Autumn Already

Summer is almost over, here in the southern hemisphere, and I'm beginning to already feel autumn in the air.

My favourite season is most definitely autumn.  This February has indeed been the season of mists because of the many days of rain so far.

None the less, we've had the odd sun shower and much humidity and the gardens are seeming to thrive on this unlikely mixture of weather.

Yesterday afternoon, Little Miss Seven danced in an afternoon rain shower while visiting her uncle at his new house and picked an exotic assortment of flowers. 

She left them at our house last night and this morning I couldn't bear to throw them out so arranged an outdoor bowl of flowers. 

 

But now I'm facing a dilemma; I love to have decorative bowls around the garden, filled with water.

This one catches drips from the garden tap on our front verandah. I know water attracts snakes to the garden but I haven't worried too much about this as in our fifteen years living here we have seen maybe one or two. I've figured that the benefits of having water for other wildlife outweigh the risks.  That is, until today...when I spotted the largest, sleekest, blackest, red belly black snake in my entire life(and believe me, I've seen a few) in my front garden. Now I have to rethink this practise - at least until the weather cools. 

Let It Go...

I have to let go of the guilt, the guilt of living in a full figure, the guilt of having a sweet tooth!
I love sweet, I hate bitter. Everyday is a struggle to not eat sweet.
It comes to a point, after days and days of not eating sweet I splurge on sweet.
So, quite by accident I found an impressive blog called frugalfeeding.  I was searching for a meal makeover using leftover veal and found this and it lead me to this.  I figured I don't need to feel too guilty about eating sweet when there's like a total of 50g of added sugar in the whole recipe. (I skipped the sugar-sprinkle-while-warm).  The currants add their own level of sweetness.  
I turned these into a gluten free treat by substituting the plain flour with gluten free flour (Orgran Brand) with no problems at all.  They were sooo easy to make. 

I'm enjoying these right now with a cup of Earl Grey tea.

Let It Go

De-cluttering is proceeding slowly but regularly in our house.  Yesterday, in typical east coast high humidity weather, I took refuge in the cooler underfloor regions of our house and cleared a few spots in Mr HP's Man Cave.  Wow - what a jungle of electrical cords, power tools, nails, screws, nuts, bolts and so-much-more exists beneath our floor boards!  

I found this interesting little gadget: 

As you can see from the docket (which was safely stored inside the storage box), 

we purchased this item on 09-09-90 for $50.50 from our local mower store (still running strong I might add).

It connects to a 12V car battery (usually the one in your car) and sharpens the blades of your chain saw.

Mr HP couldn't remember the last time he used it so it was added to our 'to-sell' pile.

Our local on-line "Garage Sale" page showed a lot of interest and it was sold last night to one of my very regular buyers who is now also a friend.

 We will receive a grand sum of $5.50 for it.

Charging The Batteries

Mr HP, our Daughter and Grand Daughter and myself managed to get away for a few days to refresh our batteries before the school year is in full swing again.

It's been a tough start to 2015 and I've been feeling very tired.  It was a great few days of relaxing, walking, eating, and simply having fun. 

It's so hard to believe that our Grand Daughter is now in her third year in school.

Her favourite pastime is reading...a girl after my own heart!  We travelled everywhere with a small library of books!

Her preferred book at the moment is The Big, Big, Big Book of Tashi and it creates quite an impression tucked under the arm of a seven year old, let me tell you. Since it's a collection of Tashi's tales, Little Miss Seven allows herself little breaks between stories to read other books.  As you do.