Gluhwein and Gugelhopfe
27/07/2012 10:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaHad an ever so lazy day this morning slinking about in the Lair, soaking up the sunshine and meeting an old friend from the mad house that is the day job. Sybil was one of the wiser rats who got out of the sinking ship sooner rather than later.
She is ever so amused and disgusted by the latest dramas there. But that is a story for another time and place. Later the Izzie returned to the Lair and decided to spend a few hours snoozing outside in the sunshine and watching the rainbow lorikeets raiding the eucalyptus flowers.
It was also good to see that the Tuscan kale planted some three weeks ago has finally decided to sprout. They are now onto their first set of real leaves and within three weeks should be feasting on the green goodness. Some we will let go to seed and save them for next year.
The original plan was to slink into the city around 4pm for a coffee crawl and to take a peek at the new Winter Festival at the town hall. The first time was the last Friday of June. Was feeling a bit tired and claustrophobic so just could not get into the right mood.
Lingered a bit longer in the lair soaking up the last rays of sunshine before catching a bus to the city just before 5pm. Paid a visit to the latest Nanowrimo cafe. This time no cards and no brainstorming simply coffee and the daily paper. Wanted to get the daily fix of the letters page and cartoon, the weekly gardening features and the latest drama from the murder trial of the decade.
Stayed rather longer than intended and ended up with only 30 minutes until the official ending of the winter festival. Silly really since it is only once a month and the cafe is open six days a week.
Was still somewhat agitated but nowhere as bad as last time. The most striking thing apart from the dark sky and crisp cold evening was the heavenly aromas drifting around the town hall. Aside from the MacDonalds and assorted monstrous carbuncles lining the other side of Hay Street it would be very easy to believe that this was Nuremburg, Berlin, Buxtehude or a hundred little towns or cities anywhere in Germany. There was hot chocolate, truffles, bratwurst and gluhwein and even the wood fired baker with offerings of Gugelhopf, assorted baguettes, pies and organic sour dough bread was also German. There were also Brazilian Churros - sort of sickly sweet doughnuts filled with caramel or chocolate, crepes and Moroccan dips and delicious tomato sauce and egg offerings with sausages tossed in for an extra three silver sickles.
Resisted the temptation to indulge which was not too difficult as most of the stalls were packing up by that time but it was nice to linger and inhale the intoxicating fragrances. Quite astonishing how the smell of mulled wine and sizzling sausages and onions could conjure up places and memories from half way around the world and more than twenty years ago in time.
But only in Australia would you have such an event accompanied by live jazz musicians and just outside the doors of an exhibition of Buddhist sacred relics and silk embroidered banners. Will most definitely be back for a proper look at those tomorrow when there is less of a crowd and it is not just before closing time.
Going to be a good good serpent and work on some banishing rituals so that there will be no excuse for silly neurotic antics when the next winter market takes place on Friday 31st August.
There’s a stuffed cane toad with a tail sitting on the sideboard along with letter openers, skull and finger beeswax candles, essential oils and other creepy kind of things so there is no excuse for a lack of inspiration.
Had even bought some cheap and cheerful plonk after last time with the intention of making some DIY mulled wine. Still not gotten around to it yet.
There are a whole bunch of things that are still on the serpent to do list. Been so well and truly distracted for the last four weeks and not amused about it one little bit.
Still managing to stay on target with the squiggling stuff. August is looming ever nearer on the horizon. Already clocked up 25,000 words for this month without too much effort so doubling that should not be too much of an effort. But this time the rules are a bit different. The words have got to form proper stories with a beginning, middle and end. In other words no toads unless they get cooked in barbecues, slowly bled and fed to vampires or cut into very small pieces in some horrid biology class from hell. Oh and silly Izzie has simply forgot to mention all those characters who just adore wearing toad skin shoes.
She is ever so amused and disgusted by the latest dramas there. But that is a story for another time and place. Later the Izzie returned to the Lair and decided to spend a few hours snoozing outside in the sunshine and watching the rainbow lorikeets raiding the eucalyptus flowers.
It was also good to see that the Tuscan kale planted some three weeks ago has finally decided to sprout. They are now onto their first set of real leaves and within three weeks should be feasting on the green goodness. Some we will let go to seed and save them for next year.
The original plan was to slink into the city around 4pm for a coffee crawl and to take a peek at the new Winter Festival at the town hall. The first time was the last Friday of June. Was feeling a bit tired and claustrophobic so just could not get into the right mood.
Lingered a bit longer in the lair soaking up the last rays of sunshine before catching a bus to the city just before 5pm. Paid a visit to the latest Nanowrimo cafe. This time no cards and no brainstorming simply coffee and the daily paper. Wanted to get the daily fix of the letters page and cartoon, the weekly gardening features and the latest drama from the murder trial of the decade.
Stayed rather longer than intended and ended up with only 30 minutes until the official ending of the winter festival. Silly really since it is only once a month and the cafe is open six days a week.
Was still somewhat agitated but nowhere as bad as last time. The most striking thing apart from the dark sky and crisp cold evening was the heavenly aromas drifting around the town hall. Aside from the MacDonalds and assorted monstrous carbuncles lining the other side of Hay Street it would be very easy to believe that this was Nuremburg, Berlin, Buxtehude or a hundred little towns or cities anywhere in Germany. There was hot chocolate, truffles, bratwurst and gluhwein and even the wood fired baker with offerings of Gugelhopf, assorted baguettes, pies and organic sour dough bread was also German. There were also Brazilian Churros - sort of sickly sweet doughnuts filled with caramel or chocolate, crepes and Moroccan dips and delicious tomato sauce and egg offerings with sausages tossed in for an extra three silver sickles.
Resisted the temptation to indulge which was not too difficult as most of the stalls were packing up by that time but it was nice to linger and inhale the intoxicating fragrances. Quite astonishing how the smell of mulled wine and sizzling sausages and onions could conjure up places and memories from half way around the world and more than twenty years ago in time.
But only in Australia would you have such an event accompanied by live jazz musicians and just outside the doors of an exhibition of Buddhist sacred relics and silk embroidered banners. Will most definitely be back for a proper look at those tomorrow when there is less of a crowd and it is not just before closing time.
Going to be a good good serpent and work on some banishing rituals so that there will be no excuse for silly neurotic antics when the next winter market takes place on Friday 31st August.
There’s a stuffed cane toad with a tail sitting on the sideboard along with letter openers, skull and finger beeswax candles, essential oils and other creepy kind of things so there is no excuse for a lack of inspiration.
Had even bought some cheap and cheerful plonk after last time with the intention of making some DIY mulled wine. Still not gotten around to it yet.
There are a whole bunch of things that are still on the serpent to do list. Been so well and truly distracted for the last four weeks and not amused about it one little bit.
Still managing to stay on target with the squiggling stuff. August is looming ever nearer on the horizon. Already clocked up 25,000 words for this month without too much effort so doubling that should not be too much of an effort. But this time the rules are a bit different. The words have got to form proper stories with a beginning, middle and end. In other words no toads unless they get cooked in barbecues, slowly bled and fed to vampires or cut into very small pieces in some horrid biology class from hell. Oh and silly Izzie has simply forgot to mention all those characters who just adore wearing toad skin shoes.
