Off road racing - The Pines Enduro 2016

The Pines Enduro is an annual event held at Teagle's quarry in town.

My brother Auto's property backs onto the quarry and we have the perfect place to enjoy the action. He pulled his semi up along the fence with a lounge suite on the back for his family and friends. Watching is fun for everyone, especially the kids.

Sunday is my favourite day, with competitors racing six, 70km laps, taking them through the pine forests and back into the quarry.  It is a fantastic local event, which is part of the ARB Off Road Racing Series and the South Australian Off Road Championship.

Cheese, herb and garlic pull apart

I'm a sucker for a freebie with a magazine. My latest acquisition, with the latest Better Homes and Gardens, is a small serving board with a chalkboard edge. It even come with the chalk! 

I don't buy magazines that often, most of the time I borrow from the library. I do still have a look see when I am in the supermarket, especially if it's wrapped and offering free goodies. 

Another of those times I've gone for the freebie, again in a Better, Homes and Gardens, there was a bar tin and recipe book. I'm not sure whether it was the lure of another recipe book or the tin that got me in with this one. Probably both, they saw me coming.

This recipe isn't by far the most tantalising recipe in the book, with drool worthy recipes as raspberry cheesecake, chocolate truffle log and smoked salmon terrine. 

It's a quick and easy bread, not unlike a savoury scone. Mighty tasty and one that is more likely cooked on a regular basis. If you don't have a bar tin, you can use a loaf or other small cake tin. 

It's perfect for pizza spreads, pasta and mopping up flavour in soups and casseroles. 

Lord knows, Spring hasn't gotten the memo to warm up yet in our neck of the woods. Just bring us some twenty degree days already!

The garden is starting to comply, with so much colour coming out and the fresh herbs are going gangbusters and looking gorgeous. I love using herbs from the garden, with them close to the back door, it is nothing to sneak out and snip some fresh parsley from my little potager garden. 

You will need:-

2 cups SR Flour
50grams butter or marg
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
1 cup grated cheese
3/4 cup milk

1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 Tablespoons finely chopped parsley
1 clove garlic, chopped finely

Preheat oven to 200C.

Grease bar tin and line the base and sides with baking paper.

Rub butter into flour in a large bowl. 
Add onion and half of the cheese.Add milk and combine into a soft dough.
Turn dough onto a floured surface and form into a 35 cm log.
Cut log into 2.5 cm pieces.
Combine oil, remaining cheese, parsley and garlic in a bowl. Roll dough pieces in mixture to coat.
Arrange dough pieces in tin, season with salt and pepper.
Bake for 30 minutes until golden brown.

Serve with a lashing of butter!

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Spring colour and a favourite view

I love the explosion of colour Spring has brought to my garden. Although there was a bit of colour in winter, most of the time I was hibernating inside and not fully appreciating it. I hate being cold.

There's much more life in the garden right and that even includes me. 

Tomato and zucchini seedlings have been planted, roses fertilised and weeds pulled up. Well most of the weeds. 

Potting mix has been added into old meat trays, with holes poked in the bottom for drainage. Seeds have been planted within, of corn, basil, chilli. Cumin seeds also, just to see what happens. 

bluebells

bok choy flowers

borage

broad bean

cineraria

iceland poppy

pink madarense geranium

white madarense geranium

nasturtium

radish flowers

snow pea 

stocks

These following photos were taken on my way home from Mount Gambier last Thursday. I just love this view as I drive over the hill, just past the 'Welcome to the Wattle Range Council'sign. 

The fields past this shearing shed are forever changing with the seasons. Right now they are green from a wet winter and Canola paints the landscape with yellow.

a diamond in the rough

The past week has been  rough one. Izzy came home from the weekend away with her Dad with gastro last Sunday and had Monday off school.

I was feeling better with my flu, the cough is still hanging around though.

Thursday I spent a wonderful day on a kindy excursion to Mount Gambier with Summer. It was also my 44th birthday. Like magic, or a diamond amongst the rough, it was most definitely the bestest day of my week. I realise now that Karma must have been smiling at me.

I stopped on the way home to shoot one of my favourite scenes on the drive back home from the Mount, just past the 'Welcome to the Wattle Range Council' sign. It is a picturesque welcome and one I have driven past too many times thinking I should have stopped to take a photo.

Friday I came down with Izzys gastro, it knocked me for six. It was only a 24 hour deal, but I felt like death. I barely moved off the couch, it's a good thing Summer is good at entertaining herself.

Sunday was a good day. I got out in the garden, planting and using some of the stuff I bought with my Bunnings voucher on Thursday, finally.

I am so looking forward to a healthier week, as long as no one else, or me, comes down with anything else! Touch wood!

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A sojourn in Narrawong, Victoria

Isabel's gymnastics competitions have taken us to our capital city Adelaide, and now to the Victorian town of Portland. We live only an hour and a half from Portland, so it was a quick trip over the border. 

These photos were taken in the late afternoon, after we'd arrived on a Friday. Brett took the girls exploring while I settled all of the stuff into our cabin at the Narrawong Top Tourist park, 10 minutes from the township of Portland. Before they returned to the cabin, I got the chance to duck out on my own with camera, prior to catching up with them. 

The park is surrounded by the Surry River, which you can cross to play on the beach. It was the perfect place to pause, or for a longer stay for fishing, beachcombing or checking out the sights of Portland, of which there are many!

On the drive home after Isabel's gymnastics, I silently pondered the thought of escaping here on my own, for some fishing and relaxing. It'd be perfect.

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