Four Days at Bunker Bay

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We have just returned from a four day break at a resort at Bunker Bay. We were lucky to have sunny, mild autumn weather and no rain. Had to water our garden as soon as we got home!

Anywhere past Busselton is called ” down south”, a favourite destination for so many people.

Included in this area are Busselton, Dunsborough, Yallingup, Cowaramup, Margaret River and Augusta. Once a sleepy farming and surfing area, down south is now a vibrant and busy part of Western Australia. Renown for vineyards, surfing, restaurants, amazing beaches, artists and beautiful bush land, this area is accessible from Perth, the capital and also affordable, offering all levels of accommodation from camping to super luxury cottages, hotels and purpose built retreats.

We had lunch when we arrived. My husband enjoyed his Margaret River Lamb Belly Ribs with Jarrah Honey, Cucumber, Fennel and Vietnamese Mint. We shared Roast Capel Heritage Potatoes, with Wood fired Bread Crouton, Rosemary Fleur de Sel and Truffle Oil. Wonderful.

I had Green Papaya Chicken Salad with a Peanut and Chilli Emulsion. Not so wonderful.

One of the bedrooms. Loved listening to the ocean crashing at night.

A view of one of the bathrooms.

We had a two bedroom, two bathroom villa. The entrance courtyard opened out to bush land and the front veranda looked over native plants to the ocean. Private, quiet and very comfortable.

This boardwalk crosses a lagoon and leads to the beach.

Due to regular shark alerts this is as far as I go into the sea, now days. The day before this photo was taken a man was killed by a shark in Queensland and the next day another man survived a shark attack at Broome.

After a big lunch we settled to our typical holiday dinner,” a bed picnic”, eaten in the sitting room!

Local businesses using local produce. Born, bred and frozen locally, this ice cream claims to be a combination of the freshest local produce and secret ingredients. It’s very good.

Our “bed picnics” became smaller and smaller each evening, probably due to indulging in double ice creams, made locally and tasty very special. The apples, with very dark skins and crisp flesh, are called Bravo. Unique to Western Australia, these apples have a distinct sweetness, high level of crispness and crunchiness and a dark, unusual burgundy skin. We really liked them!

Lovely places to walk around the resort.

Breakfast treats.

Green farmland en route to Dunsborough from Bunker Bay.

Approaching Yallingup. The green signs are Beach Emergency Numbers. This is a coding system to cut emergency response times. Each sign has a unique code at beach access points to ensure emergency vehicles can locate where they are needed quickly along the long coastline.

Driving into Yallingup, famous for surfing.

We enjoyed the car museum and the surfing museum at one of the vineyards.

Many vineyards in the region, some quite famous for their wines. Also emerging breweries. Many have cellar doors and restaurants.

Morning tea, a car picnic!

View from restaurant at Bunker Bay. So lovely.

Jetty at Busselton in the early morning light.

This shows the beginning of the Busselton Jetty, the longest timber piled jetty in the southern hemisphere. The jetty is 1.8km long. The buildings also house one of only six Underwater Observatories in the world. There’s an Interpretive Centre, Interactive Museum, a gift shop and a jetty train which travels on the jetty out to sea.

We were so lucky to experience lovely weather while we were down south. We had such a relaxing time, visiting some favourite places and a few we hadn’t been to before, eating at favourite cafes and restaurants and enjoying art galleries and, of course, the amazing coastline.

Our next holiday, booked for next week, has been cancelled due to an out break of Covid in Melbourne. We were going to Canberra for the Bottecelli to Van Gogh Exhibition, then to Melbourne to visit the She-Oak and Sunlight Exhibition, 250 Australian impressionist Works and also the French Impressionism From The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. So disappointing!

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On Being Frugal and Making Stem Ginger in Syrup

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ON BEING FRUGAL

I think being frugal is making the best use of available resources. It’s about preserving a box of gifted apples, mending clothing and extending its life and borrowing books from the library and only buying a copy if you don’t want to give the book back!

