Friends & Food

So after that long walk, it was on to the real part of the holiday for me – time to wake up!

A couple of my friends live in Queensland, and so the Tassie boys took me for a drive through the big smoke, where roads cost money to drive on, and engineers are busy building ramps, overpasses and a mazes of new roads to charge us for. Definitely a shock to the system. But good ol’ Homer on the GPS got us there after hours of driving.

First stop was Mary’s (of Beetle Creative). Mary did live in Tasmania, but is busy creating her own little beetles and decided she needed Mother Beetle’s support…which meant moving back to Brisbane. Well, what a time for me to turn up!!! She’s only six weeks away from hatching bub number two, and it was her wedding anniversary – good timing Kat! But she didn’t mind – what a great friend!

Mary even went out of her way to ensure she had a vegan meal ready to cook on the first night – Nachos from the Turn Over a New Leaf Cookbook. Yum! The second night she was at a bit of a loss though, with having to feed a picky three year old and an even pickier man. I was so happy that I had planned ahead so I could take that bit of stress away from her, and whipped out a packet of Asam Fish which I could cook to go alongside her steamed veggies. She even tried a bit (I do keep claiming it’s the BEST camping food ever), to which I think she agreed!

This started the week long of midnight or later nights, full of chatting about art, craft, food, children, friends, markets and men, all of which continued from Mary’s and on to Michelle’s. Hard work when my bed time is usually something more in line with the setting sun!

Miss Three must have worked off a lot of sweat at her swimming lessons, as after that all she could think of was cake.

Swimming lessons

So we invented an excuse to cook cake: the cat! Tabby, who adopted the family 10 years ago, had never celebrated a birthday. So we decided it must be tabby’s birthday. I let my memory guide me in buying what ingredients were necessary for vegan cupcakes, then when back ‘home’, headed to the PPK for guidance. Thankfully there was a chocolate cake recipe basically the same as the Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World cupcakes I usually cook. Saved! The girls went crazy decorating with all the birthday candles they could find, including Dora.

Tabby’s birthday celebrations

Girls and candles

The cupcakes - cookies and cream!

For dinner, I decided that since I had most of the ingredients with me, I’d cook the delicious Cold Sesame Noodles again, and get the opinions of this family to give back to Allyson for her upcoming book. It turned out that only Michelle and myself liked it. Miss Six said it tasted like ‘poo’ (yeah right! I think you just like that word!) and Miss Three was enticed with tomato sauce for a little while. On the other hand, the girls liked the Syndian pumpkin balls on their plates, whereas Michelle and I thought they were too dry and tasteless. The Mister in the house didn’t touch any of the strange apparitions on his plate. I understand kids not liking things that are ‘different’ but feel sad when the men won’t even give things a go. Oh well, he really missed out. And the Noodles is a main course for four people, so I lived off it for the next few days! That made things easy, but meant I didn’t get to test any more recipes, as I had been hoping to do.

On the last night, we decided to take the challenge of eating out. I really wanted to take the whole family to Loving Hut. I’ve heard great things about them, including that they’re child friendly. But since I was outside my own territory, and could not guarantee there would be anything any of her people would eat, I let Michelle pick the place, as long as they had a chance of catering for me. She ditched the family and decided on Mexican, since she never gets to eat it as the rest of her family just doesn't like it.

We drove to Pickled Cactus, got green lights all the way there, and then a carpark right in front of the restaurant, despite it being a busy night. Good signs! Michelle started to get cold feet about them being vegan-friendly. I assured her Mexican can do vegan (and crossed my fingers!). We got our table, the last in the place and studied the menu. Then when the waitress came along, Michelle did my bidding for me: “My friend is a vegan – do you know what that is?”, “Can you do anything for her?”.

“Yes, I was vegan for 17 years!”. Score! Our fantastic vegetarian waitress assured me they understood what a vegan was, that if I asked for no cheese and sour cream I would geta vegan meal, and then went on to make her recommendations. We took her up on them:

Pickled Cactus meals (mine closest - yes - that huge thing!)

Michelle was over the moon, and it was really nice and relaxing after that. And I somehow managed to eat everything in that Supreme. Michelle took a doggy-bag home. “You could have it as lunch tomorrow” she had insisted when I said I was full half-way through, “No I can’t – I’m flying!”. So I made the most of it!

But I have to say, as great as it was, Pickled Cactus was nothing when compared to a true vegan restaurant. While at Yo’s, we went into Lismore for 20 000 Cows. An unusual name, with an awesome reputation. I finally got to tick this one off my list! And I can’t wait to go back...and that is not because the neighbour’s cat decided to join us at the Ashram (though it did make me feel very at home!).

