Clothing and Natural Fibres plus Decorating Trends

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natural fibres and clothing

According to the calendar, the Southern Hemisphere has entered Autumn. With persistent high temperatures it is hard to get really interested in the pages and pages of winter clothing appearing everywhere now. A walk through the shopping centre shows clothing brands are preparing for cooler weather. A closer look reveals many of these pieces are made from manmade fibres which will not break down once they’re in landfill. Similarly, most donated clothing is not recycled and not suitable for reuse, so it becomes landfill or is sent overseas where it eventually becomes landfill also.

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According to Choice (here), Australia’s leading consumer advocacy group, each Australian buys 27kg of new clothes every year and disposes of 23kg of clothing at the same time. Australians generated 780,000 tonnes of textile waste of which only 7% was recycled, the rest became landfill.

The best outcome is to buy less, buy lasting quality and maintain existing clothes. Look for natural fibres. Channel Yves Saint Laurent who said ‘Fashion fades, style is eternal.’ He wanted his clients to discover their own style and stick with it.

Finding clothing made entirely from natural fibres is difficult and often more expensive. You’ll have to consider the cost against the number of times you’ll wear it. Learn how to launder the fabrics to keep the colour and shape. A quick search online shows many suggestions, plus a lot of  information about mending.

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Before you baulk at the cost, consider the longevity of the fabric. For instance, linen has been found dating back 34 000 years in a cave in the Caucasus. Linen is made from flax which takes 100 days to transform from seed to harvesting. It requires less water than cotton, is smooth and lint free, has anti-bacterial properties and is thermo-regulating. The best linens come from France, Belgium and The Netherlands. China and Canada grow flax, but true aficionados only seek out linen from Flanders. The quality is reflected in the price. Linen is popular and easy to find at the moment. Buy the best quality you can and enjoy it forever. Think of French bedlinen, highly sort after in French markets; some sheets are over a hundred years old.

Other sustainable fibres are wool including cashmere, angora, pashmina and mohair, cotton, silk, hemp and  jute and the most recent addition, bamboo. Bamboo fabric is created by crushing and submerging the cut bamboo in a solution of sodium hydroxide which dissolves the cellulose. Next carbon disulfide (a highly flammable carcinogen) is added to create a fibre which is then bleached white. The production of the bamboo fabric is probably more chemically intensive than other fabrics. Despite the advertising, bamboo is not a green fabric.

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So buy wisely, maintain your clothes and limit how many pieces you need. There are many online guides to building a capsule wardrobe, based on about 10 main pieces. Easy enough as you’ll probably already have a few base pieces like jeans, trousers or a blazer to build on.

decorating trends

So now you’ve got your wardrobe sorted, lets look at the decorating trends. Unfortunately, I discarded my full length, floral Laura Ashley dresses many years ago. It’s a shame, because looking at the decor trends in Europe I’m pretty sure Laura Ashley-like floral dresses will be the summer fashion here.

I base this on the interior designs in international decorating magazines. In one, it’s all about wallpaper and the wallpaper is Toile de Jouy.  Once an Irish decorating favourite from 1760, Toile de Jouy soon swept through France and then everywhere. It was also a favourite during the Laura Ashley era. So a blast from the late 70’s through to the early 90’s. Some of wallpapers included in this article are traditional Toiles, featuring scenic vignettes, such as sprigs of flowers, horses, styles, herds of cows under trees, they’re all there. Some are more modern. Pictorial story telling in one colour on a white or cream background is everywhere. The articles suggests wallpapering one wall, or within painted panels or above the dado in bathrooms or sitting rooms. Exactly as I did in one of our houses, in 1991. Even the same colours.

So, when I turned to the page to the next article,’Heaven Above’ I was almost prepared for the next new thing. It’s wallpapering your ceiling. Not necessarily matching the wallpaper on the walls, although that is recommended but maybe a smaller pattern or even a bigger pattern in similar colours to blend with the wallpaper on the walls. These images remind me of hotels we stayed in the  UK during the 80’s and 90’s, sloping wallpapered ceilings and Toile wallpaper, Toile curtains and bed skirts and even a matching Toile skirt on a kidney shaped dressing table. All those swags and ruffles.

All of which did actually prepare me for the next article called ‘Border Control’, suggesting we need definition in our decorating schemes. To do this we need clever borders created with wallpaper, paint, tiles or fabric trim. Another decorating hint in the same magazine was to brighten things up by tacking a pleated fabric skirt to your chairs.  I’m experiencing deja vu. Worse still, I remember the dust in all the ruffled pelmets, curtains, Roman blinds and frilled cushions. Never again.

Trends referred to are based on articles and photographs from THE ENGLISH HOME, April 2024, Issue 230, UK Edition.

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Blue Zones and Fashion Trends

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blue zones

The Blue Zone Myth.

