Sunday Sribblings "Dinner"

G'Day,
It is Sunday, so.......the Sunday Scribblings prompt for this week is 'Dinner".
It is dinner time here in Australia as I am writing this post. The clock on the computer screen reads 7.45 exactly.
I have dinner prepared and am just waiting for my hubby, Pete to finish work. He has been doing a 12 hour shift at the jail where he works and dinner will be waiting for him as he comes through the door.
Years ago it was a sunday night tradition to have the roast leg of lamb and all the veges cooked up for the family to share as their evening meal. Well sometimes I do do that, but not always.
Tonight I am having what I call roll ups. The picture above shows my table set and waiting to go. Others call them wraps, or burritos. What ever you like, I call my version roll ups. That gives me lee way to play around and not follow thw recipe, I like doing that, using whatever I can find in the cupboard at the time.
Wholemeal tortillas,chicken strips, tomato, salad leaves, cheese, cucumber, avocado, capsicum, taco sauce. Cut up into strips because they sit inside the tortillas easier that way.
I cooked the chicken breast in a little olive oil (I always use olive oil) with an onion and lots of peri peri seasoning then thickened the juice with a teaspoon of cornflour. Can't waste that juice.
Not as good as the traditional family roast, nothing compares, but my dinner should be o.k. A bit of a novelty, we don't often have meals like that but when we do they are enjoyed by all.
I am listening for the car to pull into the driveway, then I will jump up and reheat the chicken mixture and finish setting the table.
Today I was sick of sitting around the house. The day was cool and sunny here with probably 40% cloud cover for most of the day after yesterdays rain. Nice. I went to the nursery at nearby Yarralumla, and bought a pretty miniature red cyclamen. That is it you can see sitting on the dinner table. Then I thought Mmmm, now I need a nice white, inside pot to display it in so I went to the hardware shop and got a square plastic pot. Looks good. I also got a punnet of viola and planted them out. They will survive the winter and if I am lucky will keep flowering for quite a while to come. Other than that I have been playing with old pohtos and have put them on my face book page. My daughter is complaining about me embarrassing her with them Hahaha. Love it. That is what Mummies get to do when their kids are this age. My eldest son is quite enjoying it but my second son hasn't commented as yet. A ice way to spend a Sunday.
I made a batch of little carrot cakes and put cream cheese and passion fruit icing on them, they turned out well. No recipe, I made it up as I went along, I like doing that. Basically you know what goes in and how it should look so you just balance it out and it works.
Today is ANZAC day in Australia. There is a public holiday tomorrow to commemorate it. I did not go to the march. I am bad. It upsets me to see the old soldiers march and honor their lost mates. I even get teary at the songs they play on the radio on ANZAC day There are no first world war diggers left now. The ranks of the 2nd world war marchers are very thin too. Not all of the Vietnam veterans march either and their numbers are falling. One day there will be none of the original participants from these wars left to march on ANZAC day.
Unfortunately there will be others.
Unfortunately.
So sad.
Lest we forget.

Is that a car now? No........ wrong car, it didn't stop. It is getting late, I want my dinner. I will write a bit longer. What. He should be home very soon. Ah that sounds more promising, I heard a car door.
Bye.
Love Linda.

Sunday Scribblings, "Wonder"

G'Day,
I just thought I would put in a very short, very late post for this prompt.
I liked the prompt word but somehow the time drifted away with me and I thought its not sunday anymore, nobody is going to read it this late so I didn't bother. But I liked the word "Wonder" and had been thinking about it so.....

I wonder
If I am the person I see me to be
or the person you see me as
Can anybody see
I hide inside me
Or is the me that I see
just my ego.

That is what I wonder.
Taking this from another side.
I wonder and love the world around me.
I wonder at the way everything fits so beautifully together
Its symbiosis.
Until..... the most destructive animal ever created
decides it should try to change nature and plays with it,
then finds out years later that they were wrong,
then tries another tack
then finds out they were wrong again,
and tries again....

Bye.
Love Linda.

