It’s a Cold and Wet Easter

Easter normally marks the end of the good weather in Melbourne and this year it is doing so with a vengeance. The weather on every day over this long weekend is  forecast to be showers with cool temperatures. In fact it will be the coldest Easter for eighty years.

On Good Friday, in Victoria, we have a tradition of raising money for the Royal Children’s Hospital. It is a big event. For many businesses and charities who have collected money over the year, this is the day that they present their offerings to the hospital. Jill has been saving coins that, she says, make her purse too heavy, so we had three large plastic bags of shrapnel to donate to the collectors who always post themselves on major intersections throughout the suburbs. 

The first team that we collected were from the local fire brigade and we reached their intersection just as the lights turned red and we handed over one of the bags. The second was given to a bunch of young women on another intersection who were dressed up as fairies and easter bunnies, while our final bag was given t to one of the rural fire brigades (Kangaroo Ground) that were collecting money near our supermarket. This year, over $23 million was raised for the hospital and this will fund research and equipment. Day to day running costs of the hospital are funded by the state government.

I created a first on Friday by making a batch of Curried Scallop Pies. I had never made them before, however the recipe that I found through Chef Google was easy to follow and not too complicated. Scallops are not in season at the moment so I had to fall back on a pack of frozen ones but they did the trick. It seems that the secret to a good pie is in the gravy, or sauce. I’m sure that all competent cooks are well aware of this but it wasn’t as obvious to me. In my humble opinion, my pies were quite delicious. We had a couple for dinner on Friday and the others for lunch on Saturday.

Another first for us was to collect enough olives from our little potted tree to be able to do something with them.  We planted the tree in a large pot as a way of hiding an air conditioner on the outside wall of the house. In recent years, it has only produced two or thee olives but this year we have picked enough to fill a large jar.  They have all been slit and are now sitting in a jar of brine for the next three weeks to remove their bitterness. We don’t know how they will work out but it’s worth a try. If any experienced olive growers can give us some advice we would be grateful.

Our Easter food festivities will continue over the remainder the weekend with a ‘heat at home’ meal to be delivered on Sunday from Providoor. It will come from the Three Blue Ducks restaurant which is one of Melbourne’s nice eating places. We are looking forward to a very nice meal once it arrives.

By the way, my alter ego ‘Grumpybum’ has just posted another weekly album of photso – this one featuring a bear hunt in the Arctic. You can see them at grumpybum.online. If you would like to receive an album of interesting photos each week by email, you can join the other subscribers to this website by registering your name and email on the Home Page