Birthdays and Family Traditions...

It is The Sweetheart's birthday and I made him a Crunchy Amber Cake.
Mum used to make this for our birthdays. It was always the Cake Of Choice even though it was 'so fiddly'. Mum had 6 of us in 8½ years* therefore 'so fiddly' meant a LOT in our house!!!!


I made a heart shaped cake (actually TWO) even tho the step boys thought it was pretty sucky...they gave me a bit of stick about it...

http://melbournelarder.blogspot.com/2007/09/friday-morning-tea-crunchy-amber-cake.html

CRUNCHY AMBER CAKE
As supplied by Mrs B. D. Calvert of Tasmania - the winner of the Butter/White Wings 1965 bake-off competition.

Cake mixture
125g butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 whole egg, plus one egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup milk

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat lightly. Fold in flour alternately with milk, mix well. Divide mixture into two 7-inch layer tins (I used hearts shaped tins. How sloppy and sooky). Bake in a moderate oven (180 degrees) for 20 minutes [if you bake in one tin, the cake will take 30-40 minutes to cook]. Remove from tins and cool.

Filling
90g butter
4 level tablespoons brown sugar
2 level tablespoons cornflour
pinch of salt
1 egg yolk
1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Melt butter. Add sugar and stir to dissolve. Remove from heat. Add cornflour and salt and stir until smooth. Return to heat and cook gently, stirring all the time. Beat together the egg yolk, milk and vanilla. Add slowly to mixture and stir well. Bring to the boil and cook for two minutes. Cool. (The mixture should thicken as it cools, so you may need to put it in the fridge to thicken it up. You want it to be spreadable but not runny).

Topping
2 egg whites
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon coconut
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon slivered almonds

Beat egg whites stiffly; add sugar slowly. Beat until smooth. Combine coconut, sugar, cinnamon and almonds in a separate bowl. Spread the filling between the cakes. Spread the egg-white mixture over cakes, then sprinkle the sugar and spice mix over this. Heat the oven to 200 degrees and turn off. Place the completed cake in the oven for five minutes to set the topping.

The Sweetheart wanted a CHOCOLATE cake for his birthday so I added 250 gms of melted chocolate to the recipe for the cake part of it.
As a family we ALWAYS make a double mix of the custard part - it is so yummy that not only can you not help licking the spoon but we cut the cakes into two so there are four layers. Just add the extra yolks to the cake and custard, and the extra whites for the meringue.

I got this recipe from the Melbourne Larder clever cook at this addie. She has some very good recipes. But especially this memory from my childhood that became a Family Tradition...

* And not even Catholic... Dad wanted "A Son and Heir" and Mum (!) made the mistake of having four girls first. And then there was An Heir and A Spare...

Comments

Keep the comments coming - I LOVE them!

Also, If you have a blog and you are following me can you please add the address to your profile page so I can find you. And read what you are up to...he he he (and so others can find you too).
I had to block someone cos they had such a weird addie, and didn't have any contacts, they made me feel not very kindly towards them. There are a couple more of my followers who might go the same way (is this you????). Add a photo please. It doesn't have to be of you...(tho probably better if it is).

Does anyone know how I keep track of blogs that aren't blogspot ones? I only have one which isn't - Calidore - and have her up (on the LHS of here) so I just check every day or so. All the others are on my dashboard cos they are ALL blogspot (does this mean blogspot is the most popular or that it is just that I haven't found any others?).

I am knitting. It has been a bit wintery lately - we even had RAIN!!!! This is what the front looked like at the weekend - it was windy and lots of unnecessary things got blown around too. About 30mm of rain. So nowhere near enough but a good teasing start.



And so my thoughts turn to knitting. As they do.
I am not a good knitter. Well, I am GOOD - I just am not a big finisher. I make a lot of hats that are my own pattern invention and rather hippy and odd with tassles. But popular, have been making them since the 70s and they were quite a Fashion Statement on the skifields back then!

But look at this wonderful creation. I would love to make this. But for my SIL Flossy. She would look really good in this. It is from http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEsummer04/PATTbetty.html and has a lot of other Good Ideas.

But this isnt what I am knitting at the moment. I bought a great many balls of bright Feathers at the $2 shop (but for $1!) and am knitting either a vest or a long top or a short frock depending on how far the wool (polyester really) goes. I cast on 150 stitches onto circular needles and am just heading south with it.

