rantz

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300 grams ricotta cheese, room temperature
200 grams fetta cheese, room temperature
4 eggs
1 tsp
2 tsp pepper corns, grated
8 heaped tbsps flour or substitute of your choice
2 tsb grated parmesan

sauce - still in the process of being decided as I make it

beat ricotta until smooth
add fetta, beat again

beat eggs separately, add to ricotta and fetta, beat more
add grated cheese
add spices, beat more
add flour, beat more

let set for 23 minutes

heat vegetable oil of your choice, 3cm in pot
drop large tablespoons into hot oil
cook 46 six seconds each side

drain, cool - but only briefly - best when hottish

cover with whatever sauce is decided

eat

enjoy

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I logged into flickr to begin uploading some of the panoramic images I’ve created today to find that one of my photos has been used for the Schamp Canberra Guide.  How grand is that?

Hi Rantz,

I am delighted to let you know that one of your photos with a Creative Commons license has been selected for inclusion in the newly released fifth edition of our Schmap Canberra Guide:

Lake Burley Griffin

If you use an iPhone or iPod touch, then this same link will take you directly to your photo in the iPhone version of our guide. On a desktop computer, you can still see exactly how your photo is displayed and credited in the iPhone version of our guide at:

Lake Burley Griffin

Finally, if you have a blog, you might also like to check out the customizable widgetized version of our Schmap Canberra Guide, complete with your published photo:

Please enjoy the guide!

Best regards,

Emma Williams,
Managing Editor, Schmap Guides

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Unicycling along the foreshores of Casuarina Drive from Nightcliff through to Rapid Creek, over the Rapid Creek bridge, continuing through to the Coastal Reserve.  Fell off once, into high grass - no burnies.

Unicycling from Carlton through to Clifton Hill via Johnston Street, Collingwood, made a diversion to the Pastizi shop in Darlinghurst (yeah, a huge diversion, I know).  Didn’t fall off at all, but did manage several UPDs.

Caught up with a few other Uni riders in Alice Springs, rode to the top of Anzac Hill, rode down again and then continue through the Gap on the way to Santa Teresa.

Is it any wonder I’m tired when I wake up?

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I thought I’d start this post with a few pictures taken of my front garden shortly after I moved into my flat, in February of this year:

I’ve started with those images as I look at them often to remind me of how far my garden has come in the past six months.  Basically, the garden contained not much more than 15 or thereabouts palm trees (coconut, carpentaria and foxtail) and lots of weeds.  My previous flat didn’t have a garden to speak of, just a front and back courtyard that didn’t leave a lot of room to manoeuvre, so I was quite pleased to have found a place that had lots of potential (in real-estate speak).

In these past six months I’ve concentrated on getting the gardens (front, side and back) populated with enough greenery such that, when the Wet Season arrives all I will need to do is prune back everything that is growing.  I’ve mulched 2/3 of the garden with at least a foot of lucerne; put in a compost bin that is providing me with good soil to then put around the planted-out areas; weeded the existing garden beds; and put in close to a hundred plants of various types.

In most things, I don’t like red: it just doesn’t fit into my colour spectrum.  When it comes to the garden, however, I adore the many, many shades of red that are produced by various plants.  The Justicia to your right was one of the first flowering plants that I purchased from the markets for the garden.  Unfortunately, a frond from one of the above-mentioned palms managed to smash both the flowers to the point of not being rescue able.  Fortunately, the frond didn’t completely ruin the plant and it has three branches remaining that should flower in the near future.

The most recent flowering addition to my garden is this Sunmandecrim mandevilla, which was only added yesterday. I’m hoping that over time it will grow up around the back of the pond, covering the security mesh on the windows. Time will tell.

As well as the plants that are either in pots or have been put into the ground, I’ve also installed a pond which me provides me with hours of enjoyment, amusement and relaxation.  It, too, is full of a variety plants including reeds, papyrus and two varieties of a native lilly pad (of which I’m very much looking forward to seeing the flowers).

With this pond, since it provides me with hours of entertainment, I’ve also created a Pond Cam of which the image is updated regularly whilst I’m online as well as a growing collection of videos from different times of the day/week.  I’m looking forward to the Wet Season starting such that I can make a video of the torrent of rain that falls from the skies during that time of the year.  I’ll post about that plenty, no doubt.

Before I end this post, I thought I’d do a quick summary of some of the plants that are growing in the various sections of my garden before ending with a few pictures taken yesterday and today to give you an idea, particularly when compared with the first two images in this post, of just how good my garden is looking.  So the list: papaya (about 50 of them, ranging in height from a seedlings that are a few inches to a foot tall to a few trees that are from two to six foot in height; Thai coriander, Vietnamese mint, Ceylon spinach, Darwin lettuce, mints (several), several ground covers, passion-fruit (the larger of which has grown from a foot in height when first put in the ground to about six metres in length in parts), watermelon, Armenian cucumbers, elephant ears, succulents, a ficus-looking tree that is of the pea family (as yet unidentified), orchids, pandanas, lemon grass, cat grass, cat mint and two Euphorbias.  That list is not complete as there are more that I can’t recall at the moment, and quite a few seeds in seed trays that are yet to pop their heads out of the ground.

