Of Pressed Flowers, Windswept Butterflies and Raspberry Cake

I am loving collecting framed, pressed flowers from op-shops. I was a bit down on them until quite recently, when I regarded them as a short footstep away from sticking googly-eyes on gumnuts. But I now realise they're actually really beautiful. I love pressed flowers actually - isn't it wonderful when one falls out of a book and you're reminded of a moment you would otherwise have forgotten.

When we were in Ribe (Denmark), we drove to the coast and visited the Wadden Sea nature centre. It was chock-full of schoolkids but, despite this, it was really interesting. The landscape in the area quite flat and stark as you look out to sea, and the colours muted. We wanted to take one of the buses which goes across the sea when the tide is low to one of the islands just off the coast but we had missed the last one for the day and took a walk instead. Was it windy! Oh my. But somehow this plucky little butterfly was hanging on. Local Danish artist Lars Bollerslev has done lots of wonderful paintings of the area. I bought some postcard reproductions of them at the nature centre and have just now put them up on our living room wall. His website - http://www.larsbollerslev.dk/ - is well worth a look.

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Friday is rapidly becoming cake day. Today I will attempt Raspberry Cake from New Australian Cookery for dinner with my parents tonight.

Have a lovely weekend.

Thursday Thrifting

I have had some great fun op-shopping (or thrifting if you prefer) of late. This great 50s souvenir tea-towel from the Gold Coast for one (I have included just a panel of it here).

I am totally making this guy from The Complete Book of Handicrafts, bought this very day for $1! I love his purple nose.

This is so pretty and I am in the mood to do a bit of cross-stitching at the moment.

And to think this was in the bargain bin for $1!

I also bought a copy of Geraldine Brooks' March for just $3 - I have been meaning to read it for so long, having so enjoyed Year of Wonders.

Have you found any goodies on the thrift trail lately?

Stardust

Image from www.universe-beauty.com

So cold here at the moment! It was 3 degrees when I got up this morning and, in our un-central-heated house, I am currently wearing 4 layers, 2 pairs of socks and 1 pair of leg-warmers. Oh my.

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In the time honoured tradition of the household, however, we are keeping warm by eating. I made a suprisingly good ricey thing last night with boiled rice (then pan fried in olive oil) with pan fried capsicum, mushroom, purple onion and tomato with a generous helping of dried oregano. What do you cook with rice?





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Getting into the Wonders of the Universe tv series with Brian Cox. Last night he examined the idea that we are all stardust - that is, that everything is composed of particles from exploded stars. I have always been uninspired and quite depressed by such a notion but he explained it so well and, in fact, so beautifully, that I have completely changed my mind. What do you think?

Wintering

I have now successfully made the Basic Soda Bread I mentioned a couple of posts ago twice. So I feel safe to share the recipe with you!

450g flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon salt

125-250ml buttermilk

Combine all dry ingredients then gradually add buttermilk. On a floured surface knead the dough into a flat round loaf shape, about 20 centimetres in diameter. Cut a large cross shape into the top of the dough. Place on a baking sheet (and baking tray!) and bake for about 35 minutes at 220 degrees celsius.

It is so good. We've been having it warm with just a little butter. No need for any fancy toppings! The bread speaks for itself. I found the recipe in The Complete Australian Homemaker (1976).

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The Mocha Cake from The Barbara Pym Cookbook that I made on Friday night was rather a disappointment - pleasant enough but not a really strong coffee taste and the cake itself just wouldn't rise. The Daffodil Cake from New Australian Cookery Illustrated (1950s?) that I made on Saturday was altogether more successful - I think the addition of walnuts were the key to what otherwise could have been a similarly bland cake.

I bake a lot in the winter. Is it some sort of primal way of providing for the household, of stocking up against the chill? Or is it just a good way of staying warm, in front of the oven?

What's been going on in your kitchen?

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In more sad news, the death of Amy Winehouse on the weekend. I was never an enormous fan of her's but I certainly enjoyed Back to Black. There has been some really cruel commentary since she has passed away but I do agree with what many others have said that addiction is not an affectation but an illness. Whatever you think, there's no denying that this is one great song -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJAfLE39ZZ8&ob=av2n

Norway

One of the many extraordinarily human statues by Gustav Vigeland in Vigeland Sculpture Park, Oslo.

A moment of quiet reflection today for the horrible events in Norway on Friday. I am astonished and so saddened that such barbaric things could happen in places we were in so recently and, more importantly, in places that were so peaceful and beautiful.

Friday on my mind

Nom, nom, nom...a bee has his way with some pollen in the Botanical Gardens, Oslo.

Some serious op-shopping planned for this weekend...not one but two op-shop stops (!) planned tomorrow. I tell myself that I need to do it to re-stock my Etsy shop - it's work really, it's business - but over the last week I have thrifted far more stuff for myself than than shop...

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I am reading Robert Rankin's bizarrely enjoyable The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse and I am about to start Lucky Jim, on librarygirl's (http://www.livinginthekingdomoftoomuch.com/) recommendation.

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Planning to make the mocha cake from The Barbara Pym Cookbook later today since we are having dinner with my parents tonight.

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What have you got planned?

A piece of toast, a British sitcom and thou

You know of old my slightly peculiar obsession with 60s/70s British sitcoms. Well, it hasn't diminished. Morrissey, lead singer of the Smiths (who it could also be said I have a slightly peculiar obsession with), once said words to the effect that there is little quite so nice as watching an old movie on tv on a cold afternoon, armed with a warm piece of toast. And so it was yesterday, a cold winter's day, that I watched an old ep of "Doctor in the House" on You tube while eating Tuesday night's leftover meatloaf on toast. The early episodes were the best, I think, and perhaps this is at least partially because, as I noticed with surprise, they were written by John Cleese. I'd love to show you a clip but Blogger is being naughty again so here's the link if you're so inclined (and suitable equipped with some toast):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4juSDIP05PA&feature=related