Springtime in Melbourne

A posy of flowers that Poppy and I gathered from the garden thismorning.

once we were young

photos from 1973

Here's a blast from the past!
Noel purchased a gadget that scans slides and photo negatives, and we have started looking through boxes of slides.


Family farewelling us at Melbourne Airport.


Sydney harbour and the Opera House from the air.


Joy in Hawaii, August 1973. A stopover on our journey from Melbourne to Michigan.










Our home at 1454 Biscayne Way, Haslett, Michigan


Our Church - East Lansing Trinity

knitted woollen rug

Here's my winter knitting project.
It's made of pure wool - using up scraps and re-knitting an old unfinished project.
I used standard 8-ply wool and 4mm knitting needles. It probably wouldn't matter if you varied that, as long as it was consistent throughout.
To knit each square:
Cast on 51 stitches
1st and alt rows - knit
2nd and alt rows - decrease at the middle 3 stitches of the row, by slip 1, knit 2 together, pass slip stitch over.
Continue until 3 stitches remain.
Knit 3 together, and tie off.
To join squares:
I used 42 squares for this little rug, and stitched them together using a herrigbone stitch on both the reverse side, then again in the contrasting brown wool on the top side.

I like this little rug, and have started another.
Joy

Dad's MBE

[Please click on article to enlarge it]

Marion has told more of the story at ABC New England Radio.

Poppy's day at the farm

A story in pictures

Backyard jam

Today Noel has made a very nice batch of jam. [Photo: with a couple of jars of jam]

It's backyard jam because the fruit grew in the backyard.
The recipe is based on the fig jam recipe from the 1976 Queensland WMU cookery book (they didn't include the 'P', which stands for Presbyterian, and the 'WMU' stands for Women's Missionary Union). Fig is the main fruit. Other fruit added are cumquats and peaches, so it has a citrus tang from the cumquats.

Here's the recipe:
Weigh the fruit. The ratio of fruit to sugar is 4:3
1.6 Kg fruit
1.2 Kg sugar

Cut stalks off the figs and halve or quarter them; cut any unripe ones into smaller pieces. Cut the other fruit to suitable sizes.
Put cut fruit into a large pot with about half the sugar sprinkled over the layers. Let them stand for about 12 hours, which will bring out juice.
Next day bring the fruit to the boil, then add the remainder of the sugar.
Boil until it jells.
Fill clean dry glass jars.
If you have metal lids for the jars, put the lids on while the jam is very hot, and invert them. This heat sterilises the lid and airspace. After a couple of hours stand the jars upright.
If you don't have lids for the jars, allow to cool without cover, then cover with suitable material (I use a piece of baking paper and rubber band).