Tuesday 20 March 2012

Funny Things

"Today is gone.  Today was fun.
  Tomorrow is another one.  
  Every day, 
  from here to there, 
  funny things are everywhere."

by Dr Seuss

from here

from here



Monday 19 March 2012

The School of Life

I recently bought a copy of a cool magazine called Dumbo Feather because it had an article about Alain de Botton.  I like him, I think he is interesting and he has some interesting ideas.  Anyway he has founded The School of Life  in London and they have a great web site - have a look.......It has all kinds of interesting articles to read and also Sunday Sermons (not religious ones) to listen to on all kinds of topics like passion, mindfulness,  compassion, pessimism and being yourselves.  It is quite good if you are like me and like thinking about life, how the brain works and why we are the way we are.

Lime Syrup Cake and stuff



This is our lime tree and it is full of limes so yesterday Sunny and I picked some  to cook a Polenta, yogurt and lime syrup cake.  I got the recipe from Trisso's mum and it is delicious and easy to make.
  
Ingredients
1 cup polenta
1 cup yogurt
1 tsp grated lime rind
250g butter, softened
1 cup caster sugar
3 eggs lightly beaten
1 cup SR flour
 Lime syrup
3/4 cup caster sugar
1/3 cup lime juice
1.  Combine polenta, yogurt and lime rind and cover and refridgerate for 2 hours or overnight.
2.  Preheat oven to 160 `C (fanforced) and grease a 23 x 14 loaf pan.
3.  Mix butter and sugar - add to polenta mix, add eggs and flour.  Put in pan and bake for about 50  mins.
4.   Lime syrup - stir lime juice and sugar over low heat until dissolved then bring to boil.
5. Pierce cake all over with skewer and pour hot syrup over hot cake in pan. Leave for 15 mins then turn out onto plate.  YUM.

 
 
 


It must look like all we do is  eat cake and biscuits!!  We do do other things!  Lately I have been busy taming the wild and weedy garden.  All that rain over summer meant less gardening and an overgrown soggy mess.  It is quite tidy now which feels good and I have been planting lots of autumn veggies.

 
 
 
 Other stuff I do is with Sunny, the good old waterfall, always a hit!

We made a colour sort activity.


I did finish this quilt which was a presant for Kim who just had a baby girl on Friday.  Yipee.  We need more girls in the valley!
 


Django caught a fish which we ate for dinner.

Trisso has been welding and fixing the slasher.

The boys are getting ready for soccer this year.  They love the shin pads!
 
 
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Thursday 15 March 2012

Monte Carlos



Today I made some Monte Carlo biscuits.  I recently ate one at a cafe and it was so yummy it inspired me to make my own.  I made them to give to a friend for their birthday, luckily I made quite a lot so we got to eat some too.  They were pretty scrummy.

I used this recipe:

 INGREDIENTS

125g softened butter
¾ cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons honey
a pinch of salt
2 cups self raising flour
1/3 cup raspberry jam, warmed
2 cups icing sugar
15g softened butter, extra
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2-3 tablespoons milk
METHOD

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Line a biscuit tray with baking paper.

Cream butter and sugar until well blended. Add egg, honey and a pinch of
salt. Fold through sifted flour.

Roll mixture into a log. Cover with plastic and allow to rest for about 20
minutes.

Uncover and slice into ½ cm slices. Place on tray and bake for 15
minutes or until golden.

While still warm brush ½ the biscuits with the jam. Set aside to
cool.

Sift icing sugar into a bowl. Add butter, and vanilla essence. Mix in
enough milk to form a thick icing. Spread other half of the biscuits with
the icing and sandwich together.

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Tuesday 13 March 2012

Old Mill Road

This amazing long table is the big dinner Kirsti and Fraser had at their property Old Mill Road.  I think 100 people were fed .  It sounded amazing - I better go to the next one!  They grew or procured locally everything that was ingested.    They also have a cool web site -have a look.  I wish they didn't live so far away! I miss you Kirsti!

Friday 9 March 2012

Sunny's new bed

 


Sunny has moved into a big bed.  Another mile stone! She feels very grown up.  The other night she woke us up crying and Trisso found her stuck under the bed.  A big bed  takes a bit of getting used to!  Now I have to hurry up and finish the crochet blanket. 
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Saturday 3 March 2012

Thinking In Pictures

I have been reading a very interesting book called "Thinking in pictures" by Temple Grandin.  If you are at all interested in autism or how different brains work it is worth reading.  She also has an interesting TED lecture.

Clay Land







Luckily we have had a couple of weeks of lovely  warm weather and after all the flooding the waterhole is beautiful with a nice deep spot and clayland is even bigger. Every afternoon we have been playing down there. Django made a waterslide over in clay land. He loves it - look at his face! Funny!

Sunny and I made some utensils with clay and dried them out on the big rock. The spoon is my favourite.




This is the jumping in spot. There is a nice deep hole there after the last flood.




Here is the bridge. Sunny goes back and forth over this bridge every time we are down there.


This is the camp with fire, plates and a hut. Nelson and Django spent ages setting it up.


A few rock sculptures.


The new rock pebble beach. Metres of land and Sheoak trees were washed away in the last flood.


Unfortunately the good shade tree is dying.


The nude explorer. I love going down the waterhole. (We all do). I can't think of a better way for the kids to spend their time...... (or me and Trisso).

I love that I spent my childhood afternoons in a similar way, except mucking around down the bay in the salt water, collecting jelly blubbers, making sand pies and cooking them on the big rock oven while Granny collected fish with her net and bucket, dress tucked in knickers, to put in her huge salt water tanks. I had a good childhood too.
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