Squibblog

ten years and a world of difference

Zac turned ten yesterday. TEN! While some of us remembered him as a squalling infant or energetic toddler, yesterday he was all cool hairdo, video games and new guitar. He's a kid who really appreciates getting new clothes and books (yay!) as well as the boxes and boxes of Lego his friends gave him. I watched him talking to his cousins last night and remembered when they were all babies (and not taller than me!), and had a little sniffle.

Today's party was crazy on a stick - twelve kids in a small room with a slot car track and cars that fell off every corner. And yet he remembered to thank us solemnly for organising it and asked what he could do to help us relax this afternoon.

He is a really nice kid and I couldn't be more proud.

mini beast

Nell has always loved living things, great and small. She was delighted last term when her class was studying 'mini beasts' (ie insects, arachnids and molluscs). So she was delighted when a dragonfly chose our lounge room as home and, sadly, final resting place. The dried shell is so beautiful that we don't have the heart to throw it out so it remains on our windowsill.

 

first tomatoes

Tastebuds are tingling around Chez Squibblog with strawberries ripening every day, blueberries getting bluer, zucchini flowers opening and now the first tomatoes of the summer. These cute little egg tomatoes are a Diggers Club heirloom variety but I forget which one.

pawpaw salad

With summer setting in and the humidity reaching into the 90s in Sydney, I thought it was about time to try to recreate the pawpaw salad I had at the Rapid Creek markets (on recommendation from my dear friend Liz). I recently bought a julienne slicer (essential for this recipe, I think) and armed with a Darwin recipe from the wonderful Poh, came up with this.

Perfectly garlicky and hot, crunchy and sour, it was a very good first attempt and took me back to my last morning in Darwin in August. I might save my second attempt for a time when limes don't cost $29.99 a kilo! (I used lemon juice instead).

yes, you may call me 'Master'

I've become so used to having some period of art history on my mind that I find it difficult to believe that it all stops now. Last week I handed in my last essay and, assuming of course that it's good enough and I pass the course, I will have obtained my Masters degree.

Five years and many, many happy hours in the library have passed since I (rather self consciously) headed back to University. I was the scary mature aged student in the undergrad tutorials, and I almost became part of the furniture in Schaeffer library, so many years I have been visiting there. I finished with an examination of this gorgeous portrait of Madame de Pompadour and its implications for early feminist thought in the Enlightenment.

I am a little sad to be leaving study behind me. It's been a transformative experience and opened my eyes to many beautiful things, not all of them about the art.

lucky thirteen

The week that you wander around Sydney noticing the jacarandas in bloom, is the week I got married. Thirteen years ago today, Soy and I stood amongst the jacarandas in the Botanical Gardens and got hitched. Although there have been many happy days since then, nothing has even equalled the ridiculous joy of that day. I know that, as a parent, I'm supposed to say that the day my children were born was the happiest of my life, but let's face it: on my wedding day I was slim and beautiful, surrounded by friends and family, drunk on champagne and love and dancing around eating chocolate cake. The day the kids were born involved a lot less laughing and a lot more stitches. Fortunately all of those days involved gathering together the three people I love most in the world, today I celebrate hooking up with the big one. Love you, Soy.

hello summer

Cherries, peaches, steamy days, evening southerlies. We heart summer.