Enjoying December.....

We are well into the swing of the Christmas holidays here. Alexandra has had a lovely visit to the farm and enjoyed making Christmas bon bons with Grandma. The boys had a great weekend at the beach on their youth camp and BJ & I had the most enjoyable weekend at home- CHILD FREE!!!! We actually watched two movies, gardened, went out for a lovely lunch, had Chinese takeaway and did some Christmas shopping!! Boy did we enjoy it! Oh, and of course I cleaned and cleaned and tidied the house from front to back.

Everyone is home again today. The little ones have cooked and now the boys have gone for a walk to meet a friend. Hopefully the holidays will be a long and happy summer break for them. It seems that the 29th January is forever away, but I am sure that it will slip by all too quickly.

I plan to hopefully enjoy these holidays with the children. With Cameron already graduated, I realise how quickly time is just passing us by.

We have had another lot of beautiful rain, even though it is still so patchy. We are still all hoping that a huge amount of water will soon fill the dams to full and overflowing.

So with the rain, the garden is looking fresh and beautiful.

My first Hollyhocks......

Roses Blooming......

The vege patch looking promising.......

Herbs too......

A new Crabapple tree........

Last week Mitchell had made a delicious batch of white chocolate biscuits and I had decided to mix up a quick batch of blueberry muffins - afternoon tea was all planned. Then disaster struck - just as the last of the biscuits came out of the oven, it stopped. To start with I thought it was just the fan part, but after my delicious muffins sitting in the oven for forty minutes and looking very much a disastrous cooking adventure, I conceded that yes, the oven had died.

Now, this oven only being eighteen months old, I was one very cranky cook indeed. So, to cut a long story short - the oven is now fixed (well usable) until a part arrives. Given that Christmas is upon us and all those types of places somehow just shut down for weeks, I hope that it holds up and that I can get on with some baking.

I am so looking forward to making a delicious rich fruit cake to enjoy with many cups of tea.

Gardening and fruit cake with tea - two of my favourite things!!