Reading

Lettuce and a Lisa See Book

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lettuce

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I’ve been trying to buy whole lettuces to avoid packaging. Not a big success so lots of lettuce still being thrown out. In fact, the UK throws away 40% of bagged lettuce bought, estimated to be 37 000 tonnes every year. The same level of wastage is probably mirrored in Australia. When you consider the energy and water involved in growing the lettuces, plus harvesting, transporting and packaging it seems an awful lots of waste.

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I went looking for a solution. To keep the leaves fresh and usable for a week, the most popular suggestion is to discard any spoiled leaves, wash the remaining leaves then spin or pat dry with a tea towel. Then layer them in a lidded lettuce keeper, which I have finally located in the cupboard. Or place the dried leaves on a tea towel, spread out, put another tea towel on top and roll it all into a sausage. Store in the vegetable drawer in the fridge. It was a bit of a faff but it did motivate me to find the lettuce keeper.

Apparently, you can revive sad lettuce leaves so long as they’re not slimy by submerging them in a bowl of chilled water for about 20 minutes. Spin or pat dry. Enjoy.

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I also read you can regrow a lettuce by submerging the ‘core’ in water. Keep the water fresh and mist the top. I have successfully grown celery by planting the cut off base in the garden. It was good for quite a while but then the stalks started tasting very bitter.

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Forgotten vegetables languishing in the fridge can be composted. This is mentioned in nearly everything I read about lettuces. I don’t make compost, I make evil smelling slime. Not nice, but I have been motivated to try the Bokashi bin again. I’ll see how it goes.

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While we are flat out avoiding food waste, do you freeze lemons? I’ve never tried, but apparently you can’t really freeze them whole as they go squishy when they’re thawed. The advice is to freeze the zest, juice and slices separately. I just can’t see myself doing that nor accommodating all the little containers in the freezer. Luckily, we have fresh lemons and limes year round.

another book by lisa see

I’ve just read Lisa See’s book The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane. See’s intricate analysis of life in old China results in fascinating stories. I was immediately engaged by The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane. Based on the lives of the Akha, an Ethnic Minority group in Yunnan, I was amazed to discover the story begins in 1988. The clan structures, the humble housing, the reliance on folklore, the power of the spiritual leader, poor access to education and the subservient role of women all suggested a time long gone.

The community rely on tea. Their old tea trees, nurtured in hidden groves, become highly sort after. As the community becomes wealthier, so the strict rules loosen. Meanwhile, the Tea Girl, conceives a child with a man unacceptable to her family, gives the baby girl to one of the many adoption centres in another town, later marries the father and goes to Thailand. He deals in opium, becomes an addict and is killed by a tiger.

The girl, now in her 20s is unwelcome in her community. She becomes an authority on old, highly sought after teas, meets a man, marries and builds her business in Guangzhou. It has a happy ending after years of turmoil and disappointment.

After I finished the book we watched the film adaptation of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan on demand. Based on one of See’s highly acclaimed books, it was beautifully filmed. Hugh Jackman’s role as the love interest was surprising! The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane has also been made into a film, but has not been released.

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Books, Using Preserved Lemons and More Painting

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books

A friend gave me a novel she’d read and enjoyed. She said it was an easy read and a lovely story. I’ve read books by the author, Sophie Beaumont, previously and enjoyed them. Turns out A Secret Garden of Paris was exactly what I needed during a pretty awful week when my husband was in hospital. I could pick it and put it down depending on what was happening.

Set in Paris, it refers to gardens I’ve visited and many I’d never heard of, but want to visit. It has an Australian connection, plus lots of food and romance, visits to flower markets and the renewal of a family garden. And a happy ending! Beaumont a wrote The Paris Cooking School, which I also enjoyed. Wonderful descriptions of food, a lots of romance and references to well known areas of Paris. Easy to read with a clever plot.

Sophie Beaumont is the pen name of Sophie Masson, a prolific author of childrens’ books, young adult books and fiction and non fiction for adults. She was born in Indonesia to French parents and grew up in both France and Australia. She was awarded an AM (General ) in 2019 ,’For significant service to literature as an author, publisher and through roles in industry organisations.’

