June capers

There has been much tragic news around the world lately. It seems every morning when I turn on the radio to the news there is news of another tragedy somewhere in the world. There have been numerous terrorist attacks, particularly in Europe, where innocent people have been killed or badly injured, and also lives and homes lost in a terrible apartment fire in London.  I am sometimes afraid for the madness that seems to be going on in the world, where it is leading to, and what the future holds for our children and grand children. Long gone is the innocence of our own childhood.

These world events make me pause and remember that I have much to be thankful for.  Not to make light of these events, but, perhaps because of them, today I give my blog over to some of the things that I have been able to enjoy in the last couple of weeks. Indeed I am very grateful for living in a relatively safe country where we are free to do as we wish, within reason. 

I am enjoying in sun in my June garden, although rain is desperately needed. It's winter but we have had no more rain since the one evening of rain of over a week ago which I wrote about in my last blog post.  

Top centre is Lilly Pilly - an Australian native fruit. I wrote about them last year here - Lilly Pilly jam
And bottom left hand corner is one of the Australian Native Hibiscuses which has just started flowering in my garden - isn't it a gorgeous colour!   

I am enjoying reading the memoir, Rabbits and Rosaries, written by my friend and former Catholic Nun, Glenys Yeoman. I am enjoying playing my old Carpenters record on my new record player, and Dami Im's tribute to the Carpenters. I am enjoying watching Series 3 of Poldark (I've been a fan ever since reading the books years ago), and last week I enjoyed watching my Grandson sing in his school choir at the Eisteddfod.

 A couple of weeks ago I enjoyed dancing with my Flamenco dance group, Sol y Sombra Spanish Dance Company, at the Eisteddfod. We won the "Dance Production" section with our "Cafe Flamenco". This is the view before the show. Unfortunately no photos during the performance as photography of the show is only allowed to be taken by the hired professional photography company.

 I celebrated with my two friends  who were both awarded an Order of Australia in the Queen's birthday honours list - historian Phyllis Barnes for her ongoing community and historic work including a number of published historical books (she is a member of my writer's group and truly inspiring), and Eileen Wenn for her services to the the floral arts through a variety of roles including former Australian Floral Art Association president (I know Eileen through Sol y Sombra and she has always been an encouraging supporter of my flower photography). These pictures have been copied from the Bunbury Herald newspaper.

I enjoyed attending the exhibition opening of the collaborative exhibition, "On the Same Page", and the artist talk by two of my friends, printmaker and mixed media artists, Denise Gillies and Lynne Mitchell.  It was a joy to see their beautiful multilayered work, both together and separately, and it was fascinating to hear about how they went about their collaborative work for this exhibition.
Denise and Lynne agreed when working on a collaborative piece it is important to loose any preciousness, to make decisions together, to be open to negotiation, and to TRUST.

"Their multilayered compositions explore texture, shape, colour and the environment. Their collaborative works display openness, trust and comfortable friendship while respecting the artistic creativity of each other". (Graeme Pages-Oliver)

This morning my dear husband has been busy painting the second bathroom and toilet, (thank you! x), whilst I made ginger biscuits and did some pruning in the garden.
And I felt privileged that I have not one but two bathrooms, when I know that there are many people all over the world who don't even have the luxury of clean running water.

 Last weekend we drove up to the beautiful Ferguson Valley and picked olives on the property of a friend of ours, and then enjoyed coffee and cake in the sun on the patio at Ferguson Hart Estate (thankyou Jan!) You can find Ferguson Hart here - Ferguson Hart Estate

We also visited the Wellington Mills community walk trail where the recently erected interpretive signage features a photo of mine of the old Bunbury jetty pylons along the bottom edge of the panels. So wonderful to see my photography out like this.

Last week I did a photo shoot for my beautiful friend and pro-blogger, Jo Castro, from Lifestyle Fifty. You can go to her fabulous blog by clicking here - Lifestyle Fifty
and my grandson helped me with a photography group project, the theme of "fragile".

And finally some opportunities to go walking out in nature - food for the soul. How blessed I feel to be able to do this. 

Did you want the recipe for the Ginger Nut biscuits (cookies) ? Here is is! 

2 cups Self Raising flour
3/4 cup sugar
4oz (113gm butter or margarine)
2 teaspoons ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 egg
4 dessertspoons golden syrup (you could substitute with corn syrup)

Beat butter and sugar together well. Add egg, syrup and then the dry ingredients (sifted together). Mix together well. You might need to add a little more flour if it is a bit sticky. 
Form into small balls and flatten a little onto baking paper on the tray. Bake in a moderate oven (190 C) for 15 minutes. 
Makes about 27. 
You can also roll this mixture out, and cut into shapes. My grandsons have enjoyed making gingerbread men with this recipe. 


Thank you so much for stopping by and for your indulgence while I look back over the last couple of weeks. I have much to be grateful for. Do you find there are times where you take stock and be grateful? Perhaps you would like to share with us in the comments.
I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week.

I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!
 

Mosaic Monday
Our World Tuesday
Through My Lens 
Image-in-ing
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global
Travel Photo Thursday 
The Lovin' Life Team over at Lifestyle Fifty
Sky Watch Friday

What's baking at your house?

