Flash Floods and Favorites for February...........!!

The weather is such a mystery so far this year....... extreme heat, bushfires, hail, cold wet days, lovely sunny days and then flash floods......I was caught up in this one last week ...took a picture of the water and landslide over the road on my way down the mountain from Emerald... the rain was absolutely torrential....!

Flash flooding on the road.

While gardening this little guy ran across my foot....gave me a bit of a fright but I dashed inside to get my phone to take his picture....it's not a good shot as he was rushing to get away from me ... he was way more scared of me than I had been of him....the colours were amazing so I did a google to see what kind of spider he was.... St Andrews Cross spider...really love the diversity of criters that live in our permaculture garden ...a call out to anyone using pesticides or chemicals in the garden...Please Don't !!

St Andrews Cross Spider in my garden

This is what they actually look like when photographed correctly !!! ..just sayin'..

Professional look at a St Andrews spider...amazing

A lovely bunch of flowers from my man ....... we don't really do Valentine's day but they were a lovely surprise.

Flowers from the Willow Branch....  lovely florist and we always try to support the locals.

Currently reading this book for the second time.... one of the ladies at bookclub mentioned it and I knew I owned a copy but read it so long ago forgot the storyline....loving it second time around...funny about that. 

My interest of late has been spiked by the use of medicinal herbs... I follow this lady on instragram and managed to get hold of her latest book..... it's a little out there but has definately encouraged me to look at Herbal Apothecary and growing more of my own herbs.

Marysia is a Green Witch... all about gardening, weeds and herbs.. don't be fooled by the title 

I took a quick trip to Korumburra to check out a couple of local stores... Grow Lightly is a great community produce store....all the veg are grown locally and chemically free... great price and to top it off they have milk in glass bottles for just $3.80...
.............so happy to support local farmers.

Milk in Glass !!    .... Hooray

Sunday was my birthday... had a beautiful day and as always received  loads of love and beautiful gifts... very thankful for my wonderful family and friends.

61 now...officially in my sixties.

The latest Green Tea pic ..from The Borough Dept Store cafe.....
had the most delicious Ginger cake... highly recommend it if you are ever down that way.

The obligatory green tea pic... they just keep getting more and more quirky.  

Here's hoping Autumn gives us the beautiful late summer weather that is my favourite time of year. 

A Couple of Busy Weekends......

It's always the way...nothing much in the diary for a while and then you get a couple of really busy weekends on top of each other...I squeezed in a trip to the circus with my favourite little guy....his first time and I think he thought the best part was the popcorn...

My g-boy loves his popcorn..at 3 he wasn't quite sure what all the fuss was about

Some very clever young performers....I hadn't been to a circus in I don't remember how long.

Was actually a bit nervous watching this guy...he was a bit shaky.

 I had also received tickets from my daughter last Christmas for Les Miserables....how fantastic that was...we don't see a lot of theatre as a rule but this show was absolutely amazing.  My man and I loved every minute...spectacular and mesmerising.  Can't say enough good stuff  about it.


A young cast of relatively unknowns......they were exceptionally good.

We also had our monthly luncheon hosted by J & M ...... an absolute feast of Moroccan delights...a lovely filo pastry nibble filled with goats cheese, pine nuts, coriander, sundried tomatoes and other goodies...delicious....from Robbie and the big K.  J & M served up two huge casseroles of Moroccan lamb and Chicken dishes...flavoured cous cous....not forgetting Moroccan bread made with semolina......and a tasty  Moroccan salad from J&A....My offering was supposed to be something to have with coffee...I attempted Moroccan almond macaroons....they didn't turn out as well as expected so I camouflaged them with Terry's orange segments and apricot bites...they did all get eaten but perhaps everyone was just being nice !!

The usual suspects all tucking in to a delicious Moroccan feast......

My sad little macaroons.....which I tried to disguise amongst this mandala of chocolates and apricot bites.

 Realising how fortunate we are to live in a country like Australia and share great times with good friends...I received a timely reminder from Oxfam regarding a fund raiser they are having in October...it asks you to join in  World Food Day 16th October, by inviting friends over for dinner and making a donation ...buy locally and act globally.  Food is something we take for granted here....it's a great idea to try to do something for others who are so less fortunate.

A Really Good Friday.......

While I am not a religious person and Easter doesn't really hold the same significance for me, I do love traditions....my man is from Scotland originally and was raised a Catholic.....he isn't particularly religious any more but still can't bring himself to eat meat on Good Friday...funny how religious traditions stay in your psyche .......so after we polished off a couple of HCB's for breakfast (delicious by the way)..... my daughter popped in for brunch and we had a few more.... then my man had a salmon sandwich for lunch (I had left over beef casserole, I know...seems sacrilegious) .......It was a bit chilly here today so we lit the fire....opened up a bottle of wine... some meat free nibbles and settled down for a lovely late afternoon relax......I cooked up some beautiful fresh flathead tails for dinner....it's pretty easy to keep my man happy .... all made for a really Good Friday.......it's nice in a way to keep his Fishy Friday tradition ....no offence intended to any Christians !!

Thankfully Fishy Friday doesn't exclude wine and cheese....they are my Good Friday tradition.

