MakeCookGrow.com – Page 6 – Some gardening, cooking, creating and everyday suburban life

To Do List, The Federal Budget and Other Things

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TO DO LIST

At the beginning of this year, as usual, I wrote a list of jobs I needed to do, not realising this was to be a year like no other. Most of the jobs I listed involved household or gardening tasks. Some were done quite quickly but others remained undone as life became more and more difficult. Some gardening jobs were done one morning when our son was staying. He did a great job moving enormous pots to new places and helped me fill them but told me gardening was the job he most disliked! I ticked three things off the list that day.

Another time we finally knew we’d be here for about ten days and got a handyman to repair some reticulation, re-lay some paving and repair the edging. Slowly other jobs I could do, such as planting, pruning and potting cuttings from the hydrangeas for two friends got done, too. We also got new cushion inserts for two leather sofas in the family room.

Hydrangea cuttings going well.

These sofas are 24 years old. They have been slept on by dogs and people, they have been played on by children and sat on thousands of times. Every so often I get out my tub of saddle dressing and treat them. Eventually, the finish was getting worn on the edge of some of the cushions and an arm rest. I matched the colour to a bottle of leather dye planning to find time to dye the worn patches back to original colour. Not a chance. So many other things needed my attention. I put the bottle of dye away for a quieter time.

Then late Saturday afternoon my husband was off doing jobs, I’d read the weekend papers and I decided to dye the worn bits of one sofa. Poured some dye into a food container, found a clean paint brush and set to work. The difference is very pleasing. When the dye had time to dry I treated both sofas with saddle dressing. I have some smaller areas to treat on the other sofa and I’ll do that soon. While I’ve got the saddle dressing out I treat my handbag, our watch bands and wallets and some belts. I’d really like a workshop, or a shed but the kitchen bench suffices for now. I hope I remember to put rubber gloves on before I begin dyeing next time.

I use this leather dressing on all leather goods.

renewable energy

The weekend papers are full of political rhetoric following the delivery of the 2024 Federal Budget. The information about renewable energy makes interesting but confusing reading. We are now subsidising coal as well as renewables! Electricity is more expensive because of the subsidies yet renewables are supposed to be the cheapest form of energy. Both Federal and States governments are contributing to this confusion.

To somewhat offset these ever increasing charges the Federal government is giving everyone a $300 rebate and our State Government of Western Australia is giving everyone getting an electricity bill $400 to off set increased energy costs. Of course, when any government says they are giving away money, it’s worth remembering that it is the taxpayers’ money and in both cases mentioned, is not means tested.

other things

I bought a rack to hold the lids off all the glass storage boxes as they were in a dreadful muddle in a drawer. Very satisfying. So then I bought an acrylic box for funnels and graters, with a divider to keep them sorted. So tidy. All this led to rearranging a cupboard with two power points in it. The sandwich press had always been in there, permanently plugged in and ready to use. Now the slow cooker is next to it, also permanently plugged in as I use it frequently in winter.

Lids, funnels and graters all under control in this drawer.

This meant sorting that cupboard and discarding things which led to doing another much bigger cupboard, something I’d been putting off for a long time. The outcome is three large bags of discarded things in good condition going to the Salvation Army depot. There’s still many more cupboards to do but they will have to wait.

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Olive Oil, Mother’s Day and Recycling Beads

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extra virgin olive oil

Having trouble sourcing your favourite extra virgin olive oil? Australian olive oil is in short supply due to the poor fruit harvest in 2023. Outside the Mediterranean, Australia is the greatest consumer of olive oil in the World. Each Australian consumes 2.1 litres of olive oil every year.

Image Pixabay

This doesn’t surprise me as I slosh, drip and drizzle EVOO on things I cook every day. I buy 3 litre ( 101.4 oz) tins and decant them into a one litre dark glass bottle kept within easy reach of the hotplates and food preparation area. The bottle has a pop up pourer, so no mess. Buying in bulk and decanting is more economical than buying small bottles. Storing in a dark glass bottle protects its purity.