*********

Friday Fertilizer. Week 3. April 2010

G'Day,
Don't you just love this. Someone had decorated this tree in the park around the corner near my house. Cute eh!

It is Friday Fertilizer time again. You can find a link to see what that is all about on my side bar under the heading 'Tootsie Time" she is our lovely prompt host. Go have a look, participate even. Ti's good fun for us plant minded people.
The photo above here is taken of the big trees in my front yard. Unfortunately they are all very big and all deciduous. I am sure going to have a lot of raking up to do very shortly. Lol. These are just 2 of about 6 which are along the front and street side of my house.
I Just came back from a short walk around the neigbourhood to take some photos to put in here. It is autumn here and the trees are all coloring nicely. Oranges and reds, golden yellows and all shades of brown in between. So pretty I thought it would be nice to share with you all.

There are two of these trees with berries around the corner 2 houses away from me. Don't know their names but they are looking good at the moment.The berries are about 1cm, so quite big in comparison to the pyracanth and cottoneasters that are common around the area and have fruit on them at the moment as well.
A self portrait. Oh dear. Lol. You're lookin' old Linny.
Wet doggie, Rufus, nothing like the smell of a little wet dog is there. This is the Theodore street pedestrian underpass, around the corner at one end of the street where I live. Most of the suburbs in Canberra are separated by these green areas where pedestrians and push bikes can move around without being amongst the roads and traffic. Just through this underpass are 2 schools and a small shopping center plus an aged care center. Very nice urban planning I think.
Pretty red. Don't ask me the name of these trees.
Yellow rusted birch leaves.
Tree in the parkway. Well, I call it the parkway, I don't know the proper name for it but I enjoy walking along here. It is just a 25 minute walk along here from my house to get to the town center of Woden and lots of shops and restaurants, entertainment, etc etc. So where I live is a pretty nice and handy to everything area.
Drain through parkway.
Big tree root showing scars from being run over and damaged by the gang mower.
Golden leaf from a birch tree.
Martin street, 2 houses away from me. Correct me if I am wrong but I think these red trees are big oak trees. There are 2 more of these at the side of my house. The parkway where that picture of the drain is, runs parallel to this street.
Here are the Nerines I tried to take a photo of to share with you last week. They are more open now and very pretty. In my front garden bed.
Well that is about it. Most of the stuff around my garden is slowing down towards winter so the flowers are pretty much on their last legs. There are still a few about.
As you can see here, we are enjoying a wet weekend. Lord knows nobody around here is game to complain about rain after the drought we have had, god forbid if the rain goes way again.....
Tomorrow, Sunday, is ANZAC day. That means we get a long weekend with Monday being a public holiday all around Australia.
ANZAC stands for "Australian and New Zealand , Army Corps. " So tomorrow is the day we commemorate our fallen service men who fought in wars. We have marches, and parades to honor them. Nowadays it has come to stand for all servicemen who served in war not just the ones who didn't come home again. I could write so much more here, but if you want to look it up you can find lots about around the www, I am sure. Traditions, like dawn service and two up games, to name a few. My Dad always loved ANZAC day, being a soldier it was special to him, his day to remember his old mates, the ones who never came home again. With him being on active service in WW2, Korea, Malaya and Vietnam I know there must have been quite a lot.
I have several Rosemary bushes around the yard. Rosemary is the herb of remembrance and it is a tradition here to wear a sprig of it on ANZAC day. I will go out and pick a bunch and put it in a vase for inside the house.
O.K. bye.
Love Linda.

Friday Fertilizer Autumn

G'Day,
It is time again to put in my two bobs worth for the weekly Friday Fertilizer prompt hosted by "Tootsie Time". You can find her link on my side bar as "Tootsie". Thanks Toots for allowing us all to play in here and show off our careful garden creations. (by the way, 2 bob is old aussie slang for two shillings in the old currency that was replaced by decimal currency in the late 1960's. Equivalent to 20 cents now days.)
The blurry inadequate pic above is of the very first nerine bloom. I have been watching and waiting to see what sort of flower was going to pop open from their snakey looking flower heads. Lots of flower heads unopened still, I am hoping there are some other colors amongst them.
These bright pink little guys are an oxalis of some sort, don't know what the proper name is.
The lovely autumn roses are nearly finished their flowering but there are still just a few pretty buds to go, this is one of the last.
A straggly azalea bush out the back.
There are a few camellia flowers on one of the bushes along the side back fence. Flowering early.......out of season.


