Some Beading but Mainly Food

I have had a wonderful few days - there was food, gardening, folding fabric and even time for some beading.

My garden has really suffered this year with little - ok NO - work done in it at all. Barely had time to even notice it to be truthful. So I have spent a few hours each day and have weeded and transplanted and mulched and watered so hopefully by spring we will have a colourful display which I can show you.

We went to the Eveleigh Growers Market for breakfast and had a wonderful time munching through some delicious goodies. I love Helen's Grab Your Fork Blog - she has a wonderful eating her way around Sydney. My favourite was a jar of the most delicate marinated baby figs which I am eating sparingly but they are scrumptious.
Here are some dips and spreads for sampling.

I had a cheese and mushroom and spinach blini for my official breakfast along with lots of other samples and organic apple and raspberry juice


Here are some other delicious treats. Well I thought they sounded delicious until I realised they were actually for dogs!

And yes - I did do some more beading on my quilt. These are all sewn on one at a time using seed stitch.

Food Interlude

You may have realised that my other passion is food. Peter & I tend to organise our days around food. Most shopping expeditions for anything, paper bags, bead boxes, printers - even saucepans have to be carefully planned around yummy lunches. Sad I know but we love it.

The other day we needed to buy some raw silk to dye for Fantasia kits and of course it had to coincide with a restaurant we hadn't been to for ages - Maya in Surry Hills. I love the meals with all the little curries and even a desert. A bargain for under $10.

They are also renowned for their Indian sweets and of course I had to take a few home.

Food

I thought today I would just share some food experiences from my travels.
The sculpture above is a great whistlestop cafe on the road to Melbourne at Jugiong called Long Track Pantry. Well worth a visit - actually we stopped both ways for lunch and also brought home a yummy pie for another day. I would love to have it in my garden but the price was a little high for me. It is made out of horseshoes and is about 1m high.

My first breakfast in Tasmania was at the Raspberry Farm just outside Devonport where the ferry docks. Who said you can't have ice cream for breakfast?

Very nice Ploughmans Lunch but I forget where.

This raspberry tart at the Richmond Bakery tasted just as good as it looked except it followed a chicken and leek pie and a sausage roll so it was more of a challenge to finish than it should have been.

A visit to Tasmanie has to include the D'Anvers Chocolate Factory just near Devonport.

Ok so we did eat well and my weight loss that I was so proud of has taken a backward step but isn't that what holidays are for.

Another Long Lunch

On Saturday I had my second luxurious lunch in 3 days. I don't eat this well for months on end but suddenly two in a week. Wonderful
We ate at Summer Salt which (again) is on the beach - Australia has a lot of beaches.

The view was from ground level this time and enhanced by a constant stream of kite surfers, wind surfers and hang gliders as well as the occasional intrepid surfer but it was a bit chilly for a dip in the ocean.

The food again was magnificent but the best part was the way we all got out our cameras as each course arrived. We must have looked like a bunch of geeks but we didn't care.

It was another 4 hour epic but I loved every second with my wonderful friends and great food. Who could ask for more.
Main Course - boned Lamb Shank with oyster mushrooms on a bed of garlic mash

Another main - rib eye steak

Desert - Bombe Alaska with strawberry ice cream inside.

Again - only toast for dinner.

Quiet day

Yes there is such a thing as a bad massage - we just had one. The foot massage was ok but the head massage was anything but. More of a poke and a breast rub which was indeed very odd. My head is now very sore to touch. Maybe they had the second string team on today but it certainly wasn't overly pleasant. Tough I hear you say and you are probably right - too much of a good thing .

Anyway after the excitement of yesterday we have taken it easy today with only that one excursion except that Peter is out exploring again. He goes on long walks and finds interesting things to look at but it is all too hot for me today. I think a swim is on the cards.

Anyway - here are a couple of shots from the last few days.

Monks are treated very kindly here

You can even send them food parcels

This chicken was very tempting too.

I got some of these roses for my birthday

One more of the silk from yesterday - isn't it luscious

Edible Japanese Snippets

Food - my favourite topic
Here are some yummy cakes - but are they - look again. They are actually small towels rolled up to look like cakes - not sure why but aren't they cute?

Lunch is always a time to try out lots of little tastes

But would you eat at Cafe Smell?

Fresh is best but not this fresh

For desert you can't go past some delicate cakes. The Japanese excel at packaging and design



You can always check the menu outside most restaurants which makes life very easy if you don't speak Japanese - pointing is an acceptable form of ordering.

Tokyo Day One

A wonderful flight with a little bit of sleep and watching 'The Queen' with Helen Mirren. Flight took nearly 10 hours and the trip from the airport took another 3! Unfortunately as we couldn't check in till the afternoon and it was nine in the morning we had to start being tourist straight away. Fortunately the Tokyo International Quilt Show started at ten so after wrestling with the buttons (in a vending machine) outside a cafe and then eating a yummy soup I was ready to face the (quilting) masses.






Held at the Toyko Dome which usually houses baseball games - it is an interesting venue for a quilt show.

You enter at the top and then walk down through the seats to the floor below.The vendors are around the outside of the floor and the different exhibitions (colour coded) are in the centre.

When you need to take a break you buy a bento box (lunch pack) from here and then go and sit in the seats and watch the show from a distance. By now my feet were the most intensely painful part of my body and the jet lag was setting in so I sat and watched for quite a while.







Of course the quilts were amazing. The show website does better justice than my photos but here are a few that took my fancy. My favourites were exhibitions by master Japanese quiltmakers each with their own exhibitions but unfortunately you were not allowed to take photos but there were catalogues available.

There was a collection of group quilts and although many traditional - this one took my fancy as each block was food - 3d and so clever. Made me hungry again.


Korean style pojaji quilt - I had to buy some fabric to try this technique. I love the transparency effect although it is a long time since I did hand piecing.




I loved these little buttons all over a quilt - so happy

The crowds were quite thick in front of the major winners at times

This is the roof of the Dome - could almost be a quilt itself











While I was at the Show, Peter was wandering aimlessly wherever his curiosity took him. There are a lot of street people in Tokyo and many live in boxes and queue for food . I will post more positive photos of Tokyo next time.


Protection from the frost I expect or just decoration?