why? According to her, in Italy they believe that swallows only build nests under the eaves of happy homes.

Well, okay then. I'm slightly mollified. They can stay. I only wish they didn't build their nest where they did.

Fruit Fly foes

2010-10-26T13:48:00.003+11:00

If there is one thing that makes my eyes cross, it's Queensland fruit fly. My nemesis.
Our fruit trees are seven years old, and in that time, we have tried all sorts of things to stop these little pests in their tracks. This year, we are going the belt-and-braces method. ie. we are throwing everything at these trees that we can. So, here is a Japanese plum (can't remember the variety - Mariposa perhaps?) It is covered with small developing fruit. Firstly, we had the trees pruned in winter so that the tree is a manageable size so that we can use exclusion bags effectively. Secondly, I've hung a fruit fly trap, seen here dangling on the left. The mixture in the trap consists of warm water, sugar, vegemite, vanilla and urine. I'll let you join the dots on my devotion to this task yourself. Thirdly, I've been spraying the tree with spinosad (an organic compound), and will keep this up weekly until harvest around Christmas.
Action Man reckons we should spray with nasty chemicals as a last resort. My thinking is that if we do this, we may as well buy our fruit. Heaven knows, it will probably be cheaper.
If all this fails, and we still don't get to eat any fruit this year, but are sending bags of rotting fruit to the tip, the next step is a chainsaw.
I think the problem is our insistence on growing stone fruit in an area where fruit fly is endemic. Sometimes retreat is the best way forward.

Who ate my cheese?

2010-10-18T14:00:00.003+11:00

An update on the camembert cheese I made at a cheesemaking course a few weeks ago.

After a few weeks of tending the cheese - mainly changing the ice brick in the esky morning and night, taking it with us to Sydney when we went up there for a few days, and turning the cheese every couple of days - we ate the cheese the other night when we had visitors to stay.

It was good! It tasted just like a real camembert. Quite chuffed overall.

I have plans to make a batch of cheese at home , but I don't think this will happen until the school holidays at least. I'll need to source some non-homogenised milk to start with, and then I'll need to clear 4-5 hours during the day to make the cheese. I don't see this happening for a while.

Woolly jumper...done!

2010-10-13T09:22:00.003+11:00

Woolly jumper wearing weather has passed us by, I'm afraid, but here is my first ever jumper..done! More amazingly, I finished it in about 6 weeks. A miracle, considering every other thing I've ever attempted to knit has ended up as an unfinished object.

It may not be cutting edge fashion, but it's toasty warm, and I'm looking forward to next winter to give this jumper a run...

Holiday from motherhood

2010-10-04T13:27:00.004+11:00

Strange couple of days around here. Action Man and the kids have gone to Queensland to visit my mother-in-law and I've been home alone.
I haven't been alone so long since before our son was born nearly thirteen years ago. In those days, I spent a lot of time alone because AM was then a ship's captain in the Navy, and was away a LOT.
I can't remember how I spent all those weekends alone (during the weeks I was working), but I do know I didn't appreciate then the luxury of having all that time entirely at my own disposal, with no responsibilities to anyone but myself.
So what have I done? I spent a lot of time sewing (made myself a pair of pants), reading and gardening. Went walking every day, and have had a couple of long yoga sessions. Cooked vegetarian meals. Played my music very loud, and watched a couple of DVDs. I feel like I've been on holiday, and have not felt lonely for a second.
Having said that, I am looking forward to picking up the kids at the airport tomorrow. (AM is off to Darwin for his birthday present fishing trip). Much as I have enjoyed the novelty of 72 hours without demands on my time, by tomorrow I know I will be glad to have my world back to normal...

Pumpkin Tea Bread

2010-10-02T09:18:00.002+10:00

In my continuing quest to use up the pumpkin, I made this Pumpkin Tea Bread. It's a bit of a plain Jane in looks, but if this was scratch'n'sniff blogging, my goodness! It smells divine thanks to lavish amounts of spice.
The method is easy as, and come to think of it, is just the same as making muffins. Dry ingredients mixed together, wet ingredients into dry, mix and bake. Simple.

Pumpkin Tea Bread

1 cup wholemeal plain flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup sultanas
1 cup roughly chopped walnuts (or almonds, or hazelnuts)
1 1/2 cups grated pumpkin
2 eggs
1/2 cup light olive oil
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven 180 degrees. Butter and line a loaf tin.

