THE HEAT IS ON...

Hi there everyone! 

Well, this week, Summer is out to show us her stuff, with a run of high 30's, low 40's temps...seriously, Im sure people have actually "Wizard of Oz" melted into the ground like the bad witch, on cooler days than this! It is steaming and though I love Summer and a bit of heat, 5 days (yes, Friday and Saturday were up there in the HOT HOT HOT stakes too) is pushing it a tad I reckon Mother Nature. 

Here's our forecast for the next few days..

 OUCH!!!

On Friday arvo, we set up our pool for the season ahead. Its just a run of the mill, plastic sucker, brought off some cheapo Aussie online site (oo.com.au) but man oh man, it is a life saver on these days!

Days like today, it is too hot to sit at the beach all day (although we do have a HUGE shade we put up)

 

That's our big shade on the right there...its 4m square so we can all fit under it and stay sun safe! Even has enough room in the centre for the kids to play in the sand out of the sunshine. 

Oh and thats our fave beach in Esperance too..Fanny Cove! Terrible name, great beach!

                              (Awesome photo by my awesome biggest sister, Lisa Palma!)

We are going to put our shade OVER the pool today, so the kids can hang out in it all day with no threat of frying, which does happen on occasion no matter how much suncream we "slip, slop, slap" on them! 

The Australian Cancer Council has a great ditto for all Aussies and those travellers enjoying our Aussie sunshine...

So dont forget to SLIP on your protective clothing; SLOP on some sunscream (30+ is the best); SLAP on a hat; SEEK shade and SLIDE on your sunnies to protect your precious eyes. Not so hard to remember and much more pleasant than sunburn or skin cancer!!! I know what I'd prefer! 

Now go and enjoy the Aussie beaches, relax in the sunshine but most importantly, look after number 1 - YOU!!!

Cheers till next time!

Tash x

ITS BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS AT LAURIANA

 

Hey hey hey..

How are we all on this amazing Summer's day? Me? Fantabulous! Why you ask?? Hmm...because yesterday I officially finished ALL - yes ALL - my Christmas shopping! 

Dont get me wrong, I love Christmas shopping, especially at the beginning, but by the end of it, my feet are caning me, my bank balance has been blown out of the water, and Im really over navigating online shops and the local shops here in town complete with the gazillions of people all on the same mission! On the upside though, my tree has gone from looking like this..

 (Before) 

To looking like this...

 (After)

And I'd much rather it look like number 2, especially when the kids came home from school yesterday and there were all these new pressies under the tree!!! I love the buzz and excitement that they just ooze at Christmas and the lead up to and the looks of pure joy on their faces as they read their name on a pressie, give it a shake (if they can lift it) and start guessing like crazy, what could possibly be in there. 

For me, our kids MAKE Christmas...I also have 10 nieces and nephews and we always have some of them or the hundreds (not really but the noise they emit sounds like 100's) of 2nd cousins my kids have! 

The annual Christmas waterfight, just wouldnt be the same without the laughter, giggles and squeals of delight from the kids, as they run around armed with hoses, buckets, water pistols & super soakers or bucketloads of water bombs they've managed to rope the big cousins i to filling so they can explode them on unsuspecting rellies, old and young alike. Pulling Christmas crackers, without the corny jokes getting told, through a giggle or snort, wouldnt be without the kids! 

And who would you get to field for the annual beach or backyard cricket match, without fit little kids, while their adults are stumbling round in a food and drink overload, thinking they'd rather go lie down and get some peaceful R&R after lunch on Christmas day??  (With the threat of a bucket of chilly water or a waterbomb being burst over your head at any given stage!)

I personally, cannot wait for the big day! We are heading off to a caravan park by the beach, with 2 of my sisters and their families, my Mum and 3 more couples and their kids too. Its going to be so much more chilled out than normal chrissy's with all the fruit you can think of, the women bustling around the kitchen in a mad flap, their husbands or any other menfolk staying well clear of there, kids not game enough to set foot within their realm and the younger crew kind of hanging back, waiting to be designated a job whilst trying to control over excited, hungry hoards of kids! Beach days, BBQ's, relaxing with fellow campers at night while we chatter away and tell yarns about our journeys and lives, making new friends & just enjoying the carefree pace of camping life. 

