This week at my place...

These are the corellas that roost in the gum trees near our house. Noisy buggers, they squawk and squawk and poop on our nice grey roof and leave fluffy feathers everywhere!
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Sunset on Tuesday night...
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They have completely stripped the top of this tree bare...
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This is a mob of corellas about to fly in out the back of our place then make their roosts in our trees.
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A beautiful sky after a hot day of 36C...
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Still lots of juicing going on here...

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It really does make you feel good. This lot had pink lady apples in it and it was lovely and sweet.
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Easy dinner after my Weight Watchers meeting - Chicken Phad Thai with the help of a flavour sachet (sinful!). Woohoo! I am 300gms lighter than at my last weigh in on December 21st. I came through Christmas and New Year without gaining any weight! It really has motivated me to keep going. I have lost 3.6 kgs since November 1, 2011. Slow but steady.
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CHICKEN PHAD THAI
So into a wok, 1 teaspoon olive oil and one onion - toss for 2 minutes then add mushroom, fresh corn kernels and broccolini...
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Let them cook away for 2 minutes then add 1/2 cup water and put the lid on to steam them.
Then I removed them from the wok and browned off 500gms chicken breast...
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Yum, it's looking good!
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This sachet had no artificial colouring or preservatives and I was in a hurry (really, soy sauce, ginger, garlic and a bit of honey and lime would do the trick too). Pour in the sauce and combine.
I used rice noodles so throw them in too...
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Ta dah! Dinner in under 30 minutes.
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What's happening in your part of the world?
Cheers - Joolz

Pain in the neck...

I'm baaaack! I am still having trouble with my neck - not sure what to do next? I have been to the physio therapist who worked on my neck muscles, gave me acupuncture (5 needles) then strapped by back with tape to hold the neck muscles in place - that was fun, not! It really limited the way I could turn my head and after 3 days I had it ripped off to free me up again.
Then I went back to him on Tuesday for further work. He can twist my neck every which way without re-creating the pain I have so he says there is no nerve damage (even though to me, my neck feels numb to touch). I have another appointment on April 6th so I guess I will put up with the burning, stabbing pain until then.
I definitely get the pain when I sit at the computer, at home or at work, so will have to keep to a minimum with rest in between. So annoying!

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Some sunset pictures that I took on March 13th. Not an overly hot day, just some lovely cloud formation that was lit up by the setting sun. Taken at 7.44pm through to 7.46pm.
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Not sure what that white spot is above our house - a UFO maybe??
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I'll be back after the weekend with some more pics that are on my camera. I made a nice chicken dish by Margaret Fulton so will do a step by step of that one. I've been making bread (which Bri loves), Shepherds Pie and San Choy Bow so lots of yummy things here.
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Have a nice weekend,
Cheers - Joolz

Welcome Chiara !!!

We are very happy to have Chiara stay with us for 12 days. She is on a school exchange with her school from Turin, Italy. Our Brianna will do the reverse exchange in October when she travels to Italy with her school for 3 weeks.
Chiara and 29 other students arrived in Sydney on Monday 25th January so they were lucky to celebrate Australia Day in Sydney, climb the Harbour Bridge and even had a swim at Bondi Beach. Then they flew to Adelaide and went to Cleland Wildlife Park where they saw some our native animals. They did some shopping in Rundle Mall and visited Glenelg.
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Angus cooked Beer Can Chicken for Chiara which we had with a salad and baked potatoes.
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The chicken is rubbed with a spice mix then lowered over a half full can of beer. The beer boils and steams the chicken and makes it lovely and tender. The spice mix is listed here.
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Here is the cooked chicken, ready to be enjoyed.
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After a warm day, the sky turned all shades of pink, orange and red.
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Corella's roosing in an old gum tree...
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Their noisy chatter forms part of our background daily sounds of the bush...
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There was a Kookaburra close by and I showed Chiara where it was sitting in a tree but it wouldn't sing for her. Maybe tomorrow.
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I made chocolate cup cakes...
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... and a Buttermilk Loaf from the Gourmet Farmer (SBS Thursdays at 7.30pm), Matthew Evan's blog. It is a recipe from an elderly lady who befriended Matthew. The recipe is here - I actually added a chopped Granny Smith apple and omitted the walnuts. It is very nice spread with some butter.
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Apparently, this is a blue moon. Blue moons occur when you have two full moons in one month. You can read about is here.

