let's ginger things up

I was near Bowral yesterday with friends for lunch when our hostess jumped up from  the table and produced a plastic shopping bag with a large lump of something in it.  It was ginger, freshly dug up that morning.  I chose this piece, about the size of my palm.

The dirt can still be seen on it and there's some mud on the other side.  It's very young and juicy and has absolutely none of the usual dry scaly skin of commercial ginger.

I tasted a very tiny piece of it, just a dot really.  Very spicy and quite hot.  I love ginger and appreciated the gift.  I think dinner tonight will be a stirfry of chicken tenderloins and definitely some of this ginger.

The mauve  background in the photo is a Moleskine notebook which is always beside my computer for notes, coded passwords, queries etc.  It's not really this colour.  It's a pale pink.  I have no idea how the camera picked up those fairly violent tones.

I have been knitting all week at times on two projects but neither is really worth a photo yet.  One is  the pink shawl shown in post below,  from camel/silk laceweight from an English seller.  The other is more "clever camel" from Renae at Suzyhausfrau in Canberra.  This hat will be the third I have done, one for each of my sons.  The fabric on 5mm needles with worsted weight yarn is firm and I guess fairly windproof.

This is some more of the clever camel.  It's for gloves for Master Seven.  A boy of very definite ideas, he wanted "Red, Grandma.  You know, RED!!"  I got the message so I hope this suits him.  He drew an outline of his hand and I think I can work out how many stitches will be needed.  I may put a stripe of black or navy on the cuffs and around the top.  They won't take long to knit, but I want to finish his uncle's hat first.  His school uniform is red, so I guess these will go with it.  They will certainly be warm.

I have not been to any of the Craft Fairs in Sydney for some years.  I found that most of the time there was so little knitting stuff there, that I lost interest in all the other stalls and displays.  I love looking at quilts and admire them, although quilting does not interest me to do at all.  Teddy bears are not really my thing, and I like beads but one DIL makes her own glass beads, so I don't really need them.

I may go this year.  It's on in Sydney at Darling Harbour for four days from Wednesday.  However, Renae at Suzyhausfrau is having a stall there and I would like to see some of her other yarns in the flesh, so to speak.  Swan Island is lovely but she has just received stock of others where she is the only dealer in Australia.  I would also like to thank her in person for her wonderful service and speed in despatching orders.  And for untangling a mess regarding a product I bought.

I was very busy on Friday.  I spent a lot of time cooking, both for me and to take out to Bowral yesterday.  This is the spice cake and battered tin mentioned in the post prior to this one.  I haven't made cake here since I moved in.  There's really only me to eat it and I don't need it.  It was an experiment which worked as I had to guess what temperature to use in my fierce oven.  People enjoyed it and there's only a small piece left here.  I guess I can deal with that!  LOL.

I made pizza dough and used that to make some pinwhirls as my old recipe calls them.  I had a large tin of salmon in the pantry so I mixed that with fresh dill and some mayonnaise, lemon zest and juice.  Spread that over the rolled out dough, roll up and cut into slices.  A bit of grated cheese on top and into the oven.  Very nice, easy, filling and delicious.  I did the same thing with the remnants of  a chopped up pork meatloaf  and use a spread of homemade spicy tomato sauce.  They were good too.

And finally I made a different potato bake.  Cindy remarked in a recent post about the great edition of Better Homes and Gardens of a couple of months ago. We were both impressed with the large selection of slice recipes, both sweet and savoury.  I had been wanting to make the potato bake with celeriac for some weeks but had not found celeriac in the shops here .  Blame our far too warm autumn, I guess.  I found some a few days ago so that went too to Bowral.  Finely sliced peeled celeriac, finely sliced potato and I made it tri-colour by adding finely sliced sweet potato.  Layer these in a greased oven proof dish.  When dish is half full, sprinkle with some grated cheese, pepper and salt and fresh sage.  I know a lot don't like sage so I used fresh rosemary.  Pour over some cream, 300 ml used in entire dish.  Then repeat layers and toppings.  Bake  till potatoes etc are soft.  Very good on a freezing day in the Southern Highlands.

It seems a lot of food to  take but a couple who also bring lunch weren't coming and the hosts had just returned from a week in North Queensland.  It all went down well.

Not so good on the personal front here.  Son's ex-partner seems to be intent on destroying herself and I can't say much.  Son says the person he knew for many years is dead.  Not said as some cultures would say in a vengeful tone.  More sorrowful, as he sees her making all sorts of wrong decisions.  The person he knew does not seem to exist any more.

