Friday Food: One Pot Split Pea Soup

Truly this is quick and easy and fortifying in the cold weather. It is also very economical and pantry friendly. I used chicken stock, but vegetable stock is fine too. I have no fresh bay leaves so I used dried. This is from last month's BH&G magazine. It really is one pot, so there's hardly and washing up.

One Pot Split Pea Soup   serves 4-6

• 30g butter
• 1 onion
• 1 carrot
• 2 sticks of celery
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• a few bay leaves
• 1 tspn cumin seeds
• 4-8 tspn curry powder
• 1 1/2 cups yellow split peas
• 1 litre stock
• 1/2 litre of water
• plain yoghurt and mint to serve

 

Put a large saucepan over a low to medium heat. Chop the onion, carrots and celery into split pea size dice. Add to the pan and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the garlic, cumin, bay leaves and as much or as little curry powder as you like. When the curry starts to stick to the bottom of the pan, about 5 minutes, remove from the heat and set aside.

Wash the split peas thoroughly. They will release quite a lot of starch. Strain well. Add the stock and extra water to the pan and bring to the boil. Add the split peas and then cook at a medium simmer for 30-40 minutes. The recipe says 30, but mine took 40 minutes.

And that's it. All done, oh except remember to fish out the bay leaves!!! It is nice served with a dollop of plain yoghurt and some chopped mint.

Next week, I shall be Cooking The Trend and attempting Cronuts!!! There is yeast involved, so wish me luck!!

Click Goes The Gate, Mate. Click, Click, Click.

And if you don't remember to click the Baby Gate firmly closed someone, or ones, will sneak in and pull the rubbish out of the rubbish bin as far as they can reach. There will have to be a lot of checking from now on.

It's been a busy few weeks, socially and sewingly. MrsDrWho's birthday has been and almost gone. We had a special actual birthday dinner which was no end of fun. At this restaurant you order the meat you want and out it comes on a volcanically hot slab of rock and you cook it yourself. It amused us all for quite a long time. If you like your meat well done as I do, you can eat the salad and chips as you wait for the meat to cook through. If you like your meat rare, then you cook and eat it first. I had lamb, MrsDrWho had an eye fillet and others had surf'n'turf or mixed grill. For dessert there is an icy cold block of stone with delicious ice-cream, brandy snaps and truffles. I had a spoonful of ice-cream and it was lovely.

I finished the Doctor Who quiet book I had been making just in time for her birthday outing on Saturday evening. I also bought a Doctor Who finger puppet fat quarter from Spoonflower. It arrived so quickly and the postage was only $2. Well done Spoonflower!! As opposed to Fishpond. The book I ordered from them is going to be late, which is fine, but when I wrote and email to say that I was disappointed, they just sent me the same email as a reply and didn't even bother to make a personal comment. That would have made the waiting less painful. Fishpond, you just had to empathise with a few words and I would have felt listened to.

Well, here's the quiet book. Doctors can hide in The TARDIS or in K9.

I used self adhesive felt for the cover, but it was too hard to cut for the other TARDISes. It's flying through twinkly black felt Space.

K9's mid section opens up to reveal sparkly metallic innards and ten Doctors, as the First Doctor is in the TARDIS.

The accessories stick to the velcro on the Dalek. Somewhere there's a pearl necklace and a top hat.....

The Adipose are fat. Peri's lump is an adipose. Each Adipose will only press stud onto the correct number, unless you are MrsDrwho and you make the Adipose all contorted so they stick on.

The Cyberman is all going to pieces, and needs to be re-assembled in the correct order.  There's a piece of arm still in the felt pocket.

The TARDIS flies around the Universe and then parks in the pocket at the top left.

Sadly, Ms Weeping Angel is pictured without her toothbrush and her hands. I took the photo too soon. She is very scary though. Don't look away.

An Ood. The original pattern had coloured strands of wool, but I think the slightly gathered felt fronds look more like the real Ood. The globe is stored in the pocket and can be set to say Hello or Goodbye. It says Goodbye because this is the end of the book.

