MY COLLECTIONS

Collecting things is a terrible disease.  You start off with a few things and then you buy more and more until it starts to get out of hand.  You know you are not the only person with this disease when you try and buy something you like on ebay and are met with a competitive fury which outdoes the polititicans of the land.  The "others", as I will refer to them use all sorts of devices to outdo you when it comes to bidding.  The experts use sniping devices - hanging around to the last second to bid - or buying software to snipe for them when they aren't around.

I can't be bothered anymore with this.  I just put my maximum bid in near the end and leave it at that.  If it works it works if not then I have saved myself some money.

I do love my little objects but that is all they are.  They sit there and and I look at them and remark how lovely they are to myself and then walk away.  I am getting to the point that I will only buy something if I really, really want it, which is now rarely.  Anyway, here they are. 

Click once to enlarge photo

Here is one of my cabinets.  It has 4 shelves jam packed with stuff.  I will highlight my collection of kookaburra and other jugs.  These are made by my favourite post war Japanese manufacturer, Marutomoware.  Not all of them are made by Marutomoware but the majority are.

My absolute favourite Marutomoware are the ones with little kookaburras and gum nuts on them.  These are just gorgeous but totally impractical.  I once put water in one jug to put flowers in and it leaked.  As they used to say in the 60's - if it is made in Japan then it was cheap and nasty.  Of course Japanese manufacture has come a long way since then to be taken over by the Chinese.  I haven't come across any Chinese kitsch that I like yet but I am sure the next generation of collectors will find it.

This is another lovely little cabinet.  It is all lead light and totally impractical - just the way I like them.  This cabinet has my little vintage childrens tea sets and Marutomoware juicers and juicers by others that I love.

Top shelf children sea sets middle shelf Nell McCredie tea set

The blue tea set is by Nell McCredie - Australian potter (1901-1968).

The next picture showcases my favourite Marutomoware pieces with the little kookaburras and gum leaves.

I haven't taken a picture of the whole cabinet just that one shelf.  On top of this particular cabinet are examples of my frog jug collection.

Next is my latest (and hopefully) last glass cabinet which actually contains predominantly glass objects.  A lot of this stuff belonged to my Mother and I am very fond of them.

It also has (on the left) more Marutomoware this time honey jars with gorgeous little bees on them, plus a frog and other cruet sets.  The bottom shelf are my Mother's pieces I inherited.

I just had to show you the mirror with the sailing ship on the wall with the sailing ship I got from a $2 shop - I think this was probably made in China, so there goes I do have some modern Chinese kitsch.

MYTHS of GARDENING

There are two myths of gardening.  First myth that gardening is easy.  The second myth that you save money growing your own.

Gardening is not easy.  It is not too difficult either but like all skills it takes time to develop enough knowledge to become a truly good gardener.  If it was so easy why would there be thousands of books written on the subject.  There are many specialties relating to gardening.  Different people and groups specialise in different types of plantings.  For example,  some people are vegetable enthusiasts and others camellias or gardenia's.

The most important thing in gardening is getting to know how to have good soil.  With the right soil you can grow anything.  So people starting out should concentrate on the plot or raised bed that they intend to grow plants in and prepare the soil.  It should be fed with manures and dolomite (if an alkaline soil is necessary), blood and bone, dynamic lifter and one or two manures.  Water this bed well and then mulch the soil using either lucerne  or sugar cane mulch.  I use both but not at the same time.  The mulch then should be well watered otherwise it will soak up all the water in the soil.  Leave this a couple of weeks and then grow plants or vegetables which are easy.

Easy plants are lettuce, silverbeet, beetroot and herbs.  Germinating your own seeds requires a fair bit of attention so I would advise buying seedlings, at first, of lettuce.  Buy the pick and come varieties eg. Baby Cos.   Beetroot have very large seeds so you can sow these where you want them to grow.  Beetroot are great and very generous.  Every seed producers two or three plants so when they are at a size where they are easy to handle you can separate them.  Silverbeet seedlings are good too.  You can keep picking the outside leaves and they seem to deliver forever.

You separate the mulch and pop the seedling in and and draw the mulch back close to the seedling.  Then water well.  The same with herbs.  Some herbs are easy to grow from seed others not.  Rocket grows from seed very easily and once established in the garden will be there forever.  The bees also love the Rocket flowers.  It is good to encourage bees into the garden and to this end poisons should be forbidden.  Continental parsley is also good to grow.  Buy a punnet of seedlings and you will have heaps of little plants.  Once this plant is in the garden it also will self seed if allowed to flower and you will have parsley continually.  I wait for the flower heads to dry and I pull away the seeds and scatter them every where.  Basil, coriander and spring onions grow easily from seed.

