March Wrap-Up

It was a public holiday on the 1st and I met up with two work colleagues for breakfast at the Coffee Club in the local shopping centre. We don't usually get much time to chat at work, so it's nice to be able to solve the problems of the world over a nice breakfast.

Flowers given to me on my birthday

March is a month full of family birthdays. Jose and I went to dinner at a Japanese restaurant on the 2nd to celebrate my birthday. Because the day fell on a Tuesday I opted for a small afternoon tea celebration in the backyard patio with family and some friends on the 7th. 

My daughter Karina celebrated on the 8th which is also International Women's day, my Dad celebrated his 88th birthday on the 11th, my sister in law on the 13th.

My neighbourhood verge collection done by the Council twice a year started on the 8th. We didn't have much this year, but it's amazing the quantity of stuff some people throw away that has still got some life in it and could probably be given or donated to a good cause. As it is Jose brought me a nice pine chair and 2 director chairs for me to paint 😉. (see below)

A few streets away from me...

On Friday 12th, I met up with Grace to go and visit the 17th annual exhibition of Sculptures by the Sea at Cottesloe Beach. It's always a fun and very popular outdoor event, that took place from the 5th to the 22nd March. and this year 70 artists from 13 countries including Australia exhibited their work.

Afterwards Grace and I had lunch across the road from the beach.

On my return home I spotted a modern house on a corner that had 5 red figures in the garden. These appear to be the work of Chinese sculptor Chen Wenling who often exhibits his red sculptures at Sculpture by the Sea. (Probably from a few years ago)

Further down the road and then in Fremantle as mentioned in last week's Monday Murals and photographed a few murals.

Saturday 13th we went to the local primary school to cast our vote for the Western Australian State elections. Voting booths closed at 6pm and 43min later the ruling Labor Party was overwhelmingly re-elected.

I find it strange that at voting stations and there are posters about the candidates and almost right to the door there are people handing you pamphlets about their parties and candidates.  Will they make anyone change their minds at the last minute?

I took Shelley to the Vet on the 19th as I noticed she had vomited her food 2 days in a row. She had last been to the vet in 2016, so she had blood tests to check for diabetes and kidney and liver problems and she got the all clear. Might have just been some food she didn't like or the fact she tends to eat too quickly.

Twiggy also went to the Vet on the 24th as she's been limping a bit from one of her front legs. She has a bit of arthritis and she's now on some medication for a few weeks and the vet suggested she take Green lipped mussel oil capsules. The vet indicated there should be an improvement in a week and I can see that she's not limping as much and seems more keen to walk around the house and go into the back garden, and not just eat and lay in bed the whole day.

Twiggy is a "scaredy-cat", hates to be picked up, and was never a fan of the cat-carrier, but maybe because she hadn't been in it for years she must have forgotten, as a day or two after I took Shelley to the vet, and I left the carrier in the kitchen, I found her sitting inside the carrier. She wasn't happy to go into it when it was her turn, and miaowed the whole way to the vet and then back!

On Saturday 20th we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Perth Codfish Academy with a dinner and dance event held at the Portuguese Club hall, which was attended by 130 people. Jose is the treasurer, so we had to go at 4pm to help the other Committee members to hang balloons, distribute cakes into plates for each table, etc.  At 6,30pm the doors were opened and Jose and I sat by the door with the guest list, and while I took payment from those that hadn't paid online and crossed their names off the list, Jose gave them their tickets and told them at what table they were sitting.

The Academy's President opened the event with a speech in Portuguese and Jose repeated it in English.  The Portuguese singer Chantal and her band Carbon Taxi livened up the party with songs we could all chant and dance to, from 8pm to 11,30pm.

The dinner prepared by the volunteer ladies and a few men that work for the Portuguese Club was delicious. For dessert each table got a fruit platter and two plates of small cakes.

During one of the intervals the celebratory cake was cut up, the Academy's hymn was sung and everyone could go and get a slice. The dinner/dance finished just after 11,30pm and the committee members plus kitchen staff helped clear the tables and leave the hall in order, which meant we left the club at 1am.

