Christmas is over...it's like a mini death...not that I have died before, but it is as though something huge has passed away. There in full bloom one minute and gone the next. A metaphor for life I guess.
The festive dinner I prepared for the first time this Christmas went mostly to plan and was enjoyed, even more so over the following days when the herbs and spices had penetrated further into the remaining food.
I think the equivalent of preparing a 4 course meal that you have never cooked before would be similar to babysitting 5 toddlers in a small room for five hours, each of them wanting your full attention. Chaotic, demanding, messy,.and just as much fun!
Hot vegetables did turn toward the cooler side of warm because when I pierced my delicious looking Moroccan lamb roast, the juices came out red instead of clear. Don't you hate that!
In hindsight there are a few things I would do differently:
- work out why my garlic crusher is more like a garlic squasher and nothing comes out of it, so I had to rescue the completely flattened clove still intact, out of the crusher and chop it up myself.
- work out why the lemon I finely grated on the grater produced no lemon rind whatsoever and took 3 days of soaking and scrubbing to get it off the grater
- Never lick a desert spoon covered in raw tahini. It tastes disgusting! Even though it is ground up sesame seeds and smells like yummy peanut butter and makes great hommos, it tastes nothing like peanut butter. It is bitter and seals your mouth together instantly.
- make sure the meat is cooked before the vegetables.
The highlights were the caramelised parsnips with nutmeg, the long green bean bundles wrapped in prosciutto and a mango and passionfruit summer trifle was divine. The Moroccan lamb roast for cold cuts over the next few days was a real treat too.
A totally unexpected gift of an ipad came my way for christmas. I don't have it yet but it is on it's way. I've yet to experience all the wonderful opportunities (and probably frustrations) this little gadget will afford me. It is a bit hard to get excited about something you know nothing about but I'm imagining it will be great!
So far I have decided to take on a few private students again. It has been about 18 months since I last taught anyone to paint. I will also have 1 or 2 InterPlay classes a month. I have my first artist residency for the month of November in Beverley, a small heritage town in WA. I'll be staying and working in the Beverly Station Gallery.
The weather here in Perth is hot hot hot! We are up in the 40's every day. Thank God for the A/C.
We are heading off to do some camping in the Stirling Ranges and Albany in January 2013. I'm looking forward to going bush. I'm just taking my camera, pen and notepad and a couple of good books.
I'd like to spend a great deal more time in meditation, solitude, silence and stillness with the aim to accept more readily what is right here and now before me, without thinking so much about planning the future or worrying about the past. Just 'being' which is a word I have tossed around carelessly for years, but truly being and letting go of the doing, the pushing and pulling and grasping and worrying. To simply ' be' in the here and now, is going to take so much mindfulness and self awareness. I too often allow my negative mind and thoughts to dominate my life and actions when there actually is always another way to choose...anyway, this is all just theory and of no use unless I practice it, in this moment and then the next and so on. So simple yet so challenging. I don't have to do anything, just stay present with the 'now' and yet the results are incredibly profound. Oh well...time will tell, or perhaps I should say each moment will tell.
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