Wednesday, June 25, 2008 - My new blog
Saturday, June 21, 2008 - I Remember Laura ~ Books & Music
Week four will be about sharing books and music. Laura had a great love of books and music. Books were a rare treat in Laura's young life and she devoured them when she could get them. Music was a part of her every day life be it Ma humming as she worked, Pa's fiddle playing in the evenings, the family singing together, or Mary's organ music. What songs and books are special to you. Do you have a favorite memory that you associate with a book or song? Link up this week and share it. Also, tell why you love the Little House books and any memories you have associated with them.
I am going to start with the music in my life as a girl. At eight I learnt to play piano for a few years. I think the piano was going cheap in the next village to ours. I lived on a farm then. Every week my Mum drove me about 16 miles to go to my lessons. After I started High School I was able to get off the bus there. Mum brought along a snack for me after the lessons finished. My uncle gave me a guitar to use, a very nice one and I was able to get lessons at the next village I mentioned. I still have all my music books. Our house had an old grammophone and sometimes I played it. Sometimes I hear music that reminds me of those heavy records. Sometimes we played, the children I played with, an organ that was in a church that wasn't used. Eventually the church was decommissioned.
My uncle taught dancing in our village. He taught various styles.
When I got married, just before this I had bought a pedal organ and it was the first piece of furniture I bought for our new life together. My husband's family have one as well. My Nana had a keyboard that I played when I was a girl. Also a piano. She loved to play A Bicycle Built for Two. My Grandpa liked to whistle along to any songs I played on the organ/keyboard. He actually played mouth organ and I think fiddle. My Nana's parents liked to play piano, both enjoyed entertaining people at dances I think.
After the organ, my husband and I bought a piano. It turned out not to be a good one, so we tried again. The children also received a modern keyboard for Christmas. At the moment there are no piano lessons available here, but my 11 year old daughter is learning clarinet and she really enjoys it. She plays in the Junior School Band.
After my Dad died recently I was contacted by a childhood friend. I remembered how much fun she and her sisters had playing a detailed version of chopsticks and things like that. They had a guitar and button accordion at their home that I used to visit. I also at one time had a Jews Harp.
I think the most fun we had with music a few years ago was related to ballet. The first concert my eldest daughters were involved in included Morning Mood. My husband happened to have that music in our house. I love ballet music.
There are more music memories than I imagined. My eldest son learnt piano for awhile. When the lessons got hard to manage moneywise I let it drop. I vowed never to do that again. So when my second one started I continued on for many years. When he was 12 he got a very high mark in an exam in Melbourne. Prior to this before we moved there, (to the outskirts of Melbourne in the country) he was involved in an Anglican choir. He was either at practise or church three days a week. He didn't enjoy piano in the end, which was sad for me. My eldest daughter learnt piano, clarinet and even though she doesn't learn at the moment she will often play the piano when she feels like it.
I must mention my step-son as well. He learnt the snare drum and played in the Highland band, and also learnt to sing at the choir. This was also something that I organised.
My husband learnt a lot of hymns when he was young and has a good singing voice. He still likes 60s music but I must say I am just about over Queen. It is funny though, that song was worked into a dance performance too. It was Red Riding Hood and there were a lot of boy dancers who were the wolves, so this was the song they came in on. My daughter was on the stage as a ballerina, and the boys were suppose to ruin their dance. Then the girls went into rap, and my daughter did the worm in her tutu. I was very happy lately at her gym class witnessing her skill doing this, she is still very good at it. So dance flowed on to gym.
My husband also has a trumpet and our second son also was very good at playing those sorts of instruments.
We didn't have a CD player in the car until mid 2004, and I thought I didn't need one, but it is a great joy to me, especially since I sometimes have to drive reasonably long distances. Well actually regularly 50 minutes and other times 1 1/2 hours, occasionally over 2 hours. Also to our new house. I like country music if I can get some that is not too non-child friendly. Some of the music reminds me of the dance music that I danced to as a teenager as the country had a lot of old time dances that all ages attended, it also included New Years Eve dances etc. Lee Kernaghan in particular is good for this. I couldn't believe when I watched CMC Rocks the Snowys in some ways how much good dance music seems to go to waste.
My Dad liked country music, but I haven't remembered which songs yet, usually I know when I hear them.
The Laura Ingalls Wilder books are very calming, that is why I read them. These have led on to reading Janette Oke and recently made me aware that I love all kinds of authors in the Historical Christian fiction genre. It has also opened up the Janette Oke movies to me through the internet and great libraries.
I haven't read the two outside books, but the Lauraine Snelling books are excellent. I still love hearing about Dakota.
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Wednesday, June 18, 2008 - Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - June 2008
May Dreams Gardens is the host of Garden Blogger's Bloom Day. It is a little past the 15th June, but I have taken some photos of my garden this week and I would love to join in. Of course, I apologise that my flowers are a little out of synch with North America. It is the first month of winter in Australia.
I have posted some of these photos before, but next month I will be more organised.
These are probably nearly finished now. They are nerines.
A little over a week ago I visited the house we are renovating and these flowers were still out. They are pineapple sage.
Back here again, I love what dh did with this rock, and the French lavenders are amazingly flowering in the winter.
