(Just for the record these were made by Sweet Envy in North Hobart and NOT by me)
Yesterday, it was 16 degrees in Hobart....so I managed to get not one, but two loads of washing line dried, folded and put away. Unheard of for this time of year. And then, on my way down the hill to lunch, I dropped into the accountant's office and signed off on the paperwork to complete our tax reporting for not last financial year....but the year before. This induced feelings of euphoria......it was a two glasses of wine lunch. But that's OK as in the last seven days I've done eight Bikram Yoga classes.
And I've finally gotten around to picking cumquats. With one kilo of fruit I made three more jars of Moira's Cumquat Compote:
Still the tree is heavy with fruit, so my work with cumquats is not done yet. I'm thinking marmalade.....I once coughed up $16 at the Richmond Hill Cafe and Larder in Melbourne for a jar of Stephanie Alexander's Cumquat Marmalade to see exactly how she cut her fruit. I know now. And of course they are delicious squeezed into G & T's......if you have any other suggestions for cumquats, let me know.
I got another invitation in the mailbox. This time from The Leukaemia Foundation for the '2012 Light the Night' Launch Cocktail Party. It made me cry. Almost four years ago my Dad died of Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.....a rare and very aggressively cruel form of blood cancer. When he was diagnosed he was told that without intervention he would be dead within two weeks. Two weeks. He participated in a drug trial and had chemotherapy. His two weeks turned into five months, for which I am so grateful. It doesn't sound like long, yet it's funny how time, as you've known it before, becomes a strange concept when you are living through such a harrowing experience. It was long enough for him to meet his new granddaughter and to give my sister away at her wedding.
My memories of the 'Light the Night' in Hobart three years ago are so vivid and raw. It was almost a year to the day after Dad died. It had teemed with rain all day. Yet the clouds cleared just as the procession of illuminated lanterns spilled out of the Hobart City Hall and seemed to float around the waterfront. It was eerily beautiful....for one night, so many people's harsh experiences with Leukaemia were somehow transcended into remembrance and hope. I'll be there again this year.
R
Your description of your experience at the Light The Night event a few years back gave me goosebumps.
ReplyDeleteI'm struggling to get washing dry here too - I am in the middle of rotating items to dry in front of our heater :) I have cot sheets in the machine now though, a bit harder to drape over a chair :)
Enjoy your weekend x
Maybe that was because I was sobbing while I wrote it.....have been doing a bit of that lately while working on posts. Anyway, I'm off to a party tonight! My husband can't stand washing draping so I have to do it furtively! Hope yours dries soon! Rx
DeleteAm sorry to hear about your dad.
ReplyDeleteThat is too funny that you wanted to know how she cut her fruit!
Tell me!!!!
I luff it that you went to that house where they filmed Pemberly! It was always my dream to visit.
I long to travel again x
Thanks FF, it's extremely painful living through something like that.
DeleteFYI Stephanie cuts her cumquats into three wedges. Before, I had interpreted the recipe as three slices, so the investment was worthwhile!
I long to travel again too....there is a big wide world out there beyond Hobart. I especially enjoy visiting places with a connection to books I've loved...and now some of my children can read,they are getting into it, too. When we were last in the UK and Felix was addicted to Roald Dahl we took him to the RD museum in Great Missenden, where he had lived. So special. Rx
Oh Romy, you darling girl. You're making me teary now (it's nearly 11 months since my Dad died). That does sound quite ethereal. Looking forward to catching up soon. J x
ReplyDeleteTime. Yes, after William's drowning we had the small luxury of time before he 'died' (switching off of his breathing apparatus) and friends and family could come and say their final goodbyes to a warm little boy, not a cold body in a casket. A matter of a few days made a huge difference. Psychologically too. The last night, the nurses brought a grown-up's bed into his room and I was able to spend his last night lying beside him, cuddling him, before daybreak came, Olivier and I and the doctors and nurses gathered around his bed, with William in my arms, and the time came to turn off the respirator...
ReplyDeleteWatch your kids EVERY MINUTE. xxx
Oh Romy, your beautiful description of the Light the Night lanterns in Hobart and then Nicole's comment have me sobbing. xx
ReplyDeletePS. I adore your Limoges tea pot, I have never seen that colour before. Stunning!