Suburban Life – Page 9 – MakeCookGrow.com

Slow Living and Bruschetta

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slow living

During Covid lockdowns many people found they enjoyed a less hectic, home focused way of living. There were many advantages, such as no time spent traveling to work, no need to dress in work clothes, money saved eating and drinking coffee at home and greater time with family. Post lockdowns, many people want to maintain the more relaxed way of living, of being able to use their time in ways that better suit themselves and their families, to have contact with their neighbours and wider community and to get more time to exercise or just enjoy being outside.

Wandering around the park observing the old trees is relaxing and interesting. For years I’ve watched this self germinated Moreton Bay Fig grow out of the rough bark of an old peppermint tree.

The new focus in the well being arena is the Slow Living Movement. My immediate thought was, ‘Well, that’s not going to happen! I’m so busy caring for other people. There are no quiet moments.’ I’m a pretty active person, anyway. ( my Father called me Pepper Pot) Reading various articles about slowing down makes me think about how hard it is to do so. I will really have to think about it and plan for a calmer life. I need to ignore some of the expectations of other people and limit the interruptions to peaceful time. I’m not sure how I can achieve this but the reasons for trying are compelling!

I think many of us find ourselves stretched in so many directions and find it hard to slow down. Why try? Because it is good for your mental and physical well being! Slowing down means you can focus on the things that really matter and make you feel relaxed. The goal is to be present, to focus on one thing at a time, to enjoy and encourage closeness. Enjoy what is important to you. It sounds easy, but it may be very different from how you are living now. Unclutter your life, not just things, but interruptions to peace and quiet, too.

Although Louis likes to run and run he also likes to investigate every new smell and other dogs. Going to the dog park is very relaxing.

Some ways to slow down include being outdoors and really looking at the sky and the trees and plants, or watching the dog doing the same. Enjoy the environment. Try new ways of cooking. Only eat dinners you really like and think about preparing food in a slow cooker. The delicious smell of cooking makes you really look forward to dinner.(Sales of slow cookers have increased enormously! This might also reflect the rising cost of energy.) Batch cook to give yourself good food and more time. Become uncontactable by turning your devices off before dinner, don’t take your phone when you go for a walk. Use the evening time without interruptions to read, play a board game, sit and chat. Turn off the TV if the program doesn’t engage you to the point you’re totally engaged watching it. If you’re also on a device turn it or the T, off. Do one thing at a time. Avoid the programs on TV that don’t really resonate or add something to your well being. Watching programs with subtitles really helps you focus!

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One of the suggestions professionals in the area of well being frequently mention is arts and crafts and other rewarding hobbies. Dr Daisy Fancourt, quoted on the BBC Great British Creativity Test found hobbies can alleviate stress, free up mind space and build self esteem when you create something or learn a new skill. Another frequently recommended activity is to garden, if possible, or nurture some indoor plants.

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Slow living is about feeling at peace and happy with your life. You have to learn to love yourself a little too. I read these articles as they promote better sleep as an outcome of slowly down and living in the present. Fingers crossed I’ll get there one day!

eating bruschdetta

When we went out for lunch last week my husband chose bruschetta as his entree (first course). Of course, I needed a little taste and was glad I did, because I’d forgotten how wonderful tomatoes, garlic and basil mixed with olive oil and vinegar, taste on toasted bread. So when I was considering some leftover artisan loaf later, I thought of bruschetta. Usually, I make breadcrumbs from leftover bread but I already have a jar full and sometimes I make croutons but it’s the middle of summer and I add them to hot, winter soups.

Gathered the bread, tomatoes, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and garlic, plus some finely chopped red onion then came to a halt. I don’t have any basil! I knew it hadn’t germinated this year and meant to plant more. I forgot. Off to the shop to buy basil. A bunch of bought basil, enough for 1/4 cup when finely chopped, cost nearly $5.00. So I’ll be planting some basil very soon.

Followed the instructions to make the bruschetta. It was very good. The amounts mentioned in the recipe made so much that was all we ate for dinner!

did you know

More than 300 different languages and dialects are spoken in Australia, including 45 Indigenous languages. In fact, 21% of Australians don’t speak English at home.

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What Did You Do On Your School Holidays?

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school holidays

When I was at school we had two weeks holidays in May, two weeks in August and seven weeks summer holidays starting just before Christmas. The long summer holidays seemed endless. Once the excitement of Christmas and Boxing Day has passed, life settled into a routine for a while. My Mother took us into town from the farm, more than a forty-five minute drive, for swimming lessons. I started swimming lessons early because I was the youngest, just sitting there and as Mum said, “You might as well swim rather than sit on the beach watching.” She’d chat with the other mothers surrounded the wet towels, thongs (flip flops) and discarded shorts and shirts. This meant I’d completed all the levels of swimming before I was nine and couldn’t do the Life Saving Medals for three years.