I don't know about you, but winter seems to me to be a time for baking, and making hearty soups and casseroles. I love the smell of biscuits baking. Home-made biscuits are so much better I think than their store bought cousins - although there are also yummy store biscuits too. (For my American friends, when I say biscuits I mean cookies  :)

When I was a newly-wed almost 40 years ago, and not yet quite 20, I baked biscuits for my husband for the first time a few weeks after we were married. You can see a pic of me below here making that first batch of biscuits, a pic of the two of us, and our little flat. We were on the top floor and thought we had it all. Oh to be that young and carefree again!  My husband must have thought my making biscuits was note-worthy to have taken a photo.

While I had young children at home baking cakes and biscuits continued with recipes from my Mum, Aunts, Sister and those favourite cookbooks for Australian cooks - The Golden Wattle Cookbook, and the Country Women's Association Cookbook. No household would have been complete without these cookbooks.

Let the sun shine in - Macadamias

Let the sun shine into your life.

I took these images at my friend's Macadamia nut farm yesterday at Roelands near Bunbury, for her new Facebook page. 
Nuts are available to purchase at the Boyanup markets the fourth Sunday of every month. 

Melting Moments & Hydrangeas in the garden

Do you sometimes have a day when you set out to do something, and then it ends of as something completely different? That's how my day was today.

Inspired by a recent photo I had seen of afternoon tea in a lavender garden I made a batch of Melting Moments from my Mum's recipe that I used to help her make when I was a child. It is a happy memory I have from my childhood, pressing the top of the biscuits with a fork to make the pattern.

While the biscuits were in the oven I set up the chairs and table in the garden. 
It's nice to use pretty cups sometimes don't you think?




Please click on "read more" to keep reading and seeing more

Photographing on black

Playing around with photographing on a black tile in my light box with my macro lens the other day. I must say I haven't used my light box for a long time, so it was fun to get it out and experiment.

 Truss tomatoes - I like the way the red really stands out against the black in this shot - just be careful you clean off all the specs on the black tile or glass - it is amazing how they show up on your image!

Cinnamon quills - 

Star Anise -

old spoons -

This one is mushrooms on a mirror with a black backdrop-

cherries on mirror with white backdrop -

and cinnamon on brown paper

and Orios! on white with white background -

 Thank you for stopping by. Do you spend time playing around and experimenting with your camera? Have a wonderful week.

If you would like to see more of my food photography please go to my Flickr page by clicking here - Jill's food set on Flickr

I am linking up to Mosaic Monday  and Our World Tuesday  . Please click on the links to see the work of other contributors around the world. 


 

Exploring food photography

I have decided this year to make my project exploring food photography and food photography.
So last Monday, on my day off my paid job.....I spent a lovely day cooking and taking photos of the results.
Most of these are in natural light in my garden, as they say the best food photographers use natural light, although I do still favour my light box for some subjects.

Digital Photography magazine's Macro edition , Volume 12, says that "Food ultimately looks its best right after it has just been served. Often food will start losing its full appeal no more than a couple of minutes after leaving the kitchen. At its best, you should still be able to capture the steam rising from its surface and savour the fresh succulent juices still oozing from the dish that has just been served"

So with this in mind, here is what I learnt.

Here are the eggs ready for the souffle. Take time with the arrangement. This photo was taken in window light, and then sharpened and brightened in Photoshop Elements. 














Cheese and chive soufflé. The soufflé may look fantastic in the oven, but it starts to fall as soon as you take it out, so have everything set up to take the photo as soon as the soufflé comes out of the oven. I had everything set ready to go, but just taking it from the oven to my garden was enough time for the soufflé to start to flop.

I think this one (on the left) is my favourite from the soufflé series.



If you are going to take an overhead picture, then make sure you are totally overhead so everything is in focus. However, I still like this arrangement and photo.






Pizza for lunch?

This is a tomato, salami, mozzarella and pumpkin pizza decorated with a few basil leaves, and made on homemade pizza base. Photographed in natural light under the shade of my pergola in my garden.

What I learnt - use more Mouzarella so the cheese is dripping when you lift the piece of pizza. It is difficult to focus, use a shutter remote and pick up the piece of pizza all at the same time!  It would have added a nice touch to have had some wine in the wine glasses in the background.

Would you like some Olive Bread with that Pizza?
I bought the Olive Bread from a local bakery. I think the basket and the outdoor setting adds to a rustic natural homely effect.



Biscotti - almond bread - for desert?
This one was taken in my light box, as I wanted clean sharp lines with no distracting background.
What I learnt - when you buy a packed of biscotti, half of them will be broken when you open the packet!
I think this shot would make a good magazine shot as there is room for writing at the top. Placing the biscotti to one side of the shot, would also have left room for writing if it were to go into a magazine.

Thank for joining me on my food journey. I hope you have enjoyed this post. The results were certainly yummy to eat!

Thankyou to "Tiddlewinks and More" for giving me the inspiration to start a food project, the Flickr Food Styling group and its members for continued inspiration (their work is amazing), and to Kate, Martha and Linda on Flickr for their continued encouragement.

And to you for looking! I look forward to hearing from you.