Good bye Fatman

There are days that start out pretty good. You've had a reasonable nights sleep, you have your day planned and all is good with the world. It only takes one phone call to put everything off track again.

Regular visitors will know Atticus, my eldest grandchild.

A gorgeous cuddlebum with more character than most people I know.

And the light of my daughters life.

This morning Atticus was playing with his two tabby friends around the corner and unfortunately ran on to the road at the wrong time. 

This time the driver did the right thing and tried to find the owner of our little man. Neighbours gently wrapped him and called Nicky at work. Nothing makes the loss any easier but once again the kindness of strangers may have just helped just a little bit.

Of course the only thing she could do was bring him home. He is now resting peacefully in my garden , his toy bunny laying by his side.  Munchie is nearby so he won't get too lonely.

Sleep quietly Fatman, we are really going to miss you. xx

Picnic by the lake

Not far from where I live is the Khancoban Dam which is part of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric scheme and it is a very popular boating, fishing, swimming and of course skiing spot in our long hot summers. 

When my sister comes home for any length of time they camp  on her husband's Uncles property right on the edge of the Dam.  There are two ways to get to Uncle Doug's, a dirt track through the bush or by boat from the boat ramp on the other side of the dam. We opted for the evening boat ride when we headed up there for dinner.

It was a beautiful evening and there was lots of catching up and checking out Uncle Doug's massive vegie garden and orchard.  What you see above is just a tiny part of the vegie garden and he has a huge orchard with  many varieties of fruit in it. He is very generous with the crops from his garden and it is nothing unusual to see the back of his Toyota loaded with boxes of fruit and vegies when he comes in on a Saturday morning to do his shopping. Some of his family came and helped him put up new fences recently as a herd of deer has been coming in and destroying everything he plants.

Uncle Doug's house has a beautiful view of the Lake and the mountains in the distance. It is a simple home but suits him beautifully. 

Uncle Doug is in his 80's and lives in this remote little spot alone. He is a stockman and bushman and is renowned all over Australia and overseas for the whips he makes by hand. Until recently he rode a horse all the time but he has promised that he will only ride when there are people around now. Nothing makes him happier than to have some of his nieces or nephews and their families come to visit for a  while.

My sister's dog, Buzz loves camping and last night the campfire was the perfect place to nap., especially since he fell off the side of the boat when we  got to Doug's place. He was not a happy Buzz at all!

It was such a beautiful night and the water was so still. It was a very pleasant boat ride across the lake when we reluctantly decided to go home. 

Success!!

The Pecan Candy cakes just came out of the Turbo cooker so be careful they're still hot!

And the frying pan cooked my mini plum puddings perfectly. Both actually cooked better in their respective
appliances than they do in the oven. I will have to remember that next year. The bonus is the kitchen is still relatively cool, well compared to outside anyway.

Thankful she broke the rule.

When it's heading to 40C outside and you really need to do a little cooking for Christmas, you become very grateful that your mother (Joy) disregards the golden rule of, 'No appliances for presents.' A table in the laundry, the pecan candy cakes in the Turbo cooker and the mini plum puddings in the electric frying pan (both Christmas presents from Joy) and the kitchen stays cool while the baking actually happens.

Nanna nap

After a long night of protecting the property and with the temperature climbing into the high 30's there is only one thing a little girl can do..........

Protecting the property

The other night my dog woke me up at midnight barking madly at something outside. She was quite savage and was running through the house trying to get out. My big brave son got the torch and wandered outside to see what was there but of course found nothing.  2.30 this morning she did it again! I let her out and she ran up and down the fence trying to find a way out into the paddock. I have never heard sound so fierce. I finally got her inside and it took an hour or so to settle her and all of a sudden she started again. I looked out of the window as a large fox ran past the house. She was dead set certain she was going to have that fox but if she had of caught up with it I am sure I wouldn't have a little dog anymore.Usually she is the biggest sook in the world and I'm not sure if it is the terrier in her or a natural instinct when a dog smells a fox that gets her so stirred up. Tonight I will close the curtains so she can't see outside and with any luck I will get a full nights sleep.

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Native visitor.

There is more about Summer that I dislike than I can ever find to like. But, there are some interesting things around that you will only ever see in the summer. I love dragonflies and can watch them for hours, butterflies and the business of the birds will distract me for a while too.  When I begin to think that there is nothing new to see in my garden I suddenly find that there is! In my new garden bed there are lots of blue and various shades of purple flowers and a recent visitor to this bed is a blue banded bee. http://bluebandedbees.com/
I have never seen one in the garden before and after reading about them I think they are a very welcome guest. This is my second sighting and she wasn't very helpful to me when I tried to get a photo, but you get the idea of what she looks like.

