Christmas, gardens

Our cactus flowered, I was quite amazed :). 

The zucchini was the only vegetable we got into the ground this year. I was preoccupied with lying on the couch. Also because of this, they rarely get cooked & instead grow to gigantic proportions on the bush. Here is Theo demonstrating umm I don't know what.

Had a nice Christmas Eve service at our church, it was great, haven't had one of those for years (the past few years they've had a Christmas morning service).

Some nice Chrissie pics. 

And Christmas day. Even the dog gets a present :).

And the rest of the day was at Theo's parents house :). 

And then we had Boxing Day/ my sister Mim's bday/ Christmas with her. 

I made a present for someone, but I didn't get time to do another one before Christmas, so she got the 'practice' one lol ;). 

Now for a shot of my favourite nasturtium. 

And I was craving plain apple pie, so Theo made me one, complete with love hearts :). 

We Love Dirt; Floods & the New Family Member

The camera had a hissy fit & deleted the photos I took of our five metres of topsoil we had delivered last Saturday. I thought the rain might wash it away, but we wheelbarrow-ed it everywhere & have new & improved garden beds to show for it. Here's the pile of dirt, much reduced. 

We needed some outdoor activity the other night when Theo got home from work, so we went to check out the flooding river at Murchison.

And today we drove to Waranga Basin for similar activities, where every man and his dog and child seemed to be also driving up, checking it out and driving off again. Decided to have a swing while we were there. 

The man of many talents made me a very complicated dinner last night & I was most impressed. 

Last but not least, here's the latest addition to the family. Col came to visit & brought me a present. 

I think I'll call her Daisy.

Cooking, Whroo & Life in General

Been up to all sorts of bits & pieces. Theo constructed this pot belly stove of sorts from an old gas bottle & it now resides in the shed, complete with chimney thru the roof. It is really very nice and warm in there with the stove going. Theo works on stuff & I sit in a chair and read a book:)

And here is my new PINK kitchen baby, while Theo demonstrates the tastiness of things it helps to make:). It was a wedding present from my Dad & Sharon. 

This was all part of several recent cooking frenzies ;) 

All very belly- and freezer-filling.

And here's Ainsley and Simon, at their recent wedding :) 

And here's Theo & I, too :) 

Now Whroo. Always entertaining. With our broken handbrake, we had to resort to wedging rocks under the back car tyres;)

Someone suddenly decided the main mine was unsafe & decided to fence it off. Sort of.

There was some drama when a young man and three females (two of them from The City) went missing down a mine shaft for two hours. A large crowd of friends and family gathered atop the shaft's dark maw, two brave would-be rescuers went down the rope after them (yes, one of them was Theo), calls to the SES were narrowly averted, someone produced climbing gear and the would-be explorers were found returning safe & sound - although they apparently needed some help getting out of there. There were rumours of hanky panky, amongst the youngsters, but I think it unlikely considering the people involved ;)

Here's the trio of girls, and one of the rescuers, and the procession back home :).

my baking frenzy

I don't know quite what to make of this but I have been in a baking frenzy lately, but happy....

My cake for father's day : 

 someone's birthday five layer choc torte...

 

two christmas puddings,

 and all the mess..

This doesn't include yesterday's two rhubarb & banana pies, and today's banana bread and gluten-free apricot loaf. I think that's everything.....  (for the past week, anyway). Oh no, oops, didn't count the vegie muffins and the two carrot cakes. And how long ago was the banana cake and the banana buns?