2paw

A Torch Of Class

As The Ar-lympics approach, for that is how the word is said according to most television and radio announcers, I feel that the Spirit of the Games has been well and truly lost. I don't think I am very excited at all. There's the Nick D'Arcy fiasco, the USOC's Ravelry Ravelympic meltdown, and I believe in the UK cushions have cased a similar furore. More and more, it seems to me,  The Olympics are about the advertising sponsors and profit. I think The Spirit is now weak.

Here in Australia, we only really ever see a sport broadcast when an Australian competitor may win a medal. And heaven forfend if we don't surpass our last medal tally. There's even a programme on the ABC extolling our place as a Sporting Nation. If you do not love sport, you are not an Australian. Apparently.

I hated sport at school. I could not bear all the running, for that is what we mainly did: run, and play netball very, very poorly. Luckily my dad wrote a letter and in Matric I was excused from Sport and allowed to go home on Wednesdays at lunch time, because I had three ballet lessons a week. I was excused from playing netball, or hockey, poorly. I did study at home, it was a handy four hours of homework time!!!

In good news, I ordered my mum a CD set on-line from JBHiFi. When it arrived it was damaged as it was just sent in a thin envelope. Within an hour of emailing them, Craig JBHiFi had arranged for a new and better protected CD set to be sent, along with a prepaid post bag so I could send the damaged CDs back. Well done, I didn't even need to start being cross.

And in Gardening Gloves news, the mittens are complete, and have been delivered and have been worn. I had a little test run.

I needed mittens because it was -4*C one night. That's so cold that the water in my rain gauge made a thick ice plug at the top. There was ice everywhere and Gilly's bucket of water outside the back door was frozen over too.

Peri loves to run on cold and frosty mornings. She looks very athletic!!!

She also likes to sneak up on me while I am trying to organise the camera to take her photo: Boo!!

I worry I am not feeding Peri and Gilly enough food in Winter. See?? They haunt me when I am in the kitchen and they are not in the kitchen.

Gilly likes to remedy the problem and this week she stole a pear and some celery from the vegetable box.

She knew she'd been wicked and was very worried I would take her celery away. Poor Miss Lorelai!!

Toddler Lucy has turned 3 and I made her some Bunting to wrap around her bubble pram. She has a plastic cover to keep the cold and germs out. I did look at some bunting tutorials , but as I supposed, you sew two triangles together along the sides and then turn right sides out and join together with binding. I appliqued Lucy's name onto one side and some butterflies on the other. Poor Baby Zoe is not doing very well, so we are thinking positive thoughts for her.

I popped into the Comfort Display in town and saw lots of beautiful knitting and weaving and felting. I saw a shawl knitted by BishopStone (I think) and they had wool and needles so visitors could knit a few rows. I didn't as I only had 40 cents for the parking meter and that's not many minutes!!

We have a mouse. I am consoling myself with the fact that it is a mouse. I can hear it rustling in the walls. Our house is reasonably old, about eighty-five years old, and so it has cracks and places where the lathe and plaster is broken. The one mouse can fit through such tiny spaces. It makes The Labradors run about and bark when they hear the rustling and I shiver and think how yucky it is. I am going to try one of the electronic Mouse Scarers. MrsDrWho has one and says it works quite well.

The weather has been very wet and we walked in the rain this morning and this afternoon we sat in the lounge room. I knitted and caught up with some very old TV  shows on the DVR and Peri and Gilly napped. We are on the upward run now: they days are getting longer, slowly but surely.

Friday Food: Apple and Nutmeg Custard Pie

I met Ms Lady-Of-Leisure, from henceforth referred to as MsLOL, in the supermarket and while we chatted about the lapsing of a craft group and when we should meet up for some companionable sewing, she requested I make the Apple and Nutmeg Custard Pie from this month's Delicious Magazine. I refuse to give it the lower case 'd'  it pretends to. It is less of a pie and more of a rustic tart I think.

I made only half the recipe and it seems so much bother to use my food processor that I made the pastry by hand. It was very quick. While the pastry rests the custard and apples are prepared and after the hour it is all ready to put together.

I think you could use custard from a supermarket tub, it would be perfectly fine. In our supermarket you can buy three or four whole nutmeg in the herb and spice section.

I hope you enjoy this week's recipe MsLOL!!!

