A Break Down South

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WHAT TO DO IN BUSSELTON

All the Open Studio information was online but I found the hard copy easier for us to plan our visits.

We love going Down South, the region beyond Bunbury along the south-western coast of Western Australia. Before setting off for our break last week we researched the artists we wanted to visit as part of the Margaret River Region Open Studios program. We found the guide’s recommendation to visit five to seven studios a day to be just right. The artists we visited were inspiring and we liked so many of the artworks we saw. I will be looking regularly to see if any of my favourites are offering workshops.

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We stayed at a resort in Busselton. Once a sleepy little town famous for its 1,840m long wooden piled jetty, built in 1865, Busselton is now a vibrant and exciting place to visit. It spreads along the Indian Ocean coastline. There’s lots to see and do at the jetty including traveling on the jetty train, visiting the Underwater Observatory and the Interpretive Centre and Museum, going on Undersea Walks, enjoying a canoe tour and other seasonal activities.

Nearby the Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse is packed with information and a whale watching platform (I was thrilled to see a whale breach earlier this year). There is also the Tuart Forest National Park and Ngilgi Cave and so many vineyards,breweries, specialist coffee roasters and the Chocolate Factory. Plus, all the artists!

The City of Busselton Council has just announced the development of a $38 million dollar Performing Arts and Convention Centre. The multi functional building will be integrated within existing art venues, between the foreshore and the town. The Council intends to promote Busselton as the events capital of Western Australia.

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EATING IN BUSSELTON

The biggest change we noticed in Busselton was the food available. The restaurants and cafes offer such a diverse range of high quality and innovative food. The availability of beautiful local seafood was apparent .(Export markets have diminished due to CV-19) We ate great lunches and even went out for dinner one night but the other nights we resorted to our usual ‘bed’ picnics, not actually eaten in bed! These fairly light meals usually involve cold meat, cherry tomatoes, cheese, crackers and seasonal fruit in our accommodation.

Bistro Breton is a small bistro on the main street of Busselton. They offer typical Breton buckwheat (naturally gluten free) crepes and other French cuisine. We saw it mentioned online, made a lunch booking and are so glad we did as the food was very good. I had a Gratin de St Jacques, ( above) grilled scallops with a traditional Breton sauce. It was served with hand cut chips and salad leaves with a French vinaigrette. I’d return to Busselton just to eat this again! My husband had La Galette Saucisse, a traditional Breton sausage with onion fondue, potatoes, a French mustard sauce and salad leaves. He really enjoyed the rich flavours.

We wouldn’t normally have dessert at lunch but those on the menu were irresistible! I had La Tatin, a crepe with butter caramel sauce on apple, with chantilly cream and vanilla gelato. My husband had La Poire Belle-Helélène, poached pears, almonds, chantilly cream and vanilla gelato. Both delicious!

Followed by some good coffee and we were very pleased with our lunch and would recommend this bistro.

Dinner at Stilts, a casual venue with sea views, a pathway to our accommodation and great food! We shared three dishes. I really enjoyed the Scallop Tataki with XO sauce, avocado and a tapioca cracker and also the Kingfish creviche with hot sauce and grapefruit which was delicious!

The Grilled Octopus, with lemon myrtle, macadamia and garlic puree (above) was perfect! Also had shared a Boozy Coffee cake. Very rich but very nice!

Small but interesting menu, pleasant service, good wine list, great view so we’ll be back.

Our last night and a very small picnic dinner. Well, a mug of Simmo’s fine icecream actually and some leftover goats cheese.

STAYING IN BUSSELTON

There is every sort of accommodation available, too, from quite modest through to quite grand. Depends on your budget but it is apparent many people are holidaying within the state as we can’t travel overseas at this time. So many places are booked up for months ahead. We booked some time ago. I like to hear the waves crashing at night and I was not disappointed. Our stay in Busselton coincided with stormy weather!

Walkway from our unit to the beach.

Cold and windy on the beach, but beautiful, too.

