Reading – Page 9 – MakeCookGrow.com

Hello Autumn!

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Autumn is here! A few days have been cool enough for long pants and even a scarf this morning which is a lovely change. By the end of summer I am tired of my summer clothes. Also planted snow peas as a winter crop.

A crisp, yellow autumn morning, so breakfast at the beach followed by a walk. Great view, great food and a great walk!

I seem to abandon herbal teas when it gets cooler and drink way too many espressos. Lots of socializing means lots of espressos but I love catching up with friends. And I love good coffee.

In gardening news, I am pleased with these cream clivia seedlings. I collected seeds from a mature plant. I planted fourteen and they all germinated and most are thriving.

Started the new year doing a small painting every day, but life got in the way. Lately I’ve been doing quick watercolour pencil paintings using anything around me on or near the table as subject matter. As I’ve become more familiar with the pencils I’ve realized how versatile they are and will keep working with them on small pieces.

This Sunday is Mother’s Day. We are really looking forward to spending the day with my mother, chatting, eating, just spending time together. Mother’s Day is special!

This eye catching display of huge paper flowers is hanging from the very high ceiling of our local shopping centre (mall) to celebrate Mother’s Day.

We have a holiday soon and part of the planning is collecting books as we both find it really relaxing to lie around reading. Some we will both read, some we wont, but we leave them at the resort as we finish them for anyone who wants them.

Did you know May is Get Caught Reading month? So much to enjoy, fiction, non-fiction, perhaps some poetry, but don’t just restrict yourself to reading in May, read every day!

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Making Pesto, Cooking Pizza and Reading ” Common Table”

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MAKING Made pesto using just harvested basil and other simple ingredients. I picked and rinsed the leaves then blitzed them with extra virgin olive oil, lightly roasted pine nuts, pecorino (a strong sheep) cheese and garlic. Smells wonderful, tastes delicious. This pesto doesn’t keep for very long, but we’ll use it on pizzas tonight and on pasta tomorrow. It never lasts for long because it tastes so good.

I was a bit surprised to read that bought pesto has vegetable oil, pine nuts, garlic and pecorino cheese plus milk, salt, potato flakes, sugar and acidity regulator(575). Try making your own. So easy, so tasty, so fresh.

COOKING This yeasty pizza dough rose nicely as it was a warm day. Later, we rolled out the dough and made a variety of pizzas with several different toppings, including some of the pesto I made earlier. Delicious, quick to cook and a treat for us plus some leftovers for tomorrow.

Common Table

READING “Common Table” written by Janice Marriott and Virginia Pawsey, two New Zealanders who were at school together and met again later in life and began corresponding by letter, which make up this book. The co-authors write about their shared interest in food and their diverse lives and different challenges, as one lives on an isolated farm and the other in the city. Warm, often very funny, scattered with recipes and astute observations about the people around them, this is a book about two old friends adjusting to their changing lives and expectations.

I enjoyed this book so much I have hunted down and ordered their previous book, Common Ground, based on their shared passion for gardening.

Today is Meditate in a Garden Day, which sounds like a lovely thing to do, so make time to settle, relax and meditate in a garden.

Common Table

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What Are You Watching On TV?

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What are you watching on television? We have nearly 20 free-to-air channels and still struggle to find programs we want to watch each evening.

I grew up on a farm and we didn’t have mains electricity until I was 12 years old. We had a 32 volt generator which my father would start each evening for lighting, but apart from the radio, I don’t remember other electrical appliances. We had a slow combustion stove ( commonly called a wood stove, wood being the fuel it used) which meant there was always a hot kettle and hot water, but no television.

When we got mains electricity we also got a TV but only during the school holidays. On school days we went to catch the school bus at 7AM and got home about 5.15PM, we’d have afternoon tea, do our jobs, bathe, have dinner and go to bed, ready to do it all again the next day. So maybe there was only time to watch TV during school holidays.

By the time we got electricity connected my grandparents had left the farm to live in town and they had a large, remote control TV in a wooden frame. It was very grand! They liked to watch news and post news commentaries which I didn’t find very engaging so I continued to read and read as staying in town meant access to the library every day if I wanted.