Science of Blue Zones, by Dr. Sarah Crawford - Anchor Wellness

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Blue Zone regions are areas where people are claimed to live to a very old age. They have been studied and written about for years. What they eat, how active they are, whether they belong to a religious group and how well they connect within their community have all been documented. A lot of the data is based on government documents.

According to recent analysis, these pockets of extreme longevity seem to occur in areas with greater poverty, higher illiteracy, higher crime rates, and worse population health than the norm. They are found in Sardinia, Okinawa, the Greek island of Ikaria, Loma Linda in California, and Nicoya, a poor province of Costa Rica. The longevity of the “Supercentenarians” is attributed to the consumption of a variety of certain tubers, wholegrains, and fermented foods. A whole “Superfoods and Lifestyle” and publishing industry has grown up around these claims with much capital and employment invested in it.

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A well researched investigation conducted by Oxford University’s Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science tells a different story. Working with the Greek Labour Ministry they found that most of the country’s 9,000 centenarians were actually dead. A similar investigation conducted in Japan discovered that 238,000 people listed as aged 100 or more were unaccounted for. Some had died in the Second World War! The centenarians of Okinawa allegedly living on seaweed and the purple sweet potato, a superfood rich in anthocyanins and phenols, were found to have consumed less sweet potatoes than the rest of the country, less fruit and seafood, and more processed food. Japan has kept nutritional data as far back as the 1970s. It shows that Okinawa had the worst obesity problem even then. What all these regions have in common is dependency on pensions/social  security. It’s worth keeping your family member on the books!

Based on an article by Dr Saul Newman The Oxford University Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science

The release of these findings coincides with a extensive British campaign to promote a plant based diet. This is also being pushed by the EU to try to influence climate change. The British model encourages children to eat from the ‘rainbow’ of foods. They’re told to eat 30 plant based foods a week. Four spices equal one plant based food, otherwise it’s fruit and vegetables, plus flour and oatmeal and other plant products and legumes. So, no eggs, meat, fish or chicken. Only plant based oils are acceptable. No butter. Only plant based milks and yoghurts and other non-diary products are allowed. Are plant based milks actually milks?

The UN is also pushing for a shift to a plant based diet, claiming this will reduce the ecological footprint of food production. Interestingly, the UN includes eggs in their list of acceptable foods. Don’t they come from birds?

One of the two major supermarket chains in Australia is also promoting a similar program of eating from the rainbow. Children can collect a chart from the supermarket to record how many plant based foods they eat in a seven day period. They write them in a colour coded column. The chart also features a box where an agreed award is listed if they meet their goal for the week. I’m assuming it’s not a visit to McDonalds.

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The whole issue of Blue Zones obviously needs more research. Some of the concepts attributed to the very old in these regions make nutritional sense, except the research suggests the younger generation eat differently, anyway. So, back to the Mediterranean Diet, which is a great way to eat with easily sourced foods.

clothes, decorating and fashion

When I read about the impact fashion posts on Instagram have, I do wonder about the age of the viewer to actually care or be influenced. Apparently millions of followers on Instagram and Tiktok do care and follow their idols’ examples of clothing and accessories closely, often checking several times a day.

When I think of fashion icons I think of Coco Chanel, who believed in restraint and advised women to take off one thing as they went out the door and the amazing Iris Apfel, who recently died, aged 102. Ms Apfel had no time for beige or the less is more dictate, she preferred a kaleidoscopic approach to dressing. This meant second hand pieces with couture,  layers of clanking priceless jewels on her wrists and around her neck mixed with thrift shops pieces and always huge, colourful owl-like glasses. Joyful and expressive. So, I think we should suit ourselves, buy what we really like and keep it for as long as possible. Disposable clothing equals landfill.

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International taste in interiors has taken an about turn in the last 18 months judging by the magazines I read. Gone is white everything. Now the focus is on patterns and colours, open bookshelves displaying your treasures and lots of texture. Adding inherited pieces or second hand finds is essential and there’s colour everywhere. This looks nice and cosy in a European climate, but those intense colours and metres of curtains and ruffles might bring you out in hives on a hot summer’s day here. We are still having 30ºC (86ºF) days in Perth. Just remember, you can’t actually get personal taste wrong!

 

 

 

 

 

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Salsa Verde and Junk Food

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salsa verde

Do you still have an abundance of herbs? Me too. Last week we were enjoying PESTO made from fresh herbs and garlic plus extra virgin olive oil. This week I’m making SALSA VERDE.  You’ll need flat leaf parsley, mint, and basil plus capers, anchovies, garlic, Dijon mustard, lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil. You’ll end up with a versatile, delicious, classic sauce.

Gather some basil, mint and parsley, add garlic, extra virgin olive oil, some capers, a lemon and some anchovies. (Don’t worry if you don’t like anchovies, the flavour is not strong once they have been amalgamated with the other ingredients.) I used curly parsley as that is what I had but I prefer flat leaf parsley for this sauce.

