My neighbour gave me some peaches

Last Sunday morning one of my neighbours brought over some peaches from their tree. They are really big ones and I'm sure they will be delicious. I'm just waiting for them to ripen a little more.

Unlike my apricots a few weeks ago, the birds didn't manage to get many of the peaches. I'm not sure that these ones will last long enough to make a cake!

This is a Six Word Saturday post. Go to www.showmyface.com to see how others describe their week or part of in six words or why not join in yourself.

Tangle with D-N-E

My niece chose the tangles for me this week for Diane and Carolien's challenge. She chose DL Nebula by Donna Hornsby, Nipa and Efilys by Sandra Strait. It was fun putting together three tangles chosen for me. After doing one I thought I'd have a go with the same tangles a different way.

The Diva's Weekly Zentangle Challenge #252

The challenge from The Diva this week is to tangle within a tangle by drawing a tangle quite large and then tangling inside it.

I chose Miander by Mimi Lampart for my large tangle. I've been using it a bit lately as it's so much fun. Then inside there are Tipple, Gingham (by Margaret Bremner), Printemps and some tiny Miander.

Shadow Shot Sunday - January 24th, 2016

A few photos from my week for Shadow Shot Sunday today.

After my First Aid training session on Monday I went for a walk to the Botanic Gardens. I had hoped to see one of the Sacred Lotus flowers but there were none in bloom that day. I went into the glasshouse and there were some Blue Lotus of Egypt flowers in bloom and I got a few great photos. Here's one with a fantastic shadow.

Yesterday I found my cat sitting quite comfortably in the washing basket and thinking it looked like an interesting photo I grabbed the camera (aka my phone!). It wasn't until afterwards that I noticed the great shadows.

A bit of a change for me for Shadow Shot Sunday today. Usually I post photos of shadows around my house on the actual day. So, in continuing with that tradition, here's a cute little shadow from a coat hanger.

Go to www.shadowshotsunday2.blogspot.com to see other people's shadow shots.

Nectarine upside-down cake - a new favourite!

I have a new favourite cake recipe. It's for a nectarine upside-down cake and I've made it a few times now. I came across it in the way that I've come across a few of my favourite recipes. I had quite a few nectarines just before Christmas and needed to use them up. As I was taking a dessert to share on Christmas day I decided to try and find a recipe to use them. A quick google search and I came across the recipe for nectarine upside-down cake. I made it and took it for lunch on Christmas day. Not much of it got eaten on the day; there was so much other food. I tried a small piece and it was quite yummy. I gave some away and took some home. The next day I had a piece and it was absolutely delicious. Even better after being in the fridge overnight. I bought more nectarines so I could make another one.

A couple of weeks later I had quite a few peaches so decided to give it a go substituting the peaches for the nectarines. Delicious again!

Peach upside-down cake

Yesterday I was given some lovely ripe nectarines from a friend's tree so I've just made another cake. I've just had a piece while it's still warm and I'll enjoy some cold tomorrow I'm sure. I'll be giving some away so I don't eat all of it.

A slice of warm nectarine cake

This is a Six Word Saturday post, the idea being to describe your week or part of in six words. My six words this week -

Nectarine upside-down cake - a new favourite!

Update: Thanks to one of my commenters I remembered I was going to put a link to the recipe. Another thing I love about it is that it is really easy!

http://recipes.coles.com.au/recipes/207/nectarine-upside-down-cake/

Tangle with I-J-G

The letters for Diane and Carolien's challenge this week are I, J and G. I is for Itsy-Twisty by Diana Sexton, J is for Jaws by Anneke Van Dam and G is for Gingham by Margaret Bremner. I also added some little extra tangles this week, some Tipple and some stripes. I enjoyed all three of these tangles but Itsy-Twisty is the one that I feel like I'll be exploring a lot more.

The Diva's Weekly Zentangle Challenge #251

What a fun challenge this week from the Diva, aka Laura Harms. This Sunday (24 Jan) is Moebius Syndrome Awareness Day and the challenge aims to raise awareness of Moebius Syndrome. Laura's youngest son has Moebius Syndrome. As Laura writes, "  Moebius Syndrome is a congenital nerve disorder affecting cranial VI and VII nerves controlling the lateral movement of his face ... we deal with delayed developmental milestones, eating/feeding issues, club feet, low muscle tone - just to name a few things, and of course - being unable to deal with viruses and bacterias, he gets very sick. very fast." It is a rare disorder. Out of every 1 million children born in the world, 1-2 have Moebius Syndrome.

The challenge for this week was to use the Moebius Syndrome Foundation Logo as a string. Laura suggested adding some purple as that is the colour for Moebius Syndrome Awareness Day. An alternative suggestion from Laura was to tangle on a Moebius Strip which also sounds like a lot of fun. Perhaps I'll do that later.

I drew the logo onto a tile, which was quite a challenge in itself. I chose the tangles Barberpole by Suzanne McNeill, Printemps (an original tangle) and Limpitz by Jo Newsham. Then a Derwent Inktense pencil for the purple background.

Shadow Shot Sunday - January 17th, 2016

Lots of great shadows today. Thank you sun, weeds and grapevines growing wild in the backyard.

You can see other people's shadow shots at www.shadowshotsunday2.blogspot.com.

Fun spotting flowers while walking home

Yesterday I decided to walk home from my daughter's house. We share a car at the moment and she was tired after work and didn't feel like driving me home. I could have taken the car but that would have meant getting up early this morning to take her to work and as my other daughter is away for the weekend I wasn't keen to miss out on the opportunity to sleep in. So, although I wasn't especially keen I decided to walk home.

I'm participating in Joyful January at the moment, which has been a great way to start the year. I thought I'd take the opportunity to take a photo of some flowers I saw on the walk home as my photo for the day. At the moment there are not a lot of flowers around with it being Summer here. There are quite a few dry ones which contribute to some great shadows.

A photo I took a few days ago.

Despite there not being a huge amount of flowers around at the moment I felt sure I would be able to get a good photo before I got home.

I wasn't wrong. I saw these purple beauties early on.

Soon after I saw quite a few Hibiscus flowers. There were lots of red and pink ones hanging over a fence but I couldn't get close enough for a decent photo. Then I noticed some of a more unusual (at least to me) yellow colour.

Just as I was thinking I'd use one of those photos for the Joyful January shot I looked across the road.

So bright and happy! This was the only one still in bloom. I wish I had seen the others before they dried up. The dried up ones were also quite beautiful though. I took a picture of the biggest one.

Spotting the flowers along the footpath and in front yards made the walk home that bit more pleasant..

This is a post for Six Word Saturday. It's good to be back again after a bit of a break. To see how other people describe their week or part of in six words go to www.showmyface.com.

Fun spotting flowers while walking home.

Tangle with Y-M-#

I had lots of fun with this week's challenge from Diane and Carolien. I started by choosing three patterns and began a tile. I didn't like it but really likes a couple of the patterns I chose so started again. I started with 4fun by Mina Hsiao. What a fun pattern! I did it fairly big and my initial idea was to fill a couple of the sections with another pattern. But then I liked it so much I decided to leave it as a monotangle. I may add some shading later.

The other pattern I tried and liked first was Y-FUL POWER by Shoshi. I decided to try doing it quite large too. Then the search was on for a couple of patterns to fill some of the sections. I chose 4MOM by Jane Eileen and did a couple of variations of it. Then for M I chose MIANDER by Mimi Lempart. Cute in the tiny size!

It was a lot of fun experimenting with the sizes of the patterns, as well as enjoying my new pens and paper.