Mix together the flour, spice, baking powder, spices, then tip in the sultanas, nuts and pumpkin. Give it all a good mix so that everything is well combined. In a jug, whisk the eggs, oil, vanilla and milk, and add to the dry ingredients. Another good mix, then into the tin and oven for 1 hour or thereabouts.

Pumpkin chutney

2010-09-29T07:01:00.002+10:00

Note to self: this year plant Queensland Blue pumpkins, not Jap. They seem to store better.
The race is on to use up the remaining Jap pumpkins, before they end up only fit for worm food (which if they have to end up anywhere, is as good a place as any).
I'm partial to chutney, so was keen to try this recipe for Pumpkin Chutney found in Sally Wise's "A Year in a Bottle".

Pumpkin Chutney

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, finely chopped,
1 cooking apple, cored and chopped
500g pumpkin, chopped
10 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 cup water
2 tablespoons of chopped fresh ginger
2 teaspoons mustard powder
1 tablespoon salt
125g sultanas
500g brown sugar
2 cups cider vinegar
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Heat the oil in a saucepan, and saute the onion, apple, pumpkin and garlic for 5 minutes or until soft. Add the rest of the ingredients, and bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Lower heat to bring to a simmer, and cook for 45 minutes or so, stirring occasionally to prevent it catching on the bottom.

Decant into warm sterilized jars.

Apparently this will keep for a year. If it lasts that long.

Sinking feeling

2010-09-28T06:59:00.005+10:00

If it's not one thing it's another.
Had plans today to order fruit fly exclusion bags for the stone fruit. Yesterday I checked out the trees and the fruit set has been pretty good!
But we might not be needing exclusion bags after all. Casting my eye over the blog just now , I see in the side bar a post from last year "How to make Bordeaux mixture". Bordeaux mixture is an organic mixture you spray on your stone fruit before bud burst. It's meant as a preventative to leaf curl.
I realised then with a sinking feeling that we forgot to spray this year. Life just got too busy in August and that one passed me by. Leaf curl - definite possibility.
Dang! Will we EVER get to eat our own peaches?

[Edit - All's well.When I shared this realisation with Action Man, he replied something like "My dear, while you have been impersonating a headless chook over the last month or two, I've been quietly going about my business, including spraying the fruit trees for leaf curl. " No wonder I call him Action Man. He's a keeper.]

Spring has definitely sprung

2010-09-27T17:03:00.006+10:00

This is my favourite time of year in the garden. So much is in flower at the moment, and the scents wafting around are just gorgeous. Photos courtesy of my daughter (**Parental brag alert**- my daughter has had a photo shortlisted as a finalist in the Moran Photographic Prize in the primary schools section. To check out the finalists, go to http://www.moranprizes.com.au/ ).

[Grumpy aside here...why, why, why does Blogger make it so hard to upload multiple photos. Also, once I upload them, why is so hard to move them around. I'd love to do more multi-photo posts, but the frustration isn't worth it. Am I doing something wrong?]

Who made my cheese?

2010-09-26T14:39:00.004+10:00

That would be me..
I've been musing for a while about learning to make cheese and yesterday, I did it. I took a one day workshop to learn to make camembert and ricotta. Above is a picture of my take-home cheese, a camembert soaking in brine, before being stored in an esky for a few weeks to develop that characteristic white mold exterior.
The workshop was held at Small Cow Farm at Robertson in the Southern Highlands. It was very much hands-on, and a lot of fun. We all got to take home a cheese which we will tend over the next few weeks before we get to eat it. Can't wait to eat it with some home-made wine!
I'm keen to have a go and make some more, but I'll have to navigate my way through a few obstacles. 1) I'll have to try and source some non-homogenised milk, which is necessary for cheesemaking. Homogenised milk doesn't cut it. I think I'll have to of approach the dairies around here directly. 2) I'll have to pick my day when nothing else is happening, and I can stick around the kitchen for a few hours - these days are few and far between for me. Cheesemaking is a bit of a long drawn out process, so I'll have to pick my time well.