And finally The Doctors, 1 through 11. The end!!!

Peri and Gilly enjoyed the last -3*C morning. They gambolled about in the icy grasses. The sun shone.

The puddles were thick with ice and Peri ran through them, splattering mud on her face and feet.

Lorelai Gilmore managed to stay relatively clean and tidy.

They are both so cute and I love their beautiful eyes, which are fixed on me mainly because I have treats in my pocket!!

Since it has been -3*C overnight we turned on the heater in the bedroom. You don't want to be able to see your breath in the air really. Now Peri goes to bed promptly after tea, lies on the very edge of the end of the bed and is as warm as toast. We've had a few days in bed recovering from being social. We went for late walks and early naps, but this morning it was up early and a late nap!! I've sewn an origami shopping bag.

There's a pair of jeans and a carton of eggs in the bag!! I cut out one for me too, but then it was time for tea and so it will have to wait till tomorrow. If you'd like the bag, leave a comment and next Tuesday we'll grapple with the Random Number Generator again, and then just draw a winner out of a hat!!

It is hard work being mentally well again. I see the lovely psychologist once a month and made an appointment with my GP last week to check my Mental Health Plan. The Federal Government pays for some visits, not sure how many, and my GP needs to fill in a form half way through. I am cautiously optimistic, being confident and not cocky and responsible for my choices. It's all about choices really and I am working on making good choices. I try to put myself in others' shoes and imagine what they would do. At the start of the year I dreaded going along, but now I look forward to attending and leave feeling happy and OK.

I am hoping to do some knitting now, as I could do with my new cardigan. I also need a posh-ish going out frock. AuntieDutch looked fabulous when I picked her up on Saturday: long cream and coffee sunray pleated chiffon skirt, bronze dull sequinned sleeves on a jacket and a matching handbag. I wore a Summer dress and cardi. Not really terribly grown up, not wrong because it wasn't formal, but I could have done with being a little more dressed up. Well, I have decided I need a posh-ish frock. I think I'll use this pattern:

Either View B or C with a scoopier neck. I saw some gorgeous green brocade on Carolyn's blog and I think this pattern would lend itself to a stiffer fabric like brocade. Can a posh frock have pockets???

Oh, it's so late, we must go to bed because I have sausage rolls to cook and brandy snaps to fill in the morning. The Great Australian Bake Off is coming to TV on Tuesday July 9th. I hope it will focus on the baking and not on people's stories. I want to see baking!! Maybe visions of sugar plums will dance in my head as I sleep tonight.

Friday Food: Brandy Snaps

Last night at dinner some people partook of a fabulous dessert which included brandy snaps. When MrsDrWho expressed a wish for some more brandy snaps, I decided to make some today. How hard can they be?? I thought I had made them once before in the dim distant past.

You don't need any special ingredients or equipment. You do need some kind of cylindrical thing to form the snaps around. I used a spare detachable duster handle, thoroughly washed and covered with foil and brushed with vegetable oil.

I followed Stephanie Alexander's recipe, but I only cooked one tray at once. I wasn't going to risk messing up two trays of snaps!! Antipodeans will know what I mean when I say they are like thin, delicate ANZAC biscuits. Be prepared for a few failures, or as I like to think of them, dog brandy snaps!! Once you get the knack, it's fairly easy.

I cooked the snaps for 8 minutes, then rested them for a minute or so on the tray and then pulled the baking paper onto the breadboard. This made them cool down enough to remove and roll. If they cooled too much, I slipped the baking paper back onto the tray. You just have to be brave and peel one off the paper and roll it around the cylinder, crinkly side out.

Keep the brandy snaps in an airtight container, and fill them as needed.

Brandy Snaps are not in themselves difficult, but you have to find the timing and the technique that works for you. Once you have done that, it should be fine!!!

