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sleep

Do you sleep well? I haven’t for years. Poor sleep is related to cognitive decline, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, depression, heart attacks and strokes.  I’ve spent an enormous amount of energy trying to improve the amount and quality of sleep I get. I rarely buy books, preferring to borrow them from the library, but I have a collection of books about sleep. I’ve followed the instructions from each, precisely, without improving the outcome.

In fact, the current book about improving sleep sits beside the bed with a bookmark half way through as I’m not supposed to follow the advice in the next chapter until I’ve mastered the first step towards wonderful sleep. It’s never happened despite my dedication and determination to master the technique. So, just like every other book about sleep, actually, no help at all.

There’s no better click bait online for me than ‘How To Get Better Sleep’. That one item lead me to many other items about caffeine in the morning interfering with sleep. Apparently, the best time to enjoy your first cup of coffee is about 90 minutes after you wake up. Your cortisol levels peak three times a day and one of those times is when you wake up. About ninety minutes later, your cortisol has returned to normal levels.

Cortisol controls alertness, focus, regulates blood pressure and your immune system and metabolism. Cortisol follows your sleep-wake system and peaks about about 30 -45 minutes after you wake and then slowly declines. So here’s the problem; coffee interfers with the build up of cortisol and adenosine, which induces the sense of sleepiness later in the day. Caffeine is an adenosine blocker and therefore interferes with your circadian rhythm. The recommendation is to avoid caffeine for about 90 minutes to allow cortisol to be released which increases alertness naturally.

Prepared to try anything to get more sleep, I delayed the first cup of coffee for 90 minutes each morning for five days. After three nights of worse than average sleep I dug a little deeper to see if there were other variables which might help. Discovered drinking a glass of water,  exposure to  sunlight for about 10 minutes, stretching, eating breakfast and meditating are all recommended. Being outdoors as the sunsets works for some people, too. As this is my preferred time to garden, as it is cooler, I began this recommendation immediately.

The result? Three consecutive nights poor sleep, one night great sleep (so exciting), another dreadful night. I will persist a little longer

food

Usually I feel the last months of the year rush by, but March seems to have arrived very quickly this year. In the Southern Hemisphere, March marks the beginning of Autumn, but you’d never know it here in Perth, where the temperatures continue in the high 30°Cs. Humidity is high, too.

The early months of the year seem to be favourites for celebrations. We’ve finished with the really big one, Christmas, then the new years starts with  St Valentine’s Day, next is St Patrick’s Day followed by Easter and finally, Mother’s Day. Then we get a bit of a rest depending on your family birthdays’ and wedding anniversaries. Preparing for Easter is always special so I’m beginning to plan now.

Meanwhile, I’ve used sourdough ‘discard’, leftover from feeding the starter, (getting it ready to make bread) and made more scones. Delicious.

Sweet corn, considered animal food in some countries, but popular in Australia, is at its best at the moment. Do you cook it in the microwave?

I put the cob onto the plate in the microwave and cook it for three minutes, trim the end, strip off the leaves and serve with butter and grated pepper.

Another vegetable in good supply at the moment is celery. I have begun buying it. I was growing celery from the cut off base but the stalks have begun to taste bitter. It is now compost. The last bunch of celery I bought was huge and I knew we wouldn’t eat it all while it was fresh. So I made celery soup using the recipe from  Feasting At Home (here) There’s no cream or milk in this recipe so it was wonderful served cold. The recipe includes a pinch of cayenne pepper which really adds flavour.

Thickened with a small amount of potato, this celery soup is delicious hot or cold. The recipe makes quite a lot, so a jarful went into the fridge with two more containers of ratatouille which I made the same day.

When it’s was very hot and humid chilled celery soup and ratatouille were very welcome.

The new sourdough bread recipe from Feasting At Home, discussed on in previous two blogs, makes very good bread. So good in fact, we are eating it so quickly I am making bread every few days. The latest recipe I’ve tried to use the ‘discard’ from feeding the starter was corn fritters. So good with sweet chili sauce.

Loved the rustic looking boules/balls I first made but it is better for us to make a rectangular loaf. That way we cut of similar sized slice each time.

Did you know cigarette butts take 10-12 years to decompose?

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a new cookbook

I really like reading about bloggers who use randomly or carefully selected cooking books from their collection to inspire them and then write about the recipe they made. I find myself using online recipes more often than books except for a few favourites I’ve printed off which are tucked into a folder. I usually look online for inspiration and directions. Often I found myself going back to Nagi  Maehashi’s site recipetineats.com. ( Just like 335 million other people as it turns out!)

