October photo scavenger hunt

This months photo scavenger hunt has been very challenging for me and I've taken artistic licence with many of my photos.  I hope this can be seen as interesting rather than stretching the rules of the hunt.

1. Crunchy leaves

No crunchy leaves here in spring.  Framed crunchy leaf, art activity with the girls from years ago.

2.  Golden

Golden  leaves and flowers from a palm tree in a neighbour's backyard.

3.  Lit candle

4.  Pumpkin

5. Something eerie

Miss G. hamming it up.

6.  A black cat

Gatsby, the neighbour's cat.   He has white socks and bib, sorry, it's the best I could do.

7.  A river

No rivers close to where I live, but here is a local creek.

8.   Heritage

My heritage.  The house my Grandfather built on my parents farm in Western Australia.

9.  Graffiti/street art

A mural rather than street art.  Puffing Billy steam train painted on the stone wall of a nearby town.

10.  Fog/mist

Photo taken at the top of a nearby street where I live.

11.  Sunset

On my parents farm, Western Australia.

12.  A witch's hat/broomstick

My outdoor sweeping broom.

Thank you to Cathy for organising this fun photo scavenge.

Anne  xx

Friands

A couple of days ago in my post,  "Getting in the mood for French, I shared some photos of the friands I made for two young ladies studying hard for their French oral exam. (By the way, both girls feel they did very well in their exam Tuesday.  Some of Genevieve's nerves were offset by having a very handsome French examiner.  She'll kill me for adding that bit!) Some of my followers have never heard of friands so I thought I would share with you my recipe.  You can find an explanation of what a friand is here.

Here is a reminder of what they look like.

As you can see I was a little heavy handed with the icing sugar.  :)

These are friand the baking tins I use.  I have two.

BLUEBERRY FRIANDS
Makes 12

150g ground almonds (almond meal)
1 1/4 cups pure icing sugar, sifted *
3/4 cup gluten-free plain flour **
1 lemon, rind finely grated
150g butter, melted and cooled
150g punnet blueberries, or raspberries ***

1.  Preheat oven to 200C.  Grease 12 friand pans (you can also use 12 x 1/3 cup capacity muffin pans).
2.  Place almonds, sugar, flour and lemon rind into a bowl.  Mix well to combine.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites with a fork until frothy.  Add to flour mixture.  Mix until just combined.  Stir in melted butter.  Gently fold through berries.
4.  Spoon mixture in to pan holes so they are three-quarters full.  Bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.   Stand in pan for 10 minutes, Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

*  I used icing sugar mix instead of pure icing sugar as that was what I had in the pantry.
**  I'm sure you could use ordinary plain flour.  I would normally but had some gluten free flour leftover from when gluten intolerant guests were staying, so decided to use it up.
***  I used a 400g tin of blueberries which I drained.  The friands had lots of blueberries, but they were delicious.

There is one thing about a friand recipe which is annoying and that is what do you do with the leftover egg yolks.  I decided to make lemon curd and the following recipe uses 4 yolks which meant only one went to  waste.


LEMON CURD
4 egg yolks
150 grams caster sugar
100 mls lemon juice
70 grams butter, cut into small cubes
1.Place the egg yolks and sugar into a bowl and beat using an electric mixer until the sugar has dissolved. You'll know when the sugar is dissolved when the mix no longer feels gritty when rubbed between your finger tips.
2.  Put this mixture in a small saucepan along with the lemon juice and butter and place over a low heat. Whisk constantly until it almost reaches boiling point - you'll notice that it will begin to thicken quite quickly and at this stage take it off the heat. At this stage it will have the consistency of a thick custard.
3.  Once off the heat, whisk again and then pour it immediately into hot, sterilised jars. Seal and allow to cool and then store in the fridge.

I found the recipe here, http://cookalmostanything.blogspot.com/2008/05/lemon-curd.html#ixzz1bqSkS2s9

I hope you have a try at making friands sometime.   You'll enjoy them, I promise.

Anne  xx

A Bunny Mummy original

Good morning.  It's a gorgeous day here today with the sun shining, birds tweeting and singing and baby magpies demanding food from their exhausted parents in their oh so persistent way.  :)  The cats, the dog and the chooks are all sunning themselves which sounds like a perfect idea to me.

Before I indulge in some time outside, I want to share with you what I found in my postbox yesterday.  Look at this gorgeous crochet bowl that I was very lucky to win in a giveaway by Jacquie from Bunny Mummy.

Inside view of bowl, beautiful work Jacquie!

Upside down

 I have long admired Jacquie's crochet work and her generous spirit in sharing her knowledge through tutorials.  The above link will take you to her tutorial on just how to make one of these gorgeous bowls.  I am very proud to have Jacquie original in my home.  The colours are gorgeous and the crochet work is beautiful, something for me to aspire to.

