Countdown to Christmas 6

Countdown to Christmas 6 - Blast off!

How do fruitcakes travel? Stories of fruitcake on the Crusades, battles and pilgrimages as well as a more recent report of a fruitcake being taken up to Mt Everest are not surprising. My own travel story involves Papua New Guinea and my friend, Phil who makes fruitcakes and vacuum seals them to be opened later as a special treat when travelling and working as volunteers on special projects in the PNG highlands. Not only did the cakes travel well, they were delicious and so welcome as a treat with a cuppa, - always timed perfectly when homesickness and fatigue set in after being away from home for too long. Earlier in this countdown, I discovered that on some airlines fruticake is a banned substance becuase its density confuses scanners.. Phil's fruitcake has never had a problem travelling by plane!

from http://mentalfloss.com/article/60595/15-fun-facts-about-fruitcake

So much for going to exotic places! This fruitcake I think has the best travel story - to the moon and back! Disguised in a space food package, this compressed pineapple fruitcake was flown on Apollo 11 Space Mission. . As it was not consumed during the mission it was returned to earth and transferred to the National Air and Space Museum from NASA. The food was protected with a 4-ply, laminated film coating. This protected the food from loss of flavour, moisture and oxygen invasion, spoiling and excess crumbling, and was used on both the rehydratable and the bite-sized foods. from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. A typical Apollo menu suggests pineapple fruitcake as a lunch item for the astronauts.

from http://io9.gizmodo.com/vintage-menu-recalls-a-time-when-pineapple-fruitcake-wa-1688775507

I am not sure what is the going price for a piece of fruitcake which has been in space, but here is an auction lot described if you would like to own one.

Unique freeze-dried ‘space food’ from the collection of Apollo 15 commander Dave Scott. The first item, labeled “Corn Chowder,” measures 3.5 x 11 and rests within a sealed pouch to which a nozzle is attached. The label also bears the simple heating instructions; the other is a 4.5 x 3.5 block of four pieces labelled “Pineapple Fruit Cake.” Also included is a sealed skin cleaning towel. Accompanied by a letter of authenticity from Dave Scott stating “I hereby certify that this Apollo Food is from my personal collection.” In fine condition. RRAuction COA.

http://www.rrauction.com/bidtracker_detail.cfm?IN=541

There are few foods which can claim to be still edible after outer space travel - is that a positive or negative characteristic of the fruitcake? At least, it has the reputation of not spoiling in extreme conditions.

Tomorrow - Fruitcake's connections to royalty.

Fish and Sticks : Art Dolls

This week I've been working on fish and sticks .... The sticks are the message stick art dolls which were very popular, attracting some attention and a few orders at the Wise Women exhibition. Each of the message stick dolls are from the Wise Women series, each with her own personality and message of wisdom, handwritten on a handmade timber tag. I gather the sticks during my walks around my neighbourhood and the tags are made from special bits of timber, some collected by me or my husband or from off cuts gifted to us from another doll making friend whose husband makes bagpipes. These dolls start off very simply with a wrap around a stick, in the general shape of a body. 'Naked" message stick dolls - strips of wadding wrapped around found sticks. Then I usually wrap other layers of fabric, wool, and/or fibres, over which I do some simple embroidery. I sculpt or mould small face masks for these dolls. I really like using "sari ribbon" as w...

Lilly Pilly

Today is Australia Day. I chose a photo of some Lilly Pilly berries as a celebratory image for this national day. Lilly Pilly is a common name for a plant, Syzygium smithii which grows mostly in Eastern Australia, from the northern rain forests of Queensland, throughout NSW to the southern Wilson's Promontory in Victoria. In New Zealand it is called "monkey apple, but other names used in Australia, besides lilly pilly, are Eungella Gum and Coast Satinash. The largest Lilly Pilly recorded was found in Dingo Creek Flora Reserve, near Tenterfield where I once lived. The tree now growing in my garden was once a small seedling which I was gifted when I left Woolgoolga, a small coastal town in northern NSW. Its name is said to come from the Aboriginal word 'weelgoolga' describing the lilly pilly which grows in profusion there. It is probably no surprise that the lilly pilly berries are edible as bush tucker, and make a beautiful jam or jelly. I have even seen re...

Ethereal Threads : Textile Art

Meredith Woolnough is a beautiful talented young artist. Her current work is exquisite, stunning, engaging and awe inspiring. As you can see from the images, Meredith reproduces the beauty of nature in stitch – literally thousands of metres of embroidery thread stitched onto a background which is later dissolved. What remains is like a delicate “skeleton", but somehow with depth of colour, movement and strength. I think what is conveyed in Meredith’s work is overwhelmingly the love and reverence for her natural subject matter and her intimate knowledge of its structure. Meredith’s latest exhibition is called “Ethereal Threads”, superbly presented at Timeless Textiles. It is a collection of framed fine art which demonstrates Meredith’s attention to the details of presentation – each of the large pieces is pinned to archer paper and the play of shadow on the paper enhances the beauty of each. There are finely detailed delic...

Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

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