Apparently, in Europe, the price of olive oil in January 2024 was 50% higher than January 2023. This jump in price is due to olive oil producing nations experiencing longer and hotter summers resulting in poor harvests. Some sources also mention the increased interest in the Mediterranean diet which promotes olive oil, adding greater demand in an already diminished supply chain.

mother’s day

I hope all the Mother’s had a lovely day with their families celebrating Mother’s Day. Or doing something else if that’s what they wanted! We didn’t celebrate Mother’s Day this year because I’m too sad. My Mother died in March. In memory of her I bought bunches of flowers in her favourite colours, so lilac, purple, cream, white with a dash of red. I also put a little arrangement of lilac and white lissianthus next to her photo. I miss her!

Mother’s Day Sunday was also the day we celebrated our 40th Wedding Anniversary. Forty years! On the Friday before we went to a restaurant on the beach and ate fish tacos, a crayfish taco and Fremantle octopus tentacles, plus roasted butternut and chips. Beautifully presented and delicious. Rain and stormy conditions were forecast but in reality there was a clear blue sky and a bright blue ocean and we were hot. A lovely way to celebrate.

Dessert of burnt honey cream brûlée with pear sorbet plus an extra scoop of pear sorbet because my husband knew I’d want to taste the sorbet even though I declined dessert. Soon it’s pear season so I’ll try making pear sorbet. It was very good.

jewellery

Last week I did a jewellery recycling workshop. Our instructor had bundles of old bits and pieces to be remade into something we’d use. I made a necklace with a ring in it to hang my reading glasses from so I knew where they were. Great idea but it was so long and so heavy it knocked things over or off the bench. Put it away to consider at a later date as the beads are very pretty.

Meanwhile, I gathered all my necklaces secured not by jewellery catches, but with safety pins. When the catches broke, as they always did, I’d secure both ends together with a small pin. As a junior primary teacher, I always had safety pins, bandaids and tissues in my bag. Today I mended every broken necklace catch. Really pleased with my fully fixed collection. Plus I’ve used some very bright beads from old necklaces to made new, less bold necklaces, more suited to my current lifestyle.

Sorting and fixing my necklaces made me realise I have a lot of jewellery I don’t use anymore. I don’t have pierced ears but had a lot of clip on earrings but I don’t wear them now. I have some pretty bracelets, too, along with a pile of necklaces. Some of the sweetest bracelets were made by children I’ve taught. I’m keeping them! Happy memories. The rest are in a bag, ready to go to the Salvation Army along with three other bags of things I’ve sorted. I quite like going into the city to drop things at their depot as I then go across the road to an Asian supermarket, buy the best fish balls and speak appalling Mandarin/Putonghua to the checkout girl. She is so polite about my accent!

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Cooking, Author Talk and Reworking Jewellery

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cooking

Are you trying not to throw away fresh food? Me too. Recently when I opened a packet of chicken breasts I wondered if they were actually turkey breasts or maybe emu! I eyed off the enormous chicken breasts for a while then decided that rather than cut them in half as the recipe directed, I needed to cut each into about six pieces. I’d chosen the recipe because I needed to use some baby romano tomatoes, baby spinach and the chicken. Plus I had everything else listed. I got to use up lots of ingredients already in the fridge.

I had to adjust the quantities of the ingredients to accommodate all the chicken! So I had to make it in two frying pans. Luckily we like chicken. We will be eating Tomato, Spinach, White Wine Chicken for quite a while. I’ve served this chicken dish with mashed potato and will also serve it with spicy rice, then couscous. The author also suggests thick noodles. Recipe (here)

At the same time I baked a loaf of sourdough. Due the heat in Western Australia, the starter was very energetic! I thought the loaf was going to bubble over the edges of the baking tin, but it didn’t and it tasted great!

Sourdough with caraway seeds. Delicious.

When rain was forecast for Sunday I decided to cook a traditional roast lunch. Our son was here for the weekend and we like to sit at the table and talk. I had to sort out so much stuff on the table, it had become a sort of dumping ground.

Sunday morning arrived bright and sunny and 21ºC. No rain in sight. Put the meat to roast, prepared the vegetables and opened the French doors so we could hear the fountain. Faux rain. Lunch was long and lovely, plus there was leftovers for a light dinner and cold roast beef and pickle sandwiches the next day.

