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Very low key weekend.  Ours included movies on the ipad, hot toddies, some Olympic watching, walking in the rain, a tour of our State Library - a first for all of us, some yum cha including chicken feet for some and afternoon tea with the outlaws.

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Lunch in 5 minutes.

Look in the fridge, ponder for a moment (not included in the 5 minutes).  Slice a thick piece of sturdy bread, in this case homemade, toast lightly on both sides.

Crack one egg into a bowl, to it add a tsp of seeded mustard, a generous grinding of black pepper, grated cheese to your taste - in this case a combination of swiss, tasty and parmesan, mix together well.  Once combined stir through a handful of finely sliced baby spinach leaves.  Spread evenly on the toast, reaching to the edges.

Pop under the grill and toast until cheese melted and egg sets throughout.

Glass of water and a handful of raw almonds.

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Weekday lunch in 5 minutes.

Fying pan on a high heat.  Toss in washed florets of cauliflower and brocolli with only a few drops of vegetable oil.  Shake occasionally - looking for lots of toasting/charring.  After about 3 minutes of cooking add in sea salt and ground cumin to taste - I use a lot.  Just before the end of cooking when vegies are cooked to your taste (for me that's still quite firm) toss in 4 finely sliced spring onions and a generous grating of fresh ginger.  Serve with a fried egg and sweet chill sauce.

Finish off with a cup of black tea and one of these, made yesterday.

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My Mexican toned lap quilt has found a new home in our lounge room.  These fabrics make me feel very alert and provoke thoughts of warmer climes, spicy food and street music!

Many years ago, when I was in my early 20's, I was on my second trip to the US and Canada and had taken a trip down into Mexico with a Swedish boy who was absorbing my attention for those few moments.  His name was Magnus.  He was a forester in Sweden in the summertime and earned enough that he travelled for the winter months.

We went on a bus down to Tijuana and continued south a few hours by community station wagon, squeezed between locals carrying dogs, chicken, you name it, all the cliches were in that car.  It was hot and sweaty and I was very content squeezed up against my Swede.

We stayed a few days in a beach side town, the name I don't recall.  We swam, we cartwheeled on the beach and we sat talking for many many hours in a little shack that made tacos, the real deal, while we sucked on 60c Coronas.  He baked, he sewed, he was a bit of a revelation for those moments.

These colours remind me fleetingly of that place, at least two lifetimes ago.  Something I haven't thought about for so very long, part of the path that led me here to my little gang.  Mostly though, I am enjoying the sheepy smell of the Matilda's wool batting and figuring that you can actually fit two adults and two increasingly bigger small children happily under a moderately sized lap quilt.

My words read Made for the four of us to snuggle under on our couch on chilly nights.  July 2012

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Who knew raw meat could be so colourful.  Dear friends coming for dinner tomorrow night.  I'm thankful we're all busy with families, finding time always stretched, it means that we all understand when it's often more than a few months between catching ups.

Still not found the perfect new layout for the blog, although I love seeing all the images collected together.  A friend comments it's a little dizzying, which is pretty accurate.  Most layouts I like are on sites that are just .com sites and I have no idea how one does that!

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It's that time of year, warm desserts that remind me of my childhood.  To be honest none of us really eat  much dessert here, but as with all sweet things, I do so love preparing them.  This will be a first for the girls, baked apples and I wonder if they'll find them as decadent as I did.  I remember sucking on the skin after all the puffed up flesh was eaten, loving what some would consider the leftovers as much as the rest of it.  I feel the same about double baked potatoes, the crunchy skin being the best bit that I save for last.

You may have noticed that I'm tweaking with my format.  I'm not happy with it, but I find it hard to move things about.  I had the same look for 5 years and realise that Blogger has moved forward in terms of options, where I haven't.  I'll keep on the case, see if I can't smarten myself up a bit.

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Three girls in our house, three bouts of tonsilitis.  Thank goodness for a wonderful husband/dad to hand and for the first lemon from our tree for soothing lemon and honey in Keepcups.

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Second week of the holidays half over.  Gosh I love our girls - such good company.

Circus Oz has been on my radar for years but we've never been before now.  Lots of fun, human elastic bands for the most part, with a lot of adult pitched puns thrown in.  Add in rolling down a hill after and what more can you ask?

Leila declared the best part of the day ..... the train ride!

