Hi All,
Well, I still can't find the cable for our camera, but I thought I'd at least put something up here, since I get the occasional complaint about lack of updates (I'm sorry, people, really I am!)
We had a really great Christmas and New Years, surrounded by lots of family, followed by a trip up to the Bay of Plenty to visit friends and family. Hopefully we'll find that cable and get pics up soon.
Papa Sam and our youngest both had their birthdays. Sam got his usual white chocolate passionfruit mud cake, with some quickly painted Warhammer figures on top, while our youngest got himself the train cake he's begged me for quite a few times.
I took part in the Kapiti Women's Triathlon, and didn't finish last in my age group, which was the main aim. I've got a Duathlon coming up next weekend to do as well.
Oh yeah, Papa Sam and I finally made it over to Melbourne and stayed with my inlaws. It was really lovely to finally meet everyone.
As for the garden, it's starting to look decidely winterish, and will probably be heavily mulched sometime really soon.
The kids are doing really well, although I'm sad to report we lost one chicken (Tilly) and one guinea pig (Lance), which the kids have buried and held little services for, underneath a couple of suitable trees.
Anyway, that's all I can think of for now, and I know it's always boring without the pics - we're getting there! So much has happened since I last posted, that I'm sure I will have forgotten something important too.
Take care, and love to all,
Mama Fern
Thursday, 5 April 2012
Sunday, 13 November 2011
Prepping for Summer
Hi again all,
Another Saturday afternoon spent in the front yard, preparing our raised beds for the summer harvest. Sam spent hours hauling our wonderfully dark topsoil from one side of the front garden to the other, filling the tyres and planting out our seedlings.
We filled one of our raised beds with 3 (+ a few) sisters (i.e. Corn, beans and pumpkin), as well as some zucchini and sunflowers. Around the edges we've filled the tyres with onions and carrot seeds.
Our second raised bed has our first attempt at growing asparagus... Shame we have to wait 4 years to see if we did it properly or not. More onions and carrots are around the tyres in this bed too, and our eldest's dwarf apple tree will go on the south side of the bed once it's dormant again.
The bulbs under the front bedroom window are all starting to come up, and both those and the plants outside the front fence are starting to get positive comments from people walking past the house.
I've planted out two bougainvillea (Scarlet O-Hara) and a Dublin Bay climbing rose on the front porch which will hopefully give some much needed summer shade to our lounge and bedroom windows. And yes, those are plastic rubbish bins I've planted them in... Far cheaper than pots, and apparently UV treated (here's hoping). In front of the right hand picture are pots of beetroot, orange jasmine, night-scented jessamine and capsicums.
Also on the front porch, the seedlings we're growing for the school fair in a few weeks time, my beautiful columnar apple trees (polka and waltz) that are starting to fruit, and Head Rodent Killer, our cat, Major Tom.
And some other pics from the front yard... Everything is either starting to bloom or in full bloom. The bees are starting to hang around the foxgloves, cornflowers, lavender and the sage. I can't wait for summer!
More to come soon, including our anniversary present pics :)
Love to all,
Mama Fern
xoxox
Another Saturday afternoon spent in the front yard, preparing our raised beds for the summer harvest. Sam spent hours hauling our wonderfully dark topsoil from one side of the front garden to the other, filling the tyres and planting out our seedlings.
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| The truck dumping our lovely tasty topsoil! |
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| Papa Sam's Everest! |
We filled one of our raised beds with 3 (+ a few) sisters (i.e. Corn, beans and pumpkin), as well as some zucchini and sunflowers. Around the edges we've filled the tyres with onions and carrot seeds.
Our second raised bed has our first attempt at growing asparagus... Shame we have to wait 4 years to see if we did it properly or not. More onions and carrots are around the tyres in this bed too, and our eldest's dwarf apple tree will go on the south side of the bed once it's dormant again.
The bulbs under the front bedroom window are all starting to come up, and both those and the plants outside the front fence are starting to get positive comments from people walking past the house.
I've planted out two bougainvillea (Scarlet O-Hara) and a Dublin Bay climbing rose on the front porch which will hopefully give some much needed summer shade to our lounge and bedroom windows. And yes, those are plastic rubbish bins I've planted them in... Far cheaper than pots, and apparently UV treated (here's hoping). In front of the right hand picture are pots of beetroot, orange jasmine, night-scented jessamine and capsicums.
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Also on the front porch, the seedlings we're growing for the school fair in a few weeks time, my beautiful columnar apple trees (polka and waltz) that are starting to fruit, and Head Rodent Killer, our cat, Major Tom.