Also read Jane Caro’s The Mother. This is a hard story to read as it deals with the frustrations a mother feels when she realises her younger daughter is totally controlled and very afraid of her husband. Newly widowed, and afraid for her daughter and two grandchildren, the mother eventually takes things into her own hands. I couldn’t put this book down. Clever and thought provoking, don’t expect a happy ending!

preserved lemons

This is the second time I’ve made these chicken meatballs in a tomato based sauce, thickened with finely chopped onion and carrots. This time I added chopped preserved lemons as I found the chicken a little bland. Wham! Preserved lemon cheered the chicken up enormously. The recipe is intended to serve four. I really like knowing I have a ‘spare’ dinner in the fridge. ready to heat, during these busy weeks managing medical appointments. This time I added baby beans and small, boiled potatoes with parsley and butter.

Really like having a second dinner in the fridge.

Finely chopped preserved lemon perked up these chicken meatballs.

Preserving lemons (here) is easy and a great way to use fresh lemons when you have a tree full. Just be sure to scrape the pulp from the rind before you add the lemon to your recipe.

painting

Still managing to paint every few days and also did a session with a group. We each painted house scenes from given illustrations. Really enjoyable.

The original painting I was given to copy.

Water colour paints are very slow to dry in the cold. This painting was done in an art journal, not on water colour paper.

Keep warm if you’re in southern Western Australia! It’s very cold.

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Bits and Pieces

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roses

My Mother loved her garden. She grew vegetables, herbs and flowers of every kind. Her ideal gift was bags of mulch, fertiliser or a new plant. She loved receiving gift cards for the local hardware store. So I try to have some flowers next to her photo all the time. These are Iceberg roses. They have a lovely scent, although some of them, planted at a different time, have very little perfume.

The Abraham Darby is still flowering, too. It smells lovely.

The Mr Lincoln is a large standard rose. I have painted the roses many times because they are so lush and smell lovely.

Despite constant battles with chili thrip I have decided to keep the roses. So many people I know have dug up their roses. The experts explain how you can control chili thrip but not eradicate it. Some of the sprays suggested are not products I want to use in our garden, so I persist with the water blasting. It is successful on some roses, not others.

cooking

Soup weather is traditionally winter time, but I’ve been making soup since January. Most of our soups are flavoured with curry, because that’s one of the flavours my Husband can taste. I often use carrots as the base vegetable, too, as they blend well and thicken the soup.

One kilo of carrots makes a lot of soup base. I add whatever else is available. I begin by frying the onion then adding curry powder, then the carrots and anything else that comes to hand, so no real recipe!

I made more muffins but used passion fruit pulp instead of blueberries. I’ll make more this weekend. They were very popular.

The passion fruit muffin batter doesn’t look very enticing, but they were delicious.

picking

Apart from the last of the roses, I’ve been picking lemons and limes. Also herbs and perpetual spinach. The spinach is a versatile vegetable; it can be eaten in a salad, cooked as a vegetable or wilted into anything else you’re cooking which would benefit from a splash of green! Easy to grow from seed. I have three plants which are ‘cut and come again’. The more I pick, the more they grow.

flowers

I once read in a gardening magazine that peonies will only grow in areas where apples grow. Apples don’t grow where we live, but they are grown domestically and commercially further down south. So when I saw in our local news paper the nearby fresh fruit and vegetable market had peonies for sale I mentioned it to my husband. Well, actually I placed the folded paper, showing the ad. over his computer screen. Subtle? Effective.

Added little branches trimmed off the lemon tree. Some of the branches have immature fruit attached. The pink against the deep green of citrus leaves contrasts well. So pretty!

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Reading, Painting and Ginger Rice Chicken.

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I’ve been reading a book by Pip Williams which I have really enjoyed. Amazing memories of time spent in Italy are well and truly stirred up by her latest book One Italian Summer. Pip Williams is the author of the best selling books The Dictionary of Lost Words and The Bookbinder of Jericho.

One Italian Summer tells the story of Pip, her husband and two young sons moving from Sydney to the Adelaide Hills. Still feeling overwhelmed by work commitments they sign up for the WWOOFers (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms ) program. This is when farmers provide accommodation and food in return for work. The family goes to Italy. WWOOers stay for short periods of time then move to another farm, travel or go back to their home. The accommodation provided varies in this case from a woodshed with no facilities to an apartment.

Doesn’t matter how often or in what intensitivy of light I photograph, the title of ONE ITALIAN SUMMER is difficult to read.

In between work commitments the family explores nearby towns and architectural remnants of times gone by. They can’t afford a hire car so travel on trains and walk. There’s a little home schooling and lots of eating and exploration.

