the Wise Robin

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petal & green

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everywhere I turned this week there were petals & green.  Petals in candy floss sprays, petals fluttering like wedding day confetti, petals in skirts on the ground, petals still waiting, curled in bulging buds & the green, oh the green, it's practically flourescent. The bush is bursting with freesias & chocolate lilies.Thank goodness the freesias are a weed because their smell is irresistable & we can't but help stop & pick some when out walking. The whole house smells like sweet spring, the growing season has begun! We've been mowing for the past month already & its quickly becoming a once a week job. Sometimes I like getting behind the mower but we live on a hill.  I've been casually eyeing our gutters, full to overflowing. It won't be long before fire season so I guess I'll move the ladder down the hill from the mandarin tree & leave it in view from the bedroom window as a reminder for me & a hint for Will. He's on night shift for three weeks so my days and nights are l.o.n.g.  He creeps into bed around five thirty & we creep around the house during the day trying not to wake him. Thank goodness it's spring & we can go play in the petals & green. Last Monday was Zahra's birthday. She was rapt in Miss Juniper Kitty. Turns out we had a teensy suitcase which was the perfect size for the kitter's spring wardrobe. I love how it all turned out, Alicia is one talented lady, but it didn't come together without some pain & a few late nights. My machine could only just comprehend the miniature seam allowances, often grabbing the fabric by it's teeth & dragging it under {perhaps I was using the wrong foot}. Lawn is sensitive stuff. I love it, but responding to fragile was not on my list of sewing skills. It was more reaction than response with a few choice words thrown in. But we both pulled through & now Miss Juniper has a spring wardrobe for walks in the woods & wildmeadows, garden tea parties & library adventures. I even threw in a nightgown and breakfast jacket for those lazy mornings reading in bed. I never understood the concept of the breakfast jacket until someone explained it to me last week. Now I'm thinking I'd like one. Not that I get to laze in bed or sit up having my breakfast brought to me & it certainly wouldn't be one of those frou frou things one finds in the op shops. I imagine something hand knitted, maybe with a delicate fair isle or lace work yoke, three quarter sleeves, swing jacket like. Something you could put on for reading in bed, but get away with leaving your pyjama top on underneath, & strolling around the nighbourhood in, without anyone knowing you were still in your pyjamas and breakfast jacket.  Miss Juniper has taken to sitting up in bed most mornings wearing her nightgown & breakfast jacket as Zahra reads, then it's into her garden party dress and legwarmers for a Sunday in the secret garden. On the day, I spent all afternoon baking. Zahra requested her favourites, caramelised onion & feta tart, homemade tomato soup & rhubarb pie for dessert. I didn't get an after shot because we were so busy eating but I do finally have the vanilla almond cake recipe for you. It's easy peasy to make, dense & moist & morish, just how I wanted it.  I don't know why but I'll just mention this... I never read Charlotte's Web when I was a kid, or maybe it's that I don't remember reading it, surely I'd remember a story like that. Zahra & I finished it together last week & now I've smuggled it onto my bedside table to read it again. What a gorgeous story. The part where he describes the swing in the barn & how the humans don't see how marvellous Charlotte is & how Charlotte dies at the fair, all alone, I was blubbering. What a great book, go grab yourself a copy.

 

 

The Long Track Vanilla Almond Cake

1 cup sugar

1  & 1/2 cups almond meal ( I make my own in our thermomix using raw almonds, so the texture is quite heavy & grainy compared to the fluffy texture of store bought almond meal. You can make your own almond meal too in a food processor. Just make sure you don't over mill the almonds because you will end up with almond butter. They are a greasy nut. Store bought almond meal works fine, your cake will just have a lighter texture)

2/3 cups dessicated coconut

6 eggs

Seeds from 1 vanilla pod 

1/2 to 1 tsp. almond extract, depending on how much you like this flavour. I usually add just over 1/2 a tsp.

