The Tingle Factor Box

Roaming Roy Finds Life In Miniature - Gloucester Tops

This week, with the weather getting cold and winter approaching, Roy decided it was time to show some of the pictures he took on his last trip to Gloucester Tops. Roy loves the Barrington and Gloucester Tops areas and is fascinated by the different types of plants which he sees there. One of the things which intrigues him most is the ‘life in miniature’ which he has noticed in the high, subalpine areas.

If you would like to visit Gloucester Tops you will need to follow Gloucester Tops Road. The road is sealed for some distance, but much of it is dirt and some even travels though farms – so watch out for cows! There are 6 river crossings to make, but they all have proper fords and we saw some quite small cars which had made the trip. Obviously, take care on these river crossings and NEVER enter flood waters. There is a flood detour which we saw signposted.

The areas which fascinate Roy in the Gloucester Tops are the subalpine areas. Subalpine areas are just under what is called the alpine area where it is too cold for trees to grow. In the subalpine areas it is cool all year round and much of the water which the plants receive comes from snow and ice. Until this snow and ice melts, the water is locked away and the plants can’t benefit. There is only a short growing season for plants in subalpine areas because of the cold and often it is also very windy and open. In Australia there are few species of tree which can grow in these harsh environments, and the main one is the Snow Gum. This tree is the hardiest of all of the eucalyptus. Unlike trees which grow in such cold conditions elsewhere in the world, the Snow Gum is an evergreen, adapting to have branches which droop under the weight of snow and allow the snow to fall off the leaves.

Other plants in the subalpine regions have made different adaptations. Plants in the subalpine areas have to grow quickly, with the time from flower to seed to germination being short because of the short growing season. Often the seeds can stay dormant in the winter and will not actually germinate until they detect a period of moist conditions which means the snow is melting and the warm growing season is starting. As water is not always easily available, the leaves are often tough, small and leathery to reduce the evaporation, and some are even rolled or covered with hairs! The most obvious adaptation though is in the size of plants. As you can see in the photos, there are plants which we see elsewhere growing in the subalpine zone, but they are very small! Even the Snow Gum is a small gum tree which only occasionally reaches 20 metres tall and usually only grows to between 4 and 8 metres tall!

Roy Creates Mince And Corn Pie

This week, Roy wanted to try one of the recipes I have told him about from my childhood. I often tell him about different dishes his Grandma cooked when I was little, and he always wants to try them himself to see what they were like. These tried and true recipes are always successful and tasty, but even more importantly, they are incredibly simple to make. So, I asked Roy’s Grandma to help me select one of these recipes and together we chose this one. Roy loved it, so this week Roy Creates Mince And Corn Pie.

You Will Need:

• 500 grams of good quality mince
• Butter or olive oil for frying
• 1 onion
• 1 apple
• 1/3 of a cup of store bought, dried breadcrumbs
• 1/3 of a cup of tomato sauce
• 3 eggs
• A tin of creamed corn (about 400 grams)
• ½ a cup of sour cream or normal cream. Roy used sour cream because he had it on hand, but cream is what the original recipe calls for. You could also use natural yoghurt
• Grated cheese to sprinkle over the top (about ½ a cup)

Method:

• Grease a pie dish (Roy just rubs butter around the inside, but you can use a spray if you prefer)
• Chop the onion finely and fry it off in the oil or butter.
• When the onion has just softened, add the mince and cook until it is browned. If your mince was very fatty, drain the fat off, otherwise just cook the mince until it looks dry.

• While the mince is cooking, peel and grate the apple (obviously, don’t use the core!)

• When the mince is cooked, add the apple, tomato sauce and breadcrumbs to the mince and mix thoroughly.

• Put the mince mix into the bottom of the pie dish and press down with a spoon

• Mix together the can of corn, the eggs and the cream until everything is combined and pour it over the top of the mince
• Sprinkle the pie with cheese
• Bake for 45 minutes or until the corn and egg mix is set and the top is golden brown.
• Let the pie sit for 5 minutes and then serve.

Note:

This pie can be made in advance (even the day before), kept in the fridge and then reheated in the oven or microwave.