Being frugal is not about being mean. It’s not really about money, it’s about resources. It’s about being thoughtful about consuming. Spend less money on things which will be thrown out, enjoy beautiful things in your home, cook most of what you eat from the best ingredients and don’t waste food!

Most days of the week I walk with my 89 year old neighbour. We both grew up on farms where water was a much valued resource and yesterday, after heavy rain, noticed a neighbour’s reticulation was still running. Wasted water!

Using the least water possible was a way of life on the farm where I grew up. It was a precious resource. I have mixed memories about going away to school but one of them was discovering I could fill the bath up to my chin. I could tilt the plug with my toe to let some cooled water out and top the bath up again with hot. Bliss! Then the luxury of letting the water drain out of the bath. We weren’t expected to bucket it out into the garden to water the plants.

I wish I’d spent more time with my Father in his shed. A treasure trove of bits and pieces carefully stored in labeled boxes on shelves, it seemed he could make or repair anything. Jobs he couldn’t do were done by specialists. The saddlier came and took saddles away for repairs, the plumbing for a new bathroom was installed by a plumber and vehicles were sometimes repaired by mechanics but most jobs were done by him. Now I rely on YouTube, online posts and guesswork.

I really like the idea of things lasting for a long time. The blogs showing how people recycle a pair of jeans into storage pockets, aprons, bracelets, shorts and patches for other pairs of jeans are really interesting. I enjoy reading blogs demonstrating ways of getting the most out of what we have or intend buying.

Many years ago my husband gave me a designer hand bag. I adore it! I used it most days a week when I was working. It’s a thoughtful design so perfect for traveling. I still use it. About once a year I treat it with saddle dressing and it still looks new. It is 21 years old, so per use, it has been a really frugal buy. It would have been more frugal if I’d stopped at one but actually I have several much loved and frequently used bags from the same brand. As an aside, I asked two friends if they still have and use 21 year old handbags. Neither do and both said they donate their expensive leather bags to charity shops after two or three years.

Why does using less matter? The only free energy we have is the sun, so conserving energy is a worldwide consideration. Energy production results in pollution, either chemical or heat. Thoughtful use of energy is necessary because some popular energy saving methods actually cause more pollution, such as factory farming resulting in added food miles. Buy food locally produced and trucked to the shop.

Adding to landfill is an enormous problem. Many things disintegrate very slowly and can pollute the surrounding soil, waterways and the air. We should all try to create less landfill by discarding fewer clothes, food and general household waste. Many large Australian supermarkets are committed to reducing wasted food, directing it to gifted meals or compost, plus using less plastics. One of our major supermarket chains has already swapped the traditional polystyrene trays used for meat, fruit and vegetables, replacing them with a plant based product which is compostable.

MAKING STEM GINGER

We found a delicious sounding recipe for pear, ginger and rye cake. Couldn’t find any stem ginger in syrup. The recipe called for both the preserved ginger and some syrup. I found a way to make stem ginger in syrup online. Luckily I had a knob of fresh ginger. It wasn’t the weight recommended in the recipe but that was easily adjusted .

The recipe advised scraping the skin off the ginger using a spoon. Made an awful mess, went back to my usual tool, a potato peeler. Chopped the peeled ginger and boiled it for two and a half hours, just covered in water. Kept an eye on it and topped up the water when necessary.

Made the syrup by boiling equal amounts of water and sugar.

It was soft after two and a half hours, so I strained the liquid off the ginger. I had 130gm of ginger so added 130gm sugar and 130ml of drained off cooking water, brought it all to the boil and let it simmer for five minutes. Left it to cool a little, then packed the ginger into a sterilised jar and covered it with the syrup.

This made very strong ginger and delicious strong syrup. There was leftover syrup when I measured it, so we added some soda and enjoyed a very good sparkling ginger drink.

Sparkling ginger drink. Delicious preserved stem ginger.

Did you know recent research revealed Australian households annually throw out 2.5 million tonnes of edible food every year? The average household sends about 4.5kg of food to landfill each week.

