o frabjous day!

books, recipes, parenting & other things

About

Cool Links

older post categories

  • Trip to Stanthorpe

    We drove to Stanthorpe for the Queen’s Birthday long weekend recently, staying in a tiny cabin in a camping ground, with a river running along the back of the property.

    Why can I never get horizons straight? Apparently I stand on angles when taking landscape shots.

    We climbed up a big rock (the Pyramid walk in Girraween National Park – which is gorgeous, and I want to go back there when the wildflowers are blooming in spring)…

    And admired the view. We were all wearing shorts & jumpers, and the wind was freezing. I am not terribly fond of heights, and particularly not when I’m surrounded by them while scrambling up a slippery granite slope.

    We played some music while the sun went down, drank some wine and ate cheese.

    Stanthorpe is overrun by wineries, but only features one dairy – an astonishing oversight. I bought lots of cheese that the husband doesn’t particularly like, and now need someone to feed cheese to. Mature cheddar, anyone?

  • Eagleby Wetlands

    After Mum discovered the Eagleby Wetlands while browsing through the Refedex, we headed out there for a spot of birdwatching.

    And while I got a bit frustrated with my zoom lens and its very noisy focussing gear (and gazed with envy at the truly enormous lenses that the more professional birdos were lugging around) I did manage to get a couple of bird shots.

    Like this Scarlet Honeyeater. Isn’t he pretty? Apparently we have these on our property, but I’m yet to see them. Hopefully the new planting that Mum and Allen helped us do, with lots of grevilleas and banksias, will bring these little birds down closer to the house.

  • Down she comes

    A few weeks ago, Mum and Allen came to visit – and when they weren’t in holiday mode, they were at work in the garden. Such useful guests. I was in charge of the coffee machine and taking photos of other people working hard.

    After this week’s storms and high winds, I’m glad we took down this big dead tree at the back of the house – now that I can finally see the place in daylight over the weekend, I can see that the garden is covered in little eucalypt branches after all those windy nights.

  • Regressing

    We went to Garter Belts & Gasoline for the first time last weekend – sat in the sun, listened to bands, got sunburnt and people-watched those in “the scene” (to quote one overly emotional bloke who gave a speech later in the day).

    The 50s/hot rod scene, to my uneducated eye, seemed like an odd mix of 50s, punk & country styles. Lots of tatts, skulls, 50s hair and cowboy boots. We definitely didn’t fit in in our tees & shorts, and I began wishing I had a parasol after a couple of hours. It was a good day though, with some good bands – I think next year we’ll go to one of the night events (more music, more dancing and… burlesque, I think).

  • In sepia

    I knew when we decided to move from a suburban block to semi-rural acreage that there would be a lot more work involved in household maintenance, but when you move into a well maintained property it’s all a bit theoretical to begin with. As time passes, however, entropy asserts itself. We don’t have access to town water, so there are water tanks and septic tanks and pumps and an increased likelihood of things breaking. There’s a “greywater system” which is not in fact a greywater system because it involves no filtering whatsoever, but instead gathers all our water into a (festeringly horrible, due to aforesaid lack of filtering) tank which then gets directed over our patch of lawn with yet another pump. And we spend a limited number of hours at home during daylight. I’m sure you get the idea.

    Occasionally I feel a little overwhelmed with the never ending list of maintenance tasks that need to be done. After heavy rain some months ago, the driveway needs a truck load of gravel spread down it. One of the water tanks has sprung a slow leak and needs to be patched, before our entire water supply trickles away. The garden and the paths host endlessly renewing clumps of weeds which spend their time laughing derisively at my sporadic attempts at removal, reminding me of those nasty flowers in Through the Looking Glass.

    It is all rather oppressive, not in the least because my natural state is that of genteel laziness and I would prefer not to spend my weekends on Big Jobs, the sort that chew up an entire day. However, this is the trade off. In order to spend at least some of my weekend mornings peacefully sipping coffee, looking over the dam and listening the occasional sound of human habitation (the dulcet tones of my neighbour screaming “fuuuuck orrrrf” – aaaah, the serenity), there’s Big Jobs that need to be done. A bit of quality time spent with Google has provided a solution to the leaking tank and potential suppliers of rocks for the driveway. Soothed, armed with information, and making lists – onwards, ever onwards.

