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notre dame

Some years ago we went to the midnight Christmas service at Notre Dame in Paris. I’d visited earlier to listen to a choral performance. I was not alone; apparently the 861 year old cathedral has more than twelve million visitors annually.

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A devastating fire five and a half years ago destroyed the roof and the spire. The exact cause of the fire has never been determined, but French officials focused on electrical malfunction or a poorly extinguished cigarette. Prosecutors and investigators say the fire was not caused by arson.

Intensive repairs, requiring the input of specialist restorers in many fields, will enable the cathedral to throw its doors open again in time for Christmas. There’s new stained glass, buffed stone walls and renewed frescoes. The opening will be marked by events to celebrate the work of the many engineers and artisans from all over France. The bells actually rang at the at the 2024 Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony, the first time since the devastating fire.

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This week the 14th century statue of Notre Dame de Paris, Our Lady of Paris, will return to Notre Dame. The statue was removed from the mantel at the south portal and kept in the church of Saint-Germain L’Auxerrois, near the Louvre. Thousands of people are expected to line the route along the Seine and across the river to the Ile de la Cité. The 1.8m (6ft) carving will be home again!

jacarandas

It’s that time of the year when the jacarandas are blooming everywhere. They are very beautiful and I like to go to areas where they were planted as street trees many, many years ago. I know when they were planted as my Mother was a school girl in our favourite area and used to tell us about afternoons spent planting street trees, many of which are jacarandas. They only bloom briefly but are gorgeous whilst in bloom.

Then this morning I read an article about how jacaranda trees can be very harmful. Jacarandas are not native to Australia ( they originated in South America).  In Queensland and New South Wales they are considered an invasive weed, as they out compete native species. They flower heavily and produce a lot of seeds, which are wind and water dispersed, which means they enter ecosystems quite easily. They also grow quickly, about 2-3 metres a year in ideal situations. They quickly outgrow native species.

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Another problem is their invasive root system results in damage to foundations, retaining walls, swimming pools, fences, pathways and driveways. They also cause problems in stormwater drains. If you have jacarandas in your garden, Landcare suggests you suppress their growth by pruning. Most garden centres will suggest you plant native plants instead.

Interestingly, I cannot find any references to avoiding planting jacaranda trees in Western Australia. There’s many nurseries offering them for sale and  information about caring for young trees. Our local council has planted several in our street recently to replace trees that have died.

and some other things

⊗ Christmas wrapping paper is on sale everywhere as Christmas draws near. The problem is it all becomes rubbish as soon as the big day is over. Consider buying paper which wrinkles and doesn’t resist scrunching as those papers treated with plastic or foil cannot be recycled. There’s lots of themed drawstring gift bags made from fabric available and these can be used and reused for years. If you’re adept at tying scarves, search online for the Japanese way of wrapping gifts with fabric, called Furoshiki, practiced in Japan since the Edo Era (1603-1867). Reuse the same squares of fabric year after year. Very pretty.

Image Pexels

⊗ Have you made a Christmas fruitcake? Usually I macerate the fruit early in October to make two cakes. This year was no ordinary year and no fruit was put to soak. A friend told me that business was no excuse and to make a boiled fruit cake. Went searching for information about ingredients, time taken to prepare and cook and how long will it last.

The ingredients are basically the same except a boiled fruitcake requires more butter, but it cooks for a similar amount of time, but most recipes advise the cake only lasts about two weeks. We were still eating the last of the Christmas 2023 cake a few weeks ago. I did make two and often forget about them for ages. The smell of the fruits and alcohol when I open the tin to cut some is amazing. I’ll probably make a boiled fruitcake soon.

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At 1.841 km long, Busselton Jetty is the longest timber-piled jetty in the Southern Hemisphere. The Underwater Observatory at the end of the jetty is one of only six in the World. You can take an electric, solar powered train to the end or walk.

