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enjoying asparagus

Do you really like asparagus but find steaming it a bit of a faff? I cook it in the microwave! It stays slightly crisp and very tasty. We really like it prepared this way. I like serving it simply, too, with a little butter, some black pepper and maybe a squeeze of lemon. Easy instructions on how to microwave asparagus  https://www.makecookgrow.com/2021/11/fast-delicious-dinner-reading-and-when-do-you-decorate-the-christmas-tree/microwaving

Most commercially grown asparagus in Australia is grown in Victoria. It is marketed nationally and internationally. Apparently 31% of Australians regularly consume asparagus. I served the microwaved asparagus with chicken rogan josh and couscous. Bit different, but I didn’t really feel like rice!

restoring garden toolS

Spring means lots of tidying up in the garden. I soon discovered both pairs of hedge clippers were really blunt as were a pair of secateurs.  Not my really good, really expensive rotating handle secateurs, but the every day ones I keep handy for, well, every day jobs. Really blunt. I’d seen an item on Gardening Australia, a television program, about restoring old but solid tools.

First step was to wash them clean to the assess the rust. There was so much! And other bits I didn’t recognize. So, as recommended I put everything in a  bucket of vinegar. It took eight litres to cover the blades and other metal pieces of the three tools I decided to restore. Also the laundry smelt strongly of vinegar. Left them, as advised on the program, for seven days.

As the acetic acid reacted with the rust it left clean metal behind. The smell of vinegar was quite weak by day five, which was just as well, as it made me think of fish and chips. A bit of scrubbing and rinsing, then I left the pieces to dry. I couldn’t remove the evidence of knocks and other marks on the clipper handles or the handles on the old secateurs.

Next I needed to sharpen the blades on the clippers and secateurs. Our son had left me his whett stone after he’d sharpened our kitchen knives. A whetting stone is a fine grained stone used to sharpen the blades of cutting tools, such as knives, scissors and garden tools.The friction used by grinding against the stone hones the cutting edge.

To prepare a whetstone it needs to be saturated in water, in this case a tall jug. I left the stone in the water for a few days. The stone is orange and white as one side is coarser than the other. I set it on a towel on the work surface. I began with the coarse side facing up to get the angle just right, then refined the edge using the white side. The tools I was sharpening already had beveled edges. I wish you could see how clean they are but the photo doesn’t do them justice!

Using the sharpened, cleaned tools is such a pleasure. The handles on the older clippers are wood and I found evidence of them once being painted red. That’s a step too far for me! So I oiled the moving parts with Singer Sewing Machine Oil, tested each on an over grown rosemary bush and feel pretty pleased with how sharp the tools are and how smoothly they move.

I really enjoy the using these tools, now. What really made the difference was oiling the moving parts and sharpening the blades.

By the way, I used some of the murky, remaining vinegar from soaking the tools on weeds growing in pathways. The vinegar near the bottom of the bucket was beyond recycling. As the vinegar smell had almost disappeared I’ll have to wait a few days to see if there was any remaining weed killing strength in it. If it doesn’t work I’ll be back to boiling kettles of hot water to pour on the weeds.

what is a counselor of state?

This week King Charles III announced five new Counselors of State, including younger members of the Royal Family. What is their role? Apparently, a Counselor of State can be asked to step in and assist with some of the roles expected of the King if he is overseas or otherwise unavailable. They cannot perform all the official  roles expected of the sovereign but can sign invoices and attend meetings of the Privy Council. The five newly appointed Counselors of State  are The Queen Consort, Prince Harry, Prince Andrew and Princess Beatrice.

DID YOU KNOW

Sheep outnumbered people 2.5 to 1 in 2020. There used to be an expression that Australia rode on the sheep’s back!

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July is cold this year. We haven’t had our usual rainfall, either. I have been occupied despite the weather!

cooking chicken tikka masala

Warm and comfortable food features here during winter and we really like a good curry. I found this Chicken Tikka Masala online at https://www.thecookingfoodie.com/recipe/Chicken-Tikka-Masala-Recipe and set about preparing it. Like so many things I cook, the ingredients are readily available or easy to acquire. Apart from the chicken I had everything else. The chicken was cut into cubes then marinated in yoghurt, lemon juice, garlic, ginger, paprika and garam masala.

Then the browned chicken is added to a sauce/gravy mixture of onion, garlic, ginger, turmeric, chili, coriander, cumin, garam masala, diced tomato and yoghurt ( the recipe actually calls for cream but I prefer yoghurt). It tasted as good as it smelt and we really enjoyed it.

The recipe said it made five serves but actually we had six generous serves. So, two serves in the freezer, two in the fridge and two for dinner that evening. This is a lovely, rich recipe and I’ll be making it again.

reading

A few weeks ago I reviewed Lucy Foley’s cleverly written murder mystery The Guest List. Featuring any number of people who would have liked to murder one of the main protagonists, it wasn’t apparent until the very end which one was responsible.

This week I’ve read The Paris Apartment. Foley writes gripping murders set in contemporary environments. Her stories are full of twists and turns, so action packed and a little bit scary, too. This story involves the half sister of the man who has disappeared arriving in Paris, realising he is missing and trying to work out what has happened. She moves into his apartment in a rambling old house full of very odd people. Things start to go very wrong and she has no idea whom she can trust. It’s a great read.

eating mussels

It’s mussel season and I’m keen to eat them! No-one else in the family eats mussels so I made a little feast for myself. This year I cooked the mussels in a simple sauce based on passata with some herbs and vegetables. I like the flavour of the mussels to star and not be overwhelmed by the sauce.