  • Still dead

    Our Xbox 360 suffered the red ring of death a couple of weeks ago (a series of lights indicating a catastrophic hardware failure and depressingly common), and I sent it off to the warranty place. It was an easy process, and for a moment Microsoft regained some of my respect despite being known for manufacturing a product with a propensity for self-destruction.

    The Box was returned promptly, but alas, the bloody thing still doesn’t work. What the hell? I am beginning to doubt that they actually tried to turn it on, and instead just packaged it up in a different box with a cheery letter and sent it back. Off I go to lodge another repair request.

  • Keeping cool

    Using some of the limes I bought on the weekend, and cooling down with water filled with sliced limes and mint leaves. I was drinking this while watching news of the terrible bushfires in Victoria. My parents (and me, although I was far too young to have any memory of it) left their home behind to be destroyed in the Ash Wednesday fires, and I always think of their stories of that time when I hear news of bushfires.

  • On the bedside table

    The pile that’s living beside the bed this week, consisting of two excellent non-fiction book (on how our brains interpret music, which is complicated, and how our brains work while reading, which is utterly fascinating); one trashy fantasy which I’ve stopped reading (Red Gloves, the name of the main character and a clue as to why I’ve stopped reading – I hate fantasy novels in which characters are named by physical characteristics. It’s very hard to pull off convincingly); one 50s novel and a Nick Hornby, neither of which I’ve started. I was feeling guilty that two perfectly good novels were waiting for me to get tired of Red Gloves striding around the landscape and being told she’s the Chosen one. (Yes. Chosen. With a capital C.)

  • Apples & limes

    At the fruit & vegie store this week – cheap limes, and lovely green apples. They look beautiful in the big blue glass bowl that I use for our fruit.

    Mum, living in the midst of the floods that are covering half the state, told me that last time she went to the supermarket all the lights turned off in the fresh produce section – no fresh supplies have been able to get through the flooded areas. I am glad she has her vegetable garden.

  • Carrot & Fennel Salad with Ranch Dressing

    This was my first time cooking with fennel, and I had a couple of bad moments while slicing the fennel bulb and experiencing the subsequent strong smell of aniseed. I’m the sort of person who picks the black jelly beans out of the bag (Husband loves black jelly beans, that’s why we’re married). However, I quite enjoyed the flavour of the baked fennel, as the aniseed flavour wasn’t nearly as prominent – I thought it mixed very well with the other flavours in this robust roast vegetable salad. This recipe is adapted from the February 2009 delicious magazine.

    ingredients:
    2 bunches of baby carrots, or small carrots sliced into fours
    2 baby fennel bulbs, or 1 large fennel bulb
    1 red onion
    2 tbsp olive oil
    3 cups rocket leaves
    1 bunch mint

    for the dressing:
    250g light sour cream
    1 tbs lemon juice
    1 tbs red wine vinegar
    1 garlic clove, crushed
    2 tsp each of chopped chives, parsley, fennel fronds, dill & basil

    Preheat the oven to 200C. Peel the carrots, and if you’re using bigger carrots, slice them into three or four lengths. Slice the fennel bulb thinly, and reserve the leafy fronds for the dressing. Chop the onion into quarters, and leave the peel on. Arrange the vegetables on a tray, sprinkle with salt and olive oil, and bake for 25-30 minutes until everything is tender.

    Meanwhile, prepare the dressing by mixing all the ingredients together in the serving bowl. You may need to add a couple of tablespoons of water to have the dressing at a nice runny consistency.

    When the vegetables are cooked, leave them to cool a little. Remove the skin from the onion quarters, and slice them up. Place the vegetables in a bowl with the rocket and mint, season with a little salt, lemon juice and olive oil. Serve the salad on a large platter, with a bowl of the ranch dressing to the side.