June Wrap-up

It was a mostly quiet month, with some sporadic meet-ups with friends and a lot of crafts, 

but above all it was a lucky month, and I'm very grateful to all those generous friends to gave us things.

Jose and I met up at Grace's house for an afternoon coffee and to collect a chest of drawers and a bookshelf she kindly gifted me so I could paint them.

She was also holding onto a box of "Mon Cheri" those delicious cherry liqueur filled chocolates that Iris had sent Grace for my birthday, all the way from Germany, and those were enjoyed in a blink of an eye 😉.

Before we left Grace's house a rainbow made a grand appearance in the dark sky.

Later in the month we met our friends W & L for lunch at the South African restaurant Kalahari, a Taste of Africa in the southern suburb of Willetton, not far from me.

The restaurant has a small grocery area selling South African products, wines and beers. 

In the frozen section I was thrilled to find Indian meat samosas which we love. I used to buy them at an Indian store near me but they appear to have closed towards the end of last year and the only ones I find at Indian shops now, are the Potato samosas which we don't like.

That evening we had some samosas for dinner served with Tomato rice.

There was also a colleague's farewell at Raktacino Cafe in the suburb of Salter Point, where staff from the Clinic where I work (12 of us, 2 Drs didn't go) got together for coffee and nibbles.

I love little collections, and the Cafe had an lovely collection of porcelain boxes, tea pots and old cups on their walls.

Most of my spare time was spent painting furniture if the weather was sunny, and I managed to finish 2 pieces of furniture - the chest of drawers that Grace gave me and a vintage telephone table that was also given to me.

I use Fusion Mineral Paint for all my furniture, and the chest of drawers was painted in Ash and Pale Gold and the telephone table was painted in Lichen.

And this is the before of the chest of drawers and the telephone table, a big improvement don't you think?

This 60's sideboard that I had painted a couple of months ago was still in the garage as I like to wait a couple of weeks until the paint fully cures before selling the items. But every time I would go into the garage I just wasn't feeling the love, so I decided to paint the doors in the same colour as the body, and I also swapped the knobs. I like it better now.

Towards the end of the month we were gifted more furniture...

An elderly friend who lived nearby moved into a retirement village. Jose had been helping her transport some furniture and take stuff to the Charity shops. Just last week her house was sold and she still had a few things to dispose of, so she called us to go over to the house as she would like to give us a rattan patio set as a thank you for our help if we wished to have it.

It's a lot sturdier than the old cane set we inherited with the house when we bought it, which I had then varnished and got new foam and covered them three times in the last 13 years.

The last time I recovered the pillows in turquoise was actually in August/September last year.

I'm investigating foam prices to substitute the original pillows that are more than 30 years old and a bit too soft already and then I'll have to buy fabric and start my sewing sessions... 

Jose thinks I should paint the cane but right now I'll just oil or varnish it and I think that with some bright pillows (turquoise again) they will look great. 

 

A stack of new furniture waiting for space in the patio...

I offered our "old" patio set to my suburb's "Buy Nothing Facebook Group" last week, splitting the offer into two - the two roundish chairs and 2 foot stools with orange pillows, and the two seater and 2 single chairs in turquoise and the table. It was a popular offer and I took 3 days to decide so that enough people had a chance to apply for it.  On Saturday we delivered to the two winning households as we have a trailer and they live in the same suburb just a few minutes from us.

A month to be grateful to many people, and to consider myself a lucky girl.

Our lemon tree is full of lemons and I made a couple of jars of lemon butter.

The metal patio set was also given to us by the same friend who gave us the rattan set.

Jose put it under the lemon tree to get shade in Summer, but it's a sunny spot now in Winter.

It's also the area next to an almost finished Barbecue area and next to our veggie garden.

And as if I didn't have enough to do, I unearthed a carpet from one of our cupboards. I started that carpet in Portugal, years before we came to Australia 13 years ago! 

It's called "Arraiolos" a traditional hand-made wool carpet from the town of Arraiolos north of Evora in Portugal.  They are made with a sort of cross-stitch over a linen cloth foundation, using designs derived from Persian carpets brought to Portugal by the Moors. It's now a protected and regulated small industry.

