Cleaning...

On Friday, I cleaned. I had 3 extra teenagers coming to stay Saturday night (why did I bother to clean, you ask?) then we had a 70th Birthday lunch for my M-I-L on Sunday.
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I have lots of tiled floors. I hate mopping...
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Sparkling kitchen...
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Our new king size bed, new bed head and side tables. It is deliciously comfortable!
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Joolz

Bad garden, good garden ...

This was my poor neglected patio pots a few weeks ago...
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Unloved and unwatered...
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So I bought a few 'pots of colour' ...
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and tidied them up a bit...
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Pansies and violas - I should have lots more colour in a few weeks time.
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For Mother's Day, my sisters and I gave my mum a new thick wool underlay from MiniJumbuck for her bed. She said yesterday that it was too good - she normally is awake at 5am and can't go back to sleep but she slept until 7.15am! Nothing wrong with that!
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Check out the MiniJumbuck story here and watch the MJ story video about their manufacturing - it's quite interesting.
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For those of my overseas readers, a jumbuck is a sheep and is mentioned in the song 'Waltzing Matilda' by A.B. Banjo Patterson. It is also the name of a utility produced and sold in Australia by Proton - just to confuse you! :)
Cheers - Joolz

Happy Mother's Day ...

I hosted an afternoon tea for my 81 year old mother with 2 of my 4 sisters. I got busy in the kitchen yesterday and made Melting Moments...
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Red Velvet cup cakes with cream cheese frosting ...
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... and Anzac biscuits.
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My niece Bianca made cheese tarts and vanilla slice and Janine made hedgehog and I also did a plate of crackers with cheese & chive dip and cucumber.
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Rather a nice little spread, wouldn't you say?
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The cupcakes were really, really goooood! I just love the frosting!
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It was a lovely afternoon, pity my 2 other sisters couldn't make it but Marilyn is away on a trip up to Broken Hill and Leanne was home with her daughter, Jane, who hasn't been well.
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Happy Mother's Day to all mothers around the world - I hope you had a lovely day like me!
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Cheers - Joolz

Off to the Grampians Grape Escape in Ruby...

So, last Friday we headed off in Ruby to go into Victoria to the Grampians. We stayed in Hamilton the first night because we got away late. Stayed in a nice clean motel and had a very nice dinner at a nice restaurant - all names escape me!
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Next morning we were up early, bought provisions for the trip deep into Western Victoria...
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We arrived in Halls Gap at about 11am and set up camp at the caravan park. A bit more lawn would have been nice!
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Gus popped out Ruby's roof top tent...
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... then added the tent to the bottom...
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This is the Grampians Grape Escape - a festival that is in it's 20th year. Over 80 exhibitors and stalls and very well run.
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Lots of people, enjoying the mild weather (I thought it was going to be arctic and it wasn't at all), good food and wine and music.
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There were 3 or 4 soap stalls.... I bought an olive oil soap from this one and it is quite nice. No perfume but it lathers well and feels nice.

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This one was probably the pick of the bunch... and reminds me a bit of Granny's Soap Cottage soaps, only hers are much nicer! ;)
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This one was a bit bland...
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... but I guess they are meant to be natural soaps, they just look boring...
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Oops, now I have skipped to the kangaroos which I took pics of after we left the festival. These beautiful creatures came bounding over to greet me (and I was scared silly), until they realised that I didn't have anything to feed them. They are quite intimidating with their sharp front claws and strong back legs.
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But they are... just... so... cute !!
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I sat petting them for quite a while but they got tired of me because I wouldn't feed them. (I don't agree with feeding them bread because the yeast is not good for them).
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Nawww!
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Back to the festival..... Manu Feildel (from My Kitchen Rules) was doing cooking demonstrations so we sat in on that. He is so funny!
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A very talented chef and very good fun!
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Of course, we bought a copy of his book and he signed it for us.
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Now onto the food - this is a 'new to me' food item - a Twistto - a potato spiral, skewered then battered lightly, deep fried then sprinkled with your choice of flavoured salt (chicken, lemon pepper, satay, barbecue, maple syrup... okay, just kidding!). Maybe just the best thing I have eaten in a long time, but not good for me... I know! :(
~A cone of calamari from the Flying Calamari Brothers...
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Red for me, white for Gus...
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Organic is always better, right? It was a good drop.
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I bought a Plonk Holder so I could carry things and still enjoy a wine, on the go!
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OMG! Hot, toasty Belgian waffles, maple syrup and cream...
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Back at camp, we had to set up some beach umbrellas as it started to drizzle rain. That lasted until just after dark then it cleared up. Isn't Ruby cute?
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I made a salad...
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...we baked some potatoes in a tray in the barbie, heated some garlic & herb bread...
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... and Gus cooked a steak each for us. Yum!
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We had a little fire place at our site so we had a camp fire going and we toasted marshmallows for dessert. The people behind our site were having a good old sing-along to really good 80's songs so that kept us entertained. One girl, who we could hear getting drunker by the hour, sounded like someone we knew, so that was entertaining, listening to her sing... really badly!! They all got told to shut down the noise at 10pm. It had been a long day so we called it quits at about 10.30pm.
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Brekky on Sunday morning was...
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Eggs & bacon, grilled tomato and toast done on the camp cooker...
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Sitting in my jammies, having a second cuppa before packing up. I quickly learned that you can look pretty rough in a caravan park, and no-one takes any notice! Very relaxing!
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We headed home through Horsham then back through Coonawarra/Penola. The vines are all turning a lovely yellow for autumn.
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We always know we are home when we can see Mount Muirhead. It has turned green already so I think we are in for a good winter and lots of rain.
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