I will keep you posted. Now I am off to make a cake for The Sweetheart's birthday tomorrow.

Ooroo
xxxx

Bushfire Quilts

Last week Noela, that Best Sister of mine, sent me a parcel with two lovely quilts in it to pass on to someone who lost their home in the horrible bushfires in February.
All us quilters have pledged to get a quilt to each person who needs one. There were over 7,500 people made homeless in the fires.

Jan Mac and Christina Khune have been doing a wonderful job of making and distributing their, and donated, quilts to many of the places around Beechworth, and Marysville etc. There are other generous and kind people getting quilts out to Bendigo, and Gippsland fire areas. Check them out here, here, here, or even easier please Google "Bushfire Quilts" and look at all the extraordinary work that is being done!

Both the quilts Noela made are I Spy ones - the larger with more vertical strips and the lovely red pieced backing is 61" x 55".



The smaller one is 50" x 40" with the most wonderful eye-ball destroying zebra print on the back.

Noela has a little gang of grandkids so is really expert at making I Spy Quilts. I know she will have each letter of the alphabet represented in these quilts.



She has got a lot of I Spy materials and is forever ratting through them looking for the RIGHT letter. I suggested she get a concertina file with 26 compartments and spend a rainy afternoon sorting her material into alphabetical order. I reckon it is a pretty clever idea.
I'll do it myself.
When I find a file with 26 possies in it...
When I find such a file I shall buy TWO of them. One for Noela.


Maybe we are going to go down to the Tassie Targa this week - for a couple of days it zips around where Noela lives. The Sweetheart just suggested it.
Shall we take The Little Red Car?
It would fun to hoon around some of the Tassie Targa roads (especially as they are right where Noela lives...). And the cheap way to do the Targa!

I am still not getting the text and the photos in the layout where I expect them to be. Fluff around here in the editing stage and then when I post it the pics aren't with the right text totally. Bum and bugger. It IS better than a few months ago tho... (Some small consolation).

ANZAC Day

Tomorrow is ANZAC Day - back in 1915 a great mob of Aussie and Kiwi soldiers along with other British military ordered by the Brits stormed ashore at Gallipoli to fight the dreaded Turks.
The last of the Ottoman Empire being attacked by what was the tail end of the British Empire.

My paternal Grandfather was at Gallipoli, and then as a reward went off to France for the rest of the War. His brother Hugh is 'Forever Young' - killed on September 26 1917 in Polygon Wood. Great Auntie Effie was a nurse in France and Belgium. They all wrote wonderful letters home which one of my cousins has transcribed into a book. The National Archives of Australia has all sorts of digital copies of war records. I found Grandfather's War record - it is all scanned and available for me to cry over. I looked at Hugh Forever Young and the sad letters written by his Mother wanting to know where he was buried, and where his personal effects were.
I can't find Great Auntie Effie's Service Record. (YET!).
Hey - look at Grandfather's signature. I do my Ds the same way at the end of my name!

My maternal Grandfather went to France and Belgium in the First World War as well. He snuck along a camera - it was a court martial if you were caught - and Uncle Ernie has a suitcase full of Pop's war photos.
Two brothers from Central Victoria, Bert and Jack Grinton, also took a camera. The Age has a story on them and their photos. There is going to be an exhibition of their photos at the Bendigo Art Gallery starting in June. Here are some of their photos. The RSL Museum curator said the Grinton photos were one of the top WW1 collections in the country. He hasn't seen Pop's suitcase full - that has to beat a biscuit tin of snaps hands down!!!!
I wonder if the Gritnons have photos of my Pop?
Pop knew the Grinton brothers, and after he sold the farm at Benjeroop and he and Nana moved to Melbourne he still used to get his lovely chooks from them. I wonder if they knew each other in France? They must have, otherwise Pop wouldn't have known where to buy his speckledy quiet talking chooks! I loved Pop's chooks. I wonder if the Grinton descendants also have their chook descendants?
That bloke in the slouch hat is my handsome Pop. His service number was 2204, and he was in the 2nd Battalion. Not many blokes ahead of him in the line... Oh, Grandfather was # 787, later changed to 4550 for some reason. He was up near the front too...

