My Monthly Chronicles, February 2025

February was another crazy month but in a different way to January.  Less cafes, less outings and less holidays.  There was still fun.  I enjoyed seeing A Complete Unknown (Bob Dylan biopic) and I wrote about the excellent Macbeth in the Botanic Gardens, and we had some nice eating out for Sylvia's birthday as well as making purchases at op shops for her presents. Mostly it seemed that I was busy with work and sorting out the start of the school year so we were eating at home more (see In My Kitchen - February 2025).  On top of that, international politics were dire but I was loving a new Sunday morning panel show called the Sunday Shot with some great insights into current affairs. 

Coburg Farmers Market

We had a lovely visit to Coburg Farmers Market before a birthday lunch for me with my parents.  We used to go so much and now it is not that often.  Every time we go, it is wonderful to get outside and see the beautiful food, friendly faces and hard work of local producers.  With the world gone crazy, a farmers market is the perfect way to remind oneself that community and hope is still possible.

Merri Creek bike path

Another way of enjoying the outdoors is my regularly bike rides.  I took this photo of the sun breaking through the trees to create a gorgeous reflection in the Merri Creek by the bike path as I ventured the furtherest North on the path than I have ever been before.  No matter how long I live in the inner North of Melbourne, there are always great surprises.

Wabi Sabi Salon, Colliingwood

We had a lunch at Wabi Sabi Salon at 94 Smith St, Collingwood to try out the vegan Wabi Sabi Signature Teishoku (set menu).  The above photo is of our trays of food.  It was a lot for the two of us.  The bottom tray is Sylvia's who got the Agedashi tofu with eggplant, zucchini and shitake mushroom.  I had the Grilled sweet potato with crispy chickpeas at the top of the photo.  The slab of half a sweet potato was huge and covered in a spicy kewpie mayo.  I really loved the crispy chickpeas.

In addition to each main we both had lots of side dishes:  curried cauliflower, rainbow chard, marinated eggplant, potato salad, rice, pickled cucumber (so refreshing) and amazing miso soup.  The soup was beautifully flavoured.  I love how, when stirred, the sheets of seaweed and chunks of tofu swirl through the cloudiness.  Often miso soup is not available to vegetarians because the broth is meat or fish.  So it was a treat to have a good one.  Sylvia ordered an Onsen egg as an extra and I ordered some Natto as an extra because I have never had a chance to try it.  I wanted to love the natto, the fermented soy beans) but they were so slimy and the stretchy strings reminded me of saliva hanging from an old man's mouth.

The meal was wonderful.  So many flavours and textures.  I liked my sweet potato but next time I would love to try the Pumpkin stuffed mushroom tempura with teriyaki balsamic.  At $31 for each of our set meals, it was not cheap but it was a great experience.

Wabi Sabi Salon, and Smith Street

It was a warm day so we ate inside but the entrance to the courtyard was really enticing.  The Japanese signs and orange wall and plants made it feel very Asian and tranquil.  I couldn't resist a quick photo, once the instagrammer in front of me had her friend photograph every variation of her pose!

Then we headed up Smith Street towards the Bead Centre.  Smith Street makes me nostalgic for life in a student household nearby.  So much has changed since then but I am always happy that Friends of the Earth (FoE) co-operative is still there.  At the top of the post is part of the colourful mural with the giant broccoli on the side wall.  There were so many places on Smith Street we wanted to stop and browse.  Lots of new cafes and interesting window displays.  We had a quick look in the op shop (St Mark's recycling).

The Bead Centre, Collingwood

The Bead Centre (348 Smith St) has been on Sylvia's wish list for some time.  It has a huge range of beads - plastic, metal, crystals - in all sorts of colours.  It also has lots of cute pendants and earrings.  And reasonable prices.  Sylvia bought a pair of apple core earrings for $5. 

Merri Community Shed Craft Market, Coburg

This is the old Coburg Bowling Club that closed recently and now houses the Merri Community Shed which was formerly the Men's Shed but now is open to everyone.  So much change!  I went there to a Craft Markets to see my friend Karin's stall.  The market is for community crafters and the makers from the shed to hold stalls.  There was a display of blacksmithing and tours of the shed. 