Our mussels are caught in the Cockburn Sound, about 11 kilometres from here. Originally mussels were wild caught but since the 1980s they have been farmed.

making bread

I usually made two loaves of rye sourdough at a time. Two loaves last me about two weeks. Most of the bread is sliced then put in the freezer. I have a piece of toast at breakfast and a piece of bread at lunch time. This has worked well for ages but I must eat more bread when it’s cold! This week I have made three loaves, two regular loaf shaped ones and a boule, because I don’t have three rectangular dishes!

This bread needs a few days from start to finish. I take the starter out of the fridge and feed it flour and water before leaving it on the table near the window for about 24 hours. It starts to bubble and increase in size. The next day I take some of the bubbly starter/sponge and mix it with flour, water, salt and a tablespoon of molasses.

I used to mix it by hand as I liked to feel when the dough became elastic and ready.  Now I mix the dough in the mixer and then leave each loaf to rise again. This takes about two hours. Next the loaves go into the oven. The serious bakers say you should bake one loaf at a time in the middle of the middle shelf of the oven. I cooked two rectangular loaves side by side on the middle shelf and the boule on the shelf below and they look good and taste great.

cat aggravations

I’d like to say I am not really a cat person. We have a dog. It is not a friend of cats and usually ensures none venture into our garden. Dog has been sleeping on the job, obviously. Went out the back door the other day to find a pot plant which had been sitting on a ledge, smashed and the plant a bit of a mess. Assumed it was cat damage. Knew I would have to buy two new pots and re-pot the plant and another one, too, as they were in matching pots. Annoying.

Had to buy two new pots. Annoying.

Later that day my husband heard a crash outside the back door and went to investigate. A rustic wooden ‘house’ which had been on another ledge was on the ground but part of the roof was smashed off. Humph. Out with one of my many glues and masking tape to repair it. I have repaired this roof in the past but the little house, made out of scrap timber, reminds me of a beautiful garden we visited on a farm down south during an ‘Open Garden” weekend. So, I’ll repair it again and investigate ways to discourage cats.

The rustic little house is becoming weaker but I’ll keep repairing it for now. This strip has broken off the front previously.

Glue then held in place with masking tape.

did you know?

There are about a million camels roaming wild in Australia’s deserts. They represent the greatest number of purebred camels in the world and are exported to the Middle east.

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using your special things

Do you keep things ‘for best’?  Do you have precious family treasures, special gifts or table linen you rarely or never use? Is it because these things were really expensive, very old or need washing, starching and ironing?

I really like Emma Bridgewater’s Black Toast & Marmalade design. Her brand, based in Stoke on Trent, offers china, fabrics, glassware and cutlery. I’ve collected serving pieces for the past 30 years.

We only use these pieces a few times a year when  we’re entertaining . Suddenly it seemed a shame. So now I am using them! My husband particularly likes the large mug for his morning tea. Quite sturdy and mostly replaceable, I’m using some pieces from my collection. Not a lot of call for gravy dishes or milk jugs at my table most days, but other pieces are in use and being enjoyed.

Inherited cake forks, which need cleaning before use, a huge soup tureen and several very large serving platters are still in cupboards and drawers. We do use fabric serviette/napkins every meal but they are made from very thick cotton. When they’re washed, they’re pulled into shape, pegged out then brought in, smoothed into rectangles, rolled up and put back in serviette rings. The old, lovely damask ones I’ve inherited are only used a few times a year as we usually entertain quite casually. That way, the silver doesn’t need cleaning. I happily set Laguiole cutlery!

lunch in beverley

Begun in 1838 the town of Beverley is one of the earliest settlements in Western Australia, which was settled in 1829. Rich soil, good rainfall and geographically quite close to the new Swan River settlement, Beverley was considered the ‘ food bowl’ for the region. Situated along the Avon River, about an hour and a half from Perth, Beverley is now known for its sheep and wheat. My brother and sister-in-law live there and we visited during the week.

Enclosed veranda created a sitting area and a playroom.; the two windows now have wonderful works of art.

Some interesting old buildings remain, mostly renovated or well maintained. The school and post office were designed by George Temple Poole, who was appointed the as Superintendent of Public Works in Western Australia in 1885. He was responsible for the design of many public buildings throughout Western Australia. There’s town maps, wild flowers maps,  suggested walking tours, information about the (Soaring) Gliding Club and brochures about natural places of interest available from the Information Centre.

We had lunch at the Freemasons Tavern. It’s on the corner of Vincent Street, the main street and  Forrest Street. The original verandas are missing but inside, this pub is a surprise. A good surprise! The original, well proportioned high ceilings with deep skirting boards and ceiling roses remain. The bars and sweeping stair case are from an era of generous widths and rich timbers.

Lucky enough to be invited upstairs for a look around. The staff were installing electric blankets on the beds as they were booked out for the weekend and the nights there are cold. The rooms have high ceilings, some have fire places, there’s ceiling roses, deep skirting boards, stained glass windows and wide corridors. Although there’s still work to do upstairs, there are several areas to sit and drink or eat downstairs.