In Portugal I only worked on it in Winter because it gets heavy and hot as you work on it over your knees, no wonder it took me ages to almost finish it. 

For it to be completely finished there is still part of the surrounding border to be finished, so I'm aiming to finish it maybe next year, although I've realized I will probably run out of the main colour to fill the background of most of that area...

I'll have to either send a bit of wool to my Mom or sister in Portugal or wait until our next trip...

Arraiolos is a well known brand in many parts of the world, and in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, there is a Arraiolos carpet from the XVII century, that the Museum bough from a Portuguese nobleman in 1895, measuring 315 x 148cm.  (10,33 x 4,85 ft). 

Arraiolos carpet and on the left the bar that needs to be completed

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arraiolos

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 hourse 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 😃

December Wrap-up - Part 1

I love getting together with friends and every year for the last 4 or 5 years I have organized a get-together for Portuguese friends at Easter time, Portugal Day in June and the Christmas get-together in early December.
This year I organized a picnic for Sunday, 1st December at Kings Park, (Perth's Botanic Gardens) and this time my friends invited other Portuguese friends, so we managed to get together around 50 people. It was a great afternoon for all!













While decluttering the garage Jose found a couple of boxes with stuff that we obviously didn't need, so I photographed the pieces and advertised it my suburb's Facebook "Buy Nothing Group" page.
Except for 1 piece of fabric and 1 pair of curtains over 20 pieces went in 3 days! It actually feels good to give things to people who will have some use for them.

In late November I advertised some pieces of furniture I had painted with "Fusion Mineral Paint" and was lucky to sell 3 pieces during the first 2 weeks of December.
I've been collecting ideas to paint the remaining 7 bigger pieces of furniture in the garage.

My last day at work before my Christmas holidays was on Thursday 12th, and I gave my 5 colleagues and two of the Doctors (my favourites) my hand-made soaps.  The Doctors would also be getting wine just before Christmas, to which we all contributed to.

The spare bedroom was ready to received our daughter Karina and son in law Thomas who arrived from the Philippines in the early hours of Friday 13th.

The guest room and Twiggy sleeping on the bed

The airport outdoor Christmas tree is spectacular!

Usually just before sitting down to breakfast I check my emails, facebook, etc on my mobile, and sometimes read a couple of news articles on my newsfeed.
On the 14th December I was stunned to read that British blogger and writer Lindsay De Feliz, living in the Dominican Republic, whose blog I had been following for a few years had been found dead.
Her younger husband who had recently become a lawyer, and one of his sons were arrested.
I can only presume that they thought that by murdering her they would just get their hands on her money...

Her posts about daily life in the DR were always amusing, she was kind and loved by her neighbours, she loved animals and rescued many dogs off the streets, she helped other expats in the DR, and she was a mentor to a young boy who was being brought up by his Grandmother... Sadly, I think young Chivirico will be the one who will miss her most.
It's very sad that she met such a tragic end at the hands of those she loved and helped. RIP Lindsay.



Thomas' parents Isabelle and Max and brother Benoit, who travelled from France, via Frankfurt and Singapore, arrived very late on Saturday 14th.
The in-laws were going to stay in an Airbnb place just 5 minutes walk away from our house, but we first brought them to our house for a snack and also to celebrate Benoit's birthday which had been on the 13th, while he was flying.

After a good night's rest the whole family met up with our son Michael, wife and kids at the Dome Cafe at Coogee Beach. Afterwards we walked over to the small protected beach so that little J could swim. The sun was setting when we drove to the port suburb of Fremantle for dinner.

In Fremantle, as there was still time, the men wanted to stop for a beer at Little Creatures Brewery before going to dinner at Kailis Fishmarket Cafe at Fremantle Harbour.
As the name implies, the fish and seafood is fresh, and you choose what you want to eat and they cook it for you.

It was a wonderful first day with the whole family, and on Monday 16th, we would be driving south to Margaret River for a 4 day mini-holiday.

