Dailies: Log cabin, snuggle stitch, library trips, sowing seeds, banana lounge

Wednesday 8th October

Hallo! Good morning! How are things with you? I’m sleepy, pals. This non-daylight savings transition is kicking me hard. Never mindddd. By next week I’ll be right as rain with it, I am sure. Also I am sleepy because we had a birthday catch up last night at the pub for Indi’s (Ari’s partner) birthday. Potato cakes all ’round, friends! It was lovely to hang out with family and be out of the house in the evening. The out-of-the-house-in-the-evening bit is something I rarely do. Maybe once every couple of months. Night times are not out times for me, these days.

above: next to read and snuggle stitch slow progress

Friday 10th October

Gusty, friends. It’s been gusty. Not gutsy, which is similar and preferred, but gusty. Annnywayyyy. It’s also sunny, just to tease everyone outdoors where the weather will then hilariously blow us down the street and around the corner. It’s not my favourite.

I’ve been spending time with Rin and June and Ari and Max over the last couple of days, feeling a bit more emotional than usual (is that possible?) if I’m honest and so glad to have close family to be amongst, because it’s very grounding.

Also? I didn’t realise how much NOT having a computer that works properly was impacting me. The internet connects me to the world outside my family and keeps me learning. When it’s hard to access – and when it’s hard to write here – I feel so much more isolated and very uncreative and quite academically dulled. Now that I have replaced the broken one with a second-hand Windows laptop … suddenly the world has opened up again. I am making plans (like this free course!) and hoping to start a few little projects and just feeling much more hopeful in general. If you have broken things in your life, I am sure you will understand the joy of all this slowly patching-up of things.

above: Two vintage Interview magazines found at Saver’s

I spent a couple of hours with Rin and June today, playing with the baby so Rin could do some things around the house. It’s so lovely how all the old impulses to play kick back in, albeit in a different role … as a granny now. June and I read stories (her favourites are the Ingela P. Arrhenius Where’s ..? and Peekaboo board books with the felt lift-up flaps and I’ve bought a bunch of them) and played with blocks (the ones I found back here) and tinkered on one of the many xylophones that I seem to have collected for her. She loves music (as most babies do) and is delighted and wide-eyed by the sounds the keys and mallets make. We wandered in the backyard too, talking to the mandarin tree and the clouds and the butterflies and the wind, until it got too gusty for a by now drowsy little girl to fall asleep in.

Next? Next I came home, ate some of the Soba Salad I made for dinner on Wednesday and rested for a while. Later still I made some Fried Rice and ate it watching an episode of Real Housewives because I’m a thug like that. I’ve also started watching House of Guinness. Just one episode a day, but I am loving it although needing to cover eyes at a particularly violent bit. Ugh.

above: Cheese, tomato and ham on toast with tea and an old Marie Claire cookbook (it’s a good one!)

Oh and I went to the library yesterday, too. I forgot to tell you about that. They had a live stream of the Collins Street Falcons going, which was cute and also nerve wracking. I’m so worried about them! I borrowed:

Searching for Charlotte by Kate Forsyth and Belinda Murrell
Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley
Festival Days by Jo Ann Beard
Nanaville : Adventures In Grandparenting by Anna Quindlen

Good Things

Percy the pheasant.
This profile of Arthur Parkinson (who has a new chook book out.)
I really want to try these bath salts!!
These socially helpful Christmas decorations! – above – (Found via Katie Considers)
This week’s Feeling A Bit Sh*t newsletter by me
I’m obsessed with this Heritage Tupperware. (Amazon link)
Butter dishes!
This Sportsgirl CD player is adorable. Want. And also this digital camera. So cute!

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Sunday 12 October

Oh my goodness, Diane Keaton has died. I loved so many of her films but Baby Boom has a special place in my heart, I think due to the sort of city mouse to country mouse theme. I read The New York Times obituary after I’d let the pups out and made tea this morning. Over 100 movies in her career. What a work ethic. She’s an icon, really …

Breakfast was ham, tomato and cheese on grainy toast and another cup of tea. I think I am going to make a cake today, so I can take a huge chunk over to the nursing mum. And I got a bunch of good cookbooks at the op shop yesterday for $1 each (listed below). There’s a nice-looking chicken in cider recipe in the River Cottage one that I might make for dinner. Or I might make a chicken pot roast from an old Marie Claire cookbook … decisions decisions.

