But that’s the beauty of blogging , your blog is your domain and you can do whatever you want with it.

So here are Demelza and Ce’Nedra doing their stuff.

Ce’Nedra eats the fruit, and her mother assures me that it is okay to eat.  Varinia is an earth mother who has studied Wicca and the ways of the nature so she knows what she is talking about in regards to the fruits of the earth. And Cedie hasn’t gotten sick so it must be okay. Paula and I tried some of the fruit, not actually sure what it is, Cedie says they are plums but they are more like purple crab apples - very tart.

The change of seasons is just one of the things I love about Canberra.  When I am in Brisbane in Queensland, everything is green all year round and it is really only the blooming of the red Poinciana and  the gorgeous  purple Jacaranda trees, that show that summer has arrived.

One of the benefits of working from home is that you can take time out to enjoy the pleasant things in life with family and friends.

It is essential to make time to relax and do things away from the computer when you work from home as it is too easy to become so absorbed in what you are doing that the days pass and you haven’t even ventured outside to check out the weather.

So always follow the golden rules when working at home, take time out

to exercise
to eat properly
to relax away from the computer for a short time
visit friends and family
go out for lunch

And more of Amelia.

Just a day in the life of a work at home woman.

And then the shock set in, it was the coldest I have ever been in my life. What happened to the warm balmy nights that I was expecting. Rude awakening, it turns out that Lochinver Station is one of the coldest places in the North Island.

I made the kids have a bath while Val and I had a stiff drink, and I do mean made them. They kept calling out and complaining that the water was too cold and it turns out that they were quite right. The plumber had turned the power on but had neglected to check that the water heater was working and of course it wasn’t. So a very guilty feeling mother prepared a nice hot meal and it wasn’t long before everyone was in a better mood and ready for bed. Anything to get away from the bone chilling cold.

Next morning was no different and neither were many of the following days for the next 2 years that we lived there. Each day was bitterly cold, bleak with winds that cut right through you. Not to mention the ice that formed on everything.

I should have realised that things weren’t as they seemed on that first day as the trees all down the driveway were on a lean. Being a city girl it didn’t occur to me that the were leaning over because the wind that blew constantly was so strong the poor trees didn’t stand a chance at growing upright.

And so our life on a sheep station in New Zealand begins.

Val and I decided that we would like to try a different lifestyle and give the kids an opportunity to experience rural life. We applied for a job on the Lochinver sheep station which is about 27kms from Taupo.

Now Taupo is a beautiful, picturesque town nestled around Lake Taupo, which is the largest lake in area, in New Zealand. My husband was an avid hunter at the time so I thought it would be great for him to be living close to the areas where he would go away with his mates to live in the bush and hunt deer and goats.

The day we arrived for the interview was picture perfect. The sun was shining brightly and the drone of tractors could be heard as they moved up and down the paddocks mowing down the lucerne.

We were accepted and allocated a house about 2 miles in from the main Taupo - Napier highway. I couldn’t wait to get back to Auckland to start packing for our new adventure, even the kids were excited. Especially Anjasa who was told she would be given a horse to ride and look after.

Val is a carpenter and his job was to maintain the sheds and houses on the station.

Packing up was hilarious, Val’s friends all came around to commisserate with him and in the end the truck driver and I packed our belongings into the truck around them all. Finally the task was completed and the truck set off. We followed later in a laden down jeep and a car towing a boat full of household goods. It’s amazing how much stuff one accumulates over time. Both Val and I are hoarders and we ended up giving heaps of stuff away. Val often talks about all the good stuff he had to leave behind in his factory.

We had to give our darling doberman, Tasha, away, although I am sure she would have loved living on a sheep station. We did take our long haired Alsation, Khan, with us though and he travelled in the jeep with me. That’s an experience I wouldn’t want to repeat in a hurry. He was excited and keep jumping around. This was all in the good old days before everyone had to wear seat belts and be restrained.

