Jacaranda time

I know it's a long time since I posted anything but I felt that I just had to remind you of how the jacarandas look at this time of the year. I should have chosen a brighter day to take the photos.



I've also included a tractor shot for Jasper.

The garden club

Recently I have been encouraged to enter parts of the garden in the local garden club competition, and I finally succumbed and entered in two categories, Australian native flowering shrub, and a flowering vine.
Because the weather has been so cold and dry this winter the flowers were all a bit slow appearing but there were enough there to see.
The powder puff lilly pilly looked pretty good really, in fact good enough for me to win second prize! The flower heads are about the size of a grapefruit. I was stunned and really quite pleased.



The wisteria which looks great now didn't have enough flowers on it to be prize worthy.


I mustn't get too carried away though as both Margaret and Wendy also received prizes for areas of their gardens which are far more impressive than ours.
So now I have to think about what I can enter next year, maybe the vegie garden?

Chocolate Pudding

Do you remember this?
David and I have just been making a chocolate self saucing pudding to have with our Sunday lunch. With all the wonderful chocolate that you can buy I'm sure you could make the most delicious pudding. I wonder if you have this old recipe - in case not - here it is.

60 gms soft butter
1/2 caster cup sugar
1 large or 2 small eggs
1 cup SR flour and 1 tablespoon cocoa sifted together
1/2 to 3/4 cup milk
dash of vanilla
Plus another 1/2 cup sugar and 2 desertspoons of cocoa mixed together for topping

Cream butter and sugar, (do this with a wooden spoon, you won't need a beater), whisk in unbeaten egg and vanilla (optional) until creamy. Fold in flour and cocoa alternately with milk.
Pour into a greased ovenproof dish and sprinkle with sugar and cocoa topping. Finally pour over 1 &1/4 cups of hot water and bake in a moderate oven for 30 - 40 minutes.

Make sure you cook in it a dish that is big enough!!



Serve with lashings of whipped cream and/or ice cream. Guess who didn't want his photo taken?


For Lily - the wallaby family having breakfast under the trees this morning.



Grandad on the tractor for Jasper

Things Australian

I didn't expect the Vegemite to be such a hit - but I'm sure you don't have any thick soft white plastic bread to put it onto. I'm looking forward to when we can visit so that I can try some of the yummy goodies that you have been having for breakfast.

Yesterday morning I spied a Koala making his way across from the mangoes to the old growth grove in the cow paddock and managed to take a rather distant photo of him for Lily and Jasper.
If you look closely you can just see him going under the fence. Just for comparison I have included another we took a couple of years ago. And - how about all the water in the dam? and it's so much greener than it was two weeks ago.



Before the rain the wallabies were very active around the garden and I managed to take one of the alpha male just before he raised the alarm and dashed off.

Lily's next jumper is coming on really well and looks great. I am much happier with it than I am with the blue one. I have put Jasper's aside until I finish this one.

We have really been coasting along for the last six weeks or so but the time has come for us to start to get all the after harvest work done, so today we start on the mulching, then the pruning and more fertilizing. I'll have to see if I can get a photo of Grandad on the tractor.

It's raining!!

I can't believe how quickly the countryside changes when it rains.
A few days ago I took this photo from our bedroom door of a magnificent sunrise


and then from the other bedroom door the pitiful amount of water left in our dam. There was so little there that it would only show up when the early morning light was reflecting off it.

It started to rain late on Sunday, just a light drizzle that we didn't expect to amount to anything, and then it got heavier and heavier and this morning our dam looks like this.


It's starting to look like Rosebank again and no doubt in a few days time the grass that has been burnt off with the dry and the frost will spring to life and be green again. But I'm not so sure about the broccoli water garden......

I'm sure a bit of excess water won't do too much harm. The vegie garden has been great and every day there is something to pick. Today was broccoli and leeks, the rainbow chard has been really good (that's spinach with red or yellow stalks) and the beans will be ready soon. I remember Dav having to pick all the excess beans from the old vegie patch when you were here for your first Christmas.
I had a busy few days in the garden last week, pruning, tidying up and especially mulching as we expected to have to hand water with our meagre supplies for some time. Since the rain started it has taken on a really fresh look, the plants seem to be standing taller and it all looks brighter, healthier and much greener. I'm being encouraged to enter part of the garden in the local garden competition and after this week I might not have any excuses left.... we'll see.

Chloe and Etienne

Hello Lily,
I haven't seen Chloe today but early this morning the kookaburras were making a lot of noise and I think that was Chloe and Etienne. They like to make their calling laughing song early in the morning when the sun is coming up and again in the evening just as the sun is setting. Some of the other birds are starting to make their nests to lay eggs and hatch chicks so I think that Chloe is probably busy building her nest too.
The other day I found a crested pigeon's nest in the mango tree so if I see the mother pigeon sitting on the nest I'll take a photo to put on the blog but this may take a few days.
You'll have to ask Mum or Dad to give you a name for when you reply to my blogs so that I can see when one comes in from you.

Chooks

Hello Lily and Jasper
I have just been down collecting the eggs and I thought to myself, wouldn't it be a good idea if I took some photos for you of how the chooks are now.

So the first photo I took was of Reg the rooster.

Just behind him is Mother Hen and Locky.

Then I took one of Cocky, hasn't she grown into a lovely big hen. She lays beautiful big white eggs. She's eating some grain, and the container in the middle of the ring has shell grit in it. That is to make their egg shells strong, otherwise they would break when you pick them up.

And last of all is Locky, She is the whitey, gingery coloured one at the back, she's very pretty. The other hen doesn't belong to us, we are just looking after her for Doug and Martha. Locky's eggs are brown and Grandad really enjoys having a boiled brown egg for breakfast.

Lily, I think the names you chose for the kookaburras are really good. Etienne really suits the boy kookaburra as his feathers look as though they are standing to attention on the top of his head and attention rhymes with Etienne. I haven't seen Chloe for a couple of days so maybe she is off making a nest somewhere. I'll watch out for her and tell you in the next blog.

Off and running

Well, here is my first attempt at posting a blog!
Setting up the site was not as easy as expected but after much help from David we are finally up and running.
It rained a little (a very little) here this morning just enough to dampen the grass, hopefully there will be some more in a day or so.
We have a new addition to the garden. A kookaburra and his mate have set up a territory which includes the vegie garden and also the front verandah.
Lily, here is he sunning himself beside the birdbath. Every few minutes or so he flies off and dives onto a worm in the grass and then he gets back on his perch again and watches for something else to eat. The feathers on the top of his head all stick up as though he hasn't done his hair. I think we'll have to find a name for him. Do you have any suggestions? his mate is a bit timid so we don't see her so often.