The gifts that keep on giving

My Lucky Man

 

For gifts for special occasions, we like our gifts to be useful. Throughout the year I tally the number certain things mentioned as being 'nice', 'handy' and especially if they get an 'ooohhh', then whatever gets to the most mentions wins. We seem to have refined our methods these days and baby we've been doing well.

For years, birthdays, Christmas and Mothers' Day, I would get a cook book and a CD, regardless of what suggestions I had made, subtly disguised as general observations. It took me a while to realise that my disguises were a bit too subtle. But I've got to say, I do have an amazing array of cookbooks and we have a mightily impressive CD collection. So now I always have lots of music to listen to while cooking a myriad of dishes, most recently using the Fathers' Day tagine and our new beaut paella dish, both purchased at our fantastic fruit and veg shop, Cygnet Larder. Love that shop.

 

 YUM!!!



 

And now we find ourselves heading towards Christmas, so my closing word to this blog is
 

hammock

Voice Crushes

A friend on Facebook listed an article about Bjork & David Attenborough and whether the pairing would work or not & it go me to thinking... My mum and I both like Bjork and many years ago we discovered we both had voice crushes on Sir David. When she was a kiddy, she would run home for school every Wednesday to catch Sir David's latest adventures on the wireless.
And so the story goes on, I have voice crushes on Sir David, Pierre Van Dorme (can't spell his name, but he's a French friend of David's who has the same deep throated accent as Daniel Auteuil, oooh, I just have a whopping all-encompassing crush on him. mmmmmm.....)
Back to the voices, then we have Rob Snarski from the Blackeyed Susans, well, just take a moment to listen to this
http://youtu.be/5L2PZTsB_dk

And last, but definitely not least, Peter Gee, News Reader Extraordinaire,with moments in the car when the news comes on and I say, "a bit of shoosh, Peter's on." "Ahh mum!"

We have entered the Hobart Fine Food awards for the past few years and each year at the awards dinner, Peter is there. I get to listen to him for hours and then wrap my arms around him for a quick cuddle & photo opportunity. This year we won't be able to make it. My mum and dad's 50th anniversary is on in Sydney, which is very exciting, but it means we will miss out on Peter. But here's to you!

(Cygneture will be closed from Saturday, August 11 to Thursday, August 23rd)

And the Winner is....

Woo-hoo! We have not just one winner, but TWO!!
Very pleased, this weekend I lost a follower, which brought me to 12, interesting play on getting me off the dreaded 13, not one I was expecting mind you. But we then gained two new followers. Yippeeee!!!! Ed & Jeanette, I can drop them up to the next market if you like, or just come in for a cup of tea sometime, and Melissa, please come in when you're ready. We're open Thursday to Sunday.

By the way, last Saturday we had the best Salamanca market since Easter. Coincidence? I think not!!! A warning for both of you, I'm not a regular writer, although I am improving and I would think the person who dropped me probably thought the blog was just downright boring.......

upping the ante

Alright, make it an origin bar and an SHP (salted caramel). Just get me off this number. I'm gettin' desperate!

Very superstitious

Those of you who know me well enough, know that I'm very superstitious. I currently have 13 registered followers on this blog, can someone get me off it pleeeeasssee???? First up gets a Cygneture origin bar. Pick-up only, so Kitty Lynch, Carmel Burke, Edward Ward, Danielle Klinge and all your foreign friends & associates and all of my foreign  my friends and associates, you are exempt unless you turn up on my door. Please take this as a loving invitation to turn up on my door any time you like.

Also, Edward, you have a significant package developing in your lovely wife, so a significant package is developing over here to celebrate too, with musical notes and pink booties for girls & little sailing ships for boys (actually, either way the bub will gets both just to ensure non-gender-snootiness)
Ms. Lynch, you'll get what's coming to you, when I get my act together. It's the perfect time for posting to Europe, north of France at least. It's cold & wintry here and summer over there. As I said, perfect for posting...

Speaking of winter's chilly fingers reaching out for us, we had the Lantern Parade here to celebrate the pagan side of Cygnet

Snowman (obviously)

 Crowds gather

(good time to catch up with people you only get to see at Christmas Parade and Lantern Festival)

 Ceremonial Teapot

Ceremonial Teapot on Fire

My little man and his mates



A MASSIVE THANK YOU to the Cygnet Arts Community for another great parade this year. Yet another reason I LOVE LIVING RIGHT HERE

For Karen

Special request on photographs for Karen

Winter, websites and good intentions

We've been busy little bees these last weeks, David has started a Cygneture Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cygneture-Chocolates/318099721599927 

and we have been working on our website. Hopefully we'll finish the draft this week and send it off to our trusty friend, Richard Mitchell from Jump Shots, to update for us.

Salty Sea

The past two weeks have been taken up with making salted caramels for the Bruny Island Cheese Club offer. Nikki excelled and David lovingly folded boxes. Thank you, you two.

The delivery will take place tomorrow, while on our way to Cradle Mountain for a few days. Good Fun to be had by us. We'll be heading up with friends, to meet more friends, my kind of holiday. We have packed plenty of goodies collected at Cygnet Market today, Ed & Jeanette's pork pie, Cathy's almond shortbread and Cam's date & hazelnut loaf. No Sunday bubbles for us tonight, we're having an AFD, saving up for tomorrow night. 

My Thoughtful Spot

Our garden is looking lovely at the moment, thanks to a long warm summer & autumn, and to Alex Sini who has been helping us to reclaim our plants and flowers. It is again a lovely place to be. Our house faces east so the sun comes up over our pretty front porch, where we sit and have endless cups of tea in the morning.

In the afternoons and evenings we retire to the back of the house and change our beverage selection to bubbles, beer, wine or cider, depending on who is visiting at the time. Lately we've been having a few mini bonfires to welcome in the cooler evenings while we listen to the footy teams training down the road and the cattle lowing up the hill. Tomorrow night we will be listening for possums and wombats. I hope. Now to the kitchen, dinner is needed for two over-excited little cherubs.

Mmmm...my resolve is weak....

And so we realise that I have little or no will power, but really it is over-rated, isn't it...