Out walking

Would you believe it this little creek was flowing the other day? This is usually a dry creek, but there must have been heavy rain in the hills. Wish I had got a picture of it with water in, maybe next time, doesn't happen very often.

After dinner tonight we went for a walk down this peaceful road just around the corner from where we live.

One of the houses along this road, this being one of the first residents to build. They have sold off some of their land so now there are quite a few houses.

And another, there are more and more houses being built out this way. This one has not been there long.

Some of the sandhills that we pass by on our walk.

We had 6mm of rain today so everything looks nice and fresh.

Another sandhill with some kangaroo footprints.

A dainty little flower on one of the bushes.

Lovely red soil in the evening sunlight.

Somebody is watching us. Look closely you can see a Western Grey Kangaroo. (Click on picture to enlarge).

A zoomed in shot, although a bit blurry.

We have water in the salt lake behind us, this too is normally dry.

Evening sunset when we got home.

Sorry about the quality of some of the photos, I took them while walking without stopping.

Hope you are having a good weekend,

x Tania

Garlic Prawns

For those that like garlic prawns here is an easy yummy recipe. I actually got it from my best friend in Perth.

Garlic Prawns

You will need a little unsalted butter, 2-3 tbpns roughly. (I have used salted butter though).

1 clove of garlic (add more if desired).

500gms of raw prawns, peeled (can buy these in a 1kg bag in the frozen section of supermarkets, must be thawed before cooking).

Sprinkling of tasty cheese.

Crush garlic and add to butter that has been melted in pan. I use a wok for this, but a frypan will do. Cook for a little while then add the prawns and continue cooking until the prawns are cooked through.

Sprinkle cheese over once cooking is finished and stir through.

And serve....

Delicious!!

We had some schnapper to accompany the prawns. I just dip the pieces of fish in vinegar and coat in flour, then shallow fry until done.

.......a bowl of salad as well

And some home cooked chips. I pre-cook these for 10 minutes in the microwave, drain, dry and shallow fry in oil until crisp. ( I use extra virgin olive oil for my cooking).

Enjoy,



Tania

Checking in

This has been a very busy week, hence my absence from blogging, although I have been visiting my favourite blogs.

Thankyou everyone for the birthday wishes. I had a good day with family and friends dropping in and the phone running hot all day. I also managed to squeeze the day off. My friend gave me these couple of handmade towels, thanks Wendy.

Tuesday night was our son's school concert. This time the weather was a lot better.

I took these pictures of this unusual cloud formation while heading home from the concert, just on sundown.

Today is our Son's transition to high school. He will be going to the local Catholic College for the remainder of his education.

There was a lot of nervousness floating around here this morning. Hope he has a good day, and has plenty to tell at days end. He has a couple of friends also going from his school so his transition will be a bit easier.

I have decided to make up Christmas baskets for some of the relatives for Christmas. So I will need to get busy this weekend if I am to get it all done. Christmas tree is still not up(sigh), hope to get some time for this on the weekend also. I am hoping to include things like homebaked goodies, some knitted dishcloths, handmade soap, teatowels, homemade chocolates and anything else I can think of. Any ideas would be appreciated please.

Enjoy the rest of your day and weekend,

x Tania

Birthday

Today is my birthday,

I was born 46 years ago on the 1st December, 1962

As a cute baby.

With my brother in 1963

Weekend at our place

A fairly busy weekend for us here, starting with Friday night soccer. My son's team won again, 2 goals to 1 but the match didn't start until 8.30pm. Late night by the time we got home and wound down. They have played 7 games and won 4. It may seem strange that soccer is being played over Summer, but I think it is to do with the Aussie rules season, as a lot of the soccer players also play football. Soccer is played on Friday nights when it is cooler.

Saturday we went to a nearby country city, Whyalla to do some Christmas shopping and chose out some clothes for the year seven's graduation on the 11th of December. My baby is growing, off to high school next year. Whyalla is about 40 minutes driving time from here.

Today was spent at Little Athletics this morning, early start at 8.30am. I had washing to do when we got home and then we had some visitors come around for a few hours. I had grocery shopping to do, that is getting more expensive every time I shop. We even got to have a swim in our pool. The temperature of the water was 31C. (87.8F) The outside temperature was 30C.

I have ironing waiting for me, I did start it but didn't get finished. Probably should be doing it instead of sitting here at the computer!

For dinner we had some snapper fillets, garlic prawns (yum) cooked by me. (I will post the recipe later), homemade chips and salad.

The garden needed watering so while I was out there I took some more pictures of what is happening in our backyard. It is so nice to see things looking so good after the rain.

Gum tree flowering and birds nesting in the same tree.

Some young figs. This is the white flesh variety.


Our grape vines are loaded with fruit.


So are the nectarine trees, the branches touching the ground with the weight of the fruit.

A little wee mandarine.

Our first Olive, we have two trees and they were planted about five years ago. I hope there are some more on there somewhere, my hubby can't wait, he loves them.

Capsicums by the dozen.

Teeny weeny cucumbers.

One of the many oranges developing on the tree.

My turn to wash the Strikers soccer guerneys. They are not needed for another two weeks as the teams are taking a break next week because the local Christmas Pageant is on next Friday.

Another busy week ahead, life gets pretty hectic for everyone this time of year. Christmas seems to come around more often now.

I have decided not to put my Christmas tree up until there are twelve days to Christmas this year. I have also cut down on the money spent on presents.

x Tania

Why me Lord?

Why me Lord?

Another Johnny Cash gospel song for you to enjoy.

Sunday Blessings,

Tania

Cluttercutting

There is a bad storm brewing outside from the north. A severe weather forcast has been issued so I am hoping to get this done before the electicity goes out and I will need to shut down the computer. Lightening and thunder all about, and it's starting to spit with rain. There are some wicked storms around this year.





Last weekend I made the decision to start getting rid of stuff. I can't believe all this has been cluttering up my house. I shall give away most of these to friends or hold one big garage sale a bit later. I am storing all the 'stuff' out in the rumpus room until I am finished inside, then sort through what I have collected or made over the last few years. My son commented that the place is bare (bear).

And this is only the beginning. This weekend I shall be starting in the cupboards and pantry. I don't get to do too much through the week as daycare is keeping me busy.

I forget the name of these, I call them 'trumpet' plant.

This was the sunset two nights ago.

How the garden has grown with all the rain we have had and the humidity that has been around all week. The capsicums are flowering.

So are the cucumbers, even have some baby ones on the vine.

The zucchini is a bit slow only because they were eaten by sleepy lizards(shingleback) earlier on when they were seedlings. I have a teeny zucchini on this one.

Silverbeet growing well and the chooks enjoying a bit of green.

The butternut pumpkin has also been slow to take off, but they are away now producing some flowers.

I picked our first tomato a couple of days ago, hopefully many more to come. Although the vines are showing signs of 'curly leaf' as I know it. May have to go to the garden centre and get some fresh plants growing.

We are off to my son's school concert tonight if it is not cancelled due to the weather. I shall go out and see after I am finished here.

This is what I see from my front window everyday. I draw the curtains as I like to have a lot of light inside. This is the lounge window and it is dirty, these windows are a pain to clean.

Hope you are all well, and those of you that aren't I hope you feel better soon.

x Tania

Update: Went out for the concert at son's school and they decided to cancel it until Tuesday next week. There was a bit of lightening, thunder and rain around. When we got home the wind dropped and the clouds cleared away to reveal a beautiful blue sky. So quickly the weather can change. Oh well, let's hope Tuesday holds out okay.