Spring Chicken

This little chicken hatched out on Monday. My son's class were learning all about chickens at school. They put some eggs in an incubator and this is the result. All the children, with permission from parents were allowed to take a chick home. Spending some time outside in the sunshine.

Millie has a new friend, although she appears to be licking her chops!?!

Would you believe it we had some rain for about an hour last night! We received 6mls (24pts).

Today was a lovely sunshiny day and tomorrow is meant to be hot again, 35C (95F). This bit of rain was the only rain since June 2008. The plants are loving it.

I leave for Perth tomorrow night so I will see you all when I get back.

Stay safe

Tania

I am still here

I want to thankyou all for your kind words, I sure am going to need some sort of strength to get my friend through this ordeal. She and her dear family are not coping at all well, and I feel so sad because I am not there in her hour of need.

I was going to fly over but I have a fear of flying and a few health issues that I am worried about. Instead I will be boarding the Indian Pacific train with my eldest daughter and my son on Thursday evening and will arrive in Perth Saturday morning.

I phone my friend daily to she if she is doing okay, which is pretty dumb isn't it? Of course she is not doing okay! We have known each other for 28 years and our children grew up together in their younger years. We were pregnant at the same time with our first child, both girls. Life has taken us in different directions but we have always kept in touch.

Give your children a great big hug,

Tania

Devastating news

I am in a state of shock at the moment.

My dearest friend from Perth rang a little while ago to tell me that their dearest daughter had passed away in her sleep last night. She is only 25 years old and has a little boy. She and her son were living at home with my friend and the rest of her family.

My friend wants me there with her so I will be absent from here for a while, not sure how long that will be. I have a lot to organise tomorrow before we can go.

Tania

Easy Peasy Spaghetti Recipe

Here is family favourite meal we enjoy regularly. This is really easy and cheap to make. I use home brand goods where possible for this recipe. This is another recipe passed on by my mum, hence it's title. Children love this spaghetti.

Nanna's Spaghetti

What ya need:

1 850ml tin tomato juice

1 onion finely chopped

500gms mince

roughly 1/4 packet of thin spaghetti

grated cheese

mixed herbs to your liking

Fry onion for a few minutes in a little oil. Add mince and cook until browned. Add tin tomato juice, broken up thin spaghetti (may need to add a little bit more) and herbs. Simmer for about 20 mins or until sauce thickens and spagetti is soft.

I sometimes add some grated zucchini, pumpkin and carrot.

To make it go further serve with vegies. I have it with mashed potatoe and steamed vegies. Top spaghetti with grated cheese.

Doesn't sound like much but trust me it's really nice.

Enjoy!

Tania

*Just adding that due to spam coming in to the comments section of my blog I have now chosen to moderate any comments. Sorry for this inconvenience.

Precious

A precious sight.

My daughter, Talia has had a couple of exciting days with her horses. This little colt was born only last night, and so far every thing is fine and he appears healthy. She has nicknamed him Matty.

This little bloke was born Thursday night and is also doing well. Another colt named Danny for now. Pictured here with Talia.
Having a drink

With protective mum. I was safely on the other side of the fence.

A sad sight is our dear dog Millie. She has injured her back for the second time in three years. Poor thing can't walk at all. Has no strength in her hind quarters. Last time this happened it was three weeks until she could walk. She has had xrays and we have anti inflammatory tablets to give her. The xrays showed she has now got arthritis in her hind legs. When she needs to go to the toilet we have to carry her from here to a place on the dirt. The playpen around her is to stop her moving around too much as she recovers. Millie is only 9 years old with a beautiful nature, she absolutely idolises our son, who was four when we got her. Hopefully all goes well again this time around and she fully recovers.

An award

I received this great award from

Therese

This is a picture made by Fr. John Speekman

He made it with a really cool program but I cannot remember the name of it. Isn't he clever?Anyway he asked to pass it onto some blogs so that we can have another award floating around the blogsphere.



I will pass it onto 6 bloggers and those 6 can pass it onto 6 other bloggers.



Don't forget to post the picture in your sidebar to show everyone how hot your blog is.





My 6 hot blogs are:


Sarah from xo.sorcha.ox


hill upon hill


Linda from Remote Treechanger


Caroline from The Simple Things


Daisymum


Mandy from The Old Dairy

Some Favourite Recipes

ANZAC Biscuits

(Margaret Fulton's recipe)

You need:

1 cup each of plain flour, sugar, rolled oats and coconut

120gms of butter, melted

1 tablespoon of golden syrup

2 tablespoons of boiling water

1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda dissolved in a little water

Method:

Mix together dry ingredients

Then the rest

Spoon onto a greased oven tray

Cook in a coolish oven 150-160 C for 10 to 15 minutes.

Okay, it would appear that some of you have had trouble baking Anzac biscuits. I too, have had flops from time to time (even though they are still edible, they just didn't flatten out properly). However this batch turned out just right, so go figure! I use the same recipe every time.

What I did different this time was to melt the butter and golden syrup together, but didn't add the water or bi carb to it. I added the butter mix to the dry ingredients and then added the bi carb dissolved in 2 tablespoons of boiling water. I also use butter not cooking margarine. Maybe the temperature of the oven has something to do with it. These are cooked in a coolish oven not moderate.

Banana Cake

4oz Butter

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

3 mashed bananas

1 1/2 cups SR flour

1 tspn carb soda

2 tblspns water

Walnuts, optional

Cream butter and sugar well, add mashed bananas, beaten eggs, SR flour and the carb soda that has been mixed with water. Add walnuts and mix well. Place in 8" square or round tin and bake for about 1/2 hour at 180C-190C. Ice with chocolate icing and sprinkle with coconut if desired.

This banana cake is extremely moist and extremely delicious. The recipe has been handed down to me from my mother. It is a little different to the standard banana cake recipe,(much nicer in my opinion) as mum has changed it a little. I don't add walnuts, only because I'm not fond of them. The cake is just as nice without them.

Enjoy!

Tania