Watching television has changed over time. It is no longer something you just watch but can involve interacting using hand held devices and split screens. It’s still not very exciting.

So, we rely on recordings, Netflix or on demand services, but actually we don’t watch much TV anyway. We are not alone; recently in a group of friends this was the topic of conversation and almost everyone said they watch much less TV than they used to watch. Fake news, reality programs about cooking and renovating and repeats all got a mention as turn offs.

Image result for Escape to the Country

Nearly everybody I spoke to watches Escape to the Country, an English program started in 2002, where city dwellers are shown three homes in their chosen area matched to their preferences. As viewers we also see small rural villages and sometimes iconic houses as well as local craftsmen and women and learn things about each region. All interesting as Australian viewers. There’s something addictive about seeing inside other peoples’ homes, too, and listening to the things they like and the changes they’d make.

Statistically, a huge number of people watching TV are also reading, on their various devices, doing crosswords, shopping, chatting, eating or partially engaged in some other activity. Very few people are focused solely on the television screen. Me too.

Interestingly, I was just reading an English blog and it was about the same issue. The blogger had asked for suggestions about what she could watch on TV because it was all so banal and she had so many comments from readers about how awful free-to-air TV is and lots of pay TV suggestions. Why has this happened? Is it a worldwide problem?

What are you watching? Do you rely on free-to-air or other sources? Do you watch less TV than you used to? Are you a gamer?

Today is Walk Your Dog Day, so that’s very easy to do, isn’t it? It’s something you can do almost anywhere, so long you have a dog. Great exercise for you and your dog and very sociable. Actually, dogs would like every day to be walk your dog day, I think.

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Reading, Cooking, Scrabble and Decluttering

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This is the third book I’ve read by Jane Harper and it was riveting. Her books feature rural settings and are uniquely Australian in flavour. The Lost Man is set in the harsh, unforgiving environment of outback Queensland. The mysterious story line and gripping, dark themes, slowly revealed as the story unravels, had me guessing until the end. The conclusion really took me by surprise despite the hints throughout the story. This was a complex and evocative novel. I hope Jane Harper is busy writing her fourth novel right now!

I make sourdough bread about every five days. I used to make a traditional round loaf in a Dutch oven but now make an ( almost) rectangular loaf in a Pyrex dish. Sliced, a rectangular piece is a better fit in the toaster and means about the same amount of bread each day. Each time I bake I cut the loaf in half and freeze it so I always have fairly fresh bread.

When the temperature exceeds 40 degrees C (104 F) I lose interest in doing anything outside, so out comes the Scrabble, on goes the air conditioner, add a bowl of cashews and a jug of iced water and there’s a fun afternoon ahead. We bought a box of Scrabble when we lived in China which was light and inexpensive but that resulted from hollow tiles and plastic racks so now trying to unearth our old set with thick, heavy, ivory like tiles and wooden racks. They feel better to handle but don’t improve my score.

Watched three episodes of Konmari on Netflix and felt motivated to sort some drawers in my walk-in-robe. Skipped thanking each piece for being in my life but did pause a few times to wonder why I’d bought them in the first place. A huge bag of things for the Church box and everything remaining is nicely folded and easy to retrieve. The shoes on top of the pile look new as I’ve only worn them once but abandoned them when I towered over the children and most of my colleagues. I was suddenly too tall. I have lots more drawers to sort in the future.

My abundance of clothes is a bit confusing as I realise I wear the same pieces over and over again and rarely touch the other two thirds of my hanging space. The same seems to apply to my shoes. Since retiring my clothing needs have changed dramatically from formal, dressed for work to lots of leggings and knit tops. Not ideal, but even when I leave the house I am less formally dressed than I used to be and also wear lower heeled shoes. Not what I imagined, but the whole look has become pretty relaxed!

Tomorrow is Toothache Day. Can’t find any information about its origins or focus but I’m sure you all know how to treat it and what to do to prevent dental decay, so celebrate in your own way!

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