Very rustic multi-sized fruit mince pies

I finally made them, the fruit mince pies that is.  They've turned out very higgledy piggledy (I like to think of them as rustic), a bit like the state of my mind at present.  Nevertheless they've been baked, are in the container and being slowly devoured.

I'd like to wish everyone a wonderful, happy and safe Christmas and New Year.  Enjoy your time with family and friends, eat, drink and be merry.  See you soon.

Anne  xx

Queen of Kong

Yesterday I took our cats Stripey and Bungee to the vet for their annual checkup and vaccinations.  I'm happy to say that at 12 years of age they are both doing well and Stripey's hypothyroidism is under control with tablets twice a day.  

While talking to the vet, I took the opportunity to mention Sophie's recent reaction to the brisket bone I gave her and he said that some dogs can react badly to the fat content of the bone.  He said the boiled rice and chicken I was giving her while she was sick was the perfect bland diet until she had recovered which she now is, thankfully.

When Sophie was a puppy I bought her a Kong which has long since been destroyed.  So while I was paying the bill at the vet I took the opportunity to buy her a new Kong and a one of those manufactured bones that is good for chewing but wont do her any harm.  I'm saving the bone to give her on Christmas Day as we will be spending the day away from home with my sister.

When I got home, I filled the Kong with pieces of homemade bread crust and gave it to Sophie.  She had so much fun and was kept occupied for hours trying to get that bread out.  Here are a few photos of her enjoying herself.

Charlotte in the background and evidence of dog hair under the occasional table.  :)  Oh and evidence of a happy, well treated dog!!

The Kong has rolled under the sofa and Sophie is waiting for me to get it out for her. 

So cute with that tongue hanging out.

She looks pretty good doesn't she?!  At this moment she is out on the back deck sleeping in the sunshine.  She asked to go out and is very content snoozing away the hours.  Stripey is trying to climb on my lap while I'm typing this post and purring loudly in my ear.  There is nothing quite as wonderful as a purring cat.

Well I'm off to make pastry for Christmas mince pies.  The fruit mince has been happily doing it's thing in the fridge the past few days.  It smells divine.  I'm not sure if it's the brandy or the lemon rind but the proof will be in the tasting I'm sure.

Have a wonderful weekend and good luck with your last minute shopping, baking and general preparation for Christmas.  Have FUN!

Anne  xx

To the anonymous commenter

To the anonymous commenter (see below) on my last post, just want to let you know that I love my dog.  She is not ill treated in any way, is loved by the whole family.

I grew up on a farm surrounded by animals which I adored.  You name it, we had it including kangaroos, an emu, ducks, chooks (chickens), turkeys, geese, sheep, goats, cows, rabbits, cats and dogs.  The dogs always slept outside in their kennels, were always well cared for and a very important part of our life.

As I type this post, Sophie my dog is sleeping and snoring contentedly on her doggie bed in our living room where all the action takes place in our house.  When I make dinner in the evening she can usually be found at my feet while I'm chopping up veges etc.  She spends most of the day inside with me and I only put her outside during the day when I need to go out shopping etc.  She has skin allergies and we buy the best dog food we can from the vet to help her with that.

As for the dog hair, it's part of living with an animal isn't it?!  I totally get that.  Perhaps if you re-read my comments you will realise that much of what I said was tongue-in-cheek.  I don't know if you are a regular reader of my blog, if you are you will know that I love my animals.  Obviously my dog is trying to tell me something by her behaviour and I'm listening to her.  She is a boisterous and fun loving dog who loves her walks and thrives on the affection we give her.

Something you might be interested in hearing is that when she was a puppy and I took her to puppy training school, the trainer said she was the most stubborn Labrador she had ever come across.  That says something about her (Sophie's) nature don't you think?!  While we need to care for and love our dogs, they need rules and boundaries other wise they think they are top dog or the leader of the pack (the family).  Talk to any dog trainer and they will tell you that the human has to show that they are the leader of the pack otherwise they will have a badly behaved dog.  A badly behaved dog is not a joy to have around. 


Anne




"It is not very kind keeping a dog outside. If you are the sort of person who doesn't like dog hair or dog behaviour - like leaving fur around perhaps you are not best suited to have a dog. Usually people enjoy their dogs as part of the family and not to exclude them and leave them outside all the time. Your dog deserves a loving home where his doggie ways are not treated as being a nuisance and he is properly loved and cared for. You would be happier if he wasn't around perhaps, as you don't seem to enjoy him very much. You don't like what he does in the house or the garden. What is he supposed to do? Where is he supposed to go that has your blessing? A very great shame and sad reading.Poor dog to make you miserable so easily. I wonder if you would find his kennel so comfortable? I wonder why you think he does. "

In my neighbourhood and what my dog did!

 Yesterday when I was driving to yoga class I passed this front yard all decked out with Christmas hats and giant candy canes.  I didn't have my camera with me so went back today to take this photo.  The house is set quite a way off the road so I tentatively made my way up to get a closer look.  I think it's rather a cute idea. 

 

Last Sunday afternoon hubby and I went to the local movie cinema to see the latest Bond movie which we enjoyed immensely.  In front of the car park and on the main road through our local town was this fantastic yarn bombed tree.  I took the following photos today too.

 

 

 Someone has put an incredible amount of work into this display and I love the bird cage too.

Now to the DOG!!!