Middle son was made redundant along with others from his work.  The firm has been very good about it, but they are not the ones paying the mortgage.  All sorts of help and assistance is being given to them in new searches, but it's not the same as a job.

bills and lace

Back in about March or late February, I joined a lace club from UK. Sally, Pompom ,was running some posts on reliable suppliers with good reputations and Anniken was one often mentioned.

I joined for three months and received this as the first instalment in the club. There was a pattern as well with several months exclusive use by members of the lace club and a discount offered on any other purchases while a member of the club.  I tried the pattern, it's not difficult, but my mind was obviously not in the place needed to work with just under 400 stitches to start the shawl.  I ripped it back three times and I let it sit on my table for a while.

I found this, which I've done before.  It's also a design by Annie and is called Trinity.  It comes from here which is a charity site  benefiting Médecins sans Frontières, Doctors without Borders.  The idea is that you download the pattern and there are quite a few to choose from, make it up and then make a donation.  I'll make another donation to cover this knitting.

The yarn itself is gorgeous to work with.  Very soft and smooshy and a dream to knit.  It's a mix of camel and silk.  I'm about halfway through the pattern. This is only part of the pattern.  I'm using Addi Clicks here.  I like the needles but the cables are very twisty and double back on themselves unless I'm careful.  I much prefer my original Knitpicks cables to these.

This next picture shows the next instalment of yarn from Annie.  It's slightly thicker than the camel and is more like a normal sock yarn.  The shades of blues are lovely merging into each other.  Bluefaced Leicester and silk.  I'm looking forward to knitting this too.

The last photo for the day is an old recipe from my very old recipe folder, originally a 21st  present from my sister who is some years younger than I am.  I was also going to photograph the battered old ring tin I use for this.  It has obviously been dropped and bumped many times but I grease it well and the cake just slides out.  I hope one of my sons hasn't snaffled this tin.  I had a good look in the cupboard, even used a torch, but couldn't see it.  Perhaps that's a prompt that the cupboard needs tidying.

This recipe came with the electricity bill.  Way back then, the bills came with a glossy little newsletter and some recipes.  I don't use the nutmeg, or may use a pinch.  I substitute powdered ginger which I much prefer.  Use soft butter, dump all ingredients in bowl and beat.  It's pretty well foolproof.

No such niceties with the electricity bill now.  Mine landed in my email inbox this morning and I gulped.  It's not enormous, my brother who doesn't get a concession has a much larger bill.

However, 26 months ago when I first moved in here I was given a Centrelink concession and the bill was about $115.  It has climbed steadily upwards.  this morning's bill showed and amount a whisker under $160.  My pattern of usage hasn't changed, so it's all increases.  The joys of privatisation.

I found the tin I was looking for. It was full of muffin papers, tiny gingerbread men cutters etc. As you can see, it's had a rough life.  I think  my grandmother gave it to me and it was bashed and battered then.  I'm sure that i and my sons have added to the bumps over the years,  but it soldiers on.  Like the recipe, it's foolproof and has never failed me.

the last of the bedsocks

The last of the bedsocks for the grandchildren.  This pair is for Miss Ten who has a long skinny foot.  They are made from some Bendigo  5ply and some grey/white Patonyle, both from my stash.  I had another two pairs to do for the other family and was getting very bored with bed socks.  They were down here a few days ago so I took Miss Twelve aside and showed her several pairs of new, unworn socks which I had put aside.  She tried on a pair which were a good fit so she chose them.  They are not as thick as the other pairs I have done, but she will be fine.  Her foot is not quite as long as mine, but is much wider.  She takes an E fitting in shoes, possibly EE.  So that was a quick pair and she was happy.

Her younger brother, Master  Seven, the youngest  grandchild did not want bedsocks at all.  He told me he could easily wear "any old socks" to bed.  What he really wanted was some fingerless gloves.  He's seen the gloves I made last year  for his cousins.  Only one problem.  They absolutely have to be RED. Screamingly bright red.  I have little red in stash and certainly none of what I do have is suitable for gloves for an active little boy.

Fortunately I saw elsewhere this morning that Morris and Sons have their mid-year sale on.  I will pay them a  visit and should be able to find something  suitable.

When I said I could make gloves, he grabbed a bit of paper and drew round his hand for a pattern. I think he felt he had to strike while the iron is hot.  He even wrote his name and the date on the paper.

Have you noticed the emphasis on  warming food around knitting blogs recently?  I think it's because of two  things.  There have been lots of recipes posted for cakes, biscuits and slices.  Possibly because many of us participated in the World's Biggest Morning Tea in one  way or another.

I think the other reason is that the cold weather has suddenly kicked in after a long , over-warm autumn.  Too warm for the season really, and we have been coasting along with easy, light meals.

