Waterfalls & Falls

Hooray for public holidays!

Today we jumped in the car and just headed west. You know those days when you just have to get out but you don't have any real plans?
Well, we ended up at Wentworth Falls via the blackened valleys of Winmalee and Springwood.
It was so uplifting to see the regrowth on the gums in these areas devastated by fires in October last year. There was excessive banter in the back as to why the trunks had leaves and not just the branches, but I won't bore you.
Jackie Bennett, you were on my mind.

Anyway we finally reached Wentworth Falls after about 2 hours in the car, and before we could say "everyone put sunscreen on" they were gone.

Knowing there were waterfalls and cliffs just down there, I became the resident bird woman. I screamed for them to wait, but it just fell on deaf ears. Again. 

Thankfully we all made it down safely, just in time for a tourist to snap us a cheesy pic.

dags!

It was freezing, look at poor Bear. He was frozen still.

 Needless to say my shoes got sodden rescuing him. 

Moments after Buzzy played He-Man, we saw a young guy, mid 20s, slip right here and the thud was LOUD.

I thought he'd broken EVERYTHING.

He managed to stand and hobbled off with deep cuts, our frozen popper, broken everything(?) and a damaged ego.

Poor bloke, I don't know how he managed the 1000 steps skyward!

 So after the drama of the slipping bloke with the ego, we chilled for a while by the waterfall, eating cheese and biccies and catching tadpoles and baby crays.

 But two hours of listening to running water and my post-4-babies-bladder was in desperate need of the ladies, so we dashed to civilisation with some extras friends in tow (who now incidentally, grace my bathroom vanity. What a delight when I was brushing my teeth tonight. )

Happy Monday

Liv x

Blackberry Pie on Australia day

Not once since I started blogging have I shared a recipe with you. It's not really my thing. Craft and painting on the other hand….
Infact I think I told you in one of my earliest posts that I'm not a confident cook, my mum and sister got that gene, but I do love to bake. I seem to be comfortable with sugar….funny that!
But today, on Australia Day, the lamb and ribs were marinating and the salad was good to go, but there was not a pav or lamington in sight. So we decided to ride our bikes to the local blackberry bush in search of some filing for our Australia Day sweet pie.
Lots of "ouch" and "oowee" from the thorns and ten stained hands later, we headed back with a bounty of sweet, juicy blackberries.

( a double exposed shot?? a bit freaky)

Someone (??) wouldn't hand over the crop when it was time to make the pie.

I later found said person with my strainer…

So anyway, onto the first recipe on my blog:

Sweet Blackberry Pie, Liv Style.

ingredients: 

Shortcrust pasrty:

1 3/4 cups plain flour

125g chilled butter, chopped

1 egg yolk (I added the white too!)

2 tsps iced water

Filing: 

4 cups of fresh black berries

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup plain flour

2 tbls milk

(* we only used about 3 cups of berries, because we had to save some for breakfast tomorrow apparently. You can see in the photo that it really does need that last cup.)

method:

Preheat oven to 220C

Pastry:

Blend flour and butter until bread crumb consistency.

Add egg and water.

Knead with flour, cover in glad wrap and set in fridge whilst you make filing.

Filing:

Combine flour, sugar, berries and milk. Fold gently until the flour is combined evenly.

NOW, roll out pastry and cover the base of the pie dish. Trim edges.

You get the rest, right?….

Ok. So they said it was "amazing". No biggy.

We ate our little treat whilst watching the sun going down on these beautiful Aussie gums in our backyard. 

Happy Australia Day

Much Love

Liv xo

Summer 2014

This summer has been longggggg to say the least.  Hubby didn't get time off work so we have busied ourselves on and near home turf. We made a few day trips to the beach, we have had a lot of cousin time, hours upon hours of swimming, weeks of watching Pop building the studio, crafting, painting, baking, making mess, making mess, making more mess….it's been long. 

My girl and I.

But despite all of this,  most days I heard "we're bored, what can we do?"

To which I'd say: "Don't ask me, just go outside and make your own fun"

Some days they struggled, other days they entertained themselves for hours.

This was cute, one evening Lulu and Bear called us out onto the deck to watch a "concert". We were given tickets, allocated seating and snacks (mint from the garden)

cubby houses

Dollies in the studio

Imagine my shock when I found Bear and his animals in my dirty dish water after dinner one night. 

…and in his sister undies later that evening.

He taught himself to swim without a bubble over summer

Lulu and her cousins ground rocks and made a snowman

The big boy made elastic wristbands…..for everyone.

Bear rescued frogs from the filter box

These two were Pop's "apprentice" and "water girl" on most days. Henry managed to loose most of Pop's tools daily.

….and with one final week to come, I'm holding my breath. I will spend the next few days covering school books, ironing uniforms, sewing on labels and buying groceries for yet another school year.

I hope I am ready, I know I'm keen to get started!

Wishing you all a blessed, fun and successful school year.

Much Love

Liv x