Spaghetti on toast, frosty sunshine, Fair isle cardigans, squishy cats, tea trays

Monday 6 May

I woke up late and am feeling very wiped out, so it’s yet another quiet day for me. I took some tea and peanut butter toast back to bed and watched some things and tried not to fall asleep again. I am meant to have a supervision meeting today, but I will reschedule it as I really am feeling pretty crappy.

I watched this whimsical video on YouTube … it’s a bit like a fairy tale life, this account, but it’s wonderful escapism. I really like the pansies she is crocheting too.

I managed to get dressed so I could go get some dinner things. I am going to make that chicken dish I’ve been liking so much again, with a bit of a variation as I dont have any gochujang on hand. I’ll cobble something else together instead of that. I have plenty of sauces and pastes in the fridge that I can improvise with. I am going to add zucchini to it this time … big rustic slices at the last minute so they are still a bit crunchy.

Getting dressed: Jeans, blue jumper, Birkenstocks. Very low effort outfit today (i.e. ‘What is nearest to me at this minute? I will put that on!)

I chose and watched a Midday Movie, this time it was Mrs Harris Goes to Paris which was adorable and gentle. I’d recommend it but you have probably already seen it. I have been more of a TV series person over the last decade or two, so I have a lot of movies to catch up with. Anyway, I loved this movie and especially liked the settings and costumes.

After dinner it was … a bit of writing in my Woofly journal, Masterchef in bed with a cup of tea, then I fell asleep very, very early. About 9, I think. I must need it.

On looking up the link for Mrs Harris Goes to Paris, I noticed that there is a movie from 1992 called Mrs ‘arris Goes to Paris (with Angela Lansbury, Omar Sharif and Diana Rigg) which I am quite keen to track down. It looks charming and dated, just my cup of tea.

Note: people are asking again about the journaling and Commonplace book. I have detailed a little bit about it in this post.

Good things

This cookbook is delightful.
This book looks brilliant.
I want this dress in my size.
How knitting transformed the ancient world.
So many interesting facts about cicadas.
This book looks so beautiful.
Brioche buns for hot dogs.
New South Wales beaches in the 1900s.
This hummingbird cake looks so good.
The best Kung Pao Chicken … YUM!
A Black Bean and Vegetable Bake … also YUM!

 

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Tuesday 7 May

Okay. I have to admit that the zucchini in last night’s stew was not crunchy. I got a bit waylaid watching something on my computer late yesterday afternoon and the zucchini simmered past the point of crunch and into a world of braised tenderness. I did not mind too much. It’s a lesson for another time, isn’t it? To pay attention to the things that matter to you? Anyway, the chicken stew was easy and comforting and just what I felt like, even without the crunch.

I woke up at 7 this morning and lay very still in bed so as to not alert my dogs to the possibility of immediately going outside. By 7.30 they were very tow-ey, so I got up and let them out for their morning desecration of my flower bed while I made tea. Honestly, they are really ruining my attempts at gardening. It is hard to yell at them when everyone in the house/nearby neighbourhood is still asleep. I am sure they know this and they are out there kicking their back legs into the dirt, spraying it about like little brumbies. 

I’ve already made a pot of tea. Next a hot shower and getting dressed for a visit to Ari’s house today. (I have updated my ‘About Me’ page with a short guide to who is who in my family, in case you are new here.)

I made a breakfast tray for myself this morning. Nothing fancy. Just a tray with two big teacups (one for my tea and one for ‘dregs’ of finished cups), a pot of tea, a plate stacked with Vegemite toast, a jug of milk, a teaspoon and some of the sweeteners I like. (They’re the stevia ones from ALDI.) I managed to spill tea as I walked it from the kitchen to my room, so next time I will be sure to put a cloth under it all. Regardless of the spill, I am QUITE pleased with the whole tea-tray routine and will be putting it into regular rotation.

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An op-shopped gardening book: Let the Garden Go by Cheryl Maddocks

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I watched this while I ate my toast and sipped my tea.

Getting dressed: Long sleeved blue tee, the op-shop ASOS quilt dress, an old Sportsgirl cardigan, leggings, Fairisle socks, Merry People boots.

I visited Ari and Indi for a while, then came home and did a bit of uni reading, had a late lunch of leftovers and … fell asleep. It’s okay though. I guess I needed EVEN MORE SLEEP. 

Dinner tonight is a roast dinner, which is a bit of a treat. I picked up potatoes, parsnips and carrots from Fresh on Young on the way home, and some frozen peas. Everything’s at the ready or in the oven as we speak. 