The roses are basically finished, but I love the way they are facing the sun. They are Apricot Nectar.
I also have an Iceland Poppy I think they are called, also a white one.
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Sunday, June 15, 2008 - I Remember Laura ~ Family Recipes
Week three will be sharing family recipes that have been handed down from generation to generation. Laura told of the varied meals, special sweets, and holiday fare that Pa provided and Ma so lovingly prepared in all the locations where they lived. Almanzo even shared in good fresh farm food fare in Farmer Boy. Did your grandmother make the best fresh apple cake? Did your aunt make melt in your mouth molasses crinkle cookies? Mine did! Perhaps you will begin the tradition of handing down a current family favorite, share it! This week you can link up to share your family recipes and tell us a story of where and how they were served and why this particular recipe means so much to you.
Nana's Pumpkin Bars
Cream 4oz butter and 1 cup sugar add 1 beaten egg, then 1/2 cup cold mashed pumpkin. Sift in 1 1/2 cups plain flour, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teas. ginger. 1/2 teas allspice, 1/2 teas carb soda and pinch salt then 1/2 cup chopped dates and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts mix well. Spread in flat tin. Bake in moderate oven for 30 minutes.
The recipe is before metric came in. I went to school and learnt imperial then metric came in and I remember my Nana discussing it after buying milk I think at the shop. She was discussing it with the lady she worked for. I think the question they posed was how could you buy a pint of milk. Is that the size it came in, anyway, whatever they usually ask for obviously changed.
I like recipes that are not metric. My Nana I think told me how to cut up a lb. of butter to bake with. I know what 4oz of butter looks like. Butter now is like 1/2lb in Australia, not the full square like it used to be. She lived in a village sized town and bought her butter from the shop. I am pretty sure we had ours delivered. Usually they came with a brown paper bag around them to keep them clean.
Recently my husband came home from the grocery shop with his groceries in his hands. Nana did this too, with smaller amounts. Of course you don't get nice bags for your cold things now. Maybe he should have popped something into a plastic fruit bag. Our supermarket has banned plastic shopping bags, and he doesn't know how to get a box. I said you have to look on the back wall where you came in to see if there are any boxes left before you buy anything. They mostly have something as their system has had the bugs taken out of it I hope by now.
Another thing you will notice about the recipe is bicarb or carb soda. That is what we call Baking Soda. These days the American way of saying the same thing is often printed on the package with the traditional Australian name.
Pumpkin is a favourite in Australia. My daughter was playing Home Among The Gum Trees on Youtube a couple of days ago. Her class is dressing up and singing it today.
by W. Johnson and B. Brown
I've been around the world a couple of time, or maybe more,
I've seen the sights, I've had delights on ev'ery foreign shore,
But when my friends all ask me the place that I adore,
I tell them right away.
Give me a home among the gum trees
With lots of plum trees, a sheep or two, a kangaroo.
A clothesline out the back, verandah out the front
And an old rocking chair.
You can see me in the kitchen cooking up a roast,
Or vegemite on toast, just you and me, a cup of tea.
Later on, we'll settle down and mull up on the porch
And watch the possums play.
Give me a home among the gum trees.
With lots of plum trees, a sheep or two, a kangaroo.
A clothesline out the back, verandah out the front
And an old rocking chair.
There's a Safeway on the corner and a Woolworths down the street,
A New World's just been opened where they regulate the heat,
But I'd trade them all tomorrow for the simple bush retreat
Where the kookaburras call.
Give me a home among the gum trees.
With lots of plum trees, a sheep or two, a kangaroo.
A clothesline out the back, verandah out the front
And an old rocking chair.
Some people like their houses with fences all around,
Others live in mansions, and some beneath the ground,
But me, I like the bush, you know, with rabbits running round
And a pumpkin vine out the back.
Give me a home among the gum trees.
With lots of plum trees, a sheep or two, a kangaroo.
A clothesline out the back, verandah out the front
And an old rocking chair.
We boil our pumpkin or roast it with our roast meat. I have only had one can of pumpkin.
I made Nana's pumpkin bars, and also tried American Colonial bars. I think I improved on Nana's recipe a little. It seems like we both shared a love for collecting American recipes. Australian cakes like that would be called a slice. Nana's collected a lot of slice recipes. She always had cake to take with her on the train. She went every week during football season to watch the games in the city. Her cake was put into an icecream container in pieces so it didn't have to be cut.
I bought some American pumpkin pie spice from www.usafoods.com.au that was a treat for me. Such a tiny canister.
I think the favourites from Laura's books where what Caroline served Nellie for the visit, and also the candy made in the snow.
The most special thing I think I remember Nana making were sponge lillies.
Nana bought walnuts in their shells. She cracked them with a hammer on newspaper. I helped sometimes and put them in a jar I think. Walnuts were a special feature of my growing up. The cockatoos had to be scared away from the trees on the neighbour's farm. We had a non-working walnut orchard that my Great Grandma planted. I love walnut trees. We planted one at our hometown where I lived after leaving my childhood farm. It wasn't the same climate and it died. I am planning an orchard now and live in a cool climate so should buy one soon.