Back from four days in Busselton. The Spring weather was glorious and we had a lovely break. We stayed at a new hotel overlooking the Busselton Jetty. Once a sleepy coastal town, Busselton is now a vibrant town with many cafes and restaurants, great street art, an art centre being built  and so many shopping opportunities! We were surrounded by a brewery restaurant, a couple of other restaurants and a local pub where we enjoyed lovely scallops. The sunset each evening over the ocean silhouetted by the huge pine trees was remarkable.

We had headed down south to visit the Margaret River Region Open Studios, something we often do in spring. This year over 144 artists opened their studios to visitors. This is a great opportunity to visit painters, potters, printmakers, mosaicists, textile printers, timber artists, illustrators, installation artists and photographers. Some artists have purpose built studios, some have sheds, or enclosed verandas or a room in their house. There’s also a converted water tank and a sea container and a train carriage. Some are in beautiful bushland, some have views of the ocean, many have lush spring gardens buzzing with bees.

The region is divided into four areas and all the artists are numbered and can be found on the map for each area. The weather was wonderful, the people we visited welcoming  and we really enjoyed meetings the artists.

The afternoon we arrived, we visited a gallery and some artists, then settled into our hotel. At breakfast the next morning we discovered a dear friend was staying there, too, so we arranged to meet each morning in the breakfast cafe to eat and chat. Later we set off to more studios. My husband and I like a paper copy of the catalogue, and we each mark the artworks we like and then I make a list of them for the four areas and mark them on the map, included in the catalogue.

Our first studio visit in Margaret River was Fi Wilkie’s Toot Studio, a converted hay shed. I really like her work and buy handfuls of her cards at a time, for thank you notes, brief letters and birthday wishes. This time we were there to pick up a lino print I had ordered. Not yet framed, but I know where it will be hung. She paints and prints diverse landscapes and the flora and fauna surrounding her home and in the north of Western Australia.

We had been surprised and delighted to find one of her works in our hotel room and discovered various pieces of Fi’s works are hung throughout the hotel.

Terrible photo of ‘The Balance Of All Things’ by Fi Wilkie. Part of the STILL AT HOME series, this print features her Grandma’s jelly mould, some old bread boards, scales, some local proteas on a mantle plus a magpie.

We visited several other studios and were surprised at how Margaret River has spread, with suburbs in areas which were just bush or farmland only a few years ago.

This region of the South West boast some fabulous bakeries, cafes and restaurants. One of our favourites is Claudio’s.

Unable to resist this salted caramel concoction, so that was my lunch washed down with a double espresso from The White Elephant Cafe in Prevelly.

My husband’s lunch.

Our afternoon tea. All from Claudio’s Bakery, all delicious!

This is where Margaret River joins the Indian Ocean.

It’s a popular surf beach. You can walk across the mouth of the river and head off to other great surf breaks.

I hadn’t been to the newly opened Margaret River/Busselton Airport. It is on the way into Busselton. There were about a thousand cars in the FIFO Carpark, so I wasn’t surprised to learn all the Virgin flights were for FIFO workers, known as Closed Charter Flights. Suddenly, the suburban sprawl around Margaret River right through, in places, to Busselton made sense. There’s a lot of FIFO workers living down south! There are three flights a week with Jetstar to the Eastern States.

This regional airport has a RFDS (Royal Flying Doctor Service) dedicated emergency service transfer facility. This enables 24/7 access without affecting other flights.

We enjoyed being down south and plan to return soon.

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the olympics

Lit in the Games’ founding city, Olympia, the torch relay marking the beginning of the 2024 Olympic Games began in Athens and arrived in Marseille on the 8th of May. It will arrive in Paris on the 14th of July, marking the beginning of the Torch Relay around the City. It will finally return to Paris on the 26th to mark the beginning of the Olympic Games.

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Image Pixabay

The hosting country says this year, the traveling flame pays tribute to the memory of those who marked France’s history,  displays France’s creativity, honours the country’s natural heritage and demonstrates the natural vitality of local athletes.

Rather than holding the opening ceremony in a stadium, for the first time ever, the games will begin with a water parade. The boat parade will proceed down the Seine on July 26th, through the heart of Paris, finishing at the Iéna Bridge in front of the Eiffel Tower. The boats will carry 10,500 athletes, coaches and staff, leaving from the Austerlitz Bridge.

