A Miscellany

We managed to unwrap and install the new mattress with no trouble at all.  Took a bare, few minutes.

Now the bed is snuggly and cosy, and much firmer than the old mattress was.  I wish I could say that I am sleeping better but that would be an exaggeration.  I am, however, much more comfortable.

Grumpy cat cushion nice and cosy

New friend who came with the mattress

Speaking of new beds, Lindsey bought Rupert and Hugo new dog beds.  Hugo's is in front of the heater in the hallway.  He loves snoozing there on cold, frosty mornings.  Rupert took one look at his new bed and loudly declared his intention of ignoring it completely and remaining on the blankies on the couch.

He has recently changed his mind

When we moved from Tupton to Mount Helen I converted all of my cooking books that could be converted from hard copy to ebook format.  I would counsel you against doing this should you ever find yourself needing to move from one hemisphere to the other.  Since we got here I have been (expensively!) converting them back.  I have been buying new books as well.  In one of the new ones, Good food for bad days by Jack Monroe, I found a recipe for bread cooked in the slow cooker.  I gave it a go.  It was an absolute revelation.  Because it is steamed rather than baked, it is quite soft.  It looks undercooked because it doesn't brown, but it has a fabulous crumb and tastes delicious.  Once I've properly mastered it I might have a play with other kinds of bread

My first attempt. I forgot to flour my hands when I took the
dough out of the bowl to put it in the cooker.
It stuck like sticky glue to my hands and couldn't be shaped!!!

Tasted lovely, though

We've had some beautiful sunrises and sunsets.  We see the sunrises at our place.  Lindsey and Ian see the sunsets, from their hill looking out over the plain.  They get the better deal

Sunset from Hill House

Oh - and we've finished one of the fiendish jigsaws that Lindsey gave Jim some time ago

And so we reach the end of the first half of 2020, where we find several suburbs in Melbourne locked down again because of a surge in Covid cases. Not as bad as in some parts of the world, but then you really wouldn't want it to be.  In a burst of possibly misplaced optimism, and in defiance of my experiences in March, I am planning a holiday in November.  A road trip. With hotels booked that can be cancelled without penalty should the need arise. I am hopeful that 2020 might have got bored with messing us all about by November.  It will be an old year by then. Running out of steam. Slowing down.

Or so we can hope.  It may, of course, have more surprises yet in store!!