I’ve also been reading another Lisa See book, Peony in Love. Really enjoying it. She writes historically correct stories about traditional high ranking Chinese communities, often set in towns I know or have lived in, in China. I borrowed another book of hers from the library and took it back almost unread. It didn’t resonate at all. Seems I preferred her books about ancient China, not modern America!

The ability to read is a bit of a hot topic at the moment. Reading skills in some developed countries are declining. Philip Womack (https:www.spectator.co.uk/magazine) refers to a recent American study called ‘They Don’t Read Very Well’ which analysed the reading comprehension skills of English Literature students in two mid-western universities.

The students were asked to read aloud the first paragraph of Charles Dicken’s ‘Bleak House’. Most of the students didn’t recognize common punctuation and were unable to understand the paragraph. Intrigued, I looked it up. The punctuation makes it easy to read although some of the text would be called ‘old fashioned.’

The article goes on to say many children can hardly read. Their ‘tech blinded parents’ don’t read to them or encourage reading. Their teachers don’t have the resources nor support or are of similar age of the parents. The article states that ‘many think that making students read difficult books is elitist.’ Not very encouraging.

painting

I have painted botannicals for years. I’ve done classes, I’ve worked under a painting master in China for three years and I’ve painted at home. Usually I paint on the dining room table which is handy to all the other things I do such as cooking, cleaning, washing, ironing and so on. All major painting disruptors. Eventually I packed up all my painting things and put them away. Sad moment but we had other commitments for some months.

Then this week I needed to paint. I gathered up my equipment and settled to paining a rose at the dining room table. A camellia followed the rose . Then some tulips and another rose. Now I am waiting for a Abraham Darcy rose to bloom so I can paint that next. I’ve just read a book about old roses grown by Vita Sackville West and I think that’s what prompted the rose paintings. Really enjoying painting again.

cooking

Regular readers know I’m a fan of www.recipetineats.com. So, lacking inspiration after weeks of putting curry in everything, I got the ingredients ready to make the Recipetineats version of Ginger Chicken Rice.

Used the only mushrooms I had, but would buy oyster mushrooms to make this again.

Quick (I bought chopped chicken) and tasty, this made two dinners for two people. I’ll make it again.

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Reading and Cooking

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reading

Although I read a lot, it has been a while since I just couldn’t put a book down until I’d finished it! That book was Lisa See’s Lady Tan’s Circle of Women! It was lent to me by a neighbour who’d read it for her bookclub meeting this week and she thought I’d like it. Set in China in the 15th century, See’s story is based on a wealthy family and the strict rules and structures of the era. The main protagonist is based on the records of a female doctor. A really good read.

Off to the library and able to request four of See’s many books from local libraries. I get the first one this afternoon. In the meanwhile, I have read a fast paced novel by Linwood Barclay called Find You First. The main protagonist donated sperm as a student to fund his education. In his forties he is diagnosed with Huntington’s Disease and tries to find the children he has fathered. His technology business has done very well and he wants to eave each child a bequest. Things go horribly wrong! Good to read, but I think it would scare me if it was made into a film. Pretty violent.

cooking

Our son is here for four days. I was already committed for two afternoons of those days so wrote a meal plan, went shopping and cooked up a storm so meals will go smoothly. I began by cooking a piece of corned beef. The brine is my Mother’s recipe; white pepper, vinegar and brown sugar in water to just cover the meat in a large pot, cook until it is done. I know there are no amounts listed and that’s because I don’t know, I just do what looks right for the piece of meat and it always works well! I can’t remember my Mother ever measuring the ingredients, either.

While the meat was cooking I boiled potatoes and some mixed vegetables. While that cooled I made a mayonnaise to add to the vegetables to make a Potato Salad. I think there’s more flavour if you make the salad a day before you intend to eat it.

The muffins looked much better cooked than as raw batter!

That was followed by two trays of blueberry muffins. The muffins cooked while I boiled some apples. While the apples were cooking I mixed the oats, flour, cinnamon and brown sugar to make a crumble. Drained the apples, leaving some juice as I spooned the apples into a Corningware dish. Covered with the crumble and into the oven for 40 minutes. That is about eight serves of Apple Crumble. Smells wonderful.