Two of the weekend papers we read now feature her recipes in their magazines. So when I saw a review of her recipe book, RECIPE TIN EATS DINNER I knew I’d use it. She writes the recipes and tests them and takes the photos, ably assisted by Dozer, her golden retriever. He features in some of the photos.

Last night I made ONE POT BAKED GREEK CHICKEN AND LEMON RICE. Like so many of her recipes, all the ingredients were ‘at hand’ either in the fridge or the pantry. And like all her other recipes I’ve made, this one was very, very good. She says it serves five, it actually made enough for six serves for us. It wasn’t a one pot dinner, either, as we added roasted carrots, roasted mushrooms and peas and beans as we’re trying to increase the number and variety of fruit and vegetables we eat each week.

DINNER also has a very useful comprehensive glossary at the back, information about her philanthropic endeavor serving food to vulnerable people in Sydney five days a week and a little bit about how Nagi went from corporate city girl to recipe tin eats. Inspiring.

desiccants and plastic

A desiccant is a substance used to keep or sustain a state of dryness in its vicinity. The most commonly used desiccant is manufactured from sodium silicate and sulfuric acid. This mix has a particular affinity for absorbing water. Desiccants protect the integrity of the product they are stored with, often in a bottle. They should remain with the product until it is finished.

My problem with desiccants is not their effectiveness, but the fact they used to be packed in paper or other cellulose sachets which are compostable and now they come in small plastic pellets. This creates more plastic rubbish.

Recycling is not a satisfactory long term solution for the disposal of soft plastic waste. It simply delays the production and distribution of plastic microparticles into the environment.  Whether recycling soft plastic replaces aggregate in concrete or in roads and paths, or steel and wood in posts and furniture, we are just postponing the time when the product inevitably degrades, breaks down and releases extremely dangerous micro particles. These micro particles then enter the environment, the food chain and the bodies of fish, cattle, sheep, pigs, birds and ourselves.  Finding alternative uses for plastic waste may make companies which use plastic look good and make us feel virtuous but the only effective solution is to stop using it. Neither is biodegradable plastic a solution. It degrades by breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces until it becomes micro particles too.

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The best way to limit plastic entering the environment is to simply not use it. This would lead to less plastic overall. Recycling plastic is expensive and it degrades each time it is reused. So, brands claiming their clothing are manufactured from recycled plastic bottles create two bigger problems. This process takes the plastic out of the multiple recycling process and apparently most of the clothes end up in landfill within 12 months as discarded clothing. Plus every time an item of clothing made from plastic is washed it releases micro particles of plastic into the water ways. Green washing at its worst.

We must decide if we want to ingest plastic and risk the identified and as yet, unidentified hazards or use other materials where possible.

roses

The garden and the house are full of roses which is just how I like it! For the past two years the roses were decimated by chili thrip. Treating chili thrip involves using the sprays recommended by your local gardening centre. I also read about digging out the first layer of soil if the roses are in pots and replacing it with fresh soil as the thrip lay eggs close to the surface in the soil. I did this in the rose bed, too, but it was a big job. The other issue is that your close neighbours need to treat their roses at the same time.

Treating and eradicating chili thrip takes close observation, regular treatments and cooperative neighbours. Checking every day for signs on rose buds and reacting with the recommended spray is essential. Keeping the bush as healthy as possible helps, too. With regular treatment it seems to eventually move to another area. Unfortunately  I know some people in this area who removed their roses after two years of infestation rather than keep using the recommended sprays. I’m glad I persisted.

WORLD REMEMBRANCE FOR TRAFFIC VICTIMS

This Saturday, 29th November, is the day to remember that more than a million people die from traffic accidents every year.More information:

www.worlddayofremembrance.org/

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aprons

Do you wear an apron when you’re cooking or involved in other domestic occupations? When I was a child it seemed that all mothers wore an apron over their clothes. If they weren’t wearing an apron, one was hung on the hook behind the door.

Although I remember wearing aprons when I was first married at some time I stopped. I don’t remember the reason or even when this occurred.* Now I often wear one! If I’m cooking or even working in the garden I’ll probably wear an apron. I think rediscovering aprons was motivated by bread making. No matter how careful I am, during the process of measuring, weighing, mixing, resting and kneading the loaves, I will get flour, or worse, dough on my clothes. Now I always put an apron on. I have quite a few.

The word apron comes from a Medieval French word for small tablecloth, ‘naperon’ which eventually was shortened to ‘aprons’. Aprons aren’t just for domestic activities. They are worn as parts of uniforms, in  trades and for rituals. Aprons are made from a variety of materials, including cotton, linen, PVC, rubber, canvas and leather. They can have a bib top covering the front of the wearer, or a half apron, or a wrap-around with crossed back straps. I prefer aprons to cover the front of what I am wearing.

