Phil's August choice

SOMETHING I MADE

I made up this lounger to make it look like a place you would want to rest and enjoy the garden which is what our real estate agent is promoting out home as.  The lounger is just one of those cheap green and dirty white stripe.  I have been wanting to paint the frame white and put a pretty cover on it for a while now and not got around to doing it.  I have used pretty cloths to cover the mattress and a shabby chic table cloth over the cushions.  It was really hard to photograph, if I stood at the end it made it look really long and boring, if I could have got higher up and look down on it might have looked ok, but it was raining when I took the photo.  The best photo I could get was standing inside crouching down and across on an angle.  Do you think it looks inviting to rest and enjoy the garden, something I rarely get to do.

Last one of Paddy's choice for August

My BARISTA

Sharon's choice for August

Sharon's choice for August ANIMALS.  Yesterday John and I decided to have a day away from the house.  Went to Caversham wildlife park about 15 mins drive from home.  It was a beautiful day but the sun was very bright and found taking photo's quite hard.

 This was taken through glass and came out not too bad, he is so cute aye

 There where heaps of kangaroo's, the park was very clean and the animals healthy and well looked after, very tame.  We where fascinated by the white ones, not sure what breed they are.

                                      Miss Piggy, inside a barn, sleeping blissfully away

 This ones for you Phil, like me I know you love donkey's, wondering if I could have one on my block

                             Of course the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence

 I had to enhance and change this photo as it was quite dark, but thought you would love it.  Brought back so many memories of us feeding lambs when we where kids.

                                     Bats just hanging around enjoying the sunshine

                                  Lovely leathery wings wrapping them up tight like mummies

This possum is curled up asleep inside a nesting box with a perspex front so you can see inside, look at the little pink nose.
It cost us $24 each to get in which i thought was a bit steep, but was so worth it, we where there 4 hours.  The enclosures for the birds and animals where very thoughtfully designed for their comfort, they all looked happy health and contented, it was obvious that the entry charge is put back into the animals and birds making sure they lived in a good environment, the gardens where beautiful reminded me very much of the parks in Queensland.

Paddy's choices

 LOOKING DOWN

SPRING not that you would know it here in Perth, we have had such rainy weather.  You can see by these snowdrops in my front garden the rain on the flowers.  The other photo of snowdrops are my mystery bulbs growing in glass container.  I only got one jonquil flower.

group of three

My choice for August GROUP OF THREE I took 2 of the crystal carafe's the first one is in colour and the second is black and white, which do you think looks better, I can't decide.  I love the pine cones as you can see it was raining, we have had so much rain lately, very unusual.

Group of three

FAMILY GROUP OF THREE. After I went to the Art Gallery just there yesterday, I sat down below at this water feature to have a snack.  This man and his two children had a great time exploring what was in the water.

My Choice for August

My choice for August is

THREE

THAT IS THREE OBJECTS OF THE SAME KIND

Paddy's Spring flowers

Yay, I finally got a spring flower, this jonquil is forced so it is in flower earlier than it would out in the garden.  Like Phil I put some bulbs in a glass container to have a go after seeing it on Pinterest, gotta love pinterest.  I put 3 of jonquils or paperwhites as they where named and 3 of something else which I cannot remember what.  The jonquils came up quite fast but the other 3 took ages, I was beginning to think that storing them in the fridge for a couple of months after forgetting they where there, had perhaps killed them.  Eventually they did come up.  Last week all of a sudden a bud popped out and in a day it was out in flower.

 Can you see the smaller ones just starting, well, one of them has a bud coming up so now I will be able to see what they where.  The brown outer part of the bulb makes the water go a bit brackish, I wonder if you could peel it off before putting them in, like an onion.  I had these glass marbles, think they look better in white stones.

Just in case you can't see the flower in the first photo I took a close up, love the perfume, smells of spring.

My choice for July - food

Last of my choice for July FOOD

We have been talking about curries lately and Sharon spoke about a nice one in the Edmonds cook book.  This is my version of that recipe, I used cold cooked meat instead of raw.

I cooked in coconut oil  a variety of vegetables from the fridge (great way to use left overs) onion, carrot, celery and kumera until just cooked.  Add a couple of cups of chopped up cold meat (lamb) whatever you have in the fridge.  Add dessert spoon of vegetable powder stock and curry powder stir in and add some water to moisten.  Cook until all heated through and add tin of coconut cream.

Serve with pre cooked rice from freezer or cook your rice.

I also added fresh coriander, probably added to much coconut cream but it was sure yummy and warming in the cold weather.

Kirsty bought up a frozen large roast of lamb last week which hadn't thawed out while she was here, so  for John and I had a roast dinner, the curry which above is the left over, rissoles and on sandwiches for the week for John's lunch.  The roast that size would have been around $25 in the supermarkets so it was good value for 3 main meals and 6 lunches.

The coconut oil comes in a bottle and it is usually solid, it is quite expensive but mine lasts quite a long time.  I was recommended that the coconut milk and cream not be light as they add sugars etc to the light and that the coconut fats are good fats like advocado.

Sharons people

 Wednesday and Thursday I went with Kirsty and Peter to watch Alyssa's Hockey tournament.  They played 8 games in three days.  Winning their pool they lost by 1 point in the last minute, did very well.
Photo above is one of the girls in Lyssies team, I liked her attitude waiting for the starting whistle.

 words of advise from coach

 up and coming hockey player isn't he cute in his hand knitted jumper

 Lis in the middle of it about to whack the ball

 the huddle after the game, they all chuck their sticks in the middle

friends, the 3 ratbags plus the youngest 3, it was under 13s and they are all 11.  Not the best of photo's I rushed it so not to embarrass them.

I really enjoyed watching them play and got a better understanding of the game.  It was bitterly cold, wind was very cutting.