ENJOYING LIFE: October 2009

Saturday, 31 October 2009

YANDINA

Our last stop on the trip was to the Ginger Factory at Yandina. Anyone that loves ginger, this is the place to stock up on your supplies.
We all headed for the shop to get the big bags of ginger pieces - these are 1kg bags of factory seconds - just $12.95.
As I use this a lot in my baking, as well as mixing with my fruits and nuts as a nibble mix, well worth it.
Also indulged in a bag of Chocolate Coated Ginger Pieces (Dark Chocolate); a jar of Chilli and ginger mustard and a jar of Crushed Ginger.

Always on the lookout for one of my favourite soaps as well - Lemon Myrtle, and one of the shops there - Traditional Herbs and Scents had a great range of the products.

I have a small Lemon Myrtle tree growing, and prefer to use the leaves in my cooking instead of a Bay Leaf. The leaves have a lovely lemon taste and smell and you can also crush the leaves and infuse to make a tea.

This was our last stop for the day, and it was back on the bus for our journey home.
The bus made good time and we arrived back just before 5.30pm. (the bus had left at 7.00am).

MONTVILLE

Another shop I found, called PRESENT, lured me in when I saw some japanese dolls.

These in fact are KIMMIDOLLS and are collectors pieces. I had never seen them in our area before, so with my love of things oriental, that was it.

There is a website that you can check out for the entire range of this merchandise, and the apparently, some of the pieces are only out for a certain time period, I think 3 months, then other are added.

www.kimmidoll.com

I purchased MOMOKO - 'Peace" and the wording on the box says:

My spirit strengthens and brings prosperity.
You share my spirit by always advocating and promoting peace.
Embrace my spirit, use its power to build strength, promote unity, and bring prosperity.

YUKO - 'Affectionate'

My spirit is loving and warm.
By living the love you feel, you share my spirit. Show your affection in the warmth of your embrace and in the sincerity of your words, and you will know the true joy of living.

KICHI - 'Lucky'

My spirit is curious and adventurous.
By trying new things and challenging yourself, you release my spirit.
Discover the power of my spirit to open up new possibilities and greater opportunities.

Even with the time we had there, still did not get to visit some of the places; maybe next time.
Our next leg of the journey was down the range and to visit the Ginger Factory at Yandina.

Here is a photo, taken in the bus, of Anita and Sue.

MONTVILLE TO YANDINA

After only a short time on the bus, we arrived at Montville where we could spend more time, have some lunch and look at the shops etc.

Montville, being on the Blackall Ranges, has great scenic outlooks and you can see the Sunshine Coast quite clearly. Lots to tempt us, but we were in need of refreshments, so found the bakery and had lunch

That's me in the Red.

We all had to visit a shop called Chocolate Country - how could you resist not buying something from there

KENILWORTH TO MALENY

The road from Kenilworth to Maleny passes through beautiful scenery, and it is disturbing that the Queensland Government, in its wisdom (!!!!) is adamant that a dam will be built in the Gympie region, in effect damming the Mary River. Prime dairy farminig country, as well as other farming industries and the people are up in arms. All supposedly to be able to provide water for South East Queensland, mainly Brisbane - in other words so that the people of Brisbane can flush their toilets.

Has the Government factored into their equation where the food will now be grown if this dam is given the approval by the Federal Government.

Anyway, our next stop was Maleny - very community minded town, with lots of arts/crafts and once again lovely food.
As we had only just over half an hour, it was a short look around, but I did manage to enjoy an organic ice cream - Fig and Almond (DELICIOUS. Whilst browsing through the shop windows, came across some books in a stand outside one of the Charity Shops.

Can't resist books and I found a miniature book of poetry - Selected Verse of Henry LAWSON

THE LITTLE WORLD OF ELVES & FAIRIES - An anthology of Verse with illustrations by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite.

The preface says that Ida Rentoul was born in Melbourne Australia in 1888. Her first book, Mollie's Bunyip, was published when she was the grand old age of sixteen and was quickly followed by others, in collabortion with her sister, Annie, who wrote many of the books Ida illustrated.
In 1909, she married writer, Grenbry Outhwaite and thereafter signed her work Ida Rentoul Outhwaite.
Inside there are poems by Shakespeare, Keats, Robert Louis Stevenson and e.e. cummings with beautiful illustrations (both colour and black and white).

CATLAND - Illustrated by Louis Wain (1860-1939)

This book has gorgeous colour plates on every second page and the text of the book by Rodney Dale, tells the story of Wain's life from his early days as a schoolboy in Hackney to his last 14 years in an asylum near St Albans.

It would have been nice to spend more time there, but we needed to head for our next stop which was Montville.

DAY OUT WITH THE CRAFT GROUP

On Thursday (29th October) our craft group had a wonderful day visiting a few of the attractions around the Sunshine Coast, which is about 2 1/2 hour drive from our locale. A small map of the area will give you a glimpse

We live at Burrum Heads which is north of Noosa.

