HIDDEN

Hello to all my readers, I am going into hiding over the next month. I will be away from tomorrow morning to go see my wonderful family in WA. To enable me to have a good break and devoted attention to family I decided to let this blog be hidden for the month of September. I will be back on board in October.
Keep smiling....Dot

CARD

I decided today to take a photo of a loyalty card that I only get to use when I am out of the state of Tasmania. As I am heading off in TWO SLEEPS it is kept in the front of my wallet.

Cannot hang around here too long, lots to do....Dot

DOWN

Well I looked down and this is what I saw....click

....Dot :-)

CLOCK

I have to apologise that I have been absent from my blog the last couple of days. The truth is the weekends are usually full and so this last one was no different. We held an early Fathers Day dinner with my hubby's siblings and families on Sunday night as we are going away in FOUR sleeps and his parents are too. We are not going to the same location; they are off the QLD and us to WA. And the clock ticks on.....

We have never had a shortage of clocks in our home. My mother made sure that we had a few clocks in our new home when we were married (still have them as you will see), as you needed to keep an eye on the time. I have found I am lost without them and actually have one or more in each room.

A wedding gift as it matched our pine dining table.

this one is just as old, may have to be replaced when we renovate the room as it is deteriating.

I like this 'clear, easy to read' clock.

this was a gift from our lovely staff when we sold our business back in 2004.

And last but not least, this one was inherited from my mother's things. One of my daughters brought it home. It is a noisy ticking clock. It did not stay long in their bedroom before it made its way into the office. Its now settled in the family room but it has had a couple of nights in the laundry.

Keep ticking.....Dot

FRESH

Today we have had lots of fresh air with rain tumbling down along with very windy weather. Some of the windows had to have towels laid down to catch some water leaking in. This only happens when winds are strong from the west. A couple of days my darling hubby brought home a load of soil for my veggie garden and so today's pic features where I deposited it.

Hopefully next time I show you this little corner of my garden it will be displaying fresh produce ready to enjoy at the dining table.

Enjoy a great weekend....Dot

PATH

To start with, I don't feel the best. The goat made its way into my yard today and on checking quickly on dark I noticed quite a bit had been nibbled that I did not appreciate.
A few days ago I took the following pics of a path that goes in off the front drive. There is a lemon tree down that path that we have cleared around and it is coming along nicely. Has produced some nice lemons over the last couple of years. As you can notice Molly had come with me to walk around the yard.
Must go now, family are waiting to watch a movie....Dot

PAIR

When I think of 'pair' I immediately think of my hubby and I who have been told by others that we make a good pair and I also know and have proved that we work together very well. We started out as best friends and have been so ever since. I have already published a pic of us recently so I went looking for another 'pair' to share with you.

 

Pepper and Salt which sits on my kitchen bench and is used often.

until tomorrow....Dot

HOME

Home is where the heart is. I guess we have all heard this saying before. I love being at home. It means you can relax and unwind in it. You are able to change rooms and things around when you like. We love to sit down at the table with family and friends around a home-cooked meal, even enjoy a 'pot luck' meal with friends on occasion; currently we are doing this once a month. Homes are meant to be a place of security for your family and I trust that is what we have made it with our family through the 30 plus years my hubby and I have been together.

Which reminds me, we have guests coming later and I need to get dinner out and make scones....Dot

COOL

What I am about to share with you is both cool in temperature and 'hip' cool. I have had this Chocolate Tart on my 'to do' cooking list for a while now. I got down to cooking it yesterday. We tried some last night and some today for lunch. I have frozen the rest to see how that goes. We will pull out to try next week. It makes enough to feed at least 10 serves but only 3 of the 4 of us here tried it. It is not for the 'sweet tooth', but for those who are cutting the sugar back. I put fresh banana slices in between the base and filling. Next week I will try and get hold of some strawberries to serve with it. Hubby loved it and did not want to know what it was made out of, but I could not keep it to myself as I was amazed that something so different could make something so 'cool' and delicious.

The main ingredient in the filling is avocado.

Its starting raining here, cool .......Dot

TODAY

Sorry to miss yet another day. Today I kicked it off by going for a walk about town and returned to have breaky and shower and make the dentist by 8.30. He found a crack at base of back tooth near the gum. He is leaving it up to me if I pop back in a month or two to have a white filling put on it. I have felt it a couple of times over the last few weeks, but no big drama! I left with a beautiful polished smile.

