Baguettes and Vegemite

2020

Hunkering Down: Week 6

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Before  I get started I’d just like to give you a little tip about taking selfies. When you are positioning yourself and the camera, just make sure that you tip your face up a little. This does two things. First of all it smooths out your double chin (from emotional eating) and some of your creepy neck. (I have tried three times to put a different word in there, but Word Press is determined to make my neck creepy!! So I’m just leaving it now.)

and secondly it hides this!

I recall just a few months ago saying that I wish I knew what the original colour of my hair was. All I can say now is be careful what you wish for…….

And just another tip for  you – I really urge you to watch this, it’s not long. I thought it was really helpful and I’m sure you will get a lot out of it too.

So, Week 6! My boss is still not talking to me and to be honest I am finding it a lot easier without her around. My working hours have been a lot more flexible. Papa Bear has been getting up at 5:00am to walk and I have set up another workspace in my bedroom. It’s amazing how much I can done sitting in bed with my cup of black coffee. Level 812 Candy Crush Saga and level 5 of Synergy Spanish just to name a couple. I can now say things like ” Voy a ir a mi casa esta noche para comer con mi family”which means “I am going to my house tonight in order to eat with my family” I’m very pleased with myself.

I can’t say I have been devoted to my daily walk this week but I did manage a couple of walks along the street. The sunrises are still gorgeous

I don’t think you can see this, but some-one drew a hopscotch with other fun activities, like twirl around, walk backwards. And yes, I did do it, making sure there was no-one around to see me.

 

The beach is slowly clearing of seaweed, and I had a couple of swims, but I think that time is  fast fading. I’m not good at running into the water and diving under the waves. I always mean to, but I’m more of your every day beach masochist. I  tiptoe in taking deep breaths as the water creeps closer to my belly button. That is the magic trigger to immerse myself slowly in the water, breathing air out in quick little gusts.

 

Here’s view of our house from the beach, you can see the white sand path going up to our house.

D1 came over for evening drinks on her last night. It will be so weird when we can actually sit next to each other!! And she doesn’t wear gloves!!

She is going to be spending the next few breaks with D2 and D3 in Perth. It will be lovely for them to spend sisterly time together but Papa Bear and I are going to miss her! The police btw are taking the closure of regional borders very seriously. She was supposed to have been given documentation from work to show she had permission to travel from Geraldton to Perth by plane, but it hadn’t arrived by the time she got to the airport. The police were there checking everyone so she had to make a last call to work and they managed to something through to her just in time. It’s good to see the authorities  are on the ball!!

Talking of which, did you download the app?

 

I know you’ve been dying to know how my bread went!

Here is the first prove

and the second prove

The final product!! Wow!! How good is that even if  I do say so myself?


And finally, the  sandwiches. I mean it is like real shop bought bread!!

I have to say thanks to the gorgeous Mike from Pro Home cooks whose video I followed step by step to make amazing sourdough bread . If you are interested in making sourdough bread, click on that link.

Staying with sourdough for a tick, when I had to rescusitate my starter I ended up with a lot of it! Jars in fact.Thanks to Google I have found lots of ways of using the starter. Who’d have thought? Some of them are so delicious and very simple, maybe when this is all over  I may go back to buying sourdough bread (because it is a lot  of faffing round)  and just using my starter for goodies like these – sourdough yoghurt flat bread. I wish I could roll them out more evenly,  I start off with a lovely circle of dough and end up with a very rustic looking flatbread.

It is yummy though and delish served with lentil and vegetable soup!

I’ve been exercising. D3 sent me a link to a workout website Body Project which is fab, they have low-impact 30 minutes workouts, which means it’s all done standing up, no getting up and down from the floor! I love it!  And they use real-life people to help show how to do the ‘easy’ option. Google it!

 

I’ve also found some of these workouts. Hands up if you remember this lady and the name of her class. I loved it when I was a young Mum. And yes I wore the pink leotards and tights, leg warmers and head band. I’ll give you some time to think about it and remind you at the end of this post!

The garden is doing well. We swapped seedlings with the back neighbour

 

picked fresh crunchy, peppery radishes ,

and Papa Bear got the garden ready for some romanescu broccoli seedlings which are almost ready to be planted out. They are the pointy ornamental-looking type of broccoli, and  were the only seeds available when we did our last trip to Bunnings pre -SI

Papa Bear smoked bacon, everyone should get the chance to try his bacon, it’s phenomenal!

On Sunday we went for a drive, just to make sure we don’t forget what Geraldton looks like,

drove past the Beached Barrel doughnut hut on the foreshore …..AND THERE WAS NO-ONE WAITING TO BE SERVED!! Such excitement to buy something , I’d almost forgotten how to use my credit card….no that’s lie!! A very yummy lemon – meringue doughnut!!

