A Lone Star State of Mind

Three years!

2011-06-20T21:20:00.002-05:00

As with so many things, it sometimes seems like longer, and sometimes like no time at all :)

Kathryn loves Eddie

2011-05-24T08:22:00.005-05:00

I think we're both looking a little older than in the first post with this title, but that can be a good thing too, right?

And I DO love Eddie; it was so good to see him (and his family) in London at the end of April. More about that when I have time :)

Impossibly cute

2011-04-08T09:27:00.000-05:00

Look who moved in just down the road!

This gorgeous little crew lives just outside our neighbourhood; they have a beautifully uncomplicated daily ritual, which starts with them up by the green and white barn (standing about the doorway, or lined up in a row staring through the bars of the side fence waiting for the breakfast-bringer), then playing about in the larger field - which is when you can visit them and pat the lovely soft noses through the fence - and ends with them back in the barn in the dusky light; we think they have soft little hay nests, and curl up with a good book and a mug of cocoa.

Our favourite is the stumpy baby, who is even sweeter than the rest, but we love them all... they have become part of our morning and evening spotting rituals; on our way to and from work, we look out for the same things, sometimes with the same commentary. It reminds me of being a child and going to my grandparents' house; my family will remember such gems as 'look at the little cubby' (correct response: 'I did already'), and 'that's where the children played'; there was also the chant 'look at the coloured wiiiindows, and the blue one is cracked', which, after the owners did some repairs, had to change to the ludicrous 'look at the coloured wiiiindows, and the blue one is-not cracked!'

Our spottings are all animals - the mini-donkeys; some even stumpier and shaggier ponies who live in a tiny bit of forest by the side of the road, and even some llamas, one of whom has ridiculously fluffy legs. There may be photos later; in the meantime use your imagination...

The magic windowsill

2011-04-03T08:47:00.001-05:00

Dave's parents gave me a beautiful orchid for my last birthday; it bloomed for a few weeks, and then all the flowers dropped off and it turned into a bare stick with some leaves at the base. I researched 'care of orchids' on the internet, and found it a place with indirect light, as instructed, and watered it a little once a week, as instructed... still, I had bare sticks. I kept watering it regularly but gave up hoping it would ever do anything more.

But one evening I noticed that it had developed some buds - over weeks, they grew larger - and finally, they started to bloom!

Once it had a few flowers on it I moved it into the entry to show it off - and yesterday, the final bud opened. Over the last 6 weeks, 19 flowers have opened. And the oldest one is still as beautiful as the newest!

I have moved my second orchid (also no more than a green stick for months) onto the magic windowsill, which suited the first one so perfectly - so far it has 10 buds...

Piggen Wiggen

2011-03-28T08:17:00.000-06:00

In the late summer last year, we were driving home one evening and, stopped at the lights going into our neighbourhood, I was looking idly about me. Suddenly -

"I see a pig!" I said to Dave, half jokingly, and we both tried to get a closer look in the half-light of dusk. Concluding I'd made a mistake, and seen nothing more than a dog, we went home and I didn't think about it any further.

...Until the next evening, when there he was again, quite unmistakably; whiffling about in the grass and undergrowth right by the side of the road, cars a few metres away.

We went around the block and tried to get a closer look, but by then someone else had seen him and parked nearby; the car didn't bother him but the person getting out of the car scared him and he scampered off into the undergrowth.

And so it went for at least a week; about dusk, he'd come out of the trees and rootle about for a bit; and every attempt we made to get a photo of him was foiled by people or darkness or both.

Finally, we decided to ambush him; we waited, camera at the ready, in the nearby school parking lot at the time we were used to seeing him, and waited... and waited... and just as we were about to give up, out he came.

And it was lucky we did that, as we never saw him again after that day. But even now, we look wistfully at that corner when we pass; it's much more interesting to have a Piggen Wiggen in the neighbourhood than a bare mound of gravel.

Tempting --

2011-03-24T18:20:00.001-06:00

-- but no.

Suburban Deluxe

2011-03-21T15:40:00.000-06:00

A Grand Day Out

2011-03-06T13:24:00.003-06:00

I know I've said it before, but one of the best things about living in Houston is leaving it... there are so many interesting places just a few hours away; it's one of my favourite things to have a semi-early start on a Saturday or a Sunday and go driving out to somewhere new (or old!).

A few tell-tale clues will reveal that this trip actually took place in mid-October last year, but due to aforementioned laptop issues I didn't get to post the pictures until now.

Old Courthouse - Blanco. We went in and looked at historic photos which lined the hallways on the ground floor - fascinating!

The current Blanco Municipal Court. I guess while you wait to be judged you sit in the porch swing and compose your mind.

I have to confess that I have developed a real taste for proper Barbecue, since living here - and this sort of place, somewhat rough-and-ready, one-off places in small towns, tend to have the very best. As witnessed below (that's for Dave AND me - I'm not quite such a piggy as to be able to eat all that alone!):

Above and below - Wildlife Garden and seed farm.

Courtyard of an antique store in Fredericksburg (our actual destination, but it took us most of the day to get there, as we stopped off so much!)

The eight-sided church in central Fredericksburg. It was in a park in the main part of town, which was holding a mesquite festival the weekend we were there - lovely handmade furniture, Christmas decorations, and similar.

The Big Freeze

2011-02-26T13:06:00.000-06:00

It was quite a cold winter here this year; thankfully I had grown wise from last year's cold snaps, and left most of my plants in pots so that they could be carried in and out of the garage as need dictated... and in and out they went! The coldest snap was in February, and lasted for a few days - my newly-installed bird bath froze solid every night for three nights running. Of course, a week later the temperatures were in the mid-20s (Celsius) - that's Houston for you!

Bits of Christmas

2011-01-10T12:44:00.013-06:00

Yes, I cheated with the date... my laptop has been having power issues - I think now resolved - making it hard to get to the photos stored on it, hence the long gap between posts... things should be better now. Maybe...

Happiness in the new year

2010-12-31T11:14:00.002-06:00

A Happy New Year to all! Those for whom 2011 has already started, and those who are still waiting to celebrate :)

I've been looking for an excuse to post this video - both the song and the visuals just make me happy. I hope they make you happy too.

May all of us, in this coming year, end up with our own spiritual equivalent of a cool platform (with a piano and sofas), and good friends, dancing, music and laughter, in the middle of a lake!!

Great and small

2010-12-24T12:12:00.001-06:00

Pippin will sing along to almost any noise - conversations at the table below him, a boiling kettle, a running tap, crackling plastic or foil... I greatly enjoy the backdrop of twitterings and funny sounds that make up almost every morning and evening. He also loves music, and joined in with particular gusto during a recent playing of Handel's Messiah.

I love how he always stops as soon as the music finishes.

Happy Christmas to all!

Houston-style Kolaches

2010-12-13T14:52:00.000-06:00

Kolaches are originally from Czechoslovakia (and I believe they have variants in Poland as well), but have been adopted by Texas in general and Houston in particular. The Czech-style ones are sweet, with a fruit filling, but the sort you get here are almost all savoury, with breakfast-type fillings - scrambled egg, cheese, bacon, sausage... and because it's Texas, some element of fireyness - jalapenos or salsa or some other hot sauce.

We really like kolaches, and used to buy them occasionally as a treat, but then we started wondering how difficult they would be to make at home - as with most things, not only is it significantly cheaper to make them yourself, but of course you also get to control the amount and quality of your ingredients. Kolaches will never be health food, but making them ourselves produces an end result that is significantly less oily and significantly more tasty. If you've never tried kolaches before (and it seems it's almost impossible to track down the breakfast-style ones anywhere much outside of Houston), here is the recipe - it's really very easy!

The dough recipe below makes at least 15 - enough for 5 or 6 - so reduce amounts or freeze extra as needed. I find the dough is fine after being frozen for a short time, but is better fresh.

Houston-style Kolaches
Ingredients - Dough
4 1/2 teaspoons yeast
1/2 cup water
2/3 cup milk
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 - 4 tablespoons sugar, to taste (dough here is very sweet; I like it a little less so, so reduce the sugar)
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose/plain flour
2 cups bread flour

Method
Heat water to 100F/38C; add yeast and a pinch of sugar; mix and set aside
Mix softened butter and shortening; add sugar and stir until well mixed
Add egg yolks, milk (also warmed to at least room temperature) and salt; mix
Add yeast and water mixture; stir; add flour
Mix, then remove from bowl and knead for 10 minutes
Place back in bowl, cover, and allow to rise until doubled in size (45 min - 1 hour)

While dough is rising, prepare and cook filling ingredients, as it's best if they're room temperature before you use them. It's really up to you what you use for filling, but some ideas are:
- scrambled egg (four eggs usually makes enough for 6 - 8 kolaches, depending on size)
- chopped bacon (four rashers is usually enough for 6 - 8 kolaches)
- chopped breakfast sausage
- grated or diced cheese
- fresh or pickled jalapenos
- salsa (reduce over heat before adding to take some of the liquid out)
- anything else you like the idea of!

When dough is doubled, gently punch down and press out the air. You can leave it to rest for a short time, or begin to use immediately; if dough is resistant to pressing out, cover it with a cloth and let it rest for 5 - 10 minutes and it will usually become much more pliable.

Pre-heat oven to 425F/220C.

