So turn off your devices and visit them for a bit if you enjoy a read. Happy weekend all!
(1) Juliette Tang, Flickr(2) All you need are books and tea print (Etsy)(3) Annerley Community Book Shop Neighbourhood Centre(4) Beach Baby Blues vintage books (Etsy)(5) Clarence Corner Book Shop & Café, Woolloongabba
This man-made wetland down the road from us is a lovely little calm hideaway right in the middle of our suburb. With friendly quacking ducks, birds, butterflies and greenery and featuring a boardwalk, I love wondering down there, taking photos and just sitting in the sun. If anyone lives near me, it’s a sweet little place! Although contrary to what it says online, you can’t feed the ducks (sadly). Understandable I guess, since they really should know how to find their own lunch for survival.
I’m really enjoying the new ABC historical drama series ANZAC Girls, based on true stories from war nurses’ experiences at Gallipoli and depicting a group of Australian and New Zealand nurses in WWI, their war work and personal lives. As an ex-registered nurse I still love watching anything nurse related and this is so out of the realm of my reality it’s really interesting. The first episode on Sunday night started with the first landing of our troops at Gallipoli on 25th April 1915.
I really like that for once we have a show which recognises nursing personnel in war time! These were mostly young women who volunteered for active service; leaving their homes to travel across the world, putting themselves in danger to perform physically, spiritually and mentally demanding tasks for young men with devastating injuries and with no specific combat medical training or support. Those were the days of just getting on with it, I suppose it was either sink or swim.
I think they were very special people and should be remembered more. Apart from formal recognition which they now receive, I’m not sure that medical personnel back then (or any subsequent war for that matter) were eligible for the same health and social benefits that war veterans had and that’s just plain wrong.
Anyway, I really recommend this show if you’re sort of a history buff like me.
While making my usual winter pumpkin soup recently, it occurred to me that with a few tweaks, it would make a lovely, healthy sauce for pasta, so I gave it a go.
Adding nutmeg, sage and a decent amount of full fat coconut cream, this turned pumpkin soup into a lush, creamy and flavoursome sauce which goes equally with simple dried pasta or fresh filled pasta such as Agnolotti or the larger sized ravioli. I also really enjoyed this with toasted pine nuts scattered over for a bit of toasty crunch to contrast with all that creaminess, but you could also use chopped walnuts or hazelnuts. A nice hunk of rustic bread would be great to mop up the excess sauce here too.
I’m waiting excitedly to see Get On Up, about the life of James Brown, produced by Mick Jagger and starring Dan Aykroyd (who also starred in The Blues Brothers so hello, another brilliant movie). Like a lot of Gen Xers, mostly thanks to my parents, I love rhythm & blues artists like James, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles. It’s where all the music we listen to comes from after all! And rhythm & blues has so much historical and social relevance, modern music can’t compare. And why is it that wherever I am, no matter how far before my time this music is, if I hear any of these songs, I know all the words?!
Released in August (for the USA anyway, not sure about the rest of us although I did read somewhere it was early 2015 for Australia (come on!)).
I love the dreamy, vintage and charming style of Hannah @ Hannah and Landon, a clothing designer and photographer who resides in New York and LA. And there’s a shop! A very very nice one called The Loved One so check it out via the links or images below.
Oh and that kitty mask!
Store items I covet:
All images belong to and used with kind permission from Hannah Metz
I often make sweet baked loaves, in fact, they’re a staple in our freezer for morning teas and things.
But the other day I thought about making a savoury loaf, a type of quick bread, something spicy and warm to have on cold mornings with butter or with a bowl of steamy hot soup. So because I’ve been cooking with pumpkin a lot lately (2 more recipes coming up), I whipped up a roast pumpkin loaf with chilli, a few spices and a decent hit of rosemary. Soft yet fairly dense and a beautifully warm colour, I loved the spicy, savoury flavour with a hint of sweetness and the texture is substantial enough to have for a quick lunch with butter on it’s own.
I was reading a book in bed the other night and one of the characters made toasted cheese sarnies but in browned butter! Genius. It’s super tasty, even more so than a plain toasted cheese, which is one of my favourite things to eat in the whole world except for hot chips.
![duck bowie wetlands]](http://www.asplashofvanilla.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/duck-bowie-wetlands-for-blog.jpg)