 

Brandy Snaps   makes 20-30 depending on the cylinder diameter.

• 175g golden syrup
• 100g unsalted butter, cubed
• 1 tspn Brandy
• 110g brown sugar
• 80g plain flour
• 1 tspn ground ginger
• whipping cream, caster sugar to sweeten if desired

You also need either a piping set, or the determination to fill the snaps using a ziplock bag with a hole cut in one corner!!!

Preheat the oven to 160*C and grease and line an oven tray. Prepare the wooden spoon handle or whatever you are using to form the snaps. You may need to cover it with foil, or just oil it well depending on what you are using. You can whip the cream in advance. I like to add a little sugar to sweeten the cream.

Put the butter, brandy, golden syrup and brown sugar into a saucepan over a low heat. Stir until the sugar is melted but don't let the mixture boil. Remove from the heat if necessary and stir until smooth. Check to see if the sugar is dissolved by rubbing a little of the mixture between your thumb and forefinger. If it is gritty, it needs more dissolving. If it's smooth, you are ready to move on.

Sift the flour and ginger into a bowl and make a well in the centre.

Pour the wet ingredients into the well and mix until smooth and very well combined.

The snaps spread. A Lot. So you may only fit 4 - 6 on a tray at once. Spoon 3-4 tspn blobs of mixture onto the tray and then bake for 7-8 minutes. I recommend making just two snaps as a test.

Remove from the oven and let them stand on the tray for 1 minute, then pull the baking paper off the tray and allow them to cool further. If they have merged, just use a spoon or knife to gently separate them. I gingerly peeled the baking paper away from the back of the biscuit and then quickly draped it, smooth side down, over the handle. Then gently wrapped the biscuit so it over lapped. Not too tightly, it shrinks ever so slightly as it cools and you want to be able to slide it off.

Confidently slide the cooled biscuit off and then place join side down on a rack to cool completely. I staggered the biscuits so I had one being wrapped and another being draped. If the biscuits cool too much, pop them back in the oven for a few seconds to make them malleable. If the mixture in the bowl cools and isn't runny, just scoop up the mixture and roll into balls and bake. They quickly melt and will cook the same as a runny snap.

Store the biscuits in an airtight container and fill with cream as desired. They are traditionally served dusted with icing sugar and surrounded with strawberries. I just filled three so I could take a photo and I gave them to the next door neighbours to eat for afternoon tea!!

"A Handbag?" :The Importance Of Being Warmest

I am very glad to be feeling relatively well again. Well for me, anyway. Peri and Gilly are trained to nap and sleep, and so even when I was finally up they still wanted to nap. You can fit a person and two Labradors on the couch. Just. If you wriggle your hand into their cuddle and feel their bellies they are as warm as toast. No hot water bottles for them!!!

Peri won't lie on the couch unless the jelly roll quilt is carefully laid on the sheepskin. This morning at the dam they met Rafa and Sandy. There was much jubilation and very little opportunity for a photo until I squashed a couple of seaweed rice crackers and strewed them about. That's they way to get a photo.  The Labradors are checking for tiny pieces of biscuit and Rafa is just running about with his tongue lolling!!!

Yesterday I had surprise lunch with AuntieDutch. We both had a delicious Ashgrove cheese and caramelised onion frittata with salad. The cauliflower and poached sultana salad was so yummy and the lentil one too.

We had "facetime" with Baby Zoe and her mum. Baby Zoe was riding inside her red inflatable Dalek.

Today I bought a new green handbag. I have had my eye on it for quite some time and it was half price so I bought it. It's quite spacious for a small bag and has room for all my bits and bobs. The camera flash left a big shiny white spot on the bag so, I tried to fix it with Ribbet's tools. Poorly I think.

I left home without earrings. I always wear them when I leave the house, except for dog walking, and I feel not quite right without them. I was forced to buy new earrings, also on super more than half price sale!!!

Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment and then a surprise outing with MrsDrWho's sister, and on Thursday I am having my hair cut and it is MrsDrWho's birthday. I am thinking Friday will be my posting things day. I have been working on my secret projects. Here's a sneak peek of one. There are enough clues for people in the know to guess the theme!!

For a long time a tree has blocked the view of the road when you pull out from our drive way. Actually first you back up the drive onto a small parking bay which is not big enough to park on, but is big enough for idling and indicating to pull out. This morning the tree was cut down, it was almost dead, and the next-to-next-door neighbour is very pleased because it is a Blackwood tree and he will use it to build and craft things. Gilly spent an hour being endless amused by the men up the tree. When she stood on the outside table she could see them, then she'd run inside to tell me, and I had to go out and look. Repeat this for about an hour!! Peri pottered about. She's seen men up trees before.

In TV news I'm watching season 2 of Star Trek Deep Space 9, which is being played at the rate of three episodes a week. Also Endeavour, which is the prequel to Morse and Lewis and The Americans. I'm watching MasterChef in fast forward. Not even 1/3 fast forward, but actual amusing silent film fast forward.

The BlackSpot of Doomlight (tm) has a new 99 cent magazine out and it has a Labrador on the cover. Inside there is a pattern for a dog coat. Gilly has a new pretty green collar and I think she needs a coat. Definitely. And Peri too. I have no illusions about the amount of time they will spend wearing said coats: minutes if not seconds, but they will briefly look so cute!!

On Saturday I rescued a kitten. A half grown kitten that was in the bush at the dam. Gilly was beside herself woofing and Peri wanted to make friends and the kitten just meowed at us and tried to come closer. We eventually made it safely to the car and then I found a box in the Spare Oom and drove back to the dam. I could hear the kitten's piteous meows and she came when I called and ate chicken from my hand. It took a few tries before she was safely in the box which did have air holes in it. I took her to the RSPCA where, instantly, she was winding her way around everyone's legs and purring and making herself right at home. I hope someone claims her, or she finds new human companions. I can't believe she made her own way to the bush, but I can believe that people dump their animals. I don't understand why, but they do.

The weather has been more wintry of late and there will be ice on the car as the nights are going to be below zero this week. The Winter Solstice means the days are going to start to get longer. It makes me feel that Winter is hardly here before its gone again. We all plan to enjoy the cold weather while it lasts!!!

Friday Food: New-Fashioned Meatloaf

I am slow today. Although the dog door was opened at about 7am, I slept till 10-30 and so the poor Labradors didn't get a walk or their breakfast, which was of more importance believe me, until 11 o'clock. Then there was a lot more sleeping all day until it was time to make their tea. I've been feeling well and perhaps I have been doing one thing too many every day? There's no perhaps: I have and now it has caught up with me.

Luckily I made meatloaf last Sunday. One for me and one for MrsDrWho. I used small loaf tins, but the recipe uses one large one. I think I prefer the small tins and you have one for now and one for later. Or one for sandwiches!! I doubled the glaze because I had two tins.

This is basically the old Australia Women's Weekly meatloaf, updated a bit by the Family Circle Winter magazine. You can add whatever you like to the mix, and I used chicken and veal mince because that's the only choice I had. You can mix and match the minces you like best.

To make fresh breadcrumbs, put the bread in the freezer for half an hour or so and it will be easier to grate on a coarse grater. I had a spare bread roll left over and so I used that.

It's very easy to make and easy to cook. And it is very tasty too.

 

Meatloaf  serves 4-6

• 1 tbspn olive oil
• 1 brown onion, grated
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped finely
• 500g beef mince
• 500g pork mince
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 11/2 cups fresh breadcrumbs
• 1 carrot, grated
• 1 zucchini, grated
• 60ml tomato sauce
• 20ml Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• salt and pepper
• optional 2 tbspn uncooked couscous

For the glaze

• 40ml BBQ sauce
• 20ml tomato sauce
• 2 tbspn brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 180*C (160* fan forced) Grease and line one large, or two small, loaf tins with baking paper.

