MY CATS and DOGS (Part I )

When I was growing up we always had a cat or two, so I´m quite fond of cats and they seem to know that too...as even though I don´t go looking, I´m a bit of a magnet for them.
After I got married in South Africa, a friend asked us to look after his small dog until he found adequate accommodation for him and his family after a move to another town. Six months later when he came back, he realized that we were so fond of the little dog - "Patusca" (which in Portuguese means cute or comic) - that he let us keep her. She was a bundle of energy and very clever.
A few years later Patusca managed to run away and got herself pregnant!!  I should have had her sterilized I know, as it was such a long time ago, I don´t know if we didn´t have the money for it, or if it was a bit of ignorance and stupidity. Anyway along came 3 little pups, and we managed to give away 2 and kept the only female - Gipsy, who wasn´t as clever or as confident as her mother.

Gipsy (black & white) and Patusca (cream) in their favourite  kids sofa

Kitty relaxing on top of a teddy bear

Our kitten "Kitty"

We had also taken in a kitten - "Kitty" that had managed to jump into our enclosed yard to look for food in the rubbish bags and had stayed behind unable to jump back out. (she must have been brought in by the mother)
Years later I came home one day to find our little Patusca had been run over. We lived in a quiet street in George (South Africa), and Patusca used to squeeze herself under the gate, and stay on the verge, or sometimes in the middle of the road waiting for me to arrive from work. Someone must have been speeding, otherwise they would have seen her.
It was a very sad day for the kids and I, and we promptly dug a little hole in our back garden under a tree and had a little ceremony for her.
We decided to go to an Animal Shelter and adopt a dog to keep Gipsy company -  "Honey" who was a puppy Border Collie. Being a working dog, she got to work destroying our backyard garden, she dug a trench under the gate, so she could escape to the street, she used to run inside the house when we weren´t looking, and steal the kid's toys, our shoes, eat the cat's food....

Honey and Gipsy

We had a great time with her though and the kids spoiled her.
Unfortunately when we left South Africa we had to give her to a friend as we were going to stay with family for a couple of months in an apartment, until our container arrived - so there was no place for a dog.

In Portugal, after we moved into our own apartment, we had 3 cats, all adopted again - one kitten found under a car - "Snuggy", one followed my daughter home "Cusca" (Curious), years later “Branca” (White) came to live with us, after my Mother in law died.
When we moved to Australia we left our 3 cats behind with our daughter. Sadly one year later Snuggy passed away from cancer – possibly due to TV radiation as she used she used to sit on top of the tv to keep herself warm (just as in the next photo)

Snuggy and Cusca on top of the tv (Snuggy´s usual resting spot)

Cusca 

The very shy Branca

Aren't we such good friends?  Snuggy hugs Cusca

Snuggy in a basket

Branca passed away in 2010 of old age. 
Cusca fell from a second floor window, and maybe due to some veterinary incompetence after having plaster for a few weeks her leg started to gangrene and had to be partially amputated.  Although she was always small, she is a fighter and has no trouble getting around. She still lives with my daughter, and follows her everywhere in the house.
Keep tuned for the next chapter of the cats in our life, this time in Australia, and some more lovely photos of our 5 cats.

Gluten Free Chocolate Brownies

I am gluten intolerant and am always on the lookout for nice and easy gluten free recipes.
You might have seen that I follow a most wonderful blog http://glutenfreegirl.com/ where Shauna posts the most wonderful gluten free recipes. The photos alone can make your taste buds salivate!

I recently came across this recipe in a magazine and have now baked it a couple of times, they are easy, quick to make and tasty as well. I have just baked them and we will be having them after dinner with a cup of hot lemongrass tea. What a nice end to a wintry Sunday.

Gluten Free Chocolate Brownies


Ingredients:
200 gr  70% cocoa-chocolate, broken into small pieces
125gr butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup rice flour
1/2 cup almond meal
1/4 tea spoon bicarb soda
1/2 cup macadamia nuts, almonds or walnuts chopped
Cocoa to dust


1 - Pre-heat the overn to 190ºC. Line a 23 x 23 cm tin with baking paper.
2 - Melt chocolate and butter in the microwave for 2 minutes.
3 - Whisk sugar and eggs together until doubled in volume. Add to the chocolate mixture and mix well.
4 - Sift rice flour and almond meal and bicarb and add to the chocolate mix. Fold in and add the nuts.
5 -Pour into tin and bake for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 170ºC and bake a further 10 minutes. Take out of the oven and let cool in tin. Slice to size and serve dusted with cocoa.
Enjoy them !!

COLOURFUL WORLD

Why did I choose COLOURFUL WORLD as the name for my blog?
I love COLOUR, I cannot imagine a world without all the glorious colours...
At home at least a wall in each room has colour - what the decorators call "feature wall".
Of course my paintings adorn all my walls, bringing even more colour to my home.

