Out for an airing

John took me along to the Kings Beach car park for an airing this morning.
A brilliant morning to take photos as the tide was very high and the waves were incredible.
The clouds were rather specrtacular too.
There were huge breaks of waves across from the land to the  island at times and huge amounts of water being thrown up along the cliffs and on the end of the Island.
exciting.
My knee is still not bending enough and well I guess it will take time, more physio stuff to do.
Rather tiring.

Balinese cooking class

Here are Margaret and I with Ketuts wife in her tiny kitchen in the midst of our cooking class. It was a fascinating introduction to the food and ingredients.
Trying to reproduce it here is not so easy as there are so many different spices, like I think three different chillies and some things I have never heard of, especially din this southern part of Australia.
All I can really say is it was colourful and delicious.
Just a taste of the spice base used in several Balinese dishes -
Green and red chillies
ginger
shallots (red not like ours)
garlic
salam leaf (no idea what this is, they grew it in the garden)
pepper
sesame seeds
candle nuts
shrimp paste
nutmeg
masako (optional, again no idea what it is)
salt
tomatoes
This was all put together in a large pestle and with a huge mortar we ground this to a wet past, no photo of this unfortunately as it was interesting to say the least!
So a couple of photos of the ingredients. Dont ask what all of them were.
We made, Coconut satay, Chicken satay, tuna curry (very yummy) fried noodles.There were two other bases as well of spices as well.
Later we went upstairs to the family dining area to eat what we had cooked. A fascinating place upstairs over looking the street.
I have to say I was an awful failure at making satays as mine would not stay on the skewers.
Double click for a larger view.
I dont look nearly as fat now, I have lost at least 5kilos, if no6t more.
I havent been a good patient and have to rest today as my knee has swollen and I am on stronger pain killers.
Doesnt do to think you are pretty smart and can push the exercises!

Bali textiles

The top photo is of the women in the car park at the textile market we went to, all wearing the sarong lenghts on their heads. I bought the blue one and quite a lot of others as they were so cheap, in a way I wish I had bought more as there were so many lovely patterns. Less than A$4 each, as it was they were quite heavy and my luggage didnt need any more, tour leader Cynthia is in the center.
We went to the Museaum of art and in the grounds this lass from the village that is renowned for its double ikat weaving and her husband had set up a small area. She is using a back strap loom and you can see one of the larger pieces in the back ground, that had possibly taken 2 years to make.
Below is the one I bought, 18 months to 2 years in the making, front and as it comes off the loom at the back. I paid quite a lot for this piece but I love it. I probably wouldnt have paid as much had this not been nearly the last day of the tour and I had some money to play with!
The husband made the calendars and bookmarks out of dried palm fronds, scratched into with a very fine stylus and then burnt candle nut rubbed in to show the design, I bought a bookmark which I still havent got out of its bag, they are real little works of art and I will probably frame mine.
Ubud is a fantastic place so long as you dont get caught up in the very commercial part of it, there are so many little back streets and compounds with fantastic work going on in small corners If you know where to look.
I have had a reasonable couple of days, I dont want to go on about what is happening, suffice to say it is slower than I would like!

A few things from Bali

I am doing this under some pressure, still in pain, mostly manageable but nights are bad pretty boring on the whole, John insists I am moving better but it is up and down.
I thought last nights change of PM would keep me interested but really, cant we just have an election, a recycled PM is not what we need. The ego's of these people is to be seen to be believed.
Enough!!
These pieces are mostyt ikat weavings, the top one with the animalistic figures caught my eye when we went to the big ikat weaving place.
The next one was a rather lovely, fine, I think silk one I bought up in the mountains, the photo doesnt do it justice.
The next is a really lovelt batik I bought in the place where we watched them making these, using a very heavy cotton or hemp/linen fibre.
This one day will go on my bed.
Finally some Bali silver, a sweet pair of ear rings, a delicate ring that I love and a coral and silver ring.
click or double click to enlarge.
The power is supposed to be off today so I am doing this in a hurry, more in a day or so.

More from Bali

I am home from hospital, very tired and with an upset stomach from the pain meds.
Great to be home but I am finding it all terribly tiring, Just travelling home yesterday was exhausting.
To day in to the physio later today.
So a few photos from that wonderful Bali trip.
A cake in a little cafe.
Abuilding down a back street with an interesting roof line and plants.
A lotus flower in the orchid gardens and finally a lovely pot abandoned by the side of the road, would have loved to bring it home!
I may be a bit sporadic with my blogging, so nice to be bck though.

Weaving ikat

We went to a factory where the single weave ikat is made.
The first photo is how they paint the design, I am not absolutely sure how this is done and I think in the next phot it shows the start of a design done with plastic rope, then the actual weaving itself on large looms with the threads of the design hanging on the end of the looms and finally a shot across the area with the bycicles that are used for I think putting the thread onto cones.
I got very confused about all of this as I am not a weaver but the results were lovely.
It may be better to google more info on this.
We were told that the man who owns all of this is not a happy man as he has no sons to pass it on to.
Happens everywhere I suppose.
Trying to get my act together today, the power will be off tomorrow from 8 am so I have done some ironing, a bit more washing, and put the casserole I made yesterday into freezer containers and frozen them.
Some bread is baking and I have another load of washing drying.
At least it has been a lovely sunny day today, but that probably means we will start to have frosts as well.
I hope to be back on the computer in a weeks time. there is still more of the Bali photos to come.

Interrupting the Bali photos

 It has been wet here, rain for days, about the equivalent of 6 inches since it started.
I had hoped for a walk before I go into hospital so we headed out to Petrel's Cove and a walk along the cliffs. Well rugged up but we still got damp from a shower that came through, then a magnificent rainbow.
Such a delight to be there and see it all. Something to keep with me for the next few weeks.
Double click to enlarge.
I hope blogger may be on its good behaviour today.