 

We had drinks on the balcony, this is Papa bear’s favourite position I think!

All in all, a satisfying week. Keep safe y’all!

Oh yes, her name is Judi Sheppard Missett and she is the creator of Jazzercise.  She is still alive and she is still Jazzercising!! And there’s no crepey neck for her (whispering, I think she’s had some work done)

I just had to add one photo because they are so cringeworthy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hunkering Down: Week 5

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I feel like I may have hit a wall during Week 5. After the whole  ‘record what you do each day’ debacle,  my boss had a dummy spit and hasn’t spoken to me since. We had decided I would make a list of things that I would like to do during the day and tick them off whenI actually did them. Great idea in theory, but for me this week, not so great in practice.

First you may note that the week starts on a Wednesday, that’s because  I didn’t get around to making the little tick off chart in my bullet journal until Wednesday. The second thing you may note is that I didn’t do much on Wednesday or Thursday, and thirdly you may note that after that I couldn’t be faffed either doing or ticking, so that was the end of that!

So it was rather  quiet week. The weather was quite mild, we returned to drinks on the balcony after a couple of weeks downstairs because of the afternoon sun. Papa Bear gave his views on the day’s happenings, I was intrigued with my reflection in the window behind him. It looked better in real life than in the photo!

 

I was pretty happy with the garden produce for this week,   we got lots of  traffic light capsicums, a great addition to our scatter platter salads!

 

A little visitor came in with the basil

Anzac Day Ceremony on the balcony was lovely, I kept the candles burning to welcome the dawn.

 

D1 came in from work for her one week R & R , it wasn’t quite so weird this time to stand at the top of the stairs for a  chat when she arrived. She bought steaks when she went shopping on Saturday.  

Papa Bear barbecued them to perfection as always. What better meal to end Anzac Day.


D1 knows her place now!

 

A lovely evening chewing the fat!

 

And there was left overs for yummy beef salad the next day, that steak was cooked just right!

The seaweed invasion continues, and I don’t think I swam at all this week, but I walked on a few occasions. I have been listening to the audiobook of The Rúin by Dervla McTiernan. I love listening to audiobooks, you really get the full impact of the words if the book is well written. The only problem I had was the book was read by an Irish woman, it is set in Ireland and most of it  was beautifully read. However there is one character who has lived in Australia for 20 years and the attempt at an Aussie accent was excruciating. It was a mixture of an ocky Aussie accent with a smidgeon of Kiwi and South African thrown in. For the most part though the lilting Irish accent blended well with the sand, sun and seaweed.

One morning we were blessed with the most stunning sunrise. It made me think of the tornado from the  Wizard of Oz

 

I chatted with D2 who is halfway through her 4 week swing at Christmas Creek

And read books for my granddaughter. I made some videos and she didn’t quite get that it wasn’t live. Her Mum said she kept asking me questions!

 

My sourdough starter  was a bit like me this week, lazy! I fed it and it should have been rising beautifully in the jars but spent the day stubbornly refusing to budge much past the elastic band.

It was sent back to the fridge in disgrace overnight  but I gave it a second chance the next day and it behaved beautifully.

Tomorrow I am going to continue in my quest for the perfect loaf of sourdough bread. I’ll let you know how I go but if  I don’t mention it, don’t ask!! In the meantime, keep safe everyone.

Hunkering Down: Anzac Day 2020

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Anzac Day is my day to celebrate Australia, even more so than Australia Day. The best part for me is the Dawn Service, most years I have been a part of the service at Birdwood House in Geraldton.

I remember watching D1 and D2 as Guides and Rangers guarding the war memorial. It is usually a crisp morning, a quiet  crowd gathered as one in the dawning light to honour the people who have fought for us over the years. I love seeing the young families, Dads carrying toddlers on their shoulders, Mums holding youngsters close, knowing these young children will grow up understanding how important Anzac Day is. I love  listening to the Ode,  to the trumpet playing the Last Post and Reveille, standing in silent contemplation . And then home to a warm cup of coffee, always feeling blessed to live in such a wonderful country.

Since 2013 I have spent three Anzac Days in Spain but I have always found a way to celebrate the day, and leave a message from Australia.

This year of course is a very different day. I would have been in Spain, again, but instead Papa Bear and I were on the balcony of our beautiful home listening to the Ode and the Last Post,  candles flickering in the gentle wind. It was comforting to see  our neighbours in their  driveway, silhouetted by the lights of their candles.