He's Kind Of Odd - Gumby

Imagine you are a child living in the 1960s. Your family have finally purchased their own television set and it is so exciting! You finally have the chance to see the television shows you love, but only usually have the opportunity to watch when you are visiting friends. You are particularly looking forward to being able to see Gumby. You love the little man and his horse, and it will be so exciting to be able to see his adventures whenever you like!

When I showed the little green figurine of Gumby to the children their reaction was interesting. They love toys, but found this one slightly odd. Obviously, the figure was of a ‘person’, but he was an odd shape and colour. He was also very flexible, much more than they are used to. The thing which they found most intriguing though was the shape of Gumby. The idea you can create a character from ‘any old shape is totally awesome’.

Gumby is one of the most famous of the early clay animation (also known as claymation) series. Stop motion animation and clay based animation had their origins in the late 1800s and early 1900s but Gumby was the first clay figure to dominate popular culture. Gumby was created by Art Clokey with help from his wife Ruth. Art went to film school in America and while he was studying, in 1953, he created a short, 3 minute film called ‘Gumbasia’ as a parody of Disney’s ‘Fantasia’. The film was a montage of moving, growing clay figures, set to music, and it caught the eye of Sam Engel who was a movie producer. Engel was impressed by the film and asked Art to create a new character for childrens television.

There were problems with animating clay figures under hot lights though and so the characters had to be created to allow for these. The figure had to be substituted for another model when the clay became dirty and misshapen so the character needed to be quick and easy to recreate. A geometrical figure seemed best and Ruth suggested Art start with the shape of a gingerbread boy and see what happened. Soon the character of Gumby was decided upon and not long after, other characters, like Pokey, Gumby’s horse best friend were also created, still using geometric basics to allow them to be remodelled quickly and easily when a new model was needed. By the 1960s Gumby was dominating childrens television and the series continued to be produced and aired for many years. Even today, Gumby is occasionally seen on television, though he is more unusual. The techniques used in his creation remain popular in animation though – just look at Wallace and Grommit!

Roaming Roy Remembers - The Merchant Navy

This week, with ANZAC Day almost upon us, Roy decided it was time to remember and commemorate the merchant navy. We tend to think of soldiers, airmen and ‘real’ navy personnel when we think of people who gave their lives during the war, but there are many others who gave their time and even their lives. Some of these men were the men of the merchant navy and Roy decided it was time to visit their memorial and remember their sacrifices.

If you would like to visit the Merchant Seamen Memorial it is located near Norah Head Lighthouse, at Norah Head on the NSW Central Coast. The lighthouse, and the memorial which is not far from it’s base, are not far from Toukley, and can be found at 40 Bush Street, Norah Head. While you are visiting the memorial make sure to visit the lighthouse too. The grounds of the lighthouse are able to be visited at any time (though you might need to walk up the road), and you can even stay in one of the old lighthouse keepers quarters, but if you want to see the interior and climb the 96 steps to the top of the tower, you will need to take a tour. Roy has visited, and to find out more click here.

There are about 1800 shipwrecks to be found off the coast of NSW and 19 of these belong to merchant ships which were sunk during World War II. On top of the 19 which were actively sunk, there were many more merchant ships which were attacked, and many merchant sailors died or were injured working for the ‘merchant navy’. Despite these losses and sacrifices for many years the story of these seamen was not well known outside the small towns up and down the coast who witnessed the events. Yet the merchant navy were vital to the war effort. Without ships to carry supplies, Australia could not have produced many of the things needed for survival, or indeed to make and supply the munitions and even ships needed to fight the war.

From the very beginning of the war, merchant shipping was controlled by the Shipping Control Board and ships were armed to be able to defend themselves, their crew, passengers and their cargo. Big passenger ships like the Kanimbla and Duntroon were converted to be armed cruisers but their crews were still drawn from the merchant navy. Some of these men volunteered for a special, three day training course to become part of the gunnery crew, and there were always one or two ‘DEMS’ (Defensively Equipped Merchant Ship) men drawn from the reserves of the RAN on board large ships. For the most part though, the men of the merchant navy were simply sailors and seamen who were untrained for war and unprepared for what they would experience. Most of the guns which were added to the ships were useful against air or surface attack, and not a single ship was sunk in such an attack. However, all but two of the ships which were sunk were hit by shells or torpedoes from submarines and the other two were sunk by mines. In addition to the 19 ships lying off the coast of NSW, another 11 ships were lost in Australian waters and 654 people died serving in the Merchant Navy. To learn more about the Merchant Navy, click here.

