and just to say

The saffron crocus (crocus sativus) bulbs finally arrived from Lambley Nursery and I am going to have my own  (small) field of saffron next year.

I'm thinking of Crete, of Iran, of Paella.

Eve of the Year of the Tiger

New Year's Eve and a burst of nostalgia (again).

I got out our tin toys, which we always set out, and a couple of token tigers for the Year of the Tiger.

Since Yin's family have happily adopted Christmas, I have had no qualms in adopting Chinese New Year.

They reign over the real stuff - glorious food, ceremony and red packets etc., while I make use of the occasion for mass production of paper cuts, New Year pictures, wood (lino) cut cards, and miniscule bangs and sparkles at our house. When it comes to glitz, glue and glitter I never let a chance go by.

Some of our old knives and ink and seals.  Chinese ink sticks smell fabulous, and even plastic-bottled ink is fragrant. It's worth having just to smell every now and then. 

I think I'll make some new little prints, but not for New Year now, I've left it too late.

The poppers and sparklers were leftovers I found in our New Year box (Yes I have a box for every occasion). They were my attempt to make up to the boys  for the ban on fireworks and crackers.

Don't you love the 'Hello Kitty' red packets? I got extras last year so I could have some too. (They are supposed to go to the kids in the family).

Tomorrow we're catching the train into Melbourne to watch the Lion Dances in Little Bourke Street and to have a family yum cha. Bliss!

By the way I managed to make this a felicitous 111th post!

A gentle day

Today has been a warm day of mist and soft rain. At times the mist became a white fog at the edges of the road. A favourite sort of summer weather and rare.

I spent most of the day reading. I have read four of  the books I collected together at the end of January. I'm now reading The Plains and to my surprise this time I love it, I'm unable to put it down.

Sometimes this happens, I resist a book for a long time and then I pick it up and I sink into it, overcome. I am finally ready to read it.

Delightful

Here's a lovely old book I found.

It's a bit battered, but has wonderfully thick creamy paper.

and I think has been well-loved.

John Masefield was a poet who is now unfashionable, but he had a real gift for chantable verse and for telling good stories. He wrote two magical books for children, The Midnight Folk and this one, The Box of Delights. I think I can see his influence in Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising.

There is a affectionate account of his work here, and a rather more cautious one here - he is VERY unfashionable after all. He wrote well about the sea and sailing, being a working sailor himself .

Cooling down

Yesterday, Wednesday, a storm of wind and rain rolled over and a tree lost some branches.

Small creatures escaped from the vast puddles

with great effort

Some members of the household got under as many things as they could when they heard the thunder

and refused to come out even when they were offered a treat.

The rain gauge began to fill.

Wonderful summer rain.

Passionfruit shortcake - words only

This is a family recipe, now at least 50 and more years old. It's simple but good.
It's best made the day before it is eaten.

8oz selfraising flour
2oz caster sugar
1/4 pound of butter
1 egg (not too small)

Cream butter and sugar.
Add egg and mix well.
Sift flour into mix. It will be a very stiff mixture.
Press (it's a stiff mixture!) into a well greased 8" cake pan. Roughen the top of the cake with a fork and sprinkle with caster sugar.
Bake for 30 minutes in a moderate oven
When cooked the cake is slightly golden. It should be cooked all the way through.
Cool cake in the tin. This is a dryish cake base when first cooked, but it moistens and mellows once it has its passionfruit butter filling.

Passionfruit butter filling.

Ease the cake out of it's cooking tin and split it in two. A breadknife will slice it through nicely.
Mix:
2/3 pound of pure icing sugar (no icing mixes with yucky cornflour and such please!)
2 teaspoons of butter
2-4  passionfruit (I go for 4 every time)

Spread this thickly over the bottom of the cake and put the top with its nicely rough, sugary crust on top.
Place in a cake tin and let the cake settle, as my mother used to say.
Leave for full day in the tin before eating.

What about the pre-metric measurements?
Well I 've made it for years, first with my mum, and sort of know 'how it should go'. I also have an old measuring cup, for when I suddenly think 'What is 8 ounces of flour?'
Conversion tables for all this stuff are easily found on the internet.

Why is there no picture?
I haven't got a picture because it's just been a bit too hot for cake baking around here.

Five things

Five good things to begin the month of February.

Mooncake tins that my sister-in-law collected for me - I am the family repository for empty tins, and the best ones are those that contained mooncakes. No matter how many tins I am given, I can always find things to keep in them

New patches - this is the first time I've included synthetic fabrics with my usual silks, cottons and linens. I had a joyful frenzy of cutting and tacking and playing mix and match on Saturday night while listening to Billie Holliday

 

The new tube of toothpaste coincided with the new toothbrush - how often does this happen?

A  ricotta recipe that works beautifully thanks to the September 2009 post 'Pour, drain, twist, eat' on six and a half stitches. I like it best made with goat's milk. (Coles supermarket stocks goat milk if you are far from a goat farm)

I found this magical  book by John Masefield, which may need a post to itself. Later. Tomorrow.