We had Louis, our dog, with us so ate out in the pavilion. Extensive menu, very comfortable and we really enjoyed our visit. The menu ranges from hamburgers to lamb rump with mash. (Dogs are not allowed inside public buildings in Australia or on trains or buses unless they are service dogs. Shame.) There’s also play equipment in a protected area plus plenty of off road parking.

chicken tagine

Chicken tagine and couscous.

Talking to a family member recently and she mentioned spicy chick peas.  The seed was sown; I had to make recipetineats.com  wonderful Chicken Tagine. I had chicken breasts, not chicken on the bone as recommended in the recipe but the breast meat stayed moist. The lovely mixture of cumin, ginger, black pepper, allspice, cinnamon and coriander plus preserved lemon skin and soften dried apricots mingled beautifully with the chicken. You can buy Rasa el hanout but it’s just a mix of the spices mentioned above which you probably have in your pantry, anyway. The only other ingredient is chickpeas! Served on couscous, which is so quick and easy. I don’t have a tagine, a traditional Moroccan domed ceramic cooking dish but this recipe cooked well in a large Dutch oven.

No ceramic tagine but this big Dutch oven did the job!

The recipe makes six serves. They’re quite generous serves. One lot of dinner for two went into the freezer and another lot went into the fridge. I really like having a few dinners ready in the freezer for busy days.

One dinner for two into the freezer, one dinner for two into the fridge.

Now is citrus season in Western Australia and I will be preserving lemons. I used some of the lemons I preserved last season in this recipe and I often use some to add extra flavour to stews and casseroles. Recipe for Preserved Lemons (here) https://www.makecookgrow.com/2021/09/preserving-lemons-cord-storage-and-almost-instant-versatile-poached-eggs/

Preserved Lemons before I used most of them! Scrape and discard the pulp; the skins taste delicious chopped and added to so many things.

Did you know?

The biggest cattle station (ranch) in the world, Anna Creek Station in South Australia, is bigger than Israel.

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planting

I like growing food. I have lots of herbs in pots and also spring onions. (They add colour and flavour to many things and grow well in pots.) I have a passionfruit vine and two blueberries and a lime tree. Now I have planted snow peas. We like them raw, steamed and in stir fries. The problem is the river rats like them, too, so I grow them in cages. Not the ideal look for a small garden but necessary to make sure we get some to eat, too.

Had a good sort through the seed tin and left out the snow pea seeds to plant. Soaked the seeds overnight in water to soften the outer skin. Then I planted them about 2cm deep in well prepared soil. I grow them in a small raise bed to slow down exploring rats. Covered the raised bed with a cage.

Snow peas (mange-tout) germinate after about ten days. They take between 8-12 weeks from planting to picking and are ready when the pods are still flat with no apparent development of the pea. They are ready to pick about 10 days after flowering. Snow peas can be grown in Western Australia all year but don’t like temperatures over 30°C. They also enrich the soil with nitrogen.

reading

I am reading a lot at the moment and enjoyed three books this week. The first was  Emily Brugman’s  The Islands, a fictional account of Finnish immigrants to Australia in the 60’s who end up as cray  (lobster) fishermen on Little Rat Island, part of the Abrolhos archipelago off the West Australian coast. The Islands are most famous for more than 60 ship wrecks, the best known being the Batavia (1629) and The Zeewijk (1727). Brugman touches on the ongoing exploration of the wreck sites and the relics retrieved.

Brugman’s story refers to the wrecks and ghostly sightings, but also the isolation, aridity and sun bleached coral environment, the plentiful crayfish and the clear, blue waters. References throughout to their assimilation within Australian culture are based on the author’s family. This is Brugman’s first novel. It is well written, interesting and engaging.

The second book was Julie Mayhew’s Little Nothings, a novel about four women, their families and their friendships. Competition, envy, money and alcohol are the constants in this story but it is well written. This is about the power of group dynamics and how hard it can be for some women to break free from those confines. I think Mayhew is a keen observer of human behaviour!

The third book I am really, really enjoying is published by Taschen, called Japanese Woodblock Prints. This book covers the evolution of this art form from 1680 to 1938 and is richly illustrated. I really like Japanese woodblock prints and the influence this style had on European artists. Although I have read books before about woodblock printing and even done a course and made and printed my own blocks, reading about the history and the complexity of becoming a woodblock artist is fascinating. This style is uniquely Japanese.

Library of Congress image.

When exports from Japan began arriving in Europe in 1880 after a 200 year trade block, Europeans were introduced to this unique style of representation. Called ukiyo-e (the pleasures of life) a word derived from the Buddhist word ukiyo, meaning floating world, it refers to art produced in Japan between the 16th and 19th centuries. Although most of the Impressionists admitted to being influenced to some degree by this style, Manat and Van Gogh were both keen followers. Van Gogh particularly admired the use of simple, well chosen lines to tell an entire story. Degas was a keen collector of Japanese ukiyo-e prints and acknowledge their influence on his work. Toulouse Lautrec was also a great admirer and the influence of the Japanese style is evident in his famous posters.

