Chocolate Cake

During the school holidays a friend came to stay with her son, bringing a boiled chocolate cake, a really yummy moist cake which is very easy. I made one on Saturday to take to Melbourne to Son No3 and his wife......

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

4 oz butter

2 1/2 tbsp cocoa

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups SR flour

1/2 bi-carb soda

vanilla

Place sugar, water, butter,cocoa and soda into saucepan and stir over low heat until butter is melted. Bring to boil and simmer for 5 minutes.

When cool mix in beaten eggs and SR flour. Turn into greased and floured cake tin, mine was 19 cm, 5cm deep. Bake in moderate oven for 25 minutes although mine took a little longer so worht checking!

Sally cooked hers in a ring tin so you could do this if you would like to.

 I have another boiled chocolate cake recipe, it is a bigger cake and it too is very moist so will post this another day.

Winter into Spring and chocolate ramblings!

In the midst of winter, we have the beginnings of Spring. I love the changes we have in our seasons although I'm not too keen on the summer heat.

I love the bulbs popping up, the yellows we have in Spring,

the pinks....here our flowering Apricot, always the first with blossom here. I am wondering whether the blackbird will come back to his nest in the tree. If so he will have the most deliciously scented bower for his bed!

The creamy whites are everywhere in the garden, some from the old garden we had herre from long ago, others come from my dear sister-in-law in Melbourne who has a garden with absolute treasures in it, rare and fascinating things which her husband propagates...in other words, he is what I think of as a real gardener!

The blues...Julia Crossland on her blog has some lovely photos of her garden with borage flowers, it is a 'world family'feeling when I see we have the same flowers blooming on both sides of the world, even if ours are really too early and rather sparse on the plant.

The purples, my gorgeous and tough perrenial wallflower, grows so easily from cuttings.

The very last of my roses, one even has some buds but I don't think they will come to anything. I won't prune my roses until nearly the end of August as the frosts tend to kill off all those lovely new tawny shoots so I need to be patient.

Lastly.....does any-one else find that chocolate assists them when faced with  chores!!! I find that New Zealand's Whittakers chocolate helps me through all sorts of things from cleaning bathrooms, deciding what to have for dinner, washing up, putting things away, ironing, putting things away, any upsets, irritations,anxieties, annoyances and even

CELEBRATIONS!!

Our local Safeway has had it for a couple of years and I'm always worried that they might decide not to import it. They also have the NZ Anatoth range of jams, so like home-made , they are amazing. The raspberry is so delicious, I love it. I used to bring home the chocolate from  NZ but chocolate does weigh quite a lot, especially when you bring 2-3 kg home!!

A tale of some tails

I am enjoying making these little flower/circles/motifs to place on my cusion cover which was meant to be my vest, the first thing I had knitted for myself for so long and it was AWFUL on me! However the cushion I will really enjoy!!

However, there are to be heaps of these little poppets and they all have many tails which ALL need to be dealt with. So they become quite tiresome poppets! I do have my jar beside me as I work and all the tails go into there. It is quite satisfying to see the jar nearly full but I know it can be squashed down to make some room. I always think 'maybe I can do something', perhaps be incorporated into a collage, but then perhaps not!

I went outside onto the verandah to take the photos as there was more light and decided not to sit on this chair...we have had some lovely rain, at last have water running off into the dams and even could perhapsget bogged in some of the paddocks here on the farm. What a wonderful thought as there has been no possibility of getting bogged for the last ten or so years!

I love these succulents on our outside table, they weren't looking very happy for ages but strangely enough they still need a little bit of water occaisonally and now are much happier. The jugs are so pretty but sadly have some chips but the succulents don't mind even a little bit and we can still see the jugs...they have a purpose in life, just as we do!

Bastille Day

I know there are many through the world who celebrate Bastille Day but our celebration today is for my Daughter No 1. I can't believe how the years have flown since she just arrived on Bastille Day with twenty minutes to spare! In other words, at twenty minutes to midnight. I can't say she has had a mad passion for all things French as a result of this, she studied German at school so she's not  even a speaker of the French language.

Life has tossed her some very curly twisty turns and I am so very proud of the woman she has become. She has created a wonderfully warm and welcoming home for her family, always ready to help someone else in their times of difficulty and a wonderful sister, friend and daughter.

I went to Melbourne yesterday and there was an early birthday dinner which her cousin brought us, along with her 3 children 4 1/2, nearly 3 and one!! How could she do it, getting them all into the car, all the dinner, etc, etc. And still be smiling!

 The birthday morning began in the traditional way, presents and cups of tea in bed, then a hectic morning as the mobile, the land-line and the doorbell ringing all at the same time!

And now I am home, she is at work where she is working for her cousin.....

Whoever would have thought it he would be her boss!

                                                                                                           

Time wasters?

 

It is a really beautiful day here and I have been 'fiddling' inside, on the computer and generally wasting the beautiful sunshine. And I have this great new book waiting for me as well....as well as the house, crochet, knitting and the GARDEN! I do love reading Barbara Erskine and this is a new one, published this year. I am always fascinated with stories that combine past times with present, past lives and the ability to 'see' the past. The book will have to wait, maybe after lunch I will have an excuse to sit for a while, book in hand and of course a cup of tea.

This is waiting for me too. It looks good too, Elizabeth Berg is another author I like, I think Kate put me on to her.

Well, now enough time talking... I am going outside!

A dear friend

Sometime ago a dear friend said she had leant her wheatsack to someone who had never returned it. As you know we have had some severe frosts so I thought she needed another one. So a trip to the op shop yielded a woollen straight skirt for the sack and bingo! A new wheatsack for her!

I made a calico sack for the first layer and then the wool skirt sack, a lovely soft wool. Some crochet flowers, thanks to Lucy at Attic24, some wheat from the new local shop, Fare Enough in our local town, some rose essential oil...no lavender... and the sack is going off to it's new owner after lunch.

It is such a thrill to have Fare Enough so close. It is run by a local lady who has an absolute cornucopia of organic 'stuff'[ according to my grandson who is helping me write this blog!] The smells are divine, my husband loves the dates from California. They even have some lovely handmade wool, gorgeous colours and the lady makes fresh sushi every morning. Kate will love all the gluten free products she has so it will make our lives much easier. We came home with popcorn, the dates, wheat, some bulls-eyes...the boiled sweets, not the real thing....some beautiful sour dough bread , oh and a CD from the op shop as the two boys convinced me they needed it and for fifty cents so what else could I do!

By the way, the bread was delicious this morning toasted with the marmalade I made a few days ago.

We have a special place here which a treasured member of our family called

 THE RIM OF HEAVEN.

Here we can see 'all over the country-side' and the evening light makes it all the more beautiful.

We visited there on Monday nightwith family and friends and watched the sun go down, all rugged up as it was very cold, heading for a big frost that night. I love to see the shifting light and the glow that colours our world.

There is a large log E dragged up there with the tractor, levelling off the top so that we could use it for a table or to sit on......

The sun goes down ......

Time for a last look

 and home we go.

We have had Number three and Number four grandsons stay on for a few days after daughter Number one went home to Melbourne. It is a different house with the children staying, clothes dotted around, and 'please, please, please can we get up at 4.30 am to watch the Germany-Spain soccer match' and not liking the reply,'  we think we had better ask your Mum!' and 'Oh Mum you are mean!' whn the reply was a very definite 'NO!'

One goes home today and the other tomorrow and I KNOW we will miss them when the house is quiet, no soccer or other TV on??!!