Everyday August Activities and Two Book Reviews

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August brings change as we move from winter towards spring in September, although there are few signs yet! We are experiencing very cold weather but I notice new growth in the garden.The days are already a little longer; it is lighter earlier and sunset is later. Time to finish pruning the roses and transplanting one which becomes overwhelmed every year by it’s huge neighbours. And I am watching the self seeded tomato closely, hoping the green tomatoes will turn red.

AUGUST FOOD

Winter eating! We like to shop for fruit and vegetables at a green grocer we’ve been going to for a long time. Lots of fresh produce to be eaten raw (apples, tomatoes and mandarins), roasted (sweet potato, butternut pumpkin, Dutch carrots) and steamed ( cabbage and broccoli) The limes and lemons are used mostly on fish. The clips around the fruit bowl are used to seal the top of bags, they aren’t for eating!

After a happy break from bread making I am back making my own sourdough. I have had to use the ‘proving’ setting on the oven to get the starter and then the dough to rise as it is very cold now. Well, cold for Western Australia! This homemade bread is simply made from sourdough starter, flour, water, a little olive oil and salt. It takes nearly two days from waking the starter to eating the cooled bread and is worth the effort.

Lunch for my mother. She has been staying for a few days to go to a specialist doctor’s appointment. She grew the lettuce. I added cheese, cucumber, ratatouille, mushrooms, hommus and crackers.

My husband has become a regular customer of a nearby bakery along with many, many other keen bread eaters, too. He loves their white loaf, thickly buttered and even more thickly covered in honey or marmalade. It is very good bread, but I prefer sourdough! Bread from this bakery comes wrapped in tissue paper.

WINTER ROAD RE-SURFACING

We went to look at this local road which has been re-surfaced with asphalt made from sustainable and recycled materials. The asphalt is made from more than 125 tonne of recycled materials including over 30 000 glass bottles, 50 000 plastic bottles and tyres and recycled asphalt. This has resulted in a durable and long lasting road surface considered to be equal to traditional road surfaces. This is the first recycled material surface in our area and only the second in Western Australia. This is a good way to use rubbish!

WINTER FLOWERS

I don’t remember another winter when the roses have flowered for so long or been so beautiful. I have benefited from my Mother’s garden, a neighbour’s generosity and a few remaining blooms from my own garden. The table is covered in vases of flowers and I love it!

The bromeliad blooms are such gorgeous colours but they droop almost as soon as they are cut. I used green garden wire to attach the blooms to recycled chopsticks!

Most of the roses have been pruned but the few remaining ones will be done tomorrow. We have three rubbish bins; a general one, one for recycling and the best one, for someone who can’t make compost, a bin for green waste. I like the green waste bin to be really full when it is emptied every fortnight. We have lots of roses so pruning is spread over two bin emptying days!

WINTER READING

I’m not really interested in magazines about clothes and celebrities or reality TV stars, but I love decorator magazines! I enjoy seeing how people live, how they integrate old and new but mostly, how they make their houses their own, how they show their interests and what they like to have around them.

So, when I picked up this decorator book by Tara Shaw, called SOUL OF THE HOME: Designing with Antiques, I was really interested. Then I read her comment about your house being your biography, a true reflection of your passions and interests. I really like individualistic houses, reflecting the owners. She says, ” Always feather your nest with things that are meaningful to you. You should be able to ‘read’ a great house just like a biography.”

This book is full of great houses and great ideas. Like so many books I read, and I read many, I borrowed it from the library.

The second book I’ve been reading is Michael Moseley’s FAST ASLEEP. I’m a MM fan after repairing my gut following his Clever Guts system from a book of the same name. It took a while but has been a great relief. Living with constant gut pain is very tiring.

Getting enough sleep is challenging at times. I have read about cognitive therapy recently to treat poor sleep but find this book far easier to follow. It includes information on diet, fasting, settling to sleep and how to ‘retrain’ yourself to get to sleep and stay asleep. All his ideas are backed by recent science. Still a work in progress for me but his system is easy to follow.

I’m not a fan of magazines in general but subscribe to lots of decorator magazines and country life magazines. Probably too many but I really enjoy them. My most recent haul of four magazines included two from the UK in paper or compostable wrappers. Good. The two Australian ones were delivered in plastic. Annoying, but I carefully slit the top and re-use the plastic but would prefer paper wrappers. The magazines from the UK always arrive safely.

This is National MISSING PERSONS WEEK in Australia. This program is organised by the Federal Police and aims to raise awareness about the significant number of people, particularly young people, who are reported missing every year. Of the approximately 35 000 people reported as missing each year in Australia, approximately 20 000 are under the age of 18.

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What’s in the Box, The Winter Garden, Mussels and a Book Review

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MATTRESS IN A BOX

We needed a new mattress and went to the bed shop to start looking at what was available. We’d done some online research and knew the level of support we’d prefer. The sales lady was lovely and showed us two suitable mattresses and we lay on both. They were very comfortable.

We went away to consider our options. Both mattresses recommended were expensive, but really about the price we’d expected from our research. Later that evening my husband was looking at information about the two recommended brands and came across a Choice ( consumer testing and recommendation publication) site which had assessed a range of Mattress in a Box products.

They rated very well. He looked at user reviews, most of which were very good, too. We started looking at what was available and decided we would try one! The obvious advantage was the price difference for a mattress with similar springs, latex, memory foam and other features. We’d been looking at the mattresses with bases costing $1800 and $2500. The boxed mattress delivered was a fifth of the cost of most expensive mattress.

The box finally arrived. We expected it to come within five days. We ordered 3rd of July, it arrived 24th of July after many, many texts and phone calls.

The compressed mattress is well protected and was clean and fresh. We rolled it out on the floor and left it to settle.

Wheezing and sighing, the mattress quickly decompressed and puffed up into a proper shape.

The literature which came with the mattress recommended leaving it 24 hours to fully expand. We have been unable to register the mattress to activate the warranty as the site doesn’t work. I’ll try scanning the Q code and see what happens.

After 24 hours it looked like a regular mattress. We re-used our previous base. The mattresses we looked at in the bed shop were pairs, that is a base and mattress.

The first tester is still assessing the comfort and suitability of the mattress. We will sleep on it tonight.

General Comments.

This is a very economical mattress by comparison but we could find no reviews from people who had slept on them for more than four years. We are happy to wait and see.

We ordered online and could only text the company representative. This became very frustrating as delivery was such a problem. Expected within days it actually took 21 days and that eventually involved daily texts and promises about delivery on Monday 13th, then Tuesday 14th, then “later in the week” so stayed at home Thursday and Friday. No mattress. Started texting again on Monday, then Tuesday 21st at which point we were sent a tracking number. The freight company didn’t recognise the number and it took A LOT of time and effort for them to find the box. It sat at their depot until Friday 24th July when it was delivered mid-morning. We were enormously inconvenienced by staying home waiting for delivery which failed to eventuate, day after day.