Library of Congress image

Woodblock prints typically represent a fantasized view of Japanese culture over three centuries. Landscapes, fantastical demons and other torments, kabuki actors, sumi wrestlers, courtesans and animals all feature along with a surprising amount of erotica. This book has all the well known artists, such as Hokusai, Hiroshige, Kunisada and Yoshitoshi  along with many lesser known artists. Rich with beautifully reproduced prints and information I’ll be returning to it for some time.

Library of Congress image

cooking

Citrus season has begun in Western Australia. Citrus are a versatile fruit which can be generally eaten raw or cooked, in savoury and sweet dishes, juiced, grated and  sliced and also used as decoration. Citrus looks good, smells good and tastes good! The fruit is packed with vitamins and minerals and is high in fibre. Citrus, in its many forms, is evident in the cuisine of most countries.

I have a lime tree and generous neighbours, who happily share their fruit. I was given some oranges and had access to kumquats so knew it was time to make an Orange Cake With Candied Kumquat.

This week we celebrate our 38th Wedding Anniversary. We’re not going out unless it’s necessary since the border between WA and the rest of Australia opened and CV exploded here. So, a roast dinner, coffee and cake to celebrate!

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pea and ham soup

Normally I freeze the Christmas ham bone and make soup around Easter time, when it is cooler. But these aren’t normal times! Western Australia, where we live, will open the border to the other states of Australia at the beginning of February. Unlike the other states, WA has had only 9 Covid deaths and very little community transfer of Covid but that will certainly change when the borders open.

So I am cleaning out the things we don’t need in the freezer and packing it with essentials to keep us fed if we are locked down. The ham bone is now simmering in a pot with split peas. Instead of freezing some, as I usually do, we will be enjoying the soup for a few days. Pity this soup making project coincided with temperatures forecast in the high 30ºC s !  ( 100ºF plus)

I’ve never followed a recipe before for Pea and Ham soup but recently I’ve really enjoyed several recipes I’ve found on the blog recipetineats (here) Nagi makes her soup in a slow cooker but it’s already hot here and the heat and aroma generated by a slow cooker bubbling away all day was a bit off putting. I’m cooking the soup in a very old, often used Dutch oven. I bought this and a smaller version when I got engaged and that was 39 years ago! It’s a real workhorse.

The soup cooked for 2 hours. Then I removed the bone and the bay leaves. Scraped the remnant ham from the bone after I had emulsified the soup slightly with a stick blender. I’d added some extra chopped up ham because I didn’t want it thoroughly chopped and mushy.

mending the handles on a drawstring basket

Versatile, secure and fairly strong I have several useful drawstring baskets.

The handles of this basket are stitched on . I use this basket all the time. When one handle became loose, well, actually, came off, I knew I could repair it.

This thick strong cotton was perfect for the job. I searched my sewing supplies for a tapestry needle but couldn’t find one. Then I found this needle called a packers needle and it was perfect for the job! It’s long, blunt and has a big eye.

The cotton I used for the repair is quite a different colour from the original yellow thread but that’s fine. I double stitched the handle on for added strength.

Then I realised the handle on the other side was coming off, too, so repeated the task.

Resisted unpicking the remaining two handles as they seem quite strong.

I really like these drawstring baskets. They’re not like my big French Market baskets and are ideal for small shops, visits to the library and swimming. I can put my wallet, sunglasses, a drink bottle, phone and still have room for shopping, books, a towel and none of it is visible with the drawstring pulled. Worth repairing.

marbling paper

I’ve written in a journal every day for many, many years. I like the red and black Chinese notebooks available everywhere, until recently, but I add my own cover (here). These notebooks are quite light, have fairly thick paper (I’ve always used Fineliner pens which seep through thin paper) and fit easily in bags, baskets and a suitcase when I’m away from home. Their only down side is the colour of the covers, so I’ve always covered them and added marbled paper as front and back lining paper.(here)

I use Japanese inks to marble the paper. I have always used recycled printing paper or other recycled paper for marbling but will reassess this next time as some of the sheets tore and the printing on others seeped through and was evident when they dried. Not good.

In the past I have tried other techniques for marbling, includung shaving cream and acrylic paint (here) but the colours are too garish for me and some other paints, which tended to fade, so I just stay with the inks (here). The colours are clear and traditional and last, the inks are easy to use and clean up afterwards and they are kind to the environment.

Once the papers are dry I cut them to size, fold them down the middle, apply glue (UHU stick) and glue them into the already covered notebook. I also add a calendar, gluing it onto the last page. I tend to cover and line four or five notebooks at a time.

Western australia covid update

Despite no new cases of Covid in Western Australia, our Premier, Mark McGowan last night announced that the hard border separating us from the other states of Australia will stay in place. It was intended to open on 5th February. Our economy is strong and the unemployment rate is at an all time low. Schools will open as intended, in a week, and bars, cafes, restaurants, gyms and retailers are open, but we now have to wear a mask. The maximum in Perth has been over 40ºC all week and the same is forecast for today, so mask wearing adds to the heat! Thinking about people elsewhere who have been wearing masks and limited in their movements for two years now.

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Kalgoorlie is about 600 kilometres from Perth. It takes us over seven hours to get here from Perth because we stop to walk the dog and he has a drink, too. We gave up on buying lunch on the way after pretty awful food from a roadhouse on a previous trip. Now we buy continental salad rolls before we leave Perth and pack our water bottles. We also had a packet of Dutch speculaas spice biscuits. We had dinner when we arrived.