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My two older brothers and I played cricket. We could have done with a few more players because the dog and I were usually fielding. The cricket, broadcast on the radio, would be on where ever Dad was working. I was 12 before we got electricity; prior t that we had a 32v generator and when it ran out of fuel it spluttered and stopped. Suddenly we were plunged into darkness and total silence, but usually the three children were in bed by then.

Prized Christmas gifts were books. With no access to the school library for seven weeks, the books received as gifts were very welcome. When I’d read my books, I’d read my brother’s books. I loved Biggles and Tom Sawyer. When they were tired of their Lego, I played with that, too. We had a platform up an olive tree set up as a cubby house and I’d disappear up there, but I had other hiding places for uninterrupted reading, too. We’d swing for hours from a branch in the almond tree and bounce on a large tractor inner tube.

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I had a Barbie doll from America, brought back in 1965 by my Father, and I made clothes for her, plus furniture and decorated cardboard box rooms for her, too. Always interested in decor and houses, I’d pore over the women’s magazines my aunt passed on to my Mother. I was always making something.

Kids were expected to help when I was younger. We’d climb the apricot tree, picking warm apricots to eat raw, preserved or made into jam. We’d be sent to pick mulberries, almonds, grapes and my favourite, nectarines. We grew rock melons and water melons and masses of vegetables. Do children still spit water melon seeds at one another? Our pocket money was earned by sweeping the verandas, under the grapes and the path, opening gates when we were going up to the front gate plus chopping wood. (My Father gave my son a tomahawk for his six birthday and taught him about chopping wood.)

Late in the afternoon when Dad had finished work outdoors we’d go to the beach. Like every other farmer on the beach, Dad’s dark tan would finish at his ankles where his boots covered his feet. He also had a tanned V neck line and tanned arms. As kids we were permanently sunburnt and competed to see who could peel off the biggest piece of burnt skin. Paying for that now!

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School holidays also meant going to Perth to stay with our Aunt, Uncle and cousin. Bliss. Television was like magic for farm kids! There was another girl to play with, things like icecream were served regularly because the shops were nearby. (By the time icecream got from town to the farm it was melting and messy.) My Aunt was always busy so we’d go out frequently, to shopping centres, her friend’s places and to see films. For some years they were involved in a marina and I often went to stay on Rottnest Island with my Aunt and cousin. Bliss. But more sunburn.

Going back to school meant catching up with friends on the school bus. My husband grew up in the city and I asked him to reminisce about his long school holidays in the 1950’s. He said that due to limited finances and transport not much happened. He learned to swim at the Hotpool in Dalkeith and when he was old enough to ride a pushbike by himself he would go down to the river with his dog to swim or fish. The very hot unairconditioned summers meant long days of lying in the shade on the lawn reading books or playing board games with friends. Building and flying kites was another pastime.

Thinking about primary school aged children I know now our school holidays probably seem very different. No play dates, no devices, no television on demand. I would have loved a trampoline! We were outdoors more as children. Please share your memories of school holidays.

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Summer Sales, Pashminas and Small Paintings

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summer sales

Pick up a newspaper, turn on the television, log onto your emails or walk past a shop window and you will be bombarded by advertisements for SALES. Not just post Christmas, but every day of the year. If a brand you’re looking for is not on sale, a quick search online will usually reward you with the item your looking for on sale somewhere.

I don’t know if all countries have constant sales, but I remember being in France in January when the winter soldes were in full swing. French shops can only have sales twice year, in January and July. The sales last for four weeks although until 2020 the sales used to run for six weeks.The sales are intended to make room for new seasonal products and collections. The prices on remaining stock drops as they weeks go by until the sales end.

pashminas

Pashmina and cashmere both come from the domesticated changthangi goat which lives in the Himalayas. The goats shed their wool in Spring. It is combed off their bellies for pashmina and the rest of the wool from their bodies is combed off for cashmere. The difference is the number of microns. Pashmina is very light and gauzy and is usually mixed with 30% silk to create a warm but strong and long lasting fibre used to make shawls and scarves.

In 2001 we were spending a lot of time in Hong Kong before moving back to Western Australia. The weather outside was hot and often humid but in offices, restaurants and shopping centres air conditioning was on ‘high’ and it could be very cold! We went to Lane Crawford and bought me a pashmina. It has traveled everywhere with me since and is worn frequently during winter. It is soft and rolls up to easily fit in a handbag or suitcase.

Time to wash my pashmina! To do this, I dissolve soap flakes in about 300ml of hot water, then half fill the bucket with cold water and stir it to ensure the soap flakes are dissolved and the water is cool. I hand agitate it, then rinse up to five times in cool water until the water is clear.