Jacquie also added a few gorgeous surprises in her package.

A lovely fabric heart to hang (green and purple are my favourite colours), a candle melt and a gorgeous little notebook with an owl on the front.  I LOVE OWLS!!  The notebook is the perfect size to pop in my handbag, I'm always looking for something to write on when I'm out and about.  There was also a beautiful card which reminded me of the nature notes posts that Jacquie does once a month on her lovely blog.  Thank you Jacquie, I feel very spoilt.
 
Wherever you are today, I hope you are having a fab day,

 Anne  xx

Getting in the mood for French

Hello, how are you?  Today I had two young ladies (Genevieve and friend) in the house practicing for their French oral exam tomorrow.  As they were working so hard, I decided to make them food to eat with a slightly French flavour.  I made Blueberry Friands and I can tell you they were unbelievably delicious.

The best way to eat them, slightly warmed with a dusting of icing sugar,

 

accompanied by your choice of hot beverage.

Out of the dozen I made yesterday, only two remain!  It's back to good old fashioned homemade Anzac biscuits when the Friands are finished.

I also made delicious baguettes (baguettes from the bakery) for lunch stuffed with turkey, Brie cheese and lettuce.   Charlotte sent me a text message saying how much she enjoyed hers just before starting work. 

The weather today has turned wintry which has me searching in the cupboard for a warm jumper.  To think I was in shorts and a t-shirt yesterday.  That's spring for you where I live, very unpredictable.

Take care everyone and thanks for popping by.

Anne  xx

Inspiration # 2

Would you agree that this looks like a beautiful and peaceful place?  A row boat tied to the river bank, gorgeous reflections of trees in the water, sunlight dappling through the trees.  I can almost feel the balmy weather and see dragonflies skimming over the water.  This looks like a place for dreaming, for imagining, for contemplation and finding peace.

Google images

I recently came across the following inspirational quote.

I find peace in the everyday busyness of life by taking time to be still, to stop and enjoy moments of time.  How do you find peace in everyday life?  Do you agree with what the quote says?

Anne  xx

Muck up day

Muck up day is a tradition that most Australians will be familiar with.  The last day of school for year 12 students, a day when they can let their hair down and have a bit of fun.  Of course we know that some kids have gone overboard in past years, so many pranks have been curtailed.  Miss G.'s school permits a little bit of fun such as decorating rooms (which they have to tidy up later) and dressing up in crazy clothes and having an early morning breakfast at school before the final assembly.

This is how Genevieve chose to dress up on Friday.  Oh the joy of being an uninhibited 18 year old.

O.k. the fun is over for now as she is swatting up for a French oral exam on Tuesday.

In other news, Charlotte will be retaking her driving test in about three weeks.  Just a few more things to work on before they will pass her.  Her first test was a good experience for her and the examiner was impressed with her reverse parking.  She does a better job than me!

Well it's a quiet Saturday night home for me after having lunch with my sister-in-law today.  It's raining (I love the sound of rain on our iron roof) and I think after dinner I'll be hooking away on my giant granny throw or making bunting stars. 

Bye for now,

Anne  xx

Endings and beginnings

This week marks the end of an era.  An era of the primary and high school education of our girls.  This Friday, Miss G. has her last school assembly which is a bit of an event to say the least.  I know there will be tears of sadness and of happiness.  Sadness because one phase of her life has finished and happiness because there are new things to look forward too, new challenges to face.  There will be changes for me too with no more school drop offs and pick ups.  When I first started taking the girls to kinder, I thought of all those years ahead of me and now I'm at the end of them.   It's truly amazing to think and wonder where the time went

 

It's been a bit of a contemplative time for me these past few weeks so I've been keeping myself occupied in my spare moments with making stars for Christmas bunting.

Working on my giant granny square throw.

I've been enjoying the flowers in the garden.

Bungee snuck into the photo.

The first rose of spring.

Trying to take photos of the elusive and shy Wattle birds feeding from the Chinese Lantern.  This photo is taken through the window and not clear because of the fly screen behind the glass.

Can you see him on the left of the photo with his head upside down.

I've been tidying up the pantry and getting rid of some of the plastic storage containers.  I found these wonderful glass containers at a discount shop for $1.00 and just the perfect size for herbs and spices.  Here they are draining and air drying after a good hot soapy scrub.

This is a very satisfying sight.

I've been making wholemeal Melt and Mix Shortbread to keep the biscuit tin full.

And I've been working on my portrait painting.  I must say I now have mixed feelings about the painting as it has been worked on quite extensively by my teacher.  My teacher is very good but unfortunately gets carried away when showing you how to do a technique which results in important aspects of the face such as the eyes being her work and not mine.  I suppose this sound quite silly, but I really want a painting to be my work with it's imperfections and not my teachers work.  I must sound ungrateful, I really need her to teach me how, just not do it all.  The hair has been worked on extensively by my  teacher too (not yet finished), once again I needed to learn the technique, but not have it all done by her.  Grumble, grumble.  Anyway, here's the painting.

