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.