Thursday, February 14, 2013

Erin and Luke's special day

Weddings make me cry.  I don't know why, but I get emotional.  My tears are of course, joyful tears.  Erin is DH's niece.  Luke and her put their wedding on hold until Erin finished all her GP exams - completed just recently - so now she is Doctor Erin.

This wedding was beautiful and I will let the photos do the talking.  It is of course fitting that I post this blog today on Valentine's Day.  Happy Valentine's everybody!
The men playing the waiting game

Such love

Signing the wedding certificate

The beautiful bride and her groom
The dress was gorgeous 

The bridal party

Bride's Mum and Dad

Brides Family

Brides Grandmother

A lavender delight at Albert Park Winery - a beautiful venue.

Some games to play at the reception


Brides fathers side

Brides Grandma and Uncle



Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Cream Buns


I am very partial to a cream bun.
I don't have them everyday.  They are a treat.  I would probably average one every couple of months.  Imagine my surprise when I went in to Brumbys in Port Douglas to buy one of these lovely treats and received a "lecture" from the shop assistant about the amount of sugar/calories/kilojoules/carbs in each one.  I felt very humiliated.  I almost walked out but I retained my composure and went ahead with the purchase. .....after all....it was my TREAT!   This is not the first time that this has happened. When we were on holidays in Tasmania I went in to a bakery and asked for a cream bun and the shop assistant also gave me that "leper look" and replied "no ma'am, people are becoming more health conscience so we do not sell them".  More humiliation.   For goodness sake what is wrong with the world when we can't eat what we want - of course, in moderation.  As we walked out of Brumby's I asked DH if I "looked" like the sort of person that eats a lot of cream buns.  He replied that I don't and that is why I love the man!
I looked up some nutritional information on the humble cream bun. I know, it is certainly not "health food" but here are some facts.
Cream Bun with cream and Jam - 304 calories
Penne Pasta with Tomato and Basil Sauce - 270 calories
Thai Curry - 428 calories
Thai Stir-Fry - 310 calories
New York Style Cheesecake (79g) - 300 calories

Each day I burn 1650 calories (according to an online calculator) so I don't think that one cream bun every couple of months is really going to matter - or does it?

BTW:  Thank you to our dear friends K & M who brought us these cream buns so that I could photograph them.  We had a lovely morning with you guys and, yes, we both ate one after you left and put two in the freezer (that took a lot of will power!)



Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Just turn around and look.

I read in one of the photography magazines that if your sunset is not up to expectations, turn around because you just might get a surprise.  I did that last night.  The sunset was not going to be great but behind me was a wonderful surprise.   This is what I saw.





Monday, February 4, 2013

Crispy Sweet Potato & Coconut Fritters with Tangy Dipping Sauce

I've finally got around to cooking some of the recipes that we were taught at the cooking class at Spirit House in Yandina last year.  Last night I made these moorish little morsels.  Sunday night at our place is usually finger food with a nice cold beer or wine or Bundy Rum to help wash it all down.


For the fritters:

1 tablespoon chopped lemongrass
2 cloves garlic roughly chopped
1 tablespoon roughly chopped ginger
1 large red chilli chopped
1/2 tablespoon roughly chopped fresh turmeric or 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
250 gms golden sweet potato
1/2 cup self-raising flour
1/2 cup Rice flour
1 teaspoon white sugar
pinch salt
1.5 cups coconut cream 
2 cups vegetable oil for deep frying

To make the fritters:
Combine the lemongrass, garlic, ginger, red chilli and turmeric in a mortar and pound to a paste. (You must use a mortar and pestle.  A food processor will not form a paste)
Grate the sweet potato coarsely and squeeze out excess moisture.  Place in a bowl with the seasoning paste, flours, sugar and salt.  Add coconut cream and stir to combine.  It should resemble a very thick batter.  
Heat enough oil in a wok to deep fry the fritters.
Cook a generous teaspoonful of the batter, several at a time for 4-5 minutes
The fritters should be golden brown on the outside and moist inside.  Serve with the sauce in a separate bowl.

Dipping Sauce:
Place 2 cups sweet chilli sauce, the juice and finely grated zest of 4 limes, 3 teaspoons fish sauce and the white part of 1 spring onion very finely chopped, in a jar and shake to combine.  This sauce can be kept in the fridge for up to 4 weeks.  Makes 2.5 cups.


 It has been so very hot here with no rain in sight.  We ended up with 500mm from ex tropical cyclone Ozwald so the country is looking fantastic with the grass leaping out of the ground.  But we do live in the tropics where our annual rainfall is more than 1500mm so we are still short.  We are praying that the rain comes soon, particularly to western Queensland where there has been little or no rain.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Douglas Photographic Society Inc.

The new year has seen lots of changes for our photography group.  We have broken away from our parent - DAB (Douglas Arts Base) - and are taking steps to become a branch of the Cairns Photographic Society.  As far as I'm concerned its a win for all.  We have our own "space"at Wonga Beach, that has been generously donated by one of our supporters and we are all excited at the prospect of having our photography on display 24/7.
Today was our first official meeting that was very well attended by twenty keen photographers.  Today our theme challenge was "Rain" and would you believe, I didn't get a single photo when it was raining cats and dogs!  Anyway, I submitted a photo that I took late last year and got a commendation for it.

I also received a commendation for this photo of fireworks that I took on New Years Eve.  Fireworks are so difficult to photograph and I took over a hundred photos to get just a handful of useful photos!

