The Rest of July

​It is about time that I shared what else we got up to during the month of July.

Remember that I attended the California Fashions exhibition just before we went on holidays and found the vintage magazines with information in them.  Well, after we came home I had lunch with one of the organisers and gave her the extra magazines.  She then asked what I was doing on the following Tuesday, as some of the former employees were going to have a morning tea and the museum ladies were going to interview them.  Would I be able to come along and help?  You bet I could.  It was a wonderful and interesting time with about a dozen former employees attending.  I learned so much more.  I even ended up with my photo in the local paper. There is going to be a book written, so that all the research that has been carried out and information gathered from the former employees won’t be lost.

A big event each year since 2015 has been the Bathurst Winter Festival.

Last year the local council stopped hosting it so another organisation took it on.  Their venue was not idea, so this year the Showground Trust, together with many local sponsors, took it over.  It ran for the two weeks of the school holidays and was quite successful, so fingers crossed it will continue into the future.  

We went down on the first Saturday night.

Another afternoon out that I had was to attend a Sashiko Workshop put on by the local Embroiderers Guild. There were only two of us in the class.  We mainly learned how to mark out the patterns for stitching. I have to admit that I haven’t progressed the project at all since that day.  I will eventually make four panels and hopefully make a rice bag with them.

One of my informal wishes each month is to try a new recipe.  Sometimes it happens, often not.  Well, I’m not quite sure what happened in July, but I made seven new recipes.  Yes, seven.  All winter comfort food type meals.  I had a little pile of the free magazines that you get at Coles and I went through them and pulled out the recipes I liked the look of.  It ended up being a rather European centric selection.  I have just taken the photos from the magazine, as they are presented much nicer than mine.  From the top left, there was Cassoulet, seafood marinara, a Greek style lemon chicken, Spanish red wine chicken casserole, beef stroganoff and Curtis Stone’s Best Bolognaise.  The Bolognaise took much longer and was more detailed that the one I normally use that came from a Margaret Fulton Leggos Tomato Paste ad in a magazine in the early 80s and I’ve only ever made beef stroganoff from a packet before.  I also made a seafood chowder that was very tasty.  The seafood marinara was not all that great as it was too tomatoey, but the others were all good.  I did let Mick know that this experimenting won’t last and to expect just the normal old meals.

 My other informal wish to read a book didn’t happen.  Not to worry.

I finally got around to donating a couple of quilts that I finished earlier in the year.  They have gone to the nursing home where Mum used to live.  They will be given to residents that have come in with very little and therefore their rooms look rather plain.  I think that is a wonderful outcome.

And that about sums up the month.