The Tingle Factor Box

It's Giving Me The Evil Eye! Nazar Amulet

Imagine you are a child visiting a friend. You notice a pretty new ornament hanging up high, and ask if you can look at it. Your friend says of course, and lifts the shiny blue disk down. Yet when you see it up close, you find it quite scary – it’s an evil eye! You don’t want to touch it, because perhaps it might curse you and in fact, you spend the rest of the day avoiding looking at the eye at all, despite your friend assuring you it is actually a protective amulet.

The above scenario is actually almost exactly what happened when I hung up this Turkish Nazar. Many of my young students immediately thought it was an evil eye, and it took quite some effort to explain that it is actually a Nazar given to me by my Grandfather. Instead of being an evil eye, it is an amulet which protects against the evil eye. Eventually the children became curious, and wanted to learn more.

The evil eye, or a curse which is cast on an unsuspecting victim by a nasty glare, is a feature of many different cultures. These cultures believe that a person cursed by the evil eye will be hurt or have some disaster strike. As a result, many different charms and talismans have been created to protect against and ward off the evil eye. Sometimes, these talismans are also referred to as evil eyes, but their purpose is to protect, not to curse and their proper name is a Nazar. Nazars are popular right across Greece, Egypt, the Middle East, Italy and even in Africa! So where did the concept of the evil eye and its protective talismans come from? There are mentions of the evil eye right back in the ancient world, and in hundreds of works by people ranging from Plutarch to Plato. Yet not everybody was all that worried about the evil eye. It was part of life, and people believed in it, but people didn’t really try to protect against it. In some ways, perhaps it was like non-believers today who use the term ‘the evil eye’ to refer to a glare of anger or disgust.

Yet for many, the evil eye is a real threat. It is Alexander the Great who is credited with spreading the superstitions and fear relating to the evil eye throughout his empire and then these beliefs were reinforced by Prophet Muhammad’s statement that the evil eye ‘is fact’. In many of the areas where belief in the evil eye is strong, blue eyes are quite rare. A superstition arose that people with blue eyes have the evil eye and will curse people, whether they want to or not. Thus, many of the talismans which protect against the evil eye, including Nazars, take the form of a blue eye. These talismans, which are often discs or spheres of concentric blue and white circles, are believed to turn back the evil eye on the person who casts it. They are worn as beads, hung in houses and cars and even placed on the doors of newborn babies as a protective shield of sorts. In fact, blue and white eyes are often even painted on boats in the Mediterranean region to protect sailors! Today, Nazars are most common in Turkey, but belief in the evil eye, and use of various protective talismans continues to thrive throughout the world.

Rover Discovers Poets Corner in Bowning - Mayfield Mews Precinct

This week, Rover decided it was time to share the story of an extraordinary home he discovered in a tiny country town. Rover loves to explore small towns, because often they have such a big history to disover, and he was thrilled to discover that this was exactly the case in Bowning. The town may be small, but the precinct known as Mayfield Mews is beautiful, and has a truly remarkable history linked not just to one of Australia’s most beloved poets, but two!

If you would like to visit Mayfield Mews precinct (including the General Store) it is located in Bowning, not far from Yass in NSW. To get there, follow the Hume Highway until you reach Bowning Road. Turn off the Hume Highway into Bowning Road and follow the road until you reach Leake Street. Mayfield Mews is located at number 4 Leake Street. There is plenty to discover, just in the Mews precinct itself, with beautiful homewares, delicious local produce (including the best coffee in NSW apparently!), a nursery with some beautiful plants and ornaments and fascinating antiques and collectables.

Mayfield Mews is essentially a shop, or series of shops, which operate out of a 150 year old coach house and stable complex, which once belonged to Mayfield House, which still stands just next door. Mayfield House itself was built by Richard Stear and initially called Albury House. Soon though it was renamed Mayfield House, perhaps when Richard married Phoebe Albury. Together the Stears also ran the local Bowning Stores which are the general store complex at the front of Mayfield Mews, and just next door to Mayfield House. Of course, none of this explains why the complex is so important. Phoebe though had a very important nephew who stayed with her on and off between 1899 and 1913. This important nephew was Henry Lawson, one of Australia’s most well-known and best loved poets.

