Travellin' Penguin

Following on from my last post about the recipes on gravestones, I came up with a little project yesterday.

The book is To Die For:  A Cookbook of Gravestone Recipes by Rosie Grant. I’ve had a chance to look at it more. It is an American book. She travelled extensively across America and into Canada to find all of the gravestones that had recipes on them. It would have been quite an extensive trip. 

I can tell you, recipes on gravestones do not seem to be an Australian thing or more specifically a Tasmanian thing.

Yesterday was a lovely autumn day so I went over to the very large cemetery we have here in Hobart. It has approximately 100,000 people buried and 60,000 cremated remains according to CHAT GPT.

Being the day before Easter I had the place to myself. I parked the car at the river and walked up the hill to the cemetery that lies next to the river. The graves in it go back to the 1800s. 

With my phone camera, I walked around the cemetery for more than an hour. I read countless graves, admired the beautiful trees and views of the river and watched the cockatoos that seemed to follow me everywhere. I enjoyed the peace and quiet on a sunny autumn day. Did I find anything written on the gravestones of interest? Nope. Just names and dates. I didn’t see any poetry, recipes, comments outside of a few biblical phrases. Think how much lovelier it would be to read something about the people buried there.  There could be so many things to add. Anyway….

There is one area of the place that has only young children’s graves. I’d not ever visited that part of it before. So many children over the years. I couldn’t help but think back to all those years before penicillin and vaccinations for any number of illnesses as well as polio and I became angry again of what that Kennedy idiot in America who is in charge of health does. Decimating the disease data bases from illnesses added from around the world. Discouraging vaccinations, his ignorance is breath taking. Measles is now back in America regularly. I mean, really…..I will stop at those remarks as I don’t want my posts to get political but seeing the hundred or so graves of children who died before they had access to medicines that would have saved their lives is very sad. My own grandmother lost 3 of her 10 children before the age of 5 back in the early 1900s.

On a happier note I did make one of the recipes in the book. It was very easy and doesn’t involve turning an oven on. I’ll put that information here from the photos. 

The recipe is for No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal cookies. Easy to fix and tasted very good

Note: I’d take out a bit of the sugar next time. American baked goods are much sweeter than ours. Recipe makes 12 to 15 depending in how big you make each cluster. They harden quite quickly so not long to set.

The Penguin wants to know if you have a favourite biscuit/cookie, cake you love?

We have a cool autumn, sunny day here today. It is really lovely but I was so tired from the week I just had a sleep for awhile. Now I am in my comfy reading chair with a hot cup of tea thinking of you all. 🙂🌻

Fridays are usually my rest day. We had lunch yesterday at a restaurant with a couple of old friends. We hadn’t seen them for awhile but one of them is in his 80s and quite severely hearing impaired as is Mr P. The conversation was quite funny as one hearing impaired asked a question to the other hearing impaired and both partners had to repeat what was said and then they would answer and again the partners would repeat. It could have been one of those old British sitcoms that make people laugh so much. Fortunately I had my hearing aids in and the partner of the other older friend is younger and can hear!! Old age is such an adventure. Things happen you never thought about before.

But let’s get on with the book I bought a couple of weeks ago. I came across it accidentally on a table while going into the local second hand book shop Cracked and Spineless. I was asking Richard, who owns the shop if he had any Muriel Spark books. I did find one but will save that for later. He also sells new books too. He has a real following of both university students and older adults, like us. He is known for getting some really quirky books in. 

What is this new book you ask?

The book is full of gravestone photographs. Now, photographers get photos of all kinds of themed ideas. This one is gravestones. There isn’t much new with that idea but these are gravestones with recipes on them. Little old ladies who passed away and are remembered for their wicked biscuits (cookies to you N Americans), pies or cakes, etc. 

The entire recipe is carved into the marble of the gravestone. This book is full of gravestones with lovely old recipes on it.

As I have several days at home over Easter weekend I was thinking I might pick one and bake it and see if it is as good as it sounds. Though I am trying to lose a couple of kilos I could still make something and train myself not to eat it all at once.

There are also stories of some of the women who baked these delights.

I have included a couple of the illustrations.  I might also take my camera and find some local gravestones and see if I can find something unusual to photograph. I think these recipe stones are probably in North America. I haven’t had chance to really read through it all yet but plan to now I am not quite as busy for a few days and feel more rested. 

Have any of you ever seen something special on a gravestone? If I do get out and get some gravestone photos I’ll post them up at a future date. I’ll also share what I bake from the book. In the meantime. Enjoy the photos.