Woolly jumper

2010-09-18T09:40:00.002+10:00

Brrrr. When I started this jumper a few weeks ago, I thought it's first wear would be next winter. But the chilly winds are still around, and I seem to be getting through this much faster than anticipated thanks to the chunky yarn and big needles. Who knows, I might get to wear it in the tail end of this winter.
This is my first ever attempt at a jumper and I'm quite pleased with how it's going. Deciding to knit a jumper was one of those things I just fell into. I was in the yarn section of the local Spotlight looking for yarn to finish this blanket. Couldn't find any yarn I likedfor the blanket, but did see some Patons Inca yarn that I did like. Wandered over to the patterns, and found a pattern for a classic sweater in the Patons Learn to Knit book, just what I had in mind and it didn't look too complicated for me. Bought the book, but held off on the yarn.
Went home and got onto ebay where I got the yarn for $2.80 a ball, a lot less than I would pay in the shops. When you haven't knitted anything before, you don't want to invest heavily in the materials in case it turns into a schemozzle.
So here I am, and I'm feeling confident, although the neckband looks at bit complicated. I've read the instructions and can't make them out. Here's hoping that it will all make sense when I get to that bit...

Spring, compost and other things

2010-09-14T14:41:00.004+10:00

Every year from about August to November I tend to go missing in action from this blog. I've been teaching as many hours as there are available for most of this term, so spare hours to do anything blogworthy, let alone blog about them, are at a premium. By some miracle I only got booked for a half day today so here I am.

Typical spring weather here - balmy one day, blustery the next. Getting organised to plant up the vegie patch, mainly spreading old sheep manure and compost about. You could smell the fertility of the compost, fantastic stuff.

I've been also planning what to plant. Even though we have five acres here, vegie garden space is limited, because our property sits on the side of a hill - very little flat space. The only flat space is around the house, and up next to the shed. That's it. Our vegie patch is about 36m2. It's very productive, but I have to be choosy about what to plant. I would love to build more vegie beds so can grow things like artichokes, asparagus and strawberries. Unless I get the earth mover in, though, it ain't happening.

So, what to plant: going on my experience from the last few years, here is what I am thinking:

-Plant more lettuces than I think we need. We always eat them.

- Don't bother planting cherry tomatoes - a self seeded plant always pops up somewhere.

-Plant tomatoes much further apart than I think they - I tend to plant too close.

- Don't plant pumpkin in the vegie patch!

- Only one eggplant as I am the only one who appreciates them.

- Ditto beetroot - limit.

- Plan for successive plantings of beans.

-Experiment with climbing beans this year, to save space.

-Plant cucumbers up a trellis this year, again to save space.

- Raise seedlings.

- Don't forget basil - I did last year to the chagrin of my children who live for pesto.

That's the plan. Now, I just need a bit of time to get cracking. School holidays can't get here too quickly.

Spring around the corner

2010-08-29T10:44:00.004+10:00

This morning I went for a walk (yes, walk alas, not run), and it is the first day I can say spring is on its way. It was there in the way the trees are just starting to leaf, the warm breeze that had me taking off my jumper but mostly in the spring smell. What it is I can't pinpoint but there was a definite smell of spring in the air.
Sometimes I think I should rename this blog "Fruit Fly Follies", because once spring rolls around, it's on my mind. And then for the next few months it's ongoing guerilla warfare against the darn things.
The stone fruit is just coming into flower, so now is the time to start planning, because this year, I really, REALLY want to eat my own stone fruit. For the last two years, most of the fruit has gone straight into the bin (after leaving them in plastic bags in the sun for a week).
I mentioned my goal to Mick the Gardener who I hired to prune my seriously overgrown fruit trees a while ago. We agreed that because I have a number of non-resident neighbours with orchards, it is highly unlikely they are attending to their fruit fly. So whatever I do, I'll never get on top of them.
His suggestion was exclusion bags. Given that our trees are now a much more manageable size, they should be much easier to use. Sounds like a possibility. I wonder if anyone out there has used them? Did they keep the FF out? I would love to know.
If you're interested, here's the link he sent me to the greenharvest website.

