This week, with the days and nights being so very cold, Roy decided he would like to cook a warming winter meal. One of his favourite things is homemade baked beans, which I suggested he might want to teach you to make. After all, most children do not realise you can make baked beans, assuming they come in a tin because they are difficult to make. This is certainly not the case, baked beans are very easy to make, though they cook for a long time, and homemade taste the best!
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Imagine, you are a woman living in the 1930's. Life is very tough and gone are the days when you could buy some material for a new dress. You can hardly even remember what wearing new clothes felt like. Now you mend and make do and use whatever you can lay your hands on. You are very proud of your 'newest' top - you worked hard on making the lace and used material from an old dress for the front. Nobody need know that it's back is made of a flour sack!
Continue reading "But It's See Through! Depression Era Clothing" »
This week Roy and I have decided it's a perfect time to tell you about Matthew Flinders, an important figure in Australian history, the anniversary of whose death falls in just a few weeks, on the 19th of July. Many Australians, including children, already know a little bit about Matthew Flinders (children often learn about Bass and Flinders at school) and his important role in the exploration of Australia, so the question was, what could we look at that the people might not already know. Then, I remembered Trim, Matthew Flinders famous sea faring cat. After talking to the children at work to discover the state of Trims fame today, I found that he would be a perfect focus for this weeks post - the children did not know of him and were fascinated by the very idea of an adventurous, sea faring cat!
If you would like to visit Trim, he is in Macquarie Street, on the windowsill outside the Mitchell Wing of the NSW State Library, in Sydney. He is just behind the statue of his master, Matthew Flinders! While you are in the area, why not visit the library itself, to see it's wonderful exhibitions and beautiful architecture. The NSW State Library often hosts wonderful exhibitions, and has an amazing collection all of its own.
Matthew Flinders was an exceptional navigator and cartographer, one of the most successful of his age. Born in 1774 and dying in 1814, in his 20 year career he circumnavigated (or sailed completely around) not only Australia, but the globe! He was also one of the people to push for the adoption of the name 'Australia' for the country which at that time was known as New Holland. He worked out how to stop the iron equipment onboard wooden ships from interfering with compass readings and even wrote what is probably the first book on Australian exploration 'Voyage to Terra Australis'. He led a life of excitement and adventure, surviving shipwreck and sailing in a ship which was (on return to Port Jackson, Sydney) declared unseaworthy. He was even arrested and imprisoned by the French in Mauritius when he was forced to stop there because his ship was leaking! He had already had to abandon the original ship he had planned to make the journey to England on due to shipwreck and his passport had the wrong ship listed as a result, making the French, who were at war with England, suspicious. He was kept imprisoned in Mauritius for over 6 years.
Although the children did not learn of Trim at the time when they learned of Flinders, Trim was an exceptional cat and was very important to Matthew Flinders. He was beside his master through much of Matthew Flinders adventures. In the late 1790's Matthew Flinders was on the HMS Reliance, which was making a trip to the Cape of Good Hope to collect supplies for New South Wales. On board the ship was a pregnant cat from Stepney in London and somewhere in the Indian Ocean, the cat gave birth to a litter of kittens. Being born at sea the kittens soon found their sea legs and, most surprisingly of all, to not be at all bothered by water (most who have a cat will be well aware of how much they usually hate it!) From this litter of kittens one stood out and that cat was Trim.
Trim was jet black, but had a burst of white on his chest, like a star. He also had a white lower lip and white paws which Matthew Flinders thought looked like they had been 'dipped in snow'. Matthew Flinders loved him immediately and named him Trim. The name came from Laurence Sterne's novel Tristram Shandy, where Trim, a butler, looked after his master with great affection and loyalty, qualities which Matthew Flinders thought Trim the cat also possessed. Trim, like his owner, led a life of excitement and adventure. Even as a kitten his activities apparently often led to him falling overboard, but he was apparently unfazed, simply swimming to the ship and climbing a rope thrown to him! He was an articulate cat, able to get his message across with little difficulty, whether he wanted to be admired, given a little affection, or was demanding to have a piece of meat from the plate of each diner. On top of all this, he shared his masters adventures, circumnavigating both Australia and the globe and surviving shipwrecks along side Flinders. Trim even shared Flinders imprisonment! Unfortunately, it was during the imprisonment that he met his untimely end, going missing and never being seen again despite offer of a reward.