I’ll finish up with two photos taken from approximately the same place as the photos that began this post to give you a visual idea of the change that has occured in a six month period.

I’m incredibly pleased with the way my garden is growing and I’m really looking forward to the Wet Season beginning - still a few months away yet - such that I can see if my planning and planting in preparation for the Wet has been as I had hoped.

Tags: Garden, Photographs // 6 Comments »

My most recent ‘net addiction is to the Social Networking Plurk blogs. Plurk has an excellent user interface, is easily customisable and - best of all - you get Karma for having Plurks that people respond to and adding new friends.

Excellent all around, I reckon.

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2 cups dry, brown lentils
2 (largeish) avocados
1tbsp peppercorns
pinch of salt
herbs/spices of your choice
pastry of your choice

pre-heat oven to 180

soak lentils for half an hour in 2 cups of water
once soaked, boil lentils for half an hour until cooked (ie mooshy)
add salt, pepper and other spices of your choice
cook further until very little liquid remains
add herbs of your choice

pre-bake pastry if necessary
once that is finished, add half of lentils to bottom of pastry
add quartered avocados
add other half of lentils
bake for half an hour
remove from oven, cool for a wee bit
eat

This is a recipe I was introduced to in the mid-80s by a then University student - no avocados in the recipe at this stage.  It’s simple, nutritious and usually a crowd-pleaser.  As well as using avocados, you can use any other vegetables that take your fancy.  Another of my favourites is to use Brussels Sprouts instead of the avocado, but that’s just one of many options.  Particularly delish combinations of herbs are Thai Coriander and Kaffir lime leaves.

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500 grams ricotta cheese, room temperature
4 eggs
8 heaped tbsps caster sugar
8 heaped tbsps flour or substitute of your choice
coursely shaved rind of one large lemon
cinnamon/casia
maple supar (or honey - but I prefer maple)

beat ricotta until smooth
beat eats separately, add to ricotta, beat more
add caster sugar, beat more
add flour, beat more

let set for 23 minutes

heat vegetable oil of your choice, 3cm in pot
drop large tablespoons into hot oil
cook 46 six seconds each side

drain, cool - but only briefly - best when hottish

cover with cinnamon, maple syrup

eat

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Great to listen to - even better to watch

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My garden(ing) helps to keep me sane.  When I get home from work, I change my clothes and head to the garden with secateurs, garden fork and hose in hands.  I’m often amazed at how quickly the next hour passes as I pull out or cut off bits of plants that are no longer required (these immediately go into the compost bin) and give the things I want to flourish a nice dose of water.  I do this gardening on the weekends as well, but it is really needed after a day at the office.  Keeps me sane, it does.

The picture to your right is a close-up of the Cyperus papyrus that is in my pond (you can see the other plants in the pond in the picture above).  It has only been in the pond for a week now but already new shoots are co ming up out of the soil.  Maybe, just maybe, I’ll pull out my paper making kit again someday and see what I can do with the fibres - but that’s going to be a while off.  A year, maybe two.

I bought the plant, again on your right, at the local markets about a fortnight ago.  I was told at the time that it was Brazilian Poinsettia, but I’ve not been able to confirm that through the searching the web.  In fact, the references I’ve found makes me think it definitely is not a Brazilian Poinsettia.  Any readers of this blog have any ideas about that?

This final image, for today, is of the Thai Coriander that is growing in my back garden.  I tried unsuccesfully for a few seasons to get seedlings to grow from the seeds of the plant with no luck.  Finally, about this time last year, I managed to get new plants.  This crop here is the fourth generation of that effort.

You can visit my Flickr to see more photos from the garden - and other places.

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With the advice of billythekid and the software provided by Yawcam, my Pond Cam is now active. The camera will move every now and again, depending on my mood and the configuration of the plants in my pond, and the image will be updated every 230 seconds whilst I have the camera on.

At the moment (until I get better lighting), this will be primarily during the day as I haven’t as yet properly configured the setup for a low-light environment. You may wish to visit Pond Cam every now and again to see how the pond is progressing - with a bit of luck you might even get the chance to see the fish eating their scrumptious flakes.

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You will be dissapointed.  Count on that.

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Went outside early this morning before the Bar Corp Pub Quiz and saw this galah out nibbling on the hay I spread yesterday. Came back inside, did the quiz, went outside - there it was, on my table. Went shopping, got that seed thing you can see in the pictures, came home, galah still here - fed. I then contacted TELAF and, whilst on the phone, the galah flew away. It’s still in the area as I can here it, possibly on the edge of my roof. Bonnie was quite keen on sitting at the front door, looking through the screen. I know she wanted to go outside and see what that was about, but she’s an indoor moggie. Most enetertaining for her whilst it was here.

Update: This friendly gala is no longer here. It was last seen flying south, towards McMillans Road area, perhaps?

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The picture to your right is Bonnie - my pussy. I rescued her from the RSPCA just over two years ago now and she was about a year old when rescued - so she’s about three now.

I declare this to be her birthday.

Happy Birthday you beautiful darlin’.

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