It’s Masterchef time again and they’re making an edible jack-in-the-box out of brownie and sugar-glass and white chocolate mousse and other delicious things. It’s very stressful to watch, so I can’t imagine what it’s like to cook such a dish. It’s very cheffy cooking, isn’t it? I suppose that the elaborateness and complexity is all part of the entertainment factor, but that sort of cooking is not for me. Give me a rustic galette or a wobbly bavarois and I’m cool. That said, I did like those white chocolate eggs Stephanie Alexander once made (with a nougat ‘white’ and a cumquat sorbet ‘yolk’). I’ve spoken about them here before and I LOVED THEM. That said, they seem make-able. A sugary jack-in-the-box does not seem makeable (to me.) I’m being a spoilsport, clearly.

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Wednesday 8 May

Last night I started watching a QUITE GOOD show called The Cuckoo. I am enjoying it so much that I managed to rip through 3 episodes before I fell asleep. (I know this is a bad habit. I know.) I have one ep to go, but I will save it for tonight, I think. Watch out for the jump scare, friends. I yelped.

Today is a visit to one of the kids, then home to study and rest. Dinner will be … leftovers from last night.

I watched this video with a pot of tea and a little stack of toast, noting that it is getting much colder in the mornings here and that my Birkenstocks will not cut it anymore. I need to get my Uggs out, I think. It’s certainly getting cooler, but there has not been much rain. For a pluviophile like me this is sad news and yes I did just learn this word today.

Hot shower and a quick and very boring/comforting getting dressed today …

Getting dressed: Jeans, plaid shirt from Saver’s, Fairisle cardigan from Saver’s, Fairisle socks, Blundstones.

I did my visiting and then came home and worked on my Honours manuscript for two hours, trying to wrangle some new ideas and concepts into it. Fingers crossed I can get it to work. Writing is such an act of faith sometimes, isn’t it?

Next I did the dishes and made tea and did some pinning for a while. I didn’t do much last month, so this month I am going to make up for it. I use my Pinterest account like a sort of inspiration diary, pinning things I like by month. It works so well for me. I am currently trying not to climb into bed as there are some things I want to do and I don’t want the day to disappear. 

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This post’s op shopped cookbook is ….
Alla Fratelli by Barry McDonald. Published by Murdoch Books in 2015.

Thursday 9 May

Bubble and squeak for breakfast! If you aren’t familiar with bubble and squeak, it’s an English dish made with leftovers, in this case from a roast dinner. You chop all the stowed-away cooked veggies (and meat/chicken) up into small pieces and sizzle it with a knob of butter until everything is crisping at the edges and delicious. It’s the best bit about a roast dinner, if you ask me. Today’s B&S had the leftover lamb, plus parsnip, potatoes, carrots, cauliflower and peas. Delicious, especially with lots of freshly ground black pepper.

Next, I replied to some comments on this very blog, made a pot of tea, then had a speedy hot shower and got dressed. After that? More tea and a little bit of gentle YouTub-eing to set the tone for the day. 

Getting dressed: An old olive-coloured floral dress, opaque tights, socks and Chelsea boots.

I’m out for a little while this morning to see one of the kiddos and then home for study/uni reading and a late afternoon tutorial. Somewhere in there I will get some things for dinner, but I am not sure what they will be. I will think about it while I’m on the hop.

I Leap Over the Wall – a reading update on this Monica Baldwin classic

Monica’s off to Worcestershire (a lovely sauce!) to visit the Aunt and Uncle Baldwins (they are the folk she first stayed with at their London residence after leaving the convent). This time she’s going to Astley Hall, which seems to be their country house. (Oh and as an aside, Uncle Stanley Baldwin was the Prime Minister of England on three separate occasions.) She’s remembering her childhood days there with her cousins — Diana, Lorna, Margot, Oliver, Windham and Betty. Her memories of her Uncle Stanley were thus: “I remember him standing, pipe in hand, before the fireplace in the library, giving me fatherly advice about how to write a cheque, and the kind of people not to make friends with when one was travelling in Italy.” Mmmm. So wise.

“The library had a fairy-tale frieze of white-sailed ships that lay at anchor in a sea of pure cerulean blue … Uncle Stan told me of how, when he sat there, reading in the evenings, a sea breeze sometimes blew through the room and, looking up, he would see the white sails bellying and the waves tossing, and then, one by one, the little ships would go sailing by …” (p. 40)

Uncle Stanley meets her at the station and whisks her away in his Rolls Royce taking the nine mile drive to Astley. 

“The countryside sparkled in the frosty sunshine, the upturned Worcestershire soil was sorrel-red.” (p. 41)

Aunt ‘Cissie’ was waiting with a warm embrace and a hot lunch, which featured an alarming table centrepiece of “toad-coloured orchids” and an equally alarming amount of silverware. 

She felt her own worldly inexperience acutely, however kind her relatives were.