SHOPPING

Hadn’t considered Busselton as a shopping destination but I discovered all the shops I never go to as they are geographically nowhere near where we live! So, visited Aldi, K-Mart and Spotlight and was very pleased with my purchases. There’s also a number of art and craft supply shops and many independent traders. Worth a wander around.

Did you know? Busselton was named after a family of early settlers, the Bussells, who established a farm there in 1835. The settlement was gazetted as a town in 1847.

Today is International Coffee Day, so that’s easy to celebrate, isn’t it?

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Visiting the Margaret River Region Open Studios

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Going ‘Down South’, the area south of Bunbury is always a lovely break but this time it has been great! The Margaret River Region Open Studios programme runs from 11th -26th of September and is a wonderful opportunity to view the works of many fabulous artists. The program covers four different areas and features over 140 local artists. The four regions are Busselton, Dunsborough, Cowaramup and Margaret River and their surrounding areas. It claims to be the biggest art event of this kind in Australia.

With over a 140 artists in their studios offering insights into their works we needed to make a manageable list as we only had a few days. Although the program was online I went to a local art shop and got a hard copy so we could both read everything on offer and choose those we most wanted to see. Then we were able to create a schedule of artists we wanted to visit in each locality.

Many art forms were on display. There were painters, textile workers, ceramicists, jewellers, printers, book makers, photographers, furniture makers, sculptors, tattoo artists and more. The south west is hopping with artistic talent. It was hard selecting the studios to visit but we were really pleased with the artists we chose. We have no room for more art works at home but had to resist temptation to buy quite often!

The artist were friendly and welcoming and willing to discuss their inspiration, approach to producing works and their stories about settling in the south west. Here are just thirteen of the artists we visited.

DOROTHY DAVIES Dorothy produces beautiful still life paintings mostly with botanical themes. Her designer background is evident in her orderly, calm paintings. Her works are detailed and lovely.

STEVE VIGORS Steve mostly paints landscapes and seascapes. He is inspired by the beauty of the south west and I thought his seascapes were wonderful. Steve does great waves!

GLORIA HAYDEN Gloria makes quirky little books using recycled and new paper. Her background as a librarian is evident in the books’ bindings and each has whimsical secret patterned pages and tiny envelopes. So pretty!

CHRISSY WELDON Chrissy’s botanical paintings are detailed and accurate. They are very beautiful. These delicate botanical paintings reveal her love of nature, detail and colour.

HEIDI EMMA Heidi Emma is a painter and mixed media artist. Her still life paintings are awash with light, colour and energy. I loved her botanical still life paintings, my husband favoured her seascapes

ADAM ASHDOWN I was so intrigued by Adam’s printing process I forgot to take a photograph of him! He has mastered the traditional Japanese method of printing fish, Gyotaku. Using traditional sumi ink and mulberry bark paper, Adam relies on a wet mounting technique known as urauchi. He creates very beautiful images of fish, before eating them!

The sargent baker fish was shaped and arranged within a foam template carefully cut to support its shape and fins.

The fish is wiped dry before Adam applied the water based ink to it, reducing the amount of ink on places where the fish was naturally lighter in colour.

The printing paper is applied to the fish and Adam gently rubs over the shape, ensuring he has captured the features such as the fins and tail. He will do several prints of the fish, reapplying ink where necessary.

These fish prints are very detailed and attractive. I found the process and Adam’s explanations fascinating! I keep thinking about these fish prints, not only because I’d really like to do one myself but I’d like own one of his.

MOLLY COY Molly’s beautiful, tactile, multi -media books feature her artwork plus typography created on a vintage tabletop letterpress. An Aladdin’s cave of treasures!

KARMA SHATTOCK Karma enjoys the unpredictability of painting in watercolour. She likes painting the Australian landscapes but I really liked her paintings with blue and white china and flowers. They were gorgeous!

MARTINE PERRET A photojournalist, Martine’s exhibition was mostly aerial photographs of landscapes. These are intriguing photographs. They made me think of traditional Aboriginal paintings in colour and shape. I found these photographs fascinating.

ELIZABETH WHITEMAN Elizabeth works with paint and textiles. She mainly paints landscapes and lovely, ethereal portraits. Her paintings are full of light and are very beautiful.

