Wednesday, November 5, 2014

What I did on Melbourne Cup Day

It's safe to say that, for me, Melbourne Cup Day had no horses in it. It's lovely to have a day off but I spent it gardening, walking, cooking, reading & taking photos. My roses are looking beautiful this year, and as it was going to be a hot, windy day, I was out early to pick some roses for the house. The beautiful deep pink ones at the top are Best Friend, a rose that the RSPCA sells to remember our pets. My friend J bought it for me when Abby died & there are more flowers on it this year than ever before. My other roses are all David Austins. The jug on the bottom left has Eglantine, Pretty Jessica & The Squire. Lucky decided to come in for a lunchtime nap on my reading chair & stayed still long enough for me to get a photo.

I got out into the gardening first thing to do some weeding & water the veggies. The veggies have had a great start again this year thanks to my friend M who gave me the seedlings she grows from seed. My zucchini already has several flowers as do the tomatoes. I have a red & a pink geranium in pots as red flowers are meant to be attractive to bees. After a walk, I made some biscuits for morning tea at work today. These are from the recipe for peanut butter biscuits I've made a few times but I adapted it a little. I made some chocolate almond butter the other day so replaced the peanut butter in the original recipe with that. The mixture was looser than the original so the biscuits spread quite a bit more.

Just a few more photos of the garden - & a second photo of Lucky in one day! My lemon tree is flowering & I love to smell the scent every time I walk past. I have two strawberry plants in a rectangular pot & they're covered in flowers. I need to rig up some netting as last year I got no strawberries at all - the birds had a feast instead. Lucky followed me outside & rolled around on the ground while I tried to get her to stay still long enough for a good photo. This was the best I could do.

6 comments:

  1. Gosh you have been busy ..the photos of the Roses are so lovely I can almost smell their scent!
    We make an almond marzipan/butter and use it instead of cinnamon in cinnamon rolls (chelsea buns) very yummy. It's fun experimenting even if the results can be a little unpredictable :0)
    It's lovely to think of gardens growing and flowering as we enter our cold dark season.

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    1. I've gone a bit almond mad at the moment as I'm also making my own almond milk. It's lovely in porridge. The almond butter seemed to have the same consistency as peanut butter but the mixture was quite different. I think the biscuits will be chewy rather than crunchy. Have to wait until morning tea for the verdict! Lucky's already started chewing on the roses but at least I got a photo before she got started.

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  2. The biscuits look delicious. The roses are gorgeous. I refused to acknowledge the Melbourne Cup bc I am not a fan of horse racing. Turns out thise thoughts were warranted what with the disasterous and distressing results. Staying at home in my garden with my five fur babjes was a much hapoier experience. Loved the photos.

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    1. Yes, it was terrible to hear about the death of those two horses. I'm not interested in sport at all so, for me, yesterday was a day to enjoy other things. Glad you liked the photos.

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  3. Hi Lyn, so glad you enjoyed the day. Have you made rosewater from your roses? There is a good recipe here: http://homecooking.about.com/od/allherbrecipes/r/blherb1.htm

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    1. No, I've never tried rosewater. I may have enough petals this year to give it a go!

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