A blogging friendship comes to lunch at The Trad Pad

Miss Eagle has never tried to get a decent self portrait.

Imperfect though this shot in the mirror is, Miss E thinks it is the best of the bunch.

Yester, Val came to lunch at The Trad Pad. It was a wonderful time of conversation, handmade books, and food.

The food was simple but appropriate for a chilly, welcome-rainy day. The slow cooker has come out of the bottom cupboard this week as the weather has achieved a certain bite to the breeze and, officially, winter has arrived to-day. It was pressed into service for the first course. On the menu was a thick vegetable broth and, to satisfy the sweet tooth, Polenta Orage Syrup Cake served with cream.

The vegetable (with everything in it) broth came complete with the kluskies from Vicious Ange's Kluski Soup. The cake came from Billington's site.

POLENTA ORANGE SYRUP CAKE

Ingredients - Cake

• 3 eggs
• 110g/4oz Caster sugar
• 110g/4oz butter - melted and cooled
• Juice of half an orange
• 225g/8oz polenta
• 1 dessertspoon baking powder
• Finely grated zest of 1 orange
• Pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

Ingredients - Syrup

• 2 oranges
• Juice of half a lemon
• 140g/5oz Caster sugar

Method

• Preheat oven to 170 degrees celsius/325 degrees fahrenheit.
• Line a 20cm/8inch round cake tin with non-stick baking paper.
• Whisk the eggs and sugar until thick and mousse-like.
• Beat in the melted and cooled butter and orange juice.
• Add polenta and baking powder, followed by the orange zest, salt and vanilla, beating well.
• Pour into prepared tin.
• Bake for 30-40 minutes until golden.
• Test with a skewer. Skewer should come out clean if the cake is done.

While the cake is cooking make the syrup: put all the ingredients into a pan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved completely. Bring to the boil and simmer for five minutes.

• Remove cake from the oven and make holes in it with a skewer.
• Pour over the hot syrup
• Leave to cool
• Turn out onto a serving plate
• Serve with creme fraiche or whipped cream

THE CONVERSATION

Food is best when accompanied by good and lively conversation and the food was well accompanied. Val is marvellous company. As well as a former librarian at the Goethe Institute, her background is in German language and lit. studied in the mythological sixties at that great mythological institution, University of California at Berkeley. Pardon, Miss Eagle. She is a child of the sixties and Berkeley was a place one read about with amazement - at a time when merely sitting in a park in conservative Toowoomba to protest the Vietnam war was enough to bring down on one's head the epithet of "Communist!".

Val, as does Miss Eagle, an abiding interest in track travel - tram or train. Miss Eagle dates her interest since childhood. When she holidayed with Nana O'Carroll there favourite pastime was to get on a train or tram in the centre of Brisbane and ride to the terminus and back again. So perhaps there might be a shared adventure in the future. To give some impetus to adventure planning, no matter if it is suburban, is this wonderful mural of a train taken by Miss Eagle last year in Broken Hill.

And there were Val's handmade books which she brought to show. Beautiful! Inspiring! And Miss Eagle was given a teensy-weensy beautiful one! Thank you, Val.

Then we finished up with a visit to Craft Fair where Val purchased nothing but Miss Eagle found these papers irresistible. A sale on at the moment!

All in all, a beautiful blogging buddy day.

Steamy but sunny and chilly at Upper Gully

There has been a good bit of very welcome rain at Upper Gully in the last few days. This morning the sun got up and heralds a clear day. The fence, as you can see, is still very wet and -with the warmth of the sun on this chilly morning - steam is rising.

Buona notte in Lygon Street, Carlton.