It was very bright in the sky. I couldn't get a good picture once it became dark.
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Today (Sunday) we are going to our favourite beach - No.2 Rocks. I'll post some pictures tonight.
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Cheers - Joolz

End of another week...

(Joolz pic)
This was my Friday night sky - a pink whisp of cloud on a blue sky.
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Menu for this week was...

Monday - stinking hot day - Homemade pizzas as shown previously.
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Tuesday - crumbed chicken breasts baked in the oven, mashed potatoes, cauli/brocolli bake, carrots and beans.
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(Joolz pic)
Wednesday - Lasagne with zucchini, capsicum & mushrooms layered in with the bolognese and bechamel sauce. Good way of hiding veggies. Really yummy.
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Thursday - Pork chops, baked potato, baked honey carrots, peas and rich brown gravy.
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Friday - BBQ steaks, salad and pasta
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(Joolz pic)
Saturday - Angus' recipe is from Matt Moran's 'When I get home' cookbook.

Lamb rump with ratatouille and mint sauce.
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(Joolz pic)
Today I made M&M cookies (from this recipe here - I used M&M's baking bits instead of choc chips) - these would be good for kids to take to school as their 'birthday cake' - easy to transport, nice and colourful and you could make quite big ones, one for each child in the class ...
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(Joolz pic)
... and Cranberry & Apricot Oatmeal cookies - same as the recipe here but I substituted cranberries for the sultanas. Good 'back to school' lunch box fillers.
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I cleaned out my pantry yesterday and OMG - I threw out a black garbage bag full of out of date and stale food. I have labelled the shelves and lots of the containers hoping that things will stay more organised. It is a corner pantry so things to tend to get hidden in corners.
I was very pleased to see that there were no insects or mouse poo in there at all. That means no nasties are lurking.
Next job is cleaning out under my sinks in the kitchen, laundry and bathrooms. It's not long since I did these so they are not too bad.
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My back has been playing up a bit the last few days - tight muscles across my lower back which grab at me if I move too fast or bend the wrong way. I think that tells me that I need to get back walking in the mornings again. I've had a break because my walking partner is away but I think I may be siezing up a bit. Walkies at 6 bells tomorrow... well maybe 6 and a half bells! Lol!
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I hope your weekend was restful and the week ahead is a good one.
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Cheers - Joolz

Friday at sunset...

You might have seen this tree before in my Chasing Skies post. I dropped Brianna into her waitressing job in town and on my way home I could tell the sunset was going to be a beauty. I flew inside the house, grabbed my camera and off I shot, chasing skies once again...
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... same tree, different backdrop of dreamy clouds against a rusty sunset...
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... I've come to love this tree - it's only about 2 kms from where I live on the outskirts of town, down a road called Plunkett Terrace - Lol!
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... and finally, as the sun was disappearing for another day, I got this shot, out near our racecourse. Clear skies today with just a few clouds around this afternoon - the weathers shaping up for a good weekend. Hope yours is a good one,
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Cheers - Joolz

Chasing skies...

I feel like one of those storm-chaser guys. It was a warm, windy day (about 21C) . I got home from doing netball canteen about 5pm and as I was driving back into town I could see that the sunset was going to be amazing. So I flew inside the house, grabbed my camera them took off to catch some sky shots.
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I drove out of town about 4 kms and fired away but when I returned home and viewed the pics on the computer, I wasn't happy with the pictures. They were out of focus and weren't framed well. But I did get some good shots.

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Aren't the colours fantastic?
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These two, above and below, I captured just before the light faded. I love trees and clouds (don't ya know?) and it was a real light show. Then is started spitting with rain.
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This one was taken at 5.40 pm.
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I fluked this one as I was driving back in. I passed the tree (I love bare trees!) and did a U-turn and crossed over the road and bent down under the tree and took the picture through the branches. My favourite!

You really have to grab photo opportunities as they pop up. I probably looked like a mad woman, leaning against my car, out in the middle of nowhere, clicking off pictures.
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It whipped up a storm last night, high winds and lots more rain. Today will be spent inside, tidying and cross-stitching.
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Cheers - Joolz