Banksia Serrata

Old Man Banksia.

The Best Cheesecake In The World.

And makes a great birthday cake!
Here's the recipe:
No-bake Cheesecake
Makes 8 Servings or 6 individual servings.

Base: 

1 1/2 cups sweet biscuit crumbs (I use gluten free rice cookies).

1/3 cup butter melted.

Filling:

500g Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese, softened at room temperature.

1 x 400g can condensed milk. 

1/3 cup lemon juice (don't use green lemons because it won't set).

1 teaspoon vanilla essence.

Combine biscuit crumbs and butter.  Press into the base of a 23cm pie plate or into 6 individual aluminium foil pie dishes; chill.

Beat cream cheese until smooth, and blend in condensed milk, lemon juice and vanilla essence; pour into crumb base.

Chill for 2-3 hours before serving.

Top with selection of fruits as desired.  (I use a layer of whipped cream on the filling before topping with fruit).

This cheese cake is so much more delicious if made at least 24 hours ahead.

In the past I have  frozen this cheesecake (before decorating or adding topping).  It keeps well.  That was in the days when we had a Meyer Lemon tree in our garden and it would crop heavily once a year.  To use up the lemons six cheesecakes would be prepared and then frozen.  Another favourite way of using up lemons was to make a still lemonade.

We have moved on from that house, which was on the Cumberland Plains of the Sydney Basin, and my family and I are now living in the Blue Mountains on the Great Dividing Range, about an hour's drive from Sydney.

Having a citrus tree in our present home is almost impossible...the possums just love the leaves and blossoms and unless the tree is fenced to keep the critters out there's not much chance of harvesting anything!

Wild Ginger

I have some wild ginger growing in my garden.  It grows there because the spikes of flowers enthrall me as does the delicious fragrance that emanates from them.

Wild ginger has a tendency to become a weed, overtaking the garden, so I have it growing in a pot.
It's not long off flowering now and I can't wait to see the two heads open up over the coming weeks.
In the meantime, the multicoloured whirly-gig placed into the same pot has to suffice. 

Worm Farming.

Today, I harvested some worm castings from my worm farm.  The castings were used to feed the potted herbs and a few vegetables.  I also  collected some of the worm tea and diluted it to make a liquid fertilizer to water all the plants.
While I was at it, I decided to revitalize the farm.

The worms are always feed at one end of the box so it was easy to harvest the worm cast from the other end.  Once all the cast had been removed I made up a new 'bed' for the worms.

The way I like to explain how to prepare a worm farm to my Grand Daughter is that it's a bit like making them a bed.
First add something nice and soft for them to sleep in (moistened shredded newspaper, leaves or sugarcane mulch).
Next is the food, and last of all, a blanket to keep them warm.  The blanket could be an old hessian bag, sheets of newspaper or some old cotton fabric, which should be made nice and damp.
I will now stop feeding the worms from the usual end of the box and start feed from the newly laid out 'bed'.
Of course if you're starting a new bed arrange all of the above over the entire bottom of the box which has had holes punched into the bottom.  Of course you will need to add your worms too but as my farm already has worms I have skipped this step.

Here is the bottom box into which the worm tea is collected.  A brick is placed into the base to prevent any worms that may fall through from drowning.

Don't forget to place a tight fitting lid onto the top box, keep in a cool area out of direct sun.
During the summer months the worms need to be fed (place food under the blanket) almost daily but experience has taught me that during winter once a week may be sufficient.

aNoThEr BiRtHdAy AnOtHeR yEaR OlDeR!

Child's Play.

My Grand Daughter loves playing with sea shells, pebbles and bits of coral.

She has arranged her collection around a recently potted aloe vera pup that I am growing for my son.

Hexagons

I'm working on a scrappy quilt at the moment, made from small rectangles of fabrics left over from previous projects.
On the right you can see the completed animal quilt waiting for a label.

I love playing with colour when making a quilt.

Addiction or is it compulsion to group my pieces as completed is difficult to resist.

Colour

A small pile of remnants, waiting for me to cut up and stitch.  I'm avoiding using a fabric more than once, just to see how high I can get the count before I have to start thinking of another option to prevent duplication.