New recipes

Well, the first one is not new but it was a new way to cook it. I like maple syrup and last time I was shopping I saw sugar free maple syrup. Decided to buy it and it would be great on pancakes except we dont do flour anymore.
Then someone on Facebook said they used the 90 second bread as pancakes. I am in! 90 second bread is so easy and I have always had it turn out.
This time though instead of using the microwave, I tipped into a hot pan with melted butter, bit gluggy but spread it around, then flicked it over.
Yum.

Maple syrup and a dollop of cream .

Again on fb, someone I follow wrote about an old fashioned recipe called lemon delicious. Our lemons are just coming ripe and the recipe looks easy. I used fake sugar and almond flour and it is a very light pudding, kind of self saucing. The lemons are not very juicy at the moment, I think if they were juicer then there would have been more sauce. It was cooked in a water bath which I had not done before.

Just out of the oven, it was very nice and will make it again.

Birds while out and about.

Yesterday Lucy and I headed to the lake for a long walk. I figured that we were less likely to see anyone or if we did, its a bigger area to avoid close contact.

There were a few people out walking their dogs but all were several metres away, not even close enough to give a quick hello.

I was amazed at the number of birds, I guess because of the lack of people. At one point we were to cross a footbridge and there was a family of ducks waddling across, I was very proud of Lucy as she sat down on the grass and waited until they got off the bridge and all glided into the water.

Later we saw pea hens with chicks.

 Just as we were leaving a couple of families brought their kids down with scooters and one had a picnic. There was no one playing on the play equipment.

Great scenery in Tassie

The rain had plenty much stopped on the Saturday thank goodness so we got out and about early.

Our first port of call and it was here that a herd of white ducks in a line heading somewhere, there were about thirty of them, they were heading away from the water, just looked weird, too far away to get a pic.
We had to be mindful of getting the tyre to the tyre place to be fixed, they opened at 9am and closed at 11.30am.

This was taken on the north east coast.

Some little town when we were trying to get petrol. We had come past one place advertising 24 hour fuel, not realising that that was important, we continued on as it was very busy. The town we were heading for was bigger and only 19kms away. Hmmm! Yes, there was fuel stops but it was closed with licks on the pumps.

Thank goodness for phones, we discovered a small town 4 kms north.
Not a problem! Whoops, that was also closed however they did have a pump with fuel that was a self serve card doovy. I have used one at Costco before, ah, a sigh of relief.

So, we learnt that no servos after midday.

We ha

Tricky things in Tassie

We headed out early on Saturday morning, we had things to do and were also mindful that we had no spare tyre and had to get the flat either repaired or replaced. Tyre places opened at 9am and also closed at 11.30am on Saturdays.

We discovered we were quite close to the Cadbury factory as we had both done the tour and bought a box of chocolate years before, today this was not the aim.

At a park, we were directed to a massive tree.

We were looking for something small! On the ground were lots of gum nuts, surely not! I picked a couple up and they were just gum nuts. Then I saw a big larger one under the root that is in the foreground and yep, there was a small tube at the back it, wedged in so that it did not go anywhere, sneaky.

 Signed and off to the next one which took us to the edge of the water where we saw a seal swimming in the water. We thought it was a dog at first but as we continued to watch we realised that it was a seal enjoying the sunshine on his sleek body, diving in and out.

Our next one took us to another park and the hint said "not at the tree and dont force it". We were headed for a lonely tree near a fence line and i repeated the hint out loud. Dah, head slap as there was a tap on the fence and I looked down and while the pipe went almost to the ground it was not attached. Sneaky thing!

We didn't find as many caches as we hoped to, due to rain cold and tyre issues but we did add a mixture of visuals, letterboxes 24 of those, earth caches, some challenges and lastly an event. About 48 in all oh and a first to find. I had worked on puzzles to make a tassie devil, 86 of them, some that I couldnt or didnt know how to do, I turned over to Sheridan but they will have to wait for another time.

Churches in Tassie

From our room at the hotel, we could see down onto a church.

Out in the country side on Saturday, we had a church with  cemetery on the side, lovely little church. I think it would have serviced a bigger population years ago than is there now as it was a tiny hamlet.

We checked out of the hotel early Sunday morning and what a sight was in front of us.

Crochet project

No crochet classes until further notice. I have finished my purple blanket and didn't really have any new project in mind.  I had thought that one day I should take a pattern book and make every pattern in that book.

That day has arrived so I do have lots of wool and now time at home. My first pack of crochet hooks included a pattern book which I had cast my eyes over but did nothing in it.

Times have changed and very quickly so I have started at page one with a coaster. I do have trouble doing a square and it looking like a square! It's a running joke that my squares become ovals.

Thankfully the pattern goes from side to side with the colour used to crochet around the edges. I have made six with different colours.

My latest square, it's an improvement but still not perfect. I will keep practising.

Second pattern is a bag in two colours, I have done the first three inches. I think it will take me a few days.

The come down from Mt Wellington

At 6 degrees outside, it took awhile for our teeth to stop chattering. The chill factor was rather high as well. We sat for some time before heading back down the mountain. Daylight saving was great but the time does slip away and it was close of business time and we hadnt arranged anywhere to stay.

A comfort stop was discovered with a nice parking area so we did a quick pit stop. I noticed one of the back tyres was down a bit and suggested we head to a servo to put some air in it. Then we heard the hissing sound, it wasnt just low it was going down!

Car hire place weren't that helpful, more or less told us that it was our problem. We both know how to change a tyre but these days the nuts are usually put on with a machine making it impossible to loosen them. Such was a case this time. After a few phone calls, we were told that RACT would be with us in about 30 minutes, he was there is 31 minutes, what a service!

Of course he had all the gear and even told us where we could get it repaired the next day.

Back into Hobart and we ended to a caravan park when Sheridan had stayed a few years ago. Office was closed but there was a phone to ring after hours, no, they were fully booked out.  We realised why the next morning when we saw lots of bikes nearby and then a headslap also realised that we had seen large bulky bags coming off the plane with us, there was a bike race on for the weekend.

We let our fingers do the walking and secured a twin room at the Travelodge in town. By the time we got there, booked in and parked, it was after 8pm. Luckily there were some restaurants within walking distance, we chose to go Nepali food, much like Indian. Server took pity on us and bought us hot water to drink, think we must have looked cold. We were the only patrons but they were closing at 9pm. Nice meal and after we were well and truly ready for bed after a 4am start.