Summer lushness

I walked down through Victoria Park to see the annual begonia display in the Botanical Gardens by Lake Wendouree.

The luxury of the cool green grass in the gardens, when all the city is parched this late end of summer, was wonderful.

The conservatory was already full of people who love begonias.

I participated too, in the happiness of masses of wildly fluorescent, frilly and fleshy-petalled begonias.

Once begonia flowers were modest, tough little rainforest plants like these.

Now here they are, in their humid glasshouse, safe from the dry, alien summer of Ballarat. A triumph  of a hundred years of gardening art.

Birthday Banquet & phone

I have started to use a mobile phone. For the first time. With trepidation. But I need to be able to ring people and services - and to be rung in turn - if I make a long trip.
Today I finally worked out how to download pictures from the mobile phone. Early this month Yin and I went to Kambei restaurant and celebrated his birthday with a (modest) banquet.

Family lunch

A Sunday Lunch of special requests; rice noodle rolls for me, rice porridge for Yin, fried chicken for Jesse.

Organising the cooking tasks

Dogs aren't allowed in the kitchen. Never. But they can watch.

Rice noodle rolls

Cabbage and asparagus

Rice porridge with John Dory, dried beancurd and other goodies

Rice porridge toppings - preserved eggs

and crisp, deep fried you tee

Some tasting goes on.

It's good.

Yin's special fried chicken, always served at the boys' birthdays.

Lunch

It takes all morning to make, but it's well worth it.

Lunar New Year

It's Chinese or  Lunar New Year this weekend.

Last night Yin cooked  traditional vegetarian New Year's Eve dishes, including my favourite, the monks' vegetarian dish (Lo han jai is one English transliteration).
 It has fermented red bean curd sauce, sweet dry beancurd, dry bean curd sticks, black hair seaweed, gingko niuts, thread-fine rice vermicelli that is transparent when cooked, ear fungus, fat chinese mushrooms, and (not vegetarian because he can't help himself) chicken stock - but it doesn't need this).
 

Some things are soaked, some are marinated, some are fried until bubbly crisp.

Then all is stirred in together with the red bean curd sauce and simmered.

Then we eat it. 

It takes ages to make and Yin thinks it's a bit messy to look at, but this is the best dish ever!

Today we went in to Melbourne for New Year with the family. We saw the lions dancing through Footscray as we stopped for some red packets (we always forget something!), and a coffee and canoli at the last pasticceria left at the Footscray market.

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This picture was taken before all the food brought by the rest of the family was put on the table.

Now the year can begin (again - see the previous post).

South Melbourne Temple

This Sunday the family ccelebrated Qing Ming, visiting and cleaning family graves, getting together and remembering everyone.This means a full day travelling to three Melbourne cemeteries and to the See Yup Temple in South Melbourne to make offerings there too.

There's another good link here if you are interested in the temple, which is about the oldest in Victoria and built by one of early Melbourne's leading architects.

Cutting up lino

I didn't have time to make Christmas cards. This often happens and I  don't panic, I just make New Year cards and send them off before Chinese New Year.

I love cutting the soft, thick  lino.

It's fun printing off dragons and whispy clouds on bits of paper. Not quite enough fun to do it too often, however - I never make Christmas and New Year cards both in the one season.