Realism and Russian fudge

I have taken a brief foray into realism / illustration thanks to Youtube videos by Nia - another talented watercolour artist with wonderful drawing and painting skills that I feebly copy. And get cross. I slow the videos down to half speed and pause frequently ... but even then there are things I just can't do. Kind of fun but kind of frustrating. I did the yarn balls.

And the ice cream van.

I am currently half way through a view from a window that is NOT going well. I know intellectually you just have to push through but I might give up, it's not looking good. I did a hedgehog with a bee from a Diane Antone video ... I don't think I can really call this realism but it is an identifiable object!! surely that counts.

After enjoying my sister's signature Russian fudge in NZ I got the recipe and tried it for myself ... there was a lot of swearing, I think sweets are hard. I even used a thermometer but it just didn't look right so I boiled it for a couple more minutes and then of course it set in the bowl while I was beating it. But I bashed it into the tin, chopped it up and it tasted AMAZING. I do not think there is anything russian about it but NZers know what I am talking about.

Another cooking fail

We had a work afternoon tea on Tuesday to watch the Melbourne Cup. Normally there's an organisational party but not this year, so our little team sat in the tea room with some snacks and watched the race. Very strange not to have the crowds at the course, and most of us hadn't put any money on it. I thought I would make a lemon drizzle cake ... and it failed.

I forgot to put baking powder in - it needed self-raising flour and I used ordinary flour. Which of course I didn't discover until it had been baking for 45 minutes and I went to check it and found this lumpy rubbery disaster. And I'd made the drizzle too. It was completely unsalvageable so I binned it and made a chocolate brownie instead. The worst thing was I was just about to put the brownie in the oven and thought 'the texture of this is a bit strange' and I'd forgotten to put the eggs in. I think I was a bit tired. 

It has been a tiring week - lots of work on and the US election of course, and even though you know it's not your country it's hard not to watch. The thought of another Trump presidency was deeply depressing - even though it looks like that's not going to happen there will probably be a fair amount of bullshit to go through before he goes away. What a nasty piece of work that man is. 

Very quiet weekend

I left the house twice on the weekend to go on two walks; one on Saturday and one on Sunday. Saturday my husband and I did the east basin (about 10km, which took us an hour forty minutes) and Sunday I did a proper walk which took about two and a half hours - I'm not sure exactly where I went other than down, up, around and over. Both days had thick fog until about lunchtime, then a few hours of cold sunshine before the fog came down again as it got dark. Perfect weather for not doing much at home except a bit of weaving, sitting by the fire and watching crap on television.

This was when I was just about home on Sunday - you can kind of see the fog starting in the valleys. I should have pruned the roses but couldn't be bothered ... but I must do it soon or they'll be starting to sprout little sprouts again. 

I did preserve some of the lemons I brought back from the beach. We like preserved lemons in salads, but you don't need much, so I thought two jars would be heaps. I was very careful about the sterilisation this time - scrubbed the lemons, sterilised the lids and the jars and the various tongs and spoons and was properly cautious about it all. So it took a couple of hours by the time I'd rubbed the salt into the lemon wedges and sterilised everything and carefully poked it in to the jars, but worth it to have such pretty preserves. 

You have to leave it at room temperature for a day or two, then in the fridge for a month before it's ready to eat. And all was going swimmingly until number two said "I had a taste of those new preserved lemons" and it turns out he UNSCREWED THE LID, FISHED AROUND WITH HIS GRUBBY FINGERS, CUT OFF A PIECE WITH GOD KNOWS WHAT AND PUT THE LID BACK ON. And couldn't remember which jar he'd done it to, so there goes both of them! For a smart kid, he does some mighty dumb things sometimes. And yes, I yelled at him, perhaps more than  he deserved. 