Image Pixabay

Events will be held throughout France during the Games. This includes  this year’s surfing competition, to be held in Tahiti, on Teahupo’o Beach. A new event in this year’s Games is Breaking, formally known as Break Dancing. It was officially inaugurated as an Olympic event following an exhibition of Breaking at the Youth Olympic Games, held in Buenos Aires in 2018.

The French Olympic mascot is an anthropomorphized Phrygian  Cap, with sunglasses and a scarf in red, white and blue stripes. Historically significant to the French, the cap frequently adorns Marianne, the statue outside every French town Hall, symbolizing Liberty.

lily brett

I thought I had read all of Lily Brett’s books excluding her poetry. I don’t really like reading poetry, much preferring to have it read to me. She writes fiction and nonfiction. Brett is an Australian who has lived with her artist husband, David Rankin, in New York for 40 years. Both Brett’s parents were Polish Jews, both were incarcerated in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Brett was born in a refugee camp before coming to Australia. She feels her parents generation who survived the Holocaust just want to forget and move on, but their children need to know what happened.

Walking past a ‘take one, leave one’ shelf last week I spotted ‘Between Mexico and Poland’ by Lily Brett! Published in 2004, it somehow passed me by. I read it in a few days and really liked it. Brett’s themes are often very dark, but the she changes the mood with humour and clever observations. She returns to Poland to try and find her family history. Her father has no interest in Poland or it’s history but accompanies her because he knows Poland and he doesn’t want her to go there alone. When they find the family house, they discover the people living there still using things belonging to his family.

One wish Brett’s father frequently expressed was that one of Brett’s books be made into a film. This has now happened. Starring Stephen Fry as Ruth’s father (closely based on Brett’s father) father and Lena Dunham as Ruth/Lily Brett, the book is based on her 1999 book, Too Many Men. The film is called Treasure and the book is about to be reissued and is now also called Treasure.

Her father left Melbourne when he was 89 to live with Brett and her husband in New York. He died in 2018, just before his102nd birthday.

winter salad

People to lunch and I wanted to make a salad using roasted winter vegetables. Every recipe I found included kale. Kale is very popular in roasted vegetable salads. Kale and I don’t get on. So I roasted butternut pumpkin (squash), red onion, cauliflower and carrots. Also roasted some pumpkin seeds which were crunchy and added a burst of flavour.

The next dilemma was the dressing. Every recipe I found had honey or maple syrup. That didn’t appeal so I made up a dressing of extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, a splash of vinegar, some mustard, all shaken in a jar. Wish I’d listed amounts when I was making it because it was good.

Added an avocado. Served with chicken. Enjoyed our lunch and very good company.

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focacCia

Social media is full of people making focaccia, so I did, too. There’s so many recipes online, but I chose one which involved leaving the dough to rise in the fridge. I have never left yeast recipes to develop in the fridge and wanted to see how it went. Not so well is the answer. I didn’t need to ‘knock’ down the dough for the second rising as it wasn’t fat and puffy. Checked the date on the yeast, well within ‘use by date’ so I put the focaccia in the oven at  80º C F/F.  It rose enthusiastically.

Left it for 2 hours and when it was light and puffy I increased the oven temperature to 215ºC  F/F and cooked it for 25 minutes.

I will make focaccia again during winter but will try another recipe. I always search online and am now compiling my own recipe collection, making my collection of recipe books obsolete. I have had two extensive culls of recipe books but still have too many. I also find we eat differently now.  Often I cook proteins such as curries, ragu and bolognese, and stews in the slow cooker, then we eat some and put the rest in the freezer. Then I can just add vegetables. Plus we don’t eat a lot in the evening anymore.

Served with Saturday family lunch to accompany  beef ragu and vermicelli. Unfortunately, we discovered the warm, fresh focaccia was irresistible!

It’s a family lunch as our son is here to go to his 20th year school reunion. I can’t believe it is 20 years since he left school!