To make salsa verde, called green sauce by the English and sauce verte au pain ( because it was originally a bread sauce) by the French, you need             4 tbspn flat leaf parsley,   1 tbspn chopped mint, 2 tbspn chopped basil, 2 tbspn chopped capers, 2 drained anchovies, 1 peeled garlic clove, 1 tbspn Dijon mustard, juice of half a lemon and 1oo ml extra virgin olive oil. Also 25ml extra virgin olive oil if you plan on keeping it for a few days.

I mix the first six ingredients in a food processor until they’re roughly chopped then add the rest and mix until combined.

Purists and sensible people, who obviously refrain from eating all their salsa verde in a few days, store it in the fridge in a jar with a slick of olive oil (the extra olive oil in the ingredients list) We never keep it very long!

I have both pesto and sasla verde in the fridge so I planned a ‘make your own’ pasta dinner for tonight. I prefer both served close to room temperature so I put them out to warm an little. I cooked the pasta while I was setting a selection of tomato salsa, salsa verde, pesto, leftover bolognese sauce plus mozzarella di bufala and sheeps pecorino. Quick and easy and used up things I already had in the fridge.

I have used a lot of herbs from the garden recently as they are near the end of their season. Both the parsley and basil are going to seed, the mint needed tidying up, the spring onions needed sorting out and the chives are going to seed, too. Normally I snip the flowers off the basil to promote a longer picking season, but they’re getting a bit leggy, so I let the flowers dry out then rub them between my hands. Tiny black seeds fall out. It’s hard to really separate the tiny seeds from the broken up bits of dried flowers so I remove what I can and leave the rest. The seeds are put in an envelope, labeled and replanted later in the year. I keep the seeds I collect in recycled envelopes or paper bags in the garage where it is dry and cool.

the problem with junk food

A recent article on ABC online (here)  outlines the problems with junk food consumption. It defines junk food as a broad range of ready to eat products, such as packaged baked goods, chips, lollies, instant noodles, some ready meals, soft drinks, sweetened cereals and packaged snacks. Junk food is food that has undergone significant chemical modification to enhance texture, taste, appearance and longevity.

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Recently, junk foods were reviewed by Australian and international institutions. They considered 45 previous studies published during the last three years.  Nearly 10 million participants were monitored in these studies. Analyzing this data revealed strong evidence that consuming ultra processed food can result in 32 different health problems. Junk food consumers are at a higher risk of both physical and mental poor health and death.

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The risks listed from consuming junk food included cancer, major heart and lung conditions, mental health disorders and early death. The article doesn’t include specific cause and effect data, but the advice continues to recommend we avoid these foods. We all knew ultra processed foods aren’t good for us. There is probably a hint in the name ‘junk food.’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Pesto, Foreign Exchange and Food Waste

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classic pesto

I grow a lot of basil. It’s an easy herb to grow, smells and tastes wonderful and is easy to maintain. I add it to so many summer dishes. You can grow basil in a pot or garden bed where it will get good sunlight and regular water. To keep your basil growing, remove the flowers when they appear, before they turn to seed. I leave the seeds on the soil in the pot and some will germinate again next year.

Pesto, traditionally made from basil, can be used as a dip, a spread, a sauce stirred through pasta or stirred into soups or casseroles. Using only basil leaves, extra virgin olive oil, pine nuts, garlic and a strong cheese, this is a quick and delicious spread. I use a sheeps’ pecorino from the Italian deli for its strong and delicious flavour. Also, too much cows’ milk doesn’t really sit well with me.

Gather the ingredients and a blender. Purists insist on pounding the ingredients by hand in a mortar and pestle but I can’t taste the difference between pounded or blended pesto. You choose! Make sure you have a clean, sterilised jar and lid ready for bottling the pesto. I use recycled jam jars. The ingredients I’ve listed make about one jam jar of pesto and sufficient to stir through pasta that night.

Ingredients;

50 gm of fresh pine nuts

80 gm basil leaves, no stems

50 gm of parmesan  or other strong cheese of your choice, grated roughly

2 garlic cloves or 2 teaspoons of minced garlic

75 ml extra virgin olive oil

Rinse the basil leaves and pat dry. Then heat a small frying pan over low heat and gently toss the pine nuts in a little extra oil until they are golden. Be careful not to let them burn as they will taste bitter.You can substitute almonds, pistachios or walnuts if you don’t have pine nuts

Tip the pine nuts, basil leaves, garlic and grated cheese into the blender and blitz until they are roughly chopped. Run the motor and slowly pour in the oil. When it is well mixed but still has shape use a spatula to transfer the pesto into a jar. I used a 370gm recycled jam jars with a tight fitting lids. The pesto will keep for about 10 days in the fridge, if you can leave it alone for that long!

