The Blogging Experience.....

Blogging and following people on line is an intriguing journey...... Sharing event's and experiences with people all over the world.  This morning I find myself in tears over the death of a dog I've never touched, belonging to a man I've never met, in a town I've never heard of. .... yet the loss of beautiful Meg brings me to tears...I've been following John's blog for over a year now and you really start to feel like you know them and care about what happens it their lives.  Meg had been sick for a while and had been given expert care by John before he had to make the difficult decision to put her to sleep. Hope John doesn't mind that I've shared a picture of Meg here as a puppy with her pal George.



Meg (she's the blonde) and George from Going Gently

Having to say goodbye to pets is such a difficult thing and John shared his experience with such honesty and love.  RIP Meg.

We're on the Market....

Haven't been here for a while.....it's a busy process getting your home ready for sale....but it's on the market as of yesterday..  Problem now is finding another one....fingers crossed the perfect house will turn up.  It's a bit sad to be selling, I really love it here but we've made a lifestyle decision to prepare ourselves for retirement.  Debt free will be amazing.   

It's really cold in the hills this week....winter is letting us know she's around.  Hope we get a sunny day on Saturday for our first open for inspection.

The Dirty B Word.....!

Yikes....Budget......We have been to see a financial advisor recently and yes the news is out...I spend too much money...no surprise really, I've never been much of a saver.  We are however needing to prepare ourselves for retirement in the not too distant future....my man is 61 this year.  Sooooo the dirty B word has raised it's ugly head again and yes we are putting ourselves on a budget....we have a plan to get out of our mortgage...sell up ...move a bit further out and buy a home mortgage free. Get completely out of debt and try to live on the weekly $figure that the financial advisor has set for us.  If we do things according to his plan in 4 years we should be able to have a comfortable retirement.... I know I will struggle on a fairly tight budget but there are heaps of blogs out there with good advice...fingers crossed and see how we go.

Meanwhile the garden is still producing a little....


broccoli , mixed lettuce, lemons and my first Protea flower from the garden...they are really lovely.

Managed to get a few figs off the tree before the birds consumed them all....

Now I just need a recipe to use them in !

One of my few remaining pumpkins grown this year....it was huge and tasted delicious.

We had our monthly luncheon catch up with friends and I had to bring soup....naturally my home grown pumpkin made a delicious soup...... that was budget friendly !

Pumpkin soup with caramelised onions ... garlic croutons and a little cream.

We ate outside as the weather was quite mild...even little Charlie joined us under the table.

Pork fillet inside whole pineapple wrapped in prosciutto........from the big K

Fondant Potatoes...there was also a lovely brussel sprouts dish. 

What can I say.....Lemon Meringue Pie from J&A....Yum.

Lastly it was so cold this morning that I spoilt the ladies with a warm breakfast of porridge....yes I can hear you saying that isn't in the budget.....still got a lot of lessons to learn.....but they were pretty happy.

Rolled outs and my homemade yoghurt for the girls.....probably need to get no-name brand oats now.

The feathered girls were very happy with breakfast today.

Winter is well and truly with us....my days will be spent trying to keep warm as we prepare to put our house on the market....watch this space.