Pinch off pieces of dough that are about the size of a golf ball, or very slightly larger. Press out into a circle - it can be slightly thinner on the edges than in the middle as the edges will form the base, which will be thicker than the rest.

Place filling ingredients in the middle of the dough rounds.

Gather edges together by pulling opposite sides together and pinching edges closed; it doesn't have to be pretty (though it should be sealed!) as you are going to turn them over and place the sealed side down.

Bake for 12 - 18 minutes, until golden brown. Brush freshly-baked kolaches with melted butter (salted is better, though you can easily add a shake of salt to unsalted melted butter for the same effect).

Serve immediately, eat as soon as they're cool enough, with hot sauce, barbecue sauce, tomato sauce, or no sauce at all!

If anyone tries this let me know - I'd love to hear how they turn out :)

An Absurdity of Gagas

2010-12-12T10:24:00.001-06:00

If you decided, one random Friday night, to try the new 'Imperia Bar and Grill', located in a just-like-all-the-others strip mall and advertised at the roadside as 'Russian Cuisine', what would you expect?

Well, probably not this:

Eight waitresses, for four customers (including the two of us), all dressed as Lady Gaga. They had her music and videos playing too, and pictures up all over the walls and windows... it was clearly not their usual practice, either, as they spent most of the evening scurrying around admiring themselves in the mirrors, taking photos of each other, and otherwise being amused by themselves... when, upon leaving, we asked what the occasion was, we were told, 'Nothing; we just decided to do this tonight.'

(Dave and I discussed what the proper collective noun for a group of Gagas should be... we came up with, and rejected, 'an excess' and 'a banality' before deciding on 'an absurdity'. Do you agree?)

Ghost Boy

2010-12-04T07:56:00.000-06:00

At least a year ago, Dave and I spotted this sad little figure sitting eternally on the bench outside a house on the way to my work. Rain, snow or Hurricane Ike, he sits there, with his dejected little lichened face and his concrete ball which never rolls and can never bounce... early on, we dubbed him Ghost Boy, as it looks like he's haunting the site of some former unhappiness. Or, as Dave says, in perpetual time-out.

We find it incredible that anyone would willingly display such a morose little person in their front garden; we have hatched some wild plans to give him a Santa hat at Christmas, or a basket of eggs at Easter... but when a For Sale sign appeared in front of the house recently, we thought the least we could do was to immortalise him with a photo, before he possibly goes to his eternal rest.

Vale, Ghost Boy. We hope your next life is happier than this one.

Giving thanks

2010-11-29T11:48:00.012-06:00

Last Thursday was my third Thanksgiving, living in the States! While in some ways I feel more familiar here, at other times I am brought up short by something trivial or inconsequential - like a license plate, or someone's address, with the mental exclamation: 'I live in TEXAS?!' I used to say 'I live in London!' to myself pretty regularly while I was there, with an air of delighted, disbelieving satisfaction; here, the disbelief is at least as great, but the delight - well, maybe not QUITE as much ;)

Anyway, one thing I DO like is setting aside a day to be thankful - and whichever way you look at it, we do all have a great deal to be thankful for. Dave and I support a number of charities - among them Médecins Sans Frontières, Water Aid and Help the Afghan Children - and while I love reading about the success stories those wonderful organisations achieve with so many people around the world, I am always very aware that we have, in comparison, so very much.

So we celebrated Thanksgiving this year with grateful hearts.

Those flowers came out of our garden - they've lasted in the vase for two weeks already and are still looking perfect!

Those last photos are from a new recipe I tried - pumpkin cheesecake - they were fabulous! I made individual ones in my beloved mini tart pans (I found them in a New York City restaurant supply store, after hours of searching on the internet - they're deeper than any others I was able to find with that same diameter) but you can easily make a standard sized cheesecake using this recipe. You could also swap the pumpkin for something else - I'm thinking of trying passionfruit some time soon...

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Ingredients - base
1 1/4 cups biscuit crumbs (Graham crackers are common here)
3 tablespoons sugar
1/3 cup melted butter
Spices to taste (I added some ginger, and some of my fabulous baking spice blend - a mixture of cinnamon, cassia, mace, anise, allspice and cardamom)

Ingredients - filling
2 8oz packets of cream cheese
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
Spices to taste (I used the baking blend again, but no more ginger)

Directions
- Mix biscuit crumbs, sugar and spices; add melted butter and mix well
- Spoon crumb mixture into pan(s); press down firmly (I used a shot glass for the small pans; a normal drinking glass would probably work well for a larger pan)
- Bake at 350F for 6 - 8 minutes, until lightly browned
- Cool for at least 30 minutes

- Combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla; beat until smooth
- Add eggs one at a time; blend
- Spoon approximately half of this mixture into pan(s); chill
- Add pumpkin puree to remaining mixture, along with any spices you're using
- Carefully add to pan(s); smooth
- Bake at 325F for 25 - 35 minutes, or until centre is almost set
- Allow to cool, then refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or overnight

- Serve with whipped cream and a dusting of spice and/or vanilla sugar

BYOP

2010-10-31T20:09:00.009-06:00

We were invited to a Pumpkin Carving Party shortly before Halloween - the first time I've ever carved a pumpkin! So for those who have likewise been sadly denied, here's a step-by-step guide...

1. Choose your pumpkin. Make sure it is not bigger than you.

2. Cut out the top (or the base, if you're tricksy, preciousss)

3. Remove the gunky plug of pumpkin...

4. ...and place in a tub (along with all the other innards) so that the seeds can later be roasted and eaten.

5. Mark your design in crayon

6. - or by using a template -

7. and carve away!

8. You might choose a traditional design...

9. ...or something slightly more avant-garde.

10. But with the candles in, they'll all look suitably spooky. (Prizes* for those who can guess which is mine and which is Dave's).

* Some prizes - like esteem, and kudos - are less tangible than others. ;)

Early morning

2010-09-29T20:27:00.002-05:00

Take me out to the ball game

2010-08-31T21:21:00.003-05:00

Last night I went to my first baseball game! The Houston Astros vs the St Louis (don't forget to pronounce the 's') Cardinals, at Minutemaid Park downtown. We got the tickets through work - non-profits sometimes get given tickets to sporting events or plays, as a thank you for the work they do. Dave, Anna and I snaffled three of them and were ready, with hot dogs and beer (or Coke, for some of us) at the 7.05pm first pitch.

As far as baseball goes, we hear we had a quick game - all done in just over two hours! Certainly there was nothing of the leisureliness of cricket about it, but it was fun to be there for all the traditions - the national anthem, the seventh inning stretch, the organ music... and the Minutemaid train (those are supposed to be oranges in the back; Minutemaid is famous for juice) which whistles and drives up and down when home runs are scored.

And the Astros won - which apparently they have not been doing, as a general rule - so maybe we brought them some indirect beginners' luck!

Come into my parlour

2010-07-03T10:09:00.006-05:00

I've always wanted a library, but of course that's a bit of a pipe dream in this day and age! This seemed to be the closest we could get - converting what is supposed to be a formal dining room into a library nook. The builders came on New Year's Eve and put in the shelves - but it took me this long to post the pictures because the final touch, the water lilies, was finally just hung last weekend.

For background, the stained glass panel was made years ago by my Great Uncle Jack, and hung in my Grandma's house for many years. Now she's moved into a smaller house, and she gave me the panel, which miraculously survived the trip to America with only one small, barely-visible crack. It's such a link to home, and Grandma, seeing it hanging in the window.

(Click on images to see a larger version).

And because contrast is a good thing, here's how that end of the room used to look, with the couch Dave picked up for free right before moving into the house:

GAHHHH!!

(I'd also like to apologise for my extended absence - we have had a LOT going on here (mainly good!), not least helping to move Dave's parents into a new apartment from a larger house, which took many weekends and evenings! I hope to be back posting more regularly soon. Love to everyone :) )

Fierce energy

2010-04-22T20:05:00.007-05:00

I planted much earlier this year, and that, perhaps along with a colder winter and a milder springtime, has led to much greater success (so far!) than my last attempt at a garden.

The vegetable garden contains:
- roma tomatoes
- squash
- cucumber
- borage
- beets
- carrots
- two different sorts of pepper (capsicum for Aussies)
- broccoli
- cauliflower
- arugula (rocket for Aussies and Brits)

The patio herb garden contains:
- rosemary
- Thai basil
- Italian basil
- cilantro
- lemon thyme
- regular thyme
- parsley
- chives
- sage
- tarragon
- curry plant
- oregano
- dill
- mint

There are strawberries in one hanging basket, and we have blueberries and raspberries waiting to go into the side garden (when the Ike-damaged fence is finally fixed!). Netting supports peas, sweet peas, morning glory, moonflower and nasturtiums; the lemon which we bought late last year and which weathered all the frosts against all odds is blooming beautifully, and the Virginia Creeper is already up and over the eaves.

I keep the squirrels (who are fixated on the coconut fibre linings of the planters) at bay with pepper, tabasco sauce, flapping items hung on the clothesline, and prayer!

The title of this post is from a quote by George Bernard Shaw:

Think of the fierce energy concentrated in an acorn!
You bury it in the ground, and it explodes into an oak!
Bury a sheep, and nothing happens but decay.