Neither cooking or gardening but actually removing paint from a metal screen.

If I’m going out into the garden I will probably wear an apron. I snip and trim, so keep secateurs in the apron pocket, I re-pot, I add fertilizer to pots and beds. I wipe my hands on the apron and drop it in the laundry when I come back inside. Recently I was doing a project involving paint stripper, rust retardant, primer and paint. I wore a wrap around apron which successfully covered me from top to bottom! A big pocket is good, too.

* My husband says I stopped wearing aprons when we moved overseas. Sounds right.

flower arranging

Many roses grow with a central bloom and three, four or five buds around it. The central flower blooms first, sometimes days before the others. I cut these out of the cluster, resulting in a short stem, then bring them inside. Due to their short stems they’re hard to arrange in a vase.

The central rose on each cluster blooms days before the surrounding flowers. I snip them out of the cluster but they have short stems. My solution is rubber bands! I make a grid using bands slipped around the vase. If I’m using a bigger vase I make a grid to create small squares. This means putting bands across then from front to back. The flowers are held in place and look lovely for days. By then the buds originally surrounding the middle bloom are ready to pick on a much longer stem, so they don’t need support.

The rubber bands don’t really show up on the vase.

tiny eggs

Our dear neighbour delivered a dozen sweet little eggs. She has  Dutch Bantams and Japanese Bantams, which are quite petite so the eggs are tiny, too. After I’d admired them for a while, I decided to make a tortilla. Also known as a Spanish Omelette, Spanish Tortilla and Tortilla de Patatas this wasn’t just the usual egg, onion and potato tortilla but an easy way to use up a carrot, red cabbage and green cabbage salad mix I had in the fridge. I was thoroughly sick of chewing and chewing . I’m keen to increase the number of fruit and vegetables we eat each week but this mix required way too much chewing and a lot of dressing to make it appealing. Decided to cook it.

I fried the onion then put it in a bowl, fried the carrot and two cabbages and added them to the onion and then fried three very finely sliced, peeled potatoes and added them, along with the other fried vegetables, to the twelve beaten little eggs.

Scraped the whole lot back into the pan and cooked it until it was nearly set then put it under the grill to brown the top. The red cabbage looks rather unattractive in the photo but actually tasted really good in the tortilla. Meanwhile, I’d peeled and deseeded a butternut pumpkin and roasted it in a tray.

Served the tortilla with roasted pumpkin  and peas. Seven serves of vegetables. Good.

making cards

For the past three weeks I have been going to a class where we learnt about Japanese and Chinese brush painting. Firstly we explored bamboo and leaves, the second week was flowers using ink and then paint and this week we focused on painting flowers which we then made into cards. I actually did lessons with the paining master in China but whatever I learnt there has long gone. I really enjoyed working with the tutor and have been to other classes she’s run in the past. I enjoyed focusing on a new technique and learning new methods. The class was often about ten people so it was comfortable and a bit chatty, too. I also liked the cards I made!

remembrance day

Today, the 11th of November, is REMEMBRANCE DAY. We stand for a minutes silence at 11am to remember those service men and service women who have served in all wars and peace keeping missions.

LEST WE FORGET

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concussion

What is concussion? Concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury. It is the result of a blow, thump or jolt to the head or to the body, causing the head to jolt back and forward such as a whiplash injury. The head moving rapidly shakes the brain which can result in chemical changes. Sometimes brain cells are stretched and damaged. Usually described as a ‘mild’ brain injury, evidence now shows the long term effects of concussion can be serious.

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Symptoms of concussion can include headache, confusion, poor co-ordination, memory loss, sleepiness, nausea and vomiting, dizziness and fatigue. In the past concussion has been treated as something that will pass with time. If severe doctors recommended “cocooning” remaining in a dark room and resting, plus treating headaches with over the counter medication.  (Avoid ibuprofen as this can cause bleeding) All that has changed recently due to the research showing that concussion  can result in long term neurological disease.

Diagnosing concussion involves observation of neurological responses such as vision, hearing , balance, reflexes) and cognitive aspects, such as memory and concentration. Imaging tests may also be recommended. This will rule out other head injuries. Research now suggest the best way to recover from concussion is to begin cardio exercise as soon as possible such as using an exercise bike or elliptical machine, but not running which can hurt the brain. Get the blood pumping! Follow this with something cognitively stimulating such as reading, games or puzzles but avoid screens if possible. Return to school or work gradually.

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Concussion can result in long term problems. Research on older professional sportsmen indicates that repeated concussion can result in permanent brain damage. Neurodegenerative diseases related to repeated concussion include  Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, slurred speech and significant memory problems, parkinsonism or the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (tremors, muscle stiffness and slow movement), sleep disturbance, smell and taste dysfunction are also common long term symptoms.