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| The first Polka apple |
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| Seedlings for school fair |
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| Major Tom, ready for duty |
And some other pics from the front yard... Everything is either starting to bloom or in full bloom. The bees are starting to hang around the foxgloves, cornflowers, lavender and the sage. I can't wait for summer!
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| Echeveria from under the letterbox |
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| Small pomegranate tree |
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| Fabulous foxgloves |
Love to all,
Mama Fern
xoxox
Wednesday, 2 November 2011
My fave chocolate cake recipe
Hi All,
I keep getting asked for the recipe I use for my chocolate cakes, so I thought it was about time I put in up on the blog...
It's a really nice moist cake, covered with a thick chocolate ganache, and always goes down well. It's also the easiest baking job and can be done either in a big bowl with a wooden spoon, or by throwing all the ingredients into a food processor and whizzing them. It's also really versatile, as it's easy to cut and shape, so it can be a nice, unassuming plain cake or an alien bent on destroying all life other than it's own kind! (admittedly, it took a fair few skewers, and not one but four cake tins and a double mix of the recipe)
Ingredients:
1 2/3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups cocoa
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
2 cups milk
100g melted butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 Tbsp golden syrup
Mix all ingredients in your choice of food processor or bowl and spoon
Pour into a greased and lined 20cm cake tin
Bake for 50 minutes at 180 degrees Celcius or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Icing ingredients:
150gm or more chocolate (king size block of milk chocolate is always good)
75gm butter
Melt together chocolate and butter in a double boiler (or in a bowl on top of a pot of boiling water - bowl not touching the water). Pour icing over cooled cake.
Enjoy!
Mama Fern
I keep getting asked for the recipe I use for my chocolate cakes, so I thought it was about time I put in up on the blog...
It's a really nice moist cake, covered with a thick chocolate ganache, and always goes down well. It's also the easiest baking job and can be done either in a big bowl with a wooden spoon, or by throwing all the ingredients into a food processor and whizzing them. It's also really versatile, as it's easy to cut and shape, so it can be a nice, unassuming plain cake or an alien bent on destroying all life other than it's own kind! (admittedly, it took a fair few skewers, and not one but four cake tins and a double mix of the recipe)
Ingredients:
1 2/3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups cocoa
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
2 cups milk
100g melted butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 Tbsp golden syrup
Mix all ingredients in your choice of food processor or bowl and spoon
Pour into a greased and lined 20cm cake tin
Bake for 50 minutes at 180 degrees Celcius or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Icing ingredients:
150gm or more chocolate (king size block of milk chocolate is always good)
75gm butter
Melt together chocolate and butter in a double boiler (or in a bowl on top of a pot of boiling water - bowl not touching the water). Pour icing over cooled cake.
Enjoy!
Mama Fern
Mama Fern's New Years Resolution follow-up
Yup, I actually kept track of my 2011 resolutions for the whole year so far.... So, how am I tracking?
So, I'm pretty happy that I'm tracking through my resolutions fine :) Almost time for next year's - I've already put all the birthdays and important dates on the 2012 calendar, so it's almost time to plan them
Take care all,
Mama Fern
- Sew 10 items of clothing
- Learn a craft and sell at least one item made using it
- Paint 5 paintings
- Make sure that every one of our kids gets an hour of my time completely focused on just them at least once a month (this doesn't count the joint activities that we spend hours on every week, or school holidays, when it's easier to spread your time)
- Read (and blog a list of) at least 50 books
- Grow 5 plants from cuttings that I've never grown before
- Make my own picalilli - I keep saying I will
- Learn 3 new skills that help me live more sustainably
- Get all the family photos on to the walls or at least into photo albums
- End 2011 with leass than 4 months of debt repayment remaining (and then get NO FURTHER DEBT, unless it's a mortgage)
- Send Christmas cards and bake a Christmas cake
So, I'm pretty happy that I'm tracking through my resolutions fine :) Almost time for next year's - I've already put all the birthdays and important dates on the 2012 calendar, so it's almost time to plan them
Take care all,
Mama Fern
Tuesday, 25 October 2011
Zombie chickens, daleks in the fridge and relocation, relocation, relocation!
Hi All
Now apparently more people read this blog than I thought, and I've been told off at least twice in the past month for not writing much... Sooooooooooooooo, this is some of what's been keeping Sam and I on our toes the past little while...
First, there was the Zombie Invasion! Ok, well, the cute soft and feathery type (once they grew their feathers back). Yup, we added four more chickens (as yet unnamed) to our flock.