The mattresses we looked at in the bed shop were made in Australia. The mattress we bought gave no country of origin information online but is made in China.

CV-19 is very well controlled in Western Australia but we didn’t want to go into the bed shop and lie on mattresses. The pillows supplied were covered in protective sheets for our use but we’d rather avoid doing this again at this time.

THE WINTER GARDEN

The self seeded tomato was covered in flowers and I was very pleased to see some grow into fruit. I don’t know if they will mature into red tomatoes, but I have my fingers crossed.

The arum lily has begun to bloom, too. These are considered a weed in Western Australia but I really like the large, lush green leaves and the beautiful white bloom. I grow them in a garden bed where they can’t escape! I really like to cut them and bring them indoors, too, but also enjoy looking at them out of the window.

WINTER EATING: MUSSELS

Fresh and available here in winter, these are local Leeuwin Coast mussels. I prefer to eat them at home because I always make such a mess prising those tiny delicious morsels of meat from the shell. The little bowls of lemon scented water accompanying mussels in restaurants can’t compete with the mess I make enjoying my seasonal feast, so I eat them in the privacy of my own home!

I make simple sauces to enjoy with the mussels. This year I made a cooking broth from onion, garlic, tomato, white wine, parsley and tinned tomatoes.

Cook the mussels until the bivalve pops open. That means they are cooked. Discard any shells that don’t open, ladle some into a bowl, add a few slices of toasted sourdough ( or any other bread) and another sprinkle of parsley and enjoy.

The recipe is available here. https://www.google.co/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=delish+recipe+mussels+in+tomato+and+garlic

READING

I know botanical art is not of interest to everyone and hesitated to review this book which I enjoyed so much. Ellis Rowan was a successful, fearless and very talented artist who thrived during a period when most respected artist were male. She lived her life on her own terms and created accurate paintings of botanical subjects from many countries but particularly Australia. Her works are still recognised as accurate representations of Australia’s flora in the 1800s. Strong and determined, she succeeded against the odds.

Christine Norton-Evans book about the Australian botanical painter, Ellis Rowan called ELLIS ROWAN: A LIFE IN PICTURES is an amazing account of a remarkable botanical artist and her astounding 50 years of adventure and achievement. This resulted in more than 3 000 works now in private collections and the National Library.

Rowan traveled the world, painting and exploring, often alone, and becoming engaged in 1873 didn’t slow her down. She was known for her glamorous and immaculate grooming but mostly for her botanically accurate representations. Her works depict accurate plants and colours. She generally painted water colours but in later years also used oils.

Cluster fig (Ficus racemosa )

This is the story of an energetic, gifted and determined artist who thrived in a time when males dominated the artistic world. I bought it after reading a review and began flicking through, really enjoying the paintings but then went back and read it properly. It is a great read!

Plastic Free July RECYCLE/REDUCE/REUSE

The old mattress was picked up by a company who recycle all the components. It cost $50 and all work is done in a sheltered workshop. Check options online.

Coffee pods can be recycled by the company who manufactures them. Nespresso have their own collection points and other brands have similar arrangements. Look online for options near you. Percolators, plungers and cafeteria coffee makers (pots used on a hotplate) result in grounds which can be disposed of in the garden or bin.

Please let me know if you have any clever tips.

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Making, Cooking, Growing and Reading

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MAKING

SUPER EASY, SUPER FAST BOOKMARKS. I read a lot and I’m often searching for a bookmark. I have so many but I still misplace them. I read mostly books from the library and the one I’m reading at the moment suggests bookmarks were few and few between in the previous readers life, too, as annoyingly, every 40 or so pages, the edge of the page has been folded over!

So I was thinking about bookmarks. I wanted something bright so it’s easily found, cheap so it’s not too sad if it goes missing, quick to make and clearly visible in the book. These book marks also have the advantage of being stored on the book, for instance slipped over the back cover, while you’re reading, so less chance of it being lost.

I save the coloured envelopes birthday cards come in as they’re such pretty colours. Of course, I don’t really have a use for them, so I had lots to choose from when I decided to make these bookmarks.

You need

coloured envelopes or paper to fold and glue like the corner of envelope
glue
pencil and eraser
scissors
feltpen, Sharpie or similar if you’re making the slice of watermelon

For sheer simplicity I chose to make hearts and slices of watermelon. I’m planning to make these as little treats for the members of my bookclub and will use similar designs.

I drew half a heart shape on a folded piece of scrap paper and cut it out. Flattened it and traced it onto the corner of an envelope. Make sure it’s on the glued up corner, not the flap for sealing!

Cut on your pencil line, slip over the page of your book, close the book. Page saved by a secure and attractive bookmark.

To make the slice of watermelon, cut a curved piece the size of your completed bookmark from scrap paper. Trace the curve onto the envelope and cut. Use the same scrap piece to cut a white piece and glue it onto the green base. Use the curved scrap again to cut a red piece and glue it on. I used a Sharpie to draw seeds randomly on the red part. Done!

COOKING

After a brief but happy dalliance with bought rye bread, I “woke” up my starter/mother and made my own loaf. Not rye this time, apart from the starter. I used Premium White Bread Making flour simply because it was easier to get out of the cupboard where the bulk flours are stored!

It was so cold the morning I began this process I knew the starter wouldn’t get bubbly and look puffy without artificial warmth. Usually I put it on the table and the sun coming through the French doors is enough to get it started. Not this morning! It was cold and bleak and there was no warmth in the sun. This is the first time I have used the PROVING setting on the oven. I was really pleased with how well the starter and then later the dough reacted to this setting.

This is the white sourdough loaf I made and we enjoyed.

Also made an Egg and Bacon Pie. So easy and delicious. Brown 250gm of bacon in a pan with a splash of oil. Remove to a plate then brown a finely chopped leek. I had to add some extra oil to cook the leek. Spread this in a glass dish lined with baking paper. (So much easier to clean up!) Then whisk six large eggs until frothy, add 1/4 cup of water, or milk, whisk again. Pour over the bacon and leek. Grind some pepper over it. Put in 165° fan forced oven for 35 minutes, or until the middle is set. Serves 4-6. We like to eat it cold.

I have made this with bacon and mushroom and it is lovely, too. If I’m cutting it up for a picnic or sharing as part of a spread, I bake it in a square or rectangular dish.