Merri Community Shed Craft Market, crafts

Above are photos of some of the crafts on offer: plants in recycled and cut glass bottles; old table cloths in embroidery hoops remade into jewellery holders; crochet sunflowers; and mystery books wrapped in brown paper with clues to the type of book inside.  There was also jewellery, woodwork and swirly resin platters.  It was a good place to buy a couple of presents for Sylvia's birthday.  I hope to get to more markets.  The next is in May.

Hunter Gatherer, Fitzroy

Just before Sylvia's birthday we visited some op shops and second hand shops along Brunswick Street.  Hunter Gather (274 Brunswick Street) is a BSL op shop but on a hipster street so it is fancy prices. I still rue the day I found my most adorable green teacup ad saucer but didn't buy it due to the high price.  I found a belt that seemed quite expensive for an op shop so I searched the brand online.  At the counter, I asked for a cheaper price that was more in line with the online prices and got a discount.  This is not something I usually do but the prices these days are so crazy that I wanted to say something!

We also found some great clothes at the Brunswick Street Vinnies.  By the way, I think of op shops as places for people to get cheap second hand goods while donating to charities.  It was interesting recently to hear from my mum that her local St Vincent de Paul gets the bulk of its money from op shop sales.  This was a good reminder how important op shops are to the community.  After all, we need charities to fill the gaps left by our government in helping the less fortunate.

Lost and Found Market, Fitzroy

After Hunter Gatherer, we spent a lot of time at Lost and Found Market (288 Brunswick St) close by.  A lot of time!  This is a huge space upstairs with lines of stalls.  Some have lots of clothes or jewellery or kitchenware.  I love the display above with all the retro jugs, teapots and plates.  We took so long browsing that I had to go and move the car because our 2 hour parking limit was up,

Good Daze Canteen, Fitzroy

Feeling very happy with our purchases and very hot due the mercury soaring, our last stop was at Good Days Canteen (316 Brunswick St).  Sylvia has wanted to go there for so long and so she had planned this as a birthday treat.  She loved her cone with a scoop of matcha and a scoop of mango sticky rice.  I had an amazing miso peanut butter caramel ice cream.  It was so good with chunks of chewy caramel. 

South Melbourne street art

We also had a trip to South Melbourne as part of Sylvia's festival of birthday.  This is an area we don't go to often.  If we had had more time, I would have loved to go to the South Melbourne market and stroll around the hipster streets of shady trees and busy pavement tables outside cafes.  As it was, we were busy enough with visiting two cafes that I have written about: Juniper Eatery and Meeya Cafe cake painting, South Melbourne.  Today I share a part of the some street art on Coventry Street near the corner of Clarendon Street.  It includes the South Melbourne Town Hall is a place I remember seeing from when we were little and my used to point out where he worked.

Noi Pizzeria, Coburg

The last celebration of Sylvia's birthday was at Noi Pizzeria with her dad and my parents.  Sylvia has wanted to go to Noi in Preston for some time but when we were planning we found there was a new Noi in Coburg at 18b Pentridge Boulevard.  The food was excellent.

I had the Eggplant parmigiana pizza (from the special's menu).  The crust was amazing but the toppings got a bit soggy though I guess that is the trade off of having beautifully cooked eggplant.  Alone it would have been nice, but I am learning that Italian food is best with sides and salads.  We shared Spinach arancini, Shoestring fries and Rucola salad of rocket, shaved parmesan and balsamic glaze.  I also tasted other's dishes (other than my mum's calamari).  The other mains were also really good: Cheese ravioli with cherry tomatoes and pesto for my dad, Sofia pizza that is topped with mozzarella, grilled zucchini, rosemary potatoes, mushrooms, garlic, chilli, and friarielli cream for E, and Spicy rigatoni with tomato vodka and fresh burrata from the specials for Sylvia. 

Noi Pizzeria, drinks

To drink we had alcohol free spritz, beer on tap, apple juice and chinotto.  It was my first time finding an alcohol free spritz and I enjoyed it.  It was on the special's menu.  I hope that they decide to move it to the regular menu.  So refreshing and very Italian.  Just right for a balmy summer's evening.  We didn't stay for dessert.  Instead we headed back to our place for the delicious caramel tart that my mum made.  (See it at In My Kitchen - February 2025.)

