WOW

I just discovered that I have already made 50 posts. That didn't take long! I also put up a visitor widget thingymadoodle, which is on the bottom of the page, and was quite pleased to see that people are coming by for a visit, no matter how quietly! I changed the widget and lost all of the dots on the map, so please come back to visit, so I have a dotty globe again!!!

Polka dot snow

The snow we got the day before yesterday came from the South and was very wet, compared to the snow before that, which was extremely dry and fluffy.

I found this this morning

Polka dot snow.

That's the drive way showing through.

And to continue Bush Babes lesson of the other day

reflections...

here are a couple more...

the rose arbor

and the pine tree

in the brilliant sun of mid morning.

Who knows what the next snow will be like...

but we don't have long before we find out.

Ummm...

does anybody know if some major planet event has occured

and we have actually been shifted NORTH??!!

Well, I guess Gaia is talking and, as usual, we aren't listening.

Calgon take me away....

On a day that is enough to send you over the edge!!!...

I give you this.

Sun, sand and sea.

Various and sundry shots from one of my favourite places on this planet.

(I have never been to another planet so I don't know if there is somewhere else I might like to be!!)

Great idea...

 I did a bit of surfing on the blogs this morning and I visited Bush Babe,  (http://bushbabe.blogspot.com/)  who lives in Australia.....just think about it for a second.....the other side of the world from me and I just click a button.....but that's another story. She takes the most beautiful photographs and I drool once in a while, wondering if I will ever be that good. There are a couple of other "photo takers" who blow me away too. Chronicles of a Country Girl is one and of course Pioneer Woman. Anyway, this morning Bush Babe shows pictures of her horses eye, with a reflection in it. And she wondered what we could come up with.....so I took what I saw. Familiar and ordinary to me, but if looked at with another "eye", is quite interesting. So here are my attempts... however feeble!!

out the front door

front door in a plate

in a kitchen cabinet

and in the oven!!!! with all the mess on the table,

just keeping it real.

I don't get out much do I?

Yummy cake...

This is a recipe for the most delicious fruit cake.

I make it often and as it makes two loaves

it lasts a while!!

The recipe calls for dates and walnuts, neither of which I had the first time I made it.

I used golden raisins and pecans.

But I have found you can use anything your heart desires, as long as you stick to the amounts. I use only 1c of the sugar, the fruit makes it sweet enough for me. And I don't use the glaze.

 Make sense?

so...the recipe

3 c AP flour

1 ts baking soda

1 c butter

1-2 c sugar

4 eggs

1/2 c orange juice

1 c coconut

8oz dates (or fruit of your choice)

1 c chopped nuts

GLAZE

1 c icing sugar

1/2 c orange juice

Method

Preheat oven to 300 degs

Grease and lightly flour two 9x5 loaf pans.

In a large bowl beat the butter and slowly add the sugar.

Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each.

Sift flour and baking soda.

Stir the dry ingredients into the butter mixture in three parts, alternating with the 1/2 orange juice.

Mix nuts, fruit and coconut with a tiny bit of flour and fold gently into batter.

Pour batter into the two greased pans and bake for 1-1 1/2 hours or until golden brown.

If you are going to glaze it....

mix the other 1/2 c orange juice with the scant 1 c icing sugar

and pour over the cakes, in the pans while still hot.

Cool in pans on a rack.

(this is one I made with the glaze on it, 'coz the hubs likes sweet things)

Now, the last time I made it, I used one bag of mixed fruit (the one with apples and pears and plums and cherries) and chopped it up smallish and just threw it in. I used chopped hazlenuts and organic coconut and I had a fresh orange so I zested some peel and threw that in too!!

I have pretty much thrown in whatever I had on hand and it has always turned out. I don't like very sweet cakes and this one is just sweet enough.

So I hope you make it and enjoy it. It makes up fast, (although it does take 1-1 1/2 hrs to cook), but if you make it early in the day...you can have a piece with your afternoon cuppa, or as an evening snack!

Have a good day.....the sun is shining brightly here and the snow is sparkling......