Nailed It

Meg has really outdone herself - Ferrero Rocher macarons?? I kid you not! It's a little bit of heaven in your mouth!

Meg's Macarons

Meg taught a macaron baking class today at the local cafe in our nearby little town. She was cool and calm and it went off without a hitch. I was very proud of her.

Aged egg whites.

After the class was over I ducked home and picked up Drew; the three of us had lunch at the cafe (G was off playing cricket). The ladies gave Meg a voucher for doing the class so it was her shout!

Afterwards, we drove to the fairly new community centre and visited the art gallery. Then we checked out the community garden (SPinach!), then sat for 20 minutes on a big log and talked and laughed together.

When we got home, Drew and I took Meg on a tour of the latest developments - the wood/compost bays and the vege garden. Poofy bit his tonge when Coco ran into him. There was blood.Then Meg left to go back to Twba and Drew left to go to work at the pub in D. He's had a trying time at work the last two nights, witnessing fights and being abused for refusing service to overly drunk customers; working in a bar he's at the coalface of the local drinking scene and sees, first hand and confrontingly, the changes that alcohol brings to normally decent and reasonable and likeable people.

After they had both gone I went for a walk around the perimeter of the farm; up the laneway to check the water, across the back and down the other boundary. It was warm when I left but cooled down as twilight descended.

Cricket was successful although The Warrior is walking like an old man tonight.

Five Hundred and Two - it's True!!!

Actually there's only five hundred and one - we ate one!!

Meg has been an absolute machine this weekend. She's cooked breakfast (bacons and eggs), lunch (bacon sandwiches) and dinner (tacos one night and then lamb chops & pasta).......and she's cleaned out the spare room........and she prepped, weighed, mixed, piped and cooked FIVE HUNDRED AND TWO macaron shells!!!

This was the mess created three times over! The sink and dishwasher were busy all day, as was the chef!

The Week Just Gone

Gibbo left early Monday morning for a CQ run, visiting properties at Springsure, Comet and Dingo. He drove 650km Thursday to arrive home late at night. Friday we had two small groups of visitors that had to be kept a polite distance apart; so we had two lunches of this - a 9+ product from our mk brand.

There was more news from India during the week. The group has left Kolkata and the Prem Dahm clinic and moved on to Varanasi, the oldest continually inhabited city in the world and famous for spiritualism, mysticism, Indian philosophy and Hinduism; Drew is the guide here; they will also be hiring a boat for a sunrise ride on the holy Ganges to "witness the time-honoured ritual of bathing in the holy river". Then they're off to Delhi and Agra to see the Taj Mahal, then to Chennai to the Mithra Rehabilitation Centre where they will work with children and Drew will be able to use all the craft supplies he took with him. Then a few days in Singapore and home on Dec 19. This photo appeared on fb.

Meg worked in D on Friday so was home here early. She has nearly 200 macaron shells to make for Christmas gifts. She has sifted and weighed and separated and traced and organised everything into bowls ready to cook today.

Poofy enjoyed a few of these.

Meg bought this great hessian carry bag - one of these things is not like the other! She's been to 5 of these cities - can you guess which one she hasn't been to?! (Hint: it starts with G)!!

The annual planting of the portulaca in the two terracotta pots at the top of the brick path has happened (for the last time here at least). This year I added lobelia to the centre.

I planted some more vegetables - another tomato, this time Grosse Lisse; some tatsoi for quick greens; some more lettuce for Christmas and some eschallots.

I covered the latest plantings with shade cloth to give them a chance at growing. It's very, very hot.

We're busy giving the house and garden a quick spruce up before next weekend when we'll be having some visitors to stay; this will be their house after March next year. There's nothing like the thought of visitors to make you look around and see things that need doing - it gives one the motivation needed to get in and do a bit; it's easy to become comfortable with the state of things that could do with a re-fresh.

Here They Are

Meg's Macarons

Meg's first batch of paid macarons came off the production line last night. Can't wait to see them iced. Check out those feet!