Fold the pashmina in half across the middle, then in half again and place it on a towel, Fold the sides over the pashmina and twist the towel to remove most of the moisture. (The pashmina is old but the towel, from Club Med circa 1984, is older!)

To dry it I place it on a hanging rack after shaking and smoothing . I move the pashmina around a few times while it’s drying to avoid imprints from the rack frame. It dries very quickly. Before I roll it up and put it back in its bag I check all the hand knotted fringes on either end to ensure there are no knots.

small paintings

My life has been pretty frantic since last October. We have had constant demands on my time, my painting things got put away, off the table, out of sight. Every now and then I’d think longingly about sitting quietly and painting. Mixing colours, really looking at things so I could capture the essence of it, applying paint to paper. There was no point in even getting my brushes, paints and papers out, even after Christmas as I had no time to paint.

This is a very small diary and was never going to work for us!

Post Christmas tidying up unearthed a 2022 unused Moleskin diary. I really like Moleskin diaries, journals, painting books and other products, but this is a very small diary with seven days to two very small pages. My husband and I keep a combined calendar so we know what each of us has planned and those plans would have never fitted in this petite diary.

Eureka moment! I’d do a very small painting every day either on one or both pages. Considering the size of the pages I was never going to confine my work to one page, but that was my initial thought, quickly discarded when I picked up a pencil So I set everything out and started drawing, then painting and as soon as that painting dried I started another one on the next two pages and this kept going until I’d done four paintings. It felt wonderful.

My first small painting intended for one page but soon over both.

Bottle brushes, endemic to Western Australia come in red, pink, yellow and white.

So many of these bold, cheeky, darting dear little birds around here.

Chinese ceramic headrest/pillows date from the Tang Dynasty (618 -907) and were used by the upper and middle classes. I’ve always liked the illustration on this one which also features chrysanthemums, common in Chinese illustrations.

Hearing about someone’s plans for Chinese New Year, motivated me to do a little painting based on the Chinese pillow.

I planned to stack the paints and brushes on top of one another and leave most of the table available for other things but that hasn’t happened. My paintings things are going to stay there and whenever I can find 10 minutes, I’ll work there. I even found I could paint leaves with one hand while the other hand held my phone. I needed to finish the painting before we went out.

Second day of small paintings. I have a scarlet hippeastra about to bloom in the garden.

in the garden

This Gloriosa lily is a Rothschildiana variety.

Peliagonias.

Cannas

Hydrangeas everywhere. So pretty, so hardy in this harsh sun.

What’s happening in you garden?

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Why My Dog Has A Bank Account and Other Matters

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the dog’s bank account

When our previous, wonderful dog became older, his health began to deteriorate. That meant frequent visits to the vet. And we all know that means lots of bills. When we got Louis, our lovely Groodle, we investigated many pet insurance companies. We compared the cost of our vet bills with the insurance costs, especially as a pet gets older and did our sums.

It made more sense to open a term deposit account specifically to cover any health care costs for the dog than to buy an insurance policy. At the time the interest rate was pretty good, then it was pretty bad and now it is improving again. The point is, at nine years of age, Louis has savings in a term deposit to cover probable costs for healthcare.

why i drink coffee at home

I love coffee, but I drink it black so I really taste it. Many coffee shops, cafes and restaurants make acceptable coffee if you add milk and maybe sugar, but black coffee leaves nowhere to hide. I rarely buy coffee when I’m out because it can vary from just drinkable to stewed, brewed, weak and when did they last clean that machine? I know how I dispose of stuff, but have no idea how commercial providers recycle their packaging and grounds. So, I drink coffee at home and drink herbal tea when I’m out, so long as it is made in a pot and not from a bag (many brands have plastic in them)

sorting christmas wrap and ribbons

It seems the thing now to reuse wrap and ribbons from Christmas time. Good. Just make sure you get wrapping paper with no plastic in it. Try scrunching the edge of the paper; if it says scrunched, it’s paper, if it springs back it has plastic in it. Don’t buy plastic or foil wrapping ! Similarly with ribbon; avoid all ribbons except fabric, woven ribbon which can be sprayed with water, ironed and reused, and reused probably for ever. Years ago I bought a roll of grosgrain ribbon on line and I’m still using the same roll, probably because I collect the ribbons when the gifts are all opened and iron them, ready for next year.

eating

Christmas week

So many families have traditions about the food they eat on special occasions. So, birthday cakes, matzoh ball soup, ham and turkey, pumpkin pie, hot cross buns and plum pudding and many other recipes feature for some families at different times . Christmas time as a child and now, means bowls of sweets around the house. It’s a Christmas thing and we enjoy it! Then a week after Christmas we’re back to most of our coloured food being fruit and vegetables, not confectionery.

crafts

A magazine I was reading had a list of pre-Christmas markets being held locally and those tantalizing words ‘ handcrafted textiles, original artwoks, fine art prints and ceramics’ really caught my attention. The very words suggest beautifully designed and produced pieces, each individual and special. I love looking around craft and art markets, but it’s the usual dilemma which stops me buying, those harsh words in my head, ‘but do you need it?’ Mostly, no, I don’t, but sometimes I buy because I really want it and usually those things remain while other things are sorted and deemed unnecessary.