Apple crumble and icecream with a sprinkle of cinnamon.

author talk

A while ago I wrote a review about a book I’d read by Rachel Johns called, ‘The Other Bridget’ a joke on Helen Fielding’s book ‘Bridget Jones Diary.’ Although written to appeal to a younger reader, I suspect, I really enjoyed it. The plot was clever with lots of twists and turns and it was written about an area I know well. I read a lot and it’s not often novels are set in Fremantle, Western Australia.

We were going away for a break so I borrowed two more books by the same author. Again I enjoyed the local settings and the clever story line. So when the Fremantle Library advertised an author talk with the author, Rachel Johns, I responded immediately and got a ticket. I am so glad I did, too.

Glancing around the room it became apparent those women attending were aged from their twenties through to about 70. Johns’ presentation and following open discussion with the audience was just like the books, that is, fast, funny and full of current affairs. So entertaining.

Some of the bright, chunky beads I wanted to reuse.

I had also enrolled in a course run earlier that day called UNIQUE JEWELLERY. When I was working as a junior primary teacher I always wore bright, chunky necklaces as the children liked them so much. Not really suitable for the life I live now, so I wanted to convert some of them to be more toned down. I also needed to mend some of the clasps and just work out what I could retrieve from my colourful collection.

I made a necklace with a ring for my glasses as I lose them all the time! I was inspired by the necklace the tutor was wearing with her glasses hooked on it. I think I could just wear it as a necklace, too. I also had time to repair the clasps on some necklaces. Later, I took apart some pieces to make new, less colourful necklace. I have bought a kit to renew more clasps and to make new necklaces.

Reusing beads to make a new necklace. Satisfying project.

P.S. There’s a problem with the necklace I made to hold my glasses; it is too long and heavy and crashes into the bench top and whatever I’m working on and is annoying. I’ll probably take it apart and make a new necklace. So, still misplacing my glasses, so I’ve bought a few extra pairs to limit the time spent hunting for reading glasses.

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Rain, ANZAC Day and Gardening

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rain

It’s autumn in Western Australia. We have had no rain since Christmas and are still experiencing summer like maximum temperatures. Then it rained last night. Everything looks damp, it is cooler and the air smells fresh. It’s such a relief! Old trees are dying from the heat and no rain, we were still running the air conditioner some days and I am tired of summer clothes and salads. We need a lot more rain!

Some of the pleasure of rain was diminished when I opened the fridge. A fortnight ago I put a bag of frozen prawns in the fridge to thaw. The bag had a hole in it. The mess I found the next morning took a long time, a lot of hot water and detergent and masses of scrubbing to clean up. So the fridge had an infrequent but thorough clean. Yesterday I opened the fridge and was confronted with another drama. My husband had put a two litre bottle of milk on its side on a shelf. Apparently the lid wasn’t screwed on tightly, so the fridge has had another thorough clean.

anzac day

Last week on 25th of April we commemorated ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) Day. We remember those who have fought in all wars. Prior to Covid, we’d join the crowd at the War Memorial in our suburb for the Anzac Day service, which was followed by a community breakfast.

Resting on arms reversed.

Due to Covid it was suggested West Australians stand in their driveways before sunrise with candles and listen to the Dawn Service on the radio. We found ourselves on the driveway in the dark. Up and down the street there were neighbours also commemorating the ANZAC day. After the service our neighbour suggested she bring out her coffee machine, we all went indoors and got mugs and folding chairs, then sat on the verge, socially distanced and a very special yearly event was established.

Each year now, we gather in a neighbour’s carport or indoors if it is raining, still with our folding chairs, candles and delicious food to share, plus family dogs. We gathered there on Thursday and watched the moon disappearing over the ocean and the sun rising in the opposite direction, we listened to the service and stood silently for the Last Post and followed by one minute of silence. A group of FA18 fighters few over in formation. A beautiful way to remember those who have fought for our country and all those who have fought for other countries, too, and enjoy the company of our lovely neighbours.

This gathering of neighbours has led to another special event, too. At various times during the years we go to each other houses, with shared food, and sit and catch up with all the news. Usually we sit outside because most months of the years it is balmy and really enjoyable to sit in the garden.

plants

Now trialing 1.25ml bottle of water feeding into the terracotta spear.

