Less serious things

Going through my photos from Daylesford (all the ones I took so I could blog my country life but then was overcome by listlessness between the taking of the photo and the putting the memory card in my machine).

Sky blue nails! I actually didn't notice they matched the sky till I looked at the photo today.

Breakfast at Wombat Hill House, they are still yum but not quite as good as they were. The french toast and other things seemed like they had been cooked in advance?

My pesto, which was amazing and lasted forever. I ended up freezing it in the ice block tray. Planning to make some more soon.

Coffee and a  brownie at Wombat Hill, love the flower though it was kind of a tiny brownie for $4.50, though on the upside they had free wifi and I downloaded quite a lot of stuff so I guess fair is fair.

Gorgeous sunset from my friend Tammi's farm.

The salad that Roey made. Was delicious and a proven hangover cure.

General Daylesford views, I miss this, it refreshes my brain when I've been at the computer all day.

My amazing green shoes. They are slightly battered now from tramping up and down hills, and partly due to obvious cheap Zara construction. Still amazing though.

The view at Woodend station where I wait for the city train and wonder whether I could actually live in the country full time.

Routine or lack thereof

I currently feel like I'm not achieving much. Partly this is because I don't have an awful lot to do. I haven't had any paid work since early December (hopefully this will change on Thursday), no thesis anymore, my art history website has been quiet over summer and I don't have any personal research that I'm very focused on.

All of this is pretty unsatisfying (and please don't say anything about enjoying my free time cos I will slap you). I have lots of ideas of things I could be getting on with, mostly to do with my post PhD research  (articles, reading, postdoc applications, turning my other blog into something bigger and better) as well as bits of work for my volunteer positions, which aren't getting done very efficiently.

I'm not sure that this is particularly fascinating reading, but I felt the need to put it down semi-publicly in the hope it would prompt me to follow through.

Thoughts

- The internet is the great distracter, I need to limit my time on it a bit  a lot.
- I work best in the morning, I slump a bit in the afternoon and gear up again in the early evening.
- I have residual anxiety from my final thesis push that if I'm not writing I'm not being productive - this means I'm not reading or planning anything properly, which then means I'm not writing, vicious circle.
- I need to check my email less and respond more promptly when I do.
- I need to work elsewhere than my living room/study for at least a part of each day.
- I'm often not even doing the non-work things I want to do.

So (I'm thinking as I write) my planned routine that I am going to try for the next two weeks is

Get up promptly (this is pretty easy as I wake up early but sometimes I just stay there feeling sad about having no direction in life - cue tiny violins).

• Go for a run on running days
• Breakfast and read a research related book I want to read all of (too often I only dip into stuff)
• Check and respond to mails for 30 minutes and add action emails to my to do list
• Take computer and go somewhere nearby to write for 2 hours - I will probably work on a few different writing projects during the week but whatever it is for that day I have to do 2 hours.
• Work on my website for 1-2 hours depending on demand - this doesn't just have to be posting could include side projects and actually writing some reviews, which I never get done - can do this at home or stay where I have gone to write if it includes decent internet.
• Lunch
• Afternoon - this is slump time for me mentally but I should use it to work on basic admin type stuff for my volunteer positions, read a new article, read work related news/blogs, do housework, or go out and do stuff that needs to be done - also the best time to plan meetings.
• Early evening - some days this will be gym but on others I want to either read research related stuff in a focused way (i.e. 1 hour reading) or write posts for my other blog.
• Stop by 7-8pm and properly relax - read fiction, watch movies, read non work blogs and news.

Surely this is do-able, some days it will differ if I have a meeting, or Italian class or a sudden deadline, but overall it seems ok. I want to plan exactly what writing/reading I will do in more detail, maybe I could do that every Sunday evening in preparation for the week. Now I just need to find the self discipline to keep to it.

Lunch in the sun

A nice bonus of housesitting is being able to invite people over for lunch as I just don't have the space at home. Dad excitedly set up the outdoor 'table' (it's a door on two old trestles) and food was a collaborative effort, I made a burghul salad with roast almonds, avocado and cucumber (and lemon zest), my sister made gazpacho, mum bought sacks of delicious bread and cheese.

For dessert we had apple cake, which I made with some apples I picked in the garden, served with cream.

Around the garden

House sitting again in Daylesford. Feeling very moochy and not very inspired. I always imagine that alone in the country I will become a powerhouse of productivity but it never really happens that way, not that surprising really as productivity never just unfolds effortlessly like a filmic montage, it takes effort.

I spent quite a lot of time watering earlier this week as it was so hot and I find watering soothing and contemplative, I also 'accidentally watered myself a few times to cool down.

Prosecco with raspberries from the garden (I must pick some more before the birds get them all).

Pan in the evening sun.

Champagne with campari and wild strawberries with a geranium for matchiness.

I let the dragon join in on cocktail hour.

Another view of Pan.

Blackberries.

General garden view. Such a lovely garden, I feel so lucky to get to stay here now and then.

Poppies!

Artichoke flowering.

Easter

I am going away on Tuesday for 6 weeks to the UK, which will either mean I blog more as I feel my life is super fun and exciting and shareable, or less cos I have no internet or I am spending too much time frolicking in country gardens. Anyways I thought I would post some picture of my easter.