What The .......Are People Actually Eating This?

Just when you think people are actually starting to be aware of good health and nutrition, considering what is in their food before they eat it, avoiding chemicals and GM foods....the list goes on.  Just when you think there is not much more that the food producers and supermarkets have left up their sleeves to surprise you with....I mean pre boiled potatoes packaged for you to just reheat, avocado in a tube and pre packed whatever.....they still have the power to shock and outrage you.....today I saw these two shockers in the refrigerated section....scrambled egg in a carton and if that isn't horrible enough a pre boiled and peeled egg!!!....seriously I know people are time poor and convenience foods seem to be a solution for a selection of the population but really, they can't boil or scramble an egg !!  The use by date on these products is up to five weeks......who wants to eat month old scrambled eggs ???.......Food producers and supermarkets need to take a good long look at themselves........This type of food is outrageous and possibly dangerous to people's health.....it makes me sad to think that people out there consider this to be a good idea....even sadder to think that there are people out there who will eat this garbage.....this is not a convenience food, this is six dollars for scambled egg that I wouldn't feed to my dogs......Wake up people, don't eat this rubbish....nothing beats a fresh egg and it takes three minutes to scramble them.

Unbelievable.....scambled eggs in a carton.......Yuck !!

I pity the person who thinks a pre boiled and peeled egg wrapped in plastic is a good idea !

Living Well Everyday.......

 Am now back home after having surgery last week........an experience that I have managed to come through quite well all things considered......The very drugs that keep you alive and stop your pain however wreak havoc on your body....and the hospital certainly wasn't offering any organic food.....in fact the food was pretty awful..........makes me feel very aware that I now need to sustain my system with healthy foods to combat the chemical overload that I have been bombarded with over the past 8 days......

It has made me think back to when I first started seriously undertaking the need to eat organic, whole foods wherever possible......and the reminder of the dirty dozen list that warns of the high chemical load that these fruits and vegies carry.... ..I have listed them here to remind not just myself but anyone who is reading this also......even if you can't manage to eat all organic fruit and veg at least try to ensure you avoid the chemical laden variety of the following.........

1. Apples
2. Celery
3. Sweet bell peppers
4. Peaches
5. Strawberries
6. Nectarines – imported
7. Grapes
8. Spinach
9. Lettuce
10. Cucumbers
11. Blueberries – domestic
12. Potatoes

Plus: Green beans, Kale/Greens – May contain residues of special concern

I can't wait until I am well enough to get back to my gorgeous organic vegie shop in Kallista and buy the beautiful seasonal , organic produce........wishing everyone good health...


Some of the flowers that I received from well wishers 

On a happy note I have finally managed to overcome the slug problem.....no the rolled up newspaper did not work.....I bought little containers from Bunnings that I put in the ground...filled with beer ...and voila the slugs quite happily it seems....drank themselves to oblivion.....a well spent $8 I think....the seedlings are all now popping up beautifully....can't wait until the new year when the vegie garden will once again be full with gorgeous veg......

This is the weird looking little slug trap from Bunnings....I also threw red petal
into the garden.....a website advised that slugs don't like red !!...who knows
between the beer and the petals....no slugs ...yay !!



Some of the winter crops now ready for harvest....the garlic bulbs drying out...
just need to clean them up and plait and hang.....delicious organic garlic !

Love Food, Hate Waste campaign...

As always still trying to do my bit for the planet, environment and now also my pocket....in the past I have been known to waste food, throwing away things that I could have put to better use if I was better prepared and more aware of what I was doing......life changes and my lifestyle has changed now in so many ways.....anything that can't be salvaged is either fed to the chooks, put in the worm farm for those guys to digest or else put into the compost.........had a few left over bananas that were on their last legs and turned them into a delicious banana cake....very easy recipe and would have cost less than a dollar to make....I was pretty impressed with myself...

Yummy banana cake made from the bananas going brown in the fruit bowl..................

 Then I had a barbeque chicken which we had used all of the meat from and decided that instead of tossing  it into the bin....can't feed it to the dogs, chooks or worms........I would make it into stock.....added a few vegies and boiled it up and used it for last nights risotto ......only problem is I have the left over cooked remains and had to bin them....don't know of any use for them...anyone out there use the remnants for anything useful...............??

Left overs from making the chicken stock........any ideas what it could be used for.....???

Am always now looking for ways to make our food go further..........using local organic foods wherever possible, free range, organic and locally sourced chicken and meats also.......it can be tricky but well worth the effort it in the end.....wishing good health to all.

Todays lunch......

Still trying to eat a healthy diet.....often fall by the wayside, but today I made this lovely fresh salad which incorporated beetroot and lettuce from my garden..along with cabbage, carrots, capsicum, feta and sundried tomatoes......also the addition of organic hemp seeds ...recommended by my Naturopath.....adds a nice little nutty flavour to many foods.....was delicious but I have to confess that just eating salad for lunch leaves me feeling hungry again a couple of hours later....Have been to Writing Group this afternoon and I could hear the rumble of my tummy.....home now for a cuppa and hopefully a treat..nothing to decadent.