This is such a good time of the year to visit Kalgoorlie. The weather is still mild with cool evenings, avoiding the hot weather during the summer months. Western Australia has had heavy winter rain and the wild flowers are beginning to bloom. The country side is green, lush and not very dusty, yet.

Although our son was at the West Australian School of Mines in Kalgoorlie I’d never visited their Geology Museum. If you’re interested in rocks and where they are found you’ll love this collection. I really liked the old fashioned specimen labels and display cases plus the museum is part of a lovely, well  maintained old building.

One day we went to Gwalia, about two and a half hours driving time from Kalgoorlie. The Gwalia townsite’s $3.5 million dollar Upgrade Project in 2019 won the Heritage Award for the Shire of Leonora. Gold was discovered here in 1896. By 1919 the Sons of Gwalia was the deepest mine in Western Australia. Many of the miners came from overseas, especially Italy and in 1939-1945 the Italian mine workers were interned.

The Sons of Gwalia operated from the 1890s until December 1963. When the gold mine closed the population fell from 1200 plus to 40 in less than three weeks. Buildings still in Gwalia include some houses, the school house, the shop, the guesthouse and the hotel. There’s a museum and many buildings with mining artifacts. You can take your dog into all the buildings except the entrance and the cafe. The mine manager’s house once housed Herbert Hoover, the future 31st President of the United States

The Mine manager’s house still has some original fittings and furnishings. It now houses a small cafe, too. The coffee was very good! Our wrap for lunch was good, too.

Our 89 year old neighbour spent a few years in Gwalia when her husband was appointed head teacher. They had three boys under 3 and fairly basic accommodation. The Schoolmaster’s House has been restored so I took photos for her.

Open cut gold mine in Gwalia now.

Herbert Hoover, the mine manager in 1898, designed and had built the Mine manager’s House, the Mine Office and the Assay Office. He also designed the angled head frame, above, the only remaining wooden incline head frame in Australia.

The State Hotel, now  privately owned. In 1903 the State Government built the hotel to provide a licensed premise and lessen the “sly grog” trade. In March 1919 the State’s first ever beer strike occurred. The locals demanded a different brand of beer, better prices, cleaner glasses and that the disagreeable manager be dismissed. The boycott lasted seven months! In the meanwhile, a pneumonia influenza epidemic hit the town and the empty hotel was commandeered by the Health Department as a hospital.

View of Kalgoorlie Nickel Smelter chimney from lookout on the way out of town.

The next day my son and I had a wonderful day exploring ghost towns, newly established and older mines and enjoying the beautiful landscape. After heavy winter rains the area is green and not too dusty. The weather while we were in Kalgoorlie was lovely.

Old mining head originally at Bailey’s Reward Mine relocated to Lions Lookout out of Coolgardie.

Sculptures in dried out lake.

What remains of the Premier Hotel at Kunanalling, a ghost town. Originally called 25 Mile as the mine was 25 miles from Coolgardie, Kunanalling was gazetted as a town site in 1896. At its peak more than 800 people lived in the town.

Disused open cut mine, possibly originally called the Premier Mine.

Sign post for nearby towns, except Credo Station.

Beautiful freshwater lagoon at Rowels Conservation Park. A really lovely, peaceful lake with a camping area and covered picnic areas.

Another ghost town, Daveyhurst, once home to over 1000 people.

Remains of the battery at Daveyhurst.

Lake by Pianto Road heading towards Yarri Road.

Wildflowers have begun appearing but we were probably two weeks too early for the best. There are over 12 000 species of wild flowers in Australia.

Kalgoorlie is a historic town in a state known for mining and pastoral interests. There’s so many historic buildings to investigate, ghost towns in the middle of nowhere to visit and  striking landscapes with big horizon views. Soon there will be masses of stunning wild flowers.

Yesterday was DOG DAY. Well, that’s easy to celebrate, isn’t it?

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CARING FOR PHALAENOPIS  ORCHIDS

Are you a fan of phalaenopis orchids? Three phalaenopis orchids in celedon footed pots on my table look very pretty. Two have flowers and I am determined the third will grow a flower stem and bloom.  I have gathered the most useful advice on caring for your orchid and hopefully getting repeat blooms.

Always buy an orchid with more flower buds on the stem waiting to open. Your plant will last longer.

In winter orchids don’t like to be over watered. Wait until the moss or other top soil is almost dry before you water them.

They don’t like sitting in water, either, so make sure their pot can drain into a saucer or rocks below the pot in case you over water.

Use specialist orchid food once a fortnight if you prefer liquid fertilisers or less often if you bury the pellets in the orchid mix, which isn’t soil but is rough and easily drained fibrous materials. The pellets are very effective but also very smelly.

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Phalaenopis or moth orchids thrive in humidity so often can be found in bathrooms. They don’t like cold drafts.

After your orchid has finished flowering cut it off just above a point where you can see a growth nodule and place it outside in dappled light. It should bloom again next year. Sometimes I get repeat blooms and sometimes I don’t although I think fertilising regularly makes a difference.

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READING

I had two books to read, our bookclub book, Henry James’s ‘Portrait of a Lady” and Helen Paris’s ‘Lost Property’. ‘Lost Property’ was due back at the library this week, so that’s what I chose to read. It was not a book I would recommend although many reviewers have gushed about it.