Miss Eagle went to the movies in Lygon Street, Carlton on Monday night. You can read about the movie over at Desert. Miss E came out of Cinema Nova about 9.30pm. Now it was Monday night and the night was moving on and Tuesday would not be a rest day for all. But there was life in Lygon - even if it was not as busy as a Friday and Saturday. Miss E wandered across the road to her favourit-est place in Lygon Street which was still open: Readings. Miss Eagle's budget is very strict these days so-0-0 no purchases were made...but here's what took her fancy and if there had been spare cash and lotsa time to read these would have gone home to the aerie.
NYRB keeps one up with the latest. There is nothing quite like a quality critical magazine. As a teenager Miss E was addicted to Time and Tide, an English literary journal. Does it still exist?
Ah well...one can dream

...and, while Miss E has never been a fashionista, this is stuff to admire and inspire.
And then there is Miss E's feminist spirit...it always likes to be fed!
Then it was on down Lygon Street.
Window shopping when the shops are closed is always a good policy.
...the passions can be kept under control.

And, of course, almost the whole of Lygon Street is about food, restaurants, street cafes...but those sort of photographs can wait for another time.

Food is represented here by the Lygon Food Store, below.

And as the main shopping and dining precinct was left behind, there was the residential/office precinct. As readers of TTP are aware, Miss E loves a bit of architectural detail so...
the barley sugar window...
the frieze which is actually moulded but here looks like a painted or papered frieze...
and beautiful native birds flying high in a fanlight.

And BTW, Miss Eagle did have a nibble but that is talked about at Oz Tucker.

Ricky, Tim, and a straight bat

Monday was a big day in The Gully.

There was a time when country town after country town had a welcome sign just on the entry to town declaring that XYZ-ville is a good Rexona town. These days the signs are gone but who should turn up in town but Ricky Ponting, Australia's illustrious cricket captain.

Safeway, Mountgate had won a competition for selling the most Rexona products and the prize was a store signing with Ricky. So we queued, Miss Eagle among them - she just wanted a photo.

The crowds had come with pieces of paper for autographs, a cricket ball here, a bat there, and some pads, of course, and a shirt. And they got a Polaroid happy snap with Ricky.

Miss Eagle's young friend Tim was there with some mates from Kent Park Primary School. Note the cap and the bat ready for signature.

Australians love Ricky better than the Prime Minister, Miss Eagle thinks.

Tulips

A fortnight ago, Miss Eagle resigned her job. Ill health and continued employment were not compatible. She returned to her place of employment on Thursday for a farewell morning tea. Miss E was presented with tulips. Now Miss E is a girl from the tropics. She knows precious little about tulips and has had precious little to do with them.

Not like that Jane Brocket over at yarnstorm. Jane grows tulips, brings them inside, photographs them - gloriously. So, dear Reader, can you please indulge your Miss E. Miss Eagle took lots of tulip photographs and she wants to post quite a few of them. Miss E discovered what Jane sees in photographing tulips. The light shines through their waxy petals to beautiful effect. In fact, ignorant though Miss E might be, she feels that can safely say that photographing tulips is not like photographing any other flower. Here are the results:

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State of Origin and Queensland religious fervour

At the Melbourne Webloggers Meetup, Miss Eagle all of a sudden checked her watch. it was 8.45pm. Mmm..., she calculated. Walk to Flinders Street Station, train to Upper Gully, an hour on the train. Mmm... State of Origin 2007, Game 1 would be all over bar the shouting. So...wonder if that pub up in Swanston Street with the Kiwi landlord who keeps everyone up to date with Kiwi Rugby Union would be showing State of Origin on the big screen. London to a brick on, she thought. So she made her farewells and hotfooted it up to The Oxford Scholar in Swanston Street. Sure as eggs, the show was on.

Queensland support wore dismal faces. New South Wales had walloped them in the first half. Queensland was well and truly down 18-6. One could only imagine what was being said in the Queensland dressing room. Queenslander, Queenslander, Queenslander. Motivate, motivate, motivate.

