Some quick renovs.

I like cats and have had cats in the past but I don't like the one that visits at night at our place. Its lazy and noisy. I was watering the garden, my new sweet corn that are growing well, when I noticed an extra clod of dirt. That's funny I thought, going closer for a better look, then the smell hit me! It was cat poo! Yuck, in my garden. Warren picked it up on the shovel and disposed on it, cats are supposed to cover their mess but this one must away from lessons that day. We have found other evidence in other parts of the garden and sometimes the cats fight on top of our shed which is just outside our bedroom window.

The last couple of nights cats have been jumping up on our screen door,we assume to catch the geckos who are waiting there for moths and insects, a fine food chain but flipping frightening at 2.30am when sound asleep, until realising it oh, its just those cats again. We have a glass panel in the front door and even when all the lights are off, there just enough moon or street lights to come through to draw the insects, then the geckos and finally the basted cats.

When we first moved in, the sunlight was too bright and so I taped some thick paper behind the panel, it cut the brightness down but not all the light.

Today,Warren has decided to block the light in the door by putting in a plywood panel, so hopefully the cats wont visit any more, this is his handy work.

Front door from the outside

Front door from the inside

Chutney

Growing up my mum made our own chutney, sauces and jams. We had quite a big garden often the big stew pot would be boiling away with something on the stove, it was a wood fire so usually just pushed to the back to continue cooking. I was quite happy to eat Mum's produce unlike my sister who complained about "home made stuff", she insisted on Mum buying her a small bottle of tomato sauce. What she didn't know was when the bottle was empty, Mum filled it with the home made stuff and sister couldn't tell the difference.

When I married and moved away from home, we didn't have the luxury of a big garden, sometime no garden  at all, so I didn't get a copy of Mum's recipes. We would always come home from a visit with some jars of different stuff until it got too much for Mum to do.

The other day I read a recipe for Chutney and it reminded me of Mum's, the recipe looked quite simple and I had all the ingredients.
Recipe (as per the magazine)
5-6 large tomatoes
1 onion
1 apple
2 garlic cloves
2 tlbsp of brown sugar
pinch of salt

Everything to be chopped and boiled until it thicken. it was cooked in the microwave. I rarely follow a recipe but I had every intention of doing so for the chutney until I found I only had two tomatoes left and they were smallish.
I chopped them and added a tin of tomatoes and only added 1 tlbsp of sugar, thank goodness as it did seem too sweet so I added a dash of chilli sauce to counteract the sweetness.

It made two pots of chutney and I have added it to some meat sandwiches and pork chops, much taster than tomato sauce on its own. I love bbq sauce but have found that the spices in that causes mouth ulcers so I don't eat that any more.  I will be keeping this recipe and making it again.

Easter Egg Hunt

Our kids and their kids will be away for Easter so we had an Easter egg hunt today. This has been a tradition for awhile provided we are home. I don't spend a great deal and that's all that the kids get from us. I bought a large bag of the little eggs and have kept them in the freezer. I sorted them out this morning in four different colours, (four grandkids). We had lunch, very easy lunch as today it was about the kids, so chicken wings, sausages and sausage rolls,devilled eggs, coleslaw and a pasta salad with roast pumpkin (this was a new salad that I was trying)

We had hot cross buns for dessert and after the boys had played for a bit after they had eaten, we hid the eggs outside. They were given a bowl each which had one egg in it and that was their colour to find, twelve of each colour were put out and off the kids went. Of course it didn't take long for them to find them, the oldest 14, loves the chase but doesn't eat them so he gave his to the adults and the other three.

The youngest two (both six)comparing notes.

The two older ones (14 & 7) needed Grampy's help

Cyclone Ita

I was going to write on a different subject today but the cyclone is very close and is a big one, category 5.We were watching Ellen while having lunch and Channel nine went to an ad break in the middle of an interview of Ellen's. Bad form, I thought or just bad editing but they broke for a cyclone warning update. The Premier of Queensland had a warning and instructions for people who lived in the area. Cooktown to Cairns.

He spoke for several minutes on what they could expect and the things that they should be doing and have in preparation,. by his side was a woman doing signing, this seems to be quite usual these days. One of the things that he mentioned was taking personal papers with them if they needed to evacuate, he went on to say that sometimes these things get overlooked if people need to move elsewhere within a short time frame.

The cyclone is due to hit the coastline at around 10 pm tonight so now was the time to prepare and move before the winds and rain became stronger.

