Australia Day

On Australia Day we went on a picnic to Coolart Wetlands and Homestead.  We were looking for somewhere not too busy where we could go for a walk and have a sleep on the picnic rug.  This is the perfect place.

We had a summer pasta salad

 And some Brownies that we had made the day before

Then we walked through the historic homestead

We saw photographs of others who had picnicked before us

Then we set off on our own walk

Our girl and her grandfather walked ahead 

We enjoyed our peaceful day.

Persephone Books

In my spare moments I've been lost in the Persephone Books catalogue.  I stumbled across their online bookstore recently and had to take a few deep breaths to contain my excitement.  That's how it is with booklovers.  Persephone Books reprints neglected classics by mostly women writers as their website will tell you.

The books are printed with dove grey covers and beautiful endpapers.  Here is an interior picture of their store.  It is in the UK.

I've been carefully making my choice.  All the books are numbered and the forum pages will have an essay on the book.  They are up to Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson which is Book 21.  Many of the books are set in Britain around the Second World War and mostly concern women's domestic lives.

I'm totally hooked.  I hope it passes.  I have too many books already.

Farmer's Market

On Sunday we went to the farmer's market at Mount Eliza.  It is on every month and has produce from all over the Peninsula.

Baby Boy wore this blue striped hat.

It was a hot day but there were still lots of people there.

 People were buying up the lovely products and chatting to the stall holders about the produce.

We bought some apples.

My husband made this for dinner and we ate it sitting around the pool.

We put lashings of Sue's Homemade Beetroot Relish on our burgers.  She gave it to us for Christmas inside a beautiful french basket of goodies that she and Peta had put together.  

Our girl is coming home today after two weeks of sun and swimming at Nanna's. We can't wait. Nanna informs us that she now makes her own bed every day.

At Nanna's House

Baby Boy is practising his squeal.  Hope you had a good weekend.

A Morning Stroll

Baby Boy has his appointment with the Maternity Health Nurse this morning so we had a stroll through Mount Eliza village.

We admired the red and white flowers outside the coffee shop

We walked past the Bling

Two young girls of about 9 or 10 had their own stall for the summer

They had a lot of customers.  See that queue near the umbrella?  That's for the Girl's Stall

We checked out some of the produce

 And contemplated getting a sewing lesson from here

We sourced some Orange Blossom Flower water.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Meals

In case you wondering how the meal planning was going then I'm here to tell you that we have been loosely sticking to the plan.

On Saturday night we had this Red Lentil Soup

My husband made this and it is super tasty.  The great thing about it is that there is always enough for another meal the next night and it usually tastes even better.  His recipe for Red Lentil Soup is:

Start with a Mirepoix (2 onions, 2 carrots, 2 sticks of celery).
Finely chop the Mirepoix ingredients and soften over a medium heat.
Add sliced garlic and cook for a minute or two.
Add 2-3 teaspoons of cumin, 1-2 teaspoons of ground coriander seeds, half a teaspoon of turmeric.
Cook the spices for about a minute
Add 2 400g cans of peeled tomatoes and a cup of red lentils.
Simmer and add water to keep to a thick soupy consistency.
Cook slowly for 45 minutes to an hour.
Serve with homemade raita (yoghurt, grated and drained cucumber and mint).

We have also been eating this

If you are looking for easy, healthy and tasty meals to cook then I recommend www.thestonesoup.com/blog. It's a lovely blog and if you sign up for email updates she sends you a free e-book of recipes.  The recipes are really easy and only have a few ingredients.

I also heard about this book.  It isn't released yet but I think it will be perfect for when Baby Boy is joining in at meal time.

Amazon.com

The Years of Rice and Salt

The childrearing years pass so quickly.  Memory is a trickster, a shiny shimmering show girl.  With each post I hope to remember these years of rice and salt and not rely on that fickle show girl.

The rice and salt years are the years spent focused on child bearing, rearing and household tasks. The years that leave precious little time for personal pursuits.  The term is from ancient China when the noble women would put away their literary interests and tend to the demands of their household, their writing relegated to stolen moments.

Yesterday there were no stolen moments.

In the evening we walked in the park.  The nice thing about daylight saving is it is light until late on hot summer nights.

We walked past the house with the lovely rustic gate

And under the pines

We didn't go here.

The Golden Globes were on yesterday.  When she was alive Sue Mengers called movie stars 'Sparklies' (Vanity Fair, December 2011).  I like to think of them as Sparklies enjoying their big night out.

Our Sunday

We passed through Balnarring village on our Sunday outing. We stopped at a coffee shop for a bite to eat. This is what we found at the coffee shop;

A wall of Marvel comics

Underneath this sat a father and his two sons. You could feel the excitement from where we sat. They avidly discussed how often they could return during their holidays. The father in his joy promising they could return everyday. Names of Marvel editions were being shouted out with glee. It was a nice reminder of passions and how they are different for everybody. The comic 1602 seemed to be a favourite.  It sounded good to me too.

Speaking of comic books here is a picture of Baby Boy's curl.  We think it looks like Tin Tin.

A lovely lady in a shop gave us some samples of Italian baby products from L'Erbolario.  

L'Erbolario

Baby Boy had his Italian bath in these luxurious, divinely scented products.  My hands are still soft and smelling beautiful.