Enlarge this photo to see the seed pods developing in the mature spring onions

Once you have some success you will become more willing to experiment further.  Don't forget to fertilise your plants with a seaweed extract to keep them in top condition.  This is just touching on a few things you need to know but probably enough to get you going.

Rocket flowers and seed pods forming along the stem

Spring onions grown from seed

Enlarge photo to see the lemon thyme plant which self seeded next to the tank bed

Myth number two that growing your own is cheaper than buying vegetables.  As you can see from above that it is not cheap to make the soil good.  Fertilisers and mulches all cost money as does the buying of receptacles to make raised beds.   A cheap raised bed is an old plastic bath tub.  I found one of these in a street cleanup and it is a terrific bed.  I dont know how much they are in second hand material places.  I have heavy clay soil so I had to buy soil to fill the raised beds - this isn't cheap either but once you have it you can just keep topping it up with manures.

Punnets of seedlings are an added cost.  Lettuces cost about 45cents a seedling.  This is cheaper than buying one in the supermarket and you dont have to pull the whole thing up to have a salad.  Just pick the outside leaves.  Packets of lettuce seed are cheaper and with a packet of 150 - 250 seeds you can plan succession plantings.   That is growing new seedlings before the lettuces in your garden mature and go to seed.

You also need gardening tools and watering cans and hoses.  These only need to be bought once but the initial layout can be costly.

GROWING YOUR OWN though is not about saving money but about having the freshest vegetables when you need them.  Nothing nicer than going out to the garden and picking lemons, herbs, lettuce, and parsley for dinner or lunch.

PICTURE RAILS

When we moved down to the house in Wollongong we found that we didn't have anywhere to hang our pictures unless we banged holes in a lot of walls.  The previous house we lived in we put up picture rails to solve this problem.  So once more we had to find a reliable person to do the job.  We found him and four years later we decided we needed more and he has come to the rescue once again.

I don't understand why picture rails became unfashionable.  I think they are the perfect hanging solution.  You can double up pictures one under the other just by using longer wires. 

Prints on picture rail.  Pottery by Helen Dunkerley, Avital Sheffer, Peter Cooley and Gunda.

A long time ago I made a lot of pictures.  I made lino and woodblock prints as well as a lot of paintings.  I have now hung a lot of these up as well as my collection of pokerwork doiley holders which also make for a beautiful decoration.  I have included photos to show this.

Pokerwork doiley holders on wall.  Australiana collection in cabinet. Pokerwork vases on top of cabinet

In the glass cabinet above you will see my collection of Australian pottery souvenirs from the 1950's - 1960's.  Mine are mainly aboriginal motifs and Sydney Harbour Bridge motifs.

Cane chair and Pot stand

Cane whatnot.

Cane chair and pokerwork Pot stand.

Later on I will display my other collections.  So stay tuned.

THE WINTER GARDEN

Since the equinox the sun has been slowly climbing into the sky and the garden beds which have been laying dormant and in shadow are slowly being bathed in the new sunlight.

The winter garden has been productive.  I have had a good crop of snow peas, lettuce, spring onions, silverbeet, spinach,  coriander, carrots, beetroot, rocket and parsley.
The snow peas were very successful.  From a limited planting we have a quite a good crop - how delicious are these peas when freshly picked and eaten.

Spinach and Coriander

Last week the seeds arrived in the post from Diggers and along with these and the seeds from last season I look forward to the sowing and planting.

I have three varieties of cucumber.  A pickling variety called Parisian Pickling which are small and knobbly like the ones found in jars in delicatessens.  A Lebanese variety for general eating and an heirloom type called Mexican Sour Gherkin which is a micro sized climbing variety which is supposed to taste both sweet and sour.  The test on this one will be in the tasting.

Two types of lettuce.  A Baby Cos and another called Crispmint.  I hope I can succeed in a succession planting scheme.  I usually buy my lettuce seedling from the man at Wollongong Markets (Patio Plants).  His seedlings are very reliable and you can mix and match what you want.  I will buy my eggplant from him as I usually only need about three or four seedlings for our needs.

I will also be planting a different variety of beetroot called Cylindra which as the name implies is elongated  and good for closer spacing.

If I have room I also want to plant Scarlet Runner beans.  I haven't had great success with beans in the past so I will just try, try again.



In the winter garden the Persimmon is still asleep but will slowly awaken and put forth little buds.

Persimmon and Lavender

The Fuchsias are in bed with the Primulas and the Lobelia.

Primulas in bed with the Fuchsia

Lobelia in bed with the Fuchsia

The work of fertilizing and replenishing
beds will begin in earnest soon and I look forward to all the work.