Out they came. Miss Eagle can't remember when she saw a better second-half. The passing was superb. New South Wales was scoreless and it was their turn to be dismal. Read about it here. Now, our well-beloved, Mal Meninga attributes the win to Steve Price and Petero Civoniceva but, for Miss Eagle, she delighted in Johnathan Thurston. Over here, this review makes Steve the top-rated player for Queensland with Johnathan Thurston and that guts and all player, Tonie Carroll, tying for second highest rating. Thurston's boot was magic in conversion and - Miss Eagle had to smile - when she saw him trot out the old Alfe Langer field goal trick. The trick? Take any opportunity to score a field goal. Sure it is only a one pointer but if things get tight and there is a tie that one point is the difference between life and death.

Game 1? Superb.

Is it too much to ask that Queensland makes is three out of three.

Bring it on!

Johnathan Thurston

Bloggers bash at the Bazaar

Life has been rather full this week. There sometimes seems to be just two parts to life: real life and blogging life. Real life demands and interests have to be kept up for all the best and usual reasons. But one has to keep up with real life demands also to prove to oneself and Herself that one is not an addict, that one can move away from the computer - and give Herself ago to visit Her/Miss Eagle's latest addiction, I Can Has Cheezburger?.

So Miss E hasn't been back to tell you about The Melbourne Weblogger Meetup. Now, Miss E can't go into every jot and tittle of the evening but wants to hone in on just a few highlights to make you, dear Reader, wish you were there. If you do wish you had been there, join up here.

Firstly, we were all gathered at Horse Bazaar because of mine host Darren Rowse, he of ProBlogger fame. Here's Darren's post on the night. So it was great to meet him and exchange a word or two. Then there was John, not a blogger in his own right but webmaster for Craig Harper. That's John in his Craig t-shirt in the foreground of the photograph on Darren's post. Great talking to him - and it turned out that his parents, Tony and Bernadette, live just around the corner from Miss E - and she has promised to drop in and say hello.

Then there was that marvellous fashonista, Gala, in her pink hoodie (but no sign of the striped kini). Gala was accompanied by the team from Fashionising. Enough to rejuvenate Miss E's superannuated spirit! So, dear Reader, if you think Australia's fashion capital is elsewhere, Melbourne's credentials were on show at the Meetup.

Martin told me how his experience and tricks of the trade were being put to use in his new blog. All success to him - because as well as who you know, as we were putting into practice at the Horse Bazaar, one has to have a foundation of what you know.

Now, don't ask me how Miss E didn't get into a conversation with Ed. Must have been that wonderfully erudite conversation with Jon criss-crossing a geography of locales and ideas. Ed, we'll have to talk some more over at Oz Tucker about a food bloggers' gathering, don't you think?

There were a few in the yet-to-start-about-to-start-my-blog category so, needless to say, we wished them well with words of encouragement. And if you want to mind your p's, q's and posts in the blogosphere pop over to Kirrily's blog - she who claims to be the Emily Post for the digital generation.

It was great to meet up with Karen from Miscellaneous Adventures of an Aussie Mum who had been tossing up whether to come - particularly since illness had invaded the household earlier in the week. It is always a joy to put faces to blogs - especially such an enjoyable blog by such a talented writer as Karen.

Miss Eagle slips her lid

Yes, I did. I slipped me lid. I was washing up the lovely one pounder (5oo gram) clear green glass butter dish, the lid slipped out of control, and smashed to smithereens on the kitchen floor. Sadness! :-( :-( :-(

Now, Miss Eagle has to hunt, seek, and hopefully gather another one - lid that is, or, more probably, a whole new green glass butter dish with lid. So, in the weeks ahead, you will come across Miss Eagle a-hunting in Opp Shops across the eastern suburbs and The Hills.

However, dear Reader, could you help too - pretty please. Pretty please with sugar on? If you are opp shopping, could you please keep your eyes peeled and if you find such a pretty thing as a one pounder (500 gram) clear green glass butter dish with lid please email me off the side bar.