This is a collection of the tiny sea shells I took from Rosedale beach on the south coast of N.S.W. I am such a big kid sitting out the back on my swing playing with them and arranging them for my camera. Pete and I went down there for a drive last Tuesday.
That great looking black thing is a sort of seaweed anchor. The holes in it are where the seaweed was joined on to the roots which were clinging to the rocks under water. I reckon they look cool. The little colored shells were in groups washed up everywhere along the beach. They remind me of little boiled lollies.
The real estate agent has informed us that they will be conducting a house inspection on Tuesday next week. I have never had trouble with an inspection before but they do make me nervous. Just the thought of people coming into your home to inspect the quality of your housework is a bit weird, but necessary if you are renting a house I guess. If I was the owner of a rented house I would like to know if the renters were taking good care of it. I can understand that. I should get up from the puter. I have windows to clean, bathrooms to keep fresh. Got to vacuum that spot on the carpet where dear hairy son tipped carpet powder after he made a slop with his food. I should, I should.
I should make a cup of tea first.
It is so nice outside today, clear, cool and bright, 21 degrees was the prediction. We had our first frost for the season a few nights ago. Nice to sleep on cool nights this time of the year.
Better go make that cuppa.
Bye.
Love Linda.

G'Day,
It is Sunday Scribblings time again. The prompt for this week is "Deadline"!
Here is a bit of fiction to share.