Now it's cold and winter warmers are called for.  I received half a small, very fresh cauliflower in my fruit and vegetable delivery.  I really like cauliflower and use it in many ways.  Yesterday I made cauliflower with cheese sauce.  It was very good, smooth sauce and lots of cheese.  I had some  for dinner.  A real winter warmer of a dish for a winter vegetable on a chilly day.

When I was shopping  yesterday early in the morning, I found two BBQ chooks in the large local IGA.  They were date stamped from late the night before and each had been reduced to $5.  I bought both and had some in a sandwich for lunch yesterday.  Today I donned some gloves and pulled the flesh off both of them.  I kept some  aside for  tonight and packed the rest in individual ziploc bags.  I now have eight meals sized amounts in bags in the freezer and two lots  of bones for soup stock.  Pretty  good value for $10 in total.

I have cooked some leeks and stirred them into some of the leftover cauliflower cheese.  Added in the chicken.  Tonight I will put some pastry over the top and have a pie. Some other vegetables and  dinner's done and dusted.

I do not often eat sweet things and even less often do I have dessert.  Last night I quartered a Beurre Bosc pear and cut core out.  I put it in small, old pyrex dish with a tiny sprinkle of brown sugar and about two tablespoons of tawny port.  Fifteen minutes in the oven which was on for the cauliflower and I had a pleasant sweet course. The port and sugar caramelised into almost toffee in the dish.

Today had a heavy fog which took ages to clear.  It left an unpleasant looking day.  It's grey and looks bleak.  It actually is supposed to be 19° but I really don't think it's near that here.  Chicken and leek pie should be just the thing.

more morning teas

Greer tops off a wonderful week of bloggy morning tea posts and recipes, finished off by some nostalgic photos of teasets and hand crafts. She's well on the way to reaching her target of donations too. She doubled the target from $1000 to $2000. If you can help, and every little bit helps, there's a link in the right side bar.

 She talks about her mum and how much she misses her. I miss my mum too and remembered the way she too liked a little tipple. Bubbles never were refused and even when Mum lived alone after Dad went into care with Alzheimer's, she lived a very civilised life. She never read at the table, not even at breakfast or a book with lunch. There was always a sherry before dinner and a glass, sometimes two, of an appropriate wine with her dinner.

 I became nostalgic as Greer spoke of her mum. I counted up the people in my family who had been affected by cancer. At first I had only Mum and my sister. Then I realised my uncle, Mum's brother died of throat cancer, made worse by smoking.. Then I remembered the number of malignant skin cancers Dad had removed every year. My grandmother, mum's mum, died of liver cancer. My brother has had two operations for prostate cancer. Family, but not blood relations are my sister in law, my brother's wife who died of liver cancer, a secondary from bowel cancer. Her son was just ten years old. One DIL has regular three monthly Pap tests for cervical cancer and nasty pre-cancerous lesions removed regularly. Three monthly! How long since you last one? This was discovered when she was pregnant with my youngest grandson seven years ago.

 My sadness was compounded by a truly horrible accident here less than a minute's walk from my place. A tanker with 20,000 litres of milk ran across the road and hit a corner shop. It burst into flames and the driver was killed in his truck.

 The main road, one of Sydney's biggest roads was blocked for more than eight hours. It is possible the building he hit will collapse. I knew of the accident, I could see road diversions up to Fivedock opposite my apartment. Buses were cancelled. Two routes use the corner which was affected. there is an underpass under our building and some motorists thought they could use that to get back on the main road. That caused a further snarl as they had to reverse and return as access was blocked.

I was watching the traffic as I ate breakfast and glanced up to see a police escort for a huge tow truck with the tanker behind it. I wished I hadn't seen it. There was nothing left of the truck cabin except the back wall of the cabin. It leant backwards at a precarious angle so it almost touched the tanker itself. I was horrified and have felt ill as I remember it.

 So I have had a comfort eating morning tea. Some green tea with mint and a slice of freshly baked bread, made this morning, although it had been rising all night. This has been made with James Squire Chancer Pale Ale so has browned more than usual. Extra sugar, I guess.

 It tastes good and I topped the slice with good butter and some beautiful clear quince jelly given me by idle persiflage. Very comforting.

 And now for a recipe. For those of you who are younger, these are irons for gem scones. I haven't used them for long time as is obvious by the way they look. Gem scones are quick to cook and totally delicious broken apart and eaten with butter or good jam. Scone is a misnomer, they are more cakey than scone like. The irons are heated in the oven and just before the mix is dropped in, a dab of butter is dropped into each cavity. You may find these perhaps today in an op shop. My irons are cast aluminium but I have seen cast iron too.

  Gem Scones

  Heat oven to approx. 180°, less if fan forced. Place gem irons in oven to heat.

