Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children
Number 582
The Willow Pattern
Hello Everyone
Emily was helping her mum do some spring cleaning this week.
They were cleaning out some kitchen cabinets.
At the back of one, Emily found a plate on its own that did not belong to a set.
lt was blue and white and no other colours and it had an interesting picture of a scene on it.
The picture reminded Emily of the Chinese art Miss Pringle had shown her class a few weeks ago.
She really like the plate and asked her mum if she could hang it on her bedroom wall.
The picture was like a little landscape. You could imagine walking into it and wandering around the garden and over the bridges.
Emily’s mum said it was a Chinese pattern that was often used on plates and cups and other thinks like vases and teapots.
lt was called the willow pattern. lt was developed at the end of the 1700s.
That particular pattern was developed by English artists who were inspired by hand-painted wares imported from China.
She said it has been popular for over two hundred years.
ln Willow Patterns, pictures there are typically waterways, boats, pavilions, bridges, trees, Chinese figures and two birds in the sky.
The interesting thing was that the picture represented different stories that were invented to try and garner interest for the factory-produced tableware based on ancient fairy tales from China and a Japanese story called The Green Willow. You can look to see if you can find things from the story in the picture.
Emily’s mum would tell her about it when everything was put away and they could sit down and have a well-deserved drink.
This is the most famous story of the Willow Pattern…
Once upon a time, the beautiful daughter of a rich Mandarin (a high official in China) Koong-se fell in love with a lowly assistant called Chang.
When the Mandarin found out about this, he banished Chang and built a great fence around his property to keep him out and away from his daughter. He thought Chang was unworthy of her.
He had bigger and better plans for his daughter!
Koong-se was now trapped inside the gardens, but often wandered down to the water’s edge. One day she saw a little shell boat floating towards her.
lnside it was a poem and a bead that she had given to Chang.
She knew he was not too far away and it lifted her heart.
But then things took a turn for the worse.
Her father had hastily arranged for a rich and powerful Duke called Ta-jin to come and marry her.
The Duke soon arrived by boat with a casket of jewels as an offering for Koong-se’s hand in marriage.
Their spring wedding was to take place when the blossom fell from the willow tree.
While the Mandarin and the Duke were celebrating together on the eve of the wedding day and getting drunk on wine, Chang sneaked into the house in disguise as one of the servants.
He found Koong-se and then ran away with both her – and the jewels.
He had rescued her just in time.
On realizing what had happened, the Mandarin with whip in hand, the Duke and one of his men chased after them across a bridge – but to no avail.
The angry Mandarin was also a magistrate and vowed to use his power and authority to execute Chang for theft, if he should ever catch up with him.
The couple hid away in a house by the river for a while. But they were seen and this was reported back to the Mandarin.
He sent his men to capture Chang, but Chang managed to get away by jumping into the river.
Koong-se feared he had drowned in the raging torrent, but he returned some days later to rescue her and take her away in a boat.
The couple went to live on an island far away where Chang became a successful writer.
He was so successful, that his fame spread far and wide.
His success was to be his undoing.
Once the Mandarin heard where Chang was, he wanted to take his revenge.
He sent his men to the island to kill the couple.
When the gods saw the terrible fate of the two lovers, they immortalized them as two doves that would live in peace forever.
You can see them flying in the sky of the Willow Pattern picture.
Bye bye everyone – don’t forget to subscribe to my blog!
Love and kisses
Salty Sam
www.christina-sinclair.com
Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week
Bill: Why did the tree have a nap?
Bob: For rest!
Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015
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THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK
This week, Bill and Bob tried an experiment.
They don’t know if it will work yet, but they thought it was worth a try.
We eat a lot of fruit in our family, and over the last few months, every time we have some stones or some pips we washed them and put them in a container in the fridge.
It was an old ice cream tub, and actually so many seeds were collected, that more than one tub was needed in the end.
Then last weekend, Bill and Bob distributed these seeds along local hedgerows as we went for a long walk.
Being this time of spring, they will soon get a soaking in the rain and if any of them sprout and grow into a tree, they will provide food for birds and animals one day.
Deer and badgers like apples, and birds like plums and apples.
Other trees that will grow in our climate will be greengages, cherries and pears.
The good thing about collecting fruit pips and kernels like this is that they are free.