Bluebonnet season

2010-04-20T12:06:00.003-05:00

Springtime in Texas is far more beautiful than the harshness of the summer might indicate. The best of it is really to be seen in the hill country, as far as I have heard, though unfortunately I've not been able to see that for myself... however I was fortunate enough to be at a conference in San Antonio the weekend before last, and we (my colleague Melanie and I) detoured a little north on the way home to see if we could find any bluebonnets. And we did.

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T15:10:00.004-05:00

Step back in time

2010-03-24T07:53:00.006-06:00

One of the things I like the most in Texas is to get out of Houston and drive around in the countryside. You can find such interesting and pretty places, within a couple of hours of the big city, so even a day trip can be great. I know I've blogged on some of these small towns before, but I never get tired of exploring them, so expect more from time to time!

Recently we made a great discovery - the newly renovated Sengelmann Hall, in Schulenburg (Schulenburg features in my Off the Map post, back in 2008 - you can actually see the unrenovated Sengelmann Hall in the first Schulenburg photo in that entry).

Apparently, the guy who bought it has spent many many dollars on it, and the result is a charming blend of old and new:

A big open eating area, with a low stage and what looks like the original backdrop,

walls scraped back to their original colours, and the shop next door turned into the kitchen (the open doorway in the far wall leads into the kitchen),

a Biergarten out the back - with fully-grown trees brought in to grow and shade it...

...and a perfectly reproduced copy of the original, elaborate bar, serving (among other things) a menu of 'Pre-Prohibition Cocktails' (Dave tried the Corpse Reviver #2; I had a Floridita and later a Moscow Mule).

The food is great, German and Czech inspired, and made from local ingredients where possible... and they have regular live music, both downstairs in the dining room and upstairs in the dance hall. Read more about Sengelmann Hall on their website; don't forget to check out the menu, and of course the photos of before and after!

I hereby issue a standing invitation: anyone who comes to visit us will be taken to Sengelmann Hall (time and inclination permitting) and regaled with some of the best food and drink Texas has to offer. Come one, come all!

* Just a reminder that you can click on any of my blog photos to see a larger version of the picture - I know some of the details can be lost in the smaller versions.

Another tree in winter

2010-02-27T16:57:00.002-06:00

It continued cold here this past week - we even had snow flurries last Monday night - but I think we're on the other side of winter now. I'm both glad, and sorry - it's lovely to see the flowers blooming, and to plan for spring gardens, but the summers are so hot and seem to last for ever!

The tree in winter

2010-02-01T21:10:00.007-06:00

A couple of years ago, I was walking through Brick Lane on market day (Sunday) with Johanna, when we went into an art gallery. They had three beautiful tree artworks - winter, spring and summer (autumn had already been sold).

You may already know that I am somewhat partial to tree designs, and the winter one just captivated me... I wasn't going to buy it, as it was more expensive than I would normally consider, and I knew I'd be moving to America and didn't know where I'd ever display it, but Johanna talked me into it.

So I had it in my room in Clapton for a few months, and then it was packaged up and sent to America in a big shipping crate,

and now it hangs on the lounge room wall, to the left of the mirror :)

Christmas Decorations

2010-01-20T21:09:00.008-06:00

It's a little late to be posting about Christmas, but - well - Mum's been asking, and she's my most dedicated reader, so I need to keep her happy!

If you look carefully, you can just see the God Jul
made by beautiful Johanna, hanging in the entranceway...

This branch obligingly fell down in the garden some months ago;
I liked its windswept look so kept it in the garage until I was ready to use it...

All the wooden ornaments were bought in Prague, many years ago!

The candleholder came from this year's Norwegian Christmas market;
so did the little wreath of mistletoe wound through it...
the Advent candles were made by my mother!

Our table set for Christmas dinner, which this year we shared with Anna and Dimitry
(as we'd had turkey so recently, at Thanksgiving, we broke with tradition and had a
leg of lamb... but as I was VERY busy cooking there are no photos of the meal!)

The lounge room ready for Christmas Eve guests

The house that Kat built

2009-12-23T11:50:00.006-06:00

A couple of weeks ago, I was most excited to receive an invitation to my friend Kristina's annual Graham Cracker House building day. Having never built a graham cracker house before, I wasn't QUITE sure what to expect, but nevertheless looked forward to it... so Sunday saw us gather around the most bountiful table imaginable:

There were the sorts of things you might expect, to build a confectionery house - the graham crackers, obviously, and a bag of icing mixture for everyone to glue everything together; jelly beans and M&Ms and other sweets for decorating; marshmallows and candy corn and pretzels... but Kristina, being the creative type, had also supplied things like plastic army men, bugs and dinosaurs; feathers, scraps of fabric (see what else you can spot!).

What was fascinating was how different everyone's structures ended up:

As for me - I started conservatively enough:

- but quickly put Hansel and Gretel's witch to shame...

So much fun! (And no, I haven't been able to bring myself to eat the house yet; it's still wrapped in plastic on the kitchen table).

I paid a dollar.

2009-12-12T09:23:00.002-06:00

I saw a camel.

The road less travelled

2009-12-08T11:57:00.007-06:00

Driving home on Friday (the snowy day), we decided to take a different, more picture-skew, road to normal, and had the promised reward for 'taking the road less travelled'... in true Houston style there was nowhere to park, or even walk, for quite a length of it, so we had to walk briskly along the road itself, and stand on a tiny inch or two of shoulder (without sliding down into the ditch) when cars passed, but it was worth it!

Less fun after-effects of the snow - quite a few of our more tender plants outside in the garden are now blackened and dead - most of the ferns, the bougainvillea, the hibiscus, the basil, other more tropical plants... we were able to zip up the little greenhouse, and the seedlings in there all survived, and we covered the lemon and it seems to have done ok, but a lot of the rest, even some quite large trees, have lost all the prettiness they had just a few days ago, which is a shame. I hope some of them will recover in the spring.

We've also had quite a bit of water get into the house, seemingly through the base of the wall, into the kitchen - the water is lying between the two layers of floor (new flooring was lazily placed over old flooring, by the people who had the house before us) so it's quite difficult to dry it out! The same thing happened, on a smaller scale, after Ike, and it got back to normal after a few weeks, so we hope to sort things out eventually.

Oh, and for those who asked about the video clip in the previous post - Rebecca made it, and sent it to us; I thought it was too funny not to share ;)

It's snowing!!

2009-12-04T12:56:00.003-06:00

Like, properly!!

Earliest snow in Houston, ever, from what I've heard... of course, it's not sticking much, but it's still pretty.

To see Matt, Rebecca, Dave and me fooling around in the snow, click here.

Only in America

2009-11-28T16:59:00.005-06:00

I couldn't decide which of my friends and family to buy this for, so in the end decided to just take a picture so you could ALL enjoy it.

Sultan's Kitchen

2009-11-26T14:22:00.005-06:00

I've been missing good Turkish pide, that's relatively easy to get in Sydney and London but more of a rarity here. Accordingly, a few weeks ago I did some internet research and sifted through the wide variety of recipes I found there, coming up with a hybrid recipe and set of instructions that best approximated what I missed and what I was looking for. The result was better than I had hoped for! We've since made it three or four times, and it's so easy, and SO yummy!

Dough:
2 teaspoons yeast
1/2 tsp sugar
3/4 - 1 cup warm milk (or water)
2 1/2 - 3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil

Heat half the milk to around 90F - 100F
Add yeast and sugar, let stand until frothy (around 15 min)
Sift flour into a bowl, add salt
Stir in milk-yeast mixture, add rest of warm milk/water, add olive oil
Mix well; turn out onto well-floured bench and knead until smooth (5 - 10 min)

Add a tiny amount of olive oil to a clean bowl; form the dough into a ball and place in the bowl
Brush olive oil over the surface of the dough; cover bowl with cloth and let stand in a warm place until it rises to double its size

Remove dough from bowl, knead lightly to get rid of any air bubbles
Divide dough into four pieces; place each separately (I put them on a non-stick baking tray) and cover with cloth or cling film; allow to rest for around 15 minutes

Press dough out into a long flat shape, on a lightly floured bench
Spread topping mixture (suggestions below) to within about 2cm of edge of dough
Fold edges in a small amount; twist ends into a sort of canoe shape
Bake in a hot oven (450F - 500F) for around 15 minutes - after some experimenting, I find it works best to assemble the pide on a matfer or other non-stick tray, bake for 7 - 8 minutes, then move to a pizza stone to finish cooking; it really crisps up the bottom!

Optional: remove from oven about three minutes before it's finished baking, and brush the crisping edges of the dough with olive oil; return to oven to finish baking

Once removed from oven, allow to stand for a minute or two before cutting into strips
Squeeze lemon over the whole; consume with gusto!

Topping variation #1:
200 - 250g lean ground lamb(beef is also fine)
1 tomato, diced reasonably fine
1/4 white or brown onion, diced
3-4 tbsp parsley, chopped
2 cloves fresh garlic, crushed
Other herbs to taste (eg cumin, cardamom, pepper)

Mix everything together in one bowl with a fork before adding to dough (see above)

Topping Variation #2:
1 chicken breast
1/2 - 1 cup chopped spinach
1/4 white or brown onion, diced
2 - 3 tbsp parsley, chopped
1/4 tomato, chopped
One egg
Other seasonings to taste, eg garlic, paprika...

