April 2019 – MakeCookGrow.com

Easter, ANZAC Day and the Eiffel Tower

Share this post

EASTER

So what’s the Easter bunny got to do with Easter? Apparently derived from German Lutheran folklore, the rabbit, originally a hare, decided if children have been good or bad and distributed eggs accordingly.

Gifts for friends and family treats. Lots of foods traditionally associated with Easter celebrations. We have fish on Friday and hot cross buns on Sunday and, of course, lots of chocolate, shared with family and friends.

More gingerbread rabbits with marshmellow tails. Tasted good and made sweet little gifts in cellophane bags.

ANZAC DAY

ANZAC DAY is the national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand commemorating all Australians and New Zealanders who served in wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations. It is an opportunity to reflect on the freedoms of our country due to these actions of the armed services.

This is our local memorial soon after dawn.

Many of us attend ANZAC DAY services, often marked by fly bys, the laying of wreaths and always by one minute of silence and remembrance. Then coffee, tea and Anzac biscuits with friends and family. It is a time I think of my Grandfather who was badly wounded in the battle at Villers Bretonneux in 1918 where the Anzac forces stopped the German breakthrough advance on Paris.

ANZAC stands for Australian, New Zealand Army Corps.

EIFFEL TOWER

Eiffel Tower on focus photography

Recognised the world over, like the Sydney Opera House, the iconic La Tour Eiffel, or Eiffel Tower celebrated its 130th birthday in March. It was built as the entrance arch for the Exposition Universelle, a world fair celebrating the first 100 years of the French Republic and intended to demonstrate the industrial prowess of France to the world.

Designed by Gustave Eiffel, originally the construction attracted ridicule and scorn. Now a landmark recognized worldwide, the 300 metre high Eiffel Tower attracts over seven million visitors a year. When it was complete, Gustave Eiffel walked the 1710 steps to the top and placed the French flag on the summit.

Did you know April is Gardening Month? Gardens have always been important as sources of food, medicines, for leisure plus habitats for insects and other animals. Gardens are vital to our survival. They can be either tiny or very large areas, surrounding your home or even some distance away, such as an allotment or community garden.

Gardening is enormously pleasurable for many people. I come from a long line of gardeners and wish I had more land to work with, but most of the land I have is used for growing food, flowers and herbs. Many members of my family are keen gardeners and grow their own food and flowers, some have chooks ( chickens) and fruit trees.

How will you celebrate Gardening Month?

Share this post

Autumn Here and Now Link-Up……but it’s too late!

Share this post

Hello!

So happy Sarah is back with the Here and Now link-up. I really enjoy her blog but I’ve just discovered I have left publication too late for this month, so I’ll watch out for next months link-up!

LOVING The gentle change in weather as we move into Autumn. The mornings and evenings are cooler. Very motivated to work in the garden after an afternoon listening to Sophie Thompson, horticulturist, author, ABCTV garden presenter and TEDx speaker.

EATING Easter themed cake and gingerbread rabbits.

DRINKING Forest Fruits with a twist of Apple tea. Warming, tastes good and smells lovely.

FEELING Pleased the roses are still blooming. This red one is Father’s Love and lasts for ages as a cut flower.

MAKING Little muslin pectin bags for jam making. Last year I used a knotted Chux, a kitchen wipe! Very ugly, very efficient, but now I have some little bags which I can wash and re-use. Soon there will be citrus, so I’ll be making marmalade. The pectin, from pips and peel, makes the jam set.

THINKING Time to replant a garden bed which gets good sun but is currently planted with cannas. I’m struggling to get rid of them and have been researching non-chemical ways to deal with them. Digging them out seems to spur any remnant rhizomes to greater vigor. Any ideas?

DREAMING We’re planning trips, first to Bali and then a train trip. These are the things we dreamed about when we were working and had limited time to travel. So many possibilities now!

Tomorrow marks the beginning of EASTER, the Christian festival celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus. Many families will go to Church, eat chocolate eggs and hot cross buns and spend relaxing time together.

Share this post

Three Quick, Easy, Gorgeous Easter Eggs and Bunting

Share this post

It’s not too late to make some Easter decorations. Easter has come about so quickly, but these projects are family friendly and mostly require materials you already have or can easily get. The projects I’ve featured here were very quick, very inexpensive and took little preparation. Each activity, except the shrink wrapped eggs, could be done by a school aged child under supervision.

The first easy project is MARBLED EGGS. Begin by boiling your eggs. While they are cooling cover your work area with plastic ( I re-used an old shopping bag). Half fill a bowl with water so you can submerge the eggs, gather some nail polish ( I used orange and grey) and put on rubber gloves.