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I like handmade arts and crafts, the individuality, the uniqueness and the fact each piece is hand designed and hand made. These pieces employ materials available in the local area which adds to their individuality and appeal. I enjoy looking at old artifacts in museums and books showing everyday utensils made by hand and used by several generations. At the moment I’m thinking about printing and am about to do a lino printing course. I actually have the lino and the necessary tools, but a class adds the input and ideas of others but most importantly, access to a printing press!

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Post pandemic articles often refer to the explosion of interest in hobbies. Confined at home but with access to tutorials and kits online, it was easy to explore or rekindle a craft. Kits to try every craft imaginable are easy to access. The internet is awash with painting and drawing tutorials. Lots of inspiration, too, encouraging people to make items that can be used in their own homes. The interest in making items for your own decor was so great after the television series ‘Escape to the Chateau’ hit our screens, that Angel, one of the couple restoring the chateau, created a line of her designs for sale and she and her husband Dick have a spinoff program about recycling furniture and making your own decorations. Her workroom looks very enticing!

Wishing you a HAPPY NEW YEAR, full of good health, good people and good fun!

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The Last Week of 2022

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food

Christmas means a lot of food preparation as we like sitting around with friends and family, eating, drinking, chatting and generally catching up. The days leading up to Christmas Day involved preparing so much food but this means those days afterwards can involve meals made from leftovers. Ham, turkey breast and puddings can all be served for days afterwards with the addition of salads or custard or some other quick and easy variation.

Leftover ham, leftover cheese plus five eggs, a cup of yoghurt and spring onions and a great quiche, served either hot or cold.

Hot weather lunch .

The ham plus remaining cheese appears again in light quiches and sandwiches, same with the turkey breast and the cassata can top fruit mince pies, a wedge of Christmas cake or a crumble of shortbread. For some reason we had lots of chocolate fudge slice remaining, so that became a pudding, too.

Boiled the plum pudding for an hour, doused it in brandy, ignited it and ate with icecream, not brandy butter.

I hope your Christmas break was peaceful and enjoyable, anyway, even if you are tired of party food. We have had our son and my Mother staying so lots of visitors and visiting. Planning for the New Year, too. Last year, inspired by a few bloggers I have followed for a long time, I chose a word to think about when making plans. I wanted to be organised, control the business surrounding us, have some calm times. None of those plans worked out and we experienced a year of constant change, worry and upheaval. So, not even considering a word for 2023, it will just happen!

presents

This time of the year is awash with presents! I seem to have reached an age when I don’t really want things and find it hard to give hints or answer direct questions about what I’d like for Christmas. Luckily, my husband is very aware of the decorating and gardening magazines I really, really like and continues to update my subscriptions and my son is very aware of my passion for paints, pens, papers and art journals. Lovely treats. Do you find it hard choosing gifts for older people who don’t seem to want more things?

Luckily, we are a family of readers and each year anticipate unwrapping new books.

As our tastes and requirements change we often want less and even things which were once precious are now just ‘things’. Although I am not good at decluttering and progress in fits and spurts, we took many boxes of things into the Salvation Army depot before Christmas. We just don’t use the storage containers, the serving dishes or so many other things which were so important to the way we lived. I found things long forgotten when I emptied a cupboard recently. I hope someone else is now enjoying them.

trends

How we decorate our houses directly reflects how we feel. Post pandemic it is no surprise people are abandoning minimalism for warm, cosy and relaxing interiors. White is being replaced with warm earthy tones which seem more nurturing. So, it’s no surprise that Panatone’s colour of 2023 is Viva Magenta, a bold vibrant pink/red colour, full of warmth and energy and not just for interiors. Already featuring in fashion, makeup and multimedia marketing, Panatone claim Viva Magenta is ‘full of vim and vigour” Florals featuring magenta are very popular for fabrics and this is especially evident in clothing. I think it is rare to totally change all your wall colours and furnishings at once but easy to add a cushion, a new chair or some warm works of art.

Viva Magenta

Of course, how you want to live will influence the furniture and colours you chose and many of those things will stay with you for a long time. The climate, whether you own the house, your budget and the views of other people sharing the house probably influence your choices. Many people discovered during the past three years that their houses didn’t really offer the environment they needed to feel comfortable. Trends come and go but how you live and what you want to feel when you’re in your house will change more slowly.

