Category Archives: Celebrations

Blue is Best

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I generally stick to a relatively small palette of colours when choosing my clothes. Black, white, navy and grey are the neutrals I wear. I like strong colours with a blue undertone and my favourites are cobalt blue and cherry red along with almost any other shade of blue as well as emerald green.

It is clear that I am not alone in sticking to a narrow range of colours.

This is my elder granddaughter yesterday on her 17th birthday. She was excited to be wearing her new blue dress out to dinner.

Coincidentally, a photo popped up in my Facebook memories a couple of days ago. It was a blue dress I had made for her 8th birthday gift in 2015.

This photo of her wearing it was taken about 15 months later.

Her high school formal is early next year and the dress she has chosen is blue, of course. In fact, her motto could almost be, “Any colour, as long as it is blue”.

Patience Pays Off

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This afternoon GMan was weeding in the garden and he removed the cover from the raised bed where I planted some cauliflower seedlings months ago. They have had no attention and amazingly we found one ready to pick.

There are about 4 or 5 others which are a bit smaller but will be ready to harvest before too long.

Meanwhile, the chard continues to produce enough to pick. Here is what I picked this afternoon and it will be used for dinner.

We arrived home yesterday after being away for a few days. We went to see our football team play in the first of the finals and it was a very disappointing outing as they were thoroughly outplayed. They do have one more chance this weekend. I am hopeful but not confident. Our other engagement was a difficult one as we gathered with many others to farewell a friend who had died much too young after a courageous battle with cancer.

Out of respect for everyone involved there are no photographs.

However, here is a sweet reminder of the joy of little things.

Birthday Lunch & Harvest Time

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I mentioned in my last post that I had been cooking.

We hosted lunch on Sunday for GMan’s birthday. There were 17 of us altogether and I did almost all of the preparation beforehand.

Here is a list of what we ate.

NIBBLES

Raisins
Spiced peanuts*
Dips – beetroot, tzatziki, hummus*
Cheese – brie
Biscuits – water crackers, GF crackers, pita chips

HOT SNACKS

Mini meatballs*
Kofta balls*
Potato wedges*

Sour cream
Tomato sauce*

MAINS

Green chicken curry*
Beef casserole*
Rice

DESSERT

Mulberry and apple crumble*
Ice cream
Cream

The spiced peanuts and tomato sauce are homemade pantry items and wedges were made on the day but everything else that I made was prepared in advance and either refrigerated or frozen. This made for relatively easy catering.

There are very few photos, however, here are a couple from when I was making the dessert.

I retrieved about 1kg of mulberries that had been in the freezer since December. I think we picked and froze about 6kg. It is great to have them to use at other times.

The mulberries and apple combined and ready to be refrigerated. I made the crumble topping and froze it. I assembled the crumbles and popped them in the oven on the day.

It is great to eat seasonal produce but it is fairly easy to store some things for a treat in the off season. It is difficult to imagine this mulberry tree laden with fruit but that is exactly what it will be like in another 4 months. It is in a public space in our town and the fruit is appreciated by many.

Meanwhile, there is abundance of citrus everywhere at the moment. These grapefruit were being given away.

So, I made more marmalade. That should keep GMan supplied with breakfast condiments until next winter.

A Spot of Sewing

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Food preparation and cooking has been my main focus for the past few days as we prepare to host a birthday lunch for GMan on Sunday. There will be more details about what is on the menu in a future post.

Today I managed to do a bit of sewing in between the cooking. I had noticed that the covers on a couple of the spare pillows were looking a bit stained and generally less than ideal. So, I decided that it could not be too difficult to replace them.

The first step was to carefully slit the end of the cover and remove it. The inside of the pillow is simply no more than a compressed bundle of microfibre filling in the appropriate shape.

I used the old cover to cut a new piece of fabric from some offcuts of sheeting in my stash and stitched 3 sides before carefully replacing the pillow inside.

The end was then pinned.

Finally, I stitched and finished the seam with bias binding.

The 2 revamped pillows in their pillowcases and back on the bed.

Birthday Boy

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Today has been a bit of a mixed bag.

We went to Bendigo after lunch. First up, I had an appointment then we did the shopping. We went to the supermarket, greengrocer, bottle shop and butcher as well as filling the car with fuel. Most of the shopping was for a special lunch I am preparing for Sunday.

You see, today is GMan’s birthday.

Tonight we went out for dinner and on Sunday we will be celebrating at home with a small group of extended family and friends. The festivities look set to continue intermittently over the next 4 months as we catch up with other friends and family who can’t be with us this week.