So many lemons this year. They are very juicy! Lemons feature in our diet for twelve months of the year. We also have a lime tree so there’s probably no vitamin C deficiency in this household.

orchid update

Each stem is continuing to grow a flower so I’m pretty pleased.

I have another orchid which is also on the end of the table so gets the same amount of dappled light, watered at the same time, same soil but keeps growing leaves but no flower stems. Any suggestions?

nuclear power

The Opposition party has announced its intention to develop nuclear power stations in Australia as part of their platform at the next Federal election. The announcement generated enormous debate. The one morning I turned on the TV news as I was up very early, all I got was debate about developing nuclear power stations in Australia. Flicked from station to station and ended up watching the BBC news. No mention of nuclear power there. But, if this government has introduced nuclear powered submarines, how can they be so anti nuclear power stations?

other things

We sat in from of the fire in the sitting room this week. The cold weather with heavy rain arrived while we were away. Before we left it hadn’t rained for months and was still hot during the days. Not anymore!

That’s when I noticed this piping was detaching from the cushion. You know I’m keen on mending and maintaining, so I immediately threaded a needle and restitched the piping to the cushion.

This is one of several tapestry cushion we bought back from our house in China.

We both read all the time. When we are going away we buy second hand books, read them, share them, then leave them at our accommodation. I didn’t read all the books I took away with me so had two to finish when we got home. Then I visited the library.

Did you read Claire Keegan’s previous book, Small Things Like These? It was a very popular book, so when I saw her next book, So Late In The Day, I immediately borrowed it. I’m glad I did, too. It’s a day in the life of Cathal, the day he was supposed to get married. His frugality and thoughtlessness result in Sabine, his bride to be, leaving him.

He likens his behaviour to that of many young men in Ireland. He remembers laughing at cruel pranks played on his mother by his father and brothers and feels that’s just how life is for women. Beautifully written but I feel no sympathy for Cathal!

The second book, Carys Davies’s Clear, is beautifully written. It is set in a remote island off the coast of Scotland in 1843. This is the story of two men thrown together, in isolation, by circumstance. They find friendship and understanding through necessity. One man was sent to the remote island to evict the other man. Due to an accident he finds himself being nursed by the other man. A story of solitude and connection.  A great read.

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growing

I recently ordered a set of terracotta spikes to seep water into my indoor plants while we were away for a few days. It’s still quite hot so I couldn’t leave the plants for very long. The spikes have a lip at the top to rest small water bottles to fill with water. The water in the bottles fills the spike then water seeps from the terracotta spike into the soil. Tested them for a few days to be sure the spikes would keep the plants watered and they worked well.

I’ve been planting autumn  bulbs and seeds, ready for some action in the spring. After the success of the tomato plants (I picked several hundred tomatoes over about six weeks) I decided to try shallots. Ordered the seeds online. I use a lot of shallots in Asian recipes and some French dressings and they’re $12.00 a kilo at the grocery store. Also planted poppy seeds and sweetpea seeds, both saved from my Mother’s garden plus a pretty punnet of violas from a friend. I have a long list of jobs I’d like to tick off my TO DO list but we are time poor.

Yesterday I got so  many long overdue jobs done in the garden. This morning the handyman came to fix some reticulation. We thought we knew the problem but once he removed some paving and began digging it became a much bigger problem!  The piping was laid by our son about 18 years ago and none of us remembered exactly where the pipes were or how they joined up. In the meantime, we’d had a plinth laid. He had to removing a path then dig under the plinth. Repairing the reticulation took hours, a few phone calls to our son and an enormous mess. I think I’d keep a plan of the reticulation if I ever do any again!

in the kitchen

Our son recently stayed for 10 days. He gave me a multi bladed pair of scissors for chopping herbs. It is fantastic! Quickly reduces herbs and spring onions into a neat, thinly sliced pile to add to anything. I was making fishcakes and turned two spring onions into thin, even pieces very quickly. It came with its own comb for cleaning, if necessary. Very useful piece of kit.