Even if only a couple of trees grow due to our efforts, it was nice to go for a walk in the fresh air.
And Bill and Bob’s mum was glad to have some more room in her fridge.
If, Bill and Bob get a pip in an apple that has begun to grow before they started to eat it, they put it into a pot of compost to allow it to grow.
Putting pips into a pot of compost will give them a good chance to grow.
You need to put a thin layer of compost over the top of them.
If you get a seedling grow, there is a tendency to get over-excited and start over-watering.
In order to guard against this, spray water onto the compost instead of using a watering can.
This is a good tip.
Then you will have more control over how much water the little plants are getting at a time when they are very delicate.
The world needs more trees to help air quality, and productive ones that feed wildlife are even more valuable.
Apple pips won’t produce a tree exactly the same as the one it came from.
You may get a really good crop of apples, or not so good, but animals may still be grateful for fruit that humans may not be too keen on eating.
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Quick Quiz
What colour are these?
- a conker
- juniper berries
- holly berries
- elderberries
- hawthorn berries
- almond blossom
- pine needles
- acacia flowers
- pear blossom
- the bark of silver birch
lt’s the Weekend!
HOW TO MAKE AN AWESOME SMOOTHlE
Always ask permission to use a blender, because you may need adult supervision to use one. Read the instructions, because you should not put hot food in some of them. Some of them are not strong enough to deal with hard ingredients.
Making smoothies is a good way of getting a lot of nourishment into your body very easily.
STEP ONE
Put some fruit into your blender. The favourite one to use is banana. This gives good texture of your smoothie and helps to fill you up. Ripe ones are the sweetest.
If you are using fruits like apple or peach, cut the fruit into small pieces and remove the pips and stones.
If you are using berries or grapes, you do not have to cut them up. Take grapes off their stalk.
You do not have to peel kiwi fruit but you can take the hard knob at the end off.
You will need to peel fruit like oranges, banana and coconut.
If you have any left-over fruit, cut it up and put it in the freezer to put in a smoothie another day. Put portions in separate pots so that they do not stick together. This is better than ice cubes which will water the smoothie down.
Don’t leave fruit like pineapple in a tin once the tin has been opened. Put the left-over fruit in a plastic or glass container with a lid on it.
If you buy bags of frozen fruit rather than using fresh you will probably save money. You can use as much as you need each time and the fruit pieces won’t go off.
STEP TWO
It is a mistake to always use nothing but fruit in your smoothies. This is adding too much sugar to your diet. You need to use vegetables and salad foods as well.
You need only use small amounts if you want to, because if you hate the taste of your smoothies, you will not want to continue drinking them.
You can use: chunks of cucumber, celery, avocados or carrot, broccoli florets, spinach or lettuce leaves, slices of beetroot.
You can eat raw beetroot, but take to root off and wash it well.
Kale is very good for you, but you may find it a bit bitter.
You can add herbs like parsley which has lots of vitamin C in it, or fennel, or mint.
Banana masks the taste of vegetables well.
STEP THREE
There are all sorts of seeds that you can and should add like: flax seed, pumpkin seed, chia seed, and linseed to your smoothies.
These need to be ground up for your body to get goodness from them so you may want to put them into your blender before anything else. Seeds are designed to go through you as they are. You need to use raw ones not toasted ones. They must be sold for human consumption.
Seeds give you enormously valuable nutrition.
STEP FOUR
You can add in a few nuts as well. They can be ground up with the seeds. They are full of important nutrition too.
If you want to add cashews, use the unsalted ones.
Keep your nuts in the fridge in an air-tight container in order to keep them fresh – stale nuts taste horrible!
STEP FIVE
You can buy different super-food powders from large supermarkets that have protein and other powerful nutrients. Because they are so powerful, you only need half to a level teaspoon of them.
There are sea greens like kelp, spirulina and chlorella.
Have a look along the shelves, you may see names that you have never seen before like hemp and açai and goji berries.
Only use matcha in the morning and not the evening; otherwise you might not be able to sleep.
If you like chocolate, you can use cacao powder.
There are protein powders you can buy too – the portion to use will be listed on the tub.
You can use ginger root or powder if you like the taste of it.
If you ever find that a smoothie is not to your taste, you may be able to mask the flavours with a spoon of coffee powder. Coffee goes well with chocolate and banana.
