THE DETAILS OF DAILY LIFE (Jan 2017)

“…the true secret of happiness lies in the taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life…”

-- William Morris, “The Aims of Art,” in The Collected Works of William Morris

I like this quote. It goes to the heart of why I write my blog. I began writing about 5 years ago when I was feeling a bit down and I decided I was going to write about the good things in my life, even if they were just little things - ' the details of daily life.'

 From here I have had trouble with the size of the text. No matter how much I have tried to edit it, it remains the same.

Decorating
My house has been painted blue for the last thirteen years. Blue is my favourite colour but I have decided I want it whiter and brighter.

Click here to visit Apartment Therapy with Janel and see the difference when an old room is painted white.

Peter has painted my back room white and I continue to spray paint furniture and other items white. I rig up a sort of booth on my back deck.

I have discovered that an undercoat of silver paint really seems to help cover cane furniture before giving it a coat of white.

This was a cane table I picked up from the side of the road and sprayed white.

 And this was an old cane set of shelves I had stuffed in a cupboard to store things on.

In the garden

I have a tiny strip of garden where nothing will grow. It bakes in the summer. Even nasturtiums won't grow there. So I decided the plant a few of the agave we potted up on this day.

My talented daughter Rhiannon made these sculptures many years when she was studying art at TAFE. I love them in my garden. (Peter isn't so sure! Although Peter isn't sure about my blog at all!)

I added a few toadstools I bought on special at the Reject Shop.

The lyrebird was back on my deck this morning.

How wonderful to have such a beautiful bird displaying its plumage and going through its repertoire of sounds. So many people I know have never seen a lyrebird.

Craft

This week I made a pink macramé owl from the string builders use.

Unfortunately it has a bit of a nasty look on it's face and two different sized eyes which I did by mistake. I made him to hang around my neck when I tutor. The company I work for asks tutors to wear black and white with hot pink accessories. It actually doesn't look too bad over a black top.

I sort of copied it from this picture, which I lost track of half way through.

I plan to make a bigger, more robust one for my front entrance if I can find the right colour material.

Food

A recipe worth sharing is one I make for lamb and lentil soup. You can omit the lamb and to make it vegan if you wish.

Hearty Lamb and Lentil Soup   Serves 4

Ingredients

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 onion

2 large carrots

2 cloves garlic sliced

2 teaspoons smoked paprika

1 450g tin of chopped tomatoes

1 1/2 cups of dried soup mix

left over lamb bone from roast

6 cups water

4 teaspoons of stock powder such as Vegeta

Method

1. In a large heavy based pot heat oil.
2. Whiz onions and carrots in food processor (I use a mini) and add to oil, cooking until the onion starts to become translucent.
3. Add garlic and paprika and cook for further 30 seconds
4. Add the tin of tomatoes.
5. Add the soup mix, lamb bone, water and stock powder.
6. Cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours or until lentils are tender and soup is rich and thick.
7. Remove lamb bone and take off any remaining meat and chop finely and return to pot.

This freezes well.

Book review

Last week I mentioned moving some shelves and coming across a treasure trove of books, I had either not read for years or not read at all.

Once that caught my eye immediately was The Complete Idiot's Guide to Plant-Based Nutrition.

I will have bought this on line. There is a link in last week's post if you are interested in purchasing it from Booktopia. I will have bought this from Amazon some years ago, but have found the postage has increased too much to buy from there any more.

I am pleased to have come across this again. It gives a wealth of practical information including a section explaining where to obtain specific vitamins and minerals. It also has some useful and simple recipes.

While I still struggle with my weight for various reasons feel it is my plant based diet that keeps my cholesterol at a reasonable level without medication, and also it was replacing cow's milk and other dairy products with with soy milk that helped me sail through menopause without a single symptom. I have absolutely no scientific evidence for this except that soy milk has compounds that can mimic the effects of estrogen in the body. You can read more about that here. But there is an ongoing debate as to whether this is a good or bad thing, especially for men. This book mentions nothing about estrogen.

This book is a wealth of information if you want to start a plant-based diet. 

I do eat fish. This makes me a piscatorian. I also drink cow's milk and will eat other flesh when I am out, so as not to embarrass anyone, including myself. 

 This week I intend to read Walden by Henry David Thoreau.

 


Don't forget to go to Bean Stuff to see what my daughter and son-in-law are up to.

