Saturday night

I am so so happy it is the long weekend. Thank GOD! Such a hard week, but my presentation went really well (despite me wearing converse amongst a group of suits) and my flu is gone!!!

I am cooking casserole. I have never cooked casserole before. Beef, potatos, carrots, brown onion, portobello mushrooms, tomato paste, French mustard, beef stock and dark beer. I used to think I was a great cook - my friends and family used to tell me I was pretty good after many dinner parties and Christmases. But alas, in the last year I have lost any magic touch I may have had. I find it quite funny really as very easy things have become difficult and I have many more misses than hits!!! Maybe it is being far too busy to feel the love for the food.

I tried to brown the meat tonight and managed to burn the bottom of my fancy French cast iron pot more than 'brown' the meat...just to let you know, this happened twice ;-)

But it is cooking now and it smells ok...

My prep took ages. Its getting late and it still needs another hour cooking...

My boyfriend had pizza at his soccer match, celebrating their win. He forgot to tell me so he will have a 'little' of my casserole rather than it being a special dinner...

I am watching foxtel, excited to have to tele to myself for a while. Being able to choose from Rick Stein and the English 'Come Dine with Me' (YAY!) I realised I have seen both episodes...

So, I am happy sitting in front of the tele, watching not much really, waiting for dinner with my tummy rumbling, my feet warming in front of my new $20 fan heater. Life is bliss!!!

I think I will make individual apple and blackberry crumbles for desert. With Greek yoghurt. Yum.

x

Dandelions and bubbles

I have had chronic flu and it is driving me crazy - nose running, coughing, spluttering. I have still had to turn up to work as I am in the middle of exams, marking, presentations, etc. etc. I am lucky the rest of my department is sick so I don't have to worry about passing it to them. I went home at lunch because I could not stand it anymore.

It is winter now and it is starting to get pretty chilly. What has been really bad is that it has rained for a couple of weeks - and not just sprinkles but absolute downpours. Luckily my apartment did not flood this time.

This morning, as I left my house, the morning sun shining through the trees was yummy. The beautiful dandelion in my front yard just had to be captured on camera, and I thought of it as a sort of good luck charm for the day.

Once at work, bleary eyed and again almost putting my teaspoon of coffee granules into my cereal bowl instead of my mug, out of the corner of my eye I saw a tiny little bubble made from the dishwashing liquid. It was so pretty I thought 'YES! it MUST be a lucky day'.

Hours later, sniffing, coughing and dripping under my doona in front of the tele, after a day of marking, hard work, and dealing with overly sensitive adolescent students, I have decided that really, there was nothing lucky about today. Except that I was able to see the beauty in a dandelion and a bubble.

IF_Trail

Little Molly leaves a trail of footprints in the snow on her favourite walk. Molly's fuscia scarf hangs so low to the ground that it too creates a little trail in the snow. Molly says 'hello' to all the wonderful creatures of the forest - 'Hello Mr Owl, Mr Fox, Mr and Mrs Rabbit, Hello Blackbirds and Ravens!'



Winter has begun here - although, being Sydney Australia, it won't snow. Its nice to dream though. This is my illustration for 'Illustration Friday'. Like I said in my last post, I was going to illustrate my favourite walk but turned it into a snow scene instead. It was difficult leaving so much of the paper white for the snow - as you can see from my art I am not much into white paper! Watercolours, watercolour pencil, watercolour paper, white gouache.

Hope you like it
x

This is me

This is the first picture of me on this blog. I like this picture because it is of me doing one of my favourite things - riding my beautiful bike on one of my favourite walking trails. I never made a conscious decision to not place a pic of me on my blog. It just has never happened.

No walking or bike riding today though. I have a cold so I am still in my pj's in bed. I have promised a friend I will go to the gym with her this arvo. I will, I will!

I was so happy when this week's Illustration Friday topic was 'Trail'. I immediately thought I would illustrate this very special place. But, strangely enough, I have done a snow scene with a girl, a trail of footprints and a pink scarf dragging through the snow. This I am finding difficult because I hate leaving paper white! And a snow scene means, yes, fields of white. We are now in winter and as a kid I yearned for it to snow in Sydney - ah - not going to happen! I don't mind as much now because I drive 6 or so hours to the snow fields in winter. And I spend lots of money I don't have because the snow is so scarily expensive!

I will post my snow scene tomorrow morning when I can use the scanner at work. I think I will lie down again now. Happy chilliness if you are in my part of the world and happy Summer for those of you who are not!

x