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We made some a few years ago and I have to say, I don't remember it being so tricky.  Our regular gyoza style attempts were, to say the least, a little sloppy.  We did a quick interest search and these were so much easier.  Ella perfected them on her first attempt, I fumbled through and Leila was distracted by ABC Kids tv.     They smell good, hopefully the taste matches as we've got a freezer full!

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School holidays means no weekend commitments, sleep ins, lazy days, flexible timetables and lots of
horsing around.

Books

I have to share a few words about a couple of books I've read lately.

The first is The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski.  I'm not particularly wordy in reviewing books, in the same way that I can't fabricate fancy terms for why I like a particular wine, but I know what I like and this book is a cracker.

It's a small book in terms of its focus, on one family and their lives, their livelihood and lifestyle focussing on the breeding of "Sawtelle dogs".  I'm not generally fond of stories involving animals, but one of the main characters in this book is a dog and the chapters written from her perspective are so poignant, you forget it's from the perspective of an animal.  It's a sad book, but didn't reduce me to tears, so sad in a good way - definitely recommend it.

The second book I HAVE HAVE to mention, is the first in the Game of Thrones series.  I am never fond of the mixing of books and movies/tv programs - particularly when I've experienced a strong connection with whichever came first.  Most recently We have to talk about Kevin, the movie was greatly disappointing to me after having found the book enthralling, the focus was completely different to the book, which I don't really have an issue with as it's a different medium and it shouldn't necessarily be the book brought to life, but sometimes it just peeves me off.

I adore the Game of Thrones series.  I'm not normally a fantasy watcher (unless you include True Blood), but this series is so gripping and the book - even more so.  The books are big, the first is 800+ pages and super tiny print - but I love lots of words in a book, makes me feel like I'm really getting a lot of bang for my dollar.  This book is the series in print, but with even more.  A lot of the dialogue is so true to the series and yet I don't find myself comparing the scenes in that annoying way that makes you tend to skip sections.  I think it may be because although the characters are true, in the book the ages are younger and so you don't feel you have a direct character moved from screen to book.  They were married a lot younger, everything happened younger and it wouldn't be as acceptable on screen.  Even though you know what's coming I've been gasping aloud and on the train had one hand gripping my book and the other hiding my eyes while I peeked through because I knew what was coming!  I've asked Geoff to get the second book for me as I only have 300 pages left and I intend to devour every one of them this weekend!

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Snippets from time at my parents.  We don't do big things, but I love being with my parents.  I'm very lucky that we have such a lovely relationship, that I enjoy them as friends with the extra benefit of them being my parents.  We talk (a lot), we cook, enjoy the girls together, share meals, mum chats to me while I sew, we read, we're just together and it's always lovely.

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We took a short family break on the weekend to mark the end of my job, just trying to tie the ends up to mark the beginning of something new and different.

Anyone in Melbourne will know that the weather is super super moist at the moment, in fact the wettest June in a long time, or is it even ever?  Some may say not the best time for the beach, but I love it at anytime and hey, it's only water and you dry.

We rented a house and for the first day lazed around as we arrived later in the afternoon.  On Sunday we donned everything that we had that was warm although I'd left our Gortex jackets in the hall... and headed to Cape Schanck.  I love this part of Victoria, there are some amazing bush walks, gorgeous coastline and it's a little wild as well.  The shot above of the stairs at the Cape remind me of some parts of Big Sur which make my heart flutter to think of.

(Trying to show just how cold it was - our breath was like a fog around us)

Afterwards we went to T'Gallant for lunch.  I think this is the fourth time we've been and the first time we've stayed as it's packed every time.  The only table left was an outside one under a gazebo with some gas heaters - open to the elements at the front.  We were try and stayed, it was fun, although poor Leila babe feels the cold and in the end her lips were purple despite wearing all her layers and some of mine.

Back to the house to defrost before taking the girls for a surprise on Sunday evening here.  Dark as, cold as and a little rain thrown in for good measure but it was so much fun, even better than I'd expected.  We'd love to go back early morning as it was hard to see so to know exactly where you could go.  Also some of the areas were restricted for children after 10am, so an early start would be perfect.  The only downside, a weekend evening, well there were a lot of snogging late teens and that's, frankly, a little offputting.  I don't think there's any way they'd be up at 7am, so there's a plan!

A perfect start to my new chapter, with my favourite guys, just being, with treats, but enjoying what I love most.