Rural Life
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Lemon Tree, Very Pretty
As I mentioned in my last post our lemon tree is simply loaded with lemon. I’ve been trying new recipes on my family and thought I’d share them here. The following two recipes were sent to me by my friend Deanne. Lemon Butter: 4 eggs beaten 4 large lemons 500g sugar 125g butter Grate rind of lemons and squeeze juice. Place butter and sugar in double saucepan. When butter is melted add juice and grated rind of lemons. Then add eggs. Stir until smooth and thickened- about 20mins. Bottle and seal, store in refrigerator. Passionfruit butter: use 10 passionfruit instead of lemons. PC wondered why the colour was a bit…
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Rock Pouches
Our children constantly amaze me with their inventiveness. Recently we were given some jeans with the knees out, I immediately turned them into denim shorts for Michelangelo;) and threw away the offcuts. The children promptly ‘rescued’ the jean bottoms. Then they turned them inside out and ran a seam along the cut opening and instantly had a pocket. Slits were cut into one side and a belt was run through. The boys now have durable, attractive pouches for rock fossicking. A pastime that is popular here on our property.
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I Discovered a New Koala Subspecies
Over in the far west paddock I discovered a new koala subspecies. Amazing how those koalas can just scale up the tree trunks. How I wish I could join them but alas my toes no longer grip. I also managed to spot a baby koala. Or perhaps it was a bat.
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Surf Anyone?
We are experiencing flooding in our region. Yesterday we recorded 80ml. Half of that fell in an hour period early in the evening. Our side yard has a deceptive slope, the rain was just rushing down the lawn. Soon the children had the surf boards out and they were scooting down at a fair pace. The photos don’t really capture how fast the boards were moving. Our camera is a little slow, so unfortunately I couldn’t capture my favourites with the bigger children standing on their boards and traveling down the slope. It’s moments like these that make memories.
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What We Found on Our Lawn
Early one morning last week PC and I heard the dog barking and Michelangelo calling for us to come quickly. Only twenty meters from our front door lay a dead dingo! This was a new sight for all of us, obviously one of the neighbours must have laid baits. But what a strange place for a dingo to lie down to die, on our front lawn. As dingoes go he looked to be in the prime of his life.
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The Gorge
Last week PC had a week’s holiday. He decided that he would like to simply spend the week at home, good news is he did go back to work this week feeling rested. One day whilst he was home we took up trip up to the Gorge with friends. I have always wanted to visit the Gorge since we moved to this town 13 years ago. The Gorge is close to the beginning of our Mighty River. No its not quite the beginning to get there you would have to hike much further. The Gorge is in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range and was well worth the hour…
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The ‘Flood’s ‘ Effect on the Dam
After the first flood we had a second deluge. Prince Charming managed to wade over the creek to check the middle dam as he was worried about erosion on the dam wall. He had good reason to be worried. This is the top of the dam as the water pours down. Some of the wall was washing away:(
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Of Flood and ..
Dorothy Mackellar author of ‘My Country’ had it correct when she wrote: “Core of my heart, my country! Land of the Rainbow Gold, For flood and fire and famine, She pays us back threefold -” We have had the drought (still do) and the fire now it was time for the flood. The last week has brought incredible lightning and hail storms and torrential rains. Monday saw another massive downpour and afterwards we saw more water on our property than since we moved here nearly a year ago. The children were delighted to find that where the dam was overflowing and the road and paddocks were covered with water, they…
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I Rang 000 and asked for “Fire, Please”
On Monday I received a call from our neigbour on our north-east boundary. It went something like this. “Hi Ron here, do you have a bushfire on your property? Max (the north neighbour) thinks it is on your place” “What! Last time I looked it seemed way to the west” I rush outside, and it certainly does look closer since I last looked. It could in fact be on our place!! I reassure Ron that we will check and hung up. The boys jump on their bikes and I follow a little slower on Carpenter’s bike. We leave the bikes at the creek, cross over and run the rest of…
