Friday, June 29, 2012

Stunning .....

Here is a stunning picture by Victorian photographer Lincoln Harrison. 
Click here for the story and here for more pictures.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

New internet game

.... here ... but  now I have to remember which blogs still use the captcha so I can play ...

Monday, June 25, 2012

Lamingtons - Take 1

Pro-Tip:  When I put "Take #" in the title you know it's probably not good news!

Miss 10 has a class party tomorrow, which we found out about on Friday, and she wanted to make and take in Lamingtons.

So on Saturday we made a lamington sponge recipe (from the Country Women's Association cookbook) to leave for a couple of days and today we were going to ice it.

I had put it in what I thought was an airtight container.  Unfortunately, we have some clever ants in this part of the world and they had found their way inside the container :(

Major disappointment when I had to throw all of the cake out :( ...

Hubby was despatched to locate a sponge cake down at the local shops which could be used instead - however, the best he could do was a jam roll.

So we iced that - after a minor disaster with the icing (we had followed a recipe for that but the quantities were way off) :( ... The second batch of icing was better ... so hopefully tomorrow we'll be able to slice the jam roll and she can take that in instead.

I don't often makes cakes or similar ... and I'm thinking we need more practice!

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Bleg ... E-Reader Opinions

Looking to get an E-Reader.  I've heard of Kindles and I was reading about the Kindle Touch - seems that there are two versions available, Kindle Touch for $185 and Kindle Touch 3G for $249.

I'm guessing the 3G has wireless Internet built it? .... Is that a reason to buy it (we have wireless in the house)? ...

Are there other brands / models that are better?

Looking for advice and opinions. 

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Odd

I made some vegetable soup yesterday and as hubby was blending it I put some sliced jalapenos in.  Maybe a few too many ...

Hubby, Miss 10 and I added in a couple of spoonfuls of coconut cream into our bowls to make it not quite so hot - Miss 8, on the other hand, put a couple of pinches of salt in and then ate it all up!

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

One down ... three, no five to go ....

Remember the other day when I posted that I had four camps between now and mid-August?  (Here, for those that don't).

Well, I went on the first of them this last weekend.  The location was at Vasse - just south of Busselton - about 240kms from my place.


As the girls had basketball training on the Friday afternoon we didn't get away until around 6.30pm.  We also had the Scout Group Leader from our troop and another kid to take down too.  The drive wasn't too bad - there was a lot of traffic because it was the start of a long weekend, but it was flowing generally smoothly.

We arrived at camp shortly after the others,who had travelled down in convoy, and got to putting up the tents etc.  Didn't really get a good look at the place until the next morning as you can't see much by torchlight.

We had a group of 7 scouts and 4 leaders (a fifth one was there for part of the camp).  And we were camping with another troop of 12 scouts (two of which were from yet another troop) and they had come down with a number of families - so there were parents and siblings too.

Saturday was a 'relax' day - so the kids mainly spent their time on the beach ...
This was the beach before the kids got there - when they were still all asleep :)

On the Saturday night, the "Adults" patrol were responsible for cooking - we did three roasts, lamb, chicken & roo and lots and lots of roast vegetables.  It was a stunning meal (if I do say so myself).  Left over veggies got turned into soup which was totally delicious.

On Sunday we went to Ellenbrook Homestead - which was about 50kms from the campsite - with the idea of doing a short hike from there to a waterfall.  However, unfortunately the path was closed due to reconstruction. 


The kids (and kid-like adults) had fun playing on the grass and climbing trees - yes there are scouts and leaders in the tree below!  (No neither Miss 10 nor I climbed it).



On Sunday night we had a campfire led by the Venturer who had come along with the other troop.  It was probably the best campfire that I have ever been to - so that was really enjoyable.

Monday saw us packing up and heading home (via Summos ice creamery) in Dunsborough.

It was a good weekend and I managed to get a number of things 'signed off' in my leader's training manual - so I'm closer to being a real leader now!

HOWEVER, I did discover that we have at least two more camps in the 'near' future.  One, probably on the first weekend in August, to give our scout troop additional skills and also there is a pre-Jamboree camp at sometime!

I'm going to be sick of camping by the end of Jamboree ...