ANZAC Day, and less significant matters

April 25, ANZAC Day, is when we remember and pay tribute to the young soldiers from Australia and New Zealand who crossed the planet to fight in World War I, and who were tragically lost in combat, also the few survivors who made it home.

Thank you,  blogistas from New Zealand and Australia who are descended from these brave young people, and thank you to those more recent residents who honor their memory, and to you if you're a veteran.

This year I haven't been able to make my ANZAC biscuits, as near as I can get with the ingredients available to me, but I'm there in spirit.

And speaking of spirit, I'm cooking again! Roast diced chicken breast, with umami seasoning, cayenne and turmeric. Ready for sandwiches. 

This morning, after I'd roasted the chicken, done the dishes and a couple of things, I was done for. Not enough energy for pictures, even. My ambition is a bit ahead of the available energy. I plan a nap before Emil visits this afternoon.

Happy day everyone, try to plan better than your humble blog writer. 

Here's why getting back to cooking is significant

Tab and slot book, ANZAC Day

Thursday is ANZAC DAY, which I mark every year. If you're not familiar with the tragedy of the Dardanelles in WW1, and the blunders which cost so many young Australian and New Zealand lives, Google is your friend. Today we honor all the women and men in combat, and veterans.

As a mom I make ANZAC biscuits (cookies in north America) and give them to friends to honor that courage. They're based on the cookies that ANZAC moms sent to their sons in combat. They were a taste of home, they shipped well, long voyage in those days.

I omit the coconut the authentic ones had, and use honey because golden syrup isn't available here. But they're still good 

Chewy, good stuff 

I also got on with my fabric book, making the wall hanging into a tab and slot deal. 

Top page shows tab, meaning slits top and bottom, bottom one slot, which enables the tab page to slide through and sit with tab and slot working together .

Next shows the spine, all the pages seated.

Here I'm turning the pages 

This was a nice experience. I know how it works now 

Then I went on to new stitching, prepped unbleached muslin for upcoming book, ironed it into sections without cutting.

I also made a cool discovery. I accidentally made indentations into the muslin when stray threads got ironed in, leaving tracks.

This is a great way to plan a design without markings 

So I put down a piece of twine and ironed over it. One side makes an indentation, the other side an embossment.

So I embarked on a new stitching, why not, using the indentation as a channel to lay the thread I couched down. .

Just random stitching, trala. Really enjoying this.  This might end as another slot and tab, don't know yet. It might have some Indian quilt techniques. Maybe beading, I feel an attack of beading coming on.

I do know that Ann Wood, check her website,  is a model teacher of process.

Gary has been busy helping a neighbor dig her garden last couple of days so I haven't seen him other than a flying visit to ask me about ants on a houseplant cactus! 

Happy day everyone, and be sure to spare a thought for everyone in combat of all kinds right now and their families. 

ANZAC Day

Today's about honoring the brave young soldiers of Australia and New Zealand who crossed the planet in 1916 to fight at Gallipoli. It commemorates the landings at that disastrous engagement.  They were so young and so brave. 

I always think about their mothers today, too, as the war dragged on, baking Anzac biscuits which they figured out could be edible after shipping so far, a taste of home.

Later the commenoration has been enlarged to honor all  Australian and New Zealand war dead and serving. And I add, their families.

That's it today. Honoring you, New Zealand and Australian blogistas and your spirit.

Photo AC 

ANZAC Day

For blogistas in NZ and Oz, here's the annual tribute to the brave young men, teenagers really, who crossed the planet to fight in the Dardanelles, a disastrous WW1 campaign, costing many precious lives. Where you are, it's already Tuesday, but here it's still ANZAC Day.

And here's the info for people not familiar with the Dardanelles  World War 1 military engagement. Devised and ordered by the First Lord of the Admiralty, a well connected and incompetent person who insisted that the Turks could be defeated by this move, and WW1 thereby won. 

He  was removed and demoted after the total failure, the Ottoman empire emerging victorious, after inflicting terrible losses on the allies.  Winston Churchill.

Meanwhile, prayers for Ukraine

Gratitude for a competent US President.

And the Sock Ministry continues, praying by doing.

Happy Monday, everyone.