The Train Returns

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We live in an historic town in the Central Victorian Goldfields region. One particular drawcard is the Victorian Goldfields Railway (VGR), a volunteer organisation which operates a steam train between Castlemaine and Maldon. You can check out the link to see the timetable, pricing schedule and make bookings. There are also special events from time to time.

The steam locomotive had to undergo extensive refurbishment so for most of the past year the service has been operated using an old diesel engine.

So, it was very exciting today to welcome the steam locomotive and its passengers.

Each Day

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I have not posted for a few days as GMan caught a cold several days ago and then kindly shared it with me and I simply have not felt on top of the world.

During the past 5 days we have only left the house to take the dog for her regular walk and it has been good to be getting some exercise and enjoying the autumn sunshine on at least some of the days.

I have reflected on what I have actually done and realised that almost every day is a mix of some housework (but not too much), cooking, reading, watching television, walking, gardening, computer activity and sewing. Variety really is the spice of life. Not everything gets done every day but most times it does.

Then there are days when we are out and about all day so only the bare minimum of other stuff happens. Sometimes it is social activities or a mixture of shopping and appointments. It is probably just as well we have had a few quiet days at home as the diary for the coming week is looking rather full. We will be out more than we are home on 4 of the next 6 days. There will be a trip to Melbourne to do some shopping and meet up for lunch with friends visiting from interstate. Another day we will be in Bendigo for a series of appointments as well as some shopping. The weekend will be a social whirl with the locals – TEDX talks, lunch and music as well as a short film festival.

Every week and every day is different so it keeps us on our toes.

Fun and Frivolity

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Last weekend was Easter. We did not go away, host family or eats lots of chocolate.

This was the first year we have been in Maldon at Easter so naturally we were curious about the Easter Fair. It is billed as Australia’s oldest Easter Fair. There were numerous events from the Great Scone Bake-Off on Thursday evening, dancing in the street, a Hole-in-One competition at the Golf Club and so on.

But the undoubted highlight was the Grand Parade of Easter Monday morning. We were part of the Maldon Golden Movies (MGM) entry and everyone had a fun time.

Getting ready to go.

I was Dorothy from ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and shared the limelight with no less than Marilyn Monroe, Calamity Jane, Taylor Swift, Alfred Hitchcock and Sherlock Holmes.

I made my costume from a doona cover (dress) and tablecloth (blouse) which both came from the op shop along with the red shoes which cost the princely sum of $2.50.

If you want to check out the whole parade you can watch it here. We are from 9:03 – 9:33.

A Final Word

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As I prepared to write this somewhat reflective post, I re-read the posts I had written in the last 12 months – all 99 of them. That is more than double the number I wrote in 2022 which was a measly 44.

I know that statistics only tell part of the story and are certainly not the reason I began writing this blog back in 2011. Nor are they the reason that I continue. The blog is primarily a diary. It is a record of activities undertaken as well as thoughts and feelings on a wide range of subjects at any given time. I hope that some of it is of use and/or interest to those of you who read it.

As you will see in an upcoming post, it is sometimes the only record I have of something which has happened in the past.

There is no doubt that 2023 was overwhelmingly about our relocation from Queensland to Victoria. The sale of one house and purchase of another and the subsequent move and organisation of a new space.

Like every other year, 2023 has been a combination of highlights interspersed with some less than wonderful moments but on balance I feel as though it was a better year than the previous couple of years. Unfortunately, I know that has not been the case for everyone.

Onwards to 2024 and Happy New Year to you all!!

Christmas Crumble

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Fruit crumble is one of my favourite desserts but is not usually on the Christmas menu.

This year I am preparing lunch for 3 adults on what looks like being a cool and rainy day despite the fact that it is the middle of summer.

I have plenty of cooking apples and an abundance of frozen mulberries so we will be having apple and mulberry crumble with ice-cream for dessert on Christmas Day.

CRUMBLE TOPPING

Ingredients

1 cup coconut
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup plain flour (I use gluten-free flour)
1/2 cup flaxseed meal
2 teaspoons golden syrup
2 teaspoons powdered cinnamon
2 teaspoons powdered ginger
2 teaspoons powdered mixed spice
90g butter

Combine all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add the syrup and mix through. Finely shave the butter and rub through the dry ingredients using your fingertips.

Spread the crumble mixture on top of your favourite stewed fruit and cook in oven or airfryer until the topping is lightly browned and crisp.

NOTES: This is a large quantity as I freeze any excess for future use so you may wish to halve the amounts. I only use real butter as it needs to be very firm (not spreadable) for this recipe.