I've just finished bottling up my Belladonna Nightshade. This sauce is going to withstand a nuclear holocaust! Dare you to take on the Youtube challenge.

It has come to my attention that there's a lot of sugar in my sauces. I think the contents gets even higher with the use of lots of fruit in most of them. So, I've ordered some sweet beets seeds from the diggers club and am going to experiment (next year) with using this as an ingredient instead of sugar. Otherwise, buy the Smoked Garlic Jalapeno and Anchovy or Belladonna Nightshade and stay tuned...

I have friends who don't check their mail for days/weeks on end. This is something I just don't understand. It's as simple as getting out of the car on your way home from work, walking to the mail box and seeing what's inside. Usually it is just bills and junk mail, even though we have a 'no junk mail' sign on ours. But yesterday, coming home a bit tired and grumpy after a grueling day at the office, we found a neat little package from The Diggers Club. To my absolute delight, they had sent me a jalapeno seedling for my garden! And I hadn't even ordered one! Bless their cotton socks. They made my day a million times better and after spending a few minutes in the vege patch, putting my new baby in the ground and knocking back a few weeds, the rest of the day just dissipated into bla bla. Sometimes and more often than not, it's the simplest things make your day. Thank you so much Diggers Club!

Magic tricks performed by adults, to the delight of a 2 year old, should probably be done with objects that are too big to fit into said 2 year old's nose. You know the one where object goes into one person's nose (in this case, my husband's) and comes out of our grandson's ear? Yeah, that old one. I was cooking, as I do, and Dan calls out to me to come quick! You might want to grab the tweezers..... Mr Miyagi (grandson) has a small green pebble lodged in his right nostril. Granny Mel and a pair of fancy pink tweezers to the rescue! Dressing gown flowing like a well made cape, slippers propelling me faster than their very own flip flop sound barrier..... Da da da daaaa! Ok, so it wasn't so dramatic but hopefully 'twas a lesson learned.

It absolutely pissed down on the day of my birthday and it's still raining (surprise, surprise). Next weekend we have to dig up the vege garden and trim back all the plants outside in preparation for the snow. Last week I planted tulip bulbs everywhere so that they come up for Spring in March/April. I also planted day lilys and peonies. I am sure there will be snow by the time I get back from Aus. We have to pack up the outdoor setting and put it in the basement, aswell as  the lawnmower and bikes which are in the shed outside. All the leaves are orange, red and yellow now, Autumn is amazing here. My front yard has two big maple trees and the leaves are starting to turn red and fall on the grass, it's so pretty.

Not sure how many of you are aware of the fight the residents of St Peters have got on their hands regarding coal seam gas explorations in their area. I've seen the numerous banners tied to verandahs and fences and didn't really give it much thought until the other day when we saw "Have you seen Gasland" painted on a bit of cardboard and propped against a wall near Sydney Park. Have we? Well no, we haven't. So we did. And now we understand.
Buy the doco:www.gaslandthemovie.com
To learn more about the Sydney battle go to: www.nogasmininginsydney.com