PAPA THE PHOTOGRAPHER

I was eating breakfast and checking out some Christmas recipes.

I sent him off this morning with a long list to buy lots and lots of baking stuff and as soon as I'm finished this post, it's on with the apron, the fan, some Christmas music and out with the butter, flour, eggs, fruit, honey, cocoa, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, tins....

Love Nanxx

GARDENING CLUB

Friday wasn't just a 'quilting day' with Robyn, it was also the final Gardening Club get-together for the year.  I arrived at Robyn's around 9.00am, left at 11.30am for the Gardening Club and then after lunch, I headed back to Robyn's.

"Have a cup of tea and tell us all about your lunch!" said Robyn.  And so, I drank my lovely cup of tea and ate the gorgeous little star Christmassy biscuit and began to tell the ladies all about the lovely lunch.

I've been to this garden before and know the lady quite well as she helped us when we had our Open Garden at Summerfield a few years ago.  As you can see, she lives in a lovely old Queenslander and has a simple but beautiful garden.  When I arrived at the front door, a little late, I could see down the hallway that everyone was chatting away outside on the back deck.  So, I opened the door and made my way through the house, putting my bag and cardigan on a chair on my way.  When I arrived at the back deck Rhondda was there to welcome me and asked if I would like white wine or Champagne?  Well of course the answer to that one is always "I'll have the Champagne please."  Off I went with glass in hand to meet up with and chat to the ladies.  They are a lovely group and all love gardening.

Before lunch, Rhondda told us a bit about her garden, mentioning in passing that she was having trouble with her lawn.  She has planted a number of Capital Pear trees along the back boundary and the shade from them is inhibiting the lawn growing properly.  Someone from the group shouted out as she spoke that she should try a grass called........Oh dear!  I can't remember what she said.  It was something like Sleep Seed, or Simpering Seed or Seedy Seed.  If I remember I'll let you know for your future reference.

She also mentioned that mealy bugs were getting into her Agapanthus:(  I'm not sure what that looks like and I don't think I want to know because if she, with her beautiful garden has mealy bugs in her agapanthus, we MUST have them in ours.

After Rhondda had finished talking and everyone had a little say in a trip to a garden that is being planned for next year, it was time for lunch.  Lunch was just beautiful.

It started off with trays of ribbon sandwhiches being brought around.  Do you know what they are?  You use the softest bread you can find;  some white and some brown.  You lay out three slices and using one of their ideas, spread avocado on one of the white slices, top with a brown slice and then add some salmon mixed with mayonnaise and perhaps a bit of red onion and then on top of that one, you top off with the last white slice.  You then cut off all the crusts and cut what's left into fingers.

After the 'sandwhich' course, trays of fruit were brought round - all this while we stood on the verandah chatting and drinking our Champagne.  The fruit trays included, mango pieces, rock melon, strawberries, blueberries, grapes cut into little bunches...and for the last course, trays of fruit cake were brought around.

It was a yummy lunch.

Love Nanxxx

NO DOGS ALLOWED!

Hello my lovelies!

Papa and I had a bit of a run-in with the Ranger at the Ravensbourne National Park the other day.

"Let's take a picnic up to the lookout at Ravensbourne!" I suggested.  So, Papa put together a lovely picnic as the dogs jumped around all excited at the prospect of an outing.  Esky with picnic, flask, cups and dogs were bundled into the car and off we went.

It was a beautiful day, just perfect for sitting beside the lookout and enjoying the lovely spring air.  When we arrived we realized that NO DOGS were allowed, but as we are very good dog owners and there was no-one about but a lone bikie having his lunch at a nearby table, we tied the dogs to the table leg where we were sitting and set ourselves up for our lovely relaxing picnic.

My 'relaxation' was a bit disturbed when vehicles drove up the track to look at the view.  "Oh! No!" I'd say as each vehicle made its way up to near where we were sitting.  All the vehicles that passed as we were having lunch, stopped for a minute, looked at the view and drove off again.  HOWEVER, the last vehicle to come into view had RANGER emblazoned across its door.  You can imagine my reaction.  Papa just said "It'll be fine!", but I wasn't so sure.  So I leapt off my seat, grabbed the shirt off Papa's back - it was one of those checked ones he wears over his polo top, I unhooked the noisy dog who I knew would start barking, covered her with Papa's shirt, picked up the esky to try and hide her, walked over to the car, struggled to get the boot open with Molly struggling to breath inside the shirt, threw her and the esky in without even releasing her from the shirt, banged down the door and as the Ranger slowly climbed out of his utility, I said, in quite a high-pitched voice,"Morning!  Lovely day!"  He slowly walked over to me and said with a very authoritive voice, "Have you read this sign?"  The sign he pointed to was the picture of a dog with a line through it so I couldn't use the excuse that I couldn't read.   "We didn't realize there were no dogs allowed until we got here, so we just thought we would quickly eat our sandwiches and go."  He was having none of it and went into a long spiel about no dogs being allowed in National Parks, and the fine of $100.00 that was attached to members of the public who broke the rule.  

I felt so silly thinking he must have been watching the whole palava of me with Molly inside the shirt, staggering around with her under one arm and the esky in the other.  And...still ANOTHER dog tied up to the bench.

The good news is that he didn't fine us but we HAVE BEEN WARNED!  It's such a shame as the dogs are so good and, as you know we keep them tied up beside us when we go anywhere.

It was still a nice outing, and on our way home, we popped in to see if Don and Jenny's house was finished.  It was.  They had only moved in a few days before, so we didn't stay but we did have a quick run through their beautiful new home.

Here's a picture of me heading towards the lookout to enjoy the view.

Love Nanxxx