Seaweed—the underwater garden, providing food, medicine and marine life refuge.
These and more flowers and plants can be found on my Instagram as part of the #100dayproject. Tag: #100daysflowersandplants
Friday, 12 August 2016
Marine Design
Seaweed—the underwater garden, providing food, medicine and marine life refuge.
These and more flowers and plants can be found on my Instagram as part of the #100dayproject. Tag: #100daysflowersandplants
Wednesday, 10 August 2016
Airborne Offspring
Isn't it wonderful watching the changing of the seasons? Although I have a preference for the seasons which build up to a heady glory, as opposed to the end of year decline, there is something magical about the process and it's repetition.
Autumn is long busy before we name it so, with the subtle turning of the leaves, ripening of fruit and dispersal of seeds. Sitting in the garden, I watch the wind blow tiny butterfly-shaped seed pods everywhere. There is a light sprinkling covering the ground, a guarantee of the survival of that particular plant for next year, with the exception of those that land in my coffee!
These and more flowers and plants can be found on my Instagram as part of the #100dayproject. Tag: #100daysflowersandplants
Sunday, 7 August 2016
Plum Crazy
This year the plum tree in my garden has excelled itself—in comparison with previous years, it has produced more plums than I can use, have inspiration for, or care to deal with.
So far, I have only plucked about a third of the plums from the tree (about 7kg). Seeing the enormity of the process ahead of me, I also googled diverse possibilities of what to do with them. Apart from eating them fresh, I have made: 2 litres of plum vodka, 11 pots of jam, a couple of plum crumbles, some dehydrated plums: prunes and some fruit leather.
I'm pleased with the outcome, but exhausted by two days in the kitchen and daunted by the remaining two thirds, stlll attached to the tree! Then there's the wasps and a couple of Jays, who, although I'm not adverse to sharing, sample several plums each visit and then leave them to rot! All this fruit processing, reminds me of my childhood summers and my mother's jam making.
Luckily... I am able to call on friends, who's stocks of plum jam are dwindling and who are happy to help me pick the rest from the tree. *phew*
As I pick, I weigh, curious as to what the grand total will be, once the tree is bare again.
UPDATE:
As of today (09/08/2016), the tree has been relieved of it's load —20.5 kilos!
Friends have come and gone, taking with them bags filled with plums, destined for jam, cakes and to be eaten fresh. I thought it only fair, to leave about a kilo on the tree for the jays, wasps and any other fruit loving wildlife.
The tree really excelled itself this year —thank you tree!
Friday, 5 August 2016
Foody Top Nine
Thursday, 4 August 2016
Finish Line
Three months of daily drawings, resulting in 100 completed illustrations. Quite a challenge and one I recommend. It helps with perseverance, personal style development, observation and colour play, plus there's a great online community to interact with and be inspired by.
For a selection from the series take a peek on my Instagram
Tuesday, 2 August 2016
Summer Breeze
There's nothing better than the beach to relieve tension and clear the mind—wind in your hair, the sound of the waves, golden sand between your wriggling toes–an icecream in hand to complete the picture.
Monday, 25 July 2016
Straw Hat
In the days that my mother was a stay at home mum with three young children, she enjoyed to cook. As a result, from an early age, we were used to eating international cuisine.
She also made staples of homemade jam and bread and cookies and it was not until I was a teenager that our mother gave in started to buy bread, because she had taken on a full time job. The Straw Hat, a local bakery was pretty good and the staff were familiar faces. On the odd occasion cakes were bought there too. I enjoyed the enormous meringues, smooth and crisp on the outside, filled with oodles of fluffy whipped cream and topped off with a bright red glace cherry and a sprinkling of chopped (greener than they nature had intended) pistachios. Another favourite of mine were the sugar coated doughnuts. These were filled with a bright red strawberry jam that would ooze out if you bit into it hard enough. Sometimes we would play a game, to see who could eat their doughnut without licking the sugar off their lips. A challenge that was accepted, and won a couple of times, but after that I preferred not to play, because it took the enjoyment out of the sugary doughnut experience.
These and more foody illustrations can be found on my Instagram as part of the #100dayproject. Tag: #100daysfoodanddrink
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