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Lamenting for the Cross

Last week my husband was working in the city so we decided to have the day 'in town.' We spent a few hours at Rushcutters Bay park. It was a warm winter's day - a perfect day for a play at the park then a walk (and scoot) along the esplanade.

I just love that part of Sydney. My husband and lived there for the first seven years of our relationship. We had an amazing few years eating incredible food and made some great friends too. After our son was born we had the opportunity to explore the area in a new way- playgrounds, parks, child-friendly cafes. We do miss our old life but we just had to move to a larger home and we love where we live now. We also started to feel more vulnerable raising a child so close to Kings Cross with it's seediness.

Comprising of Potts Point, Darlinghurst, Kings Cross, Elizabeth Bay, East Sydney, Rushcutters Bay and Paddington the community is extraordinarily diverse. Evident, even after a short walk through the streets is the poverty, homelessness, drug abuse and prostitution. Alongside that, the community is known for it's Bohemian roots, openly gay community and liberal views. All-in-all its a very accepting community- almost anything goes.

There are also people with huge incomes. The scene I witnessed that most demonstrated the extremes was a few years ago from a stool at the cafe, Latteria, on Victoria Street. One moment I was being urged to give a homeless man some money and in the next I noticed two men leap from their stools. Both of them crossed the busy street to two bright yellow Lamborghinis parked side-by-side. The characteristic doors of the cars raised, they jumped in and hooned off noisily down Victoria st towards Oxford st. 

Sushi on Stanley is an old haunt of ours. One of my first visits to this area, when my husband and I first got together, consisted of a meal there. It remains one of our favourites because of the $18 dinner sets- miso soup, salad, terriyaki chicken, rice, tempura or sushi, sashimi. Yum!

 

To finish the day off, after sushi, we walked from Stanley Street right up into the Cross. We used to do this often after dinner. There is always something to see in the Cross. The other night we stopped at Hernandez on Kings Cross Rd for a hot chocolate. This place is an iconic spot, open 24 hours, and always with a cab driver patron. The walls are adorned with classics and the smell of in-house beans roasting is divine.

Affectionately known by locals as "Poo on Sticks" the sculpture, "Stones Against the Sky" synonymous with the Cross, peers down William St. Almost as iconic as it's neighbour, the Coke Sign, "Poo on Sticks" is a controversial installation. You don't need to look far to read that, sadly, the artwork didn't honour the sculptor's (Ken Unsworth's) materials or design. For many years after it's installation the "poo" part of the sculptor remained a mission brown colour and a few years ago was painted a shade of equally unpalatable gun metal grey. http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2009/s2608883.htm
And for years since its installation council and various guerilla art groups have been lobbying to remove the sculpture. There it remains, against the night skyline.... anything goes!

2 Days Til Spring!

Festival of the Wildflower

Did you know there were so many types of mosquitoes?

 

Yesterday we went to the Festival of the Wildflower in Ku-ring-gah National Park at the Wildflower Garden just off Mona Vale Rd.

The festival consisted of educational activities ~ plant and insect identification, historical perspectives (Aboriginal and European), displays from the Rural Fire Service, injured native animals and native animals from Taronga Zoo, frog watching, dip netting in the ponds, a "senses" garden, etc etc etc,.

What a refreshing perspective for a festival! The whole day was based on the appreciation of the environment and encouraging children to be informed citizens. It wasn't about spending $!

There are a number of bushwalks that can be done around the Wildflower Garden including some with pram and wheelchair access.You can also have a children's party there or visit with your playgroup or mothers group.

We won't be waiting until next festival to visit the gardens again! 

Can you spot the frog?

Bookworm

We have a bookworm. We discovered him reading on the back step with his scareowl* the other day.

* The scareowl is supposed to discourage the myna birds from visiting.

Barefoot Chai

I have made a commitment now to go to yoga at least once a week. I was so eager this morning to get out of the house and back in touch with my post-baby body.

Yoga is just perfect!!

A friend suggested we go for chai afterwards and we discovered a new cafe opened on Monday in Manly - Barefoot - right on the street next to Adriano Zumbo's outlet.

Yummy chai & I love the mugs!

My new bag

My husband has been away a lot during the last year- 7 out of the past 11 months in fact. He's been back about a month now (thankfully!) so we are relishing our family time more than ever! I am also thankful that it's not me going away. Being at home with two little kids has its challenges but I wouldn't want to be the one leaving them behind!

The upside of a trip away is that I often benefit with a gift. Isn't this a great bag? I love the vintage style fabric of the outside and the lining is beautiful. My husband also bought our daughter a dress made from the same fabric as the lining. The bag is even big enough to store a few nappies in!

