Our First Pinkerbelle!

After I tried picking the first Granny Smith (so tart that Brooke's face almost inverted when she tasted it) Grandad's advice (Husband's Father) was to leave the apples on the tree for as long as possible.  Having a busy schedule helped with this as I wasn't out there looking at them every day.  After the recent storms, I found one of the two Pinkerbelles left on the tree, on the ground.  I hoped this was a good sign.  Took photos of it and then cut it and... it was delicious and even smelt like a real apple!  Hooray!

the best side of the Pinkerbelle

Pinkerbelle #1 and very pleased with it.  There is one more Pinkerbelle on the tree and there is one Granny Smith on the other tree.  I am trying to be vewy vewy patient.  A good apple is worth the wait so that's what helps me!

Hooked on Sourdough

Yep.  That's it.  I'm hooked... and I didn't even know I liked it.  Always liked the idea of making the 'one dough for seven days' kinda thing but wasn't sure if I liked sourdough (and now I can't find the blog link for the 15mins a day for aritsan/sourdough).  After trying it by chance I now know I do and pretty much am not interested in buying much else.  So now I want to make my own.

sour dough with lettuce from the garden, tomato, cucumber, split green olives and Australian fetta.  Y-U-M.

Bathroom Reno Installment #2 continued...

continuing on from the previous post... With the help of my good friend N this morning, we did the final filling, sanding and two coats of stain block/sealer.  Which got us to this point (see pic below) which is a far far cry from the original bathroom (scroll down further for 'original' bathroom pics)...

Bathroom Reno - Installment #2

Installment #1 began a while ago with a $25 basin top find at the local 'recycle yard'.  The reno got to that point and paused (that's a nice way to say, ground to a screaming halt).  Except to say by chance, that a storm meant water damage to the ceiling (the light became a water feature) and via insurance the light was fixed and the ceiling repainted.  Which is what insurance is for I gues, when there's storm damage but it also means no 'before' and 'after' photos of the ceiling which was pretty horrid... and one less (very major and icky) job to do on the 'to do list'.

I've been prepping on and off for the last two weeks and hopefully tomorrow get some paint on the walls.  There was a fair bit of prep work to do.  Still more tonight but that's for a little later on.  A few 'before' and 'current' pics - because the 'after' pics haven't had work finished for them yet.

One Happily Confused Lioniger Complete

My first real knitting project... well, unless you count 'fart filters' knit when I was in Year 1 - a rectangle of knitting and a string on either side to put it on your face with... anyway, this first real knitting project was begun only two and a half to three years ago.

Well... to be fair it was begun then, done in earnest for a week or two in the evenings with a small person and then it went to Broome for a holiday and returned sometime ago.  It sat and was patient... and then lo and behold it was finished in two nights. Ha!

Empty Beds + New Baths - What To Plant?

Now is a bit slow in the garden.  Well, not slow I guess but a bit empty.

One bed was pulled because the tomatoes had something nasty and were karking it.  The second bed might go the same way but they are holding on and still producing.  The third bed I pulled because I wanted to put something else in and what was there was really an excuse for anything productive.  I left the spring onions and alyssum in there.

Easter Market Day + Dinner + Celebration Biscuits

In pictures, Market Day today.   Started at 4.45am by adding the pre-measured water to the bread pans that had the ingredients put in them the night before.  I do this because it is tooo hard to measure out the right mls of water when your eyes are half shut at 4.45am lol.  Then into the machines and after I started the dough I went back to bed until just after 6am.  Up at 6 and start baking while doing lunches and getting kids ready for school.  First child out the door just after 7 (thankyou C!) to get the train, two more children out the door at 7.30 (thankyou S!) which just leaves the youngest home with me.  Keep baking.

Finished baking at 12.30pm. Kindy run to be at Kindy by 12.45.  Home for a little bit to finish off then to school at 2 to set up.  Do the Market Day, pack up, home by about 4.  At 5, put the bread pans in the breadmaker to do the dough for the pizzas for dinner.  I fill the dough pans when I am doing market day prep, and put them in the fridge so they are ready to add the water to when I get home from school in the afternoon.

Hot out of the oven and freshly glazed... yum!

Beautiful Toms (Now if Only I Could Stop the Plant Dying)

This is today's picking.  Very pleased.  I like the 'not-ginormous' standard tomatoes for sandwiches (no one ever used that 'last bit' when they cut a tomato and put the 'last bit' in the fridge) and I really am liking the very large Beams Yellow Pear cherry toms.  They're a great size and I am definitely keeping seeds from these.  Also on the plate, are the green zebra toms that taste like tomatoes (funny that), say my boys. Seed keeping from those too, yep.

The little lemon drop cherry toms are quite a pale lemon colour so much so that I thought they weren't ripe initially, but that's the colour they're meant to be.

RIP Bacon.

This week, our little flock went from five girls to four.  I can only guess at what the cause was, but when I found Ms Bacon (Isa Brown) there was nothing I could have done to save her and there was only one option.  I think I managed to be quick and efficient and I hope she's up there in the chooky place scratching around to her heart's content with Stripey (ISA Brown) and Psycho (Australorp).  We are now down to Spots, Snow White, Comby/Combless (who are all Leghorns) and Nicoal (Australorp).

flowers from the children

Bulk Buying and the Ethics of Choice

Last week, our bulk delivery came.  Currants, pepitas, sunflower seeds, 25kg bags of organic flour, 25kg of golden syrup (yes, that's a lot - we use it often in baking) and so on.

Organic White Flour by Weston Milling

This is where I spoke about before, the ethics of choice.  For example, a bulk item might be organic, but can I get it from a local source or does it come from interstate?  Is that extra travel offset by the much less packaging, and meaning I can afford the organic one because it comes in bulk and is less cost than the 1kg bags at the shop?

Little Haul - And a Day of Firsts in the Garden

Here's the little haul.  A bit pathetic really in the grand scheme of things as it's hardly likely to feed us for a meal let alone a week.  But I have to keep reminding myself that when the fruit trees are bigger, and producing more, and I manage to build the extra garden beds ... that the harvest will be slightly more.  That there is ebb and flow in gardens, times of plenty and times of not much at all.  It's just a bit disheartening sometimes is all, because the ideal of 'majority self-reliance' seems so far away.

Anyway.

Caramel Popcorn

Probably ticks lots of the wrong boxes but it's home made and I wanted to make something sweet and something different as an afternoon treat.  Yes, I know about the 'why do treats have to be things that are 'bad' for you' but hey, I think a treat is something you have rarely, and that's ok.

So since I've never made caramel popcorn before, I reckon that's something I make rarely.  I used this recipe from taste.com.  It was a winner for the kids.  I even had a little bit and didn't mind it.  It makes the popcorn kinda chewy and airy at the same time - soft but not?  Anyway, it wasn't too bad and maybe I might make it again one day.  Have you tried any new recipes lately?

Up the Tree This Afternoon

It was rather busy in the skies tonight, near our place - all kinds of birds and calls and songs going on - like the internet for birds but via the sky!  Anyway, when I went out the back, this little 'guy' and friends were having a right old chat in the gumtree.  It's times like that, if I just close my eyes, I can almost imagine I'm far away from where I am, surrounded by bush.  Such pretty sounds especially late in the afternoon and early in the morning.  A nice little serenade while watering the veges!

I guess, I'm glad the birds still have places to come to, where we are.  But I also worry that there's too many of them trying/needing to be in the same space.  Overcrowding in the branches as well as the suburbs...