While we were away recently I trialed some terracotta self watering plant spears. These are inserted into plant pots and then a plastic bottle of water is placed, quickly, into the top. The water then seeps through the terracotta and maintains moistness for the pot plant. They worked really well! I used 200ml bottles, which lasted four days and 6ooml which lasted 11 days. I am now experimenting with 1.25ml bottles

Soaked sweet pea seeds. I hoped to find seeds collected by my Mother who grew amazing crops of sweet peas but couldn’t find the seeds in her shed.

Finally it is a bit cooler so I have planted poppies, shallots, perpetual spinach and sweet peas. My Mother grew amazing sweet peas and collected the seeds every year. Her rule was they should be planted by Anzac Day. Mine were planted a day later after soaking overnight in a saucer of water. I have also finally pruned the hydrangeas. Due to the never ending summer they just kept blooming! I have potted up ‘sticks’ to share with friends when they are ready to plant.

I remember going to a plant nursery about 40 years ago to buy an indoor plant as a gift and being very surprised seeing potted hydrangeas for sale! I just assumed someone gave you a cutting from their plant. That’s how I grew my semi sun tolerant, very sturdy hydrangeas and I’ve always potted up cuttings for friends. I don’t think either of my Grandmothers or my Mother bought many plants from nurseries. All three were fans of sharing ‘cuttings’. I’d be interested to know if you share cuttings or buy new plants.

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Busselton Beach Break

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We’ve just enjoyed a break in Busselton. The past few months have been difficult and sad and very tiring for both of us and we really needed to just sit and recharge. The weather was still unusually hot so a gorgeous unit with ocean views was the answer.

Preparing to go away is actually hard work. Although we have someone to come and collect the mail and water the plants it’s other things that take time and effort. I really don’t want to throw away food, so the leftover vegetables were turned into soup with some stock and a sachet of instant soup nobody would drink. It’s very hot to be making soup, and hot to be ironing all the same old summer clothing.

My other important preparations were some library books, a small collection of decorator magazines, plus three tubes of coffee capsules and some chocolates. My husband had made a list of the bakeries he needed to visit early in the morning for breakfast treats and the restaurants and cafes we’ll visit for lunch. We ticked nearly all of them off the list. Ate way too much food.

Different breakfast treats, different days. Balcony breakfasts were lovely. The treats lasted all day!

Dinner was ‘bed picnics’ like the picnics we had on hotel beds when our son was little. We’d settle to cheeses, cherry tomatoes, crackers, strawberries and cold meats. We still eat much the same if we’ve been out for lunch plus leftover bakery treats from breakfast. Then I’d go for a long walk along the ocean or in the ocean. So very beautiful at sunset.

So, why go to Busselton? Busselton is a coastal city ‘down south.’ People from Perth love to go down south all year round. Founded in 1832 Busselton has a wooden jetty which is 1.8km long and has an underwater aquarium at the end. The beaches along Geographe Bay are all amazing. Although the area was initially known for it’s dairying industry, fruit and vegetables and general farming, visitors flock there now for the beaches, the restaurants and cafes, the vineyards and breweries, the historical buildings and parks and gardens.

The jetty is a mile or 1.800 metres long. There’s a small train to take you to the end where you can visit the underwater aquarium.

Once a sleepy town sought after by retirees, Busselton hums with activities now. A huge arts development is being built, there’s a new airport with flights from Sydney and Melbourne and there’s every shop imaginable. Amazing food markets and lovely gift shops add to the attraction. Also some of the best bakeries we’ve ever visited in Australia.

I grew up near the ocean and at the northern end of an estuary. I really like listening to waves crashing and knowing there is water nearby. I like to smell the ocean! A few years ago we arrived in Brittany after flying from Perth to London then on to Paris and then two different trains and a taxi ride before we arrived at our hotel. We’d been traveling for about 40 hours and I was beyond tired. I couldn’t sleep. Eventually, my husband got up and opened the balcony doors and I could hear and smell the ocean. I went to sleep. Slept really well for the entire stay.

Thought that might happen on this trip but we kept the windows and sliding doors shut and the air con on most of the time. So hot, no rain. The usually green and lush looking farmlands and bush around here are dry and brown.

