This summer is proving to be tough already, only 2 weeks into it. It is hot, so hot, and dry. Drought has been officially declared in our sub-tropical region. How can this be? We watch as our poor garden fades and fails and still try to make the most of the things we can keep alive.
And yet we know we are nowhere near as bad as folk further to our west.
This time of year is also kind of bitsy - there seem to be things finishing, gatherings to be had, work to get done, preparations made for guests and the like, so it seems as if I just move between one wee thing and another. But I enjoy and appreciate most of them.
First things first - food!
More shortbread is being baked - for family and for friends.
More tomatoes are appearing - the heat sees them ripen before your very eyes, but kilograms have gone to friends and relish and sauces are being made.
And for some reason not even known to me, I thought I'd like to try to make some labna. So into the brand new handkerchief the yoghurt went, tied around a metal straw and hanging in a vase in the fridge. High tech all the way! Will see how we go in a few days when it has drained.
And then to sewing. My pocket fetish/infatuation is in no way abating, so I am trying to work out new ways to incorporate pockets into my clothes. I have a pair of pockets like these on some pants I bought and thought I should try to work out how to do them for myself. So here is the calico mock-up.
And here they are successfully designed and applied to a new pair of pants. Most happy I am (altho I need to make the elastic in the waist tighter, still they are very nearly done).
A friend needed a quick card as a gift and they popped over to print the word PACE!! which relates to an acting teacher's regular commands to them to keep the pace up (at first I thought he wanted the Italian for peace...). A couple fo proofs.
I needed a few more grief cards - different ones this time - the dandelion ones with the words "they lived and laughed and loved and left. and life will never be the same again". So managed to use the leftover ink to print them. Still to be illustrated, they are drying merrily in this heat.
And then to the dull as dishwater job of dissing type. I took apart the work I had done for McAuley in Melbourne and put all of the type back in its individual compartments in its individual trays.
And all of those wee spacers - grouped together in size and back in their special spots as well.
Days are full but life is good, except for the no rain thing.
And yet we know we are nowhere near as bad as folk further to our west.
This time of year is also kind of bitsy - there seem to be things finishing, gatherings to be had, work to get done, preparations made for guests and the like, so it seems as if I just move between one wee thing and another. But I enjoy and appreciate most of them.
First things first - food!
More shortbread is being baked - for family and for friends.
More tomatoes are appearing - the heat sees them ripen before your very eyes, but kilograms have gone to friends and relish and sauces are being made.
And for some reason not even known to me, I thought I'd like to try to make some labna. So into the brand new handkerchief the yoghurt went, tied around a metal straw and hanging in a vase in the fridge. High tech all the way! Will see how we go in a few days when it has drained.
And then to sewing. My pocket fetish/infatuation is in no way abating, so I am trying to work out new ways to incorporate pockets into my clothes. I have a pair of pockets like these on some pants I bought and thought I should try to work out how to do them for myself. So here is the calico mock-up.
And here they are successfully designed and applied to a new pair of pants. Most happy I am (altho I need to make the elastic in the waist tighter, still they are very nearly done).
A friend needed a quick card as a gift and they popped over to print the word PACE!! which relates to an acting teacher's regular commands to them to keep the pace up (at first I thought he wanted the Italian for peace...). A couple fo proofs.
I needed a few more grief cards - different ones this time - the dandelion ones with the words "they lived and laughed and loved and left. and life will never be the same again". So managed to use the leftover ink to print them. Still to be illustrated, they are drying merrily in this heat.
And then to the dull as dishwater job of dissing type. I took apart the work I had done for McAuley in Melbourne and put all of the type back in its individual compartments in its individual trays.
And all of those wee spacers - grouped together in size and back in their special spots as well.
Days are full but life is good, except for the no rain thing.
that's a very cool pocket, your shortbread looks yummy and the cards are beautiful, hope some rain happens soon!
ReplyDeleteI am chuffed about the pocket Mo and the shortbread is pretty tasty too. I think the rain is at least month or so away which is dreadful and hard to imagine...
Deletethose shortbreads made me think of my mom ... who always made large rectangles, stabbed them randomly with a fork, then broke up the resulting baked product into jagged shards ... hers, baked with a recipe from her Scotswoman grandmother, was very thick and almost cake-y
ReplyDeleteI quite like your tidy little pans and the stitch-like stab marks ... a very pleasing to the eye way of going ... but in the end, shortbread is a delight however you get there
I love that you know about the shortbread like this Liz! My great grandmother was a wee Scot and this is her recipe. She also always said that you can never cut shortbread - you must break it. I am not sure why but I never ever cut the shortbread - it is always broken into shapes/shards. This shortbread is also very thick and cake-y! I enjoy making random type patterns with the fork and they do look a bit like stitching. Such fun!
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