(no subject)

Life has a way of catching us unexpectedly when it ought not.

All three catches today were things I knew about, but had put out of my mind. One was not unexpected and the other two were already with me. I'd just been ignoring them.

They're the reason I'm doing so much work right now. I don't want to be alone with my thoughts for a little.

Elizabeth reminded me that one of the catches was a friend's suicide and that the funeral is on Friday. Funerals make a difference. Having a friend willing to take me to the funeral and have tea with me afterwards makes a very big difference.

I probably won't want to be alone with my thoughts for a few days yet, but at least I'm being honest with myself as to why. To celebrate honesty, the next post will be that honeycake recipe I promised. I've saved some, just in case we need it after Andrea's funeral. The thing about cakes that are made only once a year is that they anchor us in time and help us remember that life continues.

Grandma Black's Honeycake

Note: This is not the way I make honeycake, but it's the way I was taught to make it. I spice it differently and use muscat or some other fortified wine instead of the brandy which is instead of some of the orange juice. I use real coffee (not instant and boiling water) and a lot more fine cocoa or grated chocolate. I use whatever essence I feel like that day and all my personal favourites for fruit and nut, in fairly large quantities. My cake really needs two tins when I make the very best version, which just shows that I must do other things to the recipe as well and that I make this cake by instinct, not by recipe. People still like Grandma's cake (when I follow the recipe, as I did for one version this year), but they like my version of it better. Every year someone says, "Best cake I've ever had." Every year I want to know what cakes they've been missing...

Note2: Quality of honey counts. This year I used Beechworth, and most years I use a good local honey or a distinctive Tasmanian one. Orangeblossom honey is even better, but is hard to find these days.

Note3: All measurements are Australian.

Ingredients:

500 g honey (or a bit less)
1 cup sugar
1 ½ cups plain flour
1 ½ cups SR flour
juice and rind of one orange (a nice big one - but you can replace some of the juice with brandy or other alcohol)
at least two heaped tbs. good, rich cooking chocolate
1 dessertspoon instant coffee)
approx. 1 cup oil (a salad oil is best, but not olive)
3-4 extra large eggs
½ tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. bicarbonate of soda
1 cup boiling water
about a cup of your favourite dried fruits and nuts (chopped)
1 tsp. of cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg and a taste of cloves (NOT 1 tsp. of each)


Method:

Beat eggs, sugar, oil and honey. Add orange rind and juice. Add spices. Sift both flours with soda. Add to liquids. Add chocolate, coffee, vanilla, fruit and nuts. Mix well. Add boiling water.

Pre-heat oven to 500°F. When you put the cake in, reduce heat to 350°F. After and hour, reduce heat again, to 300°F until the cake is done (normally another 15-20 minutes).

Diana's ice cream

I have many friends who can't have gluten, so I thought you'd like one of the recipes my family serves this time of year. I have a couple of cake recipes, too, but I love this icecream and it's free of gluten and dairy and Diana's been ill recently. All good reasons for sharing her icecream.

1 punnet soft fruit (if you use blueberries, it’s best to freeze them first)
up to 1 cup sugar (depending on how sweet your tooth is)
1 egg white

Beat everything together for 8-20 minutes (less time if you use a more powerful mixer, 20 minutes with a hand-held electric beater). Freeze for 24 hours.

(no subject)

We're very much into Spring weather. Canberra is also worried about the bushfire season and so is burning off bush all over the place. I understand the worry, since I have friends who lost everything when the big fires raced through. I wish there was a non-burning method of reducing fire risk, however. Between pollens and smoke, every single asthmatic I know is in a bad way. I was one of the luckier ones last night, for I got a full eight hours sleep: I just slept in 3 hours bursts, each burst punctuated by asthma medication. This is why I was online at unholy hours - I couldn't lie down until I could breathe again. It's much harder for friends who have early starts for work. This was me yesterday and meant I got significantly less than eight hours sleep then. Someone told me "the trick to sleeping at night is not to nap during the day" but I'm afraid I ignored this and had a nap yesterday afternoon. This got me through work and meeting and meant that today I'm almost OK. I've washed linen and dishes and read review book and done urgent emails and all sorts of small things.

Just now I also realised that I have enough brain (for breath equals brain) to do big things. It's bibliography time! My PhD goal for the day is to finish with the next draft of that bibliography. I have to admit that the day I realised (many years ago) that asthma attacks don't mean doing nothing - they mean doing different things - was a big breakthrough for me.

Tonight is the last night of the novel class. Except for the excursion next Wednesday and the workshop I'm giving at Conflux, I'm then in non-teaching mode. This is known to others as 'holidays.' These other people keep asking me what I'm doing during the holidays.

So, what am I doing during my holidays? PhD and article and fiction and sorting out where I'm up to on what. Also Conflux. Also editing. In other words, life as usual, but with not many people to see. This means I'll probably do it all in a state of disreputable undress. Except for Conflux and working with Yaritji: I shall wear more clothes for both of those and the clothes will not be entirely tatty.

The Conflux chocolate is burning a hole in my pantry...

(no subject)

I'm frustrated in my bibliographical endeavours. This is because I have a lot of works in French and I have to capitalise them according to English-language requirements (in this case, that all key words in a title have initial capitals - this is the rule and I cannot dispute it). This is a problem because the rules I was taught about which accents need to be maintained in capitalisation and which need to be dropped appear to have changed. The sources I've seen argue that all accents should be dropped (apparently happening in many places) or that none of them should be dropped (from the French Academy).

I don't know which extreme to choose. I know which is easier and I know which has the French Academy imprimatur and they're not the same. What I don't know is the scholarly standard, for all the citations I had carefully avoided accented capitals wherever they could - this option isn't open to me. I wish it were!


PS This is the rule I learned, that apparently is no longer applicable: "Les « A, I, O, U » furent rarement accentués par les graveurs de caractères — ces « accents » n’existaient pas dans les fontes de labeur —, mais les « É, È, Ê » furent toujours respectés" http://www.orthotypographie.fr/volume-I/academie-accentuation.html By 'rarement' I was taught to add the accent when there was a possibility of confusing the meaning, which applied especially to A.

PPS I might just accent everything and be done. I don't really like accents on capitals, though: they're ugly.