On the Telly.  My favourite tv show lately is The Newsreader.  It is set in a newsroom in 1980s Melbourne.  We just finished watching the latest series that was screened on the ABC this year.  It has been amazing at depicting interesting characters from underrepresented groups.  In the background to the drama were local and international news stories from the time that took me back to hearing these stories.  The last episode was so amazing and satisfying that I had to go to my room to digest it in quiet after it finished.  We've also enjoyed the eccentricity, whimsy and humour in Bob's Burgers.

In the news:

Lattouf, Lalor dismissals another salvo in attack on free speech and Creative Australia's shameful dumping of Khaled Sabsabi by Rosemary Sorenson in Independent Australia, 5 and 15 February 2025.

As any woman in the back of a locked taxi knows, Sam Kerr should never have been brought to court, by Suzanne Wrack in the Guardian, 12 February 2025.

Fact Check: No, Ron Howard didn't author 'I'm a liberal' letter (with letter in full), in Snopes, 12 February 2025.

Profiles of courage (in resistance to Trump) by Robert Reich on substack, 13 February 2025.

‘This is a coup’: Trump and Musk’s purge is cutting more than costs, say experts, in The Guardian, 17 February 2025. This is just the trip of Trump craziness but I don't have the energy to find links for tariffs, the Gaza Riviera, banning plastic straws, cancelling research funding.  

And here we are: not with a bang but a wimp (sic) by Tin Dunlop and MediaActive in The Future of Everything, 19 February 2025. 

Young Britons ‘to be given chance to live and work in Europe’ under Starmer’s plan for post-Brexit reset in the Independent, 21 February 2025.

Media negatively frames Labor’s achievements, by Jenny Hocking in Echo, 27 February 2025.

In My Kitchen: February 2025

February started with some quieter times but worked up to being exhausting with birthdays, appointments, the start of the school year, crazy weather and heaps to do at work.  I was amused to hear that the February full moon is called the Snow Moon.  The term comes from the Northern Hemisphere and seems quite ironic given that February in Melbourne is the end of summer and brings energy-depleting heatwaves.  But we got rain too.  A fierce thunderstorm left a hole in my parents' roof.  

While Elon Musk is busy firing in the USA, my workplace is hiring a new team for an innovative pilot project.  As well I have changed my work days, moved to a new location and the VPN has been playing up on the days I work in an external office and from home.  The world is crazy!  My life is crazy!

I had my birthday lunch with Sylvia and my parentss.  In the morning, Sylvia and I got out our trolley and walked to the Coburg Farmers Market.  It was a fine weather to enjoy the welcoming stalls with such gorgeous produce.  We bought food for lunch and to use during the week: cherry tomatoes, kale, baguette, honey and walnut bread, curly zucchini, figs, strawberries, kombucha and coloured carrots.
.

We also bought peaches, grapes, lettuce and cheeses from the supermarket on the way home.  My mum made a layered black forest cake and bought some amazing croissants from Paddock in Geelong.  It was a feast that seemed very simple to put together.  The criossants aren't in the above photo but you can see them sliced up in the top photo of the cheese and fruit board.  It is my nature to just whip up a recipe but I had to stop myself from doing this because I just didn't have the energy.

My parents also brought up a birthday present that my sister had left for me before returning to Ireland.  It is has the lovely title of Sylvia Plath's Tomato Soup Cake: a Companion of Classic Author's Recipe.  Celebrity recipes are always fun.  I have enjoyed dipping in and out of this book and yet again dreaming of making the eponymous tomato soup cake!  One day, Sylvia, I promise!

As soon as Sylvia saw the Barilla heart shaped pasta in the supermarket she snapped up a packet.  She loves shaped pasta.  It was lovely with a vodka pasta sauce but was far more droopy and not as pretty as when dried.

We discovered last year that all the ingredients in Smith's sausage crisps were vegetarian.  And we love vegetarian sausages.  So we checked the Summer Sausage Sizzle crisps and bought a bag when we found they were vegetarian.  They made for delicious snacking.

