This Week's Random Photos

This week I thought I would post some random photos as the chickens are all fine.  Although I did replace the straw in their nesting boxes a few days ago and made a lovely deep bed for them only to find Ruby liked it so much she would not leave the cosy compartment and she has gone broody again!  It's only been a month or so since she last spent about 32 days sitting on nothing.  Oh well, here we go again.!

                                                      This is the view down to our pool 

                                                                         

A lovely shrub that has flowers that start out blue and fade to white so it always has different coloured flowers on it at the same time.  It really is gorgeous, will find the name of it and post it here in a few days time.

                                         We have a lot of gardenias flowering at the moment.

                                                                                

                                                              Our resident kookaburra

                                                                                
                                                                 Dancing Lady Orchid

                                                                                

Ruby and Abbey are both Light Sussex Chickens and Ruby is bigger than Abbey.  They are supposed to lay large white eggs, which Abbey does but Ruby lays small brown eggs??  I did a bit of research on this and apparently the Light Sussex chickens were originally brown (well over a hundred years ago) so we think Ruby might be carrying an ancient gene.  : )

                                                                               

A few days ago a large section of our passionfruit vine blew off it's trellis in a storm and Abbey thinks it's a lovely, cool place to sit.

                                                                                
                                                         An Echidna at our letterbox

                                                                                  

Those chickens!  I let them out for a few minutes to peck on some greens and this is the thanks I get!

                                                                                 

                                                                            
 I collect our fallen hibiscus flowers so I can see them and enjoy that amazing colour.  Our lawn is recovering from months of well below average rainfall.  It's incredible how it has greened up after two storms.

                                                                         
I took this photo a few days ago of Esmeralda and Jett luxuriating in the sunshine and dust.  The chickens send up plumes of dust and roll and flap their wings in it.  This is natural behaviour that caged birds do not get to enjoy and is just one of the reasons why I encourage the buying of free range eggs.  They absolutely adore it!

                                                                             
Christmas is coming and I must make my Christmas Cake and start on all those old fashioned sweets that everyone loves so much.  Here is a photo I posted last year but now I am going down to Spotlight to buy some fabric to make a quilt and I must finish knitting a gorgeous pair of socks I started about a month ago - more on these later.  : )

 

 

 

                                                                              
                                                                                
                                                                 

Homemade Chutney

There are few things that evoke that warm and homely feel that we all love more than the aromas of fresh baking or something bubbling away on the cook top and a large pot of simmering chutney is one of the best.  It's as if the whole house takes a deep breath and exhales when the rich scents of  spice, garlic, ginger and fruit gently fill the home - a deeply rewarding experience we miss out on when everything we eat comes prepackaged from the supermarket.

So last week I made my favourite chutney recipe (see below), it's simple and delicious and if you double the recipe, you will have enough to give away to family and friends and before long you will become renowned for your wonderful condiments and only you will know how simple they are to make!

                                                                     Lovely ingredients

                                                                        

Place your clean glass jars and lids in a large pot of water straight from the tap (if you put them into boiling water they will crack) and heat them up until boiling - cover and boil gently for 10 minutes.

After sterilizing, remove jars and lids with tongs and place upside down on a clean tea towel or place upside down on a baking tray in a warm oven - cool chutney into cool jars, hot chutney into hot jars.

                                                                              
                                                     Simple, gorgeous and delicious!

                                                                               
                                                                               

                                                                         

Mixed Fruit Chutney

Ingredients

230g (8oz) cooking Apples
230g (8oz) Pears
170g (6oz) Dried, Diced apricots
2 tablespoons Sultanas
340g (12 oz) soft Brown Sugar (I do not double this amount, I use about 450g but this is a personal choice)
285ml (half a pint) Cider Vinegar
12 cloves Garlic sliced
1 tablespoon finely chopped Ginger
1 dessertspoon Salt (I use less)
1 teaspoon Caraway Seeds or Cumin Seeds

Method

Peel and core apples and pears.  Cut fruit (not sultanas) ginger and garlic into small pieces and mix the rest of the ingredients in a pan.  Boil gently for 40 minutes.  Cool and Bottle.

There is so much pleasure in eating real food, it's time to reclaim the kitchen and experience some of the wonderful satisfaction and joy that comes from  getting back to basics and making some of these beautiful old recipes - your life will be richer for it.                  








                                                                           

Fairy Egg

Last week one of the chickens popped a fairy egg into the nest.  At first I thought a wild bird must have taken a liking to their nesting boxes but I quickly realised that this indeed was laid by one of our chickens!

It is about the size of a pigeon egg and weighs 9 grams.  Apparently it is not uncommon and all the girls have been laying normal eggs ever since.  I wish I still had that big double yoker so I could put the two eggs together.  I have not cracked it open yet so I don't know if it has a tiny yoke and is just a teeny egg - cute but weird!  Oh, and it was laid on Halloween, maybe just one of the chickens having a joke. : )

Good news, Esmeralda has not coughed for about two weeks and is back to her normal self - noisy, demanding and eats too much - it's good to have her back. : )

Some random photos -

                                    Orchids growing in my mother and father in-laws garden

                                                                                 

                                                                                
                                                                             

                                                                                  
An iris growing in our garden pond.

                                                                            
    How to protect our cycad revoluta from being decimated by those blue moths that lay eggs on the tender new fronds.  Firstly spray new leaf buds with pyrethrum then cover with net, repeat spraying every few days as the moths lay their eggs before the new leaves appear.

                                                                                                                                                     
After two years of unprecedented rainfall we have barely had a drop since July this year so yesterday the water tanker paid us a visit to top up our swimming pool.  We can no longer risk using our bore water (well water) because we would rather save this for our garden and as we are not connected to the mains water supply, we must prepare for this dry spell to continue.  

                                                                                 
Ok, this is all well and good but what has been baking this week?  As my father in law has an orange tree that just seems to keep on fruiting, I thought I would make something using his fresh oranges so I baked a Sticky Orange and Vanilla Upside-down Cake - yum!

                                                                             
                                                 Now, turn it out and there's the surprise!

                                                                               

                     

           
This recipe came from this website - http://foodforfour.com/2010/04/the-cookbook-challenge-week-20-sticky-orange-and-vanilla-upside-down-cake/comment-page-1/

Until next time,

Enjoy yourselves!  : )