Just a bit of cross stitch and a pinch of crazy

It's Monday again! How do they come around so fast?!

I am loving this Monday especially because its back to school, and there is so much awesome stuff happening this week. Like back to school.

I was enjoying the longer lie-ins of the past two weeks. I am a little miffed about the thought of being up early. I will not be loving my phone this morning, because it will be ringing at me to get the hell up( do I have to?). Yes I will have to get up.

I do love routine though, and well, back to school.

The past week we've all been crook. The blasted cold from sucksville. I felt like rubbish the last few days, and don't think that I haven't milked that shit for all it was worth.

This last week has been not all bad. I picked up a cross stitch piece I was given a couple of years ago. It's a table cloth kit that was given to me by a friend of mums. It's an old New Idea magazine pattern, and I only can only guess from the eighties or there about.

I have been at it like a mad woman, and am nearly finished! Keep an eye out on Instagram, for I should be done with it by the end of the day, finally! This does not come without a tender middle finger from pushing a needle through a hundred or so stitches. Next time I will start out with a band aid on my finger from the start to counter act this, instead of a cure.

One last thing I am excited about being done with this week, is the greenhouse at the community garden. The green house kit was bought with grant funding about two years ago. Long story short, lost instructions, wrong replacement instructions, no motivation, half wits and lack of ambition have seen the green house not constructed in that time. Not a good reflection on the community garden.

It was suggested a letter of apology be written to the grant providers. Over my dead body! If there was to be a letter of apology to be written, it will be written with a picture of the completed greenhouse attached! Thank you very much.

Along comes determined me, some ingenuity and half a brain (mine) and it looks as though it will be completed in a couple of weeks. I spent a few hours on Saturday, after not attending a birthday party because of being sick, at the gardens erecting the front and back section of the greenhouse. You'd think I should be laid up on the couch. No. Crazy me is constructing. I felt pretty good afterwards though. A real sense of achievement. 

All though the next day, muscles I have forgotten about, are screaming at me. After sitting for a bit, cross stitching of course, I can hardly walk. Under all this weight I have put on, is a toned goddess. There is.

I've lined up some help to build the rest, so fingers crossed it will be good and done. I will be all sorts of proud. Not to mention the picture on Facebook, with the caption, "For the ones that have gone before me, you have just been schooled. This is how shit gets done Mofos", or to that effect.  It will come at just the right time, with the sowing of seeds for summer veggies. I am pumped!

So that's where my excitement is coming from at the moment, sowing of seeds and embroidery!

What's floating your boat at the moment?

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Uncle Roger and potato gnocchi

 

I was visited from my estranged uncle Roger last week. He is my Dad's brother, we don't see him much at all. He and Dad don't get along well. It's a shame because it's the only sibling Dad has here in Australia. There's a lot of dirty water under bridges and all that family crap that goes on. Mostly on his part, nothing overly dramatic, oh, but that time he walked into the house when we were little, with a gun. My mum hates him with a passion. 

I don't remember a lot from when I was a kid, mainly the good stuff, but I do know I have cried in my pillow with sadness that he is so removed from our family. I feel sorry for him, it must be lonely. 

So last week he knocked on my door, the kids were out with Brett, and I was sorry they weren't there to say hello. 

He dropped off a bag of Kalangadoo spuds and ten bucks for the kids. I gave him a hug and he left. I felt ever so guilty for not inviting him in for a coffee, while we waited for the kids to come back. I really felt that I should have done that, long after he left. There was still that niggling feeling that it probably wasn't a bad thing that I didn't let him in the house. I feel terrible that at my age I am still unsure about the relationship I have with my own uncle. 

I do remember my sister saying the last time she saw him, he was all cool and then out of the blue, told her another man was her father. Which was total bull fuck. As sad as it is, it's probably best I didn't let him in the house. Nice of him to bring me spuds though. 

I've been wanting to make gnocchi for ages. The last couple of time I've made it were disasters, they went all mushy or were like rubber bullets.

Here's how I made them light, soft and puffy (I will not say pillowy, because that would be too poxy and cliche). 

750 grams of potatoes, about 5 medium spuds (I used white spuds)
1 egg, beaten
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt

Pierce each spud seven or eight times all over, with a fork.
Place on a plate and microwave on high, for 7-8 minutes until soft. Let cool a bit.
Scoop out the cooked potato into a large bowl and discard the skins. 
Mash the potato with a fork until smooth.

