Its August, its raining, in Iso and alls well!

Hello!

Great to be back, and I do look forward to working my way around and catching up on everyone's news while I've been away from Blogger.

Life here in our little spot in the world hasn't changed much.  We've been keeping busy with home-type activities.  
Have been getting used to the Click n Collect method of grocery shopping... hmmm, that can be fun... yesterday I clicked on 4 different kinds of items under the "desserts" category, lol, today I feel not quite so tempted so shall un-click on a couple... oh that Custard Danish is definitely staying though 😉

We've been having some very welcome rain of late and the garden is lapping it up.  One of my favourite things to do is to look down at the fishpond through our loungeroom window... seeing the raindrops on the water and the fish happily poking around the pond is lovely.  Here's what I mean:

While I'm on the subject of the pond.  Here's a few more I've taken over the years:

A cute little Skink, likes to visit the pond occasionally.

Skinks nest in the tops of pot plants where there's leaf litter etc.  We have lots of them around our garden.  I purposely leave old saucers overturned as shelters for them too... they use them, a lot!

Here's a pretty Poppy (cutting from our Son) and Waterlily (cutting from our Daughter) that have grown in the pond, in the warmer weather:

I'd been getting myself in a bit of a "tizz" over the fact that the wearing of masks hadn't been encouraged in our State (Victoria), and yet the infection rates and deaths were rising daily... so I've been that annoying old lady who writes emails and does rants on FB lol! 

Finally, the powers-that-be were suddenly embracing the wearing of masks, in fact they made them mandatory (so many experts had produced solid evidence of their efficacy, side by side social distancing etc, at last our government acknowledged them). 

For those odd occasions we do venture out into the world, we wear our handmade masks. My sewing is a bit crooked, but it does the job... I made them the evenings while watching tv.  Here's some of my efforts:

Can't work out how to add a caption to above image, no matter... Hubby likes the top style and I prefer the two lower styles.

Well, now, I hope everyone's doing ok as we work our way through this wonky year.  We all have family we miss dearly don't we ... just got to take each day as it comes, worrying is time wasted ❤

Bye for now and I'll see you over at yours, Sue xx

~ Some flowers for today ~

Hello!

There's nearly nothing nicer than sharing flowers is there.  Be they fresh ones, photos of them, paintings or even catching a whiff of a scent of one.... sending most of those out to wherever they may land:

Another of my waterbowls with sweet and shy native violets

Freesias resting on one of my Mum's beautifully worked cushions.
I'm so glad I took this photo years ago as the actual cushion has disintegrated with age and use... the magic of photos, it will live on

Some beauties... we once did some housesitting and there happened to be many roses growing.
I love this shot in the late afternoon light.

I'm sorry if I may have already shown this one in the past but its a favourite and seems to want to be shown again somehow

Kind wishes to each and every one of you xx

Pretties, Cooking, Iso hair cut & smiley things!

Hello!

Hope everyone's doing ok in our mutual isolations.
It's been lovely visiting and seeing what things are happening here in Australia and all over the world... as we each cope within our own little bubbles.
Thanks for sharing all your lovely posts!

Here's what been going on in our little bubble...

First, a pretty little bunch of flowers picked specifically for one of our dear loved ones for a happy celebration.  Its lovely being able to have shared it through private messaging and later on, here!

A special bouquet for a special young lady xxxxxx

Baking!
While searching through recipes for inspiration, I found this old newspaper cutting:

Sounded easy ... so I gave it a try:

Looked yummy....

... and it was!
Next time I make it, I think I'll give the chopped dates a little buzz in the microwave first though, just to soften them a tiny bit more.

Ooh my hair was quickly getting on my nerves.  The layers had grown out and the fringe was annoying... what to do!
Well, I spread an old sheet out in the bathroom, got the scissors and a hand mirror - put a Do Not Disturb notice on the door and got stuck in.
Pretty darn pleased with the results......

Used the razor as well... luckily I still have thick hair and 'mistakes' aren't as noticeable  😉

Another baking session a few days later:

I experimented with a very simple method of making dough with just 2 ingedients.... 1 and 1/2 cups of self raising flour and 1 cup of greek yoghurt which is what I use to make pizza bases.  A dear blog-friend's hubby told me about that method and I love seeing what else I can use it for.

For these apple rolls, I made up the dough with the addition of 2 teaspoons of sugar in it.  Mix until nice and soft and it holds together.  No kneading but just patting and a bit of squeezing to a nice soft lump (keep flour on hand to stop stickiness) - leave it to rise a little bit while slicing apples.

Roll dough out on a floured surface, place apples and a mixture of butter, cinnamon and brown sugar, roll up, slice and bake in a pre-heated oven at 160 deg fan forced (320 deg F) for 20 mins.  Delicious, light and yummy:

Nice with cream or without!
I creamed some butter, the cinnamon and brown sugar together... that's what in the plastic container on the left of the above photo.

 Sometimes, I wish we had a doggie!
But I know we can't, the vet bills alone would be impossible .... so, I make do lol:

A little art... a recent card to welcome a dear little girl born just a few weeks ago:  Mummy, Daddy, Big Brother, Middle Size Brother and little Brother , and tiny Sister in her warm nest xx

Thought I'd include a photo of an order we received from our little local general store.  The large supermarkets happily sold extraordinary amounts of essentials to people for weeks, knowingly leaving nothing for others.  Well, there's many local shops doing mighty things for their local communities.  We for one will support them much better than we have been in the past, especially when this pandemic is over:

Onwards, with a toss of the head and a smile to finish this post:

Hugs and Cheerio, Sue xx