this year I've been visiting a writing group that meets every friday in a town about an hour from wagga wagga. they're a really impressive bunch. the group is made up of women of different ages and interests, they've also lived in very different places before settling in their current town. the group gets together to share work and to carve out some time in their week just to write. the first time I visited they put on a spectacular lunch midway through their day. we ate hot quiche, salads, sandwiches, fruit, cake and local orange juice followed by coffee and tea. it was part of their weekly ritual of writing and sharing their work, and over lunch talk turned to personal and town news. they say that they're beyond precious as writers, which I've observed to be true, they encourage and critique each other openly and admirably.
last week I caught up with them for the last time in 2013. we ate sponge cake filled with cream and jam and each writer reflected on what they'd produced in 2013.
in the past few weeks, my job has taken me to some unexpected places. some weeks I'm hanging around new mums at a playgroup and then I'm recording a local band, enthusiastically covering a song in a courtyard that backs onto the lagoon.
lately we've been shopping for christmas presents (we're all done and wrapped!), visiting our favourite cafe in town, and helping a friend celebrate her last day of work with some super rich brownies and a delicious lamb dinner.
this week we also started planning our wedding cake, which was very exciting. it involved listing our favourite cake flavours, and sending photos of cakes we liked. we're hoping that tony's friend's mother-in-law will make the cake. she is a professional cake baker and we like the idea of going with people we know and like - it makes the planning seem less wedding-y, which is good because the wedding industry can be intimidating and off-putting sometimes.
maybe the highlight of my week was skyping my sister and her family. it was the first time tony got to meet my niece, and we had so much fun shouting at each other and giggling at the baby, who was apparently very curious about what was happening.
and finally, a few good things to share:
- we are obsessed with sophie's coconut veggie stirfry - it's super quick to make and so yummy
- I am also continually impressed with nigel slater's kitchen diaries. I hope I get the sequel for christmas. if I had to choose one cookbook to use for the rest of my life, it'd be this one. dramatic but true.
- the new season of redfern now, most of the series is still on iView.
- and this comic memoir, which is all about food. relish by lucy knisley features illustrated recipes too, and a whole chapter on cookies.
today the plan is to make pancakes for lunch, watch a movie in the afternoon and bake some kind of cake :)
Wee skyping babies is the best!
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