Wednesday, 22 August 2018

Trying hard to Spring

One minute the paddock is a bog, the next minute it is glorious blustery sunshine and in the distance lambs cry their first breath.

The tuis continue their "dust ups" in the ornamental cherries. Last year there was a minivan full of them, this year, two coach loads arrived. They are demolishing four trees as I type this. I have just been screwing my neck into very awkward positions trying to photograph their antics. The photo here was taken a split second before the bird dive bombed me as I was on the flight path to an intruding bird. My hair style was almost changed from left parting to right parting!


The cats are slowly emerging from duvet hibernation, but in the case of our ginger boy, there is no evidence of winter starvation around his corpulent tum. For good reason is he known as "Mega Chops"


And happily it looks like we should have a good crop of plums from the tree at the front gate. Last year it blossomed a bit half heartedly.


Sunday, 19 August 2018

Culinary firsts

I have always wanted to "tackle" Portuguese tarts, and had a recipe sat on my desk for over a year, but have been somewhat afraid of making my own custard. Hmm, I wonder if that's where the expression "Cowardy Custard" comes from?

But yesterday I nominated as Tart Day (goodness that sounds risqué!), and these were the result.


Thanks to my lovely neighbour's chickens for the deliciously fresh eggs, they were truly scrumptious.

Tuesday, 7 August 2018

Screaming sawdust or what goes around comes around.

I was a great fan of The Waltons TV show as a kid growing up. I loved all the homely tales and was fascinated by "Pa's" wood business in the hills. Today, I got to see a wood splitter up close and personal, in our field.


Our neighbour decided reluctantly to take down three massive macrocarpas along his driveway which also borders our paddock. He had to take part of the paddock fence down, and when the trees were felled I think we were all a bit overawed by the size of the trunks. The rationale was that it was better they were taken down under controlled conditions than fell down in a storm, as happened to another neighbour a few years back.

The wood splitter is a huge noisy beast, but is making transportation of the lumber much easier by slicing it into long planks on site. The bonus for us is we get a pile of wood out of it, the offcuts for our fire for next winter.

Coincidentally another local friend was chatting with us today about building some storage boxes out of wood offcuts, so we offered him some which have been sitting in our garage for 5 years since our house was renovated. So we receive wood, and we give away wood. There should be a verb to cover this series of actions. I suppose "Paying it For Wood" covers it!