Melbourne Weblogger Meetup

Can I tell you that The Melbourne Weblogger Meetup Group is to have its very first meetup to-morrow night? Diarise it right now.

Details are:
Date: Wednesday 23 May
Time: 6.30pm onwards (so those in the CBD can come straight from work)
Place: The Horse Bazaar Bar - 397 Little Lonsdale St Melbourne
Cost: nothing - buy your own drinks/coffee/food

Miss Eagle will be there and would love to meets lots of fellow bloggers.

Tracey Grimshaw's face

The Many Faces of Tracey Grimshaw

Herself has chimed in with something she wants the blogosphere, the world, the universe to know. Miss Eagle wishes she would do her own blog - she's a fount of information on television and Victorian English Lit. However, for the nonce, her SpokesEagle will do her duty.

Herself wants the world to know that Tracy Grimshaw's face has returned to normal. Hear that, dear Reader, NORMAL.

As Herself explains, last year Tracy got a very hard time. Like this:

Personally I reckon our Aussie queen of grotesque facial manipulation is Tracy Grimshaw. I’m sure there’s been a side of beef injected into each revolting lip.

And this.

So Herself thinks - because she hasn't noticed it anywhere - that it is about time that someone said:

TRACY GRIMSHAW'S FACE IS BACK TO NORMAL

Cottage gardens in Clow Avenue

Miss Eagle was walking around Upper Gully yesterday and couldn't resist snapping these glimpses of the gardens in Clow Avenue.

A story, a movie, and two wonderful actors

Tonight, Greer Garson is on the telly in Random Harvest with Ronald Coleman. Sigh....

The movie is based on the novel by that incomparable storyteller, James Hilton.

One in spirit. One in death.

Herself drew Miss Eagle's attention to this news item about a couple who died, after 55 years of marriage, on the same night. It is a heart-warming story though sad for those left behind. Miss Eagle thought of the way Jesus said that, in marriage, the two shall become one. (Mark 10:8). It seems to Miss Eagle that this couple had truly become one - so much so that when one departed, the other had to go too. We don't know who went first but Miss Eagle has in her mind, her imagination that whichever one went first came, in spirit, for the other.

Announcement: Jane Brocket revealed

Miss Eagle has, like all of us, her favourite blogs. Some of these are simple blogger blogs. Others have wonderful titles and fonts and layouts. Miss E's FeedDemon has umpteen categories - but the really beautiful ones are put in two categories: Charmers and Charmers - Aussies.

The two Charmer categories are totally inhabited by women: women who love beauty, women who are creative. And to keep and be categorised here, only the best will do.

And the very, very, very best in Miss Eagle's view (apologies to all my blogging friends) is yarnstorm. The person behind yarnstorm is Jane Brocket.

The layout of yarnstorm is simple and elegant. Jane writes about books, the family baking, the family crafts and creativity, and - needless to say - knitting. We know that Jane is well-educated and it is clear from the way she writes and what she chooses to write about. And she does write well - so well, in fact, that this year she has a book contract with Hodder & Stoughton.

But it not just Jane's writing that makes the blog, it is her wonderful photos. They are brilliant. They cover flowers - we all know how dotty she is about tulips; the biscuits and rock buns and cake decoration of family baking; and, of course, the knitting - and the patchwork and quilting. All done with superb style. Miss Eagle thinks that it is highly probable that Style is Jane's middle name.

Through all this, we have had no idea of what Jane looked like. We have seen her nail varnished toes and, perhaps, other bits and pieces of her. But never HER - not enough to see what she might really look like. Until to-day!

Today, Jane Brocket is revealed. The big reveal. We can see the woman behind the blog and the yet to be published book. And the blogosphere is thrilled, Miss Eagle can report!

Lemon Blossom

The lemon blossom is flaunting itself.
Making itself attractive to bees/
But the bees wouldn't hang around while Miss Eagle focussed
And, dear Reader, as you can see the beauty bears fruit.

Lemons.