2023 is nearly here

The New Year always feels like a new start. The papers, social media and TV are awash with planning resolutions for the New Year, how to stick to them and the rather disheartening fact that 80% of New Year goals are abandoned by the end of January. Do you set New Year resolutions? Do you stick to them? I’d really like to know!

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The Week Before Christmas

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Christmas Cooking

We celebrated Christmas with our wonderful neighbours before the big day. My husband made Glühwein which smelt so amazing. I cooked and made bags of shortbread as gifts. We took a plate, an Australian expression meaning to take a plate of food to share and we all met for an evening together. This is a lovely chance to hear everyone’s news and plans and just relax together, sharing delicious food and stories. Best way to start the Christmas Week.

What’s in the pot? Gingerbread men! Gingerbread dough smells so good.

These dear little men look a bit rough but it is years since I have done any decorative icing. Decorated birthday cakes are a thing of the past. Even finding the nozzles and icing bag was a bit of a challenge. They don’t look elegant but they taste great!

Some other little treats, too. Pre Covid our Christmas holidays were often overseas and I loved being given marzipan mice and pigs. No trips to Europe now, but a wonderful delivery from overseas to remind me of those precious times.

Then it was time to cook the ham. I like a leg ham with the bone in. I have tried many glazes and prefer a sticky mix with a citrus base. The glaze for this leg of ham is an aromatic mix of maple syrup, mustard, brown sugar, marmalade, cinnamon and allspice. For a similar mix with exact measurements, look at recipetineats.com.

Glossy, delicious glaze. Back, brown sugar, front marmalade, cinnamon, Dijon mustard, allspice and maple syrup.

Still picking tomatoes and spring onions plus masses of herbs including mint, parsley, chives, basil and rosemary. Love the smell of herbs. Did you know you lose less flavour if you snip your herbs with scissors rather than chopping them? Next time you chop herbs look at all the colour and flavour left on the chopping board.

All this cooking is the result of a lot of shopping. Shopping at this time of the year is a bit fraught. First trial is finding parking but not too bad if you set off early. The next challenge is the gaps on some of the shelves. Flooding in the east and a train derailment are the reasons given, also the favourite reasons given by Australia Post for snail like delivery times of anything ordered online. The next shopping drama is the checkout queue. It can be long. It’s that time of the year. Being cross with the checkout person doesn’t make the process any quicker.

Grumping at the checkout person reminds me of one my rare shopping excursions in the early days of Covid. I was in a long line, standing on my safe social distancing spot when the man going through the checkout was mouthing off loudly about social distancing, wearing a mask and the lack of checkouts operating. The girl operating the checkout looked about 17, probably a student. Did he think the board of this Australia wide supermarket had sought her opinion on safe checkouts? Did he think she had any say in Covid rules?

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Which makes me think about all the people who work hard around Christmas time to make everything happen and keep us safe. All the retail workers, the nurses and doctors and masses of support people in hospitals, the police, the rubbish collectors and delivery drivers, the farmers getting the highly sought after products picked, packed and off to the shops along with all the meat we’ll consume. Thank you, too, to the plumber who solved a problem three doors down our street, all the careworkers assisting their clients and all the people I’ve missed.

Louis

Last week Louis, our groodle, was very fluffy and very hot. We’d made a grooming appointment three months ago not realizing it was going to get hot so quickly.

BEFORE

This week Louis is trimmed and cool. He is very pleased with his sleek new state and very active and playful.

AFTER

Wishing you a joyful holiday break with lots of good food and good company!

merry christmas !

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Cleaning The Silver and Other Jobs

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cleaning the silver

Christmas preparations are much the same each year in this house. Apart from cooking and decorating I like the silver to be polished! I know, who cares? Well, I do! So I filled the sink with sheets of aluminum foil, a good shake of baking soda and hot water then dipped the tarnished pieces, leaving each piece for a minute then taking it out. Rinsed, then polished. Some of these pieces were so tarnished we had to clean and polish them with silver cleaner.

This was a good opportunity to wash all the bits and pieces I keep in the silver bowl. Time to refine the contents! The pebbles I’ve collected all over the world went back in and also my collection of miniature birdcages remained. Other bits and pieces went out! Also cleaned and sorted a long neglected cupboard. Little steps and so much more to do to declutter.

The discarded decorative pieces and lots of other things were all dropped off at the Salvation Army depot in town. Still more ‘treasures’ need to go but I find the process quite hard. Been loaned a very motivating book but I lose momentum rather easily.

dosing the cake

I made two Christmas cakes a few weeks ago. Three days ago my husband used a skewer to poke holes in the top of each cake. Next he poured the remaining port from macerating the fruit onto both cakes. Smelt wonderful. Moist, delicious and very popular.

