Baking Flowers

Today I was making the apple cake with toffee topping from Falling Cloudberries, recipe here (thanks Trin!).  When I was mixing the batter I lifted the arm of the Kenwood and this little beauty was left behind.  Our house truly is filled with flowers!  Report to come on tastiness of cake.

Sew...a needle pulling thread!

"The only place that housework comes before sewing is in the dictionary." I have no idea who said that but it was true of my last few days while I got my prototype for Christmas presents for all my girls ready.
They turned out beautifully...and the model was stoked that they were hers.
So, without further ado here are my pyjama's that I made for all the little lovelies!

Spring Things

Sun dappled walk ways on the way to the library.

Magnolia Flowers

Climbing trees and scraping knees.

Protecting the house from those nasty spring dragons. The bow and arrow was most affective after she lured them in with a yummy spring orange!

HipHipHooray for Fathers

Today was Father's Day in Oz.
We celebrated in style...well we celebrated in our house with our kind of style.

The Place SettingThe Table in a masculine blackThe meal as requested by the Dads. Lamb was Brenton, vegies were Dad.Sticky Date pudding and icecream for desert.

It's so nice to be able to celebrate special people in your life. Special people who love you well. Special people who would do anything for you. Special people who build sewing rooms because you say you want one. Special people who listen and offer time matured information. Special people who know you and still love you. Special people who love your children. Thanks Dad for all these special things that you do...but for most of all who you are...You are amazing!
This is Dad showing his Oh so appalling Father's day present...but at least Kenzi didn't eat his like she ate Brenton's!

Bumper Crop

Garden day again today.  I love garden day.  Although I don't love the bit where I have to sit during the class trying really hard to figure out what's going on and then having to answer stuff in D.U.T.C.H.  Laughable really.  Everyone there thinks I can speak the language but I'm just to nervous/scared to use it. Wrong.  Wrong.  Wrong.  Next week I'm allowed to use English to relay an experience of nature that I've had.  Phew.  Today was a failure on the Dutch front, although I got a round of applause for being able to name most of the vegetables we've planted, go me.  The harvest side of things was much more productive.  The ground is starting to get all wet and squelchy so we're picking and digging and plucking for all we're worth.  This was the haul for today:

And this is what a bunch of it became, a garden-altered version of Mr Youldon's soup perfect for this autumny weather we've got here:

And this is our other fun for today.  We've had Andrew's old reel camera thingy out and we've been taking digital photos through it.  Not great, but kinda cool retroish.  And a flower to start the weekend on:

Soup Ladles and Mustard

So, Just when I think that Kenzi can get no cuter and she is growing into an amazing little girl - despite the fact that today she called custard, mustard! She goes and shows her evil, no good, very bad side (when Mum and Dad are here) and conks her brother on the head with a soup ladle, producing a very big bump! We are yet to discover why the soup ladle was in their bedroom and what she was thinking! Needless to say Mum and Dad left pretty quickly after that incident.
So next time Kenzi comes to visit, lock down all those large cooking implements....or wear a stack helmet!

No Capsicums Need Apply

We got home today and needed food for dinner.  Andrew picked up a few essentials on the way home from work but dinner consisted of whatever we had left in the cupboards and fridge from before Gothenburg.  I did a little searching and came up with this potato and onion frittata.  It was easy and yummy.  Not sure the kiddos would like it, I know I had an aversion to onion when I was little (unless it was the little red/white/green pickled kind) but it's worth a shot.

Ingredients:

• Potatoes
• Onion
• Eggs
• Dried rosemary
• Dried parsley
• Pepper (Oh my gosh, I'm turning into Zeze!)

The Doing Part:

I just kind of went with the feel of things, so no exact measurements.  I washed the potatoes and then sliced them in thickish rounds.  Chopped the onion in long bits.  Heated oil on a low heat in the wok and put in the potatoes, onion, a good wallop of parsley and rosemary and a few grinds of pepper.  I put the lid on the wok and left it for about 20 mins, stirred occasionally until everything was cooked.  Then the eggs (4) were swirled up with a bit more pepper (see, I said I was becoming Zeze-like with my pepper infatuation) and poured over the concoction in the pan.  I pulled the sides up to let the egg run down under and then put the lid back on and left it to cook until it was done.  Easy-peasy and gooooood.  Just serve it up with a big crunchy salad.

Bye-bye, leave me now or never...

We sailed away from Gothenburg this morning and are safely back in Amsterdam.  I hadn't quite had my fill of no cooking or cleaning, but I can't really complain after 1.5 weeks of bliss.  The last day we were there I went for a wander and captured these little things.  Nothing amazing or special, just things that caught my eye.

More Memories

I have no idea why black was so popular.... but look at us...especially Dad's shorts!
I think this was one of the last Smith visits when we were all together. All of us are reasonably dressed and smiling!
Hmmm. Lee and Kylie's wedding. Hmmmmm!
Girls night in at my place at Rutherford.
Family photo's at Rik and Donna's. (Cal was off galavanting)
Just so Calli Strawberry Jam didn't feel left out. How cute is this?
As I go through boxes of photo's I feel all sad and happy. We have done so much together and now we do so much apart. It was inevitable that we should all grow up and probably just as inevitable that we live all over the world...the travel bug was instilled at an early age! But couldn't it be possible that with all this inevitability I would not miss my sisters so much! Bring on December when we can have some four sister fun and take loads of photo's, make memories and just live!

Monday-Monday

Bubble-blowing bears in the Haga.  More sunshine on my back.  And more cheese and bread munching by the Feskekörka (Fish Church).

Saturday

Laying in green, green fields with the ladybirds.  Stretched out on a vintage quilt cover found that morning.  Snacking on a picnic bought on the way.  Watching my husband watching planes.  Zoom.

Friday

Warm sunshine on my back.  Sitting at the edge of a farmer's market and an indoor food market.  Munching cheese and bread.  Mmm.