Phoebe was one of 12 children and her sister, Louisa, was the mother of Henry Lawson. Henry Lawson was born in 1867 in Grenfell, which is itself a small town not that far from Yass. He lived until 1922, when he died in Sydney, at just 55 years old, after suffering a long illness. He was so important that he was the first ever person who was not a politician to be given a NSW state funeral. Between 1899 and 1913, Henry Lawson was often to be found at Mayfield House, and in fact he wrote many of his famous works while staying with his Aunt Phoebe. In fact, many of his contributions to the newspaper The Bulletin were written at the house. Yet he wasn’t the only poet to visit and stay with Phoebe. Banjo Patterson wrote many of his own contributions to The Bulletin at Mayfield House and both Lawson and Patterson sent the work to Sydney by rail, despatching them at the Bowning Railway Station.

Roy Creates Delicious Jelly Cream Tarts

This week, with the weather turning hot and humid, Roy wanted to avoid turning the oven on. Yet he had some young cousins to stay, and wanted to be able to make some sort of delicious dessert which they could all enjoy. The question was, what to make! Luckily, Roy had recently bought an old Foster Clark cookery book, and it had some wonderful ideas for cold desserts, many of them based around jelly! He was particularly taken with the recipe for jelly tarts, and the results were very popular with his young cousins. So this week, Roy Creates Delicious Jelly Cream Tarts!

You Will Need:

• Shortcrust pastry tarts – you can make individual tarts, or a big tart to cut up, whichever you prefer
• Raspberry jelly crystals
• 1 large tin of peach slices in juice
• 300 millilitres of whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon of castor sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
• Grated chocolate (or a Flake chocolate bar) to garnish (optional)
• White or dark chocolate (optional)

Method:

• Make up the jelly according to the packet directions and set aside to cool
• Roy recommends masking the tart case with melted white or dark chocolate, to stop the jelly soaking in. Roy didn't do this - but he would next time!
  To mask a pastry case, melt the chocolate and use a pastry brush to brush a thin layer of chocolate over the inside of the case. Leave to set before filling the tart cases. 

• Drain the peach slices and arrange in a layer at the base of the tart

• Pour over the cold jelly and allow the tart to completely set
• When ready to serve, whip the cream with the castor sugar and vanilla essence until it reaches quite stiff peaks

• Pile the cream on top of the tart
• Sprinkle with chocolate
• Serve and enjoy!

It's Pretty Boring - Fuzzy Felt

Imagine, you are a child living in the 1960s. It is the Christmas holidays and you are having the most wonderful time. Your whole family has gone to the seaside for a week, and you are able to spend lots of time building with the sand on the beach, or swimming in the beautifully cool water. In the evenings, you have a wonderful new box of fuzzy felt to occupy your time. Mother and Father bought it as a special gift for you to use on your holiday. It is amazing the different scenes you can create, all with such a simple toy. Imagination truly is the only limitation!

When I showed the children these boxes of fuzzy felt, their reaction was quite funny. Many children recognised the simple, old fashioned toy, but informed me it was ‘boring’, especially when compared to the interactive toys and devices which are available to children today. The children were surprised however when they discovered just how long this simple toy has been available, and how popular it has been for over 50 years!