I have been thinking about simple living. My kind of simple living is not so much decreasing income or asking my husband to take a less stressful job, it is having those things like the pumpkin vine , at the moment living a long way from Safeway, does anyone remember when Coles was called New World?
Please click on the picture to be taken to Quill Cottage.
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Monday, June 9, 2008 - I Remember Laura ~ Beautiful Buttons
This week we will be sharing button collections, button identification and care, as well as button stories. Did you have a favorite dress with special buttons? Did you play in your grandmothers button box? There are many descriptions of the buttons used on clothing in the Little House books, from the plain and serviceable ones for the work shirts Laura made button holes for, the bright and beautiful like the ones that looked like berries on Ma's dress that she wore to the sugaring off party, to the fabric covered ones for Laura's best brown dress. Tell us about your button tales!
I came to read Laura's books after watching the TV show. I was a little girl myself at the time. My Mum bought the books for me. When I started ebaying I bought them again. Also when I was 39 we rented a farmhouse for a year an hour out of Melbourne. It was in a very natural place and I had a 1 year old to look after during the day. I ordered books about Laura from the library in Bundoora. I am pretty sure, I was able to read all about Rose and some of the Caroline series there. I recently was able to finish the last in the Caroline series. I plan on reading more about Charlotte, Caroline's Mom & Martha her Grandmother. I bought for myself the book of Laura's lost years.
This is from Little City by the Lake p220 about Caroline's dress.
"Oh I do like this lavender silk," Aunt Jane said, draping some over Caroline's shoulder.
Caroline liked it too. She knew her friends' ball dresses would be made out of silk or satin, but something took hold of Caroline, and she found herself trying to see the choices as her mother would see them. A dress made by a dressmaker was a special gift. Caroline knew it would have to last her a long time, long after she left Milwaukee with its sophisiticated Winter Ball. She knew she needed a dress that would wear well, no matter what the occasion, no matter where she might be.
"What about this?" she asked, reaching for a bolt Mr. Schmidt had just brought down from the shelves.
"Oh, the delaine," Mr. Schmidt said, unfurling a swath of deep shimmery green. "It is a muslin. Very popular back east. Very fashionable and light."
Caroline took the material between her fingers. It was light, but it felt durable too. And it shimmered magnificiently when she turned it this way and that. Over the deep green, there was a faint pattern of red, like tiny strawberries..."
We keep our buttons in baby food jars sorted into colors. I don't often or haven't for years bought any buttons. I have bought a new machine, but I don't sew, that is not to say I can't. I have been doing some hand stitching.
We do have a very small collection of army buttons.
I have been admiring some retro buttons everytime I go to the collectibles shop. I go there to browse mostly. I did buy a Anne of Green Gables book and some replacement canisters, old potato bags and probably some other things.
I remember the shop that my Mum used to buy things from when we lived on the farm. It was a corner shop in the middle of the middle sized town if that makes sense. You could walk through the corner section as there was a display case out on the street. The sewing section was very nice. I was disappointed when another large shop in that town was turned into smaller independent shops and the material was taken away.
My favourite retro buttons are the clear ones.
When I was about 11 to 13 I think, my Mum helped me learn how to make button loops from cotton and thread. I quite like button loops. Maybe I learnt it at school as well. We had to do three years of sewing. I wish the girls had the same opportunity. At the school we were at before we moved here four years ago, even our son learnt sewing. He made a button doll. I love it.
There were private school holiday sewing classes when we came here. The girls made a cushion each and the buttons were glued on. My Mum made the girls some wheat bags with button detail, but sewn on lol. The stitchery said "Life is Special" and the buttons are red on calico.
Please visit Quill Cottage to read more about buttons.
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Sunday, June 8, 2008 - Booking Through Thursday ~ June 5
Have your book-tastes changed over the years? More fiction? Less? Books that are darker and more serious? Lighter and more frivolous? Challenging? Easy? How-to books over novels? Mysteries over Romance?
It has been interesting pondering the answers to these questions.
More fiction? Definitely.
Darker and more serious? No I hope not. Not darker. More serious maybe, I tend to like survival books in a historical sense.
Lighter and more frivolous? Not into jokes, light and airy maybe.
Challenging? Probably not.
Easy? Usually reasonably thick.
How to books over novels? No, did that ages ago. I have found my novel niche at least for the moment and am enjoying it.
Mysteries over romance?, no but did read a few mysteries.
As a child there were Laura Ingalls Wilder books and Raggedy Ann books, I also remember reading Enid Blyton. Also my favourite was Black Beauty and the Flicker book. In Black Beauty I could relate to the details about the horses etc. As a teenager, I remember reading lots of books about WWII. Then my most embarassing depending who you talk to, books like the one about Azusa Street, Corrie Ten Boom etc. In the meantime we had moved house, and my reading material reflected this as I then lived near a Christian bookshop.
Once I got internet and found ebay I bought again my LIW books and read them over and again. Then moved on to Janette Oke through reading forums and their suggestions. As most people know I love Historical Christian Fiction, Tracie Peterson, Maria Wilkes, Wanda Brunstetter.