I make the cakes using an old, photocopied, stained recipe from my Aunt, via my Mother. The ingredient list is very long although once everything is gathered and measured the process is actually quite quick. Every now and then I tear a recipe for Quick and Easy Christmas Cake, or No Fuss Christmas Cake or something similar from the paper and without fail, they have been mere shadows of the cake made from this treasured family recipe. Lesson learnt. Now I just plan a day for cake making as it takes at least four hours to cook! And weeks to macerate the fruits in port.

adding a pocket to a shirt

Had this light summer shirt for a while but I’ve only worn it once. The sleeves are very full and flappy so it felt too big. The other problem was it doesn’t have a pocket, so I’m always having to carry my phone or keys when I go out for a walk. Solution became obvious when I looked at it this morning.

I cut the sleeves to elbow length and folded and pinned a hem on the remaining, trimmed sleeves.

Trimmed one of the cut off sleeves to create a pocket. I left the existing cuff on the piece then turned and pinned the raw edges before pinning the now ironed pocket to the shirt.

Left the existing cuff from the sleeve as an edge on the pocket. The fabric is lawn and is quite thin so the cuff creates extra strength for the pocket.

I put the shirt on and pinned the pocket exactly where it was easy to access. Also ensured my phone fitted comfortably.

Ironed the pinned edges, then sewed them on place. Checked the sleeve length was right. Ironed the shirt, been wearing it all day. Considered making two pockets but I don’t really need two and I have a long TO DO list, anyway.

making biscuits

This time of the year is party time and many invitations ask you to ‘bring a plate’. This is an Australian tradition and involves taking a plate of food to share. I have a few invitations this week where I need to take a plate. This can be tricky when there’s no fridges available as the gatherings are outdoors. My solution is shortbread biscuits!

They don’t need refrigeration, cutting up or extra sauces or topping. You don’t need napkins and you don’t need to wash your hands afterwards. Easy!

saving seeds

The heat of summer has begun so it’s time to reduce the number of pots needing hand watering. I’ve also saved the ranunculus corms and red poppy seeds for next year. I intended saving the tulip bulbs, too, but only found their skins. The wild life had enjoyed a feast of tulip bulbs!

I store the collected seeds in brown paper bags pegged up high in the cool garage until it is time to plant again next year.

wrapping gifts

Printed this paper using brown packing paper, acrylic paint and a stamp. I smoothed out the paper and ironed it before printing on it. If you want to try this but want perfectly smooth paper, lightly spray it with a mist of water, then iron.

I hope all your holiday plans involve wonderful food and fun get togethers, plus lots of sleep!

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It Has To Be Red, Giftwrap and Teriyaki Beef Bowls

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in the red

Hugely popular in all things Christmas themed, the colour red is also a major decorator favourite for next year. From primary reds in childrens’ rooms, to AGAs and other stoves but especially fabrics and paints, every shade of red features strongly. Summer has just begun in Australia but temperatures in Perth have already reached the 30°Cs so red painted walls are unlikely to catch on here!

Red is historically associated with wealth and status. It didn’t begin with Louboutin’s red soled shoes! In fact, in the 17th century, aristocratic courtiers to Louis XIV featured flashes of red dye on the soles of their shoes. The concept of a red carpet event isn’t new, either, but goes back to Ancient Greece. Archeologists working at Pompeii found red walls were so common they’ve named the colour Pompeian red. Red signifies energy and warmth.

Louboutin claims he decided to paint the soles of his shoes red after a fairly plain pair were delivered and his assistant, who was painting her nails at the time, offered to paint the soles of the shoes bright red, using her nail polish. Louboutin went on to sell nail polish and lipstick based on the colour he used on the soles of his shoes.

Although Western Australia is no place for red painted walls, I really, really like furniture painted in Chinese red. This can range from orangey-red through to dark vermilion. The red I particularly like features throughout Asia. No longer made from ground cinnabar, for many Asian countries, red symbolizes good fortune, luck, vitality, celebration and prosperity. Splashes of vivid red are thought to ward off evil spirits and bad luck. We bought some old pieces finished in Chinese red and had some pieces made.

These two carved, ornate panels are originally from a door at the entrance to a hutong, a family housing complex. I was always on the lookout for more, but no luck!

I had these three wedding boxes restored by inmates at a juvenile detention centre. The boys were taught to restore old pieces of furniture using semi traditional methods so they would have a skill when they were released. The boxes now store memorabilia from our years in China.

I collected quite a lot of blue and white china, too, to add to what I already had.

The altar table used to be in the entrance to our apartment. The lower shelf was convenient for storing shoes as visitors removed their shoes when they arrived.

We bought the rice box after we returned to Australia.

