Month: February 2018

Beaches

Hi!
Meet (left to right) Daisuke, Shonosuke & Taishin!
We had a nice relaxed start to the day – breakfast and a tour of the garden. The boys were pretty happy to pick tomatoes and eat them!

We managed to get to three different beaches today as well as a short driving tour locally so they could get a feel for our immediate area.

I have known Taishin since he was a baby! I have been good friends with his parents and grandparents for a long time. I am so glad he has been able to come and visit us now that he is a young man!

They are all pretty shy and quiet, but they make a real effort to communicate and get involved.

I forgot how cool the rocks were up the other end of Sisters Beach. Jeff keeps wanting to climb mountains and walking along beaches is a bit tame for him these days!! So its been a while!

There were so many little rock pools and interesting things to see and happily this is something that really interested the boys. They were quite happy poking about the rocks and just sitting to soak up the views. All of them live inland so not many trips to the beach!

Of course I was just as happy wandering about with my camera and enjoying not doing housework.

My vegetarian lasagne was a huge hit with everyone. Our boarder Kirrily informed me that in light of the almost daily fresh baked bread, the garlic herb bread from tonight, the lasagne and the home made ice cream… she is never leaving. Made me laugh.

Tomorrow we will be duplicating last weeks outing to Stanley, the Nut and Black River Beach… well… thats the plan anyway.

SO… since I went to bed at Oh-My-Goodness O’clock last night, I need to shuffle off this seat and get some shut eye!

Have a great day!
Cheers

Sunday in the Garden

Hi!!
I started this post, then got distracted.
Its late (surprise surprise) and we are not long home from our jaunt up to Launceston to pick up the three Japanese boys who are staying with us for a few weeks! (Taishin, Daisuke and Shonosuke)

Yesterday the sun was shining and we got out to do some garden work… mow, take down netting and make the garden at the back veranda look nicer.

I took some time to collect the billion celery seeds

All I could smell for an hour or so was celery!

I got a bit over keen and dug up a good bucket full of potatoes

It’s so close to the time where we can just dig the lot up! Can’t wait!

Today I picked a few more veggies and made the start of the vegetarian lasagne that I am planning on doing for dinner tomorrow night. (ok… at this time of night lets call it tonight)

Hope your Monday was fabulous
Cheers

Lots of Jam

Hi there!
My poor gardens are so unruly!
They have gotten such a good lot of rain over the last couple of days!

Even though these patches are doing well, I was hoping to have lots of lettuce available for when our guests arrive!

Hungry caterpillar making itself at home in my tomato!! Happily this season, we haven’t really had any grub issues with the tomatoes which is excellent. This is the only one so far that I have seen. So the chooks got a bit of a tomato/grub feast!

This afternoon late, the rain cleared up so I took a basket around and collected tomatoes.

And some corn for dinner!

The majority of the day was spent in the kitchen. I had to make a start on clearing space in the freezer. So I had taken out a bucket of plum pulp and a bag of raspberries.
I made a heap of raspberry/plum jam. Its a nice mixture. I found a stash of all these really big jars so I used those, which made for much less work.
I also finished off the ice cream – also plum/raspberry flavoured. Thats one I haven’t tried before so hoping its ok.

I have a small amount of the plum pulp left but I ran out of care-factor to do another batch of jam. Maybe tomorrow??

Screecher, now in her dotage, lays very odd shaped thin shelled eggs. They have a tendency to go off a lot more quickly and the white is not clear. I figured best not to eat those ourselves. So I scrambled all her eggs today and fed it back to the chickens. Wow… I know it sounds weird, but did they ever scoff that down! I should have included the shells too. I often include the shells when making them a cake!