 

Apple and Nutmeg Custard Pie    serves 8-10

Pastry

• 200g plain flour
• 2 tbspn custard powder
• 125g chilled butter, chopped
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 60ml milk, cold

The Pie

• 165ml milk
• 150ml thickened cream
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 extra egg, beaten, for glazing
• 40g caster sugar
• 30g custard powder for the custard
• 60g custard powder for the apples
• pinch nutmeg
• 600g green apples, peeled, cored and cut into wedges
• 1 tbspn fresh lemon juice
• 45g brown sugar
• demerara sugar for sprinkling

 

To make the pastry in a food processor, whiz the flour and custard powder to combine and then add the butter and pulse until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and milk and pulse til it comes together as a dough. Knead briefly until smooth, cover with clingwrap and refrigerate for an hour.

To make the pastry by hand, rub the butter into the flour and custard powder with the fingertips until it looks like coarse breadcrumbs, then add the milk and beaten egg and bring together to form a dough. My dough was a little sticky so I added a little extra flour. Then cover with clingfilm and refrigerate for an hour.

Begin the custard by heating the cream and milk to just below boiling. Set aside briefly. Mix the egg yolks, caster sugar and 30g of the custard powder until they are smooth. Gently pour in the milk and cream, whisking all the while.

Then strain back into a clean saucepan, add a pinch of grated nutmeg, and reheat gently, stirring for 3-4 minutes.

You can tell it is ready when you can draw a finger across the back of a spoon coated in the custard and the line stays clean. Pour into a smaller container, cover with clingfilm and cool.

Mix the apple wedges, lemon juice and brown sugar and then place in a colander over a bowl and allow to drain for half an hour. Discard the juices.

When the time is up, place the apples in a bowl and coat with the remaining 60g of custard powder.

Preheat the oven to 180*C.

Grease and line a 20cm cake tin. Roll the pastry out between two pieces of baking paper so that it is larger then the tin. Ease into the tin and then fill with the apple wedges. Gently bring the sides of the pastry in to partially cover the apples, leaving the centre open, pleating and pinching so it stays in place.  Pour over the cooled custard and then bake for 50 minutes. Cool in the tin for a further 20 minutes.

Then slice and serve with some cream. The pastry is nice and flaky, though the tart seems a little dry even though the apples are moist. It really needs the cream or some ice-cream.

Tie-'em After Time

I did not realise that all my life I had been tying my shoelaces the wrong way. For the last few months I have been making sure I tie them the correct way and it is pretty much second nature now. Tripping over shoe laces whilst walking on a bush track is not a good thing!!

At last I have a proper photo of 10nant, the Bigger on the Inside Tardis shawl being worn, fittingly, by MrsDrWho!!

I also completed the cause of last week's slight meltdown: The Star Wars Felt Book, also for MrsDrWho. Five of the pages were too small and I had to add tiny borders. It was the last straw for a few days. I do love using the rotary cutter to cut and trim the felt for the pages. I also used direct quotes from the films, rather than the headings in the pattern.

Here's the book bound by my patented Four Button and Embroidery Thread method!! And the first page.

Poor C3-PO, he's always all a-dither.

Luke's lightsaber moves and so does the grey be-rubied disc. The pictures were taken on a dull day......

Ha!! The Death Star and inside:

Yes, finger puppets and you can tell I made up Chewbacca and Darth.  Oh dear.

Here's Yoda levitating in the Dagobah Forest.

Note Princess Leia's copper bikini top (Jabba had poor taste) and then Luke's artificial hand.

And finally, some TIE Fighters. With some pitiful yellow explosions underneath.

The End.

Peri went to the vet to donate blood for another sick dog. Being ten, she's at the upper end of the donating age and next time Lorelai Gilmore is going along as well to have a trial run. While Peri was at the vet Gilly and I went for a little walk in town to The Library and when we came home she spent five minutes running through the house and backyard looking for Peri. Poor Gilly!!

The vet rang to tell me Peri was a very good girl and she was ready to come home. Apparently she was a very good girl until Dr Tim opened his muesli bar and then it was all wriggly tails and small piteous cries from Peri Pumpkin. I am always very proud of The Labradors when they donate blood to help other dogs. Gilly waited impatiently in the car, but Peri was more interested in the other dog inside.

It was, nevertheless, a joyous reunion!!!

I bought three colourful cauliflowers and made some delicious cauliflower au gratin. I even used fresh breadcrumbs for the top.

I made a sewing machine pincushion for MrsDrWho and I will shortly be making one for myself.