Mix everything together etc etc

Topping Variation #3:
1 cup spinach, frozen or fresh
3 - 4 mushrooms
reasonable size chunk of Syrian (or similar) cheese (yes, 'chunk' is a standardised measurement :p )
one egg
Garlic; other seasonings to taste

Mix blah blah blah

By the way, the title of this post comes from my wonderful new recipe book, Sultan's Kitchen, by Ozcan Ozan. Inspired by pide success, and using some birthday money (thank you cousin Angela!), I just ordered it last week... let's hope for more Turkish successes in the near future!

At this time of year

2009-11-24T12:51:00.004-06:00

It's finally getting cooler. We have one of the woollen blankets on the bed (although we don't always use it). We've had the heating on a few times. I'm thinking about re-stocking the kindling basket by the fire. It's almost time to roast the turkey. Leaves are drifting down from the backyard trees. It's pleasant to be out of doors. It's dark when we get home from work. We wear slippers in the morning. And the grackles swarm and chatter each evening at dusk.

Cirque Mechanics: Birdhouse Factory

2009-10-23T17:18:00.007-05:00

Part way through Thursday, Matt and Rebecca emailed us to see if we wanted to go to the Miller Outdoor Theatre to see a performance by the Cirque Mechanics, an amazing troupe of acrobats, aerialists, contortionists and others from, among other places, Cirque de Soleil and the Moscow Circus.

All performances at the Miller Outdoor Theatre are free to the public, so we knew there'd be a crowd and wanted to be there early enough to get seats in the covered area (there's also a hill at the back where you can spread picnic rugs). Matt and Rebe kindly brought us jumpers as the evenings are quite cool now!

The performance was just magical; really amazing and accomplished, fun and quirky. Every segment seemed perfectly designed to make you think you'd seen the height of their abilities, and then to go that one step further...

If the Mechanics are ever performing near you, I encourage you to check them out!

Friday

2009-10-16T20:31:00.004-05:00

On one of the first cool-enough-to-sit-outside-on-the-verandah evenings this year, who'll join us for drinks?

Art and the City

2009-10-15T21:12:00.004-05:00

Last weekend I spent a lovely part of Saturday at the Bayou City Art Festival - it's a yearly event here, billed as 'one of the top three art festivals in America' (which, as Dave says, you know means 'the third best') and something I would have been interested in anyway, but as I got free tickets through work I was doubly interested!

My lovely friend Anna picked me up, and we went in to the festival together - it was the first actually-cool weekend so far this year; somewhat overcast for picture-taking but extremely pleasant for walking around downtown.

The festival was held in the closed-off streets of a couple of city blocks, as well as some park space - there were loads of stalls; it was all much larger than I'd envisioned. There was so much to see! Lots of great art and photography, as you'd expect, but also textiles, jewellery, strange sculptures, wooden items... it was very interesting and lots of fun.

Dave and I bought a print - even though the exhibitors came from all over the country, our single purchase coincidentally came from someone relatively local - Jay Long, from Austin, TX.

Afterward, Dave and I went for a coffee in a hipster-cafe, Agora (I am not remotely hipster and Dave not a lot more so than me, but it's still fun to visit such places from time to time)

before going home to hang out with Matt and Rebecca. Cool weather, art, coffee, and lots of lovely friends - not far off the perfect sort of day!

September Sunset

2009-09-28T20:54:00.002-05:00

After many many weeks of heat and humidity, it's finally starting to cool down... it happened about this time last year too; I remember that after we got power back after Hurricane Ike, we only ran the air-conditioning for maybe a week longer, and then started opening windows again. It's getting cooler in the mornings now - we've had a couple of breakfasts out on the patio - and also in the evenings; it's actually pleasant to sit outside at restaurants and in parks and gardens.

The little video below shows a classic Texas sunset - also classic Houston, as the storm clouds were massing up darkly behind us (much darker than the clip shows; the camera has adjusted the light levels up) while the sky ahead was rosy and warm.

Orange Biscotti

2009-08-02T17:56:00.007-05:00

Ingredients:

3/4 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
3 teaspoons orange extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Method:

Spread almonds on a baking tray and bake at 350F for around 10 minutes (until golden)
Mix butter and sugar together until smooth, then add eggs
Add cinnamon and orange extract, stir until smooth
Sift and add flour, baking powder and salt
Add almonds

When mixture is relatively smooth, remove from mixing bowl and finish kneading with your hands; form into a ball
Divide ball in two (or even three, if the two seem a bit lengthy and hard to handle), roll each into a log; press down lightly to make each one not-quite-round

Place on baking tray, cook at 325F for about 20 minutes
Remove from oven, allow to stand for at least five minutes
Carefully cut into slices about a centimetre thick
Place slices back on baking tray and return to oven for ten more minutes; turn over and bake for a further ten minutes

Enjoy with tea or coffee, with friends or alone!

*A variation to the above recipe which has met with much approval:
In place of orange essence, use raspberry essence (3 - 4 teaspoons)
Don't use any cinnamon
Add 3/4 of a cup of white chocolate bits
Add 1/2 a cup of shredded coconut

All other ingredients and procedure as above.

Tea-cup and saucer and apostle spoon courtesy of the dearly-departed Frolicking Frog antique shop, Clovelly.

It's hot, damn' hot

2009-07-01T21:15:00.005-05:00

With heat records set in 1980 being broken day after day, and 'heat advisories' in effect, and no rain for weeks, and crackly-dry grass underfoot, and the glare off the pavement feeling like a blast from a newly-opened oven, really the only thing to do is find somewhere cool, and damp, and comfortable, and move in for the duration.

Things to Do in Houston: Central Market Cooking School

2009-06-28T11:11:00.004-05:00

Central Market is a special, up-market version of our local H-E-B supermarket (roughly a Coles or Tesco equivalent for those not in the US). We probably visit Central Market, which is located downtown, about once a month, for special things our local H-E-B doesn't stock - we can get Bonne Maman jams there, for instance, and fresh lamb, as well as a huge variety of cheeses and breads, along with all sorts of marvellous fresh produce. It's not particularly cheap, but it's great fun to visit, and worth it for treats.

Throughout the year, the Central Market Cooking School offers all sorts of culinary courses - from sushi to soufflés, cupcakes to tapas. Dave and I spotted a fantastic looking class on Whole Grain Breads, but when we tried to register it was already full. However, on Friday the organisers called me and said they'd had a cancellation, so Saturday morning saw us out bright and early for a breakfast of quiche and potato latke in the café downstairs before heading up to the cooking school.

We sat at tables of four - our table partners were Jill and Heather, both great fun - and were instructed from the front by our instructor, Marian. The class was a mixture of do-it-yourself and learning skills, so one recipe was made from scratch, the second used dough prepared earlier that morning, and the third was a demonstration (though we did get to eat the results!)

(Don't you love it when a camera catches a split-second expression you'd never normally see on someone's face?!)

My hands were too doughy to take any photos earlier in the process than this, but this is my loaf of Rye Sandwich Bread, sprinkled with caraway and a tiny bit of salt, and ready to go into the oven.

Here are our table's Currant Brioche Braid Coffee Cakes - somehow I got the lion's share of currants in my piece of dough, and as they'd been soaking in rum it was a heady experience! Plus it made the dough quite hard to form... the result was excellent though so I think worth the extra effort.

Our loaves at home... we stopped on the way to get some things at the hardware, and as we've had record-breaking heat here this past week, the car was literally like an oven when we got back into it; not only were the bread containers almost as hot as when they'd been removed from the oven at the end of the class, but the car was filled with the most heavenly smells!

A visit from Edgar

2009-06-13T14:31:00.002-05:00

Edgar has been paying us a few visits lately... it hasn't rained for quite a while, so everywhere is quite dry, and I suppose the regularly-watered sweet peas seem like quite a lovely damp haven to him! I've managed to save the borage - his first haunt - by putting it up on the table, but the sweet peas can't be moved because of the netting behind them. I don't mind him except when he digs the plants up - a few of them are a bit battered from his treatment, and I've saved others only by good fortune, when he's left them all scattered about with their roots exposed.

Now, all of the above could be true, or perhaps Texas has magic earth from which toads randomly sprout... you decide.

Update #2 - The Day of the Triffids

2009-05-30T11:01:00.007-05:00

You can't really tell from the pictures, but there's actually a second crop in many of the seedling compartments, taking the space left empty when some of the fast-growers from the first round were planted out into the greenhouse - some of which are growing faster than some of the originals!

Greenhouse: cucumbers, squash, cilantro, rocket, dill, romas (France), romas (USA), grape tomatoes, borage.

Sprouted seedlings about to go into the greenhouse: Italian basil, Thai basil, sunflowers, morning glory

Other sprouted seedlings: carrots, lettuce, mint, thyme, chervil, anise, wormwood, parsley, chili, sweet pea, Chinese lanterns, black-eyed Susan, flax (but has all died so will try again with this one)

Still waiting for an appearance - Provence lavender, chives, sage, wisteria, chamomile, lovage, nasturtium (but don't think this one is going to grow because the seeds were quite old)

Update #1 - Hell and High Water

2009-05-30T10:37:00.006-05:00

Our floodwaters have now largely receded - well, they're confined to the reservoirs, at least, which are still fuller than full - but it took some time for that to happen! For days after the initial downpours, water remained at about the levels it had been at the height of the flooding; some of the roads cleared within a day or two (like Clay Road, the photo through the mist with the cars all stranded in my original post), but some of the others stayed closed for weeks. One of the most interesting was the closure of Highway 6 - a major road - despite the extreme inconvenience and huge traffic jams caused by its being out of action, we found it interesting enough to go and explore it one morning (it was closed for about five days, including over a weekend).