The spring onions were added to a fishcake mix. I’m not a huge fan of fishcakes but these used up a tin of tuna and served with a mix of green vegetables made a really nice dinner. The leftover fishcakes were good for lunch the next day, too.

My son and I both bought two kilos of red onions from the green grocer when he was here. He forgot to take his bag of onions back with him when he left. So what did I do with 4 kilos of red onions? I’ve been making Red Onion Pickles. They don’t last long in this house. They are delicious! Easy to make, too. Thinly slice two halved red onions. Meanwhile put 1 cup of white vinegar, 2 tbspn of white sugar and 1 tbsp course salt to boil, stirring occasionally. It will boil quickly. Then pour the liquid over the onions once you’ve layered them in a jar with a lid. Chill in the fridge. Enjoy!

We’ve been going up and down to Bunbury regularly for months. I’d lost track of when I’d put things in the freezer and decided we needed to eat what was in there and start again. I took out a bag of prawns to thaw in the fridge over night. The prawns thawed well but I didn’t realise there was a hole in the bag! The shelf they were on was awash with prawn juice. The fridge probably needed a really good clean, anyway, but it was a big job! Used the thawed prawns to make dinner.

reading

Our library offers EXPRESS READS. These are very popular books which can be borrowed for one week only. I borrowed Lisa Jewel’s latest book  None Of This Is True  on Thursday and had finished it by Saturday night. It was a busy weekend for us but whenever the opportunity arose, I could be found reading this book. I think I have read every book she has written because she writes such clever murders. This new book has a contemporary theme and I couldn’t put it down! If you enjoy a cleverly plotted murder, look for Lisa Jewel’s books.

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back to school

I retired from teaching nearly six years now.  Every school holiday and often in between I really enjoy catching up with some colleagues from the last three schools where I worked. These lunches tend to involve discussions about the changes and resulting frustrations in many government schools. Our Minister for Education is confident every class will have a teacher at the beginning of the term following an overseas recruitment program and employing student teachers who are not yet qualified. Many relief teachers have also been offered full time jobs.

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We often follow the changes in education adopted overseas. I was interested to read in The Weekend Australian Magazine, January 27-28th, 2024, that schools in California are going to teach children joined up writing again. Abandoned in 2010 in most of America as part of the Learning Standards introduced by the Obama White House, the decision was based on the assumption that students did most of their learning digitally.

Recognising the benefits of cursive writing in brain development and fine motor skills, California is one of 23 states in America which advocates reintroducing joined up writing.  It is now obligatory for students aged between six and twelve to learn how to write.

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The rest of this item by Kieran Southern is about comments by an associate professor of education at the University of Southern California. He refers to chronic absenteeism doubling during this period, achievement has ‘fallen off a cliff’ and refers to ‘other crises and culture wars in schools’. He then says the thing ‘… we can all agree on is that we must mandate cursive (writing)’.

The West Australian Curriculum dictates students must produce’…legible, correctly formed letters by hand.’ The goal is for children to write with ease, speed and legibility.

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Some quick research for recent information on the benefits of teaching cursive writing led to the Western Kids Health site (here). A summary of the their site looks at three aspects achieved by confident cursive writers.

HOLD   pincer grip strength, finger isolation skills, fine motor control, fine motor control, finger opposition control

COPYING   visual perception, visual planning, motor and planning control, problem solving

WRITING A SENTENCE   postural control, fine motor endurance, attention, motivation, concentration, resilience, creativity and imagination.

I also remember being taught that forming letters and writing them reinforced the learners’ ability to remember sounds and their relationship to other letters.

grow

The last lot of small tomatoes I bought from the supermarket tasted a bit like kerosene! Well, the first one I tried did, so the rest went into the worm motel.  I’m so pleased with the wonderful tomatoes on my bushes now. Not too big, not too small each truss has between six and seven delicious tomatoes.

The seeds came from my Mother. She kept two tomatoes for me and I squeezed the seeds onto paper towel, spread them out and left them to dry. Later I cut the paper towel into six equal squares and planted them. Up came a forest of little tomato plants except in one pot which surprised some time later by also producing a fine collection of seedlings.