In the 20 years in between, I am not sure. I remember when I first had children I read Penelope Leitch. I think if I did it again I wouldn't follow everyone's suggestions so closely. Also lots and lots of baby name books. I remember getting a little booklet about family trees, and that started me off on many hours research and writing letter etc.
I did buy some decorating and gardening books in hardback.
Apart from that I was very into cookbooks at that time. My husband had a collection of old preserving books that I read as well.
When I boarded with a family I read their daughter's Mills & Boom, maybe two, I can't really remember much about it. With another family I read about Kampuchea. |
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Saturday, June 7, 2008 - Sky Watch Friday ~ June 13
Tuesday, June 3, 2008 - Blog Review
Wednesday, May 28, 2008 - Quilting ~ I Remember Laura Blog-a-Thon
Week one will be featuring quilts or quilting. Laura and her sister Mary were started in the needle arts at very young ages and were required to work on quilt squares, working them into the nine patch pattern. Using Mr. Linky you can share your quilts or quilt related items and tell your quilt stories. Do you or someone in your family quilt? Perhaps your quilt is not hand made but special none-the-less, share it with us!
I sometimes struggle with the blog-a-thon posts. I have still four children at home, so not able to do what perhaps others my age do at this time in life. However, I did find some things to post about quilting. To start with I have a vague memory of visiting my school friend when I was 13. The farm house had a large lounge with a corner that my friend could sew in while the parents enjoyed the TV and the open fireplace and old fashioned clock on the mantle. There were pieces of cardboard involved. Which brings me to a related subject. My favourite quilt is Grandmother's Garden.
On to when I was 21 when we were married my husband's sister gave us a quilt rack made of Jarrah. I didn't know it was a quilt rack until many years later until my Mum mentioned it to me. We were discussing styling our first house for sale. Jarrah is a special Australian wood.
I have enjoyed quilting novels in the past year like The Quilter's Apprentice by Jennifer Chiaverini and the Benni Harper mysteries by Earlene Fowler. Also the Daughters of Lancaster County by Wanda Brunstetter. I seem to think the least scary of these was The Quilter's Apprentice even though it wasn't a Christian book, though I could be wrong as it read it first.
There are some Australian quilts called Wagga quilts.
One of the reasons I had difficulty with this post as I have been trying to find quickly (which doesn't usually work does it?) references to sewing and in particular quilting in the books by Maria Wilkes and Celia Wilkins about Laura's mother Caroline. I remember Caroline doing a sampler, but seem to also think there was a part where she was given buttons or material squares for a gift. Maybe someone else remembers more detail.
My Mum made three blankets, one a basic quilt, but the other two backed embroidered cot blanket like this for my daughters when they were babies. My eldest daughter was fond of Raggedy Ann, so my Mum encouraged me to buy a similar sized quilt from the craft shop, a homemade Raggedy Ann quilt.
Please check Quill Cottage for more about quilts.
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Wednesday, May 28, 2008 - I Remember Laura Blog-A-Thon
Wednesday, May 28, 2008 - Tag You're It!
Bel from Belinda Moore has tagged me. Wow, my first one. Thank you Bel.
The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
Each player answers the questions about themselves.
At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.
Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.
a) What was I doing 10 years ago?
Ten years ago I was living in our first house. I lived in that house 16 years altogether and was at year 14 or so. I had a one year old baby girl, plus her four year old sister, her seven year old brother and her ten year old brother, and their Dad of course lived there. Not sure what hubby was doing at work, he had been to the US in that year, so we were into corporate things I guess. I was doing the kindergarten run three times a week. We didn't live right near the school so I had to drive through the freeway traffic on the main street to get there with lights etc. I'll have to break out the photo album.
That year our four year old daughter was doing tap dancing classes. I remember there was lots of supervision involved to get here there etc. There were lots of photos of the kids playing in the leaves and in the sandpit. Pumpkin Patch was a new thing, and I remember getting my four year old lots of clothes. We had just renovated the lounge room with all these colors! Then a few months later got new carpet. Easter must have been late, and our four year old had an Easter bonnet parade at kindergarten.
b) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today:
Today is my off week for jobs. I think I will put away some dry clothes that are in front of the fire. Later on I will take and pick up our 11 year old daughter from ballet. I will start getting things ready for when hubby comes home for lunch. I will try to keep a better eye on the wood heater than I have in the last few days. I will make sure my book gets back to the library and check out what we are having for tea. Also will check on my forum to make sure it is going OK. I will deal with the mail and pick up our six year old and her sister from school.
c) Snacks I enjoy:
I haven't had much luck with afternoon snacks lately. I have a bag of mixed nuts and dried fruit and usually put some in a bowl and slowly eat them. I have half a block of chocolate that I will get through in the next few days. I love a good scone too, but that doesn't happen very often.
d) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
I really don't know, I can't say I think about it. I guess you have to start with what would happen if the money just appeared today. I would pay out our two mortgages and organise a plumber to plumb both of them to the storm water system. That is not thinking big is it? I would put lino on this kitchen floor and a new hot water service as it will soon flood the ceiling. Then I would buy another car that is new with LPG if there is such a thing to replace hubby's car, though it is fine really. A smaller engine car that goes a long way on a smell of an oily rag. Then I guess I would put some superannuation away for me, more for hubby.
