Last Week of July

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MORE MENDING

While Mum was recuperating with us following melanoma surgery, I spent more time than usual upstairs. That’s how I discovered one of the timber plaster veneer frames on the stairs was chipped ( previous blog) and also how I found the tiller on one of the model yachts was broken. Another repair job! So wipe, glue and wait for the glue to cure. Usually I rely on clothes pegs to hold small things together while they cure, but the tiller was too small.

It’s back upstairs where it belongs.

SOME COOKING

Lots of visitors while my Mother recuperated, so lots of cooking. This has been the coldest, wettest winter in years, so I’ve been turning out curries, warming stews and some lemon flavoured shortbread. I have added a thick bolster off a sofa along the door into the garage as I can feel a cold draft when I walk past, we have sand bags at the ready following flooding in neighbour’s houses and we’ve used the reverse cycle heating often, which is rare for us! Our house was designed for the searing heat of West Australian summers with tiled floors which stay cool and sun blocking window coverings.

RED LIPSTICK

I’ve noticed lots of red lips lately. Then my husband read me this from a book he’s reading about when the main protagonist is preparing herself to greet difficult guests, ‘My favourite red Chanel lipstick is a great morale boost.’ He wanted to know if I felt that way about lipstick, but I had to admit I’d never given it much thought.

This morning I was reading the paper and there was an article about buying red lipstick. It was interesting with references to lots of famous women and their favourite red lipsticks. Read the advice and noted the shade of red recommended for my skin tone and added ‘red lipstick’ to the already long shopping list.

After we’d done the usual shopping and extras for hosting my husband’s bookclub meeting tomorrow night, I set off to investigate red lipsticks. There were a few which looked like the colour recommended for me, so I chose the type of lipstick I know well. That is a two part process; firstly, apply the colour, let it dry, then coat it with the clear, waxy sealer. For at least the last 20 years these two part lip colours have been my preferred lipstick because they can last all day if you don’t eat! And they don’t leave marks on cups. Perfect for work.

Then the trial run at home surprised me. I will take a while to adjust to Classic Red, instead of Rich Berry, but I do like it. Next purchase will probably be a traditional wind up tube of Chanel Rouge Allure Luminous Intense Lip Colour in Rouge Rebelle. In the meanwhile I’ve added red nails to the overhaul. And no, I’m not dying my hair red, too.

By the way, today is National Lipstick Day in America.

RED ONION SALAMI FLAN

This week my husband hosted his bookclub evening at our house. I made two grazing platters, plus heated some sausage rolls and little pies. It was a very wet, stormy night and the hot sausage rolls and little pies were very popular.

I had leftover cold meats. I realised I had a bag of red onions I needed to use, too, plus leftover salami, so instead of a classic onion and anchovy flan I made a red onion and salami flan. Avoiding food wastage is important.

These onions needed some work before I could cook them but cleaned up they yielded 1kg of sliced onion.

Peeled and sliced the onions. This resulted in 1 kilo of sliced red onions. They are sweeter than the brown onion used in the classic French Onion Tart. I caramelised the onions in a very heavy pan with a generous amount of olive oil.

I’d like to say I made a luscious butter, flour mixed with lukewarm water pastry, but I didn’t! While the onions were cooking I dug out a packet of frozen pastry which also needed using and rolled out a long piece for the flan tin. Heated the oven to F/F 160°C.

Put the flan base to cook and when it was ready, pressed the caramelised onions firmly into the base. Then sliced the leftover salami into strips and crisscrossed the strips over the onion. Cooked in the oven for about 40 minutes.

This flan was lovely served hot for lunch but even better cold for dinner! It was based on the traditional French Onion Tart or Pissaladière. To make a traditional Onion Tart brown about 1kg of onions with about half a dozen anchovies. The anchovies dissolve and boost the flavour. The mixture is then pressed into the flan tin. Crisscrossed with some extra some anchovies on the top and scattered with some olives. Delicious.

Did you know foam plastic cups take at least 50 years to decompose? Better to always have a keep cup on hand.