We were in Townsville a few years ago when a cyclone was coming and while there were updates, people were not ready for it as they can be now. I went to work as usual the day before, Government job, and was told to go home and prep the house and yard for the disaster that was about to hit. I remember driving back home, it was only about eight kilometres away, the branches were being blown on to the roads and the cyclone was still a day away. It turned eerie in the afternoon, no birds, the sky was very dark and at times no winds then it would blow again. That cyclone hit in the early hours of the following at Ayr about fifty kms further down the coast. A wooden church was picked by the winds and moved about 200 metres away, there was only minor damage done to it, but quite a bit of damage elsewhere and a few people were injured.

I hope that everyone stays safe and there is no or only minor injuries this time, we can only hope that it may blow itself out or at least be downgraded..

Things that make me laugh!

There is nothing like a good laugh and as adults we probably don't do enough laughing. Driving in Brisbane yesterday waiting at lights a bus passed in front of me and I saw the word "Loves your butt". I did a double take, my eyes were surely playing tricks on me. (sometimes I find that one goes into a bit of zombie mind set while waiting for lights to change) I chased the bus with my eyes to see what it really said. Yep it really did announce "Loves your butt" above the words were 3 ply and a well known toilet paper brand. Well, that did make me laugh out loud, which would have been fine except my fourteen year old grandson was also in the car and of course asked what was I doing, I told him why I laughed and he had a bit of a snicker too before saying "That's the child in you Nana!"

I had taken him to the dentist to have his braces tightened and while there I saw a book on smiles and it stated that children smile or laugh at least 400 times a day yet adults smile on average only 15 time a day, how sad is that?

Warren had told me earlier that morning a little joke that he had read somewhere, it went something like this. A kindergarten class were asked to make a drawing and they got down to work while the teacher went and spoke to different ones and asked what they were drawing, there were replies of my garden, my family, my dog etc, she gave them each some encouragement before going on to the next one. One little girl said that she was drawing God, the teacher said to her, "But sweetie, no-one knows what God looks like." The little girl replied "Well, they will when I finish." This appealed to my sense of humour.

Trust me! Out of the mouths of babes.

My youngest grandson is in hospital at the moment and I went to visit him yesterday. I arrive and hes watching cartoons on TV as well as being hooked up to an IV drip, "Hi Nana!" he says and goes back watching. I said to him that I saw on the wall that he had gym later that morning, "Yep" he says without taking eyes off the cartoons. "You can go and have a coffee" "I have just got here" "Not now" he says "When you take me to gym, big people can go and have a coffee then." Nothing like being told what to do from a six year!

The physio girl comes in and asks if he's ready to do his huffs and puffs (they need to paddle his back etc to loosen the mucus on his lungs)everyone gets real excited when he is able to cough and spit after each position. Another physio person comes in to ask if I was taking him down to gym (it saves one of the nurses having to walk him down). He got dressed after, must have street clothes and shoes and socks to go to gym and we wander down thru the lifts, outside the hospital and past the cafe. "Oh Nana, when you get a coffee, could I have a coke please?" "Sure, I'll bring one for you when I pick you up." The calories in coke are good for him. The receptionists know him of course and tell us to go thru to see Stu, Aidan likes "the boy" at the gym. Memory like an elephant except for names so he just refers to him as "That boy" (Stu would probably be mid thirties!) Aidan checks out what he is doing that morning and sees me still there, "Go on Nana, coffee time!" I leave after checking what time to collect him.

After gym, Aidan wants to go back to his room via the lifts, I'm not as confident using the lifts to get back but he is insistent that he knows the way and presses 4 in the lift. No, not that way so we go back down to the first floor and walk to the main entrance,I was intending to walk around to the lifts by the car park and then up. Aidan tells me that we can use the lifts in the main foyer, I'm not so sure. "Come on Nana, Trust me!" says the boy. Again we go up to the fourth floor and as soon as we step out, he says "Whoops, wrong one!"
Back to the bottom and then we go the way that I knew, finally getting to his room, where the clown doctors were waiting for him. Six months ago when he was last in hospital, he didn't want to know them but this time he was quite happy to spend a few minutes with them.

Seeing him is like a breath of fresh air, he always makes me chuckle.

Smoking!

Usually I can tolerate people and their habits but sometimes it just gets to me like, today.

I was going to the Royal Children's Hospital to visit my youngest grandson and its far cheaper and easier to go by public transport, car parking is over $20 for even a short time.

Anyway, I left home by 7.30m, early these days by my standards and caught the train which wasn't crowded.. I got off at the station to catch the bus to my final destination. Walked up the stairs along and then down the ramp, there was a young woman in her twenties half way up the ramp, drinking coffee, as I got closer I noticed she was also smoking. The ramp was semi enclosed so there was nowhere for her expelled smoke to go, great! Had to walk through it.

I just wish smokers would consider others, I know that some do and there are less smokers these days but I still do not want their smoke or anyone else s in my face or lungs. Rant over now.