I miss the tart navel oranges you used to get in winter. Has anyone managed to find themselves a good supply of juicy winter oranges? 

February was a salve to the months of bushfires, smokes, heat, personal stresses and work slog.

It's my birthday in February, which always feels like a marker for new beginnings. Rain, clear air, letters from afar and time spent with those close made the month feel like a better start to the year than January. And don't get me wrong, I know that's a luxury. For many, the months ahead will be a haze of stress, anger and disappointments. It'll be some time yet before they can let go of the summer we've had. But for me, right now, with a new disaster looming, it was a short moment to recharge and regroup.

I WENT TO... Wingham, on the NSW mid-north coast. I tagged along on my partner's road trip to film a Two Minute Postcard travel vlog about a bushfire-affected community. Wingham has had rain since we visited but at the start of the month things were pretty dire. The area has had prolonged drought, great swathes of land were razed by bushfires early in the season and others have now had pockets of flooding along with crop destruction caused by native wildlife displaced from natural habitats and looking for a feed. I marvelled at the strength and resilience of the people we met, despite the circumstances, and their deep love for the area they call home.

The month finished up with an overnight in Newcastle, and this weekend was spent camping with friends at Myall Lakes. There was plenty of swimming, lazing about with a good book and chatting over a hot cuppa.

I ATE... So much travelling meant there were plenty of opportunities for a good feed. A breakfast and a lunch at Wingham's Bent on Food and Garden Grub Cafe were memorable, but a selection of small plates and great service at Meet, in Newcastle was the standout. You also can't go past a camp breakfast of french toast, topped with banana and maple syrup.

I OP SHOPPED... Still no op shopping, but I plan to change that with a mini road trip later this month. I've got days of overtime to take and I'll be enjoying a little adventure to catch up on friends, spend time with family, and op shop.

I READ... Like almost everyone on the planet, I read Delia Owen's Where the Crawdads Sing. The mystery keeps the pace moving, but mostly I enjoyed the natural history references as well as the take on poverty, loneliness, abandonment and sense of self that sweeps through the chapters.

I MADE... That cowl I cast on last month as mindless knitting to keep hands busy and allow my mind to wander was finished during the road trip to Wingham. It'll have to sit on the shelf for quite a few weeks before it's cold enough to wear it. We've got a 37C day here tomorrow for the second day of autumn.

When I was little my family lived opposite bush dominated by casuarinas, also known as she-oaks, and at Christmas I'd trot behind my Dad when he wandered into the bush, owned by the local mine, to cut and bring home a tree.

And, with each year, when day-time temperatures climb and bush scents are accentuated, I am reminded of those early Christmases.

IN NOVEMBER:

I WENT TO... the Blue Mountains for a day of walking and scones to celebrate a friend's birthday.

I ATE... lovely meals at the homes of old friends who have a new house close by and old friends who are far away but well worth the long drive. A home-cooked meal is made all the better for eating it outside, and even though tables are dusty and the air smoky, to be outside with friends and good, lovingly-made fare is still a good choice.

I OP SHOPPED... A couple of 1980s Christmas craft books and a bright blue Indian pattern silk scarf (spy it here). I'll be sure to get all the Christmas craft books out this week, along with the trees and all the Christmas decor.

I MADE... Glazed pots will be out of the kiln tomorrow. I can't wait to pick them up. I love a glaze reveal.

I READ... Weather reports and seasonal forecasts. It seemed like all I did was watch fire alerts and keep across what important communications from Australian Red Cross needed to be on or off. If you're thinking about how you can help another this Christmas, do think about giving to Red Cross' Disaster Relief and Recovery fund. I can't share here all the amazing stories I hear from our staff and volunteers in the field, but if there was ever a time to ensure someone was there to guide people through the trauma of being evacuated, or worse, losing a home, it's now.

I forgot my poor old blog and monthly 'I've Done It' post, and thus am posting three days late. I've not posted to Facebook much either. Truth be told, I don't love Facebook and I forget about it too, until it rudely prompts me to post to, or even visit my page.

I am more an Instagram kinda girl, and like so of the blogging community, find the conversations and interactions there like a shorter, speedier version of what blogging was like back in the day.

