Geocaching and an easy treat

You may be wondering why there has been no recent mention of the AGA stove that I was hoping would arrive in May.  It has been held up in the UK where clearly the entire country took the months of April and May off work to celebrate the royal wedding.  It is now due in August and at this stage we are not amused.

Holiday jollies continue unabated.  I took the kids and some friends to Tower Hill last week to go Geocaching, which is an iphone app.  You use a compass to find locations when you find it there is usually a small "treasure" box with a sheet of paper to write when you found it and you can see who has found it before you.  All great fun until you go off the track and get lost and everyone starts whinging and I had to walk all the way back to get the car and drive back and pick them up...

We did see some interesting wildlife though,

The dark blob is a koala

On the way home we stopped at the spot that Von Guerard did his famous Tower Hill painting.

It was getting late and raining and the children were decidedly unimpressed, but at least I made some attempt  to get them interested in Australian art.

They were more interested eating something yummy, so just as well I had made this date loaf to keep them quiet (small disclaimer...not all of them liked it but trust me, grown ups will). 

DATE LOAF

1 cup chopped dates

juice of 1 orange

1 cup lightly packed brown sugar

60g butter[

1 cup boiling water

1 3/4 cups SR flour

1 teasp bicarb soda

1/2 teasp each of cinnamon and nutmeg

1 teasp vanilla essence

Soak dates in orange juice for 30 minutes (longer is ok)

Preheat oven to 180c.  Grease and line a loaf tin.

After soaking, add sugar and butter to bowl.  Pour over boiling water and stir until the butter is melted.

Add sifted flour, bicarb soda, cinnamon and nutmeg and mix well. Stir in vanilla essence.

Pour into tin and cook for 45-50 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

It is rather good with butter, but also with cream cheese and orange zest.