Popcorn popping and the frangipani tree.. la la!

These last couple of weeks have been interesting in the world of Lucas.

His tree climbing career has started, singing career (uses a mini torch as a microphone whilst "singing" and swaying to the music), together with training for popcorn eating competitions (beating the vac to it).
He's also been quite attached to his little Lucas sized chair. Using it to reach greater heights (namely the crystal on the mantle piece and opening doors with lever handles). He's quite impressed with himself :o)

Today he fell asleep in my arms (after having a tantrum that it wasn't Daddy at the front door but a sales man), exhausted with all the Grandparent excitement he'd had.

Little Twinkle Perryman is doing well. I heard the heartbeat for the first time today so it's definately real! :o)


Thanks for the underpants and socks Farmor and Gramps! Lucas knows exactly what to do with them.

Little Chef

We made some chapatis this week (we were out of bread). Lucas had so much fun rolling them out but refused to eat the ones he made and only ate the ones I'd made especially for Mummy and Daddy. They were just bigger :o)

Yesterday he measured all the flour and other ingredients to make shortbread. He loved patting it down in the tin and helped made the marks on the top to cut later. Didn't want to eat them either! No pics.. too messy and only one pair of hands then.

Broccoli Monster

We have this ancient relic from Steve's childhood. Old and broken, Lucas seems to have taken a shine to it (the bin will have to wait).

This week before his nap, he pulled down the change mat and nappy, put it in the hallway and continued to wrap monster up in a blankey. He put him in the cot, climbed in himself and wasn't happy until I'd tucked them both safely in bed.
Lucas wouldn't go to sleep until he'd seen me safely tuck monster up on the chair next to the cot (with dummy in it's mouth) for a nap.On Thursday we went to Aldi and the market. A nice man tried to give Lucas a chocolate bar, ended up giving him two and it took all of my polite persuading to stop the man opening one for him ( I could just feel the other mothers eyes looking at me - a toddler with a whole chocolate bar!). I just so happened to have a piece of dark choc in my bag and gave it to Lucas as a swap.

When we got to the market, he squiggled and wiggled until I gave him a head of broccli to munch on as they were out of corn, and to my surprise (and the on lookers) he ate it down to the stalk!
Yes, he had eaten breakfast!

Strange little boy, but he was so thrilled to have it, he wouldn't even off me a pretend nibble :o)
Last week he ate an entire corn on the cob - quiet trip home that was! He asked for corn straight away this week "gcor".

Hooley Dooley!

Well this week has been a sicky but exciting week. Lucas has been up every night (teething the bottom molars now) and has had a cold on top of that.
He's been very cuddly (more than usual) and has enjoyed making a few discoveries.

Graffiti is not tolerated. It's a good job he thinks cleaning is so much fun, it took me a good 10mins of scrubbing to get off (and now we have a clean patch on the wall). He seems to have learned not to draw on the walls, no repeat offenses so far.



Okay, okay! We can't put off buying blocks any longer (he chewed the paint of the first set so we took them back!), he's obviously crying for something to build with and the tins are a tad painful on the way down. Not to mention my food storage cupboard is all out of whack.


Here is THE BEST* lemon meringue pie EVER. Well done me :o)
I've been obsessed with lemons so far in this pregnancy. Drinking water makes me feel sick unless I have lemon juice in it. So it's handy having a lemon tree.
*Best according to preggy taste buds and Dad's opinion (sorry mum! I'm sure he just meant best one I've ever made, not the best ever in the world :o) I'm not sure I can take any credit since it's your recipe anyway! haha!




Band aids for "ouchies". Here's a pretend nose ouchy which he thought was quite funny, but he kept pressing it and wasn't all that fun to take off. Mental note: clean the kid's face before photos!


Shin-annigans. Grandad and Lucas having a great time with the classics, Lawnmower and Superman.

Lucas loves playing in his cot when he wakes up. He likes me to pretend I'm knocking at the door to see if he's in, then peep through the bars and act all suprised to see him, then teddy, then patch, then bunny etc. Today I even had to change his nappy in the cot as he seemed too keen on the "pretending I'm asleep" game.

Garden clippings & Flower Sniffs

Just had to pop these ones in. One minute it's Tantrum Alert, the next it's all sweetness and giggles (with Daddy).



We've had lots of fun in the garden doing winter jobs.
Even though our Meyer lemon tree fruits for most of the year, we trim off the diseased leaves etc.
Lucas wanted in on the action, didn't get much done though. Must have been those clippers he was using.

It was Mother's Day here last Sunday. The kiddies sang a song for their mums at church and at the end we were all given a long stemmed rose. I got two as there were some left over.

When we got home, we popped next door to our friendly neighbour who cut two beautiful roses from his "tequila sunrise" bush and another red, smelly sort.

I LOVE the yellow ones with the peachy pink trim the best. I love their scent of peaches and lemons. So does Lucas and he's clambered onto the table at every given moment for a nose burying sniff.

Steve's Mother's Day gift to me was washing up. Which, considering the state of the kitchen, was on par with chocolates!

Happy 9th Anniversary to US!

Yes, today is our 9th Wedding Anniversary!

I was reading Bron's blog the other day with this poem included on one of the entries:

By Anne Campbell

You are the trip I did not take;

You are the pearls I cannot buy;

You are my blue Italian lake;

You are my piece of foreign sky.

("To my child,"quoted in Charles L.Wallis, ed.,The Treasure Chest (1965),54.

I'm really glad we spent time at the beginning of our marriage to have fun, travel and soak in that piece of foreign sky. I do hope to return there one day, but the realism of that is far off.

So for now, we'll enjoy remembering the last 9 excellent years:
Danish mustard on our hotdogs (and Klejne for Christmas), Spanish olives at our table, French (style) bread and cheese, Leeks for Wales, Scotch pies, Blue Bells and roasted chestnuts for England and German Zimtsterne (and all other Christmas goodies).

Not to forget the dozens of surf trips with frozen bodies and sand dipped steaks ;o) To this day we still use pringles for firelighters.

Now, we're happy to be here. The adventure to last a lifetime, family.

I've just realised how recent digital pics are! Sorry, got nothing else!

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.