Heat the oil in a pan over a medium heat and cook the onion and garlic for 3-4 minutes or until it is soft. Remove from pan and cool. I like to peel carrots as the skin is bitter, but after I've washed the zucchini I left a little of the green skin because it looks pretty!!

 

Now the rest is just mixing everything together in a large bowl: the mince, carrot, zucchini, egg, sauces, parsley, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper and the couscous if you are using it. The recipe says it helps to absorb the excess liquid while it cooks. It didn't seem to make much difference when I did it though. Finally add the cooled onion and garlic and then mix everything together to within an inch of its life. I wore a glove because I am a bit icky about touching mince sometimes. Mix thoroughly, because it helps the meatloaf to stay together and not crumble.

Press the mixture into the tin(s) and smooth the tops. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile make the glaze by mixing the sauces and brown sugar together. After 30 minutes spoon the glaze over the top of the loaf and bake for a further 35-40 minutes.

The meatloaf should be cooked when it is firm in the centre. Remove from the oven, drain the excess juices and carefully lift the meatloaf out of the tin and stand on a board or plate for 10 minutes before slicing. And there you are: classic meatloaf!!

The recipe suggests changing the flavours to feta, spinach and lamb mince for a Greek meatloaf or sun-dried tomatoes, olives and basil for Italian. And I've deleted the photo of my meatloaf, so here's the much better one from the magazine instead.

Wonky Kong

Peri has been tackling slopes Man from Snowy River style: And (s)he raced ... down the mountain like a torrent down its bed, While the others stood and watched in very fear. 

My heart really was in my mouth, as she raced up then down the slope and leaped over the gully at the side of the track. I shouldn't worry, she is very sure-footed. When I went to the new $2 shop (I think the world recognises that nomenclature) I bought Lorelai Gilmore a new squeaky duck. It is a mallard and makes a nice ducky sound. Gilly loves to run inside like a hurricane, whirl about and then rush outside. I am meant to field the ducky and then throw it up to the next terraced level so she can catch it. It is a game with complicated rules. She's about to catch the ducky here:

Here's a more flattering wet Labrador photo.

We had an old-fashioned draw for the drawstring bag. I did try to use a random generator thingy, but I couldn't manage the copy and paste widget properly. So, I wrote the 15 names on a piece of A4 paper, cut them, folded them up and put them into the drawstring bag and gave them a big shake.

And the winner is:

I hope you will enjoy putting things in and out of the bag Wendy!! I always wish everyone could win. I am pretty sure The Labradors wouldn't want me to win Tattslotto if they knew I wanted more Labradors. I think my heart could expand to love a couple more.

Onyi and I had a little swap at Knitting Dining Out last week. She'd won an ABC bath gel Dalek and said she would gift it to me, as I am a Doctor Who enthusiast. I offered to sew her a zippy pouch, and she asked for an Autumnal one. And we made it so.

At Sewing last night we made Wonky Star blocks, rather than the more tricky and large LeMoyne Star. MrsDrWho's chocolate and MrsReno's aqua balloon blocks on top and my two underneath. I have two half blocks to finish and I am all up to date with twelve blocks complete.

I borrowed The Great British Sewing Bee book from The Library. It is a good book for people who are beginning to sew and some of the patterns are quite complicated, like the Hacking Jacket.

I've been quite tired this week. I've done something every day and then we've have had to have afternoon naps to recover. The weather has been dull and I think sunny days are better than wild windy and cloudy ones.

Well Peri is trying to open the baby gate into the kitchen by pulling at it with her paw, and Gilly is running in and out with her squeaky duck. I'm going to have a quick nap before it's time to make their dinner I think.

Friday Food: Chocolate Mousse

In the interest of my blog, I will be girding my loins and tasting the chocolate mousse in an hour. Purely for research you understand, and only a teaspoon full. Still, I am looking forward to it. I have peppermint tea at the ready...

