Beautiful art - A Hot Summer

I thought Melbourne's rising mercury today would form an appropriate backdrop to showcase these seriously gorgeous works from Brooklyn (NY)-based illustrator Monica Ramos. They're part of a series that she calls "A Hot Summer," based on summer in the Philippines.

I've been wanting to show you Monica's work for ages. Take a look through her portfolio, it's fantastic! I'm especially in love with the "Comfort Foods" series. Cute, huh? And if you dream of making a living from your creative work, Monica will share some friendly advice, too.

All images are from Monica's website, and used with her kind permission.

Meet Scout & Ralph

Meet my children. They're pretty great. Their names are Scout and Ralph.

Those are not their real names, of course. Their real names are no big secret and if it's eating you up inside and you just have to know, simply scroll back through some of my older posts and you'll find them. I haven't exactly been backwards when it comes to talking about my children.

But from now on, I will refer to my daughter as Scout and my son as Ralph on this blog, because I want to lessen the digital footprint I am leaving for them.

I'm not overly concerned, really. There's nothing on this blog that is likely to embarrass them when they are older. No bare-bottom photos; no potty-training stories; no revelations about emotional, mental or behavioural challenges; no recounts of arguments with their father; no heartbreaking confessions from me... just a celebration of how much I love them.

And that has been deliberate, all along. This blog is my happy place, so I write mainly about the GOOD things in life that make me happy. Also, I want to respect my family's right to privacy so I don't write things about them or myself that should really stay with us.

However, I have in the past used their real names. So if you were to type those names into a search engine, you'd find the old posts I've written about them.

That's ok, but from now on, there won't be any more. I mean of course if you were to type in their real names, my blog is likely to come up anyway because we share a surname, but nothing specific.

(As an aside, that's why I always call Mr B "Mr B" on here. A lot of you know his name and again it's no big secret, but this way his digital footprint is his own, not something of my making).

You may or may not know or have noticed it in the past, but both of my children bear the names of storybook heroes. They weren't named for those heroes, per se, but we were certainly aware of the characters and fans of the books and looked forward to reading the children the stories of their namesakes when they were old enough to enjoy them.

So when I came to select pseudonyms to use on this blog, I gave them the names of some of my other favourite fictional children. Scout (from To Kill a Mockingbird) is brave and inquisitive and intelligent and thoughtful and kind and fun. Ralph (from The Lord of the Flies) is charismatic and clever and compassionate and reflective and kind.

All attributes I like to think I see in both of my babies, and all attributes that I would hope to nurture and celebrate in them.

Now please excuse me while I go and hug my children.

Roast beetroot, pumpkin & goat's cheese salad

On the weekend I was SO EXCITED to finally harvest the rainbow baby beets I'd been nurturing in my little vegetable box, and to turn them into a roast vegetable salad. I made a bit of a big deal about it, taking Little Miss out with me to talk about plants and food. We both put on our hats and gardening gloves, and her Daddy took a photo…

After all that, my big harvest yielded two baby beets. Two. And they were lovely, perfect little beets, but two baby beets does not a salad make.

So off to Paddy the greengrocer we went, and the lesson on "paddock to plate" was not quite as powerful as I had hoped.

This minor horticultural setback aside, I still think my salad was delicious. The sweetness of the roast vegetables with the creaminess of the cheese was divine. It was also easy to make, and would be simple to adapt with slightly different ingredients. I added chicken to the salad this time because we were quite hungry, but I think it would be just as tasty (probably better) without meat.

Here's how to make this salad for two people.

INGREDIENTS (SALAD)

* Beetroot (a medium-sized beetroot or a handful of baby beets) * Pumpkin (a smallish wedge, I used about two thirds of what you see in the photo) * Baby spinach leaves, as many as you like * Chèvre goat's cheese * Pepitas (sunflower seeds would also be great) * Balsamic vinegar * Olive oil * Salt and pepper

INGREDIENTS (CHICKEN)

* Half a chicken breast * Plain flour * Chinese five-spice * Ground black pepper * Ground sea salt

DRESSING

(OK confession: I used a honey and Dijon mustard dressing that was already made by the good people at Praise. It was delicious, and paired perfectly with the flavours in this salad. If you wanted to make your own, I'd do something similar, because the sweetness of the honey and the sharp taste of the mustard were perfect with the roast veges).