Roy Creates Wartime 'Fruit Gingerbread'

Earlier this week, Roy was very interested in the cookbook which we examined – the book of Wartime Recipes prepared by the Australian Dried Fruits Association and the Emily McPherson College of Domestic Economy. He is always fascinated by old recipes, and by the types of things people made. He decided he really wanted to try a recipe from the book, but choosing just one was a little tricky. He eventually chose a Fruit Gingerbread because his Grandpa loves ginger, so he thought he would enjoy it - and he did! So this week, Roy Creates Wartime 'Fruit Gingerbread'.

You Will Need:

• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 cup of raisins or sultanas
• 150 grams of butter or margarine (they used dripping)
• 1 egg
• ½ a teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• 2 cups of plain flour
• 2 tablespoons of golden syrup. You could also use treacle (and this was originally recommended as a substitute) If you warm the spoon first, the syrup will come off the spoon more easily.
• 1 cup of sour milk (add a teaspoon of white vinegar to the milk and let it sit until it curdles slightly. Originally, this would just be milk which was a little old, or which had been too hot, but adding a little vinegar works fine)
• 1 dessertspoon of ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of mixed spice
• 1 dessertspoon of ground ginger

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 160 degrees celsius and line a lamington tin with baking paper

• Put the sugar, golden syrup, butter, salt, mixed spice, cinnamon and ginger in a large saucepan and heat until the butter melts and everything combines. You don’t want to boil the mix, just heat it until everything is smooth and well mixed.
• Set the mix aside to cool a little, and while it is cooling sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda together.
• Lightly beat the egg in a small bowl with a little of the milk

• When the mix has cooled a little, carefully add the egg to the butter mix. If you are worried about cooking the egg, add a little of the hot mix to the bowl with the egg, beating all the time and then slowly pour the egg into the mix, again beating all the time.
• Add the remaining milk and mix.

• Add the flour and mix thoroughly until the mixture is smooth.
• Add the Fruit and mix well
• Pour the mix into your prepared tray and smooth the top.
• Bake for 40 minutes to an hour (it will depend on how thick your cake is). The cake is cooked when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out without any mix clinging to it.
• Cool and enjoy!

They Don't Look Too Tasty - Wartime Recipes

Imagine you are housewife living during the Second World War. Your eldest son is off fighting and you dread the mailman arriving in case he brings bad news. Feeding your husband and other children is also very difficult. Food is rationed, and everything has to be made to last. Thank goodness for the Wartime Recipes booklet you have received. The recipes are very frugal and easy to make, but they still taste good. Hopefully there might even be something which you can make for your daughters coming birthday!

When I showed the children this ‘Wartime Recipes’ booklet, prepared by the Australian Dried Fruits Association and the Emily McPherson College of Domestic Economy, their reactions were very funny. Several of the children enjoy cooking, but they had never seen recipes like those in this booklet. The recipes use very little sugar and often dripping (fat) is used in place of butter. They weren’t at all sure the food prepared according to these recipes would be at all nice, but I can assure them that the recipes not only work (though we use butter instead of dripping), but they are quite tasty! Come back on Friday and Roy will show you how to cook one of his favourites from this book.

During the Second World War, there was a huge shortage of people to do essential jobs for the war effort. Accompanying this shortage of workers, was a shortage in essential supplies like clothing, petrol and food. All of these things were rationed by the government meaning that each person was allowed a specific quantity of each thing. Rationing certainly made life tougher than it had been in peace time, but most Australians supported the rationing as it helped the war effort, but also meant that everybody had a fair access to essential supplies. However, there were runs on certain items before rationing was officially introduced. For example, there were rumours of match shortages or rationing, so people purchased thousands of them to ensure they would not go without.