This trip was all about enjoying the ocean. And eating. My husband had located all the bakeries recommended to us and a new one, too, and we made the most of their early opening hours and visited some for lunch. Often we eat at breweries and vineyards south of Dunsborough, but this time we focussed mostly on cafes and restaurants around Busselton. Dinner tended to be much more modest, eaten overlooking the ocean or watching television. One night we had fish and chips from a shop recommended by a friend. Wonderful.

Lunch at Maison Lassiaille, Metricup one day. From the coffee to the quiche then the exquisite, surprising desserts, everything was delicious.

Returning from lunch in Metricup we stopped at a roadside stall with honesty box for just picked potatoes.

Really good fish and chips eaten on the balcony at night.

Books, magazines and newspapers plus on demand television programs meant we stayed at the unit most nights. This break was really about recovery after a difficult time. The ocean was restorative, I spent time in the pool, the view was wonderful and we ate some great food. Mostly, we relaxed and made plans.

Evening on the balcony of our last night. Sad to leave.

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Autumn Occupations

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autumn occupations

It’s mid April and our daily temperatures are still around 30ºC (86º F). Often Easter time here is wet and windy but not this year. Despite no rain for us, last week some of the northern suburbs had a storm resulting in flooding and partially submerged cars. Quite unusual for Perth.

It was a bit cooler in the evening and this inspired me to make pasties. I set up a production line of meat sauce, pastry and prepared oven trays. While the filling cooked I cut out rounds of pastry. Made the pasties then cooked lots of them at once. Now they’re stored in the freezer. My husband eats them steadily until they’re all gone. Then I might make more. Depends on the weather!

Now days I buy the pastry and use a saucer to cut to size.

Pasties originate from Cornwall. They traditionally had a savoury half and a sweet half, marked with a S. They were easy for miners to take for their lunch. The crimped edge was a handle which could be discarded when the rest of the pastie was eaten.

I make them with a mix of mince flavoured with onions and Worcestershire Sauce, plus diced mixed vegetables and then a little thickening with flour. So, not really traditional but well received, anyway! And we eat the crimped ‘handle’, too.

reading

I’ve just finished Rachel Johns’ book The Other Bridget Jones. An easy and fun read, this is the story of a librarian who has a special skill for matching readers to books. Not only did I know many of the books featured but I knew the library, the pubs, the beaches and the streets, the markets. The book is set in Fremantle. I go to Fremantle every week to my yoga class. It’s not often I know the environment featured in fiction but I really enjoyed knowing the places described in this romantic comedy.

A smart, funny book, probably intended for a younger audience but I identified with the author’s respect for the power of books and the clever, if slightly predictable way the plot revealed itself. Johns, originally an English Teacher, is considered Australia’s leading author writing about modern womens’ issues. A good read, even though I’ve been married forty years and don’t share most of the issues!

The other book I’ve read this week is Dr Kate Luckins’ Live More With Less. Again, I think this book was intended for a younger audience. Although she believes she is presenting ‘a practical and optimistic guide to balancing planet friendly habits’ I found many of the beliefs this book is based on just didn’t resonate.

I kept reading because there are sustainable changes I want to make to create less landfill and avoid plastics where ever possible. I’m just not sure about the whole climate change belief this book is based on. The book does have some good ideas about how we can buy less of everything and still live well.

The most interesting chapter for me was about buying fewer clothes, swapping them, sharing and renting them and building a capsule wardrobe. I’d been talking to a friend earlier that day about building a capsule wardrobe. I realised so many of the examples of capsule wardrobes I’d seen involved way too many formal or work clothes and too few casual clothes for my retired lifestyle. So, as much as I love the French samples I was following, I actually don’t need ‘smart’ work separates. I need casual and gardening clothes and a couple of more dressy things.

Image Pixabay

The next problem was one I face every morning at the moment. I have been wearing summer clothes since last September. The maximum temperatures have been in the 30ºCs and 40ºCs for the past eight months. No matter how cleverly I arrange the tops and trousers I have, plus a couple of dresses, I am wearing the same things frequently and I’m sick of them! Ditto my sandals.