On the way down to Taupo the damn car kept overheating and it was a case of continually stopping to put water in the radiator, and then to add insult to injury the axle broke on the trailer. So we had no option but to leave the boat and trailer in the nearest town to be fixed and continue onto our destination

Now this isn’t too much of a problem for me over summer as we have had a drought here and the garden is usually very dry and this is always good for me in relation to the dogs. Unfortunately now however, we are heading into winter and that means frosty mornings. Frosty mornings mean that as the morning warms up the frost melts and the garden of course becomes very damp. At this point the dogs must say to themselves ‘hey lets get on out there, the garden is nice and damp and you know how mum always exclaims excitedly when we come back in after we have played around in the wet garden’. Little do they know that my excited exclamations as they trample on back into the house are actually words that we don’t want to mention in polite company.

The big hairy cocker spaniel is the worst as she seems not to care where she places those big furry paws.

One day I remember she must have found a bog in the yard as she came in dripping in mud. My first thought was that I should probably get out to the garden later on to see if I can find any preserved remains of a celctic human sacrifice in the newly acquired bog but I quickly get back to the predicament at hand.

Of course the words we don’t want to use in polite company came up yet again as she came through the dog door with mud dripping everywhere and onto my cream coloured carpet. She must have realised the situation as she looked very sheepish but continued to walk towards me. Meanwhile I am trying to stop her from making another step by waving my arms widely and yelling Stay! Stay! Stay! but I think she interpreted this as meaning ‘Come closer’ ‘Come closer’ because instead she kept making her way towards me. Finally after what seemed like hours but was probably only a few seconds I managed to get to her and pick her up and make my way to the bathtub to wash off the mud and get her cleaned up again.

These are the joys of being a dog owner but I wouldn’t trade them for anything.

They are a pretty talented bunch of kids at the school. We were treated to an enjoyable night of music, song and dance.

I highly commend the school on its presentation. The events ran one after the other in a fairly slick manner and without the usual time wasting that I have sat through at other concerts. So the whole thing was over in an hour and a half. Great for students and workers alike.

The street style dancing was really enjoyable to watch and the orchestra were very talented.

The only glitch of the night was one young lass for whom nothing went right. In her first act the microphone died and when it came time to do her second song, the lead to her amplifier couldn’t be located, so she had a dismal night all round. But good on her for persevering with a dead mike.

Demelza dances very well and we took photos but it was too dark, so they haven’t come out, damn. She was right in front of us which is unusual, generally when we go to concerts, our kids are at the back and you hardly see them.

Anyway, congratulations on a job well done Calwell High.

She was know throughout the neighbourhood for her light as air sponge cakes, breads, and preserves.

Our house was always filled with the aromas of freshly baking bread or jams that she seemed to be able to whip up in no time at all.

We had an orchard of peach, apple and plum trees as well as an arbor with a sweet grape vine growing over it.

I remember her stirring marmalade and plum in a large pan, of course she used sugar in those days but her jams never had that cloying sweetness of todays manufactured jams.

So for all you cooks out there I thought I would look for some jam making equipment.

Here is a Copper Jam Pan of thick unlined solid copper with a hand hammered outer surface and cast iron handles. These pans come in a range of sizes. Of all the cookware available, copper is the best conductor of heat.

Copper Jam Pan 12 qt 15″” dia 116″”

On opening the door there was my daughter, Varinia, grandaughters - Demelza and Ce’Nedra and Dem’s friend Tahlia. They all broke out into “happy birthday” accompanied by a tamborine. The girls had each made a lovely card, and they asked me down to their place for dinner.

Shaun had cooked a lovely curry and after dinner we sat and chatted. He is a very good cook, we had roast lamb on Sunday night which was very tasty.

They seem to have all settled in to life in Canberra and it is really great having them all nearby.

My daugher in law, Stacey, Jurgon and Val went out for dinner in Queensland to celebrate my birthday. Today is also my grandson Robert’s birthday and he turned 13 today.

April and May seem to feature a lot for birthdays in our family.

The verse is very tuching and I know Stacey always spends a lot of time selecting the right card for the occasion. There was a gift voucher inside the card that I will be able to put towards another PS3 or XBox 360 game.

It’s hard when they live in another state, but I do get to catch up with them a couple of times a year. Every time I see the kids they are taller and more grown up than the last.

I will be going up to Brisbane at the end of June for my daughter Anjasa’s birthday so it will be a great opportunity to catch up with all the family once again.