One of the most important things which was rationed was food. Every person received a set number of ration coupons for the year which were used in shops instead of money and different things cost different numbers of coupons. Once the coupons were spent, people had to wait until the next year before getting new coupons. For men, living on the coupons was not too hard, but for women with large families things could be very difficult. Classes were established and books were released to help women cope with the rationing. These showed women how to substitute cheap or even free items for more expensive ingredients. One of the most common substitutions was dripping (which was the fat from cooked meat and was therefore ‘free’) for butter. The books, like the Wartime Recipes booklet I showed the children, also provided women with recipes which used less in the way of expensive, rationed ingredients like sugar yet still produced something tasty.

Roaming Roy Finds A Marriage Place With A Difference - Marriage Trees

Earlier this week, Roy was going through his photo archive of last years visits, looking for interesting places which he hadn’t yet written up. He came across photos from his visit to Raymond Terrace and remembered the beautiful ‘Marriage Trees’ and fascinating building he discovered in the old central business area. He was really taken with the history in this quiet street and the beauty of the streetscape when he visited and wanted to share the photos with his friends.

If you would like to visit Raymond Terrace it is located at the confluence of the Hunter and Williams Rivers and is a little less than 30 kilometres North from Newcastle along the Pacific Highway. The Pacific Highway does not run through the centre of the town, but you can easily detour into Raymond Terrace by taking Adelaide St which runs all the way through Raymond Terrace before rejoining the Pacific Highway. There is, of course, plenty to see in the town with shops, parks, restaurants, walks and plenty of history and heritage! The area which particularly interested Roy is King Street, the original business centre.

There are lots of historic areas in Raymond Terrace with the area first being explored in 1797 by a member of Lieutenant John Shortland’s party, whose name was Raymond. Lieutenant Colonel Paterson, who was the then governor, visited in 1801 and was followed by Governor Macquarie who visited in 1812 and 1818, both times with the view to establishing a settlement. The town site was surveyed in 1822 and 1823 and Raymond Terrace was gazetted in 1837. Land sales began in 1838 and not long after a courthouse, police station, flour mill and punt were in use and soon the area was an important shipping port along the rivers.

By 1840 the main centre of business in Raymond Terrace was King Street which is only a short distance from the river bank. King Street was also the centre of ‘personal’ life in these early days, the centre being two heritage listed fig trees standing majestically about half way down the street. These trees were reputedly used in the early days of Raymond Terrace, before the Churches were built, as the location for weddings. King Street was abandoned as the centre for business in 1855 when the street flooded.

Roy Creates Crustless Brunch Flan

This week, Roy really wanted a tasty dish which he could enjoy for a late breakfast when he came home from an early morning commitment. He figured by the time he got home he would be hungry, and so we looked for a dish which would be tasty, edible cold or easy to reheat if he felt like eating it warm. When we found this old recipe for a breakfast flan, full of eggs, bacon and cheese, we thought it would be perfect. So this week, Roy Creates Crustless Brunch Flan.

You Will Need:

• 1 cup of fresh breadcrumbs. Roy just puts 2 or 3 slices of bread into a little food processor, but you could grate the bread if you preferred
• An onion
• 250 grams of bacon
• 1 tablespoon of dried parsley or 2 tablespoons of fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 1 cup of grated cheese
• 1 cup hot milk (Roy heated it for 1 minute in the microwave)
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten

Method:

• Grease a pie dish and preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius
• Chop up the onion and bacon (throw away the excess bacon fat).

• Combine all of the ingredients, other than the milk

• Add the milk and mix thoroughly
• Pour the mix into the pie dish and smooth the top of the flan
• Bake for 30 minutes or until the flan is browned and set
• This pie can be eaten hot or cold. If you plan to eat it straight out of the oven, let it sit for 10 minutes as it will sink a little.
• Enjoy!

It's Almost Ancient! Norah Wellings Black Doll

Imagine you are a child living in the 1930s. It is coming up to your birthday, and Mummy and Daddy have asked if there is anything special you would like. You would really love a soft toy which you could cuddle and go on adventures with, but you don’t mind what it looks like. You will love anything! Your friend has a beautiful Norah Wellings Sailor Doll but you can’t ask for one of those, they are much too expensive. So imagine your surprise on your birthday when you find a little black Norah Wellings boy sitting waiting for you!

When I showed the children this doll by Norah Wellings their reactions were rather mixed. Some of the children loved the doll and felt very sorry that it was missing its arm. They thought it must have been well loved though to lose the arm! Other children though thought the doll was rather scary, with its staring eyes and big pink lips. They all agreed the little boy was very realistic though, especially for a doll which was ‘almost ancient’ as one child told me.

