Afternoon Tea - Mother's Day

In Australia,

Mother's Day is celebrated on 

the second Sunday in May.

I was lucky enough to have all my children (residing in Sydney) spend the day with me.

In the afternoon we

visited extended family for lunch-which was quickly followed by afternoon tea.

I was also very lucky to receive a surprise in the mail from our eldest son and our new daughter in law, just in time for Mother's Day.

How did you spend Mother's Day?

When is Mother's Day celebrated in  your country?

Linking to Terri's

Teacup Tuesday

and 

Martha's Favorites

Partial Solar Eclipse

Australia is  experiencing the partial solar eclipse known as the ring of fire.

I'm not one for solar photography so apologies for the photo.

I also  have to admit, we are not in one of the better places to view the eclipse.

Some better ones can be seen here

Mother's Day 2013

In Australia we celebrate Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May.

I haven't shared any card making of late so I thought I'd take the opportunity to share the card I made for my Mum this coming Sunday.

The torn heart card has been coloured with chalks. 

I've applied the KISS principle here. 

As my Mum ages, I find it more and more difficult to find a suitable gift for her.

I'm beginning to understand her requests for 'no gifts', and 'spending time with family' as I grow older too.

Last week I caught her admiring a succulent that is growing in my garden.

A piece had fallen off one of the plants and I could see that she was itching to take it home with her.  She is a proud woman and no way would she ask to have the 'cutting'.

I've inherited some nice ceramic pots so I'm thinking I might give her a much larger and well established version of the plant in one of these pots.

Over the years she has propagated countless plants and now that she is losing her garden in her eightieth year, I recognize signs in her behaviour showing how much she still wants to continue with her favourite pass time.

I know the gift she'll love most is having her children, grandchildren and great granddaughter spend the afternoon with her.

What are you planning for your Mum on Mother's Day? 

Testing Times

Hi, just a post to test the waters...having trouble uploading pictures via picasa ...

Perth II - Amazing Skies

As we left our home town by train, to travel to the airport we caught this fabulous sunrise.

Perth is on opposite sides to the country from Sydney, so whereas the sun sets over the mountains in Sydney, it sets over the ocean in Perth.

Here is Cotteloe Beach, drenched in golden light at sunset.

Kings Park, Perth.

Perth skyline from Kings Park.

Perth

On Tuesday 23 April Mr Honey Pie & I returned to Sydney after a eight day stay in Perth, Western Australia.

We were there on the occasion of our eldest's  marriage.

Perth is the capital city of Western Australia and spreads itself out cautiously from the banks of the Swan River.

By worldly standards, it is a very young city, being founded in 1829, becoming a city in 1856.

Our first visit to Perth was in 1998.  At the time it was nothing more than the size of a large town.

But my how it has grown, thanks to the minerals boom.  
Our son took his first job as a geologist in the gold exploration sector in Western Australia and has since made Perth his home.
He lives within four kilometres of the CBD.

This snap was taken of the city at sunset from Kings Park.
The Swan River is to the right.  

And here is the same view after sunset.

Perth exudes a serenity I have yet to experience in any other city.
Everything is central, the city being small enough to not yet have lost its sense of cosiness.
Many of the original seaside housing has been demolished and replaced with newer contemporary dwellings giving it a clean sharp image.

While the cost of food in Perth might be higher than in Sydney, the cost of rent is lower and the purchasing power is much higher.
Perth is the fourth largest city in Australia.

ANZAC Day - 2013

Today's popular ANZAC biscuit has evolved from the army biscuit distributed to Australian and New Zealand soldiers in the battlefield during the Great War.

The original biscuits were so hard that soldiers preferred to soak them in water and to eat them like a porridge.

Today's ANZAC biscuits are sweet and crunchy, full of golden syrup and butter, rolled oats and coconut.

On the 25th April every year, Australians and New Zealanders remember their countries' fallen soldiers.

It is the anniversary of the first landing by Australian and New Zealand troops at Gallipoli.

In the City of The Blue Mountains, dawn services, parades and sunset services are held up and down the highway.

Both my parents migrated to Australia post World War II, to make their new home here.

My mother was two weeks off her sixth birthday when war broke out on 1st September 1939.

The Second World War had a long lasting impact on her.

I know, because her stories about her experiences during the war were retold on an almost nightly bases during my childhood.

Her island home was strategically positioned and suffered considerable 

 aerial raids as a result.

She and her family spent many hours in air raid shelters during these years.

It would seem perfectly normal then, that she should take her young daughters to the dawn service, held in Sydney's Martin Place, each ANZAC Day.

Afterwards, we would stay for the parade.

To this day, I am sure I have no idea of the effect the war had on my parents; especially my mother.

ANZAC Day must have been to her some sort of link to her recent experiences - provided some connection to others who had suffered during those years.

I'm sure that I don't appreciate just how recent those events still were to her as she gave birth to her first child eight years after the end of the war.

What impact did those years have on how she would relate to that child; on how she perceived her new homeland, her new friends, the new government, her husband?

I might have an inkling but I will never truly understand no matter how hard I try.

I feel privileged to have been born into a country that helped birth the ANZAC tradition.

ANZAC:  Australian New Zealand Armed Corps.

The original ANZACS were the soldiers who landed at Gallipoli on Turkish Aegean coast, on 25 April 1915.

Recipe for 

ANZAC Biscuits

1 cup rolled oats

3/4 cup dessicated coconut

1 cup plain flour*

1 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

2 tablespoons boiling water

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 tbsp golden syrup

Mix oats, coconut, flour and sugar together in a large bowl.

Melt syrup and butter together.

Mix soda with boiling water and add to melted syrup and butter.

Add to dry ingredients.

Roll tablespoon of mixture and place on greased tray.

Bake in a slow oven for 20 minutes. (Less for fan forced oven).

*(I used gluten free all purpose flour.)

This recipe is from 1968 edition of "The Commonsense Cookery Book".  (That's another story!)