Last year we bough these sticks of giant spiral pasta from Geelong Fresh in Pakington St.  It took a lont time to use them.  When I discovered an Ottolenghi recipe for Zaatar cacio e pepe, it was a recipe that was simple enough and interesting enough to be deserving of the fancy pasta.  

I would not recommend using this pasta for the recipe.  The recipe involved cooking the pasta in a small amount of water so there was intensely starchy liquid to add to the cooked pasta, parmesan and butter to stir well to make a creamy sauce.  It was pretty amazing to see the alchemy at work.  I would make this recipe again but I would use less pepper - it was quite spicy for me.  I would also use a thinner pasta that is easier to stir.  It is pretty quick to make but I really needed a little more effort to make a simple leafy salad.

On a scorching hot day we went to the bask in the air conditioning at the cinema.  Sylvia was keen to see Companion but I wanted to see a Complete Unknown.  So we went to separate movies and met afterwards.  Sylvia had an iced coffee at Cobrick while she waited.  Then we got bread, salad and arancini from the Pentridge IGA to take home for lunch.  The mix of salads was Beetroot and feta, Kale and farro, and Pumpkin and couscous.  Delicious!  The arancini were not cheap but were huge and tasted amazing when baked til crispy (once the cool change came).

We are very fond of the Vegetarian meal from the Melbourne Kebab Station in Coburgthat comes with rice, salad, two dips, rice and pillowy Turkish bread.  I even keep cash in my purse just in case we want to make a purchase there because they don't accept cards.  The prices have risen to $20 for this meal but it is still so good that we are still eating it.  After all, where can you go that the prices aren't shooting upwards!  They do nice falafels but not as good as those nearby in the mall at Half Moon Cafe.  

When we got one of the meals from MKS for lunch recently I also bought some HMC falafels and did a comparison as you can see in the photo above.  The HMC falafels are much greener with fresh herbs and crispier but the MKS bread is the best.  So I am fond of both places for different reasons and wish I could eat their food more.

When we went to see Macbeth in the Botanic Gardens, I made a variation on my overnight sourdough bread rolls, by adding Red Leicester cheese and fried leek.  They were so tasty that most of them got eaten without anything spread on them, though I regretted making them without as much salt as usual.  I thought that the cheese would mean less salt was needed but I don't think that was the case.

Sylvia has started to do a couple of shifts at an op shop and loving it.  But she finds it tiring so I try and make sure she has a decent breakfast before heading there.  On here first shift I added matcha to a batch of Fluffy pancakes.  They were very satisfying.  I cooked up some blueberries with lemon juice and maple syrup to top the pancakes and then added maple syrup and yoghurt.  Excellent!

We have a craft project on the go to paint a box and a a shelf for the backyard.  It is going slowly but at least is underway.

A few weeks back I wanted a quick but satisfying lunch.  I fossicked around in the freezer and found peas, corn, spinach and pineapple.  I thawed them in the microwave. 

The I added brown rice, tahini, soy sauce, lime juice and seasoning.  I heated it all up in the microwave and took it to my desk where I was working from home.  It was a great change to heading to a loaf of bread for sandwiches when I wanted a quick lunch!

Another working-from-home lunch was a great sandwich of Chickpea flour (besan) scramble with lettuce and mayo in dark rye bread.

We've been eating lots of stone fruit.  It's summer peak is over but there is still plenty available in the shops.  When I discovered a simple Peach tarte tartin on Not Quite Nigella, I could not resist.

It was not my finest moment.  I was impatient and did not cook it long enough.  It was not charred like on Not Quite Nigella.  I would have liked longer cooked crispy pastry too and next time we might even try a sugar and butter caramel rather than the golden syrup as the base for the peaches.  I am very grateful to Lorraine for inspiring me to bake my first tarte tatin.  I hope it is not the last!