River Cottage Every Day by Hugh Fernley Whittingstall
From the Oven To the Table by Diana Henry
Provence and Pondicherry by Tessa Kiros
The Corleone Family Cookbook by Liliana Battle
Piri Piri and Starfish by Tessa Kiros

Do you have any favourite recipes in any of these, pals? Do share, if so!

Last night I watched You’ve Got Mail before I went to sleep and I can highly recommend doing that, by the way. The dialogue is so good in it, right? And Meg Ryan’s wardrobe is pretty much what the kids want to be wearing these days too. Speaking of films, did you ever watch The Goodbye Girl? We had it on repeat in our house when I was a teenager, and even though I suspect Richard Dreyfus is a knob, I am going to track it down for another watch. I especially loved the little girl in it and I just looked her up and her name is Quinn Cummings and she’s as cute-faced as ever. Cosy nostalgia seems to be regulating my wonky nervous system these days, so I shall lean in. There were a bunch of quite adult feature films we used to watch over and over as kids … Stripes, Private Benjamin, Meatballs (!), Kramer vs Kramer (this one was just me, not my siblings). Gallipoli, 9 to 5, Arthur, An American Werewolf in London, Mad Max. Apparently kids were built different then. I was nine, ten, eleven …

Did you catch Gardening Australia this week? I just saw a bit of it on YouTube and it has me SO motivated to get out in the garden. I am easily led like that.  Now I desperately want to go and stay at the place mentioned (below) and here.

Friend? I made the pot roasted chicken and it was so so good. Max (my eldest grown-up son) reallllllly liked it. Also I did some weeding which is huge for me. Normally my hands break out in hives after about 5 minutes of any sort of manual labour, but this time they did not. Winning!!! Maybe I can do some gardening this week?!

Also? I made a double-size Simplicity Chocolate Cake and it puffed up like a loaf of bread and I am taking that as a win (and taking half to Rin’s house, of course.)

above: Dinner – Tessa Kiros’ chicken escalopes with capers, lemon and parsley; tomato salad; Marie Claire frittata

Monday 13 October

It’s a bit soggy outside, so the dogs walked the perimeter of the backyard when I let them out just before 7. They were very pleased to rush back in and snaffle half a Milk Arrowroot each, and have been collapsed among a pile of pillows ever since. It’s actually sunny now, though, so a nice day is ahead I think.

I’m going to make a frittata today – again out of that old Marie Claire cookbook (by Michelle Cranston). It’s got so many simple and good recipes in it. Sometimes I think modern recipes are just copies of older ones with more fashionable new spices and herbs added to make them ‘original’.  I like the simple old stuff, personally.  Anyway, I have my own favourite frittata recipe, obviously, but am keen to try Michele Cranston’s take on eggs, potato and spinach too.

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Some videos I watched this fortnight

Cillian Murphy’s Closet Picks
The Mindful Narrowboat
Moonnight
Moving Into Cambridge University
Amy and Fox
Nigel Slater’s Garden Tour

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I popped in on Rin and June mid morning (after a quick nip into the library) and June and I had a play while Rin did some dinner prep without a baby on her hip. The baby is getting very chatty now and is beginning to eat solids, although not SUPER keen. I took around a packet of baby wafers (blueberry flavour) and she enjoyed biting and pushing those around her mouth for a little bit.

Reader, I did not make the frittata, but I stocked up on its ingredients so perhaps TOMORROW is the day? What I did do yesterday afternoon was rest and a little bit of weeding in the garden and rest again. Dinner was a plate of picky bits from the fridge, which was just the perfect meal for a fatigued person.

Tuesday 14 October

A chilly with the promise of sunshine morning. I took my toasted sandwich (grainy bread, ham, cheese, tomato, sriracha, heaps of fresh ground pepper, Maldon salt) and my cup of tea back to my room after the pet tasks, and sat down to read the news and write to you.

Yesterday afternoon I sifted through my seed box and found a bunch of things to sow, which I did: sunflowers, cosmos, coriander, zucchini. I had already sown capsicums, tomatoes, cucumber, chilli, eggplant, basil, mint and parsley and most of those are coming along so well. It’s such an exciting time of the year in the garden, isn’t it? So much promise of good things to come and there’s nothing quite like decanting seeds into your cupped palm, pressing them into soil, concealing them in a blanket of earth.

