When September Comes

September, for our family, is full of birthdays. And then there's father's day too, which, in Australia, is celebrated on the first Saturday of September.

It's been a difficult month for us this year, as the fathers we are missing grew again with the passing of my brother in May, and our nine year old niece spent her first birthday without her Dad. It is also very hard for Mum who has lost both of her sons and for her to know that two of her Grandchildren will never see their Dads again.  But spending as many days as possible with family celebrating birthdays helps to make remembering the birthdays of those that are absent, much easier to bear.

We've therefore had a number of celebrations since the beginning of September and they culminated with a picnic birthday celebration last Sunday at Watson's Bay.  

The weather came to the party too and we languished gracefully under a monstrous fig tree and indulged in take away fish and chips from Doyle's at lunch time. The queues for take away were soooo long!

The day ended in a beautiful show for which I am grateful.

Yesterday was our Mum's birthday so my sister and I took her out to lunch at Mother Earth Nursery Cafe at Kenthurst where we languished some more and indulged in a little bit more than fish and chips...

Affogato...looks too good to eat!

We ordered a 'little' cake for Mum's birthday...and shared it three ways.

Breakfast

I'm trying to be good and have something each morning resembling a meal for breakfast.

Because of his line of work, Mr HP is home for breakfast quite often and when he is breakfast is oat porridge loaded with lots of extras like homemade apple sauce, cinnamon, chia seeds, and homemade yoghurt.

On the days that I have my Grand Daughter for breakfast I make porridge too but I refuse to make porridge any other time.

The reason is simple-I hate porridge.

I eat it because I know it's good for me!

So on the other days I get a bit lazy and mostly have coffee which carries me through to lunch.

But I've decided that I need to do more so this is this morning's breakfast.

One poached egg on a rice cake, a persimmon and an affogato coffee.

If there is a fruit I love, it has to be the persimmon - the old style - which you have to eat when absolutely soft and gooey. 

What's your favourite easy breakfast?

Hot + Cold

I missed yesterday's photo a day challenge; 'for me', because, to tell you the truth, yesterday turned out to be a very stressful day and in the end all I wanted to do was fall into bed.

The temperature quickly rose as the day progressed until it reached 39 'C in the shade.

Then, around 2.00 p.m. just a short distance down the road from us, a bush fire broke out. 

I though I had conditioned myself to 'be prepared' for my next bush fire encounter but to tell you the truth, I'm beginning to feel as if I spend six months of the year on high alert.  And it's really getting to me. Being prepared means having a bag packed, and knowing, at all times, where our family photos, medications, important papers and other valuables are. I know this might sound like a simple task to achieve but in reality, I'm finding it's not.  And I don't know how many more times I can go through the drill.  At 9.30 p.m. our little village received an emergency warning and was on high alert as the wind direction changed, meaning the fire was heading straight for us. Thankfully, the temperatures eased and eventually, Mr H.P. and I fell into bed just after midnight, exhausted, and smelling smokey.  We both had an uneasy sleep but were happy to wake to a much cooler day, even though the fire is still active.

If you're interested to see more on the fires you can go to these links...(In reality I didn't have time to take photographs.)

Warrimoo Fires on Facebook

Warrimoo Fires on ABC News

Warrimoo Fires at Rural Fire Services NSW

This morning, I woke up and had myself an affogato, which fulfills today's photo a day challenge of 'hot + cold'.  Coming to think of it, it also fulfills yesterday's photo a day challenge of 'for me'...so here it is...

Affogato: ice cream drowned in espresso coffee! (Or, the only way I drink coffee!)

Everywhere A Sign #1

On our recent road trip Mr HP and I came across a few engaging signs which I enjoyed photographing.  

I'm going to share a few of them on my blog. Most of the signs have their own unique story behind them while I found others self explanatory but a little bizarre (in my humble opinion).

