New Beginnings

The weather is warming up and today my beautiful blossom tree began to flower. This is a photo of the very first buds as they begin to open. Every year I get comments on my tree. Its planted in the corner of the front yard and when it's fully in bloom I will share a photo of it. Spring is here and summer is just around the corner. The other day I decided to make a banana, walnut and chocolate chip loaf. I often seem to have over ripe bananas and the only way I knew how to use them up, was to make banana cake. Now this loaf is delicious, I found the recipe in the Countdown magazine. But more importantly than the loaf, I came up with a fantastic idea! How often have you lined a tin and then had trouble putting the cake mixture in because the paper keeps moving? Well, this time I had had enough! I found a few clothes pegs and pushed the paper down, made a few creases around the sides and then pegged the paper into place! Brilliant!! Of course, I did remember to remove the pegs before placing the loaves into the oven.

I've also recently participated in Megans Kids Rugby World Cup Swap.

Lucy and I had fun going around collecting up little souvenirs and things about New Zealand to share with a Maegan and her family in Lake Cherokee, Texas. We are doing a little swap with Karston age 5, Kyrie age 3 and Kanon age 2. We finally got our letter written and our goodies gathered so I was able to post the parcel today - hopefully the goodies will arrive before the final of the World Cup - and hopefully we are looking forward to the All Blacks being in the final!

Almost the end of the school holidays. Then there's only 8 weeks until the big summer holidays. Roll on summer!