Our first stop of the day was at Kenilworth, where we stopped for about half an hour, had morning tea and visited the Cheese Factory.
This is where you can buy any of the cheeses that they make, and I opted for a Mature Cheddar; Mango and Macadamia; Ginger & Chilli. For my lunch today, I had some of the Mango and Macadamia cheese with crackers (yummy).

It would have been nice to had some more time there, but we had other places to visit, so off we went.

Friday, 30 October 2009

Unintentionally, this latest batch of postcards all have a fashion theme.

Tuesday, 27 October 2009

READING LIST FOR 2010

As usual, I have been sidetracked whilst reading through the various blogs that I follow, so had better do this post and get back to my work.
I am preparing a "canvas" you could say, and embellishing a tin so that it features the books that our book group will be reading next year.

The books that I have chosen for the group are:

AHAB'S WIFE - SENA JETER NASLUND
CUTTING FOR STONE - ABRAHAM VERGHESE
THE DEVLIN DIARY - CHRISTI PHILLIPS
BEACH MUSIC - PAT CONROY
JUSTICE HALL - LAURIE R KING
WHERE THE RIVER ENDS - CHARLES MARTIN
SWORN TO SILENCE - LINDA CASTILLO
THE LOST RECIPE FOR HAPPINESS - BARBARA O'NEAL
A TOWN LIKE ALICE - NEVILLE SHUTE
DISSOLUTION - C J SANSOM
THE MACHIAVELLI COVENANT - ALLAN FOLSOM
THE MAP THIEF - HEATHER TERRELL

Will post photos of the finished canvases when I have completed the 4 of them.

Saturday, 24 October 2009

HOME MADE ICE CREAM

I came across a recipe in an issue of Earth Garden magazine, for an easy and cheap way to make Ice Cream. Here it is:

350ml (1 1/2 cups milk)
300ml Cream - I used thickened cream
1 tin of condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
optional flavourings

Mix all ingredients together. Place in freezer. When Ice crystals form, take out of freezer and remix. Refreeze.

Or you could use an electric ice cream churn (which I did).
This makes 2 litres.

Without flavourings, makes a delicious vanilla ice cream. You can also add a raw egg or two. This will make it gorgeous and rich.

I did add just 1 whole egg to the above recipe.

AND IT IS DELICIOUS AND EASY.

I also liked being able to make in my ice cream maker, as that way I could sit down and read. From the books that I chose from the ibrary, have read 2.

The Island by Heather Graham
(I enjoyed the book "Ghost Walk" by this author and this story didn't disappoint.
Southern Florida - Beth and her brother and niece are camping on one of the Islands, when her niece discovers a skull, and not an old one, as Beth can see hair still clinging to the skull.
They are interrupted by the arrival of more campers - Beth feels uneasy and covers the skull with palm leaves so she can come back and investigate further. When she goes back to the site, the skull has gone and she is told by her brother that it was just her imagination. She sets out to prove this theory wrong.
Some of the themes in the story - missing yachties; murder; luxury boats, old ship wreck etc.

Name to a Face - Robert Goddard
Good story - another shipwreck theme in this story; this time off the island of Scilly and the wreck dates back to 1707. A missing ring is also involved.
Tim Harding, a gardener in France is asked to do a favour for his tax-exile employer(Barney Tozer)- go to an auction in Corweall (Penzance) and help Barney's brother, Hamphrey, bid at auction for a family heirloom (a ring). This ring had been in the possession of Barney & Humphreys' uncle.
But Tim hasn't been told the full story and gets involved in murder and an investigation into Euro fraud.

I have started on a Reginald Hill book - not read any of his stories, eventhough I have seen a few of the Dalziel and Pascoe TV series.

Thursday, 22 October 2009

GLUTEN FREE RECIPES

One of the blogs that is listed on my side bar, Gluten Free Girl, has great recipes to inspire, whether you are gluten free or not.
This morning, I decided to make up Frozen Yoghurt after reading through the post by Shauna on her site. She had made up Raspberry Frozen Yoghurt, which she came across in a cookbook by Jamie Oliver.
If you are interested check out her blog

glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/2005/08/frozen-goodness-made-at-home.html

Whilst at the library this morning collecting a reserved book, came across lots of titles that interested me and had to resist bringing home more than what I did.
Here is what I chose:

THE ISLAND by Heather Graham
(I have read GHOST WALK and really enjoyed the story and style of writing)

DAUGHTERS OF FIRE - Barbara Erskine
NAME TO A FACE - Robert Goddard
A WINTER IN CHINA - Douglas Galbraith
THE PRICE OF BUTCHERS MEAT - Reginald Hill
DARK ANGELS - Karleen Koen (read of this author on one of my book blogs).