If you think these pigeons look organised wait til you see the rats below

If you think these pigeons look organised wait til you see the rats below, originally uploaded by In the Light of the Sun.

Seriously, they're so evenly spaced.
How can pigeons, the rats of the sky, be more organised than me?

I like to organise the little things. Like how tea bags are placed in the tea cannister. (think of a giant spiral staircase of tea winding up the walls of the tin. lovely.) How tins in the cupboard have the labels facing the front. Seashell treasures found on happy days at the beach in size order, accending. Scarves, hats and gloves grouped and shelved by colour.

Dishes? in the sink. Clothes? on the floor. Paperwork? in a pile. Blog? neglected.

happy birthday tomas lily lilan

I made this card for my love, whose birthday it is tomorrow.

I made this card using: me, elephant teapot, red tea cup, little matey in a scarf, big books, paper cranes, lamp, throw blanket, cushions, digital camera, photoshop, black cardboard, paper, derwent water colour pencils, glue, cotton thread and needles.



Since I pin pricked the message, I held it up to the window so you could see my super original birthday greetings. pin pricking your text takes longer and is harder than i expected! you need a whole hand thimble, a giant metal glove. that's flexible too. Hmm, could i make my millions with such an invention?...

Anyway, before you think how lovely a girlfriend I am for going to so much trouble with his card,I'm only doing it to be the "better person". He is WAAAAAY behind on the card making/giving point scores, and now I am even further ahead.

It's tough being this awesome, but someone's gotta do it.

Don't keep calm and carry on

Don't keep calm and carry on., originally uploaded by moleitau.

I have loved the "Keep Calm and Carry On' mantra/poster for years. It was my motto when I first moved to full time work after finishing uni, helping me to stay calm whilst adapting to the crazy world of office politics and demands.

I think this message is more me these days. I especially need to remember the second part - make things.

I'm going to make something this week. Not sure what yet. What are you going to make?

Drawing for a Cure

I have to share the amazing work of Pretty Little Thieves. I can't believe I haven't discovered her before on my travels around Etsy and the blogosphere. The girl has BUCKETLOADS of talent. Super cute colours and characters.

Even though my walls are pretty chocablock full of wonderful art right now, I could not resist purchasing this original artwork in her Etsy store because the proceeds of the sale are going to charity. I love humanity.

It's called How Lucky Cat and I think it shall forever remind me of how lucky I am. Unless I can bare to pass it on to a lucky friend... we'll see!

Thanks ever so Pretty Little Thieves! Keep up the good work.

Harvest 09

Forgive me Blogfather for I have sinned. It's been more than a week since my last post.

I have been slack indeed. It's just that I came back to the city to find the company I work for has made another round of drastic redundancies (including my entire team) and I have been struggling to pick up the pieces since returning to work. Even though I was not one of the unlucky ones to suddenly lose their jobs it's still taken a rather large chunk out of my energy and confidence and I just want to crawl into bed and stay there for a very long time.

And so I have put off posting these photos from the farm because that would mean that harvest is well and truly over for the year and I have to go back to my desk and computer. sigh.

Harvest was, as it always is, glorious. I really love being a part of my family and think it's so wonderful and amazing how people just come and help out, all for free, just cause they love my parents so much.

I wish I had a green thumb and knew more about growing things. I guess if i listened more to my parents I might learn.

Here are some pics from the Harvest. There's more on my flickr page if you are interested.

The 'driveway' up to the house. What a lovely sight to behold after a very long drive...

The sunsets were amazingly stunning each night. A lovely way to end a hard days work. Who needs tv when you have the sky? (Nature's tele?!)

That's me upfront. Handpicking the olives was tough this year due to water stress. The poor little things held on for dear life.

Axel the Beagle and Cleo the Old English Sheepdog were some of our official four legged Grove guards!



The spiders webs were amazing that morning, all the dew made them look with pretty beaded necklaces.
My love resting after a lot of hard work! Mum and Dad would be lost without him. (so would I!)

I'll work on a post showing you exactly how your olive oil is made and get it up soon.

Oh, I also made some tasty baked beans for harvest and a really lovely rose lemonade so I will post recipes soon too!

tree change

I am very pleased to announce that for one whole week and I am fleeing this town and heading to the country for some serious fresh air.

It's not a sea change, as I already live by the ocean, but more of a tree change. I'll be swapping Moreton Bay Figs and telegraph poles for Olive trees, Cypress Pines and Eucalyptus.


It's harvest time at Eastridge Olive Grove and we have several tonnes of olives to pick and process for delicious olive oil!

It's a special time of year when close family and friends all stay at my parent's farm to help out with the harvesting. Tom is already there helping Dad & Mum with the pre-harvest activities and I am driving up tomorrow morning with the Cat.

Hopefully, the drive there will be stressfree, unlike last year when I managed to do this to Dad's Landrover...
It is a funny story in retrospect but at the time - rather bloody awful actually! Although I wasn't the one who had to run for several kilometres to get help...Thanks Bean!!

Here are a few shots from last years harvest. I'll be back in a week to take you through the whole process, from tree to kitchen shelf!