Planted them out at different times to ensure fresh tomatoes over a few months. I have over 30 bushes supported by 2m stakes. I also have a tomato bush in a pot nowhere near the others; it just appeared one day and is strong with healthy trusses developing. I don’t usually grow this many tomatoes as I’ve had to cover them in cages in the past due to water rats! No rats apparent this year, but I do check every morning when I get up. Interestingly, our dear neighbour is sharing passion fruit with us as this is also the first year they haven’t been obliterated by rats.

Planted in good quality potting mix and watered regularly until they were established, some of these bushes are nearly two metres tall now.

Eventually realised I didn’t need the rat proof the tomatoes so removed the frames. Just as well, because some of the plants are very tall.

I don’t know what breed of tomatoes I am growing but my Mother has grown them for many, many years. They taste delicious!

 These tomatoes have never made it onto a plate; we eat then fresh from the vine!

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three favourite books

Currently, these three books are my favourites! I recommend them to friends who I know will enjoy them and I frequently refer to the recipes. These books are guides to gardening, preparing food and the last one is all about making, cooking and serving pasta. Our son was coming down to stay on the weekend so I began making sauces and gathering ingredients to make pasta. He has the pasta making machine so his pastas come out perfectly laminated, smooth and absolutely delicious.

His trip has suddenly been delayed! I already had the lasagne organised, I’d bought the fennel for the gnocchi, I’d bought ravioli and the ingredients to make a sauce for that and the pasta I thought we’d be making. The lasagne is from  Nagi’s recipe tin eats (here) I use her recipes a lot as they really suit us. This lasagne says it serves six but it actually resulted in eight generous serves.

Garden Like A Nonno

This book is packed with information about growing your own food and flowers and utilising every asset available, especially if it is free or recycled. Jaclyn Crupi tells stories about both her (nonnos) grandfathers and their gardening habits and skills, how they preserved their crops, dealt with pests and enriched their soils. I found the hints on increasing soil quality really useful as I garden on grey beach sand. A good reference book.

Nonna Knows Best

Jaclyn Crupi”s  second book and this time she describes the beliefs and habits of her two nonni (nonnas) and their contemporaries.  The essence of this loving account about how nonnas live is simple; grow your own and shop locally, take care of your family, friends and belongings, be sociable and stay closely connected, keep things simple, love generously and unconditionally and be in touch with your spiritual side. Have a nap in the afternoon should probably be added to the list! Sounds easy, but these nonnas work hard in the kitchen and the rest of the house and the garden. Whilst maintaining the habits of the countries they left, often as small children, these nonnas make new homes and new lives in ‘the lucky country’.

Pasta Love

Jaclyn Crupi was born in Australia and spent a lot of time with her Italian grandparents, aunts and uncles and other relatives. She writes lovingly about the various regional pastas and the sauces eaten with them. Only one pasta maker referred to in the book actually weighs her ingredients, the rest just make a volcano shape with flour on the benchtop and add water or eggs until it feels just right. This book is a love letter to pasta but also tells about the Italian ladies, including her nonnas, she learnt pasta making practises from, their histories and how they came to be in Australia and the jobs available to them at that time.

You might have noticed all three books are written by the same author, Jaclyn Crupi. Australia is made up of so many cultural groups and we’re quick to adopt the best foods from every country. Genetically my family has no connection  with Italians, but our tastes buds really like their cuisine. Their pasta in it’s many shapes and forms, the accompanying sauces, the vegetable rich soups, the beautiful salads, their amazing desserts and those cakes! What’s missing? Pizza! Apparently I am the only person in the world who doesn’t really like pizza.

I feel my family are multicultural in our food preferences. Along with Italian food, we regularly seek French, Chinese, Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese and German food. We shop for food in an Italian green grocer, a German supermarket, an Indian supermarket, a Chinese grocer and several different Italian shops for cheese, bread, cold meats, biscuits and assorted other temptations. I have just eaten a bowl of Japanese rice crackers.