During the minute of silence I thought about the people who are fighting a very different fight for us, doctors and nurse on the frontline, scientists desperately trying to understand this virus and discover a vaccine, politicians guiding their countries through these times, and I thought of ordinary people like us, living ordinary lives in  extraordinary times.

My family in Perth sent a photo of our Grandson’s first Anzac Day, it brought tears to my eyes.

D2 and I messaged about a Dawn service we attended at Kings Park a couple of years ago. One day we will take the youngest members of our family to that service.

After the balcony memorial I made Anzac biscuits and climbed back in bed to read with my cup of tea and warm biscuit.

I hope you all have a great Anzac Day, wherever you are, especially friends in New Zealand who are also celebrating Anzac Day.  Keep safe.

For the Fallen

Poem by Robert Laurence Binyon (1869-1943), published in The Times newspaper on 21 September 1914.

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England’s foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

Hunkering Down: Week 4

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“They lay resting in the great strong arms of the sea” 

This is from Charlotte Wood’s latest novel, The Weekend, a description of three women swimming and floating in the ocean.  My friend Mrs L is currently reading this book and shared this line with me. It’s beautiful isn’t it? I would love to do that but our beach is still infested with seaweed. A dip in the ocean is a struggle against strands of thick algae wrapping their tentacles around your ankles and  dragging you out to sea, never to be seen again! The sea gulls loved it though.

 

And it’s still a magical place early in the morning


Because of the weed I walked along our street a few times

The sunflowers were happy

The playground in the park a sad lonely sight

But an enterprising dad has built a playground for his kids around a huge tree in the front yard. I have just realised I have made a presumption there,  I guess I am saying Dad because I have seen him out playing with the kids.Maybe Mum could have built it and Dad is the one who plays with the kids….or perhaps….sigh, these days you are so scared of being politically incorrect! Anyway, it looks fabulous, unfortunately there are shadows all the time, so not a very good photo I’m afraid

 

We are well into a routine now. We got a huge grocery delivery from Woolworths, I have taken full advantage of being a senior! We unpack onto the bench and attack everything packaged with disinfectant and wash our fruit and veg.

Obviously we have way too much time on our hands because we spent a lot of time before the delivery discussing whether it would come before or after 10:00am in the designated 7:00 – 12:00 window. We even bet on it! I bet that it would arrive before 10:00am and would you believe the truck pulled into the driveway at 9:59…no joke! We then spent some time discussing whether the bet meant the delivery was actually unpacked outside the front door. Here is Papa bear  cooking dinner as a result of losing the bet.

The slices of crumbed eggplant were a delicious nibble with our evening drinks

You may have noticed by now that a lot of our time is spent around food and food prep! I spent some time this week putting together a Monthly meal plan in my bullet journal.

You may also  notice that I haven’t made much progress with making my journal Instaworthy but it is functional. 

After  I dragged out my sourdough starter for pancakes I decided I’d have a go at sourdough focaccia. The starter activated nicely and I soon had the dough ready for the first prove.

Next prove was in the pan

And here it is ready for the oven

You will have to believe that it was the best sourdough focaccia ever, because I forgot to take a photo!

I made my second fruit cake, this time with Grandma Bear’s recipe which we sourced from Papa Bear’s cousin. Don’t you love it when you are just about to put a cake in the oven and you see this,

the sugar that was supposed to have been boiled with the fruit for the fruit cake! I’m saying don’t you love it because I found it before the cake went into the oven and was able to stir it into the mixture. It was fabulous, Papa Bear was happy. I got carried away with putting almonds on the top of my baking. I have decided not to do that any more because it is difficult to slice neatly when there are almonds in the way.

Papa Bear cooked breakfast,

fried egg and potato and cabbage patties. Everything is served with cabbage because we got the biggest cabbage you have seen with our groceries.

I cured salmon pieces in sugar and salt with a spice coating

Papa Bear cooked it on a smoke infused piece of wood on the BBQ, it was amazing!!

My sourdough starter came from a sourdough bread class I went to at the Matter of Taste Cooking School in Perth, which is run by the gorgeous Tracey. Papa Bear and I were actually due to go to an American Nosh class the week before we entered self-isolation, but because of the C-19 Tracy had to close the classes. Instead of face to face classes she gives us 3 online classes a week and I just love them, I look forward to them all week. She makes delicious, simple, every day meal, her love of cooking just shines through and I learn so much. One of the dishes she did Week 4 was chicken parmigiana (yay!)

I am a member of her Cooks Collective so get access to all her classes but  you can purchase classes individually. Next week we are doing creme brûlée, so if you want to join up click on Matters of Taste above.

I think that’s it folks, I want to get this out there and go have a coffee and some fruit cake. Keep safe.