GROWING

The white camellia suffered enormous damage three weeks ago when we had storms and heavy rain. The white flowers had brown marks around the edges of the petals and didn’t really open properly. Luckily, it’s blooming happily again. As a little boost I had watered a tray of ash in around the roots.

Each year my mother and I order tulips from the same grower. These are the last of my crop.

My Mother lives further south than us and her tulips are only just beginning to bloom.

READING

A Theatre for Dreamers

A THEATRE FOR DREAMERS by Polly Samson

This is the imagined life of Australian author and columnist Charmain Clift and her husband, George Johnston during the time they spent living on Hydra during 1955-1964. They settled in cheap and sunny Hydra with their three children, where Clift scandalised the locals by wearing trousers and drinking in bars.

On the surface, they live an idyllic life. They attract other creative types, such as Canadian Leonard Cohen, who soon partners with the abandoned Norwegian, Marianne Ihlen. Racked with artistic doubts, rejections or requests for editing from publishers and criticism from other authors, this is a tense society.

Clift is the centre of the cosmopolitan society of international bohemians in Hydra, helping and compassionate and always resentful of time stolen from her own writing career, especially by her ill, heavy drinking husband, a once famous war correspondent. He later was best known for his book, My Brother Jack.

Focusing on the days before serious drug use was the norm in Hydra, this small community buzzed with sexual jealousies, alcohol and creative souls who often didn’t meet their own expectations. We learn a little about the extremely tolerant Greek population around them, but mostly, this story is told by a minor player, Erica, the daughter of Clift’s neighbour when she lived in London. She sets off for Hydra with her brother and her boyfriend when her mother dies and she receives a copy of Clift’s book, The Lotus Eaters.

This well researched book is an imagined account of the halcyon days in Hydra and I found it fascinating. It was from a time I didn’t really know, but about characters I did know of, and the descriptions of Hydra were enticing. I thought this was a great read and would recommend it.

The other book I have been reading is THE GIRL WHO READS ON THE METRO by Christine Foret-Fleury.

Reviews describe this book as a “gem”, a “joy” and a “delight”. Juliette, our main protagonist, leaves her dull job in a real estate agency and takes over the book business of a mysterious character. Her job is to follow strangers and observe their behaviour to decide the perfect book for them. Juliette believes in the power of books to change peoples’ live.

This whimsical book, part literary reference and part fairy tale was a quick and easy read and really didn’t have much of a story! I think the whole point was showing the power of the written word to change how people feel. The online reviews are mixed, but the book has been translated into English due to its popularity in France. You decide! I’ve gone back to reading an Australian murder series.

We’re still in PLASTIC FREE JULY so please consider ways you can reduce your use of plastics. Rebecca Prince-Ruiz, founder of Plastic Free July reminds us that only 9% of all plastics are recycled and only 0.9% are recycled more than once. Plastics don’t actually break down completely, they simply become smaller and smaller, but never disappear.

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Winter Occupations In The Kitchen

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COOKING WITH CITRUS FRUIT

It is the middle of a wet and windy winter in Western Australia. The citrus trees are covered in fruit this year. I live in an older suburb where many of the houses have fruit trees. Luckily, my neighbours share their bounty!

I made GLAZED LEMON SLICE, easy to make and very popular, from a Martha Stewart recipe. In her version there’s a glaze instead of icing but it sounded very rich and not, in my mind, in keeping with the clean, zestiness of lemons. I made a traditional icing using icing sugar, melted butter and lemon juice and added some finely grated lemon zest on top before it set. I prefer thin icing to thick frosting for cakes and slices.

Also made a baking tray of LEMON FLAVOURED SHORTBREAD biscuits. Apparently, these will last for a week, but never have in my house.

We like salmon for dinner at least once a week. Our favourite winter recipe involves baking two salmon fillets in a glass dish with one lime squeezed over the fillets and about 3 dessertspoons of maple syrup drizzled over the top. Baked for 15 minutes in 160° C fan forced oven, or until the outside is opaque, then served with vegetables. Quick, easy, tasty.

This time I also roasted carrots and red onions with cumin, sea salt and ground coriander plus lemon juice and sesame seeds to go with the salmon.

Having a supply of lemons, oranges, grapefruit and limes, I decided to try making SLOW COOKER MARMALADE. I have made marmalade since I can remember, either as assistant cook as a child or in my own kitchen. I rarely use bought pectin, instead relying on pips, pith and peel from the fruit tied in a muslin bag and cooked with the marmalade. Usually I make it in the microwave. Before I used to make it on the stove top. This time I followed a recipe for making it in the slow cooker. Followed the recipe, marmalade was still runny after stated time. Cooked it some more. Still runny. Bought and added pectin, still runny.

Pink grapefruit, oranges, lemons and also a lime cooking in the slow cooker. My first ever marmalade fail.

We like a chunky marmalade with peel and pieces of chopped up fruit. By the end of my attempts to thicken this lot it was boiled to almost clear liquid! Decided to experiment and see if I could use some of it to make a marmalade flavoured cake, because it still tastes great, it’s just too runny.

“MARMALADE THAT WONT SET CAKE”

I beat 140gm softened butter with 150gm sugar until it was pale and frothy. Added a 800gm egg and beat again, then added half a cup of runny marmalade. It curdled but went smooth and creamy again when I added 150gm self raising flour and mixed until it was smooth. Depending on how runny your failed marmalade is you might have to add more flour. Mine hadn’t set at all.

Scraped into a prepared cake pan and baked for 55 minutes at 160° C in a fan forced oven. Baked until a skewer inserted in the middle came out cleanly. Really lovely cake, would make a great dessert with cream or icecream. Not that I’m wishing ‘fail-to-set- marmalade’ on you!

Another day I used the same recipe to make FAILED MARMALADE CUPCAKES as our son was here for two days. Lots of cooking and eating together. Luckily, techno-kid also sorted out a few problems with my phone and blog. Thankyou!

OTHER EATING

I’ve made our own sourdough for some years and for the last eight months have been making my own sourdough rye bread. It is a heavy, dense loaf and probably an acquired taste but I really like it. Then my husband went to a nearby bakery and returned with this rye loaf. It was wonderful! I think we will keep buying it for a while then I will decide if I’ll go back to baking our own bread.

He also found other things we “needed”.

Another day and another bakery and more treats to fight off the cold weather. All very good.

MAKING PASTIES

Every winter I make trays of pasties and store them in the freezer. My family like them for lunch, at home or at work. Time to make more. I make pasties with meat and vegetables although I think traditional pasties have a vegetable filling. Pasties originated in Cornwall and originally Cornish Pasties had savoury filling in one end and a sweet filling in the other. The miners could hold then in one hand to eat.

