Blue berry Pie's

This week I found a beautiful chair in hard rubbish. I wasn't quite sure what the edict for such things are. Do you knock on the door and ask? Do you just take it? Is it rude? I decided to wait till dark to get it. So there I was, in the cold melbourne night, wearing a little chic stripy knitted dress, running down the street carrying a huge lounge chair much bigger than myself. I was convinced that it would only be a small 'fix up' job to get it looking shiny and new. However once I got it inside the house I found the chair hadn't really appreciated being left out in the rain for the last week. So I set to work bleaching, and scrubbing it. I love little home improvement jobs so it didn't faze me much at all. A couple of hours later the chair was still pretty shabby looking. I left it for the night and picked up the where I had stopped the next day. I have been scrubbing and scrubbing this chair determined that it would shine. Half way through I realised how much effort I was putting into the small project (It must shine, I simply will not buy a through to cover its lovely material) and it started to dawn on me that my determination had nothing to do with a chair.

For the past few years I feel like I have been floating around, from place to place, house to house, relationship to relationship, not really sure what I wanted to do. Over this time nothing ever felt study, or settled or stable. Now in Melbourne I'm finally starting to feel like I'm living the life I really want. I'm here, doing what I love, being inspired and meeting some amazing people. I'm so determined to do everything I really want to do, but like everyone else get scared at times of falling short. So I've been taking my fears out on my new chair. I decided I wanted it, and I'll stick with it, till it shines.

Apart from my chair scrubbing everything in Melbourne is going really well. While I was back home in Queensland one of my parents friends when asking how it was all going here, asked if I was lonely. Its the unasked question. I think everyone has been too afraid to ask incase the answer was yes. To be honest I had been avoiding the question myself. After a major upheaval over the last few months with a very serious relationship break up, I was sure I would be very lonely in Melbourne. I had been like chicken little, running around, looking for blue egg shell and declaring the sky was falling. So I was surprised to find that when all the drama of the initial heartbreak died down, the world didn't stop. Even more strangely though, I was left with a bizarre feeling that I had never before experienced. It was this easy, self-assured, relaxed feel, and for the first time in my life I was no longer searching for something. I could just be.

Everyone told me that I needed some time to learn how to be single. To me this was a stupid idea. Why would I learn to be single when I have no desire AT ALL TO BE SINGLE......EVER. I explained it to a friend as being the same as everyone telling me to learn how to fly a plane. I couldn't understand what the point would be, because I don't want to fly a plane, and have no need to fly a plane. It all seemed ridiculous to me. Friends even went as far as trying to stop me from going on dates (gosh I wish they had succeeded with some of the idiots I have dated since being in melbourne *cough* Italian boy that studies at my school *cough*) Something in the last few months has changed though. I'm starting to enjoy being single, and not because I'm not meeting nice boys, but because I want to be. I can't believe the amount of time I have on my hands, and this no longer scares me. I am doing so many more things that I want to be doing. Also I have been surrounded by some amazing friends, and I find some weeks I can't even get to see all the people I want to see.

So life is good at the moment, and I'm finally catching up on all the baking that I've been wanting to get done. Last night I made blueberry pies for one of my good friends Lillie. We sat and ate pies and talked about life and what we had been up to. One of my housemates arrived home part way through our meal, so we invited her, her sister and her dad (who were visiting) to eat some desert with us and drink some tea. It was so nice to be able to do that. I love having a house that feels like a home.

Here is the recipe for the blueberry pies I made. Its a Donna Hay recipe but I've adapted it a bit. Hope you like it.

Blueberry Pies

You will need:

• One and a half cups of plain flour (sifted)
• half a cup of icing sugar
• 125g cold butter
• 2 tsp vanilla
• three egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon iced water
• 270g blueberries (I just used frozen ones because they cost too much fresh)
• One tbs corn four
• Two Tablespoons of sugar
• 40g melted butter
• One egg lightly beaten
• Some vanilla sugar (or raw sugar if you don't have it)

What to do:

1. Sift together the flour and icing sugar. Dice your butter and crumple it with the flour mix. Use the tip of your fingers as you want to crumble it NOT melt it. This process may take a while and you can do it in a food processor. I however don't have one and quite enjoy doing it by hand. You will know its done when it resembles breadcrumbs
2. Add the water, vanilla and egg yolk. Mix it together until it forms a dough. Shape it into a ball, wrap it in glad wrap and place in the fridge for one hour.
3. Mix your berries, corn flour, sugar and butter
4. Grease a muffin tin and set your oven to 180 (moderate)
5. Take 2/3 of the dough and roll out. Cut with i circle cutter (or a cup) and line the muffin tin. Add the blue berry filling.
6. Use the last 1/3 of the dough to roll out and make lids. Press together at the edges so they join nicely.
7. Brush the little pies with egg, sprinkle with vanilla sugar and bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

They are so good, you won't have any left.