Chocolate cake

E lá fiz eu outro bolinho - a receita é a mesma e este bolo fica sempre muito bom. Diziam que ía chover mas, afinal, esteve bom este fim-de-semana. Fiquei mesmo contente! E mais contente estou porque, provavelmente, vou poder remodelar a minha sala e ter mais espaço para as minhas coisas... :)

And I baked another cake. This recipe always comes out good. They said it was going to rain the whole weekend, but the weather's been nice after all. And that made me really happy! But what makes me even happier is that I might do some changes at my living room and finally get room enough for my little things... :)

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Mother's Day Breakfast

I felt like the luckiest mother in town when Miss 14 walked in with my Mother's Day breakfast this morning.  Think crisp French toast, apples cooked in caramel sauce and an 'I love you' piped in whipped cream.  Oh, and a little dish of real maple syrup on the side.  Just in case I needed it.

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Spring in the garden

Tirei estas fotos hoje de manhã, ainda meio sol, meio chuva. Mas quis fixar na memória as flores, a Primavera, e as coisas de que gosto tanto. Estas flores são recentes, vêm do horto super adubadas. Vamos ver como se porta a natureza e como crescerão...

Esta é uma jarra com as flores que usei na Páscoa - vejam há quanto tempo duram!

This vase has some of the flowers that I used on that dinner with my friends at Easter -

- they last really long!

These are some photos that I took this morning, trying to capture the beauty in my garden while the sun and the rain were trying to show up once at a time. I love spring flowers and nature and I want to remember how my garden looked like when I see these in pictures in the future. Some of these flowers came from the garden shop recently, so they are super fertilized - I just want to see how will nature behave and how they'll grow...

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Autumn Vegetable Garden: May 2011

This is the first autumn that I have had a vegetable garden in Adelaide and I am amazed at how long my summer plants are lasting.

The eggplants and cherry tomatoes are still fruiting, although growth is slower than a month or two ago.  Even more surprising is that the basil plants haven't blackened off yet, despite some very cold nights.

I'm thinking about leaving the eggplant and capsicum plants in the ground until next summer to see if they will produce for a second year.  Have you ever done this?  Was it successful?

Apart from the remains of my summer planting, I have planted out some seeds and seedlings of winter vegetables such as lettuces, beets, turnips, swedes, broccoli and broad beans.  The tricky part is keeping the chooks from digging them up.

What are you growing in your garden this May?

Jap pumpkin

eggplant

iceberg lettuce in a planter

cherry tomatoes

chillis

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Wild poppies

Encontrei-as ontem na rua, nuns montinhos ao pé do passeio. Lá consegui trazer algumas, com a ajuda da Carlota, as duas felizes. Ainda trouxemos um pé, a ver se pega mas, como são flores selvagens, não tenho muita esperança. Lindas, lindas!

I found them on a small piece of land, in the street. Me and Carlota managed to bring a few, happy that we also brought a couple of them to plant - don't know if't it's going to work out, as they are wild flowers. They are so beautiful and fragile...

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Partly Free Range

When we had bantams in Melbourne they free-ranged over our backyard all day long.  They only lived in their 'house' at night.

However, here in Adelaide we don't have side gates, so we have to keep our new chooks, Temple and Caramel, in their pen during the day.  They only free range in the afternoons when someone can be outside to keep an eye on them and keep them out of mischief.

Full size hens make much more of a mess than little bantams, so for the garden's sake it's probably a good idea to keep Temple and Caramel locked up most of the time.

It does feel strange though, to have graduated from babysitting children to babysitting feather-babies.

And no, I'm not feeling at all clucky.

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Wall decoration + Beautiful Ninainvorm

Fim-de-semana a chover não está com nada mas, enfim, reclamar do tempo é daquelas coisas que não vale mesmo a pena - não o podemos mudar! :)

Hoje falo-vos de decoração de paredes - não papel-de-parede, mas antes de quadros, pratos, etc. Eu não tenho qualquer formação em design, arquitectura ou decoração. Zero. Tudo é baseado em instinto e muita imagem que passa pelos meus olhos - e, claro, um gosto inato pelas coisas bonitas desta vida. Mas muitas vezes penso que gostaria de aprender algo mais. A noção do espaço, o equilíbrio entre as peças, o aproveitamento da casa, um sem número de coisas que a decoração de interiores abranje e que, a mim, me desperta imensa curiosidade. Daí que, ao longo destes anos, tenha feito (e ainda faço) muitos erros em termos decorativos, muita aprendizagem pelas tentativas, remodelações e mudanças. E, se pudesse, não pararia por aqui, pois adoro mobilar e (re)decorar a minha casa! Há sempre algo mais que pode ser feito! (Acho que este é um problema muito comum entre as mulheres! :)) Daí que, dentro desta coisa fantástica que é a decoração, as paredes sejam um dos meus calcanhares de aquiles - tenho sempre alguma dificuldade, ou melhor, indecisão, quando toca à decoração das paredes. Não quando falamos de papéis, aí acho que sei escolher. Agora quadros, é um dilema! E que moldura? Branca? Preta? Madeira? Moldura com linhas rectas? Ou arredondadas? Mas a cor combina com a gravura? E o conjunto? Penduro mais acima? Ficará bem naquela parede? Os pratos? Opto pela mesma cor de base? Ou misturo tudo? Eu sei lá, só sei que demoro dias, semanas até fazer alguma coisa!

Então se as minhas queridas leitoras e leitores me pudessem dar umas dicas de decoração de parede - links, revistas, etc. - esta vossa amiga ficaria eternamente grata.

Mostro-vos o meu pratinho novo da Ninainvorm (mais um daqueles namoros prolongados) - este sei onde o vou pendurar! :) As cerâmicas pintadas pela Nina são lindas de morrer, vejo-as e revejo-as vezes sem conta... Até o toque das bandeirolas tem a ver comigo! ;)

Espero que aproveitem este Domingo. Se eu conseguir, ainda cá volto.

Leituras de fim-de-semana: enquanto os meus livros novos não chegam,

vou relendo os mais antigos

Weekend readings: while I'm waiting for my new books to arrive,

I read the old ones once more

It's raining this weekend, but the weather is one of those things we mustn't complain: the fact that we do doesn't change it, does it? So we might as well go ahead and think (and do) other things! :)

Today I'm writting about wall decor - not wallpaper, but paintings, plates, etc. I have zero education in terms of design, arquitecture or decoration. All I do is by instinct and the thousands of images that I see along the way. And also because I love to be surrounded by beautiful things. So I've made lots of mistakes in terms of decor (I still do), I've changed my place about 2 million times now, I've tried and failed and learned in the process. If I could, I'd keep on changing my small house, there's still so many things I could do here! But I guess that changing our homes all the time is a woman's thing, right? :) Sometimes I think I should learn more about interior decoration: the spacial notion, equilibrium, things that work and things that don't, all of that is part of the decoration process and isn't as intuitive as one might think. So when it comes to wall decor, I take weeks before I do something - what kind of frame should I use? In white? Black? Wood? Sharp edges? Round edges? Should I hang it higher or lower? And the plates? The same colour basis? Mix different styles?

That being said, if my lovely readers can provide me some information - links, books, etc. - on wall decor, yours truly would be very pleased! :)

I'm also showing you my new Ninainvorm plate - one of those long woo - but this one I know where to hang! :) Nina's work is amazing, I keep seeing her ceramics from time to time, just to please my eyes! Even the garland detail in this plate has to do with me! :)

I wish you all a lovely Sunday. If I can manage it, I'll come here later on.

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