Running roundup - Week 5

2010-08-23T20:49:00.002+10:00

In my last running post, I wrote that I planned to repeat Week 5 of the running programme, which I did. Over the week I was gradually running a little more and walking a little less. Great! My last run was last Tuesday, though, because on Wednesday I woke up with a back twang so painful I had to knock back work - being a casual, I really have to be sick to give up work. I spent the day lying flat on my back, alternating cold and warm compresses, and taking painkillers. It was the worst back pain I've ever endured.
So now I'm not sure what to do. I don't run when my back hurts, and it never hurts during the run. But twice now, my back has gone into spasm 24 hours later. Mmm.
I'm wondering if my body is really suited to running. Should I go back to walking and try and build up some strength in my abdomen, before running again? (Actually I think that after year's of yoga, my core strength is pretty good) Or just forget about running.
Not sure about this one...

Our lucky country

2010-08-21T08:13:00.003+10:00

A couple of years ago, I went on a tour to Egypt, where I spent a lot of time grilling our very patient guide about Egyptian life.
Talk inevitably turned to politics.
"Do you have elections?" I asked.
He looked at me as if to say, you poor, naive person.
He told me that after many years of rule under Mubarak, and under some pressure from the US, the Egyptians had what was supposed to be a free and fair election. Except that somehow in his area the papers were marked, so it was possible to trace votes to people. And he had friends who were arrested and detained for not voting the right way.
"So yes there are elections, but better not to vote", he said.
So while here in Australia plenty of people bemoan the debasement of the election process to a policy auction, today as we go to vote, we need to remember we are exercising a right that plenty of people in this world don't have, or have only gained through violence and bloodshed.
Exercising the privilege to vote is an action that moves me to tears.
On Election Day 2010, let's give a cheer for democracy.

Three new chooks

2010-08-18T16:24:00.002+10:00

A rubbish photo, I know, but here are our three new chooks, presents from my dad recently (he raised them himself).

We started off by putting them in with the rest of the chooks, but despite our precautions, they found themselves at the rough end of the pineapple, especially from the Muscovy duck. So, Action Man got himself in gear and finished off the chicken tractor that had been languishing in the shed since last year, and they are now happily ensconced there (except when they are out and about flinging mulch around).

The downside of this arrangement is that these chooks live out the back, while the "old" chooks live closer to the house, and are within sight of the chickens. The result is I'm not getting to "know" these chickens very well at all.

These chickens are doing the bulk of the egg-laying work around here now. In the "old" shed, we have three layers and a bantam, who are at least four years old, who probably lay 3-4 eggs between them a week.

My grandmother kept chickens all her life, here and in Italy, and she was pretty unsentimental about old birds - they made way for young chickens via the stockpot. But because I feel that our old girls are as much pets as layers, I'm totally against this idea. And so, we have an old chickens home, and have to bring in young birds to take up the slack. And I guess we'll have to get some more when these new birds become aged. They never talk about this dilemma is books about chicken keeping!

In other chooky news...this afternoon I was listening to an interview with a scientist who had won a Eureka Science Award for her work on chicken communication. Her thesis is that the chicken is by no means dumb, and has a complicated means of communicating to each other about their environment. I'm thinking, well, yes...that's kind of obvious to anyone who has spent any time around chooks. Maybe I should have written that thesis!

Loads of lemons

2010-08-15T10:14:00.002+10:00

Growing stone fruit is such a sad saga around here, it's nice to be able to bang on about some fruit tree success! Our citrus trees - lemons, limes, oranges, mandarins and grapefruit - have been producing really well this year.

I've been busy seeing to the lemons. Above is the product of a "lemon session" I had last weekend. From left, lemon curd, limoncello, lemon and lime marmalade and preserved lemons. The recipes for the limoncello and marmalade are in the recipe list in the side bar. The marmalade is a bit - ahem - overcooked. It tastes good though!

This is the first batch of preserved lemon I've made, and I'm a bit unsure about it, maybe because I've never tasted preserved lemon, so I'm not sure what I'm aiming for. Still, you read about it a lot in Moroccan recipes, so I figure it was worth a go.

I've also been juicing lemons and freezing the juice in ice cube trays, and have frozen lemon slices for upcoming summer gin-and-tonics.

As for the oranges, mandarins and grapefruit, well they are eaten as is, although I've had to cultivate a taste for grapefruit to get through the volume.