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180 Celcius

2. Peel the beetroots, then chop them into small squares or wedges. In the case of baby beets, peel and halve them.

3. Chop the pumpkin into similar sized pieces, trimming way the skin.

4. Put the beetroot into a baking dish. Splash with olive oil and one or two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper*, then toss until all the beetroot is coated.

5. In a separate baking dish, toss the pumpkin in olive oil, salt and pepper*, just enough to coat it.

6. Put both dishes into the oven and bake until cooked through and the pumpkin is just starting to brown, anywhere from half an hour to an hour (best you just keep checking). I took the pumpkin out and let the beets cook for a bit longer, which would have been fine except then one of the children needed me and the beetroot ended up being in there for just a touch too long, and was a bit overcooked. Ces't la vie. Or more appropriately, ces't la parenthood!

(IF YOU'RE ADDING CHICKEN...)

a) Cut the chicken breast into nugget-sized chunks

b) To about 1/4 cup flour, add a good sprinkling of Chinese five-spice (about one and a half teaspoons but don't worry too much), and several generous grinds of black pepper and sea salt. Mix it all in.

c) Toss the chicken chunks into the flour-and-spice mix and make sure they are well coated.

d) Pan fry in a splash of olive oil until the chicken is cooked through, and golden and slightly crispy on the outside.

7. Put your salad together! Into a salad bowl drop your beetroot, pumpkin and spinach leaves, then pour over the dressing. Not too much, you only want to lightly coat it. Toss the dressing through. If you're serving the salad in individual bowls, now's the time to transfer them. Break apart the chèvre and place it around the salad, then sprinkle the whole thing with pepitas. If you're using chicken, place it on top (but don't toss through), before the pepitas.

Voila!

* Don't use too much pepper or it will overpower the flavour of the roast vegetables.

Meals on Wheels - Treat Yo Self

A couple of weeks ago we headed over to the new Batman Market at Coburg and let me tell you one thing for free: it was street food heaven.

We were there quite early, at about 9.30am, but already a string of food trucks had formed a wonky kind of circle at one end of the market, and the air was filled with wood smoke and coal smoke and the scent of things cooking. Delicious things. Mr B inhaled as though he was just coming up from a long dive and said, "It smells like South America here." Which is one of his highest compliments.

We spent a bit of time exploring to try and build up an appetite, then gave it up for a lost cause and stopped for a ridiculously early lunch. I'm talking 11am or something. Maybe even earlier. But we have babies who need naps and I wasn't going to miss out on tasting at least one of those truck menus before we had to head for home.

So we chose the Treat Yo Self Quesadilla Cart, run by two super-friendly ladies who served their quesadillas in toasted tortillas from an adorable, tiny, old-school caravan with (joy of opera-singing choirs) a coffee machine.

I ordered a blueberry and custard dessert quesadilla for a certain hungry two-year-old, and a latte for me. She all but inhaled that quesadilla, so I went back to buy another filled with nutella and banana, at which point Mr B and I were all "what the hey, let's do this," so we bit the bullet and called it lunch.

My quesadilla was made with black beans, tomato, onion, cheese and green salsa and yes, it was every bit as good as it sounds.

ps. More food trucks of Melbourne

Art on fire

I had wanted to spend the evening last night writing a witty and clever blog post that would make you smile. Instead, I spent the night on my hands and knees sponging baby vomit off the floors, after spending the afternoon cleaning baby vomit off my baby and his pram and a goodly portion of myself, in the Emergency Department waiting area at the Royal Children's Hospital.

It feels like my little boy is sick ALL THE TIME but the triage nurse told me yesterday that babies on average have 10 to 12 viruses in the first year of their lives. Seriously? No wonder babies cry! My baby is 11 months old and I don't think we've clocked up 10 viruses yet, so I guess we're doing well after all…

While he (and I) recover, take a look at this STUNNING video of artist Steve Spazuk who creates extraordinarily beautiful works of art, using fire.

