Sweet 16

Evening...the sun's just sinking into the horizon and the night noises are creeping into the house through open doors and windows. Andrew Bird (a.k.a the whistler) is lighting up my ears with "Noble Beast". Beautiful, strange, simple and complex, unforgettable melodies and personal-glimpses lyrics. Anytime music, but love driving with his voice, violin and haunting whistling.

Tall contorting trees
soughing sighing soldiering
breathing art
radiating
breath of life
climbing clambering
limbs entwined
merging resonant spirits
imprinted
infinitely

Fruit is in abundance and I decided to try jam making. It's fun and a lot easier than I imagined. Here is a great tangy apricot jam. Less sugar than is traditional but it worked well. 1.5 kg fresh apricots. 800g raw brown sugar. Juice of 1-2 lemons (1 large/2 med). Wash, halve and stone apricots. Put in a large bowl with 300g sugar and lemon juice. Stir well. Leave for 2 hours. Pour into large pot, add rest of sugar, stir and bring to a slow boil. Lower heat and keep bubbling slowly. Skim off any foam and stir often. Due to the reduced amount of sugar cook at least an hour like this or a maximum of 2 hours. Pour into hot jars sterilised in the oven at 170 degrees celsius for 10 mins (handle with care), seal and turn upside down on a tea towel until cool. This will create a vacuum. Yummy with fresh baked bread! Enjoy!

No.15

Hellooooooo.... "Just as long as we've got rock 'n roll then everything'll be alright, it'll be alright", The Duke and the King have overtaken pretty much everyone as the most listened to band in our house right now. There's the Felice Brothers high rebellion and story but in a chilled out soul-y kind of way. And the poetry and under-the-skin tragedy make it an emotional, ethereal experience. So, so good....

Cyclical circles
life
death
daily reminders of
insignificant ancient
tangible fathomless
always
interconnected
love
transient eternity

I was inspired to make some childhood-memory sweets recently and these were the yummiest (albeit slightly updated). Chocolate rice crispie squares. 100g Dark chocolate. 100g Milk chocolate. 2 cups rice crispies. 1 cup medium dessicated/ shredded coconut. 1/2 cup sesame seeds. Break chocolate into pieces in a large heat-proof bowl. Melt over a saucepan of simmering water stirring every now and again (don't allow water to touch bowl). When its nice and smooth remove bowl and add rest of ingredients in order, mixing after each addition. Scrape into a 20x20cm dish, flatten with a spatula and score squares into it now. Refrigerate at least 1 hr before cutting/breaking up. Enjoy!