Keep on running - Weeks 4 & 5

2010-08-13T20:07:00.002+10:00

In my last running blog post, I was off the programme with back twangs, that had me shelving the running shoes until the back went back to normal.
That lasted 10 days. I returned to the programme, starting again at Week 4, and have now finished Week 5. I'm planning to repeat Week 5 in the upcoming week, mainly because I just feel my body needs it!
I am finding runs of longer than a kilometre a bit of a challenge . As soon as I hit the 1k mark, my legs seem to sieze up and not want to run any more.
I've been resorting to "positive affirmation" type stuff at this point- things like telling myself "I am running smoothly and easily" etc. etc. I still haven't run 1.5km straight, but am slowly getting there.
The other challenge is finding the time to run. This is my busiest time of year, workwise. I have very few "open" windows to run when I work, and I found this week they can easily close up, mainly with kids' activities - choir practice, doctor's appointments and the like.
In the next few weeks, though, as days become longer, early morning runs will be become a possibility. Even though I feel I get up early enough as it is (6.00am), some early morning starts will mean I can get my run done with before my time is at the mercy of work and family.
Last weekend, the City to Surf was run, a 14km run from Sydney city to Bondi. This year 80,000 people entered. I think I would like to make this a goal for next year. One year from 1km to 14km is doable, isn't it?

Chickweed anyone?

2010-08-12T09:20:00.004+10:00

Chickweed and a struggling lettuce seedling

Brrrr....I reckon it's been the coldest winter around here for years. This is what I base this observation on:

1. The temperature gauge in my car has only been over 15 degrees twice since the June long weekend, and regularly reads below 10.
2. We've had at least a dozen frosts, instead of the normal 1-2.
3. Nothing is growing. Normally I can keep growing lettuces at least through winter, but this year, they have steadfastly refused to grow.
4. At school I am keeping my coat on all day, inside and out.

In the vegie patch, I have just harvested the last cabbage. There is nothing left to pick beside parsley and a few leeks, so for the next few months until the spring plantings get going, I will be buying 98 per cent of our vegies ( we are still eating through the autumn pumpkins). Sigh.

One thing that is growing is chickweed (stellaria media). In Darina Allen's "Forgotten Skills of Cooking" she talks about eating chickweed, in salads, as a cooked green and in soup. At the moment I rip it up and give it to the chooks who seem to like it. I'm a bit wary though...has anyone else out there eaten chickweed? What did you think?

What did bower birds do before blue plastic?

2010-08-08T06:48:00.005+10:00

Well, it's been a cold winter for these parts this year, but the wildlife around here is gearing up for spring.

The bower bird that lives just outside my bedroom window has been busy getting the bower ready. Bits of blue plastic (what did they do for blue before the invention of plastic I wonder?) and bits of lime green foliage.

Meanwhile - the election!

The other day, for the first time in my life, I was polled about my voting intentions. This came as a complete surprise to me as I don't live in a marginal seat, and as far as I could see, the only views that count in this election are those of swinging voters in marginal electorates.

The surprise to me in this poll was that I was given to opportunity to give reasons for my intentions, which the researcher took down verbatim. So, I didn't hold back, and let fly with everything I thought about both sides' policies. It was a lengthy interview!

Polls. To me they are a scourge, a dampener on any politician with a bit of long term vision. The current election campaign bears this out. No policy from either side that will scare the horses. Policies completely devoid of any leadership. Instead, both parties' policies feed on exactly what the polls tell them.

Whilst it was interesting to take part in a poll, you have to wonder what politics would be like if they didn't exist. Would the parties be free then to devise policies that they might think are right instead of popular?

While we are on the subject, wouldn't it be great if our politicians weren't career politicians, where the meaning of their existence is to win elections. If these people had lives and jobs to go to, they would be able to put out what they think is right as policy, and see what happens. If the policies don't fly, no matter - they have other options. Instead, we have people who have only ever been in politics, wouldn't have a clue about any other field except politics. And to do that, they have to dance to the polls' tune it seems.

This need to change, don't you think?

Week 4 Running

2010-07-21T20:45:00.005+10:00

Week 4 of the running programme started okay. This week included a 1.5km run. This is the longest distance I have run at one stretch in a long time. I found it challenging. My heart and breathing were okay, but the "lead-legged" feeling started as I completed 1km, so I slowed to a walk. The feeling isn't pain, just achiness and a feeling of great effort in the lower legs.