New research indicates concussion is a serious injury which needs professional diagnosis and treatment.

Bottle brush

During late winter and early spring our arum lilies bloom. I really like the sculptural appearance of the lilies and glossy, generously sized leaves. I bought the vase I put the lilies and leaves in just for this purpose. The only problem was the water gets murky towards the base after a few days and I couldn’t get anything long enough and slim enough to reach the inner base to give it a good scrub.

I invented a long vase scrubber! I don’t see a commercial application for it but it was just the thing to clean the vase. I used a rubber band to secure the bottle brush in a pair of long handled tongs and scrubbed the vase clean. Very satisfying.

This is a bottle brush of another kind. It is very attractive. The development from nobbly little boxes, actually called budding capsules, splitting open down the length of the bloom is wonderful to watch. These amazing flowers come in red, yellow, orange and pink. Endemic mostly to the coastal regions of Australia, although some grow in the centre, too, they are also available at any native plant nursery.

The name bottle brush is derived from the appearance of the flower. Bottle brushes (Callistemon genus) looks like a bottle brush! The entire genus is endemic to Australia but have been keenly been adopted by the rest of the world. They are drought tolerant and require little water once established.

other things

Continuing with Japanese/Chinese Brush Painting. First lesson was bamboo painted with ink, this week was flowers in water colour. I enjoy focusing on developing new techniques and working with other people trying to also master this way of painting.

PIERRE de RONSARD ROSES

The garden is amazing. The Pierre de Ronsard roses on an arch are covered in blooms. I was considering removing them earlier this year and am so glad I just cut them back.

SNAP PEAS

All winter I have been picking enough snap peas from one plant to serve two people every few days. I am drying two pea pods from the snap pea plant to plant some more peas for the next few months. To grow peas from the pods it is best to leave a few pods on the plant to dry and then leave them outside until really dry. Then split the pod open and harvest the dry peas. I like to soak them overnight before planting, but not everyone agrees with soaking. Make holes about 2.5 cm (1 “) deep. Plant two peas in every hole . Add liquid seaweed. Water regularly. They’ll germinate in about nine days.

A blogger I have followed for years always weighs her produce when she picks it and keeps a record of how much she has harvested. I think she likes to work out how much money she has saved growing rather than buying produce! Do you do this?

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enjoying asparagus

Do you really like asparagus but find steaming it a bit of a faff? I cook it in the microwave! It stays slightly crisp and very tasty. We really like it prepared this way. I like serving it simply, too, with a little butter, some black pepper and maybe a squeeze of lemon. Easy instructions on how to microwave asparagus  https://www.makecookgrow.com/2021/11/fast-delicious-dinner-reading-and-when-do-you-decorate-the-christmas-tree/microwaving

Most commercially grown asparagus in Australia is grown in Victoria. It is marketed nationally and internationally. Apparently 31% of Australians regularly consume asparagus. I served the microwaved asparagus with chicken rogan josh and couscous. Bit different, but I didn’t really feel like rice!

restoring garden toolS

Spring means lots of tidying up in the garden. I soon discovered both pairs of hedge clippers were really blunt as were a pair of secateurs.  Not my really good, really expensive rotating handle secateurs, but the every day ones I keep handy for, well, every day jobs. Really blunt. I’d seen an item on Gardening Australia, a television program, about restoring old but solid tools.

First step was to wash them clean to the assess the rust. There was so much! And other bits I didn’t recognize. So, as recommended I put everything in a  bucket of vinegar. It took eight litres to cover the blades and other metal pieces of the three tools I decided to restore. Also the laundry smelt strongly of vinegar. Left them, as advised on the program, for seven days.

As the acetic acid reacted with the rust it left clean metal behind. The smell of vinegar was quite weak by day five, which was just as well, as it made me think of fish and chips. A bit of scrubbing and rinsing, then I left the pieces to dry. I couldn’t remove the evidence of knocks and other marks on the clipper handles or the handles on the old secateurs.

Next I needed to sharpen the blades on the clippers and secateurs. Our son had left me his whett stone after he’d sharpened our kitchen knives. A whetting stone is a fine grained stone used to sharpen the blades of cutting tools, such as knives, scissors and garden tools.The friction used by grinding against the stone hones the cutting edge.

To prepare a whetstone it needs to be saturated in water, in this case a tall jug. I left the stone in the water for a few days. The stone is orange and white as one side is coarser than the other. I set it on a towel on the work surface. I began with the coarse side facing up to get the angle just right, then refined the edge using the white side. The tools I was sharpening already had beveled edges. I wish you could see how clean they are but the photo doesn’t do them justice!