Souffle

Have you ever made a souffle? I've never made one, I've always been a bit scared. And our oven is currently hideously broken (it doesn't heat up above 150, and only on the top half of the oven) so I wouldn't even try ... but number two son did. He found a recipe, followed the steps and turned out two absolutely perfect sweet vanilla souffles.

Of the perfect degree of jiggliness, set on top, light and fluffy, and delicious. Isn't he clever? We all just stood around the stove top with spoons and dug in until they were gone. Well, they don't keep, so what were we supposed to do? He's going to try different flavours now, and maybe some savoury ones. Here he is instagramming his own awesomeness... millenials :)

Back into the swing

After the gentle delight of having the house to myself for two weeks - and Parliament not sitting - it is now back into the swing of school, work, cold weather and cooking for others :( Not that I actually do much of the cooking, it is my poor long-suffering husband who makes sure there is food on the table for the family most of the time. And he had a monster cold last week thanks to being infected by his relatives! Honestly you  just want to go and say hi, and they give you germs....

But it was nice to have a proper weekend with everyone around. Or sort of around. Number one son went to the movies with a friend and spent the rest of the weekend locked in his room with various assignments, number two son went shopping with a friend Saturday afternoon and then Sunday morning decided he would try rowing! He saw a poster at school and headed off to the come and try morning, bless his socks. Sunday was an absolutely beautiful winter day, and he really enjoyed it, so will do it again. I went for a run at the same time and it was glorious - warm and clear. The photo above is the High Court which is where I started the cool down walk. I quite like it, but it's a bit concrete brutal. That was completely the colour of the sky.

Saturday my husband and I went to a Christmas in July lunch at friends that had a Middle Eastern theme.... no, no idea why. In fact there was nothing christmassy about it, so we could have just called it lunch, but I'm not going to disrespect a chance to socialise! We were on salads so I ottolenghi'd the arse out of it,  why not. It required hunting down the last bottle of pomegranate molasses in Canberra (because Middle Aged White Women) but was quite successful if I do say so myself. And pretty! We enjoyed ourselves very much and managed not to get too drunk, which is a good outcome with this particular group of friends, just saying....

A weekend of two halves

Saturday was 35 degrees and airless; Sunday was 15 degrees and rainy. Saturday number one son had an all day board-game fiesta at a friend's house, Sunday number two son spent the day in a friend's rumpus room watching Parks and Recreation and trawling instagram. Saturday afternoon number two and I went to the swimming pool where I did lengths and he frolicked; Sunday afternoon number one and I went for a rainy driving lesson where he carefully went on the road for the first time! and I stayed very calm.... Saturday night I made brioche, and Sunday night I made bagels. Here are the brioche, I cut back on the eggs/fat/salt and they are not nearly as nice as they would have been otherwise. And yes, I do just put Saturday's dinner on top of the weekend papers that are still all over the table. Smear me in buttery crumbs and call me a slattern.



In between I quilted on the scrappy top and the purple scraps and solids top - nearly done them both now so just a matter of a bit more quilting, then some binding, and I will actually have a finished quilt! First one this year? Might be. I also had book club on Sunday afternoon - we read "Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline which two of us really liked (including me), one of us didn't like and one of us hadn't quite read. Which is about the normal odds! I really enjoyed it; a good old-fashioned science fiction / adventure read by an author I'm not familiar with.



This was the star of book club - a new kitten. Not so much of a kitten any more, more of a teenager, but still very cute and very fluffy and adorably playful until the point where she found a comfortable lap and nestled in. Awwww......

The pink one

I quilted the blue log cabin baby quilt in something allover and loopy, and pinned up the pink one. Here it is - barn raising arrangement - not that there are many arrangements you can do with only sixteen blocks.