After lunch we headed over to one of our photographers garden.  It was amazing.  They are lovers of orchids and have so many varieties. Here are a sample.




And of course every tropical garden has to have a Bird of Paradise!



Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Hooper's Christening

When my "besty" - Lynn, asked me thirty years ago to be her third daughters God-Mother I was overwhelmed.  It was such a privilege and an honour and one that I took very seriously.  So much so that I still consider my god-daughter as my "adopted" daughter. I have loved her from the day she was born.  So I was so very  touched when I heard that Nikki had asked my son to be the god-father to her son Hooper.  I know that my son will be a great god-father and will also consider it a privilege and an honour.  Here are some photos taken at the christening.









Hooper James

Hooper James is the son of my god-daughter, Nikki and her husband Troy.  Hooper turned one this month so we went to Charters Towers for his first birthday party.  Nikki went with a "Caterpillar" theme for his birthday and what a great job she did both on the cooking and the decorations.  Nikki's grandmother is Myra Scott Beach who I wrote a vale to her in a previous blog.  Nikki is so much like Myra and has followed in her grandmothers footsteps when it comes to catering for a large number of people.  Well done Nik!  It was a spectacular feast!

The birthday boy
Mum, Dad and Hooper
Cousin Harry
Cupcakes 


The birthday cake with the grub hole!
Grape Grubs!
Presents for the birthday boy.







Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Tough Love

Our Queensland premier is Campbell Newman.  I liked him when he was Mayor of Brisbane and I like him even more now that he has joined the Liberal National Party, or LNP as it is also known.  We, in Queensland were governed by a Labour Party for more years than I care to remember and throughout those years we have seen Queensland go from having a credit rating of AAA to AA.  Most folks would not give that much thought, but to put it in simple terms it means that the interest rate on the money that the state has borrowed goes up dramatically i.e. an extra $100 million in debt repayments (click on this link to really scare the socks off you) 
Campbell Newman came into power with a BIG problem, namely a HUGE state debt.  He has tackled this with tough love and one of his most unfavourable moves has been to cut jobs.  Tonight on ABC news we saw a demonstration outside the Townsville Hospital.  The demonstrators were complaining about the job losses within the hospital.  I am going to give you my story on Townsville Hospital. 

In 2005 I was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer.  Quite scary.  It meant an operation to remove the cancer, another operation to remove infected lymph nodes followed by chemotherapy and radiation therapy.  An intense six month treatment.  My radiation therapy was to be a dose a day for five days a week over six weeks,  at the Townsville Hospital.  

My memories of the first trip to the Townsville Hospital go like this.  
  • Park in a designated area  -  that was terrific as car parks were very scarce
  • Present myself to the "check-in" counter.  Yes, my name, address, medicare # are all correct
  • Present myself to another "check-in" counter (inside the radiation area).  Yes, my name, address medicare# are all correct
  • Present myself to a nurse.  Yes, my name, address, medicare #, are all correct
  • Go and wait for your name to be called
  • Whooppee!  My name is called.  Again, check my name, address, medicare # and YES they are all correct.
Are you getting the picture?  Townsville Hospital was over administered, so good on you Campbell Newman for recognising that fact.    Look, I would be the first to defend the jobs of nurses.  They are vital to our hospital system and I would like to see MORE of them employed.   God knows we need them.  
I really want to emphasise that this is my experience at Townsville Hospital and no other.

PS
The second trip for radiation I decided to go straight to the nurse instead of "checking in" at two counters.  I was politely told to go  back and "check-in" correctly.  I did.   


Monday, January 7, 2013

Grandma rides the Quad

Philip's mum came to stay with us between Christmas and New Year.  We enjoy having her here as she is so "easy".  She loves to wander over to the cattle yards when we are working cattle - this time we were drafting off our sale cows, and then she wanders out to the weaners to have a "chat" to them. Then there are the dogs that she loves so much. Hudson, our Labrador, reminds her of Pluto - the labrador that she had for many years.  She sits on the steps for ages and just pats them.  They love the attention.  So I was surprised when MIL came up to me sheepishly and asked if I would mind taking a photo of her on the quad bike - or four-wheeler as we call them.  She was having a hard time explaining to her friends what a "four-wheeler" was so she said a photo would be great.  These are the photos we took.  Of course we had to include Lily our border collier who never lets the motorbike move without being on the back!




Sunday, January 6, 2013

Happy (Belated) New Year!

I cannot believe we are already six days into 2013.  I was hoping that this year would not be as hectic as 2012 but so far it is not looking that way.  We already have marked on our calendar two weddings two birthday parties (one in New Zealand!), a christening, our 35th wedding anniversary reunion, a trip to Europe and that is all before the end of April!
Enjoying the pool!
We celebrated New Years eve at Palm Cove with our good friends Mike and Kate and their family.  We booked ourselves into the Novotel so that we could enjoy the night without the thought of driving home and the Novotel was only a stones through from where our friends were staying.  We made our way to their place as soon as we arrived and headed straight for the pool area.  This was a great idea because while the adults enjoyed a few nibblies and drinks, the kids splashed around.
When the sun went down we headed back upstairs where Mike and Christian cooked up a fabulous Laksa for dinner that went down a treat.  After dinner we made our way down to the esplanade to get a prime spot to watch the fireworks that were due to start at 9.00pm.  Palm Cove had a wonderful family feel about it and watching the kids faces as the fireworks exploded brought back wonderful memories of all the fireworks displays that I had enjoyed over the years with our boys.
So, Happy New Year to all our wonderful friends and family and may 2013 bring you all your heart desires.