So apologies I forgot my poor little blog this month. I hope you're well, and all caught up.

IN OCTOBER:

I WENT TO... Harden and Murrumburrah in the Hilltops Region of southwest NSW and Moruya, on the NSW South Coast. I really liked both places, and for similar reasons: mostly what I could see and appreciate of their communities. Commuting life can be a real killer of community involvement. You have to work hard at it, and of late, we've felt the pull of living back in the country. If only there was the work to match our skills.

I ATE... Nothing beats the simplicity of a good sandwich. On our road trip down to Moruya we stopped at Flour Water Salt for lunch and had simple sandwiches of cheese and pickles, on yummy sourdough.

I OP SHOPPED... The road trip to Moruya was, in reality, an op shopping jaunt. Moruya has one of the best Vinnies I've been in for some time. There was much that I left behind, including a fair dinkum, canvas Paddy Pallin rucksack. It took great strength of will not to bring it home. I did come home with a couple of leather belts, pottery, a little West German pot for the collection, a couple of pairs of jeans that I am yet to alter the hems on, a great denim duffel-like jacket and books on weaving patterns and indoor plants.

I MADE... I am back on the potter's wheel - grabbing a chance to book in with the Central Coast Potters Society for another course,  mostly for access to a wheel, glazes, tools and a kiln. If I was to find a secondhand potter's wheel, in good working condition, I'd be a happy woman. Then I'd have to find someone with space in their kiln. Know anyone?

I READ... It must be the season for book releases because there are soooo many new books out that I want to read. I read Elizabeth Gilbert's City of Girls and Molly Murn's Heart of the Grass Tree.
Gilbert's work always, for me, starts off slow and I find that at just the moment I am thinking I'll abandon the plot, it takes off. There are always a few gems from the women narrators of her novels, like this one:

"After a certain age, we are all walking around this world in bodies made of secrets and shame and sorrow and old, unhealed injuries. Our hearts grow sore and misshapen around all this pain - yet somehow, still, we carry on."

With the last few days of winter trying to make themselves known in my parts of the world, I am taking every opportunity to enjoy the last of winter feasting.

That includes making Maggie Beer's rhubarb and blood orange crumbles and possibly this weekend, on the nudge of Jan, a regular reader of my blog, marmalade for spreading thick on hot buttered sourdough toast.

Are you still enjoying winter fare or are you busting for summer dining?

IN AUGUST:

I WENT TO... Melbourne. It was a lightning visit for work. I wish I could say I did more and saw more. I also camped on Taronga Zoo's concert lawns with 800 Girl Guides for the organisation's annual Zoo Sleepout.

I ATE AT... Our new local, The Ferryman. I had the clam bake and it was deeeeeeee-licious, made all the better by a lovely shiraz and the knowledge of a stumble home had we wanted to kick on past a single glass.

While in Melbourne, I stayed close to work in North Melbourne and also ate close by, meaning I frequented Parkville Store for breakfasts; Naughtons Hotel for easy after-work drinks and snacks; and Auction Rooms, as recommended by a colleague, for lunch with a friend.

I OP SHOPPED... A 1950s black wool suit with pencil skirt and the most beautifully cut jacket. The collar, with rouched wool detailing, circles the shoulders, but modestly doesn't show them, just hinting at a collarbone.

Being black, it's hard to photograph, and before I do, it'll need a little stitch here and there to hold the rouching in place where it's come away.

I always wonder at the previous owner. The suit showed no signs of regular wear and surprisingly didn't hold the smell of mothballs or worse, cigarettes, so my best guess is it was worn by a woman my age or younger, given the length of the skirt and its tiny waist, to a funeral. Like a wedding gown, it was bought and worn for an occasion and could neither be thrown out, nor worn again.

I MADE... I am a few finishing stitches from finishing this cardigan. It's only been two-plus years in the making.

I READ... through the stack of overdue library books on my bedside table, starting with Queenie, by Candice Carty-Williams; Dark Emu, by Bruce Pascoe; A Woman is No Man, by Etaf Rum; and,
The Eye of the Sheep, by Sofie Laguna.

The book to add to your bookshelf is Dark Emu. It should be read by every Australian and is an anthem not only for Indigenous recognition and acknowledgement of Indigenous culture, language and science, but it's an important book to read in the midst of an unprecedented and inescapable climate crisis.

