Banana cake with passionfruit cream cheese icing...

I had some bananas that really needed using up... grated walnuts were folded in at the last minute... then there was a bit of cream cheese but no lemons so orange rind and juice were substituted and the passionfruit was added... the result was great!

Brisbane

I am off to Brisbane next week and would love to know if anyone had a restaurant or two to recommend please...

Christmas 2009

Food and family...

Friends in France...

My dear friend in France knows I love these biscuits and she was EXTREMELY generous to send me not 1 or 2, not even 5 or 6 boxes but no less than 14!!!!!!!! You have to love your friends in France - I know I adore mine!!! This is a painting I did to remind us of our time in Madrid... not bad for freehand and my first time... I am proud of me!

Childhood Christmas memories...

What I remember about the family christmas tree of my youth is the lollies that my mother used to decorate the tree... they were Italian and they had ruffled ends... these were of various colours and my mother would have us string them on the tree... we would then eat them after the tree came down... so there was never the usual unpacking of decorations really... we used to have a real tree that was then used for firewood and the ash was worked in to the garden bed... nothing was wasted and all was done and dusted very quickly...

Years later when we came to Australia we bought a plastic tree and mum always used feathered birds to decorate the tree and I remember at some point buttlerflies joined the birds as decorations...

The girls and I made our own decorations many years ago and spent a good few days of the school holidays busy at the dinning table, cutting, sewing, buttoning and beading these...

Merry Christmas to all...

Visitors of the feathered variety...

Just some of the little visitors that pass through...

Sunsets

St Kilda beach has the most amazing sunsets... we are lucky enough to live on the 5th floor and we get such a clear view of the sky... it's just magic...