February 14 and our year of travel begins - compared to last year ts going to be a modest one!

 

One end of our sky-rise orchard, our 3 dwarf citrus trees -
Yuzu and Meyer lemons and Tahitian lime

I realise that we're already 6 weeks in 2024 so what have we been up to all that time? A fair bit of time has been invested in 'bodyworks' - a bit of a 'tune-up and service'. You can laugh, but the years do impact and we need to get into shape for our travels. In truth however it is really all to help 'oil' the way through our every day and keep all the bits in good working order. The days whizz by and I look back and wonder what I've been up to. Apart from a bit of watering at the community garden and hours spent organising seminar speakers for the Graduate Union of University of Melbourne for this and next year, meetings etc .... ummmm? Cooking! 

We made 4 different kinds of pies. Bottom L: mini quiches with the left over pastry (perfect for Happy Hour)

L: our favourite paella. R: slow cooked veal a la Heather

We went crazy with the cherries - brandied, pickled and jam. And made other fruit jams

Hot & sour cherry sauce with baked chicken

We like to leave home well prepared and so we went like mad to fill the freezer ready for this 5-6 weeks caravan trip. Our freezer was packed to the limit with enough to feed us for at least half of our up-coming trip - it takes the pressure of mealtime while on the road. I won't bore you with the particulars but suffice to say we will dine well. Of course in amongst those cooking marathons, we fed ourselves royally trying out new dishes (some of which I have posted on my food blog - thepingingchook.blogspot.com. We also made jams and pickled cherries and I rediscovered Freekeh. This is green durum wheat that has a delicious smokey flavour and is an excellent, and healthy, substitute for rice and pasta. The wheat is harvested while the grains are green and the seeds are still soft. What follows is a secret process of roasting, etc. Finally, the seeds are cracked into smaller pieces that resemble rough green bulgur although you can buy whole seeds, my favourite. It is an ancient grain dish enjoyed throughout the Levant for a very long time; it is mentioned in the Bible and was used in ancient Israelite cuisine. I think it's really worth a try. But getting away from food ....

We set up on the front terrace to play with the clay but retired indoors to paint.

I spent a delightful weekend with one of our granddaughters who is very interested in art and is a clever artist. She and I spent a good part of the time creating shapes from clay and water colour painting. It was a delightful time and we have promised to do a rerun perhaps with one of her girlfriends.

Our sky-rise garden is a happy space for us and we have spent many happy hours watching fruit and herbs grow, fixing irrigation lines and all those kind of growing-related tasks. We have picked lemons and now await the next batch (there are dozens of babies on all 3 tree), our figs have been luscious albeit not as plentiful as we would have liked - and the passionfruit! each morning Lindsay inspects the vines and so far we enjoyed about a dozen and there are many more slowly ripening.  They're small but chock a block with fragrant pulp. And the herbs! what can I say, there's a limit to how much you can dry and/or give away - they are plentiful and beautifully fragrant. I made herb jam which is very good and every dish we make, including vegetables, is made just that little more tasty with a selection of fragrant herbs.  Needless to say our wee inner city garden is thriving.

Wee parsley flowers - I collect their seeds

A grevillea planted to attract the birds

Our lemon myrtle - first time I've seen it flower

Drying our herbs ready for the next harvest

Our passionfruit are small 4-5cm, but are packed with delicious sweet pulp

And finished a few colourful rugs

Always in the background – and foreground! are future travel plans and they often entail a bit of work – Visas, health checks, insurance. That's not so arduous but is very time consuming particularly the USA Visa application process which was more drawn out simply because we visited Iran 6 years ago. The application involved a lengthy online form and then eventually an interview (which we had yesterday). Our passports and visas, we were told, would be ready for collection within the week. Phooey to that! We decided to get on the road and stay somewhere within cooee of Melbourne so we could easily zap back to collect them. And that’s just what we did arriving back in Beaufort mid-afternoon.  

We eventually set off packed to the gunnels 

We set up camp on the shores of the Beaufort lake, a favourite spot

So begins another caravan journey albeit a rather quiet and unassuming one this time. More anon ....