Berry slice

Dear daughter, who is now seven months pregnant, would like to visit her grandparents in Canberra as she knows it will be more difficult once the baby arrives, so we are flying there on Friday for a long weekend. My kind mother-in-law has always welcomed me into her kitchen so I thought I would post this, my latest (adapted wheat and dairy free) recipe, just in case it is needed.

BERRY SLICE
Base
Mix the following dry ingredients:
3 oz SR flour
3 oz quick cooking oats
2 oz brown sugar
mixed spice to taste

Stir in:
3 oz sunflower oil

Press base into lamington tin and bake at 180°C for 10 minutes.

Filling
Mix together:
1 oz sunflower oil
3 eggs
5 oz brown sugar
5 oz berries (or sultanas or raisins)
3 oz coconut
grated rind of 1 lemon plus good squeeze of juice

Pour over cooked base and bake for a further 20 minutes.

This is delicious either hot (dessert?) or cold and many apologies for the lack of a photo - friend M was visiting yesterday while I was baking and we started consuming the warm slice without thinking of the missed opportunity of a 'photo shoot'. The other alternative was to photograph the slightly squished slices I took to work this morning (I cycled) but I think it is better to wait until the next freshly baked tray is removed from the oven ...

Meanwhile, as a substitute, the above is a selection of nougat which we couldn't resist while visiting a 'French Market' at Peterborough, England. So friend G, if you are reading this, I hope it brings back some happy memories - it does for us.

Wedding Anniversary

This weekend we celebrated 28 wonderful years of marriage. Those years have been filled with so much love and happiness, laughter and memories and with our three precious children to share so much of our life's joys, we have been truly blessed.

On Thursday my darling unexpectedly caught up with me as I was riding home and then took a detour (I thought he was visiting the barber) but he was actually buying these beautiful roses.

On Friday he presented me with this lovely leaf that he'd found and 'immediately thought' of me. Heart-shaped leaves are not common, as far as I can tell.

On Saturday I put on my wedding dress. I used to do this every anniversary before we moved to England (the dress stayed in Australia) but I haven't done it since our return. It was a little snug, but it fitted.

In the afternoon we set off for the cottage. Weeks before we had booked a table at a restaurant in the city but decided to cancel when we realised we would prefer to celebrate at our favourite place. With stunning scenery, a fire alight, candles lit, soft background music and of course delicious food who would want to be anywhere else? My darling even wore his original 'wedding tie' for the occasion. The ambience and the company could not be faulted - a waiter and kitchen hand ... well, we managed!

Here is a close up of the table with the Australian Fish Pie as a centrepiece (image won't load). My darling's culinary skills are constantly improving and this main course was 'truly scrumptious'. Over recent years I have been collecting a number of pieces from Robert Gordon Pottery's 'Alice in Wonderland' series and the lovely deep pie dish was purchased just for this occasion. It was just right.

We had such an enjoyable time away and a wonderfully, memorable anniversary.

Weekend Walks (a pictorial guide)

I arrived at the cottage eager to see if the mid-week snow had left any evidence of its visit. The roses looked a little stunned and another shrub had split in two due to the weight of the snow but otherwise all was green and beautiful.


The evening was lovely so we took the dogs for a walk meeting some new little calves. They were very inquisitive and friendly, wanting a little attention and I especially delighted in watching one in particular race around and around just for the sheer joy of it.

The next morning my darling and I both awoke to find the weather so inviting we couldn't resist an early morning ramble.

We set off through farmland in the opposite direction to the rainforest. Although this is primarily a dairy farming area, some potato growing also occurs.



Of course the dogs love it as much as we do. Here is Jessie, the inquisitive one disappearing down a drainage hole - wombat and rabbit holes are also favourites -

and faithful Roger just having fun.


Spring always comes later here compared with the city but the roadside blossoms are out including these buttercups (whose image won't load). We returned refreshed and blessed by spending time in God's beautiful creation.

Smiling faces

On such a beautiful day it is hard not to smile and these are some of the happy faces that greet me. The weather has been so strange this week - very cold with rain, hail and sleet - I'm glad so many blossoms survived in tact. Much snow fell on the mountains around Melbourne, the weather report stating down to 400 metres above sea level. Our cottage is at 500 metres and I implored my darling to seize the day and head up into the hills, but he being the responsible type reminded me of all our commitments here in the city. I have been up there before in the snow and love it and now that I have a digital camera was keen to capture some of the magic on pixels. Maybe next time (but it's been over 80 years since we've had temperatures like this in November!)

One bonus of such chilly weather is the cozy fire, snuggly quilts and toasty warm hot water bottles at night. My darling and I both felt it was very 'English' weather and with the approach of Christmas it was just right. It is a little strange though to have the passionfruit in blossom (above), something I don't remember happening at Christmas in England! I have been enjoying the early stages of preparing and was inspired after seeing some ideas on Brocante Home Chronicles.

I happily re-covered some blocks of chocolate with festive papers as well as making a good start on shopping for Christmas gifts. As the frantic rush is not one of my favourite times, this year we hope to hide away at the cottage for a week, emerging on Christmas Eve to travel back to the city ready to celebrate the special day with our family. Well it's the plan, we'll see how it goes ...

Even with all the activity at the end of the school year and the Christmas season approaching it is nice to be reminded that 'happiness walks on busy feet' :)

Pelargoniums?

As mentioned before, I am a novice gardener. I do enjoy gardens though and hope to one day have ours 'just right' (does that ever happen?). Here is the plant at the front of our cottage and I don't know the correct term. I had always been familiar with (and love) 'geraniums' along with hydrangeas and nastursiums, carnations and pansies as my dear grandmother grew them in her garden. In recent times the name 'pelargonium' has become familiar especially as my darling (descended as he is from the 'green thumb' line) had a great grandfather who cultivated a nursery at Kew specializing in pelargoniums. I'm sure my lovely mother-in-law, who kindly reads my entries here, will be able to tell at a glance whether we have a pelargonium or a geranium growing at the front of the cottage.

