The Good Life Bread Book

Look what came in the post!
Just so happens that both Mum and I have had our recipes (and pics) published inside.
I'll stick mum's pic on later with her Sour Dough yeast starter (I was having a bad hair day).
My recipe was a sweet spin off from the traditional Irish soda bread.

"Have you ever thought of turning your property into a self sustaining food forest, or collecting eggs from your own chooks, or baking your own healthy, natural bread, with the freshest ingredients you can fi nd?

The people who’ve contributed to this book have worked to establish a range of healthy, happy lifestyles, free from the drains of stressful, high-consumption living or tasteless, unhealthy food. This book is as much about living the good life, and treading gently on the Earth, as it is about learning some of the practical, daily bread recipes within.

Learn how to make your own sourdough starter, bake damper in a camp oven, superb fruit loaves, German rye bread, perfect pizza dough and much much more.

With food for thought and delicious breads to inspire your culinary skills, now’s the time to start living the good life. After all, if you don’t start now, when will you start? Superb colour photos enhance this large format paperback."

So from one bread maker to the next - yours is in the post Trev!

Scrambled Eggs

"My family and other animals" is taken "My Family and other vegetables" didn't seem all that complimentary, so I'll stick with "Scrambled Eggs".

Here are just some random pics from the last few weeks which include;
*a few more silly pics
*my very first watermelon that I accidentally broke off the plant - argh!
*the wheat packs that sell well
*still enjoying using the blender - thanks Gramps
*some left overs from the garden at the end of the season, these with Steve's massive green tomatoes made the most delish lasagna sauce (except the celery, that was for stock).

What a mistake-a to make-a!

When my brother Andrew decided to take lots of pictures of himself gurning with our camera, I think he'd forgotten that we have a blog.. and no mercy! haha!

Thought I'd stick in a nice father son pic to soften the blow :o)

Happy Birthday Willem!

Happy Birthday to Willem last Sunday!
Here are some pics of the day; the firetruck birthday cake (of his Dad's firetruck)
Everyone eager to blow the candles out for the 4th time
the kids putting dibs on the licorice bits from the truck cake

Lucas looking a bit non-plussed about his big opportunity to scoff some serious cake and icing.


We left the camera at Grandma's this week and missed so many photo opportunities! The ones that come to mind are:
*Mummy was on the phone for a bit too long and Lucas found rolls of foil in the storage cupboard. The lounge room looked like a spaceship for most of the day. Gave up trying to roll them back up!

*Lucas got hold of Mummy's new invisalign "braces" (a thin plastic cover over the teeth) and tried them out for size.

*Mummy sold lots of wheat packs at the market and bought Lucas the biggest broccoli in the box (much to his delight)

*Lucas chased Daddy around the house every night with the big dolphin torch, squealing and thinking it great fun when Daddy leaped and whooped and ran away when got caught in the light.

Garden ramble

It's been raining lots here, but not enough to keep us indoors. So this week we've been pulling weeds out (perfect time when the ground is so wet and soft) and exploring.

I found this lovely little thing, see if you can guess what it is :o) I love the pic - could almost pass for a Christmas card.
This is our flowering pineapple sage plant. I was going to lop it all off until I saw the flowers coming. The buds grew as if shy to show themselves, bent over like catkins then as they became darker in colour and started to flower they raised up. Very interesting.. I think anyway.


This is a fine loofa specimen. Flippin' late to get going so I've had to hand pollinate all of them (no bees around). So in another couple of months they'll be big, dried and ready to use.

Lucas has a "thing" for this particular part of the garden (together with the pumpkin patch).
He starts on the right, next to the bushy thyme, then trudges his way through the undergrowth -as if on a tour of duty- to the celery. Here he stands for a while watching the snails, picking them off (good boy!) before heading back through the rustling leaves of the lemon balm.

It's nice to think he's growing up with all the smells and textures the garden offers. This is why I haven't ripped out the pineapple sage (useless plant as it is). He loves scrunching the garlic chives, unfortunately for Daddy as they're his favourite herb in the garden.

Sicky Stars

This week we've been horribly ill. Lucas was the first, then me and Daddy on the same night. By then Lucas was feeling much better and was going insane with boredom with both entertainers out of commission - the house is a wreck!

To get the little lad's appetite back on track we tried a few things, none of which worked.

Here's Lucas masterfully whisking the egg mixture for our stars and duckies to dip into.
Waiting for them to cook.
More interested in the box than the crackers.
Got there in the end.