Interesting Sites

1.

Photo source

Click here to see this horse enjoy playing with a squeaky toy


2.

 2016 Comedy Wildlife Photos

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Click here to see more winners of the 2016 Comedy Wildlife Photos 

3.

 Londond bridge transported to Arizona

 

Photo source

 Click here  to read about London Bridge being transported to Arizona

LOVE IS WHAT YOU DO - NOT WHAT YOU SAY

How true is this statement!

It is so easy to say you love or care about someone but it is showing you care by actions that is important.

Last night we went to the Sunset Movies at the Wollongong Botanic Gardens with some of Peter's family. We went to see the movie 'Trolls'. Justin Timberlake was the voice for one of the main characters and I was interested to see in the credits that Russell Brandt and John Cleese also had parts.

 It was fun.  It did pour with rain just before the movie started, but we all managed to shelter under a picnic blanket and then retrieved some umbrellas out of the car.

It was a lovely evening. Peter and I will have to look into going another night and seeing a more adult movie. There seems to be a range of movies over the summer - child and adult; old and new. Click here if you want to find out more.


I always look forward to the  Crepe Myrtle trees flowering down in Balgownie Village, but they are not as prolific this year as last year.

I did spot this one in the Botanic Gardens last night.

It's not a great photo. I took it really quickly through sprinkling rain as we were heading up to watch the outdoor movie mentioned above, but it does give you an idea of how pretty they can be.

I intend to do some research on propagating crepe myrtles and see if I can grow them from a few cuttings taken from down in the village.

It is interesting watching the succulents I planted before Christmas start to take off. You can see the tiny little plantlets  starting to grow on the edge of a larger leaf. It really is fascinating watching them grow.

You can find some interesting information about propagating succulents here.

I put a vase of Vietnamese mint on my windowsill last week...

and in a couple of days it had grown these roots.

I was very surprised at how quickly they grew. So I decided to try propagating them and have put a few cuttings in pots.

I'm not sure how they will go. We have had a heatwave and they seem to be taking a while to get going.

I am moving a bookshelf and not looked at the books in it for ages. Some of them I can't even remember buying,

These are some of the books I found. I can't wait to start looking through them. I have just been too busy to read the books I have bought over the last couple of years and this year I am changing that.

The first book I am starting with is The Idiot's Guide to Plant Based-Nutrition by Julieanna Hever (2011,Penguin.) I can't even remember buying it, but I think I must have bought it on Amazon a few years ago. It is available here at Booktopia.

The more I read and learn, and look at my family history, the more I consider that a plant-based diet is the way for me to go. I consider myself a piscatorian as I eat fish but tend to avoid other animal products except for some cheeses like feta and Parmesan. I do eat meat to be polite if necessary.
I will let you know if this book is useful next week.

Meanwhile you may be interested in the recipe for some vegan fudge I have just made based on black beans and with no added sugar. In the photo below it has just been taken out of the freezer, which I think is the best way to eat it.

 I found the recipe here at Peachypalate. I made a double quantity. I used turtle black beans; date paste instead of Mejool dates, to make it a bit cheaper; and ordinary cocoa. It's not a terribly sweet fudge but Peter likes it and it is high in protein from the black beans. 

Even though it is holidays I administered 2 reading tests this week for young primary school students who were having some difficulty reading. As is usual with students with a reading problem, these two were not sure of their vowel sounds. Over the years I have had to teach 16 and 17 years olds their vowel sounds. One of the best things you can do for your children before they start school is have them recognise the 5 vowels: a,e,i,o,u, and the short sounds they represent.

If you would like some information on ways to teach your child vowel sounds check here,

I am aiming to post this blog on Saturdays and am hoping to become more successful at that as time goes on. I guess a day late isn't too bad.

Don't forget to check out Bean Stuff  to follow  my daughter's and son-in-law's gardening and creative adventures. They will give you ideas for living a rich life on a very limited budget.



Interesting sites

1.

 Homeschooling in a VW van

Photo source

Click here  to read about homeschooling 3 children in a VW van.


2.

Crazy windsurfers in hurricane waves

Photo source

Click here to see windsurfers surfing the waves in hurricane conditions.

3.

 Fairysteps

Photo source

 I love the handmade bags and shoes at Fairysteps in the UK. Click here to see their beautiful creations.

A MAN UNDER MY HOUSE

When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.

