DECEMBER - MY FAVOURITE MONTH

 Don’t slip into mediocrity by living your life based solely on popular opinion.

Joshua Becker

I love December. It is my favourite month. I love Christmas and everything to do with it. For various reasons most of my family don't. For one family member it is a link with sadness in the past. For another it is the fact that our family is broken and we won't all be together as in times past. And for one it is just the total stress of so much socializing. A bit sad really - but I don't let it stop me - and luckily my Mum likes Christmas so I have at least one ally. P:-) enjoys Christmas.
 

December 1st and I have chosen my branch in the backyard that I will use for a Christmas tree. This is a tradition going back many years. P:-) thinks it is a bit odd. For a few years we had a big artificial green tree when my younger daughter R asked for a ' real plastic tree like everybody else.'

 

So far my branch has a single bird on it.

I couldn't resist this pretty bargain priced bird when shopping for craft supplies.  I plan to trim my tree in silver, gold and white.

Summer is the time for Jacarandas and my Jacaranda tree has laid a carpet of purple flowers in my backyard.

The purple contrasts nicely with the green of the garden plants.


My daughter R has been painting these beautiful shells for presents and I am hoping I may end up with some for Christmas.

And I can't resist adding this kookaburra we spotted at P:-)'s place, perched on the wires looking for prey in the grass below.

Heart Lamb and Lentil Soup

We enjoyed this soup last night. Every time I cook a leg of lamb I put the bone in the freezer until I am ready to make this soup. It means you can use every scrap of meat and the soup makes 3 meals for P:-) and me. It is very economical and makes one leg of lamb do quite a few meals.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large or 2 small onions

1 large carrot

2 cloves crushed garlic

2 teaspoons smoked paprika

450 gram tin chopped tomatoes

1 1/2 cups dried soup mix

left over lamb bone with a small amount of scrap meat on it

6 cups water

4 teaspoons stock powder

Method

1.    Heat oil in pan.

2.    Whizz carrot and onion in food processor and add to oil. Stir for 3 minutes.

4.    Add garlic and paprika and stir 1 minute.

5.    Add tin tomatoes and stir.

6.    Add soup mix and lamb bone.

7.    Add water and stock powder.

8.    Simmer covered for 1 1/2 hours until rich and thick.

9.    Remove bone and remove meat from bone.

10. Chop meat finely add to soup and simmer for 5 more minutes.

Makes 6 serves.
Freezes well.

I began writing this blog to help me look at the positives in my life. Since I enjoy December I am going to try to write a few more posts this month. So keep an eye out.

Love this tree!!

Interesting sites

1 .

A lot of Tiny Houses

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Click here to checkout a whole lot of Tiny Houses .


2.

 Wooden Beetle exterior

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71-year-old Bosnian retiree Momir Bojic has crafted a completely wooden Volkswagen beetle exterior from over 50,000 pieces of hand-carved oak.Click here to read more.


3.

 Use Chemistry to solve everyday problems

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Regardless of how you feel about chemistry class, you’re putting chemical reactions to use in your life all the time. Knowing just a bit more about how these reactions work can make many things in life just a little easier, and a new YouTube series produced by the American Chemical Society promises to help you use chemistry to solve everyday problems. Click here to read more. 

FALLING CHIMNEY STACK AND TWIZZLES

A kookaburra decided to perch on my deck this week. Many years ago we used to feed the kookaburras that came around, but found they would crash into the house windows. So we stopped feeding them. They still crash into my glass doors occasionally, but this one seemed quite happy just looking around.

I learned a great new word this week - twizzle. It is a new word introduced at the Sochi Winter Olympic Games to describe a movement in the ice dancing.

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So what is a twizzle? It is when a skater executes a one-foot turn while moving across the ice, however it must be a continuous turning movement as the skater glides across the ice. The skate movement is required, as it distinguishes a twizzle from a stationary spin. Or even a series of turns.

 Usually skaters turn for at least four revolutions on a twizzle. 

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Until Thursday February 20th 2014, Port Kembla, an industrial suburb of Wollongong, was home  Australia's tallest industrial chimney - a 198 metre tall chimney built in 1965. 

Yesterday it was demolished. P:-) and I went to watch from Towradgi Beach. Below is a picture across the water just before the stack was demolished.....

.... and below is a photo of the same area minutes after the stack was demolished.

It was just too difficult to get a picture of the stack as it fell. No specific time was given as to when it would occur so we had to stare at it for about 2 hours.

I grew up very close to where this photo was taken and I remember watching the stack growing taller and taller  as it was being built across the bay. As a 10 year old I was very proud of the fact that it was the highest stack in the Southern Hemisphere. 

There were all sorts of problems with it, associated with toxic pollution, and the stack hasn't been used for years. In 2008 it was discovered that the stack had concrete cancer and would cost $10 million to demolish. It was finally demolished in 2014.

When I looked at some of the tallest chimney stacks in the world on Wikipedia I found the Port Kembla stack was disappointingly small in comparison. The tallest at the Ekibastuz GRES-2 Power Station in Kazakhstan, comes in at 419.7 meters compared to the Port Kembla stack at 198 meters.

It was a beautiful morning at the beach and  couldn't help being a bit self indulgent and including some photos I took while I was waiting for the stack to fall.

I'll finish off with these beautiful Lilli-pillis I spotted growing on a footpath near the CBD. They looked very big and juicy. Lilli-pillis are native and I grow them in my back yard, but they don't bare much fruit as they don't get enough sunlight. They are edible and usually turned into jam or sauce. I don't think I've ever seen any quite so lush as these.

Interesting sites

1.

 Surprising fortress house

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This house is completely closed off. But, at the touch of a button, the coverings will be rolled back. The stairway is inaccessible normally, but it suddenly appears. The house actually is covered in windows, but can be made into a fortress. Click here  and you will be surprised by what you see.

2.

World's scariest bridge.

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The world's scariest bridge is in Engelberg, Switzerland. Click here to see more.

3.

Kids will be kids
 

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Poverty is a thief. It steals childhood, innocence, security and fun. It sends children to work instead of a classroom; it replaces playfulness with worry; it puts heavy burdens on small shoulders. Compassion refuses to let this happen. Every child should have the opportunity to use their imagination, to create and to laugh. To be kids. Click here to see more.