The gardens had a wonderful array of flowers, particularly the native flowers. Here is a delicate grevillea.
All posts by Sandra Graham
Celebrating Spring – Part 1
I’m back! BB and I had a wonderful wedding and honeymoon. I now have a wealth of photos to sift through, and months worth of photos to show you.
But first we will return to Jamberoo Abbey. It was mid-August when I took these photos, and spring was on its way.
Here is my favourite Moreton Bay fig in the afternoon. I stayed in a cottage that overlooked the tree, so there are many more delightful tree photos coming up.
Spring is Coming
Sorry it’s been a long time between drinks. I’ve been diverted by more personal things lately – like getting married. The big day is tomorrow, so I will again be off-line for awhile. But before I go I’ll leave you with a taster for my next series of posts celebrating the coming of spring.
Winter Cooking – Part 3
To round off our mid-winter meal, we finished with my first ever pie – apple and blackberry. I made it using a recipe in my trusty Australian Women’s Weekly cookbook. Here it is baking in the oven.
I’m quite proud of it because I made the shortcrust pastry myself – with the help of the food processor – and also the filling. BB was a huge help – he was the apple peeler!
In the end the crust was a little burned (I put it on the top shelf at the beginning of cooking – should have been low-middle shelf), but it still tasted lovely.
Winter Cooking – Part 2
The bread accompanies a warming bowl of pea and ham soup. Our local butcher does a mean ham hock – he has his own smokehouse out the back. The smokeyness the hock gives to the soup really lifts its flavour above any other soup I’ve made, making this my favourite soup.
Winter Cooking – Part 1
Last Christmas I got what has proven to be the best of gifts – a bread maker. Before this, I had never made bread before – working with yeast and dough seemed so daunting, and time consuming. Now I can make loaves like this. Well, the machine does.
My bread maker has rarely gone into a cupboard since I got it because I’m addicted to the smell and taste of freshly baked bread. Who wants to eat store bought bread after this?
Fed Up
The beagle was a bit fed up of the cold and rainy weather of recent weeks.
She was much more chirpy when the sun stuck around.
Post Le Tour Round-Up
I’ve disappeared from the radar for awhile because my photography has been taking a back seat to watching the Tour de France. It’s been 3 weeks of 2am bed-times, and although this wasn’t the first time I stayed up late over a period of weeks for a sporting event, this time it was completely worth it.
Why? Because for once the experience has been a remarkably positive. Not just because an Australian finally won the race, but because this year’s tour has been an event devoid of violence, cheating, and overt chest thumping – elements that are unfortunately all too common in big sports events.
It didn’t mean that it was without spectacle – how can it be with 21 days of hard riding over wind-blown coasts to snow capped peaks? There were sprints, break-aways, chases, perilous descents, exhausting ascents, and in the first week, lots of horrendous crashes. But what impressed me was that the spectacle didn’t rely on the negative – even drug busts were generally absent. Most commentators agree that it might be the ‘cleanest’ tour in a long time). And watching the final stage into Paris, it was obvious that the riders not only respected each other, but were even friends.
So many congratulations to Cadel Evans and his BMC team for quietly, determinedly, and most efficiently going about their business every day. His (and their) reward was being crowned winner on the Champs-Élysées.
Oh, and I didn’t even realise until later that it was Tina Arena belting out the national anthem, but it was a nice way to celebrate a momentous event.
Mulbring Quarry – Part 4
This was a good find for me – sponge thingies, and two brachiopods – marine creatures with shell coverings.
Mulbring Quarry – Part 3
Tools of the trade – a mallet, a chisel, plenty of newspaper (or toilet paper) to wrap the fossils in for transportation, gloves, and a bucket to carry all and sundry.
Static and Silence 