Our new winter warming favourite dinner is SLOW COOKER BEEF BOURGUIGNON (here). I originally made it to use up some tough steak. I have continued making it because it is delicious and makes double generous sized dinners for two. Mostly I freeze the second one so I have a quick, hot, satisfying dinner available if we have a busy day. I thaw it in the fridge all day and heat it when we get home. I just add vegetables or if I’m rushed, buttered toast.

drinking

Normally I drink coffee and water but after too many double espressos recently at lunch I was introduced to fruit infusions. I occasionally drink lemon and ginger tea but this brew, cranberry and vanilla, was really lovely. Bought something similar in the supermarket and then read online that the brand I’d bought was still using plastic based materials to seal their teabags. Next time I was at the cafe I found out the brand name of the tea I’d been drinking there and hunted it down online. Now making tea using a tea infusers from my own bag of tea mix. And I really like it!

Just in case you thought all we do here is eat, I’ve included a photo showing just what one member of the family did when we got out of bed. It was a very cold (for W.A 7°C) morning and Louis found the warm spot!

Did you miss Bastille Day? Hope not! July 14th commemorates the storming of the Bastille in Paris in 1789. Probably easier to just eat macarons or croissants!

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Easy Changes For Plastic Free July

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CHOOSE TO REFUSE SINGLE USE PLASTIC

clear plastic water bottles

We all need to work towards eliminating single use plastics. Plastic itself is a great and useful product but should be made from recyclable materials and used over and over. Single use plastics are releasing toxins from landfill and choking our waterways and oceans.

Plastic has been found in almost every food we eat. Recent Italian research, reported in Environmental Research claims microplastics are being absorbed into fruit and vegetables. Fruit typically has older root systems than vegetables and are seen to absorb more plastic particles.

We need to adopt alternatives to plastic. I have listed a few beginner swaps to reduce the plastic in your life.

EASY STEPS TO USE LESS PLASTIC

Here are some easy ideas to replace your single use plastics.

1. Find replacements for cling wrap. Use glass jars or glass containers with lids that are strong and suitable for frequent use. Silicone, stretchy covers seal dishes well. I bought some expensive silicone covers which were stiff and a bit of a struggle to stretch over bowls but have lasted a long time. I also bought some cheaper ones which were softer and easier to use but have stretched out of shape. Lesson learnt.

Waxed fabric wraps are also popular and can go in the compost when they wear out. I could never get them to stay securely on things in the fridge. They never sealed well. I also use clear shower caps on large bowls I use for bread making. My mother uses saucers to cover bowls in the fridge.

2. Buy a “keep” cup, a reusable covered cup you can get filled at your coffee shop, but this might not work during the CV-19 pandemic. You’ll probably have to ask when you order. A set of reusable cutlery is handy, too. Ours is in a fabric roll I made. It is light and compact.

3. Try buying everyday staples from bulk supply shops. You can fill your own glass jars with flour, sugar, oatmeal pulses and many other products. I can buy flour in bulk from a bread making supply shop.

4. Is your soap wrapped in plastic? There’s so many paper wrapped or not wrapped at all bars of soap available. Unfortunately, I prefer liquid soap at the basin, so buy it in bulk in recyclable bottles which I decant into old pump bottles. I’ve tried making my own which was not a success and have found a bulk supplier nearby so will go there when I’ve used up my supply.

5. Apart from taking your own bag shopping, take small, light (netting) bags for buying loose fruit and vegetables. We can buy F&V in little, reusable thick paper bags but if I suddenly see something I need and don’t have a bag I get one from the mushroom area where they always offer paper bags.

6. Shopping online was great during isolation but a real problem when things arrived in layers and layers of plastic. I ordered three clothing items from the same company and they arrived in three individual bags in two very big, thick plastic bags. I have commented in the customer satisfaction email they later sent, but no response, yet.

7. If you subscribe to magazines which arrive in the post, ask when you order if they are posted in paper or compostable, eco- friendly wrappers. Two of my subscription magazines from overseas are posted in big paper envelopes and they arrive safely every month. Another comes in an eco- friendly, 100% compostable wrapper with the message “Please dispose of it in your home compost bin, food waste caddy or green bin.” My Australian magazines come in plastic, but I’m hopeful this will change.

8. Check if online to see if your tea bags are plastic free. Many brands still seal the bag with a plastic product. Apart from the problem with the plastic entering the environment, some chemicals can leach into liquids at high temperatures.

After being introduced to a lovely fruit infusion at my local cafe ( I’d already had two double espressos) I’m ordering it as loose leaves and will make it in a teapot, just like they do!

7. Reduce the number of cleaning products bought in plastic bottles. Some time ago I started making and using MIRACLE SPRAY ( formula freely available online) I have decided it works better than the range of products I used to buy and use. I make several litres at a time and decant it into old spray bottles which I will replace with glass when they become brittle. It smells fresh, costs very little and does a good job. It is not recommended for use on granite and marble so I use detergent and hot water to wipe down those areas. I also use old clothes as cleaning cloths which I wash and reuse. Mine are old sheets and clothes but I’ve seen really fancy ones on blogs where the clothes are cut into perfect squares, hemmed and folded neatly into pretty piles.

8. Some butchers will pack your meat into your own containers. Just ask. Nearly all bakeries will wrap your bread in tissues and put your pastries in cardboard boxes or trays. Ask if you can buy milk in glass bottles.

9. Takeaway food is a dilemma. So much of it comes in polystyrene or plastic boxes with plastic cutlery. Pizza comes in a recyclable box which goes in your compost or recycling bin . Pizza can be eaten with your fingers. Just saying!

Pizza in cardboard good, plastic drink bottle not so good.

10. I’ve reused some old plastic containers many times. For example, the plastic punnet some avocados came in is regularly used as a seedling box. I stand used toilet rolls in it, use a funnel ( made from rolled up scrap paper) to pour in seedling mix, pressed down to compact the soil, then poke the seeds into it. I spray the seed tubes and move them around indoors or in a sheltered area so they get good winter sun exposure. This means they’re ready to go at the end of winter.

I use a dibbler to make a hole where I am going to plant the seedling, put the roll in and water as usual. By the time the seeds are ready to be planted out the cardboard is quite mushy and already disintegrating.

Planted tomato seeds and some sage seeds. I really like sage with chicken but my bush became woody and died, so I am replacing it.

Another way to get lots of “no plastic” hints is to ask your grandparents or elderly friends or neighbours for hints! Eco warriors before the concept existed, older people managed without home delivered takeaway, plastic packaging and huge super markets.

Please share your hints for minimizing the single use plastic in your life!

