Today my nephew J came after school and wanted to cook chocolate biscuits. He loves cooking and the obligatory spoon and bowl licking. First we mixed the sugar and butter with some egg. Then we added some flour and cocoa.
We kneaded the dough and then rolled it out with the rolling pin.
We cut out shapes with the biscuit cutters and then put them in the oven.
Yum, they tasted good.
Here you see one of our lovely mango trees. For many years there has been no fruit to be had from them. This season we had lovely, large fruit but did we get any? Nope. Not a one. Mysteriously we kept finding the seeds all over the yard. What was eating them? Possums? Flying foxes? Hmmm. Our puzzlement was solved one day when a very satisfied Miss Jess came up to the house carrying her harvest.
The greedy (and obviously underfed and neglected :)) girl then devoured this in a most disgusting and unladylike manner. We had video footage but it's not for the feint hearted.
How pleased does she look with herself!
Living in amongst the trees, and having extensive gardens means that something is always going on just outside our door. A couple of days ago I caught this stick insect being born at our front door. I'm amazed that he fit inside that little cocoon!
The King Parrots come daily to the bird feeder on our front verandah. These photos are taken from the lounge room through rather grubby windows. We can sit on our lounge and look at them as they feed. I love it. We also get galahs, cockatoos, rosellas and even the odd magpie or two at the feeder. Will have to remember to clean the windows in order to get better photos!
This photo was taken at Christmas a couple of years ago on the fence that divides our back yard from our section of land that is bush and holds a dam. The snake is a carpet python and is a very healthy specimen. They are non venomous and we see them off and on in the garden. They sometimes sun themselves by hanging in our hibiscus plant.
It was a glorious day yesterday and I was able to have a rare morning out. I met a friend for coffee at our local shopping centre. I don't get there often as the 40 minute drive has been not possible for me in recent times and I am not much of a recreational shopper.
The centre is built over and on the banks of a creek. Cafes, restaurants and public spaces with chairs and shade line the creekside and it is such a pleasant place to sit and enjoy a chat. There are paddle boats for those who are so inclined (I'm not). I did a small bit of shopping before losing interest and energy and heading home. 
We chose to use caesarstone for the benchtops and it's been a choice we are really happy with. It is white but full of flecks of glass in all the colours of the rainbow. The main bench is 1m wide and about 1.5m long, yep, you read that right. It gives me heaps of room to cook with the kids. It gives us room for chairs to be pulled up to make kiddlings tall, and room for high chairs for the even smaller people. I've cooked with my nieces and nephews since they could sit up and they all have a love of cooking and are developing some pretty good skills. We cook everything from roasts (after foraging for herbs in the garden) to cakes, biscuits and breads. Bread making is so much fun with kids.
After such a long wait it's been an absolute joy to have a new kitchen. A cook top that works, drawers to maximise storage and to make low cupboards more accessible to me on bad body days. On the advice of friends we installed an induction cooktop and are very pleased that we did. It's fast, efficient, gives even heat and doesn't heat the kitchen up so much in summer. One of my favourite things is our dishdrawer (dishwasher in a drawer). Love, love, love it.
Looking back towards the fridge, pantry (which was made 5 inches too narrow, grr) and my recipe book/office/organising bench. It was a looooong wait but most definitely worth it. Walls will be eventually painted for those who noticed that bare board above this area! :)
P.S. I posted another entry today but it's turned up way down the page so you'll need to scroll down to read it. It's called Scribbly Gum. Sorry, still working out how to drive this page.
