Friends Becoming Bolder

My friendly Blue Tongue Lizard came back for a visit.  To tell you the truth, I can't figure out if this one is a male or female.  I know that the males have pointier 'noses', and the females have wider heads.  This one's nose looks pretty pointed to me...

I do know that the males are the wanderers, and the females tend to stay put.  I also have a massive Blue Tongue that likes to sun bake between my retaining wall and my front steps but she's very skittish. If I can catch her sun baking, I'll take a photo.

 Out the back of my yard, lazing away in the sun and waiting for grapes.

 "Grapes, I said.  Not cassava melon!!"

Bluey's back leg appears to have healed nicely, and its tale has healed too, although I think it might take a loooooong time to grow back.

 "Excuse me human, have you got any grapes for me today?

I certainly did.  Bluey ate 8 grapes.  I had to chop them up in thirds, of course.

Dear Bluey, how can you even fit that many grapes inside your body?

Bluey was a very content lizard after all those grapes.  He/she was so keen on grapes, it was licking my fingers before I even put the grapes down.  For a lizard who was hissing at me 3 weeks ago to being this tame is a slight worry :D  If it stays in our yard, no harm will come to it.

Yard that is.  Not the house ;D

Piano Tuning

I felt so guilty about not looking after our piano properly for so long - it costs a bit of money to keep a piano maintained especially if you are teaching on it every day, have two children practising it every day, not to mention your own practise.

I had been meaning to get my piano tuned for years but didn't quite have the cash flow to justify it (silly, I know).

I had the number of a brilliant piano tuner, had the cash in hand to do it in December/January but couldn't get hold of him.

Finally in February after some Google searching and other enquiries, I found out that he passed away.  Such a shame - I didn't have the privilege of meeting him.  I did look up the Australasian Piano Tuners and Technicians Association (http://www.aptta.org.au/) and found the name of a local guy who was accredited with them.

I am happy to say that he did a brilliant job, and my piano is back in working order (still a practice pedal to be tightened up but that wasn't part of tuning).

I didn't realise just how much having an out of tune piano was messing with my sense of pitch.  The piano wasn't sounding honky tonky, but it certainly wasn't in tune.  I found it was harder to play in tune on my violin - not a good thing when you're a violin teacher.  It is so much easier now.  What a difference!  When you're playing the violin, the finger being 1 millimetre out can make a big difference.

It was $190 for about an hour of tuning.  Standard price for members of the APTTA.  I was happy to pay that.

Just in case you were wondering what the inside of a piano looks like, here you go:

Something else I found out: Piano Tuners mark carefully the inside of the piano when they tune it so the next tuner knows how long it has been since the last tune-up.  This one was tuned in Tamworth last!  How about that!! Apparently they mark it in chalk, so it can be wiped off easily and not do any damage.

Mini Pizzas - Lunchbox Lunches

I got up nice and early this morning (well, perhaps a little too early - I was wide awake at 4am!!) and decided I was going to make the kids mini pizzas for their lunch.


Complete with dough from scratch.  Well, in the breadmaker, because kneading dough really makes my hands, wrists and arms ache (thanks arthritis and RSI).


This is what they got:-

 Dough rolled out into circles.  Oops, well circular-ish shaped objects!  We did a bit better on the next batches.

 All the things you need to make mini pizzas.  We used tomato paste with some dried herbs and water all mixed together, chopped ham or thinly sliced Danish Salami and mozzarella cheese.

 Ready to go into the oven.

One batch of dough made 16 mini pizzas.

The children got to eat some warm on the way to school (goodness knows why they couldn't eat them at home, but anyways...).


They seem much cuter than giving the children a great big slice of pizza.  My daughter informed me that all her friends will now want one tomorrow.


Dear friends of my Daughter.  Sorry, but I don't think I can wake up at 4am every morning.  I will turn into a grumpy psychopath!

Valentines Flowers...My Garden Loves Me!

I don't get flowers from my husband from Valentine's Day.  In fact, we don't celebrate it...another commercial day that Phil and I don't need.  He says we don't need a particular day of the year that tells him he must buy me flowers.  He can do that any time he likes.  Or I just go and get my own anyway ;D

My garden has mostly loved the rain we've had, apart from the flooding which has killed off plants.

 All the snapdragons in flower at the moment are purple.  On four separate plants.  Odd, but I'm not complaining!

 More sunflower buds

 A red impatiens peeking through. It nearly drowned!

 I don't remember what this is called any more, but it's very pretty!

 Another mystery plant that I used to know the name of but can't remember any more.  It is thriving where the capsicums used to be.

 Not a flower, but I'm so glad this ginger root is growing.  Mr Storm sat on it after he chewed the top off.  I thought it was gone forever!

My least favourite thing on any day of the year...those green grubs chewed my bean plants and apple cucumbers to bits.  My Daughter found this one on the basil.  I asked her to check every leaf carefully, so she did and found 3 more even smaller than this one.  So small in fact, that my camera wouldn't even focus on them.

Anyone Else Have a Kitchen Like This??

Those days when you hope the doorbell doesn't ring, and no-one sees your house the state it is in, let alone your kitchen?

Well, I'm feeling brave today, and I'm going to let you walk in on my mess.

Here it is:-

 Wow, what a mess!  I had stuff everywhere, the remains of a pancake breakfast, a full sink, dishwasher to empty, a deep fryer to put away and a floor to clean.

After 30 mins, what a difference!  Just a floor to clean and some odds and ends to put away :D

I Have a Secret...

Shhh...it's in here...

 Let's take a closer look, shall we?

 Hmmm...

It turns out I have a lot of skin care product.  This is my secret stash of unused products.  The ones I use every day are in the bathroom in a basket with my perfumes and my husband's colognes.  These will make it in there.

I have a lot of Natio stuff, because they have lots of special deals such as "Spend over $35 and get free products".  Since I use their alcohol-free toner, cleanser, facial scrub and intensive moisturiser, I easily spend that much every 3 months.

Other products I have received as a product tester.  You can sign up to do that, but you never know if the products are going to react badly with your skin or are going to be good.  Scary!

Some are gifts that I have been given.  I really do like this stuff!

There are a few hand creams as well, and that's probably a good thing because Phil really likes those!! I have tried buying him his own, but apparently that's not the same thing. ;D

This stash also comes in handy for times when I donate to a local women's shelter.  They require hand/face creams and lip balms, and it's just easier to pull some out of this stash than have to duck out to the shops.  I think it's win-win all 'round.

Apricot Muffins - Easy Lunch Box Snack

Using my recipe from here: http://denleydiaries.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/apple-and-prune-theromix-muffins.html, I decided to omit the other fruit, and add a handful of dried apricots instead.

I blitzed the dried apricots in the Thermomix until they were little chunks, then added the rest of the ingredients.

This time I turned the mixture into miniature muffins so I could freeze them for school lunches.  These muffins ended up nice and crunchy on top.  Mmmmm!  There was enough mixture to make three large muffins as well.

They freeze really well, and are a fantastic thing to grab out of the freezer if you need breakfast on the go.