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How to Keep White Bed Linen White, Cooking, Growing and a Book Review

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I really like white bed linen. It always feels fresh and clean, both cool in summer and cocooning in winter. I buy white, cotton, good quality sheet sets. So far both sets we use have lasted over 12 years, although I have had to mend the lace edging on one set.

Love the embroidered bees on these white sheets.

This beautiful set of sheets needs occasional mending to maintain the lace edging. As a new puppy, Louis somehow got onto the bed and chewed about 30cm of the lace edging. He found it very satisfying, I didn’t find mending it very satisfying at all.

We also have a white quilt cover. I throw a cream wool blanket over the quilt cover during the day. The sunlight and the dog have slowly caused the cover to become more cream than white, despite the protective cover.

Time for a whitening treatment. I didn’t want to use bleach because the chlorine component in bleach reacts with protein stains and causes discolouring. Protein stains are typically sweat, blood, vomit, egg and other foods. The chlorine causes these stains to yellow. After lots of research I settled on using Borax. I bought some at the supermarket.

HOW TO WHITEN BED LINEN

I wiped the laundry trough to ensure it was clean. Then I dissolved ½ a cup of Borax in very hot water before adding the quilt cover. I used a copper stick to agitate the cover and returned to do this every now and then. After four hours I put the wrung out cover in the washing machine with a scoop of my usual washing machine powder and put it on a long, hot wash.

This is the copper stick or washing dolly. It was originally used to agitate washing in the copper, a big copper tub over a fire. Then the stick would be used to “hook” the washing out to put through the wringer/mangle to remove as much water as possible, before rinsing or hanging to dry. We didn’t have electricity until I was 12 and my mother relied on the copper to do the laundry. My copper stick is actually a cut down broom handle with the ends slightly rounded. I am surprised how often I use it to stir things soaking in the trough.

Borax from Woolworths 500gm $4.10. The tub has a list of instructions and cautions to follow when using this product.

When the cycle finished I hung the cover on the line. Line drying, if the weather permits, always smells fresher. I like ironed pillow cases and the decorative edges on the top sheet but didn’t bother ironing the cover. Back on the bed. White, fresh and crisp. Covered with a wool blanket to protect the cover from the wet weather dog. A good result.

This treatment would work equally well on stained white shirts, sporting uniforms, other bed linen, tea towels and bath towels. I wish I’d known how easy it is to restore stained white fabrics when I was washing and ironing so many business shirts and school shirts every week. I think almost anything white would respond well.

cooking

Last week I made slow cooker beef bourguignon as a way of using some tough pieces of steak. This week I found we still had three pieces of that tough steak which was not quite enough for two meals, so when I made it I added a tin of cannellini beans. They bulked up the stew and tasted very good. Perfect dinner for wet and windy nights.

growing

These are vegetables grown from scraps. When I cut off the end of the celery and bok choy to use them I put the bases in water until they developed roots and then planted them. They are growing well. Something else likes them, too, and has nibbled at the leaves of the bok choy. A neighbour simply puts the ends in soil and her celery plants are impressive. I’ll try this next time.

At least 13 years ago I planted the ends of spring onions in a pot and they have thrived ever since. I have a year round supply of spring onions just outside the laundry door. Spring onions are used frequently in Asian cooking, but I add then to so many things. A quick favourite is an omelette with eggs, spring onions and a grating of strong cheese. Add a chopped tomato if I’ve got one. Almost instant food.

Versatile spring onions.

And the first of the tulips.

reading

This is another library book I reserved during isolation and now it has arrived. It is wonderful to have access to the library again.

Anne Tyler writes about the ordinary, the everyday. She manages to portray those same characters with depth and compassion.

Micah never really understands or connects with any of his girlfriends, although at 44 he feels too old to call them girlfriends. He works, he occasionally visits his large, chaotic family but mostly he lives a simple life, following his own strict schedule. He’s puzzled by how things have turned out, but an encounter with an old girlfriend makes him think, then act. Love a happy ending!

A beautifully told story from this brilliant story teller. Really enjoyed it.

The title refers to Micah refusing to wear his glasses on his morning runs and mistaking an advertising sign on the footpath for a redhead at the side of the road. This hints at how he often sees things a bit differently.

The beginning of July marks PLASTIC FREE JULY. The tagline this year is CHOOSE TO REFUSE SINGLE USE PLASTIC. Lots more information at PLASTICFREEJULY.ORG. You are encouraged to avoid waste, protect the ocean and sign up to be part of the solution.

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Slow Cooker Beef Bourguignon, Date Loaf and Two Book Reviews

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Slow Cooker Beef dinner with fall apart delicious chunks of beef and perfectly cooked potatoes and carrots in a rich sauce of bacon, tomato, red wine ( I used shiraz), soy sauce and beef stock, thickened with a little flour.

My husband likes to buy big pieces of grass fed beef and butcher it himself. We sort it into meal size pieces and freeze it. He selects and buys very, very good meat, until last time. The last lot was tough. We could not eat it as grilled steak. I thawed all of those pieces and planned to make something requiring a long cooking process.

I decided to make Slow Cooker Beef Bourguinon as I had all the ingredients available. Although I go out shopping each week now, I don’t want to go out for “top up” shops. I based this recipe on a slow cooker Beef Bourguinon recipe on Therecipecritic.com but made several changes to suit our taste. It made a delicious dinner for two nights.

This is far less complex than an authentic Bœuf Bourguignon, a French beef stew, but achieves the rich gravy and fall apart loveliness of the classic recipe. I have made this on the stove top in a Dutch oven but prefer the slow cooker result as all the flavours mix and mingle. It only requires a few steps and then everything is in the slow cooker and only requires stirring occasionally. I think this tastes as good as the stove top, four hour, attention intensive Julia Child recipe I used to make. The set and forget method is very attractive, too. Traditionally, the stew would include pearl onions but I didn’t have any on this occasion. I love the addition of soy sauce, too.

SLOW COOKER BEEF BOURGUIGNON

INGREDIENTS

750 gm beef, cubed ( stewing steak or any tough beef )

375gm packet bacon

1 cp red wine, traditionally burgundy, I used shiraz

2 cps beef stock

3 cloves diced garlic

2 tbspn tomato paste

¼ cp low salt soy sauce

¼ cp plain flour

5 carrots peeled and cut into chunks

750gm unpeeled potato, cut into chunks

METHOD

Cook the diced bacon until lightly coloured in a little oil. Scrape into the slow cooker set on HIGH.

2. Sear the meat in the same pan, add to the slow cooker.

3. Add the chopped vegetables. Make the sauce by pouring the wine into the pan used for searing the meat, when it’s bubbling add the stock, tomato paste, garlic and soy sauce. Mix the flour with enough water to make a watery paste and whisk into the other liquid and keep stirring. Let cook for a few minutes.