• 1 1/2 cups SR flour
• 1 egg, separated
• 3/4 cup milk
• 3 tablespoons soft sugar   Not sure what that is.  I probably used ordinary white  sugar.
• 1 tablespoon butter
• pinch salt

Cream butter and  sugar and add sifted flour and salt.  Mix egg  yolk and add to milk. Beat egg white till stiff and fold through mix.

remove irons from fire, drop a bit of butter in each one and add  dessertspoon of mix to each.  Cook for about 15 minutes, till puffed up and brown.  Time depends on oven.  Best eaten hot.

I know Greer is very grateful for all who have helped.

more bloggy morning tea

Just the weather here for ducks.  Just the weather here for knitting too.  I finally went ahead and finished the first bedsock for Miss Ten after several times asking her dad for her foot measurement.  I would have done some more this morning but I decided to tidy my pantry, something which has been on my mind for a while.  About a year ago, I re-organised the contents into big baskets which stopped the contents falling over because of the grid design of the shelves.  I've been careful since but the baskets have suddenly spiralled downwards into chaos.  empty packets  of biscuits, (blush), new purchases not transferred into containers and so on.  The picture shows why I was not outside.  We've not had rain here for quite a while and it's been very dry.  Not today.

This was taken at 10:40 am.  Dark enough inside for lights on for most activities. (click to enlarge.)

Greer at typically red is continuing her very bloggy morning tea.  She's had a wonderful result from fellow bloggers for donations to the Cancer Council and has upped her target which was passed o the first day of blogging.

Have a look.  She has been putting up a post each morning focussing on tea, teacups and cake.  There have been posts by guest bloggers later in the day and an afternoon post with a recipe .  Lots of them sound great to bake, although I would have to wait till family or friends came over or I would have too much.

I wanted to bake this cake but have spent time cleaning baking things, so I'll just post the recipe.  This is from my Red Recipe Folder as my sons call it.  I have left the imperial measurements but here's a site to convert measurements of all types if you need help.  This cake is quite easy and tastes good.  A tart apple which doesn't disintegrate on cooking is needed.  I prefer a granny smith apple. It's been known in my family as Dutch Apple Cake since Mum first made it.  Possibly because of the cinnamon?  It goes very well at morning or afternoon tea.

Dutch Apple Cake

• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup sugar
• cup SR flour
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• grated lemon rind
• 1 large cooking apple

My recipe says just  "mix cake."  My guess is this: beat sugar and egg together, melt butter and add to milk.  Add flour and milk mixture to beaten egg alternately stirring gently.  Stir grated lemon rind  through.

Place mix in a small square tin which has been well greased.  Use strips of baking paper which overhang the sides of tin  to help in removal of cake.

Peel apple and slice.  Push slices upright into cake mix and add topping.

• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1tablespoon white sugar
• teaspoon cinnamon
• chopped walnuts to taste

Mix this and sprinkle over cake and apple mix.

Bake at 350 ° for 40 minutes and brown under a grill for the last 5 minutes, watching carefully to avoid burning the sugar.

a very bloggy morning tea

typically red is hosting morning tea this week as part of the World's Biggest morning tea campaign for the cancer council.  She is calling it a Very Bloggy Morning Tea.

So here is my contribution.  No biscuits but an old recipe instead.

She has a link on that post in the sidebar for anyone who may wish to donate.  I won't be donating to the cancer council this time as I reserve donations to there for fundraising by my family.  That doesn't take long to add up as I give a generous donation equally to any family members who fund raise.  There have been special raffles organised by my sister who raised over $20,000 for them.  Relay for life has featured several times  and with three sons, Movember features heavily.  The world's greatest shave is another many of them do and my eldest grandson also had his head shaved.

Mum had Chronic Lymphocytic Lymphoma for some years before her death five years ago.  She had treatment for it at first, but the treatment made her so ill that she discontinued it.

My sister was first diagnosed with a  rare form of breast cancer in 1997.  It has returned several times and there was also a spot on one lung of the same type of cancer a couple of years ago.  She's had several operations with side effects, has had two reconstructions and some really nasty illnesses because of  the compromised immune system.  Absolutely terrible eczema which lasted three years was just one of the side effects of the cancer.  That was treated with the same drugs that transplant patients are given, but a a much increased dosage.

She's now well enough to live life again and last year drove across the Nullarbor and well up the WA coast.  By herself, towing a small van. This year she has been housesitting in various locations and has just left south of Canberra to go to Coolamon further southwest.

While down from Canberra, she went to morning tea there in the 1880s school.  Later that week, she went to a quilting morning but didn't have the  right supplies to sew, so was given the task of counting the money from the morning tea.  The small hamlet she was living in had raised several

thousand dollars.

