The Crystal Pen from Farmers

I have forgotten about this post which I didn't finish before, from our trip to Cairns, but was reminded of it with the purple crystal pen from Farmers. We drove into the Tablelands and went to a crystal museum. Its was a reconstruction so you put your hard hat on with your light beaming and walked through a series of

tunnels

Where a variety of exhibits were displayed. As a Geology 1 student I was thrilled to see these fossils that I had only read about on books - the ammonites, an extinct marine snail, and the trilobites an extinct marine - probablity a prerunner of insects. What was so amazing was the recall I had on this information whereas I forget so many peoples names!!

The main standout was the gems - geodes of amethysts - just like the giveaway pen in Farmers, however I think  theirs was synthetic!

As you can see some of the exhibits were huge, and very spectacular.

We also went to the Mango farm and tried some of their mango wine - it was suprisingly good! Then we went to a coffee plantation, unfortuntely it was just about to close, but Duncan can still recall the REALLY fresh coffee we had there. We looked for platypus in the wild but didn't spot any and did a short walk to see this Fig Tree Curtain which was huge. Lots of interesting places like Mareewa "where the sun shines 360 days a year"

Santa Toes are coming to town!

 Here are the fruits of my labours - wouldn't you know it - done on the day we got to 30 degrees. Still the taste is magnificent and it is very difficult to get tins of nectarines whereas it is easy to get apricots and peaches.

 And the best thing of all is that out of two buckets of fruit this is all the waste we had.

Had my yearly pedicure indulgence this morning and now I am all ready to join Santa in the merry red outfits! I have just made the mint and pecan stuffing for the lamb and I'm off to the butchers so that he can organise that with better knife and knotting skills than I have. Holidays must be soon as even Duncan has written a list of what clothes he wants to take up (so that they can be washed in time to take them up clean)

Stoned

I saw an ad in the paper for PYO nectarines, so this afternnon we went out to do just that! I said to Duncan "Just the one bucket" but of course we came back with two. As I was leaving I said to the lady "I hope the stones come out easily" . "Oh" she replied.
Yes, Oh, indeed - I cant even twist them in half.
Fortunately they are not large - mostly the size of large plums, so I will experiment with cutting off the "cheeks" and bottling the stone parts separately, but as well - or maybe just do them whole. Thoughts as I assembled my jars and bottles take me back to Grandma sitting at our kitchen table in Wylie Street peeling away - even though her mind was going she still managed to peel. Then often Mum would come down at bottling time to give me a hand. And I remember Phyl (101 today - Happy Birthday, Nana) and Alf sitting at the breakfast bar in Stout Street peeling pears.
Still I am all prepared to start early tomorrow morning. Our peacharine tree seems to have succumbed to the incredibly wet winter and I dont think we are going to be able to keep it alive. I was a wonderful crop last year, but we are struggling to keep the leaves on the tree this year