Last Sunday we went to Puckapunyal Army Base for a Rats Of Tobruk get together. The Sweetheart's Dad is a Rat. He went to fight in that bloody, awful war when he was 21.
There weren't many of the old blokes there, but all were clanking with chests full of medals and with tales of funny things that happened (never the appalling truths of war...).
Dad was invited to a posh party and his friends said "You can't go as a Sergeant - here's a Major's uniform". Of course he ran into a mate who said "You aren't a Major". The only reply to that was "And you aren't a bloody Colonel, either"!!!!

There was a fig tree at Tobruk with a big cave underneath it which was used for an Ops base and medical post. At the Tobruk Barracks there is another fig tree under which the wreaths were laid. And tears were shed for lost mates, and lost youth and for memories.

Lest we forget, eh.

Yearnings....

A Dress A Day is one of my best time-wasting blogs- I love her dresses, and the wonderful materials she finds to make them with.

And I want this pattern - this is where Dress a Day talks about making it. I don't know if I like the Simplicity version or the McCall's one.
It reminds me of a dress Noela made for me when I was pregnant with maybe S3. Hers also had a longer underskirt but the same sort of big kimono sleeves. Was in blue and yellow print with plain blue trim. She made a few of them. But her own pattern. She is an immensley clever sewer. When she left home at 16 and went to NZ (WTF was Mum thinking of to let her go at that age?????) she worked as a machinist for Hardy Amies. I remember another one of her creations, similar pattern, hand dyed cheese cloth with embroidery. Very hippie flower power. Wonder what happened to them? Worn to death I imagine.

Decisions, decisions.The Simplicity pattern envelope.

Erin McKean even has time to write books. Though she said she wrote this and according to Amazon etc she has - and lots more - but that doesn't look like Erin McKean's name on this cover... Must be her, and how prolific! She probably is one of those ones with perfect children. Or a nanny.

I have fluffed around for ages with the layout for this posting. Is it going to look noice when I publish?????
Damn.

It turned out fine!

And then I made the time-wasting mistake of trawling through Dress A Day again and found this!
I want to make this one too...
Dress A Day has another wrap one that is vintage (go have a trawl yourself for that one, I am not posting the link!) and descibed as a Cobbler's Apron, you can 'pop it on in a jiffy' to keep your real clothes clean. I thought this would be REAL clothes!!!! I wouldn't 'pop it on' over anything. Except me scanties...
I wonder where I can get the pattern? I do want to make this, too!

Sigh.

So it is like those odd pant/skirt things (skants? pirts?) where you button the front around to the back and the back to the front. But the underskirt is a lovely slim line with a fuller overskirt.

Now I am back to sewing the Zig Zag Quilt.

Cooking

I thought this might be a yummy thing to make:

Coconut Chicken

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 thigh and 1 drumstick)

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• 1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce
• 1 (14-ounce) can light coconut milk
• 4 (4-ounce) chicken thighs, skinned
• 4 (4-ounce) chicken drumsticks, skinned
• 3/4 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
• 1/2 cup flaked sweetened coconut
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Cooking spray

Preparation:

Combine first 3 ingredients in a large zip-top plastic bag. Add chicken to bag; seal. Marinate in refrigerator 1 1/2 hours, turning bag occasionally.

Preheat oven to 400°.

Combine panko, flaked coconut, salt, and black pepper in a shallow dish. Remove chicken from marinade; discard marinade. Dredge chicken, 1 piece at a time, in panko mixture. Place chicken on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Lightly coat chicken with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Carefully turn chicken over; bake an additional 30 minutes or until done.

Doesn't that sound pretty good?

I can't remember where I found the recipe so sorry - no credits this time around.

The meat is all lovely and tender for my steak and mushroom pies, it cooked for a few hours on the slow end of the Rayburn yesterday. I shall do the rest tomorrow after the flavours have all melded.

Slow food, mmmm, yum!

Might do some sewing today. I need another snooze first, tho. Pain woke me at 4.30 and I whinged around for a couple of hours and then took some panadeine. Still another 1½ hours before I can take the next dose of the slow release thingies. They arent working so well I don't think.
S4 said I have to remember that just because they are called ANALgesics they aren't suppositories....