There's a place in Australia (well, one could hardly call it a town, or even a village... perhaps a settlement) called Innamincka. It's up the Strzelecki Track (yes, here in the desert the roads are called tracks)from Lyndhurst.  Mr HP and I visited Lyndhurst in 2010. That was an experience in itself. In the outback, communities are ruled by the elements and 2010 had experienced a late wet season. In the northern part of Australia it said that there are only two seasons in a year: the wet season, and the dry season.

The wet season occurs in the spring/summer months, and the dry season in autumn/winter.

 Because of the late wet, many of the roads were closed in the winter of 2010 and this  limited the places we could visit.  For us, in 2010, Lyndhurst was the end of the road (although I walked along it for about a hundred metres...I wasn't coming all that way to say I hadn't been along the Strzelecki Track!)

So four years later, we arrive in Innamincka along with what must be scores, if not hundreds of other tourists.  Here we find a Trading Post, and a hotel. There are coin operated showers and a toilet block in the car park.

 On the outskirts of the 'town' there is an 'airport' as well as a town common which is a free camper's haven alongside the Cooper's Creek.  It's a fisherman's dream to fish along the river's bank and entire families make this a destination.

At Innamincka, the hotel, not surprisingly, is called Innamincka Hotel.

The Innamincka Hotel has a beer garden which is called....outamincka bar & beer garden.

At Innamincka, there's a bar called Outamincka...

The play on words took a while to click but when it did, well, I thought it was cute!

Unfortunately, being not yet lunch time, the bar was closed so we partook of morning tea in the hotel, where everything comes with a sprinkling of dust...and an enormous amount of generosity as you can see from the size of the serve of ice-cream I received with my affogato...

I asked for an affogato....

...but then, the size of my serve of ice-cream may have something to do with the temperatures out here...in the desert...

You can see the shower block, on the right behind the screen.  A number of concrete water tanks have been transformed into 'buildings' to house the toilets and showers.

because it looks like the roads aren't only closed because of the wet,

 but also during the summer because of temperature extremes(40-50'C)!

And oh!...we have a saying here in Australia...avagoodweekend and don't forget the Aerogard.. the flies are so bad out here they would carry you away if you let them!

This Lent Thing.

It's been almost three weeks since my Ash Wednesday post.
Without much fanfare, I decided back then, that I would give up chocolate for Lent.  I am very pleased to report that I have not had a scrap of that delicious food since.  Except before last Sunday, when we celebrated two birthdays at my sister's house. (Chocolate Birthday Cake.)
Also, I have given up sweets, deserts, snacks, coffee, ice cream...you get the (sugar/caffeine) idea.
My usual practice now is to have breakfast, usually a bowl of porridge, or toast with a cup of miso, nothing until lunch, when I have either a sandwich with a cup of tea, or miso and toast, plus a piece of fruit.  Then the next meal is dinner where I try to eat my fill, but no desserts or snacks until bed.
The first few days were painful.  I did tend to get hungry.  If I got so hungry that it became unbearable, I'd have five or six almonds or walnut halves.  I drank (and still drink) lots of water and hot herbal tea (more as an aid to help digestion).  I'm very strict with the almonds and walnuts...normally, if I feel peckish, I eat nuts...by the handful!  At night, in front of the TV, I drink tea and eat chocolate most nights.  If there's chocolate cake, I'll have it for morning and afternoon tea.  I'm not a coffee drinker but if I'm feeling a bit fuzzy headed in the morning (which has been almost every day for months now) I have an affogato, (an espresso coffee over two or three scoops of ice cream).
The first few days I felt a little off, and lacked energy. Then I began to notice that each morning I woke earlier than usual, feeling quite perky.
The fuzzy head I'd been suffering from the past few months had disappeared making it easier to concentrate.
And although my scales have nothing to report, I do believe that I'm beginning to loose some weight.  I can tell from how my clothes feel.
I'm amazed at how easy it has been to resist temptation for all the foods I've given up.
Occasionally though, I must confess, I do spend time daydreaming about what I'll be able to eat come Easter Sunday.  The thought is; will I want to?  We'll see.