I love this time of year. It's a time for curling inward and making a nest where you can reflect and recharge. There's cosy places to be, big wide skies and for the brave, crisp mornings to crunch across frosty verges.

While my days close to home have been more heavy dew than a crunchy, silvery frost, there have been blanketing fogs hovering just above the inland waters and in the folds of the valleys I pass through and over on my commute to work. It's dark when I leave, and when I come home, but now the Winter Solstice has passed, week-by-week the sun pulls closer and I spy a little more light toward the coast as I watch for the morning's ferry to round the point.

IN JUNE:

I WENT TO... Carcoar, in the Central West of NSW. The town is described as Australia's most 'intact historic village'. It's about 30mins from Bathurst, which makes it easily accessible from Sydney and I reckon the place is about to take off as a country destination to visit. The Royal Hotel is being refurbished and I heard on the village grapevine a new chef is about to start there. There's a cafe on the corner of the main street about to open and a lovely homewares store and workshop venue across the road, with a cute coffee nook adjacent.

I ATE... While visiting Carcoar, we made a reservation at Tonic, in nearby Milthorpe. As you can imagine, the menu makes the best of the regional produce and I am always blown away by how good the dining is in this part of Australia.

Equally well known for its use of seasonal produce is Bells at Killcare. We ate here earlier in the month courtesy of a Christmas gift, and it was such a treat to cosy up with a glass of wine and three beautiful courses.

The two dining experiences got us thinking about all the really memorable meals we've eaten, mostly because as beautiful as the food and experience was at Tonic and Bells at Killcare, a few weeks later when trying to recall the dishes we'd chosen, neither of us could remember each course.

Rather, the memorable meals of years past was often because of who we were with, the occasion or the place.

I OP SHOPPED... I made a couple of dedicated op shopping trips this month to update my winter wardrobe and, boy, was I handsomely rewarded for digging through those op shop racks. I've worn most of my finds now, including this glorious Ken Done jumper and am having a lot of fun mixing them up with what's already in my closet.

I MADE... a committed effort not to start any new projects and concentrate on what's half done and waiting to be finished. Last night that saw me weaving in the ends of a knitted vest and knitting one of the two armhole bands. I've got another band to knit and some seaming to do and that one will be done. There's a whole other knitted cardigan that I've been putting off finishing, mostly because of the enormity of the band that needs to be added around the front and across the neck. It's nearly 200 stitches. Sheesh.

I READ... I have a bedside table groaning under the weight of books, all of them with bookmarks sticking out in places, but I've not managed to finish anything this past month. I need to pick one up and just keep at it, then move to the next, then the next. 

MOVING UPDATE: We're housebound and won't be moving to our little unit any time soon. The quotes to repair everything in one go are sizable, and there's a bunch of other family reasons we're not making the move just yet, or perhaps never. For the moment we're renewing things to a livable standard to put the place back on the rental market. It's a blow, but it's the way we've decided to go.

Oh my. I am still pinching myself over the month I've had.
Four weeks in Spain soaking up the culture, history, art, food, wine and of course, glorious sun-drenched spring weather.

We started in Madrid, then traveled east to Valencia, south to Granada, north to San Sebastian and exited via Barcelona. Everywhere we went those big blue skies went on forever and we were told how lucky we were to be enjoying clear, dry days and a warmer than usual spring.

IN MARCH:

I WENT TO... Spain. For a month. I know! Yup. Still pinching myself. I am terrible at doing at Instagram Stories, but at the nudging of an always-travelling friend, I had a crack and most of the trip is recorded in my highlights, if you're curious.

I ATE... So much food. It was a holiday. I won't feel guilty about it. My partner and I both agreed we loved the food of Spain's Basque coast the best, and, in particular, a certain goats milk cheesecake with red currant jam we had in one of the smaller towns of that region. It was easily the best cheesecake I've ever eaten. Like. Ever.

I OP SHOPPED... In Spain? Of course. And I picked up a beautiful second-hand Flamenco scarf for a song. I did want to bring back one of these beauties, but I talked myself down from buying any (or all).