[In the convent] “you had your own: they were kept in a small leather sheath round which your table-napkin was tightly rolled and pinned when not in use. Between meals they lived in little cupboards under the table at each one’s place.” (p. 43)

Monica goes on to describe mealtimes at the convent, a meal called ‘collation’ that’s taken after evening ‘compline’ (which I remember from Call the Midwife!) A prayer is said “May a tranquil night and a perfect end be vouchsafed to us by the Lord Omnipotent” and then the meal of … perhaps dishes of boiled potatoes and jugs of vegetable soup are passed from the kitchen and collation begins. On the table already are “loaves of coarse brown bread, butter and cheese, perhaps a dish or two of figs or dates …” (p. 43)

Her meal at Stan and Cissie’s was quite different from those she’d known at the convent. The casual postures, the conversation, the presence of servants and the relaxed attitude to leaving food uneaten on the plate were all foreign concepts.

“I went up to my room feeling not only provincial but prehistoric. The Rip Van Winkle complex had got me rather overwhelmingly in its grip.” (p. 44)

I made myself some tinned spaghetti on toast for a late lunch and it was extremely comforting and satisfying. I was going to have it in a Jaffle, but then decided I wanted to see the spaghetti (and not burn my mouth on the hidden spaghetti). Open face was the key, so I spooned it onto two slices of very scorched toast and that was perfection.

Later on it was steak and veg for dinner. I made buttered garlic baby potatoes and mushrooms with broccoli to sit alongside the steak Ari fished out of his freezer for me. (Thanks Ari!)  Next, I watched an Irish show called North Sea Connection (which is quite good) and went to bed very early due to bone-aching exhaustion. It’s a drag, but it won’t always be this way, I am sure. 

Friday 10 May

Friday already? I feel like I have achieved zero things this week, but clearly that can’t be true because I have written several thousand words over these days. I suppose it’s just that there are a few other things I need to do and I just don’t feel well enough to get to them yet. Perhaps next week? 

It’s been raining overnight, but I didn’t realise because I slept listening to a Spotify playlist called 10 Hours of Continuous Rain Sounds For Sleeping. How ironic, non? Clearly I have robbed myself of an authentic experience, but I am too tired to be mad.

I am hoping to go for a walk in the cemetery today, and also to catch up on yesterday’s tutorial which I ended up missing due to brain pain. I can watch the recording today when I am feeling more chipper. It’s a better idea because at least I can take meaningful notes and absorb some of what’s said. When the brain ache hits I can not do much of that. I made the better choice.

I made a pot of tea and drank two hot, strong cups delightedly watching the new videos of Taylor Swift on the Paris leg of The Era’s Tour on TikTok. There are a bunch of new songs from The Tortured Poet’s Department in the setlist now including Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me, I Can Do It With a Broken Heart, Fortnight, Down Bad, So High School, and But Daddy I Love Him. There are new set elements, visuals and costumes too. This is all extremely exciting to someone like me. Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me gave me actual goosebumps. I hope I get to see her perform this one day, in real life.

I watched a gorgeous and gentle thing – this – while I ate a breakfast of tea and a little stack of toast. You should watch it too. It’s so sweet and calming. That little dog! 

Next, I’m going to have a short, hot shower, get dressed and put some washing on.

Getting dressed: the same dress as yesterday, black tights, Blundstones, Fairisle cardigan.

I’ve noticed a few people subscribing to Something Good recently, which is very kind. Something Good was a newsletter I sent out daily during the pandemic in an effort to provide some diversion (for myself and readers) during a rough time. People seemed to like it and it was fun to put together each day. As things got less fraught, I reduced the frequency and eventually stopped sending it, but you can still read all the editions here. (It’s free and signed-up email addresses were/are not used for any other purpose.) There are just over 100 issues in the archive. Maybe I’ll restart it when my health improves? That could be something good.

I’ve decided to make ‘White Lady Chilli Con Carne’ for dinner tonight. The kids used to love it when they were little and I was recently reminded of it by Max. It’s full of tomatoes and beans and corn and ground meat and oregano and paprika and so much more. We like to have it with rice and sour cream and cheese. You can tuck it into a tortilla, also. I went to ALDI and got what I needed to make it … then got home and realised I forgot to buy blinking BEANS. Back to the shop I go, darn it. I might go to the cemetery for a walk and then get the beans after that. A little treat before the shopping replay, so to speak. Seems like a good idea.

Hoping you are well, dear reader. And if not, hoping you are as well as you can be.

xoxo Pip

Top image: Soul Sister Rose

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I’d like to thank local heroes Hostaway — Hostaway.net.au — who are now sponsoring my blog so I can continue writing here. It was looking very much like I’d have to archive the whole 17 years of Meet Me at Mike’s until they stepped in, so thank you very, very much to Amy, Ender and the crew there. It’s entirely thanks to their support over the last few years that I am able to keep this blog online. 

I should also say that my oldest friend Yvonne helped me to sort this sponsorship out when I had my head deep in the sand about it all. I could not see a way to work this out and was thinking I would probably have to lose my blog (due to impaired income, due to illness). So thank you to Hostaway and to Yvonne.

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NEW HERE? — If you are new here or just catching up, you can find out more About Me – health, family, writing, doing, biography-type things – here.

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