Our bedhead and bedside tables are finished in traditionally made Chinese red using pigments, shellac and lacquer. I took the pieces to an artisan to be painted and he said he was too busy and wrote down his recipe! I eventually sourced the materials and mixed the paint myself.

wrapping paper

Continuing in a red vein, I’ve printed some Christmas wrapping paper. This brown paper began as packing around something bought online and delivered in a big box. I unscrunched the brown paper and smoothed it out and then ironed it. Some months ago I tidied the armoire I keep my art supplies in and couldn’t find the paisley Indian wood block I intended to use to print on the paper. Looked and looked, unsuccessfully, so settled on this slightly star shaped block. I knew where it was when the cupboard was a jumbled mess!

Gathered the paper, a dish for the paint, red acrylic paint and some paper towel. Smoothed the brown paper out on the table and dipped the block in the paint in the dish, tapped it on the paper towel and then printed.

I was pretty relaxed about the placement of the design as the paper will be folded around gifts so irregularities wont really show. It was a hot day and the paint dried quickly.

dinner

I keep writing about Nagi Maehashi’s new cookbook, DINNER because I really like the recipes. As I’ve said before, the ingredients are usually in the pantry, the process is easy to understand and the resulting dinner is very good. Nothing too fiddly but great flavours. All the recipes are on her online site and the book has a Q Code you can scan and watch her make the dish.

I decided on Teriyaki Beef Bowls because I had 500gm of beef mince and all the other ingredients, too. We loved it! I added beans and peas to the rice, not at all authentic, but I’m always looking for ways to add more F&V to our diet. This recipe made dinner for us for two nights.

The recipe called for 145ml of soy sauce. It was very salty. I will be shopping for salt reduced soy sauce which I’ve seen in the supermarket. Light soy sauce, common in Cantonese cooking is thinner than dark soy sauce, common in Northern Chinese cooking but both have very similar sodium/salt levels.

did you know?

Australia is the only continent in the world without an active volcano? It is also the only continent covered by a single country.

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Two Garden Renovations

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coalport stool

Did you have garden furniture made by Coalport? Generally two or four ornate chairs with a table, these settings were Brunswick green or white. I’ve had this stool for a long time, so long I don’t remember anything about its origins. I’ve kept it because it is the perfect height for weeding! I sit with a bucket for the weeds and reach all around me, pulling them out and dropping in the bucket, then moving on and repeating. I frequently make weed tea out of the weeds as it is ready to pour back on plants in about ten days and gives them a boost.

Gathered my supplies and set to work.

This stool has lived a long and hard life and looked it, too. So I decided to renovate it. I especially wanted to treat the rust before it affected the integrity of the metal. The first job was giving it a good scrub and hosing it down. That got rid of dust, dirt and a spider.

Next was a coating of paint remover. Originally Brunswick green I intended to paint it black. The paint stripper was a gel which make the old paint loosen but also gel-like and the only way I could remove it was with a wire brush. This was hard work and took longer than I’d anticipated. Then I used a liquid rust retardant and converter all over the stool. About five days later it got rained on which cleared off the residual evidence of treated rust. Time to tighten the leg screws and let it dry out properly.

As this stool is sometimes left out in the garden I used another rust retarding product to paint it. This was a Rust Guard Epoxy Enamel. It resulted in good coverage but it had a matte finish and I wanted a gloss finish, so I completed the job with a spray paint. These pieces were built to last. Referred to as retro or vintage online, there’s a surprising number of chairs, tables and stools by Coalport for sale. This one is light enough to move fairly easily from place to place despite being manufactured from cast iron.

decorative fence panel

This panel will be attached to the fence. It started life as a screen but my son cut the legs off for me.

The second renovation was a panel for the garden fence. Originally a screen, I knew where I wanted to attach it to the garden wall as soon as I found it. The first job was getting my son to cut off the rusty old legs. Then I gave it a good scrub before checking the strength of the welded joins. It’s old but in reasonable shape.

I coated the screen in paint remover and left it to work before using a scraper to remove the gel like dissolved paint. Messy. After I’d done one side, which took almost five hours, I flipped it over only to discover the old, cracked paint came off quite easily scraping at it. Still took ages but the gel was very messy and sticky, scraped off paint is easy to sweep up.

A coat of liquid rust remover, then a few days later I filled the cut off leg edges with builders filler. The screen will be attached to a wall where the lower part of it will be sprayed occasionally by the reticulation. Left the filler to harden for a few more days then sanded it to a smooth finish.

Sanded the builders filler used to seal the ends where we’d cut off the legs. I don’t have a workbench so improvise using the garden table covered by an old plastic tablecloth and sometimes the garden chairs, too.

Next was a coat of Rust Guard Epoxy Enamel, then finally I finished it with gloss spray paint.

Finished but resting in position on two bricks until I get the brackets to attach it to the wall. The timber slat screwed onto the wall to the left will stop the creeping fig from growing near the panel. I trim along another slat and the top of the fence to keep it under control.

