Victoria Sponge

  

Sunday morning after spending some time picking berries I was inspired to bake a cake.

I have enjoyed A Table in the Orchard by Michelle Crawford very much. Hugo and Elsa is Michelle's blog.  So lovely to enjoy her beautiful home and garden.

I had a beautiful bottle of lemon butter in the fridge made by my Mum. Always delicious!

I hardly every make a cake.  But cake it just had to be. 

The recipe for Vicotria Sponge was lovely. Easy to follow and worked out perfectly. 

As I prepared the ingredients and the tins, I caught myself thinking about my Nana and her beautiful sponge cakes she would make. I'm not even brave enough to try her recipe! But as I buttered the tins and dusted them with flour I thought about her and wondered how many sponge tins she had prepared during her many years of baking. 

Now this cake is not a light and airy sponge like my Nana used to make but it is so very delicious.  I filled mine with a layer of lemon butter and freshly whipped cream, topped it with more cream and some beautiful berries.

Mum, Dad and I sat outside under the tree on Sunday afternoon, cups of tea in hand and enjoyed the Victoria Sponge together.

What a lovely end to the weekend.

Oranges in Springtime ..... And a little Marmalade

  

I finally picked the oranges!  What a harvest it was.

Beautiful sweet, juicy oranges.  Right at my back door.

I doubled the recipe which called for 1kg of oranges.  Hmmm, that took care of three of these large beauties!

The need for four cups of orange juice took care of a lot as well.

Sixteen beautiful bottles of orange marmalade.

I also boiled some of the oranges and pureed them ready for the freezer for future use to make Orange and Almond Cakes.  Five of them!  

What a wonderful morning of finally enjoying my little home.  I just love to create and I think that making jam can safely come into the category of creating. 

To grow produce and use it is a most satisfying feeling.  I just love it.

Not only to be able to use my own produce in my own home, but to be able to share it with family and friends is truly something that I enjoy.

This part of my life is certainly nothing new to me.  I have lived my whole life watching the women of my family make and bake not only for our immediate family but to share with the community in which we live.  Whether it was our immediate family, our neighbours or our extended community in which we lived.

I feel truly blessed to have been part of this wonderful experience of learning from my Mother and my Grandmothers. The gift of giving of ourselves however large or small the gift, whether it is a physical gift or just a thought, to be able to be a blessing to others is truly something wonderful we can share.

I will hopefully continue to share myself with others through my creating. 

With Spring finally here comes the promise of a new crop of beautiful oranges.

My garden smells delightful!

Christmas 2014

It's here.  Christmas 2014. Goodness I really don't know how.  Exhausted as usual.  

So finally a little bit of Christmas arrived in my home. Better late than never.

Wishing everyone a lovely day. Happy Christmas.  

Christmas 2013

 

 

Christmas was enjoyed this year with a mixture of family from both sides.

 

Just us who had been left at home with the rest of the family in different part of the country and world.

 

A Donna Hay inspired Christmas Lunch - a beautiful piece of rolled pork with a sourdough and sour cherry relish stuffing - roast vegetables, beans with a beautiful lemon and mustard vinaigrette followed with the most beautiful cranberry and raspberry trifle

 

 

Followed on Boxing Day by a day in the office.

 

And then it was over!

 



Iffley, Goomburra

 

Fifty years ago, my Nana and Pop left this home and took their family to a different place.  A place with further opportunities for farming.  A place that was my home.  A place that has allowed my family to be successful in their farming venture.

 

I have spoken about this home before here.  I had never visited this home.  The home of my family for generations before.  I have heard of it for the whole of my life and have never quite fathomed how my Nana left it.  What a sacrifice of love and devotion to her family.

 

 

 

A little while ago, the  family who live here were in contact with my Dad.  They were interested in the history of this home and of the people who have lived there before them.

 

We were invited to visit.  I was so thrilled.

 

And so, we visited.

 

Tears flow now as I remember this day.  It was wonderful.  To see my Dad walk the farm and tell us the stories.  Some of it I had heard many times in my life.  Some of it new.  All of it wonderful.

 

My Dad was brought home to this place as a baby in January 1942.  My Nana had moved here as a bride in 1940.  My Pop lived here his life with his parents.

 

This is our family home. 

 

Not that where we have been for the past fifty years is not, it is in the original history of our family arriving to Australia and taking up this land in the Goomburra Valley that holds my attention and my heart.

 

 

We strode accross these paddocks and saw where the animals had been kept and the buildings that had housed them.  Many of them built by Pop and Dad.  Many of them older than that.

 

 

The Wisteria that I have been told of over the years, magnificent in its stature, growing on the arbour built by our family.

 

Oh to see it in the Spring - I may have to take a little trip!

 

 

 

 

 

Stories of a young man helping his father build a barn with timber cut from the farm and allowed to develop in age to be used and of the barn up the road which is identical built to help a family member.

 

 

 

 

Yards and fences built by the hand of my Pop. 

 

I wanted to stay forever.

 

The method the same as the one my Dad used on the fence around my vegetable garden.

 

 

Eva and Mike so kindly invited us into their home.  I could almost not contain myself.  I felt tears slipping down my cheek constantly as I remembered my Nana and the wonderful woman that she was.

 

We went from room to room and Dad told me where each precious piece of furniture that I own had once been in that beautiful home. 

 

I imagined the card afternoons, the birthday parties and the dinner parties.  All in a different era when the ladies arrived and left their hats and gloves on Nan's bed until home time.