My pictures show some vintage handwork from my great grandmother.  Both pieces have a couple of rust marks on, cunningly concealed by skilled placement of pot and cup.  The cup is Mikasa, brought back from Sri Lanka  by one DIL on one of her frequent visits there.  It is put out by a Sri Lankan tea firm called Mlesna.  It was accompanied by some genuine Orange Pekoe tea which was lovely.  I don't like  what is available at shops here, but this was lovely.  I can see this being used a lot in winter with the lid to keep the tea hot.

Now for the recipe.  This was made originally with Smalls dark chocolate.  Nestlé have now  taken this over and have added far too much sugar.  Find something dark but not too sweet.  I haven't made these for a while as they have condensed milk in them.  Not the full can, and you can  guess where the rest of the can would go.

The picture shows my red recipe book, source of many fvourites.  My sister started this as a 21st birthday present and I added to it.  All sons haave an updated copy of th  favourites from here, bound at Officeworks  with a strong cover.

Mrs Hick’s Chocolate Biscuits

125gm butter

2 tablespoons condensed milk

4 tablespoons caster sugar

large block (about $3) Smalls club chocolate

1 ½ cups SR flour

Cream butter ad sugar, add condensed milk and chocolate.  Work flour in till you can make small balls of mixture.  Roll in extra sugar.  Place on baking tray and flatten with the back of a fork. 

 Cook at 180 degrees 12-15 minutes till golden brown.

 

camel hat

Here's the second hat I've made from camel fur recently.  The yarn is from Suzy hausfrau.  This hat is for my eldest son who normally insists on black, black and noting but black for his hats.  However, I sent him a link to Renae's pages and he approved these fifty two shades of grey.  They were sent from Canberra last Monday and the hat was finished by Saturday evening.  It's slightly deeper than that made for #3 son who often has his head shaved.  He suggested a few more rows to accommodate his brother's hair.  The first hat is a firm favourite with #3 son as it covers his ears well and can come down over his forehead.

The yarn comes from the fur from the of Bactrian camels, now endangered.  They live in the deserts of Central Asia and are double humped.  According to this article the fur drops off the animal in the summer which can be very hot, while growing thickly in winter as a protection against sub zero temperatures.  It is that fur which is made into yarn.

The yarn is easy on the fingers, I thought it may have been harsh.  Because this hat is done with alternate balls of yarn, the tension is firm and the hat itself is very warm with a solid fabric.

Pete's brother was down here today with his daughter and son, it's his weekend for them and I saw he had the hat in his bag.

While the days are nowhere near as cold as the Gobi desert is in winter, it would now seem that winter is definitely on its way.  The weather was beautiful today but the morning was chilly.  When the sun goes, I can feel the temperature drop substantially.

I had bought a butterflied leg of lamb with rosemary and garlic.  I lit the heatbeads early in the BBQ as I'm not always competent at getting them going well.  Today however, all worked and they caught fire and burnt down easily.  Son heaped them to each side of the BBQ and cooked the fairly large leg slowly.  I did vegetables in the oven as  my BBQ is quite small.  Lunch was lovely and my grandchildren both had seconds.  Tim and I had some wine and we could all have had an afternoon snooze.  He caught a fairly early train home, it's about 90 minutes in total from here, so he was home in the light and before it got too cold.  Lovely to see them all  and the children enjoy their weekends with him.  Neither of them is impressed with their mum's new boyfriend, especially my granddaughter.  we tell her it's OK not to like someone, but she must be polite to him.  At least that way, she should be avoiding trouble as much as possible.

if at first you don't succeed... also known as winter is icumin in,

So the thirteenth century song has summer not winter, but I suppose there must have been winter for people to sing about summer.  Right?  This morning was chilly, quite chilly even at my place.  Winter seems to be really thinking of arriving.

I had to go out this morning to collect a parcel  from  the Post Office which I missed yesterday.  I managed to write a whole post before I had to leave.  Went to add some pictures and the post disappeared totally.  Grrr.  SO I am trying again.

I could have finished bedsocks for granddaughter if my son had let me know the length of her foot.  I have reminded him twice so think I will just guess.  I could have done the second sock in the time I have been waiting.

Mothers' Day saw two sons, myself, DIL's mum  and DIL at a pub called Vic on the Park.  Opposite Victoria Park in Marrickville with a new aquatic centre.  We had been going to buy cafe takeaway for a picnic but other son could not come as his wife had a very nasty ear infection.  So we went to pub for lunch. Very good too.  Three of us shared an entree and some tiny sliders, duck and chicken.  The duck was really good with a subtle but pleasant blend of various spices.

