Simple Life

Hi again!  We have been without phone or internet for this past week and I must say it has been quite pleasant.  I often think I would have liked the pre phone era...  I often reflect on the computer and my love/hate relationship with it.  It is interesting how the internet has become such a central part of life.  Only two years ago I hardly ever used the computer - i would just check my emails every so often, then I discovered blogs (and now pinterest!) and the plethora of ideas out there.  It is too much sometimes, there is only so much one can do in a day and all these extra added ideas often make my head spin, not to mention the time wasted just looking and not doing.  However I do love it too, the easy access to all sorts of information, ideas, people, music, art, food, instructions..... I do love looking at and reading my favourite blogs and keeping in touch with my far away family and friends and when you live a slightly isolated life it is great to be connected to the big wide world.  Still it was nice to have a week with no computer or phone, just beautiful simple sunshiny days.

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

here

here

here

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!

 

 

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.

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!

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.