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calming occupations

After the rush of Christmas shopping and celebrating you might be thinking about some activities which will help you slow down. Mindful activities are relaxing and the finished product can be very satisfying. Consider these: gardening, tending indoor plants, knitting, crocheting, growing your own herbs, reading, keeping a journal, sewing, birdwatching, walking, drawing and painting and tai chi or yoga.

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All require some concentration and the outcome can be very rewarding. Now is the time to slow down and enjoy some relaxed time!

screen time

Researchers are considering the impact of screen time on small children aged between 0-3 years of age. Research from 2014 reveals children spending an average of five hours a week on devices had elevated BMIs (Body Mass Index). Worldwide, the incidence of myopia (short sightedness) is the fastest growing problem for children. Another area considered was sleeping habits. Children who don’t have access to devices sleep better. All things to consider before giving a small child a screen for any length of time.

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happy new year!

Do you write New Year Resolutions? Do you list the same things year after year but never quite get there? I just read on an American site about Quitters Week, usually about the third week of January when the weather makes a morning run unpleasant, or you’re fed up with salads or the gym is hot and a bit stinky. Maybe your goals are more focused on your home as you plan to sort out the junk room/cupboard/drawer but just don’t get around to doing it. Or you plan to sort out insurance policies or healthcare but never get it sorted.

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The same site suggested listing goals, journaling (writing detailed plans) or making a vision board. The vision board requires images cut from magazines, brochures or similar sources that resonate with your goals, stuck onto a board  and then left where you’ll see it regularly. The samples online look like a lot of work but they are very attractive and popular!

If you’re keen on new year resolutions, the science offers these four steps to success. Just choose one thing to change, not a long list as this will be overwhelming and soon discarded.

1. Start small. The pre-frontal cortex, the change making part of the brain, is easily overwhelmed. Try one small step at a time, building momentum each day, works.

2. Be specific, such as ‘I will save $500 by the beginning of February’ rather than ‘I want to save money’. List how to achieve you goal, then break the steps down into clear and achievable steps.

3. Reward yourself with little treats to mark each success. Make it easy to succeed.

4. Make sure you know what success will look like. Describe your goal clearly.  Revisit your plan regularly. Be realistic about how you can achieve your goal.

Regardless of your plans and how you present them, I wish you a happy and healthy new year.

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post christmas

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas! Everybody’s idea of a great Christmas is different, but many are based on family and friends eating together, exchanging presents and having a break from work! Christmas is no longer a simple affair where children get one big gift and a few little treats in a stocking or pillow case hung from their bed. No roasted chicken and Christmas pudding, perhaps a beer or two, certainly ginger beer. I think Christmas menus have become better suited to the Australian climate over time.

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Gone are the school plays with a doll in the manger, Mary and Joseph, the three wise men and the angels. The local farmer no longer is asked to provide a lamb or two. The birth of Jesus doesn’t really feature in the public arena. It’s all about Father Christmas/Santa, elves and Disney characters. And bulk spending. Children no longer learn Christmas carols. We used to sing them at school, at home and on the school bus. No devices to tempt us!

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Things change with time, we age and feel nostalgia for ‘the good old days’ but we forget the heat, the strain of elderly relatives needing to be accommodated and attended to all day when really you wanted to play with the new doll, the Lego or the new cricket bat. As the only girl, I was expected to dry up and put away a massive amount of ‘good’ china unpacked for the big day. Cutlery, too, which I have now inherited and doubt I will ever clean and use. I hope your Christmas Day was everything you wished and you had a wonderful day!

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Post Christmas was always a huge shopping day. Boxing Day sales were all about bargains. You stocked up on Christmas decorations, bought gifts to give throughout the year and generally spent time ‘just looking’. I think the run of cyber sales has redirected people from Boxing Day sales to other online events. The cost of living crisis in Australia may have some impact on spending, too. I ducked into  the local shopping centre yesterday, expecting crowds and long queues at the checkout, but there was hardly anyone there!Got what I wanted and was out in less than 10 minutes.

Do you plan New Year’s resolutions? Do you share them with other people? I scan through the lists in magazines and they never relate to any of my plans, but do make interesting reading. You never see useful resolutions such as ‘leave the shallots until they’re ready before pulling them out’ or ‘do everything you can to avoid going into the Post Office because there will be 100 people in front of you’. It’s all about decluttering, losing weight, digitizing your photos and getting fit.Just like last year and the year before, too!

                     HAPPY  NEW  YEAR!

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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.

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⊗ 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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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.

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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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