I watched Rachel Khoo make this mousse on Little Paris Kitchen yesterday and was intrigued. I've made a lot of chocolate mousse over the years, but never one based on a thickened chocolate sauce.

The recipe is fairly straight forward, there were no cocoa nibs to be had in our supermarkets, so I used chocolate sprinkles. You do need 1 hour cooling time and then at least 4 hours or more after that in the fridge, but if you can't wait then 1 hour will suffice.

You can watch Rachel here, but beware the terrible spelling error:

20g/1oz cornflower

I have emailed the BBC to let them know it is 'cornflour'.

This recipe is all about the whisking, but I did use my mix-master as well.

The recipe makes about 2 1/2 cups of mousse, so you could easily make 6 or even 8 servings. It would be great with fresh berries and a little cream or a posh quenelle of ice-cream and no doubt a sprig of mint!!

 

Chocolate Mousse serves 4-6

Pastry Cream

• 3 egg yolks (keep the whites, see Meringue below)
• 50g caster sugar
• 20g cornflour
• 250ml full fat milk (it's only 4%)
• 1 tbsn unsweetened cocoa powder- I used 4 tspn Dutch cocoa

Chocolate Meringue

• 3 egg whites
• 50g pure icing sugar
• small squeeze of lemon juice
• pinch salt
• 150g 70% dark chocolate, chopped finely
• 200ml whipping cream
• chocolate sprinkles to decorate if you wish
  

Separate the eggs. Leave the whites at room temperature until you are ready to use them in the meringue. Whisk the egg yolks with the caster sugar until they are pale and creamy and then whisk in the cornflour.

Heat the milk in a pan over a low heat. As it heats, whisk in the cocoa. Keep an eye on the milk and when it is just about to come to the boil, take it off the heat.

 

Whisking all the time, pour a thin stream of the milk into the egg mixture. Continue to whisk until it is all combined. Pour back into the pan and continue to whisk briskly. The more you whisk, the smoother the pastry cream will be.

As it comes to the boil it will begin to thicken, whisk away until a few bubbles pop on the surface. Remove from the heat, whisk a little more and then pour into a bowl and cover with cling film. Refrigerate for 1 hour. I had no cling film so I just pressed some baking paper firmly on top. It is there to prevent a skin forming.

It sounds like a lot of whisking, but it probably only took 5 minutes. Then you have an hour to have a cup of tea and read a book.

I weighed my egg whites and they were 105g, so I poured about 50g into my bowl along with the icing sugar, a squeeze of lemon and the salt. I always wipe over my bowl with a cut lemon and make sure the beaters are free from grease too. Beat until the whites are white and then pour in the rest of the egg whites. Beat until stiff peaks form. This means that if you lift the beaters out of the meringue any peaks, or troughs, stay where they are and don't fold over.

Remove the chocolate pastry cream from the fridge and whisk to make sure it is smooth. Melt the chocolate the way you prefer, over some simmering water in a bowl or in the microwave. Either way, stop the melting before all the lumps are gone and stir to finish off. Pour the chocolate into the pastry cream, whisking as you go.

Now add 1/3 of the meringue and fold in gently, but thoroughly. Add the remaining meringue all at once and fold in till no white streaks can be seen. Don't wash up the meringue bowl or beaters, you can just pour the cream straight in. You only whip the cream until soft peaks form, and having the cream cold really helps. It helps so much that I turned my first batch of cream into butter!!!

Add the cream in two halves and fold into the chocolate mixture. When it is uniformly chocolate coloured it is done.

The instructions say to brush the glasses with a little soft butter and then put some cocoa nibs in. When you roll the glass around the nibs stick to the sides. I found the butter looked like, well, butter and was very obvious. I just ran the glass under a little warm water, shook out the excess and then poured in some chocolate sprinkles and rolled them about inside. Enough of them stuck to the sides, so I'd recommend this option.

