Saturday, December 24, 2011

Camping

We went camping last Sunday and Monday for a night.  We were supposed to go for two nights but our car got halfway there and the water pump stopped working and everything got very hot.  So, we stopped where we were.  There was a big patch of rosella flowers (to make rosella jam) so we picked those for a while.  Then we locked up the car and went hiking up the nearby mountain.  The grass was very tall.  Jarrah spent most of the hike on Daddy's shoulders.  Amelie was a trooper and tromped through the grass.  

We got to the top of a little mountain which had quite a view over the surrounding mountains.    



We found leftovers from a cut down tree and Jarrah found a rock that she wanted to bring home. 
 The girls had to climb up every incline tree they came across and pretend to be riding a horse.  



We got back to the car finally after trudging through neck high grass for what seemed like forever.  We set up camp in a rice field and had a campfire (burning up the rice straw).  The owner of the field came by to see what we were up to and to make sure we didn't end up burning his roofing that was drying nearby.  Had a comfortable nights sleep on our mattresses in our tent!  Pretty fancy camping.  Amelie was the chief fire attendant.  Had a great view of the millions of stars in the sky through the skylight in our tent.

And that was day one of our campout.
I shall write more later.  I need to go and cook something sweet with passionfruit again!

Friday, December 23, 2011

Jarrah's little words

We went camping on the weekend.  Jarrah was on Ben's shoulders most of the time.  She told him she was her "cuddle pack" because she likes to have cuddles all the time.  Either that, or she said she had a "cuddle attack" a term we use regularly as she so often comes up to us and says "I need a cuddle."  Cuddly little thing.  I like the cuddle pack.

On the toilet just tonight, Ben was going to finish her up (i.e. wipe).  She said, "I need Mummy to wipe me because she's my owner."

Then earlier today, she had gone to the village for an outing with her best friend, Bong Na to her house - she wanted to go, and she hadn't been for so long (I got the afternoon - or a few hours at least - to myself).  Ben brought her home at about 4.30 pm.  She says to me, "I ate the things inside."  "Inside what?" I ask.  "I ate the things in the shells."  Ahhhh, she ate these little shell snacky things they like to eat here.  She doesn't realise we don't eat that stuff.  She liked them.  They know we don't eat pork... but I didn't think of the shells!  I shall have to leave instructions.

Happy Sabbath, Merry Christmas!

I was trying to put up some photos but the connection is too slow - i had even straightened them !  will try again later.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Passionfruit

We have lots of passionfruit.  It is growing up high in a tall tree.  We can't pick it.  The squirrels can.  And when the ripe ones drop to the ground the deer get them.  We have Ung (our helper) climb up the tree and make them fall and gather them off the ground.  Well, we have about 50 of them right now sitting on my counter.  I went through them and sorted the ones which had split on impact and removed the pulp last night.  This afternoon, I made three things with them - Passionfruit Butter (or curd), Passionfruit and Banana Jam (I also have a cage full of banana's which are getting overripe!) and straight Passionfruit Jam.  The problem is my jams never congeal.  We'll see how this one goes.  I didn't have the patience to do the plate in the fridge test.  So... I wish you all could have some and I wish some professional jam makers could coach me better!

We are gearing up for Christmas.  I made some Christmas bunting and we have 25 flags with numbers on them - each with a little activity to do for each day.  We decorated our Christmas "bush" yesterday.  I still need to reorganise our wiring so that we can plug in the lights.  We made a wreath and have that hanging in our window.  It has some crane feathers, made of vines and bamboo.  Ben won't let me harvest any peacock feathers even though they would be very very beautiful.  The male peacock is almost in full feather and is strutting around. He is quite beautiful.  I shall post some pictures when I get around to it.

It is getting cold now, 18 degrees last night.  Need to go and get a shower before we freeze... I shall have to boil water.

Love Sharyn