The traditional recipe for pesto uses basil, but there’s many variations depending on what is growing in your garden or what herbs you have on hand to use up. You can add mint or parsley, too. Wonderful stirred through pasta or gnocchi, under a poached egg on toast, on a pizza, stirred into soup or drizzled on a tomato salad.

foreign money

Once we used to go to the bank and organise some foreign currency to take overseas. Then that changed and we have to go into the city to specific branches of the bank to get money. We’d have to order it then wait a few days before we could make the trek into the city and collect the money. Now there is only one branch where we could collect foreign currency.

Searched online for an easier alternative and found one, an online currency exchanger. We ordered the currency and denominations we wanted and made a bank transfer to pay. Two days later the money arrived at our local post office. It was in a plastic pouch in a cardboard box. This entire transaction cost us AU$14, a better exchange rate compared to the bank. It was very easy to complete.

The money was the denominations we selected wrapped with a receipt showing the value and the number of each bank note. It took minutes to order and was easy to pick up later. So much easier than dealing with the bank. When you try and organise this with the bank  they would prefer to supply  a foreign currency credit card which is very profitable for them. Their deal also includes a charge incorporated in the exchange rate to pay for their time.

food waste

I don’t like wasting food! I see frightening figures quoting the amount of food first World countries send to landfill. Sometimes it takes a lot of work and planning to use everything we’ve bought. Bread is a big problem in this house. I make sourdough for myself and eat it all. Two days before the whole loaf is gone I feed the starter and 12 hours later I mix the dough and leave it for another twelve hours. Then I bake it. It’s a routine I’m used to and not difficult. Besides, the bread is wonderful!

My husband like artisan loaves he buys from two preferred bakeries. He never finishes a loaf. I can make bread and butter puddings but not in the middle of summer. I can make panzanella salads. But mostly I make breadcrumbs. I simply cut the remnant bread to fit easily in the processer and blitz the chunks until they are fine bread crumbs. I use them mostly to make meatballs, chicken balls and sometimes coated chicken. No waste.

Chop into small pieces.

Blitz.

                    Using a high tech funnel store the breadcrumbs in a jar.

 

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No Farmers, No Food and Stripping

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farmers and food production

Have you been following the news reports showing farmers on tractors blocking roads and blockading  ports across Europe and Wales? Farmers in Europe, including France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain have been protesting about new regulations being introduced by the EU. In Europe, the farmers are protesting about the European Union imposing unrealistic and uneconomical rules and restrictions on their farming methods. Farmers are facing rising costs and taxes, excessive environmental rules and competition from cheaper imports. For example, the EU waived quotas on Ukraine when Russia invaded, despite Ukraine not meeting similar standards imposed on farmers in the EU.

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Excessive rules being imposed by the EU require farmers to leave specific percentages of their land fallow, rocketing costs for diesel and claims inflationary control methods imposed on farmers resulted in many struggling to cover the high costs for energy, fertiliser and transport.

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Different countries have specific objections but common to all are ‘suffocating’ EU policy regarding cheap imports, cost of diesel, labour and fertiliser, access to irrigation, criticism about animal welfare and use of pesticides, insufficient state aid, subsidy cuts and skyrocketing insurance costs.

Similar protests have occurred in Wales, where their government aimed to introduce regulations requiring 10% of agricultural land to have trees and 10% left for wildlife habitat. The farmers claim Welsh Labour ideology is crippling food production. Across the UK the NO FARMERS, NO FOOD  movement is gaining momentum.

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Australian farmers are also highly regulated and are being squeezed by the major supermarkets to absorb the ever increasing costs of diesel, labour, transport and climate change policies.

stripping

I saw online articles about stripping for ages before I realised what ‘stripping’ was in this case and went back and read some of them. Nothing to do with removing clothes, but all to do with getting things very clean, especially bed linen. All this was motivated by getting two white pillow cases from the linen cupboard and noticing they were a bit yellow in colour. I’d used them a few times years ago, washed them and put them in the cupboard until I needed to use them.

Slight yellowing didn’t appeal so I soaked them in the usual soaking products and then washed them and hung them out in the bleaching sun all day. Certainly they looked whiter but not perfect! That’s when I discovered stripping. This is a process which results in very clean, very bright washing. Just what I wanted for the pillow cases. Effective on any natural fibres, it’s a process to  brighten white sheets and towels which seem to be greying or going yellow.

This discolouration is the result of  residual buildup of detergent, fabric softeners, body products and body oils and general use. Stripping removes the accumulated buildup but can only be used on fabrics which can be washed in hot water. I don’t think I’d try it on coloured or patterned fabrics. but plenty of online sites do, assuming colourfastness.

Read a few articles then gathered the necessary products. You need washing soda, borax and laundry powder with enzymes. Check the label to be sure the powder ( not liquid) includes enzymes. Then wipe the laundry tub to clean before half filling with hot (65ºC/150ºF) water. You may need to add boiling water from a kettle to increase the temperature. Then dissolve 1/4 cp of washing soda ( sodium carbonate), 1/4 cp borax and 1/2 cp washing powder with enzymes in the hot water. Agitate to dissolve.

