Food first

Well, it looks like I am doing a pretty miserable job this year in the blogging department. I might have overdone it last year and set expectations too high gentle readers!

So I will just share with you one of the lovely vegetarian meals that we cooked and ate last weekend.

Potato bake with sour cream, leeks and swiss chard; over-roasted butternut pumpkin with chilli flakes; some big honking roasted mushrooms

The potato bake was inspired by something in a recent Australian Gourmet Traveller mag. I suggested it and bought all the ingredients, but Roo and Emily did most of the work.

Looks like a monthly update is all I can handle…

There seems to be a lot going on, and little time to blog about it.  I’m thinking that perhaps I am too connected and a bit disjointed in my approach to social networking and blogging.  I have been considering only updating my Tumblr blog MLTuckerAtLarge, which feeds to my Twitter and my Facebook and just leave it at that.  More photos taken on the run, less writing.  But the whole idea of this blog was to write more. Easier said than done.

The day job at the documentation factory and my ongoing love affair with studying Italian seem to be getting in the way. Maybe it’s just that I have been busy with summer (now more or less gone) and blogging will be easier to do over the colder months (from the cozy couch). So, I am not giving up yet. This year will be the test.

But right now, I have Italian homework to do…i compiti.

Mi piace i compiti!

An April afternoon at Cleland Wildlife Park

Visiting niece Emily had not seen a kangaroo or Koala yet after nearly 2 months in Australia and I hadn’t been to Cleland in over 15 years I reckon. Clearly we are slack hosts! So today Roo, Emily and me hopped in the car and headed for the Adelaide Hills.

Cleland Wildlife Park

It was a perfect afternoon with a totally cloudless sky. Just right for some speccy shots of us getting up close and personal with the furry marsupials.

Emily with Vincent the koala

 

Roos with Roo and Emily

Wallaby darned, there's a Joey in that pouch.

We finished up at Mount Lofty Summit, a lookout over Adelaide.  It was brilliant autumn weather with just a hint of chill in the air at the end of the day. Autumn in Adelaide. Not too bad at all.

The lookout at Mt Lofty

March Madness, Adelaide Style

It’s almost over for me, the March madness. And it’s both a relief and a cause of sadness.  Relief because I need my beauty rest and sadness because the end of the festival season means the long summer evenings are soon to be gone. The Adelaide Fringe and Womadelaide are events I participate in each year. The Fringe finishes today. I attended a nice mix of comedy, music, visual arts and avant-garde performances.  Justin Townes Earl at The Governor Hindmarsh Hotel (The Gov) was a highlight of Adelaide Fringe 2011 for me, oh and getting commandeered into pulling a percussion float at the Fringe Parade…

Yesterday I went to Womadelaide.  I used to go for the whole weekend but it’s expensive and I have become more strategic in my selection of must-see acts.  This year I really wanted to see Martha Wainwright and Asa.  Fortunately they were doing main-stage shows on the same day.  And every year there is at least one act that is new for me and that just blows me away.  This year that act was 17 Hippies, direct from a cold and wet Berlin to one of Adelaide’s brilliant late summer days.

Here are some photos from Womadelaide on this perfect Saturday.

Womadelaide 2011 - 17 Hippies

Womadelaide 2011 - 17 Hippies

Womadelaide 2011 - Asa in a quieter moment

Womadelaide 2011 - Martha Wainwright

A perfect Saturday evening at Womadelaide 2011

See my Flickr site for more photos from Womadelaide and Adelaide Fringe 2011.

This vego thing…

OK, so some time ago we decided to go Vego at Home at home while my vegetarian niece was living with us.  Well, she has arrived. No meat has crossed the thresh-hold for a week and a day.

So has it make any difference eating Vego at Home so far? Well, I have noticed that I don’t feel the need for alcohol with my vegetarian meals, though, out of habit I have had a little wine with some meals.  I thought it would feel that we were eating lighter, but actually we seem to be substituting starch in the evening meal (potatoes and bread) where before we may not have had any at night. Like these two meals:

Grilled zucchini, mozzarella, tomato, basil, chili and garlic on Lebanese bread

This dish was adapted from something on the cover of an Australian Gourmet Traveller magazine.

Potato, asparagus and jalapeno with some cheese and yogurt

And this one Emily’s mother emailed to her.  Again we varied it by using asparagus instead of the recommended broccoli, because that’s what we had in the fridge.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed both these meals and some others that we’ve had. So Vego at Home thing will continue.  Watch this space…

The return of Fu Fu the cat

We have a lovely, timid  neighbourhood cat whose name we do not know. We call him Fu Fu because of his panda-like appearance.  Think Wang Wang, Shi Shi or  Yang Yang.   Fu Fu comes to our garden to see our cats most days.  But for the last three or four weeks we had not seen him at all. We thought perhaps he and his peeps had moved away, or that Fu Fu had an early demise on a nearby busy road.  Andrew and I were a little sad that Fu Fu was not visiting.