STUART MCMILLAN Stuart is a multidisciplinary artist working with paint, photography, sculpture and print media. I enjoyed his colourful, energetic works.

FI WILKIE Fi paints the flora and fauna of the south west of Western Australia. Her botanical works are an explosion of colour and wonderful energy. She also teaches drawing, painting and collage. Her works are original and vibrant and I loved them!

CHRISTINE CRESSWELL Christine paints beautiful and delicate watercolours of well known exotics and wildflowers endemic to the South West. Her paintings are detailed and calm and so pretty.

The Margaret River Region Open Studios program is an annual event. We will watching out for next year’s dates. There are so many interesting artists participating and I was disappointed we could only fit visits to thirteen studios. This was a wonderful break down south.

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Home Schooling, Early Spring in the Garden and Rat Proofing Tomatoes

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HOME SCHOOLING

Early one morning recently I was awake but hesitant to turn on a light and read so scrolled through some blogs. I was particularly interested in one where the mother, entering the third week of lockdown, seemed to be totally responsible for home schooling her two children as there was no reference to sharing this task with the children’s father. Why did this blog catch my attention?

This blogger was not enjoying the constant company of her children. She found their schoolwork tedious and difficult to supervise whilst attending to her own work. Understandably, she was under pressure. She wasn’t enjoying extra time with her kids. In fact, she was furious to be stuck with them. Poor children. She reminded me of the parents who’d arrive with their children the first day of the school year or at the beginning of the school term and express their joy that the holidays are over and their the kids are someone else’s problem for the next seven and a half hours.

These expressions of relief were always shared whilst the child was within hearing range. Sadly, some of these children were all too aware that they were a burden rather than a joy.

Lockdown supervision has sometimes revealed the true ability of the student to the supervising parent. The child’s attitude to learning or such close contact with the parent may also be of concern. Parents who tended to avoid advice about helping their child learn or become socially more adept can suddenly realise there is a problem.

Is this hostility of being with your own child a result of too many other pressures, of work, of housekeeping, parenting, keeping fit and having a life away from home? I don’t know but I’ve met many children whose parents don’t enjoy their company. The outcomes are usually poor for the children. I hope one of the long term outcomes of this pandemic is families look at their priorities and make changes to create happy, well adjusted lives.

SPRING IN THE GARDEN

Spring has arrived in Perth after the wettest winter in years. We live in quite an old suburb so many people have well established citrus trees which have been heavy with fruit for some months. Our own lime tree is covered in juicy fruit and yet is flowering again.

So fresh lemon or lime with everything! One of the consequences of heavy, frequent rain is a staggering amount of weeds. They’re winning at the moment!

I planted a packet of mixed coloured ranunculus corms but they’re mostly orange. Gorgeous.

Trying to tame the determined nasturtiums. Lots of them are orange, too.

RAT PROOFING THE TOMATOES

Our local council has regular verge pick-ups when they remove either our green waste ( garden waste which is too big for the green bin) or general waste and unwanted household goods. The last pickup was for general waste. I saw this aluminum frame out on the verge across the road when I went for a walk and wondered if I could make a rat proof cage for my self germinating tomatoes.

By the time I got back I knew it would work. I think it was originally the frame for a set of drawers. I liked the height and could see how I would seal it at the bottom to keep the rats out.

Carried the frame home and washed it. While it was drying I unrolled some chicken wire and flattened it out. Recycled frame, recycled chicken wire, self seeded tomatoes. All good.

Then we shaped it around the frame, making sure it reach the bottom and covered the top. We have wily rats! Attached it with gardening wire. I’ve put the tomato plant in the cage so now we’ll wait and see.

ROSY DOCK

I found this plant growing out of rubble during our recent trip to Kalgoorlie. I was delighted when a friend identified it from the photo. It is Rosy Dock (Acetosa vesicana) distinguished by its brightly coloured flowers which are pink through to ruby red. It is a perennial plant growing from underground tubers.

