19 Hours to go, but who's counting???

I'm feeling surprisingly emotional about the family arriving tomorrow!

Youngest daughter, Bubbles and her Knight in Shining Armour, made their way to Sydney Airport this afternoon to meet Chicklet for the first time.

Vegan Chickie, The Bare-chested Chef and Chicklet had a very short stopover of forty minutes in Sydney, before their flight to Brisbane, so Bubbles, who was desperate to meet her first niece, made it her 'mission' to get there.

She sent me a text as they left the airport that read 'SHE'S PERFECT!'

I already knew that :o)

Here is our little girl looking decidedly exhausted after an already big day!

Don't ya just wanna pinch those chubby cheeks!?

I imagine that they will all be exhausted tonight and I hope they sleep well in the motel bed so that they can be fresh for another big day tomorrow.

Whenever I imagine myself seeing them walk through the terminal gates tomorrow, the tears well in my eyes, so I'm afraid I have become a pathetically and uncontrollably emotional grandmother who will soon be an embarrassment to her family.

In seven years I have gone from 'The Terminator' to 'Sooky La La' and I shake my head in disbelief.  It just goes to show that nothing is forever.

Less than nineteen hours to go now, and yes, it's ME who's counting!

Working Bee

Adoring Husband worked his butt off today to prepare two of our rooms for the impending arrival of our family.

He had to, because he is now playing golf for most of the weekend and won't have any other time to do it!

So now, we are ready and waiting and counting the hours.

I'm feeling a bit low on energy tonight so this post is short, and I'm leaving some photos that I took last year at Preston Peaks Winery, which is near Toowoomba in southern Queensland.

Even though Adoring Husband did most of the work, the working bee has taken it out of me today and I need to rest my brain and my body :o)

'Honorary Placenta Tree' Planting Day

It was an emotional moment for Vegan Chickie and The Bare-chested Chef.  Across the Tasman, at the same time that they were burying Chicklet's placenta, Adoring Husband and I were planting the Honorary Placenta Tree together in our back yard.

Because they are leaving New Zealand much sooner than originally planned, it is too soon to plant a tree with the placenta before they leave (it's necessary to wait a year before burying a placenta under a tree), so for them to ask us to share the moment with this symbolic gesture, it was a huge honour!

For us, it felt like we were welcoming new life into the world and it was an invigorating and happy moment.

They have one night left in the house where their little Chicklet was born and they are feeling a little sad.  We, on the other hand, are feeling very excited that they will arrive in less than three days and we will get to spend quality time with them and with our little grand daughter.

I get a little teary every time I think about it!

Vegan Chickie and Chicklet burying the placenta

The Bare-chested Chef (not so bare-chested) burying the placenta.

The honorary placenta tree (avocado)

Adoring Husband doing some extra landscaping

... and a little bit more landscaping.

The finished product with decorative froggies .. because we all love froggies!

Me, presenting the honorary placenta tree :o)

It's been a good day!

One more time with feeling!

Today was vegan peanut butter cupcakes day and they are now Adoring Husband's new favourites.  These vegan recipes are so delicious, it's difficult to choose which one to try next!  Coconut and lime look nice, as do the lemon and macadamia nut.  Yummo!

 

Did some bartering today and swapped a dozen eggs for a lovely big home-grown pumpkin.  Time for a big batch of pumpkin soup to freeze, in preparation for Winter!

Tonight we had a birthday dinner for one of our more loveable friends at the local hotel.  She turned fifty six.  There were about twenty five of us and even though we were only out for just over two hours, it was loud and happy with lots of laughter.  

Kaz is very much loved by her friends and even her acquaintances, because she is kind, caring, generous with her time and is a great listener.  

She is beautiful and exudes a warmth that makes you smile the minute that you meet her.  I consider her a close friend and I wish we had more opportunities to spend time together.

It was a lovely evening and I think she enjoyed herself.  She looked happy. 

May 5th is the final voting day for the photo contest in which I've submitted my feeding bird photo so I just thought I would post the link one more time.  My photo is on page three.  If you go to the site, find my photo and then click on the word 'vote' under the photo, it would cause me to ***happy dance***!

http://www.discoverwildlife.com/wildlife-nature-photography/photo-contest/april%202011%20photo%20contest%3A%20baby%20animals

Shopped Til We Dropped!

What started out this morning at 9am, as a short trip into The Bay to get a few plants, some vegan ingredients and a nappy bucket, turned into an epic shopping trip that ended with slowing down for school traffic this afternoon!

Veggie garden is under way at last!  After a short drive to the plant nursery on the edge of town, we acquired egg plant, snow peas, beans, rocket, spinach, a few varieties of tomatoes, cucumber, leek, a massive birds eye chilli plant and a STACK of new herbs like basil, sage, parsley, rosemary, thyme and dill, among others!

One honorary placenta tree in the form of an avocado, now waiting for the 'placenta burying date' on Thursday :o)

We decided to have lunch at our favourite lunch spot.  Aquavue, on the water.  The tide was in and sun was glistening on the water and there was a gentle sea breeze.  Perfect.

