Good Stuff Nice Life Reminders Pip-Life

This week … homey and possibly boring things …

March 29, 2024
Treloar Roses Parfuma Collection

Monday 25th March It’s just after half-eight and I’ve taken the dogs out, watered the garden – paying special attention to the new garden bed – and made tea. Now I’m back at my desk, sorting through decisions about what to do and when. Tomorrow’s rental inspection is top of mind, but really study should pip that at the post. I guess that’s the power of the rental crisis, every inspection feels like you might be walking the plank and…

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Good Stuff Nice Life Reminders Pip-Life

Weekend diary …

March 25, 2024
Photo of Sweet Honey Floribunda Rose

Saturday 23 March I took an early trip into Savers this morning, stopping halfway to put fuel in the car even though I KNOW it’s a stupid day to buy petrol, that it’s pricier than during the week, that I should be more organised and more frugal-minded. Nevertheless, that’s what I did stopping at my usual place which had locked doors, locked pumps and a ‘back in five minutes’ sign on the window (even after I’d been sitting at the…

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Nice Life Reminders Pip-Life

Just Regular Days

March 22, 2024
pikelets on a green plate

It’s cooler in Melbourne today, the tail end of Summer has swished out of sight and Autumnal weather is shuffling in. Just one more hot day, perhaps, and then we’re fully Fall. I hope. I woke up very early but stayed snuggled down, making the most of that snug feeling that’s been absent for so many months. I listened to BBC Radio 4 for a while. They were chatting with Michael Ondaatje about his new poetry book A Year of…

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Pip-Life

Life lately … Goodbye Summer

March 3, 2024
Megan Follows in Anne of Green Gables

Hello! Hi! How are you? I’m okay! I hope you’re okay! So, this week I had my first online meeting with a small group of other Honours students (I told you about Honours here) just to get acquainted and talk about our various projects. There were 3 writers and one visual artist and everyone’s ideas seemed pretty brilliant and very interesting. We all had to talk a little bit about what we were working on and why our research was…

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Nice Life Reminders Pip-Life

Life lately … Seeking comfort

February 18, 2024
Tabletop with five platters of buffet-style food

It’s high summer in Melbourne and the city is absolutely effervescing with the excitement of Taylor Swift being in town. Her final of three local concerts is tonight and I wish I could say I am going but like so many others we missed out on tickets after hours and hours and hours of trying to secure them. We’ve partly made up for it by watching patchy-screamy live streams on social media (uploaded by kind fans) and watching the Eras…

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Good Stuff Nice stuff Pip-Life

Some Good Things …

January 21, 2024
A back fence covered in lush green leaves and purple flowers + a tabletop cluttered with stickers, craft supplies, illustrations and card-making items.

Maybe some good things are a good idea? For no particular reason other than that I have been collecting them in my Notes app on my phone … (life lately) 1/ A new podcast – Small Ways to Live Well – from my favourite magazine The Simple Things. It’s all about … the good small things and might be an excellent way to make your life cosier and nicer. 2/ A cute perfect-for-the-weekend playlist I found during a Pinterest deep…

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Eat Pip-Life

Recipe: Everything Barbecued Veggie & Couscous Salad

December 6, 2023
Everything BBQ'd Veggie Couscous Salad

Most people are a bit broke at the moment, so it’s good to have a salad like this in your back pocket. It uses half a box of couscous (a box costs around $2) and whatever you have in your fridge. For this salad, I barbecue the veggies to get that smokey flavour, and to enjoy the meditation of grilling sizzling and colourful vegetables. You can just use an oven or frypan if you don’t have a barbecue. (Mine is this…

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Eat Pip-Life

How I Make Chicken & Potato Puttanesca

December 4, 2023
Chicken and Potato Puttanesca

This is a favourite dinner for Max and I. If we’re particularly worn out or feeling particularly anxious, I make this and everything is magically okay again, at least for a little while. This recipe makes a big batch – enough to feed 6 or so with bread or pasta on the side. I always make that big batch – even though it’s a household of two here – because you can bung the leftovers in the fridge and everyone’s…

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Nice Life Reminders Pip-Life

Happy Birthday to … my blog! Seventeen years old today

December 3, 2023
pompom pip

Hello! Hi! Hey! Today it’s my blog’s Sweet Seventeen. It’s quite hard to fathom that I’ve been blogging for 17 years, but I have and you best believe it! Because I can’t. So much has happened over all these years, I am not even sure where I’d begin summing it up … but I’ll try. Over the 17 years of this blog’s life … My kids grew up, our shop opened and closed, I wrote 8 books, I won some…

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Eat Pip-Life

How to make Blue Heaven’s Raspberry Muffins

November 24, 2023

Did you know that I used to co-own a cafe, for a short while? I did! It was called Blue Heaven and it was on Bridge Road in Richmond back when Bridge Road in Richmond was a thriving strip. I left a job at a catering company to start this milk-bar-turned-cafe with a friend-of-a-friend. Readers, I’m here to tell you that I loved it! Rin and I lived upstairs where we’d lie in bed in the dark early morning, listening to the…

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Nice Life Reminders Pip-Life Taking Stock

Taking Stock in November

November 22, 2023

How is it mid-November already? How? HOW?! I hope you are doing okay, dear friend. It’s a bit of tough swirly world out there and I know many of us are counting our blessings. Blessings aside I have a sore eye and the rest of me is feeling pretty wonky this week, so I’m trying to take it as easy as I can amidst study and planning for Honours next year. (I’m going to do Honours in Creative Writing! My…

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Nice Life Reminders Pip-Life

Wontons, op shop books & pineapple enthusiasm

October 25, 2023
A baguette with chicken and salad on a plate featuring yellow flowers

I always think that Wednesday is Tuesday, so speedily are the days passing by … before we know it the holiday season will be upon us, and I was just thinking as I made my tea this morning that it’s time to start getting sorted for presents. For the last two years I’ve bought the kids matching presents and I want to do this again this year because it’s a) it’s fun and b) it’s funny. The first year I…

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Eat

Dip-dip! Smoked trout dip (for toast or crackers)

October 22, 2023
a plate with two slices of scorched toast slathered with smoked trout dip, there are some lemon segments and cutlery too

How about a recipe? I have published this previously on Hungry Hungry Pippo, but thought it would be good to slowly start publishing those recipes here, just so they have a central ‘home’. So let’s do that! One of my favourite breakfast snacks is smoked trout dip on rye caraway toast. It’s often hard to round up the ingredients unless I take a big drive to a particular Eastern suburbs supermarket, so it’s good to have a home-made option for…

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Nice Life Reminders Pip-Life

Bright edges, weird-delicious meals and slumpy mint

October 20, 2023
green grass and pretty daisies

It’s going to be a hot one today in Melbourne, a steamy follow-up to similar weather yesterday. My poor Vietnamese mint is feeling the heat, so I’ve dragged it into the shade (it’s in a big pot) and given it a good soaking. Please let its slumpy leaves be revived, dear herb Gods! It’s been a pretty quiet week around these parts with a bit of a Vietnamese mint-style health dip. It’s/I’m like that though. A few good days and…

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