Travel posts to follow next week.

Have a wonderful weekend :)

From top L to R - at the counter inside Kailis, the Christmas decor at the harbour, the harbour, Christmas tree at Little Creatures Brewery, plate of prawns

My November Wrap up

Linking to Eileen's blog for Saturday Critters.

A busy social month for me, which started on Friday 1st November with a buffet dinner at Eat Greek Restaurant, by the Swan River in South Fremantle, with Dr K and Dr J from the clinic where I work.   
Dr K had once again invited us to go to Rottnest island on his boat on Saturday, but we had to decline as we had too much to do at home.
It was a fun night with entertainment by the restaurant staff with dancing and plate breaking. Dr S and I were given plates to throw onto the dance floor 🤣.

On Thursday 7th members of the newly formed Portuguese Australian Women's Association of WA met with the Portuguese Ambassador at the Italian restaurant La Capannina, in the beachside suburb of Scarborough where I spotted the mural I wrote about in this post.

 

On Saturday 9th, Jose, I and our oldest friends W and L attended the 2nd Fado Gala at the Adriatic club in the northern suburbs of Stirling.
The event was organized by the Portuguese Social Club of Perth and it was a huge success.
Fado is a form of music characterised by mournful, melancholic tunes, and lyrics about loss, the sea, death, love, is accompanied by a 12 string instrument - the Portuguese Guitar, .
Fado can be traced to the 1820's and is since the 27th November 2011 part of the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists.

Fado's most famous singers include Amália Rodrigues (who died in 1999), Mariza, Dulce Pontes, Carlos do Carmo, Katia Guerreiro...
You can hear one of my favourite Fado songs "Chuva" (rain) by Mariza and "Lisboa Menina e Moça" (Lisbon girl and young woman) by Carlos do Carmo.

In this event about 10 people sang, most were quite good, a few Portuguese Australian ladies that were obviously not so fluent in Portuguese had a bit of difficulty pronouncing words, but there was a Croatian lady who fell in love with Fado, learned how to sing it, and we were all amazed that her pronunciation was fantastic! The two guitarists were Australian with special mention to the one that played the Portuguese guitar (on the right) who also sang 2 fados in his best Portuguese.
The highlight of the evening was a young Dad "Rodrigo" who was fantastic. I've met the couple at other social events and at the end of the evening I congratulated him, and his wife of 12 years said she had no idea he could sing, as he didn't even sing in the shower!

On Monday 11th I drove to Victoria Park, a suburb near my work place to deliver toiletries to a charity that collects toiletries for homeless women. 

While there I spotted a couple of murals I hadn't seen before, as well as a cute 3 wheeled car.

The Isetta is an Italian-designed microcar built  during 1953 to 1956, under license in a number of different countries, including Argentina, Spain, Belgium, France, Brazil, Germany (by BMW), and the United Kingdom. Because of its egg shape and bubble-like windows, it became known as a bubble car, a name also given to other similar vehicles. 

How cute is this car?

The house next door got the walls plastered and the ceilings installed. Mid month it had all doors and windows installed, so I'm no longer able to visit, unless I go in when the tradesmen are working.  Construction workers usually have a break mid December and return beginning of January, so I presume there won't be much going on in the house until then.

On Saturday 16th,  Jose and I visited a couple of places in the Open House Perth, which you read about here.

The same day my new great-niece was born in Lisbon. She was due on the 23rd, which is my grandson's birthday and also her Dad's birthday, but she decided to come 1 week earlier.

On Sunday 17th, our friends W and L invited our family to lunch at their house by the Canning River, the one where we can feed the ducks and the black swans. It was a warm day, and we took our swimming gear and enjoyed some time in the pool after a delicious lunch. Around 6pm our friend called the ducks and swans and we enjoyed seeing some young ducklings and other babies and how the parents fed them. 

My grandson was excited to see and feed the duck and swans, who almost came to eat out of his hand.

Afterwards we went on the round boat for a ride down the river. A perfect day!