SPAZUK fire painter from Patrick Peris on Vimeo.

Have you ever seen anything like THAT? Have a great weekend!

(First seen via Swiss Miss)

Flowers for the bees

Swaying in the morning breeze,
 Growing sunflowers for the bees. Loving the buzzing in the open air,
 In the flower garden bees are everywhere.

~ From "Flowers for the Bees" by Gregor Hacska & Zanni Louise

On the weekend I showed Madeleine and one of her little friends the green and growing things in our vegetable box. "These are baby tomatoes," I told them, "and these fuzzy yellow flowers are baby strawberries."

We talked about how plants needed sun and water to grow big and strong, and how we had to be patient before we could pick the ripe fruits and gobble them all up.

I think it is so important that we teach our children about where their food comes from, and how to care for the world in which they live.

Yesterday, my bloggy friend and children's book author Zanni Louise, and her musician husband Gregor Hacska, launched a fantastic online resource that will help get our children thinking about and enjoying these ideas.

They have created The Quincys, an interactive world of music, storytelling and ideas for children. Every month, you can use The Quincys as a resource to entertain and teach children (and yourself): Week 1 they will release a new song and video; Week 2 they'll tell a related story; Week 3 they'll suggest a fun activity; and Week 4 they'll share some fun resources and facts for learning more.

After breakfast this morning, I'm going to play their first song "Flowers for the Bees" for Madeleine, then take her into the garden and we will have a little chat about how bees need flowers and flowers need bees.

You can take a look at The Quincys here, and keep up on Facebook here

{Beautiful illustration from "Flowers for the Bees" supplied by Zanni Louise, and used with permission}

Outlander

Don't even ask me how I ended up watching Outlander at first, because I can't figure it out. The last thing I remember was thinking "that looks pretty corny and a bit B-grade so I don't think I'll bother," and somehow since then I've watched every episode made (half a season) and I can't stop thinking about it.

The story is about an English woman who is travelling with her husband in the Scottish Highlands at the end of WWII, when she steps through some standing stones and finds herself stranded and alone in the middle of the 18th Century.

I know. I KNOW it sounds corny but it is SO good. A bit slow to start, but after a while you don't even mind the slow pace, it's like this show takes the time to respect the characters and the viewers and build the suspense and action properly.

There's no way I can wait until half way through next year for more of Claire's adventures, so now I'm reading the first book. Again, SUPER addicted. As soon as I finish writing this post I'm going to pick the book back up again, because I'm in the middle of a really good bit and it is quite important that I find out what comes next!

Also, I really need to visit Scotland.

What have you been watching and reading lately? Have you read the Outlander books? No spoilers please!!!

The Village Festival + link pack

"Would you like to hear a story?" a woman beckons, from the doorway of a caravan. And just like that a small group materialises as if from nowhere and sits at her feet, prepared to be enthralled. I am reminded powerfully of my children's daycare centre, when a teacher pulls out a copy of The Gruffalo.

A wandering scribe threads her way through the crowd and pens letters on behalf of anyone who wants to send a message to anyone else.

Smoke and charcoal fill the air, scented with meat and charred corn. Fairy floss, cider, folded crepes. Music and magic, dancing children, creepy sideshows. In the park, acrobats practice handstands from atop one another's shoulders. Over the way, a strange-looking wedding is underway.

The Village Festival is on at this time every year in Edinburgh Gardens, and I imagine it to be something akin to the way a medieval fair would have felt.

Here are some other things that have been making me smile lately. How about you?

"Michael Pollock. Remember that name"

Best alarm clock ever (via Frankie)

"Creativity isn’t about making things, it’s about making things happen." I read this on Creative Something this week

Strawberries - I bought five giant punnets of red, ripe Yarra strawberries at the Batman Market last weekend. What should I make with them?

Hide n Seek puppy. So cute!

The new Batman Market  - all that street food!

