Mr14 builds a gingerbread house

A work colleague mentioned that making gingerbread houses at this time of the year was a thing in Sweden (and elsewhere?). She sent me a photo. This inspired Mr14 to google instructions and set to work.

The dough was made on day 1, rested for hours in the fridge, rolled out and cut carefully according to the carefully sketched out plan. Then the pieces were rested in the fridge before baking. This was a day's work.

The mortar for the house was made on day 2 using icing sugar and egg whites.

Construction required support from the pantry and patience waiting for the mortar to set for each part of the build.

The mortar then became part of the decoration with the aid of smarties and liquorice bullets.

The finished gingerbread house was admired and then eaten.

Great holiday project!

 

The Fish Mailbox

For many years we have been visiting a relative on the south coast and on a minor road but one we always use, we have been charmed by the fish mailbox.

The fish mailbox is clearly functional and we have seen mail protruding out of the mouth from time to time. I can only speculate that the local postie retains the use of both hands. The rusted look has been a feature since we first saw it over ten years ago and it doesn't appear to have deteriorated.

I particularly like the way the fish is looking at you, with menace.

Every time we travel that road, perhaps twice a year, we look with anticipation to see if the fish mailbox is still there and so far we haven't been disappointed.

Long live the fish.

 

Laptising the iPad

I bought a netbook (remember those) with my Rudd stimulus money in 2009. It was a useful tool that I used at home for my writing projects. Uncomplicated, low powered, cheap and mobile. I ran up many hours tapping away on it.

However it has reached its end of life, lacking enough oomph to run well and with an OS that is no longer supported.

So I decided to laptise my iPad. I did some research and bought a ZAGG folio thing that provides a keyboard. It does make the iPad heavy and cumbersome but with dropbox and the MS Word app provides a similar experience to using the netbook. I can pop the iPad out when I want and the next few months will prove the experiment or not. So far so good, and I am writing this post using it!

 

Immanence - Jane O'Halloran - Art on Campus

Another work by this artist that caught my eye.

I find that to appreciate a work of this type requires some time looking (though that is probably true in general and of all things) but isn't something we do often enough. Reminds me of the time I sat and stared at a Monet haystack for half an hour. Well worth the effort.