The year begins

Please learn from my mistake. Ever since the house over the road burnt down on Christmas Eve, folks around these parts have been rather uptight about their electrical goods. This new found neuroticism led me to, one day last week, switch off my computer at the wall before it had properly shut down.
The poor dear never got off the ground again, and I had to do the recovery thingy which restores it back to its factory settings, thus losing everything on my hard drive; photos of the children, the renovation befores and afters, work, everything.  Of course, nothing was downloaded onto disks. If you're not a backer-upperer, then start being one today because this could happen to you. Be warned!
On a more pleasant note, we have pretty 'local' views and often see some beautiful things looking out over the hood. A few days ago, prior to the wet weather setting in, I snapped these sunsets. I know how twee sunset photos are, I always imagine them painted onto the side of a panel van, but these were spectacular.

We also spotted this balloon on Saturday morning. The fact that it wasn't plastered with advertising made it particularly romantic.

I think the balloon may have taken off from Davies Park at West End? We were over there on Saturday morning at the Green Flea Markets. I got this posie of roses for $5. You can have a lot of fun for five bucks I find. The roses opened up, and they're fragrant, just like grandma used to make.

This is my friend's Christmas puppy. Her name is Evie. She's a black cocker spaniel. It was almost impossible to photograph her on our black floors, but you should get the idea.

 It's obviously exhausting being this cute.

Let's talk dirtballs. For many years now, about 25 in fact, I have been flicking through and occasionally reading, the book by Leslie Kenton called Raw Energy. I think it was her first book about living on raw food. It's quite hard core, and her consecutive books have been less and less radical. The premise of her thinking, and something that has been proven again and again, is that a high raw diet is good for you.
Occasionally, I make something from the book. These little things are fudgey sort of balls. They look like rumballs and it's quite fun to watch people's faces when they bite into them, only to discover they're not what they thought. They're good for, and they taste like it, but we love them. The first time my husband had one he said they tasted like dirt, but in a good way.
My dirtballs are based very loosely on a recipe in Raw Energy. They change each time depending on what's in the cupboard, but generally I include about 2 cups of dried mixed fruit, a couple of tablespoons of tahini, a couple of tablespoons of honey, a tablespoon of cocoa and maybe 3/4 cup of coconut. Wizz it all up in the food processor, roll into balls and then into more coconut. If the consistency is not good for rolling into balls, add more dried fruit or coconut. Other great things to include are fresh grated apply, glace cherries, dates, figs, prunes, nuts and seeds and dried papaya and pineapple.  My girls love them.

I am practically an empty nester. Peaches started school yesterday. We were all very brave and not a tear was shed.

I'm sorry but cyber safety prevents me from showing you their angelic faces. I can only show you them in disguise. They're a couple of cool cats. Mims can even pull off a toothless smile with style. 

Meanwhile, over at Cattle, Kids, Chaos, my cousin's eldest child has just left for boarding school. They seem to be coping ok, although I'm sure there's been many a teary moment of late. You can read about it here.
I have been getting organised for the year with list upon list of course. Nothing says 'everything's under control' more to me than lots of loo paper. I find it very reassuring, as though we'll be ok no matter what....because we've got lots of toilet paper.

May I remind you that we are almost due for another birthday here, so it is time for me to get back on the horse and whip up another birthday cake. Remember last year's fiasco? You can recap here.