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Mid Winter Week

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COLOGNE

A few weeks ago I wrote about buying 4711 Acqua Colonia Blood Orange and Basil because my Grandfather used 4711 and I really liked the scent. As a cologne it didn’t last long or overpower but every now and then I’d get a whiff of the fresh citrusy scent. Then I read about a project the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam called ‘In Search Of Lost Scents’. Perfumers were asked to create scents to match works from the Rijksmuseum collection.

The Battle of Waterloo

Jan Willem Pieneman ‘The Battle of Waterloo’, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

One of the scents was created by perfumer Birgit Sijbrands, inspired by Jan Willem Pieneman’s 1824 painting ‘ The Battle of Waterloo’. The scents she selected were intended to reflect Napoleon’s anxiety fleeing the battlefield, plus thousands of horses and the leather of saddles, bridles and boots. Another layer represented the muddy earth as it had been raining for days, and sweat and gunpowder.

www. Pixabay

There was also a surprising layer to the created scent; fresh citrus. The former Emperor and many of the soldiers were fans of 4711 Eau de Cologne, then called ‘Aqua Mirabilis’, miracle water. It was considered a medicine plus a fragrance. 4711 claims to be the oldest cologne still being made in the world. It is produced in Cologne, famous for its colognes, hence the word ‘cologne’. Made by Mäurer & Witz, it is a secret combination of lemon, orange, bergamot, lavender, rosemary, neroli, petitgrain*, roses and sandalwood oil. It still smells wonderful.

Pixabay

*Petitgrain is derived from the bitter orange tree. I’d never heard of it before but apparently is commonly used in medicinal oils.

A NEW LAPTOP

My laptop had been dropped once too often and not always by me! After a discussion with my son, Techno Help, a new one was ordered. Years ago I had a glossy red laptop which was attractive and easy to find in a pile of others things on the table. Now my choices were graphite, graphite or graphite. Bit like slowly replacing all the lovely white electrical appliances in the kitchen with stainless steel. So, I ordered sticker which was a picture of roses. It arrived quickly, was easy to apply and I love it.

What’s in the large envelope? A sticker for my new laptop.

BALD AS A BADGER

Pixabay

My Mother used the expression “As bald as a badger”. We couldn’t visualise a bald badger! Turns out, the expression was “As bald as a badger’s bum”. Badgers were trapped and the coarse, thick hairs from their rear ends were plucked to make shaving brushes. After plucking the bristles the badgers were released. Eventually the hair grew back but it was common to see badgers with bald backsides!Pixabay

There’s a common Australian expression “As blind as a bandicoot” probably because they live underground. There’s a long history of expressions making comparisons with animals, such a ‘ as blind as a bat’, ‘as slow as a snail’ and ‘ slippery as a snake.”

Pixabay

PLASTIC FREE JULY

I was interested to read that pressure from the children of CEOs is resulting in change around the over use of plastics. Many brands admit they are changing their polices and practices due to pressure from their own children.

Unfortunately, birds starving because their stomachs are full of plastics is becoming more common, according to recent research in the UK. WWF also claims we each consume a credit card size amount of plastic every week. Also in the UK The Rivers Trust (www.theriverstrust.org/stop-flushing-wipes) tells us that 93% of sewer blockages are caused by flushing wipes down the toilet. Probably similar statistics in Australia. Let’s focus on cleaner water.

ROSES

My roses are finally recovering from the plague, AKA chili thrip. Healthy green leaves and buds are appearing just in time for pruning. I am hoping they recover fully and return to their vigorous state of well being next season. Meanwhile we took my Mother home this week and her roses are still blooming happily. As a result, I have two vases of beautiful roses, which makes me very happy.

RESTORING

Running up and down the stairs many times a day recently, I saw the frame of one of the mirrors hanging there was chipped. The frames are classic timber with plaster decorative finishes. I’ve repaired chips in the frames before, so set about restoring this one.

I removed the mirror from the wall and dusted and wiped it clean, before mixing a paste of Polyfilla.