It is not a wild flower! It is native to northern Africa through to western Asia. It thrives in low rainfall areas so was popular with settlers moving into the outback of Australia more than 100 years ago.

Unfortunately, flash flooding spread Rosy Dock far and wide. It now threatens many indigenous plants and animals. Arum lilies, now also considered a weed, were spread the same way. They are both beautiful flowers!

Friday 17th September is CONCUSSION AWARENESS DAY. The impact of concussion may not be evident for many years. Learn the symptoms but mostly be aware of ways to protect yourself from being concussed.

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Preserving Lemons, Cord Storage and Almost Instant Versatile Poached Eggs

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PRESERVING LEMONS

Do you have a glut of citrus fruit? Me too. I like the flavour of preserved lemons, typically used in Arabic and Moroccan food, although I use the lemons in a range of recipes.

Preserved lemons are easy and quick to prepare. The prepared lemons are left in the brine for about a month. Then the skins will be really soft and luscious. You need fresh lemons, salt, a jar with a screw cap lid and a sharp knife. The jar and lid need to be sterilised. This can be done in the dishwasher, the microwave or in a big pan of boiling water. Remove the jar and leave it to dry as it cools off.

Begin by washing your lemons. Meyer lemons are best. Slice off the top and the bottom of the fruit. Cut the lemons across one way and then the other, not cutting all the way through. Put a tablespoon of salt in the bottom of the now dry jar, gently ease the lemon open and add 1 tablespoon of salt, insert in the jar. Continue until the jar is full, pressing the fruit down regularly to release the juice. If the liquid doesn’t cover the fruit, squeeze some more lemons and add the juice until the all fruit is submerged. Store in the fridge. (Note, not everyone stores their preserved lemons in the fridge but I prefer to in our climate.)

Invert the jar daily for the first five days, then whenever you notice it in the fridge. Wait about three more weeks before using the preserved lemons.

To use, remove a piece of now soft lemon, scrape off the remaining pulp, rinse off the salt and finely cut the skins to include in your recipe. Delicious! Look up recipes online for Roasted Cauliflower with Capers and Preserved Lemons and Prawns with Oregano and Preserved Lemons if you need some ideas.

CORD STORAGE

Some of our electrical appliances sit together in a small area. This is dictated by access to a power point and convenience as they’re next to the oven, a large work space and the kettle is under the mug cupboard, too.

The mixer is not plugged in permanently. Its cord wouldn’t stay wound up. It is a heavy piece of equipment to move around and resists being slid from one part of the bench top to another, dragging it’s unwieldy cord behind it. The real issue is it took time and effort to wipe around it and keep the area clean.

The solution was so easy!

I bought a stick on hook, placed it out of sight on the back of the mixer and “trained” the cord to stay wound up neatly by holding it in place with a rubber band for a few days.

It’s perfect, easy and inexpensive. Problem solved.

ALMOST INSTANT POACHED EGGS

This way of poaching an egg is so easy and reliable. Pour some warm, not boiling water from the kettle into a large mug, half filling it.

Gently crack an egg into the water and microwave it for one minute. Remove the cooked egg using a slotted spoon and gently slide onto your plate.The individual power of your own microwave will determine the exact time required but my 1200 wt microwave takes a minute to cook. I like my eggs quite soft and runny so you may need more time if you like them firmer. You’ll know from your first one what to do in future, anyway.

Before you cook the egg put your bread to toast as that will take longer than the egg! I’ve heated leftover pasta sauce then slid the poached egg on top of it for a delicious, quick light dinner. So quick, so easy.

In Australia, September 15th is the National Heart Foundation’s giving day. The funds raised goes towards vital life-saving research. More Australians die every year of heart disease than from any other cause. Apparently, 70% of Australians have at least three modifiable risk factors for heart disease most of which can be reduced by eating a heart healthy diet and being active every day. Keep well and look for ways to donate to GIVEWITHHEARTDAY.COM.AU

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Recycled Plastic Labels, Flowers and Books

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RECYCLED PLASTIC BOTTLES

This hard to read label says, “I used to be a plastic bottle. This label is made from 100% recycled plastic.” My new cardigan is made of 100% cotton except the buttons and has a label made from recycled plastic. Good.

West Australian solo sailor Jon Sanders found on his recent world circumnavigation that nearly every 100 litre of seawater sample collected contained around 300 particles per cubic metre of microplastics. Why is this a problem? The chemicals released from plastics contribute to infertility, immunity disorders and abnormal neurological development in children.

FLOWERS IN THE HOUSE

The Phalaenopsis orchids are showering themselves in glory! Very satisfying, very pretty.

Several vases of early ranunculus. I cut them on short stems as the remaining stems have so many buds.

I read on a gardening site that ranunculus have more flowers if the corms are soaked prior to planting. I’d never done this before so tried it this year. I shared the corms with my Mother who lives further south. Unsurprisingly, mine germinated and bloomed before hers did but they also seem to be stronger plants. From now on I will soak the corms before planting.

I love arum lilies. They are a weed in Western Australia but my lilies are contained within an isolated bed. The lush, thick leaves don’t die off totally in summer as they do in the wild. The flowers start appearing at the end of August. I like to put the beautiful lilies in vases indoors.

The last of the Glamis Castle roses. They’ve all been pruned now.

CHOPSTICK STORAGE

We use chopsticks regularly. They’ve been stored in a cardboard tube for the last twenty plus years. The tube they were stored in was getting tatty. I was about to throw this acrylic chocolate box in the recycling bin when I realised it would make a great storage box for the chopsticks!

It had a brand sticker on the lid. I tore it off slowly and carefully but it left a layer of sticky glue. Tried removing it with hand sanitizer which was within reach. Didn’t work. Sprayed the sticker with Isopropyl alcohol and the residual glue just wiped off. Gave the box a wash in hot soapy water, dried it and now it’s a perfect chopstick box.

READING

Dr Norman Swan is a well known Australian broadcaster and physician. When I saw his latest book, So You Think You Know What’s Good For You? on the XPRESS ( seven day limit on borrowing for very popular books) display at the library, I borrowed it. He answers the health questions he’s asked all the time, based on the latest evidence and with good humour. Easy to flick back and forward following items of interest, this book is full of information and sound advice. You can just avoid the bits that make you nervous!

PLANTING OUT HYDRANGEAS

These ‘sticks’ are from pruning existing hydrangeas. Take a piece with two growth buds, push it into soil and come back a few months later. Roots should have appeared. I will plant these new plants in a very shady place where I planted some last year, as a trial. The plants only grew a little bit but each one produced flowers. I hope in time they reach a height where they will get more dappled light and thrive. I really like their glossy leaves and big, blousey blooms.

PRESSING EARLY SPRING FLOWERS

I collected a hat full of early springs flowers to press. I’ll use them to make some gift tags so I snipped their stems short. If I was planning to use them to make a card or a picture for the wall, I’d leave a longer stem and include more foliage.

I’d already cleaned the dusty press and put four layers of lithograph paper ready for the flowers. I don’t use paper towel as delicate petals can end up with the pattern of the paper towel imprinted on them. I also avoid newspaper as the ink can seep through the paper and stain the flowers during the pressing process.

Arranged the flowers then covered them with another four sheets of litho paper. I used a wooden press as I have one, but heavy books are also effective.

Put the top layer of the press in place and screwed on the wing nuts not really tightening any of them until they were all in place. Then I tightened them until there was no more movement.

I’ll put the press somewhere cool and dry for the next month. It needs to be accessible as I’ll continue tightening the nuts every three or four days for about a month.

TRAVEL JOURNAL PAINTING

Visited Rowles Conservation Park near Ora Banda while we were in Kalgoorlie. This lagoon is very beautiful. I have done a quick water colour painting for my journal.

In Australia and New Zealand, Father’s Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of September, so we will be celebrating this Sunday. This is a lovely opportunity to get together with family members but it may not be possible for all families due to ongoing lock downs in New South Wales and Victoria. Wishing all Fathers, where ever they are, a lovely day. Happy Father’s Day!

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