I completed two of the planned three runs. On Sunday I was planning to do my third run of the week. Unfortunately, I woke up with what I call back twangs, which I get this every so often. The pain isn't debilitating - I can still walk around and do most of what I want - but it is bad enough to be uncomfortable, and has me looking for pain killers. The thought of doing an impact exercise like running is out of the question. These episodes last from one day to one month, so I decided to forgo the running until the pain subsides. I've kept up walking and swimming, though.

Today, Wednesday, the pain has gone, but I won't be able to run now until Friday afternoon because of my work schedule. Once I get home it's nearly dark these winter days and though country roads are great places to run because they are so quiet, the lack of street lighting makes night running a bit scary.

Given the difficulties I was having with this week's programme, I would have repeated this week anyway. My plan is to stay on Week 4 until I can run the 1.5km distance, however long it takes. I'm happy to take it slowly, and know that if I just keep persisting I'll reach my goal in the end.

What plant is this?

2010-07-20T09:13:00.005+10:00

I have two pots of this lily-type plant, which is flowering at the moment. Someone gave Action Man this plant, and I would love to identify it. I've never seen it anywhere. This photo does not do the flower justice. It's a mix of bright pink, purple, yellow and lime green, a truly spectacular combination. Can anyone out there identify it for me?

Meanwhile, we are in federal election mode here in Australia, which means lots of politicians making lots of speeches and interview grabs filled with lots of cliches. ABC 702 radio is running a game called Election Lingo Bingo. There are thirty well-worn phrases to find, the aim being the audience tries to find all thirty in the shortest amount of time. When you hear a phrase you email the station with a "sighting", which they then verify. Fun, hey? It started last night at midnight. Already I've "sighted" "hard working Australians", uttered by our new female PM Julia Gillard this morning on Radio National Breakfast. If you are interested, here's the list of phrases. I wouldn't think you'd need to listen to 702 to take part. Certainly makes listening to the news a lot more fun!

Edited to add:

Thanks to Cabbage Tree Farm for identifying this plant as billbergia nutans, a variety of bromeliad. The link to the Cabbage Tree Farm is here.

Chicken Pie

2010-07-19T10:43:00.002+10:00

Whenever we have roast chicken, I always do two. As a family of four, one chicken used to do, but my twelve year old son (who at 170cm is just 5 cm shorter than me..and he's growing) is always looking for "more". So now I roast two chickens. With what's left over, I normally make what I call an Aussie chicken curry, or I'll turn it into chicken pie.

Here's what I do:

1. Saute one onion and a clove of garlic in some butter until soft (sometimes I'll use a leek too).
2. Add vegies you fancy - leftover roast vegies, mushrooms, peas work well. Saute these too. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Sprinkle a tablespoon of flour over the vegies and cook over medium heat for a minute or two.
4. Slowly add a cup or so of stock or water.
5. Add chicken which has been cut up into small pieces.
6. Simmer for 15 minutes or so.
7. Transfer to a pie dish.
8. Top with two sheets of puff pastry that have been rolled together. Use pastry offcuts to decorate and you fancy.
9. Brush with beaten egg (v. important if you want that beautiful golden colour). Bake at 200degrees for about 30 minutes or so.

Week 3 running recap

2010-07-14T07:51:00.002+10:00

Week 3 of Julia Jones' running programme completed on schedule.
Some firsts for me this week:
1. I skipped for the first time in about 35 years! The programme this week has you alternating between skipping and walking a few times as a build up to two 1km runs. By golly, was it fun! I think it's impossible to skip without a smile on your face.
2. During the 1km runs, I broke out from lead-legged shuffling into bursts of activity that would be identified as "running". With each session, I did a little less shuffling and a little more running - a little, but enough to take 1 minute 15 seconds off my 1 km time this week. My fastest time was 7 minutes 35 seconds (I started 1km a few weeks ago at 9 minutes 20 seconds)

Overall I am finding the programme really enjoyable. Each week gives you a bit more of a challenge, so I feel I am getting somewhere without overextending myself. And no part of my body has hurt at any point over the last few weeks!

And in other news...I've lost the pesky 4cm around my waist and hip measurements that had me start running in the first place. So I can cut out and sew some skirts and pants I had planned from my custom pattern. So, I've achieved my first goal. Hooray!