I have almost finished knitting some Gardening Gloves for Mrs GardyGardener. I made them longer in every respect because of the cold weather. It was -9*C last night on Ben Lomond and we can see it from our kitchen, well verandah anyway. I just have to so the sewn cast off and eight rows for the thumb.

We have been resting for two days, in the afternoon, just to make sure Peri is fully recovered from her donation. There isn't a walk on Wednesdays and so we will stay home and maybe make some Birthday Bunting for Lucy!!!

Friday Food: Gingery, Garlicky Stir Fry Pork

Technically this isn't a recipe from a magazine, but I did see the link in a magazine and it's my rule* and I am interpreting it any way I see fit today!!

I discovered this recipe about a month ago, and even in the dead of Winter it's a life saver. It takes less than 15 minutes to prepare and cook this stir fry and the rice too - in my rice cooker.

I don't like fresh coriander and so I omitted it, and I did add some hot dried chilli flakes, not having a fresh chilli on hand. Pak choy was on special for $1 a bunch and so I used that instead of snow peas.
Here is my version of the Sunrice recipe!!

NB A tablespoon is 20ml here, but only 15 in the UK and USA

Ginger, Garlicky Stir Fry Pork   serves 3 (I think)

• 400g lean pork, cut into strips
• 2 tbspn fresh ginger, cut into thin strips
• 4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
• 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1/2 - 1 tspn dried chilli flakes or 1 fresh red chilli
  
• 3 tbspn Chinese cooking wine or dry sherry  (60ml)
• 6 tbspn soy sauce (120ml)
• 1 tbspn cornflour
• 3 tbspn vegetable oil
• 1 bunch pak choy or similar Asian Greens, thinly sliced
• 1/2 lemon
• 3 or 4 spring onions, sliced
• 1 cup Basmati or Jasmine rice, cooked

Place pork, ginger, garlic, red onion, wine, soy sauce and cornflour in a bowl and mix together gently.

Heat the oil in a wok or frypan. Add the pork mixture and stir fry quickly until the pork browns. Add the greens and cook for a further 2 minutes.

Serve with hot rice - squeeze over some lemon juice and top with the stir fry pork and sprinkle over the spring onions.

It's a recipe that's very easy to adapt to use whatever you have in the fridge: I've added red capsicum or broccolini. It doesn't keep perfectly in the fridge, but I do eat it the next day and I think the flavour actually improves.

*This year I am cooking from the magazines I buy or acquire.

And She Swam And She Swam All Over The Dam

School holidays are always very enjoyable and I catch up with my friends, but the socialising wears me out. Then I  look forward to everyone going back to school so I can have a rest!!! June is also a month of 'days' thus far:

• Mabo Day on the 3rd
• Tiananmen Uprising on the 4th
• D Day on the 6th
• At last the Chamberlain case  legally put to rights on the 12th
• It's 110 years since women in Australia were granted the right to vote and be elected to Parliament. I watched Utopia Girls on the 14th. I felt enfranchised and slightly sad that it took the 1967 referendum before Indigenous Australians were given the same rights.

Today I did something I don't usually do - I spoke up when a woman pushed in front of me in the supermarket queue. I had especially asked the butcher to find me some lean pork mince to make sausage rolls for morning tea tomorrow, I had ten packets of seaweed rice crackers for The Labradors and I was tired from all the walking up and down the aisles. So I girded my loins and said politely that I was next and then the woman behind me said that yes, we were definitely next. With medium grace the push in-erer said she hadn't seen me. Dear Reader, I am not a sylph-like translucent wraith. Eyes do not pass easily over or through me. They whisked the lady away to another checkout. I think she still beat me out the shop though. It is hard to throw off the shackles of politeness and be proactive on one's own behalf.

On Saturday Peri decided she was going for a swim. She ran down the track and waited at the last bend. When she saw me coming she took that for a 'Yes' and by the time Gilly and I reached the bottom she was already swimming. She swam/climbed right through that tree and I was ready to wade in and help her if necessary.Gilly just likes to supervise.

Peri fetched quite a few sticks. She is a perfect retriever.

They love the water, even in Winter and we start Winter on the 1st June here. You can see the fog which is quite dense. Fog in the morning usually means a sunny day, but it is very cold: in the low single digits Celsius. I love Winter too, there's nothing nicer than a crisp icy cold morning. In the middle of the day the Sun streams in the lounge room windows and we all soak up the rays.