Saturday 27th I went into the city to visit the Perth Home Expo - displaying new products for home building, decoration, garden, etc, and right next to it the Every Woman expo showcasing services for women. I enjoyed seeing the 3 tiny homes, but don't know if I could live in them long term. But I was hoping to convince Jose to install a hot tub in the garden 🤣.

Me (the angel) at the Everywoman expo, a hot tub and a tiny house

Afterwards I walked a couple of blocks to the city centre and roamed around and found a couple of murals I hadn't seen before, one "freshly painted". 

I quite like the mix of old building facades and modern buildings behind

An art exhibition being announced in this newish tower at Yagan Square and 2 pretty doors

This month I didn't do much furniture painting - just finished painting a pine chair Jose had picked from the verge in our neighbourhood.

The pretty chair needed some glue and Bondo in the joints of the seat, so after that done I sanded and painted it.

The director chairs  were in good condition just needed to be varnished and the canvas needed replacement, but instead of that I painted the canvas which was quicker. Do you think Linda and Peter would approve? I'm actually going to donate them to the Buy Nothing Group, as we don't need them.

I prepped and painted the vanity unit in our guest bathroom. Over the years the white vanity had yellowed and it was time for a make-over. I used a mix of Ash and white for a lighter shade and even though it could probably be a bit lighter, I'm happy with it.

From our garden we ate the last of the mangoes, they were fragrant and sweet.

As for the figs, because of some early rain a lot of them opened up and dropped to the ground, the lorikeets ate lots of them too even though we put a net over the tree, and this year I only make 3 jars of fig jam when I usually make about 10 or more jars.

Birds in our garden - the wagtails that came and sing in our patio, the lorikeets that come and steal the fruit, the doves and the magpies. 

April Wrap-Up

In a much quieter month than usual of course, due to the current pandemic, the month started with me baking a Walnut cake to take to the clinic to farewell one of our Doctors, on Wednesday 2nd.
I saw the recipe on Catarina's blog (who reblogged from another blogger) and thought it looked easy and delicious. Recipe at the bottom of post.

The pink moon - when the full moon was exactly opposite the Sun and closest to Earth, was visible just after sunset on Wednesday 8th.

My street and the pink moon in the distance

The Easter long weekend from Friday 10th to Monday 13th, was spent doing a bit of gardening enjoying the warm weather, and finishing off some furniture painting projects.

This sideboard will most probably take new door knobs as I'm not too fond of the original ones that I painted

This little rocking elephant was on the verge just two houses down from me, awaiting Verge Collection by our local council. I went to get it, glued its trunk, sanded and painted it. It's now ready for my grandkids to enjoy. They haven't seen it yet, I  hope they like it :)

Jose has taken over the cooking and shopping, but I made Rice Pudding for Easter lunch to go with the meat stew Jose cooked.
I've also found a great and quick recipe for Artisan bread and I've been baking it once a week.
This week I baked 3 loaves - 1 sourdough, and 2 artisan breads and dropped a Sourdough and 1/2 of one Artisan bread to friends of ours who live in a Retirement village.
In exchange I was given a bag of persimmons from their garden.

Preparing the bread

The 3 loaves I baked - 2 artisan and 1 sourdough

Bag of Persimmons given to me by our friends

Our passion fruit vine is full of fruit and just a few flowers still in bloom. They are so pretty aren't they?

At work a couple of the patients presented us with their home made Anzac biscuits, delicious Raspberry cup-cakes, Lemon cup-cakes and one gave us a $40 voucher from a nearby coffee shop. Some were accompanied by Thank you notes, which touched my heart.

The kind gestures didn't stop there, as one day when I arrived home from work I found a beautiful card in the post box written by a young mother of 2 who I met through the "Buy Nothing" facebook group, thanking me for the friendship, which left me quite emotional. 

She was the one who made my birthday cupcakes. I had sent her a photo of them on my table, which she now displayed in her postcard.  
One of these days I'll bake her a home-made bread to thank her for the beautiful gesture.

Anzac day was celebrated on Saturday 25th. Sadly this year the usual parade and festivities were cancelled, but a lot of people chose to stand on their driveways or balconies at 6am and light a candle while listening to "The last post".