We had a quiet weekend; the weather was cold and bleak and windy. Number two son organised a bake sale down at the local shops on Saturday to raise money to buy books for the school library. He and his friends were annoyed that the library didn't have books on the topics they were interested in (Beginner's Japanese and How to Draw Manga); so they researched whether bake sales were legal, checked with the grocery store they could put a table out the front, made a list of everything they needed, then baked, set up, and sold everything within an hour! I was very impressed. The mums had a few double checks around hygiene and a cash float, but other than that the kids did it almost entirely themselves, and raised $110. I took them to the mall Saturday afternoon and they bought exactly the books they wanted and are handing them over today. Wow.



This isn't bake sale related - these are the birthday biscuits I made for my husband. It is better than a cake because he can take the leftovers into work and we're not faced with a large cake to try and eat. Neither us nor the kids need any extra sugar in our lives. I used this recipe, which involved making a chocolatey dough, then wrapping it around a caramel with some sea salt.



As with most American recipes you have to do a bit of guessing because we don't have the exact ingriedients ... the jersey caramels worked well, and didn't leak out the bottom at all.  I put birthday candles in them, and we had one each which was more than enough, and with any luck they are now giving my husband's work diabetes and not us. Speaking of health, I did have a sinus infection, so caved in and took some antibiotics, and I'm now feeling much better. Finally goodbye to the plague.

Tired today

I'm a bit tired this morning, but not because I watched the Rugby World Cup final (it was 3 am Canberra time! My husband set his alarm, but I couldn't be bothered) ... unlike everybody on my Facebook feed, which is squealing with Allblacks enthusiasm. I am afraid I support the Wallabies now - shame on me - but there was only ever going to be one outcome to the final so I can't really say I'm disappointed! Expectations were low. I will see the highlights on the news and that will be more than enough rugby for the weekend.



The reason I'm tired is because we had a sleepover for number two's birthday - just three friends and they were very well behaved but I did feel like I should get out of bed at 7 am (my husband had no chance of doing that, see first paragraph) and make sure they were OK and feed them, and the dog. Number two made his own cake to his exacting specifications - a sponge with yellow food colouring (normal sponges are apparently "not yellow enough") - filled with mock cream and iced with a passionfruit and lime icing. It was delicious.

It was a great night for a sleepover because of Halloween - it's a bit odd in Australia because it's only been a thing for the past few years, and nobody really knows what's going on. We have a few US embassy renters on the street and the week before they dropped letterboxes with balloons - saying if you are up for trick-or-treat then put the balloon out, which we did, after stocking up on gummy bears and mini chocolate bars, and had heaps of groups ringing the doorbell! With some fabulous costumes, and mostly their friends from school, which was lovely, and some of them gave us lollies, which is an interesting spin. It certainly meant we didn't have to provide any entertainment for the evening, and then when it got dark at about 8 we took the balloon in and set the boys up on mattresses on the lounge room floor to watch TV and (eventually) go to sleep.



One of the guests brought round a unicorn mask. This is number one son - he burst out at a few of the revellers in it, causing palpitations and squealing all round. Mishka the dog was out of her head with excitement - people! doorbell! people! doorbell! visitors! - before collapsing in a heap about nine. Too much for her.

And here is a much more serene photo of the rose gardens outside Old Parliament House. We had a work lunch on Friday and went to a place just in the rose gardens where they open up the big windows and let the spring air in. Absolutely beautiful (for about two weeks a year when it's not freezing or boiling)...

Just chillin'

After the excitement of a day in Melbourne (yes, it was exciting, first time I've been on a plane all year!) it was a very relaxed long weekend.  Number two son is still happily rehearsing - I helped them move from the rehearsal venue to the theatre on Monday and it's all very professional and a bit intimidating. They had a media call yesterday, tech rehearsal today, dress rehearsal tomorrow. He's relishing it. I thought there was a bit much hugging. Theatre people....



He did use a spare morning to make biscotti. I'm not sure why, but it was absolutely delicious. A bit frustrating because you have to make the cake/loaf and then wait overnight to slice it and bake it again ... but worth it. I've had a lot of biscotti in my life and I think this is some of the best ever - lots of orange and nuts.



