Baking time - Banana Cake

One thing I'd like to do more of this year is bake.

Cakes, biscuits, slices etc.

So am now sitting down to a cup of tea and a slice of banana cake, still warm from the oven. Is there anything more comforting?

This is my second attempt this week, the first was a little heavy, and I used a loaf tin when the recipe asked for a ring tin. I've also learnt that Mum always turned her cakes around half way through baking, because the oven seems to be hotter at the front than the back. And Dad has found the correct tin.

It's a lot lighter than the first one, and cooked much more evenly as I turned it after 15mins. I think the recipe is from an old CWA cookbook, the cover has gone, so it's hard to tell, but it's in metric, so not ancient :)

So that's 2 very old bananas put to a good use.
Yum!

Do cats like moving house?

Moving house is a pain. All those boxes in strange places.

Although the empty ones are quite interesting.

And empty cupboards are fascinating.

And it all goes much more smoothly with good supervision.

All settled in and ready to blog

Finally!
We have the internet organised and my wireless network up and running.
I'm loving my new Asus laptop so stay tuned for some blog updates over the next few days.

Adventures on the Sunraysia Hwy

The Sunraysia Hwy, between Ballarat and Ouyen is not my favourite road at the best of times. It's narrow and in bad conditon compared to the Calder Hwy.
But this weekend I had no choice but to use it. The flooding of the Avoca, Loddon and Campaspe Rivers meant that the Calder was closed for 100's of km's.
I delayed my trip for 24hrs, hoping this would make it easier, but it didn't.

I got to St Arnard about 11.30am to find all roads heading north were closed. A car was nearly submerged at Cope Cope, and although I watched a Commodore drive through the floodwaters, there was no way I was going that way!

I went back to the BP Service Station and a lovely old bloke gave me directions to Donald, his daughter had just got through, in a small car like mine. So I took a risk and off I went.
The roads he had recommended weren't on my Vicroads map, but the iPhone came to the rescue! Brilliant, it had all of them, even the dirt ones.

Google Maps - St Arnard to Donald.

It was very scary, it's been ages since I've had to drive on a wet, slippery, dirt road, llet alone one with water across it. There were 2 other cars behind me, so if something did happen, then at least I wasn't out in the middle of nowhere on my own. And everyone was looking out for each other, lot's of stopping and checking each other, asking about what was coming up.

I made it to Donald. And was shocked by what I saw there, they were pulling out a submerged car just near the bridges over the Richardson River. A motel was taking all it's beds out and loading them into trailers.
The river was running so fast, you don't think of these rivers as powerful and destructive, but they are right now.

The problems continued all the way to Speed, which had a few businesses sandbagged.
And just out of Speed there was still water over the road. My rule had become - if I could still see the white lines then I drove through it.

I made it to Ouyen 7 1/2 hours later. Just in time to say hello to all the ladies at Mum's afternoon tea.

UFO's

One good thing about packing up has been finding some UFO's!

So the my UFO list will have a few additions including:

A hexagon quilt. I vaguely remember starting this about 6 years ago. All the hexagons are paper pieced and are pinned onto a sheet, with safety pins I think. No wonder I've hardly any safety pins, it's about a single bed size! I can't remember if it's a charm quilt like one of the first quilts I ever made, which I still use all the time at the end of my bed. I didn't unwrap the sheet, just put it in a box with other sewing room things.

I wonder how many more UFO's are lurking in these boxes?

I also plan to help Mum finish some UFO's. I'm really not sure how many are lurking in her sewing room, but it will be a good thing to find them, and then take them up to her to receive "instructions" for their completion. And there's always people in need of a quilt.

Getting ready for the big move.

Well I've only 7 more days of living in Melbourne, and for 3 of them I'll be back in Ouyen!

One thing I'd like to get back into in 2011 is my blog.
So stay tuned for some news, some reflections, some UFO's (and hopefully some FO's!), lots of gardening and photos of my newer, simpler life.
I'm trying to make some changes with my blog layout, to make it have a simpler, cleaner look.

It's organised caos here right now, boxes in most rooms, lots of things half done. I've listed a few things on Freecycle and have people coming to collect them today. An old CRT TV and a cabinet I got for my 19th Birthday, plus lots of kitchen stuff that I just don't need. It's been a great, cleansing feeling to give stuff away.