Mondays are usually spent filling out the weeky meal planner which also includes straightening the fridge, freezer and pantry to see what needs using up and working around that. Big tick for that today, all done. We are about to have one of our favourite quick meals for dinner; Cannellini Coconut Cream with basmati rice and steamed kale.

No pics today.....Dot

INSIDE

Sorry to miss a day but I am back again. I have been inside most of the day although I did get out for a few hours too. All the clothes dried on the line and I spent some time in my vegie garden. I can feel it, I will sleep well tonight.

D3 about to head back to work after a break at home.

Must get into some serious admin now, staying inside now....Dot

FOOD

I realise the picture below is similar to that of yesterday's, but it is food. Food is a high priority in a home of 4 adults. I love to cook and try new things and use up supplies carefully so as not to have much waste.

One meal was taken down to our daughter who works late on Thursday nights, but has a tea break at 7. I made 2 pizzas and used left over tin tuna on one and left over roast chicken on the other. I added fetta, pesto, roast pumpkin, diced tomato, mozarella and oregano. We had a salad on the side with left over chilli dressing and I made 3 of us an energy smoothie to use up berries. I guess you could call tonight's dinner one of left overs.

Wonder what tomorrow holds?......Dot

READY

Well I was ready for a few things today. Ready to go to the city for the day, quite ready to come home when done, not ready to unpack until tomorrow as needed to get ready to go out again tonight.
But dinner was ready on time and enjoyed.

I had slowed roasted a chicken while I was away all day, steamed some vegies and drizzled with Chilli Lime Dressing (made in Thermi).

Delicious......Dot

ARROW

No photo of an arrow today but I can certainly talk about it. It would be so nice if our neighbours goat over the back fence would realise that there is not an arrow anywhere pointing in the direction of our yard. Billy appeared in our yard yesterday and again today. I know that today he jumped over his fenced yard and jumped into my vegi patch and ate all my silverbeet and kale patch TO GROUND LEVEL.
It shook me up, but tomorrow I am going to go to the nursery and see what seedlings they have available to replace in my beautiful 'wood-wool' bed.

Hoping for better things tomorrow...Dot

PS: It was good to have my sister and my friend from down south visit today.

SIMPLE

Who doesn't want simple but effective things in our lives. Recently I found a simple loaf of bread. Its great if you are short on time but want something healthy and delicious. Can freeze remainder or use for toast next day.

5 Minute Bread

Late afternoon the day before you want a loaf of bread, take a large bowl.

Measure in:

3 cups flour

¼ ts dry yeast

1 ts salt.

Mix together. Add 1 ½ c water and mix together with hands until it comes together.

Cover bowel with plastic wrap and leave on your bench overnight. 

An hour before you need the bread, place cast iron dutch oven with lid into oven and heat to (250C/500F).

Turn out dough onto floured board and knead into tight ball with smooth top and folded bottom (should only take a minute) and place on clean tea towel. 

When oven is hot, slide out the shelf, remove lid and plop bread into dutch oven, smooth side up, snip top with scissors, replace lid etc and let it bake for 30 minutes. 

After 30 minutes, turn heat down to 200C/390F, remove lid and cook for another 15 minutes. 

For a larger loaf: 5 cups flour, 2 ½ cups water, 1 ½ ts salt and ½ ts dried yeast.

SPOON

Our everyday cutlery consists of 2 sets which were given to Hubby and I for a wedding gift. I don't think we have the full sets anymore, just one or two missing here and there. One set is the favourite and in fact if there are not any clean ones when needed, one is washed up to use. I guess I have led the way in this as I have always chosen to get this set from the drawer first to use and so, its 'stuck'.

The spoon would have to be the most used cutlery item in our home. The spoon is used throughout the day to eat cereal, CADA, smoothie, soup etc. I don't know about you, but it doesn't feel right to eat soup with a dessert spoon or vice versa.

My Hubby took me out for dinner tonight and I got to use a spoon to eat a yummy apple & berry crumble.

Trust you have had a wonderful weekend....Dot

PURPLE

The pic for today is .....

....purple crotcheting. I had subscribed to receive this subscription for a few months last year, but decided to give up after a while as I could see it was going to get too costly and I had collected quite a lot of patterns. I also had enough wool to make a decent size item and so I thought I would complete it in the squares I particularly liked. It is of course, one of my UFO's, but it is all kept in a basket in sight and I will get back to it soon.