I felt an overwhelming urge to make snail trail blocks. And to do it on white! After reading that Unexpected book I thought I would be all scrappy and re-claimed and improvised ... but no. I felt like a single block with a limited colour palette - so snail trail in blues and greens. Quite fun so far, and an easy block to sew with the window open and the rest of the family just doing whatever it is they do.



And every now and again I could break for coffee and biscotti. Here is an action shot.

And a busy weekend

It's been quite a social weekend - I think the warmer weather is bringing Canberrans out of their hibernation. Like bears. It certainly brought out the teenagers across the road who decided to have a party on Friday night - at about 11.30 I stormed over and did my best "I am from next door and you need to SHUT THE FUCK UP RIGHT NOW". Which worked, as it tends to do.

I had actually just got home because number two son and I had been on the other side of town to a production of "Into the Woods".  It was a great show - much better than I thought it would be - with some very talented performers. Probably a better cast than Grease last month, but it wasn't the same kind of toe-tapping experience, being a completely different kind of musical. Both number two and I enjoyed the movie and were very familiar with the songs, so good fun all round. Although by the time it reached the end at 11ish we were both exhausted.



Saturday I ran the usual 8km route but in short sleeves! I start down by the Chinese garden and the magnolia are out, and the blossoms. It was a beautiful morning. Sunday was the annual Canberra fun run which I chose not to participate in because the Mother's Day run was so ghastly ... too many people.

And Saturday night and Sunday lunch we caught up with friends we haven't seen for ages, so all very social and a little bit tiring. I will go back to work for a rest.... number two decided to make garlic and rosemary flavoured paneer for our guests - he thought rosemary flowers were better than leaves (who knows, he may be right) so boiled them up with the milk before making the cheese. It tasted really quite nice, much to everyone's surprise.

When life gives you lemons...

You make preserved lemons with them! I normally don't preserve stuff - too much like hard work - but we are nearly at the end of a jar of preserved lemons a friend gave us a while back, and I will miss them when they're gone! Just a tiny bit in a salad gives a wonderful salty / lemony kick. So I thought I would try preserving them, given the two big bags of lemons I brought back from the beach last week.



Geez, you can tell I'm not a food blogger. What a carefully staged shot! Anyway, I think I did the sterilising right but you can't really tell until it starts growing some foul mould and kills everyone who eats it. Or not, hopefully. It wasn't too fiddly all things considered and will last for ages, if the ones from our friend are anything to go by (although she is way more competent in culinary matters than I am, so perhaps not a good benchmark).  You have to leave them for at least a month to mature and then I will taste and report back.

I decided to set those coral and grey blocks on point, with pale setting triangles and then another border. I will do another pieced border but I can't quite decide what. I was thinking little churn dashes or shoo flies, but it might be a bit busy and angular. Maybe curves? I will ponder for a while longer.



I had a good week back at work, nice and busy and with a couple of dinners out for my husband's birthday. Number one son had a friend's birthday party on Friday, so we went out as a family on Thursday to the Schnitzel Haus (pretty much like it sounds), but then stopped at a friend's for a coffee (wine) after work on Friday, so ended up going out for dinner again anyway, which meant we could have Thai food, much to the excitement of number two! My eldest child really doesn't like food with any spice or flavour, although he is improving with age. So when he's not in for dinner we go out for Thai and Indian and Malaysian... I don't know how he's going to go backpacking around south-east Asia when he's 19. Banana pancakes? Is that still a backpacker thing?

The solid scraps

I've started to turn my hundred foot-square solid scrap blocks into a quilt - and it's going to be enormous, even though I'm only using 81 of them. Nine feet by nine feet, or about 270 cm square, which is larger than I normally do them. Because of this, I thought it might be time to re-visit the quilt-as-you-go method, which would mean I could quilt the smaller individual pieces before joining. Or even not quilt them at all, just rely on the joining seams every twelve inches to hold the things together.