Using the sharpened, cleaned tools is such a pleasure. The handles on the older clippers are wood and I found evidence of them once being painted red. That’s a step too far for me! So I oiled the moving parts with Singer Sewing Machine Oil, tested each on an over grown rosemary bush and feel pretty pleased with how sharp the tools are and how smoothly they move.

I really enjoy the using these tools, now. What really made the difference was oiling the moving parts and sharpening the blades.

By the way, I used some of the murky, remaining vinegar from soaking the tools on weeds growing in pathways. The vinegar near the bottom of the bucket was beyond recycling. As the vinegar smell had almost disappeared I’ll have to wait a few days to see if there was any remaining weed killing strength in it. If it doesn’t work I’ll be back to boiling kettles of hot water to pour on the weeds.

what is a counselor of state?

This week King Charles III announced five new Counselors of State, including younger members of the Royal Family. What is their role? Apparently, a Counselor of State can be asked to step in and assist with some of the roles expected of the King if he is overseas or otherwise unavailable. They cannot perform all the official  roles expected of the sovereign but can sign invoices and attend meetings of the Privy Council. The five newly appointed Counselors of State  are The Queen Consort, Prince Harry, Prince Andrew and Princess Beatrice.

DID YOU KNOW

Sheep outnumbered people 2.5 to 1 in 2020. There used to be an expression that Australia rode on the sheep’s back!

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July is cold this year. We haven’t had our usual rainfall, either. I have been occupied despite the weather!

cooking chicken tikka masala

Warm and comfortable food features here during winter and we really like a good curry. I found this Chicken Tikka Masala online at https://www.thecookingfoodie.com/recipe/Chicken-Tikka-Masala-Recipe and set about preparing it. Like so many things I cook, the ingredients are readily available or easy to acquire. Apart from the chicken I had everything else. The chicken was cut into cubes then marinated in yoghurt, lemon juice, garlic, ginger, paprika and garam masala.

Then the browned chicken is added to a sauce/gravy mixture of onion, garlic, ginger, turmeric, chili, coriander, cumin, garam masala, diced tomato and yoghurt ( the recipe actually calls for cream but I prefer yoghurt). It tasted as good as it smelt and we really enjoyed it.

The recipe said it made five serves but actually we had six generous serves. So, two serves in the freezer, two in the fridge and two for dinner that evening. This is a lovely, rich recipe and I’ll be making it again.

reading

A few weeks ago I reviewed Lucy Foley’s cleverly written murder mystery The Guest List. Featuring any number of people who would have liked to murder one of the main protagonists, it wasn’t apparent until the very end which one was responsible.

This week I’ve read The Paris Apartment. Foley writes gripping murders set in contemporary environments. Her stories are full of twists and turns, so action packed and a little bit scary, too. This story involves the half sister of the man who has disappeared arriving in Paris, realising he is missing and trying to work out what has happened. She moves into his apartment in a rambling old house full of very odd people. Things start to go very wrong and she has no idea whom she can trust. It’s a great read.

eating mussels

It’s mussel season and I’m keen to eat them! No-one else in the family eats mussels so I made a little feast for myself. This year I cooked the mussels in a simple sauce based on passata with some herbs and vegetables. I like the flavour of the mussels to star and not be overwhelmed by the sauce.

Our mussels are caught in the Cockburn Sound, about 11 kilometres from here. Originally mussels were wild caught but since the 1980s they have been farmed.

making bread

I usually made two loaves of rye sourdough at a time. Two loaves last me about two weeks. Most of the bread is sliced then put in the freezer. I have a piece of toast at breakfast and a piece of bread at lunch time. This has worked well for ages but I must eat more bread when it’s cold! This week I have made three loaves, two regular loaf shaped ones and a boule, because I don’t have three rectangular dishes!

This bread needs a few days from start to finish. I take the starter out of the fridge and feed it flour and water before leaving it on the table near the window for about 24 hours. It starts to bubble and increase in size. The next day I take some of the bubbly starter/sponge and mix it with flour, water, salt and a tablespoon of molasses.

I used to mix it by hand as I liked to feel when the dough became elastic and ready.  Now I mix the dough in the mixer and then leave each loaf to rise again. This takes about two hours. Next the loaves go into the oven. The serious bakers say you should bake one loaf at a time in the middle of the middle shelf of the oven. I cooked two rectangular loaves side by side on the middle shelf and the boule on the shelf below and they look good and taste great.

cat aggravations

I’d like to say I am not really a cat person. We have a dog. It is not a friend of cats and usually ensures none venture into our garden. Dog has been sleeping on the job, obviously. Went out the back door the other day to find a pot plant which had been sitting on a ledge, smashed and the plant a bit of a mess. Assumed it was cat damage. Knew I would have to buy two new pots and re-pot the plant and another one, too, as they were in matching pots. Annoying.

