

A frugal heritage
“Frugality, I've learned, has its own cost, one that sometimes lasts forever.” Nicholas Sparks My younger son recently wrote a very...
Feb 7, 2024


Pretty in pink
"Pink isn't just a colour. It's an attitude too" Miley Cyrus Ten years ago on our last night in Beaucaire we dined in the restaurant of...
Feb 6, 2024


Too many cooks spoil the broth - or - Many hands make light work?
At worst, it is the road to realising you are the sort of person who cares about how others crush garlic." Gwendolyn Smith/The Guardian...
Feb 1, 2024


After dinner temptations
"More research is needed, but if you are going to cut out snacks at any time of day, the late-night ones are probably the place to...
Jan 24, 2024


Hidden secrets = magic
"Whoever wishes to keep a secret must hide the fact that he possesses one." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Edouard Vuillard is rapidly...
Jan 18, 2024


Finding joy on a very wet day
"Some people walk in the rain. Others just get wet" Roger Miller This the view from the window behind my computer. Well more or less. ...
Jan 8, 2024


Tasters
Taster: "a small amount or short experience of something that is intended either to make you understand what it is like or to make you...
Dec 29, 2023


Christmas is/was ... stuffing
"any stuffing should be flavoursome enough to eat on its own." Nigel Slater I spent an hour or so this morning stuffing my two turkeys. ...
Dec 26, 2023


Christmas was, Christmas is ...
"We've reached the most wonderful time of year" Coles Magazine "Christmas magic exists in the little things doesn't it?" Woolworths...
Dec 18, 2023


Pictures, words, irritations and detours
“A picture is a poem without words.” Horace Today's post was going to be a riff on this painting, which turned up on my desk calendar...
Nov 27, 2023


Should I wear a bib?
"Life's too short to worry about what other people think" This week one pair of trousers has been washed twice because I spilt some food...
Nov 24, 2023


The food curriculum - Literature
"Literature is the thought of thinking souls. Thomas Carlyle I chose the picture above as my pictorial hook for two reasons. The first...
Nov 23, 2023


The passing of friends - and time
"Our friends - how distant, how mute, how seldom visited and little known. And I, too, am dim to my friends and unknown; a phantom,...
Nov 8, 2023


An unexpected delight
"God bless the French lunch hour." Elizabeth David A lucky dip. Elizabeth David's book of essays and writings from here and there, An...
Nov 5, 2023


Views, lunch, wine, friends ...
reflections on a day out in Nillumbik Nillumbik is the name of our Shire - the local council area. In the bottom corner is where we are...
Oct 15, 2023


Apples from Winton
"Passing time adds false memories and modifies real ones." Stephen King Eons ago I studied geography as one of my three A-level subjects....
Oct 13, 2023


I forgot to take any photos
“Today everything exists to end in a photograph.” Susan Sontag At about the point that all the food had been eaten at yesterday's family...
Oct 9, 2023


A photograph
"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." Dorothea Lange My Art desk calendar, today turned up this...
Sep 25, 2023


Life, the universe and everything on your plate
"Food is never just something to eat." Margaret Visser This plate is some 5000 years old. It's from ancient, ancient Egypt and depicts...
Sep 24, 2023


Cabbage rolls from long ago
Once upon a time I sat in this very spot and gazed upon the Mostar bridge. Well I am 90% certain it was in this spot - although, when I...
Sep 20, 2023