Add the washing to be stripped and make sure it is submerged. I used an old copper stick, originally used to submerge and agitate washing in a copper and to retrieve it but a broom handle or similar would do the job. Stir the washing with the stick every hour until the water has cooled to room temperature. The colour of the water may shock you!

Pull the plug and let the trough drain, squeezing out as much water as possible, then wring the washing by hand to get out more water before putting it in the washing machine. Set it to COLD and turn onto the longest wash. Don’t add powder. You may want to do two cycles. Hang out to dry or put through the dryer. Marvel at the whiteness. Very satisfying! Since treated all the bed linen, bolster covers and white pants. Surprised at how many pairs of white pants I have but they’re all very, very white now.

Poor light but actually very white!

A comment on the washing powder with enzymes I used for this process. It was very, very highly perfumed and I could still smell it after soaking and two washes. I found the actual box of remaining product so strongly scented I had to seal it in a ziplock bag to store it in the laundry cupboard.

 

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Treats and Home Maintenance

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treats

It was our son’s birthday on Friday and he’d flown in Thursday night to spend a long weekend with us. We spent Friday in Bunbury, where my Mother lives. Although we managed to squeeze in lunch at our favourite Italian restaurant, the rest of the day was spent on Mother Business. She has moved into care and is slowly settling. It was never her plan to leave her house and garden but she has become frail. She’ll be 93 this year.

Knowing we’d be home on Saturday we arranged birthday treats  to be delivered. Delicious bags and boxes arrived quite early. The box contained six authentic croissants, the long paper bag contained a baguette and the wonderfully presented cylinder was packed with macarons. Luckily, he  shared, so a special start to the day. We settled to the weekend papers, online news and treats. Later (much later) we went out for sushi.

What’s in the box?

Macarons!

Our son lives in Kalgoorlie and he misses some favourite food places so his visits usually feature trips to our favourite yum cha restaurant, but not this time as it is Chinese New Year and the yum cha restaurant will be packed! Sushi is popular from two different places, and Vietnamese cuisine, too, except our favourite cafe is closed for renovations. When he lived in Adelaide he shared a unit and worked with boys from India, so curries feature, too. He also makes good curries.

home maintenance

During the two years of Covid lockdowns, closed borders and limited social contact, we  took over cleaning the house as the cleaner was prevented from visiting. It took two of us almost all day once a week to do the whole house. This was because we tidied things away, did repairs, put things in better places and sorted things that could be discarded. Coffee breaks featured, too.

Now we are doing the cleaning ourselves again.  We’ve removed the fabric cover from a sofa and all the cushions, plus two antimacassars and washed them. It looks so fresh and crisp again. We also got two leather cushions on another sofa refilled and I have used leather dye to repair worn areas on one of the arms. As soon as I have the time I will treat both leather sofas with saddle dressing.

I sanded and repainted all the chips in the door frames (so many!) and removed four pictures from a wall so had to repair the plaster, sand, plaster again, sand again and then paint. I like less on the wall, highlighting a Margaret Preston print already hanging there. Also treated a metal door frame outside which was rusted. Annoying as I’ve treated it twice before but this time I sanded, treated, primed twice then painted. Everything dried quickly in the 40ºC heat but the primer required 16 hours drying and curing time before the next coat. Finished off with white paint. Finger crossed. Later I repaired a few chips in the floor tiles using a two part resin mix. A friend then told me she scrubbed all the grout throughout her house with a toothbrush and then she sealed it. I know when to stop!

There’s some tricky bits to clean, such as the corners where skirting boards meet, the shutter frames and an intricate sculpture. Found an effective and easy to use solution! A long handled artists’ paint brush with firm bristles. Works so well on picture and mirror frames, too.

The advantage of doing these jobs ourselves is we have made decisions about decluttering, repairing and rearranging. I have also repaired paintwork and brick paving outside but there’s so much more to do. Too hot to garden but some other jobs can be tackled in the evening. We have a ‘handyman’ list and hope we’ve found the person to do those jobs. I think this frenzy of activity indicates how often we were in Bunbury, staying with my Mother and things became quite neglected. Now we need to catch up.

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Meanwhile, I’m back reading all those posts online about keeping your house clean in 30 minutes a day, how to develop a routine for the immaculate house and even studying the spreadsheets of the immensely organised. Doesn’t seem to work for us.

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Chinese New Year, Valentine’s Day, Food and the Garden

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gong xi fa ci

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Happy Chinese New Year to you! It’s the year of the Wood Dragon. Although we no longer exchange red envelopes with friends’ children, I still remember the specialties we ate to celebrate the event and the lion dancers. Probably the most memorable part of living in China and celebrating Chinese New Year were the fireworks and the constant crackers exploding  all night! Lots of drums and lots of fireworks.