The day panned out very differently to what I’d intended, because I ended up going to the doctor in the middle of the day, then came home and flaked out. I rallied though, slightly, and made a delicious dinner of that frittata I had been threatening to make plus some chicken escalopes with caper and lemon sauce (so simple – a Tessa Kiros recipe from Apples For Jam) and a little tomato salad. I warmed up some of the mini milk buns you can get at ALDI in the oven and had two of those two. And a spoonful of Kalamata olives. And some of this relish which is so nice. Was all delicious and would make again. (Max asked me to add it to our usual roster!)

Before the doctor I nipped into the op shop and found a few bits and bobs, most notably a copy of White Oleander (which I watched for the first time the other night) and a cookbook called Bugialli’s Italy which has some excellent recipes in it. I also bought two blue long-sleeved men’s shirts for $5 each …

Above: Op shopped books 

Friday 17th October

The weather has warmed up so much. It was quite hot yesterday, in fact, but windy still which is not my favourite. Today is warm and not so gusty. I’ve been pottering about and reading my new book – The Golden Sister by Suzanne Do … really liking it – and having a quick family catch up with Ari and also Rin, Paul and June.  Probably should not be reading as my vision is playing up again, but I am a daredevil like that and also a person has to be able to do SOME THINGS, darn it.

above: L/ snuggle stitch beginnings R/ sandwich and a glimpse of Log Cabin crochet

Sunday 19th October

The spring wind is blowing hard this morning. It woke the dogs up well before sunrise, so I caught a glimpse of that just-starting-to-glow sky before I scuttled back to bed and pulled the blankets over my head. Up again at 7.30 for breakfast and a proper pup run (the kind that doesn’t start with me whispering ‘shhhh’ and worrying about the very nearby sleeping neighbours.) If there’s one thing my dogs can be counted on to do it’s barking loudly as they race from the back door to the back fence. Today was just a small single bark, so that was not too bad.

Breakfast was a toasted ham, cheese and tomato on grainy bread, and a café latte. I had a cup of tea earlier though.

Yesterday Ari and I went to Saver’s to find a suit for him to wear to a family wedding today (not our side of the family). I found a few little haberdashery bits (elastic, mostly, because I want to make June some wide-legged pants), a Taylor Swift 1989 CD (complete with little pocket of photos) and a late eighties/early nineties banana lounge. I had been looking for an old banana lounge to put in the backyard shade on warmer days, to read on, so I was totally chuffed. It’s super sturdy and features a print that could only have come out of that era. And it was made in Taiwan, friends. I also got a book about The Goodies (to give to my brother for Christmas … shhhh) and a Mitford story – The Mitford Scandal – by Jessica Fellowes.

I’m going to see Rin and June today, to have a little play while Rin does some things around the house. June had her vaccinations late last week and is still a bit fragile, so I am sure a change of Person Scenery will do everybody some good (me included!)

I’ve been working on a few crafty projects, intermittently. The Stockholm Blanket squares, the Snuggle Stitch car blanket and a crocheted Log Cabin blanket too. Gosh knows when any of these will be finished, but for me the process is just as rewarding as the completion, so I’m FINE with all that.

I’ve nearly finished The Golden Sister and have enjoyed it so much. I love the insular character of Lili and also it’s only just occurred to me that the author – Suzanne Do – is the partner of Anh Do. I’m quick like that.

I’m still thinking about the book I read before that, too. The Cookbook of Common Prayer. I LOVED THAT BOOK.

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Highlights Lately

Finding heaps and heaps of little nigella seedlings in the garden, sprouted from seeds I planted yonks ago.

Little June flapping her arms and grinning and craning her neck to see me when I visit.

Finding the strength to do some weeding in the garden … and spotting a rogue zinnia that’s popped up.

Buying a 20c bag for an older lady with a walking stick who had just spent all her money on a new top and some foil trays, thus could not afford the bag she needed to carry them comfortably in. She had the bluest eyes.

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Hope you are as well as is possible, dear reader. Thanks for popping in.

xx Pip