My darling does 'prune' quite drastically (to put it mildly) but look at the gorgeous colour as a result! During school and university holidays our charming son works for an arborist and it is he who prunes any trees requiring it. He (in apparent contrast to my darling) carefully considers each branch before removing the appropriate ones leaving the trees still shapely but less dense. Maybe he is the 'green thumb' of the next generation.

The nurseries and market gardens of Kew have long since been replaced by housing. Our own suburb too was once orchards and market gardens - the only remnant being an area of parkland which now replaces a drive-in (which was established on one of the orchards). Small tasteful signs and sculptures record the history of the site and its uses from aboriginal times onwards. There are still allotments and we enjoy cycling or walking through the area observing what is growing.

Even though it has been 50 years since the suburb was established, I believe we have a responsibility to make wise decisions regarding the use of the land. Consequently when a sign was recently erected stating the intention of building not only a two storey dwelling but a three storey structure as well on one standard block of ground, I wrote to the council voicing my opposition. Now this was a first for me. My darling thinks I have become 'all political' now that I have participated in the "Walk against Warming" and opposed what I believe is inappropriate development ... maybe, but it has been a long time since I was last voicing my concerns as I wore a "BAN URANIUM MINING" badge in the late 1970's.

The council rejected the building application - hooray - but the architect appealed and it was sent to tribunal. As one who opposed (there were 28 people who wrote - probably a record for our suburb) I was notified and invited to speak at the tribunal. The hearing was held in the city last Friday and I, naively, thought I would be home by lunch time. A representative of the council put forward the council's reasons for rejecting the proposal, and we, the residents who opposed, spoke in turn, then the architect's advocate, an urban planning professional, put forward the architect and developer's (irresponsible in my opinion) proposal.

It was quite nerve-wracking. I nervously spoke of how our built environment effects our well-being, quoting from Alain de Botton's book "The Architecture of Happiness". I finished, as he did, by saying 'We must strive to build in a manner worthy of the meadows and woods we are destroying' in our case, the farmland and market gardens of fifty years ago. (Note - I am certainly not opposed to medium density housing as it is preferable to sprawling outer suburbs that consume more farmland but there is no other three storey building in the suburb, the predominant architecture of the area is 1950's single storey bungalows, and the site in question is quite dominant at the crest of a hill). As I only cycle and walk along the street, not live in it, in the eyes of the architect and 'Judge Judy' I felt my views were of little consequence.

I was glad to be able to give a little support to the actual neighbours in their opposition, many of them elderly, long-term residents (who even with hearing aids had difficulty). I arrived home at 6.30 pm - we had a 30 minute break for lunch - exhausted. 'Judge Judy' is planning on doing a site inspection and will inform us of her decision in the coming weeks.

I did learn a lot about the procedures involved and now realize that inappropriate development is not always the council's fault for, as in this case, it is taken out of their hands. I will be extremely disappointed if it is allowed and feel the whole system will lose credibility as a result. The positive outcome either way is a building of community - I knew none of the residents of this street beforehand and now feel I could drop in anytime to say 'hi'.

A warming walk in Melbourne

According to police estimates, 30,000 gathered at the Melbourne Town Hall on Saturday to join many tens of thousands of others in cities around Australia to walk against global warming. I shared my city-bound train journey with many elegantly dressed Derby Day racegoers - their attire in stark contrast to jeans, trainers and backpacks of the walkers. It is a long weekend for many as the first Tuesday in November is Melbourne Cup Day (a public holiday for Victorians).

It was a very happy, peaceful gathering of folk from all walks of life, young and old and of various political persuasions. Musicians entertained us as we waited and I loved seeing this horse pass, with the cycle, the walkers, the awning providing shade - and not a car in sight!

At first trams still slowly made their way through, thanks to the helpful police, then the street was closed when the walk was ready to start.



Many walkers were in fancy dress to demonstrate their point, banners and placards were scattered throughout the crowd and this 'PRAY FOR SOAKING RAIN' sign with St. Paul's cathedral in the background was a reminder that even in these times when so much seems out of our control, God, the Creator of this wonderful earth, is in control.

We passed through the intersection at Flinder's Street Station (the only other time I have seen the traffic stopped was at 11 am, 11th November - Rememberance Day) and continued on past Federation Square.

It was here that I was slightly elevated so I could get a glimpse of the size of the gathering as the walkers made their way along the Yarra River.

The view back along the Yarra to the peaceful city - almost looking deserted as the crowd was gathered behind me. It was a memorable, worthwhile day and I'm glad I was part of it.

In our garden

Noticing the beautiful feijoa blossom (it is usually the fruit that draws my attention) I decided to do a little tour of the current state of our garden. I readily admit that we are not gardeners (well at least I am not - my darling comes from a long line of nurserymen, those with a 'green thumb', who can make most things grow almost anywhere).

This is going to be a hedge once established and trimmed into shape. I've always wanted to have a hedge - maybe an image of "Green Hedges", Enid Blyton's home? The pittosporum limelight is doing extremely well and the lavender is quite happy tucked in behind as a lower, parallel hedge. The pelargonium (or is it a geranium) is self-sown.

The loquats have had a very good season. The dogs like to eat the fruit - not as much as the feijoas or the passionfruit - and very sensibly leave the seeds as apparently they are poisonous.

I couldn't resist putting in this photo of a Chinese lantern tree near the gate when I noticed who had been peeping through ... Jess and Roger (mostly hidden).