We haven't travelled overseas together, so I guess that would be great, maybe I would have to try a shorter flight than Europe or America first. Put some money aside for our three daughters weddings, of course that is a little premature. Same with their education. I would look into putting headstones on two of our ancestors (past and closer) graves. I would get quite a few pair of new shoes and clothes and some furniture, like a bed that actually goes with the mattress, nice kitchen table and couches. This is very telling, if I sold the houses, where would I live? Would hubby want to retire? Maybe we would live where he could do further study or in a great house that has grounds that we could garden in with nice trees, or a house on a few acres near a creek, but I would still have the snake problem wouldn't I? I think I would buy a nice horse. How does all this fit in with the day to day of looking after our four children at home? Sounds very hectic. Maybe hubby could take two years off.
Maybe we could put aside some money to publish hubby's family tree. I would want to work out a fair way for my step-children to receive an inheritance from their father. I would like to go out more at night, maybe if I lived near Mum she would babysit, either that or we would just go to the pub with the kids and also eat more pizza. I would pay my son's first two years HECS bill. I think I would get a pure bred Siamese cat.
I would take a couple of short flights to Melbourne to save driving and go to a tearoom with my online friend who I haven't met in person. I could fly to Sydney and take the kids to Taronga Zoo.
I was thinking of buying property because I like managing or developing property. With the kids I thought it would be a bit hard. DH reckons the interest on a billion dollars would pay the house payments and you could even hire an accountant nearly full time. So I guess I would buy the best looking farm I could, instal a manager and visit whenever I wanted to see farm life or just walk around. I would buy a house to fix up for the fun of it, well maybe the challenge.
e) Places I have lived:
Five places in North East Victoria including a farm and suburban styled living. Also Flowerdale near Melbourne in a rented farmhouse. Flowerdale is a very unusual place, lots of trees, a creek, lots of birds, little TV and mobile phones, though I can't remember the details, also wood heating. I also lived a couple of months in Melbourne.
And who am I tagging?
Monica AU
quiverfullacres
Monica
Linda
Debby
Tania
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Friday, May 23, 2008 - Sincerely Fro' Me To You ~ May 22
This is from December 2005. I was very excited to see this flower. I had ordered it on the net. The special thing about it is that coreopsis are usually yellow.
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Friday, May 23, 2008 - Monday Musings ~ 4
"The army makes a man hard sometimes. I remember a young girl no more than ten who gave me a glass of buttermilk just outside of Chancellorsville. I still remember that. I guess that's all my life is. Some pictures fading out behind me, and there's not much before me."
From the back of Jacob's Way by Gilbert Morris. I have no idea what the quote means I haven't read the book yet, but I don't like memories fading out behind, it certainly makes things harder.
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Friday, May 23, 2008 - Vintage Thingies Thursday ~ May 22
These are my vintage Laura Ingalls Wilder books. They are not the original ones my Mum bought me after watching the TV show in the 1970s. After we moved when I was 14, they were given away, Mum gave them to younger kids.
In 2003 I bought these on ebay. They have been read often, and sometimes need a peg to achieve that. I would love to get some new ones, but love these ones as well. I had many peaceful hours reading these at the farmhouse when my youngest was one. It was a lovely place with spacious rooms and great views. Though the house itself was showing some vintage wear and tear.
They are really a treasured possession. I love how sometimes you get an ex-library book from far flung places.
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Friday, May 16, 2008 - Dogs On Thursday ~ May 15
Our dog had a lovely day yesterday. He has a large kennel that he used to share with our previous dog, both GSP. We have trouble buying straw for it since we moved here 4 years ago. Usually when I go to the highway to pick up ds I buy straw, because the shop is very similar to the store in our hometown where we used to buy straw. You know a shed high off the ground with a ramp out the front, been there for years.
Yesterday we had organised that it was "straw or bust day". DH was to buy the straw after his work. He usually stays behind to catch up, but went out looking for straw. Just before this I was driving to school and saw some outside the shop in a large square. DH drove along just after that. He brought it home, but really it was lucerne hay I think.
The overnight temps are quite cool, he really needed his straw. When dh came home later, he put in the straw and "dog" jumped out and ran around him, excited.
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Thursday, May 15, 2008 - Vintage Thingies Thursday ~ China ~ May 15
Now please don't laugh at our attempt at making kolaches. We are Australian and don't know what a good kolache looks like! They were very yummy though. Very filling and good for a large family. This is the recipe we used with the pineapple filling.
My vintage item is a dinner set I collected little by little from ebay. I started with bowls (pictured a week or so ago) that I found at an op-shop. My Nana had the same design, it is Johnson Australia. It also comes in pink and blue. I love running a knife around the edge. My Nana had the colours in the side plates.
I also have yellow tea cups, and I enjoy seeing them in the cupboard.
I have lots of these, the only complaint is that postage makes it difficult buying them on ebay, but I was happy to pay it. I have been using it for nearly five years and used the bowls before that. We use the large bowls nearly every night for pasta and soup etc.
Please click on the top picture to see other vintage items.
