Chicken-little.

 

We are pleased to announce the arrival of our new additions.....our 6 week old chickens collected tonight. 3 of araucana descent, 1 australorp and 1 of *ahem* disputed origin! Hopefully all ladies......

 

 

 

 

 

Below- It didn't take them long to locate the bar...they were all thrilled when they were not asked for ID.

 

 

 

The buffet proved popular.....

 

 

 

 

Sir Bebe Le Pew is most impressed by our new family members-just quietly, he had been whispering that a couple of our "girls" were using the term loosely and just didn't have the *ahem* drive that they used to! Bebe-be a gentleman please!

 

He's hoping that they are all ladies too....

Just jammin'.......

I cannot believe that a full month has gone by since I last posted! What can I say-it has been an incredibly busy time with us hosting more than 40 different people over the Christmas season!

I hope that you and yours have enjoyed exactly the kind of Holiday Season that has made you happy- I know that we have.

Now- to resume normal transmission!

Yesterday saw a top temperature of 45c here and after surviving that we were relieved to wake up to a much cooler day today. It had also been incredibly windy and when I was watering and pottering in the garden this morning I decided to use some of the winddamaged edibles and make jam.

During my neverending infrequent bloghopping I remembered seeing a recipe for Vanilla Rhubarb Jam and wondered if I could come up with something similiar with what I had on hand.

I painstakingly chopped up in the food processor some rhubarb stalks and 4 small apples-which gave me 8 cups of fruit.

To that I added 3 cups white sugar, a few vanilla pods ( leftover from my homemade vanilla essence), 1 lemon-juice squeezed and added together with the skins and 3/4cup black chai tea.

I let that come to a boil stirring over a medium high heat-then let it bubble for 10 mins or so-until the fruit was soft.

I fished out the lemon peel, vanilla pods and apple cores then tossed in another 3/4 cup sugar mixed with 1/3 packet Jamsetta, stirred until it dissolved and let it slow bubble until I was happy with the consistency.

Into hot jars and voila! Vanilla Chai & Rhubarb Jam. :) This jam has a nice tang to balance out the sweetness and just a hint of the Chai spice...mmmmm.

His Lordship heartily approved-partaking of the fresh jam on homemade sourdough English Muffins.

I do have photos BUT blogger isn't playing nice at the moment!

"Silly Season", Sufficiently Sufficient Style!

Since my last post I have enjoyed a trip to Sydney & Scone to visit with friends-the travel involved was well worth it, as I spent the days with them in tears of laughter-just what I needed before the "Silly Season" sets in!

Today I have finally made our Christmas Pudding-the fruit has been soaking since October. It's a 3-in-1 mix, which also provides for our Christmas Cake ( which I made a couple of weeks back).

Once the pudding has boiled for 4 hours it needs to hang to dry-so here is how I do it! Upturn one of the stools on the kitchen bench, thread through a pole and voila! Pudding Drying contraption!

 

For breakfast this morning His Lordship & I enjoyed homemade strawberry jam ( made in the microwave from our homegrown strawberries) on homemade sourdough English Muffins....mmmmmmmm.

 

Finally-here is a rather ordinary photo of this year's Christmas tree- instead of the red,green & gold I have used for years I have gone for a "vintage" theme-with most ornaments handmade by me! Why yes, yes I am pleased with my efforts! My humility could do with some work though....... ;)

 

No-the angel is not about to swan dive off the top-that's His Lordship's effort-which has been rectified!

 

 

Parsnips and potatoes.......

Overnight we have had an spectacular electrical storm-which provided some good soaking rain. It moistened the soil enough for me to harvest the remaining parsnips-and a couple of cheeky potatoes which had sprung up!

 

 

 

I also harvested another 1.5kg of strawberries- I think I may use this batch to try some microwave strawberry jam.

 

 

Telstra still doesn't have our telephone services up and running in the area-some businesses have managed to get their EFTPOS up and running and there are also some ATMs working.

 

Ah well......abck to the Dark Ages!

 

Blacking out......

The area in which we live is currently suffering from day 5 of a telecommunications blackout due to a fire in the main Telstra exchange based in Warrnambool.

This has resulted in no landlines, no internet for those not on satellite/wireless and the EFTPOS system has also been unavailable. Debit and credit cards were not able to be used at those businesses which didn't have an offline processing machine-so if consumers did not have cash they couldn't purchase!

Lines were formed at banks as clients tried to withdraw cash-ATMs were not working either!

Banks and governments have been guiding us into being a cashless society for some time now-yet in times like these cash is the only option!

It has been quite an experience-which is not over yet! Mobile phones are beginning to work again-although household landlines are still not available. Emergency services were obviously the first priority.

 In areas like ours mobile reception is patchy and landlines are a must. It is expected to take another 5 days or so before the system is fully restored.

It has been like living through one of those futuristic movies where society comes to a grinding halt and humanity needs to resort to old fashioned skills!

Our household has managed quite well due to my pantry and freezer-milk has been the only purchase in the past 5 days and I could have got by without if required..it's just that I can't stand powdered milk in my cup of tea! Our vegie garden and hens have also continued to provide for us-so Casa de Kyndylan has remained comfortable during this stressful-for-some incident.

How would you and your family cope in such a situation?

Sunshine and strawberries..........

It's a coolish late spring day here, with the sun shining and a lovely light breeze blowing.

The Christmas cake is baking in the oven, the washing is on the line and I have just harvested nearly a kilo of strawberries.

Life is good.

Glories from the glorybox....

Over the weekend we made the return 7 hr trip to visit my parents-spending the night with them. It was the first time that we had taken our remaining dog to visit, and as they have a small dog of their own we were feeling some trepidation!

However all was well-both dogs behaved impeccably and our boy was totally spoiled-I hope he doesn't expect bacon for breakfast everyday now! :)

Whilst I was there my mother asked me if I would like some doilies and placemats. These items have come from my step Grandmother who is 91 and formed part of her glory box over 70 years ago! Some are handstitched, others were made on machine. The sad thing is that no-one in her line of blood relatives wanted these beautiful items!

So, it was with great pride and gratitude that I accepted them. These pieces have never been used because they were so special to her.