A DAY AT HOME

 The secret of getting ahead is getting started.

Sally Berger

I wish I had understood the meaning of this when I was younger. I just wanted to write a best selling novel straight away. But I never actually got around to starting. I didn't understand that you need to start small, but at least start and then work from there. I understand that a lot better now, but I am running out of years.

I had a bit of spare time today so I decided to spruce up the end of my dining table. I had added a handful of frogs after the Christmas decorations were gone, but they just got lost on the black glass. I had a vase ready to fill but hadn't got around to it. So the end of the table looked like this.

Unspruced end of table

I bought a doily at the Salvation Army Store for $1.

I added the frogs.

Ornamental frogs

I put some agapanthus in the vase...and voila!

Finished table

I have a happy table.

I should point out that my daughter R painted the picture of the frog a number of years ago. I love its bright colors.

 Around the garden

Because my garden is very shady, I don't get a lot of flowers blooming, so I am always pleased when they do. My native tea tree in the front garden is flowering.

Flowering tea tree

 The flowers are very delicate.

Tea tree flowers

Tea tree flowers

The common name of 'tea tree' is used for some species of Leptospermum  which my tea tree is. The name derives from the practice of early Australian settlers soaking the leaves of several species of tea tree in boiling water to make a herbal tea rich in Vitamin C.


 Interesting sites

 1.

31.12.2011 in Architecture

 To view the Dalene Cabin in Norway click here






2.

 Click here to view 20 creative chest tattoos.

3.

Photo:Inhabitat

  This is a Tetra Shed. It is a modern modular office for the backyard. Click here to read more.

FROG, SPIDER AND TOADSTOOLS

Today I drove my mother down to Nowra where her sister, my Aunt, lives in a nursing home. She turned 90 a few weeks ago and we gave her this cute ceramic frog for her balcony garden as part of her birthday present.

My Aunt lives in a very pleasant nursing home with a beautiful stained glass panel at the front entrance.

 

It was a lovely day so we enjoyed the drive.

I visited P:-) in the afternoon. and photographed this at his place. Can you guess what this is?

 

It is a beaded spider I made for P:-) at school. I teach the students to make them .

 

The spider above is the size of a fifty cent piece.

When I come home at night it is lovely to have a special light shining in the window. Daughter R and partner B gave me this great toadstool lamp for my birthday. It isn't solar but has a light detector so that it comes on automatically at night.

 

My mother gave me another toadstool lamp which was very different to the one above. It is a more traditional lamp, but just as lovely.

  

I love both these lamps. They fit in well with my toadstool collection.

RAINY WEEKEND

It is wet, wet, wet! But I still love the view outside my window where I sit at my computer. I never tire of it.

Even though it is a bit gloomy the new pink growth on the Water Gum is very pretty.

This looks blurry because it is raining.

I can hear the creek down the back running, but I am not going down there in this slippery wet weather.

Fried Eggs

As part of my primal diet I cook fried eggs on weekends for breakfast. I have some coffee on waking and then when P:-) arrives I cook breakfast, or more properly - brunch. I think I have the hang of fried eggs now.

 

The main thing is to have the pan hot enough. I cook the capsicum and tomato first in a very hot pan and then add the eggs. I cook them until the whites are firm, and not any  longer. This gives light and fluffy whites with a crunchy (not burnt) base and yolks that are slightly firm but mostly runny. Delicious!

Coconut Flour 

Grains are not allowed on the primal diet, so I decided to give coconut flour a try.  I have learned the hard way that coconut flour is not a straight substitute for wheat flour as I had assumed.

I decided to make my no fail, self-saucing chocolate pudding. If anything would work this would, so I substituted a cup of coconut flour for the cup of wheat flour. What a disaster! I cooked it and cooked it and cooked it, but it wouldn't firm up.When it finally came out of the oven the pudding looked OK, but the taste is hard to describe. It still tasted like chocolate but it wasn't cakey at all - more like crumbs glued together. This would have been OK except it had this strange texture that was hard to swallow and got stuck in your throat.You had to keep swallowing and swallowing to get it down. Maybe it would have been better chilled.

But I will not give up. There are some delicious sounding recipes on the packet - coconut muffins and chocolate cake. I will give those a try with the proper ingredients.

Since it is so wet and I think it is appropriate I shall show you a picture that I have on my dining room wall above my table.

This is my beautiful frog picture Daughter R painted for me some years ago. I find it very bright and cheerful. I have a collection of froggy things, most of which my 2 daughters have given me over the years.

I am now officially on school holidays and plan to have a very productive 2 weeks. I will keep you posted.