"...we change the tune but not the song, over and over..."

Zok and I seem unable to tear ourselves from the garden, come rain (mostly rain) or shine.

Zok is on some building mission as you can see.  I think he is making an obstacle course for the birds so they have to exercise on their way in to eat our fruit and vegetables.

He also created a new space for the BBQ now that our (new) deck is too small and too flammable for the BBQ to be right outside our back door.

I have had the chore of weeding which is pretty dull really- and seems never ending, sometimes I think "Ahhh geez just let grow big so they are easier to pull out." But of course this is how weeds spread by getting to the point where the one weed goes to seed and spreads itself.

But right now most are really, really tiny and hard to pick out through the mulch.

I listen to books and hours go by, yesterday I got cranky and demanded treats, so we had lunch and beer on our porch before calling it quits for the day.

Next month my yoga classes start up, regularly 3 x a week in the morning, so I should well be on the path to earlier starts and summer light.

Speaking of which, I have been coming to the realization that many, many people here get up extremely early, like 5:30 am or earlier.

I think I only know one person from my life outside of here that gets up at that time.  (you know who you are!).

Things that have taken up my time outside of the garden:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Cartier-Bresson 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-11/malala-yousafzai-wins-top-human-rights-prize/5015628 

Have you read or heard about Malala?

The type of story that keep any complaints one might have firmly inside the brain, because of the diminished size in comparison to her life.

"I beg you, friend, be happy. I have the vague sense that on your capacity to be happy hangs our only hope."

People often ask me how I feel about Hobart.  How I feel about Stockholm.  Where is home?

Well, due to the amount of easy cliché sayings involving "home" that come to mind. I think that this is a very common question.  I, alas, do not have an answer.

 Our house in Hobart is a home.  We have invested into the maintenance and garden in ways that an apartment, especially a socially run Swedish apartment does not need.  I would say we have done a fair job of cluttering up the Swedish apartment, it is no match for the remnants of forty-five years worth of slogging stuff from place to place.  Stockholm feels like a vacation because we have so many friends there, and so much to do.  Hobart feels like home, but we are still quite insular in the sense that we don't engage with our community at large.  We are trying to work on that.  Our neighbor and house protector Sue left us a vase of daffodils to prove that spring is definitely coming on.

Tomorrow we will have been back here in Hobart for two weeks.  Zok played a lot of Croquet matches already, and now has a rather large trophy in his office.

I have started Yoga classes at a newish place by the waterfront.  Mostly we have been gardening and organizing the house.  Being gone for months at a time does impact the kitchen. 

I haven't studied Swedish, or gone swimming.  I haven't caught up on my issues of 'The New Yorker'.  

I did start the latest Ian McEwan book.

I have planted many seeds both flowers and vegetable.

I started to 'grow' a vinegar 'mother'- from a bottle of wine we opened and didn't like.

I am waging a serious battle against 'onion weed'.  I have given in and I am just digging out heaps with a fair bit of dirt as well.   They have to be bagged up, sealed up, left to smother in the sun and then they still have to be put into the garbage aka the "deep" landfill not into compost of any kind.

I caught the very last of the Magnolia blooms.  The Lilac tree looks months away from blooming, but the Swedish ones can come on quite late in spring so I am not worried yet.  My newest tree which I call a 'snowball tree' because of its blooms is thriving since Zok had the large tree nearby taken down.

The Clivia, (large orange flowers) that I divided all bloomed which I think is amazing, because seriously, I had to hack it out of the ground.  We added a second bird bath, onto the stumps of the tree that was taken down.  The single bird bath used to be at the corner of the house, on the old apple tree stump- however when the brick work was done they moved the tree stump (?!) too far back, so we are going to just pull it out.  We only left it there because we used to be able to see the flock of new holland honey eaters bath there in the evenings, which is hilarious, and really counts as entertainment.

However, birds do not seem to be attracted to the new location yet, so we might need to move them again, as the space might be too open.

Each day we find ourselves exhausted by our efforts and feeling as if we are farmers. (Ha!)

Twice Baked Pizza

The day our local pizza delivery shop closed was a sad, sad, day for me.
The borough of Kingston is not exactly teeming with 'takeaway' food options. Zok rose to the challenge and started making pizza from scratch. With a bit of help from our friend Liz.

Getting the yeast to activate, and the temperature correct for a good, fluffy, dough is the only tricky part of this meal.
Zok says that the he prefers the 'instant, dried' yeast, which we keep in our refrigerator. He uses our electric kettle to boil water, and uses cold tap water in a measuring cup to bring the water up to 'temperate', warm not hot.
The yeast when activating is visible to the eye.

Zok makes pizza sauce whenever tomatoes are ripe in the garden, or on sale.
We keep those in the freezer.
Our secret is that we twice bake our crust- the first time we lightly brush oil on the pizza base, and sprinkle the top with garlic salt and herbs.
After they fluff up and toast up in the oven we add the tomato sauce and whatever toppings we want.
Zok used his pizza to test out four salamis from our new favorite Italian Deli.
I pretty much stick to pineapple with mozzarella and provolone cheeses.

I suggest buying pizza tins at a catering store. I have always found bargains and hard to find items (remember when muddler was a foreign word?) at catering stores, and there always seems to be one, large city or small.
The tins have to be treated with oil, and it is a good habit to always put a small amount of oil on them before storing them away.

I suppose pizza is a simple dish, and often overlooked in favor of ordering this item delivered. But this is a good meal to make with kids, or for easy entertaining.

2 thick crust pizzas- 10 inch pizza tins (because everyone like cold pizza the day after)

3.5 cups of plain flour (not self rising)
Tsp. salt
Tbl. caster sugar
8 grams of dry yeast to one cup of warm water
Mix all in your mixer or by hand until light and fluffy
(Zok says to do this until you think you are done then mix another 3 minutes)
Add more warm water or flour as required
Put the ball of dough in a lightly oiled large bowl, roll the dough around to lightly coat the dough this ensures that the dough doesn't dry out while rising
cover with a towel - about 90 minutes.

Sauce (for about 8 pizzas)
Render down about 2 kilos (4.5 lb) of tomatoes
Zok flash boils the tomatoes, then removes the skins
Then cook all of them up until well rendered, then he uses a sieve to remove the seeds
Then re-cooks the tomatoes almost to a paste
Add herbs (to taste) We use what we have in hand from garden, rosemary, parsley, oregano, basil, garlic all finely chopped, cook these all up a bit more.
The sauce keeps for ages (2-3 months). We label each batch to keep them straight.

"She spoke enthusiastically, on the other hand, about moving to the Australian Outback."

These could be the last.
But the freezer is armed with their rendered cousins, who were cooked and spiced until deemed worthy to become the base atop freshly risen pizza dough.
Zok is leaving under cover of darkness, and these will become my responsibility.
The small ones are so tasty that they can just be eaten plain.
The stripey green sort, Zok declares 'subtle' but I say they are untrustworthy with their flashy peels and strange shapes.