Pimping

I have had fun this morning (um and into this arvo...) playing with my blog.
I got some really really useful help from The Pommy Sheila about how to edit HTML stuff. So I have been doing just that.
What do you think of this background? And the font? And the other bits I have added? Sheila is a great one for bells and whistles, I am not yet in her league, but I aspire to it.
Listen out for those bells.
And the whistles.
I have actually been here since about 0500. Can't sleep.
My GP changed my wonderful pain medication from a couple of pills a few times a day to one slow release tablet every 12 hours. But they aren't kicking in quite as successfully as the old ones. I have been on some glorious non-opiate opiates, the Clayton's morphine, for about 6 months and they are magic. Like singing, making a quilt, sex and chocolate all at once. But less messy.
I can't take anti-inflammatory drugs because they make me bleed - I have a genetic bleeding disorder that was only unearthed last year. It possibly could have been picked up earlier when I was bleeding to death over tonsils, or teeth, or babies, or surgery, or sharp knives/kitchens/wine combinations...
And certainly should have been when I was married to the immuno-geneticist...
And I ache cos if I get too lively I bleed into my joints and it bloody hurts lots.

And I did get lively.

Last weekend The Sweetheart's Dad gave me a trailer load of firewood. I brought it home on Monday and unloaded the front 1/3 of the trailer to make it light enough to be able to lift off the tow-ball.
Light enough????
Frigging thing leapt in to the air at about a million miles an hour (it is an old trailer - it isn't into metric) and smacked me in the face! Luckily (?) my gloved hands somewhat cushioned my teeth when the tow bar hit me.
Some stars, bit of blood, a few tears, a little lie-down with a chilly face washer, and then a cuppa tea and I got better (ish).

My neighbour Maggie dropped in just after with her two adult children and they unloaded and stacked the rest of the wood for me. And gave me lots of pats and sympathy. And said nice things about the Dad who gave it all to me.
My neck and back are a bit whiplashed, but the pouty trout lips are subsiding (hooray - looked for a tad like Paris Hilton. Or what she will become in 25 years...ha ha ha). But a bit too much of a good thing for me. I am aching lots. All over.
Look at it - all those lovely big logs on the left hand side. The right hand side has some wattle sort of shrubbery wood that S4 brought me from a Hard Rubbish forage in Melbourne. Burns really well tho.

I am firing up the Rayburn to make some steak and mushroom pies. I will buy puff pastry for the tops of them, but make short for the bottom halves, but first the meat has to stew with onions and carrots and potatoes for a day to get really yummy and falling to pieces.
I am going to the village to buy something for lunch - this has made me hungry.
See ya!

Sewing frocks, and whatever else I want to!

We all learned to sew on Mum's old Singer treadlie (which wasn't so old Back Then - we made it old!!!).
Elspeth was making her own clothes from when she was about 7. No patterns, just laying the material out on the floor and cutting around something she already had. I was a year older but more interested in doing farm stuff so it was a few more years before I started sewing.

We had to at school - even primary school. I was hopeless. All my material came out grey and raggy from being unpicked and overhandled. Very jealous of Elspeth's clothes...

So I got better at sewing. We often used to go to Family Reunion things with the four of us and our cousin Kathy who was around our age all dressed the same. And whipped up things for all sorts of occasions, often overnight.
Marion was about 14 when she was making wedding and bridesmaids' dresses (for her friends - they were a forward lot those girls she ran with!) and not long after baby clothes.
Most of us made our wedding dresses and the bridesmaids' frocks too if we had them (me - I did that TWICE...!!!!).
I shall have to look for some photos from those times. Memories of red gingham dresses (???? tops really...) and black velvet ribbons.

Most of our patterns came from garments we already owned (not very much of it shop bought) or drafted out from Enid Gilchrist pattern books.
Bloggers Five and Two, Norma Tika Designs and Silly Gilly have some pics of lovely Enid Gilchrist pattern books they picked up along the way. (Thanks you, you treasures, for showing your treasures!!!).
All our clothes started out as bits of brown paper sticky-taped together on the kitchen table and drawn out from Enid Gilchrist books. I wonder if she realises just how many people she influenced and how exciting it was to get a NEW book? She even did patterns for 'teen dolls' (probably cos Mattel wouldn't let her use 'Barbie'...) but we all knew who she meant. Doesn't matter as none of us had 'real' barbies anyway. And I never had dolls. Still have Bare Bear tho...


Here are some of the places I haunt now:

Perpetual Patterns - who go to lots of the quilt shows etc and have fabulous patterns that are easy to make, and often multi-sized:
http://www.perpetualpatterns.com.au/
They are also Oz distributors for Folkwear Patterns - many of which I have.

