Sunny winter days

Did anyone notice the full moon last week? I walked into the lounge room and was quite struck by the sight of it. Of course I had to grab my camera and try and take a photo so went outside in the cold but it was hidden by the trees so ended up trying a shot through the dirty window and fly screen. When I learn how to use my new camera hopefully I can take a better one.

We have had really pleasant sunny days lately and it has been so nice to spend some time in the garden even if it means pulling out weeds. However you often find a gem growing amongst the weeds and such was the case with this beauty...

I always thought these were snowdrops but it seems that they are....

 

...snowflakes according to Gardening Australia. Apparently snowdrops have the green dots on the inside of the petals not the outside. Wherever the dots are they are certainly a lovely delicate flower and brighten up the winter garden if you can find them amongst the weeds that is ;-)

As I mentioned in a previous post some of the bromeliads are flowering at present. We do have a few different varieties ...

...and these are the ones in bloom at the moment. 

Strawberries were on special the other day and, as mine are continually being chewed on by some random pest, I ended up buying a couple of punnets as I wanted to make ...

...Strawberry and Chai Jam which has no added sugar. I used Blinky's recipe on The Herb Barrow. 

The plan was to add jam and cream to the scones I was going to make as I had scribbled down a recipe on a piece of paper and had been thinking of trying it out for some time.

This was the recipe:

600g SR flour

2t Baking Powder

1t salt

230mls cream

200 mls milk

Bake in 200 degree oven till golden brown for 15 minutes. Makes 12 scones. 

 I have no idea where I got it from though. Now, I am not a scone maker and have only made them a couple of times in my life as they always turn out like rocks. Anyway I thought it was worth a try and started measuring out the SR flour only to find that I didn't have enough so added some plain flour as I thought I would just add some baking powder but I ran out of that too so threw in some coconut flour as well. I can hear all you expert scone makers shudder right now. 

Well you know how they turned out.... 

...they didn't rise at all :-( Oh well, they got eaten anyway and next time...if there is one, I will try Mrs.Smart's scone recipe on Tania's new blog One Contented Homebody. 

Of course if I was really organised like Annabel who is working hard on her pantry in this series  I would have enough extra flour on hand but I don't have the room in the freezer to keep extra stock and to prevent the weevils from ruining it although I do freeze it for a few days when I first buy it when I remember. By the way, Annabel has just shared the contents of her eBook How to Make all your Christmas Presents in a series of posts so if you would like to be inspired to start making gifts for Christmas head over to her blog and work back from this post. 

If you want to see an amazing pantry have a look at Patsy's on A Working Pantry. I am always gobsmacked when I see some of the preserves, etc. on US blogs. I imagine it is a necessity in some areas of the country where people are snowed in for days at a time or it is too dangerous to drive on icy roads which isn't a problem we have here in Australia. However, as we live in uncertain times as we have been reminded of recently by the crisis in Greece, it would hold us in good stead to have a good back-up of stores. Patsy also has an excellent eBook Yes You CAN Have a Well Stocked Pantry

which sells for $4 USD. I think it works out to be about $5 in Aussie dollars. 

Thank you for your kind comments about the story I wrote for my grandchildren in my last post What Did Nanna See? I have added it to the other stories I have written for them in a new section at the top of my blog under Children's Stories in case there are some parents or grandparents out there who would like to read an Aussie story to their children. I would like to have them printed out eventually as a keepsake for my grandchildren but I will have to find an alternative to photo books which can be quite expensive especially if printing out a number of stories.

 This little bub also likes listening to stories with his sisters when he doesn't have pumpkin all over his cute little face. Doesn't that bring back memories? :-)