Autumn

and a girl's mind turns to Chillies
well this girl's does!! With the cooler weather approaching my chilli bushes are sparkling with colour at present so time to start putting them down for over winter.
Some chilli pickle Indian style for himself, a batch of sambol oelek for me and the big manzano chillies are nicer than commercial jalapeno chillies when done in vinegar and salt.
This is the result of about 10 minutes of picking in my garden.
Hey does anyone have a good hot sauce recipe? Would love to try to make something like that
More textile work on the way but just tidying up some other stuff before mid semester break before getting down and doing my thing

R & R II

This is just for a certain friend who never got to experience AC/DC with Bon Scott out front- as most Aussie pub rock purists will insist this is Acca Dacca at their best with the ever irreverent Bon doing what he does best.




Enjoy babe

R & R

Having a quiet day today M.O.T.H has decided to paint the bathroom so I am staying out of his way and cooking instead. Our neighbour gave us some pears from his tree so I made a pear and almond cake earlier which is yummy- just HAD to sample some and it is glorious.
Recipe is

PEAR and ALMOND flan

1 tbsp soft brown sugar
150g butter
150g caster sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
150g almond meal
2 tbsp self-raising flour
2 tbsp blanched almonds
3 or 4 pears, skin on
Line a circular flan or cake tin 23cm in diameter with non-stick baking paper. Sprinkle soft brown sugar over the baking paper.
In a bowl, cream together butter and caster sugar to create a smooth, creamy mixture, making sure all the sugar is dissolved. You could do this with a fork, electric beater or a food processor.
Lightly beat the eggs and add them to the creamed mixture. Add the almond meal and flour and mix well.
Cut the pears vertically, leaving the skin on and the stalk. Place the pieces decoratively in the flan dish or cake tin, flat sides down. Fill the gaps with the blanched almonds.
Pour the cake mixture over the pears and almonds and press down.
Bake in preheated oven at 190c for 45 minutes or until the filling feels firm at the centre. Allow to cool.
Ease the flan away from the edge of the flan dish with a knife. Place a large serving plate on top and turn it over. All being well, the flan will be released onto the plate without breaking.
...............................................

quickie

Busy week this week with getting assignments in on time etc but all done. I have a couple of days of household stuff I really need to catch up on before I can get back to my work but I dont really mind because it has to be done sooner or later and the sooner means the sooner I can get this place on the market and move up north.
My little girl has been my constant shadow since we lost Bandit. Miss Jazzy is feeling very lonely without her big protector and now the little kitten from next door has disappeared is even more lonely but that has compensations for me when the cuddly girl curls up next to me of an evening
Back in a few days hopefully with some work to show and tell
A pic of my girl in Bandit's favourite spot which she has now claimed.

Chine colle'

is a special technique in printmaking in which the image is transferred to a surface (usually paper but of course I didnt stop with that ;-)) that is bonded to a heavier support in the printing process. And one of the core items on our printmaking course this year. I LOVE it because it has SO many possibilities- these pics are a bit blurry but for test bits not too bad.
I think this is something I might be exploring a lot further


this first bit is a bit of flocked fabric- just a scrap from my stuff box and simple lay over of an abstract block- the block is inspired by my erigeron daisy- something I will have to leave behind when I head north unless anyone knows any species of daisies that can live in the tropics.


and this one is on some of my own dyed tissue paper - the same block and basically the same ink

I like this technique
/R

Paper and paperwork

Spent the past couple of days getting things organised for the house renovations including sorting out our files and paperwork and tossing piles and piles of it HOORAY lol
But I finally got around to charging up some batteries for the cam and took some quick shots of the paper I made last week. I was able to emboss some at school which came out quite well I thought - didnt need to dampen the paper because of the nature of the beastie makes the fibres quite loose so it lends itself to embossing quite well.
The first one was made with dropping the pulp onto the screen and then pouring water over it to compact it made quite a thick paper more like a pizza box LOL but I like it because it definitely has possibilities


The next one was just mixing the pulps on the screen - I pulped up coloured paper and had a glorious time splashing water everywhere



And this one was dripping the pulp freeform on the mesh, like the edges and the holes



And the embossed one

Ginger, moths and the S word

Well after last week and just trying to keep on top of the workload at VU I didnt get around to blogging much.
I have to do some paper making for printmaking which has been fun and delightfully messy, I have done some test bits which I will photograph but I want to get onto making a mixed paper of silk fibres and pulp in the near future, Looking for ways of making deep dark colours in pulp so that the silk will really sparkle within.I've even peeled back some meleluca bark and boiled it up to make pulp although the blender was NOT impressed with that when I pulped it but the colour is interesting just to see if it works
One really exciting thing in the garden has been our ginger plant flowering. Here in Melbourne would not be considered prime ginger growing country but we planted some in the vegie patch last year and this year it has popped spikes which is amazing.
Even more glorious is the scent, completely magic and heady
Our suburb is rather strange because it has micro climate that can sustain frangipani and hibiscus. All of which this year have been spectacular despite the lack of water. But I must admit I cant wait to get to a climate where all those things are completely at home.
The fluffy kitty of the household has taken to coming to bed with us since losing her big protector. M.O.T.H. reckosns she is not missing him just taking her place as she sees it now but she has barely let me out of her sight over the past week and gets a bit anxious if I am not around. She is good comfort.
and about the only other vaguely exciting thing that happened was the discovery that my pantry was infested with bloody moths. It seems that they got into something in there and have been munching away happily on a block of Indian jaggery - they seem to love brown and raw sugars so all those are now safely in containers and after scrubbing out the shelves and discarding anything with a trace of moth on it I opened the damn thing last night to find another dozen or so. Grrrr the gap between the doors seems to allow them free entry- time to get really nasty with them LOL
While I was cleaning them out I found some of the little darlings copulating!!! Now fair go, food and sex are a great combo but I am not supporting the local moth population any longer!!!!
the quandary is how to repel them from the pantry - a nice stable temperatured place that is quiet etc- without using yukky chemicals. Any suggestions?

Bandit

is no more. We had to take him to the vet this morning to be put to sleep because it was getting to the stage where he was starting to suffer. Ironic really because it is almost 3 years to the day that his little mate went - the anniversary is actually tomorrow and we remember the date because it fell on a family birthday.

Bandit was a scrawny little kitten living under the house of a neighbour and existing on what critters he could catch until he peered out at me and I commented to the neighbour about his kitten. Being retired they didnt want a cat and weren't feeding him because that would make him stay so I went and got a saucer of food and enticed this wild little thing out. After gorging himself he decided living under our house was a MUCH better idea. So began the campaign to tame this little wild one. Surprisingly easy when he was half starved although he retained some wild habits until the end. He had to live under the domination of Socks for about 5 years before emerging as king kitty of the neighbourhood. He and my puppy became completely besotted with each other and would sleep together often. When we lost the little pup Bandit was sad for a long time and would sleep where we buried him most days for at least a year.
He loved nothing more than prawns- and as one of our family observed now he is able to get as many prawns as he wants at the Big Table.
Vale Bandit. you are going to be deeply missed
Even by the fluffy wench

Sometimes

I am intensely proud of the city of Melbourne and never more than this week. I came out of Flinders St station - the main commuter station in the city- to see this hanging off the side of St Paul's Cathedral.
The travesty of justice being imposed by the US on the inmates of Guantanamo Bay is unbelievable
FREE DAVID HICKS
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/hicks-tells-of-torture/2007/03/01/1172338796050.html?page=fullpage

Taken on a Sony Ericsson V800 phone -thanks Anders