C. S. Lewis, “On Three Ways of Writing for Children”

There was a man under my house today. He was digging some holes to pour concrete in and make new footings to underpin the old ones. Every now and then I heard a jack hammer going. Two of the footings under my house need to be underpinned.

The footings under my house have been like this for about 8 years. My ex-husband had been going to put a room down there and dug right up against the footings, but left before it was finished. P:-) has been quite concerned about this for a while and especially now that I am going to sell the house. He thinks a building inspector wouldn't pass it. It is true that the clay base is starting to crumble and crack.

So I called in an engineer. P:-) was right. The footings need underpinning or they are likely to give way at some stage. A scary thought. My house would just fall down. Anyway, it is underway today, and thankfully not too expensive.

So this was what had been completed by the time I left about 2:30.

P:-)'s 5th grandchild was born last week. Little Jake. P:-) now has 4 granddaughters and a grandson. I don't usually put photos of people on my blog but I don't think P:-)'s son M or daughter-in-law K would mind as they have posted his picture on Facebook.

His full name is Jake George Stephen.

I was lucky enough to nurse him before he was 24 hours old!


Beautiful lichen covers a rock in my front yard.

Lichens are interesting organisms made up of symbiotic relationships between a fungus  and  a green alga  with the fungi providing the structure and the algae the green ‘chlorophyll’ part.  

I imagine this lichen  is very common but  I have been  unable to identify it

 
After much thought and procrastination I finally ordered Jamie Oliver's new book,  Save With Jamie. 

I ordered it from UK Amazon. The total cost including postage is $33. To buy it from Penguin Books Australia  it was going to cost $49.99, not including delivery fee. Books arrive really quickly from UK Amazon - usually within a week.

 It is the Australian tax that makes them so expensive. A quick internet search failed to provide  any information on the rate of tax on books in Australia. On one occasion I bought an Australian  book whch was going to cost me $140 in the local book shop, through UK Amazon and it cost $60 including postage.

Interesting sites

 1.

Montana Magica

 

Photo source

This is Montana Magica Lodge in Los Rios, Chile. It is accessible only by foot and intrepid guests must brave a swinging rope bridge to enter it. It looks fantastic.Click here to read more.

2.

Rhone Glacier covered in blankets

 

Photo source

Each summer the Rhone Glacier is covered in white blankets to stop it melting. Click here to read more. 
 
3.

Remove stress from your life

 

Photo source

Click here to learn about 17 ways  to remove stress from your life.

SHELF LIVES

The first duty of love is to listen.

Paul Tillich  

My daughter J is having an exhibition in Gallery 9 in Darlinghurst, Sydney. It is entitled Shelf Lives. Most of it is felting.

(Some of the photos aren't great. I have just started using  PicMonkey photo editor and it cut off some of the tops of the portrait oriented photos.)

Prices for the art works  ranged from $100 to $300 per item. P:-) and I drove up to Darlinghurst yesterday to pick J and her partner up after a stay of a few days.  J had sold 3 items at the opening the evening before, so hopefully she will sell some more as the exhibition progresses.

I sold my book on Ebay. It only went for $5 plus $12 postage. But that is better than nothing. It would have just gone to the Salvation Army. This was only the 3rd sale I had made on Ebay. Each time I sell something I learn a little bit more about Ebay . I think from now on I won't put a starting price under $10.

My book sold on Ebay.

Yesterday  I was driving down the street  and stopped to take this photo of a rainbow.

Rainbow

I could actually see where this rainbow ended but as I moved closer the end seemed to move further away so sadly no pot of gold.


Interesting sites

1.

 Trees used as pillars

Photo source

I love this house. The trees, which the owners loved,  were growing on the property and had to be cut down to build an extension. So they were dried and smoked and used as pillars. The really great thing is that they were placed in the positions where they originally stood. What a great idea. Click here to read more and see more pictures.


2.

Don't chase happiness. Recognise it.

This article is about recognising happiness when you have it. It deals with the idea that you don't have to have a lot of possessions or money to be content. Click here to read it.

3.

5 good reasons to eat more chocolate 

Photo source

This article gives 5 good reasons to eat more chocolate. I'm not sure if I need any more reasons. There is also a recipe for Chocolatey Crunchy Granola adapted from the ‘I Quit Sugar Chocolate Cookbook‘ by Sarah Wilson. Click here to read more.