I love my dog, I really do, but sometimes I don't like what she does.  In the last six months (please bare in mind we are talking about a 10 year old dog not a puppy), she has developed some not so nice habits like getting out of the yard, trying to dig under the gate and upending my pot plants on the back deck.  I did wonder if she was letting me know she wasn't happy that I left her for two months in May/June while traveling in Europe and the times I've visited Western Australia this year.  (She's always been at home and with family members).  She usually sleeps out on the deck at night in a very nice sheltered and warm kennel but as I was feeling sorry for her, we started to let her sleep in side.  She then developed another bad habit of sleeping on our lounge chairs which is NOT allowed.  Perhaps you may think I'm harsh but she is a pale Labrador and Labradors shed two coats of hair.  We have fabric lounge chairs and her hair gets stuck in the fibers resulting in vacuuming taking 30 minutes for one lounge chair. It's bad enough having two white haired cats let alone a dog that when she wags her tail, she sheds enough hair to stuff multiple pillows and cushions.  

Yes, it's a bit of a long winded story so if you are still with me well done and thank you for your patience.  In my wisdom (not so wise I since discovered), I bought a lovely big brisket bone for her thinking it would keep her busy during the night while she got use to sleeping outside again.  It did keep her quiet and out of my pot plants but two days later made her very sick with diarrhea and vomiting.  I felt so bad for her but she had to stay outside the second night because she was so unwell.  Apparently not too sick to do this though.

The guilty party.

  She is well again thankfully after a diet of boiled rice and chicken but I'm still not going to let her inside at night because she will be up on the chairs again.  We've tried putting things on the lounge chairs to stop her climbing up, so much so that we had boxes, bags and other paraphernalia nearly up to the ceiling.  We tried putting sachets of smelly things unpleasant to dogs like eucalyptus and tea tree oil on the lounges, we even sprayed eucalyptus air freshener near the chairs but to no avail.  After I cleaned up the above mess I decided that I would pour a liberal amount rosemary essential oil over the pot plants in an effort to keep her from upending them again.  It has worked for the last two nights, so fingers crossed she is breaking a bad habit.

Never a dull moment eh?!

May you all have moments filled with peace and well behaved dogs (if you have one) in the lead up to Christmas.

Anne  xx

 

Festive images

Yesterday I did a little Christmas decorating in our lounge room.  I love turning off the main lights and letting the Christmas lights take over.

 

 

 Have a fabulous weekend everyone,

Anne  xx

Water hole

While home in Western Australia we found some time for a small  bush walk to visit a water hole not too far from the farm and created in rocks by recent unseasonal rains.  My brother has a sensor camera which he sets up in different places around the area to take photos of wildlife.  He has some wonderful photos of wildlife coming to drink at this particular waterhole including brozewing pigeons, galahs, 28 parrots (the name for them not the number of parrots, kangaroos and a goanna.   Here are a few photos from our walk.

On top of the rocky outcrop and looking over nearby farmland.

The sensor camera is placed under two rocks near the water hole in the middle left of the photo.

The pink section in the photo is tiny little flowers.

Rock formations.

A cluster of trees in the rocks.  One of the trees in the foreground has mistletoe (lighter green foliage) growing in it.  Information about Australian mistletoe can be found here.

Dragonflies were everywhere.

A callistemon native to the area adding a splash of colour.

Interesting line formations in the rock.  Genevieve gave me a fabulous geological explanation for how these were formed.  Having done geo science at uni this past year, she was very well informed.

Lichen growing on granite rocks.

We had a wonderful time walking in this area, it was lovely to sit down for a while and take in the smell of the bush and listen and watch for bird life.

Anne xx

Christmas Cracker Swap 2012 and an update on Dad

In November I stumbled across Tracy at  Made About Bags blog and as she was organising a Christmas Cracker swap I decided to join in.  I was paired with Kimberley from Creative Chaos
who lives just across the ocean from me in New Zealand.

I had to get my cracker off to Kimberley well before the deadline as I was going to be in Western Australia.  When I returned home my Christmas Cracker from Kimberley was waiting for me.  I love what she sent me all wrapped up in very pretty Christmas fabric with a gorgeous card.

In my cracker was a very handy Christmas tree biscuit cutter.  I'll be using it to make white chocolate drizzled shortbread for Christmas.  Also included was some Eco soap, some red starry buttons (always handy for a Christmas crafty project), a craft pen, candy cane, reindeer ornament, a kiwi cross stitch, chocolate (already eaten) and the most beautiful handmade house ornament to hang on our tree.  My photos don't do it justice unfortunately.

Part of the swap was including something handmade so I made this little bird below for Kimberley to hang on her Christmas tree if she likes.  I had a lot of fun designing and making my little bird.  I know I have a huge stash of craft products but I didn't have to buy anything for this project, it was all to hand.  The silver decoration on the tail and feet are jewellery findings.

Thank you to everyone who has left comments about Dad.  He is currently having a stay in hospital for observation and adjustment to medication.  In the two weeks while I was home in Western Australia I saw him become even more frail and needing more assistance than can be provided at home.  Health wise he is as good as can be expected in the circumstances, eating quite well which is wonderful and mostly on oxygen all the time.  He is quite chirpy when speaking on the phone, so I know he is comfortable.  After his hospital stay he may spend some time in a care facility in a local town which cares for elderly people.  It is very hard for Dad and Mum to be separated, with Mum living at home.  Despite the fact that Dad is very unwell, he and I had many lovely conversations and lots of joking around.  It was a very special time in many ways.  We were able to help Mum with organising some things in the home to make it easier for her and had a number of giggling sessions along the way.

 I would like to make mention of my two nephews who live very close to my parents on my brother's farm.  They are wonderful young men who were and are willing to help out in anyway they can.  I'm so very proud of who they have become as people, they are a credit to their parents.  Thanks fellas, knowing you are nearby to help out  makes it just that little bit easier living so far away.

Something resembling normal blogging will resume soon.  I have many photos to share during the time spent in Western Australia.  Many of them were taken by Genevieve who seems to have quite a knack for taking artistic photos.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone,

Anne  xx