Drizzle a small amount of both colours on the water and swirl with a toothpick, drop an egg into the water and gentle roll to cover with the marble.Repeat. The almost totally grey egg shows what happens if you pour in too much nail polish!

Leave them on the plastic to dry.

Pretty MARBLED EGGS. I used free range eggs which have very orange coloured shells, colours will look different on whiter eggs.

The second egg project is SPECKLED EGGS. After your boiled eggs are cool, pour some water into a bowl and add a good squirt of blue food dye and about a quarter of a cup of white vinegar. Dip the eggs into the dye and leave five minutes, stirring occasionally to create an even blue coverage.

I used an old shopping bag to cover my work surface and also wore rubber gloves. Remove the eggs and leave them to dry, then “speckled” by flicking brown paint (I used Winsor and Newton Burnt Sienna and Raw Sienna diluted water colour paint and a number 4 paintbrush) onto the blue surface, tilting slightly to speckle the sides.

Again, I used free range eggs which have an orange shell, white egg shells would look bluer.

The last very easy egg project is SHRINK WRAPPED EGGS which involves covering boiled eggs with bought shrink wrappers. (I bought these on EBay)

Separate the wrappers, then slip them over boiled eggs, then, using a dessert spoon, immerse the eggs one at a time, in a pot of boiling water. Hold for 3 – 4 seconds and then leave to cool, while you start the next one. So easy, so pretty.

* I use Martha Stewart’s method for boiling eggs. Heat immersed eggs in one layer in a pot of water until boiling, let boil one minute then turn off the heat and leave in the hot water for 13 minutes before straining and leaving to cool. Perfect boiled eggs!

Quick, free and gorgeous, PAINT COLOUR EGG BUNTING. The day before you make the bunting, collect two of each colour paint sample card you’re going to use, glue them back to back and leave under something heavy (I used a big book) Cut out an oval, egg shaped template and trace two eggs onto each of your colour samples.

Punch holes with a leather punch or similar and knot them onto string or ribbon. I knotted these close together so I could hang them around a cake serving plate.

Today is Licorice Day. Isn’t that wonderful? Licorice is a plant extract used in confectionery, medicines and alcohol. Love licorice.

Share this post

Cottesloe Beach for Sculptures and Albany for the Avenue of Honour Lights.

Share this post

Visited iconic Cottesloe Beach on a really hot day to wander around the Sculptures By The Sea. This free exhibition is in its 15th year and exhibits more than 70 pieces.

The sculptures are arranged on the grassed area and the beach so it’s easy to look at them from each perspective. Good access, beautiful surrounds and interesting pieces make this a very popular event. Across the road from the beach there’s coffee shops and cafes, icecream shops, restaurants and fish and chips shops, all with great views of the beach and Rottnest Island beyond.

This is one of a series of textural sculptures, clumped together creating a “cactus” garden. Tactile and not too big, these were very popular with children.

On The Nose, a humorous and clever sculpture. Very popular.

The artists exhibiting come from all over the world, including Japan, Germany, America, Sweden, China, Finland, Austria, Italy, Norway, Greece, England,South Korea, New Zealand and Australia.

The tower on the left is the Surf Life Saving post. This is the state’s coastal safety and rescue organisation. They patrol all the local beaches and provide essential educational and emergency services for the millions of people who visit WA’s beautiful beaches every year.

SLSWA runs children’s programs, too, called Nippers, and the children on the surf skis are practising their surf life saving skills.

Luckily, visitors to Cottesloe Beach to view the Sculptures By The Sea can refill their drink bottles with filtered water from these sources encouraging less reliance on single use plastic bottles.

The leaf sculpture “Ipomoea”to the right, moved on its stem and was fun to watch. It’s the work of New Zealander, Phil Price.

To Albany, down the south coast, to visit the Avenue of Honour.

Field of Light: Avenue of Honour is an installation by Bruce Munro and features 16 000 lights which glow green, yellow then white, representing the wattles, a native bush, common in the area. This immense and extremely moving installation down both sides of the avenue, pays homage to the ANZACS . This was the last sight of Western Australia for the 41 00o troops who departed from King George Sound.

The lights just before dusk.

The lights after dusk. Beautiful, quiet, very moving, a special visit to Albany. I really like this photo because there’s a ship in the background leaving King George Sound, just as the troops left all those years ago. Amongst the beauty, we can reflect on the sacrifice, courage and honour of the ANZACS.

ANZACS the acronym for Australian, and New Zealand Army Corps

Tomorrow, the 6th of April. is Teflon Day, commemorating the accidental discovery of polytetrafluoroethylene, or Teflon. In 1938, Dr Roy Plunkett was trying to make a CFC coolant, but created Teflon.

Share this post