Firing up the oven for Focaccia alla Pugliese

@tammois is looking for a good excuse to start the fire to-day.  I suggested Focaccia alla Pugliese was an excellent excuse and offered to send the recipe.  She has taken me up on the offer, so I scanned the pages and thought I would post them here as well.  Please pop over to her site Tammi Tasting Terroir. I think you'll love her.

 

A cup of coffee from Iain across The Ditch

I hope @Iain 2008 doesn't mind but he sent me a nice cup of coffee in the form of this post below which has come from his Twitwall.  Iain lives across The Ditch and you will find more of him here.

~~~~~

Iain2008 Following

Life is Like a Cup of Coffee

posted 10/09/10

"A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite. 

He told his guests to help themselves to the coffee.

After everyone had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said, 'If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups have been taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

Be assured that the cup adds no quality to the coffee.

In most cases, it is just more expensive, and in some cases, even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup.  But you consciously went for the best cups...  And then you began eyeing each other's cups to see who had the best one. 

Now consider this... 

Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee.

Savor the coffee, not the cups!

The happiest people don't have the best of everything.

They just make the best of everything.

Live simply.

Speak kindly.

Care deeply. 

Love generously.'"

Source:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3NgzQ9Pcsg

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The story of Meetup

Those of you who have your own blogs may know about meetup. It is a wonderful net tool for organising people to get together for meetings, a drink, whatever.  And while bloggers may love to communicate on their blogs, many of them like to meet up with similarly interested bloggers in their neighbourhood...so there's a tendency to use meetup.  In my mail box to-day dropped the wonderful and somewhat emotional story of how it all started............

Fellow Meetuppers,

I don't write to our whole community often, but this week is special because it's the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and many people don't know that Meetup is a 9/11 baby.

Let me tell you the Meetup story. I was living a couple miles from the Twin Towers, and I was the kind of person who thought local community doesn't matter much if we've got the internet and tv. The only time I thought about my neighbors was when I hoped they wouldn't bother me.

When the towers fell, I found myself talking to more neighbors in the days after 9/11 than ever before. People said hello to neighbors (next-door and across the city) who they'd normally ignore. People were looking after each other, helping each other, and meeting up with each other. You know, being neighborly.

A lot of people were thinking that maybe 9/11 could bring people together in a lasting way. So the idea for Meetup was born: Could we use the internet to get off the internet -- and grow local communities?

We didn't know if it would work. Most people thought it was a crazy idea -- especially because terrorism is designed to make people distrust one another.

A small team came together, and we launched Meetup 9 months after 9/11.

Today, almost 10 years and 10 million Meetuppers later, it's working. Every day, thousands of Meetups happen. Moms Meetups, Small Business Meetups, Fitness Meetups... a wild variety of 100,000 Meetup Groups with not much in common -- except one thing.

Every Meetup starts with people simply saying hello to neighbors. And what often happens next is still amazing to me. They grow businesses and bands together, they teach and motivate each other, they babysit each other's kids and find other ways to work together. They have fun and find solace together. They make friends and form powerful community. It's powerful stuff.

It's a wonderful revolution in local community, and it's thanks to everyone who shows up.

Meetups aren't about 9/11, but they may not be happening if it weren't for 9/11.

9/11 didn't make us too scared to go outside or talk to strangers. 9/11 didn't rip us apart. No, we're building new community together!!!!

The towers fell, but we rise up. And we're just getting started with these Meetups.

Scott Heiferman (on behalf of 80 people at Meetup HQ)
Co-Founder & CEO, Meetup
New York City
September 2011

--
Add info@meetup.com to your address book to receive all Meetup
emails

To manage your email settings, go to:
http://www.meetup.com/account/comm/

Meetup, PO Box 4668 #37895
New York, New York 10163-4668

SEASONS: THE WATTLE IN BLOOM ~~ 2

Over at The Nature of Robertson,

my friend Denis has written about the entrance of Spring.

Last year, I published here my homage to the Wattle -

and my thoughts about the arbitrary nature of the dating of Spring.

Here is a fine instance of a Wattle in bloom in time for a revised Wattle Day,

August 1 if the powers that be want to take notice.

I was smitten by this species of Wattle so .....

an email to Denis asking for identification.

Here's what Denis said ~~~

It is a prostrate form of Cootamundra Wattle.
http://www.malleenativeplants.com.au/acacia-baileyana-prostrate-form-cootamundra-wattle/

This plant has been grown so widely that aberrant forms have appeared (naturally) 

and then (and this is the real point) have been recognised as worthy of cultivation, 

so they have come into commerce.

There is a lovely form which has purple tips.

But in many areas the true form has become a garden escape, 

and ends up being eradicated from nature reserves 

around Canberra as a weedy species.

High Tea at St Stephen's

 Last Sunday afternoon, a gracious friend of mine took me to a High Tea 