Had to buy two new pots. Annoying.

Later that day my husband heard a crash outside the back door and went to investigate. A rustic wooden ‘house’ which had been on another ledge was on the ground but part of the roof was smashed off. Humph. Out with one of my many glues and masking tape to repair it. I have repaired this roof in the past but the little house, made out of scrap timber, reminds me of a beautiful garden we visited on a farm down south during an ‘Open Garden” weekend. So, I’ll repair it again and investigate ways to discourage cats.

The rustic little house is becoming weaker but I’ll keep repairing it for now. This strip has broken off the front previously.

Glue then held in place with masking tape.

did you know?

There are about a million camels roaming wild in Australia’s deserts. They represent the greatest number of purebred camels in the world and are exported to the Middle east.

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using your special things

Do you keep things ‘for best’?  Do you have precious family treasures, special gifts or table linen you rarely or never use? Is it because these things were really expensive, very old or need washing, starching and ironing?

I really like Emma Bridgewater’s Black Toast & Marmalade design. Her brand, based in Stoke on Trent, offers china, fabrics, glassware and cutlery. I’ve collected serving pieces for the past 30 years.

We only use these pieces a few times a year when  we’re entertaining . Suddenly it seemed a shame. So now I am using them! My husband particularly likes the large mug for his morning tea. Quite sturdy and mostly replaceable, I’m using some pieces from my collection. Not a lot of call for gravy dishes or milk jugs at my table most days, but other pieces are in use and being enjoyed.

Inherited cake forks, which need cleaning before use, a huge soup tureen and several very large serving platters are still in cupboards and drawers. We do use fabric serviette/napkins every meal but they are made from very thick cotton. When they’re washed, they’re pulled into shape, pegged out then brought in, smoothed into rectangles, rolled up and put back in serviette rings. The old, lovely damask ones I’ve inherited are only used a few times a year as we usually entertain quite casually. That way, the silver doesn’t need cleaning. I happily set Laguiole cutlery!

lunch in beverley

Begun in 1838 the town of Beverley is one of the earliest settlements in Western Australia, which was settled in 1829. Rich soil, good rainfall and geographically quite close to the new Swan River settlement, Beverley was considered the ‘ food bowl’ for the region. Situated along the Avon River, about an hour and a half from Perth, Beverley is now known for its sheep and wheat. My brother and sister-in-law live there and we visited during the week.

Enclosed veranda created a sitting area and a playroom.; the two windows now have wonderful works of art.

Some interesting old buildings remain, mostly renovated or well maintained. The school and post office were designed by George Temple Poole, who was appointed the as Superintendent of Public Works in Western Australia in 1885. He was responsible for the design of many public buildings throughout Western Australia. There’s town maps, wild flowers maps,  suggested walking tours, information about the (Soaring) Gliding Club and brochures about natural places of interest available from the Information Centre.

We had lunch at the Freemasons Tavern. It’s on the corner of Vincent Street, the main street and  Forrest Street. The original verandas are missing but inside, this pub is a surprise. A good surprise! The original, well proportioned high ceilings with deep skirting boards and ceiling roses remain. The bars and sweeping stair case are from an era of generous widths and rich timbers.

Lucky enough to be invited upstairs for a look around. The staff were installing electric blankets on the beds as they were booked out for the weekend and the nights there are cold. The rooms have high ceilings, some have fire places, there’s ceiling roses, deep skirting boards, stained glass windows and wide corridors. Although there’s still work to do upstairs, there are several areas to sit and drink or eat downstairs.

We had Louis, our dog, with us so ate out in the pavilion. Extensive menu, very comfortable and we really enjoyed our visit. The menu ranges from hamburgers to lamb rump with mash. (Dogs are not allowed inside public buildings in Australia or on trains or buses unless they are service dogs. Shame.) There’s also play equipment in a protected area plus plenty of off road parking.

chicken tagine

Chicken tagine and couscous.

Talking to a family member recently and she mentioned spicy chick peas.  The seed was sown; I had to make recipetineats.com  wonderful Chicken Tagine. I had chicken breasts, not chicken on the bone as recommended in the recipe but the breast meat stayed moist. The lovely mixture of cumin, ginger, black pepper, allspice, cinnamon and coriander plus preserved lemon skin and soften dried apricots mingled beautifully with the chicken. You can buy Rasa el hanout but it’s just a mix of the spices mentioned above which you probably have in your pantry, anyway. The only other ingredient is chickpeas! Served on couscous, which is so quick and easy. I don’t have a tagine, a traditional Moroccan domed ceramic cooking dish but this recipe cooked well in a large Dutch oven.

