Thursday, June 26, 2014

Autumn Leaves

We don't have that many trees over looking our garden. In fact only 1 really drops its leaves at this time of the year!
In desperation I told the boys to go and rake up the leaves and then jump in them.
Ben was a little shocked to begin with....'did she just say jump in them?'

So they did and then had a ball.


They actually played 'spot the child' at one stage.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

3 - Birds on a Wire

Living in the city there seems to always be enough noise going on for the birds to not stay too long on a wire.
More like you see them there and then by the time you have your camera....they are gone!

Driving back through the countryside after doing emergency dash to youngest son's football game, I followed a wire line along the whole road and saw bird after bird sitting on the wire.
So with trusty camera in hand I slowed right down and tried to get some good shots.
Luckily for me there was nothing else on this country road at 9am on a Saturday because I must have looked so strange slowing down and then stopping in the road, holding my camera out of the car window and then driving off again only to do exactly the same again several meters down the road!

I got several good shots

1 lone bird just snuggled on the wood section


But I decided I like this one the best, so this is my official submitted one for the Scavenger Hunt


How are you finding the birds, are they playing nicely and smiling sweetly for the camera?

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Bread Pudding

I am from England and bread pudding conjures up images of bread, milk, eggs and lots of raisins!
Man how I hate dried fruit!! So you can obviously tell that this is not one of my favorite desserts.



I also like finding new recipes and Facebook seems to be a good place to find things. It is amazing what gets posted on there sometimes.
I have Alexis over here to thank for this recipe, she is so good at finding recipes online and then letting everyone know about them.


This however looks amazing and so yummy.
The recipe is at Chef in Training and I have had the privileged of making it twice now, although I think my hips are telling me not to make it again for a while!

It is bread soaked in a cream and sugar mixture. You then lay half the bread in a pan, cover with raspberries and then cover with remaining bread.
Bake for 40 minutes and then serve with vanilla custard or ice cream.
It even tastes great cold the next day!
I did however, find the recipe to be a little on the large size! So I cut it down in the amount and found that it still served 6 quite nicely.


The recipe asks for you to use cut up pieces of bread which I used but I found it easier with slices of bread the next time.


The smell in the house as it was cooking was divine and sweet.


We chose custard and man was it sweet and filling, but just what you need on a cold winters night.

Monday, June 23, 2014

7 - A Rural Landscape

The boys are of an age where football plays a large part of their life.
This means early morning football games for us on Saturday mornings!
Seeing as we have 2 boys we always end up with 2 games and you can bet your bottom dollar they are at different ends of the country, usually at the same time or within 30 mins of each other!
All I can say is........I am so glad we have a spare car at present, makes life so much easier.

Driving out in the grand Waikato countryside and Mt Pirongia stands majestic in the distance with fog and cloud swirling around her base. Can't get anymore rural than that.



Alas what I didn't mention is that the reason I was driving out here was because son #2 had forgotten his boots and mum was on a mercy dash to get them to him!
However the countryside was so beautiful I took my time and snapped a few pictures along the way.
I even captured 1 or 2 others for the hunt on the way back.
All in all a very productive drive in the country.

Sunday, June 22, 2014

17 - A Lamp Post

Saturday morning and the feeling is fine for supporting my son at his football game.
Nice school we visited to use their grounds.

Even nicer was the quaint little lamp post in the school grounds.


Sunday, June 15, 2014

Christmas Cactus

Of course it is winter here in New Zealand, so all our winter flowering plants are now in full bloom.
I have a Christmas Cactus (Schlumbergera) that I got from the plant shop a couple of years ago and it loves being indoors.



A little section of it got broken off 2 years ago! Kids fault.
I re-potted it and left it outside, then moved it into the garage over last winter. This summer I placed it on the deck at the front of the house and it is loving it there.
It has heaps of buds on it but no flower just yet, however when it does finally bloom I will get a quick snap of it and show you all.

Saturday, June 14, 2014

5 - A rack of postcards

Definitely had to go to a tourist spot for this one, although it was 5pm in the evening and there were no tourists around otherwise I might have been able to grab #4 at the same time!


We were attending a 1st birthday party in the same building a few floors up.
It was a rainbow party and I think Alex got well into the theme of the party.



Monday, June 09, 2014

2 - A Garden Gnome

Funny how lots of people really don't like these little creatures!
So many comments on blogs about how creepy and sneaky they look!

Luckily we only have 1 in the garden and we gave it to my husband as a Christmas present several years ago.
It happily lives hidden behind the spinach, I think it spends its time discussing world problems with the snails that live behind the spinach too


Happy hunting guys

Monday, June 02, 2014

8 - A tattoo on a person

The picture scavenger hunt has commenced and lots of people all over the world are now racking their brains trying to think how they are going to have to set their alarm clock one morning over summer/winter to rise and achieve 13 - A sunrise!

My family have been eagerly awaiting this list to become available, so it was fun last night to keep watching Rinda's blog until the post appeared.

8 - A tattoo on a person


I give you a tattoo on a person.
For some reason my husband was not very obliging with his tattoo...not sure why. So you ended up with mine, an English Rose to represent the English Rose that I am.

If you are interested in joining in with this picture treasure hunt then slip on over to Rinda's and check it out or alternatively you can join in on Facebook at Summertime Picture Scavenger Hunt 2014.
All rules are there for you to read although at the end of the day it is all just a lot of FUN :)

Sunday, June 01, 2014

Photo Scavenger Hunt 2014

Here it is, the hunt it on......

Rinda over at Gallo Organico has created a new list for 2014.
This is the 4th year she has completed this list for us all to spend the next 3 months having fun.

http://gallorganico.blogspot.co.nz/2014/06/2014-summertime-photography-scavenger.html


1. A sign welcoming people to your home town (or a nearby town)
2. A garden gnome
3. Birds on a wire
4. A group of tourists
5. A rack of post cards
6. An urban street scene
7. A rural landscape
8. A tattoo on a person
9. A bakery
10. A photo bomb (someone found lurking in the background of photo; the lurker may have intended to disrupt the picture or may be doing it unintentionally, but the background lurker is a surprise to the photographer)
11. A horn
12. A mascot
13. A sunrise
14. A parade
15. A juggler
16. A sign in a language other than English
17. A lamp post
18. A water fall
19. A public garden
20. A bus (not a car, truck, lorry, camper or RV) with a picture painted on its sides.
21. A photograph of you with something representing the season (recognizing that the season will be Winter for our friends in the southern hemisphere). Note: you may not use a substitute for this item.
If you find something on the list too difficult, you may substitute one of the following items for anything on the list, except for Item #21:
Alternative A: A kite, hot air balloon or blimp
Alternative B: A bird house

So we are all very excited to have a new list and have already started thinking about where we can find these items around our town and also some new places to visit to find the others.
Are you joining in this year?