Darlene and Anita were twins. Not identical twins. Darlene was a leader, she had smooth shiny long dark hair which was admired by her peers. She was the boss and Anita followed her. Hung on her words, did what she said, because Darlene was always right...well...almost always. Darlene was good at netball she was the goalie, the ball was always passed to her. The team cheered her when she shot for goal and she usually got it in the ring. Daring, darling, Darlene.
Anita was a bit shorter than her sister, a bit less confident, stood in the background but still the sort of kid that the other children wanted to play with because they wanted to be near Darlene, and Anita was always near Darlene. Right beside her, her confidant, her backstop, her close ally. A special bond only apparent to the two girls, as twins.
When they were babies their mother would put them in to the same bassinet, then when it became too small, as the girls grew they shared a cot. Not because there was only one bed to share but because Darlene was fractious and putting the two girls together would calm her. Anita was calm, she settled easily, able to settle where ever she was laid to sleep.
The girls rarely fought. Darlene would share anything with her sister but Anita had to have her private things. Mum tried to talk to her and get her to see that Darlene's way of sharing was the way it should be done. But Anita wouldn't see it their way. Her snuggly bear was hers, just hers and Darlene could not have it. Darlene was not to touch her snuggly bear, it was hers, just hers, her special confidant. Snuggly was the bearer of her worries, her tears when the world was big and scary and unfair. Snuggly was there in her arms, tucked against her face catching her silent sob at the unfairness of it all. No, nobody would ever touch her snuggly except her. No one, especially not Darlene. Mum was allowed to wash snuggly, but no-one else touched her,
Darlene considered it a challenge to sneak a cuddle of snuggly. She had her own version of snuggly, but hers was called, Scruff. Scruff was usually kept under her bed amongst the screwed up pieces of artwork from last terms school basket that she had bought home, it had been admired by all and finished with. Mum told Darlene to put it away. And she did, under the bed, after all it was good for nothing now, finished with. She was not silly like Anita who had all of her silly drawings in a file in a basket in the wardrobe, neat and tidy, kept..... for who knew what. Darlene didn't have time for that rubbish.
If snuggly was left unattended on Anita's bed for a little while and Anita had left the room, Darlene would sneak across the room and gingerly pick up snuggly and put it against her face, it smelt like Anita and it was soft and warm, like her sister.
It was Friday when it happened.
Anita had been watching cartoons after school and it had been a long day watching her sister charm and play with the other kids. Charlie liked Darlene. Charlie was good at maths and he could read out loud in front of the class better than all the other boys. Anita liked Charlie, she liked his confidence and the way his hair was too long and needed cutting. She liked the way he played on his razor scooter, going fast and his shirt flapping out of the back, untucked from his school trousers. He smelt good too. But Charlie liked Darlene. Darlene knew it and laughed. Everyone liked Darlene.
Anita wanted to think it all into her snuggly. She went down the hall into her and Darlene's bedroom, as she reached the door she saw Darlene quickly throw something underneath her bed. Oh oh noooo, Darlene had snuggly. No..... snuggly was contaminated, her magic was spoiled. Snuggly was hers not Darlene's.
The tears started to gather in her eyes and she accused, "You had snuggly! You know you can't touch her, she is mine, You always take everything away from me! Give her back!" Anita's voice had changed through the discovery from a small, disbelieving quiet, to an anguished squeak.
Darlene half grinned at her and shrugged her shoulders then walked out of the room, leaving snuggly discarded under the bed where she had thrown her. Anita's tears had spilled down her face, she was so hurt by her sisters betrayal that she followed her down the hall, hands raised high above her shoulders. "Why Darlene! Why do you do that? You always take everything from me!"
Darlene turned "Oh shut up you stupid thing or I will tell Mum that you are not sharing again, then you will be in trouble!"
Anita turned and ran back into their room and slammed the door shut. Hiding behind it, sobbing.
She got down on her knees, reached under the bed and pulled snuggly out from amongst the paper and detritus gathered there. "Oh snuggly!" she cried into her bear. She held snuggly out and looked at her. Snuggly didn't smell right and fluff was stuck on her pink fur. Darlene's fluff, and some pencil shavings.
Anita started to collect all of her things then. The little dish that she got for easter, with the chocolate bunny. On Darlene's side of the room, used and dirty. Her pencil sharpener was under the bed, broken by Darlene. Her yellow socks, the ones she got off Aunty Belle, dirty and on the floor, Darlene had worn them uninvited. The whirly gig from the show last month was under Darlene's bed too, hidden, broken. No! Why should she share snuggly. No!
She ran into the bathroom and filled the sink with warm water, dipped snuggly in and started soaping her up. She picked the fluff out of her fur and washed her sister's smell away, sobbing loudly all the while. Snuggly was spoiled, unrepairably to Anita's mind. Anita squeezed what water out of her snuggly that her little hands could manage and turned away from the sink.
Darlene was standing behind her. Anita lifted her arm and let fly. Snuggly hit Darlene full and sloppily wet in the face. Darlene screamed, enraged, and ran into their bedroom slamming the door behind her, blocking it with the full washing basket. She ran frantically around the room ripping the covers off Anita's tidily made bed. Opened Anita's side of the wardrobe and threw all of her artworks into the air across the room and snatched and tore into little pieces, the painting that Anita had bought home from school and proudly stuck on the wall above her bed. Then she paused and looked at her work. She kicked it all back across onto Anita's side of the room and got a black crayon and drew a line across the center of the room. No, that wasn't enough. She knelt back down and colored it in to define it and make it heavier.
Anita was mad. So mad, more than she had ever been before. She banged on the door and pushed hard. The washing basket fell inwards and she was in. Then she became dead calm as she saw the chaos that her sister had created in the room.
Darlene screamed. "That is your side, this is mine, don't you step over that line or you are dead!"
Anita looked and didn't say a word. Dead calm. She stared at her sister, didn't take her eyes off her face, and stepped over the line.
Darlene started crying and knelt down quickly scribbling a new line ..... on her own side of the room.
"Don't you step over that line."
Anita smiled and lifted her foot.....
Mum was next door, no chance for Darlene to use tears to charm her. Darlene knew how to do that, she had done it many times.
Anita had won.

