Rain, rain, go away

Rain, rain go away,
come again another day,
the little monkey's want to play
rain, rain go away.

The big Santa present this year was a trampoline. We have not been able to put it together as our (soon to be newly landscaped - with proper drainage) backyard looks like this.







The kids, however, do not seem to mind.

Welcome to my new follower, Joni from 'the diary of Joni and Anya'

Rain

It's been a week of a lot of rain. The weather has cooled down (a bit anyway) and it seems we are all a little bit happier for it. We have been spending our time at home, drawing, colouring in, dressing up, crafting, sewing, cooking and splashing in puddles in new gumboots.

Miss Moo Moo and I have been out shopping and drinking hot chocolate with friends, even though it is not yet cold enough to do so.

It's been a good week to make more cookies. These are our favourite at the moment.

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

makes about 30 cookies

• 225g unsalted butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teas. salt
• 1/2 teas. bi-carbonate soda
• 2 teas. vanilla extract
• 1 teas. ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup plain flour
• 3/4 cup plain wholemeal flour
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup cornflakes
• 1 cup walnuts (roughly chopped)
• 1/2 desiccated coconut
• 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line 2 large baking trays with greaseproof paper.
In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars with electric beaters, until light and fluffy. About 4 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well. Add the salt, bi-carb, vanilla, cinnamon and flours and mix well. Stir in the remaining ingredients with a wooden spoon until well combined.
Place heaped teaspoon measures onto the prepared tray, 5cm apart. Bake for 15 minutes, until nearly set and golden brown. Cool on the tray for a couple of minutes then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool down completely.

Caught in the rain

My dad and his girlfriend have been visiting for the last couple of days. They usually only come for the weekend and it’s all rushing about, that we hardly see them.

Yesterday we set off for a 2 hour beach walk only to get absolutely soaking wet. Just 5 minutes after we started our walk the rain started. It was fun at first, but little did we know that it soon would be thundering and lightening with driving, beating rain. We were soaked through.

The up side was, that once we got home and dry there wasn’t much else to do than just hang out at our place eating, chatting, eating. Just lovely. Coffee, ice-cream in a cone, christmas stollen, mangoes, fish and chips, homemade apricot jam, german christmas biscuits, lychees. I do like the holidays and the relaxed atmosphere that has settled upon this family at the moment. The rain has settled in again tonight and I am enjoying the soft sprinkle of it on the windows.