In the past I have enjoyed Easy Cheesy Vegetarian Cheesy Bean Bake.  While on Easy Cheesy Vegetarian, it is made by cooking a risotto-style rice that is mixed with lots of beans and tomatoes, I do it with pasta so there is a lot less cooking.  I just fry some onions and, in this latest version, a couple of zucchinis,  Then I added them with  fridge fresh tortellini and everything else (with slightly less water and seasoning adjustments such as adding smoked paprika) to the casserole dish and baked until the cheese topping is pleasingly crispy.  

This time Sylvia was happy to try sesame seeds on top.  I love them for extra crunch and she is feeling friendlier towards them because she has been loving seaweed salad with sesame seeds!  There are a lot of beans in the casserole which was a bit much for Sylvia but I was happy to have lots of meals in the casserole.

Another bake we had was this excellent Mac and Cheese which we make with cauliflower and fried leek.  It was made on the weekend before Sylvia's birthday because I worked on her birthday and did not have time to make it.  It is a rich dish fit for a celebration.  On her actual birthday we ordered pizza from Heaven as a treat.  You can read about more birthday fun at Juniper Eatery and cake painting at Meeya Cafe.
.

We also had a  lunch at an Italian restaurant with Sylvia's grandparents and dad.  My mum brought along a birthday caramel tart.  This is such a nostalgic dessert for me.  We loved it when I was a kid and still love it at family gatherings.  So it was quite special for her to bring us one.  Sylvia call sit banoffee tart but for me it is what I had before I ever heard of banoffee and so much better because my mum makes it!

 Here are a few of Sylvia's presents.  I ordered the silver swirl from an independent artisan in USA and E ordered the special perfume but most of the rest of these presents were bought on op shop outings around Sylvia's birthday.  She also got new piercings on her birthday.  Note that the Vegan Stoners Cookbook is bought for the cute illustrations (for collaging) rather than the recipes.

 I am sending this post to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings for the In My Kitchen event. If you would like to join in, send your post to Sherry by 13th of the month.  Or just head over to her blog to visit more kitchens and her gorgeous hand drawn header.  Thanks to Sherry for continuing to host this even that brings together some wonderful bloggers who share glimpses into their kitchens.

Road Trip: Tower Hill , Warnambool, Colac, Winchelsea 2019

When sorting old photos recently, I came across photos of the road trip to and from a Port Fairy holiday in 2019  .  It was an interesting trip home.  I always meant to share these photos so now is as good as any time.  My manager had suggested that I take a week of leave because life was pretty stressful.  It was a welcome break.  We drove without many stops on the way to Port Fairy but we meandered home with a few stops.  It might have been reluctance to go home or maybe we started on the road earlier or it could have been I needed more stops because my back was sore.  Whichever, the trip offered quite a few pleasant surprises as well as one that was not so pleasant.

Before I tell you about our first stop at Tower Hill on the way home, I will share the lunch we had on the way to Port Fairy.  We stopped at Winchelsea where we went to the local market that I think was along the main street.  For lunch we bought a fantastic Zeally Bay sourdough baguette and some delicious soft brie that we ate a small table.  It was a lovely simple rustic meal without cutlery.

 

 

We had a quick look at the shops.  There is a small shopping strip in Winchelsea so it does not take long.   One store had some really nice sustainable items.  I bought my bread bag that I still have today.  Since then it has housed many loaves of bread.  It is much more stained and frayed around the zip than in this photo. 

 

 

Possibly the highlight of the trip was a stop at Tower Hill soon after we left Port Fairy.  We had enjoyed a trip to Tower Hill in 2013.  Six years later it was just as delightful to be out in the bush inside the crater of the dormant volcano.  As we made our way to the start of the walk, we saw a fluffy koala in a tree.  They always look like they would be great to cuddle but once I have heard a koala growling, I am not so sure.

We had a gentle walk along one of the paths through the bush.  It was soul soothing to walk among the towering gum trees in an crater of a volcano dormant for approximately 25,000 years.  A great way to put one's life into perspective.

I enjoyed seeing the wildlife.  Some of the flowers like the above thistle were lovely and it was very entertaining watching a willy wagtail (bird) darting among the trees.

As we returned from the walk and were almost at the carpark, we saw the most amazing thing.  The koala we had seen earlier had a little baby (or joey as they call infant koalas).  The mother just sat and watched as the joey played in the crook of the tree.  It was so cute.  This is not a common sight in the Australian bush.  I think it might be the first time I have seen a koala joey.  I can't even remember seeing one in the zoo.