Pruning season

2010-07-13T07:48:00.002+10:00

Winter is pruning season here. Last year, I pruned all our 100 grapevines. This year, Action Man has already done about 75% of them. It looks like a nice day out there today so I try and get some done today.
As for our fruit trees...well. Our fruit trees were planted in 2003, and they have never been pruned. You can imagine what they were like. Really big, really bushy, too big to net. I knew they needed to be pruned, but I didn't know where to start. Start reading a gardening book on pruning fruit trees, and you'll see what I mean. You have to know what you're doing, otherwise you can really do some damage.
So, I hired a professional gardener to come over and show us how it's done. Above is one of our plum trees, pruned into the classic "vase" shape you see in the books.
Our gardener needs to come back and do our apple and pear trees. Even he was flummoxed by them, and said he needed to consult his mate who is an orchardist. Apparently, our trees are very overgrown, and need a hard prune. However, if we prune too heavily at once, it could be a case of "goodbye trees". Hence, caution is needed.
This year's yields won't be as great, but given last year's fruit fly debacle, this won't make much difference. In fact, smaller trees with smaller yields mean that we will be able to net more effectively, and use exclusion bags for fruit fly. We might even get to eat our own fruit this year!

This book's a cracker

2010-07-11T17:28:00.003+10:00

I had my birthday a little while ago, and this book, Forgotten Skills of Cooking by Irish cooking writer Darina Allen, was one of my gifts.
As you would guess by the 700 recipes, this is one weighty book. There are chapters on foraging, game, fish, meats (including information on different cuts including offal), sausages, smoking, breadmaking, vegetables, cheese and dairy, preserving and baking. In each chapter there is comprehensive information, followed by several recipes. For example, in the potato section there is info on how to grow potatoes followed by recipes.
What I liked especially about this book is that there are recipes and information that lifts it above most recipe books. And the recipes themselves work, which is always the bottom line with recipe books. And the book is beautifully presented.
One reservation, whilst it is detailed, it is not definitive for us here in Australia. Unsurprisingly, some of the chapters have limited relevance for Australians, particularly the foraging section. Ditto game, and fish, although it's fairly easy to substitute Australian species here.
To me though, these points are only minor drawbacks. This book's a cracker, and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone wanting to get skilled in the kitchen and the garden.

It's a Boy!

2010-07-09T19:41:00.006+10:00

To Woolly Jumper and Rambo, a boy, born this afternoon Friday 9th July 2010. True to form, our ewes lamb on the coldest days of the year.

This photo is taken as the lamb is less than an hour old. Woolly is assiduously licking the little guy, while he makes little bleats.

Too sweet.

Week 2 (repeat)

2010-07-08T17:12:00.002+10:00

Last week I decided to repeat Week 2 of Julia Jones' running program for beginners (link in side column). I'm glad I did. The lead is still there, but I can detect some improvement so taking it slowly is worth doing.

One of the great things about living where I do is I know just about all my neighbours within a two kilometre radius. One of the worst things about living where I do is I know just about all my neighbours within a two kilometre radius, which is not great when one is trying to learn to run. The roads around here are very quiet, perfect for running. However, when a car does pass, it is normally driven by a neighbour I know. Call me paranoid, but I am sure I detect a smirk every so often. "There she is, trying to run! Wonder how long this will last?" I am sure they are thinking as they wave at me cheerily! To make it worse we seem to have an abnormally high percentage of "serious" athletes around here. You know, types who do long course triathlons, marathons etc. One neighbour took off this week to follow the Tour de France - on his bike. My lead-legged shuffling must look pretty sad to them.

Never mind! I plan to be running for a long while yet, shuffling or not...

Pottering about in the kitchen

2010-07-06T11:13:00.003+10:00

School holidays here. Cold and rainy outside. Kids still in pyjamas. I've just spent a fruitful couple of hours pottering around in the kitchen, making lots of things to make life a bit nicer. Here's what I did:

1. Made some oxtail stew in the pressure cooker for Action Man. We're going to visit my parents in Sydney for a few days from tomorrow, so the oxtail is for his dinner while we are away.

2. Made a batch of Anzac Biscuits. I've made so many batches now I make this recipe from memory.

3. Roasted a couple of kilos of tomatoes with a head of garlic, then pureed to make roast tomato sauce to be used on a pasta one day when there is no time to cook.

