Sunday brunch

FRESH from the oven Saxon Hot Cross Buns from 3RRR were a great success - a nice and chewy texture with the cranberries and orange peel giving the buns a lovely fragrance.

Best enjoyed fresh from the oven or toasted

However, Sunday brunch is not just about buns at the Jan Juc Surf Shack.

No sireee.

The preferred brunch menu during autumn can range from rolled oats porridge with some blueberries, Greek yogurt and passion fruit - low cost high taste - through to pancakes with lemons from the neighbours and sugar, or sourdough toast with Darryl's Dry Roasted Peanut Butter which it leaves the others which are way too oily in it's wake like steeplechaser Moss Trooper racing against the donkeys. 

Another favourite is poached eggs from the gals on sourdough with fresh spinach and corriander.

Hot fresh coffee is not optional, as are the Sunday papers and back issues of the New Yorker.

Meanwhile, the feather riot are served left-over pancakes or toast, before allowed out to chase insects.

Any leftover buns will be toasted by the fire and eaten later.

Dirty Deeds

SUNDAY afternoons at 1pm, the wireless is hanging from a nail under the deck and I'm listening to 3RRR's stalwart and always fascinating gardening show, Dirty Deeds.

Gidget and the father riot gals are passionate 3RRR subscribers

From the mundane plant to the exotic, with the advice always practical, this wonderful gardening show is delivered with a healthy dose of humour by the knowledgeable, interesting and passionate presenters.

The moment you hear the ACDC opening chords, you know you are in for 60 minutes of quality green thumb radio.

Even the father riot love the show, so much u=in fact they are passionate subscribers and have their own membership card and a 3RRR sticker on their chook shack.

So do yourself a favour, and got to 102.7 FM every Sunday 1pm AEST.

Your ears,chooks and garden will thank you.

Autumn bliss and community radio

NOW the Indian summer appears to have melted away, it's finally a proper autumn - cool evenings, crisp mornings and sunny days. Perfect for turning over the compost and digging it in to some garden beds in preparation for planting while I listen to the wireless.

Five of my six bins are doing well, so I shall empty out the recalcitrant bin and distribute the contents amongst the others and start again.

This always puts the feather riot in seventh heaven - they cawk and sqawk their way through the decomposed material, pulling out worms and beetles with gay abandon. (It makes a nice change form them escaping into the potato bed and trying to dig up all the kipflers!)

This week I'll also pull out the last of my tomato plants and do some much needed weeding - and show my support for community radio.

BTW, today is a great day to show your support for community radio -

3RRR, and community radio in general, is facing a tough time and needs your help.

3RRR  is not asking for your financial support this time around, just 30 seconds of your time to sign up to the campaign at committocommunityradio.org.au

The Community Broadcasting Association of Australia requires funding of $3.6 million per year to maintain digital radio infrastructure for the 37 metropolitan community radio stations that hold digital licenses. Having previously committed to the full amount of funding, in the May 2012 federal budget, the Government committed to only $2.2 million per year, for four years, leaving a $1.4 million per year shortfall.

The Commit to Community Radio campaign has been established to get this $1.4 million shortfall addressed. At only about $40,000 per station per year, it’s really not a lot of money in the scheme of things, but other stations aren’t as well supported as Triple R and the transmission infrastructure is shared, so we’re committed to a “one in, all in” approach.  Unaddressed, this shortfall is likely to see community digital radio services switched off.

So make like the feather riot! If Layne, Ledger, Philly, Gidget and Hilda can show their support, you can too.

Chook chat

EVERY time one of the gals lay an egg she lets out a cawk-like cackle to tell her friends and they all enthusiastically cawk back and forwards in delight.

Today they are flapping about their run, chasing foolish crickets in between laying.

For the last oh, say two years, the little devils have been laying under their excellent hutch in he far right hand corner which entails getting a steel rake to cover their largess.

So yesterday i crawled under the chok shack and firmly wired off their cellar.

This morning i was rewarded by an egg in the hutch nest.

How long this will last it any one's guess as they pace the run like POWs.

I'm sure they will have figured out a way around the birdwire - after all, they managed to almost lock me in the run the other day when in their rush to get out into the garden when he was feeding them, one knocked the door shut.
Tricked by a chook, is not a good admission.

Gidget on cricket patrol