Tea and French pastries with Mum

After the wettest May day for 18 years, and the coldest for 4, I went to visit Mum for the afternoon. She is usually at her best then. After viewing lots of family photos on the ipad she started asking the questions that had been niggling her. It became apparent that she has a gap in memory of nearly all of the time when her 4 children were growing up. She couldn't recall family holidays, or our childhood milestones. She also has some facts mixed up - just everyday things, but she gets really annoyed if I tell her for example that she is 81, not 82! I suppose it would be irritating if you were sure something was right and someone tells you different. So I have to sift through some of the "facts". She's usually right where food is concerned ... She said the cook made a horrible meal the other day. She said she went to the hatch to let them know that she found it inedible. It must have been bad, because she has never told them she disliked anything before. I'd love to know what it was:- she said it was like lizard skins in sauce. Yum!

At least we had a tasty French vanilla slice in a little cafe in the village. It was almost like old times, with a pot of tea and a few laughs. Precious times!

Here is Mum's Dad, Harry Smyth, with his new pony. He had a milk round, in Ireland, before he emigrated to Melbourne. I think the photo would have been taken around 1920.

On to happier themes. The tamarillo chutney is good! Surprisingly good, considering the fruit was soggy after all the rain we've been having.

Here it is, boiling away in the preserving pot.

And the finished article, complete with recipe in case you feel inspired to try!

I adapted a recipe I got online...

If you have anything to do with little children you may know G1's favorite song- it's Rhys Muldoon's "I am a little crab". Tried to get some pics today of a crab under a rock. Trouble is, they scuttle off so quickly, and they are have such good camouflage they are hard to pick out in a little photo. Here are some mud crabs. They were all over a patch of wet sand today.

 

And to finish off, the best breakfast in the world. Fresh garden pomegranate and natural yoghurt. The pomegranate seeds are like a burst of sweetness in your mouth. Unbeatable!

Tamarillo chutney

 

Will try this to use up some of the tamarillo crop. It is a weird fruit - sort of tart but fleshy. I hate to waste food, so will try to make something edible from these...

There are chutney recipes online...hope they turn out well. Am going to give it a go tomorrow. There is an ample crop to use up!

Wish I could remember how to pin a toddler down when changing a dirty nappy. I have completely forgotten. G1 had a ball escaping today, after our swimming session, which was fun. He's moving faster than I can now...

Do you know what two things fascinated him today? A kitchen timer- 'cos it ticks and he's utterly rapt with all types of clock, and a pinwheel, that he can spin with his hand, or blow in the wind.

G2 says her new cardigan is cool. Unfortunately I don't have a photo here to prove it so you will have to take her word for it.

Here you have a pair of Cape Barren geese. They look like they would be a tasty morsel. Protected species though...

A mangrove swamp is just over the hill from home. Isn't it interesting to see how the roots grow up into the air? All those stick - like bits are the roots, in this tidal inlet.

 

Stevia again

A true story. A couple of weeks ago I invited people to dinner. They had been overseas, and I was interested to hear the details of their trip. They had done some voluntary work with refugees in Austria, on a short term informal arrangement.

It was Sunday lunch and I had planned a tasty traditional lunch, as I didn't know their food preferences. While I was putting the final touches on the meal the lady came into the kitchen area to chat. The conversation got on to the garden, and I told her about my stevia plant. I was about to take her down to show it to her, but it was really cold. Then I remembered that I had a container of Natvia stevia in the cupboard, so I got it out and opened it to let her taste it. Because I was about to serve up lunch, I was a bit distracted, and just handed her a spoon for her to sample the powder. Their son had come with them, and he showed some interest in the product too, so I encouraged him to sample it too. They seemed a bit reluctant, but did sample it, and then my female guest asked if it was cinnamon flavoured. Puzzled, I had a look at the nearly full container. It had bugs crawling all through it!!!

How does a host serve dinner after that? I was so embarrassed! And the product was not out of date (2014 in fact). There was a really good seal on the cylindrical cardboard container, so I assume the offending goobies were in the product in some stage of development when bought. The supermarket exchanged the product without query- but I really wish it had not happened with people on their first visit...

Interesting that food magazines are currently carrying recipes for stevia as a sugar substitute. I hope they taste better than my disgusting meringues did. I wonder if other people have had a similar experience with powdered stevia? Somewhat off-putting I'd have to say.

This cold weather is just right for sitting by the fire knitting. Like the grandmother I am...! Speaking of which I have had the best time lately. Knitting a jacket for G2 - this was before the toggles were finished -it looked nicer with the miniature wooden buttons attached. Baby garments are a breeze to knit. It takes longer to sew them up than it does to knit them.

I have orders for some legwarmers with a couple of options...

These ones look pleasingly simple.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aren't they angels? The kids not the legwarmers...