We have been having a wet week, and Gilly really loves to be dry and then go out in the rain and come back inside and be dried with the special towel. Then she goes outside into the rain again. Repeat endlessly!!!

It's MrsDrWho's birthday and whenever there is a birthday, or Christmas, I have a little meltdown. I don't know why. Maybe its the excitement and the deadline? I did give her the Kaled Armies and so I can put a proper picture here. I've been inspired and I am making myself a pair of 8 ply Dalek Foot Soldier socks, for the cold Winter evenings. I plan to make some black and green stripes as I near the toes.

We have almost paid all of Lorelai Gilmore's vet bill. Just one more fortnight of being poor and then it is all paid. Gilly has been well, and Peri too, so I expect something will happen again soon. It seems to be the way of things.

Tomorrow, aside from making sausage rolls at 8am, my job is to locate my cowl, mittens and beret. I have put them somewhere together and for the life of me I can't find them. I found my mobile phone charger, under a magazine on the microwave. Now I have two!!  I hold high hopes I will be thoroughly encased in knitted items again on Thursday's walk.

Friday Food: Choc Chip Brownies

I cooked something for Friday Food, a one pot chicken curry, but really it was blerch ( a technical term!!) I am only eating it with a giant squeeze of lemon juice and the knowledge that I am not wasting the ingredients.

So MrsDrWho was the recipient of an emergency Choc Chip Brownie. It's from the July Good Food and it was quick and is deliciously chocolaty!!!

I used the whole packets of milk and white Choc Bits, because what use do I have for two separate thirds of a cup left over??? I also added a teaspoon of vanilla extract and a twist or two of sea salt. I substituted brown sugar for the caster sugar, as I like the caramel fudginess it imparts.

This will keep for about a week in an airtight container and I think it improves with keeping!!

 

Choc Chip Brownies   makes 16-20 pieces

• 200g dark chocolate
• 125g butter
• 110g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 185g plain flour
• 1 cup white choc bits
• 1 cup milk choc bits

Preheat oven to 180*C (160* fan forced) Grease and line a 20cm square tin.

Melt the chocolate sugar and butter. I use the microwave and only heat it till the chocolate is soft. Then mix with a metal spoon until it is smooth. Cool for 10 minutes.

Whisk in the eggs and fold in the flour. Then add the choc chips. Mix gently until the choc chips are evenly distributed.

Pour into the tin and then bake for 25-30 minutes, turning the tin half way through. Mine took the whole 30 minutes to cook. Cool for a few minutes in the tin and then turn out and place gently on a rack to cool completely.

Cut into pieces and then serve. MrsDrWho recommends it!!!

(A)Tack The Block

Actually there's very little tacking in the Craftsy Block of the Month Quilt. The only tacking thus far has been the paper pieced hexagons and I am in secondary love with them. I am in primary love with the Greek Cross. Admittedly I made the executive decision that we wouldn't do the half triangle corners, but still, it's quick and wonderful. The Octagon was almost as quick and cute and then MrsDrWho and I sewed our respective hexagons to a block. So we made three blocks today!!!

We also 'fixed' two blocks. How wide is a scant?? It's a bit vague for me and so some seams weren't a scant enough quarter of an inch. Neither were MrsDrWho's. We added a border to our respective squares.

We have seven completed squares each, I have my strip of hexagons ready to sew on and we plan to make two more squares, which need no measuring at all, later this week. Eight out of ten is not a bad total for the year.

I've also completed some more Secret Knitting. If you click here (and MrsDrWho please do not) you can see what I made!!

Peri and Lorelai Gilmore have really been enjoying the Winter Sun.

In the mornings it is very cold and there is so much ice on the car that I have to tip two or three litres of warm water over the windows. The Labradors love the frosty grass at the dam and when we get home Gilly has a dip in the paddle pool. Then she likes to stalk imaginary things. I'm not sure what she's looking for, but it's a big job and takes a long time.

MrsDrWho and I are watching Sherlock. I bought the DVD set so we are not subjected to advertisements on TV. It's pretty fabulous. Often, we guess whodunnit and/or why!!

Tomorrow it's Leukaemia Support Group and a doctor's appointment. I'm not planning on doing anything else, just walking Peri and Gilly.