Cat on my lap at Cows

We ordered a feast, and got a feast. It came out in many courses, with many plates to sample and share. Every single dish was delicious, well presented, and there was much excitement with every bite. And we thought we were done (this is three men and myself). We were satisfied, contemplating whether or not we should order dessert. And then the finale came out – we didn’t even know there was still more! Well, that struck the dessert off the list...no it didn’t actually, I couldn’t handle that, so I asked for the cheesecake as a takeaway. They were happy to do this, but it became obvious that they don’t usually do this – they gave it to me on one of their plates with alfoil over the top. I had tears in my eyes over how sweet it was for them to be so generous and trusting! And I gave Yo firm orders to return it at his earliest convenience.

20 000 Cows Middle Eastern Course

I had many things on my to do list while on the mainland, mostly to do with experiencing vegan food. I wanted to go to Loving Hut. I wanted to go to a Mrs Flannery's Health Food Shop to try Tofutti Cuties. I wanted to find and buy sorghum flour. I didn’t get to tick these off my list this time. But, my handy ‘just add water’ wipes certainly got to show themselves as handy – adding water to wipe my hands clean after patting the cat at 20 000 cows, wiping perfume off Miss Three’s face, along with many other scenarios.

Can’t wait until next time!

Just a walk through the Forest

Now you’ve had a moment to rest, let’s get some exercise!

That’s what it was like on Sunday at Yo’s. The day before had had discussions about climbing Mt Warning, quite an arduous task, but we were all for it. But then Sunday morning came and we were all lazy, sitting around reading our books. Then Phil called, asking “So are we going? Are we doing something?”. “Yeah, I guess we’ll do something”, so we got our act together and agreed on Minyon Falls, a relatively easier walk than Mt Warning!

Though, I think the Kookaburras sit at the picnic ground laughing at us before we take our leisurely stroll!

It was hard to get a photo from the main lookout as there was a baby having a name ceremony, with all the associated adults hanging back, smiling and taking photos. This is a hippy area after all, what else would you be doing on a Sunday morning hey?

Looking down from the lookout:

We decided to do the loop walk, a seven and a half kilometre walk down to the base and then back up to the main lookout again, although the boys told me it was only six.

The majestic Minyon Falls:

The flora quickly became very tropical with ferns and palms and strangler figs all over the place.

From within the strangler fig:

A perspective on size:

We made it to the base of the waterfall, and sat for a while. We also took the opportunity to unload the backpack of its fruit contents, and we all tried Caramelised Buckins for the first time – everyone loved them!

Here’s a short video of the fall in action (sorry it's side ways - if you know how to edit it to the right way - let me know!). The falls are about a 100m or so drop for all that water, and I found it interesting that the flow was not even – it was like someone was scooping extra water along the flow to try and get rid of it all, and then the areas of greater mass would hit the swimming hole below with greater intensity. Great place to frolic in summer!

And the walk back to the other side continued to be interesting. This was an easier walk (though uphill), with many parts displaying plants and trees different to what we had already seen. I was very happy to sit back in the car though. That was a LOT of walking! Definitely worthwhile!

Family

The next stop on our trip was Tyagarah, a tree-lined, grassy strip near Byron Bay.

Our plane was put away in Captain Wocca’s hangar there, as we would be occupied by people for the next little while (which is why this blog post is so delayed – it is hard to write with people around!). Captain Wocca owns a Tiger Moth, very similar to one that my partner, Rob once owned. Here’s a shot of them (and an ultralight plus a couple of cars!) all jammed into the one hangar.

Then we waited around to be picked up and transported to Rob’s brother’s place, near Nimbin. The last time I was there was about four years ago, when he had only just bought the land. It was a steamy summers day. We drove up the rough driveway, through the lantana and sat with the cicadas until we could bear it no more.

What I contrast this visit was! Since settling in less than two years ago, Yo has slashed the lantana so grass is now growing, added landscaping, native tress, fruit trees, a veggie garden, and started work building a real home, all the while living in the better of the two existing shacks on the property. This is a view over to the neighbouring property, which gives you an idea of the countryside.

And his handy landscaping work. Fantastic hey?!

Being winter it was cold, but probably not as cold as Tasmania. We were offered a small room (the artists’ room) just outside the one room shack, or the deck, which actually fitted the double mattress. What do you think we opted for?

Yep – the great outdoors!

But the view was to die for:

With fantastic ancient ferns growing in the rain forest!

This was also the view from the composting toilet and the shower - all outdoors (but under cover - it does rain a lot there!).

But despite the hard, springy mattress, and the cold (lots of layers and snuggling up, I felt very welcome and at home there. I didn’t explore Nimbin town this time, last time I didn’t enjoy it much (perhaps something to do with the Aboriginal woman who offered Rob a look at her boobs, despite me being right there with him!).

What made it feel like home? Well, probably the bush shack setting, which is quite like our own (I'm not afraid to make a mess!), the great company (Yo and Parko are well travelled boys with lots of stories), and reading time (yep - we're a great bunch of book worms!). And the boys have done a stint of veganism themselves, and so know how to look after my needs! Parko made an awesome pumpkin curry – definitely restaurant quality. Sorry, no photos – I was too busy chowing into it!

I also got to admire some fantastic, very modern embroidery done by Rob's mum many years ago: