Autumn is here! A few days have been cool enough for long pants and even a scarf this morning which is a lovely change. By the end of summer I am tired of my summer clothes. Also planted snow peas as a winter crop.
A crisp, yellow autumn morning, so breakfast at the beach followed by a walk. Great view, great food and a great walk!
I seem to abandon herbal teas when it gets cooler and drink way too many espressos. Lots of socializing means lots of espressos but I love catching up with friends. And I love good coffee.
In gardening news, I am pleased with these cream clivia seedlings. I collected seeds from a mature plant. I planted fourteen and they all germinated and most are thriving.
Started the new year doing a small painting every day, but life got in the way. Lately I’ve been doing quick watercolour pencil paintings using anything around me on or near the table as subject matter. As I’ve become more familiar with the pencils I’ve realized how versatile they are and will keep working with them on small pieces.
This Sunday is Mother’s Day. We are really looking forward to spending the day with my mother, chatting, eating, just spending time together. Mother’s Day is special!
This eye catching display of huge paper flowers is hanging from the very high ceiling of our local shopping centre (mall) to celebrate Mother’s Day.
We have a holiday soon and part of the planning is collecting books as we both find it really relaxing to lie around reading. Some we will both read, some we wont, but we leave them at the resort as we finish them for anyone who wants them.
Did you know May is Get Caught Reading month? So much to enjoy, fiction, non-fiction, perhaps some poetry, but don’t just restrict yourself to reading in May, read every day!
MAKING Made pesto using just harvested basil and other simple ingredients. I picked and rinsed the leaves then blitzed them with extra virgin olive oil, lightly roasted pine nuts, pecorino (a strong sheep) cheese and garlic. Smells wonderful, tastes delicious. This pesto doesn’t keep for very long, but we’ll use it on pizzas tonight and on pasta tomorrow. It never lasts for long because it tastes so good.
I was a bit surprised to read that bought pesto has vegetable oil, pine nuts, garlic and pecorino cheese plus milk, salt, potato flakes, sugar and acidity regulator(575). Try making your own. So easy, so tasty, so fresh.
COOKING This yeasty pizza dough rose nicely as it was a warm day. Later, we rolled out the dough and made a variety of pizzas with several different toppings, including some of the pesto I made earlier. Delicious, quick to cook and a treat for us plus some leftovers for tomorrow.
READING “Common Table” written by Janice Marriott and Virginia Pawsey, two New Zealanders who were at school together and met again later in life and began corresponding by letter, which make up this book. The co-authors write about their shared interest in food and their diverse lives and different challenges, as one lives on an isolated farm and the other in the city. Warm, often very funny, scattered with recipes and astute observations about the people around them, this is a book about two old friends adjusting to their changing lives and expectations.
I enjoyed this book so much I have hunted down and ordered their previous book, Common Ground, based on their shared passion for gardening.
Today is Meditate in a Garden Day, which sounds like a lovely thing to do, so make time to settle, relax and meditate in a garden.
So what’s the Easter bunny got to do with Easter? Apparently derived from German Lutheran folklore, the rabbit, originally a hare, decided if children have been good or bad and distributed eggs accordingly.
Gifts for friends and family treats. Lots of foods traditionally associated with Easter celebrations. We have fish on Friday and hot cross buns on Sunday and, of course, lots of chocolate, shared with family and friends.
More gingerbread rabbits with marshmellow tails. Tasted good and made sweet little gifts in cellophane bags.
ANZAC DAY
ANZAC DAY is the national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand commemorating all Australians and New Zealanders who served in wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations. It is an opportunity to reflect on the freedoms of our country due to these actions of the armed services.
This is our local memorial soon after dawn.
Many of us attend ANZAC DAY services, often marked by fly bys, the laying of wreaths and always by one minute of silence and remembrance. Then coffee, tea and Anzac biscuits with friends and family. It is a time I think of my Grandfather who was badly wounded in the battle at Villers Bretonneux in 1918 where the Anzac forces stopped the German breakthrough advance on Paris.
ANZAC stands for Australian, New Zealand Army Corps.
EIFFEL TOWER
Recognised the world over, like the Sydney Opera House, the iconic La Tour Eiffel, or Eiffel Tower celebrated its 130th birthday in March. It was built as the entrance arch for the Exposition Universelle, a world fair celebrating the first 100 years of the French Republic and intended to demonstrate the industrial prowess of France to the world.
Designed by Gustave Eiffel, originally the construction attracted ridicule and scorn. Now a landmark recognized worldwide, the 300 metre high Eiffel Tower attracts over seven million visitors a year. When it was complete, Gustave Eiffel walked the 1710 steps to the top and placed the French flag on the summit.
Did you know April is Gardening Month? Gardens have always been important as sources of food, medicines, for leisure plus habitats for insects and other animals. Gardens are vital to our survival. They can be either tiny or very large areas, surrounding your home or even some distance away, such as an allotment or community garden.
Gardening is enormously pleasurable for many people. I come from a long line of gardeners and wish I had more land to work with, but most of the land I have is used for growing food, flowers and herbs. Many members of my family are keen gardeners and grow their own food and flowers, some have chooks ( chickens) and fruit trees.
So happy Sarah is back with the Here and Now link-up. I really enjoy her blog but I’ve just discovered I have left publication too late for this month, so I’ll watch out for next months link-up!
LOVING The gentle change in weather as we move into Autumn. The mornings and evenings are cooler. Very motivated to work in the garden after an afternoon listening to Sophie Thompson, horticulturist, author, ABCTV garden presenter and TEDx speaker.
EATING Easter themed cake and gingerbread rabbits.
DRINKING Forest Fruits with a twist of Apple tea. Warming, tastes good and smells lovely.
FEELING Pleased the roses are still blooming. This red one is Father’s Love and lasts for ages as a cut flower.
MAKING Little muslin pectin bags for jam making. Last year I used a knotted Chux, a kitchen wipe! Very ugly, very efficient, but now I have some little bags which I can wash and re-use. Soon there will be citrus, so I’ll be making marmalade. The pectin, from pips and peel, makes the jam set.
THINKING Time to replant a garden bed which gets good sun but is currently planted with cannas. I’m struggling to get rid of them and have been researching non-chemical ways to deal with them. Digging them out seems to spur any remnant rhizomes to greater vigor. Any ideas?
DREAMING We’re planning trips, first to Bali and then a train trip. These are the things we dreamed about when we were working and had limited time to travel. So many possibilities now!
Tomorrow marks the beginning of EASTER, the Christian festival celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus. Many families will go to Church, eat chocolate eggs and hot cross buns and spend relaxing time together.
It’s not too late to make some Easter decorations. Easter has come about so quickly, but these projects are family friendly and mostly require materials you already have or can easily get. The projects I’ve featured here were very quick, very inexpensive and took little preparation. Each activity, except the shrink wrapped eggs, could be done by a school aged child under supervision.
The first easy project is MARBLED EGGS. Begin by boiling your eggs. While they are cooling cover your work area with plastic ( I re-used an old shopping bag). Half fill a bowl with water so you can submerge the eggs, gather some nail polish ( I used orange and grey) and put on rubber gloves.
Drizzle a small amount of both colours on the water and swirl with a toothpick, drop an egg into the water and gentle roll to cover with the marble.Repeat. The almost totally grey egg shows what happens if you pour in too much nail polish!
Leave them on the plastic to dry.
Pretty MARBLED EGGS. I used free range eggs which have very orange coloured shells, colours will look different on whiter eggs.
The second egg project is SPECKLED EGGS. After your boiled eggs are cool, pour some water into a bowl and add a good squirt of blue food dye and about a quarter of a cup of white vinegar. Dip the eggs into the dye and leave five minutes, stirring occasionally to create an even blue coverage.
I used an old shopping bag to cover my work surface and also wore rubber gloves. Remove the eggs and leave them to dry, then “speckled” by flicking brown paint (I used Winsor and Newton Burnt Sienna and Raw Sienna diluted water colour paint and a number 4 paintbrush) onto the blue surface, tilting slightly to speckle the sides.
Again, I used free range eggs which have an orange shell, white egg shells would look bluer.
The last very easy egg project is SHRINK WRAPPED EGGS which involves covering boiled eggs with bought shrink wrappers. (I bought these on EBay)
Separate the wrappers, then slip them over boiled eggs, then, using a dessert spoon, immerse the eggs one at a time, in a pot of boiling water. Hold for 3 – 4 seconds and then leave to cool, while you start the next one. So easy, so pretty.
* I use Martha Stewart’s method for boiling eggs. Heat immersed eggs in one layer in a pot of water until boiling, let boil one minute then turn off the heat and leave in the hot water for 13 minutes before straining and leaving to cool. Perfect boiled eggs!
Quick, free and gorgeous, PAINT COLOUR EGG BUNTING. The day before you make the bunting, collect two of each colour paint sample card you’re going to use, glue them back to back and leave under something heavy (I used a big book) Cut out an oval, egg shaped template and trace two eggs onto each of your colour samples.
Punch holes with a leather punch or similar and knot them onto string or ribbon. I knotted these close together so I could hang them around a cake serving plate.
Today is Licorice Day. Isn’t that wonderful? Licorice is a plant extract used in confectionery, medicines and alcohol. Love licorice.
Visited iconic Cottesloe Beach on a really hot day to wander around the Sculptures By The Sea. This free exhibition is in its 15th year and exhibits more than 70 pieces.
The sculptures are arranged on the grassed area and the beach so it’s easy to look at them from each perspective. Good access, beautiful surrounds and interesting pieces make this a very popular event. Across the road from the beach there’s coffee shops and cafes, icecream shops, restaurants and fish and chips shops, all with great views of the beach and Rottnest Island beyond.
This is one of a series of textural sculptures, clumped together creating a “cactus” garden. Tactile and not too big, these were very popular with children.
On The Nose, a humorous and clever sculpture. Very popular.
The artists exhibiting come from all over the world, including Japan, Germany, America, Sweden, China, Finland, Austria, Italy, Norway, Greece, England,South Korea, New Zealand and Australia.
The tower on the left is the Surf Life Saving post. This is the state’s coastal safety and rescue organisation. They patrol all the local beaches and provide essential educational and emergency services for the millions of people who visit WA’s beautiful beaches every year.
SLSWA runs children’s programs, too, called Nippers, and the children on the surf skis are practising their surf life saving skills.
Luckily, visitors to Cottesloe Beach to view the Sculptures By The Sea can refill their drink bottles with filtered water from these sources encouraging less reliance on single use plastic bottles.
The leaf sculpture “Ipomoea”to the right, moved on its stem and was fun to watch. It’s the work of New Zealander, Phil Price.
To Albany, down the south coast, to visit the Avenue of Honour.
Field of Light: Avenue of Honour is an installation by Bruce Munro and features 16 000 lights which glow green, yellow then white, representing the wattles, a native bush, common in the area. This immense and extremely moving installation down both sides of the avenue, pays homage to the ANZACS . This was the last sight of Western Australia for the 41 00o troops who departed from King George Sound.
The lights just before dusk.
The lights after dusk. Beautiful, quiet, very moving, a special visit to Albany. I really like this photo because there’s a ship in the background leaving King George Sound, just as the troops left all those years ago. Amongst the beauty, we can reflect on the sacrifice, courage and honour of the ANZACS.
ANZACS the acronym for Australian, and New Zealand Army Corps
Tomorrow, the 6th of April. is Teflon Day, commemorating the accidental discovery of polytetrafluoroethylene, or Teflon. In 1938, Dr Roy Plunkett was trying to make a CFC coolant, but created Teflon.
Arrived in Bangkok for the last part of our holiday. Suvarnabhum Airport, the new airport, is so different from Don Muang Airport, which is a seething, chaotic and noisy experience. After collecting our luggage we changed some money, went out to the taxi area, collected a taxi ticket, then into the taxi to the hotel along a series of elevated freeways.
We’ve stayed at this hotel on the Chao Phraya River before and every time we’ve really enjoyed the views, the great accommodation and remarkable food, plus wonderful service. The hotel has its own ferry which runs regularly from the hotel to the Saphan Taksin BTS Pier, where you can catch the train, another ferry or go shopping. The traffic in Bangkok is slow and congested, the river is quicker and cooler, but far busier than it used to be with many more ferries. We had to wait in a queue to disembark at the Saphan Pier each trip.
The hotel pool area, overlooking the river. Very relaxing.
One of many pools with floating water lilies. Calm, cool and restful.
I think I’d feel like this if I did a headstand at yoga.
To the 35th floor for the views and, of course, yum cha! Delicious.
Steamed Mandarin Lava Bun, so pretty. I’d never seen it before, so had to try it!
Every time we eat in this restaurant I offer to take this ginger jar with the fish motif, and its twin, home. Lots of giggling, then my offer is politely declined.
These bright yellow boats are Municipal Garbage Vessels. There are six vessels, mainly used to control weed in the river, but their metallic “teeth” and robotic arms also collect other rubbish, although nets and colander type scoops are also used, too. Smaller boats are used in the canals.
Views from the ferry, contrasting the old and the new. The ferries along the river stop frequently, so it’s an easy way to visit most places of interest.
Ferry to a new shopping centre, Icon Siam. The ground floor was mostly food and local products, the other floors feature a dazzling collection of designer shops.
The lower floor is the Siam Sook, decorated with Thai motifs, part of six floors offering a total of 100 restaurants and 500 shops. Pleasant and cool way to get my 12000+ steps and lots of window shopping.
Enjoying the hotel gardens, en route to the ferry.
Dawn overlooking the Chao Phraya River as we prepared to leave Bangkok after another wonderful stay there.
Tomorrow, the 30th of March, is Take a Walk in the Park Day, so that’s pretty easy, enjoyable and cheap! I hope you have good weather for your walk.
Flew from Saigon to Dalat. Slowly climbed a steep, winding mountain road from the airport to the Dalat township, famous for flowers and old French architecture. Dalat was the hill town for the French to escape the humidity and heat of summer in Saigon. We stayed at a resort on the outskirts of the town.
Beautiful flowers but long, sharp thorns.
Lush greenery with flashes of bright colour. Gorgeous gardens everywhere.
This is the resort vegetable garden. Most of the fresh vegetables used in the restaurant comes from this plot, picked, prepared and served within hours. The food was so good!
Green papaya salad, one of many eaten by me in the last month. This one had some chicken pieces, too. Clean and fresh flavours. Delicious.
The resort looking towards a newly developed part of town.
Old Citroen at the resort.
To the resort spa and my reflexology session started with a long, lovely soak in a golden basin of cinnamon scented water. Meanwhile I sipped on a cup of strong, refreshing ginger tea. Lush, green garden outside the window. The resort was a French hill town resort in the 30’s and many of the buildings remain from that time. Our villa was in one of the many old buildings. Very special area.
After the cinnamon soak and reflexology, a hot stone treatment. So relaxing. I actually went to sleep half way through this process but woke in time to enjoy the hot stone massage. This session was truly luxurious and supremely relaxing. So wonderful!
Back to Saigon and interested to see a variety of posters in the lift at our hotel promoting water pollution awareness.
A Canadian artist, Benjamin Von Wong’s installation made entirely of recycled straws, 16 000 of them, in fact. Aiming to bring awareness to the problem of single use plastics, Von Wong’s Parting of the Plastic Sea is on display at Estella Place, in HCMC. Volunteers helped create the 3.3m art installation.
Parting of the Plastic Sea was recognized 22/10/2018 by the Guinness World Records as the largest straw art installation in the world. Starbucks had collection bins throughout Vietnam for six months to accumulate the straws which were cleaned and colour sorted by Zero Waste Saigon. A fascinating and thought provoking piece of art.
Like everyone else, I bought and used bottled water and there was no way I would refill the bottle from the tap. The untreated water isn’t suitable to drink. Everywhere I saw people with plastic bottles of water and plastic cups of fruit juices with plastic lids, plastic straws and plastic carry bags. The river was awash with rubbish, about half of it plastic. I tried to buy soda water in aluminum cans, which are easily and cheaply recycled, but that wasn’t always possible.
I don’t know the answer to the problem but making the local water potable or drinkable and educating the locals not to use the river as a rubbish tip would probably be a starting point.
Did you celebrate St Patrick’s Day, 17th of March?
After our great week in Hong Kong our son returned to Perth and we went on to Saigon, known as Ho Chi Min City since 1976. HCMC lies along the Saigon River, north of the Mekong Delta. During French rule, it was a major port city and metropolitan centre, with some imposing public buildings, tree-lined boulevards, a railway system and beautiful villas.
The hotel room number plates with birdcage images, which I loved.
Old Saigon changed enormously under Communist control, with a greater focus on local manufacturing, including exports made from local materials. The city is modern, vibrant and growing, including the construction of an underground train system.
The birdcage theme continued in our room, with these light fittings.
Wandering around the rooftop pool area and saw this new range of New Zealand cocktails, VNC Cocktails, being photographed. Gorgeous and sold in recyclable glass bottles and currently only in NZ, it’s available in four tempting flavours, Seabreeze, Margarita, Sundowner and Mojito. So pretty!
Arrived in Saigon with a head cold. Hotel staff were very kind and sent up ginger tea and honey and directed my husband to the hospital dispensary for cold medication. I added the chocolate biscuits. I think I became immune to colds teaching small children so was unprepared for this but will carry medication on future trips.
Aren’t these hotel flowers lovely? The climate means the parks are lush and green. They feel cool in such a hot, humid environment.
The local trucking company. The most common form of transport is the motorcycle and they are used to move an astonishing amount of stuff, not just boxes, but also entire families, father, mother, child and often a baby in a sling. Never saw in any accidents.
To Ben Thanh Markets, a swarming, enormous undercover area selling food and so many other things including many, many fake designer name bags, watches, wallets, sunglasses, scarves and clothing. Amongst it all, the market also had gorgeous lacquer ware, traditional clothing and fabrics and other local souvenirs. I don’t usually buy things when we are traveling but couldn’t resist this necklace. It got a good workout during the trip and since we have been home. Love it.
The other market we went to was in Chinatown, Cholon, another interesting but equally frenetic part of town. Also visited the Southern Vietnam Womens’ Museum, which focuses on the traditional contribution of women to the village economy, and their war and post-war contributions. Three stories but I didn’t linger. It was very, very hot that day and much worse in the museum with no air conditioning.
Front facade, Opera House.
The Opera House is one of the notable remaining buildings. Others include the Notre Dame Basilica, the Post Office and the Continental Hotel. Now the most impressive buildings in this vibrant city are glass and steel skyscrapers.
HCMC Museum of Fine Arts. Housed in a converted house originally built by a Chinese businessman, it shows both French and Chinese influences. Worth a visit to look at the architectual aspects of the building and to see the Art.
The Museum displays artifacts and artworks, all housed in wonderful rooms, showing the original features of the house.
The lift, a remnant of another time!
Interesting artworks but really enjoyed looking at the old villa, too. Rooms under the Museum and old buildings out the back house several private galleries, featuring the work of local artists. Worth a look.
Lovely old Continental Hotel close to the Opera House.
Notre Dame Basilica. The front facade is covered in scaffolding due to a renovation project.
Jumped on the local river bus and really enjoyed our trip. We got off at the last stop, walked around and then got on again. The fare is very cheap, the ferry is new and clean and it was a great way to see parts of HCMC from another perspective. There’s an interesting contrast between old, traditional river front buildings and the new skyscrapers beyond.
Buildings sites everywhere.
Towards the end of the tree-lined boulevard is one of the underground train stations under construction, marked by a crane, but it’s difficult to see.
The local shop. Next door was the local fruit and vegetable shop, both busy with people stocking up on their way home from work. Like traditional shophouses, the shop owner’s house is behind and above the shopfront.
We really enjoyed Saigon. We’ve visited Hanoi several times but the south feels really different. We found Saigon to be very vibrant and busy, and as usual in Vietnam, we loved the food (we’re going out today for a green papaya salad) and people, and all the usual things we do, looking at buildings, art, having reflexology, chatting to the locals and visiting the markets.
Today is World Sleep Day. Their introduction says, “World Sleep Day is designed to raise awareness of sleep as a human privilege that is often compromised by the habits of modern life.”
We spend one third of our lives trying to sleep, and we all know a good day starts the night before, so I hope you sleep well.
Look for sleep awareness activities on www.worldsleepday.org
Years ago, before we moved to China, my husband’s office was in Hong Kong, on the Island. We’ve just been on a nostalgia holiday, visiting places we knew so well. Our son traveled with us, too. When we moved to Guangzhou, in 1997, we still had to go to HK for business, visiting friends, some shopping and to fly anywhere. Returning from trips also meant a stay in HK as then the border with China closed at 7pm and so we’d have to stay the night and catch the train the next morning.
Those were exciting days, not only living in a very different culture but meeting new people, learning ( not very well) another language, understanding different business, employment and school systems but also being able to travel as we were much closer to everywhere than when we were in Perth, Western Australia.
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ll know our family celebrate birthdays, Lunar New Year, holidays and anything else with morning yum cha. So each morning we enjoyed breakfast at local dim sum restaurants.
We were the only Europeans in this place. The food was great. Lots of miming, guessing and laughing and we mostly worked out what we were eating. Enjoyed it so much.
Beautifully presented, elegant dim sum at M Restaurant, in the Mandarin Oriental. We knew this hotel well. It is in Central, the buzzy business area with lots of designer shops and beautifully dressed women.
Although we arrived 30 minutes before opening time, we had to queue on a week day to get a table at Tim Ho Wan’s dim sum restaurant in Sham Shui Po, considered the worlds cheapest Michelin starred restaurant. The menu changes regularly and there’s one written in English, if you ask. Enjoyed everything we ate. This is not a glamorous restaurant but the staff were great and the food worth the MTR ride.
Restaurant temple and delivery bay.
The food at Tim Ho Wan often has an interesting twist.
Celebrated the Year of the Pig with chocolate.
I’d never seen a unicorn playing a keyboard before, I’ve never actually seen a unicorn.
My favourite way to cross from Central on the Island to Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon side, is by Star Ferry. The fleet of 12 ferries carries more than 26 million passengers a year.
Cool, relaxing, scenic and very cheap, the staff still wear traditional sailor suits. Begun in 1888 all the ferries have “star” names, such as Morning Star ( built 1871), Evening Star ( built 1888), Rising Star (1890), Guiding Star (1896) plus Northern Star, Southern Star, Polar Star and several others.
The bell tower behind the ferry pier is all that remains of the original railway station.
Reflexology, some mediocre, some fabulous, all relaxing. The three of us visited several different spas both in Kowloon and on the Island.
Views from the Peak Tram, a very different experience from 20 years ago. So many more steel and glass skyscrapers. Now a popular tourist destination, we lined for ages for tickets, then shuffled forward slowly in a mass of people to get on the tram.
The Peak Tram is a funicular railway which carries tourists and residents between Garden Road and Victoria Peak.
The views across the harbour were fabulous. The railway began in 1888 and carries two million passengers a year. Try and get there early or late to avoid massive queues.
The end of the Lunar New Year celebrations is marked by the Spring Lantern Festival, informally known as Chinese Valentines Day, with hundreds of lanterns in parks, restaurants, shops, markets and hotels.
Visiting Hong Kong as a family was nostalgic with many happy memories and it was interesting to see the changes in this vibrant city. We really enjoyed visiting our old haunts and finding some new places, too.
The 5th of March was Shrove Tuesday, the last day before Lent, usually celebrated by eating pancakes.
Today is International Womens’ Day, intended to promote the rights of women. Adopted by the United Nations in 1975, it celebrates the social, economic, culural and political achievements of women.