So, although I found Luckins’ wardrobe advice well thought out, it doesn’t work in my part of Western Australia at the moment. And I bought a new summer shirt because I am so tired of the ones I’ve been wearing for months and months. I’ll be wearing for a while, yet, according to the weather forecasts.

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Growing, Making, Reading and

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growing

I recently ordered a set of terracotta spikes to seep water into my indoor plants while we were away for a few days. It’s still quite hot so I couldn’t leave the plants for very long. The spikes have a lip at the top to rest small water bottles to fill with water. The water in the bottles fills the spike then water seeps from the terracotta spike into the soil. Tested them for a few days to be sure the spikes would keep the plants watered and they worked well.

I’ve been planting autumn bulbs and seeds, ready for some action in the spring. After the success of the tomato plants (I picked several hundred tomatoes over about six weeks) I decided to try shallots. Ordered the seeds online. I use a lot of shallots in Asian recipes and some French dressings and they’re $12.00 a kilo at the grocery store. Also planted poppy seeds and sweetpea seeds, both saved from my Mother’s garden plus a pretty punnet of violas from a friend. I have a long list of jobs I’d like to tick off my TO DO list but we are time poor.

Yesterday I got so many long overdue jobs done in the garden. This morning the handyman came to fix some reticulation. We thought we knew the problem but once he removed some paving and began digging it became a much bigger problem! The piping was laid by our son about 18 years ago and none of us remembered exactly where the pipes were or how they joined up. In the meantime, we’d had a plinth laid. He had to removing a path then dig under the plinth. Repairing the reticulation took hours, a few phone calls to our son and an enormous mess. I think I’d keep a plan of the reticulation if I ever do any again!

in the kitchen

Our son recently stayed for 10 days. He gave me a multi bladed pair of scissors for chopping herbs. It is fantastic! Quickly reduces herbs and spring onions into a neat, thinly sliced pile to add to anything. I was making fishcakes and turned two spring onions into thin, even pieces very quickly. It came with its own comb for cleaning, if necessary. Very useful piece of kit.

The spring onions were added to a fishcake mix. I’m not a huge fan of fishcakes but these used up a tin of tuna and served with a mix of green vegetables made a really nice dinner. The leftover fishcakes were good for lunch the next day, too.

My son and I both bought two kilos of red onions from the green grocer when he was here. He forgot to take his bag of onions back with him when he left. So what did I do with 4 kilos of red onions? I’ve been making Red Onion Pickles. They don’t last long in this house. They are delicious! Easy to make, too. Thinly slice two halved red onions. Meanwhile put 1 cup of white vinegar, 2 tbspn of white sugar and 1 tbsp course salt to boil, stirring occasionally. It will boil quickly. Then pour the liquid over the onions once you’ve layered them in a jar with a lid. Chill in the fridge. Enjoy!

We’ve been going up and down to Bunbury regularly for months. I’d lost track of when I’d put things in the freezer and decided we needed to eat what was in there and start again. I took out a bag of prawns to thaw in the fridge over night. The prawns thawed well but I didn’t realise there was a hole in the bag! The shelf they were on was awash with prawn juice. The fridge probably needed a really good clean, anyway, but it was a big job! Used the thawed prawns to make dinner.

reading

Our library offers EXPRESS READS. These are very popular books which can be borrowed for one week only. I borrowed Lisa Jewel’s latest book None Of This Is True on Thursday and had finished it by Saturday night. It was a busy weekend for us but whenever the opportunity arose, I could be found reading this book. I think I have read every book she has written because she writes such clever murders. This new book has a contemporary theme and I couldn’t put it down! If you enjoy a cleverly plotted murder, look for Lisa Jewel’s books.

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Reading, Chopping and Pickles

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reading

Have you read Trent Dalton’s Lola In The Mirror? This follows his chart busting book Boy Swallows Universe and is equally disturbing and intriguing. It is the story of a girl with no name, because when you’re homeless it’s best not to have a history. This book has it all; it’s funny, it’s sad, it’s violent and at the same time, quite beautiful. It focuses on homelessness,friendship, optimism and lucky breaks. It highlights the important role drop-in centres play in the lives of the dispossessed, the kindness of strangers and the cruelty of friends. Not really an easy read but certainly a good read. The story is based in Brisbane like Dalton’s other books.