I spent good friday packing and tidying and editing and eating hot cross buns with lurpak butter and then a bit of apple to keep it all healthy.

Dinner in Daylesford, we had a curry festa. here is the autumnal centrepiece. I can't really take credit for it, but I did rearrange it a bit then realised my rearranging looked awful so I put it back the way it was.

Centrepiece with candles.

Centrepiece with candles and dinner guests.

My favourite beaujolais was in attendance.

As was some most delicious Chateauneuf de Pape.

And this slightly strange wine, which was like a sherry but without any sweetness. I wasn't entirely sold on it to be honest but it had a good bottle and a good label. 

My friend Nero the cat. He showed his affection for me by attempting to sleep on my bed and therefore suggesting to his owners that I was some kind of weak-willed-cats-on-beds type person, which I might be, or I might not...

Panforte remnants. Good plate.

Caravaggesque apples from the fruit trees in the garden.

Turkish delight.

I started making a tally of bottles the next day, not too bad really considering there were 8 of us.

I did need a recovery hot cross bun from the Himalaya Bakery and The Age crossword.

Lindt bunnies seem to be the easter chocolate du jour this year. Bloody nice they are too.

Sunset. My little camera can't really capture it but it was very beautiful.

Desserts at The Perfect Drop on Sunday night. I love that place. We also ate cheesy fritters, saganaki, potatoes with harissa and the meat eaters ate some duck and stuff. T 

 Drinks with friends after dinner with the iPhone DJ. they were linked to the stereo or some smarty pants shit. Note the empty bowls. Yes I had second dessert.

 Reidel wine glass. I love this so much, must buy my own.

A nice easter, though one of those ones where you feel like you need a day off after your holiday. So that's what I did. Now I need to start packing and keep planning for the UK.

Life after thesis..

Life after thesis is going along nicely. I just finished my first post-thesis project. Not an academic one, a catalogue essay for a photographer. I will post more about that later, my part is done but it won't be all done till June. It was very pleasant to work on something very different, but still tangentially related. It was garden related and so even though it was academic it did make me realise that I have a vast(ish) knowledge of gardens now, which I certainly did not have when I started my thesis. Especially considering I didn't even start out working on garden history.

I have my research assistant work, which is quite repetitive at the moment, but in a soothing way. Also I can do it at home to my own timetable. I also have two abstracts to work up as soon as possible, and then two papers to write in April before I go away in May.

I have also been baking. These 'Biscotti di Linzer' are from a book of biscuit/biscotti recipes my friends bought me in Rome as a thank you for house sitting. I have a lot of jam to use up so I made these jammy ones. They were very delicious. It is was a very simple recipe, just  basic butter, flour, sugar biscuit dough (I will post the exact amount tomorrow as they were perfect). The roll it out, cut out the biscuits, cut out holes in the middle of the biscuit (a screw cap off a wine bottle works well). Bake. Cool. Then jam them up. I used plum jam.

Recipe as promised:

170g butter (i used unsalted)
100g granulated sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
260gm plain flour
pinch o f salt
Icing sugar for dusting
65g jam

CReam butter and sugar till fluffy, add vanilla. Combine flour and salt in a bowl and then add to butter mix and mix till well combined. Wrap dough in cling film or cover bowl and put in fridge for 30mins.

Roll dough out on a foured surface to about 5mm thick. Cut biscuits out in equal numbers. Cut holes (as I said I used a washed screw cap from a bottle for wine for this). Re-roll scraps for more biscuits.

Place on a baking tray pined with baking paper and bake for 10-12 minutes at 180 degrees.

When they have cooled then create the sandwiched biscuits by adding half a teaspoon of jam on teh bottom and sandwiching the  biscuits with the holes on top and dust with icing sugar.

One comment I would make is that this recipe didn't make lots of biscuits, I think about 15-18 because of the doubling up. So either double the mixture or perhaps make them slightly smaller, or both.

Went to my friends' gallery opening last night. The last one at that gallery. End of an era. My campari. 

My shoes, I bought these for $6 at Target, they are bronze and I love them, but are falling apart as they are cheap and I keep riding a bike in them.

My orange dress and grey tights. So glad it is tights weather now, I get bored of having to just have flesh coloured legs.

Chinese take away. Yum.

 

Recipe book recommendations and red wine.

Dog cuddles.

A scorpion in alcohol. We didn't open this, it wasn't that kind of night.

A nice whiskey.

Today I was a  bit worse for wear after a late night (well not that late initially, but it was after I decided to stay up till after 3am drinking tea and writing tweets with lots of typos in them) so I just plonked on the couch, but in a guilt-free-no-thesis way. I had a little bike ride at lunchtime and then retreated to tea and cupcakes. The cupcake was a present from my local wine bar, which just turned 1 year old.

I stewed some pears that I had forgotten about and which had gone very soft. They are tasty though I over sugared them a tad. I think if I will need to eat them with some tart yoghurt to balance them out.

 And a photo of my breakfast the other day for no special reason except as general proof that the internets is all just people going on about what they ate.