Crown of poppies in my street, and flags and poppies at the Retirement village where my friends live

Because we had a long weekend, on Monday 27th, Jose and I picked olives from our small tree by the driveway in the front garden. We managed to pick 7kgs! Jose is now in charge of changing the water daily for 1 month, before they get prepared.

The new neighbours moved to their new house at the beginning of April, but with social distancing I haven't seen them.

Our olive tree by the driveway and you can see house next door.

When we were picking olives the magpies that live in the trees in the park across the road, came to our driveway to get some olives. They love walnuts, so I got a few and they would come close to me and eat them.

The friendly magpies eating walnuts

On Wednesday's I'm the one that closes the clinic, and as I came out into the car-park last week, I was greeted with this beautiful purple sky, the sun having just set.

Our cats, either because they are getting old, or maybe because we are spending more time at home have become quite clingy. Fluffy, our ginger cat, just wants to have his paws over Jose when he sits next to him, or if he decides to sit on my desk he will put his paws over the mouse or the keyboard and type away, or he decides to sleep on my hand.

Fluffy lying on my keyboard

Fluffy, Twiggy and Shelley

WALNUT CAKE

1 juicy orange (zest, juice and pulp)

1 measure plain yogurt 

1 measure of grated coconut

3 measures of flour

3 sugar measures (I used only 1 1/2 measures)

1/2 measure of oil

4 eggs

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 tot of Port wine

2 teaspoons spoon cinnamon 

1/2 measure coarsely chopped walnuts

1. Turn the oven on to 180 C°, when preparation begins. 

2. Mix all the ingredients with a wooden spoon. It is not advisable to use an electric mixer.

3. Bake in a greased pan sprinkled with flour, and covered with parchment paper, during  30/40 minutes, depending of the oven.

4.  Test with a toothpick and if necessary, let it cook a little longer. 

Note: I used a cup as a measure for all ingredients. I only used 1 1/2 cups of sugar, and found it was sweet enough.
Enjoy 😃

My August and September Wrap-Up

A bit behind on my August wrap up, but here it goes :)

AUGUST
We started the month of August by demolishing the shelves in our pantry, painting the small space and then buying narrow kitchen units from Ikea to gain more shelf space.
Two weeks later I met up with Grace at Ikea for a meal and an uplifting chat, and I took the opportunity to buy the drawer fronts for the drawers where I now keep the tins. The top drawer needs a larger front, so I'll have to return to Ikea some time. I've bought small handles, but these are still awaiting to be screwed in.
Everything has a place now and I now have a small counter separating the top and bottom shelving where I could keep big appliances so they don't clutter the kitchen bench.

Next door to us, the small old house that was sold a couple of months ago was demolished, and the block was cleared. A short while later the cement foundation was laid and was left to dry for a week or so. 

Jose started fixing up the walkway next to our driveway. The heavy cement pavers had been laid too far apart, were also on a slant and there were some weird pointy stones separating the driveway from the walkway.

We got some bricks similar to our driveway bricks from our suburb "Buy nothing group", the stones were removed, a lot of sand had to be removed, and the bricks and the cement pavers were laid level with the driveway. This back-breaking job took about 3 weeks, but the walkway is now ready and safe to use.

My job will now be to paint the cement pavers in dark grey. Jose's next job is to put new tiles on the small front porch, as the brown original tiles are slippery when wet.

(The photo on the left shows the big truck that brought the excavator that demolished the house next door).

Met up with my ex-colleague Jan for a coffee and to pick more Fusion Mineral paint at The Upcycled Barn in Port Kennedy, about 50km south of where I live.
I've been busy getting through the furniture stash in my garage, and at the moment have a few projects on the go.

The heavy side table that I bought for $10 is being painted in Ash (dark grey) and the areas like the drawers and top were sanded down to bare wood and will probably get an Ash wash.
The free magazine stand was painted in Seaside with stenciled flowers on the sides.

The $20 small chest of drawers has been sanded, handles removed and is ready for the paint job.

The old roll-top desk that I bought ages ago at one of the Op-shops for $50 was badly damaged on the bottom and it wood a bit of internet digging to discover I could use Builder's bog, instead of wood filler to cover all the damaged areas.
I started working on it in August and eventually finished it about two weeks ago.