My second planting of sunflowers have just started to bloom!  Rather pleased I have the timing right on that at least. Just in time for guests.
Also, not so brilliantly timed for guests, a rat has had the audacity to die in the walls in the kitchen!!! I am burning a LOT of incense!!! Eye roll. Sometimes country living is a bit whiffy! haha

Hope your weekends are going fantastically!
Cheers

Extra Photos

Hello!
Well… yesterday we were so lucky weather wise. Today was the polar opposite with heavy continual rain and dark skies. Bet the garden is loving it.
I made some laundry liquid and started some new ice cream – oh, and cleaned out the mealworm boxes and very excited to find I was mother to two bugs!! Yay!

Just going to share the rest of the photos from yesterdays jaunt

Black River Beach. I really love the wild feel of this particular place.

We paddled a lot. The water was warm and it just felt good to be splashing about

Chris and Manami seemed to enjoy the stroll through the water just as much as I did!

On the way home I did a quick detour into Rocky Cape NP to check out the coastline view up at the lighthouse

Not a bad days adventuring!

Hope your weekends go along fantastically!
Cheers!

 

Travelling About

Hello!
What a mad life we sometimes lead!
I’ll have to make a return with the rest of the story on the snake escapade over the weekend. Happily tonight was quiet and relaxing with no reptiles.

So… Chris from Estonia (Who we met up Cradle Mt) dropped in for a couple of nights to enjoy seeing a little bit of Tasmania’s North West coast. At the same time, Manami from Japan, who was staying with other cousins, was dropped off to us the last couple of days to join in some hiking and sightseeing! It’s been wonderful meeting new people and hearing about their travel adventures, learning a bit about their lives and where they are from.

Of course I had to take them on a walk down to my favourite place, Anniversary Bay for a look!

After a gloomy start with the weather, the afternoon turned out really well.

Manami had to be back to our place to be picked up by my cousins, but we had enough time to all get into the garden and pick food, dig potatoes and eat a few things straight off the vines.
I cooked up a nice big dinner and we were also joined by my cousin Beau & our boarder Kirrily so dinner was a fun affair.
(Snake excitement was the after dinner entertainment…)

Today Manami was dropped off back here this morning and we went out to Stanley to climb “The Nut”

The weather was spot on today! So perfect for showing off the area!

The views were just beautiful all the way around and my international visitors really enjoyed it up there

We had time to slip into Black River Beach for a walk around… and a paddle!

Just fabulous to cool the feet off and slosh through the water!

I resisted picking up a million shells… but there were plenty on the beach today!

I’ll share the rest of  the days photos with you tomorrow night!
Right now I need to put the cat that is literally doing little kitty-snores on my lap to bed and then take myself to my bed!
All that sunshine!! So tired!

Cheers

Drama

Hi…
Its so late again and my plans for an early night were thwarted.
I had a few photos and a short story to share but that will have to wait.
But here is a teaser from the unexpected events of tonight:

CAST:
Cat on lead
Angry possums
8 Sleepy Chooks
1 tiger snake in the chicken coop!
Cousin Beau
Boarder Kirrily
Chris from Estonia
Cousin Beaus friend with shotgun

ACT 1
Relocate chooks from coop – acts of bravery and heroism from Norwich House Home Owner (me in Jeffs gumboots)
8 trips into coop to pluck unhappy chickens off their roost

ACT 2
To Be Continued

Are you on the edge of your seats??

Totally never a dull moment around here! (I had to explain to Chris not to expect this level of entertainment tomorrow night!!)
I’ll catch you with the full story in a day or so!

Have an awesome day

Cheers!

Pantry Day

Hello!
Welcome to insane-ville!
I had some garden update photos but since its 1.30am and I haven’t managed to post process them because I got caught up with ‘stuff’
So… I am doing a flying visit to my blog.

I spent most of the day pulling the pantry apart, cleaning, sorting and putting it back together again.
I am a happier person even though I was stuck inside.

Tomorrow we have a ‘random traveller’ (Hi Chris) hopefully arriving tomorrow for a couple of nights. We met Chris climbing the Cradle Summit a few weeks back and invited him to Norwich House if he got this way before our other guests arrived.
Also a Japanese lady is being dropped off at our place for the day tomorrow to join in on any hiking adventures that might happen.

Oh – I did manage to bake a cake.