4. Add the sauce to the slow cooker, give everything a good stir, put on the lid. Give it a stir every hour or so. Inhale and enjoy the process. Cook for 5 hours, test the meat.

5. Serve scattered with parsley, which I forgot. Enjoy!

I like to make recipes to serve four or more, giving me leftovers to freeze. This means I can take these out of the freezer to thaw then heat while green vegetables steam if we’ve been out all day.

In fact, we enjoyed this for dinner again the next night. SO good on a very cold night after a busy day. This time I remembered the parsley.

Date Loaf

Do you like old fashion loaf pan cakes? I was going to meet a friend at a cafe this week when suddenly a gale blew up with very heavy rain. A quick phone call and we decided she’d come here, instead. There was no cake, no fresh biscuits but I knew I had fresh dates, flour, brown sugar, bicarb soda and butter. Decided to make a Date Loaf. Chop, chop dates in the melted butter and brown sugar, add the bicarb and the flour and into a baking paper lined loaf dish and into the oven.

By the time my visitor arrived, dried off and had a coffee set in front of her the loaf was done. Let it cool a little on a rack, then sliced and served. Later we ate more slices, this time adding butter, the usual way to eat date loaf. The rest went rather quickly the next morning when we were playing mahjong.

Interesting how popular these all fashioned cakes are and how quick and easy they are to make.

BOOK REVIEWS

THE SHIFTING LANDSCAPE

During hibernation I read lots of book reviews. I went online and reserved anything that appealed from the library. The first of these reserved books to arrive when things began to return to normal was Katherine Kovacic’s ” The Shifting Landscape”

Alex Clayton, an art dealer, is employed to travel to a farm in the Victorian Western Districts to value the family’s art collection. The rest of this thriller involves murder, art theft and kidnapping. Traveling with her always is her wolfhound Hogarth.

Involved in the drama, especially after valuing one of the paintings at more than a million dollars, is Alex’s art restorer friend who helps her solve the mystery.

I really enjoyed the reference to many painters and paintings, her description of the old farmhouse which had been in the family for several generations, the small local town and the well written story, full of mystery. I really enjoyed this fast moving, easy to read book. Great on a wet day.

THE HIDDEN

Written by Mary Chamberlain, this book club book is set during the Nazi occupation on the Channel Islands. It is inspired by two women, a German Jewish refuge, who is betrayed and murdered and another woman who had been earmarked for Himmler’s Lebensborn¹ breeding program. Himmler planned to breed typical Aryan children to develop the master race.

The hideous crimes against the main characters are all based on fact and are extremely distressing. This fictional account is based on the war crimes committed at SS run labour camps, in particular Sylt, on occupied Guernsey

This was a difficult book to read at times, but it was also something I knew very little about, so I am glad I persisted.

¹ Founded in 1935, Lebensborn was a SS Nazi association in Germany with the goal of raising the birth rate of Aryan children born of people classified as ‘racially pure” and “healthy” based in Nazi ideology.

After that book review I’d like to tell you that on this day in 1945, in San Francisco, the United Nations Charter was signed by 50 nations.

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How I Roast Chicken, a Book Review and White Bean Dip

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ROAST CHICKEN

Do you find it difficult to roast a moist, tasty chicken? We eat chicken quite often and one roasted chicken makes two meals plus chicken stock and thick soup for the two of us. Over the years I’ve tried so many recipes but none were fantastic, until I found this one. I have modified it to suit our tastes and this is my preferred way to roast a chicken now. It’s not bland and the chicken flavour shines through, rather than the spices I’ve added, which was the problem with other recipes.

To begin, heat the oven to 175° C fan forced (345 ° F) Pat dry a 1.5kg (3½ lb) chicken, after checking the cavity is empty. The drier the skin, the crisper it roasts. Quarter a lemon and push it into the cavity with a generous sprig or two of rosemary. Tie the legs together with kitchen string.

I add some potatoes and carrots and sometimes onions at this point because they taste so good when they’re basted with the chicken juices. Next, melt 40gm butter with 4 diced cloves of garlic. ( I melt the butter in the microwave with the chopped up garlic as it enriches the flavour)

Drizzle some oil in the roasting pan, then season with ground black pepper and salt. Place the chicken in the middle of the pan surrounded by vegetables if you’re adding them. Baste everything with the melted garlic butter, put it in the oven and set a timer for 20 minutes. When the timer goes off, baste again (using pan juices or leftover garlic butter) rotate the pan 90° then set the timer for another 20 minutes. Continue basting and rotating until the chicken has been roasting for about one hour and 40 minutes. Test the temperature of the breast flesh. If it is 75°C (165°F) leave the chicken to rest under a loose foil cover for 10 minutes then carve. Different sized chickens will cook at different rates and ovens can vary in temperature so I rely on the temperature of the breast meat, not touching the bone, to decide if it is cooked.

The pan juices make very good gravy but this time I added them to the carcass to make stock.

I roasted the Brussels sprouts in another pan for 15 minutes, then another 15 minutes after I’d drizzled sweet chili sauce on them. This caramelizes and adds a wonderful flavour to the roasted sprouts. Delicious. Serve with a wedge of lemon.

Glass dishes are my preferred roasting pans as they wash clean easily. Several of them have lids, too, so once the leftovers are cool, I can put the lid on and store them in the fridge until I need them.

It’s winter in Western Australia so I add lemons to almost everything along with making marmalade, lemon zest shortbread and lemon drizzle cake.

Winter also means it’s almost time to prune the roses. These are the last of them, I think, plus a pink lissianthus. Well, they are the last of my roses but I went to visit my Mother on Monday and gathered a vase of roses from her garden!

My Mother’s roses.

Book Review

There’s nothing better than going to bed on a cold night and settling into a good read. The Good Turn is the third book by Irish born but Fremantle residing Dervla McTiernan. I really enjoyed her previous two books, The Ruin and The Scholar. I am really enjoying this one, too. This cleverly crafted detective story focuses on police corruption and the impact of this on the police involved.

McTiernan is well placed to write these stories. She was born in County Cork and her stories are set on Ireland. She practiced there as a lawyer for twelve years before moving to Western Australia with her family. Her stories are fast moving without too much gore but always involve unexpected twists and turns. As usual, I try and get my books from the library. This one was a great read.

White Bean dip

First made this dip when I found a can of cannellini beans in the cupboard and thought I should use them. It is so easy to make and only requires things you probably already have on hand. I really like it as a change from hommus. I also like that it is dairy free, unlike so many dips.

