Not dead!

It’s been a bit quiet around here recently, and it’s likely to continue that way for a bit yet.  I’ve been working rather long hours at work, and have also been sick quite a lot (because in these days of grant applications, none of us can afford the time off, and viruses get shared around with the generosity and sociability that is typical of our lab).  And now I’m sick again, and also very, very tired.  How tired, you ask?  Well, I went to a picnic yesterday and I *bought cakes from the French bakery*.  I can’t actually remember the last time I went to a party or picnic and didn’t bake something for it.

All of which is to say that I have felt lucky in recent weeks to actually get meals cooked at all, and have really not been doing the kind of cooking which inspires blog posts.

So for now I’m just going to share with you some of the photos from my last week’s market trip, since at the rate I’m going, I’m never going to write a proper post about it anyway.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to return to a more reasonable level of blogging in a week or two, once this batch of grants is submitted and I’ve stopped getting sick all the time.

We’re back on the fortnight which has the pasta lady, and thank heavens for that – so far I’ve made two really good pizzas and a lovely gnocchi dish with rocket and fresh tomatoes.  I’m hoarding the rest of the gnocchi and pasta for my next exhausted day.

The egg-man has new chickens.  He is very proud of them, and even brought out a photo of them enjoying their new paddock, and their excellent view.  How could they not lay good eggs with a view like that?

Tiny leeks are still my favourite.  I told this stall-holder that his was my favourite stall – well, one of my favourite two veggie stalls, because the Italian lady is also fabulous, but she is only there on the opposite fortnights to him.

You can see why – he has the colourful tomatoes, the art deco zucchini, the teeny tiny leeks and eggplants, the chubby little carrots, the rocket… what more could I want from a vegetable stall?

I love that there are two shades of green tomato there, and they are both ripe tomatoes, not the green tomatoes you get at the end of summer, when nothing can get ripe properly.  Though I imagine we’ll be getting those pretty soon.

There is something very enticing about these plump little baby carrots…

… as opposed to these tentacled purple beasts, which I found after I had spent my last dollar of market money, and a good thing too…

We then moved on to visit my potato-farming friend.  Have I mentioned that I love his garlic?  Also, I felt terribly virtuous, because I came straight home after the market and roasted two bulbs of garlic just to have on hand.  Have I used any of the resulting garlic puree?  No I have not.  But it’s certainly nice to have it on hand…

And this is just a gratuitous potato photo, because I love the way it is speckled with pink.

And that’s about it from me.  But before I dive back into the land of insane grant applications, here’s a little, completely un-food-related present for you.   I was pottering around after work on Friday when the cats started getting excited about something and came running in quite fast.  Andrew and I went out to have a look, and here’s what we saw just over the fence:

In fact, there were several of them hopping around in our neighbour’s fig tree, probably eating the figs and making themselves unpopular, but since I don’t like figs and I do like rainbow lorikeets, I immediately went for a camera.

We see them in the park sometimes, but I’ve never been visited by them before.  After a few minutes, they flew off – so very close overhead – and went back to the park.  I didn’t manage to get a photo of that part, but they really were beautiful.

(Possibly even more beautiful than my veggies…)