Planters made out of old books. I love this idea, the only challenge being finding a book I'm willing to sacrifice

Handmade Halloween tea-treats

On the spectrum from trick to treat, I'm hoping these friendly little handmade Halloween tea-spooks definitely fall on the treat side. Next year, maybe I'll get my act together and pair them with some skeleton gingerbread men. Or gingerbread cats. Or something. This year, I packaged them up with yellow craft paper and posted them off to these lovely blog readers.

If you need a last minute, slightly-more-grown-up treat to give to friends, a set of these little guys will take you about five minutes to make.

1. Download the template 2. Print or photocopy it onto thick paper or cardstock 3. Cut out each friend, then attach them to teabags with staples or tape

If you have a bit more time, get fancy with some lovely herbal blends, or even create a teabag of your own with a little ball of loose-leaf tea in a square of muslin, secured with string.

The friendly spooks will reach their arms around the edges of your tea cup while the tea steeps.

Happy Halloween friends!

ps. Christmas tea-friends

What's your soap box topic?

After writing this post about people who are completely passionate about their work, I got to thinking about things that really get me revved up. Things that make me talk like these people talk: on and on and on, because I'm really into what I'm talking about.

And right away one topic came to mind. It's my go-to soap box topic, except I'm not really complaining about anything. It's something that I honestly find MIND-BLOWINGLY FASCINATING and I am always mildly surprised and a little bit sad when I realise nobody else is there with me.

So here it is. Please imagine me talking faster than usual, and gesticulating wildly, letting my tea go cold or my wine get warm. It's possible my eyes are just a little bit cray-cray. If that scares you (erm, why would it?) feel free to click away now…

One day when the kids are all grown up and the mortgages are all paid off (in other words when I'm 90ish), I want to go ahead and undertake a PhD on the origins of religion and mythology. Proper research study, not anecdotal or speculative "the gods were aliens because you can only see the Nazca lines from above" stuff.

Because to my mind there are just too many similarities in the world's spiritual stories for there not to be a REASON. Look at the resurrection themes in the Christian and ancient Egyptian stories. Or the creation texts of the Jews and the Mayans: there's water, separation, a serpent, so many symbolic parallels. Water and a great serpent are at the centre of a number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stories, too. Now look at the demigods of the ancient Greeks and the Romans: they are the offspring of a human-divine pairing, and they are great and powerful heroes. Now take a look at the story of the Nephilim in Genesis of the Bible/Torah scriptures: they are the offspring of angels and human beings (other translations say "the sons of god and the daughters of men"), and they are known as "the giants and heroes of old."

I get that some of these stories travelled through cultures through wars and along trade routes, which COULD explain story parallels in, for example, the Middle East. But what about South America? Australia? There are SO MANY stories with similarities, all over the world and throughout the ages. Where did they start? Is there truth in any of these? If so, what IS that truth? Who started this millennia-old game of Chinese whispers?

Once upon a time our ancestors didn't worship any gods, and then one day they did. Archaeologists can trace the beginnings of spirituality and religion in our ancestors, through signs of belief in the afterlife. A long time ago when someone died, we left them and walked away. Presumably we grieved because presumably we loved, too, but once a person was dead there was nothing more to be done for them. But then we started burying our dead, and burying them with items of significance. Items to go with them into the afterlife, to ease their passage or make their existence easier once they got there.

WHY? Why did we start believing in life beyond the material? What happened? Did it happen in just one place and then word spread, or did it happen everywhere all at once and then the different peoples and cultures developed their own stories in isolation from one another? Was it an actual god? Many gods? A spectacular and/or catastrophic natural event? Heck, let's indulge all the theories for a minute. Did aliens teach us how to build the pyramids? Were the "heroes of old" actually just another race that existed parallel to us, like the neanderthals (who, btw, also believed in an afterlife)?

Mind blown, right? Right?

Oi. WAKE UP!

So that's my little soap box rant and probably you won't be that into it and to your face I'll say "that's cool" but in my head I'll be thinking WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD? WHY DON'T THEY GET HOW AMAZING THIS IS?

Deep breaths.

And now I want to know: what's YOUR soap box topic? What gets you REALLY excited, as in, almost as excited as the mystery of the origins of myth? I promise to listen. I do. I really want to know. Go!