You need 1 can drained and rinsed cannellini beans, about 310gms, (11-12oz) plus 2 cloves of garlic, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, ¼ cup of olive oil, ¼ cup of fresh oregano or parsley, salt and black pepper. I didn’t have any fresh oregano so used 1 heaped teaspoon of dried.

Put everything in a jug and coarsely mixed using a stab blender. Taste and add seasoning. I found I needed lots of salt. I think I bought “no added salt” beans.

Scrape into a serving bowl and chill. To serve, drizzle a little olive oil on top and some chopped parsley. Eat with baked pita bread, crackers, crudites or on toast.

Did you know 21st of June is International Yoga Day, intended to raise awareness about including yoga in our daily lives? There are many benefits from practicing yoga. As a keen participant, I’ll be doing my usual YouTube practise on Tuesday 21st, but I’m really looking forward to our sessions beginning again, probably next month.

If you are interested in trying some yoga or just reading about the benefits, Nicola Jane Hobb’s ‘Stay Young With Yoga’ is a great resource. If you’d like to learn more, YouTube has a huge range of videos, from beginners to achieving specific strengths or treating specific problems.

Nicola Jane Hobbs, Stay Young With Yoga, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020

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The New Fridge and “Exciting Times”, a Book Review

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THE NEW FRIDGE DRAMA

Do you feel your electrical goods don’t last very long? I am convinced now that our electrical appliances are designed to stop working after about ten years. Why? When our oven was about eleven years old it stopped functioning. The electrician came and showed us the damage, quoted for replacement parts and then explained the oven was so old that new parts would take months to arrive. We use the oven almost every day and not having a working one for three months would be difficult.

The next problem was finding a double oven which would fit the existing cavity. We’d recently had the kitchen cupboard doors replaced and I didn’t want to have to get a carpenter to modify the oven space so we were limited to only a few models which would fit. We bought a stainless steel Smeg double oven and we have been very happy with it. The big issue for me was the stainless steel finish in my all white kitchen. I got used to it and eventually didn’t notice it every time I walked in there.

About eighteen months later the dishwasher also stopped working. This was during the early days of isolation and it was worrying having an appliance repair man come into the house. He arrived gloved and masked and after inspecting the machine, shared the news; our Bosch dishwasher had died.

His company was able to supply and install another dishwasher and remove the old one. We weren’t keen on shopping in a huge electrical shop so took his advice and bought the dishwasher he recommended, a Siemens. We are pleased with it but the only one available at the time had a stainless steel finish. Not my preferred finish but I felt we had a solution which meant we stayed isolated and had a functioning dishwasher.

Then a week ago we came inside from gardening. I turned the coffee machine on, my husband turned on his laptop. Coffee machine worked, no internet connection on his laptop. Modem not working. Investigating the meter box revealed we had a problem. Called the electrician. He diagnosed a dead fridge. It wasn’t the compressor or the fan belt and probably couldn’t be repaired and anyway, parts would take months to come. The fridge, despite looking very new and modern was actually about twelve years old.

So, Friday mid afternoon we go to a big electrical goods supplier as we have to find a fridge which will fit the existing cavity. The salesman wanted to know what we were looking for in a fridge, which I hadn’t given any thought, but told him the size was actually the most important factor. That limited us to very few options and we selected the one from a brand we knew. The salesman thought it was available in white and tapped away on his computer. Tap, tap, tap, yes, available in white, tap,tap, tap, delivery in ten weeks! Only stainless steel or graphite finish available now. We bought stainless steel. It matches the oven, dishwasher and hot plate.

We keep a lot of food in the freezer. We buy locally caught fish and prawns (shrimps) which are very affordable this year as the traditional export markets are limited. My husband buys big pieces of meat and butchers them to suit our needs. There was a lot of meat in the freezer. Luckily, a neighbour (we have great neighbours) offered us several shelves in her freezer.

The next afternoon the new fridge arrived. It was very difficult to get through the portico and front door to the kitchen. I was really impressed by the two young men and their determination, care and problem solving skills. Eventually the new fridge was in place, the old one was gone and my once white kitchen now has all stainless steel appliances. I’m sure I’ll get used to it.

Relating this drama to my mother she referred to the fridge she has in the garage and the one in her kitchen, telling me they are really old! Both are over 30 years old and no problems. Fridge design didn’t change very much for years so despite their age, her fridges look fine and do the job well.

Pondering inbuilt obsolescence led me to Buy Me Once, a business promoting long lasting products. Tara Button created a website featuring products which do last. She considers

1. Do the materials used result in a durable product?

2. Do customers and independent reviews confirm the product’s longevity?

3. Is the product manufactured from ethically and sustainable materials?

4. Is exceptional aftercare offered?

5. Is the design timeless?

I like the concept of buying the best and buying less. Sometimes the best will have already proven its durability, such as an antique or second hand product and sometimes the brand is well established and recognised for its quality. As consumers we all have the power to buy thoughtfully.

More information, mainly focusing on UK products from www.buymeonce.com

Bought 38 years ago in still in frequent use.

EXCITING TIMES by Naoise Dolan A BOOK REVIEW

I hesitated to review this book as I was always told,”If you cant find anything nice to say don’t say anything at all”. The nice thing; this story is set in Hong Kong and I really enjoyed the author’s references to places I know well. Many of the streets, MTR stations and routes and even some restaurants were familiar and I enjoyed the nostalgic journey, but not much else.

This is a book about millennials. I know a few things about millennials; I grew one myself. He is thoughtful, funny, focused and hardworking, as are many of his cohort. The angst, self obsession, ennui and ability to ignore her core values in favour of free rent in a lovely flat (without the cockroaches in her paid accommodation) in exchange for sex and occasional company, seems at odds with our protagonist’s communist leanings and constant sneering at those who house, feed and entertain her.

Ava has finished university with a degree in English Literature and uses her “abortion” money to leave her home in Ireland to teach “rich children” English in Hong Kong. She doesn’t like them or the job but has no plans for the future. Ava actually scorns the job and her colleagues, scorns the children she teaches, scorns her sex partner but allows him to pay for everything. She is shallow and self obsessed.

This tale, a quick read, is full of clever quips about the use of language. These fill in the gaps between Ava leaving her rich, Oxford University educated male sex partner and going to her rich, Cambridge University educated female sex partner. Her parasitic behaviour was at odds with the irony and feminist views so important to our main character.

The author, Naoise Dolan , herself a graduate of Trinity College Dublin and Oxford University, obviously hated her university years and everyone she met. She has been compared to Sally Rooney, author of ‘Normal People’. This is another book I found frustrating but I must be out of sync with young readers. It has been made into a series of 12 episodes currently airing.

Finally, I headed to online reviews and discovered many readers who reacted the same way I did to this book. Reviewers don’t publish their age but I would like to know if this tale resonates more with young people. I could not recommend it.

