It has been a while and much time has passed. My last blog was on the 11th December, 2007 at that time I had 10 entries in blog land.
Today is the 14th May, 2008.
Much has happened.
Christmas and New Year came and went.
We had our Grape Harvest - all things went well considering the drought we are having in the Murray Darling Basin.
We have had hardly any rain. The rain we did have was not enough.
The majority of Murray Irrigators leased in water, so as to have crops this year. As we were only allowed to have 32% or our irrigation allocations. Majority of growers need 48% of their allocation to keep their permanent plantings alive, let alone to get a decent crop.
The notrocious thing is, water has been seperated from the land and it is being treated as a commodity.
In October, 2007 we could only use 23% of our allocation and we were lead to believe that we wouldn=t get anymore. So what happened, the price of leased water skyrocketed from $300 or so early in the financial year, to $1,200 per megalitre in October.
We were then informed that growers could use 32% of their allocation. This then brought the trading of water back to a reasonable amount of approximatly $500 per megalitre.
But in late Feburary, March the water minister anounced that growers would be able to use the amount that they had leased in, as carry over water for the next financial year.
Now tell me if there is no water in the system, how does it miracuously appear, when pays exhuberant amounts for it.
I wonder were this is all going.
After that we came to Easter, I do love the easter celebrations through out Holy Week in the Greek Orthodox Church.
Life has been busy and I have not had much time to do any needle work, which I am missing.\
May be as winter sets in this might change.
I am still working only three days a week - which should give me time to keep the house, spend time with my family and still be able to do my needlework. But, alas no.
There are a number of projects on the go. I also keep in touch with other girls who are also love patchwork, quilting and various other forms of needlework, via blog land. A site I like to visit is Leanne's House and from that I link into other sites belonging to other bloggers.
I also have been busy at work with a number of projects.
I have a Greek background, my parents migrated to Australia in the mid fifties. The images above are from the respective islands, Dad from Patmos and Mum from Lemnos. The top picture is taken from Hora, that is my Dad's village, looking down to Skala which is the port. The other picture has been taken in Mirina, wich is the main town on the island of Lemnos.
I last visited Greece in 1980, that seems such a long time ago. I would like to go again one day, and I hope that it will be soon.
Oh yes, I have included a greek sweet recipe. this is for the ladies of the art group that meet at the McCormick Centre for the Environment.
EKMEK OR KADAIFFI
Base
½ packet kadaiffi pastry slivered or flaked almonds
2 tblspn oil
Take the pastry and pull it apart to get it fluffy, then layer in the base of your dish I use a ceramic dish ( 28cm x 18cm). Sprinkle the olive oil over the pastry and the almonds, place in moderate oven to colour. In the mean time make the syrup.
Syrup
2 ½ cups water 2 cups sugar
3cm of cinnamon stick 4 – 5 cloves
½ lemon
While the base is cooking put all the above ingredients in a pan and bring to boil and let simmer for 10 – 15 mins. Just before placing syrup into dish, take out the cinnamon stick and cloves, squeeze the lemon juice from the lemon into the syrup and pour over the cooked pastry. Now it is time to make the custard.
Custard
For this size dish I make custard from 1 litre of milk, as per instructions. When the custard is cooked I sometimes add a little liqueur lemon or orange, or what ever you might prefer. I have also adapted the recipe and have added passionfruit pulp into the custard to change the flavour, again experiment. When the custard is ready, pour it over the pastry base and let it cool.
Topping
cream powdered cinnamon
Top the custard with whipped cream, run the fork through the custard to create a pattern and then sprinkle cinnamon onto the cream.
Enjoy !
Base
½ packet kadaiffi pastry slivered or flaked almonds
2 tblspn oil
Take the pastry and pull it apart to get it fluffy, then layer in the base of your dish I use a ceramic dish ( 28cm x 18cm). Sprinkle the olive oil over the pastry and the almonds, place in moderate oven to colour. In the mean time make the syrup.
Syrup
2 ½ cups water 2 cups sugar
3cm of cinnamon stick 4 – 5 cloves
½ lemon
While the base is cooking put all the above ingredients in a pan and bring to boil and let simmer for 10 – 15 mins. Just before placing syrup into dish, take out the cinnamon stick and cloves, squeeze the lemon juice from the lemon into the syrup and pour over the cooked pastry. Now it is time to make the custard.
Custard
For this size dish I make custard from 1 litre of milk, as per instructions. When the custard is cooked I sometimes add a little liqueur lemon or orange, or what ever you might prefer. I have also adapted the recipe and have added passionfruit pulp into the custard to change the flavour, again experiment. When the custard is ready, pour it over the pastry base and let it cool.
Topping
cream powdered cinnamon
Top the custard with whipped cream, run the fork through the custard to create a pattern and then sprinkle cinnamon onto the cream.
Enjoy !
On that note I'll say goodnight
and wish you
a great day tomorrow
Poppy