I also have a large frozen lasagne plus spinach leaves and celery to make salads and lots of sweet potato to roast and serve with corned beef and later, lasagne. We’ve just taken delivery of an order from a local supplier who has the best glacé ginger, crystalized ginger and ginger Turkish Delight. Also in the box, macadamia nuts, rocky road, Japanese rice crackers and vegetable chips flavoured with chili and lime. My husband can taste ginger and spicy things now, not just curry, although I have made curried sweet potato, fennel and carrot soup, too. We will not starve this weekend!

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Basket Weaving, Mother’s Day and Other Things

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basket weaving

I joined a friend at a basket weaving session. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the tutor had an array of beautiful baskets, from tiny ones to really big ones, hand woven from rope and stitched together with wool or cotton thread. Very inspiring.

The rope I’d chosen and the thread I used to stitch the bowl together.

We each selected a piece of rope, cut off some wool or cotton thread and threaded our darning needle. We began by making a loop to start forming the base. Everything was stitched into place using blanket stitch. Once we’d shaped the base we were shown how to make the ‘walls’. Three hours flew by. I came away with a small, slightly wonky basket. Really enjoyed the activity, the chatter of the people around the table and seeing the lovely baskets people made. The tutor offers other courses, so I’ll be looking them up.

mother’s day

Australians and many other countries celebrated Mother’s Day last Sunday. I hope all the Mothers had a lovely day, whatever they did with or without family. Our son couldn’t be here so he arranged two boxes of treats to be delivered from a French bakery. One box of croissants and one of mixed delicious cakes, scrolls and macarons. Superb!

A wonderful box of various delicious French treats.

My husband and I celebrated Mother’s Day by heading off to our favourite yum cha restaurant. We’ve been going there for years. We arrived quite early as the line builds up quickly on weekend mornings. The queue was already enormous! Often one member of the party lines up and the rest arrive later or sit on the walls. When the doors open and guests can enter, suddenly the person in front of you actually represents eight family members!

We were so lucky! Most groups were six or eight, but they had one two person table available! The line behind us was as long as the line in front of us, so some people were waiting ages to get a seat. But the little treats are so good! Brisk service, really good food and interesting watching the world go by. A huge selection of flavours. We had squid, crab, prawn and some pork dim sum plus a favourite turnip cake, all beautifully presented, all delicious.

One of my Mother’s Day gifts was Janelle McCulloch’s latest book, Where The Old Roses Grow. The sub title is Vita Sackville-West and the Battle For Beauty During Wartime. I am really enjoying it. Regular readers know I only buy books I really, really enjoy (I borrow books from the library, generally) and I have almost all of the books Janelle McCulloch has written. There are many.

other things

Forty odd years ago it was cold on our wedding day. Monday was 28ºC but there was a lovely sea breeze.

We celebrated our wedding anniversary on Monday. We went for lunch at a local restaurant with a great view over the Indian Ocean taking in Rottnest Island. It’s only been open a few months but has had very good reviews. We were not disappointed!

Half Shell Scallop Blue Swimmer crab tart.

Fremantle Swordfish Saltbush Fed Lamb medallions

Yuzu Tart Neopolitan Semifredo

more other things

I really like this small urn, one of a pair and struck some rosemary slips a while back put in both of them. They don’t have holes so I wanted to plant them in pots I could take out for watering. Problem was, I couldn’t find pots that fitted well!

So I cut the rim off two yoghurt pots which fitted well but were too tall. Then I reapplied the rims using double sided tape. Worked really well.

Washed the empty pots and sliced the rim off with a Stanley Trimmer. Reattached the rims to the pots using double sided tape.

Fits snugly.

I will toparize the rosemary plants when they are bigger. It will help them stay small enough for the pots. Bit of a long term project.

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Eating 30 Different Things, Reading and Should You Wash New Clothes?

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gut microbiome health.

Eating 30 different foods a week, including herbs and spices, plus nuts, fruits and vegetables, is a re-occuring number mentioned by many renown scientists and doctors. A diverse diet is closely linked to a lower risk of chronic diseases, better immune function and even improved mental health. It isn’t as easy as it sounds and takes quite a bit of planning. Part of the problem is we are not a vegetarian. I do occasionally add tinned beans, chick peas and lentils to recipes but they are not our main source of protein. So fish, chicken and beef don’t count. Some plans allow eggs, some don’t, but we eat eggs regularly. Anyway, this week I got to thirty!

reading

Circumstances have meant I have spent a lot of time reading. I’m averaging about four books a week! Usually I read one or maybe, two, books a week. Added to that number is my usual haul of magazines, too. Now my husband has started immunology every three weeks we spend a great deal less time at the hospital.

