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.

Some food snaps

I take a lot of photos of food. I think the ole food photos are a real digital camera phenomenon, I used to take the odd one on special occasions with my film camera, of cakes and the like, but not very many. I think most people take them now. Sometimes I think if I didn't photograph a meal it didn't actually happen. I always mean to post them, like a lot of things, but then I don't. So here is a random selection of January ones.

Homemade choc croissants, just store-bought puff pastry rolled around squares of dark chocolate, brushed with a big of egg on top. Made these for New Year's day breakfast.

Artichoke tart on the deck. I think I posted this in another post. I realise I haven't done enough sitting on the deck. I did a lot during my first week here, but then it rained for a week, then I forgot to, then it was HOT. This week should be fine and not hot though so I must do it again.

Omelette and fennel and white bean salad. Cooking omelettes on gas is a revelation! So much quicker. 

Cheese platter at tapas place in D'ford, the cheese was pre sliced, which I don't really like as a rule, plus one cheese was under the bread so we didn't see it till we had finished the bread? The cheese was still pretty tasty though.

Walnut bread, this suddenly looks very dark on the blog. Anyway, it is walnut bread from Himalaya Bakery in Daylesford, buy some if you get the chance and eat it freshly sliced with cheese.

Or toast it and eat with plum jam and coffee.

Prosecco at the Perfect Drop. Any place that serves prosecco by the glass wins my vote.

 Taramasolata with radishes. I think I need more radishes in my life.

Freshly picked blackberries, raspberries and mulberries. I ate these with yoghurt.

Coffee at Woodend station from the coffee man. Good coffee, crisp morning, sunlight, feeling of virtuousness for getting up at 6am, leopard print scarf. Win.

Tea and blueberries with yoghurt. I like to vary my breakfasts, some people eat the same thing every morning, I could never do that, it would be like eating the same dinner every day. Do you vary breakfasts?

This was one breakfast, mmm freshly baked scones.

Pancakes with mushrooms, tomatoes and cheese, grilled. Pancakes are also super easy on the gas stove, there is also a proper grill, which I don't have at home either (my kitchen is pretty basic).

 I love beaujolais, even if I do have an aversion to pronouncing it correctly. You can put it in the fridge and drink it chilled.

My friend's pavlova. Was super dooper tasty. I had two pieces.

That's enough for now. What have you been eating lately?

TGFIO

That stands for thank god Friday is over. Tres busy day. Got to uni at 8:30, taught till 10:30, which included an altercation with the rudest ever IT guys who kicked me and my students out of class in the middle of their test despite me saying we would only be another 15 minutes at the most. no please, thank you, sorry. I feel a complaint coming on. Anyhoo. I took some photos from the classroom, it has a pretty good view.

The city skyline from a kinda unflattering angle.

The architecture building, possibly one of the least attractive buildings at uni. Which is a worry really. And I say this with my most open minded, I respect all periods of architectural design, kinda hat on. Still fugly.

This arvo I worked like a (slightly confused) demon and (almost) sorted a wordpress site for one of my projects. Helped by the lovely shilo of yikes machine I now have a much much better understanding of what is going on behind my easy as pie wordpress admin panel.

I then madly emalied english art collections about some reproduction rights that I am hopelessly behind on.

That all called for two enormous glasses of wine and pizza at my local.

Behold my zinfandel and behind my recently finished chablis. My local has both these by the glass, which is one hundred kinds of brilliant in my mind. Plus it is 5 minutes from my door. Win.

Now I need to get some sleep so I can have energy to deal with whatever tomorrow brings election wise.

Breakfast and a Rose

I woke up early on Saturday and then lay on the couch for a while feeling depressed about the fact I didn't want to go running. Then I got into my running gear and still felt unmotivated so I decided to just go and buy some bread, but when I got outside I felt like a run so I did, until I hurt my knee and got cramps. Clearly I should have listened to my intuition.

This is my breakfast, in case you are wondering: yes I do balance it precariously on the couch arm, and yes my plate does have cavorting cows on it and yes that is a Buffy the Vampire Slayer mug.

I found a rose on my way home on the footpath so I now have it on my desk.

It is propped up on those boxes as that is the only spare space.

I went to the gallery for a lecture by Harrell Fletcher, he is an American artist and I love him a bit. His work is all about other people, and often created by other people. He made a public sculpture in France to the design of an 8 year old boy who wanted to make a solid gold turtle and paint it green. In the end he settled for solid bronze. You can see it here. Also look at his website where he and another artist set assignments for people to do. I like the videos, you *must* watch this one of someone acting out a scene from ET, hilarious.

I took a photo of one of the buildings I like on Treasury place. I think it is very underrated, I like the arched doorways.

Later on I went shopping for a laptop bag but all I ended up with was rage against ugly/overpriced bags and against Myer being so overheated. So I went to the wine shop instead and drank Rose.

Tuesday - Wine tasting

Worked on footnotes and captions all day so was sorely in need of a drink so I wandered over to Europa cellars for their wine tasting of Portuguese wines. I live not too far away and have been subscribed to their newsletter for ages but this is the first time I have gone. They have them every week, i assume because they get in so many unusual wines from Europe that people don't know it is a good way of getting people to try different wines. There seemed to be a few people who turn up every week. They also had amazing cheese, a smoked cheddar. I think i was actually more excited by the cheese! I took some photos of the wines to help me remember, the reds were really nice but even a few tasting sips means I woke up with a slight headache. Annoying.

Whites

Reds

Supper at the wine shop.