Some of which I have made...







These
are some of the patterns I have made.


These are a couple of their patterns I just found that look like they might be fun to play with too!

Imagine the Moroccan Sun Dress in some lovely soft drapy wool crepe or silk and cashmere mix. It is coming in to winter here - I have to think of cool weather clothing now!

And the Fantasia Jacket just looks like fun. Over long slender pants or a pencil skirted LBD... Some crispy flirty silk in those godets...



I also found this site that looks like fun:
http://www.knowledgehound.com/topics/traditional_clothing.htm

and this one has interesting stuff too:
http://www.acttextiles.org.au/web_links.htm

Sorry I can't get these to change colour since I pimped my background. I know they aren't very legible. Just click on them and trust me. (Or - Trust me and click on them...!)

Time for another vodka martini.

And don't forget to watch Spicks and Specks on ABC TV tomorrow (Wednesday) night - The Spooky Men's Choir is performing on the show. HOORAY!!!!!! You foreigners can podcast it I believe. Worth doing. It is a very funny show - music quiz show without prizes but with lots of laughs.

Ooroo.
XXXX

PS What d'yer reckon about my new background? There were a LOT to pick from!

That isn't music they listen to nowadays - it is crap, just noise meaningless noise...

Unlike the music we grew up with which had great lyrics, and melodies, and you could dance to it...

The Sweetheart and I just got back from seeing The Boat That Rocked The World.

Based on a story by a Radio Caroline DJ from the days of pirate radio stations in the UK. I used to read all about pirate radio stations like Caroline and Luxembourg and all their famous DJs in the English teeny mags we were allowed to buy, along with Go-Set and feeling slightly smug that we here in Australia because we had SO many stations to choose from. Even up in the Mallee.

I wanted to be a DJ, and I did voice production and radio presentation etc etc when I went to Mlebourne at 17, 18. But the only women on radio then were 3AW midnight to dawn and you had to sleep with a station manager (at least) to get that sort of job and I wasn't prepared to. Even when Phillip Brady told me I was 'so cute'...
Here is a Youtube clip of the London premier of the film with lots of that wonderful music, and a little trek down memory lane of fashion.

PS Now I rather think that Philip Brady is gay, but he scared me when I was a little thing and trying to break in to radio.

Post Easter...

I am back home after going to Canberra for the National Folkie over Easter - too tired to do anything right now except edit a few photos, do this blog, fill my hot water bottle, make another cuppa tea and crawl in to bed.

Here are some photos - family and friends; lovely Andy Irvine (who is still waiting for his quilt he reminded me) playing with yung'uns in the Session Bar; Barry, Gail and Wendy playing at the Merry Muse (check out those green boots of Wendy's!!!); giant Bogong Moths wandering around; colourful and enticing stalls with gorgeous things (jewellery, clothing, food...); my second best bloke friend Andrew and his new love Bettina the gorgeous amazing portrait artist from Berlin; wonderful quilts - a detail of Jenny Bowker's Glassblower; Morris Dancers (shudder!); Eric Bogle and John Munro in Budawang on the BIIIIG stage; Callan talking to a tree which had eaten his Dad Tim...
Work out who is what.
I will be back.
xxxx






The best bit was that there are over 300 acres of grounds and I slept in the Iced Volvo (here on right of photo with a green tablecloth over it to keep out scary bright daylight) just at the end of the Grandstand (where the Session Bar is...). So close I was able to think the toilet block was in reality an en-suite.
My red towel pegged to chain lin k gate, and a marquee we used for singing in. Out of the rain...
Bit cosy sleeping in the back seat of the sedan for the first time, I am either 2" too tall or Volvo made the car just not quite wide enough for a swag. Cosy tho...

These photo placings are crap again. I still can't work out how to make them sit where I want them to go.

National Folk Festival

Each Easter the National Folk Festival is held at EPIC in Canberra.

It is a wonderful time, I reckon it is like being at a family reunion - except you like everyone!!!! Great music, wonderful atmosphere, lots of friends, and singing and drinking, and laughing.
And all run by volunteers - which is what I do, helping it sparkle along. I have worked at different festivals for 10 or 12 years now, and this year again my Smellie 3 is also going to be working with me. He is settingoff this afternoon onhis road trip north.
I am about to head off on my road trip to Canberra, hooray!!!

