Hotch potch...

...of what's been happening in my corner of the world... (28/10/2016 onwards)

We've been having some pretty skies, not that I've been able to capture many...
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Our spring has been so long in coming, my roses are slow to bloom...
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This is a beautiful rose but I cannot remember the name of it...

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I attempted peanut choc chip cookies but I had an absolute disaster.   Long story short, I heated my oven up while I was preparing the cookies.  I turned around to see sparks and smoke inside my oven!!!  OMG!  I quickly turned it off and let the smoke dissipate.  The sparks were coming from the element in the fan part of the oven.  I set the oven going again, thinking I could still bake the cookies using just the oven elements and not the fan...

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I used the pizza bake setting (top and bottom elements) but obviously I had the cookies too low in the oven and this was the result!  I tossed them out in disgust and I froze the remaining dough to use another day... Grrrr!

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I didn't let the oven beat me - I mixed up a date, apricot and prune loaf and baked that in the middle of the oven and it turned out perfectly!
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Now I must say, sometimes we are disadvantaged living in a small country town but we do get quite good service from our tradies.  I rang our electrician on Monday about coming out to see what was needed to fix my oven.  They came at 1pm and diagnosed the blown element.  He said if the part arrived, he might be able to fit it on Friday.  On Wedesday, they rang to say the part had arrived and could fit it at 3.30pm.  He arrived on time and 15 minutes later, my oven was working again.  Yay!
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Four years ago, I took a pic of this lovely pink rose in my garden and four years later...

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...it is still going and producing beautiful blooms...
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We had this simple pasta dish one night.  First, I oven roasted a punnet of cherry tomatoes, halved.  I  browned about 250gms mince in the pan with half an onion.  When the tomatoes were soft and well roasted, I tossed the mince, tomatoes and a handful of basil leaves through some egg noodles, gave it a slosh of olive oil and balsamic vinegar and topped with parmesan...

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My sister was having visitors and asked me to make her some scones.  Lucky my oven was working again!

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I picked all the buds on this rose bush, they are the most stunning shades of pink through to purple...
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I'll leave you here, to continue on with Hotch Potch 2... (I find if I load too many pictures, Blogger has a spak attack and won't post them at all~!)...

Cheers - Joolz xx