Great Places To Visit.

So, on Saturday, this is what we got up to.  Friends of ours opened this gorgeous, delicious, tasty, organic, vegan, vegetarian, organic meat, milk, cheeses....etc....etc.....store in Fitzroy, Melbourne.  They were having a Mexican theme tasting from 12 till 30pm.  Naturally, we had to go and sample the corn tortilla's, cheeses, salsa's etc to be sure they were safe to hand out!  We sampled EVERYTHING that was available and came to the conclusion that we had to shop!  Of course!  Hubby dutifully got out his wallet and I of course shopped!  So yummy.  Had to buy some of the corn tortilla's, they were amazing.  Anyway........you get the drift.  it's great produce, both fresh and packaged, tinned, pre-cooked soups, lasagnes, etc, etc, etc. Do yourself a BIG favour, and call in sometime.  Have a little taste or two of what's on offer that day and don't forget to take some home for your pantry or frig, or both!  Great h...

Vegan Friendly Curry. Serves  4-6                                                   Dairy Free, Gluten free, Oil free. Mild to Medium Curry.    Adjust Thai Curry Paste and Curry powder to your liking. Ingredients: 4 x tablespoons water 1 x red onion peeled and diced 3cm knob ginger peeled and finely diced 1 x tablespoon Thai Red Curry Paste 1 x dessertspoon Curry Powder 1 x heaped teaspoon finely diced garlic (approx. 2 cloves) 1 x heaped teaspoon powdered turmeric or fresh when in season 1 x 700gm jar of Passato Tomato Cooking Sauce or equivalent. 200g water or vegetable stock - rinse out your sauce jar and add to curry. 1 x 400gm can chickpeas, drained and rinsed well. 1 x 400g...

I just recently purchased an iphone6s.  Yes I brought a "cover" to protect the phone when I drop it, and yes I had them put on a screen protector.  But,  well,  I just thought that if I made a nice "pouch" for it on my sewing machine it would stop the screen saver thingy from getting scratched.  Perhaps a bit fussy? Maybe.  But anyway I decided that as I have lots of scrap fabrics as I'm a quilter, then I could use some scraps to make a "pouch" for my phone. Now when it's rattling around in my handbag with my car keys etc, it won't get marked so easily and will be easier to find.  Plus it looks pretty! Naturally you can make one of these for any size phone, simply use your phone as a template to get your measurements. So here's what I did:-

Can't beat the Murray River for serenity! Love the light and the shadows. The colours and textures. Hard to beat those Murray River Redgums! We spent Christmas at our little get-a-way in Tocumwal, N.S.W. It was great catching up with the family.  Miss Lily enjoys running around the bush on her walks. She even ventured into the River for a quick drink.  Not being a timid dog, she ran out onto the floating pontoon that is the boatramp and didn't care that it moved underneath her. We spent a lovely few days enjoying the beautiful weather and the peace and quiet of the bush. Ahhhhhhhhh, feel the serenity!

Well the manuscript has just come back from my editor. So I have a bit of work to do. Unfortunately my publisher (guy who puts it on Amazon for me) is beyond busy and even if I could get it to him in the next couple of days, he can't get it done by Christmas. (sigh) Such is life. So no sulking, instead I will give you a sneek peak of the new you beaut cover that I will be using.  Let me know what you think of it. This is just the photo I purchased, naturally the writing etc has to done yet. I think he's cute. Should look good once we get the title etc completed. Another job my publisher does for me. I'm not very good with the computer other than typing. Will have to get to and learn some more stuff.  Like how to work with graphics so I can do the cover myself perhaps......or not. I do prefer to write and look for others to fill in the dots. Anyway this cute little guy is my "Handy" for the revised book. It is quiet different from the first one (thankfully)...

I've seriously been craving some home made tomato chutney lately. So got cracking and made myself some.  I like a bit of zing so spiced up mum's recipe a little.  Very happy with the results. Bubbling away. Jarred and ready to eat!

A mini Tornado struck Strathmerton on the weekend of October 31/10/15 destroying a couple of houses. Luckily no one was hurt. Just a bit further along the Murray River at Tocumwal the Tornado ended. We happened to be home and live near the edge of town, close to the river.  We saw the sky turn pink, grey and green. Ominous. Can't remember a stormy grey sky turning pink or especially green before. Made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. Then we heard this roar.  Bernie looked at me as we stood on our back verandah watching the clouds flying about and said "What's that noise?" I replied, "Wind. Lots of it. I think we should go inside now." As I said this we saw the sky along the river turn green and pink and the trees begin to whip wildly. We retreated inside for a bit and as the roar died away we ventured back out to the front verandah as torrential rain began to fall. And boy did it rain!!! The early afternoon turned dark as the clouds above turned ...