Like so many great toys throughout history, fuzzy felt was created almost by accident, during the Second World War. Lois Allan, who lived in Buckinghamshire in Britain, had volunteered to assist in the war effort, and set up a small factory in her home and outbuildings. Her husband was an RAF pilot, and Allan wanted to do her bit from home. The small factory she established, which was manned by local women who also volunteered their time, was dedicated to producing felt gaskets for various war vehicles, including tanks. Many of the women assisting in the work had children and Allan recognised that many of the women could not volunteer their time unless their children had somewhere to go. The solution – she allowed the women to bring their children to work with them, with the various women in the factory taking turns to care for them. Allan allowed the children to play with various offcuts from the gasket making felt, and soon noticed that the children enjoyed using the offcuts of the felt to make fuzzy pictures. This was, in essence, the birth of fuzzy felt!

After the war ended, Lois and her husband recognised the potential of the toys made of felt offcuts and began to work on the design for a set of ‘Fuzzy Felt’ toys, which would work in the same way as the children had improvised during the war itself. Lois Allan had studied fashion in the 1920s, and used her knowledge to design simple shapes, from figures and clothing to farm animals and even Biblical figures. The first set of Fuzzy Felt toys were sold in 1950. For many years, the production of Fuzzy Felt toys was really a cottage industry, with the toys being produced by Allan in her home for more than 20 years! The Allan’s even continued to employ many of the women who had been employed during the war in making gaskets. Then, by 1972, demand for the simple toy had become so great that the manufacture of the toy had to be moved to a proper, dedicated factory. Since their initial creation, more than 25 million sets of fuzzy felt have been sold, and apparently, if you put them all together, they would reach all the way to the moon and back!

Rover Discovers The Birds Who Flew Their Coop - Angel Place Forgotten Songs

Rover loves to be out and about, exploring new places and discovering new things to see. Usually, he plans to visit specific locations, but he often discovers little hidden gems along the way which he knew nothing about. Recently, he discovered just one such place - the Forgotten Songs art installation in Angel Place in the city. He loved the installation, and what it represented, and was amazed that he had walked past the street so often without realising it was there!

If you would like to visit the Forgotten Songs art installation, it is located in Angel Place, which runs between George Street and Pitt Street. The installation is just adjacent to the City Recital Hall, with the bird cages hanging above your head as you walk through Angel Place. You can see the installation at any time, as it is outdoors, but Rover recommends trying to visit when it's not too noisy, so that you can hear the birds!

Today, when we visit the city, we expect to hear the sounds of people, traffic, doors slamming, cars honking - all noises of a busy city like Sydney. Yet once, the sounds of Sydney were very different. For thousands of years, one of the dominant sounds we would have heard in the city was the song of the different bird species who called the Sydney area home. Even well into European settlement, these bird songs would have continued as dominant sounds, yet as the modern city grew and expanded, many of the birds who once thrived in the Sydney area began to disappear. This is what the artwork Forgotten Songs commemorates. 

Forgotten Songs is an artwork by Michael Thomas Hill, which is made up of 120 birdcages, all suspended above the pedestrians head as they walk through Angel Place. The artwork explores how the animals, particularly birds, who once lived in Sydney had to adapt to the changing city and its increasingly urban landscape. It commemorates these birds using the songs of 50 species who once called Sydney home but who have since disappeared from the city, with some finding homes in vegetation on the city's fringes, while others are now only found on the very outskirts of the greater Sydney area or in the country. The sounds of these birds are played in the alley, sounding like phantom birds in the empty birdcages and if you look at the ground as you walk through the alley, you can see the names of the birds who are represented. A lot of research went into selecting the songs of birds which are played with Dr Richard Major and Fred van Gessel selecting the bird species and recording their songs. In fact, the songs even change depending on the time of the day with a whole different set of recordings being played at night, to represent the nocturnal birds who once called Sydney home!

 

Roy Creates A Deliciously Festive Chocolate Salami

This week, Roy decided he wanted to create something delicious, beautiful and a little fun for a New Year party he would be attending with his family. He looked through his cookbooks for a recipe which would suit, thinking about savoury versus sweet, and just how to achieve his goal. Then, he came across mention of a recipe which is popular in Portugal and Spain, and perfect for this time of year – Salame De Chocolate (or chocolate salami). The recipe was rather vague, but he loved the idea and decided to put his own spin on it. The results were not just delicious, but really did look like salami! So this week, Roy Creates A Deliciously Festive Chocolate Salami.