You can live vicariously at previous festivals by checking out someof my photos here.

I wont be back on line until next week - so have a great Easter, hope the Bilby finds you wherever you are.
xxxx

And at the weekend...

So on Friday it rained! After bucketing down it was just as well I took this photo cos the bucketing didn't last.
We got 1.5mm...
This is my front yard looking down the driveway. When I bought this place you could scarcely walk around (or in!) the house as there was so much rubbish. We took about ten tip truckloads to the tip. And had a big fire that burnt for a couple of weeks as well.

Bugger - I am trying to write BESIDE the photos and instead the type is going underneath and not anywhere I want it to....
On Saturday The Sweetheart and I went up to Lake Boga to the Longest Dinner organised by our friend Trish Pollard - we stayed at their luxurious bed and breakfast ( Burrabliss ). The Governor of Victoria with Mrs Governor and their entourage had just left that morning after staying for a few days .We had a blue theme for our table - for water. So blue frocks, blue candles and glasses and tablecloths and a swimmer in his board shorts and a towel and hat, and even some wines and beer with blue labels. We got second prize (but no prize) in the Best Table Competition (cos there was no Second Best Table...). The Judges probably told everyone else they came second...
Trish and her husband Bruce have fine wool Merino sheep - 600 of them in a shed where they live being pampered and cared for, growing 11 micron wool and listening to ABC Classic FM Radio. Lovely boys those sheep, I love going to visit them.
Here we are out on the edge of the now dry lake (first time for 100 years) about to tuck into our dinner. Lake Boga was used during WW2 as Australia's major flying boat base and my Uncle Ernie says the lake bed is now full of unexploded ordinance from when damaged planes limped back and had to jettison all unnecessary cargo so they wouldn't sink when they landed. There wasa walk across the lake on Saturday, Uncle Ernie was hoping nobody found any landmines, grenades etc. Nobody did...

And this is my cousin Judy with the gorgeous quilt her best girl friend made her - cos she got sick of waiting for me to make her one...
And Judy with her parents my Uncle Ernie, Auntie Pat and a girlfriend Casey.

Ernie is Mum's only brother - he will be 87 next week, and the smartest funniest bloke. There isn't much he doesn't know about electronics, and engines and telling a good yarn. I love him heaps! And Auntie Pat was always "the glamorous auntie" - always had groovy clothes and lipstick. And she smoked...

Below (or maybe above, left or right - I have no idea what this is going to look like when it is published... sigh) is my cousin Judy's 'boy' Danny and the hottie Cortina he has spent most of his life and all of his money restoring. it is immaculate! Next week (Easter) he is taking it to Mildura for drag racing. The red one is The Sweetheart's Little Red Car.

Today I made some "Pantry Cakes" - with whatever was left in the pantry (technically "pantry and fridge cake"). Cream cheese, cherries, chocolate and the usual stuff (butter, eggs, flour and milk). They are to take to Canberra for the National Folk Festival to keep us nourished whilst working midnight to dawn shifts as I do up there. (These are before they went in to the oven...)

And here is my stove, I fired it up so hot that I had to cook the cakes in the left oven because the right one got far too hot. The kettle boiled dry before I realised it too, but it is solid cast iron so it didnt worry it. This is the wonderful Rayburn stove my sister Noela gave me as a house warming present when I bought this home. If you look closely you can see the needle on the right hand dial is around to 450*. Lovely lovely stove!
I need wood for winter, I shall have to sell a quilt I think for $1,000 to keep me warm and washed until spring...

And what about this?

Clare Coles is a British designer who loves to sew wallpaper.
How about this for gorgeousness? Have a look at the rest of her work, it is enough to make you hang around the reject bin at your local Paint and Paper place...

Spencer Street Railway Station

There are photos of everything including Spencer Street Railway Station at The Public Record Office of Victoria both before it was reinvented as Southern Cross Station and all wonderful curves and back when it was a barren windswept awful thing of old bitumen and rusty tin. Here is what it was like before. REALLY difficult to find photos just of the station (cos it was so god-awful) without big shiny trains of all descriptions taken by train gunzels.

And here are a lot of photos of what it looks like now. Plenty of photos without any trains because frankly this really is a beautiful place to be now. This is where all country and interstate trains come into Melbourne.