I hadn't forgotten how hideous the moth in the window experience was, and how badly that ended up. But I thought if I took a little more care with the joining I wouldn't get such a bad level of distortion. And, because you can't tell where a scrappy block stops or finishes, I could trim it square if needed. So I joined a measly six squares together.



It looks fine from the front, but the back is an absolute mess of bunched and unhappy fabric, where I had to shuffle and pull and squeeze. And trim, my god did I have to trim. Even over six blocks I ended up trimming more than two inches off one side to keep it square enough to add the next round. What on earth? Why is this so bad? I even used pins for chrissake. And as I did it I could feel my irritation rising, and swearing began, and everything that I so disliked about that dreadful moth quilt came rushing back and I just thought - no, no way, we're not doing this. So I stopped at six and will piece the 81 other blocks together in the normal way and just deal with its enormousness somehow.

On a brighter note, number two son got his school report on Friday, so thought he deserved churros like we did last year. Because apparently, once is enough for it to be a tradition. I refused, on the basis that it was $7 for a hot chocolate drink that no-one could finish not to mention the actual $11 churros, so he asked if he could make them and I couldn't think of a reason why not.



Choux pastry which he did without supervision, and then some assistance with the deep frying, but he whipped up the chocolate sauce without any help. And they were absolutely delicious. Not a health food but perfect for a very cold and foggy winter weekend.

Keeping on

Just keeping on keeping on at the moment - I'm still making blocks rather than quilts - up to 58 kaleidoscope blocks now! I'm going to keep going until I stop. They don't seem to be getting any more accurate or flatter. Number two son and I went to the book fair again this weekend; they have them every six months. This is my $20 haul (I stuffed my grocery bag as full as I could).



Number two filled a bag as well, although his bag did not disgorge in a neat pile but appears to have vomited books over the lounge room floor.



But it's hard to be cross with a child that just made Viennese butter biscuits, covered in chocolate. And made one with a smiley face, just because.



We are still surrounded by storms that refuse to actually rain. It's humid and so hot; distant flashes of lightening but it probably won't come to anything. The dog is panting fluffily after a brief walk but she's happy because my husband is at home and sitting on the floor ... he has been forgiven for giving her a much-needed bath yesterday. I came home and she greeted me with a massive droplet shake. I nearly went back to work...

January would be baking month

Just like last year - number two son had a burst of holiday enthusiasm and has been baking up a storm. We have an Alison Holst best cakes and biscuits book which he is working his way through. There are lots of traditional simple recipes, which suit him (and us). He still has his enthusiasm for random flavourings and decoration though. I haven't got a picture but last week he made chocolate mint biscuits with mint icing - they were tasty and looked lovely but quite the mint explosion.

These are coconut haystacks - no-one had ever made these before and we think they're a winner. Easy and taste a bit like coconut ice. Yum.

This is just a chocolate cake - with a chopped up mars bar on the top. There was one mini mars left in the packet, so the boys thought the fairest thing was to chop it up and stick it on the cake. Good call.

These are cinnamon oysters I think, or maybe ginger biscuits. I forgot to take a photo of the brandy snaps which were surprisingly successful - I have never had any luck with brandy snaps. They never end up a proper shape. My son's weren't a wildly professional shape either, but they tasted absolutely delicious, especially filled with cream. He wants to give them another go and try different shapes.

This is a rosewater flavoured sponge cake - it's luridly pink inside. Those are crystallised rose petals that he made with egg white and icing sugar and a rose from the garden. I have never crystallised a flower in my life but he just did it! Followed the recipe and it all worked perfectly. The family was divided on the artistic merits of the silver balls but I like them. And there's another sponge in the kitchen ... but the boys have friends over at the moment so it's only half a sponge. Or less. I won't take a photo.

