Four hands ... flour ... dough ...

... recipe .... yeast ... what were these two doing in the kitchen on Sunday ?

Elaine and Bryan decided to try their hand(s) at making English Muffins as he says that the Woolies ones are not that great. Dashing off to the nearby shop to get the ingredients I didn't have in the pantry .... measuring .. mixing .. kneeding ... it took them hours to make them because of the 'resting' in between to let the dough rise ... twice ! ..... and only then did I think to bring out the camera to capture this momentus occasion! !

.... Looking good ...

... serious business ! :)

.. busy hands ...

.. at last .. time to cook ...

.. and the result ... perfect English Muffins !!!!

They were delicious too !!! We had a taste ... only a taste, mind you .... as Elaine said they were for supper .... so we had to share some with butter and jam when Jeanette and family came for tea !!!

We had them ... for supper ... with egg, bacon, tomato (Bryan and Elaine added cheese to theirs) yummm !!

Weekly Winners : 10 - 16 Jan

We've had a bit of rain this week .... some areas have had more than others ( my son phoned me this morning and said they've had heavy rain every day this week and their garden is flooded) ... but our house seems to miss the heavy downpours generally ...



... with the moisture in the air and on the ground, mushrooms are popping up in my garden ...



... those are NOT mine .. in that box .. don't smoke .. never have ... it was put there for comparison ...

.... the fairies must have had a huge party under that large one on the lawn .... (which was duly mown over by the gardener yesterday before I could stop him!) .... but the fairies party zone was spaired as there are two equally large ones in the flower bed close by ....

Are those dainty fairy flowers ? ....

Back to reality ... yum yum ... food .... streeeeeeetch !!!!!!! (Grey Lourie)

.. streeeeeeetch ... need some rays !!!!! (Olive Thrush)

... streeeeeetch ..... who's that down there ? .... Starling

... oh .. it's ok ... it's only my mate having a nibble on the apple ....

The Crested Barbet had his turn ....

... and the male Yellow Weaver ....

... and his mate too .....

Dinosaurs are ready to attack ...

.... here they come .... !!!!! Watch out !!!

For more Weekly Winners go to Lotus' blog

Conversation with Bradley ...

... the other day whilst we (Brads, Connor and I) were sitting on the small patio table having biscuits and cheese ... (I hadn't had lunch so only had it once the boys were here) ... Connor was having an ice lolly and spreading his biscuit with cheese at the same time ... and then decided to scrape his biscuit along the ice lolly to add to the flavour .... "nithe" with a big smile !!!

me ... this is nice .. we haven't done this before ... sitting outside having a biscuits and cheese

Brad ... yes we have

me ... no we haven't ... well, if we have then I can't remember (that's a good excuse for grannies!)
Brad ... yes we have ... or is like deja vu? !

me ... what?!!! I mean pardon !!!!!

Brad ... deja vu !

me ... do you know what that is?

Brad ... yes Granny ... it's when you think you've been in a place before or done something before but you haven't really ... you've either dreamed it or you've thought about doing it before ..

Clever boy !! He's only 6 !!! No wonder he has the merit badge at school !!!

Skywatch Friday :

On top of Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa

For more spectacular skies visit Skywatch

Wordless Wednesday :

Twelve Apostles Hotel, Camps Bay, Cape Town

For more Wordless Wednesday contributions go here and here

My garden ....

Hubby and I were discussing our garden over the weekend and how it has changed over the years ..



... the trees grow and the shade changes ... so changes need to made to flower beds ...


It's coming up to the anniversary of our home ... 30 years !!! ...


Beginning of February 1980 we moved in to our newly built home with bare earth, a fence and gate ....

... we spent every weekend toiling in the garden, initially to get the lawn established ....

... not the easy way out like these days with blocks of growing instant lawns .. but planted with grass runners .. we raked the stones .. fertilized the ground .. hubby walked up and down with a spikey roller to 'air' the ground ... fertilized more ... and more ...

.. watered ... and watered .... and prayed for the rains to come ...

.. I think it's in the Shona language .. the word for rain is 'come come' ... haven't got a clue how you spell it ..

.. but it was worth it ...

All these photos were taken this morning ... it's a glorious day today !!!

I'm going to get out our old photos and hubby can scan a couple of them to put up on my blog on 'our anniversary' !!!

I felt a little sad ...

... when hubby and I visited this vast warehouse called Just Africa at Hartbeespoort Dam over the New Year's weekend ...

.. and saw all the animal skins made up as furniture items, rugs etc and then just the 'simple' skins lying on the floor for sale ... mainly to tourists who visit our beautiful country. Apparently the Zebra skin is the favourite ...

The skins were piled high in places ...

... some with visible bullet holes .. as in this Springbok skin (those small dotted dents)

Now .. this made me even sadder ... the taxidermist area ... :(

(I'm not sure why there are two bears there ... we do not have bears in this part of the world! )

... the leopard brought tears to my eyes ...

Then we went onto a huge African art, curio and artefacts warehouse ...

... with stalls overflowing with goods ...

... including colourful beadwork ...

... ostrich eggs ...

... and interesting woodwork... loved these candle holders!!!

I know there has to be culling of over-populated animals but seeing all those skins, stuffed animals and heads saddened me