Back in Rotorua

style="">I'm in the stinky place (love that smell) again, on a brief house-sitting assignment that comes with two dogs. I have just been out early, crunching across a frosty paddock with socks on my paws, so the dogs could have a run. Hopefully the puppy is not going to be successful in his mission to dig to Africa from the suburban backyard.

I made an apple pie using this recipe from Helen's Spanish cookbook.

BASQUE APPLE PIE

SERVES SIX

INGREDIENTS

215g / scant 2 cups plain (allpurpose) flour, plus extra for rolling

5ml /1 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

75gm /4oz / half cup cold unsalted (sweet) butter, cubed

finely grated rind of 1/2 lemon

scant half cup caster (superfine) sugar, plus extra for sprinkling

2 small eggs

3 eating apples, peeled, cored and cubed

ground cinnamon, for sprinkling

whipped cream, to serve

1 Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a food processor. Add the butter and grated lemon rind and process briefly to combine, then add the sugar, 1 whole egg and the yolk of the second egg to the flour mixture and process to make a soft dough.

2 Divide the dough into two pieces, one portion nearly double the size of the other. Pat the dough into two flat cakes. Wrap tightly in clear film (plastic wrap) and chill for at least 2 hours until firm.

3 Preheat the oven to 180"C/350"F/ Gas 4. Place a baking sheet in the oven and grease a 20cml8tn loose-based flan tin.

Place the larger piece of dough on lightly floured piece of plastic wrap and cover with another piece of film. Roll out to a 25cm round. Remove the top layer of film and lift up the dough on the second film. Place the dough face down in the tin and peel off the film. Press into the tin so that it stands just clear of the top.

5 Pack the tin with the apples and sprinkle with cinnamon. Roll out the second piece of dough in the same way, to exactly the same size as the tin. Lay the dough on top of the apples and fold the overlapping edges of the bottom piece of dough inward. Gently press the edges together with a fork, to seal.

6 Prick the dough a few times, brush with egg white and sprinkle with sugar. Place on the hot baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 160"C/325"F/Gas 3 for a further 25-30 minutes until golden.

Leave the tart to cool in the tin for 30 minutes, and serve with cream/ice cream. Or, as we did last night, with custard made from the good old Edmonds custard powder.

Bat tree

On the way to Tamborine Mountain we passed a grove of trees just filled with fruit bats. Millions of bats. You smell them before you see them.

We spent a few hours doing the Gallery Walk in Mt Tamborine. There is a canopy walk in the national park which will have to wait for the next visit.

Red tweed vest

This is the current project. It'll work as either a vest or a singlet, or so I hope. It has been growing quickly while spending time sitting and chatting with extended family.

Bloody good Paella

Helen cooked a couple of fabulous paella dishes for a special lunch at the weekend. The Woody Pointer excelled herself!

Supermarket shopping at Mudgeereeba

Neil and Di live in Mudgeereeba which although is on the Gold Coast, still has a village atmosphere. Which was confirmed on Saturday when a local lad rode up, bareback, and tied up his horse outside the local Coles supermarket.

Must be a regular - the fruit and vege man came out with some carrots.

The Woody Pointer's local

Helen (our Woody Pointer) lives in an amazing spot at Woody Point just north of Brisbane. To get there from the city you cross Australia's longest bridge. Actually, this weekend a new bridge was offically opened. Woody Point itself is surrounded by sea - the Pine River inlet to the west and Pumicestone Passage to the east. It is a lovely spot.

From the Feel Goodz cafe you look out to the Woody Point jetty -- and the coffee is great too.

New look, old friends

On impluse I had my hair straightened, and amazingly, it worked. What is IN those chemicals?

I have started knitting a vest. In a old-fashioned shop in Redcliffe I found some Sirdar Donegal Tweed that was heavily discounted.

So there we were, the old library ladies, Janet, Helen and me, at the local Woody Point pub on Friday night. Two of us drinking cocktails and one knitting. All I'll say is, my project gained many inches.

Textile Arts Expo, Brisbane

The workshops were a bit patchy. Helen attended a workshop on making a felted tea cosy. Here's her creation, with it's rasta tassels. Love it! I did two workshops, one on shibori dying and one where we experimented with a free-form screen-printing technique using Procion dyes, run by Louise Snook from WA. She ran out of dyes soon into the workshop which was a bit frustrating. I was tired by the end of the afternoon and didn't get as much from the session as I had hoped. One to try later, in my own time.

Coming to you from Malany

Sorry about the gap! Have been too distracted to update this blog. This post comes to you live from Maleny, up in the hills back of the Sunshine Coast. A little internet cafe in the main street, a pot of tea, and a piece of almond barfi from the shop over the road where I just bought indian block-printed sheets and pillow/cushion covers for the van. They are Anhoki block printed fabrics, imported from India. I do want to visit them in Jaipur, they have a textile museum. I was just looking at a very heavy (as in weight) book on Indian handcrafts - Handmade in India. I could do a road-trip following all the block printing and embroidery clusters. Meantime, just pottering around on the Sunshine Coast, staying at Coolum for a few days.