Yesterday I bought a beautiful fresh fennel bulb to make a gnocchi sauce I thought I’d read about in the Pasta Love book, but I can’t find it! All the online recipes I found had milk or cream in them and didn’t feel right. So no recipe as I’ve improvised and although we love the gnocchi in fennel sauce I’m not sure if I could exactly reproduce it!

Thinly sliced fennel was lightly browned in a pan with preserved lemon strips added after about five minutes. Then I added a roux made from chicken stock, butter, water and flour and let it all cook. No added salt as the preserved lemons were very salty. Lightly browned the gnocchi then added it to the sauce. Served with the fennel fronds (dill) scattered on top. Added some grated sheeps’ pecorino, too. I hope I can reproduce this as we really liked it.

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PREPARING FOR CHRISTMAS

Do you remember for a few years before the pandemic arrived, Christmas parties and social commitments began to move from December into November? I actually quite like the festivities being spread over two months as it often meant some calm time to get ready for The Big Day. I have already started making plans.

We always soak the mixed fruit for the Christmas cakes for about two months before making the cakes. I like the cooked cakes (I make two) to ‘rest’ for a few weeks before cutting them. The tastes blend and mature, resulting in  delicious, richly flavoured cakes which smell wonderful.The leftover port not absorbed by the fruit is adding to the cake mixture. Then when the cakes are cooked and ‘resting’ my husband drizzles a bit more alcohol onto the cakes. He likes moist cakes.

We have two bottles of mixed fruit soaking in port on the bench. We invert the jars every morning until I’m ready to cook. I no longer layer marzipan and then icing on the cakes as it seems too rich. I decorate the tops with flaked almonds and cherries.

Our second Christmas preparation was when our son was here for the long weekend we started to plan the flavours for the Christmas Day cassatas, his specialty.We planned three layers. The first was icecream flavoured by dried bitter orange powder then added dried mango. Eventually, we decided the bitter orange was too strong.

The middle layer was strawberry icecream, made using freeze dried strawberry powder. When the icecream was properly mixed, we added dried blue berries. This layer was delicious!

The top layer was freeze dried mango powder flavoured icecream with chopped freeze dried strawberries. Although the three colours looked pretty together and mostly tasted great, we have decided the bitter orange icecream flavour was very strong and too bitter for the other flavours.

Experimenting with various blends has resulting in plans for two separate cassatas: one which will suit my Mother made with glace fruit and another one with three flavours created with freeze dried powders and freeze dried fruit to result in  three distinct flavours and colours. Each cassata will be served with raspberry crumble on top. Crunch, great flavour and very pretty.So, the dessert is decided and the fruit for the cakes is soaking.

Most of our preparations involve food and gifts. With no small children involved we don’t decorate a tree anymore, but I do a wreath on the door and a huge red bow on the gate and a few other decorations, too, such a baubles in the entrance. None of these things will happen until December. What plans have you made?

IN THE GARDEN

I renovated three painted ceramic spheres. They have been in the garden for many years and it was beginning to show! Not only did they need a good scrub, but I had to sand them as some paint had chipped off. Then after they’d dried in the sun, I painted them. Took a few days. Now they are back in the garden, looking good.

I find this petite sander really handy for small jobs.

Sanded smoothed edges and ready to paint.

Nasturtiums would take over the World left to their own devices. The yellow ones and the orange ones seemed to have created  yellow and orange striped flowers.

The Keeper of the Limes. This gargoyle keeps a close eye on the back garden.

Tinkling fountain and blooms appearing everywhere. Spring is so pretty.

STANLEY TUCCI’S  FAGIOLI SOUP

You might have first become aware of Stanley Tucci from his series ‘Stanley Tucci: Searching Italy. It’s obviously all about Italian cuisine and featured many producers and fabulous looking markets.He also acted in The Devil Wears Prada but is probably better known for his knowledge of food. Yesterday he shared his favoutite soup recipe. It is a traditional Italian recipe for Fagioli Soup. Not only is this soup delicious, Tucci says he turned to it frequently to rebuild his strength after treatment for oral cancer. He says it is ‘…easy to swallow and contained all all the nutrients to keep myself healthy.’