Guava in wine barrel

Garden looking through Lemon tree

NICKI'S MEATBALLS

Here is another recipe which is easy to make and very versatile.  It can be eaten hot with mash potato or cold as a snack.

500gms of Pork and Veal mince
3/4 cup of breadcrumbs
1 egg
1 large onion grated
2 dessertspoons of oregano (dried)
Lots of parsley
1/2 cup of white vinegar
Pepper and salt to taste

Mix ingredients together and stand in the refrigerator for at least one hour.  This stops the mixture falling apart when being cooked as well as developing the flavours.

Ball up meatballs (I use a tablespoon to make even sized balls) and lightly dust with flour.

Shallow pan fry in a light oil until crisp on the outside.  Not too long.

Drain on paper.  I use a brown paper bag torn open and flattened out.

Eat and enjoy.

Auntie Flora's Chicken Soup

I like things to be simple.  I like even more that my chicken soup is simple.  This is a recipe for chicken soup given to me by my Auntie Flora who is 86 and going strong.  I use this recipe all the time for its simplicity and ease of cooking.  You see I am not a very good cook. 

Auntie Flora said that her mother gave her this recipe and her mother always told her not to add onions to the soup.  I don't add onions and I think that advice is just perfect.

Well here goes:  You require -

1kg of Chicken wings
2 Chicken frames
4 medium carrots (I grew mine)
4 sticks of celery
1 swede
1 parsnip
1 chicken stock cube
10 or 12 peppercorns
Salt to taste
Juice of one lemon
Chopped up parsley
Egg Noodles

Chop up all the vegetables to about the same size - about the vegetables you can use all of the above or use what you like.  Just make sure you include celery and carrot I sometimes include a turnip.

Put chopped vegetables in the bottom of a large pot (see photo).

Put in all the chicken on top of the vegetables.

Fill the pot with water until it covers all the ingredients.  Put the stock cube in and the peppercorns.

Bring the pot to the boil.  Skim off all the scum that rises during this process.  By skimming the pot you clarify the soup.  Putting the chicken on top of the vegetables makes this easier as you aren't rescuing too many veges from the skimmer.  Not only am I an ordinary cook I am also a lazy one.

Put about two dessertspoons of salt into pot.  This may sound a lot but you should have heaps of water in there to dilute it.  If you think this is too much just keep adding salt during the cooking process until it is at your desired level.

Simmer uncovered for at least an hour.

Now the fiddly part.   Let the soup cool for quite a while.  Fish out all the chicken and put the pieces in a bowl to cool further. 

When the chicken pieces are cool take all the meat from the bones and put back in the pot with the chicken broth.  I leave all the gristly bits off but I dont discard the skin.  I enjoy a bit of fat in my soup as I think it increases the flavour.

When you are ready to eat the soup bring the pot back to the boil and add the noodles.  Cook whatever type of noodle you are using for the time required on the packet.  I sometimes use tiny noodles which only take about 4 minutes to thicker noodle taking longer. 

I now add the lemon juice. 

Chicken cooking in large pot

Finished soup - delicious

Serve with chopped parsley sprinkled on top with a lovely bread and cheese.
 

Socrates Cafe - NOWRA

Went to Nowra yesterday for lunch.  Met a friend from Bateman's Bay (as you do).  We were supposed to dine at an Indian Restaurant Kohlis but unfortunately it was closed for lunch.  Lesson learned always check beforehand. 

Nevermind, we ended up at Socrates Cafe - 26 Berry Street - instead.  They have an extensive menu of wraps, salads, soup etc.  At one of the tables we saw this couple having a beautiful mezze plate.  We asked if they made it for 3 people and the man and woman eating theirs said that it is plenty of food for 3 and the waitress agreed.

I am only sorry I didn't take my camera with me to photograph the mezze plate it is quite beautiful.   Little bowls of taramasalata, hummus and garlicky yoghurt dip surrounded by black olives, vine leaves, grilled and pickled beans and zucchini, artichoke hearts, semi-dried tomatoes, pickled small stuffed eggplant halves, mushrooms, grilled haloumi, slices of ham and salami with lovely small triangles of Lebanese bread and bread slices which had been baked with olive oil (I think).  It really was enough for three and delicious.  It was quite salty but I didn't have a raging thirst afterwards.

I didn't drink the coffee so I cant tell you what it was like but the milkshake I shared with my husband was lovely (not too sweet) and served in a chilled milk shake container with two glasses.  My friend had water. 

The service was very friendly and laid back. 

I would recommend this cafe.  Friday nights also look good with different treats liked grilled octopus.  I only wish they were nearer to Wollongong.