1 tbsp. of your choice of vegetable oil { I use a lightly flavoured olive oil or grapeseed oil}

A good handful of flaked almonds

 

Preheat oven 180 ^o  C. Line a cake tin with baking paper making sure to use enough paper so that you can lift the cake out using the paper 'handles' & also to cover the top of the cake once baked ( see the picture above). In a bowl combine the almond meal, sugar & coconut. Mix in the eggs, vanilla, almond extract & oil until the mixture is thoroughly combined. Alternatively you can put everything into an electric mixer & mix on a medium speed until it is well combined. Transfer the mixture to your lined baking pan & sprinkle with flaked almonds. Bake for 30 mins or until a skewer comes out clean from the centre of the cake. Using your paper handles take your cake out of the pan, leave the paper underneath the cake and set it on a cooling rack. We usually eat a piece right away, while it is still hot from the oven. When your cake has cooled use the excess paper around the sides of the cake to wrap up your cake & store in an airtight container. I store mine in a glass cloche which is not airtight but wrapping the paper around the cake keeps it moist. We find the cake gets better with age.  If I am making this recipe to take to a friends house I will bake it the day before. Happy baking.

 

 

 

 

 

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pause & sweep

 

 

What a monumental storm we had last night. Fast and furious she was but the dog knew what we were in for. Five minutes before I heard the freight train of hail roaring over the hill she crept into our room, big brown eyes all worried, me cosied up reading Charlotte's Web enjoying the thunder & lightning, "what's up girly?" Then BOOM. Oh my stars. You've never seen me move so fast, gathering towels, blankets, bath mats, whatever I could grab to throw over the car from the deck. But it was flying in all directions & it hurt, so I kind of just flung them into the darkness below hoping they'd at least cover the skylight. With every flash of lightning I could see the whiteness of the roar. Then the roof started leaking, water pouring down the walls in the hall, through the smoke detector. I ran to find vessels, floundering around, a garbage bin and a bowl. I call Will at work, voice shaking, he keeps telling me to take a deep breath, then the lights die. Find a headtorch, check the girls. Check the roof. Big girl still sleeping, how? I don't know. Little girl wide awake & shaking. "It's OK Nevey, Mama's here. It's very loud isn't it chicken. The sky is making a lot of noise". I remember the chooks in the apple tree & the crested pigeon nesting in our front hedge. Surely they'll be.... Shining the headtorch through the kitchen window I can see their eyes gleaming....headcount. Matilda, one. Clothilde, two. Anouk, three. Four? Four? Where's Ananbelle?   I call Will back, he walks me around the house & we check the circuits. There's not much I can do until it passes. He can hear it now, roaring towards him at work. "Col, col," Niamh keeps saying as she shivers. "Let's go get cosy my sweetpea chickadee". We tuck up in bed together then after what was probably only ten minutes, but the  l.o.n.g.e.s.t, thick like cutting butter ten minutes ever, the roaring moves on & there's nothing but quiet thunder & lightning. "Back to bed my toasty little one",  then it's out on the deck to survey the damage. Coming back through the door into the dark house I turn around and see the tall shape of a man standing in the hallway. The last time I remember being this hysterical was when I trod on a rat in our kitchen in Sydney over ten years ago, killing it because it's head literally popped under my foot. Ugh, I can still feel it & hear that POP! but it's William & I cried because my nerves were all jangled. Turns out old Annabelle couldn't make it into the tree that night & was safe & dry & warm in the chook house & Mama pigeon had chosen the spot to build her nest. The garden's all battered, tattered leaves, piles of petals, flowers doubled over. All around the neighbourhood today were the sounds of people restoring their own kinds of order. I salvaged what I could from the garden, our first cornflower, baby snowpeas, sprigs of thyme, then I did what I always do when my mind needs to settle & my nerves need de-jangling, I swept. How I love sweeping. The physical work of it, the rhythmical swish, swish of the broom, the path it carves. So lovely. It's a calming pause, particulary at the end of a long day when it's spring & the birds are singing to the twilight & my loves are inside cooking & reading & getting ready for a new night. 

 

 

 

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nine

 

 

The bittersweetness of another birthday. Nine. Nine turns around the sun, nine summer's, nine years passed since that clear, frosty morning. All the stars in the sky shining down on us as we met you. So blessed, so many memories, many happy, some sad, lots & lots of love.  

Happy Birthday my dearest love. May this turn around the sun be filled with all the adventures, all the laughter, all the love & joy you dream of as your wings spread a little wider and you fly a little higher.

xoxo