Lemons

When I was in Vanuatu my husband took the boys down the beach for a few days - lots of movies, walks and roast beef by the sounds of it - and brought back lemons. Lots and lots of lemons. Apparently some branches were breaking under the weight of all those lemons. So we piled them in the family room and looked at them for a while ... in the sunniest spot in house, which the cat thought was a bit mean. So she went to sleep on a pile of lemons in grocery bags. It doesn't look very comfortable.



And then we made lemon cake, and lemon cordial, and took lemons into work, and I made limoncello which was a first. You steep the rind of half a dozen lemons in a bottle of vodka for a week - it goes a beautiful yellow colour. Then you make a light sugar syrup and add it to the vodka and bingo! Fancy Italian aperitif, apparently best served very cold on a very hot day. We might be waiting a while to taste it at its full advantage - I have of course had a preliminary test, and it was very delicious. Quite sweet, so perhaps more of a summer thing. We will give the little bottles away and keep the big one for when the weather warms up.

Some foul bug

I've been laid up the last couple of days with some virus - really vague symptoms but generally feeling extremely tired and dizzy and worn out. A couple of people at work have had something similar and it must have been my turn! At least I'm feeling much better today, if a little wrung out. Which all means nothing exciting to write about at all.

Thank you for your comments on Costco - I can report that the Fries Sprinkle was a success; I expected it to take a bit fake and weird but it was actually just a yummy peppery flavour that livened up the potatoes no end. Just as well it was good because I have a tub the size of my hand.



And Tammy asked why I was talking about butter colour - here is a photo. On the right is American butter, and on the left is Australian butter (complete with crumbs, I am clearly a slattern. Isn't that a great word - slattern?). The American is much paler (the tub is the churned spreadable stuff, but Australian cooking butter is exactly the same colour). Both sorts taste the same, but I hadn't realised how much I rely on colour when I'm creaming butter and sugar for a cake, or cooking it with flour for a white sauce, or seeing how hot it is for pancakes. Butter colour ... that, ladies and gentleman, is the most exciting thought I have had for about four days now.

Election Day!

Yesterday was the federal election in Australia - I loathe election campaigns but I do like election day itself. There is a sense of shared purpose, and a hope that all the bollocks of the campaign is finally behind us and we can get back to some reality. As far as government is ever linked to reality that is. Voting is compulsory in Australia - you get a fine if you don't do it - which means that basically every primary school is a voting place because if you are going to make people do something, then you better not keep them waiting too long.

And what primary school is going to let a captive audience go buy without trying to fund raise off them? No primary school ever, so here are two dozen chocolate chip cookies for the Year 5/6 bake sale.



So yesterday morning number one son and I walked down to the school - it was an absolutely beautiful spring day - and he ran the bake stall with his classmates while I voted! That's the nice thing about Year 5/6, they can handle their own money. You wouldn't try this with the kinders. This is a slightly strange photo because I've chopped out all the other kids .... seems a bit excessive but probably better to be safe than have some irate mother run me down outside the school on the next pick-up.



And in the afternoon I had book club, which was very enjoyable with some lovely ladies, and then we had a dozen people over to watch the election results unfold! My friends have a broad range of political views, but in Canberra the political differences tend to take second place to the personalities.  We've all had dealings with politicians of all stripes that have left us either delighted or scarred .... so there were whoops and hollers when certain people lost their seats, regardless of which side you voted for :) We will see what the change of government brings; it is likely that some of us will lose our jobs but hopefully not me...

Randomness

There has been much pottering about here over the last few days. We try and get everything done before lunchtime, and then spend the afternoon surviving as best we can in the heat. We have one airconditioning unit in the big room, so there's about a ten-foot tolerable zone we gather in, and try to avoid the rest of the house.

I always feel guilty about turning it on ("global warming!! the planet pays!!!") so I only use the air-conditioner when it gets over 35 (95F). Quite a few of our friends have put in evaporative cooling systems, which are brilliant in Canberra's very dry climate and much more eco-friendly. I might look into in the future but it relies on good ducting and we have a 70s house with raked ceilings and odd roof spaces that don't link to each other. And then it gets cold again and I forget about it .... until next summer.