Mixed the Polyfilla using an old knife. I’m sure there’s purpose made palette knives for this job but I like the long blade on this old one for applying and smoothing the plaster.

2. Smeared the Polyfilla carefully into the cracked ornate plaster veneer, over filling it slightly.

BEFORE

AFTER

3. After it had cured for two days I used sandpaper to smooth the surface to look like the rest of the frame.

4. Using a small paintbrush, I stippled gold and copper paint onto the repair to imitate the existing old gold until it looked like the original finish. Added some black water colour paint to mimic the frame’s faint black stripe when the gold was dry then re-hung the mirror. Pleased with the repair.

Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, has just won the rights to host the 2032 Olympic Games. By then we should be CV-19 free!

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What’s Wrong With Our Schools and Other Things This Week

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THE SCHOOL The Ups and Downs Of One Year In The Classroom

So what is wrong with our schools? I have just finished reading Brendan James Murray’s book, The School. I taught for forty one years, mostly in Primary Schools, but also Pre -Schools and High Schools. I have been retired for three years but still find myself reading articles about education all the time, and especially those about the current debate in Australia regarding teaching phonics. (Learning to read is a complex skill and each child is an individual and should be offered as many strategies as possible to become a competent reader.)

Murray was a High School teacher. He writes eloquently and with great compassion about the challenges facing teenagers and their teachers in the educational process. This is a work of non fiction storytelling. He amalgamates ten years of teaching into a fictional year, based on children, teachers and a school he knows well. He works at the school he attended as a student.

He also explains the ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank) ranking system currently used in Australia to determine the students’ ability, or their ‘rank’ compared against their peers. The ATAR score determines university acceptance. The score reflects the students’ performance relative to other students. So, if you have an ATAR of 86.4% you performed as well or better than 86.4% of other Year 12 (final year) students. Despite ivigilating/supervising ATAR exams at the end of each year, I’d never really considered just how each student was competing against every other student, nor how subject scores were scaled up or down to reflect the performance of students across the country.

There are great teachers, teachers who will become very good, burnt out teachers and teachers who should have left the profession. Funding for education is always insufficient for the best outcomes. The students in Murray’s book display every range of expected behaviours and abilities to learn, mixed in with some awful health issues.

What is most evident is students who are poorly parented will probably result in poor outcomes. The student who lives in a chaotic home, with unstable, poorly educated parents, has few routines, is not regularly fed or read to, will probably struggle, despite good funding and good teachers. The cycle of impoverished parenting needs to be addressed more consistently to break this cycle. Even brilliant, compassionate, highly motivated teachers, and there are many, cannot overcome the multitude of poor outcomes associated with poor parenting.

A thought provoking book, sometimes funny, sometimes sad and often informative, I would recommend it to anyone with children, involved in education or in any way influencing programs designed to improve parenting skills.

GOOD INDIAN DAUGHTER How I Found Freedom in Being A Disappointment

Ruhi Lee came to Australia from India as a small child. Her parents migrated here believing Australia would offer them, as a family, better opportunities. In contrast to the previous book, Lee parents do offer a stable but harsh home environment. A clever student, Lee is expected to do as she’s told and to be the best. Physical punishments and cutting comments leave her questioning her value. She knows she is not behaving like a “good Indian daughter.”

Secrets, lies, failure, confrontations and a long term secret boyfriend cause conflict. Her parents crave conformity and she’s told to just shrug off violence, sexual abuse, verbal abuse and expectations which don’t resonate with her character. Appearance and family are everything .

When she learns she’s carrying a daughter she begins to really analyse her own upbringing, determined to do it differently. Sometimes shocking and sometimes funny, this story highlights the way many females are still treated within society. The conflict of generational, personal and cultural divides can leave deep scars. The unrealistic expectations placed on Lee will be familiar in many families, not just amongst Indian families.

When the expectations of parents clash with the plans of children, things can become splintered beyond repair. This story made me wonder, when should she just give up? Not every situation has a happy ending but Lee has surrounded herself with a family and friendship group which is genuine and supportive. She and her husband will ensure their daughter will have a different childhood.

