Evil Pigs, Rocky Road and Crazy Critters!

It is school holidays and we’ve had a visitor – our gorgeous grandson, Cooper, which meant it was time to cook with Granny, play chess with Papa, and this time, there was also a little piano lesson too!

We only had 48 hours, but we managed to pack a lot in.  Cooper had a list of what we needed to cook:

A major search to find the Rocky Road recipe, but more about that later, then he wrote up the shopping list.  A trip to the supermarket and home via my favourite book shop – The Book Shoppe, where I was delighted to hear him asking Janene about his favourite authors.  Yes, there was also time for reading in between everything else!

Back at home, and decked out in Chef’s Whites, Cooper was ready to get to work!  When it come to the meringues – last time we made Evil Pig meringues, I thought that they looked rather sinister, so didn’t even mention them.  Instead I asked Cooper what colour the meringue shoud be.  His answer – purple!  With blue and rose pink colouring at hand, I took a portion of the meringue and began mixing in the colour.  It was then that Cooper suggested that we should make evil pigs again, so we ditched the idea of making the meringue purple, and the Evil Pigs made a return!  After a little more chit chat (and there was plenty of that), this time, we also made crazy critters, aka porcupines.  They were put in the oven and the waiting began – how frustrating that even though they were cooked, they still couldn’t come out of the oven until they were totally cooled! Continue reading

Easter – Outdoors – Family

Easter was fabulous.

Our grandson Cooper come to visit from the Tuesday prior.  While he was here, and before everyone else arrived, we made Easter Bunny Pots, and my only real input was making the bunnies feet and assisting with the gluing.  It was a great fun activity, where we had to go in search of everything needed for the project, including the packets of seeds and pots from the local hardware.  When they were finished, he proudly put them out for photos, before hiding them to surprise everyone on Easter Sunday morning.  He was such a proud little man handing them out to his family.

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The Pebble Church

The Pebble Church – A brief History

I hope that you find this little church as beautiful as we all did.

St Peter’s Anglican Church, known as the “Pebble Church”, is located at 367 Dunolly Rd, Carapooee,  approximately thirteen kilometers south of St Arnaud in Western Victoria, Australia.  During the gold rush the area was called ‘St Peter’s Diggings’, but known by the local Aborigines as ‘The Carapooee’, (“an earthly paradise”).  It was to here that many miners and their families made their way in the 1800’s.

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A Family Reunion

At home for the last time, we got to work!  We were expecting around 40 immediate family, and those considered family, for lunch the following day. Isn’t that what everyone does a week and a half out from settlement!

A branch from one of the bottlebrushes growing down the lane made the perfect Christmas tree simply adorned with a few decorations that we had found during previous visits.  With the tree set up, a few additional decorations were set out.  Then a table was set up with a a few bits and pieces to take everyone on a trip down memory lane.  Added to the table were sweet pea seeds, and coathangers that mum had covered, for family to help themselves to.

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A little boy’s holiday

I recently took a trip to visit my beautiful 87 year old mother. She lives in a nursing home in Stawell which is a 500 plus kilometer drive from where I live. I thought it might be the perfect opportunity to take our three year old grandson, Cooper, for a little holiday, but chose not to tell her.

When I told mum that I would be visiting, I also told her that I had been making quince jelly, and slow cooking and bottling the fruit as well, because our beautiful old quince tree had been loaded – I think we picked two wheelbarrow loads! Mum loves quinces and asked if I could bring a jar of jelly and a small jar of the quinces. While the food at the nursing home is wonderful, she obviously doesn’t get the homemade treats that she used to make herself, not so long ago. Continue reading