 

 

These handles all original to the house, I couldn't help but touch and remember those who have lived here and are no longer with us.  Worn with time but beautiful forever

 

Iffley, a moment in time etched in my heart forever.

 

 

Inheritence....

Today I am trying to get this lot sorted and somehow incorporated into my home...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overwhelmed much...

Changes....

 

I'm not quite sure where the last 22 years has gone.  I think I blinked and then, gone!  While life has been busy while children have grown, somehow that time has come for our eldest to leave home. 

 

Goodness, I didn't realise it is this hard. 

 

To make it a little harder he hasn't just left home, he has moved 3300 kilometres (2049 miles) from our home.

 

A four hour flight none the less, plus of course the two hour drive we have to reach an airport in the first place.

 

Our boy is an adventurer with some wonderful goals he wishes to fulfill in his lifetime.  He is a television cameraman.  Cameron has begun his career in the local television station here in our home city and has loved every moment of it.  His long term goal is to travel overseas to cover world news and that will simply not happen from here.

 

So, he has joined a national network and has moved to the top end of Australia.  It's a long way from us and I will miss him greatly.  From here he hopes that he will be sent on work assignments to the Asia region.

 

I know that he will be just so successful in this position and I know his dreams will come true.  This is just the beginning for him.

 



 

 

 

We helped him pack some essentials into two suitcases and he has begun his journey.  The rest of his gear will follow when he is able to move into some more permanent accommodation - for the moment he is a motel dweller with a suitcase!! 

 



 

 

 

I travelled to Darwin a couple of weeks ago to work out some accommodation for him.  It is a long way from here and I had exhausted the "google" searches and my phone calls were reaching dead ends.  It was certainly worth my trip. 

 

He will be living in a beautiful unit that will be available at the end of next month. 

 

While I was there, two very lovely people crossed my path.  I believe they were a gift from God and came at the moment when I thought all was almost too hard to get our boy to be able to live where he had gained employment.

 

These people have offered Cameron a room in their home while he waits for the unit to be available.  This could be up to a month or more.  Very kind and most generous.  For this I am so very grateful.

 

 



 

 

And so, our life has entered the next phase as it were.  We now have two children at home and one away on the next adventure in his career. 

 

In two years our baby will be finished high school and Mitchell will be finished his apprenticeship.

 

See, I blinked and look what happened!

Is Anyone There?

 

I'm back.  Well, I hope I am.  Life has certainly changed again this year. 

 

And now Spring is here - already~ 

 

 

My newest pride and joy in the garden is this weeping cherry - I must say it was worth every cent I paid.  The garden continues to grow and change and still brings constant joy to me. 

 

I hope that I will get back into the routine of blogging and bring my online journal up to date.

That is the plan...

 

 

The Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers is almost here again, with judging taking place from this Sunday.  We are busily making the last minute preparations. 

 

I am so looking forward to sharing the garden with visitors again this year.

 

 

 

What a year it has been so far, children have travelled, we've bought a business (again!!), Mitchell is apprenticed to Brendon, I'm now full time helping run the business and keeping the home running with five adults under this roof, we've made changes to our garden and I've been run up the back of (in my sweet little red Swift)  twice in five months - to say I'm tired is just a little understatement. Plus, of course, many, many other things!   But, life is settling back into a nice routine - if there is such a thing with a seven day business, and I think I am learning to like it!

 

So, if anyone is still out there who may just check in on me occasionally, please leave a comment, I would love to hear from you!!  I certainly have still been keeping up with my favourite blogs even though there has been a severe drought here. 

 

Looking forward to blogging my way through this crazy, hectic life - and sharing it along the way.

 





The Carnival.......a project by Mitchell & Amie

My middle son, Mitchell is in his Senior year at High School and studying Hospitality as a subject. He is already studying to be a baker through a school based apprenticeship. Mitchell teamed up with his friend Amie and together they had to create a table centre piece focusing on sweet food for part of their assessment for this year.

They chose the theme "Carnival". 

Persian Fairy Floss - yum

Funny little clowns

Two stands full of fun cupcakes..........



Popcorn and bunting...........



A wonderful carnival centrepiece.  I am so proud of them.  All the hard work paid off.  Not bad for two 17 year olds.

Another weekend...........

Another weekend has disappeared.  Not fair.  I would like it to go for at least another two days I think.

It's Eistedfodd time of year, which adds more to an already busy life.  It is lovely though to see the children perform.  Another night to go tomorrow night. 

In between kids and washing and groceries and food I had a busy time in the garden this weekend.

10 punnets of foxgloves together with some other assorted lovelies and 320 bulbs were planted.  Oh my aching back!  But, so worth it for the beautiful Spring garden I will have.  A couple more weeks and we will plant up some pots. 

The vege patch is quite lovely at the moment with cabbage, beetroot, broccli, cauliflower, lettuce, spring onions, assorted herbs, spinach and some late tomatoes (which are very slow in ripening).

I really enjoyed preparing some yummy food today, quiche for lunch made with eggs, spring onion, parsely and tomatoes all from our own garden! 

Pizza for tea - I love making yeast raised pizza dough - it was delicious too. 

I can't believe it is Sunday night already - that weekend passed all too quickly.

Oh to have some more time to potter in my garden.

Christmas Morph.........

Can you believe this pic I found on my computer when I got home tonight! Leave a seventeen year old to his own devices & it's amazing how creative they can be.

He is available to live with anyone who would like him for their very own Christmas morph!