 

Mother's Day

Last night we took Mum out for dinner. It was a surprise for her, but she recognized me straight away, and was in great spirits. She loved looking at family photos, especially of her great-grandchildren, though we had to keep explaining who was who. She talked about family events with clarity, and knew her Australian grandchildren by name. She sat by an open fire eating roast lamb, and chatting or watching us catch up with each other.

We heard how she kept forgetting a hairdressing appointment in the village, so my brother took her across to apologise and make another date to have her hair cut. The hairdresser said he would phone Mum's home and ask them to remind her about an hour before, which he did. But when he rang and mentioned Mum's name they went and got her instead of listening to the message. Mum hung up on him because she couldn't hear, and had forgotten all about the appointment! So she missed it again!

The blog was started to document some of the Alzheimer's journey, as well as share garden doings, but I find it increasingly difficult to write about Mum. I want to share the good happenings, and keep in touch with family and friends. But some of this journey is necessarily not for publication.

On to happier themes! Sorry about the rotation problem. The pic keeps reverting when placed by blogsy. Am still on a learning curve with this app!

Here are some pics of G2. She is such a placid, good child...

This is a faux fur lined waistcoat that would be easy to make but was even easier to buy...



For Mother's day I got a tray of homemade baklava! What a treat! With roast walnuts and pistachios in it. Yum!

The weather is still wet and cold,so I have not been in the garden.

I have requests to knit leggings and a scarf for a daughter. There are so many options for these-

Eg:-

And;-

An interesting website if you like knitting or crochet is ravelry.com. It seems to have a huge following.

 

Interesting books

You won't like the same books as me, but maybe one will appeal. An online book club where you can connect with people who have similar tastes and be introduced to other books you might like, no doubt exists somewhere;- without a commercial bent...???

Here is an interesting one, though it is a few years old. I found it fascinating to read how a family moved to the Amazon to live among a tribe who had had little contact with Western culture. The author, Daniel Everett, tried to teach people useful skills so they wouldn't be fleeced by traders. He took one or two of them to N America for trips, and recounts some results of that. He originally worked with Wycliffe Bible translators, though later broke his links with them, and focussed on linguistic aspects. Interestingly, he disagreed with some of Chomsky's linguistic of theories of grammar, based on what he observed living with the tribe, and he also came to favour some of their tribal customs... A great read with good photos too.

A detail that stuck is that this tribe don't sleep in 8 hr blocks at night - so if you waken in the night don't fret. Perhaps you are normal!

Alex Miller is another author I like. However, Autumn Laing is proving a bit difficult to get into. I really liked Landscape of Farewell. Journey to the Stone Country is interesting if Aboriginal perspectives appeal.

Another author I enjoy is the prolific Alexander McCall Smith-but not his African novels.

For lunch how about fresh coriander, basil and parsley pesto?

 

A swimming lesson

I am still in bed. I am recovering! Yesterday grandchild one and I went to a swimming lesson. We were both wearing cossies under our clothes because I knew changing him at a public pool was potentially hazardous, and I was keen to minimize risk.

We walked in teeming rain (my choice, cos it was nearby) playing a great game of making police siren noises all the way. I did get a funny look from a workman renovating an old weatherboard house, but hopefully I never meet him again. We manouvered the pram in the door and into the change room, where we stripped to cossies and I packed our clothes into what I hoped were 2 piles of "putting on order" so we would seamlessly coast through the dressing hurdle.

Then we headed for the water slide pool and the instructor with dreadlocks. However, seeing this in focus,while pushing the pram and carrying baby one, was tricky without glasses, which I'd packed away for the return journey. The pool was easy enough to find, but the dreadlocks girl was in another pool, and since we were early, I thought a pre- class swim would be fun. It was, but then we had to get out and find our group. I think there were 5 baby swim classes happening,so we headed for the tots who looked a similar age to G1, and eventually I found a mum who recognized him. He sailed through the routine,which began with me pouring water from a plastic watering can all over him. He loved that, and the subsequent songs and water games. There were some good ideas, like making a tunnel out of a foam mat and holding a big mirror at the end, so when we waded through with the babies on their backs they could look up and see themselves. That was a clever way to get them to try floating on their back.

After 20 mins or so G1 had had enough, since we'd had a play before the class. So we left early and headed for the shower. I was very careful to avoid the "Grandmother drops baby on swimming pool steps" headline, and we showered, dried, dressed,and headed home. Well, it took a bit longer to do it than it takes to write it, but G1 looked at me as if to say ;- "You are definitely not as competent as my Mum, but you are an acceptable second choice."

He was too tired for the sirens on the trip home, and so was I...

There is a wealth of information about teaching babies to swim. There is even the option to have a professional photographer take a snapshot of the little tots as they glide up to the surface...perhaps not what Nikon envisaged when they developed their underwater camera, but hey,why not?

The pic at the top is from the water babies Uk site.