Glass oven

My newest homewares-experiment is with an alternate type of oven, a glass oven called an 'Easy Cook'. People who use them seem to love them and I thought it might be an energy efficient way to cook without heating up the kitchen (and my studio!) in summer. So far I have only cooked one thing, a plum tart which cooked well. (It is fun being able to watch the cooking process through the glass.)

Easy Cook glass bowl oven (with plum tart).

The glass oven does not seem to need to be as hot as a normal ovens, perhaps because a reasonably strong fan forces air around the food all the time the oven is on. Next I will try veges or a meat loaf or scones.

Spider with a view

A spider with a view over Umina Beach on the NSW Central Coast.

Dawn at Umina Beach

Flying back to Oz after long enough in New Zealand to adapt to the 2 hours time difference has the advantage of effortless early mornings. Waking before dawn means you can see the sunrise on the beach. It is always surprising how quickly the sun appears over the horizon. One minute it is pre-dawn...

then the sun peeps over the hills

and suddenly the sun is too bright to look at.

Early morning sun reflects on the water

Loving roses

Granny would know the names of these roses, all of them photographed in her garden.

Red rose

Rust-red rose

White 'iceberg' rose

Yellow rose

Pinkish yellow rose

Jug of flowers

Jug of flowers from Granny's garden.

"If you have a garden you are never lonely," says my mother.
She spent a lifetime on an isolated farm, so she should know. At 84 she moved into a new house in town with no garden at all. Now, 8 years later, her garden is credit to her skills. 
Parsnips flourish and ...

...the pear treee is laden with fruit. 

Under the pear tree her favorite little whistling boy stands with his hands in his pockets.

It is no surprise that her children and her grandchildren are garden enthusiasts.

Blue rocking chair

In Granny's back garden

Milk that tastes as it should

In Wellington I bought a little pack of Anchor milk to drink on the bus. It tasted as milk used to taste, which is more than you can say for most of the milk in Australia. I had not realised until recently that the cheap milk sold in Coles and Woolworths is processed from milk, dried milk, water and who knows what else. Tastes like it too.

Anchor Milk

Addendum 20 September 2012:   Now I read that Fonterra uses permeate in its milk (one of their brands is Anchor) so either they have started to use it since I wrote this or you can't judge real milk by taste. In the meantime the organic milk from Aldi that I had been buying in Australa has changed and is now ultra-pasturised to make it last longer so I don't buy that any more. I buy Aussie Farmers Direct milk because they say they don't add anything.
Addendum 9 October 2012:  Milk is still in the news (and no wonder). An update is here.

Signpost in New Zealand

I know I am home when I see signposts like these.

Rural Signpost near Taihape.

Nowadays these signs remind me of the wonderful work of New Zealander Rosalie Gascoigne. Unknown until her fifties, famous as Australia's finest sculptor in her eighties!

Public Conveniences

Toilets, lavatories, the girls/boys room. Whatever you call them, they colour your feelings about places you visit. After a short trip to New Zealand I can report that Sydney Airport should be ashamed of its toilet facilities. They were dirty and blocked on both days I visited them.

Wellington Airport

 Wellington Airport facilities were better but not fabulous. The prize goes to the Wellington Railway station. Their toilets were as clean as a whistle and pleasant to visit despite the many train and bus passengers passing through. Bravo to the station staff.

Art in the scout hall

The scout hall in Umina is a pleasant place with wooden floors and quiet surroundings. Just the place for watercolour classes. I am busy making posters, getting insurance etc and plan to start in March. Online brochure is here in case you want to come!

Patonga Inlet

Patonga is such a quaint and unspoiled place, tucked away behind the hills, between a creek and the sea. I have been painting there fairly often recently and I just put the paintings online at artsmitten.com

Boat in Patonga Inlet

Paint Out, Patonga Beach

The 'paint-out' this week was in Patonga.