Many, many years ago I remember visiting friends of my husband, and they lived in this totally white house with not a single painting hung on the walls, and I thought it was the most boring home. How could anyone live without colour, without art hung on the walls?
I am no Picasso, but then I don´t even like his paintings, I like things that are "real", so although some abstract art is actually beautiful because of the colour combinations it´s not the type of art that I can paint or that I relate to.

Gaugin´s original 

One of the pictures I painted is a copy of Paul Gaugin´s painting -  Nafeaffaa Ipolpo Aka When Will You Marry -  I chose it because I like his use of colour, although the people he portrays are a bit disproportionate. 
Actually my painting is my husband´s pet hate, he says that the women seem to have weird arms which is quite true, but I just copied it, so I wasn´t going to do a medical procedure on their arms....

My copy of Gaugin´s picture

My garden does´t have as much colour as I would like, but even the different greens and greys and now some browns due to the Autumn / Winter colour of the leaves, all add to the magic.

A corner of my back garden - a work in progress...

Last weekend right after my blog course I noticed the most amazing tree trunk with so many shades of green, brown, creams, and I was lucky that I had my camera in my bag, so straight away I took some photos.
One of my recent passions is photography, and although I have a modest camera, I click away enthusiastically at everything from our cats, the garden, flowers everywhere, friends gathered around the dinner table, well...any beautiful thing I see!!

Tree Trunk with lovely mix of colours

Hope I will be able to provide my readers with interesting snippets about my life in Perth.

Meandering through the Melbourne Alleys

Melbourne has some lovely alleys and little streets where you can meander through and look at quaint shops and cafes and tiny restaurants where you can probably seat half a dozen people.

Some of the alley walls have been painted with graffiti art and are very modern and colourful.

These lanes were first used as rear access to the properties facing the streets. Later they were reinvented and buzz to the sounds and rhythm of the city. Start your walk at Degraves street across the road from the Flinders Street Station.

Get a map from the Melbourne Visitor Centre at Federation Square and don´t miss this walk through the lanes. You won´t regret it!!

AC/DC lane - named after the known Aussie rock band

Union Lane

  

Busy lanes with restaurants and cafe´s at Degraves St

The Block Arcade

Gog and Magog - the Briton giants that struck every hour since 1892.

Mural at Flinders St Station

Public purse in Bourke St mall, in front of the GPO shopping centre

Delicious European style cake shop 

Detail of the arcade mosaic floor

Entrance to Royal shopping arcade

Quaint bicycle in front of a flower shop

Funny sign outside a cafe.

A visit to Melbourne

 

MELBOURNE is the second largest Australian city with a population of around 4million. It's very European in it's way of life, fashion shops, restaurants with outdoor esplanades. The choice of restaurants is mind boggling, I 'm quite sure you would be able to eat typical foods from a different country every day of the month (maybe even more), without having to repeat a single meal.

I was quite lucky to be able to travel to Melbourne quite a few times during the 7 months my husband worked there last year. I called them "My weekend shopping trips".

The clothing shops are quite diverse and of course being a bit of a shoe freak I never came back to Perth without having bought a pair of shoes.

I buy shoes because they look pretty, unfortunately they aren't always comfortable, too high heels, or too tight, well but I still try to wear them when I know I will be sitting down most of the time and I won´t feel the pain...

Women are suckers for pain, aren't we?

The 4 hour flight to from Perth to Melbourne, plus the two hour time difference, would always leave me a bit jet-lagged, but I was always ready for a walk into the city centre, some dinner and late night window shopping. The city never seems to go sleep, there is always music, open bars, late night restaurants, even 24 hour food shopping, something I don´t think exists in Perth. But who wants to buy food at midnight anyway?

Bees - Eureka Tower

Eureka Tower

Night view across river Yarra

In front of the Crown Casino

I was lucky that hubby's company rented him the most wonderful apartment in the city right on the southern banks of the the Yarra river in Southbank, across the road from the Casino and near Melbourne´s highest building, the Eureka Tower - Freshwater Place.

The view from the apartment was amazing, and I loved sitting in the lounge at night in semi darkness while the city lights shone outside. What a wonderful sight!

Sometimes we would go across to the Casino promenade where every night there was an hourly fire show display spewing from granite towers, from 8pm to midnight. On those winter nights I could actually feel the heat!

Well those months flew by and hubby is back home and I'm back to my ground floor view of the park across the road. Not a bad view, quiet but pleasant, with bird sounds and sounds of kids playing after school or during the holidays.

Although I prefer the view from my kitchen window into my succulent garden, but I will leave that for another post!

Freshwater Place, Southbank, where we stayed

Modern pedestrian bridge across river Yarra