P.S Bean we will miss you so much this year. Go Team Slow!! Now with new improved slowness... Bring some European backpackers for next years harvest will you?

let us eat cake

Mum asked me to make this cake for Nana's birthday. It's the perfect cake for those who aren't that interested in the classic chocolate cake but still like something quite decadent. It's personally a favourite of mine because it combines two of my favourite ingredients - lemon and almond. Winning ingredients in savoury or sweet if you ask me.

It's probably more of a loaf than a cake, it's very dense and moist and rich, unsurprising as it has 4 eggs and a stick of butter in it! So, not for everyday, but we only have a birthday once a year, right?

Anyway - here's the recipe. It's a Nigella Lawson number from her How to be a Domestic Goddess recipe book, so I've made it super fast using the food processor. She wouldn't have it any other way.

Damp Lemon and Almond Cake

The cast:

225g unsalted butter
225g castor sugar
4 eggs
50g plain flour
225g ground almonds
1/2 teaspoon of almond essence
grated zest and juice of two lemons

Step 1: Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. My oven is a little on the hot side though so 160 works better for me.

Step 2: Get your zest and juice ready. I love lemons...


Step 3: Cream the butter and sugar until almost white. You can of course use your muscles for this task, but in the spirit of Nigella I opted for the processor.


Step 4: Add in the eggs, one at a time, adding a quarter of the plain flour in between each egg.

Step 5: Gently stir in the ground almonds, the almond essence and lemon zest and juice.

Step 6: Pour into a cake tin. I love the new silicon cake moulds as you don't have to grease them and they clean easy and storing them is as easy as shoving them into the corner of your overcrowded drawer. Not that I have messy cupboards or anything...

It's not going to rise much as there is no rising agent in this cake, so fill it to the brim. (Or close to the brim, then use a spatula to get every last drop out of the bowl and into your mouth. Lick it clean if need be. You never know how the end product is going to turn out so it's important that you get something for your efforts.)


Step 6: Bake for about an hour, depending on how your oven goes. You'll know it's done if it's firm on top and a skewer comes out cleanish. I have to cover the tin with foil after half an hour or so otherwise the top burns too much.

Step 7: Allow to cool for 5 minutes then turn it out onto a wire rack and rest til cool.

Now, I forgot to take a picture at this stage, probably because I managed to burn the sides a little and it cracked down the top too and was drowing my sorrows with a glass of wine.

But that's nothing a little sprinkle of icing sugar and some decoy decorating won't fix.


Bon Appetit and Bonne Anniversaire Nana!

the view from my high horse is foggy

why is it so much easier to judge people than it is just to accept them, or give them the benefit of the doubt?

It really pisses me off what a monstrous hyprocrite I can be sometimes.

I was in my local health foodstore/organic grocer. I was picking up a few items for dinner and a cake I am baking for nana's birthday. There was a junkie in the store stocking up big time on everything. Juice, fresh food, tea, cheese, nuts, rice, whatever, he was grabbing it. I took one look at him and thought what the hell are you doing in here mate?

I waited patiently behind him at the checkout. He was fumbling in his pockets for cash and then he asked to sign up for the store membership, so he could get a discount. First Name? Dragon. Last Name? Blue. Address? I'm in between places right now.

And in my head I'm venomously ranting - "Good luck you fucking junkie, as if these organic groceries are going to do anything for your health compared to the immense amounts of chemicals you injest with all the heroin/ice you consume daily. And where the hell are you going to cook these organic meals if you don't live anywhere? And who is going to believe your name is Dragon Blue?!"

As I was walking home with my purchases the realization of what an enormous hypocrite I had been dawned on me. Who I am to judge this guy, whom I know nothing about whatsoever. Do I like it when people judge me for what I look like? And how can I pretend that how I live my life is really any better than anyone else? Dragon's probably just trying to make a go of it, just like I am.

We're all just trying to make a go of it, and sometimes we slip up or make mistakes. It just annoys me that I am so quick to forget this fact and so fast to judge others when my own life is far from perfect. It's a lonely ride on my high horse.

I am game.

This has cheered me up considerably! My brother introduced me to Lisa Hannigan years ago when she sung for Damien Rice. My brother has impecable taste and Lisa Hannigan is no exception.

I love this song. It's my favourite on her album, See Saw. (Which by the way, has the MOST AMAZING knitted, embroidered album cover ever)

I had never seen the music video until today though.

I Don't Know from ATO Records on Vimeo.

Now I love her even more. She's like my Irish Amelie. I think I might watch it a few more times. I'll have a cup of tea and all my troubles will sort themselves out.

disappointed

I'm a bit down this morning because I went to pick up a print from the photo shop that had been ordered on my Etsy store. At first glance all looked fine. Then when I had a better look in the car, I noticed an odd mark on the print that wasn't there last time I had it developed.

I went back to ask them what it was, in not so many words it turns out the developer has gotten some chemicals on my negative.

sigh. I won't pretend I didn't cry a little. Not only it is one of the most popular prints in my store, I never got a chance to make one for myself. That, and how do I explain this problem to the lovely customer that just ordered the print? Give her a refund I guess and send her the print with the mark? It's small, but I am sure some eagle eyed people would notice it.

Now I've let her down and that's bad for business.

The photo shop has said they will try to clean the negative and print it again but I am not holding my breath for a good result.

I can always take the photo again, but it may never be the same.


* Update - just rung the photo shop. They have fixed up the print digitally. At least the customer will get what she ordered then. Now I just have to take another equally lovely shot. With my broken holga!