The author seems to have decided one day to write a book about modern times. Maybe she drew a word bubble on a sheet of paper and surrounded it with every modern dilemma she could think of, so we have homosexual father, difficult relationship with mother, special words to repeat under pressure to deal with anxiety, sexual assault, the main protagonist disappearing and attempting suicide, absinthe fueled hallucinations with her father present, the mother’s death, an American Asian ‘with very white teeth’ and all sorts of misunderstandings which finally resolve and become a grand romance.

Based initially in the London Transport Lost Property department, Dot seems to live a one dimensional life. She goes to work in her felt suit ( is there such a thing?) because she likes a uniform, where she is pedantic and then goes home to the maisonette she shared with her mother who has dementia and is now in care. She drinks and sets about sorting her collection of travel books. One night she’ll sort them according to alphabetical order, the next night by alphabetical order based on the author’s name, then by continent, colour of the spine, countries she’s visited on top then later countries she’d like to visit in the future get top rating. She finds the sorting of these towers, her only decoration, soothing.

Her sister arranges to sell the maisonette to fund the mother’s care. Dot feels she can’t go back to her home after the agent and potential buyers have been in there poking around and moves to the basement at work. She misappropriates some ‘lost’ absinthe and after eating a tin of peaches, also lost property  or some other tinned food, she settles into absinthe caused hallucinations in the company of her father. It doesn’t help.

A colleague follows her back to the basement and sexually assaults her, she grabs a few things, heads for a coastal town and settles in a B&B before attempting suicide. Ends up back in London, her mother dies, she sorts out some of the mysteries around her father and basically lives happily ever after with the American Asian. I wished I’d chosen the Henry James, also a very wordy author but his characters have some depth. We know very little about one dimensional Dot.

Napoleon initiated Lost Property offices, the first being in Paris. Over two hundred years ago, in 1805 he ordered his Prefect of Police to collect and store lost property. The Japanese claim there’s evidence that they started Lost property offices in 718.

The London Transport Lost Property office has had a long clock, funeral urns, wheelchairs, prosthetic body parts, wedding dresses and suitcases handed in as well as walking sticks, umbrellas, handbags and clothing.

Pixabay

Did you know all horses in the Southern Hemisphere celebrate their birthday on the first of August? This is because a mare’s cycle is stimulated by the days getting longer. A foal gestates for 11 months, so would be born during August. Happy birthday to all horses!

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MAKING GUAVA JAM

This week I was given some guavas. They smelt gorgeous! I didn’t know they grew in Perth but these had come from someone’s back garden. I set about researching ways I could preserve them. Settled on Guava Jam.

I based my recipe on several I read online, personalising them to suit the amount of fruit I had and also trying to use less sugar. The recipes I saw all used pink fruit, the fruit I had was white and slightly yellow in colour.

Started by washing then ‘top and tailing’ the fruit. Cut each into quarters. Put in a heavy based pot with 1 litre (4 cups) of water and boiled for 35 minutes.

Leaving the fruit/water mixture in the pot I reduced them to pulp using a immersion blender (a Bamix, in my case) before scraping it into a sieve and straining out the seeds and thick skin. Apparently, the seeds are very tough and can damage teeth

Scraped the strained pulp back into the pot and  added a cup of sugar. Stirred until the sugar dissolved. Added one and a half tablespoons of pectin and stirred the jam occasionally until it thickened, probably ten minutes. I’d use less pectin if I was making the jam again.

Poured it into a sterilized jar. When it was cool I put it in the fridge. It would last about a week. The nine small fruit I used made 370gm of jam. It is very sweet and  smells lovely. There must be different strains of guava in different countries as all the other recipes I read showed pink fruit. These taste like guava I have eaten over seas and smell as great, too.

MAKING A SMALL BOOK

I’ve always been intrigued by the process of book making. When I saw a workshop offering ZINE making I jumped at the opportunity. It was held at the Lawrence Wilson Gallery at the University of Western Australia, led by Carla and Jo.

Zines are defined as limited circulation publications of original text and images. It refers to the self publication of unique works of minority interest. Zines are generally produced in small numbers. My zine is purely for my own use and enjoyment.

An interesting array of materials on the table when we arrived, including embroidery floss, awls and  sewing needles.

Our first activity was to create a template. We folded a sheet of A4 paper into 8 rectangles and cut across the middle two to create a simple, folded book. We then used this process to make a A3 book, folding the A3 sheet of paper into eight rectangles, too. We added a narrative, collage or a combination  of both to make the book.

Lots of cutting, gluing, illustrating and writing to result in our books. We used fairly fragile photocopy paper which quickly became strong and thick  when we glued in our cut out images from books, maps and magazines.

Then we made our zines. We had two card covers, some coloured pages, plain white photocopy paper pages and some graph paper pages. Depending on our choice of portrait or landscape book, we folded a strip of paper to create a guide for making the holes for binding our books.

My landscape book required four holes for stitching. I marked the distance using the template then created the holes using an awl. Then we selected the embroidery floss we wanted to use, threaded our needles and were shown how to start stitching in the middle about half way in the book, to hide the tails. Stitched from the middle to the top end, stitched over the end, stitched back down to the other end, stitched over the bottom end and ended up again in the middle.