Not a murder but a cleverly crafted story about a young, dominated wife escaping her husband and starting a new life in another country. Lovely travelogue throughout France, too.

My preferred books are murders! Not always, there’s some biographies and non fiction in amongst the murders, but often I read everything available by the same author if I’ve really enjoyed their books previously. I cannot explain why I find a clever murder so relaxing and like to have one on the go to read when I go to bed.

Not a murder, either but a series of emails between an Australian and American woman. They begin exchanging emails by mistake (the American has a very similar address to the Australian women’s ex-husband). A friendship develops resulting in regular contact via emails. Very engaging story with a satisfying outcome.

In January I read a book reviewer’s plan to read 100 books a year, but she quickly changed that to 80 books early in the year because her longtime boyfriend proposed and she had a wedding to plan. Valid excuse! It’s week 13/52 and I have read at least three books a week. Some I haven’t photographed nor named as they’re health books I’ve flicked through from the past, tracking specific information.

I also really like decorator magazines and subscribe to several, well, maybe five or six. I get a magazine from France, three from the UK and two Australian magazines, which sounds very indulgent, and probably is, but I don’t buy many books, preferring to borrow them from the library. If I really like a book I’ve borrowed I’ll go and buy it. If something on the cover of a magazine catches my eye, I will probably buy that, too. Apparently, regular reading assists in a healthy brain.

Talking to a friend about brain training activities online has also increased the number of online activities I do now. I do Wordle before I get up in the morning and now I’m doing a few other online brain training activities. When I have the time I’d like to investigate Scrabble (I haven’t played for years) and jigsaw puzzles, both recommended online for brain training. I play mahjong every week, but shy away from bridge! Some friends who play are fiercely competitive and don’t encourage chatting whilst playing.

The other behaviour recommended by brain training sites refers to social interaction. Well, this pretty easy. Unfortunately, my time is committed to other things at the moment, but that will pass.

should you wash new clothes before you wear them?

The chat around this subject really surprises me as my Mother washed everything from tea towels, to bed linen and clothes, even socks before we could wear them. So, I thought you always washed new things before using them. It’s a topic online at the moment.

Image Pixabay

Apparently, everything should be washed before they are used. This helps remove chemicals, dyes and germs resulting from the manufacturing process. Washing helps remove bacteria, fungi and parasites which are presented during manufacturing, storage and transport.

Articles based on research refer to garments tested from popular chain stores that had been tried on then put back on the rack or shelves. The research found norovirus, strep and staph and fecal germs. Scabies, lice and fungi were also found. Dyes, resins and tanning agents, such as formaldehyde, used to keep garments wrinkle free, can cause skin irritation, dermatitis and eczema.

Image Pixabay

So, my Mother was right; give everything a really good wash before you wear it! This includes bed linen, tea towels and towels. Interestingly, several articles I read suggested baby clothing, blankets and bedding should be washed and, if possible, line dried twice before use.

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Bookmarks and Reading, Tomatoes and Plastic Utensils

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bookmarks and reading

Tidying up and sorting through your Christmas and Valentines Day envelopes, do you wish you could recycle some of the very pretty envelopes? Me too. I read a lot and often scramble for a bookmark. Now I’ve made a few from leftover envelopes. You could use coloured or patterned envelopes to make the bookmark. Gather a few envelopes and a pair of scissors and you’re ready to create.

1. Cut a triangular corner off the envelope. Glue down the flap at the back. Let it dry.

2. Fold the triangle in half longways.

3. Cut an arc shape from side to side. You can pencil the arc before you cut.

4. Viola! Pretty heart shape bookmark.

If you lose it just make another one.

I’ve read four books lately. Three ‘whodunits’!

An engaging book, but not of the happy ending genre! This Australian author writes clever and rather scary books.

I enjoyed this clever story so much I recommended it to my husband. Then I borrowed another one of her books and suppose I will enjoy it when he’s finished it! Complex plot and an ending I didn’t see coming.

This starts off as a nice story about two women living next door to one another and how they became friends. It finishes with one of them in prison and the other hiding the truth and bringing up the prisoner’s children. No happy ending here !

Not a murder story, but an account of one woman’s life as a wife and mother. Anne Tyler is a prolific American author. She has a wonderful way with words and is keen observer of women’s lives. A reviewer whose column I enjoy recommended this book as one which had stayed in her mind for 20 odd years. I ordered the book. It began well, with typically lyrical descriptions of the main characters, but then, when the family was at the beach one day, the wife just walks away and hitches a ride to another town and starts another life.

