Raindrops

We are having a lot of rain at the moment - on Monday night, all of April's average rain fall fell in one night. But I am enjoying it. It coats everything in a lovely moist freshness.

And I am getting quite a kick watching the daily antics of a band of magpies who have populated our yard of late. There was thirty of them late yesterday afternoon! I'm learning lots about them too from a beautiful old copy of the bird bible in Australia, What Bird Is That?, which I picked up for...dare I say it...a song at the local op-shop. Along with the Gould League's Birds of Victoria: Urban Areas and Frances Pitt's lovely Meet us in the Garden, I am heartened after having read awful stories like this one in the newspaper -

http://www.theage.com.au/environment/animals/zoo-to-help-grieving-swan-care-for-egg-20110408-1d7gp.html

When are we going to get over this idea that animals are somehow lesser than us? That they are more acceptable as a target for pointless violence?

In a yellow wood goes commercial! :)

A shameless advertisement today! I have finally managed to get my online shop opened at Etsy - http://www.etsy.com/shop/Inayellowood. There has been much procrastination but it went live yesterday. If you are interested in vintage knick-knacks and clothes (the latter will be uploaded shortly), please drop by and have a look. Its very much in its beginning stages at present, with not many items listed, but this will grow given the frequency with which I visit thrift stores!

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Our crazy weather continues on today with winds of up to 60 km/h predicted by lunchtime. Spring, where are you?

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The election campaign which has been dominating the news here in Australia for weeks (it feels like years) will finally be over this Saturday. And I still haven't decided who to vote for! I have considered doing a 'donkey vote', so non-plussed am I by all of the parties, but then my conscience nags at me about what a privilege it is to be able to vote and how many people in other countries don't have the vote etc., etc. So I still have no idea what I will do once I am in that little booth.

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With the grim, wintery weather continuing on, our front porch is increasingly resembling a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. I dropped some seed near the path yesterday and ever since, as the wind has blown the seed towards the house, the birds have moved further and further towards us, realising too I assume that there's shelter to be had if they get a bit closer.

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And of course the cold means baking. Well, it does to me anyway. I have converted my basic cake recipe into a basic muffin recipe and have now added either mixed dried fruit or orange zest with marmalade centres. Absurdly easy. And even easier to eat. Harder to avoid...

I posted this a few weeks ago, but just in case you want to try it...

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour

Pinch salt

1 cup sugar

Few drops vanilla essence

2 unbeaten eggs

4 ozs. butter (melted)

1/2 cup milk

Combine. Bake at 180 degrees celsius. Depending on your filling, muffins can take up to half an hour. Just keep an eye on them.

Just the sound of determined crunching...

Image from Google Images

Our skies have been besieged by these guys - sulphur-crested cockatoos. A native of Australia, they have an unusual, screeching call. They eat the acorn-like nuts that are in the plane trees that line our streets and at about this time of year - when the nuts are just right, presumably - they descend en masse. There are probably 200 in the trees surrounding our house right now. And when they're not screeching all you hear is a determined crunch, crunch, crunch of nuts.

PS I've posted this pic in preference to one of my own - every time I got near them, they all flew away!