It was very odd to stand in the middle of a road down which we would normally hurtle at a rate of about 60mph! We saw one utility truck, one cyclist and a jogger during our stroll, but otherwise what was most noticeable was the quiet, and the sounds of wildlife - apart from a distant hum of traffic from Highway 10, a mile or so to the south, we remarked that it could have been a post-apocalyptic scene; no one left alive but us...

Also interesting were the playing fields along Clay Road, and the golf courses there and on Highway 6 - they were almost completely underwater, and I laughed one morning as I passed the golf course to see technicians out on a little island trying to stop the automatic sprinklers which had come on!

All of these photos were taken a couple of weekends ago; most places remained underwater for at least a week and a half after that, but in the last few days have dried out rapidly, and there is now a faint green fuzz of new grass in most of the muddy fields, and life has gone back to normal in most places. It'll be interesting to see what happens if we get another big lot of rain, though, as the reservoirs don't have much empty space! And of course, hurricane season is about to start...

Plant in hope

2009-05-12T18:32:00.004-05:00

Sunday, 6.23pm

Tuesday, 5.59pm

Floody hell! Or: Why one should always check one's phone messages before leaving for work

2009-04-28T14:32:00.006-05:00

The rains I reported earlier have continued... in fact according to news reports, some parts of Houston have received as much as a foot of rain over the last 24 hours; certainly there was rain, thunder and lightning for much of the night last night. When we got up there was the usual scramble to get exercised and showered and dressed in time to leave; a slow journey to Dave's work showed a lot of road flooding and high water everywhere.

However, it was only on my onward journey to work that the true magnitude of the situation revealed itself - I saw utility vehicles up to their roofs in water; Clay Road shut to all traffic with a few cars mournfully stranded in the high water;

deer struggling through knee-high water near the roadway; car after car abandoned after attempting too deep a crossing...

Close to work I had to go through my worst yet; a dip in the road where water must have come at least a third of the way up the car's doors. Having nowhere else to go I went through it, to the applause of some onlookers!

About a block from work I had occasion to look at my phone, where I found a message from earlier - classes were cancelled and the office was shut for the day. I promptly turned around to make my way home again, getting to within about five minutes of the house before being turned back and having to retrace my tracks for another 45 minutes to get around the high water on Highway 6... having left the house just before 8am, I was back inside shortly after 11am. I intend to stay here.

Note: I think I've managed about the worst pun possible in the title, but if anyone's got another to share - Dad, I'm looking at you - let's hear them ;)

Boys and bikes

2009-04-25T14:13:00.005-05:00

As many of you know, Dave was planning to ride in the MS 150 last weekend, but due to an absolutely massive downpour on Friday evening and Saturday morning, the first stage of the ride was called off.

(Just for reference, here's that creek near home again - it was featured in an earlier blog post - so you can see what I mean by 'absolutely massive'.)

Anyway, we sensibly spent Saturday morning in the local iHop with our friends Matt and Rebecca, but on Sunday the guys decided they were going to ride somewhere; the official ride was continuing on the Day 2 route, but as that would have meant an early morning drive out to La Grange (in multiple cars to get both bodies and bicycles out there), and then contending with traffic and headaches in Austin in the evening before driving three hours home again, they decided to do their own thing... which ended up being an 85 mile round-trip out to Bellville, a small town out to the west of Houston.

Rebecca and I decided to surprise them by meeting them out there for lunch, but that was the only support they received - they covered the 85 miles in about 6 and a half hours of riding, which I think was pretty good going! I only wish I had a photo of them drinking beer and eating pie on the patio after they got home again...

My apologies for the long gap between posts - Dave's image-hosting website is still broken, which means I can't display photos as well as I'd like, which is a lot of the reason I blog in the first place! So I haven't been feeling all that inspired. Not to mention, extreme busyness at work, and having guests here, and lots on, has meant very little time - if you're one of the MANY waiting on an email from me, please accept my grovelling apologies!
In any case, I will be trying to get back into the habit of blogging more regularly again - not to mention catching up on my emails - and in the meantime you can click on any of the images above to see a larger version, even though I can't display the larger version within the post itself, as I would like.
Love to all my readers! (All three of you ;) )
xxx

Two Small Cards

2009-02-28T17:07:00.001-06:00

You can't get one without the other, as they say ;)

(The rather grim face on my EAD is because you're not allowed to smile in such pictures - it's a USCIS rule - and not because I was actually FEELING glum; rather the opposite, in fact).

And now: onwards and upwards!

Young and Free

2009-02-16T08:53:00.010-06:00

We celebrated our first US Australia Day a couple of weeks ago... even though the real day was the Monday, we had our celebrations on the Sunday afternoon - which WAS Monday, Australia time!

I dug out my Aussie flag - bought on Stoke Newington High Street one snowy January evening, four years and a lifetime ago - and found a prominent place for it, and we managed to track down an online purveyor of Aussie delicacies...

Anzac biscuits (no one was allowed to call them 'cookies', and most remembered) and lamingtons were prepared,

- my first time with the latter, but they were surprisingly easy, and authentic, even with a circular sponge cake bought from a French-Vietnamese bakery!

We rounded up the usual suspects (from left to right: Rebecca - displaying what was left of the lamingtons by that point - Corey, Matt and Dave),

...all of whom later gamely tried vegemite in the kitchen (no photographic evidence of this; unfortunately, as the facial expressions were pretty excellent)...

and even lit a fire, as it was too cold outside for a barbie.

Not QUITE the same as being at home, but a great evening just the same!

(NB We're still having some trouble with the photo gallery, hence the small size of these photos... my apologies. Should be sorted in time for the next post! In the meantime, you can click on any of the images here to see a slightly larger version.)

A Bracing 32 Degrees

2009-01-30T07:08:00.009-06:00

It's been cold the last few days... Houston weather seems to come in waves: we have a cold front, and the temperatures drop down overnight (sometimes to freezing or a bit below), and we have some cold days, but gradually the warmth creeps back until we're in short sleeves and sandals again. And then we hear about the approach of the next cold front...

Yesterday morning was particularly beautiful. I don't know how much you'll be able to see in the pictures, but every roof was white, the sunrise was rose-coloured and golden, and every leaf and blade of grass was transformed by frost.

(By the way, if you're wondering about the photos here, all is well - Dave's in the middle of moving his site to a new hosting service, so some things are in limbo right now, but all will return to normal soon!)

This is the end of the line... all change, please

2009-01-24T12:47:00.005-06:00

So: the country has farewelled the 43rd president with nary a backward glance, and welcomed the 44th with open arms, beaming smiles, and not a few tears. Of course, I'm not telling anyone anything new; I think the moment that occurred on Tuesday, 20th January 2009, around 12.05pm, Eastern Standard Time, was among the most watched in recent history (and in fact, for some proof of this, see this fabulous series of photographs from all over the world... and these are excellent too).

Unable to get to the steps of the Capitol, we celebrated at work in our own way: the ceremony projected onto a big screen, lots of red, white and blue, and cake! (See if you can guess which of the photos below was not taken by me...)

God Bless America!!

A little bit more Christmas...

2009-01-03T17:12:00.004-06:00

...just for mum ;)

A year ago today...

2008-12-30T20:02:00.003-06:00

...Dave and I were walking around Paris, in the company of my lovely cousin Libby (and later in the company of my other lovely cousins Angela and Andrew).

Quite a lot has changed in the intervening twelve months!

A merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T11:25:00.003-06:00

Truffles are made... mulled wine is brewing (well, not quite yet, but we've got all the ingredients) and we hope to have our first log fire tonight, when we welcome Dean, Don and Rickey to celebrate Christmas Eve.

I spent a lovely time this week decorating the house with all my beautiful decorations, gathered with love and care over many years from places as far afield as Sydney, London, Leipzig, Bremen, Leeds Castle, Prague... and our tree trimmings include some of Dave's family heirlooms, glass baubles from the 1930s and 40s. I always love decorating for Christmas, but this year had some added enjoyment, as it meant the lounge room is FINALLY cleared of boxes and able to be used!

I'll post more photos later (this for mum; I don't know if anyone else is interested) but here's just a start... I WISH I could see all my dear family and friends walking through that door for a Christmas visit, but for now we'll make do with pictures.

A very merry Christmas to you all, and much love!!

Meet Gregory

2008-12-19T08:09:00.003-06:00

Gregory had a short-lived existence last week, unfortunately not here at home (where snow also fell but didn't stick at ALL apart from on the doormat), but in Corey's garden (Corey is a friend of Dave's from work who lives downtown). Apparently our snowfall broke some record or other but as it's back to being about 23C it now feels like it never happened!