You Will need:

• 250 grams of dark cooking chocolate
• 2 egg yolks
• 6 tablespoons of sugar
• 150 grams of butter
• 2 tablespoons of cocoa
• 180 to 200 gram packet of plain, sweet biscuits. Roy used Marie Biscuits/ 
• 100 grams of slivered almonds
• 100 grams of unsalted shelled pistachios
• 2 heaped tablespoons of chocolate hazelnut spread
• Icing sugar to roll

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and toast the almonds and pistachios until they are fragrant. Be careful not to burn them!
• Break the biscuits up into small pieces and set aside

• In a large saucepan, melt the butter, chocolate chips, sugar and cocoa together.
• Lightly beat the eggs. Add the eggs slowly to the butter and chocolate mix as soon as the chocolate and butter are nearly melted and stir vigorously to avoid the eggs scrambling
• Cook the mix for about 5 minutes, or until it is a smooth and glossy mix.

• Add the chocolate hazelnut spread, broken biscuits, and nuts to the chocolate mix and stir everything together
• Set the mix aside to cool slightly but make sure you don’t leave it so long that it sets hard!
• Transfer the mixture to a sheet of waxed paper and roll it up into a cylinder shape. Twist the ends of the wax paper and use rubber bands to hold the ends shut.

• Roll the entire roll on the bench until it is an even ‘salami shape’
• Allow the log to chill and firm up completely

• When the log is firm, prepare clingwrap with a good dusting of icing sugar. Transfer the roll to the clingwrap and roll in the icing sugar. This will create the white outer layer of the ‘salami’
• Roll up again firmly in the cling wrap and use kitchen twine to tie the salami up if you like, so that it looks like a real salami.
• Slice and enjoy!

It's Useless But Fun - Toy Soldier

Imagine you are a little boy living in 1977. You have saved your pocket money for the week and have just bought a Kinder Surprise Egg. You are hoping that inside the egg might be the missing soldier for your collection. He's the only one missing from the set you have been collecting, and if you can find him, you will be the first person you know to complete the set! You break open the chocolate and pull it aside to reveal the secret surprise inside. You open it up and  . . . there he is! You can't believe your luck - just the figure you were after!

Whenever I show the children small, diecast or lead models of figures, their reactions are quite mixed. Most of the children think they’re very cute, being so small, but they also think that they’re ‘pretty useless’. Children today are used to toys which have moving parts or which do things, where diecast and lead toys are fixed in their positions. Yet these little toys have a remarkably long history, and when the children are left alone with them, you can really see why – they are perfect for children to let loose their imagination, staging mock battles or inhabiting imaginary worlds with them. As one child said, ‘useless, but fun’.

When we say ‘toy soldier’ we are usually talking about any miniature figure, no more than about 10 centimetres tall, which represents some sort of military figure, like a soldier or member of the cavalry. Still produced today, though often in plastic instead of metal, toy soldiers have long been popular. Yet the first toy soldiers were not toys at all – they date back to nearly 4500 years ago and were discovered in ancient Egyptian tombs. Yet these were not toys – they were figures used as a ritual. In medieval Europe many kings and their generals had their own sets of ‘toy soldiers’, sometimes made in precious metals like silver. Yet again, these were not toys – they were used for strategy sessions, to help plan out wars! In fact, despite the basic idea of a ‘toy soldier’ dating back over 4000 years, toy soldiers to be used as childrens toys actually appeared in the 1700s! These earliest true toy soldiers were often made of finely carved wood or silver, and were the toys of rich aristocratic children. Then, in the very late 1700s, metal workers began to produce small toy figurines, including soldiers, from tin. These figures were made in the metal workers spare time, and were known as ‘flats’ because they were only 2 dimensional (showing just one side of the soldier), but they were cheap to produce and soon became very popular.