Knotted our threads to finish off then admired our books!

My zine has a selection of white, pink and graph pages. I have glued a label on it and begun entering paintings, text and photos to create my own personal book for this year.

I have begun a three week workshop on making a travel diary, so I am gluing the information sheets and my own work into the zine. Working on quick sketches in pen, pencil and paint to go in with my notes detailing our travels. It’s  one of the things I wanted to do this year.

IN THE GARDEN

We have had a few cool days. Autumn is a wonderful time to get out into the garden in our region. I have planted seeds, re-potted some plants, added to a few scraggly pots and topped up the soil in pots.

I soaked the ranunculus corms in water overnight and planted them with their legs facing down. I haven’t soaked the corms before but read about it and decided to do it this year. It will be interesting to see if the seeds germinate any quicker or if the plants were stronger or have more flowers. Time will tell.

Also planted poppy seeds. When the seed pod dries out completely it cracks open and a fine, black dust spills out. This is the poppy seed! You sprinkle it over the prepared soil, water it and keep it moist until seedlings appear. The seeds don’t need covering, unlike other seeds.

When you gather the seed heads at the end of the flowering season store the  heads in a paper bag or an old envelope in a dry place until planting time next year. Always remember to label your seeds.

Did you know cigarette butts take 10-12 years to decompose?

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tomato tarte tartin

This Tomato Tarte Tatin, a recipe from one of my favourite sources, David Herbert, was published in The Australian Weekend Magazine, March 21-22, 2021. His food is hearty and fresh and this delicious tarte is no exception. We loved it hot and we loved it cold! Very easy and uses ingredients you probably have in the pantry or fridge. Perfect for Easter lunches during Lent.

spiced apple cake

Don’t be tricked by the Emma Bridgewater plate. I adore her china and have a lot of it. I like to use it when I can, so Spiced Apple Cake on a Bubble and Squeak plate. This recipe from Luca Ciano was also in The Australian Weekend Magazine. It was a very good cake and could be served as a pudding with cream or icecream, too.

fudge

Made trays of super easy fudge to give as Easter gifts. This is such a simple recipe. All you need is 90% cocoa chocolate, butter, condensed milk and dried cranberries. The basic recipe is (here), I added the dried cranberries instead of the walnuts in the recipe. Love the texture and the flavour, but nuts are a more traditional addition.

Covered a little cardboard tray I’d kept with some French text, lined it with gold paper and then baking paper and finally cellophane, a ribbon and a gift tag (here) Well received!

and finally, an easter cake

I like an Easter cake for when visitors come or we are just sitting and talking as Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Monday are holidays in Australia. The cake started as a plain cake but I added cinnamon and powdered cloves to the batter. The Spiced Apple Cake I made earlier in the week had both spices in it and we really enjoyed the flavour. Then I added apples. This time the apples were peeled, de-cored and cut into smaller pieces before being stirred into the mixture. I’m still trying to use up an over supply of apples!

Adore this lovely little furry rabbit, so cut a piece a baking paper the size of his base so he could sit cleanly on the icing, then surrounded him in speckled eggs.

french film festival

The French Film Festival, run by Alliance Française, is in full swing in Perth.

The Rose Maker is a film about Eve, a second generation rose grower on the verge of bankruptcy. Her assistant signs up to take on three workers from a rehabilitation scheme. They have no horticultural experience and Eve begins training them in the finer skills of growing roses.

She capitalises on their not so squeaky clean backgrounds to steal a rare rose to breed a new, award winning rose. It saves her business and provides futures for the three workers. Beautiful roses, well acted and a happy ending!

Eve’s typically French country house, the multiple character outbuildings and the paddocks and greenhouses of roses made me want to move to the country post haste. Add a few dogs, chickens and horses and it would be perfect. And a water view. And a miniature donkey.

As we were leaving the cinema we were given these camembert treats. I haven’t found them for sale anywhere locally.

reading

Jenny Rose Innes  published Australian Designers At Home in 2019. It is an intriguing insight into the lives and homes and gardens of well known Australian Interior Designers.  Then she published this book, British Designers At Home. As usual, in a house overflowing with thousands of books, I borrowed it from the library.

These generally are not minimalist houses. Their owners all seem to be collectors of beautiful things. I think the climate encourages cocooning and nestling, surrounding yourself with beautifully and sentimentally significant things as more time is spent indoors. The country has a tradition of producing fabulous fabrics and china and centuries of manufacturing household artifacts to retain and enjoy.

It always intrigues me to see how other people live. Their choices and arrangements are interesting and say so much about the owners. These designers are all well known and influential and they share their design tips and beliefs. These are all beautiful houses and gardens and the stories of the designers are fascinating. Another gorgeous book.

Following a recommendation on another blog I also read The Mission House, by Carys Davies. Set in a hill town in Southern India, this is the story of Hilary Byrd, who has been forced to leave his job as a librarian in a small English town due to increasingly erratic behaviour. A voracious reader, he is tempted by many destinations but ends up in India.

He meets a Padre on a train and is offered the use of the Mission House. He settles into exploring the town. He has a regular rickshaw driver and the friendship of the Padre and his adopted daughter. He feels calmer, but the conflicts of faith and non believer arise, concerns the adopted daughter is being offered as a wife and then finding to his consternation she isn’t and the conflicts of the Imperialistic past and the Nationalist future are all present.