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Emily in Paris and Mending

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EMILY IN PARIS

Have you been watching Emily In Paris? It had been recommended to us but the description didn’t really appeal until I read a blog written by an American woman living in the south of France. Her thoughtful comments on sophistication and cultural differences apparent in the series interested me. Time to find out what was causing the furore.

Emily, played by Lily Collins, is a social media marketing guru. She’s unexpectedly sent from Chicago to Paris when the company she works for buys a small French PR company, Savoir. Non-French speaking Emily is on a mission to get the French company using social media for their luxury branding company, the American way, of course! Energetic, determined and totally culturally unaware, she finds herself in every clichéd situation imaginable.

Sometimes funny, sometimes painful and often unbelievable, this fairy tale takes you on a great journey through Paris. Written by Darren Star who also wrote Sex In The City, there’s beautiful people, gorgeous clothes and all the famous Parisian sites plus glittering events.

I think we kept watching because we’ve been in a similar position. We moved to a country where few people spoke English. We’d been there quite a few times before and had worked hard on being culturally aware. We knew some local staff members. My husband had a driver and interpreter but I needed to find an apartment, organise schooling, sort out shopping for food (mostly from the local market down the road) plus furniture and everything else we needed to live there for some years. I didn’t have an interpreter most of the time. I learnt what I call “market” language. Room for many misunderstandings! We had to live in a compound with other expat families who luckily also spoke English, which was helpful.

bike leaning against handrail in front of concrete building at daytime

Emily is extremely confident, creating some obvious opportunities for cultural awkwardness. She slowly becomes more attuned to the nuances of French behaviour. Sometimes funny, always fast moving, very glamorous this is an entertaining series. There’s a second series scheduled for this year. Cleverly, the announcement was issued under the letterhead of Savoir, the luxury promotions company Emily works for in the series. It includes her bosses comment; “We hope that by extending her time in Paris Emily will…delve deeper into our culture and perhaps pick up a few words of basic French.” We’ll be watching.

MENDING

MENDing 1

One of the planters on this narrow ledge was disintegrating. This is the top of a retaining wall and gets good sunlight during the day. I have two planters both planted with blueberry bushes. I couldn’t find a replacement planter of the right size. I would have to replace two, as well, as they sit side by side and something different would look strange. I went hunting for a way to repair the one falling apart. The planters are made of fibreglass.

Lots of online research led me to Builders Filler, a two part filler intended for repairing metal, wood, concrete and fibreglass. Following the directions I thoroughly cleaned the surface to be repaired and then read and re-read the instructions.

Preparation involved mixing the filler and the hardener and then using it immediately. The job was done with the blueberry and soil remaining in the planter as it was too hard to do it any other way.

The filler dried very quickly. It is as hard as the fibreglass and filled the hole well.

Left to cure for several hours then sanded the patched area.

Used a damp cloth to remove the dust created by sanding the planter box and then painted over the mend. It’s not perfect but looks a lot better.

mending 2

This shabby chic/rustic bird house came from an open garden day on a farm down south. The farmer had used leftover scraps of timber to make a few bird houses. They were pretty rough but that was part of the appeal. I’ve had this one for at least five years and bits were beginning to fall off the front.

Quick clean then I used Liquid Nails to glue the pieces back on. All pretty rough. My usual clamps are pegs but the wood was too thick, so I used masking tape. Left it over night to cure. I realise this piece does not have a long life expectancy but it’s fine for now!

MENDING 3

This mohair rug is thrown over our doona most nights. We have used it for about 20 years. During that time I have repaired it a few times as it is quite loosely woven. The latest problem occurred when the dog jumped onto the bed and his claws got caught in the fringing.

Spread it out on the table to assess the damage. Hard to see what a tangled mess it’s in but I’ve repaired this rug before and got to work. The pulled threads were a mess. I used a long, blunt needle to gently push the weft threads back up. Then I had to thread the two lengths pulled out of place and stitch them back where they belonged.

All good….until next time!

Now it has become a chair throw instead of a bed throw. It was really fiddly mending this rug. It took more than two hours to repair and is so loosely woven it could easily become damaged again. Much safer on the chair.