As usual, I borrowed both books from the library.

A DAY DOWN SOUTH

My Mother had melanoma surgery 12 days ago and has been staying with us since then. Today she was well enough to go back home.She has a dressing on her nose covering a graft, a long dressing on her hand and another site under her eye. Although her wounds are healing well, she’s been told to stay out of the garden for a few more weeks. She’ll find that very hard! I picked some lettuce for her and she was keen to “poke” about.

July 14th was Bastille Day in France. Did you celebrate? Macarons anyone?

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Making, Cooking, Eating, Reading

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MAKING

I have painted every day for the last two months, sometimes just quick works, sometimes intricate paintings and sometimes following Zoom sessions. During this time I become interested in painting blue and white china. I sorted all my blue paints and tested each to decide which were closest in colour to the blue on my many pieces of blue and white china.

I found making a reference sheet of test colours really useful and did something I should have done years ago: I drew up a grid and painted a rectangle showing the colour of every tube of paint I have and wrote their names, too. I have no idea why I didn’t do this before, but it is very useful!

Then my son gave me a Moleskin Watercolour Album. It is gorgeous and the texture of the cold pressed cotton (25%) blend, acid free pages is very good. The next day I drew up and replicated the colour grid inside the front of the journal. Great reference, just needs some great paintings, now.

COOKING CABBAGE SOUP!

The greengrocer has a range of cabbages. I buy them all, the reds ones, the Savoy ones, the Chinese (wombok), the black and the common green drumhead ones. I had run out of ideas for preparing cabbage! I looked up “cabbage soup” online. A nostalgic moment. You see, the majority of recipes for cabbage soup are for the Cabbage Soup Diet!

When we lived overseas most foreigners lived in a compound. Christmas wasn’t celebrated there and there was no holiday except at the school. Most of the wives and children returned to their home countries for a few weeks to celebrate Christmas and have a holiday. This meant mass dieting for weeks before hand and the diet of choice was the Cabbage Soup Diet. I don’t think it was very successful but seeing so many entries for it online was nostalgic, not necessarily in a good way. Boiled cabbage smells bad.

Next time I’ll grind fresh spices instead of using powdered ones.

Under all that was a recipe from a site called Simply Good for Cabbage Soup, (here). The reviews were enthusiastic and there were lots of them, so I made Cabbage Soup. I had all the ingredients. It was easy, healthy and very good. I will make it again.

EATING AND COLD WEATHER

It’s the middle of winter in the Southern hemisphere. We have had more rain than I remember since I was a child. The dams and even the aquifers must be full by now. Wet and cold days seem to require carbohydrates, so I’m quick to oblige. When our son came down from Kalgoorlie for the weekend, we had bagels and paninis for lunch and a roast beef dinner with roasted vegetables and luscious gravy.

The next morning we had yum cha, delicious little bites with warming spicy dipping sauces. The yum cha restaurant is always crowded and noisy. There’s large round tables where big groups enjoy the food and company, smaller tables and then tables for four. The servers come past with trolleys you choose from or trays with specialties and you can order your favourites, too.

Small but diabolical chocolate muffins.

I’d made chocolate chip muffins. They have amazing powers to fight cold weather

My Mother has been staying, too, after some surgery for melanomas on her face and hand. She really feels the cold, so has an electric blanket on her bed and now, an electric throw. It was recommended to me by a friend and endorsed enthusiastically by another friend, so off I went to buy her one. The first two shops had sold out, but the third shop had one left. They had unpacked ten that morning and told me I was lucky to get the last one.

She thinks it’s very warm!

READING

I’m a fan of Irish writer Marion Keyes books. She is funny and sharply observant. She writes fiction and nonfiction. I always checked to see if she had for a new book available when we were traveling. Remember plane trips? When I finished the book I’d leave it in the hotel for someone else to enjoy.

