01. Wah! We had a special dinner booked at Farmer’s Daughters but had to pivot for Lockdown 6.0. Thank goodness for our Florentino feast from Providoor. Highlight was the Baccalà, but the arancini; duck tortellini with caramelised pear; slow-cooked beef cheek; Tiramisu; and cannoli were also delicious.
02. When I heard the Victorian COVID numbers on day two of Lockdown 6.0, I didn’t feel despair… I just thought, ‘Okay, we’ll be in lockdown for a month,’ and I went into 2020-mode (which means the focus is on my walking roster, cooking elaborate meals, binge watching shows, and reading novels that don’t demand much of me).
03. The friend that I’m walking the Yarra with made me a book of our journey so far. I love it so much I cried.
04. And on the topic of #ProjectYarra, we’re back to walking in our 5km radius, but our river delivers (pic above is Burke Rd Billabong).
05. Nothing to do in lockdowns but cook! New books: Every Night of the Week by Lucy Tweed and Recipe for a Kinder Life by Annie Smithers.
06. And watch tele of course… On that note, I’m strapping in for many hours because: MIFF at home. I’ve booked seven movies. Will start with Set!
07. Also watching:
- The Pursuit of Love (Prime) – yes, based on Mitford’s book. It’s sublime.
- The White Lotus (Foxtel) – The family is so hilariously perfect – the teen daughter’s smirks (and reading), the mother’s Zooms, the father’s news about his family, the son sleeping in the kitchenette.
I’m glad you have a lockdown strategy. It’s the only way to get through it. And thanks for sharing your anniversary feast which looked magnificent!
Agree – I need to have some plans, even if they are as basic as ‘eat cake and watch ten movies’ 😀
You sound really resilient in the face of another lockdown, its so impressive. The feast and Yarra both look gorgeous!
Well, the resilience has peaked and troughed over the last 18 months – it’s the week-by-week stuff and the uncertainty associated with that, that I find difficult.
I had an inkiling we’d be on the same page with The Pursuit of Love.
LOVED it. Might read the book again…
It’s on my Kindle ready to go…
I was getting lockdown-restless so I found a cake recipe that I could cook onehanded, needing help only to pour the batter into the tin.
LOL I was a bit unsteady getting the flour into the Kenwood that I got for my 21st birthday and some of it found its way into the motor. So, after a pre-emptive dash to the doors and windows so that the smoke alarm didn’t activate, The Spouse had to stir the Marsala in by hand, and funny thing, his hand wobbled just like mine does when adding alcohol to recipes and so the resulting cake is very delish indeed.
The Kenwood, alas, has not recovered. (Serves me right for bragging about its longevity on Facebook.) Fortunately I have a birthday coming up, so The Spouse has bought me a new one which should arrive by the time I need to bake a new cake!
Heavy-handedness with Marsala can only be a good thing 😉 Are you nearly done with the cast?
Odd that you mention your old Kenwood. I have my mum’s – a lovely pale aqua and white one that she got when she was first married. She upgraded a few years ago to a Kitchenaid. I really only use it for making pavlovas (the kids do a bit of baking as well). Anyway, it stopped working a few months ago – don’t know if it can be fixed – unlikely, but I can’t bear to part with it (so many memories associated with that mixer standing on my mum’s kitchen bench).
It will be 4 weeks this Friday, so then another two weeks to go. That’s for the break, they are talking months (plural) for the ligaments and tendon to heal.
Meanwhile I am back on track with Latin because I’ve learned to write left handed and I have renewed respect for all those left-handed kids who struggled to produce legible handwriting in my classes. My knee has healed up enough for a short walk along the beach today which was very good for my spirits. You love the water too, so you know how important it is to get there often.
And today three new books arrived and I managed to get them out of their packets all by myself — what a triumph, eh?
Interesting that you ‘upgraded’ to a Kitchenaid… I’ve never really looked into it but I’ve always thought that Kenwoods were the very best you could get…
Yes, water views are restorative! Glad you are on the mend – wretched that it takes so much longer, the older we get 😐
My mum did the upgrading to the Kitchenaid. I think she was attracted to all the attachments but really, she still only uses it for pavlova and cakes! I will investigate getting the Kenwood fixed and, if it can’t be repaired, will most likely replace with the same (given that it’s served well for decades!).
We’re lucky in our rivers. I have the Swan almost at my front door. The natural vegetation along it is pretty and comforting to walk/ride through, but is only narrow. Victoria has done a much better job restoring the Yarra and the parks along it.
We are lucky to have great access to the Yarra, although as I am discovering on my walking project, access gets a little patchy past Eltham ( and I have said to my friend on more than one occasion, “I hope we’re not trespassing…”.
I haven’t seen the Swan for many years but my memory is of a wide and sweeping river.
Lockdown, worth doing, but the novelty paled a long time ago. Enjoy the cakes and films.