Feijoa heaven......

My knowledge of fruit has been broadened since living here in the southern hemisphere....

First it was cherry plums - never heard of them before, even though they are not unique to the southern hemisphere. Now I have a tree full of them right at the end of the garden (well, it's not full of them now..... but it was!)

Next came pluots, again, another new fruit to me - really enjoyed them when they were in season.. yum!

Then last week I found a green fruit, similar in size and shape to a lime but very fragrant to the nose, just lying on the ground by the back deck.

I remembered that the owner of this house had said they were edible so I took it indoors, cut it in half, had a good look and a sniff and then tucked in.

INTERESTING - I thought.......

Well, for the past week Evie has been coming indoors each day with at least one ice cream tub full of them and so I thought it about time to find out what they are..... (they are taking over the kitchen worktop!)

Here is a piccy.....


Of course, they are feijoa's....

What?

Yup, another fruit I have never heard of!! (though again, they are not unique to the southern hemisphere).

They are quite yummy, very fragrant and I have about 10kgs of them!

Anyone got any good recipes?.........

More days out.....

Went to Sovereign Hill on another day out and Evie and Nigel were determined to find their fortunes by panning for gold down at the river.....


They panned and paddled and eventually the cry went up

"I've found gold"!!

Yippee, I thought, that's a first!

And here it is.....


Can you see it? Right there..... glinting in the sunlight (!!)

Let's just say they'll have to work a bit harder to reach the fortune they were hoping for!!

The Wildlife Park.....

As I mentioned in the last post, we have friends staying with us at the moment from the UK and so we thought we would show them a good time here in Ballarat.

Evie was desperate to take them to the wildlife park and introduce them to some of her 'friends'!!

Here Nigel and Lorna are finding out just how much slobber a kangaroo can leave on your hand when you feed it......


And here is Evie with her newest, and I have to say cutest, friend!


The koalas were as inanimate as ever, though one of them did actually move, climbing down from his perch and then deciding to get back up on a perch and sleep off his recent exertion. I reckon he just wanted to prove that he wasn't stuffed!

The Tasmanian devils were very noisy and put on a good show for the visitors!

Nothing like a little bit of local wildlife I say........

Gifts from afar......

We have friends from the UK visiting us at the moment and we have been having a fabby time.

And look what they brought for us


now that's what I call a jar of Marmite!! Half a kilo of the stuff......

YUM!

Comfort food......

Had to be done....


Scrummy carrot cake because you can't have coffee without something sweet to tempt your tastebuds.

And this was Evie after she had been telling stories whilst snuggled underneath the duvet.....


I don't think we will ever get those knots out!!

Easter Day........

Easter Sunday..... a day to celebrate resurrection life and......

have an Easter egg hunt!

Without Uncy Neil to do the honours, it's a job that falls to Brian and I have to say he is pretty good at making up some great rhyming clues!

So here he is giving the children their first clue.....


and off they go..... to the veggie plot.....


next they have 'under the trampoline scrambling' fun.... and 'sandpit' eggs..... hmmmm!


OK, three eggs down, how many more to go?....:::


a rummage in the fireplace.....


then to the magnolia tree out front......


Evie felt the need to climb right on in there!!!


I didn't get a picture of the next egg bounty find..... they were just too quick for me but you can be pretty sure that their Easter buckets were pretty loaded up by now.....

At the end of the hunt, when all clues had been worked out and all eggs had been gathered they received a chocolate heart because I reckon this is the perfect day to celebrate love!



Hope your Easter weekend was filled with celebration and love......

'ello, 'ello, 'ello.......

I've been away for AGES I know!!

Actually, for one week we really were away, WITHOUT the laptop...... never take the laptop on holiday, that's my motto::

We went on a fabby little holiday to Adelaide which is about 630kms west (and a little bit north) from where we live - about an 8 hour drive for us, taking it at a leisurely pace and stopping every now and then for a bite to eat and to find the nearest public convenience!

Our kids are the most phenomenal travellers and are quite happy to sit with a good book or listen to an audio book for quite a L-O-N-G time (I mean a few hours at a time), even then all it takes is for me to pull out something to munch on or drink and we are happy for another stretch - this makes for fairly easily journeys which, I have to say, is SUCH a bonus.

This time we also had the soundtrack for Mamma Mia in the car which meant that we all sang along very loudly as we drove - which is probably why we didn't encounter any wildlife on the highway - they could hear us coming!

We had a few things planned for the days we were there but seriously, as with many holidays, there is so much more you could do but you have to get that balance between what the kids would like to do (play on the beach and in the ocean) with what the grown ups would like to do (visit all the interesting little towns and galleries, sip morning coffee and have lots of cheese tasting experiences thrown in for good measure - having said that the children will quite happily join in the cheese tasting experiences!)

We opted for a bit of being 'out and about' in the mornings and then spent the latter half of the afternoon/early evening on the beautiful (and deserted!), white-powdery-sand beach....... and in the water - well the children and Brian got in the water.....




this is as far as I ventured!


I'm not a sea lover...... but I REALLY enjoy building sandcastles and taking walks to find THE BEST shells on the beach (or other random bits of sea treasure!!)

So apart from being in the ocean, here is a little picture story of what we did......

enjoyed the early morning.......


mid afternoon..........


and evening views from our back porch........


Visited a really eccentric old boy with one of the largest private collections of LEGO in Australia.......


Isaac was like a kid in a candy shop........


I did tell him that if he built all his LEGO sets and displayed them on his shelving unit in his bedroom he could charge an entry fee........ just a thought.......


We visited Handorf (the oldest settled German town in Australia) and did a little of the aforementioned cheese tasting (and purchasing!!), then went on to pick strawberries at the Beerenberg Strawberry Farm.....


Had to taste a few just to make sure they were nice and sweet.......


and then brought 1.5kgs home for to have (dipped in chocolate) for dessert after dinner, then again for breakfast, lunch, tea, breakfast........ oh yes, they were GOOD!


We ventured out one day at sunrise to go dolphin watching. There are only a limited number of places around the world where you can go and swim with wild dolphins and Adelaide is one of them. So Brian, Isaac and Evie donned the wet suits......



and jumped into the ocean behind a 58ft catamaran holding onto mermaid lines and spent time spotting dolphins!


Did I mention that I'm not a sea lover??!!!! I stayed on board the boat and took LOTS of photos......



The dolphins tracked the boat and were super speedy..... but oh, so beautiful to watch......


After three swims, Isaac decided to shed the wetsuit and become an official 'spotter'.......


By the end of the cruise we were all just enjoying the beautiful sunshine and being out on the water (not in it!!)


We did spend a day in the city of Adelaide itself visiting the South Austrlia Museum, the Art Gallery and the State Library - but I guess our fondest memories will be those of sandy shoes.............and feet, and hair, and swimsuits, and shorts.......


and, of course, building sandcastles......