Matthew Flinders was terribly upset by the loss of Trim and promised to erect a memorial to him if he was ever able to return to England. He even wrote a story about Trim called "Trim: Being the True Story of a Brave Seafaring Cat". Unfortunately, Matthew Flinders health had been destroyed by his imprisonment and he only lived another four years after his return to England, dying just one day after his book 'Voyage to Terra Australis' was published. He did not see his story about Trim published (in fact it was not published for over a century and a half after he died) and nor, as far as we know, was he able to erect a memorial to Trim. Despite this, Trim has been commemorated along side his master in statue and story.
How to convert vinegar and similar shaped bottles into jam jars. Make a ring of strong wire large enough to slip over the neck of the bottle. Make the ring red hot, slip it over the bottle and let it rest just where you wish to cut the glass. Immerse the bottle in cold water and the top will immediately snap off, leaving an evenly cut jar.
(Women's Missionary Association of the Presbyterian Church of New South Wales, Cookery Book of Good and Tried Receipts, circa 1910)
Mix 1 oz. prepared chalk, 8 drops pure carbolic, any scent to taste.
(Women's Missionary Association of the Presbyterian Church of New South Wales, Cookery Book of Good and Tried Receipts, circa 1910)
Imagine, you're a child living in ancient Rome. You don't much like the dark, but luckily your family have plenty of lamps to light your villa, and plenty of servants to ensure that the flames are lit in any rooms you want to visit. You even have your own oil lamp in your bedroom, which sits a good distance from your bed (it wouldn't do to knock it over). Of course, oil is expensive, so when you have fallen asleep, it is the responsibility of one of your servants to make sure the flame is extinguished - your father would be very angry if the flame were to burn all night, wasting all that precious oil!
When I took these Roman Oil Lamps to show the children, they were quite confused by what they could possibly be. The children today are of course used to simply flicking a switch and having light, and oil lamps, even of a more modern style, are very unusual indeed. The children were intrigued to discover that these tiny lamps, which fit in the palm of my hand, were once used to light the ancient world. They were amazed that such a small object could have been so important - yet oil lamps were the main source of lighting for thousands of years.
In the ancient world, oil lamps were one of the most common household items and lamps made of stone and shell date back to the stone age! The lamps above date to the Roman era and are made of clay. Sometimes they were beautifully decorated too! They work with a wick which is fed through the spout into the body of the lamp. The big hole in the top is used to fill the lamp with oil and then the wick is lit. The wick would absorb the oil, allowing the oil to burn slowly. Modern wicks are made out of material and are a little bit like the cord in pajama pants. The Romans probably made their own wicks. The oils used by the Romans were usually made from plants, like olive oil. To learn more about Roman Oil Lamps, click here or to see lamps in the Powerhouse collection, click here.
Lamps were used to light homes right through to the 20th century, though their design changed a lot over that time. More modern lamps were made of metal or ceramic and could be very pretty, like the one pictured below. They also had 'chimney's', or glass tubes, which helped to make the light of the flame brighter because the glass reflected it. If you would like to find out more about lamps, click here to visit the Braidwood Original Lamp Shop site.
If you have, or want to buy a lamp, remember - never use Citronella Oil inside. Use proper lamp oil as Citronella is toxic. Also, be careful as they get hot and they are a flame driven light - you don't want any accidents!