A study in grey

2008-12-05T20:06:00.003-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-30T10:09:00.003-06:00

Although I've actually celebrated Thanksgiving in the US once before (in 2006, when I was visiting Dave), we played hosts for the first time this year, spending a lovely lazy afternoon round the table with Dave's parents Don and Rickey. We spent the morning cooking, which was also loads of fun; this was our menu:

- roast turkey topped with rosemary, garlic and sage
- apple and cranberry stuffing (best EVER; recipe below)
- roast veg ('recipe'/method below)
- green beans almondine
- creamed onions
- home-made rolls topped with garlic and paprika
- pumpkin pie Chantilly

Don and Rickey brought round a magnum of champagne, so we were well looked after in every way!

Best EVER Stuffing
(Once again, found on the internet, adapted by Kathryn and Dave).

Ingredients:

- cubed whole wheat and white breads, any proportion you choose, to total approx 5 cups
- 1 pound minced turkey meat
- 1 chopped onion
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 1 chopped golden delicious apple
- 3/4 cup dried cranberries
- 3/4 cup chicken stock
- 3 teaspoons caraway seeds
- 2 - 3 cloves garlic (crushed)
- 2 teaspoons white pepper
- 3 teaspoons dried sage
- 2 teaspoons dried rosemary
- 1 teaspoon thyme, fresh or dried
- 1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
- 4 tablespoons melted butter

Method:

Heat oven to 350F (175C). Spread bread cubes in a single layer on a shallow tray; bake until evenly toasted (5 - 10 minutes). Put toasted bread cubes into a large bowl.
Cook the mincemeat in a frying pan, adding caraway seeds, crushed garlic and white pepper as meat starts to cook. After a few moments, add the onions, cook a little longer, making sure to break up all lumps, then add celery, sage, rosemary and thyme.
Add meat mixture to bowl with bread cubes. Mix in chopped apples, dried cranberries and parsley. Drizzle with stock and melted butter, and mix lightly. Spoon into turkey to loosely fill.

*NOTE: This was GREAT stuffing, but made a lot more than we needed to fill the turkey - we ate some of it as we went (hadn't had any breakfast!) and the rest as sandwich filling and as a side dish the next day. I intend to make it again soon, along with some shortcrust pastry, to make pasties. This is so versatile (and so yummy!) you could make it for all sorts of occasions.

Roast Veg

Ingredients (amounts not specified as it will depend on how many people you are serving):

- potatoes
- beets
- carrots
- turnips
- parsnips
- apples (golden delicious were great)
- garlic cloves (whole)
- onions (peeled)

Method:

Pre-heat oven to around 350F (a bit hotter can be better, but if you're also using the oven for something like turkey, 350F will suit them both).
Start a large pot of water boiling on the stove; peel all veges that require it; chop into manageable pieces.
Drop in chopped potato and carrot; boil for a couple of minutes.
Fish pieces out with a slotted spoon, put into empty saucepan, shake for a moment with lid held tightly on (this should be enough to lightly bruise the pieces, but not enough to make them fall apart!).
Put in baking tray(s) with a small amount of olive oil, a shake of dried rosemary, and any other herbs you fancy (thyme is nice, as is cracked black pepper, and oregano). Put in oven.
Repeat process with beets; put into different tray if possible (as they will colour everything they're with! This is why you don't cook them along with the potatoes and things).

Mix a small amount of honey with some olive oil in a different baking tray (heat in oven for a moment if they don't want to mix easily); lightly toss turnips and parsnips in the mixture; shake some rosemary over it all. Put in oven along with everything else.

Veges need to cook for around an hour; after about half an hour, add peeled garlic cloves and peeled onions to tray of potatoes and carrot, and add sliced apple to tray with parsnips and turnips. Take the opportunity to turn everything over and make sure all surfaces are covered with oil. Return to oven; remove when brown and tasty; enjoy with gravy and all the other good things on your table!

Brief Transformations

2008-11-26T10:12:00.004-06:00

Most mornings, I'm out and about very early, driving Dave to work at 6.30am so that I can have the car for the rest of the day... there is often a brief and fleeting beauty to be found in the otherwise mundane landscapes of our immediate neighbourhood, as the sun rises and the world moves quickly through the magic of early dawn.

I pass this stream every day; it's usually not much more than a drainage channel (though it fills VERY rapidly after storms, and can be a foot from the topmost bank in the morning, but back to its pictured state by evening) but as the mornings have become colder, it often has this hazy, mysterious look. I drive past and think 'I must get a photo of that some time...', and yesterday morning I actually stopped and did it.

This little detailed shot was going to have an accompanying comment along the lines of 'doesn't this look like it could be an aerial shot of some much bigger river?' until I looked closer and realised that if that were so, it would be in a land where ducks ruled the earth!!

God Jul!!

2008-11-23T19:14:00.007-06:00

A couple of weekends ago, Dave and I decided to take a chance on the Norwegian Christmas Festival being held way over on the other side of the city. We were taking a chance because it was a long drive and a big time commitment, and we really didn't know what to expect, but we thought it was worth a go. And how right we were...

It was held in the Norwegian Seamen's Church, in Pasadena. Built in 1928, the church building is charming, and it's clear that it's home to all manner of other cultural gatherings, as they have a swimming pool, and a soccer field, and a fabulous play-ship built of logs, as well as other amenities... all the buildings were given over to the festival (you can see the front of the church in the photo above), as well as some extra space in a marquee out the back.

They had all manner of Christmas decorations for sale,

as well as a selection of cloths by Ekelund Weavers, and things like jewellery and ceramics.

There were also demonstrations of spinning, embroidery,

wood carving,

waffle making (yes, of course you could buy the waffles!),

and how to make krumkakes.

In fact, there was a whole room set aside as a bakery; the bread in the pigeonholes on the back wall was just to die for (we bought a loaf and had eaten every scrap by a couple of days later; American bread is a sorry lot, on the whole, and it was so nice to have something with a bit of guts to it!),

and while a lot of the goods on display there were Christmas specialities,

there were enough everyday goodies, along with tasting plates, to tempt us (we bought both snails and those croissant-like things; both were heavenly).

After seeing everything we could, we bought some salmon open-sandwiches, on rye bread and served with lettuce and egg; just delightful, and took them outside to eat in the fresh air. The atmosphere was just beautiful; golden-haired children running about everywhere, or playing politely in the sandpit, happy groups of people enjoying Norwegian delicacies, and it was actually pleasant to be outdoors! which has been a rare enough experience since my move to Houston.

We went home most gratified with the outcome of our adventuring, as can be imagined.

And now we just have to find a place for our Ekelund weaving...

Kathryn's scrummy banana bread

2008-11-07T19:40:00.000-06:00

One of the things I've been having most fun doing, with extra time on my hands and someone else to cook for, is experimenting with recipes. After trying them a few times with different variations, the best of them make it into the sacred document 'Tried and True Recipes' - and this one is, I think, worth sharing. I found the original recipe on the internet, but have made changes each time I made it, and I think this version is the best.

Ingredients:

1 cup white sugar
½ cup of brown sugar
½ cup of butter
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
4 very ripe bananas, mashed
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ cups plain flour
¾ cup wholemeal flour
½ cup chopped walnuts
½ cup sultanas

Before beginning, grease two medium loaf baking pans. Mix a small amount of white sugar and cinnamon together, and dust the inside of the baking pan with the mixture.

Mix white and brown sugar together until evenly mixed.
Add butter and mix with sugar.
Add eggs, sour cream and bananas.
Add vanilla, maple syrup, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
Add baking powder and flour.
Add walnuts and sultanas.
Pour mixture evenly into baking pans, place walnuts on the top if desired.
Cook for an hour at 300F. After one hour, test; if not cooked through, increase heat to 350F and test at ten minute intervals.

Yes we can

2008-11-05T08:44:00.005-06:00

Thank you, God.

(To see Obama's election night speech in full, click here).

"He's not the Messiah..."

2008-11-03T12:49:00.005-06:00

You cannot move here without seeing something to do with the election - lawn signs, bumper stickers, badges... At the start of the race I was reasonably disengaged; I wanted a Democrat victory, but didn't feel all that emotionally charged about it. Well, that couldn't be more untrue of the way I feel right now; I don't think it's overstating the matter to say that the election of Obama seems like the only possibility this country has of moving forward; it's not that McCain is a bad person (I'm keeping a diplomatic silence on his sidekick), it's that he's out of touch, on almost every major issue there is. And it's not that Obama is the Messiah, it's that he's capable of inspiring people: the downtrodden, the disenfranchised, those who have always felt not-at-home in the country of their birth, for whatever reason. (For just one example of this, read this article). And of course, his keen mind, sound policies, compassionate nature, and way with words don't hurt at all!

So, we wait with bated breath for tomorrow's results... it's so strange that the result of this election is not a foregone conclusion; if it was being held in almost any other country in the world, it would be.

(I know the graph above is a bit old, but it's the only one I could find. The results are still pretty much the same).

Aftermath

2008-10-19T21:02:00.001-05:00

We're now more than a month on from Ike... things have largely gone back to normal around the city, with almost all power restored (though some people waited more than a month!), the once-ubiquitous flashing or completely dead traffic lights, which slowed down even the shortest journey, are almost all fixed, and the piles of brush and logs and branches which decorated every kerb are slowly being gathered by the city (apparently they have enough to fill the Astrodome more than four times over; there's a competition in progress to work out a way to use it all and avoid it all going into landfill).