Norah Wellings is very famous amongst doll collectors with her soft dolls being very popular. She was born in England in 1893 and was quite an intelligent woman. She left school when she was 14 because she needed to help her mother look after her father who was an invalid, but she continued to receive tutoring. She went on to study sewing, needlework, dressmaking and gardening with the London School of Art by correspondence! In 1919 though her father died and Norah had the freedom to start her career in toy making. She went to the management of the Chad Valley Company, a toy company who had just opened a soft toy factory and got a job as a toy designer. She stayed with Chad Valley for seven years.

In 1926 Norah and her older brother Leonard decided to open the Victoria Toy Works Factory in the same building as Leonards plastering business. They started with just seven employees, including Norah. In 1927 Norah was given the opportunity to present a specially designed doll to the Queen and also had a stand at the British Industries Fair in London. Both of these events helped to give her company publicity and her dolls became very popular. Within a few years the factory had outgrown its original premises and at its peak 250 people were employed by Norah in making dolls. Norah believed in ‘quality, not quantity’ and this allowed her to sell her dolls through some of the more upmarket stores, including the exclusive Harrods! She also exported her dolls though and 70% were thought to have been sold overseas in America, Canada, Egypt and Australia. Perhaps her most famous dolls were the sailor dolls though and these were sold on almost all ocean liners and often had the name of the ship written on the bands around their hats. The business closed in 1959, several months after Leonard died. Norah decided she didn’t want to continue the business, but also refused to sell her designs. She built a bonfire and reputedly burned all unfinished dolls, patterns, designs and even the tools. Completed dolls were given away to institutions and societies.

Roaming Roy Discovers A Spiky Character - Echidna

This week, Roy was going through some of his photos which were taken last year when he found photos of a very exciting event – meeting an echidna in the wild. Roy loves Australian animals and thinks that they are amazing creatures unlike anything else found in the world. He loves two specific animals most though, the platypus and the echidna. These animals are even more unique than the Australian marsupials, and Roy thinks they are fascinating and beautiful. When he was lucky enough to see an echidna in the wild, he was very excited and had to share the experience!

Echidna’s can be found in many temperate areas of Australia and are also found in parts of New Guinea. Roy has often seen them roaming along the edge of the road (and always warns his friends who are travelling in the bush to watch out for them!), but has never had much luck in getting photographs with them, because they are quite shy and tend to disappear in the grass or curl up in a ball. This echidna, who we met on the road to Barrington Tops, wasn’t too worried about Roy though, and was happy to hang around looking for ants while Roy took his photos.

Echidna’s are sometimes known as the spiny ant eater because their entire body, other then the underside, face and legs is covered with sharp spines. They are shy, slow creatures which are generally solitary, other than at mating times. They have sharp claws which they use to tear apart logs and mounds looking for food, mainly ants, termites, insects and larvae, and for digging. If they are frightened they will dig themselves into the ground so that only their spines are visible, or if the surface is too hard, will curl into a tight ball so that their spines protect their bodies. Many people Roy knows think echidnas are the Australian version of a hedgehog or American ant eater. With their sharp spines and long snout they do look a little similar to these creatures, but they are actually not related to them at all! The echidna is a monotreme, and there is only one other species of monotreme other than the echidna – the platypus. Roy met a platypus at Jenolan Caves and if you would like to read about this meeting, click here.

So what is so special about monotremes like the echidna? Monotremes are mammals but they also have characteristics which are reptilian, including a lower body temperature than most mammals. The biggest difference between monotremes and other animals though comes in the way it gives birth to and feeds its young. All mammals other than monotremes give birth to live young, but monotremes like the echidna lay eggs like a reptile. Echidnas lay their eggs directly into a pouch and after 10 days they hatch. Unlike reptiles, who produce no milk, the young of monotremes, after they hatch, suckle milk from their mother, like mammals. The echidna has no nipples though and the milk is produced through patches on the skin. The young stay in the mothers pouch for about 2 or 3 months (they leave when they start to get too spiky for Mum!), but the mother continues to feed them milk until the baby echidna is about 6 months old.