Afternoon tea

Because apparently school food is not very nice, the kids come home pretty hungry and desirous of snacks. The usual choice is chips and shapes which are nice but not very filling or good for you, they are also expensive and essentially made from air. As a result of this I have started, when I feel inclined, to cook food for them for afternoon tea, this is because it is cheaper and nicer and I am usually bored anyway.

The first time, I made Anzac Slice (essentially Anzac biscuits but pressed into a tin, this is quicker and easier then biscuits). They were ok except that it was hard to ensure it was cooked properly without burning.

Next I did pikelets, these are good and went down pretty well but they need to be cooked fairly recently to be at all nice.

Yesterday I made pumpkin scones, these were just coming out of the oven when the family got home and were extremely nice. When they came inside they asked what I had made, I said scones, I did not mention pumpkin until they had eaten them. I then asked them if they liked the pumpkin scones and everyone stopped and there was some exclamation of shock and horror and then they decided it was ok, they could eat them again. Their mum and I laughed ourselves silly. Then there was one left over and my boss and I were going to go halves but suddenly three voices clearly indicated they would like a piece too.

Next time I will make 2 each I think.

Making Pasta

One day, while all the kids were home but neither parent was present (possibly holidays) We decided to make pasta for lunch using my pasta roller. Here are results. As you can see we decided to make blue pasta.

Dogs and Dirt

I have not said much about the dogs yet. Simba is a really OLD Golden Labrador, Friday is a four month old Chocolate Labrador Puppy. This photo was taken a while ago when she was about
2 1/2 months old. She is nearly as big as Simba now.

Friday needs to go to the vet today for a needle in the car that I drive. Beca

use it has been raining a b

it recently, all the lovely red dirt has turned to red mud. I knew she was dirty (even

though you can't see it) So I gave her a bath and because I could see that SImba was not a yellow dog anymore but a blotchy red and brown dog, she had a shower. I did not think to get a photo of the bath water after just the puppy had been in it or a photo of Simba before her bath but this is them after and the bath empty of water (but not of dirt).

Country Kids

A conversation at dinner ran like this;

Dad: "What do you want for your birthday" (boy is turning 8)

Son: "A gun"

Dad: "Your a bit young for a gun, it would knock you over, maybe when you turn 10"

Son: "Ok

Dad: "Maybe we can set you up with a BB gun"

I love how it is not "No, guns are dangerous, when you are 18 you can get a licence and buy a gun and I will show you how to use it safely" Instead it is "not right now but I will get you a practice gun in the meantime.

Irritating day

It is 830 am and already the day promises to be one of those irritating ones where movement happens and nothing is achieved.

I went out to do the horses and first had to move Arakei into his paddock. Unfortunately, half through this exercise I realized the gate at the other end of his paddock was open to the big cow paddock (no cows happily).

Instead of going and getting a halter, or taking him back and going to shut the gate I stupidly went with him to shut it. Unsurprisingly he bolted. I went out to catch him but if he does not want to be caught this is impossible, more so in 100 acres of grass.

Two guys in a digger arrived while I was doing this, and edged their way noisily into his paddock. I thought "there is not point putting him in that place with a terrifying instrument of death" so I collected the various buckets lying around and went up to the yard he was in originally.

For some reason, either curiosity, he thought he would get fed (buckets usually indicate this eventuality), or he did not want to be left alone on the big paddock when scary things were going on, He cantered all the way up the hill and back into the gate I had open for him.

After 20 minutes I had put a lot of effort into achieving absolutely nothing beyond giving a small horse and exciting adventure. I can tell this will be an irritating day.

Company

For the last four working days, I have had the company of some painters of walls (not artists). I decided I still needed music to function and they could just deal with it. The big tall one sang along with me to Aladdin and the Lion King and we had a lot of fun laughing and talking at intervals between jobs.

The dark brown dog is now partly blue and slightly white (guess what colours the house was painted).

The men ALL thought horses were so much waste of space and one of them gave me some leftover bread to feed a horse that was standing three meters away from him. I asked him if he wanted to feed it to him but he said "I don't do horses"

Also in case you are wondering you CAN hear through glass, I was cleaning the outside of a window and the man on the other side told his friend "she is cleaning the windows, you know, the weird one"

That was a fun four days and I laughed myself silly at them a few times

Lap Sharing

I have noticed that my lap is very popular among small children. I can fit two children comfortably and 3 very uncomfortably if they are under four years old. Recently I have noticed that it is popular for the cats that live here to sit on. Romeo thinks I am here merely as a pre-warmed sleeping place and will often fall over in front of where I am walking to get my attention and indicate it is time for me to go into cat couch mode.

Tonight, the tem year old was sitting on my lap to do her reading and I was reading too for company and Romeo came and glared for a minute then jumped up. I told him I already had one beautiful person on my lap and there wasn't room for two, he apparently disagreed. He tried to curl up on my chest, which was all that was available to him, but there wasn't really room and you could see it wasn't working for him. After a few minutes of trying and glaring at me and the child, he got down and stalked away in disgust at not being treated like the royalty he obviously is.