The breakfast rule, or, when does brunch begin?

Recently a friend was trying to convince me that it was ok to have breakfast and brunch in the same day. I thought this was rubbish, as my understanding of brunch was a mash up of breakfast and lunch for those days when you sleep until is too late for the former, but too early for the latter. I argued this point to no avail until she left the breakfast table at my house to meet friends for an alledged brunch, which I maintain was actually a morning tea. If only I had been less distracted by my cup of tea and had thought to bring the dictionary to the party. According to the Australian version of the Collins English Dictionary (kindly gifted to the boy and I as a wedding present), brunch is a noun describing a meal eaten late in the morning, combining breakfast with lunch, and morning tea is the Australian equivalent of elvenses, comprised of a mid-morning snack with a cuppa. So, to the double dippers among you, I wave my dictionary in victory!

I know it's not earth shatteringly important, but I do enjoy being right almost as much as I enjoy a good breakfast.


I had an especially good breakfast this morning, after spending a little time in the garden. I watered and weeded and trimmed some of the more unruly plants. I finally got to eat one of my strawberries before the birds noticed that it was ripe, and I picked three more cucumbers off one of our very productive little plants.


By this point it was already a sunny and clear day, so I thought I might stop for a breakfast of zucchini chutney, gouda cheese and freshly picked cucumber on toast. I sat on the back deck and looked out at our little slice of urban jungle with the satisfaction of knowing that this is only the begining. Leigh and I will have our lives to grow and craft the garden, the home, the lifestyle that we dream of.


While we planned our wedding we had to take a long hard look at our values because we realised that every decision we were making was symbolic. We didn't just sign up to be together, but to be part of our community. This means that we have to garden, and cook good, healthy food, and have parties, and make experiences worth having because we promised each other that we would actively build the world that we want to live in. If the wedding day represents the ideal life, then every day after that is about building it together.


This year's resolution is simply to do things. To do them with thought, and care, and grace, but still to stop making excuses and get on with the doing. Doing, however, cannot happen on an empty stomach, so always, always breakfast first.

I think I'm addicted to Scrabble.

No, really. We've had a friend staying at our place and the two of us have been playing a lot of Scrabble, at least one game a day. It's very enjoyable for us because we are quite evenly matched. We're competitive enough to be motivating (and, I think, both secretly more so than we would admit) but light hearted enough about it that we don't mind helping each other out, especially to get a lovely or rare word on the board. I knew that I had been enjoying the games and had come to expect one with my morning cup of tea (sometimes setting up the board before my friend was even out of bed) but I started to suspect that I may be developing a problem when I found myself sitting up until four in the morning playing Scrabble with myself! Addiction or not, you can't beat the thrill of tallying up 51 points for 'pacifist' at 3.30 am.


In other news, we are three Saturdays from launch and project wedding is coming together very nicely. Most of the big stuff is taken care of, allowing us to focus on details and logistics. We wrote our ceremony the other day, which involved a lot of concioius evalution of the ideas and feelings that have come up for us during the process of planning our wedding. I'm a big believer in the importance of process (by which I mean, the thinking, playing and reflecting involved in making and doing) and I would like, at some point in the near future, to write an essay or two based on the ideas that have come out of it. So I'm trying to write things down while they are fresh, but I'll need some breathing space before I can make anything of it.

Wishing you all cheer with your morning cuppa...

I wish..

..that I could have a tea party right now! I know a place with daisy chains, secret corners, mysterious paths and picnic spots. Want to come? There will be pinwheels, tea cups, dancing and cakes. Maybe we could even play hide and go seek...

These are the cakes I made for our niece's birthday party a while back. They were yummy, but I needn't have bothered. There was a ton of food and only a handful of three year olds to eat it.

It's raining outside, but it's warm in the library.

So I can help but sit here and daydream about iced tea. At the moment, I'm loving mine with lemon, thyme and a little honey, but there are plenty of other ways to add excitement to your iced beverage.

Start with this base recipe:

3 cups of boiling water
4 tea bags

Steep the tea bags in the boiling water for about 5 minutes. Strain out tea bags (do not squeeze them! ).

To which you might add...

1/3 cup honey

3 cups apple juice

Stir in the honey, mixing until it is completely dissolved. Add the juice and chill in the fridge. Serve over ice and refresh your winter blues away.

..or maybe..

Ginger root (about 4 cms)

1 cup cold water

Sugar or honey, to taste.

Finely slice the ginger root and crush. You'll need to add this at the start and strain it out with the teabags. Stir in the cold water and your sweetener (if desired) and chill in the fridge. Serve over ice for an energy boost.

..or even..

1 can peach juice

juice of half a lemon

Prepare the tea. Stir in peach juice, lemon juice and chill. Serve over ice for a taste of summer.

As I said, there are many more variations for iced tea (the only real limit is your imagination) but these three are particularly appropriate for winter. Make sure you allow the tea to completely chill before serving. If you pour hot, or even warm, tea over ice it will melt the ice and dilute the tea. Happy drinking!