Hints of Spring

There are a few hints that spring is not far away. The days are getting warmer and there are blooms appearing. The jasmine smells divine!

Every year on the day of the winter solstice my husband remarks "Oh great. We are heading into summer now!" Drawing on some of his enthusiasm I have been documenting a few other hints that we are, in fact, heading into summer or at the very least, spring!

Two of my favourite scents are jasmine and freesia flowers. I just love their citrusy tang. Daphne is another favourite of mine. As a primary school aged girl I remember visiting a classmate for the day in the local town. We discovered an empty block in her street where freesias were growing in abundance. We, ingeniously, picked as many as we could and sold them to the other residents of the street. I only remember selling to one buyer. We probably bought lollies with the cash.

I just love the house that we walk past in our neighbourhood. It reminds me of the neat, quaint houses in the Netherlands (although it has blinds). The couple who live there are well into their 90's and the husband walks every day. We often see them out in the garden (the wife directing the proceedings) as we walk by.

How to get a toddler to eat all his dinner!

                                                   

Another weekend is almost over! Two days is just not enough time to rejuvenate before another hectic week of juggling work, children & chores. We'd love to have a few more days to potter at home. Oh well!

Today we spent a few hours at our local mall. I was most impressed to see a 'Fathers Room' - an inclusion that reflects the involvement of many fathers in families these days.

The shop window reminded me of our dear little friend, Scarlet, who moved from Sydney earlier this year. We do miss her and her gorgeous parents but we'll be seeing them soon when we meet her brand new brother!

There are still a few more hours of daylight so the men of the house have gone outside to do a bit of a backyard renovation - putting up some geo-mesh so the chooks don't kill-off the grass with the dirt they scritch out of their pen; attaching a new owl 'scarecrow' to the balcony to keep the pesky myna birds at bay and; screwing in a tall piece of plastic lattice to prevent our daughter (or any other visitors) from crawling off the balcony and into the garden.

I'd better go and spend these last few hours of the weekend outside too and prepare for pizza night tonight. This recipe from Donna Hay's 'Seasons' has changed my attitude about cooking with yeast (scary to easy) and comes up trumps every time. A sign of a good pizza recipe is a sprinkling of flour in the spine of the book, right?

(Tonight our 2-year-old son made himself the pizza above. It was a novelty having a heart-shaped pizza. Obviously a popular one because he ate two pizzas with spinach, fresh pineapple, olives, fresh tomato, salami, onion & cheese.)

quick custard tarts

A friend accepted my invitation to come by for morning tea this morning. A perfect opportunity to try out a recipe I'd been drooling over in Jamie's 30 Minute Meals.

Custard tarts. They were SO easy and SO delicious and perfect with a cup of tea. Yum!

making mandarin marmalade

Today I finally tended to the large bag of mandarins a friend had let me pick from his tree on a recent trip to Port Macquarie. I had two kilos so I doubled the recipe I found in Stephanie Alexander's A Cook's Companion.

Doubled:

2 kg mandarins

8 large lemons

4 litres water

4 kg sugar (woah!!)

Remove the zest from the mandarins and lemons with a vegetable peeler and cut into julienne. Juice fruit, reserving pips.

 

Cut remaining pith into strips and put into a muslin bag with pips. Tie firmly. Put into non reactive pot with juice, zest and water (oops- I only added 2 litres of water & didn't realise until the following morning) and bring to the boil.

Reduce heat and simmer with the lid just ajar for about an hour until the liquid has reduced by half (I had to do this for longer- more like two hours. Perhaps the heat wasn't high enough). Leave in covered pot overnight (including muslin bag).

 

 

Preheat oven to 180ºc. Squeeze muslin bag very firmly into reduced liquid (I kept my bags and will wash and reuse them). Bring liquid back to boil with pot resting on a simmer mat (I don't have one of these so I just made sure the heat wasn't too high.)

Meanwhile warm sugar in the oven. Add sugar to pot and stir until dissolved. I only ended up putting in 2kg. I felt that that was PLENTY and because I hadn't put enough water in I wasn't prepared to put the whole 4kg in!) Boil briskly without stirring for 5-10 mins until at setting or jelly stage.*

Bottle in hot, sterilised jars.

* To test whether a jam, jelly or marmalade has reached setting stage, put a tablespoon of the preserve onto a cold saucer and chill it for a few minutes. Push your finger through the middle of the blob - if it remains in 2 distinct halves, the setting stage has been reached. If using a candy thermometre, start testing at 104ºc.

And here is a sample of the end result:

 

Very yummy. Very sweet. Not something we'll be eating every day! 

All dressed up with somewhere to go...