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Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - Sincerely 'Fro Me to You
This photo is from April 2005. It is a bush hut. It is in the highest place in Australia. We were driving around as a family looking at the bushfire damage and the regrowth. It also reminds me of the first days of my blog.
For more 'Fro Me To You entries click the first picture.
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Saturday, May 10, 2008 - J is for Jonquil
Saturday, May 10, 2008 - Vintage Thingies Thursdays
I thought it would be fun to participate in the Vintage Thingies Thursday at An Apron A Day. I'm showing you some of the vintage prams I have on the front verandah. These were amazingly collected at the local tip. Some need a little fixing up in places. I have three daughters so they appealed. I vaguely remember my Mum's friends' kids playing on verandahs when I was little. Especially great when it is raining.
See other entries for this week here. |
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Saturday, May 10, 2008 - Pineapple Sage
This photo was taken very recently. It is autumn here. It will be winter in June. The pineapple sage is growing in a fairly large pot, but probably has roots growing into the ground underneath. Pineapple sage does get cut by the frost, so it would have been nice if we had put the pot under the privet down the fence a little as it doesn't lose its leaves. It seems to flower when there is not much around after the easter daisies. This is the garden at our new house and it looks very wintery there, so dh and I think we should have some pineapple sage around the front next year to brighten things up a little. DH bought pineapple sage on October 8, 2005. Originally we had another plant at our first home.
I have researched pineapple sage before and loved this picture. The link includes a pound cake recipe.
Birds like this plant as well.
We have the plant under water from an automatic watering system. We had to do this because we are only allowed to water at times when we are not there.
You rub your fingers on the leaves and they smell like pineapple. Here is a tea video I found on Youtube. It is a great place to see Australian Self-suffienciency at work.
This week's host for Weekend Herb Blogging (after the 11th?) is Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska.
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Sunday, May 4, 2008 - More Country Music
Sunday, May 4, 2008 - My Country Music Picks
Friday, May 2, 2008 - More zoo pics
Nearly three weeks ago we took the kids to the zoo. dd6 had never been to a proper zoo. Here are some pics.
I especially liked the trees in this zoo, and went on to buy some robinia tubes from ebay.
The zoo also has an aquarium, and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.
I also liked how close the animals where.
This zoo I haven't been to before, so it was a nice change.
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Monday, April 28, 2008 - Where I am up to in the world of craft
Garden Goose: Week 5 ~ Farmgirl Blog-a-thon Getting Crafty
At the moment I am possibly a bit of a craft hasbeen. I learnt to crochet at about the age of 8. My Nana taught me when we went to her house for tea with my family each Sunday. I learnt to spin carded wool next at the age of 13. I was still spinning when I was 20. It was my uncle's carder, Mum's spinning wheel. I used to spin in Mum's sunroom listening to the radio I think. At around the same time I made a blanket crocheting on the school bus.
I learnt to knit after I was married and knitted for my husband and myself, my step-children, then baby clothes. I was given my Mum's sewing machine. I had had many sewing lessons at school between the ages of 11 and 14. I made many things, but the machine beat me I think.
We got a new machine over a year ago. I still can't thread it, but have had a recent attempt to do that. I have though been hand sewing again, and have taken up a couple of hems. A few years ago I took part in a bookmark swap. After that I got reading glasses and haven't tried to crochet recently.
I remember once I made a lovely aran jumper from 5ply for my eldest when he was 1 year old, so I liked trying out new stitches.
I have fond memories of visiting a school friend when I was 13 and watching her make patchwork, Grandmothers Garden.
Why don't I knit? I had been very busy with having 5 children and once or twice got visited with moths while I was very busy with a baby. I decided I couldn't manage woollen clothes. I remember once visiting a wool shop and the lady said that not many people buy wool for babies clothes anyway, so maybe I should only use cotton or acrylic, things that are easy to wash. Maybe it is the expense?
I have collected pinecones recently. My favourite are the wooden roses.
When I was about 16 I got very involved with cake decorating. We had moved from the farm and our landlady was an excellent cake decorator and she spent the time to teach me the basics. I loved buying little bits and pieces to make cakes. I collected this tin, I don't even know what it is for. Very recently I got a heart shaped tin from the op-shop, I was very happy about that. Even got some of those flexible heart shaped muffin trays a couple of years ago.
My uncle loved to collect wax. I remember him putting pressed flowers onto candles, I think we did it together. My husband and I have also pressed flowers we grew in the garden.
I was very interested to read a book of craft in Australia what women at home had made and wish to visit Pioneer Women's Hut.
I honestly think I can't go back to crafting more than a tiny bit until my children are grown up more. I have had three step-children and five children and need the little breaks etc. It is very hard to explain.
I did a little scrapbook for my eldest when he was a baby, put a very detailed family tree in it. This was before I knew it was called scrapbooking. I wouldn't go back to it I don't think.
We did once stencil our entire lounge room floor! Well at least around the edges.
I think I would have to say crochet is my favourite.
I have a box or two of special material that my husband and his work mates printed with he worked in a material factory.
To share with other farm girls and to learn about the Farm Girl way of life visit: http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/ |
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Friday, May 12, 2006 - Friday Feast
Appetizer
Name your favorite flowers.