I MADE... No time for making, although I had considered packing a knitting project for bus and train trips. Instead I smashed in a lot of reading time.

I READ...  Mostly cheesy thrillers or who-dun-its. It's such a guilty pleasure when I am travelling. Even on a domestic trip, I'll treat myself to a new book from the airport's selection and rip through it. They're deliberately page-turners and I love them. I also love the travelling book-lover's code of leaving a finished book behind for someone else and taking a selection from what's on the shelf. I left behind The Book of Etta, the second book in Meg Elison's series that started with The Book of the Unnamed Midwife. I picked up Shari Lapena's The Couple Next Door, followed by A.J. Finn's The Woman in the Window. I am close to finishing Nora Robert's Year One and have returned to my post-travel read, Chloe Hooper's The Arsonist. The favourite of them all was The Arsonist. It is a beautifully penned and often harrowing reflection of a crime so repulsive to Australians, yet one we are so instinctively attuned to and fascinated by.

Hope the start to this new season has you well. I am already reveling in an autumn garden though it needs a good weed following the rain that fell while we were away.

It's taken me almost two decades to get the garden to the stage where it delights with each season and I seem to be more conscious of the passing of them than ever before.

I've sat among this flowery scene every chance I've had in November, knowing there are a few short weeks when it will be at its best. Already the hippeastrums have faded and are falling. The jasmine has lost all its scent and the flowers are dropping. Herbs are already bolting and what were lush beds of mint, spearmint, oregano and thyme have grown tall and ratty. I am waiting for them to flower and serve the bees before I cut them back down.

In their place, a frangipani is budding, the evening primrose holds the last of the day's light to blanket the garden in a soft pink glow and I can see the bulge of new pomegranates. Here's to another a fleeting month in the garden.

IN NOVEMBER: 

I WENT TO... Patonga Beach and camped with five women I've met through Girl Guides, some firm friends and some new friends. The weather was glorious, the waters were calm along the tidal creek and the campsite was a good size and with shade for us to spread out and loll about. We're all Guide leaders, so camping without kids to look after and teach was a real treat (though, we're usually more than happy to camp with the kids too).

I ATE... at the newly opened The Boathouse Hotel, in the old Patonga Hotel. One of the joys of camping without the kids was being able to go to the pub, order a beer or cocktail and merrily make your way back to your tent.

I OP SHOPPED... Vintage cookbooks from the 1970s. I've cooked from The Busy Woman's Cookbook. The biscuit and slice cookbook will get a workout before Christmas.

I MADE... Christmas decor with grandkidlet No.1. We haven't seen Miss 6 much this year and when we did see her regularly there were always a request for paints, glue and the prized object of glitter. Now she's at school, the desire to do crafts at Nana and Cracker's house has dropped away. She stuck with it for a few moments, but the short attention span of a six-year-old is held these days by dress-up. Fortunately, the op shops have delivered that in spades. I delight in leaving pieces around the house for her to 'discover': big hats, even bigger sunglasses, silk scarves with fringing that tickles, sparkly gloves, clacky mules. She's a miniature eccentric Iris Apfel by the end of the day.

I READ... Pages and pages of academic papers and exam notes. The library will be getting a good workout over the Christmas break. Anything but an academic paper.

We're a week into November and I am still stuck back in October. It feels a theme this year. The weeks whip past me and, bam, those deadlines rudely slap me in the face.

I've kept up, just, but am busting for a break in the work-study-commute-family-home routine. It'll come soon enough with that final exam at the end of this month. I can't wait.

IN OCTOBER:

I WENT TO... Wollongong for a day. I met up with my aunt, had a poke around the city centre, stuck my head into a couple of op shops and headed up the escarpment to the Jamboree weekend creative escape on Mount Keira. My folks are from Wollongong and it's weird to drive around a place you have a vague mental map of and memories of childhood visits to grandparents.

I ATE... a couple of cheap and cheerful dinners from Woy Woy's new Indian diner Spices 29 and Avoca Beach takeaway All Malay. At both my partner and I shared a dish, added either a dessert or accompaniment like naan at the Indian, and left happy and full. My excitement was in finding an old-fashioned deep-fried ice-cream at All Malay. Good ones are as rare as hen's teeth.