Friday Food: Monte Carlo Biscuits

As promised, Monte Carlo biscuits. Once again from Sally Wise's Sweet book. The recipe says it makes 20 paired biscuits, I made 16. I made each individual biscuit 3 teaspoons or a UK/USA tablespoon. I used the same method as last week with the Kingston biscuits, but with a big dessert spoon.

I softened the butter and should have heated the egg for 10-15 seconds in the microwave because it was -2*C outside when I was making these and it was hard to get the mixture to cream: it kept getting cold!!

The vanilla filling is generous, but I think the biscuits needed a minute or two more than the recipe said. It is also important to let them rest on the tray for 5 minutes after they come out of the oven. If you try to do anything to them, they are so soft they deform.

They will keep for a week in an airtight container. 

 

Monte Carlo Biscuits   makes 16-20 paired biscuits

• 125g softened butter
• 125g caster sugar
• 2 tspn golden syrup
• 1 egg
• 250g self raising flour
• 1 tbspn dessicated coconut

Vanilla filling

• 60g softened butter
• 1 1/2 cups pure icing sugar, sifted
• 1/2  tspn vanilla extract- I used 1 tspn, I like vanilla
• boiling water as needed
•  and 1/3 cup firmly set raspberry jam

Preheat the oven to 150*C and grease and line two trays.

Cream the butter, sugar and golden syrup. It takes about 5 minutes and it will be pale and creamy. Add the egg and beat for a few seconds till combined.

Mix the sifted flour and coconut and then add to the creamed butter mixture. Fold in with a spoon. I then abandoned the spoon and used my hand to make the biscuit dough come together.

Either by measuring with a spoon or by eye, divide the dough up into portions. Roll into balls and place on the tray. Leave a little room for the biscuits to spread and flatten each one slightly with a fork dipped in flour.

Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly golden in colour. Rest on the tray for 5 minute and then cool on a rack. When cool, pair biscuits of a similar size.

While the biscuits are cooling make the vanilla filling by combining the softened butter, sifted icing sugar and vanilla in a bowl. Mix together and add boiling water a little at a time until the mixture comes together smoothly and will be easy to spread. If it does set a little before you use it all, add a dash more boiling water.

Spread jam on one half the biscuits and then the vanilla filling on the matching pairs. I found dipping the knife into hot water as I spread the vanilla filling really helped. Then sandwich the biscuits gently together.

Eat with a cup of tea or coffee, and these are biscuits I can eat but I gave them all to the doctors and nurses at the Animal Medical Centre!!

The Re-Charge Of The Light Brigade

Huzzah!! You can buy a new mobile charger. It took all of one minute and now my phone is fully charged and I am buying a new power-board to make a permanent charging station.

On Monday I took MrsDrWho's kittens to the vet for their vaccinations. You've heard of a cacophony?? I had a catophony in the car. In the driveway. Before I even left. They meowed all the way there and hardly at all on the way back. It's a wobbly video and I have the ABC radio news on too.

 

Here they are all lined up in their carry cages: from left to right Caramello, Muppin and Cleo.

They were all so well behaved for Doctor Alison. They are not happy cats, more resigned to their fate.

MrsDrWho is on school holidays and so while her car was being serviced we took the opportunity to have a late breakfast (Le petite dejeuner according to the menu) at the French patisserie. I had a hot smoked salmon omelette with baby leeks and capers. It was so good, cooked perfectly. I don't like runny omelettes and this was delicious, with just a tiny wobble. MrsDrWho had the pain perdu with raspberries and lemon curd.

We've had awful windy weather for the last few days. Thankfully not as bad as on The Mainland, but still there was some damage. I wore my beret when we walked. Peri and Gilly had a sixteen minute walk. We all wanted to get out of the wind.

Gilly has been demonstrating her excellent tongue skills. A diced carrot in a bottle keeps her amused for twenty minutes.

After eight weeks I finally picked my new shoes up from lay-by. They are very comfortable and have no Velcro. I know they have a darker olive green trim*, but the only other green shoes had a Velcro closure and that isn't my favourite kind.

*Induge my fantasy that it's olive green and not brown!!

My spleen seems to have recovered at last, thank you very much, from its prodding. I had an appointment at the Holman Clinic to see my specialist today and when I arrived I found the whole kit and caboodle had moved to the fourth floor and we now have a whole ward. This is sad because it means a whole ward of beds has been closed and the nurses have disappeared.

