Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

Let me catch you up on what’s been happening around here. All continues to be mellow and quirky in our universe – hope it’s the same at your place!

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Last Friday, Hong Kong Millie came over on her new pushbike to help with our garden. She’s completely gorgeous, and very obligingly let me add wings to her bike helmet to increase her riding speed…

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Sydney always has sooo much wonderful free art on display! Pete and I spent a lazy afternoon in late August walking through Sculpture at Barangaroo. Horizon by Lucy Humphrey was originally shown at Sculptures by the Sea in 2013…

Empirical View (2016) by Marcus Tatton, was Pete’s favourite…

The Grove (2014) by Margarita Sampson, is clad in red cedar shingles…

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In September, Big Boy put me onto this free iPhone app…

I thought I’d try out the guided Chinatown to Circular Quay art walk…

It was huge fun! I was astounded to discover an entire alley installation, just metres away from the main entrance to Chinatown. It’s been there for ages – I’ve been within half a block of it at least a dozen times in the past few years, but I’d never noticed it before.

In Between Two Worlds (2011) by Jason Wing, has suspended half human, half spirit figures inspired by the Aboriginal and Chinese heritage of the artist…

In the evening, these figures light up – I was fortunate enough to catch them just as the sun was setting a couple of weeks later. If you go looking for this installation, Kimber Lane is close to the Paddy’s Market Light Rail stop…

It wasn’t part of the tour, but this sculpture on George Street was shimmering like a giant snake…

Dobell Memorial Sculpture (1976) by Herbert Flugelman, Spring and Pitt Streets, Sydney…

I was delighted to discover the gloriously named Obelisk of Distances, erected in 1818 as the official point for measuring distances in NSW…

I’m pretty sure all distances to Sydney are now measured to the GPO, but it’s a joy that such a wonderful piece of Aussie history has been so carefully preserved…

A great favourite of mine – Forgotten Songs (2011) in Angel Place is a creation by Michael Thomas Hill to commemorate the songs of 50 bird species once heard in central Sydney prior to European settlement. “A poignant elegy”, my friend Joanna commented. As you stroll under the cages, the bird calls can be heard clearly, mingling with the noise of sirens and traffic from the busy city..

Windlines (2011) at Circular Quay is a wind powered sculpture in honour of the 2008 centenary of Scouting in Australia.

Inlaid riddles point to the names of sixteen locations in Greater Sydney.

I wondered if “Be Resolute Like Flint & Steel” referred to the Iron Cove Bridge…but in fact, it’s a pointer to Resolute Beach and Flint and Steel Bay in Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park (not much of a riddle, really)…

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As I strolled down George Street, I passed this wonderful window display at Louis Vuitton…

…and found monkeys in Chinatown! I’m guessing they’ve been up since Chinese New Year…

Serendipitously, the Strand Arcade was celebrating its 150th birthday when I wandered through. It’s hard to pass up a Saturday whisky tasting…

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Aliens! Or as Ella Dee pointed out, more probably markings for future tram works. Either way, many of the roads in Sydney city are covered in scribbles at the moment. On the off chance that they’re actually part of some sinister Dalek plot to invade the earth, I thought I’d better document them…

I think they’re fabulous – it’s like some mad (but very neat) mathematician has graffitied the footpaths…

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The manic bag making continues (I’ve tidied up my sewing room, so I can finally get to my machines). For my 50th birthday a couple of years ago, my friend Nic wrapped her gift in a gorgeous tea towel that was just too pretty to use. So last week I turned it into little zippered bags…

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We popped into Bonarchè in Leichhardt with Kevin and Carol for huge burgers and their to-die-for kimchi fries. Run by Roger and Tracy, this delicious little restaurant is within walking distance of home, serves wickedly good local brews, and is (thankfully) only open Thursdays to Sundays…

Here’s a photo from Small Man’s birthday dinner there in September…the sweet potato fries alone are worth the visit…

…and their British style fish and chips are the bomb…

After scoffing burgers with our friends, we were embarrassed to call it a night at 7pm lest our sons (we have five between us) made old people jokes, so we settled down for a couple of hands of 500.

It’s one of the few things that Pete and I can’t do together – we decided long ago that for the sake of our marriage, we could never be card partners. So for the last thirty years, it’s been Kevin and Pete vs Carol and I.

The night ended with a draw, and perhaps it is indicative of old age that none of us felt the need to play a decider round…

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What a longwinded post! If you’ve made it to the end, thank you for reading. What’s been happening in your world? I hope all is well with you and yours! ♥

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My fossil and mineral collection is growing.

Mostly I add small pieces to it, like the tiny coiled trilobites in the photo above (just under the mosasaur tooth), or the $15 sand dollar (which is actually the fossilised remains of a sea urchin, even though it looks like a starfish).

A recent addition though is this giant hunk of amethyst, which I found irresistible. My friend Tom had it at his stall in the Rocks Markets, and offered me a price on it that I couldn’t refuse (please don’t ask).

I’d never seen a piece of raw amethyst with such a deep purple colour before! What makes this one particularly special though is that it was cut from three intersecting stalactites – you can see their cores on the top of the specimen. I love how two of them have fused together to form a heart shape.

It comes from Artigas, Uruguay…

It’s hard to capture just how lovely this is in a photo – under the right lights, purple fire seems to glow from within the rock. My young friends Tom and Grace are convinced it’s a dragonstone! Because amethyst is a form of quartz, it’s translucent…

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Another new piece is this tiny estaingia bilobata trilobite, my first Australian fossil and the oldest piece I own. It comes from Kangaroo Island and it’s a lower Cambrian fossil (520 million years old). Australian trilobites are very rare and expensive compared to those from Morocco, so it’s a huge treat to have this one in my collection. It’s only 15mm long – not nearly as big as the photo below…

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Finally, an early Christmas present from my mum – she saw me lusting over this magnificent specimen and took pity on me. It’s a large piece from Peru, covered in an unusual combination of pyrite (in cube and octahedron form) and points of white quartz. The dark shiny bits are galena, a natural mineral form of lead…

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All these pieces were bought from Tom at the Living Fossil Gallery (Mosman and the Rocks Market). When we last spoke, he asked me if I’d bake him some sourdough – I was, of course, more than happy to do so. Last Friday, he zoomed over on his Harley to pick up a couple of loaves, and gave me these tiny fossilised nautiluses as a gift. Given they’re 160 million years old, I think I got the better end of the deal!

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