I OP SHOPPED... a bunch of patterns from Wollongong's Red Cross store. If you're a local, head in. There was a stash of great 1960s and '70s patterns on the shelf and because I'd shown an interest, a bag from behind the counter was dragged out for me to dig through. I left plenty. I also found a cute crossover Oroton bag and pottery bowl. I have a new appreciation for all the beautiful pottery I find on op shop shelves after starting a pottery course a couple of weeks ago.

I MADE... A Shibori scarf and cordage from reclaimed and natural fibres on my weekend away, and a bunch of new embroidered felt mandalas. I make them every year as Christmas decorations and never bore of playing with colours and threads.

I READ... I pushed myself through The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club. It was too slow for me, and where there were dramatic plot points they felt too far a stretch and then seemed to shape the character little. I know others liked it, so don't take my review as your sole source of evidence. It's probably just a little too chick-lit for me.

It's camping weather and I just spent a weekend at my favourite 'grown-up' camp of the year: Wild Rumpus' South Coast Jamboree.

Seriously? How good are they? In the time since we've been living on the sunny NSW Central Coast, so many new restaurants have opened and there's quite a foodie scene here now.

In two weeks I will be packing my bags and heading off on a road trip but for now I am locked away in our cave of a study and wrestling accounting formulas and strategic management theory.


You must get thoroughly bored with my ranting about uni study. I'd fill these posts with something more exciting if I had something more exciting to offer, trust me. I'm really scraping the bottom of the barrel to come up with this month's I've Done It list.

IN APRIL:

I WENT TO... the city for a night of theatre. Does that count? It's going to have to count. I am honoured to call playwright Tasnim Hossain a friend and if you get a chance to see her work, do.

I also stretched my legs with a day walk in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. I am the 'walker' in this video my partner made of the day.

I ATE... I am studying - the diet consists of mostly toast and coffee with the odd run of soup, slow cooker meals or things I've dragged from the freezer.

I OP SHOPPED... Old cotton reels, old children's books and a little 1980s casual glamour.

I MADE... There is a sleeve and a bit to go on a cardigan I have been knitting for more than a year now. It's sitting on the couch ready for me to finish a raglan sleeve and start on that last piece before I can block it and add the ribbed binding.

I READ... The Birdman's Wife, by Melissa Ashley. If you're a fan of natural history you'll know of ornithologist John Gould and the published work The Birds of Australia, on display in the Australian Museum's Westpac Long Gallery. However, you may not know that it was his wife Elizabeth that was the artist, along with Edward Lear, and that she left her children and travelled to Australia with her husband and his scientific team to complete studies of Australian birds in the wild. I found it fascinating as much for the science and history as for the imagining of what this working mother's life looked at in the 1800s.

Last year, just before turning 43, I collected all the lovely things I wanted to do and wrote it down as a dedicated 'soul list', revisiting it every so often to see how I was tracking. My 44th birthday is looming and I thought I'd share what I did, and didn't do.

Here’s what I did:

1. I went to a craft camp and I’ve booked again for this year.
2. I used a slow stitching and mending technique, quite a few times.
3. I passed the first year of my MBA. Phew.
4. I averaged a book each month that is unrelated to work or study, and am desperate to keep this going.
5. I didn’t hold a garage sale, but I did start divesting of household and wardrobe items online. Kinda counts, doesn’t it?
6. I travelled overseas to Malaysia. I loved Penang. My partner and I talk about it all the time are are keen to revisit. If you have to stopover in Singapore on your international travels, check whether a side-trip through KL and to Penang could work.
7. I visited my Nana in Brisbane. She’s a goer, my Nana. She’s got a trade in bingo winnings going on that is bordering on graft and corruption.
8. I made a Pussy Hat, and I wear it.
9. I cooked from new recipes all the time. I’m not sure whether it was once a week, but often enough to claim this one.
10. I cooked a fancy dinner once a month. We’ve had some pretty delicious dinners this past year, which may have contributed to some of what I didn’t do.
11. I am a produce swap convert. Great people, great produce and lots to learn.
12. I did do okay with the ocean dips but reckon I could still improve on that one.
13. I did see my niece and nephew a few times this year. They’re growing so fast. My nephew started high school this year.
14. I did spend a weekend at Brunswick Heads. My partner and I chose to go there to mark 20 years together.
15. I did go to one live music gig to see Martha Wainwright perform at Taronga Zoo. Man, these things are expensive. What happened to good old pub bands, I ask ya. 
16. I did go back to yoga classes. You know what, I wasn’t loving it. I prefer my home practice. My time, my pace, it’s free and it’s in my lounge room. Sure, it’s not perfect, but for right now it’s where I’m at.
17. I did write a short story, and what’s more entered it into a competition.
18. I did get my film camera out, cleaned it up and got it working again. I loved it so much I bought a new DSLR. I’ve been using compacts for years but did the research and opted for the Nikon D5600 – a mid-range, light, small DSLR that allows me to change lenses and that can be used in manual mode, something I was finding harder and harder to do with the new wave compacts.
19. I did make my own muesli. Oh my, the smell of toasting muesli. Mmmm.