Did you know modelling predicts it will take 550 years for a disposable nappy to decompose entirely?

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How to Print Rose Pattern Giftwrap and a New Teapot

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PRINTING ROSES

Mother’s Day is only days away so I’m printing some gift wrap with a rose pattern. This could be the easiest craft project you ever attempt! The roses will be pink to go with the pink carnation card I have already painted for my Mother.

You need a bunch of celery, a knife for cutting the celery, a palette or plate for paint, sheets of brown paper or any colour you prefer and acrylic paint for printing. I also used some paper towel for dabbing off excess paint from the celery before printing. If you’re mixing paint colours, as I did, you’ll need something to blend the desired colour. I prefer a stiff paint brush as the bristles really massage the paint and combine the colours.

Cut the base from the bunch of celery. (Wash and store the sticks to eat later) Leave the base to dry overnight. When I looked at it in the morning I needed to cut the top flat again.

Prepare your work surface and gather your materials. When I looked closely at the base I thought the four outer remnant sticks were not adding to the rose shape of the others, so I cut them off. You could use a rubber band to secure the cut off sticks and print using them if they look more like roses.

Mix your preferred colour. I wanted pink to go with the pink carnation card I had painted for my Mother. I made a pale pink and a darker pink. Don’t worry if you haven’t mixed enough paint for your sheet of paper. The paint colour is easily matched to what remains on your palette/plate.

Lay you paper for printing on a protected work surface. Squeeze the paint onto the plate or palette, mixing colours if you want a different shade. I used acrylic paints. Dab the celery in the paint. Tap onto paper towel if you need to, then place on the paper. Press firmly. Repeat, creating a pattern.

Then I experimented with pale pink over printed with darker pink and also did some darker pink roses. Taking the cue from the black outline I added to the carnations on the card I also did black pen outlines on the printed roses. I used a Sharpie. Prefer the paler prints when they’re outlined in black.

When your prints are dry it’s easy to add leaves if you like, using green paint, felt pen, coloured pencils or even glitter pen. I didn’t but if I was doing this super easy activity with children I’d let them decide if they wanted to add leaves.

I printed on brown paper. I salvaged it at Christmas time. It was the packing paper around a large gift. Later I ironed it to make it smoother but didn’t bother making it perfect as I liked the slightly rumpled look! The paper grips the paint well. I have printed on tissue paper but it’s tricky as the paper sticks to the celery and butchers paper, which works well. I think it would look interesting to print the roses on sheets of newspaper, too.

MY NEW TEAPOT

I don’t drink tea although I love the smell of it! I just don’t like the taste. I drink coffee but try to limit the number of cups I have each day. Looking through the drinks menu at a cafe one afternoon I saw a list of Fruit Infusions and ordered a pot of Cranberry Vanilla. Really liked it and ordered it again a few days later then went hunting for it to have at home. It is sold as a loose mix in a packet.

Initially I made it in a cup using an infuser spoon basket. It was fine but bits of the mix escaped the basket and it took a lot of mix to make each cup of tea.

So when I saw this teapot I bought it as it was similar to the teapot used at the cafe. It’s a saucer, cup, pot, stainless steel infusion basket and a lid. And it’s pretty.

Pour the hot water over the infusion basket full of the loose fruit mix, put on the lid, leave a five minutes. Pour into the cup. No floating bits, full flavour and two cups of tea. The second cup stays hot in the pot for ages.

The same amount of tea used in the infusion spoon put in the stainless steel infusion basket makes twice as much tea!

IN THE GARDEN

The hippiastra continue to bloom. These are in flower almost all the time. I have had them for many years. The ranunculus corms I soaked before planting have all germinated as have most of the poppy seeds. Unfortunately, the roses are all under attack from chilli thrip and despite spraying them as recommended all except the icebergs look miserable. Too early to prune so I’ll continue to cut back the affected leaves and flowers and spray regularly. Any clever ways to solve this problem?

Did you know milk cartons take about five years to compost?

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