DIL had a beef and mushroom pie in honour of my mother.  Mum used to cook skirt steak, red wine and mushroom on the side of the slow combustion wood stove in the kitchen for hours and hours.  Then she would match it with her delicious homemade pastry.  The result was a superb pie.  One son said my pies were 8/10 because I used commercial pastry.  Mum's he classed as 12/10 because of the filling and her pastry.  After lunch we adjourned to son's house for a flourless chocolate cake made by other son.  Very good and it was a pity the gluten intolerant family wasn't there for it.  Actually, it wasn't a pity, we all had a larger slice.

I've started a shawl in a mix of camel and silk fingering.  The yarn is lovely to knit as it's very soft.  However it starts with 363 stitches being cast on.  Twice I have made a mistake in the fifth row, even though I thought I was being careful.  Grrr!

I think winter might be quite cold.  When we were at Wollombi near Cessnock in the Hunter Valley, mice would start arriving at the first sign of a chill in the night air.  I had to secure all food in mice proof containers there.  My son on the Central Coast has had a couple of mice recently.  My brother on the upper north shore had to reorganise all storage in his pantry after an onslaught by mice last week.

Yesterday I was at the doctor's for a repeat prescription and a flu injection.  Also had pneumonia vaccine as he thought it was a good idea.  While I was waiting I could see a mouse running around the car park outside.  I told the doctor who was horrified.

However, the best  story belongs to my sister who  is minding a house about 40 minutes south of Canberra while the owners are overseas.  It's been cold down there, well below zero many nights.  The house must have lots of entry points for mice as the owners were well aware they would be there.  She also had to remove an almost dead rat from the pantry.

I have a shower in the morning.  She has  bath at night before bed.  Two nights ago, she was carefully hanging up her towel AFTER she had used it.  As she hung it up, a mouse fell out of a  fold.  Eeeuw! The place is lovely, but she will be glad to be out of there.

Now to  wind some more of the camel from Renae at Suzy  hausfrau at Canberra.  No 1 son saw the agate and navy hat described in post below which his brother now has.  He asked for one and I have bought two shades of  grey.  He will normally wear only black hats, so this is a change and I am striking while the iron is hot.

lavender blue, dilly, dilly, lavender green...

The third pair of bedsocks for grandchildren. This is for Miss Ten. I've done some for her brother and sister and when this pair is finished, I'll have only two pairs left to do. These are warm and quick. Patonyle again and some Bendigo 5 ply, machine washable. A grey mix of Patonyle and a lavender coloured Bendigo 5 ply.

 I've had Miss Eight here for several days even though school has gone back. She was really quite ill and we were all worried about her. She saw two different doctors and spent one night in the Children's Hospital at Westmead where she was seen by more. The best they could come up with was that it was a virus. Someone on Ravelry said they knew the name, TALOIA, meaning There's A Lot Of It Around.

She really was quite ill and I had to concentrate on getting fluid into her. When I had done that, I turned to tiny amounts of food with Nutella toast, cut into tiny pieces, really less than a bite. An apple sliced and arranged as a flower, small pieces of ham rolled up and secured with a toothpick. Things that were different and a bit fun to eat.  Some mashed potato which is her favourite vegetable, although it's not mine.  Anything I thought she might eat, even in tiny quantities.

The top picture shows what she looked like when she arrived and there is another picture with an even worse rash.  Not measles, not an allergy, not meningococcal.  The rash was all over her body.  She was totally listless and slept almost all the time.

The lower picture was taken yesterday after a few days here.  The rash is going although it flared some of the time.  As you can see, she still looks quite ill and not very animated.

I tried on Thursday to get her to have a wash, there'd been nothing like that since Monday, but she'd heard the doctor saying washing would make it worse.  What was meant was that a hot bath or shower would aggravate the rash.  It took a lot of swift talking on my part, but she finally consented to a very quick sponge down with lukewarm water and a soft washer.    She did concede it made her feel better.

She's gone home for the weekend and was very glad to see her mum when she came to pick her up.  This little miss can be a handful but not this time.  In fact, she was so listless and quiet I might have appreciated a bit of being a handful!

I not only did bed socks, I also did a hat with some yarn from Renae at suzyhausfrau in Canberra.   I love her service, always pleasant, helpful and very quick.  It is camel from baby Bactrian camels.  The colours are agate and neat navy.  It is a heavy 8 ply and will be very warm.  It was an easy knit and didn't need much concentration.  This is the medium size and is very cosy.  I used 4.5 mm on the stocking stitch band and 5 mm for the hat itself.

bedsocks et al

I've been pegging away at a pair of bedsocks for my eldest grandson.  I made a pair for his younger sister and with the onset of cooler nights, I realised I had better get going on socks  for his siblings and cousins.