Buddlieas. Winter buddlieas. Wintersweet. Lilies.
Soup
Pick one of these soups from the menu- Broccoli and Cheese, Chicken Noodle, Tomato, Lobster Bisque, Vegetable Beef, Gazpatcho, Chilled Pumpkin and Squash Soup, Split Pea, or New England Clam Chowder.
Vegetable Beef.
Salad
What are your favorite musical instruments?
Piano.
Main Course
Your hubby has just brought home tickets to an all expense paid weekend for you. Would you prefer:
A quiet B&B at the seashore
A quiet mountain retreat with lake nearby
A full spa with mud baths, steam rooms, and deluxe pampering protocols
A weekend doing NOTHING around the home.
?
Dessert
What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Chocolate.
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Wednesday, May 3, 2006 - Ten on Tuesday
- Soup or salad? Soup.
- Whistle or Hum? Hum
- Plane or train? The last one I went on was a plane.
- Scuba dive or sky dive? Scuba.
- Spiderman or Superman? Superman.
- Quilt or down comforter? Down comforter.
- Yellow or orange? Yellow.
- Coffee or tea? Tea.
- Goats or sheep? Sheep, but I love kids and goats.
- Plaid or solid? Plaid is not a word Australians use. I prefer solid.
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Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - Ten on Tuesday
Here's your Ten on Tuesday- pick from the list which one you believe you are.
Who or which do you resemble or identify with more- just pick one:
Anne of Green Gables or Laura Ingalls Wilder? Laura Ingalls Wilder
polka dot or stripe? polka dot
Green or Blue? green
Ocean or Mountain? mountain
art or music? music
dog or cat? dog
Sarah, Plain and Tall or Anne Elliot? I don't know Anne Elliot
scrambled or fried egg? fried
turkey or chicken? chicken
Winnie the Pooh, Owl, Piglet, Tigger, or Eeyore? Rabbit. |
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Saturday, April 15, 2006 - Spectroscope
Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - Ten on Tuesday
Name your ten favourite smells in no particular order.
1. Wintersweet the flowering tree.
2. Daphne
3. Hot keylime pie made with pastry instead of crackers
4. Hay
5. Freshly dug soil particularly silt
6. Old Spice
7. LadyPoet's fresh bread
8. The mustard I put on my sandwich today
9. Jonquils
10. Wattle |
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Monday, April 10, 2006 - Alpine Diesel
Sunday, April 9, 2006 - Seachange
"Seachange.
Contrary to popular usage, the expression actually means permanent, irreversible change made by the sea. It comes from Shakespeare's The Tempest when Ariel sings: Full fathom five thy father lies;/Of his bones are coral made;/Those are pearls that were his eyes:/Nothing of him that doth fade/But doth suffer a sea-change/Into something rich and strange.
Ariel is playing on Ferdinand's fear that his father has drowned in the shipwreck and that his body is being permanently changed by the sea. "Rich and strange" is a creative way to put it because, let's face it, if he had drowned there would soon be nothing left.
The popular use of seachange is quite different, particularly in Australia, thanks to the ABC series. It now has almost entirely positive connotations of a change to a better life, usually out of the city.
Why this little etymological excursion? Well, because we have just done it. Seachanged. We have joined the small band of urban professionals who decide to quit the city for the quiet rolling hills and peaceful country life...
There is certainly a lot to recommend the place, in addition to the rolling green hills.
It isn't very far from the city, for example. Rather than opting for a real seachange and becoming part of what Bernard Salt has called the third Australian culture - those who live neither in the bush or capitals, but on the coast - we have opted for "country change". A subset of sea changers, country changers join rural communities within "commuting" distance of the city. I say "commuting", because a real estate agent's easy hour or two drive means leaving for work at 6am and coming home at 8 or 9pm. The children are having trouble recognising their father and I am sure the school thinks he is a figment of my imagination.
That, of course, will change when he starts workingpart-time. As I was saying, there are advantages to country change and being able to both work part-time is one of them. As an anecdotal follow-up to my column on the impossibility of finding part-time work as a lawyer, I have discovered that, in rural areas, where professionals are in shorter supply, it is markedly easier. I had the unprecedented experience of having some bargaining power in job interviews.
Life for the children is gorgeous. They have vast amounts of play space and wallabies to greet every morning. They have moved from a huge city school of 570 children to a tiny country school of 25. There are only 12 children in their class, a luxury we would not be able to secure them in even the most elite private school..."
Source: www.theage.com.au |
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Saturday, April 8, 2006 - Friday Feast
Cool questions.
Appetizer
Name a trait you share with your parents or your children.
My father is quiet and reserved. My eldest son and I share that trait. That is the most noticeable thing at the moment.
Soup
List 3 qualities of a good leader, in your opinion.
Keeping up with what is really going on, not what they think is going on.
Salad
Who is your favorite television chef?
Jamie Oliver, Two Fat Ladies, My daughter says Planet Cook, she is 4.
Main Course
What is your favorite season? Name 2 things you love about it.
Autumn, spring is too busy in Australia with kids.
Dessert
How do you react under pressure?
I stay calm but may retreat a bit.