What's everyone else doing for Christmas this year and do you go WAY too overboard with the food, resulting in eating leftovers for days afterwards or are you, like us, going for the laid back approach this year???? I'd love to hear your plans x

BAKING BEAUTIFUL BROWNIES

Yesterday I baked zucchini slice.

Today I baked brownies. Not just any old brownies but my fave dark choc brownies with raspberries on top..yum!

This is such a simple recipe and the one i use all the time..and I mean ALL THE TIME! I am forever baking brownies because they are positivley inhaled here! Pete loves them, the kids love them, visitors and I love them!

Recipe for Divine Dark Chocolate Brownies

(I make a baking tray sized slab of them or they are inhaled almost before theyre out of the oven! Halve it if you want to)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees (celsius)

400g good dark chocolate (I use the plaistowe stuff)

500g butter

Melt these 2 ingredients over a low heat, in a medium sized saucepan. Whisk occasionally. Set aside to cool slightly.

Meanwhile, combine 

3 1/4 cups brown sugar

2/3 cup cocoa powder

2 1/2 cups plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

8 eggs

Keep about 1c full of raspberries - fresh or frozen - to top the brownies with. 

When the choc/butter mixture has cooled a tad, combine that with the other ingredients and stir thoroughly. Pour into a greased & lined baking tray, top with fresh or frozen raspberries & pop into the oven for about 35/40 minutes. 

note: The original recipe said an hour but I like them gooey and sticky, so I knocked it back and just turn the oven off and leave them in there for a few minutes before taking them out and leaving to cool on a cake rack. If you like them drier, cook them for the extra 15/20 minutes.

Serve alone with coffee or jazz them up a tad with a dollop of doubke cream or a good quality vailla ice cream, and yes, if you havent figured yet, they are rich and they are decadent but theyre also delicious..

Enjoy x

Below is a sneaky peek of the finished product..now go BAKE!!!!

CHEEP CHEEP PITTER PATTER

Heya...

Guess what??? We are 'egg'specting....woohoo! (Chickens that is!!) one of our black sussex chooks is sitting on about 10 eggs and we are watching and waiting excitedly for them to hatch, the only problemo being we dont know when she 1st sat on them cause we couldnt find her! Now we have moved her and her batch of eggs into an old aviary that is snake/goanna/rat/dog safe and the kids have been awesome feeding and watering her each day. 

 Here she is on her batch of googies! (Note the empty nest box beside her....? That is where we moved her eggs to after we found her cause she was in prime tiger snake/goanna country, and the next day she had rolled them all out and was sitting on them on the ground in front of the nest box. Crazy chook! Luckily there is a lot of straw and  woodchips on the ground in there to keep her warm and comfy.)

Will check back with any exciting news as it happens!

Cheers till then, Tash =)

WHAT'S HAPPENED AT LAURIANA SINCE WE LAST MET???

Hiya!

Wow..how slack have I been??? No posts since late August! SLACK with a capital S! Hmm...a little trip down memory lane here. August 22nd saw our precious number 3 tinlid, Miss Lily, turn 8! Honestly, time really does fly when your having fun..=)

Miss LilyPie blowing out her candles

Lily's 4 tier rainbow cake...what an awesome Mum she has!!

A week after Lily's birthday party, the kids all had an excursion to the historic Moir Homestead, about 30kms from our house. It was a great day which the kids all loved and the parents had to hang around for the day because its a 4wd track in there. I took the opportunity to take some happy snaps down there!

Parents and kids getting safety talk beforehand..

 Our fave tree at the homestead, a magical massive Morteon Bay Fig! Who would need toys to play with with a tree like this outside your house (although it would have been a fair bit smaller back then).

