Lazy and slow...

I had a lovely slow weekend just gone. I spent the end of the week home alone as Gus had gone to Sydney on business. I picked him up from the airport on Saturday morning...

When you don't have to cook a proper meal, I favour easy things like 'breakfast for dinner' or "Brinner"...

Fry some bacon and an egg, toast some bread. Assemble and add hot Worcestershire sauce...

Serve on a pretty plate - Brinner is ready!

I took this picture of my Soul Sister rose at about 7am...

This is the same rose later in the day at 4.30pm. Amazing!

Saturday morning, sitting in bed, coffee and my iPad...

After picking up Gus, I spent the afternoon knitting and later had a wine while watching Sleepless in Seattle. I'm loving my Netflix subscription!

I finished the dishcloth. It's called Berry Basket Weave...

It gives a different pattern on the reverse side...

Yesterday, I got stuck into my strip blanket. I hadn't done any of it for so long. I knit from the red section, see the arrow, all the way up to those stripes. This strip is nearly completed. I am determined to finish this rug!

Back to Saturday night...we made pizzas in the Weber using the barbecue box that we gave Gus for Christmas.

First up, potato, parmesan, garlic and rosemary...

The second, basically a supreme with the works!

And the last one, a barbecue sauce supreme. Only one piece was eaten then the rest put into the fridge.

The mornings are getting crisp here and we even had fog this morning...

The forecast says its going to be 31C, even after the cool morning and it will continue to be hot all week. Not looking forward to that!

i hope you had a nice, restful weekend.

Cheers - Joolz xx

Ho hum...

Not a lot happening here...

My succulents...lets see if I can keep them alive!

Dead banana muffins...that husband of mine forgets to eat the ones I take in for his lunch!

...and in other rivetting news...I vacuumed out our garage! OCD much? It was full of grass clippings and leaves that have blown in and just needed doing! Small things please small minds! Lol!

Cheers - Joolz xx

Homemade ice cream

Woohoo! I found my ice cream attachment that I had misplaced! It had been put away in our spareroom cupboard...who would have put it there?

Thirty minutes after putting the chilled custard mix in, I had whipped, fluffy ice cream.

To go with the icecream, I stewed some blueberries with a little sugar and rice malt syrup.

Gus invited his mum out for dinner. We had roast pork and veggies and a peach/apple chutney that he also made. Delicious!

Ice cream sundaes. A perfect end to the meal.

It's been a great weekend here, nice and cool. Gus got a lot of mowing done so the house block looks nice and neat. We don't have our two sheep to keep the grass down any more so it has to be mown every few months.

Did you get any jobs done on the weekend?

Cheers - Joolz xx

Joolz's Moozli...

...well Clare's Muesli really. I have just made a second batch of this delicious roasted muesli (or granola, depending where you're from).

This stuff is seriously good! You can swap in or out any of the ingredients. I don't like walnuts so I added a few more pepitas and sunflower seeds. I also added dried blueberries and cranberries. You could add dried apricots. You could omit all fruit to lower the sugar content.

In todays batch, I have used 'new to me' Rice Malt Syrup. It's an alternative to honey and 100% fructose free (327 calories in 100gm compared to Honey 304 calories - I just googled this so maybe its no better than honey afterall as a sweetner...) but it is slighly less sweet. I'm so scientific!

Anyway, I have been enjoying it with yoghurt and grated apple - yum!

Clare's Muesli1 cup cashews, roughly chopped
2/3 cups walnuts, chopped
1/3 cup pepitas
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup dates, chopped (I used medjool)
1 cup oats
1 cup flaked almonds
1 cup dessicated coconut (I used shredded)
1 tspn cinnamon
1/3 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup honey (or rice malt syrup)

Preheat oven to 180C. Line two baking trays with gladbake.
In a large bowl, mix all dry ingredients together. Melt the honey and oil
together and pour over dry ingredients. Mix really well. Spread evenly onto
the oven trays. Bake 8 minutes, then stir and turn it. Bake another 4 minutes
until golden and toasty.
.... depending on your oven, you may need to do it a bit longer. Do not let it burn!

Cheers - Joolz xx

Today I ...

...got out and dead-headed roses...

...enjoyed a nice cup of tea (sent to me via snail mail from Tracy at Sunny Corner Farm) and a piece of my Christmas cake...

I re-potted some of my tired indoor plants...

...this is a newie...

Hmmm, front porch area needs some attention. I need new plants for the planters and the pavers need pressure washing...

These pics are of the garden and pots a few weeks ago, its gone off a bit since then. Still enjoyable, though.
It was lovely and cool this morning. I've swept and tidied outside and have sprayed some surface spray around the doors.

This critter greeted me as I put up the blind. Lucky he was in between the screen and the window. Man, did I scream and holler!

I'm off out for dinner with a bunch of school friends tonight so that should be fun!

And yay! I have found the (misplaced, by me) paddle for my icecream maker bowl so I will make vanilla icecream tomorrow as my MIL is coming for roast dinner tomorrow night. Icecream and blueberry coulis for dessert....

Cheers - Joolz xx

Spare room clean out...

Do you have a spare room that magnetically attracts all the 'stuff' you don't have a place for? We do!

I got in there this morning and just methodically put stuff away or tossed it in the bin. I advertised some things on our local Facebook Buy/Swap/Sell site and got rid of them straight away. It didn't take long as I advertised them as FREE! Goodbye 5 cushions, a carpet rug and a timber corner display cabinet from our family room that we want to replace with a low-line TV unit.  Gone!

Yesterday, I cleaned out under our ensuite vanity and the main bathroom vanities too. Toss, into the bin! I purged my make-up drawer, tossing old eye shadows, powder puffs, hand creams, lip glosses etc. Binned it! It felt so good!

Anyone else spring cleaning in summer?

Cheers - Joolz xx