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Thursday, March 30, 2006 - A poem
When they took away the school house
wisteria straddling the verandah
fell, its back broken
showering blue petals and bees
into hydrangeas acidic with tea leaves
teachers' wives had thrown there
since 1851.
It took a front end loader,
two trucks, a day
and four smokoes
to break the house in three
and haul bloodwood slabs
and corrugated iron away.
When the cortege passed
rooms where children had lain
(scraped knees or headache eased
by aspirin and blowfly hum;
clean knickers handed out,
hollow teeth painted with clove oil)
were exposed; shadowy
corners sliced as if by the Blitz.
French doors flapped.
The chalk dust ghost
realising dispossession
sought to haunt
stone steps leading up
to nothing.
The whiskered lemon tree
with nowhere to hide
wept little green fruit
bitterly, took a
detention, forgot its lunch
stood outside
for the rest of the century.
From:
http://www.quadrant.org.au/php/article_view.php?article_id=806
Cactus flower graphics. |
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Monday, March 27, 2006 - Crochet in Australia
Sunday, March 26, 2006 - A nice story about Frontier House & food additives
Frontier House was aired in Australia in 2003. I watched it while we were renting a farmhouse.
This comes from:
http://www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info/newsletters/FAILsaf39.htm
"Pioneer Week (September 2003)
During the holidays we had been watching American settler re-enactments on TV and my eldest daughter said 'we could do that easily'. So we decided to do our own pioneer re-enactment in the week before school went back.
As we live on a family farm, we still had a lot of pioneer stuff about so perhaps we were able to go about it in greater detail than most.
A day's program was: get up at 6.30 am, collect wood and start a fire outside to cook on. Cart water from the rainwater tap to a basin in the bathroom for washing hands and self (with Velvet soap only). Another bucket of water for tea and cooking was carried into the house. While the kids fed the chooks and geese, I cooked scones in a camp oven and boiled the billy. Once the scones were cooked, I dropped eggs in the camp oven to cook in the remaining heat. We used homemade butter and golden syrup on the scones and salt on eggs, because pioneers didn't use flavourings such as pepper, herbs or tomato sauce. After breakfast we washed up with Velvet soap (rinsing well), first dishes, then face and hands. Teeth were brushed with an index finger dipped in seasalt.
During the day we hand-sewed place mats from bread flour bags with cotton from the tops of rolled oat sacks and embroidered them. We spent one whole day washing clothes and sheets with Velvet soap and Lux flakes in a copper heated by a fire outside, hand wrung and hung on a rope line between trees.
We also baked biscuits in the camp oven from a family recipe given to my Grandmother. She would be 110 now if she was still alive.
Mrs. Cattle Biscuits: 8oz SR flour, 1 egg, 4oz sugar, 3oz butter. Mix all ingredients and shape into small balls, put onto tray and bake in a moderate oven for 10 to 15 minutes. For variations, mix in coconut or put an almond or a drop of jam on top or add cocoa to the mixture. This mix was also pressed in trays and covered with golden syrup and crumble mix on top and cut into slices before cool.
For lunch and tea we ate fresh chops or chicken (dressed that day) with Laucke bread baked in the camp oven and vegetables which were growing in the garden at that time (silver beet, parsley, carrots, potatoes, shallots) or poached eggs on toast. I cooked the chicken in golden syrup and water then after the cooked chicken had been removed from the pot, we cooked golden syrup dumplings in the water. They had a fantastic flavour.
We removed all plastics from the kids' rooms (such as Barbie and bits), leaving them with only a chair, desk, beds, four books, paints (not acrylic dry blocks), pencils and a skipping rope. Their clothes were two sets of simple dresses and jumpers made from cotton or wool, leading to a complaint that they were 'dumb things to wear carting water on cold mornings, Mum, give me jeans.'
We ate at night by candlelight and played old board games. We played my daughter's Suzuki violin CD over and over as the pioneers only had one record. We gave the kids a torch for going to bed as they had not lived with candles and we felt it was not safe.
The result was amazing. The kids became more agreeable and instructions didn't have to be repeated until shouted to get a response, which had happened frustratingly too often before our Pioneer Week.
My youngest became less grumpy and the eldest less fragile and teary. Both stopped being picky eaters and ate with relish. The eldest's singing which was usually flat became tuneful because her hearing improved. They anticipated and showed more thought about what they were doing instead of being 'Tigger with Rabbit worries'. Life became gentler at home. The background frustration and noise decreased a lot and they took on new things faster. This change persisted for a while after school started then reverted as we reverted to our original diet.
I was diagnosed with salicylate/amine/additive intolerance 20 years ago, so I have never had a diet full of additives or the rest. But as the kids were getting older, I was bowing down to peer and social pressures, arguing in my head that their bodies were bigger so could handle additives better. I was wrong. We are now doing the elimination diet after two weeks of a take-away, additive binge, to make sure of all our symptoms. The kids are loving it and it is easier than the pioneer week because we use modern conveniences such as electricity and running water. A modified Pioneer Week would be a fun introduction to the elimination diet which sounds ominous and is not the current retro trend. - Rosy Hill, South Australia"
Graphic from: heartlandgraphics.org |
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