Thoroughly enjoyed ” Making It Up As I Go Along”. Published in 2016 this is a collection of columns and articles she wrote for various newspapers, travel magazines and other magazines. We learn about her nail polish museum, her many trips overseas and Himself, her saint like husband plus her passion for rugby.

I borrowed this book from the library to balance out my other selections, serious garden tomes on treating pest invasions naturally, re-espaliering fruit trees ( mine has shot upwards, seeking sunlight as the neighbours’ trees have grown and block the sun) and small garden design requiring little water, except their idea of a small garden is big compared to mine. Interesting and informative, but very serious so some droll observations from Marion Keyes were very welcome.

How are you going with Plastic Free July? Aldi has a set of four fruit and vegetable bags. Two are made of calico, two are woven cotton. Light, easy to wash and reusable. Four less plastic bags every week. You can use the paper bags intended for mushrooms if you forget to take reusable fruit and vegetable bags shopping.

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Plastic Free July

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As we head into Plastic Free July, I’d like to write about some new research about the impact of plastic on the planet and specifically, on us!

In 2017, Dr Shanna Swan, professor of Environmental Medicine and Public Health at the Mt Sinai School of Medicine in New York City published evidence that the average sperm count among Western men has halved in the past 40 years.

Acknowledging the impact of delayed childbearing, choice or lifestyle, Swan concludes that chemicals have played a major causal role. She notes that younger women have increased impaired fecundity ( the ability to have children) than older women. The risk of miscarriage has also risen in the younger group of women.

So which chemicals in plastics are causing havoc? Phthalates, used to make plastics soft and flexible, mimic or interfere with the bodies sex hormones, testosterone and oestrogen. The body registers sufficient levels of these hormones, so reduces the production of both, interfering with fertility.

Exposure to plastics is through food manufacturing, processing and packaging. This diminishes sperm count as well effecting women. Another plastic posing risks is Bisphenol A (BPA) used to harden plastics. It mimics oestrogen. Found in the lining of some can linings and cash register receipts, it effects both males and females.

She summarises her research with the fact that if we “follow the curve from the 2017 sperm decline meta-analysis, it predicts that by 2045 we will have a median sperm count of zero.” Swan suggests we protect ourselves by eating unprocessed food cooked at home, avoid Teflon and don’t microwave anything in plastic.Store food stuffs in glass. Use basic, simple scent free cleaning and personal hygiene products and read labels to limit your exposure to plastics.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/mar/28/shanna-swan-fertility-reproduction-count-down

All photos above Pixabay.com

In other research, by the Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Queensland, 3 – 4 mg of microplastics was identified in every 100mg of uncooked rice. ( The West Australian newspaper, p14, 10/05/2021) The study, originally published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials also claims instant and pre-cooked rice contains four times more microplastics, averaging 13mg per 100gm serve.

The researchers used common brands of rice bought from local supermarkets. They tested for polyethylene and plastics used in laminates, technical engineering, polystyrene acrylics and tubing. The article notes that washing the rice before cooking reduces the plastic contamination by 20 to 40 percent.

SIMPLE WAYS TO USE LESS PLASTIC

1. Buy loose fruit and vegetables and pack them in reusable bags. Use the paper bags intended for mushroom if you forget your bags.

2. Reuse glass jars to store produce. Glass is infinitely recyclable.

3. Buy things in bulk to reduce packaging. Usually, you’ll save money, too.

4. Use beeswax covers, containers with lids or plates to cover leftovers in the fridge.

5. Take your own “keep” cup to cafes. Ask if you can have take-away food in your own, reusable containers.

6. Put reusable shopping bags back in the car when you’ve unpacked your shopping. Keep folded shopping bags in your handbag or pocket.

7.. Avoid buying plastic bottles of water by taking your own. Refuse plastic straws or plates.

8. Recycle any plastic optical products you use at your optometrist.

9. Consider the lifespan of plastic toys and what they offer your child in terms of imaginative or finer manipulative skills.

10. Look at the fabric information on swing tags before you buy clothing. Most artificial fabrics release micro plastics into waterways.

Look for posts about Plastic Free July for more ideas.

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