Rock The Mount

We have had a fun filled, wonderful weekend....

We made a last minute decision to go to the Rock the Mount country music festival at the nearby town of Mt Remarkable, Melrose. Friends of ours were traveling up from Port Lincoln to attend, so they stayed with us Friday night and then we all traveled together on Saturday. We live about 45 minutes driving time away from Melrose.

Camped out over night and slept in our swag...

Our camp...

The view from our camp....

plenty of neighbours lol...

This is Mount Remarkable...

From the arena....

My ute...I wish!

The arena this morning, very quiet compared to last night.

Campers and the arena in the background.

The stage with Mt Remarkable as the backdrop.

The big screen with new comer Marcus Meier performing.

The McClymonts were fantastic...see them on you tube here:

Lee Kernaghan on stage.

And he can be found on you tube here:

On the big screen...

Absolutely awesome performer....

if you ever get the chance to see him live, go.

We are very tired today after such a big couple of days and night. Feeling my age after getting next to no sleep in the swag. The noise of the young ones having a great time partying after the concert echoed all the way around the campers, until finally at some unheard of hour of the morning they went quiet. I bet there wasn't too many of them at the 7.30 breakfast this morning.

Hope you are having a great weekend,

xTania

Happenings and Holidays

Life has been moving at a hectic pace for me lately, hence my absence from blog posts. I have been taking photos to share but then haven't found the time to do a post, so this one has quite a few photos.

Our garden is producing loads of little tomatoes, I have been giving them away left, right and centre to whoever will take them.

An abundance of Capsicum (bell peppers) as well that I have chopped up and frozen for use in casseroles and the like in Winter.

I thought I might share the recipe for the shake that I have been preparing everyday for a while now. This hopefully helps to keep me healthy and usually I make it for lunch as it tends to be filling.

1 cup milk (I use Pura Heart Active, lowers cholesterol)

3 tbspns of natural yoghurt

some mixed berries

1 banana

1 teaspoon LSA (linseeds, sunflowers & almonds ground up)homemade recipe here

1 egg

3 capsules of fish oil or flax seed oil (I pierce and drain the oil)

1 tspn honey (I use manuka for it's healing benefits)

Blend all together for a couple of minutes and consume.

YUM!

My breakfast every morning for the past few years has been and continues to be;

freshly squeezed orange juice to which I add 2 teaspoons of Psyllium husks for extra fibre, this helps to lower cholesterol.

And PORRIDGE (oatmeal)

with honey for sweetening and pura heart active milk with a teaspoon of LSA sprinkled over.

My hair, skin and stomach problems have definitely improved and I have been given the thumbs up by the doctor and passed the 46 - 52 year old free health check with flying colours. So at least I know that I am doing something right. I find myself consciously thinking about what I eat now and hopefully I can squeeze some exercise into my life. I have lost quite a bit of weight and have roughly another 5 kilos (11 pounds) to go.

These are my first big tomatoes......can anyone tell me why they are splitting at the top? Not sure if it is too much or too little water or something completely different. These tomatoes are so sweet and as you can see I have something in my garden that likes to eat them too!

Warning: the next picture may offend some.

Our hens hatched chickens a few months ago and out of them were five roosters. It has been bedlam in the chook house so now the roosters are residing in the freezer awaiting to be eaten and the hens are all happy and peaceful again lol.

We spent the Easter break in beautiful Port Lincoln.

This view is from the SES tower that we were privileged to have a look at (it is used to spot bush fires as Port Lincoln and surrounding areas get their fair share of them, see here). Five years ago 9 people died in one of these wildfires.

It was very windy up on Winters Hill.

But the views were amazing although there was a bit of haze around.

We even got a chance for some kayaking on a beautiful Autumn morning at nearby North Shields where were staying. It was lovely first thing in the morning down on the crystal clear beach.

Later in the day Hubby and ds went fishing in a friends boat and caught some lovely big salmon that were cooked up for tea/dinner.

The night before we came home there was lightening and thunder with 22mls (88pts) of rain. Not much fun in a leaky camper trailer. The rain eased off at around 1am thank goodness.

We arrived home safely to our dry little block where all the gardens were in need of a drink, as we missed out on the rain again.

Tomorrow I hope to catch up on a few jobs that need doing around here.

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods,

Take Care,

xTania

Happy Easter

"We love Him because He first loved us..."

1.John: 4:19

Well it happened...

It rained that is...

I went out to take some pictures of the black clouds building up,

And to show you how dry it is around here,

All of a sudden the wind picked up and with it came a heap of dirt,

But then....

it rained,

and rained

for about twenty minutes, it was quite heavy to start with but then eased off...

an after shot of the chook yard...I think they wondered what happened!

Now there are beautiful blue skies with some pretty fluffy white clouds and beautiful, beautiful sunshine.

32 points (8ml)

that will do nicely and means I don't have to water the gardens tonight. I do hope there is some more on the way.

Enjoy your weekend,

( for us it is the Adelaide Cup long weekend).

xTania

Garden update

We aren't so lucky with the rain that other parts of Australia are receiving, it's been a long while since it last rained on our little patch of dirt.

We have erected some shade for the few vegies we have growing.

The tomatoes are coming along nicely.

Won't be long and I will have that many little tomatoes I won't know what to do with them all.

The capsicums are doing really well, I am picking quite a few of these each day. I will be cutting them up and freezing for later use in stews and on pizza's.

Life has been pretty hectic for me lately. I have been really busy working nearly every day, plus trying to keep up with everything in my own household.

Re my health, I had blood tests done and they have come back all clear and apparently I am very healthy. I was really pleased with my Cholesterol reading, it was only 4.3 which is very good, I must be doing something right. I have also had an ultrasound and that appears to be okay as well. My doctor is on holidays at the moment so I won't know what happens next until I get to see her again. To top everything off, I had a wisdom tooth removed a couple of weeks ago as it was aching like crazy. I ended up with a big swollen face and black bruise like I had been bashed. The poor dentist was horrified when I showed her and she put me on antibiotics in case of infection.

Earlier tonight hubby went to work a freight train to Cook so I have had a busy day today cooking for him. I made banana cake, vegie pasties, and some spaghetti bog. He gets home Thursday morning and will be gone again Friday morning, so I will need to fit some more cooking in sometime soon. I have another house to clean tomorrow. (I clean rental properties when they have been vacated)

My youngest daughter, her partner and son have moved to Quorn, so I have been trying to help her out a bit as well. They have bought 25 acres of land up there so they can run their horses. There were 15 horses at last count, all different sorts and sizes. This girl and partner just love their animals. The property has two houses on it. One is only 3 years old and the other is very much livable as well. Next time I go up there I must remember to take the camera. They are finding it a bit of a struggle travelling back and forth to their work places and there are many kangaroos on the road.

Our son's (under 14 years) soccer team have made it to the grand final which will be played this Sunday. How exciting, I hope they do well. As it is a long weekend I am hoping that all the players are available to play.

Thank you to all that have passed awards on to me. I am hoping to collect them very soon.

xTania