Winter soup warmers in my winter garden

It is winter here in Western Australia. I went around my garden this morning and snapped some pics to show you. It is actually looking very green at the moment... 

In my front garden the last few roses are blooming, the hydrangeas are shooting, the lavender is pushing up a few flower heads, some winter bulbs are coming up, and the gorgeous Strelitzia (Bird of Paradise) growing by my neighbour's front driveway is really spectacular. The yellow flower you see in the top row is Hibbertia - a Western Australian native. 

In the back garden, 

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Lyndendale in the winter, Ferguson Valley, Western Australia

Today I am sharing some images from around the grounds of beautiful Lyndendale Gallery along Crooked Brook Road near Dardanup where I have been running a basics photography workshop. Last Saturday was mostly theory, and yesterday afternoon was practical - taking pics around the garden.

Lyndendale is such a wonderful creative, peaceful and supportive environment. Thank you Denise for the opportunity to run my photography workshops at Lyndendale.

How about a sit on the porch?

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Making Anzac biscuits & my week in pictures

Last Anzac Day, 25 April, I realised that I hadn't made Anzac biscuits for years.  I mentioned it on my blog post on Anzac Day - you can see it here - 25 April-Anzac Day-We will remember them

So a couple of weekends ago when my grandson came for a sleep over I decided to make Anzacs with him. He loves cooking.

Anzacs are a traditional Australian family favourite biscuit. Everyone has their own ideas as to whether they should be crunchy or soft. I remember great trays of crunchy Anzacs coming out of the oven of my Aunt's wood stove. They waft out a delicious smell through the kitchen.

Here is my Aunt's recipe - she called them "John Bulls" - maybe from the brand of oats she used. 

Mix together 1 cup rolled oats, 
1 cup dessicated coconut, 
1 cup plain flour, 
1/2 cup sugar.  

Melt 125gm butter or margarine. 
Stir in 2 heaped tablespoons of Golden Syrup. D
issolve  1 1/2 teaspoons bi-carb soda in 2-3 tablespoons boiling water.
 Mix into the butter mixture. Pour into the dry ingredients and mix in well. 

Place flattened balls of mixture onto you baking tray. Baking paper works well. Leave room for spreading. 

Now here is the tricky part. My aunt cooked in a wood stove, so I really have no idea what temperature. It was amazing the sponges and cooking she pulled out of that oven. 
A recent recipe book says: Cook in a slow oven (150-170C) for about 20 minutes. So I suggest try that.

Cool on a wire rack. 

According to the Australian War Memorial website it is unknown how Anzac biscuits got their name or how they came to be a traditional biscuit to make on Anzac Day. 

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Autumn days of May in Western Australia

 May was a hectic month, especially the last few weeks. Some aspects have been purely creative pursuits, and this last week has been elderly parent concerns.

Those of you who stop by my blog regularly might know that I have been doing a 365 project this year - one photo a day for a year. Sometimes this is easy for me, sometimes I take time over taking images, other times not so easy and I just snap a pic on my way home from work, just to get a pic. 

 I thought for today's post I will show you the autumn days of May - and looking at all the yellow and orange it certainly does look like autumn - although we don't get the autumn leaf fall that is common in the northern hemisphere. In Australia our trees are "evergreen", that is, green all year.   If we see any autumn leaf colour we know it is an introduced tree.

Lets start with Flamenco! and our beautiful teacher Nicole from Sol y Sombra Spanish Dance Company when the company danced for an art group in Busselton - Sol-y-Sombra on Facebook  I love the movement and swirl in this image

The on-line web based collage program - Picmonkey - crops the images a bit, but you will get the idea I hope.

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