And our eldest turned 11, so I made her a cake... And as we're all Doctor Who fans, it had to be a dalek... He invaded our fridge for a night, until she cut him head to feet with a big knife!
And then, Sam managed to turn our 3 bedroom house into a 6 bedroom house
Below are the post move & construction pics of the rooms we made... In all, we turned two bedrooms into five bedrooms, plus a decent sized storage area
Oh yeah, and while we were at it, we also started a model railway
And rigged up our cargo bike with some fairly useful containers for carrying some of our groceries and stuff
And planted out some tyres beneath the girl's bedroom windows, in readiness for the eventual (extremely thorny) roses
And bought a cute cheap plastic solar-powered butterfly, just cos it was cool!
Sam also bought me a Ballerina apple tree, which is in blossom now and should provide fruit in a couple of months - yum!
Well, I think that's most of the big things we've done in the past few weeks, but I'm sure I missed a tonne of it!
Take care all,
Mama Fern
Now apparently more people read this blog than I thought, and I've been told off at least twice in the past month for not writing much... Sooooooooooooooo, this is some of what's been keeping Sam and I on our toes the past little while...
First, there was the Zombie Invasion! Ok, well, the cute soft and feathery type (once they grew their feathers back). Yup, we added four more chickens (as yet unnamed) to our flock.
And our eldest turned 11, so I made her a cake... And as we're all Doctor Who fans, it had to be a dalek... He invaded our fridge for a night, until she cut him head to feet with a big knife!
And then, Sam managed to turn our 3 bedroom house into a 6 bedroom house
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| The building site (I was banned, due to too many "helpful comments") |
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| Initial framework in place for separating the boy's room into 3 |
Below are the post move & construction pics of the rooms we made... In all, we turned two bedrooms into five bedrooms, plus a decent sized storage area
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| Storage room |
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| Eldest boy's bedroom |
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| Middle boy's bedroom |
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| Youngest boy's bedroom |
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| Eldest girl's bedroom |
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| Youngest girl's bedroom |
And rigged up our cargo bike with some fairly useful containers for carrying some of our groceries and stuff
And planted out some tyres beneath the girl's bedroom windows, in readiness for the eventual (extremely thorny) roses
And bought a cute cheap plastic solar-powered butterfly, just cos it was cool!
Take care all,
Mama Fern
Monday, 12 September 2011
Warhammer Pics
I'm so proud of my lil' sis -> Baby sister winning Highpoint GW Armies on Parade.
As requested by my dear sister and her beau Elton.
Alternate Arcane Fulcrums for Storm of Magic; I modelled these on what Kevin's reach would look like in The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, especially the last 2.
As requested by my dear sister and her beau Elton.
Alternate Arcane Fulcrums for Storm of Magic; I modelled these on what Kevin's reach would look like in The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, especially the last 2.
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| Arcane Fulcrum 1 |
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| Arcane Fulcrum 1 |
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| Arcane Fulcrum 1 top view |
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| Arcane fulcrum 2 |
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| Arcane Fulcrum 2 |
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| Arcane fulcrum 3 |
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| Arcane Fulcrum 3 |
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| Arcane Fulcrum 4 |
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| Arcane Fulcrum 4 |
And on the the miniatures, or some of them....
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| Khorne Ogre |
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| Khorne Ogre |
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| Khorne Ogre |
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| Goblin Mutant |
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| Goblin Mutant |
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| Goblin Mutant Standard bearer |
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| The Skulltaker |
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| The Skulltaker |
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| The Skulltaker |
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| The Skulltaker |
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| what I'm currently painting, 40 Bloodletters, 6 Bloodcrusher riders and a Skarbrand |
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| Skarbrand |
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| Top 1 of 7 cabinet left side, Nurgle Daemons, Slaanesh daemons |
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| top 1 of 7 cabinet right side, Khorne Daemons |
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| top 2 of 7 cabinet right side, mixture of stuff |
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| top 2 of 7 cabinet middle |
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| top 2 of 7 cabinet left side, warmachine, mordheim and necromunda escher |
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| top 3 of 7 cabinet right side bretonnians |
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| top3 of 7 cabinet middle, more bretonnians |
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| top 3 of 7 cabinet right side, and even more bretonnians |
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| middle shelf on cabinet left side, tzeentch flying circus daemons |
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| middle shelf on cabinet in middle, even more flamy Tzeentch goodness |
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| middle shelf on cabinet right side, and the rest including flying chariot. |
As you can see i need to really clean things up. will paint up and see if I can take better photos of my Khorne Daemons soon. Hoping to get all the bloodletters painted before the weekend.
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