At left is Oli, our handsome ginger boy, pictured in 1981. He died in early 1993.

Click on Maneki Neko to find out more about this ubiquitous Asian cat, so popular in Japan and, perhaps, the inspiration for the cute Hello Kitty products.

Family pages: a work that will continue to be in progress for a long time.

Australian stamps from Australia Post.

We enjoyed the parrots attracted by our almond tree. Pink and grey galahs sometimes attacked like a marauding army and dropped a hail of twigs and nuts onto the tin roof of the shed. You'd hear the noise from inside and come running. Sometimes there were sulphur crested cockatoos and, rarely, huge black parrots swaying on top. Sadly for the birds, our gum tree died first in the drought and then the almond tree, killed partly by a pepper tree I had let grow, thinking it would be a good replacement until I saw that one of the base roots was 20 cms in diameter after only 5 years. The pepper tree and dead almond were removed April, 2017.

In Spring, 2011, we were charmed by the arrival of a piping shrike/Murray magpie which we named Cheepy. He walked around our feet collecting crumbs when we ate outside and engaged in various bizarre acts like flying repeatedly into the laundry window under the verandah and pecking at it and jumping up and down onto a wheelbarrow of flowers I had on the lawn while pecking the plastic tray. He had several sounds-a loud "cheep cheep" when he arrived and some lovely whistling too. Pippi, the cat, was always watching and waiting but had had some bad experiences with birds. Above right: Cheepy, identified by the white S swirl behind the eye, the patch of white over the beak and the slightly scruffy appearance.

Christmas in Australia; Christmas World

Nigella's recipes
Recipes: Australia's best
Recipe goldmine-frostings
Delicious recipe index.
Taste
Good Food; All recipes; Joy of baking

Paper dolls on Pinterest; Adult paper dolls amazing; royal; Stardoll; Images of paper dolls
As a child I used to draw my own dolls based on dolls from Archie comics. I drew and coloured hundreds of outfits for them using pictures from the "Australian Woman's Weekly" and other magazines for ideas. Sadly, I threw them out when we moved from the country to the city.

At left: beautiful carnival glass picture taken from Dusty Old Thing's Facebook page.

THE NEWER CATS ON THE BLOCK-BAXTER AND PIPPI
Black and white Pippi born 2002, died June 24, 2021 aged 19 years and 9 months. She was a quiet and home loving girl for most of her life and almost never meowed until she found her voice in her last 2 or 3 years. Ginger Baxter born September 1, 2012, is a much fiercer cat, sometimes loving, but prone to flying tackles when you cross his lawn. He also bites, sometimes fiercely. When he arrived he tried hard to make friends with Pippi, but she rejected him completely. They settled into a truce in recent years, although there were still often hissy fits between them.

SOME OF OUR HOLIDAYS
We have an unrenovated house and old cars but have spent money on travel because we find it interesting and educational. It also helps us appreciate what we are lucky enough to have at home. We were travelling long before the internet started, and I've always written diaries but now I put them on the internet because it makes it easy for us to see them and perhaps others may be interested or be able to use the information in their own travel planning.

Holiday 2008
Holiday 2010
Holiday 2012
Holiday 2013
Holiday 2015
Holiday 2016
Holiday 2017
Holiday 2018
Holiday 2019

SIMON'S CONVERTER
Use Simon's Javascript unit converter below, to change Imperial to Metric measurements when cooking.
Simply type the quantity in the spaces provided and click on the CONVERT button underneath.

ounces:		---> grams
grams:		---> ounces
pounds:		---> kgs
kgs:		---> pounds
pints:		---> mls
mls:		---> pints
degrees F:		---> degrees C
degrees C:		---> degrees F