No ceramic tagine but this big Dutch oven did the job!

The recipe makes six serves. They’re quite generous serves. One lot of dinner for two went into the freezer and another lot went into the fridge. I really like having a few dinners ready in the freezer for busy days.

One dinner for two into the freezer, one dinner for two into the fridge.

Now is citrus season in Western Australia and I will be preserving lemons. I used some of the lemons I preserved last season in this recipe and I often use some to add extra flavour to stews and casseroles. Recipe for Preserved Lemons (here) https://www.makecookgrow.com/2021/09/preserving-lemons-cord-storage-and-almost-instant-versatile-poached-eggs/

Preserved Lemons before I used most of them! Scrape and discard the pulp; the skins taste delicious chopped and added to so many things.

Did you know?

The biggest cattle station (ranch) in the world, Anna Creek Station in South Australia, is bigger than Israel.

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planting

I like growing food. I have lots of herbs in pots and also spring onions. (They add colour and flavour to many things and grow well in pots.) I have a passionfruit vine and two blueberries and a lime tree. Now I have planted snow peas. We like them raw, steamed and in stir fries. The problem is the river rats like them, too, so I grow them in cages. Not the ideal look for a small garden but necessary to make sure we get some to eat, too.

Had a good sort through the seed tin and left out the snow pea seeds to plant. Soaked the seeds overnight in water to soften the outer skin. Then I planted them about 2cm deep in well prepared soil. I grow them in a small raise bed to slow down exploring rats. Covered the raised bed with a cage.

Snow peas (mange-tout) germinate after about ten days. They take between 8-12 weeks from planting to picking and are ready when the pods are still flat with no apparent development of the pea. They are ready to pick about 10 days after flowering. Snow peas can be grown in Western Australia all year but don’t like temperatures over 30°C. They also enrich the soil with nitrogen.

reading

I am reading a lot at the moment and enjoyed three books this week. The first was  Emily Brugman’s  The Islands, a fictional account of Finnish immigrants to Australia in the 60’s who end up as cray  (lobster) fishermen on Little Rat Island, part of the Abrolhos archipelago off the West Australian coast. The Islands are most famous for more than 60 ship wrecks, the best known being the Batavia (1629) and The Zeewijk (1727). Brugman touches on the ongoing exploration of the wreck sites and the relics retrieved.

Brugman’s story refers to the wrecks and ghostly sightings, but also the isolation, aridity and sun bleached coral environment, the plentiful crayfish and the clear, blue waters. References throughout to their assimilation within Australian culture are based on the author’s family. This is Brugman’s first novel. It is well written, interesting and engaging.

The second book was Julie Mayhew’s Little Nothings, a novel about four women, their families and their friendships. Competition, envy, money and alcohol are the constants in this story but it is well written. This is about the power of group dynamics and how hard it can be for some women to break free from those confines. I think Mayhew is a keen observer of human behaviour!

The third book I am really, really enjoying is published by Taschen, called Japanese Woodblock Prints. This book covers the evolution of this art form from 1680 to 1938 and is richly illustrated. I really like Japanese woodblock prints and the influence this style had on European artists. Although I have read books before about woodblock printing and even done a course and made and printed my own blocks, reading about the history and the complexity of becoming a woodblock artist is fascinating. This style is uniquely Japanese.

Library of Congress image.

When exports from Japan began arriving in Europe in 1880 after a 200 year trade block, Europeans were introduced to this unique style of representation. Called ukiyo-e (the pleasures of life) a word derived from the Buddhist word ukiyo, meaning floating world, it refers to art produced in Japan between the 16th and 19th centuries. Although most of the Impressionists admitted to being influenced to some degree by this style, Manat and Van Gogh were both keen followers. Van Gogh particularly admired the use of simple, well chosen lines to tell an entire story. Degas was a keen collector of Japanese ukiyo-e prints and acknowledge their influence on his work. Toulouse Lautrec was also a great admirer and the influence of the Japanese style is evident in his famous posters.

Library of Congress image

Woodblock prints typically represent a fantasized view of Japanese culture over three centuries. Landscapes, fantastical demons and other torments, kabuki actors, sumi wrestlers, courtesans and animals all feature along with a surprising amount of erotica. This book has all the well known artists, such as Hokusai, Hiroshige, Kunisada and Yoshitoshi  along with many lesser known artists. Rich with beautifully reproduced prints and information I’ll be returning to it for some time.