*************************************

When I lived in Darwin as a child, the kids up the road were twins called Darlene and Anita. I remember their personalities a bit like this story. I liked Anita better.
Bye
Love Linda

G'day,
Just a random little verse here.

Aw babe
can't you see
that when
you hurt
I hurt
I love you

No matter what.

G'Day,
Here is my entry into the Fertilizer Friday prompt for this week.
You can see the other participants flaunting their flowers at our host's site on my side bar. Go over and visit "Tootsie Time" for a sticky beak at the lovely things that other gardeners have to show off in their part of the world as they come into their spring season, while we down here are coming into autumn.
My first flower in the picture above is of an Azalea out in the front yard. Taken less than an hour ago on an afternoon that has become dull and cloudy after a beautiful bright morning. The temperature here today was 23 Celsius. Pretty nice, though starting to cool down now as autumn progresses.
The poplar and birch trees along the parkway below my house are starting to turn golden and their leaves are sparkling in the sun, beautiful. I picked some lovely big mushrooms yesterday but was a bit nervous about them as the tops of them were not quite the right color even though the underneath gills were right and smelt right, so better safe than sorry, I didn't use them. There are fungi of all sorts around at the moment. Including, as we have been warned by the media, the infamous death's cap mushroom. Just one mushroom ingested causes death. There was one in my front yard and more under the oak trees in the parkway just near me.
These two pictures, above and below, are the showpiece of my back yard at the moment, a Callistemon or bottle brush, and a beautiful Australian native. Today it is alive and buzzing with a million busy bees, collecting its sweet nectar. when we moved into this house in October last year this was looking very sickly and had been pruned and shaped to within an inch of it's life, after the rain we have had over the last few months it has come back happily again. It is such a picture at the moment.
Don't look too close though, or you might see part of the problem has been a bad infestation of sooty mildew deep inside her branches. I have been treating it by trying to get rid of the little black ants that spread the mildew, as the little insects that cause the mildew extrude a sweet substance that the ants love, so the ants actually farm them. You can use white oil on the plant to treat it as well, but I haven't done that yet.
Next picture below is what I grew up knowing as Easter daisy. It is one of the many asters, but here in Australia it is the Easter daisy, because it always flowers for Easter. It is one of those things that we keep for sentimental reasons but, indeed, back through the ages it is one of those plants that perform for us, to show us what time of year it is, a seasonal marker.
Here is another of several scroungy looking azalea bushes around the yard. Not at it's best and flowering out of season but tricked by the rain we have had.
Below. A dandelion, a pretty lawn weed. When I was a little kid we would blow on these to make the seeds fly through the air, and see how many puffs it took to empty the seed head. I taught my kids to play the same game with them, when they were toddlers.

The picture above was taken in Sydney on Monday night when I went down to see a concert with James Taylor and Carole King. It was taken from the window of the motel I stayed in. The concert was great, and both of these performers are real legends, not loosing a thing over the years. I hung on ever note and word they played and sung, sometimes not moving and almost holding my breath so that I didn't miss a tiny bit of it, other times singing along and almost dancing in my seat. Great stuff. Been playing the CD I bought and have had the songs going through my head ever since.
A big clutch of orange colored mushrooms in the park here, in the center of Canberra, on Easter Sunday. There are some edible orange colored mushrooms that people talk about around here, called pine mushrooms, these were growing around the base of a cut down radiata pine tree in the park, but I wouldn't touch them unless someone confirmed just what they are.
Also taken in the park on Easter Sunday are these nice specimens of Bonsai. I really liked the one above, for the plants, but also because I like that it has been built up into a scene using a flat plate of granite shell.
The Bonsai are part of "The national Bonsai and Pensing Exhibition", on permanent display there.
I liked this one too. It is a Morten Bay Fig in miniature. An Australian native that is often used as a park tree and grows huge.
O.K. that is about all this week. I will be back on Sunday to participate in the Sunday Scribblings prompt. Creature of habit I am.
Bye.
Love Linda.