at

 St Stephen's Bayswater.

 The afternoon was organised by an NGO called

Australia Aids South Africa.

As the name implies, the organisation works to assist

AIDS victims in South Africa.

 The hall at Stephen's was packed.

There was wonderful music from talented local people.

As well as my friend and her lovely family,

I also enjoyed the presence at our table of

St Stephen's vicar, Father David.

Each table had its own host.

The host (or hostess if you prefer) provided all the beautiful

napery and tableware.

I thought this was a great idea -

since it split so much of the organisation, responsibility and work.

Beverages, it should be noted, were not limited to coffee and tea!

I did enjoy the champers in beautiful fluted glasses -

and the flowers and chocolates, too.

I think the afternoon was a marvellous social success.

I am sure the hard work was rewarded, as well, with financial success.

Thank you, Australia Aids South Africa.

Come to a Forest Picnic. It's the International Year of #Forests

Every year, Voiceless holds law lectures across Australia's capital cities on Animal Law.  Voicless brings to Australia significant legal practitioners from overseas who have impacted greatly on the practice and development of animal law.  Animal law in Australia has a long way to go to provide adequate protection for all animals - in particular, industrial animals. 

Voiceless - with its marvellous commitment of resources to this cause - gives invaluable service in this regard. 

The information in the graphic above is for one event in Melbourne.  To find out about all events across Australia please go here.

Retronaut-ing

I have discovered this most wonderful site.  It is an adventure, a trip down memory lane (although some of the memories are much older than those reading this), a wonderful resource. Come be a Retronaut.

This is your Life. Do what you love, and do it often.

 From here.

#Sustainablity shopping? Shabby #Vintage Junk Extravaganza 3-4 June 2011 #recycling

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This is the second year that the Shabby Vintage Junk Extravaganza has been held. The leadership for this event is provided by the indefatigable Tamara.  Many of the favourites from last year will be there again this year along with some new participants.  

Please let me declare my interest.  My daughter, Herself, was one of last year's participants and will be there again this year. She has masses of stuff to offer.  See one of her collages below.  And there is the most charming old-fashioned rocking horse.  

To find out more about last year's wonderful Extravaganza, please go to one of my other blogs, The Trad Pad.  

Please note: this year there are Early Bird Tickets.  This gets you in for a special one hour of shopping prior to the main opening time.  It is the Early Bird who truly catches the worm, so if you pay for that premium ticket you will get the premium pick.  I do know though that the stall-holders have so much stuff that stalls won't be emptied by 1pm.  

World Poetry Day - Dorothy Porter and Andrea Goldsmith #poets #writers#

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 Picture from here

To-day is UN World Poetry Day.

Let us take time to remember Dorothy Porter - arguably Australia's greatest female (or need we mention gender) poet in recent times.  Go here for a discussion about Porter's love poetry by her partner, Andrea Goldsmith.  

Andrea Goldsmith

Picture from here

  

The Monkey's Mask (A Mask Noir Title) 

 

Love Poems 

  

Reunion 

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY CENTENARY 2011 #iwd

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Wishing women across the globe

PEACE, JUSTICE, AND WELL-BEING

on the occasion of

the centenary of

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY 2011

 Picture of Emmeline Pankhurst Badge with Suffragette colours from here.

World Book Day : John le Carre : the Bodleian Libraries : Dr Zhivago #worldbookday #bodleian #lecarre

To-day is World Book Day.  Find out all about it here.  

What is fascinating this year - if you are a John le Carre fan and a fan of his most famous character, George Smiley - is that he has presented his literary archive to the Bodleian Libraries at Oxford in England. The intention is that the Bodleian will become the permanent home of the archive.

You can see images of some of the manuscript for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy here.

You can see images of some of the manuscript for The Russia House here.

I recall the movie of The Russia House quite fondly.  You see, I have been in love with Boris Pasternak since I read Dr Zhivago at the age of seventeen.  I have always kept a copy of the book on my shelves – and, in fact, have two at the moment.  You see, I don’t want to be without Dr Zhivago’s poems which are at the back of the novel.

I am not much of a traveller in foreign climes and have never visited Russia.  I always promised myself, that if ever I did visit Russia, I would visit Pasternak’s grave at Peredelkino.  In The Russia House is a scene in which Sean Connery’s character, Barley Blair, spends a Sunday at a lunch with the literary lights of Moscow at Peredelkino.  After lunch, he visits Pasternak’s grave.

So, in a sense, courtesy of John le Carre and Australian director Fred Schepisi (whose family used to own a pub at the old gold mining town of Ravenswood near Charters Towers in North Queensland), I feel like I have been to the grave.  I have paid my homage.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

The Collected George Smiley Radio Dramas: 

Eight BBC Full-Cast Productions Starring Simon Russell Beale (BBC Radio 4 Dramatisations)

3 Titles By John Le Carre: 

"The Russia House," "A Perfect Spy," "The Honourable School Boy"

Doctor Zhivago

The Poems of Doctor Zhivago