Taking Stock...

Inspired by Pip over at Meet Me At Mike's I'm taking stock.

Making: travel plans

Cooking: poached quinces

Drinking: Earl Grey tea

Reading: a million things at once including 'The Love Charm of Bombs' by Lara Feigel; 'Through the Window: Seventeen Essays and One Short Story' by Julian Barnes and 'Finn Family Moomintroll' by Tove Jansson.
Wanting: courage

Looking: out a cloudy skies

Playing: at being a filmmaker

Wasting: ?

Sewing: labels onto jester costumes

Wishing: I could fast forward myself three weeks hence

Enjoying: learning how to edit audio-visuals

Waiting: for my quinces to be ready

Liking: my early morning mindfulness meditation

Wondering: what the future will bring (not very mindful I know)

Loving: Melbourne in winter

Hoping: I'm up to the challenge

Marvelling: at the production of 'Einstein On The Beach' I saw this week.

Needing: reassurance

Smelling: wonderfully aromatic poached quinces

Wearing: jeans

Following: BBC Twitter feed to see who the new Dr Who will be!

Noticing: small changes as I reach 30 days of meditation

Knowing: nothing is certain

Thinking: too much

Feeling: snug

Bookmarking: an online excerpt of Marisha Pessl's new book, 'Night Film'

Opening: the oven to watch my quinces changing colour

Giggling: I'm not much of a giggler

Feeling: fine

Hope you're feeling fine too!

(I wrote this on my phone using the Blogger app but couldn't work out how to insert links and not sure about formatting either!)

Meditation, music and museums...

clinamen, an acoustic installation by Celeste Boursier-Mougenot

School holidays are rapidly drawing to a close and usually, by this stage, I've secretly started to look forward to an orderly return to the school/work schedule. These holidays, however, have been different. I've been meditating every morning and there has been no holiday program for the kids just a mixture of work and days off for me and outings and days spent with friends for the kids. Time has had an elastic quality. Over the past two weeks we've managed to squeeze in visits to Luna Park, the National Gallery of Victoria and the Hollywood Costume exhibition at ACMI and I've watched in awe as colleagues raced to the finish line with the truly remarkable exhibition, The Extraordinary Shapes of Geoffrey Rush.

Another definite highlight was the wonderful day I spent in the city with Henry. I took him to Thomas', a very special fine music store in Melbourne, so he could spend a gift voucher his grandmother had given him. Henry's passion is classical music (especially early twentieth century French!) so of course the staff took a shine to him right away and we left with five CDs including one they gave him for free. He was in seventh heaven. To complete the top of Bourke Street tour I wanted to take him to Pellegrini's but, alas, it was too crowded so I got to try somewhere new too when we ended up at Self Preservation where we shared a delicious slice of Lemon Pound Cake with our coffee and blood orange juice. Of course we couldn't walk past The Paperback Bookshop or The Hill Of Content without some serious browsing and the acquisition of at least one book, Oliver Jeffers and Drew Daywalt's new children's title, The Day The Crayons Quit.

We then walked back to the car through the dappled sunshine of the Fitzroy Gardens, past Ola Cohn's intricately carved Fairy Tree and the model Tudor Village given to the City of Melbourne in appreciation of the food parcels sent to Britain during World War II. With time still on our hands we motored down to the National Gallery of Victoria where we sat before Celine Boursier-Mougenot's beautiful acoustic installation which chimed so nicely (both literally and figuratively) with my new meditation regime.

Time seemed so inconsequential that day. I could have sat there forever.

Winter Sunshine...

It's cold, cold, cold here at the moment. Winter Solstice is upon us, the mornings are dark and it's almost impossible to get the washing dry. These little biscuits are my attempt to inject a little sunshine into our light deprived lives.

Sunshine Biscuits

Ingredients
125 grams butter, softened
2 teaspoons of finely grated lemon zest
2/3 cup (110g) icing sugar, sifted
1/3 cup (55g) polenta
1 1/3 cups (200g) plain flour, sifted

Icing
1 cup icing sugar, sifted
juice of 1/2 lemon (add a few drops of water if necessary)

Method

1.  Preheat oven to 180C/ 375F and lined two trays with baking paper
2.  Cream butter, icing sugar and zest then stir in polenta and flour.
3.  Roll dough out between two sheets of baking paper until it measures about 1-2cm.
4.  Use cutter (or just roll into balls and flatten) and place each biscuit on tray.
5.  Bake for 10 -15 mins or until lightly golden and slightly firm to the touch.
6.  Leave to cool before icing.