Painting at Patonga

There were seven painters, most of them using oil, painting the beach or the wharf.

Patonga Wharf

The little bit of blue sky didn't last long but the rain held off for the morning. In the afternoon it started raining and it has barely stopped since. Further north there are floods again. Those poor people.

The year just past and the year ahead

My posts for the past year seem to have gyrated between the sublime and the mundane : from art and music to house renovations and back. I guess that pretty much reflected my reality, lining my nest in between art/music assignments.

Will this year be different? I am hoping it will be the year of finding my posse here on the Central Coast but I will have to overcome my preference for my own company to make it happen.  I will be out of my comfort zone. Sometimes I envy those who have never moved and are surrounded by long time friends but I am not sure we choose our own paths. Instead they seem to choose us.

A well designed fridge

The little bar fridge that I got from Aldi was almost big enough for me but I missed having a freezer so I sold it on eBay and looked for a replacement.
Kelvinator looked pretty good when I looked at fridges online but when I looked at them in the shop I realised that Fisher&Paykel fridges were a better design because, for one thing, the vege bin at the bottom can be pulled out so much more easily. It is on rollers and because the door shelves finish above the height of the bin, the bin can be pulled out even when the fridge door is half open.

Fridge door with frog

New Zealand products have the reputation for quality and this is one example. So now I have a Fisher&Paykel fridge/freezer in my kitchen. At 380L it was the smallest and most energy efficient in the shop.

Australia Day

Today is Australia Day and as I pour my glass of red the smell of frying sausages wafts over the fence. Good news is that actor Geoffrey Rush has been awarded Australian of the Year.  Marita Cheng who promotes engineering as a great career for woman was awarded Young Australian of the Year and Laurie Baymarrwangga, an elder from East Arnhemland, was Senior Australian of the Year. So we have an actor and engineer and an Aboriginal elder as inspiration this year, all from fields that barely rate a mention in Australia on any ordinary day.

Sports people and civil servants got their share of awards as well but online comments seems to indicate that giving awards to these people doesn't have a lot of support.

Up the Patonga Creek

Patonga Creek runs up the valley behind the small fishing village of Patonga at the mouth of the Hawkesbury River.  Last weekend I sketched from a flat bottomed boat, riding with a couple of fishers checking crab traps.

Lower Patonga Creek with its stunning bush and rocks.

 

Patonga Creek: the water was so smooth that the trees were reflected in the water.

Upper Patonga Creek

In among the mangroves

Upper reaches of Patonga Creek

Reptiles and pumpkins

Yesterday evening I took out a pumpkin plant that was all leaves and no pumpkins and planted some parsley plants in its place. As I was pushed the plants into place I spied a repitle a few inches from my fingers in the leaf litter.

My garden reptile

I thought it was a blue tongue lizard and didn't worry too much but a friend said it could also have been a death adder which are also fattish and with stripes.

Blue tongue lizard

Death adder

Hmmmm.

Book finished, curtains up

The Woman in White  was gripping but I read it reaaaaally slowly to savour the text. Eventually, however, I finished the book and had to face the curtain job. I put the curtains up today. It took most of the day but it was worth the effort.

Mustard curtains -they glow when the sun shines through.

Parsifal played as I put up the curtain rail props, as I attached the rails, as I put the hooks on the curtains and as I threaded the curtain hooks into the rails. I needed all  five Parsifal hours to complete the job.

Bathroom Refresh

The plumber came today and transformed my bathroom. The old vanity, bathroom taps, shower taps were replaced and I got a dual flush cistern. The new cupboard and basin are slim-line and make the bathroom look and feel much larger. They are also adult height so I will no longer have to bend to use the basin. What a difference.

Old look bathroom

New look bathroom

The old basin was fiddly to clean ...

Old vanity

The new basin (thank you  IKEA) has an internal shelf for soap dish and toothbrush mug .Why didn't someone else think of that sooner?

New Basin/Cupboard