The second book I’ve been reading is John Boyne’s The Heart’s Invisible Furies. He also wrote The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. When I finished reading Claire Keegen’s book, Small Things Like These, a story based on Irish Catholic nuns, I was determined not to read another book about the church and it’s impact on people. The cruelty was too much for me. The church doesn’t shine in this book, either.

The The Heart’s Invisible Furies begins ‘ Long before we discovered he had fathered two children by two different women,….Father James Monroe stood at the altar of the Church of Our Lady, ……and denounced my mother as a whore.’ I kept reading. This book was also hard to read at times. It covers 70 odd years of the main protagonist’s life and the many changes within the Catholic Church and the Irish people. There’s a happy ending 727 pages later but the Church would not agree!

While we’re thinking about books, I found these interesting comments about reading and the connection to better mental health and physical health in the March edition of The Australian Women’s Weekly. The author of the article, Eva-Maria Bobbert lists five advantages of reading.

MENTAL HEALTH Research shows a good book can lower stress faster than any other relaxation methods.

EMOTIONAL HEALTH Apparently reading can help with everything from grief, heartbreak, loneliness and poor self confidence. Stories about overcoming adversity can be inspirational.

HEART HEALTH and LONGEVITY Want to lower your blood pressure, psychological distress and lower heart rate? Read a good book. A twelve year study of more than 3000 adults found regular readers live about two years longer than non readers. Apparently, reading for more than 3.5 hours a week results in a 25% reduction in mortality.

SLEEP HYGIENE Reading a good book before you go to sleep can distract distressing thoughts making unwinding, slowing down and falling asleep easier.

COGNITIVE BENEFITS Do you remember Dr Seuss saying, ‘The more you read, the more things you will know?’ MRI scans indicate reading resulted in increased brain connectivity for several days afterwards. The more engaged you are with a book, the more areas of the brain that are stimulated and may result in greater intelligence.

So there’s five good reasons to enjoy a good book!

food preparation

Until I had eye surgery on my eyes last year I always wore contact lenses. So nothing prepared me for the pain of dicing onions without the protection of contact lenses! Ouch. I tried sunglasses, safety glasses even goggles but nothing was really working. Research recommended putting onions in the fridge 60 minutes before preparation, which actually works, but I kept forgetting. Needed another solution or we’d have to give up using onions.

Found a solution. It’s a multi cutting device called a 4 IN 1 Chopper Plus. It has two dicing blades of different sizes and 2 spiralizing blades, too. All the chopping happens under the lid, so no onion juice in my eyes. It’s really fast to totally dice an onion. Then I just empty the base into the frying pan. No tears. Such a relief. Spiralizing carrots is fun, too, and the springy curls look so pretty in a salad. It’s easy to almost instantly turn four really big potatoes into chips. So I’m really pleased with this new device! Bought online.

Fast, tear free diced onions and an easy cleanup, too.

Chipped potatoes in about a minute, added rosemary and sea salt, into the oven. Result = great, evenly cooked chips. A bit of a treat for us!

No dicing required, but I needed more freezer room over Easter, so out came the two ham bones from the Christmas hams. After my son sawed them to fit in the slow cooker, I added half a packet of split yellow peas, covered the bones with water and let it cook for 8 hours. Smelt good, tasted great. We ate Pea and Ham soup for four days. It was very good.

What to do with a surplus of red onions? I find they don’t keep well in this never ending hot weather, so used this Martha Stewart recipe to pickle them (here). Four ingredients, only a few minutes to pickle and delicious on just about everything. Apart for the sensible suggestions on the recipe site I really like these pickles on a thin slither of percorino romano cheese.

Four ingredients, red onions, salt, sugar and vinegar.

Let the pickles cool. Bottle and keep in the fridge. Try not to eat them all at once.

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Clothing and Natural Fibres plus Decorating Trends

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natural fibres and clothing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

decorating trends

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

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

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

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

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

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Blue Zones and Fashion Trends

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blue zones

The Blue Zone Myth.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

clothes, decorating and fashion

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

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

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

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