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Dragons are charismatic, ambitious and successful. May the Year of the Dragon bring you courage, success and prosperity!

valentine’s day

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We’ve been a bit overwhelmed by advertisements for Valentine’s Day gifts and treats. Lingerie, perfume, jewellery and clothing feature for women and it seems  men fancy alcohol, new clothes and camping gear. Frightening inflation hasn’t resulted in lower cost gifts, though, as some of the advertised suggestions are very expensive. And a flash dinner out seems de rigueur, too.

Normally I make a card for the occasion and bake a heart shaped cake. My mother in law gave me the heart shaped cake tin and I traditionally make a chocolate cake. We can’t eat a cake in a few days so it becomes dessert with icecream.

Searched through Michael Greger’s excerpt, referred to below, looking for the paragraph about how good chocolate is for your well being and there’s nothing!

 

One slice of this chocolate cake is enough!

and other food

Also made a pot of dahl after reading an excerpt from Michael Greger’s book,’ How Not To Age: The Scientific Approach to Get Healthier As you Get Older.’ Science shows that every 20% increase in intake of legumes will reduce your risk of death by about 8%. I really want to be healthy and mobile, so made dahl. We enjoyed it and I’ll make it again.

He also states that nut consumption is associated with a lower risk of dying from heart attack, stroke, respiratory disease, infections, diabetes, even cancer. All you need is around 15-20gm of walnuts, cashews, almonds a day, but says walnuts are probably the best. He says eating a small amount of these nuts every day is the equivalent in longevity terms of jogging for four hours. Easy health tip!

Really delicious but next time I’ll up the garam marsala for a bit more punch.

Luckily, coffee is good for you as are many spices but salt isn’t, and alcohol gets a bad wrap! Greger refers to the latest science from over 700 data sources, which…’unambiguously concluded “The safest alcohol level of drinking is none.”‘ Drinking chamomile tea gets a big tick. Research indicates people who drank a small cup of chamomile after their meals for a few months showed a significant improvement in long term blood sugar control. The other effect of chamomile tea mentioned is improved mood and sleep. I’ll start drinking chamomile after dinner tonight. Keen on good sleep.

Also made a jar of Easy Fruit and Nut Bliss Ball mix, a lovely Christmas present. The label says, ‘Roll me. Mix Me. Eat Me.’ So we did as we were told!

Emptied the jar into the mixer, added some oil and mixed. Rolled into ball shapes and put in the fridge to firm up. Tasty little treats.

Little treats made of almonds, walnuts, dried apricots, pistachio, coconut and dried goji berries. Easy to make and very easy to eat!

A week ago, I cooked a huge number of chicken balls and froze most of them. They have been a life saver when we have arrived back from Bunbury keen on dinner but not really keen on cooking. I leave a bowl full in the fridge to thaw while we are away. Tonight we ate eating some with a Teriyaki sauce and noodles. So good, so easy.

Made teriyaki sauce while the noodles boiled and the thawed chicken balls heated.

Also eating tomatoes still warm from the garden, with finely chopped red onion drizzled with balsamic vinegar and then a scattering of basil. Perfect.

garden things

I pick about seven tomatoes a day. They are not cherry sized nor usual sized tomatoes but somewhere in between. They taste so good. The scorching sun burns some of them as they get morning and afternoon sun and the daily temperatures are 40ºC ( 104º F ) and more. The soil bakes during the day and the mulch breaks down quickly. I have made three trugs of horse manure, potting mix and bentonite clay ( for water retention) all mixed together and will begin top dressing the entire garden in the cool of the evening.

Doesn’t look so appetizing but I think the garden will love it! Horse manure, bentonite and potting

 

 

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Making, Cooking and Growing

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making

Some time ago I made covers for some of the tissue boxes around the house. I made the covers from delivery boxes (here) then covered them to suit the area where they would be placed. The tissue box in the kitchen is in constant use and was showing a lot of grubby marks! The stains could not be removed using a wet cloth so time to recover.

The original cover was black and white zebra print paper. I was unable to remove the unidentified stains.

The black and white pattern suited where the tissues sit so I stayed with the black and white theme. I had to cover one side and the top, then the second side as I wanted the print to be the right way up. Then I cut two rectangles for either end.

I cut a cross into the piece covering the oval hole in the top. Then I trimmed it and snipped the little edges. Glued each one pressing the edge to create a perfect oval shape.

The previous zebra print cover had been sealed with Mod Podge but this certainly didn’t prevent staining. This time I used diluted PVA glue applied with a foam brush. Time will tell how effective that has been.

I chose black and white gift wrap for the new cover as this fits well with the other items nearby and I already had it. It is an Emma Bridgewater design called Black Toast. I have collected a lot of crockery in this design over the years and am making a point of using it regularly.

cooking

Poached Eggs  Arriving back in Perth late in the evening after a few days visiting my Mother more than two hours away I looked in the fridge. I was hoping for something quick and easy for dinner but no such luck. Decided poached eggs on toast would have to do this time. This is how I poach eggs. Take two large mugs and half fill them with boiling water from the kettle. Add a splash of vinegar. Gently crack an egg into each mug then microwave on full for 90 seconds. Meanwhile, make two pieces of toast. (I spread pesto on mine!) Place the toast on a plate and gently remove the cooked eggs from the mugs using a slotted spoon. Slide onto the toast. Grind of pepper and some salt. A couple of tomatoes from the garden. Delicious.

