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CHOP CLEANING

This has got nothing to do with meaty chops! Chops, in this case, are a Chinese stamp or signature. I have three. They are a remnant of living in China and now I use one of them to stamp my paintings and prints. The chop is pressed into the pot of ink and then stamped on paper.

The ink is also known as seal paste and is long lasting. It is usually handmade from natural materials; Artemisia Argyu, known as silvery woodworm plus castor oil and white clay. The vivid red colour is most common and often called “cinnabar” red as it is red with a tint of orange, like cinnabar.  The paste or ink is best kept in a ceramic pot.

Over time the carved out characters on my stamps have become embedded with the red ink. I couldn’t find any online instructions on how to remove the sticky, thick red ink, so I experimented. I was hoping I’d regain the crisp clarity of a new stamp.

I began by wiping off what I could on paper towel. Then I scrubbed the area with diluted pure soap and hot water. Partial success, but not enough. Then I tried spraying on a little Isopropyl Alcohol and scrubbing again with a clean toothbrush. Success! Rinse, dry and ready to use.

PAINTING

My water colour class started on Monday and runs for eight weeks. I have been using this palette for nine years and was reluctant to clean it as I relied on the same colours time and time again. I bought some new tubes of paint and decided to start again, not with a clean slate, but with a clean palette! Here is the palette soaking in the trough in the laundry.

Three hours later, a lot of scrubbing and then a lot of cleaning in and around the trough and I have a clean palette. My painting bag is packed, ready to go.

BIRTHDAY

It is our son’s birthday this week. He is 33. He was 55cm long at birth and now he’s 194cm. I cannot believe how fast 33 years have gone! Usually we celebrate birthdays with yum cha, but considering the risk of corona virus, we decided to celebrate at home.

Our son wanted fettucine with a meat sauce. He made the dough but we all helped with the rest of the process.

We’re not sure how nonna would have done this by herself but it is worth the effort as this pasta is luscious!

While the fettucine was drying I made an Apple Ginger Birthday cake which is cooling next to the drying rack of fettucine. It is busy in the kitchen!

Dry and ready to cook.

Meanwhile I have made a rich meat sauce to serve with the fettucine. This sauce starts with onions and garlic then the mince and finally passata and tomatoes and chopped up vegetables. During the cooking process I add dried basil, a little sprinkle of cumin, some thyme and salt and pepper. I remove the two bay leaves before serving.

The Apple Ginger Birthday cake. When it was cool I iced it and decorated it with diagonally cut Ginger Thins finished off with a little circle of finely chopped crystallized ginger in the centre of the cake. It was very good.

GROWING IVY

I was a bit surprised to see pots of ivy for sale at the shopping centre. I have never considered buying ivy as I thought you just broke a piece off a plant you already had or asked someone else with a plant for a piece and got it growing. Apparently not.

The verge out the front is currently a bit of a mess but that’s because we have a verge collection next week, or a “bring our your dead”. This involves putting anything non vegetative that you no longer want on the verge and then the council truck picks it up. In the meantime, people cruise around looking at your discarded things and take what they want. Great recycling but why do they make such a mess? Carefully stacked and safely arranged things are in total disarray within hours.

Anyway, when the rejected goods have gone it will be time to replace some dead patches in the ivy under our street tree. The tree is obviously an attractive place to park in the heat of summer but the ivy doesn’t do so well being parked on, so it is time to replant.

To grow ivy cut off a tip piece (top of image above), strip the lower two or three leaves (second part of image above), place it in water (below).

Refresh the water once a week until you see little white roots shooting from the bottom of the stem, plant out and keep moist for a few days, then water every two days until the weather cools down. Voila! Free plants.

February 14th is Valentines Day, but unless you avoid shopping centres, don’t watch television or read the brochures in the letterbox, you already knew that! We don’t really celebrate the day although I’ve made a card and will make a cake in a heart shaped tin, because I always do and we’ll go out to dinner with friends because we arranged it a while ago.

Some water colour paper, folded, a cut up pink envelope to make the banner, a neoprene heart and some letters written using a Sharpie. Plus glue.

Plus a recycled envelope.

Completed with a gold sticker.

How do you celebrate Valentines Day?

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