After covered up all the damage with the bog, came the sanding, cleaning and paint. Jose had wanted this desk for himself and I painted it in Midnight Blue and left the roll top in wood just giving it a lick of Hemp oil to revive the wood. It's probably a bit too dark, and I would have preferred to put some colour paper covering the back, but Jose doesn't like all those frills.

In mid August I Started a 6 week French course - I had enrolled in Level 2, but due to not enough enrollments the course was to be postponed to the end of September, or there were other options of classes in the city. 
I called the college to see if they had parking available if I took the course in the city and was told yes. But then the lady convinced me to enroll in Level 3 in Manning, (where I was originally enrolled, just a 15 min drive from my house), which was starting the following week.
It's been a bit tough, a lot of Grammar, weekly homework too... I have no problem with the exercises and some of it feels quite intuitive if I think in Portuguese instead of thinking in English, but we do a lot of grammar and not enough conversation which was what I wanted to refresh my high school French.

The French lessons are held at the George Burnett Leisure Centre and when I arrived for one of the lessons I noticed they had a small "library" where you can drop and take books and I noticed a book called "Equador" an historical romance by the Miguel Sousa Tavares, a Portuguese writer, journalist and lawyer, the son of the much esteemed Portuguese writer and poet Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen who died in 2004.

I flipped through the book expecting to find the book in English but it was in Portuguese. Anyway I brought the book home to read it as soon as I finish reading "Madly, Truly, Guilty" by Lianne Moriarty.


SEPTEMBER
The first of September was the start of Kings Park wildflower festival, but because it was a wet weekend we stayed home. On Sunday 8th, with a glorious 26C  day I convinced Jose to accompany me to Kings Park.

I went back to Kings Park on Friday 20th, at the invitation of my ex-colleagues Jan and Gill and we enjoyed a few hours walking around admiring the wildflowers and we even found a place in Kings Park that none of us had seen before - Naturescape, which I will show in a future post.

This Thursday 26th, I started Level 4 French for another 6 weeks and because the group dropped from 7 students to 4 we are having classes at the teacher's house, which is also in the suburb of Manning. 
The teacher said she would try and include about 15 min conversation in each class, so hopefully I'll improve conversation.

The reason for the French lessons which every year I think I should do, is because my daughter's parents in law and brother in law are coming over from Marseille to spend Christmas with us.
They probably speak as much English as I speak French, but I thought it would be nice to be able to communicate a bit better with them instead of relying on Karina or Thomas to do the translation.

Having started at the end of July, I still have one cushion to finish sewing for the patio furniture - I used piping around the turquoise cushions as I thought it would look more professional, but being my first time doing this it has taken a lot of time, and I eventually decided I would only do it on one side!

I have made 3 jars of lemon butter/curd with our lemons, made 3 jars of mulberry jam with mulberries collected from one of the "Buy Nothing group" participants, and finished the limoncello liqueur that had been marinating for about 1 month.

Jose planted a mulberry tree in our front garden, which was given to us by our green thumbed friend Tony. Not sure I will want all the mess they make ...
He also planted some veggies in our veggie boxes and we put up a net on the side as a sun screen so they don't get burned during this year's Summer.
And in our back garden the Spring flowers are blooming and the nasturtiums are taking over.



Next door construction has started. 
The exterior walls are up, windows and doors have been set and walls are now up to ceiling height. 
Jose and I walked around inside the other day and it's a massive with 6 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a study and open plan lounge/dining/kitchen and a double garage.










On Friday night, the 27th, we were invited to an outdoor picnic on the  South Perth foreshore right by the Swan river.
The other couple took pizza and we ordered "Nando's" grilled chicken. We got there close to 7pm and the temperature had dropped a bit (17C / 63F), so it was quite chilly to be out by the river, but we still had a great night. 
After dinner we drove to their nearby apartment for coffee.

Monday is a public holiday - Queen's birthday, and along with a couple other people that work at the Clinic, we've been invited to go to Rottnest island on Sunday on the boat of one of the Doctors. I hope to have a chance to see some quokkas.
You'll have to wait for the next post 😉😉to see what they look like.
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.