sunshine and lots of hops

My apologies for the lack of posting. I've been enjoying the sun...

Harry at my house



Sunset on Greville Street, Prahran

And drinking too much.

Beer from The Local Taphouse, St Kilda

Bloody Mary from Yellow Bird, Windsor

what were you born in a barn, man?

No, but sometimes I feel like I’m in a Zoo. I’m actually on an animal buying ban, sounds dreadful doesn’t it. I never noticed I had this ‘thing’ for creatures but there they are on my wall, in my kitchen, on my mantelpiece and even on my couch!

First meet two of my first pets. This is Sylvia on the left, her namesake is Sylvia Plath. My Sylvia came from Chapel Street Bazaar and sadly one day took a fall (suicide? Who knows) of the mantelpiece. I think I might have missed my call in life as a plastic surgeon because don’t you think my job is seamless? It did take two tubes of superglue and end up in me having a contact high and needing to go for a little walkies.

Next to her is Saul. Saul was a gift from a friend KC who found him in rural Victoria, she thought Sylvia could do with some cheering up and brought him home to her. There was no way I was calling him Ted or Hughesy.

You’ve all met Owlbert before in my first post. He moves around a lot and even ends up on the floor when the cats (the real ones, not the ceramic ones) poach him. Speaking of cats, this is Sphinxy. She’s very elegant and I love her ever so slight head tilt.

My horse lamp, Jorge (Spanish pronunciation please) lights up my life too.

Now let’s move along the Elephant enclosure. Isn’t the Moritz Elephant the most jolly elephant you’ve ever seen? I wonder what he’s laughing about with heart tongue.

Now these two lovers come from the Chor Markets in Bombay. I think this translates to the Theives Markets and it’s my favourite place in Bombay but before that they hailed from the Indian state Gujarat.

And look! A deer and a cat cohabitating nicely on the couch together. That’s Jezebel, she’s often quite mean.

Oh and this picture is an ode to Harry. I saw it in Venice and thought that they looked so alike. Even those magnets are animals. Oy vey I am insane.

lamb lamb lamb

You know when you’re onto a good thing? And you just can’t stop? I’ve found the perfect dish and it’s probably the best thing I’ve ever cooked. I’ve made it twice this week and it is an Arabic spiced lamb on top of a warm salad with a bit of magic drizzled on top. The recipe first came from here but I’ve tweaked it a bit. Cue Homer Simpson drool.

lamb

This is my marinade (lime, pistachios, olive oil, cardamom, cinnamon, coriander, garlic) and you have no idea how excited I was to use my mortar and pestle for the first time. I left my lamb backstraps to marinate for a few hours.

salad

The first time round I tackled the beetroot myself and boiled, peeled and then was stuck with bright pink fingers and nails. Since then I’ve decided that there is nothing wrong with canned beetroot, nothing at all but somehow I still manage to stain my fingers. These cubes of beetroot are roasted with sweet potato, red onion and thyme. It’s all then piled on top of some baby spinach leaves, rocket and a few basil leaves. Persian fetta is then crumbled on top of the salad.

magic

Garam Masala, lemon juice, mint, sugar and Greek yoghurt dressing. This is glooped on top and it tastes amazing. Where have you been all my life Garam Masala? Hiding in curries perhaps. There are no pictures of the finished product because we keep eating it too fast, you'll just have to trust me.

I love flowers. Can’t you tell?

And I'm still not allowed to hang out our 2nd storey window to clean them.

rose tinted glasses

I’d like to apologise to Spring, I don’t mind you so much now that it is a lot lighter later. This sunset was taken at 6pm. As you can see my Bali Raybans give everything a rose tinted hue.

I’m not really a pink person. My cheeks are sometimes so rosey that it would be an epic overload of pink (similar to Andie Walsh’s prom outfit in Pretty in Pink) if I ever wore it. However, I did recently jump on the nudey-pinky blouse train and purchased this one from Sportsgirl. It’s about as pink as I go.

Can I also just say I am absolutely tickled pink by the fact that Julia Gillard is our Prime Minister.