The Simple Things...

Cabbage roses. What's not to love about a flower shaped like a vegetable?

Link Love...

 

Music Room designed by Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell via The Library Time Machine

 

It's been a long time since I've indulged in some link love. Each week I see so many amazing things I'd like to share with you but somehow the time flies and the moment is lost. Not this week. Here are a few things that have been tickling my fancy over the pass little while.

:: 30 Abandoned Places That Look Truly Beautiful took my breath away (am I the only one who finds what has happened to Detroit incomprehensible?)

:: Dave Walker at The Library Time Machine continues to delight with stories drawn from the libraries of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. I particularly enjoyed this one about 1930s interior design and his recent one which takes us inside the Imperial Institute in 1893. If you enjoy these two do take a look around the site. There are some fascinating stories lurking within.

:: How clever is Leeyong? Never have Explorer socks looked so good.

:: I am totally obsessed with Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk's monumental novel, 'The Museum of Innocence' and the whole wheels within wheels story behind it. Do you know the story? Nobel Prize winning author writes novel about a museum then spends prize winnings on replicating it in real life? Check out these gorgeous photographs of some of the exhibits The Museum of Innocence in Istanbul.

:: Finally, it's been great fun following Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield on Twitter this year - amazing photographs and experiments - but nothing to top his version of David Bowie's, 'Space Oddity'. Take it away Chris...

I Am Anxiety

This week beyondblue released a new Get To Know Anxiety campaign to raise national awareness about the symptoms of anxiety, and to help sufferers get the help they need to manage it. Having lived with anxiety for over 20 years now this is a subject close to my heart. Although an estimated 2.44 million Australians reportedly experienced an anxiety condition last year, awareness surrounding its various manifestations remains low.

Genuine anxiety can not be dealt with by just 'sucking it up' or wishing and hoping that it will go away. It's not the result of an acute reaction to a very stressful situation (although sometimes it can start this way), it's a chronic condition that can have a massive impact on your quality of life. So if you or someone you know thinks they might be experiencing some of the warning signs don't wait to get help, the sooner the better. Yes, it's confronting having to admit that you are not coping with seemingly everyday situations but the sooner you learn the triggers and get some professional advice on how to manage your anxiety the better. I put in some hard yards when I was first diagnosed but I must say that since I've had children I've really let things slide and if I'm really honest with myself I've built my life around my (perceived) limitations. This campaign has been a wake up call for me. I let my last management plan slip past its use-by date but I rang my doctor today and I'm getting back on track. You can too.

Happy Easter...

Spending a lazy day at home with my family, enjoying the cooler weather and baking these sweet little biscuits for Easter. They are inspired by this Fluffy Bunny Biscuit recipe only a much simpler version topped with orange icing and sprinkled with coconut.

Hope you're enjoying your break too.

Treasures!

 

Discovered this amazing place Railway Bizzare earlier today and can't believe I walked away empty handed. So many treasures I just couldn't decide.

 

 

So many patterns, hand-embroidered placemats, balls of wool...

So many records...

 

So very many shoes...

 

How about you? Found any treasure lately?

There's no place like home...

 

 

So, it's official. After a very long four month settlement period we finally made the move leaving our sweet little weatherboard (above) for a larger, more modern abode just around the corner. On one of the many sweltering days we're endured over the hottest summer on record we sweated and swore until every last box and pot-plant was accounted for and transported to its new home.  

 

 

 



See what I mean. Much more modern, open plan. Quite neutral with not much personality yet but that will come. 

 



 

Unfortunately this little fella which belonged to my Nana didn't make it. I'm pleased to report though that he was the only casualty.

 

 

As you may remember it's not that long ago that I renovated my old kitchen so that it was just the way I wanted it so the new one has much to live up to. Never having lived in an open plan environment before Henry still can't quite understand why you would build a 'kitchen in your living room' but it certainly does give new meaning to the kitchen being the heart of the home. For me the kitchen more than any other room represents family and friends so I like to have things out on the benchtops that remind me of them like this pottery jar that my Mum made during a brief pottery phase in the 70s and this lovely oil flask handpainted by Melbourne artist, Daniella Germain which I received as a Christmas present from Tom's sister...

 

 

...who also gave me these quaint little measuring spoons (1 tablespoon of kindness) which sit in front of my much utilised babushka measuring cups, a gift from my sister Angela.

 

 

I love this bowl which Henry painted when he was just three and of course every room in the house must have at least one reference to books. Let's face it, we've got a lot of them but that's a story for another day...

 

 

Do you have a favourite room in your house?