He's hard on socks, but hopefully these will do a couple of years.  Firstly, I'm making them tubular.  He's growing very rapidly at 14 years old and I really don't have any idea just how big to make the socks.  So I thought that if I did tubular socks with a heel, next year they may hopefully still fit him, just a bit shorter in the leg.

Secondly, I'm doing them in Patonyle which as most Australian knitters know is the next closest thing to cast iron.  I know I am happy to wear Patonyle myself, although I also enjoy more luxurious sock yarn.  I throw my Patonyle socks in both the washer and drier and have never had a problem with them after that treatment.

The dark maroon is one of the earlier lots of Patonyle.  When the yarn was discontinued for a while a few years ago, I scored quite a few balls, the smaller 50 gm type, on eBay.  I have another couple of balls in same colour.  The grey and white is some of the new release Patonyle in 100 gm ball.  I'm using two strands and 4 mm needles.  The fabric isn't stiff and they grow fairly quickly when I actually remember to work on them.  Hopefully he won't do as he did with a previous pair of socks when he was younger.  I was presented with a sad sock with pulls in the yarn and several holes and lots of ladders.   He asked if I could mend them.  Well perhaps I could, but it would have taken a long time. He had run around the backyard without shoes or slippers, just socks.  The dog they had then had played with him and had chased him, nipping at his heels and basically destroying the socks.

The days here have been beautiful this week after a very cold, windy and wet weekend a few days ago.  I sat on my balcony in the sun  today to work on these.  It was lovely.  Now the sun has moved around it's too chilly to be out there, but the days are lovely.

My eldest son and his wife have had the family collection of slides and the old projector for a long time.  They have spent a lot of time over the last few months scanning the slides into a  digital  format.  Some were past redemption as the projector had eaten the slide when it didn't move through properly.  Some were just plain poor photos.  The other day they gave me a memory stick with almost 700 photos on it, the first selection of what they have done.  My goodness, the memories!

Mum and dad always had a Malleys picnic kettle and water in the car boot, along with a small old globite case.  Remember those?  Like patonyle socks, they were discarded only for a larger one.  They were indestructible. Mine fell out of the train once and suffered no ill effects.  The case contained picnic cups etc and also tea and coffee.  There are pictures of a morning tea stop beside the edge of a country road and the picnic kettle boiling for a hot drink.  He went through two or three of these over the years and my sister thinks the last is possibly at her daughter's.

Middle son was asking about one this week.  They often go on a picnic and camp every year.  I found the Malleys is no longer made.  A copy is made in NZ but costs well over $200.  I was not feeling that generous.  Then I did a search and found this.  It's an eco billy from here.  They aren't cheap either but I think that as Malleys kettle was over $30 and that would be possibly thirty year or more ago, it wasn't too bad.  I bought one for him and on Friday I had an apologetic phone call from the owner of the business.  He could not get to the Post Office till next week as he was exhibiting at the Camping Show.  I put my son in touch with the owner.  Son had already been planning on going, so he found the stall and the kettle was handed over.  Win/win situation for all three of us really.  Son said the owner and his wife were lovely people and it was a pleasure to do business with him.  So, as you can see, kettle has been tested.  A sheet of newspaper, or a handful of dry leaves or twigs is enough to boil the kettle which is double walled.

I am totally exasperated with misplaced apostrophes.  This label came with some fancy muesli I bought as a treat from my fruit and vegetable supplier.  Again, another small business making good.  The muesli is really good, but I will use it as a  treat at the weekend  as it's too expensive for every day.  I had burnt fig, almond and cinnamon flavour and it has whole almonds and huge chunks of chewy figs in it.  However, I looked  at the blurb which came with it and  shuddered.  I have emailed the company but not had an answer.  Aaargh!

the staff of life

As I've noted before, I've been making bread for years, too many to want to count actually.  However with the no knead recipe flying around the internet and people like Cindy turning out lovely loaves, I thought I would give it a try.  Cindy cooks all sorts of things but has always shied away from yeast cooking.  She made a loaf of this no knead bread and now seems hooked.

So yesterday afternoon, I had a look at this recipe which is called Josh's even lazier than no knead bread.  That's why the baking paper is in my picture.

I had too much water in my mix so added more flour in this morning.  I was still unsure whether I was wasting my time but decided to cook it anyway.  This is how it turned out.  Picture was taken about a minute after it came from oven.  The recipe suggests the baking paper being used so there is basically no cleaning up.  Dough is turned on to the paper for shaping, not onto a floured bench, then put in a very hot cast iron casserole or anything oven proof providing it has a lid.

This loaf has about 35% Attar flour which is an Indian wholemeal flour available certainly in Coles.  It has a pleasant nutty flavour.  I'll experiment with another mix, but this was certainly easy and looks as if it should be delicious.  I might try the quince jelly I was given last week on a slice.