Soon enough, metal workers and manufacturers recognised the potential market for toy figurines. The first mass produced toy soldiers appeared in Germany in the early 1800s and were made by companies like Heinrichson and Heyde but they were still 2 dimensional, and still sold as unpainted models. Then, Johann Gottfried Hilpert established an assembly line in his factory, employing ladies to paint the figures, with each woman in the assembly line responsible for a different colour. As the market for toy soldiers grew, so too did the amount of time and money companies were willing to spend on developing new figures. By the late 19^th century, three dimensional toy soldiers were available, made by pouring molten lead or metal into a mold and then removing the figure afterwards. Sometimes these figures, which were now also made by toy makers in France, Britain and America, were even made to look like famous military leaders of the day! These figures were still rather expensive though, and could not be afforded by most families. Then, in 1893, William Britain came up with a new method for making toy soldiers. He worked out how to hollow cast lead, which allowed the figure to be hollow, using less metal and therefore being much cheaper to make. These figures were also lighter, which made them a popular and affordable toy. As time went by, other metals began to be used, like tin or even iron. In the 20th century, they were even used as prizes inside cereals and chocolates - like Kinder Surprise Eggs, which issued the soldier I showed the children in 1977. 

Rover Finds His Voice - Carols By Candlelight Service

This week, with Christmas upon us, Rover wanted to do something properly Christmassy to celebrate. We thought long and hard about what to do, but Rover came upon the solution when he was listening to the radio. A Christmas carol came on, and Rover began to sing along. It was perfect – we would have to go to a carol service to celebrate!

The photos in this post were taken at our local carol service (at the Uniting Church in fact), but there will be carols by candlelight services all over Australia which people can attend. Alternately, you could have your own private carols service at home – just put on your favourite carols music, light a candle and sing along!

Carols have an amazingly long history, though they weren’t always Christmas carols as we know them. Originally, carols were pagan songs which were sung during the Winter Solstice celebrations which predate our modern Christmas (or even the birth of Christ!) This is probably where the idea of a carol originates from, and the word carol even means a song of praise or joy. Before Christmas existed, carols were sung throughout the year in celebration of different events, often seasonal events, like solstices or changes to the season. Then, early Christians adopted and adapted the earlier pagan celebration of the Winter solstice, changing the date slightly from the 22^nd of December to the 25^th. They also adopted the tradition of singing and dancing to carols. Of course, these carols weren’t pagan though – they were Christian songs. The first carol we know of was ‘Angel’s Hymn’ which a Roman priest said should be sung during Christmas celebrations in Rome in 129 ACE. Other early Christmas carols were written by composers all over Europe, but they weren’t carols as we know them – in fact they were all written in Latin. This meant that most people couldn’t sing along, because Latin was a language which most people didn’t know. By the middle ages, interest in Christmas, and its carols had almost disappeared.

Then, in 1223, St Francis of Assisi started to hold Nativity plays in Italy. The people in the plays sang carols and normally, these carols were in a language which people watching the play could join in with, be it Italian, German, Spanish or even English. These carols quickly caught on and people began to enjoy Christmas celebrations again. Soon enough new carols were being written which were only very loosely based on the Christmas story – they were entertaining songs sung in homes and by families, not religious texts. They were so popular that travelling minstrels would sing them, changing the words to suit the place they were singing in. One of these carols is still sung today – I Saw Three Ships. There was a time in England, during the reign of Oliver Cromwell in the 1640s, when singing carols was actually banned, as was the celebration of Christmas, because it wasn’t seen as properly religious. People still sang and celebrated in secret though! By the Victorian period, carol singing in public was returning to popularity, with official groups of carol singers called Waits starting to appear. They were often led by a counselor or even the mayor of towns, but they only sang on Christmas eve. Orchestras and choirs soon also began to add carols to their repertoire, and new carols began to appear. So popular were these new carols that they began to be sung in the street by the light of candles. Today, we continue this tradition through carols by candlelight services.