Our friend's house is the one with the small jetty

Friday 22nd, my day off work, I met up with Grace from Perthdailyblog at Ikea for lunch and a chat. I took the opportunity to buy a single latex mattress to fit the day bed we bought from them about 6 years ago. At the time we just bought 1 mattress as we only had a single visitor to sleep there. The bed converts into a double bed which we will need when our visitors arrive in less than 2 weeks. 

The day bed with the two mattresses

Saturday 23rd I participated in the "Buy nothing" group "No Sale Garage Sale".  The organizers got together with our neighbour group and mapped out a garage sale trail that included about 7 houses in each suburb.

One of the young ladies I met through the swaps had a few things to give but not enough to hold a garage sale and I offered for her to join me. About 30 to 40 people came to have a look at my 3 tables in the driveway, and at the end what was left filled up two cardboard boxes which I took to one of the Charity shops.

It was a great opportunity to clear out a lot of stuff I didn't want/need and a chance to donate to people from my community.

Sunday 24th, it was our grandson's birthday party. 

My son had built a tree house with a slide and installed the wooden play house on top. The kids had great fun climbing the structure and coming down on the slide.

In their suburb some of the lights for the Christmas lights trail, had been set up. This year they had 4 new ornaments and Jose and I took photos in them - the angels and the snow family.

Wednesday 27th I met up with two former work colleagues, Jan and Gill, who are now retired for a catch up before the end of the year.

Throughout the month I've been painting bits and pieces of furniture and I've managed to sell a couple of things. I find fixing up things and painting quite relaxing, so even though I've been busy I try and find a bit of time after I get home to paint a little bit 😉

A chair I found on the verge rubbish collection which I painted to match the roll top desk I painted for Jose

Another verge collection find, removed the seat that was damaged, painted, put a wood seat and made a pillow

This is the newest project, which I hope to finish and sell before the family arrives, but if not it stays in the garage together with the other pieces of furniture awaiting to be painted...

This small roll top desk cost me $20, had a few dents which I covered with wood filler and is being painted with Mustard and Midnight blue from the Fusion Mineral paint range.

This Friday 29th, I baked my Christmas cake as the fruit had been soaking for about 3 weeks already and also make soaps - coffee soap and Sea breeze with oats soap, which will mostly go towards little gifts for work colleagues and friends.

Jose has also finished the front porch and the entrance to the house, and it looks so much better.

I also painted the formerly yellow big pot in black and turquoise to go with the other blue pots.

As Jose says, I've always got a brush and paint on hand ready to paint, don't let the cats sit for too long or they'll get a makeover too 🤣🤣.

The magpies that seem to live in the park across the road, when they see either of us in the front of the house, often cross the road to our driveway asking for food.

I've been giving them walnuts, or olives which I know they like as they used to pick the olives that had fallen on the ground under our olive tree. 

I read somewhere that magpies live in the same area for up to 20 years and that if you treat them well they know you and will be friendly with you.  They are quite feared at nesting time and are know to attack people.

The Rainbow Lorikeets, also come to our olive tree or loquat tree which now only has dry fruit, but they still eat them.

Rainbow lorikeet on the olive tree and the various magpies that visit us

And I end this month by celebrating our 39th wedding anniversary on Saturday 30th.

In the morning I had to drive to Fremantle (30min away) to join the Committee members of the Portuguese Australian Women's Association for a photo shoot by the Fisherman statue, that honours the men who started the fishing industry in Fremantle, which were the first Portuguese and Italian that came to Perth in the 50's.

I don't yet have the group photo, so I leave you with a photo with me and the fisherman.

This year with so much going on, I didn't even organize a lunch or dinner with friends, so we went out to dinner at a Japanese restaurant, Ippudo in Carousel shopping centre. The food was different from the usual Japanese food I've eaten before, but it was delicious.

An opportunity to see the lively restaurant/entertainment area at night and I also I discovered two new murals...

Next year I will be better organized and throw a party for our 40th anniversary!

Wedding day - 30 Nov 1980

And after this long post, if you still want to listen to Mariza and Carlos do Carmo, please check out these You Tube videos. I'm not too much into Fados, but these are my favourite Fado songs.