Sayonara Summer

Eucalyptus blossom

Hullo, Dear Reader, it has been a little while. The Summer has been and we are about to bid it Adieu, so I thought a little random recap of the glories of the season would be in order (rather than a "Wot I did on my summer hols" composition). Bullet points may be employed if it gets untidy...

Blue skies 

Weatherwise, (one simply cannot have a chinwag about current events without first chewing over this staple - it's the carbohydrate of any English speaker's chit-chat) it has been a cracking summer. Around these parts we've alternated between Stunning and Skorchio! And when the skies haven't been dazzling and blue, they've been wild and stormy.

Rare Mammatus clouds

Did the Pipistrello complexion indulge in any Fashionable Sunning at any of our fabled beaches? I should say not! Those crazy days of Le Tan are well and truly over for me as I've finally abandoned the fiction that my Italian married name doth armour me with a Mediterranean skin-type. After all, the best description of my skin tone these days is less Smooth Caramel and more Liquorice Allsorts.

Pipistrello's Imagined Before Shot
René Gruau poster, c. 1950

And while I may not be slathering on the Ambre Solaire any more, I have been channelling a bit of 1950s Jacques Fath and have been Mostly Wearing the Sunray Pleat again. And loving brooches, while I think about it. And the olde toenails are masquerading as either Turquoise or Malachite cabochons, but you need not to have to see that today.

Covering up with a Sunray pleat

The much-anticipated home-made Tonic Water has been a success, and has not always needed a goodly splash of Gin to make it Interesting, as it has that in spades. Strangely medicinal, which it is, (and is not for Pregnant Women, apparently) and amber in colour, it has endless flavour possibilities with recipe tweaking and bumping up the ratio to water (although we declare a Light touch is best).

The New Look G&T around these parts

The unrelenting heat and occasional wild hail and tropical storms have wreaked a bit of havoc with fruit and vegetable supplies and prices but we are still eating the stone fruit and melons of the season. Occasionally, a cheap batch will be transposed into a pie (like below), but after the Christmas baking frenzy, the oven has hardly been working overtime and indeed even my forays into sourdough and Ye Olde Lazy Girl bread have been superseded by a bit of flatbread action for the time being. There are no other fancy seasonal menu additions to report, beyond the comment that the fresh Aldi salmon is pretty delicious, no? Thank you Two-Peas for the tip!

Plum Pie

Yes, there are more holes in the ground and gaps in the city skyline, and an assortment of cranes and decorated hoardings abound. Streets are still closed while new tram lines are inching their way into place, often (oh, so believably) replacing the ghost lines of long defunct tram lines from last century. But it all seems to be moving apace, and as we say, Sydney will look rather good, When it's Finished.

Rather colourful hoarding

Rather boring but instructional

Yes, rather witty

In Culture News, we only managed to see one fillum but it was a corker! I speak of Yorgos Lanthimos' The Favourite. As the entire world has probably seen it, there's no need to add My Thoughts into the mix, save that we both loved it and Olivia Colman was fantastic and deserves all accolades. We took in a couple of exhibitions, with which I'll indulge myself with seperate posts later: the Summer Exhibition at the AGNSW of the Hermitage Modern Masters and a mid-century Street Photography exhibition at the Museum of Sydney.

Still to come...

Finally, in family matters, we did sadly farewell the eldest member of our colony whilst joyfully welcoming our newest addition. It's been a proper Circle of Life for this seasonal recap.

Teddy

Pipistrello's Teddy 

Dear Reader, it has been a little while since I sent you a missive, but this is just a quick hello today. Cro over at Magnon's Meanderings was talking about Teddy Bears yesterday and I thought to bring mine out of the wardrobe to introduce him to you. His name, of course, is Teddy and he is precisely one year younger than your correspondent.

He once was barely out of sight or reach of the rather much smaller version of myself, as can be seen by the well-loved condition of his wooly coat. I don't remember what his nose looked like before it rubbed back to the hide as I seem only to know it in its present state and his right paw is rather worse for wear after a close encounter with a Labrador about twenty years ago, when he was already pretty fragile. And yes, it is a bit of stuffing that peeks out of his belly.

All his loose bits are kept safely tucked inside the dust cover he reclines upon, my old Library Bag, which is itself only a few years younger, and he lives out his mature years in the wardrobe now. He and I have sort of kept pace with one another over the years - a bit less hair, some rubbed and worn conditioning to our respective coverings, little bits of stuffing missing from our innards, but I'm happy to say I haven't been in the jaws of an animal much larger than myself, so all my digits are still accounted for.

Teddy also seems to have shrunk!

Love at first sight!

Twelfth Night

Not the Yum Cha Crowd today - It is 2019 after all, not 1661!

We are not slaves to tradition in the Pipistrello household but we did manage to observe Twelfth Night this Christmas when the Yum Cha Crowd met up for a bit of Chinese today. Technically it is now Epiphany, but (unless, Dear Reader, you also live in Australia) these pages come to you from the Future, so it is still Twelfth Night elsewhere in the World. And as this is no longer the Olden Days and you may be unsure how this feast should pan out, here are a couple of pointers for the day:

Key is that the world is turned on its head while feasting and merriment are the order of the day. (See above). For our little party of revellers this was simply met by changing up our stalwart venue Sky Phoenix for a bit of Chinese Posh at Billy Kwong - a feast and shaking it up? Check.

There should also be a cake. Tradition dictates that a proper Twelfth Cake contains a bean and a pea and the finder is Bean King and Queen for the duration of the topsy turvy night. A good look at a recipe and with its yeast and spices, sultanas and candied peel, it looks suspiciously like a variation of Stollen. Lo! Here's one (actually eight) I prepared earlier:

Pipistrello's Stollen
Standing in for Twelfth Cake

As you may notice, they are neither adorned with icing or pastry, nor a crown or somesuch, to make them germane to today's topic, but they are all part and parcel of our Christmas catch up. Neither will any of the Yum Cha devotees later find a bean or pea, or a little figurine, within but the mini Stollen are chock-full of home made candied fruit peel and marzipan. And anyway, these are more egalitarian days and none of us may feel comfortable about Lording it over each other as the Bean King or Queen.

The Lovely L recently chastised me over a distinct lack of photographs to illustrate my culinary point about these pages, so I am furnishing below a couple of pics to help fill the gaps (and perhaps to prove I'm not just all puff and no pants when it comes to my kitchen adventures):

Remember the Cachaça Kumquats? The flavourful spirit is so handy!

Luckily the 38 degree day had cooled considerably when the oven went on

While there were no Twelfth Night japes and hijinks at Billy Kwong's establishment (although I do believe L&B went home to battle it out over Scrabble, so the requisite game-playing was fulfilled), there was a lot of happy chatter and conviviality as our party saw out the Christmas in a fine style.

postscript: Although the Christmas tree is still standing, Mr P did take down the door wreath today. It may be unlucky in some circles to have left the tree up but I am not superstitious so it will come down well before Candlemas, maybe even tomorrow. But I shall miss its kitschy contribution to our decor.