Spoon the mousse into the glasses or ramekins and then refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. I think they should be covered or in an airtight container. I popped a few chocolate sprinkles on top. It looks very posh and I shall now taste it. Oooh, that's nice, really rich and smooth. It has thickened up slightly. Oh yum. OK, I can really recommend this and I have to put the glass in the sink and run hot water in it or I'll eat it all. Too late.......

 

PS. That's just a tiny sherry glass, so not too much chocolate damage was done!!!

Some You Swim, Some You Lose.

Neither rain, nor sleet, nor gloom of night, nor fog, stays Peri from swimming in Winter.

She even had a swimming mate: Rafa. Gilly paddled about on the shore and woofed and wagged her tail.

Look how happy Peri is!!! And I love Gilly's shake starting at her head and Rafa is just eyeing off that spare stick.... I love the way the fog is just floating on the water. We have had some beautiful sunny days and MrsDrWho emailed photos of the sunrise yesterday. Gilly woke us up at 7-29am but MrsDrWho was already taking photos at her house. Here's one:

Peri and Gilly were not particularly happy, but compliant as always, when I made them pose with my prize from the ABC. There's a Cryptic News quiz after 4-30pm where they play three songs and you have to guess what news story they are referencing. They played 'River Deep Mountain High', 'Dancing Queen' and 'Happy Anniversary Baby'. I remembered hearing a news story on AM in the morning and lo, I was right- It was the anniversary of Hillary and Sherpa Norgay reaching the summit of Everest and the queen of England is having a garden party to celebrate.

Ta da!! An Elmo CD which will be for Baby Zoe and for me, Everybody Wants To Rule the World, described as jazz interpretations of contemporary pop songs. I know quite a few of the songs, but now I have my eye on a Burt Bacharach CD as well!!

MrsDrWho and I caught up for brunch amidst her holiday planning and report writing, We shopped. She made me try on new jeans. She made me. They were 66.67% off. How could I resist?? $20 for paisley print stretch denim jeans, and $12 for a not quite big enough to button over my upper nether regions but OK otherwise cardigan. It will be good with a dress in Spring.

I've been doing secret sewing, as well as the June Craftsy BOM . June was a Lemoyne Star, whih is complicated and large in their quilt. Instead, we are making Wonky Stars and I have made two. These are 12 inches and have no Y-seams and look so cute!! And as a bonus any wonkiness is part of the charm. I have just decided that, and will make it so.

A little while ago there was a spate of chalk rainbow crossings. We had one too in our Civic Square, no-one washed it away or made a fuss because, law abiding citizens that we have, the people responsible asked the Council if it would be OK and promised to be careful and responsible. I'd say they're polite activists.

On Sundays we don't walk, and since Miss Lorelai Gilmore is not for sleeping in I baked a Feta and Vegetable loaf  for brunch. I couldn't wait the twenty minutes for it to cool in the tin and so I burnt my fingers and my mouth. It was so tasty. I ate it for lunch as well!! We had a day in pyjamas watching TV on the couch in the Sun.

Today I had to drive to the other side of town to see the lovely Exercise Physiologist. Surprisingly, I hadn't gone as far downhill as I thought, and I was very pleased with my level of bendiness and balance. I may have then popped into the patchwork shop and bought two fat quarters and some other bits and bobs. I may also have come home and sewed a drawstring bag for my lastest sock project to live in.

And I may also have used the same, but opposite, fabric to make another bag.

I'm giving this bag away, it's not green enough for me, so leave a comment and we'll pick a winner in a week, Tuesday 11th June. You don't have to tweet, or repost, or like it, or follow anything!!!

Mr Yunupingu died this week. He was Australian of the Year in 1992 in recognition of his work in the education of Aboriginal children and helping to break down barriers between Aboriginal and non- Aboriginal Australians. He was the lead singer of Yothu Yindi. I remember so clearly hearing this song for the first time. It was written by Paul Kelly and Yothu Yindi members so you know it's good.