Bread fix from the Farmer's Market and other things.

As usual I headed off to the monthly Farmer's Market this morning just to get my bread fix. Not all went to plan. I got my two loaves of bread-Cheese and Olive and Spinach and Cheese. But then there was the plant stall with four new Geraniums for the collection,  the cake stall yielded a fruit loaf and  the Friends of Corryong Library sold me a small jar of Chilli tomato chutney.
It's not all about the stalls though when you head off to the market. Lots of socialising and catching up with people happens too. It's nice.
On the Christmas front-I have spent a day sewing and made a few little bits and pieces to go into parcels, can't show you though as it would spoil the surprise for some who peruse my blog. The few cards I send are gone and a parcel or two managed to get to the Post office this week as well.  All the Christmas decorations are out of the box and scattered around the house. still have to find a couple of quilts I have poked away somewhere.
Unfortunately for me, my procrastinating as far as the baking goes will see me in the kitchen on days of mid to high 30 degree heat. If I'd pulled my finger out in the past fortnight I would have had lovely cool days to get the oven going.  That's what happens I guess and after all it is Summer. I have the pool cleaned up so I can bake and dash out to the pool when I get too hot. I'd rather drip water than sweat onto the kitchen floor.
So things are quietly moving along now and I should be organised by the big day. I usually don't get into the swing of things until after my youngest sons birthday on the 10th which was a very easy one for me this year.  I baked a cake, left it in the fridge and headed out to  dinner and a meeting. Middle son Dave cooked the birthday dinner and did a really good job of it from what I hear.

Moving along....slowly.

Well I'm not sure when Summer is really going to get going properly here. We had a couple of hot and sticky days last week which prompted us to get the pool going and then had to turn heaters back on Thursday and Friday. A five minute drive and we have amazing views of snow covered mountains once again. Crazy!

I am having a slow and not very enthusiastic lead up to Christmas this year. I should have taken advantage of the cold days and got stuck into the baking I need to do and I should be looking through the recipes my gorgeous daughter sent me trying to work out Christmas lunch. Instead I have been doing lots around the house, studying and still more gardening. Not sure if it is procrastination or just total avoidance at this stage. I have managed to get the Christmas trees up and have pretty much bought all the presents I need to buy though. Just easing my way into it I guess.

Those lovely little creatures above are the discarded skins of the Cicadas which are all over and under the plane tree in the middle of the side lawn. My son pointed out a couple of not so successful Cicadas, stuck in their old skin forever, having failed to break free. As usual nature does not run to plan for some.

Flying over glaciers.

Nicky read my post yesterday and these arrived this morning. I figure that my life is pretty mundane at the moment so I may as well show you her fun and interesting life instead. (Although she is now back in the real world and there are just brief flashes of fun and interesting now.) 

So here is the helicopter ride over the glacier. She loved it so much there was mention of getting lessons but if she drives a helicopter the same way she drives a car then I'm a little worried. 

You would never get these views from anything but a helicopter ( or jumping out of a plane!!)

So the explorer has conquered yet another mountain. Clever girl.

Nicky and her partners in death defying acts.

She'll jump off anything!!

My eldest child and only daughter has the travel bug. She has done a couple of months in Malaysia and Cambodia and recently had her second trip to New Zealand.  Today Jody posted a photo of her gorgeous girls 13th birthday and I was remembering my daughter and how relatively easy she was as a teenager.

There is something about New Zealand that brings out the dare devil in my girl. Last time she bungee jumped.

This time she found a couple of new things to give her mother nightmares for years to come.

 That's her and Megan hanging in the air from the platform at the front!!  That platform at the back is where she bungee jumped from last time.

Not content to fall backwards ( and then go back again to fall front first!!) she decided that jumping out of a plane at 15,000 feet might be fun. 

I'm sure the view was amazing

from up there.

and she did seem to be enjoying it.

But I must say this is my favourite photo.

If I had photos of the helicopter ride over the glacier I would put that in too.

So now that smugness I used to have over a relatively pain free time living with a teenage girl has gone cause it seems she is making up for the lack of stress back then by tripling it now she is in her 20's.

(So far the three boys have kept their feet on the ground.)