A brief escape outside to enjoy the garden – the self seeded tomatoes here are total champions!

Anyway, best get to bed if I want to be a sane host that can string a sentence together!

Hopefully catch you again soon

Cheers!

Loving our fresh corn!

Oodles of Pots

Hi – just mundane stuff today.
Was time for the BBQ area to be cleared out and sorted again.
I didn’t get it quite finished because it took so long to wash out the spidery grotty pots!
I figure I might put a few bundles out the front for sale when I put my veggie tables back out the front.

This area is too easy to put stuff in when you are in a hurry!

I have some more things to sort in there, but the really time consuming part of the job is done.
Finished off the day with a tasty vegetable mix over pasta. And a bit of leftover apple slump! Never going hungry around here thats for sure!

Enjoy the week ahead!

Cheers

Tied Up Tomatoes

Hello!
Tasmania had one of its spectacular weather hissy-fits today!
I extracted myself from housework this afternoon to get out and do something useful in the garden and – its overcast and spitting. Not bad. Then the sun came out and I was baking – had to go in and get my hat!
About 15 minutes later, it all changed, I got cold and rained on – a lot. Then the cycle started again !!

A lot of windfall apples!! This trees fruit won’t be really ready for another month. The other tree we are eating a few from… a bit tart but enjoyable. They will sweeten up eventually.
I need to see if I can make some kind of cider soup thats nutritious for the garden out of the windfalls.

Oh – and you should see the hugely fat pademelon (small wallaby) that is gorging itself on the windfalls!! Such a big bottom its a wonder it can still bounce!!! Spotted it tonight. Will work on getting a photo for you!

Jeff got in and did a lot of pruning today! Now its a lot easier to use the pathways without fighting our trees!

Self seeded pumpkin doing really well! Have no idea what variety it is, but its free and has needed no help from me!

This tomato patch was full of sprawling tomatoes – the wind was keeping them flattened too, so about time to get in and tie them all up. (And weed)

I am enjoying this whole new garden area. So much produce in a small space! Even the new planting of sunflowers are going well and about to bloom!

I tied up some other tomatoes too … but after staring at these self seeded beauties, I just shrugged and told them they could do what they wanted! They are so huge I just don’t know where to begin. I think I will just let them be wild.

I have officially lost control of the hothouse!
There is a good days work in there to untangle things and sort it out. Never mind. I am quite liking it!

The passionfruit is loving its new home in the hothouse. Hopefully I will get in and train it a bit better and cut it back a bit before it totally takes over. Also hoping next year the fruit is a bit bigger and more plentiful, but thrilled with the few small ones we got for our first season.

Last task in the garden today was to do the rounds and harvest a few things!
Will make up some more pasta mix tomorrow and use up some more of the ripe tomatoes and zucchinis.

Hope your weekend is fabulous!
Cheers

Tea Cake Recipe

I can’t quite find in past posts if I shared the recipe for this one.

So… because I was embroiled in housework all day I thought I would just share it with you tonight instead of boring you with tales of vacuuming and window cleaning!

This is a recipe from my Great Grandmother.
Its not fancy, but its a lovely easy cake to whip up and you are more than likely to have all the ingredients on hand. And I think its ‘Tea Cake’ as in ‘Afternoon Tea’
Now I am talking about it I wish I had baked another one today!

INGREDIENTS

1/4lb butter/marg (125gm)
1.5 cups sugar (due to slight guilt I use a little less)
2 well beaten eggs
2 cups Self Raising flour (Sifted)
1 cup Full cream milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

METHOD

Cream butter and sugar
Add eggs
Add flour and milk (and vanilla) alternately and beat well

Pour into well greased round tin (I line bottom with baking paper)

Put into a ‘hot’ oven (I preheat to 200C)(392F) then turn back to 180C (356F) 5 minutes after I put the cake mixture in.
Cook for about 30-40 minutes. Just test with skewer
Butter top while warm and sprinkle with cinnamon and caster sugar!
mmmmm
Simple

Enjoy xx