I smiled at this picture this morning when I opened the site of my fruit and vegetable supplier to place an order.  He regularly places recipes and other related items on the site.  I can really identify with this picture.  I love pretty well all types of cheese, although I seem to have cut down a lot on my consumption of it. I have no cholesterol type problems, just seem to be eating less cheese than I used to.  However, I really agree with the picture.  Cheese improves many things. I always have some reggiano or similar in fridge, cheese for pizza stays in freezer, I love a good camembert or brie and am fussy about a good bitey cheddar.  I don't buy blue cheeses often as I have to be very self-disciplind  to have just a small amount.  Gorgonzola melted into lasagne is great, it gives a hard to discern something extra to the lasagne without being obviously gorgonzola.  Bitey cheese with a granny smith apple is good too. I remember making cheese bread in the little Bega woodstove we had on bush property at Wollombi.  It rose so much that the extra cheese I had placed on the top stuck to the roof of the oven!  Everything I cooked smelled cheesy for quite a while after that.  That was a loaf made in a big old fashioned 2 lb. loaf tin.

I went with friend and one son and his wife last night to local good pizzeria.  He had asked two young Malaysian sisters for dinner to celebrate  their birthdays, one a 21st.  They are studying here and he met them in the course of St John Ambulance duties as they have joined a division here.  I gave the Milkweed shawl which is shown in previous entry to the girl who had just turned 21.  I hadn't met her or her sister before although DIL knows them quite well.  She was amazed someone could not only make something like that, but also give her something handmade.  It was a very chilly night here, so she put it on before we came outside.  It is actually simple knitting, very soothing which was what I needed at the time, just rhythmic counting of pattern repeats.  Not hard at all.

Now to see if that loaf has cooled enough to cut.

it was a dark and stormy night

Well actually, it was a dark and stormy morning.  This very grey photo was taken just after 10:00 am yesterday as I was on  my way to have coffee with another blogger.  We live not far from each other really as the crow flies, but she's close to one road leading to and from the CBD and I'm close to another from a different direction.  I needed two buses to get to the coffee shop, regardless of which way I went.  The Town Hall tower or clock is being renovated or cleaned or whatever, and this scaffolding and awning has been erected around it.  Yes, it really was as dark as the sky shows.  The breeze was cold.  However, I managed to avoid any rain and we had a pleasant morning.  She gave me a jar of beautifully clear quince jelly which she had made.  Nicely set and tastes great.  I had some on a piece of bread when I returned home.  A pleasant morning which actually turned into a sunny afternoon despite this beginning.

I can imagine a duelling pair of advertising agencies.  The Audi dealership has been there for years, probably at least fifteen.  The wall hosts many posters which are fixed by several men abseiling up and down the wall.  Some ads are clever, others like the last one are unpleasant  for one reason or another.  The last one was garish red and yellow and was spruiking medications for men.

This poster is much more subdued and even classy if such a thing can be classy.  However, I can imagine the firm concerned smirking behind a hand and saying something like, "Here's one in the eye for you."  The BMW ad is directly in the line of vision from the upstairs of the Audi dealership.  This photo was taken just after dawn this morning.   All the photos are a good deal clearer when enlarged by clicking on them.  The light is poor in  each photo. It's just possible to see the Audi sign on the building.  I was awake so got up and showered as I wanted to take a photo of another Milkweed shawl before the sun sucked all the colour from it.

So here is Milkweed, certainly version 3, possibly version 4.  I'm too lazy to go back and check.  It's done in Lana Gotto on 5.o mm needles, part of the new Addi Clicks set I bought.  It took almost five balls of the yarn.  I had bought it for something else which never worked so I did this.  The pattern is easy, just needs some attention to it so decreases line up properly.  Last week was unpleasant with totally untrue accusations from DIL against me and another DIL.  Accompanied by some strange behaviour which I think is fuelled by excessive dieting which has been accelerated by probably amphetamines.  Courtesy of the new boyfriend and I was very sad about it.  She's lost over 30 kg in a bit over three months and lunch one day last week when I was there was a can of  CocaCola.  Not good and I'm sure her brain is affected.

The rhythmic knitting was just what I needed to block out some of what she had said.  When I started it I just knew I needed to knit something like this.  I have a couple of these and enjoy using them.  By the end of the week, a recipient had arisen and I'll give it to her on Saturday.

I still need to weave in the numerous ends on the wrong side.  It's bigger than shown here.  Several inches are over the top rail on my awning and it's held there with some pegs.  There's  a kink in the centre from another peg and the yellow of that can just be seen through the shawl.  This too was taken early this morning, not long after dawn.  I face northwest and the bright sun sucks colours easily later in the morning.