I must admit I fiddled with the eyes just a little when I came home from class.  I softened the lines that make up her eyelid and eyes and darkened the colour of her eyes to a darker brown.  I can see all the imperfections I made to her eyes but I feel better about it having some of my touch.  I will say happily that the nose and mouth are all my work.  I sound very picky, but I am quite passionate and pocessive about my paintings and want them to be my work.  O.k., I think I've said enough on the subject for the moment.

In other news, I can report that Miss C. is going for her drivers test this afternoon.  For all the Australian readers out there, I would have to say that sitting the computerised hazard perception test first is ridiculous.  The computer imagery for the driving conditions and situations is not clear, dodgy at best.  After her 4th attempt, Charlotte finally passed this morning and her Dad is going with her for the test this afternoon.  Fingers crossed for a successful outcome.

I'm off out to get my hair attended too and perhaps check out the delights of Spotlight.

Take care everyone,

Anne  xx

Inspiration # 1

Since I started pinning on Pinterest, I've found lots of gorgeous images and have boards about animals, gardens, wrought iron, decorating, crochet and craft.   However one of my favourite boards, which I have titled Inspiration, is a collection of quotes, sayings and other things inspirational to me.  I thought I might do a post on one every now and then.  So here is the first quote, and one I really love.

Google images

There is something about this quote that resonates with me.  Beliefs are powerful things, I wonder if they hinder us from seeing what is actually there?  I'd love to hear your thoughts on this one.  Do you find this quote too cryptic?

Anne  xx

A gentleman came calling

Early this morning found me in the garden doing some tidying up, weeding and pruning so I could make good use of the garden rubbish removal today.  It was warm today, a pleasant 24C and after I had completed my gardening, came inside for mid-morning coffee.

As I was about to sit down to sip my latte and blog hop, I heard a series of whistles and there he was, beautifully dressed as he always is, politely asking for food.  I obliged, I cannot say no to this handsome fellow.

Sitting on the gate post amongst the Sage in flower and eating Sunflower seeds and Pepitas.

Just a hop away to another pile of seeds on the other post.

Is he not beautiful?

The Chinese Lantern is in full bloom behind the post.  The Wattle birds love feeding from the blossom and as hard as I've tried to take of photo of them, they fly away as soon as I open the back door.

Isn't this a cheeky look?!

I thought you might like to see the  Babiana stricta bulb which is flowering beautifully.

They are the most glorious purple don't you think?  I love those dark purple stamens.

It was quite a bright and beautiful morning I had, and made the house cleaning in the afternoon so much more bearable with thoughts of appreciation for the beautiful place I live and the lovely things I see.

The evening is ending in rather a lovely way too.  I made chicken korma for dinner tonight, hubby loves curry so he was rather pleased.  He had leftover lasagna for lunch at work today, so he has been particularly well fed today.  We finished our dinner with freshly made pancakes, strawberries, ice cream, chocolate topping for the girls and mango and passion fruit topping for hubby and me.  We have the New World 9th Symphony by Dvorak playing in the background, a broadcast simulcast on the ABC from the Sydney Opera House.  It's one of Genevieve's favourite pieces of classical music and hubby is sitting back in his chair, eyes closed enjoying the music too.  Quite a wonderful way to end the week.

Wishing everyone a fantastic weekend,

Anne  xx

Travel sewing kit

Hello there, how are you?  I've been beavering away on my trusty Bernina and made myself a little travel sewing kit based on a tutorial found here.
The tutorial is quite long and involved steps I didn't want to take, so I looked at the photos and figured it out and did it my way.



 On the far left and right sides, I have made divided pockets with Velcro fastening to store thread and buttons.  The little felt square book (don't know what else to call it), holds pins, needles and safety pins.  I just couldn't resist using one of those little framed key pictures for decoration.  It's all thready around the edge too, just how I wanted it.  Can you see the nifty little felt triangle to hold the scissors?  I made a little tab fastened with a press stud to keep them safely tucked inside.


  I made my own thread holders using offcuts of cardboard, cutting little triangles into the side to wind the thread around.  The buttons are in a plastic bag, otherwise you know what would happen don't you?  Buttons everywhere in my suitcase.

I see more threads that need snipping.  :)

 The kit consists of three layers of fabric with one piece of fabric having iron-on interfacing adhered to it to provide some padding.   Wadding perhaps would have been better but I didn't have any so I had to improvise.

 So there you have it, a travel sewing kit just ready to pop in my suitcase for when I go travelling.  I've got a few more suitcase storage ideas to make yet.  Watch this space.

Anne  xx