Part of the pottering was replacing my ironing board cover, which had turned a bit brown and tatty. So I got to use the staple gun again!!! Very satisfying. I used this print that I got in American Samoa in 2010 - isn't it cheerful?? I was saving the Samoan fabric for something special, but I may have forgotten just how much of it I bought ... there is about 30 yards of various hibiscus print in the top of the cupboard and I think I better start using it up.



And we made ninja-bread men! Aren't they cool?? The cutters were a christmas present from my sister to number two son and we think they're hilarious. They really look like ninjas! And tasted delicious.

We took them to our New Year's Eve outing (along with fizzy wine and chocolates :). Canberra has fireworks at midnight but also does a 9 pm firework display for the kiddies. It's held on city hill and can be seen all round the lake, which means there are masses of good places to sit and watch. We found an excellent spot with our friends and settled in ... and then at 8.45 the sprinklers came on. Ooops. Here is a shot of several adults moving picnic blankets and trying unsuccessfully to keep children out of the sprinklers while being careful not to spill their drinks. We re-settled successfully and the fireworks were awesome! I love fireworks.

Amazing!!

We had a work afternoon tea yesterday - for the end of the year, and to farewell some people, and generally just because ... My workplace has about eighty people, which is not huge but enough so that you can go weeks or even months without seeing some people. So social events are lovely, and because I have been there for YEARS and YEARS I can always find someone to chitchat to.

So I was wondering what to bake while procrastinating on the internet and I saw the Cracker Bark on  Tammy's blog.  The recipe is over on Mennonite Girls Can Cook, which is not a website I am familiar with - I tend to steer away from anything that lets you request a prayer on the front page because it  generally heralds a quick descent into genuine crazy ... but if you stick to the cooking those mennonite girls are just fine. I used Salada crackers, which were perfect. And I didn't use the peanut butter chips - I'm not sure what they are, my local shop certainly didn't have any, and we have serious peanut allergies at work - so just covered it with toasted almond flakes and the choc chips.

It was delicious, and even better than delicious, it was different. No-one had had anything quite like it before, and the mix of salt and caramel and chocolate was a real hit. I pointed half a dozen people in the direction of the recipe so hopefully someone else will make it too! Thanks Tammy!!!

I love finding something that is a bit new in the cookery world - popovers are something I make regularly and most people haven't had them before - such a simple concept and so yum. Especially with jam and cream ....

Even squares can do my head in

So, I'm doing a sort of postage stamp. Squares - nice big ones, two and half inches - sewn together in a fairly obvious way. I've drawn it up and coloured it in and now I'm stitching and it is completely doing my head in. There are no obvious blocks, and they all have to go in exactly the right way or it doesn't work, and I keep forgetting what I'm doing. I've resorted to numbering and labelling the different groups - main blocks with numbers and edge blocks with letters. Different labelling systems! What is the world coming to.

The blocks look perfectly fine, like your average 25 patch. Not nearly exciting enough to warrant all this mental and physical exertion.

On a more interesting note - it snowed on Friday!!! Maybe once a year we get a little flurry of snow. I've only ever seen it turn the ground white once in my eighteen years in Canberra, and it certainly didn't this time, just hit the ground and melted. But it certainly gives everyone something to look at - we were having a meeting at work but just stopped, and stared out the window, at this freaky white stuff falling from the sky.

And lastly, a picture of my birthday cake. It was a lemon yoghurt cake and delicious. It was meant to have a fluffy lemon butter cream icing but somehow when the lemon juice was added it went lumpy and odd. Still tasted awesome, but wasn't smooth and creamy like it should be. I iced some cupcakes with coffee buttercream icing today and they turned out fine, so I'm thinking it was the lemon juice. Mmm....