Here's a partial photographic history of the aftermath of Ike:

We got rid of the front yard tree a day or two after the hurricane; we'd wanted to anyway, as it was half dead, but hadn't had a chance to (plus the quotes we'd had were quite expensive!). Anyway, the guy in the red shirt lives locally, and quoted us a much smaller amount than earlier, so we had him take it down on the spot. The guy with the chainsaw is also a neighbour; it was great, how much people helped one another out, propping up fences, lending equipment, offering ice (back in the first couple of days when there was no power) etc etc.

Clean-up happened VERY quickly - within a few days of the hurricane most streets looked like ours, below (or worse, the closer you got to the city). Our piles are gone now; some are still waiting in the parts of the city that were harder hit.

There must be absolute MILES of fencing down across Harris County... some, like ours, has been propped up with boards, while others have been removed and replaced with plastic netting or similar. Very few have been replaced properly - I guess it's a combination of people waiting for insurance payouts, and not wanting to be gouged - everyone's been warned to be careful of people purporting to be tradesmen, and wanting money up-front.

This sort of damage was actually relatively unusual - the only major structural damage tended to be to more flimsy structures such as this one.

Almost all the billboards in the area were stripped clean... one just up the road from this one was bent completely over; I missed my chance to get a photo though as when I went back for it, it was gone; it must have been incredibly dangerous.
Note the many missing signs down at street level too - very few have escaped some sort of damage, and there are bits of plastic EVERYWHERE, even still. It was weird to see the (relatively) sturdy plastic in shards, while many of the (relatively) flimsy fluorescent tubes inside survived ok.

This is a road near work - there were at least a dozen trees down along it, all looking like this one. When I passed late last week they'd all been cut off, leaving a perpendicular stump, even though none of them had died.

This building is downtown - much of the city centre was closed in the days immediately following Ike, to allow clean-up of all the glass (and other materials) that came off buildings. Most events, right across the city, on the weekend after the hurricane were cancelled, at the request of the police.

Literacy Advance, the place where I've been volunteering (more on this later!) was hit pretty badly - while there was no major damage to the outside of the building, water came in through all the external walls, soaking the carpet and the plaster... when the building went for more than a week without power, the mold got a real foot-hold. All the plaster lining external walls had to be ripped out, and all the carpets; we lost some materials and books to the damp as well.

After two weeks' hiatus, classes were able to go ahead again, in a different part of the building - the workmen were in the main part of the building until late last week.

Not far from us is Addicks Reservoir, which is normally dry - the only reason you know it's a reservoir is the sign; there's a road right through the middle. After the hurricane it was full for a couple of weeks.

In the end, flooding probably caused more damage around the city than the wind... quite a few roads were cut, including this one not far from home. I took these photos last week, when it was still impassable.

All in all, I just have to repeat what I said in my previous post: we were so very blessed throughout all of this; we had no major damage, we went without power for a VERY short time, and we've had no real consequences to deal with, unlike some. We are very thankful.

Oh, and I have to mention the best quote of the time, which Dave and I heard on the first morning, when were listening to the radio and trying to get a handle on what the damage was and what we should be doing: some rescue workers were being interviewed, and they said they'd been kept indoors by the weather, and that "Until we can get out, we're stuck here."

A wild night, and a grey and sodden dawn

2008-09-17T19:05:00.005-05:00

We made it! as no doubt most of you know by now... and we have really been quite amazingly fortunate, especially in comparison to so many others - we were out of power for only two days, when millions of others are STILL waiting to be re-connected; we had running water throughout; our damage was really only superficial, when so many others have lost everything... life here in our neighbourhood is almost back to normal (except for the distant sound of chainsaws).

But first things first...

We spent Friday getting prepared: we moved all the outside things indoors (table and chairs - which had only just gone outside, after arriving from Australia! - plants in pots, the doormats, the washing line), cut a couple of dead branches off the tree at the front, and laid in a stock of fresh water, as recommended. Dave spent a bit of time getting his parents' place ready as well. When we'd done as much as we could, we all went out for dinner - the restaurant lost power three times while we were in there, but it came back on after about 20 seconds every time, and while the winds were really getting up by the time we were going home, the sunset was quite spectacular.

Dave's mum came back to ours; she thought our place was probably a bit safer than theirs; when we checked in with Dean we found that the power had gone off at their place at 6pm, and as we were still powered up, Dean decided to come over and stay with us. He and Dave and I then 'hunkered down' at the kitchen table and played Boggle for hours as the winds rose... when we all went to bed at around 11pm it was blowing pretty fiercely, but it was nothing compared to what was coming.

Strong winds really set in around midnight, and continued til after 7am; none of us got much sleep. It's hard to describe the experience really; the main thing is the noise, as branches and other things hit the house and the windows with sharp sounds like shrapnel; the wind tosses the trees more than they're ever meant to move, and the siding on the house and chimney vibrates and bangs. It's worrying to be anywhere near windows, and none of ours were covered (except the one in Dave's mum's room, where we'd pushed the wardrobe over it!) Most disconcerting of all is the way the house shudders from time to time - like it's being lifted slightly off its foundation and settling back again. And when it all happens at night, and the power goes down, so EVERYTHING is pitch black - well, I guess the imagination fills in any blanks left by reality! It's a very helpless feeling too - there is NOWHERE to go, and NOTHING you can do, but get through it - and it goes on and on and ON... emergency services are suspended until the worst of the weather is over, and there is simply no one to call on, should you have a problem. And of course, all the way through I was reminding myself that Ike was a Category ONE by the time he hit us - I simply cannot imagine going through a Cat3 or a Cat4; it would be unthinkable.

Below is a little snippet of footage I took as soon as it was light enough - it doesn't really give anything close to a complete picture, but at least it's something.

As soon as it was light enough, we started peering out to see what sort of damage we'd sustained - we saw fences down on both sides of the yard, and the trees were pretty torn apart in places, but generally our damage was pretty minor.

As I mentioned above, we never lost running water throughout the hurricane - though the whole of Houston is still being told to boil water before drinking it - and we were only without power for two days (though as Saturday was VERY humid and hot, we were very grateful for an invitation from Chris and Don to come over and have dinner with them on both Saturday and Sunday nights!) We watched power come back in streets all around us before we were re-connected, so there was lots of mock-grumbling about being last, but really, when you see what others are dealing with, we can't believe how easily we got off. Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts - when we were finally re-connected to the internet on Monday, it was so touching to see all the messages and good wishes waiting.

More updates soon!

Batten down the hatches! - for real this time

2008-09-11T11:53:00.005-05:00

Well, the only topic of conversation here is Hurricane Ike...

Originally tipped to make landfall further to the south of us, we're now expecting pretty much a direct hit. Galveston (on the coast) is under mandatory evacuation, as are parts of Houston (though not us at present), and the Houston ISD (Independent School District) has closed all schools for tomorrow (Friday), which means most of the businesses in the area are following suit. There's talk of putting the freeways into contra-flow, meaning that the only traffic would be OUT of the city, on both sides of the road, and we're all being advised to buy up gas, food and water... I'm not seriously worried about the winds, though they may be unpleasant (and I'm a bit concerned that the junky old tree in the front yard might take this opportunity to make a better acquaintance with our windows!), but we could be hit with some flooding, and if we lose power the weekend could be interesting...

It's a weird thing to sit and wait for something like this; the weather is normal right now, sunny and still for the most part, and yet I keep looking out at the garden and at our neighbours' homes and wondering what it's all going to look like in a few days' time... if you want to track the hurricane, CNN has a map here.

Anyway, we're remaining calm about it, and hope to weather this with minimal damage! Even so, your prayers would be appreciated.

I'll check in again after the storm is over!

Lord of the Rings

2008-08-24T21:44:00.003-05:00

Anyone who's ever had a bird will know how much personality these tiny creatures can have; we certainly never tire of watching Pippin and his many tricks. If we don't come downstairs early enough for him in the morning, he calls and calls until we appear; he then settles into the contented twittering (which often sounds rather like R2 D2) which is his natural state for much of the time. If he hasn't got people to talk to, he'll talk to the boiling kettle, or the frying bacon, or sing along with music - he especially loves the Stones, INXS, and Lovers Electric - so really he just loves to talk.

His main obsession at present, however, is with a set of plastic rings we hung in his cage some weeks back. At first he ignored them and I thought of taking them out again; however, he soon realised that there was a bell hanging at the bottom of them, and it became his life's work to remove it...

He also loves the little plastic balls that hang around on the bottom of the cage; for some reason he takes umbrage at them being moved elsewhere - such as to the top of the ladder - and will hop over and toss them down, usually within about five seconds of them being placed there. He'll then throw them around on the floor, with his beak or his foot, until he remembers that he still hasn't removed the bell from the bottom of the rings, and returns for another go at it.

Pippin just loves Dave, and if he sees him passing the cage will often call until Dave stops to talk to him, and rub his belly through the bars.

We hope that one day he'll be tame enough to come out of the cage and fly around the house; not quite yet though.

Sunday morning

2008-08-17T15:55:00.005-05:00

Thanks to Tom for the pancake recipe; we make it most weekends.

Batten down the hatches!