Roy Creates A Christmassy Bounty - Chocolate Cherry Slice

This week, with Christmas just around the corner, Roy wanted to make a delicious slice or biscuit which he could share with friends when they came to visit, and of course give as Christmas presents with a personal touch. We were looking through Grandma’s cookbook, when we came across a recipe for Cherry Ripe Slice. Roy assumed it would be the slice we are all familiar with, but Grandma explained it was ‘a little different, and very tasty’. Roy was sold and had to give it a go. The results were spectacular and all his friends commented on how delicious it was. So this week, Roy Creates A Christmassy Bounty - Chocolate Cherry Slice.  

You Will Need:

• 125 grams of margarine
• 2 tablespoons of cocoa
• ½ a cup of icing sugar
• ½ a cup of plain flour
• 1 tin of condensed milk
• ½ a cup of chopped glace cherries
• 1 and ½ cups of desiccated coconut
• 125 grams of cooking chocolate
• 1 tablespoon of copha

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line a slice tray with baking paper
• Melt the margarine and cocoa together in the microwave and stir to thoroughly combine
• Mix together the icing sugar and flour in a bowl
• Add the margarine and cocoa and mix everything together

• Press the chocolate mix into the bottom of the slice tin and bake for 10 minutes

• While the base is baking, mix together the coconut, cherries and condensed milk

• Spread the coconut mixture over the base and bake for another 15 minutes
• Set the slice aside to cool completely

• When the slice is cold, melt the chocolate and copha together and spread across the top of the slice
• Remove the slice from the tin when the icing is set, and cut into squares
• Store in an airtight container and enjoy!

It's So Fragile - Mercury Glass Ornament

Imagine you are a child living in the early 20^th century. It is Christmas time, and you are so excited. Of course, there will be plenty of food, and presents, and time with your family, but one of your absolute favourite parts of the celebration is the tree. It is so beautiful, with its candles and beautiful glass ornaments. You were even allowed to help hang the ornaments this year – your parents think you are old enough to avoid breaking them! They are so fragile and the glass is so thin. You are sure if you held them too hard they would break into a million pieces.

When I showed the children this mercury glass Christmas ornament, they thought it was beautiful. Yet many were afraid to hold it! They had never held glass which was so light and seemed so thin and felt like they would definitely break it if they squeezed it at all. They had seen similar ornaments for sale today, but commented that they felt different – ‘much heavier and less delicate’ as one child explained. The children were amazed by how fine the glass was, and thought that the people who made ornaments like this must have been very skilled indeed.

Mercury glass, which is also sometimes known as silvered or varnished glass, is a very specific type of glass. It was first created in Germany in the early 19^th century and became very popular. It was a relatively cheap alternative to silver for things like candlesticks, and the bonus was that it didn’t tarnish like real silver. In Germany, it was actually known as Bauernsilber, which translates as peasants silver, but it became very popular, and not just for those who couldn’t afford real silver. Soon it had gained popularity in France and England, where it was used for vases and even tablewear like glasses. Next it became popular in America, where they even used it for spittoons! Of course, the most famous use of mercury glass was probably for Christmas ornaments, like the one I showed the children.

Real mercury glass is double walled glass, which has a layer of liquid silvering solution poured into the very fine gap between the two layers of glass. This silvering solution sticks to the glass, and then the excess is drained off, leaving behind a thin coat of colour. Originally mercury glass was usually silver coloured, but also sometimes gold. As time went by though other colours like red and green began to be used, created by adding different elements to the solution which was poured between the glass layers. After the excess silvering solution was poured out, the hole which was used (usually at the base) would be sealed, often with wax. Today, people still sell ‘mercury glass’ but it tends to not be real mercury glass at all, but a solid piece of glass which has been silvered in a completely different way.