Did you know?

June 10th marked the 99th birthday of Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, the Duke of Edinburgh. He is the longest serving consort in British history. Born to both Greek and Danish royalty he has been married to Queen Elizabeth 11 since 1947.

He is best known for the Duke of Edinburgh Award, developing competitive carriage driving and his sharp wit and occasional gaffe.

Many happy returns!

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Making, Cooking and Growing in Changing Times

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MAKING

Have you been busy crafting? There’s an amazing range of craft tutorials online and you can master so many useful and entertaining skills. I’ve been watching painting tutorials which have been very interesting but a bit intimidating, too. My favourite painting tutorials are from The Rijksmuseum. Search Youtube for a range of demonstrations. I was really inspired by the Botanical Painting demonstration, having just done a series of Asiatic Lily painings myself, nowhere near as detailed as those done on the Rijksmuseum video.

A friend said at Christmas time she and her group only exchange handmade gifts. I thought this sounded very smart until I realised my repertoire would only cover cooking and growing. Although I enjoying making biscuits (cookies) and presenting them in pretty boxes and growing plants for friends, I knew it was time to get some new ideas.

SEED PACKETS

My first effort is this set of seed packets. I printed the template from the Country Living site, then painted the pot and plant image using water colours. When the paint was dry I cut, folded and glued the packets. I’ll make sets of five or ten, I’m not sure, yet.

For templates and ideas for seed packets, try Pinterest or search online. Once you select a template is it easy to personalise the front with your own illustration and wording if this is what you’d like to do. Then print, cut and glue. Package with string or ribbon. Pretty and easy.

CANE CHAIR REPAIR and a NEW CUSHION COVER

My next project this week was not making gifts but re-covering a cushion on a cane chair in the family room. This is a very old but comfortable chair. My mother likes to sit on it with her coffee next to her on the sofa table. When I upended the chair to dust it I found pieces of cane unraveling and some nails sticking our. I also realised that when our dog was a puppy, not only did he like to lie under the chair and watch the world, he also teethed on one of the struts between the legs. Tiny little puppy teeth chewing was very evident. Luckily it has not effected the integrity of the chair.

The glued down cane needed masking tape to hold it in place while it dried. Usually I use clothes pegs to hold things in place until set, but the cane was too thick. It has stuck well. I also hammered in all the nails. Next I measured and cut a new cover for the cushion and two ties to attach it to the chair at the back.

The existing cushion cover had a coffee stain. I tried washing it but there was still a shadow of the stain. New cover required. To make the cushion cover I just cut a rectangle from white cotton fabric twice the size of the cushion and added seam allowances, then stitched up both long edges on the wrong side, trimmed and turned it the right way out. I made two ties from folded thin strips and turned them the right way out, which was a bit of a fiddle, then trimmed and ironed all the pieces. I was going to hand stitch across the top, then machine stitch where the ties were attached to make the join strong but ended up machine stitching across the top. I used a long stitch so I can easily unpick it to wash when necessary.

This chair gets a lots of use! It now looks fresh and plump and is very comfortable.

COOKING

I’ve been disappointed with the harvest from mushroom farms or blocks in the past. I bought a sample pack of mushrooms at a market before WA closed down and really liked the King Oyster Mushrooms. I began looking for a supplier of the grow blocks and found a commercial grower selling fresh mushrooms and grow blocks from a nearby suburb. Perfect!

Ordered a King Oyster Mushroom block and it was delivered that afternoon. It was a square plastic pack containing hardwood sawdust, wheat bran and soy bean husks inoculated with the spores. I put it in the fridge overnight to “cold shock” it to begin fruiting. I had already prepared a faux greenhouse by drilling many holes in a plastic storage box. I put the opened block slightly elevated on blocks in the greenhouse and misted it regularly using a water spray.

About seventeen days later I began harvesting really big, great tasting King Oyster Mushrooms. I cut the thick, firm, tasty stems to scallop sized pieces and chopped the tops into four. Then I simply cooked them in frothy butter until they are slightly coloured. I served them on just out of the oven buttered rye sourdough with Himalayan salt sprinkled on top and chopped parsley, too. Very, very good.

This mushroom kit has been a great success. I have harvested around 750gm of King Oyster Mushrooms and there’s probably about the same amount developing in the block for future picking….and eating.

Fresh citrus everywhere, so made little shortbread biscuits flavoured with lemon zest.

And made some jars of grapefruit, lemon and kumquat marmalade in the microwave. The shortbread biscuits are shared with the lady who gave me lemons and there’s a jar of marmalade for the lady who gave me the grapefruit. The neighbour who lets me pick her kumquats doesn’t eat then at all! We live in an old suburb with well established citrus trees. We have a lime tree and luckily, the neighbours share their bounty of lemons, kumquats and grapefruit.

For some years now I have been making our sourdough loaf in a Pyrex rectangular baking dish as it results in predictable sized slices, but made yesterday’s loaf in a dutch oven. Love the rustic, irregular loaf, ate some with the mushrooms.

GROWING

Have you joined the kitchen scrap growing movement? A few weeks ago I planted a celery end which is growing well, and then I planted five bok choy ends, too, and they are growing impressively. Have five more bok choy ends in a bowl of water waiting for roots to appear to ensure fresh veg over a few weeks. Very exciting.

This healthy tomato plant self seeded and I am hoping it will grow tomatoes but it may be too cold now. Love a self seeding edible plant as opposed to the many, many self seeding weeds I have to deal with all the time.

Also planted more silverbeet, more lavender and a yellow nasturtium. The yellow is my husband’s favourite but seem to have stopped self seeding, as did the red one, my favourite. We’ll have masses of orange ones, though. My mother grew the yellow one for us. Also planted hollyhock seeds collected by her and a canna tuber, too.

The bromeliad is blooming. The pink, mauve and purple colours really pop against the mostly green winter garden.

and LOOKING

Monet’s garden in Giverny opens soon but we wont be there! The spring garden is gorgeous. If you’d like information and a virtual tour, copy and paste http://www.fondation-monet.com

WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY 5th JUNE

“The food we eat, the air we breathe, the water we drink and the climate that makes our planet habitable all come from nature.” This is the opening statement defining World Environment Day.

Biodiversity is the theme for 2020. This involves 8 million plants and animal species, their ecosystems and the genetic diversity within them.

As always, the aim is to highlight how we are damaging the environment and to celebrate the achievements each year. For more information, inspiring stories and plans for action visit https://www.worldenvironmentday.global/

https://www.countryliving.com/diy-crafts/how-to/g1035/easy-paper-craft-projects/?slide=5

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