Light Show Treat

This is the result of a light show that our nine year old put on for us the other night. I couldn't believe the amazing effects !
He simply dressed himself in black and taped a glow stick to a few parts of his body.
Then he played some music and danced for us while we all sat in the darkness and watched. It was totally hypnotic!
Because the shutter was open on the camera for so long, the result was almost like melted glass.

He has asked me to tell you all " It's not always easy practicing to get this right." LOL ! Looks to me like he got it just right!

{So Sunday} Banana Pancakes

I almost forgot to save you some!

Have you ever tried homemade pancakes with banana and a drizzle of local honey ?

Have you ever eaten them, sitting in the sun on a winter day, when the sky is so blue that you are sure Spring is already here ?

Have you ever felt so...so...so.....Sunday ?

Practice Random Acts of Kindness

When we were in Sydney we were walking along in Darling Harbour when the boys found an SD card on the ground. A few weeks later when we got home, we decided that we would make it our quest to look through the photos and try and locate the owner. I had heard of someone loosing a camera once and some kind stranger viewed the photos and tracked down the owner. We knew it would be a difficult job, but thought it would be such a triumph if we could track the owner of this SD card down.


We looked all through the photos as a family, gathering clues about our mystery people - who, realistically could have lived anywhere in the world. We were so excited when we realised they were more than likely Australian. That narrowed it down to about 22 million people!

Although we could work out where they went on their holidays ( and what costumers they wore to a Halloween party! lol) We couldn't work out any way of contacting them.

Just when we were about to give up, I remembered seeing a photo of some school children and was able to zoom right in on the badge of the school uniform. We then googled the name of the school and sent the school an email with a couple of pictures attached asking them if they recognised the family.

You can imagine our delight when we were contacted by the school and the family to say the card was theirs! They lived all the way over in Western Australia.

Our boys were delighted and we thought it was hilarious that we could actually do this. Although I guess it was a little invasive for the owner, I am sure they are extremely grateful to get all their precious photos back.

The joy you get from performing an act of random kindness is fabulous....... why not give it a try sometime, you never know when the favour might be returned to you!

There's No Place Like Home

Phew! Boy is it lovely to be home.

We have been away ( with only a few days home between trips) since June. It has been a combination of reasons that have drawn us away from our home base.

Firstly, a family member's illness saw us drop everything and head away for a week. Everything worked out okay and shortly after that we headed to Sydney for what was meant to be a holiday anyway. We came home for a few days and then headed back over the mountains to see family again and make sure that everything was still going okay.

The day that we arrived home we got word that our family member was heading to Sydney for treatment and we dropped everything and raced down there to be with them. That meant another ten days away.

Basically we missed the whole of July. It went whizzing by.

All in all, it hasn't been too bad. We certainly made the best of a bad situation. Because the boys were missing school I made it my duty to give them as many educational experiences as possible. Over the next few days I will post some of the photos from the various places we visited and the things that we learned.

Here is a pic of some broad beans I snapped when we visited Taronga Zoo. They had a brilliant 'eco house' display which consisted of a house, garden and farm setup. It gave me lots of ideas and made me want to rush home to get started.

When we returned home the garden was in a pretty good state. Luckily there had been lots and lots of rain. The only damage was from the visiting king parrots that have been helping themselves to the juicy pea pods.

Living in hotels and living out of suitcases soon loses its appeal. I was surprised how adaptive my children really are. It seems that they can cope anywhere as long as we are together.

I Thought I Saw Ol' Man Winter

I thought I saw Ol' Man Winter arrive on the train last week. Just a glimpse of him, in amongst the people on the platform hurrying about their business. I thought I recognised his hat, pulled down tightly over his head with his scarf wrapped high up around his ears.

I thought I saw him carrying his big suitcases, packed with everything that winter brings - the rain, the wind, the cold, the nights that steal away the afternoons before you have time to notice.

But.... it seems I was mistaken. Day two of winter and he still hasn't arrived. His train is now two days late. I am sure it will be here any day soon and he will step onto the platform with one hand on his hat, his scarf blowing in the icy wind.

In anticipation of his arrival I have prepared the house with extra blankets, socks and jumpers and have dusted off my number one tool of defence.... the slow cooker.


...... and although it is only 3.07 in the afternoon, that damn smell drifting through the house is enough to make me rip the lid off and gorge myself on it now!!!!!

Who invented these damn things anyway.....................?

Re-Using Success.

I still have a lot of plastic in my cupboards.

I have been making a real effort to re-purpose a lot of it because I don't think there is any sense in just throwing it all into landfill. It defeats the purpose.

Slowly but surely I have been changing over some of the storage containers in my cooking cupboard, a cupboard I have above my main prep area so I can just reach up and grab everything I need.
The large glass jars are from buying coffee in bulk and the smaller jars are from local oysters. They have a plastic lid unfortunately, but I still like to re-use them.

I have labeled the jars very simply with a permanent texta.

I enjoy opening the cupboard and looking at all the cooking supplies. I can see at a glance what needs to be topped up, often from a bigger supply in the pantry. I especially enjoy decanting the farmer's market honey into my little pour bottle which makes it easier to manage and easier to pour out a little for a cup of tea or to add to a recipe. I also like having my spices in bigger containers because I use so much of them.

But most of all I love the fact that the containers are NUDE. There are no brand names, no bold colours and no in your face slogans. It makes me feel all 'Little House on the Prairie -ish' LOL or maybe even a bit 'Waltons-ish' - knowing I can send John Boy to the store for a pound of sugar any time soon!

- Gotta love a spoon full of madness each and every day.

Garden Update

JOY !