Adding the baby spinach to the bubbling soup.

Coincidentally, I’d made Fagioli Soup the day before. Tucci’s recipe used cannelloni beans but I used the less traditional lentils as that’s what I had and he used cavolo nero and I used baby spinach leaves, because again, that was what I had on hand. This is a wonderful, robust soap, full of flavour and economical, too. By the second day it was more like a stew, which apparently how it is sometimes made in Italy. The beans are a cheaper source of protein than meat. Look for recipes online, they’re all very similar.

I served this Fagioli Soup with crumbled pecorino, just as Stanley Tucci did, too. This may be old fashioned peasant soup but we thought it was wonderful.

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FIELD MUSHROOMS

Field mushrooms are large, almost flat mushrooms with dark gills. They grew down in the paddock when we were children and we’d be sent with knives and buckets to collect them. Visitors would come from town to pick these lovely mushrooms, too. They were cooked in a big pan with butter and served on toast.  So when I saw these in the green grocer I bought a big bag full, just for myself! I am the only one who eats mushrooms.

Peeled off the skin, which is easy to remove, then trimmed the stalks and cut the mushrooms in half, only because they were so large. Cooked them in melted butter, served them on toast. Fabulous lunch. I’ll buy more while they are in season.

I haven’t seen any mushrooms growing in the wild for years. The French like to go mushroom hunting in the forest for their favourites. They consider mushroom collecting a national pastime. If they are unsure if a mushroom is safe to eat, they can go to their local pharmacist to check. All French pharmacists can identify edible mushrooms. The French have 3 ooo types of fungi, including girolles, chanterelles, cêpes, bolets, morilless and of course, truffles. As soon as autumn arrives and the rentrée is over and the new school year begins, the French go foraging.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you know I am a fan of ratatouille made from seasonal vegetables. Not always traditional vegetables, as you wont find eggplant in my pot, but you will find other  delicious vegetables because of their colour or because I have something fresh that will sit well with the other ingredients. So it will come as no surprise to learn that this week’s ratatouille has field mushrooms in it. Big, meaty, marvelous,  halved field mushrooms cooked in  butter with the zucchini and onions. Then I added the usual tomatoes and diced tomatoes and some herbs. Delicious!

On the topic of food, we were given a punnet of (out of season) strawberries. They looked ripe but tasted tart! Not keen on wasting food I halved the strawberries and marinated them in kumquat syrup for several hours. A couple of scoops of icecream and marinated strawberries plus the syrup drizzled on top made a lovely dessert.

CASHLESS BANKS

Recently, the Federal Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, announced  plans  for major changes  to Australia’s banking systems, including phasing out the use of cheques by 2030. He claims the current systems are inhibiting the adoption of cheaper and more modern payments methods. He claims it will increase productivity which has stagnated during the last three years.

Following this announcement, The Macquarrie Bank has announced  today that between June 2024 and November 2024 they will phase out cash and cheque services across all their bank’s wealth management products, which includes pensions and super accounts. At the same time automated telephone services used to make payments will cease. It is expected the other major banks will follow with similar announcements in the near future.

Macquarrie Bank claims less than 1% of their transactions involved cash or cheques. There is a real problem with this plan. It will create difficulties for older clients who rely on cheques and are not confident using online banking, it assumes every client has access to digital technology and a reliable internet connection, which can be erratic or totally missing in regional areas, some clients do not feel online banking is safe and secure (with good reason) and some communities do not have access to ATMs. (My mother doesn’t have access to an ATM and relies on withdrawing limited amounts of cash at the supermarket checkout  and pays larger accounts via cheques posted to the business. She no longer drives and will be struggling when cheques are phased out. Similarly, an elderly friend paid her care service provider’s account via a cheque at the local post office. Then the care provider stopped taking cheques as payment and she was completely at a loss. Eventually, her son solved the problem by digitally paying her account, resulting her feeling dependent on family members and also feeling her finances were no longer private. Not good.)

So now we wait and see if the other major banks follow suit.

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