Have you ever seen an interesting epitaph on a gravestone?

I’m going to be changing the format of this blog a little bit. I have been trying to get too much information into each post. I have books, photos, daytime excursions and on and on. I have decided I am going to do shorter posts but maybe more often. As a reader I’m a tortoise, not a hare. The same goes for writing posts. So I’m going to adjust myself to that realisation. 😃. One day there may be a photography focus. The next will be about a book I read.  I want to mention entries in journals. I want to share some interesting books from my shelf. I want almost a diary format. 

I want to write about the walks I do with a camera around Hobart or southern Tasmania. I want to make the information for others to comment back and not overwhelm them.

I have two things today. One book. One excursion and just a couple of photos. If you love hearing about books but not interested in photography you can just skip the photo ones. If you enjoy the photos but not so much the book talk then that can be for you. If you just want to hear about life rambles then you’ve got it!! The Penguin will continue to be a part of the blog and I thought I’ll take him with me more often and get photos of him out and about. I’ll continue to dress him in themes that match the posts.

 Life is busy and I know some of you don’t have a lot of time to read long posts that cover too much info. So I’ll keep them shorter. I hope it works. I enjoy hearing from my readers so much. So now I’ll move on with the topics of today. Stay tuned for the change. Maybe I should turn Penguin in for a tortoise- (joke-I’m too attached).

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I finished the book group’s book The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley for Thursday’s book group meeting coming up.

Good Reads gives it 3.5 stars. I did not enjoy it at all. 

The Ministry of Time is a clever mix of time travel, romance, and intrigue. AI explains: 

In a near-future Britain, a secret government agency discovers time travel and brings people from the past into the present to study them. A young civil servant becomes a “bridge,” assigned to live with and guide a 19th-century Arctic explorer, helping him adjust to modern life.

As they navigate everything from technology to social norms, their relationship deepens into something romantic—but the project itself hides darker motives, and things begin to unravel into danger and conspiracy.

At its heart, the book explores big ideas:

• what it means to belong in a different time
• identity and cultural displacement
• and whether love can survive across history

It’s both entertaining and thoughtful—part love story, part spy thriller, and part reflection on history colliding with the present.

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I thought the premise was interesting. But I didn’t like the structure of the book and how of the four people brought back from centuries past, only one seemed to be very developed and then that just melted into a big romance with his “bridge”. Next thing you know there are then people from the future trying to wipe everyone out. I just thought the whole book was ridiculous. HOWEVER…..I know there are people who really enjoyed this book. I just am not one of them. It is imaginative, I’ll give it that. I do look forward to the discussion Thursday of our book club members and I’ll let you know how that goes.

Yesterday I had an interesting day. The Tasmanian Museum organised a trip with Ian Terry who produced a wonderful historical photographic journey of a Tasmanian historical figure, George Augustus Robinson. The trip was based on the photographic book he produced of the places Robinson visited along with excerpts from the man’s diary. A great deal of research went into this project and it is wonderful.

George Augustus Robinson was a British-born colonial official best known for his role in early 19th-century Tasmania during the violent conflict between European settlers and Aboriginal Tasmanians, often referred to as the Black War. He led what he called a “friendly mission” to persuade Aboriginal people to relocate, promising safety and support, and ultimately facilitated their removal to Flinders Island. (Flinders Island is a small island off the northern coast of mainland Tas in Bass Strait). While Robinson saw himself as a protector, his actions contributed to the displacement, suffering, and dramatic population decline of Aboriginal communities. He later became Chief Protector of Aborigines in the Port Phillip District (now Victoria), continuing similar policies.

We had a bus load of about 45 people who signed up for this excursion. We left Hobart at 8:30 am and returned a little after 5pm.  I sat next to a lovely woman who I’d not met before and we had really fun conversations. All of the people on the trip seemed to be lovely and I also saw two others who I had met in the past and chatted to.

We explored the forests of the central highlands of Tasmania. We enjoyed  a couple of longer walks in the forests and the information of where Robinson had had meetings with Aboriginal people back in the 1800s was explained to us. It was a great way to learn history of this terrible time in Tasmanian history. The forests were beautiful and I did take some photos of which I will share more of.

A very old Cider Gum tree. They are disappearing from our state due to global warming. It isn’t as cold here in winter for their seeds to propagate.

I’ll leave you with this for today. I’ll be back to share a bery different type of book with you very soon.

Have a good week.

Is there a favourite forest you visit where you live?