Set in the late 50s, she successfully flies under the radar for a few months. She narrows her life to eating, sleeping, working and not much else. She doesn’t seem to miss her husband or children. When a family member finds her she pleased to hear news of her family but doesn’t return to her hometown.

Eventually she returns for her daughter’s wedding. It’s a total fiasco and she resorts to feeding everyone and cleaning up, just like she did before walking away. She decides to stay. A puzzling plot.

tomatoes

Tomatoes with balsamic vinegar, chopped red onion and basil. Delicious.

Sadly my tomato crop is coming to an end. Fresh, warm, thin skinned truss tomatoes are delicious! I have saved the seeds from one of the biggest, reddest tomatoes to plant next summer. These are heirloom seeds which are true to the parent plant. There’s no genetic modifications and the fruit is always predictable. I actually planted some seeds for another tomato this time, as well, and they didn’t fruit. Disappointing. So I just stay with the seeds I got from my Mother.

These truss tomatoes are reliable and explode in your mouth, releasing sweet flavour and no tough skin. At the end of the tomato season I chose a really luscious tomato, cut it in half and squeezed the seeds onto paper towel. When the seeds and remaining pulp was dry I wrote a label on the paper and stored it in an envelope in the laundry cupboard ready for the next tomato season.

Some growers suggest leaving the scooped out seeds and adhering pulp in a jar for a few days so they ferment. Apparently this prepares the seeds for germination. I have never done this and have always had great germination rates.

The tomato process is save seeds from the best tomatoes, plant the seeds, watch them grow, then paint the tomatoes and finally, eat the tomatoes.

plastic utensils

First we were told to throw out plastic utensils, particularly black plastic utensil, due to toxic chemicals. This still remains good advice, as concerning levels of cancer causing flame retardants are present in black utensils. One recent report has ‘corrected’ the probable risk of toxic chemicals but emphasize the risk is still concerning.

Meanwhile, the sales of stainless steel utensils increased by 13% last year . During the same period sales of silicone utensils increased by 70%. Do your own research and decide if you need new utensils!

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Making, Cooking and Other Things

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making

The collection of beads used to make a new necklace. The (sadly) broken white bead was right at the front.

When I was a junior primary teacher, my necklace made from these faux pieces of licorice allsorts was a bit of a hit. Not so much now when I go out to mahjong or shopping and certainly not at yoga! Then I bought a black and white striped shirt. Eying off my necklace collection inspiration struck and I knew I could reuse some of the licorice allsorts pieces and bigger beads from a necklace I dropped on the floor. One of the pieces broke on impact. I wore that necklace often, so hunted down a replacement. Now I will reuse pieces from the original.

Put the large beads from the broken necklace and pink pieces of licorice allsorts and smaller black pieces together. Changed things around a few times. Then I made the new necklace. I already had the string and the catch for this new necklace. There may be more soon. My elderly neighbour can’t be bothered with necklaces or earrings anymore and has given me several necklaces made from glass beads. Very pretty and ripe for reusing.

sourdough

I’ve been making sourdough bread years. My first sourdough starter died when we were away for a long period but the replacement has been bubbling away happily for a long time. Until it didn’t look sprightly at all. Read lots of articles abut reviving runny starter. Followed the instructions and fed it twice, using more flour than water, let it rest between each feeding and it’s back to normal. I will make a loaf tonight and bake it in the morning.

Most online examples of sourdough loaves are boulés, round balls, and are baked in a Dutch oven. I make my loaves in a loaf tin as this results in slices of similar size, which I prefer.

Sourdough baking appeals to a wide range of people. Reading some of the advice was daunting but I found an easy method which worked. Sourdough bakers who post online are totally passionate about their bread and jump through all sorts of hoops to make it and some, like me, use the same recipe and are happy with the outcome.

The newly ‘recovered’ sourdough starter made a very good loaf of bread.

There’s so many recipes for using the discard from feeding the starter and so many for adding things to the bread, too, but what really caught my attention was the names people give their starters! One blog lists 160 potential names, some very funny. Another list included Must-Tang-Sally, Lazarus, Doughkey Pokey, Festus and Sour Seymour. Mine is called The Flour Child!

other things

I’ve read two books this week. I spend quite a bit of time waiting while my husband has treatments and also, there’s not much on TV. Currently we are watching on ABC iview The Secret History of the English Garden. Monty Don is the commentator and it is one of many programs about gardens he’s has visited. It is very interesting and he is a born storyteller. Really enjoying it and learning a lot about the role of gardens in history. Also seeing some amazing gardens.