Almost half way. Not bad.

Here's what I didn't do:

1. I didn’t lose 5kg. In fact, I put on another 5 meaning I’ve got about 10kg to lose to get down to the comfortable weight I was three years ago. Eat less, move more.
2. I didn’t do an overnight hike. I came so very close and then got very sick.
3. I didn’t use a solar dye pot, but I did do a one-day natural dye class, and it was magical.
4. I didn’t read more poetry. I have been reading more history though, and biographies, and it was kicked off by reading about a poet. Does that count?
5. I didn’t write that many letters to my letter-writing friends. I wrote some, but not as much as I’d hoped to.
6. I didn’t try straw-bale gardening. We’ve made a decision to move on from our house and rent it, so this past year I’ve been planning how to enjoy the garden we have while moving it to one that will suit renters.
7. I didn’t learn more about bee-keeping. Again, I am going to have to park this one until the study is over.
8. I didn’t make sourdough bread, but I am in the market for a scobie if anyone has one to share. I am going to have a crack at kombucha.
9. I didn’t write and host a webinar. If I am honest, I can’t even remember why I thought this was a good idea. It was in my business plan for my media consultancy but honestly, sometimes these grand plans for promoting the business can actually remove you from doing the paid work.
10. I didn’t try calligraphy. No reason, just didn’t.
11. I didn’t pick up the printmaking tools again and crack out some prints. I didn’t even pick up a sketchbook this year. Nope. That’s going to have to wait until, um, retirement. Who knows?

Here’s what I am ditching, and why:

1. I won’t be drawing my op shop finds. Yes, I used to do it all the time, but I just don’t have the time. How I did then, I don’t know, but I am not op shopping as much as I once was, and I am not inspired to pick up the drawing pad and pencil.
2. I won’t be spending a weekend in Melbourne with Mum. We did talk about this plan, but Mum’s busy and I couldn’t co-ordinate a weekend where I could afford to be away from the study, group meetings and assessment work. That’ll be the same this year. Next year maybe.
3. I won’t be knitting a Jenny Kee pattern. I have one on the sticks and I’ll plug away at it, but I expect it’ll still be on the sticks – albeit with rows added – this time next year.
4. I won’t be hosting a camp cooking weekend. Again, the study is all-consuming and it’s good to be realistic about what’s possible. I’ll stick with trying to get a few nights under canvas.
5. There will be no Pussy Hat or mandala stitching workshops. Again, the cost of giving my time to planning and delivering them over study isn’t worth it.
6. I won’t strike a frangipani. I bought one with a fair bit of growth on it and it’s bedding into my chosen spot in the garden.
7. I won’t be renewing my Girl Guide canoe qualifications. I am not sure what my future role in Guides will be. I’m just going to sit with that this year. My membership is current, but that’s about it for the moment.

I am still working on the soul list for my 44th birthday.
What would be on your soul list?
Got any suggestions for me?

Sydneysiders, have you noticed the absence of a Southerly Buster? One is forecast for early Wednesday morning. Thank goodness, because I am missing that sweet, blustery cool wind that marks the end of a hot spell.

If I was to sit you down to a slide night of travel photos - not that I would - the pictures you'd see would be of food. I can be wowed by palaces, temples and other fantastic monuments but it's the experiences with food I remember the most.

The savoury

The sweet