4. Made a batch of breadcrumbs from some stale bread.

5. Made a batch of dukkah, using a packet of cumin seeds, a packet of coriander seeds, a cup of hazelnuts and a couple of tablespoons of sesame seeds. Toast everything in a frypan, then whiz in the food processor. Add salt to taste. This is one of my favourite snacks - dip some good bread into olive oil, then dip into dukkah. Good to have on hand when people drop round.

Back into the kitchen later. The kids are going to make meatloaf for dinner, and I'll need to be around to supervise.

Knitting season

2010-07-03T13:51:00.002+10:00

Last year, I started knitting this blanket whilst watching the Tour de France. I had to stop knitting for a while because I acquired a knitting injury (chafed skin on middle finger right hand ). Since recovering from injury, I've done a bit of knitting on and off, but with the World Cup, and now this year's T de F, I am in peak knitting season.

This blanket pattern is one of my own devising. I am using 8 ply wool, with No 4 needles. I simply cast on 28 stitches and then knit a square of knit, purl or rib, then cast off. I hope to have 81 squares done soon, so I can finish this blanket for this winter. If successful, this will be the first knitted object I have completed.

As someone who always thought I couldn't knit, I am really quite chuffed to have gotten this far! I'm already contemplating my next knitting project....

Running Week 2 - who put the lead in my legs?

2010-06-29T17:31:00.002+10:00

Well, I've finished the second week of my running programme.

The upside: I stuck to the schedule, ran three times and did exactly what the programme asked (just). And nothing hurts! I even ran in the freezing rain!

The downside: During each session I would be fine until the "free form run" bit at the end, where you have to run 1 kilometre.

Have you seen the film "Gallipoli"? Right at the beginning, it shows the protagonist, Archie training for a sprint. His coach asks him "What are these?" pointing to his legs. Archie replies "Springs! Steel springs!" Well I can relate to that except my legs seem to have suddenly been filled with lead. No springy feeling at all! It was such an effort to finish that kilometre at each session. Nothing hurt, but my legs just felt SO heavy. I managed to do it, but was I enjoying that bit? No.

So, in view of this, I've decided to stay on Week 2 of the programme, just to see if I can kick the "heavy" feeling.

Memo to self: Do not listen to funny podcasts eg. Roy and HG, whilst running. Having to stop and double over with laughter on the side of the road does nothing for one's rhythm, not to mention fitness.

A Bit of Slapdash Gardening

2010-06-28T11:24:00.005+10:00

Leeks, celery, cavolo nero and ginger jostle for position -sometimes I overplant

Yesterday was another perfect winter's day. I spent most of the afternoon in the vegie patch, the first time I've really given the garden some extended attention in about two months. First I ripped out the tomato plants that have finally turned up their toes, along with a capsicum. I weeded, then fetched two buckets of sheep manure and dug those in to the bare patches, along with a bit of blood and bone. I also sprayed the broccoli and cavolo nero with Dipel ( which contains bacillus thuringiensis) control the cabbage butterfly larvae. Then I fed just about everything with some worm casting tea.

It's looking pretty bare out there. The plan is to buy some lettuce and cabbage seedlings and bung those in next week. I also need a new thyme plant, because mine is just about dead. I think I'll give some parts of the garden a bit of a rest, and plant some green manure instead, just to give it a go.

As you might gather, I'm pretty laissez faire with the vegies. I don't follow any planting guide.I plant as I have space. As far as crop rotation is concerned, the most I do is just make sure I don't replace spent vegies with vegies from from the same family. I don't water much. I spray for the butterfly larvae, but only when I remember. Yet, our vegie patch provides us with loads - it's a rare dinner when we don't have at least one of the vegies on our plate from the backyard. As for how the patch looks - well, let's just say it won't be featured in any garden magazines any time soon.

What I think lets me get away with this amount of slapdashery is that I make sure that the patch is regularly topped up with organic matter - compost, manure- sheep and chicken, worm castings and blood and bone. Every time I plant I incorporate at least one of these. The other thing I do is mulch heavily with hay, which I buy from a local farmer for $5 a bale. This means that even though I don't water much, the soil stays moist underneath the mulch. These two things, good soil and mulch, I think are the key. Beyond that, I find the patch pretty forgiving.