After that I went to see The Transit of Venus. If I was taking my (imaginary) children or a class of thirty-two Grade 5/6s, I would instill in them strongly before we left that it was not appropriate to run madly about, knocking the expensive telescope so that it swings around wildly. If your three children do run about madly and out of control, when the Museum staff come along you can blame some other children for the near accident. My word, either I have unbelievably high standards or some parents need to parent more actively. Anyway, here's Venus, transiting across the Sun as projected from the telescope onto the lid of an A3 paper box, after it was re-focused. We have access to the most modern shadow casting equipment!!!

Paper piecing hexagons for the Craftsy BOM quilt.

I've chosen six other patterned fabrics to make a hexagon daisy shape this weekend. I really like making the hexagons. It's very soothing and calm. No precision cutting and I printed out very nice hexagons here.

And now Peri is asleep in her chair and Gilly is running in and out the dog door with her squeaky elephant. I try to tell her it's not play time, but she doesn't care!!! She's sad I won't come outside and play too.

I think Monte Carlo biscuits for Friday Food this week.

Oh no, I've succumbed to Miss Lorelai Gilmore's cuteness and I've been outside in the freezing cold throwing the elephant, which sounds like a euphemism for something indelicate: I'm just going outside to throw the elephant. I won't be long....

Lucy, You Got Some 'Spleenin' To Do!!!

Here's a tip: if you have a dodgy spleen, and it's rare to have a dodgy spleen, don't let eight people poke, prod and palpate it. For the next few days your spleen will be awfully sore and you will not be able to get comfortable.

I felt that it was a very valuable thing to talk to the doctors-in-training. I was able to tell them about my physical symptoms and the way it affects my health, but also how being chronically ill affects all aspects of my life. I didn't know any of the young people, though one young woman remembered I was teaching a Gr 5/6 when she was in an infant class. I didn't remember her at all so that was fine.

I especially enjoyed the Cab voucher so I didn't have to find a parking space and I know the Assistant Professor in charge of the teaching part of the hospital and we compared dog photos!! I am quite exhausted though. I've been doing lots of extra sleeping and this morning it was 9am when Peri and Gilly finally started actively waking me up. They were starving. I know I am tired because I've wound up my mobile charger and put it somewhere and I can't find it and for a brief moment I wanted to cry. I am sure it will turn up, or the op shops might have one. Or MrsDrWho. As soon as I do something about it, I'll find it.

Look, Monte Carlos:

Knitting: here are the re-jigged sleeves for my You Only Rib Twice cardigan. I'm using the sleeve pattern I wrote for my Short Scene sleeves. I think that should work.

The Hydro, or Ben Lomond Water, have finished putting in the new pipe at the dam. There is now a huge muddy expanse on which Labradors can run and play. You sink into it slightly too. Well I do.

Now it's officially Winter on the calendar, though I don't think it starts until the Winter Solstice really, Peri likes to be snuggled up in her polar fleece. Preferably with the lights off so she can sleep. That's not going to happen in the lounge room so she has her own solution.

Lorelai Gilmore just likes to run. She's still well, but I do limit her endless running a little.

I'm staying home today. Tomorrow I'm doing cat Aunt things with Cleo, Caramello and Muppin and taking them to the vet for their vaccinations and possibly to be told they are fat!!! MrsDrWho and I are planning to catch up on four or even six Craftsy BOM squares. They are fairly easy, so I think we will be able to.

I am reading voraciously. I've already taken The Ambassador's Mission and The Rogue back to The Library. Dead Simple by Peter James was OK, I didn't really warm to the main character. These four books are all parts of series, so I have to gird my mind and try and remember what happened in the previous books as I read.

On Wednesday it is the Transit of Venus (Hello Captain Cook) and if my appointment with the specialist doesn't run too long, or too late, I'm hoping to go to the Planetarium/Museum where they are having an outside broadcast, so to speak. The next Transit will be in December 2117, so I don't want to miss this one.

Frost and fog, or fost and frog, abound. We're a foggy city with an inversion layer, though proper fog usually means a nice sunny day. It also means I can see the spiders' webs......

It's the queen's Sixtieth Jubilee. I am sure she is a very nice lady who works hard and she's been doing the job for a very long time. It's just that she's not my queen, whatever the Constitution says, and the UK makes Australians stand in the 'Alien' or foreign line at Customs. So I'm having a little republican time out and I'll watch lots of TV stored on my DVR.

Which means everyone else is free to celebrate as they see fit. Jubilate away!!!!