Today though, he came back and he looks healthy and like he has grown.  We’ve speculated that he has been at ‘Kitty Camp’ while his owners were away on holidays.  He’s still shy, so clearly, if he was at Kitty Camp,  he has not become a gregarious party animal!

A tentative Fu Fu with the effervescent Speedy

Fu Fu amongst the cat grass and thyme

 

Jose, not so sure about all this Fu Fu visiting

We are glad that Fu Fu has not moved away and we expect his personality won’t change much.  And that’s just fine.  All of the cats we know have unique personalities and that’s what makes them so enchanting.

Adelaide Fringe parade cancelled due to rain

Who would have thought there would be enough rain in Adelaide in February to cancel a parade? Well no one! But rain it did, pretty much all day.

The amazing king and queen were left hanging from the crane for a few hours and we grabbed this snap as we were leaving the muster area.

The decision to cancel would not have been taken lightly as the event has been in the planning for some months.  I really feel for the artists, designers, crew and participants who worked so hard and long.  But in the interest of safety there was really no other option.  The rain was relentless in the hours when we were to be helping the participants prepare.

Fellow volunteer and niece, Emily, and I made our way up Rundle Street through the gathered throng of Fringe merry makers and consumed possibly the world’s worst burrito at a wannabe Mexican place called Zambrero.  I mean, who makes green salsa out of jalapeños rather than tomatillas? Who uses pickled jalapeños? Who uses sticky Basmati rice in Mexican? And where the heck was the cumin? I don’t usually bother giving a place a bad rap.  I usually just don’t go back.  But don’t proclaim on your website that you’re “the Best Fresh Mexican Grill in the free world”! Hell, an Old El Paso Burrito Kit would have had better flavours!

Lucky that Roo and I started our Fringe experience last night with a visit to the Bosco Theatre in the Garden of Unearthly Delights to see Sam Simmons’ very special brand of funny.  And a few drinkie-poos under the stars after.

Ah well, the weather is bound to get better for the rest of the Fringe and we’ll be out there.

Geez 2011 – you have some catching up to do

Other than a photo on my bike ride home, I haven’t posted a blog since the first of the year. Oh dear, what’s going on? Last year I was quite prolific, at least for me…

It’s not that nothing is happening this year; maybe I am just adjusting to being back in Australia and back at work after my fabulous 12 weeks off, with 10 of those weeks spent in Italy (view Italy blog here).

Whatever it is, I seem to not be finding time. And now the Adelaide Fringe volunteer work I do in the lead-up to the Fringe Opening Night Parade, is upon me. Of course there’s always the day job at  ‘the documentation factory’ to keep me truly busy.

Been making ready a room for Emily, my niece who is arriving in less than 24 hours now. and it is looking pretty tidy! We are sure to have some blog-worthy adventures over the coming months…And well, maybe now that I have admitted I have a problem, I can start to work on it!  Here’s to my blog stats for 2011.

Central market Adelaide

View from South Road tram bridge

I volunteer after hours with the Adelaide Fringe helping build floats and props for the opening night parade. Riding my bike home over the tram bridge last evening I was treated to this great view.

That was the year that was – 2010

How lucky am I that last year, 2010, was one of mostly ‘highs’ for me.  Even some of the lows brought unexpected moments of bitter-sweet melancholy. And that’s a good thing in my book.  The idea that we must always be happy is such a western concept. Times of sober pensiveness are important aspects of a life lived in the real world.

So, the year is over.  Here’s how it stacked up for me:

• I had the great fortune to spend time with an old friend who was in Adelaide for a few months to see her mother out of this world. We shared cups of tea and meals and more than a few laughs to help her through the dark times.
• I spent 5 whole weeks with my big sister Annie in Italy where we studied Italian, spent time with our wonderful and generous relatives, consumed fabulous food and drink and made some new friends. Basically, it DID NOT SUCK at all! It has been years since we have had such a carefree time together, probably since our childhood or maybe our early 20s at a stretch.  We may never get the opportunity again given we are at opposite ends of the world, so I am going to savour that  5 weeks for a long time.
• My husband and fellow adventurer, Roo, joined me for a second 5 weeks in Italy, mainly Naples/Amalfi Coast and 3 glorious, slow-paced weeks around Sicily. We were blessed with great weather and friendly folks at every turn. Sicily rejects the stereotype of a dark, secretive, dangerous place. And it can not be rushed.
• On the work front I was incredibly challenged with an interactive forms design project and completed some work that a colleague and I can be quite proud of.

Some obvious highs and lows there I guess. But I can tell you that the lows were valid, important experiences that seemed insurmountably difficult at the time, and from which I learned a lot.

And now 2011 is already lining up some interesting times. Here’s hoping that I’m up to it!

Cheers!