A sister remembered

 Sister, mother, wife, daughter, grandmother and beloved 'El' to us all. 

Three years ago today.

The continuing search for the perfect marmalade!

Okay I think I have found the truly perfect grapefruit marmalade recipe!


It is made with pink grapefruit and is stunningly easy, beautiful and delicious. No more peeling, removing seeds or whatever. 

The boiled grapefruit cut in half - so pretty!

Everything is chopped up!

The finished product!

One thing I loved was that after you boil the fruit they seem to have transformed into something quite different and magical, and the whole fruit is soft and edible. Quite amazing after years of thinly peeling, removing fibres and so on.


Maybe this is it. I can stop searching......

In memory of Janet

This past week Janet Twigg Patterson quietly farewelled her stay on this earth.  Janet was an acknowledged master of the Chinese brush style of painting. She was also a wonderful teacher who shared her talents and skills with students from all walks of life. She was a woman of strong opinions but she was also incredibly kind and gentle. Janet contributed to the richness of the life of her community wherever she lived.


A beautiful buddhist ceremony was held to celebrate Janet's life. It was an honour to farewell her with her family and friends.


While meditating on the times shared with Janet in her studio and feeling thankful for having had the good fortune to meet and get to know her,  I did this little painting.

You can have a look at some of Janet's beautiful art at her website, the Red Crane Gallery.

High school

Eek! I am writing this to participate in Words and Pictures on Pip Lincolne's Meet me at Mike's blog

:: Words And Pictures : High School
by Julie Delves

When I was in year 10 at high school  all year 10 students sat for the 'Commonwealth Scholarship' (known as the comm schol among the cogniscenti!!). We had to sit an English test and a Maths test and the aim was to win a scholarship, which entitled the winner to a certain amount of money for the next two years which could be spent on something educational, like fees to a private school.


All the year 10 students practised the test and we all expected the 'smart' kids to win. I was not a 'smart' kid but like everyone else I did the practise tests. I was quite good at English but maths was not my strong suit. I consistently got three questions wrong on the maths practise tests and when I reported this to my maths teacher, who obviously thought I was a dunce, he looked at me with a smirk and commented sarcastically 'Julie, if you are only getting three wrong, you are going to win a scholarship!'. I felt embarrassed and slunk back to my chair.


However I was one of two students that year to win a scholarship, which made me realise that maybe I wasn't such a dunce after all. I can still remember the name of the other girl who won and she really was a  clever girl.


I used the money to go to a private school because a handsome teacher (who played the guitar and sang in a deep voice :-)  at the high school fell in love with me, and my parents (and the school) were not happy so they wanted me out of harms way. But that is another story.