worn as a train on rails of old steel wool | late autumn comforts

 

 

1. The view from my bed one April morning.

2. Amaranth porridge with honey - smooth and soothing and delicious.

3. Birds eye view of hummus, made a while ago to farewell some friends.

4. The day R and E visited and we were almost blown off the beach at Aramoana - that night there was the first storm of the season.

5. Dark and bitter, just like a good stout is: chocolate guinness cake made with NZ brewed stout. Recipe to follow.. 

6. Starting the day right. 

Could it have really been a whole month since I've written words for this space? Well, no, it hasn't been a whole month. There are several half-written recipes in my drafts folder but they've never quite made it to the blog - I could attempt to tell you why with half-baked excuses but .. I don't want to be another person complaining about the season or their full life. Because at the end of the day, I've really got nothing to complain about.

Let's just agree that this time of year, late autumn, is hard on us all. Winter's definitely just around the corner, hiding in the frosty temperatures in the morning, in the dark blue smudges of clouds that sit over the hills at sunset, in the golden leaves piled over our garden path and rotting in city gutters. There's another month of dark mornings and short days to get through until the solstice - and everyone feels like hibernating - or hibernating by having evenings in a warm kitchen or a warm bed. 

Even though it's especially difficult to find the motivation, I do love this late autumn season. As the tree silhouettes change finally to their bare sticks, their golden leaves seem like a promise of spring. And I think ahead to September, when the cherry blossoms bloom and the lambs are born in the Taieri. With the knowledge of spring on its way, the impending winter seems survivable: and even though Dunedin winters can stamp on positivity with two feet in muddy gumboots, even though it gets so cold sometimes you wake up in the night with a sore jaw from clenched teeth to stop shivering .. we always do survive, and spring always comes after winter.

It's fitting that tonight J and I ate homemade beans, the first recipe I ever posted. Next time I'll write about beetroot tart, or chocolate guinness cake, or baked polenta (any preferences?), but maybe I won't tell you much more about the chesnut soup making venture that ended up the colour of slate. We later figured out that our cast iron pan was precipitating iron and required a 'season'. 

What have you been eating this autumn? I need some new inspiration! 

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title from tiny ruins - old as the hills. you owe it to your ears to listen to this. 

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