Sourdough Bread. Articles about sourdough bread always show gorgeous rustic boules, but I like fairly regular slices. For years I have baked my bread in a parchment lined, rectangular glass Pyrex dish. Then I bought a double walled metal bread baking tin. Cooked at the usual temperature and for the same time, the loaf from the tin was more golden all over and beautifully cooked. So now I will use the tin to cook my bread.

KNIVES I have a rack of kitchen knives and like to keep them very sharp. One of my jobs was to soak the whet stone and then sharpen and wash the knives.  Also bought a new bread knife but it has been a huge disappointment so I’m back using the semi-blunt one. Seeking a new knife. Any recommendations?

growing

I regularly apply Epsom Salts (magnesium sulphate) to my gardenia bushes. They are healthy and well established. They are covered in blooms twice a year. I mention their health and generous blooms because I just read on the packet the Epsom Salt came in that it should be diluted in 4 litres of water then poured around the base of the bushes. For about thirteen years I have scattered the salt around stems, then watered them, so not the recommended way to use Epsom Salts but no damage so far!

Other uses listed on the packet include relieving sore or tired muscles, soothe aching joints, fabric softener and general plant nutrient. For tomatoes, citrus and lettuce the recommended dose is 25 tablespoons of salt dissolved in 4 litres of water then sprayed on the plants when it is cool. If you’re applying Epsom Salt to remedy magnesium deficiency in the soil, dissolve 2 tablespoons in 4 litres of water. Make sure the salt is dissolved. Magnesium Sulphate is also used in flotation tanks instead of sodium chloride.

The gardenias have thrived on wrongly applied Epsom Salt.

A quick review of the common uses of Epsom Salt just before I posted revealed many more uses, such as  a warm bath with added Epsom Salts just before bed aids sleep, it reduces the swelling of sprains and bruises and helps reduce swollen feet and draw out splinters. The list continues with using diluted ES to treat insect bites and bee stings and spray it on sunburn. Interestingly, 1 tablespoon of ES diluted in 1 litre of water poured around the base of tomato bushes results in more fruit. Have I missed anything?

Regular readers know I am growing a tomato forest. These mid-sized fruit taste so good and we often eat them before they get inside. For years I read about people who weigh every tomato and calculate their harvest at the end of the season but I’m just keeping a tally of how many tomatoes we pick.

 

 

 

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Back to School and Cursive Writing plus Tomatoes

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back to school

I retired from teaching nearly six years now.  Every school holiday and often in between I really enjoy catching up with some colleagues from the last three schools where I worked. These lunches tend to involve discussions about the changes and resulting frustrations in many government schools. Our Minister for Education is confident every class will have a teacher at the beginning of the term following an overseas recruitment program and employing student teachers who are not yet qualified. Many relief teachers have also been offered full time jobs.

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We often follow the changes in education adopted overseas. I was interested to read in The Weekend Australian Magazine, January 27-28th, 2024, that schools in California are going to teach children joined up writing again. Abandoned in 2010 in most of America as part of the Learning Standards introduced by the Obama White House, the decision was based on the assumption that students did most of their learning digitally.

Recognising the benefits of cursive writing in brain development and fine motor skills, California is one of 23 states in America which advocates reintroducing joined up writing.  It is now obligatory for students aged between six and twelve to learn how to write.

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The rest of this item by Kieran Southern is about comments by an associate professor of education at the University of Southern California. He refers to chronic absenteeism doubling during this period, achievement has ‘fallen off a cliff’ and refers to ‘other crises and culture wars in schools’. He then says the thing ‘… we can all agree on is that we must mandate cursive (writing)’.

The West Australian Curriculum dictates students must produce’…legible, correctly formed letters by hand.’ The goal is for children to write with ease, speed and legibility.

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Some quick research for recent information on the benefits of teaching cursive writing led to the Western Kids Health site (here). A summary of the their site looks at three aspects achieved by confident cursive writers.

HOLD   pincer grip strength, finger isolation skills, fine motor control, fine motor control, finger opposition control

COPYING   visual perception, visual planning, motor and planning control, problem solving

WRITING A SENTENCE   postural control, fine motor endurance, attention, motivation, concentration, resilience, creativity and imagination.

I also remember being taught that forming letters and writing them reinforced the learners’ ability to remember sounds and their relationship to other letters.

grow

The last lot of small tomatoes I bought from the supermarket tasted a bit like kerosene! Well, the first one I tried did, so the rest went into the worm motel.  I’m so pleased with the wonderful tomatoes on my bushes now. Not too big, not too small each truss has between six and seven delicious tomatoes.