Add the flour, egg and salt to the potato and mix lightly until just combined. 

Place the dough on a floured surface and form into a soft ball. If it feels a little sticky add a bit more flour. Try not to work the dough too much. Just until the flour is incorporated.

Divide the dough into four and roll out each section to a 2cm thick log. Using a knife cut into gnocchi, in 2 cm lengths. 

If you want to, roll each gnocchi along your palm with a fork. Apparently the gnocchi holds the sauce in these grooves, totally not essential though. 

Bring a big pot of water to a rolling boil, chuck in half the gnocchi. When they all begin to float on top, remove with a slotted spoon. 

I have a tray of my favourite sauce ready and place the cooked gnocchi immediately in the sauce, while I cook the other half. This is enough to feed us, two adults and two little kids. I would suggest doubling the recipe though because we wanted more! You could always freeze any leftovers (but I don't think you will have any).

The Tantanoola caves - school holiday jaunts

My place in time #52 - This place has been here my whole life

I was out doing the big fortnightly grocery shop last Monday when I bumped into a friend (let's call her Kat). I was on my own, it must have been my lucky day, hubby had knocked off work early and I escaped out the door without the kids. It was the first day of school holidays and I was dreading taking both of them. It would have been fine anyway, but was much better without them.

Kat suggested I join herself and her son for a visit to the Tant caves. I agreed it was a fab idea and went on my merry way, completing the shopping and even trotting off to Target afterwards to take full advantage of having no kids. It's always nice to have that time alone, without the latest Frozen fashion offering being shoved in my face and having to find AWOL kids (so they could show me more cool stuff I should be buying).

In the supermarket it's easy, I will find my kids in the lolly aisle, or giggling at and wasting the batteries of all the funny, and sometimes rude greeting cards. Our small Target Country is like a rabbit warren, shits me to tears. Trying to navigate with a pram a couple of years ago was hell, especially with go-go gadget arms that would knock and grab everything from the sides. Then there was that time Izzy piddled all the over the floor. Never forget it, I made a dash to the car, grabbed a towel and headed back in there and wiped it up, and continued perusing the aisles like it never happened. As far as anyone was concerned, it didn't happen. Except you, right now. 

Being the killer of joy, or rather that dumb ass voice in my head, I thought of how much I could not be bothered going to the caves. The introvert in me was overruled and my brain convinced me to go along. I called Kat in the morning and arranged a time and even a picnic at the Tantanoola playground afterwards. As always my brain wins. It was tres cool. Maybe oneday I will manage to be at the playground when the pub across the road is actually open. Tantanoola is a small town, and there's this piece of me that thinks it is totally acceptable to sit at a table out the front of the pub, with a drink, while the kids play across the road, or no? I'll let you know how that goes ;)

The Tantanoola caves was discovered about 80 years ago, when a boy chased his ferret down a hole. There he discovered the caves. His family, the Lanes, started charging people for tours and continued to do so until it was handed over to the state government in the seventies.

The caves are made up of limestone and dolomite, showing a difference of colour on the walls and ceiling. The paths have been concreted, making it wheelchair accessible. It is the perfect school holiday activity and is only a 15 minute drive out of town. There is a cliff top walking trail that is quite enjoyable as well. 

An InLinkz Link-up

June #52weeksofmemories

School holidays have just started. Today will see me braving the supermarket with both of them. Send me good vibes.

We have guests staying in the holiday house this week, all the way from Healesville near Melbourne. They're leaving Saturday morning. I have plans if it is not rented again, to go down there by myself on Saturday night. I need some time out. I am guessing I will be bored shitless within the first hour.

Wednesday I am taking the girls to see Minions. I haven't taken them to the movies before, so it's going to be a treat for them. I am more excited than they are!

The weeks seem to be going by in a flash. I can hardly keep up. I'd totally forgotten to wrap up my June with photos from the prompts supplied by Toni at Finding Myself Young. It's a lame attempt, but here is a bit of our June.

22. Yum

Portuguese doughnuts with lemon curd. Yum!

23. In the car

I like being the passenger in the city. I leave the driving to Brett. I can appreciate all
the pretty sights.

24. Hands

These are from the playground on South Terrace in Adelaide.

Adelaide Aquatic Centre

25. Family

Brett and the girls after Disney on Ice. Waiting for a tram back into the city. 

Brett and his brother playing silly buggers. Brett bought himself a mower for the holiday
house. Boys and their toys.

An InLinkz Link-up