Yummy

They might not look like the ones in the book but they taste very yummy....Lloyd seems to keep nibbling away at them anyway :) Which is always a good sign!

Bear convicted for theft of honey!

The taste of honey was just too tempting for a bear in Macedonia, which repeatedly raided a beekeeper's hives.

Now it has a criminal record after a court found it guilty of theft and criminal damage.

But there was an empty dock in the court in the city of Bitola and no handcuffed bear, which was convicted in its absence.

The case was brought by the exasperated beekeeper after a year of trying vainly to protect his beehives.

For a while, he kept the animal away by buying a generator, lighting up the area, and playing thumping Serbian turbo-folk music.

But when the generator ran out of power and the music fell silent, the bear was back and the honey was gone once more.

"It attacked the beehives again," said beekeeper Zoran Kiseloski.

Because the animal had no owner and belonged to a protected species, the court ordered the state to pay for the damage to the hives - around $3,500 (£1,750; 2,238 euros).

The bear, meanwhile, remains at large - somewhere in Macedonia.

why?

Why do I have absolutely no bloody patience???? lol! Why can I NOT listen to Martha? She says WAIT until the cookies are cold before turning them out of the tray and cutting into exact squares. Sigh.....I don't listen....I think I know best....I am impatient so I try and turn them out hot and they crumble....

Susie shouts from the dining room "Mom...you're not Martha you know!'......thanks Susie!!!! Grrrrr

BUT OMG they are delicious! They may be odd shapes and a crumbly mess but they taste DAMN GOOD!!!!!

Hhhmmmmm what to bake next?????

Anyone else got this book? What have you baked???

Marthas new book......

Many people know that I LOVE Martha!!!! I was excited to get to Costco today and get her new Cookie recipebook - I enjoyed seeing the recipes from it each day last week and knew that the next time we went to Costco grocery shopping I would snap up a copy! Today we did just that! And this afternoon I baked my first recipe from it :)

Right now I have a tray of Brown-Butter Toffee Blondies baking in the oven :)

I will take a picture of the finished cookies later :) They were lovely and easy to make so I hope they are as yummy as they sound!

I love recipe books generally - can't wait to have a book shelf in the end of the new island JUST for my recipe books!

My little Easter Tree..

This is how my little tree looks right now - all decorated up for Easter :) At the weekend I will hang some chocolates from it.....

Birthday cake time!

The children when they sang Happy Birthday to Lloyd last night :) Sam helped blow out the candle :)

Prepping dinner...

Laurie peeling the potatoes for dinner last night - everyone helped make Lloyds favourite dinner - cottage pie - for his birthday :)

Birds of Prey..

Great Horned Owl and Burrowing Owl.......

More pics from the show....

Archery....

The children got to have a go at archery at the Sportsmen show...Chris especially enjoyed it!!! The guy that was teaching the children was so great with all the ages and abilities of children - realy helpful and encouraging!

Actually I was really impressed with everyone at the show today - VERY friendly and and helpful and welcoming!!! Best show I have been to there in a long time :) We had a great time there :)

I caught a trout!

Today we went to the boat and sportsmans show at the Agricom - what a great show!!!! (Monica you should have said hi! I was pretending to sulk on the way back to the car because I was feeling pretty crappy by then from coughing constantly and my throat was hurting from it and everyone was teasing me lol. I'm a bit of a drama Queen at times lol (who'd have guessed huh??? lol) anyway you might have kicked me out of it had you said hi ;)

Anyway back on topic - they had a fishing tank for children at the show - for $2 children could have a go at catching a trout - at least I think they were trout.....I have never been fishing before - unless you count minnows with jam jars as a child. So I had a go with Abigail and I did it!!!! I caught a trout!!!!! Woohoo!! I had the bait on the hook and after a while Abby got bored and walked off and left me with the rod and to be honest I was bored stiff .....so Abby wandered back and I told her I was so bored that I could throw something - in fact I told her that I was losing patience and was going to throw something and the only thing around was her so I was going to throw her in the pond! She looked at me like I was mad - and then I felt something tugging! I caught a fish!!!!! I caught a fish!!!!!

Yay!!!! I lifted it out of the water and theres this bloody ENORMOUS fish _ I tell yah it was THIS BIG!!!!!!!!!

So the guy comes over and yells to the crowd 'see it CAN be done' and everyones looking and Abby is thrilled and tells everyone SHE caught the fish BLOODY CHEEK because I CAUGHT the bloody thing ME!!!!!! I caught a fish - it should be MY name on that certificate!!!!!

So Lloyd told me he would take me fishing this year - I hope he doesn't think THAT was it!!!!!

Maybe fishing is MY thing......maybe thats my SKILL....it was HUGE.......

I caught a FISH!!!!!!

:)

Personalised...

One of Lloyds favourite gifts was this Chamois leather that my Mom sent over that she had had my Sister personalize with the name of his tractor and the John Deere logo lol! ...so now Lloyds tractor, Bertha, has her very own polishing cloth!!!! Of course he thinks it's far too nice to actually use ;)

cake magic!

From this:



To this:





I bought a typical white cake from Safeway and scraped off the flower and redecorated the top with a John Deere theme in just five minutes :) Just some simple green coconut and a little scattering of toffee chips for a gravel driveway. One of Sams tractors and a little hay bale and its done :)

Happy Birthday baby!

Tomorrow (Sunday) My gorgeous, wonderful, sexy, loving, kind, generous, thoughtful, amazing, hardworking, supportive, clever, caring, funny, romantic, sweet, strong Husband celebrates his 35th birthday.

Have a wonderful day Baby! I'm so happy that you get to have the whole week at home with us! I wish you could retire now and stay home with us every day! I never get tired of having you at home!

A Treasured Keepsake...

Martha Stewart made Easter baskets this week using crocheted doilies soaked in fabric stiffener. You can find the instructions at: www.marthastewart.com:80/article/doily-basket?xsc=stf_MSLO-ARTICLE

I'm fortunate enough to own a beautiful handcrafted doily, but there is NO WAY I am using it to make a basket!!!!

My doily was a wonderful gift from a friend and I treasure it! Sharon made it for me! I don't know if you have ever seen these up close but if you have, and have ever taken the time to really look at how fragile they appear, I am sure you can appreciate the time and love that must go in to them! In the photographs above you can see the one Sharon gave to me. Isn't it gorgeous?

Is it out on show? No - because I have a three year old who would probably use it to wipe his nose on (sigh) if my pillow wasn't available (sigh) but I think I may back it with black cardstock and have it framed instead.