STEP SIX
If you have a sweet tooth and you want to have a sweet and tasty smoothie, add honey or maple syrup. You won’t need much to make a big difference.
Cinnamon is very good for you and has a sweet taste.
Dried fruit will add sweetness too. You can use sultanas and dried apricots, but remember to take the stones out of dates if you use them.
STEP SEVEN
If you want a smoothie at breakfast to keep you full for a good amount of time, you can add oats into the other ingredients. Soak them for ten minutes so that they go into your blender soft.
STEP EIGHT
For extra energy, you can add peanut butter or any other kind of nut butter like almond butter.
STEP NINE
Some people like to add wheatgrass or wheat germ to their smoothies.
There are lots of other unusual ingredients that you can use too like:
Dandelion leaves
Nettle leaves (use gloves when you handle them)
Carrot tops
Beetroot leaves
Elder berries
Rose petals
Quinoa
Pre-soaked pulses
Coconut oil
Make sure anything gathered from a hedgerow like blackberries or from the garden is washed well before you use it.
STEP TEN
You will need to add liquid to your smoothie and you could just add water.
But you can soak a tea bag in the water first to add more taste and goodness. It could be green tea, Earl Grey or a herb tea like chamomile.
Don’t put the tea bag in – just the water it was in.
You can use milk, yoghurt or nut, oat or soya milk.
You could use a combination of these and water.
You can use coconut water.
You can add orange juice or a squeeze of lemon or lime juice.
You might like really thick smoothies or thinner ones that are easier to drink.
The more smoothies you make, the more you will get a feel for what works for you.
There are many recipe books you can buy or recipes to view on You Tube.
If you try out your own recipes and they go wrong, don’t give up, learn from what happened and if you find a recipe you particularly like, keep a note of it in a notebook so that you don’t forget it.
You may want to put things in your smoothie that you don’t really like eating but won’t even notice when it is munched up to a pulp!
You will eventually learn which fruits have the strongest tastes that overpower others.
The colour may turn out to not be too appetizing, but if the taste is good, that is the important thing. Add a touch of honey and it will always be sweet.
You may have a bumper crop of something in the garden you want to use up, and this will save you money too. You may have an odd tomato or slice of red pepper that need not go to waste because you don’t know what else to do with it.
Some ingredients will have strong flavours, and others will not be noticeable, but everything listed here has something good to offer your body (but obviously not if you are allergic to nuts, bananas or strawberries of anything else listed.)
A varied diet is a good investment in your health and mental well-being.
With so many processed foods containing sugar and other things you shouldn’t eat too much of, it is nice to know you can make food that has totally healthy ingredients in. You have control over what goes into it.
You can use things from the garden that would otherwise be thrown away.
NEVER USE RHUBARB LEAVES, THEY ARE POISONOUS!
A good time-saving tip is to create a smoothie making box to put in your fridge. You can use one of those plastic bins with a handle on the end that you can just pull out easily.
Fill it with a jar of honey, a jar of nut butter, a jar of coconut oil, tubs or screw-top jars full of nuts and seeds and super-food powders and dried fruits, a bag of oats and jars of cinnamon and ginger (or a root of fresh ginger) – or whatever you choose to use.
You might want to create another box with yoghurts, nut milks, fresh vegetables and fresh fruit that you will need to wash out and top up every week.
Then you won’t have to hunt around for all your ingredients every time you make a smoothie – and then realize you forgot to put something in when it is too late. Your whole selection will be readily at your fingertips every day and you can just choose what you would like to select each time.
Have a smoothie every day for a few days, and see how good they make you feel as the nutrition in the smoothie refreshes your body.
Please note that the material on this blog is for personal use and for use in classrooms only.
It is a copyright infringement and, therefore, illegal under international law to sell items made with these patterns.
Use of the toys and projects is at your own risk.
©Christina Sinclair Designs 2015
Quick Quiz Answers
- a conker – brown
- juniper berries – purple-black
- holly berries – usually red
- elderberries – black
- hawthorn berries – red
- almond blossom – pink
- pine needles – green
- acacia flowers – yellow
- pear blossom – white
- the bark of silver birch – white (with black patches)
Acacia blossom
Conkers are seeds of horse chestnuts
Juniper berries
Silver birch trees