... Dot :-)

RING

This ring is very special to me. It was my mothers engagement ring, but she had it cut off her finger throughout her married life. On her passing, I was going through her things and came across the ring case I had seen in my early childhood on her dresser which housed her rings. I did not expect to find anything inside but when I opened it, there was the cut engagement ring. It was very emotional I can tell you. My darling hubby had it mended, resized and reset for me for the following Christmas. I find I cannot wear it for long as my finger can break out. I will give it another go soon though and see if my skin reacts again.

Off to Princess Night now to paint little nails....Dot

MESSY

You know the goat I mentioned the other day who made a nuisance of himself in our yard. Well, he left his mark. All the family were surprised as they came home.

They are not used to seeing 'poo poos' of any sort at the back door. I left it there a few hours so I was sure it was dry before I swept it up.

I cleaned up a few little messes around the yard as I took the wheelie bin up this afternoon. This helped to fill up the bin and also add to bit of tidiness about.

That's all for today...Dot

GLASSES

Tonight we have our church Life Group at our home and we are having a meal night. It starts at 6pm and I have started preparation. One family are unable to make it due to the colds going around and they don't want to share it any further. I am making quiche, rissotto, and apple fritters.
We have had some nice showers today but currently the sun is beaming.

Must go and do some more for tonight....Dot

8 O'CLOCK

I chose 8pm only because 8 am had passed me by before I had realised. Today I made it my purpose to wash our sheets, as we only have 1 set of flannelette, and get them dry and back on the bed. And so what I had purposed, happened and at 8pm tonight hubby and I remade the bed.

Until tomorrow, sleep tight....Dot

WRITING

I'm sorry it is sideways. I tried 3 times to get it right, but nevermind. As you can see, if you tilt your head to the side, it is a letter from our Compassion child which we received recently. We have sponsored her for a few years now and she has is growing into a lovely young lady. I posted a letter back to her today.

We had our neighbours goat escape into our yard today. I had just got home from downtown, backed the car in and Billy appeared over the bank and toward us. He started prancing about and making quite a nuisance of himself. The neighbour retreived him after a phonecall so all is good.

Tonights dinner: Mango Chicken. I am improvising, using mango nectar instead of apricot nectar.

Good evening....Dot

LOGO

Hello. Hope you have had a great day today being a Sunday. We had a great time at church. Girls and I called out to see my in-laws and they were well. We ventured into a nearby town and bought some hot chips to share. It was very windy today, 63km, and chilly. I went over the back yard this afternoon and had to look twice. There was some ice banked up against the shade cloth around my vegie patch. Apparently we had hail today. Wow!!!

For my LOGO today I chose.....

.....the LOGO on the olive oil I buy most of the time. Tonight I used it to make dinner: Cannellini Coconut Cream. We serve it with rice. It is a quick delicious recipe.

Off to have dinner and sit with girls and watch a girlie movie...Dot.

SOMEWHERE I SAT

This is where I sat today. For breakfast we had our usual crepes and I did my devotion, coffee time with hubby and daughter, lunch with hubby, coffee time with daughter and play iphone/ipod games, next will be dinner and hopefully hubby will be home to have with daughter and I.

As promised, here is potato recipe. They were yummy.

Slow-roasted Potatoes

Large potatoes
Foil to cover

Method:
- Wash and dry potatoes
- Wrap in foil and place in slow cooker.
- Cook on low for 8 hours, or until cooked through.
- Once cooked, top with your favourite toppings.

Must go and cook dinner....Dot

COIN

Today I decided to take a coin from my wallet and take a shot.

I thought I would just look over the coins that were in my wallet to see if there were any different ones and there was. This 20 cent coin has written on it: 100 The Australian Taxation Office Centenary 2010. Around the edge it says: Working for all Australians.
Which reminds me, August is the month we are to get all our paperwork to the Accountant. I must take in down next week.
Trust you have a great weekend in store....Dot

ONE

I have ONE sister...

..and I love to catch up with her each week.

Short and sweet today .....Dot

OUTSIDE

Welcome to the first day of the last month of winter. I was outside at 6.50am and I could notice the extra light as I could see the steps as I walked around the outside the side of the house. I met different ones who were enjoying the early morning frost with me.

I ventured out again about midday with my camera and took some shots.

There is some gorgeous colour in the garden.

The sun was out today. We had a minimum of 2 degrees and high of 12. The wind was at 6km per hour and so it was great just to wander outside. The sun helped my dough rise and I baked a delicious loaf of buttermilk bread.

Spring is still a month away but these bulbs could not wait. The ground is obviously warm enough for them to poke their beautiful heads out.

Anyhow, must go and get dinner out. We are about to try those potatoes....Dot