Sorry, August, but I don't really like you....

Nothing personal of course, but you haven't been very kind to me in years past so I don't hold much hope for you this year.  Don't get me wrong, there is a glimmer of hope deep, deep down that this year will be different, this year will be a good one, but that feeling has a tendency to be smothered by the realisation of, well, reality.

If you will remember, it all started back on that windy, blustery, are-my-ears-blocked day 23 years ago.  You know how it went.  That was the day my life was changed forever.  Irrevocably one could say.  The day my innocent, naive, childlike, life-will-never-change-because-it-is-so-perfect-and-how-could-it-get-any-better world was shattered like an expensive crystal wine glass on cheap ceramic tiles.  That was the day mum decided to leave my dad.  

Of course, I'm the first to say now that it was for the best and how grateful I am that it happened because it shaped me into who I am today and I like the me I am and all that and I wouldn't change anything.  But at the time I was devastated.  Heartbroken.  Emotionally scarred.  

Eventually I got over it but not the point.....

2001 was a good year, as you well know, you came through with the goods for which I will forever be grateful.  Out of character for you but I am grateful none-the-less.  That was the year I asked the LOML out on a date and he said yes and from then on it all went smoothly along the 'happily ever after' path.  Well, it did after I realised that it wasn't me he didn't like that night, it was the crowds - I now know he doesn't cope well with that many people in such a small space.  Pity I didn't know about that before I asked him out to watch the fireworks in the city along with most of the population of Brisbane.  Oh well.  It ended well and that's all that mattered.

A couple of years later you let me down again when the LOML decided to take on an electric power saw and came out second best.  No need for details but let me just say I found the hospital in our new town very quickly and I can drive very quickly when needed and my repertoire for swear words is amazing when the situation requires.  I never knew I knew some of the words I used that day.  Anyway, it all turned out okay in the end.  Took a good year of recovery but it's true what the LOML says, chicks dig thumbs (no thumb, not so sexy).

And then last year.....well, last year is still so very fresh in my mind and in my heart that it's hard to put into words.  Last year you took my dad and that just wasn't fair.

....

So August, this year I don't think I can deal with anything bad or too life changing (unless it's for the better - you know, like winning lotto - I'll take that one).  This year, please just carry on like July or September or even February (nice an quick and over before I know it).  

I'm counting on you.

Wanted: stove, working condition

And it was shaping up to be such a fantastic loaf.....

The other week I was at the library, returning the books that had somehow slipped my attention and were now overdue and looking for new ones to replace them, when I came across the River Cottage's third book on bread.  Of course, having read good things about it on other blogs, I immediately put that little gem in my bag before it anyone else could snaffle it.  I'm like that in the library - furtive and incredibly swift in my selections!

Anyway, back to the story at hand.....I have since had two attempts at creating a masterpiece of yeast and flour (truly, santa brought me a breadmaker last year - I'm lazy!) inspired by Daniel Stevens' passion and while the first was a dismal failure (think tasty but very dense floury brick), the second was shaping up to be something truly amazing!

I had loved and attended this dough like nothing ever before.  And it responded with gusto.  I even took it to the shop with me because I worked the afternoon and I didn't want it to rise too much without me there to punch it down (delicately, because I love it sooo very much!) and because the shop was heated and home wasn't -see how much thought I had put into it!

It was such a beautiful loaf too, rising so deliciously at the end there in its tin placed so strategically on the floor in front of the fire (the warmest part of the house), close but not too close....

And that's when it all went pear shaped.

I should have expected it, really.

It was going so well until then.

.....

So, you know how my hotplates have died a sad and horrible death?  Well, add to that now the oven.

Black smoke and a horrid electrical smell coming from the back of the oven that had only minutes before finished baking the most perfect pizzas ever (that's right, ever - so said the LOML and we all know that he never exaggerates!!!) greeted the LOML as he went into the kitchen to answer his phone.

On the one hand, I'm so very glad that he did go in (who knows what could have happened if he hadn't - our house is built from 60 year old hardwood timber - a tinderbox if ever there was one!) but on the other hand......why now, of all times?  Why could this not have happened two weeks ago?  Or even the night before, long before I had invested all my love and attention into my wonderful loaf...!

RIP Westinghouse Macquarie.  You've served well and will be sorely missed.

So I now have a stove that is purely cosmetic and serves only as an additional benchtop in my kitchen.  No cooking to be had, just for looks this sucker.  Dated, early nineties looks to boot.  Not good for any kitchen.

I am distraught.  Totally distraught.

I don't know why and I don't know how but my days of baking are at an end - temporarily I hope because there is only so much a person can do with a two burner camping stove fueled by an 8.5kg gas bottle on the bench.  Of course, now that I have no oven, all I want to do is bake stuff.  Cakes, biscuits, roasts....you name it.  Of course.  That was always going to happen.

And I won't even go on about how I smashed one of my best baking dishes the night before - one that has been with me since I first moved away from home.  It's not the sentimental side that got me, it's that it was a great shape and I got it cheap.  And  now I have to go and get a new one and pay too much for it.  

I think I'll just have another red wine....