Tower Hill is a huge expanse of bush (a lot of it reclaimed from cattle grazing).  There is a road to drive down into the crater.  I really love all the layered rock walls that you can see on the top photo with our car. that we had back in 2019.  The above photo is of the view as well drove out and looked back.

At the top of the drive out was a paddock of emus.  This fine chap was not at all shy in parading his feathers in front of us. 

Then we drove onto Warnambool, which is the second largest town on the drive from Port Fairy to Melbourne.  The largest is Geelong!  In Warnambool we happened to drive past this wonderful Ngatanwarr (Welcome) Mural by Adnate.

While the first photo of the mural shows the detail, the one above shows the impressive scale of the artwork.  I was so amazed by the street art that I stopped to take a photo.  I don't know Warnambool this well but this artwork and the cafe we visited for lunch gave me a better impression of the town than other times we have driven through on the way to and from Port Fairy.

We had a fantastic lunch at Day Kitty Cafe (52b Kepler Street Warrnambool).  I am really pleased to see that it is still open according to the internet.  When browsing Day Kitty Cafe's instagram, it looks like they are still serving beautiful healthy vegetarian and vegan food.  I would definitely return if I had the opportunity.

It was at Day Kitty that I first had this lovely Jiva Pomegranate Jiva.  It was so exciting to find such good kombucha back then!  Since then kombucha and other adult sodas have become more common but in 2019 the choice was far more limited if I could find any.  Sylvia was happy with a juice (probably apple, maybe freshly squeezed).

Another revelation was Sylvia's experience of scrambled eggs on toast.  She loved it so much that she was inspired to try making her own scrambled eggs on toast at home.  You can see one of her home versions of scrambled eggs on a 2019 post. 

As for me, I had was very pleased with my Nourish Bowl.  It was vegan and gluten free.  This was a full satisfying bowl of kraut, avocado half with mixed seed topping, pumpkin, greens, dukkah, pickled vegetables, kale chips, green goddess pesto, cashew turmeric hollandaise, herbed lentil salad & lemon on the house grain mix.  All for $16.50.  This was a wonder of a rural town where my expectations were so much lower than in the city of Melbourne. 

Day Kitty Cafe also had a small groceries section of fancy and healthy groceries.  We bought this coconut and vanilla flavoured Serious Popcorn.  The photos is taken on our stop in Colac where I had a quick walk at the Colac Memorial Square.  The trip was at the end of Spring (November), hence all the daisies among the grass.

At the centre of the Memorial Square is the impressive sandstone Colac War Memorial that was unveiled in 1924 in memory of the local soldiers who had enlisted in World War II .  Since then, more names have been added.  We had the added pleasure of seeing the roses in bloom that are planted in front of it.

Our last stop was to look at this street art on a signal box in Winchelsea.  Above is an orca and below is a seagull.  In the background of the gull photo is the sign of a petrol station.  These are so important when doing a long drive.  It is not the cheapest petrol but they are an essential stop when the tank is low and you know it could be some time before you have the opportunity again.

We then drove on to Geelong where I was stopping to see my parents.  Before we got there I was pulled over by the police because my car was unregistered.  I was so certain that I had paid the registration that I convinced the police officer to let me drive on to my parents to check on the their computer rather than paying on the spot.  When I checked in Geelong, I found I had not paid so I instantly deposited the money online with VicRoads.

The holiday had been so relaxing and wonderful that it was such a shame to end on a low note.  However I have great memories of the holiday and the trip back.  The unpaid registration saga ended with my doctor kindly writing a letter to support an appeal and the fine being waived.  

The sadder end to the story was that the Orchard Cottages where we stayed at Port Fairy in 2019 (as well as twice previously) were a casualty of the Covid pandemic and have now closed.  I have yet to find another holiday accommodation at Port Fairy to rival it but I still hope I will and that we will return in the not so distant future.  Six years since our last trip to Port Fairy is too long!  It is such a wonderful place for a holiday and the drive there and back has lots of interesting places to stop.