Library of Congress image

cooking

Citrus season has begun in Western Australia. Citrus are a versatile fruit which can be generally eaten raw or cooked, in savoury and sweet dishes, juiced, grated and  sliced and also used as decoration. Citrus looks good, smells good and tastes good! The fruit is packed with vitamins and minerals and is high in fibre. Citrus, in its many forms, is evident in the cuisine of most countries.

I have a lime tree and generous neighbours, who happily share their fruit. I was given some oranges and had access to kumquats so knew it was time to make an Orange Cake With Candied Kumquat.

This week we celebrate our 38th Wedding Anniversary. We’re not going out unless it’s necessary since the border between WA and the rest of Australia opened and CV exploded here. So, a roast dinner, coffee and cake to celebrate!

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pea and ham soup

Normally I freeze the Christmas ham bone and make soup around Easter time, when it is cooler. But these aren’t normal times! Western Australia, where we live, will open the border to the other states of Australia at the beginning of February. Unlike the other states, WA has had only 9 Covid deaths and very little community transfer of Covid but that will certainly change when the borders open.

So I am cleaning out the things we don’t need in the freezer and packing it with essentials to keep us fed if we are locked down. The ham bone is now simmering in a pot with split peas. Instead of freezing some, as I usually do, we will be enjoying the soup for a few days. Pity this soup making project coincided with temperatures forecast in the high 30ºC s !  ( 100ºF plus)

I’ve never followed a recipe before for Pea and Ham soup but recently I’ve really enjoyed several recipes I’ve found on the blog recipetineats (here) Nagi makes her soup in a slow cooker but it’s already hot here and the heat and aroma generated by a slow cooker bubbling away all day was a bit off putting. I’m cooking the soup in a very old, often used Dutch oven. I bought this and a smaller version when I got engaged and that was 39 years ago! It’s a real workhorse.

The soup cooked for 2 hours. Then I removed the bone and the bay leaves. Scraped the remnant ham from the bone after I had emulsified the soup slightly with a stick blender. I’d added some extra chopped up ham because I didn’t want it thoroughly chopped and mushy.

mending the handles on a drawstring basket

Versatile, secure and fairly strong I have several useful drawstring baskets.

The handles of this basket are stitched on . I use this basket all the time. When one handle became loose, well, actually, came off, I knew I could repair it.

This thick strong cotton was perfect for the job. I searched my sewing supplies for a tapestry needle but couldn’t find one. Then I found this needle called a packers needle and it was perfect for the job! It’s long, blunt and has a big eye.

The cotton I used for the repair is quite a different colour from the original yellow thread but that’s fine. I double stitched the handle on for added strength.

Then I realised the handle on the other side was coming off, too, so repeated the task.

Resisted unpicking the remaining two handles as they seem quite strong.

I really like these drawstring baskets. They’re not like my big French Market baskets and are ideal for small shops, visits to the library and swimming. I can put my wallet, sunglasses, a drink bottle, phone and still have room for shopping, books, a towel and none of it is visible with the drawstring pulled. Worth repairing.

marbling paper

I’ve written in a journal every day for many, many years. I like the red and black Chinese notebooks available everywhere, until recently, but I add my own cover (here). These notebooks are quite light, have fairly thick paper (I’ve always used Fineliner pens which seep through thin paper) and fit easily in bags, baskets and a suitcase when I’m away from home. Their only down side is the colour of the covers, so I’ve always covered them and added marbled paper as front and back lining paper.(here)

I use Japanese inks to marble the paper. I have always used recycled printing paper or other recycled paper for marbling but will reassess this next time as some of the sheets tore and the printing on others seeped through and was evident when they dried. Not good.

In the past I have tried other techniques for marbling, includung shaving cream and acrylic paint (here) but the colours are too garish for me and some other paints, which tended to fade, so I just stay with the inks (here). The colours are clear and traditional and last, the inks are easy to use and clean up afterwards and they are kind to the environment.

Once the papers are dry I cut them to size, fold them down the middle, apply glue (UHU stick) and glue them into the already covered notebook. I also add a calendar, gluing it onto the last page. I tend to cover and line four or five notebooks at a time.

Western australia covid update

Despite no new cases of Covid in Western Australia, our Premier, Mark McGowan last night announced that the hard border separating us from the other states of Australia will stay in place. It was intended to open on 5th February. Our economy is strong and the unemployment rate is at an all time low. Schools will open as intended, in a week, and bars, cafes, restaurants, gyms and retailers are open, but we now have to wear a mask. The maximum in Perth has been over 40ºC all week and the same is forecast for today, so mask wearing adds to the heat! Thinking about people elsewhere who have been wearing masks and limited in their movements for two years now.

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