Afterwards, the kids, teachers and parents got a treat...a swim at our fave beach in Esperance ~Fanny Cove~Id say this is the most action the beach has seen in a while.

Next BIG event on Lauriana,was the arrival of Big Red, our new CASE header. (The comb was on the trailer elsewhere, in case your wondering). The kids got the 1st look through as they do.

During the school holidays, we just hung out around home and did a bit of this and that (a fair bit of sheepwork and getting ready for harvest to crank up).

Kids riding behind the mob and my best mate, Sassy Girl x

 Lily and Ella had their friends, sisters Nikaya and Tyra come visit and stay for a sleepover! I have NEVER seen 4 girls eat so much food in 1 day!!! Hahaha 

 Ella and her crazy mate, Tyra.

 Lily and her crazy mate, Nikaya!

During the holidays,we also celebrated Kianhi's 10th birthday. 

Heres a few photos of Kianhi's journey so far in life..x

She had a party with a few friends before the holidays cause it was the only time we could squish it in and her friends, twins Tina and Sally, sleep the night.

My floor full of bodies...sleepovers are the best! 

The girls and I went for a bit of a wildflower wander one afternoon when Tyler had gone off helping Grandma do something on the farm. We found about 30 varieties of wildflowers in a patch of ground about 60ms long! 

Here are a few of them.

A little banksia, scarlet kangaroo paws and my fave, the red leschunultia plus a cutie of LilyPie with a little banksia..

 Mum came down one weekend and her and I went off to town to Lynny Ling's open garden day, to raise money for the RFDS (Royal Flying Doctor Service). Her garden was awesome and her creativity flows through her use of the mundane to enhance the beauty of her plants, including this awesome succulent filled easel (above). My fave photo I took on the day was the Flanders Poppy (below)...just stunning.

Then it was time for harvesting..our 2nd harvest of the year (our 1st being harvesting the wool clip from the merino sheep we grow). It was a bit touch and go there for the first few weeks, with a bit of rain here and there, but once we got cranked up, it was all go! Im sure Im not alone in saying that I am REALLY glad that harvest is over and done with for 2013! Kids go feral, life becomes a juggling act of preparing meals for a couple of extras, plus lunches for 7, homework time is a nightmare and us harvest widows just never seem to have enough time in the day! On the upside though, there are some pretty speccy photos to be snappedp and its great to look out the window and see Big Red chomping its way through our crops. Theres a certain buzz to harvest time, that lasts for a few weeks and then all of a sudden, everybody is crying out for the end and a break! Here are a few of my harvest photos from 2013!

Top right - harvesting barley at Newman's; Big Red under a stunning sunset, picking up canola rows in our driveway paddock; Header unloading into the chaser bin whilst harvesting standing canola; smoke on the horizon - what no one wants to see during harvest time (fortunately this was down in coastal scrub {unfortunately for us, the coastal scrub was along our fave beach}); and a heart shaped tree silhouette with a magic sunset backdrop also in our driveway paddock.

In the first few weeks of harvest, Pete and I celebrated our birthday, with a bit of rain to stop harvesting and a feast fit for kings (and queens) thanks to Grandma Jude..your such a legend! It was such a treat to not have to worry about tea for the night..all I had to do was grill the crumbed chops..yummo! 

 What a feast! Crumbed chops, salads, garlic bread, bikkies, dips, lollies and beestings for sweets & an ice coffee each for the morning! 

 In the midst of harvest, we had a ewe die and Grandma Jude found her lamb and brought it home for us. Meet Miss Aggy...on the night she arrived her, all skin and bones, during and right now!!

Pretty safe to say she's enjoying her twice daily bottles!

Now that harvest is finished, its time to relax and enjoy, so heres a few funnies to finish off this post. Take care till the next time your around =)

Cheers Tash

Workman Mark, hubby Pete and Miss Kianhi...I love PHOTOBOOTH!!! Hahaha