This week, Roy decided he wanted to look back in time and revisit a site which has fascinated him for many years, the Convict Lumber Yard and Stockade in Newcastle. Newcastle is well known for its industrial past and heritage, and for convict settlement, but this site was one of the first to have been settled in the area, in 1801, which was less than 20 years after European colonisation of Australia!
If you would like to visit the Newcastle Convict Stockade, which is also known as the Newcastle Lumber Yard, it is on Scott Street in Newcastle. The actual address is 98 Scott Street, and it's an interesting place to visit with plenty of places to sit and relax - you can even sit on one of the old convict 'buildings' which are today represented as a sculpture! The Convict Stockade is just opposite the Great Western Hotel in Newcastle, so it's also close to one of the popular accomodation options in Newcastle.
Newcastle was, from 1801 until 1822, a place where convicts were sent if they had committed a second crime, as a type of punishment. The site of the lumber yard was first used by Convicts in 1801, and the life of convicts in Newcastle was hard and monotonous. In the lumber yard the convicts were mustered, or called into a specific area to check that no convicts had run away or gone missing, four times a day. Food rations were even less than convicts received in Sydney, and were not really enough to keep the convicts healthy. They worked hard and very long hours. On weekdays they were first mustered together at 5am, and their last muster was at 8pm. They truly worked from 'dawn till dusk'. On Saturdays they worked a half day and Church on Sundays was a must.
Today, the Lumber Yard is truly a 'buried treasure'. There are lots of remains left from the time of the convicts on the site, including a drain, a kiln floor, a sump, a well, parts of the convict barracks, bricks from the collapsed hospital and brick paths. These remains are all still there, but you won't see them above ground, though the well has a clear covering over it so you can still see it. There are 'skeleton' sculptures showing where the remains and buildings once stood, so you can get a feel for the site, but the real remains are hidden below. So, how do we know they are there at all?
In 1987, and then in 1989 and 1992 the site of the Convict Lumber Yard was excavated (dug up) as part of archaeological investigations. In an archaeological excavation, the soil is carefully removed from a site, to allow experts to investigate what lies under the modern level. These types of investigations are done all over the world, and often there are lots of layers to investigate. You might think that archaeologists simply dig straight down to the layer they are interested in, finding out what they wanting to know without bothering about what happened in the layers above. This isn't usually the case though! Especially when investigations are being carried out on a site which has different histories, each is investigated one at a time, the findings are recorded and only then do the archaeologists move down to the next layer. This is particularly important in sites which date back for hundreds of years, like those in Europe or Egypt. Even more 'recent' sites, like the Lumber Yard are still carefully excavated, ensuring all the different periods and layers of occupation (people using the site) are found and recorded. There were signs of Aboriginal settlement, as well as the Convict occupation at the lumber yard site. There was also evidence and remains from the period when the site was used by the Railways. After the excavations were complete, the site was covered up again to protect it, from the weather and from people.
This week, Roy was asked by a friend of his to create some sort of simple, finger food style dessert. Roy was thinking long and hard about what he could create and decided that some sort of really special, deluxe slice would be perfect. The question then was, what to make? What would be decadent enough for a dessert. Then, we remembered a recipe we had come across for a Jamaican Rum Slice which, at the time, we thought was too decadent for an every day slice. This seemed the perfect time to give it a try and the results were delicious. So this week, Roy Creates Deliciously Chocolatey Jamaican Slice.
You Will Need:
Method:
Take a juicy slice off the top side of the round. Cut it finely on a board, removing skin and fat. Put it into a stone jar with its own weight of water; put the lid on the jar, and tie paper over it. Let it soak for an hour. Place it on the hob for 3 hours, and then for 1/2 an hour in the oven, or standing in a saucepan of boiling water. When cold, skim, and heat up as required. Good beef-tea should never be boiled. It ought not to jelly.
(Women's Missionary Association of the Presbyterian Church of New South Wales, Cookery Book of Good and Tried Receipts, circa 1910)