The first book I read was The Night We Lost Him written by Laura Dave. Like her previous book I wrote about The Last Thing He Told Me, this is a book about lies, intrigue and the secrets of successful men. The families left behind struggle to find out what really happened. A great read.

The second book written by Nadine Williams, an Australian journalist, is about her third marriage (having vowed to never marry again) and how it led her to France. From France With Love, A Story With Baggage details how she met Oliver, how they traveled together to France and then try to sort out their cultural differences on a road trip around the country. I seem to be attracted to books about visiting France, living in France, renovating in France….I enjoyed this book . It is funny, sad and informative. I am looking online for her second book.

Tim Spector’s book Food For Life which I wrote about a few weeks ago makes alot of sense. A diverse diet results in a healthy gut but I’m struggling to eat thirty different foods every week. I was relieved when I read spices and herbs count as different foods as that got me a bit closer to goal. Close but not perfect.

Meanwhile, I have picked my first tomato of the season. Two days later there were many ripe ones. Delicious. Do you grow any food?

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Weeding Books and Paper Rubbish

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bookshelves and weeding

We are a family of keen readers. We are not so keen on throwing things out, and even likely to have a good ‘weed’ of our book collection. When we built the house we have shelves built from the floor to the ceiling on one wall, plus on another wall with windows and a half height return on a third wall. Over the years the shelves have gone from neat and tidy to books two layers thick, books poked in horizontally on other books and books overflowing onto other furniture in the room. Time for a change!

Two days later and about third of the shelves are done.

Our son was here for the long weekend. After breakfast the sorting and tidying began. We packed the discards into boxes to take to the Save the Children Book depot. So far it has taken two days but we will persist. The big bonus of this exercise is discovering forgotten books, in my case, now all shelved together. It became apparent I like to read autobiographies written by people who have lived in foreign lands. I found and am currently reading Marjory McGinn’s Things Can Only Get Feta. Along with her husband and crazy Jack Russell they move to a remote town in southern Peloponnese.

Seventeen boxes done and ready to go.

Marjory has had a passion for Greece since she and her family arrived in Australia from Scotland and her assigned ‘buddy’ at school was from a Greek family. In her twenties she worked in Athens and speaks enough Greek to organise a house, get a car and settle into life in rural Megali Mantineia. There are few foreigners in the area. They soon meet the locals and the scorpians and the hornets. This is a humourous and engaging account of their experiences in rural Greece and some of the hot spots, too. She and her husband decided to stay for a second year despite the difficulties Greece was experiencing during the austerity years.

I really enjoyed this book and set off to see if she’d written a second book about the next year in Greece. Found there are seven more books. The titles all suggest McGinn and her husband, both freelance journalists, stayed in Greece for some years. I will be trying to get some of the other books.

rubbish recycling

Are you still sorting through post Christmas or holiday paper, cards, envelopes and cardboard? All these products can be recycled easily avoiding landfill. Recycling reduces deaforestation and the impact of the processes required to manufacture new paper based products.

Effective recycling relies on ensuring only products suitable for recycling go in the paper/glass recycling bin. Contamination spoils clean paper and means all the materials are sent to landfill. Typical contamination is related to food stuffs, such as pizza boxes and oil stained paper bags and wrapping. Recycling paper means a reduction in landfill gases and reducedCO2. It’s easy, too.

Image Pixabay

WHAT SHOULD YOU PUT IN YOUR PAPER RECYCLING BIN?

Brochures, even if they are glossy, but not ones treated with plastic laminate, plus glossy and matte packaging
All envelopes, even if they have a small plastic window, as the processes involved sort them out
Shredded paper so long as staples and paper clips have been removed before shredding
Cardboard boxes, although waxed or greasy boxes are not suitable
Magazines, newspapers, advertising brochures, childrens’ used exercise books if the staples are removed.
Due to the materials used to line paper cups and fruit juice containers, they cannot be recycled.
Recycled paper is used to make more paper for printing on and writing on, cardboard, bags, gift tags, tissues, toilet paper and napkins. Recycled paper is processed to sterilize and remove dye. Paper can be recycled up to seven times before the fibres become too short and too weak to reuse.
Image Pixabay

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