The ending puzzled me for a long time. I went back and re-read the preceding chapters, I read reviews and I think I now understand what happened. It feels like the last chapter was dashed off in a hurry with an ending the author had implied previously but never really elaborated. I was relieved when other reviewers felt this was a weak point, a confusion.

This is an engaging and well written book until the last chapter. I found the contrasts between old and new very interesting. An easy read from an award winning author.

Yesterday was April Fools Day. I hope you had some fun!

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Easter! So looking forward to it this year. Last year Western Australia not only had a hard border between us and the other states of Australia but also, at Easter time, regional borders preventing us from seeing our Son or my Mother. This year will be different. Currently there are no internal borders, our son will be staying with us and we will go and visit family.

I have already put out some Easter decorations, many of them remnants from my teaching days when I really enjoyed setting up lots of Easter themed things in the classroom. Loved hiding Easter eggs in the children’s desks the last day of term before the Easter break and hearing about their holiday plans.

This year I wanted to make papier mâche Easter eggs. I’ve seen some in decorator shops but wanted to try them myself. Papier mâche literally means ‘chewed paper’ but really it is layers of paper glued together to create a strong material.

I gathered plastic eggs which pop open (intended to be filled with little gifts), some diluted PVA, some torn newspaper and a protective cover for the work surface.

Clockwise from right hand corner, torn newspaper, diluted PVA glue and dry hand wipe cloth, wet hand wipe cloth and the plastic molds.

Layered strips of paper on each egg until I was happy they were well covered and left them to dry. Spent days trying to decide if I’d cover them with printed text, paint them white and draw images on them or paint them in different colours. Finally decided to paint them with a white undercoat then a pink coat and the speckled with burnt umber, using a toothbrush.

To remove the plastic mold I sliced around each egg using a Stanley trimmer, leaving a little hinge, then eased the egg out before gluing some strips over the cut and sealing the egg.

The papier mâché eggs are strong and light.

Then I was about to empty the shredder. All the strips of paper in the shredder basket reminded me I’d seen paper clay made from shredded paper somewhere. Went hunting and found a recipe which used things I already had on hand. I planned to fill the Easter egg molds I’d used for the papier mâché eggs and create some solid eggs

Soaked about four cups of shredded paper in hot water for a few hours.

Paper pulp, flour and salt before kneading to a smooth clay.

I emptied about four cups of shredded paper into a glass bowl and covered it with hot water. Left it to soak for a few hours. Used a Bamix to reduce it to pulp which took a while. Scraped the pulp into a sieve and squeezed out most of the water but not all of it. Added a cup of plain flour and a scoop of salt and kneaded it. Too sticky, so added, gradually, another cup of flour. Felt right. Kept kneading it until it was smooth and clay like in consistency.

Kneaded to a smooth clay.

Using a teaspoon I filled each end of the egg mold, then tried to snap the mold shut. Scraped away the oozing clay but they still didn’t stay shut. This turned out to be a good thing as the extra, oozy clay was useful to smooth over the join later.

Left them to dry on paper towel on a tray. It was 38° C the day I made these and when we were home we had the air conditioning on. So I felt they were drying very quickly. I popped each egg halfway out of the molds, shaped them a little as they were still pliable and left them to dry until the morning. Then I used a teaspoon to remove the other half, shaped them a little and smoothed the rim around the join mark and left them to dry.

The problem with the paper clay, which I didn’t anticipate, was it shrunk as it dried and it didn’t shrink evenly. I ended up with lumpy eggs which no self respecting chook (chicken) would lay claim to (pun intended)

Covered the lumpy eggs using beautiful paper napkins from Michel Design Works, made in Germany in Christmas Time pattern. I cut a rectangle slightly greater than the circumference of the egg and about the length of the egg. Folded the rectangle in half longways. Cut V shaped notches about a third of the way in on both long edges, then applied diluted PVA glue to one side and the middle strip.  Rolled the egg onto the paper, pressing smoothly as I rotated it, smoothed down the end and then glued and smoothed down the other, notched edge. Left them to dry. Later I sealed them with gel medium .

These were easy and enjoyable activities, but also time consuming. I have a ziplock bag of left over paper clay in the fridge and will make something with that, too, maybe a bowl. It will probably dry quickly as the walls will be of an even thickness.  After Easter I’ll store the eggs along with the other Easter decorations for use next year.

EASTER DECORATIONS

I have a little canvas easel as part of a tableau on a tray on the table. Originally I painted some leaves on it, then during summer I glued an image of a pink peony on it, to compliment the pink alstromerias and pink lilies I often have on the table.

Easter was coming and I wanted a new image. Really like the little rescued nest which is part of the display so added faux speckled eggs. That motivated me to paint a nest with speckled eggs on the small canvas. It will probably only last a few weeks before I decide to do something else on it! Eggs and other Easter themed decorations are all about Spring. In the Southern Hemisphere we are in Autumn, but 35° C at the moment, so still waiting.

The lilies, rabbits and painted nest with eggs dictated a pink theme. Added a pink tablecloth I am enjoying it for a change and really liking the pink lilies, too.

Did you know March is nutrition month? There’s so much information available about what we should eat that this is an easy month to celebrate. Eat well!

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