A visit to Adoring Husband's favourite store ... yes, you guessed it ... Bunnings Hardware, to get tomato stakes and to look for some more veggie seedlings.  Unfortunately, the seedlings arrive on Thursday, so we were two days too early.

It took trips to two different supermarkets, miles apart, to find all of the ten remaining ingredients for the vegan cupcake bonanza baking fest, which now has to be postponed for twenty four hours because we used up the whole day doing other things!  The boys at The Seat of Knowledge will be very disappointed!

Not to mention Adoring Husband, who has been harassing me all night, to go into the kitchen and knock up a batch of the same cookies and cream chocolate cupcakes that I made yesterday!

One more dvd to add to the already massive collection.  Little Fokkers.  One nappy bucket and one changing mat for one very precious little Chicklet.  Six kilos of fresh dog mince.  An unsuccessful visit to a car yard or two, looking for the perfect used car for the perfect new family.

When we arrived home, I sat down to watch the ABC news and the best part of the coverage was a story about the early arrival of the whales at the Gold Coast on their migration north for the Winter!  They are about a month early!  Very exciting!

While a massive black thunderstorm built up over our heads, I made a delicious vegetable quiche for dinner with a crispy skinned baked potato.

I was hoping to capture some lightning shots with the camera, but the storm was too close and too scary looking and I didn't dare set up the tripod on the front porch for fear of getting struck down!

To finish off an already great day, one of my favourite TV shows started a new season tonight.  Australia's Got Talent.

So, we shopped til we dropped and wowsers, Australia has definitely got some talent!!

Vegan Cookies and Cream Chocolate Cupcakes

For my birthday, Vegan Chickie, The Bare-chested Chef and Chicklet gave me a a book called "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World" by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero.

This afternoon, I baked my first vegan cupcakes using a recipe from this book.  Cookies and cream chocolate cupcakes with dark chocolate icing with almonds and topped with a mini Oreo.

Easily the most delicious cupcake that I have EVER baked.  So rich that it's impossible to eat too many. I ate two and felt like I'd eaten a dozen!!

Cookies and cream chocolate cupcakes with dark chocolate icing with whole almonds and topped with a mini Oreo

I just can't wait to try another recipe out of the book and I think I might take some of the chocolate cupcakes down to the Seat of Knowledge tomorrow and share them with the boys.

This will give me the perfect excuse to bake up a new batch tomorrow!  Perhaps the carrot cupcakes, coconut & lime cupcakes or peanut butter cupcakes!  Decisions, decisions!

Of the hundred or so recipe books that I have, it could very easily slide into my top five!  I can't wait to share them with people who think that any food with the word 'vegan' attached must taste bad!

THE PROOF WILL BE IN THE PUDDING!

Such indulgence!  It almost feels sinful!  Adoring Husband said to me after his first cupcake "You couldn't eat more than one.  They are too rich".  Ten minutes later, he walked into the lounge room with a saucer holding two more, which he gobbled down faster than I could blink!

Tomorrow, I will share with you the next indulgent episode of cupcake mania, and I would appreciate it if we all understood the fact that they are vegan, which makes them SUPER healthy!

The author's decision is final!  No correspondence will be entered into!

Honorary Placenta Tree and Organic Vegetables

Adoring Husband has spent a few hours in the garden today and prepared the veggie beds for planting.

The herb garden now has an orange tree in it!  There is also the asparagus that has been cut back and looks like it's about to explode with regrowth.

The rosemary, basil, mint and comfrey are all doing very nicely.  The parsley, sadly, has passed on and will have to be replaced.

Two strawberry plants have survived the Summer of neglect along with a chilli plant and there is plenty of room in the bed to plant some new herbs.

 The Lovely Laying Chookies have been given their own garden bed to play in and will hopefully remove a years worth of weedy grasses that have been trying to take over that particular bed and have almost succeeded!

Hopefully, while they eat the grasses, they will also fertilize the ground at the same time, but that bed will need to be rested for a while.

So far on the list for planting, we have corn, tomatoes, beans, cucumber, zucchini, lettuce, snow peas, capsicum and egg plant.

We haven't had any luck with the traditional Winter crops like broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage here in Queensland because it's too warm and the bugs and worms take over!

Thursday afternoon this week has been set aside for planting.  There will be an avocado tree planted in honour of Chicklet's placenta, which is being buried in NZ at the same time.

Avocado, Pears - Womb & Cervix
These Foods target the health and function of the Womb and Cervix of the Female - they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats 1 Avocado a Week, it Balances Hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight and Prevents Cervical Cancers. 
   And how profound is this?
It takes exactly 9 Months to grow an Avocado from blossom to ripened fruit.

Appropriate I think!

Then the vegetables will be planted after that and in a few weeks we can start eating fresh organic food from the garden again.  I think it's been about a year since we grew anything!  Now that the beds have all been rested and composted with lots of delicious stuff, the garden should thrive again!  I can't wait!

So this week is 'honorary placenta tree and organic veggie' week!  Bring it on!