2008-08-05T15:39:00.003-05:00

The last few days the news here has been full of Tropical Storm Edouard, with lots of advice about how to prepare for its imminent arrival... I think perhaps people in this part of the world are still a bit hurricane-happy, after Katrina a few years ago (and there's still some memory of the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, which caused pretty massive damage, and killed about 1800 people).

Anyway, here's our hurricane weather:

Lots of rain, no wind at all... it was a little scarier last night, when a storm passed right over head - loads of lightning and thunder, getting closer and closer together as the storm neared, but surprisingly little rain... today's been quite pleasant, really, and this way we won't have to put the sprinklers out for a day or two!

Off the map

2008-07-30T14:56:00.011-05:00

On our way back from Austin, we decided not to take the direct route (which, let's face it, should only be taken in circumstances of dire need), but instead to explore some back roads and discover some of the smaller towns between Austin and Houston. (I'll note here that they're only truly 'off the map' when the map looks something like this:

View Larger Map )

We first stopped in La Grange, which established what was to be a pattern for the day -

a small town based around a wide town square and town hall, with shops almost all closed (as it was a Sunday), and virtually no people or vehicles in sight. To our surprise, however, almost the only place open was a gourmet kitchenware shop! and we just had to go in...

Next stop - Schulenburg.

Maybe one other car passed us while we slowly cruised the main street... and I think we saw two pedestrians. There's a railway line just out of shot on the left but needless to say nothing came past there either.

Schulenburg advertises itself for its 'painted churches', but we didn't see any...

I don't know that we'd have stopped in Weimar (pronounce it how it looks, not the Cherman way) if we hadn't been hungry and looking for some lunch.

Weimar welcomed us alright... to Bob's Cook Shack, a delightful establishment serving all manner of fried food, and containing half the town's population, including the local ambulance officers, who were hoping aloud that 'we won't get some emergency right as we're served'.

The place looked like it had been there for at least the last fifty years, with formica tables and gingham curtains under its pressed metal ceilings, but when we had a chat with the owners they said they'd only opened a few months earlier. If they keep serving chicken fried steak and yummy potato salad - and remain the only place open on Sunday - I think they're destined to do well.

The last place we visited was also the most interesting...

Columbus is an absolutely fascinating small town, centred once again on a square with town hall,

but rather different to other places I've seen here. On the far side of the square is a confederate tower, now a museum,

which is unlike anything else I've ever seen in this part of the country... in addition to a gorgeous theatre, built by the eccentric businessmen who had a home next door and had the theatre constructed so that he was able to see the stage from his bedroom, there are many other historic buildings, as well as some fascinating looking shops, and a B&B I'd like to stay in some day: Magnolia Oaks Guest House (and The Little Red House, next door). I think it's safe to say we'll be back.

Oh, and because you've been good, I just have to share this gem, which we saw while driving:

It's an inspired combination just anyway, but it's the 'drive thru' that pushes it into the realms of pure genius ;)

Capital, Capitol... capital!!

2008-07-22T10:06:00.012-05:00

For the most mundane of reasons - Dave needed an official copy of his driving record from the DMV, and he needed it sooner than it could arrive by post - we spent last weekend in Austin. Our business being dealt with astonishingly quickly (I think we waited in line for a total of around three minutes; might this be a record?) we pranced off to the city to see what we could see.

After checking in at our hotel (rather more plush than our usual standards, but we got a great deal online and we heartily recommend the chain), we decided to go downtown to the Paramount Theater to see The Long, Hot Summer (1958), starring Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, and Orson Welles, amongst others. The lights were already down when we went in, so we didn't get to see the gorgeous interior til after the film had finished - obviously I couldn't take any photos myself, but I encourage you to click on the link provided above which will lead you to some great panoramas.

The next morning saw us about bright and early, starting the day at Bremond Block, a beautiful neighbourhood of lovely old stately homes.

Already it was starting to heat up, but it wasn't unpleasant, and it was so great (and novel, after Houston!) to be in a city where it was possible to walk to places, we left the car parked at Bremond Block and made our way to the Capitol.

The gardens out the front looked impossibly green and cool as we approached the building; as we drew closer it really did look amazingly impressive.

And on the inside at least as much...

There are, of course, Lone Stars everywhere inside the building, from the doorknobs to the lights... (in fact if you look carefully at the light globes, they even spell something out)... the star up inside the cupola is eight feet across, apparently, and there's one in the hand of Lady Liberty, standing on the cupola's dome (I guess they're trying to cash in on the popularity of this blog).

And of course there are some corresponding ones below it:

We caught the first tour of the Capitol, and so were still able to fit in a visit to the Texas State History Museum before lunch. It had many interesting exhibitions, but there was a LOT of reading and less 'interaction' than promised, so we were quite glad to sit down in the museum's cafe and have a break.

After lunch we walked up into the northern part of the city, past the university and some street markets, and found the Neill-Cochran House.

Built in 1855 as a residence for a family, but never quite finished, the house has been beautifully preserved and restored, and has lovely interiors. There were just four of us on the tour - including another Aussie, a guy who's been living in San Antonio for the last 30 years but whose accent still gave him away - so we had lots of time for questions, and to look at everything in detail.

After being on our feet for most of the day, and walking quite a distance in the hot sun, we thought we'd take advantage of Austin's very progressive public transport system and catch a free ride back down the city centre, but after waiting for some time we found that the one we wanted, at least, didn't run on the weekend. We grappled with the automated info-line for at least ten minutes of our half-hour wait, and it was all becoming a bit farcical (not to mention hot and humid!) when a bus finally arrived... it wasn't free, as the Dillo would have been, but at $1 for 24 hours of unlimited travel we didn't feel ourselves badly done by.

Energy flagging, and having done more than we'd expected to fit in when we started the day, what better way to finish it than in the famous Driskill Hotel's 1886 Cafe and Bakery,

sipping iced coffee and eating apple cobbler?

Summer Camp

2008-07-16T21:05:00.004-05:00

Last week we had two boys and a dog staying with us. One of the boys is sixteen, the other just turned five... I'll let you guess which required the most entertaining.

A few of the things we got up to during the week:

- letting Jack take photos of whatever he wanted (including himself) with my old camera

- lots and LOTS of play dough

- baking biscuits (which seems, from this shot at least, to be the new television... he dragged that chair there himself)

- playing with blocks

- covering the driveway in chalk pictures (mainly done in the early evening, for obvious Texas reasons)

Other activities which for some reason have gone undocumented included colouring with crayons, playing with dice, board games, stories, and walking the dog... we also managed a trip to the Children's Museum of Houston, which was having a pirate day in addition to their normal full program.

It was a full week, and not unenjoyable, but this week I'm enjoying the tranquillity!

We hold these truths to be self-evident

2008-07-04T18:07:00.006-05:00

My first July 4!

We had a fairly low-key day, though very pleasant for all that... we resisted buying any fireworks from the plethora of stands that have sprung up round the neighbourhood, but we still looked the part, thanks to a local realtor who planted flags on the grass verge outside every house in the subdivision... that's his business card at the bottom.

Dave and I decided to go to Bayou Bend for their open day; we became members of the Museum of Fine Arts a couple of weeks ago, and heard about the open day from their e-news. Bayou Bend is a wonderful old house, surrounded by beautiful gardens, almost in the centre of the city (though you'd never know while there); the legacy of the incredibly named Ima Hogg, it showcases a wonderful collection of American furniture, art and ceramics, mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries.

But of course, I liked the gardens best...

After we'd been there for around an hour, there was a reading of the Declaration of Independence from the terrace,

while 'God Save the King*' was played.

* Actually, it was 'Our Country, Tis of Thee', but I didn't know it was sung to that tune, and was rather bemused by the choice of music til Dave explained it to me.

Come, walk with me

2008-06-29T12:04:00.007-05:00

A few more shots of the Japanese Garden in the centre of Houston, where we were married last week.

In this last shot you can see, through the trees, the little building where we had the ceremony.

Reader, I married him

2008-06-22T13:26:00.003-05:00

The River Caves

2008-06-18T11:00:00.004-05:00

Mum and Dad arrived in Texas on Saturday evening, and we were all up bright and early on Sunday morning to drive to San Antonio, a journey of almost three hours. It was Dave's only day off work and we wanted to use that day as best we could (as well as working WITH the jet lag rather than against it!)

San Antonio is famous for two things: the Alamo, and the River Walk, and we saw them both... Mum and Dad were just enchanted with the latter, Dad saying a number of times that it reminded him of the River Caves, a ride he'd been on in Sydney's Luna Park as a child. Despite the heat, we had a wonderful day.

Remember the Alamo!!

Pippin

2008-06-01T09:52:00.006-05:00

Pippin came home with us in a little lunchbox, like a chicken dinner... no chips though. He was initially a little nervous in his cage but started settling in pretty quickly; now he seems very happy. He likes getting right inside the seed box and scratching, so that seed sprays everywhere around the room, and he likes his ladder, and turning inside-out somersaults (see below).

He also likes sleeping.

No one has heard of 'budgies' in the US... they're called 'parakeets' here. Pippin is, however, most definitely a budgie, and is very sweet and funny. The little twists he does at the very end of the clip here are amongst the funniest moves in his repertoire at present.

Stranger in a strange land

2008-05-29T15:30:00.004-05:00

This was on the fridge when we arrived home on Sunday evening:

We shall see... we shall see.

Stay tuned, dear friends!