These projects were very time consuming and hard work. I would probably investigate ways of having similar pieces sand blasted or stripped professionally if I had another project like these two. Once sand blasted they could be powder coated. Cleaning, stripping, treating the rust, sealing and repainting took many days. Although I am really pleased with the outcome, I wouldn’t want to remove paint from intricately patterned and pierced pieces again. I almost wore out the wire brush and myself!

Unfortunately, I have quite a long list of repairs or renovations to carry out in the garden, including resurfacing a chipped Chinese stool and restoring a small table. Might think about these jobs for a while!

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Fitness Trackers, Salmon and Christmas Cakes

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fitness trackers

Do you wear a fitness tracker every day? I’ve worn a Fitbit since 2013. Initially I wore it attached to my clothes, later moving to a device worn on my wrist. When I first became interested in monitoring how many steps I did in a day the common idea was to aim for 10 000 steps. As a junior primary school teacher I usually did between 7 000 and 8 000 steps on work days then easily reached 10 000 steps racing home, getting dinner ready to cook when I got home from the dog park and then all the other jobs in the evening.

So I gradually aimed for 11 000 then 12 000 then added an extra 1 000 every year until I was getting over 15 000 a day. When I moved to a wrist tracker I realised cardio and fat burning zones and calorie burn were more important to me. Then I kept reading blogs and many articles comparing the accuracy of wearing the tracker on your ankle instead of your wrist. The tracker doesn’t record movement effectively if your arm doesn’t move. Some people recorded an increase 0f 20% to 30% more steps and related information strapping their tracker to their ankle.

Intrigued, I attached my tracker to my ankle. I recorded about 15% greater scores in several areas so was a convert! Many bloggers give up wearing their tracker on their ankle despite the increased numbers because the length of the band is intended for a wrist not an ankle so it can feel tight. Mine fits comfortably but mindful of a few stories of trackers falling off I have looped a rubber band around the tracker buckle and my ankle. Unattractive!

Fitbit does not recommend wearing your tracker on your ankle. It will not record other metrics accurately. If your goal is to monitor your performance measuring all the other indicators available, Fitbit suggests a chest band, commonly seen on elite athletes. Then you need to read your numbers on a phone or a second tracker on your wrist. If you have your tracker on your ankle it is very cumbersome to read your numbers. I gave up and looked on my phone.

I’d really like to know if you’ve tried wearing your tracker around your ankle. I’ve read heart beat is not as easily measured but that’s fine. I’ve ordered a clip for my tracker as it looks funny on my ankle and I’ve really enjoyed wearing my old watch again. Also, it looks like I am wearing an electronic police tracking device! The tracker clip arrives tomorrow so I’ll do some comparison walks and workouts.

salmon

We try to eat fish at least twice a week and sometimes more often. Usually it’s salmon. Generally we oven roast it in lemon or lime juice and maple syrup. Regular readers will know I have been a fan of Nagi Maehashi’s online site recipetineats for some time. I bought her book RECIPE TIN EATS DINNER and was interested in trying a new way to cook salmon.

Part of the appeal of this cookbook is you probably have the ingredients in the fridge or pantry already. This was the case with THE ASIAN GLAZED SALMON which I made a few days ago. There was an enticing photograph of the finished product. Once you’ve marinated the salmon this recipe is quick, easy and delicious. The salmon tasted wonderful and will now be part of the regular dinner routine. The book shows the salmon served with rice, I served the it with mashed potato and asparagus. Always trying to add more vegetables.

Sticky, richly flavoured salmon with mashed potato and asparagus. Of course, the salmon should be served with rice but not this time. No chopsticks this time, either.

I am always trying to increase the variety of fruit and vegetables we eat, so the second time I cooked ASIAN GLAZED SALMON this week I served it with Chinese cabbage, roasted potatoes, beans and peas. (Chinese cabbage is cooked quickly in ginger, soy sauce and vinegar with chili and garlic and tastes much better than it sounds. Surprisingly delicious.)

Marinating the salmon, our new favourite recipe for fish.

Each recipe has a Q Code on the page. Scan this and watch Nagi prepare the recipe. How clever is that?

christmas cakes

Do you make Christmas cakes? Our family are great fans but I know lots of people don’t like fruit cake. We put a mix of dried fruits to macerate in port in October. The jars are turned daily to ensure the fruit is moist and delicious. I’ll make the cakes soon. I used to make, roll out then carefully place a marzipan layer on the cake. I’d finish by covering the marzipan with pure white icing and Christmas themed decorations.

Nobody wants to eat the icing now so I press cherries and blanched almonds in to the top of the cake in a pattern before the tins go into the oven.

world remembrance day for road traffic victims

Every year more than one million people die from traffic accidents.

www.worlddayof remembrance.org/

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