About Me

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Life on two acres of arid dirt, on the edge of the Australian outback.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Around Home

Gifted

 An old stand.
  Not sure what to do with this yet. 
Any ideas?


 Made in 1923 by the writing scribbled in pencil on the bottom



 Celebrating

Australia day




Cleaning

The front entrance
following Becci's zone challenge over at the Down to Earth Forum

Come on over and join in the fun :)






Making 

smoothies, 
from orange juice, yoghurt  banana, pineapple and mango...


using my vintage blender.



 Reading

One thousand gifts by Ann Voskamp
You can see here beautiful blog here


 Doing...

 Keeping hubby busy.

Putting wooden flooring in the pantry...



Making a plant box for an old wheelbarrow...


 Adding legs to an old bath ready for the garden,
we are going to plant potatoes in there...



Garden

 I have planted out some new zucchini plants. 


Picking

Nectarines, eggplant, potatoes, capsicum, apple cucumbers, green cucumber and rhubarb, and the tiniest tomato.

The garden is loving this cooler weather. 



 Baking

Anzac Biscuits 

These ones are the chewy kind.


INGREDIENTS 

1 cup (150g) plain flour

1 cup (90g) rolled oats

1 cup (85g) desiccated coconut

3/4 cup (155g) brown sugar

125g butter

2 tbs golden syrup

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tbs water


Method

Preheat the oven to 160°C. Line two

baking trays with non-stick baking 

paper. Sift the flour into a large bowl. 

Stir in the oats, coconut and brown 

sugar.

Put the butter, golden syrup and 2 

tbs water in a small saucepan. Stir 

over a medium heat until melted. Stir 

in the bicarbonate of soda.


Pour the butter mixture into the flour 

mixture and stir until combined.


Roll level tablespoons of mixture into 

balls. Place on the trays, about 5cm 

apart.


Press with a fork to flatten slightly.  Bake for 

10 minutes or until golden brown.


Set aside on trays for 5 minutes, then transfer 

to a wire rack so they cool completely.




Welcome to my new followers, I am so glad to 

have you here.  

Three hundred followers, WOW!


What have you been doing? And what is the 

weather like where you live?


xTania



Saturday, January 26, 2013

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY!!


From Our House to Yours :)


 Lamingtons...


LAMINGTONS

125gms butter (1/2stick or 4oz)
125gms sugar (1/2 cup)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 eggs
250gms self raising flour (2 cups)
pinch salt
1/2 cup milk

Chocolate Icing:
250 gms icing sugar (2cups)
6-8 level teaspoons cocoa
1 teaspoon butter
few drops of vanilla essence
desiccated coconut for coating

Beat butter and sugar until creamy.  Add vanilla.  Add eggs one at a time and beat well.  Sift flour and salt together.  Add flour alternately with milk to the mixture. Turn into a greased and floured lamington tin. Bake in a  moderate oven (180 -200C) (350 - 400F) for 30 minutes.  Allow to cool.  Cut into squares.

Icing: Sift icing sugar into a bowl.  Blend in cocoa with a little boiling water, add a few drops of vanilla essence.  Add butter, mix well, adding a little more boiling water if necessary, until icing is smooth. Dip each cake into icing and then roll in coconut.  Set aside until firm.

(I freeze the cake part, that makes it easier for adding the icing)

Have a great day!

xTania


Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Scorched


After days and days of relentless hot weather, 
here are the results.

No words needed...



















 On the upside, there are some plants doing okay
like this Japanese eggplant.  It seems to love this weather.


 Rock melon.


 Watermelon, although some of the leaves are a little crisp.


The promise from the Bureau of Meteorology is that the worst of the heat is over, we shouldn't experience any more such heat this Summer.  No promise of rain though. I cant remember the last time we had a decent rain.  Do I plant some more veggies, that is the question?

Sorry to be so long winded between posts, but my old laptop finally gave up the ghost. I have nice new red one, but the new technology is getting too much for this old girl.  It is taking me ages to work my way around the new programs.

How did your garden fair in the hot weather? Did you get some rain?

xTania

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Hot Weather Breaking Records

(picture sourced via facebook)

This photo was taken outside the local newspaper office in Port Augusta last Friday when the temperature reached 51C (123.8F)

(Picture sourced via facebook)

The records are breaking with a heatwave in Australia.  On Monday the average temperature for the whole of Australia was 40.33C (104.59F)

Where we are located our temperature on Monday reached 49C (120.2F). 
I am loving my weather station :)

The heat has started a lot of bush fires around the country with the worst being in Tasmania...images here

Thankfully we have a bit of a cool change today, but it will be short lived, as tomorrow it starts to heat up again!

So as you can guess there is not much happening around here, just staying cool, and keeping the garden and chickens well watered in this heat.  Surprisingly the garden is doing okay :)

xTania



Friday, January 4, 2013

Catch up Christmas, garden and heat

The family pic from Christmas Day,
L -R Tania, Phil, Jack, Talia, Kyla and Sarah...

Sarah is the eldest, followed by Kyla, Talia and Jack. 
Funny how the oldest is the shortest and the youngest the tallest :)


And my grandie Blake,






Playing monopoly with Jack...


With Dad and Mum xx


Early Christmas day,
all set up...


Our tree and presents...


 FruChoc cheesecake recipe found here,
Unfortunately FruChocs can only be found in South Australia. They have a fruity filling.


 The garden

Not sure what these pumpkins are but they are only small and taste sweet...


Yummy strawberry


Eggplant...


The bushes are loaded, hope I can find a use for them all, ideas welcomed :)


Apple cucumber...


Getting quite a few of these now...


 This is my first ox heart tomato,
not sure about it's shape...


The last of the corn...


 Carrots...


 This is a mixed plot consisting of  watermelon, cucumbers, spring onion (see all the young ones?), and a potato plant has popped up too!


Capsicum...


Tiny toms...


Rockmelon (cantoloupe)....


Fruiting...


Rhubarb...


 Figs...


Apricots...


 Nectarines...


 Yesterdays pickings, apricots, apple and burpless cucumbers, capsicums and three dwarf beans...


Yesterday's sunset, after a 46C (114.8F) day!


We are in the midst of a big heatwave, may even break records.
Our days are spent keeping cool...

Have been doing more of this :)



The weather is hot up until next Thursday

Today Friday 46C (114.8F)

Saturday 38C (100.4F)

Sunday 42C (107.6F)

Monday  46C

Tuesday 44C (111.2F)

Wednesday  42C

Thursday 39C (102.2F)

Dont know when we will get some relief yet, just hoping that there are no serious bushfires due to the heat!

The temperature as I write this is 47.2C (116.96F)! I wont be surprised if it reaches 48C...

xTania