Old English Sheepdogs

Examples of adorable old English sheep dog photos by owners Cees Bol and Hanneke van de Watering are all over the net right now but many sites have posted a broken link - or no link - to the complete flickr set.

Here is the link you need to find more of it. Hopefully I've helped some of you find it via google search? I found it by looking up 'Cees Bol flickr'.

In other news I've just revamped the Meerkat Clippings template! It's not wildly different from the old one because I liked the old one - like the pair of comfy warm slippers I'm getting reaquainted with now that Summer is finally over. However the format was inflexible for someone with little knowledge of html. Finally I can post wider images for your delectation and illumination. Enjoy.

Lost rainbow

North Fitzroy near Edinborough Gardens, Melbourne.
November 2012.

Protect your fruit from birds and bats

Green Thumb's Tips for the Day:
Protect your fruit crop from birds and bats without harming them and without spending a cent! Save every bit of netting you can from bags of oranges, garlic, onions and other green groceries. Tulle works if you have some scraps of it as we did (found some bright pink tulle at hard waste). Wrap and bag groups of fruit in the netting and secure with clothes pegs. Don't wrap groups too tightly or they may rot from being pressed against each other - they need a bit of air around them. Put over the biggest or most sun exposed fruit first as these will the first to get the critters' attention. For the most part it works. Washing the netting in laundry soap and not rinsing it seems to help a bit too. We stumbled onto that by pulling apart an old cleansing puff for netting.



You will lose whatever isn't netted. We couldn't reach it all so that was expected. The animals will take the path of least resistance and eat the unnetted ones first. Late in your crop when there isn't much left they will magically get at what is netted. Those rainbow lorikeets have dextrous mouths! We had some losses but we got more than we could eat before that point. We stewed up most of it, sans sugar, and stored it in the freezer to enjoy for the next few months. It's delightful, warmed with cool, plain yoghurt on top - with an optional light sprinkle of quick oats if you're having it for breakfast.

Listening to: Come Undone by Duran Duran, from Duran Duran (The Wedding Album).

Apricots: pure happiness and sunshine.

It could be said that our apricot crop is pure sunshine and happiness...


January 2013

...Or that a short shelf life and susceptability to bruising from the harvesting basket is a small price to pay for the ultimate in zingy, sweet, flavourful tastiness.

Either way it was awesome :) Store bought apricots are to our crop, what a chocolate coin is to a Belgian chocolate truffle.

Listening to: What Else is There? by Röyksopp from The Understanding

Rubber chickens and LGBT marriage

'In a heartfelt speech, Labour MP and shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said “we all love a good wedding”, with its “cloud of confetti” and rubber chickens...'
from The Age

When I first read this I thought it was an amusing typo. "WTF? What has this got to do with it?" I asked a couple of people what it meant. They didn't know either. I tried looking up the speech but all I got were more news sites with the same story. It wasn't until I asked my younger housemate - who I expect has been to a few weddings, she's quite the social butterlfy - that I was able to discover what was meant. It should be a singular rubber chicken even if more than one chicken is eaten because it is describing the meat/food rather than an animal. I don't believe I've ever had rubber chicken ... probably a good thing. Any of you lucky enough to be in the same boat and wondering what Yvette was on about, this post was for you.

✿◕‿◕✿♥❀◕‿◕❀

Since I'm here: Yay for marriage equality! If you want to get married, the gender of your Love shouldn't matter. Marriage these days isn't about the procreation of children or the financial security of women. It's about a life long commitment of love with another soul. Love is love. You don't have to get married to show it but if you want to then you should be able to. You are not a second class citizen. Years from now we will look back at this like we do with mixed race marriage and wonder why it seemed like such a big ask for something so simple. It will seem shocking that it was ever frowned upon let alone unlawful. One day we will get there.

Google image search 'vampire cakes'

It's sad how many Twilight cakes - usually cake wrecks - come up when you google image search 'vampire cakes'
This however tickled me pink :*)


From someone with a sense of humour when it comes to vampires and some decent photography skills to boot, doll collector, Nataloons™.

St George Grillmaster Manual

When we moved into our rental property just over a year ago I regarded our electric stove with some uncertainty. I was only familiar with gas stoves and their quick response to change when required. It’s actually a great appliance. You can even buy parts for it online.



As it turned out the old stove is of an excellent vintage from a highly regarded brand, manufactured in NSW c. 1970s by St George. In one of the drawers of our kitchen was the original manual! The vintage Owner’s Manual includes detailed product specifications and a wiring diagram. Apparently it came with a rotisserie attachment but we have seen no sign of it in our time here.



When we first came upon it my BF read it out loud in a typical 1950s voiceover. We were surprised by the vocabulary for such a document. Manuals these days make such dull reading by comparison. Among other words you don’t usually find in oven/stove top manuals these days are; fierce, imperative, indiscriminate, elapse, depress, abnormal, abovementioned, foregoing, utmost.



From the manual for the Grillmaster Model XG370:
‘A Message to the Owner
You are now a possessor of a St. George fully automatic Electric Range, and in order to assist the reader in following the directions more easily we mention hereunder the salient features of the St. George Grillmaster.

…

Please read this booklet carefully until you are thoroughly conversant with every phase of the range’s operation. This will ensure you obtaining the best results from your range.

…

Most authorities agree that provided there is ample time a better result is achieved by cooking for a slightly longer period at a slightly lower temperature.

…

Asbestos mats also should not be used as in each case the heat is trapped around the top of the range and may, after constant misuse in this fashion, cause the vitreous enamel to craze.’





EDIT 15/09/2013 - 27/12/2014
For FULL MANUAL images online CLICK HERE