* on a side note, I managed to save (barely) the loaf by manhandling it and manually proofing and baking it in the breadmaker.  Not for long enough the proofing it turns out, but at least the end result was edible.  Sad, so very sad.

God help me if the electricals in this house ever give up the ghost (touch wood - always a very real possibility in a house of this vintage.....).  It'll be BBQs by candlelight all round.....I think I'll just book into a (five star) hotel until it's all better.....

I went into the world today....

....and this is what I saw....

 Busy bees.....

 ....on the shallot and broccoli flowers.

 More little potatoes sticking their heads up through the mulch...

Broad beans and garlic thriving nicely....

 Some nosy girls...

 Daisies sunning themselves in the glorious winter sunshine...

 Jasmine flowers telling me that spring is not that far away now....

The camelia tree doing its thing....

 Lemons....

 and mandarines by the treeful....

 A bunch of bananas hanging in through the frosty mornings...

Lavender flowers poking their heads out above the chicken fence...

 My first attempts at growing cauliflowers waiting to be picked for dinner...

 as are the peas....

.....and another busy bee hard at work pollinating the broad beans.

Days like this remind me what a wonderful world my own backyard is.

:)

Monster Spud

Yesterday being such a glorious day I just had to head outside and enjoy the sunshine.


While I was out in the garden pulling out the weeds that seem close to taking over, I found some potatoes that were good to go.


I LOVE homegrown potatoes!


Check out these monsters!  

That big one weighs 1.2kg - what on earth can a person do with that much potato in one hit?!?!  The smaller (!) ones at the left back are about 500g and the little ones at the front are normal size.  That's a whole lot of potato right there!  


I'm thinking a big batch of gnocchi is in order.  Or mashed potato for the next 3 nights!

Moving (in) day

What a day!

I am exhausted.  Physically tired, mentally done in, ready for a hot hot shower before slipping between warm flannelette sheets to smother myself with doonas and blankets in an attempt to keep all the muscles that haven't been used in the longest time from hurting too much tomorrow.

What have I been doing, you ask?

Helping my mum move house.

Into our house.

Into our spare bedrooms.

Yes, my mum now lives with the LOML and I.

Nothing to get freaked about - my mum and I get on great, as do the LOML and my mum (many a night they have continued chatting and telling stories long after I'd given up and gone to bed).

In an attempt to save money and get ahead, both on mum's part and ours, mum has moved from her rental house (which, truth be told, was actually only down the road - same street, unintentional from the start) into our two spare rooms.  

Those spare rooms have spent the last 2-3 months separated from the rest of the house by a marvellous hanging artistic creation that doubles as a insulating curtain (read: spare blankets delicately hanging from nails in the wall and held precariously together with an artistic arrangement of pegs).  Nice.

So no longer is half our house empty.  Well, unused - those rooms certainly weren't empty.  They held a surprising amount of 'stuff' that has now had to be absorbed as unobtrusively as possible into the rest of the house - a difficult task in itself.  I always knew this house in its original, mid-1900s condition had no storage (c'mon people, a cupboard!  Just one cupboard please!) but not as much as I now know!  And I don't have that much 'stuff' anymore - despite what 'one-shirt, one-pair of shoes, photos are unnessecary' LOML says.  In my ten years with him I have decreased my hoard significantly to a point where any less than what I have and I run the risk of being offered vouchers by charity!

And now it is the end of a very big day and the house feels warmer than it has since we moved in and mum is happy and relaxed and the weekend is shaping up to be a goodie.

Here's cheers!

Practical Mathematics

Winter

plus

Wind

plus

Cold

plus

Bad Hair

equals

It is very cold today.  


This photo was snapped inside.  I rug up even more when I venture outside the (relative) warmth of these walls.  That hasn't happened very often today.




Did you know it is quite a challenge to type whilst wearing woollen gloves?  Given the time this has taken including typo corrections, it would have been more efficient for me to just remove the gloves and risk frostbite and then quickly warm up my frozen fingers by the wood stove.  Oh well.

There's a bear in there....

and a chair as well....

there are people with games......

and stories to tell.

Open wide, come inside,

it's Playschool!

That's Benita in the back row holding Little Ted and John in the front row holding Humpty.  I love you all!!!
Photo: www.blogs.abc.net.au/abc-tv

I read in the paper the other day that Playschool turns 45 this year.  45!  How amazing is that!  Could the ABC even begin to count the number of kids who grew up (and are still growing up!) with Big Ted, Little Ted, Humpty Dumpty, Jemima and the owl and the pussycat, and looking through arch windows (always my choice), and learning the time via the rocket clock (oh how I looked forward to the rocket clock)?  I seriously doubt it!

I grew up in the time of Benita and John H.  My favourites.  Even now the sounds of their voices brings a smile to my face and a warm fuzzy feeling to my heart!

Cars made from cardboard boxes, stretched out arms becoming plane wings, pillows and blankets making tents......goes to show that all the fancy pants toys in the world can't beat those age old heroes of a cardboard roll, cellophane and some pipe cleaners to entertain kids for 30 minutes every weekday afternoon!

Happy birthday Playschool!  Thanks for the memories!