The seeds came from my Mother. She kept two tomatoes for me and I squeezed the seeds onto paper towel, spread them out and left them to dry. Later I cut the paper towel into six equal squares and planted them. Up came a forest of little tomato plants except in one pot which surprised some time later by also producing a fine collection of seedlings.

Planted them out at different times to ensure fresh tomatoes over a few months. I have over 30 bushes supported by 2m stakes. I also have a tomato bush in a pot nowhere near the others; it just appeared one day and is strong with healthy trusses developing. I don’t usually grow this many tomatoes as I’ve had to cover them in cages in the past due to water rats! No rats apparent this year, but I do check every morning when I get up. Interestingly, our dear neighbour is sharing passion fruit with us as this is also the first year they haven’t been obliterated by rats.

Planted in good quality potting mix and watered regularly until they were established, some of these bushes are nearly two metres tall now.

Eventually realised I didn’t need the rat proof the tomatoes so removed the frames. Just as well, because some of the plants are very tall.

I don’t know what breed of tomatoes I am growing but my Mother has grown them for many, many years. They taste delicious!

 These tomatoes have never made it onto a plate; we eat then fresh from the vine!

 

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Eyes and Sleep

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eyesight

A regular topic of conversation amongst my friends is eyesight, particularly the treatment for cataracts. This seemingly very common surgery results in improved vision and often a reduced need for spectacles. My own eyesight surgery for keratoconus, while slightly different, was life changing.

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The new area of concern is the evolution of eyeballs becoming longer or more pear shaped called myopia. This means the cornea becomes more curved, focusing the light on the front of retina instead of on the retina. So objects which are closer are clearer, but those further away become blurry. This change is thought to be caused by exposure to screens and not enough exposure to daylight and objects in the distance. Natural daylight is thought to have protective benefits against myopia or short sightedness. This can lead to longer term problems, especially the development of glaucoma and macula degeneration.

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There may be ways to protect your eyes from these outcomes if you need to spend long periods focused on screens. The most common suggestion currently is to adopt the 20/20/20 rule. This means for every 20 minutes you spend looking at a screen, move away from the screen and look at something at least 20 feet (6m) away for at least 20 seconds. Best if you can look at something outside in natural sunlight, allowing the eyes to relax. Probably best to seek the advice of your optometrist if you spend a lot of time on devices.

ABOUT SLEEP

So while we’re checking up on our eye health, let’s talk about sleep. Considering the amount of advice I have read about sleep it is a wonder I am not dead to the world most of the time. I’ve  bought the latest books about sleep, I taken books about sleep out of the library, I’ve read masses of information online, listened to advise from friends, the pharmacist, my GP and  I still don’t fall asleep easily.

Our natural sleep cycles are no longer dictated by the setting and rising of the sun. Artificial light is thought to have disrupted the natural rhythm of being awake when it’s light and asleep when it is dark. The plethora of entertainments available to us due to artificial light and technology have probably altered our ability to fall asleep and stay asleep.

One factor common in a lot of the literature is exposing your eyes to sunlight as soon as you wake up. This results in UV light signalling to the eye which causes a surge of cortisol and suppresses melatonin. This can result in waking up alert and falling asleep easily at the end of the day (if you’re lucky). Another common piece of advice is to avoid caffeine for the first 90 minutes after waking but to drink a glass of water to re-hydrate. I’ve been doing both these things for about two years and still have trouble sleeping but am afraid to discontinue in case I have even more trouble sleeping!

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One popular technique to help you fall asleep is to get out of bed if you haven’t gone to sleep within 20 minutes of turning off the light and read somewhere else other than the bedroom until you are tired again. (Michael Mosely, in ‘Fast Asleep’ recommends something really boring to read) Unfortunately, I can read for several hours without feeling tired and find this just doesn’t work for me. I was on some medication for a while renown for disturbing sleep patterns and finally took a sleeping pill prescribed by my GP. I did sleep but felt sleepy and tired most of the next day, too, so didn’t try that again.

Apparently, if you have good sleep patterns and rotate through the four stages of sleep several times during the night you shouldn’t need an alarm clock to wake up, you will naturally wake up when your sleep-wake cycles causes you to wake up.

Asian attractive young man turn off alarm clock ringing in the morning. Handsome male feel lazy and tired lying down on comfortable bed in bedroom ignore noise and keep sleeping don't want to wake up

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I’ve read so many books, online advice and talked to my GP and pharmacist and still getting a good night’s sleep is a bit random. I try not to check my sleep score on my Fitbit unless I’ve slept well! I’ve had some terrible scores. I’ve found magnesium, melatonin, meditating and some over the counter products helpful, but what works changes without warning. What worked two weeks ago can have little impact now. Other things regularly appearing in the literature include spraying lavender scent on your pillow, having a warm bath or shower just before you go to bed and trying to go to sleep at the same time every night.

So, good luck if poor sleep is a problem for you and please let me know if you’ve got the solution!

 

 

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