Rio's butter cake---not from a packet!

Yeah, almost anyone can take a packet of premix and turn it into something pretty good, but the real thing, from scratch is hard to beat.  When it's a simple butter cake, with just a few basic ingredients, it is even better. There is no substitute for lashings of real Kiwi butter! Just with the addition of self- raising flour, eggs, sugar, vanilla essence and a dusting of icing sugar at the end and you get this perfect cake. Of course the process needs to be spot on before you achieve the beautiful result in the picture. OH---I didn't eat that obviously huge slice missing from the cake and the little bit I did have was shared by that always waiting mouth of Perdy!
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Real yummy butter cake on Crown Lynn from Rio.

Down at the Viaduct---the place where NZ nearly brought home the 'Cup.'

What a beautiful day down at the 'Duct.' I shared an ice-cream with Perdy and showed her the yachts we shall buy when we are rich. She can be 'Head Bitch' and make all the calls. Her only complaint---not everybody likes a manic

Jack Russell, but then again---they are not real people, I told her. Hell, one has to lie sometimes!
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Early Xmas berries---guess what I shall do with them?

These beautiful berries are growing in an old wine barrel, just off my deck. I think they are dewberries, but who cares because they taste bloody good and they can call themselves whatever they like! There are too many to eat as they ripen so I will---you know what's coming---yes, I shall stick them in my solar cooker at a low temperature and dry them. Imagine them added to cereal for breakfast. Healthy, tasty and so 'right.' Now---what next can I cook or dry in my fabulous solar oven? Someone accused me of being a cross between a demented 'greenie' and another unmentionable combination.
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Those bloody flies are back---it must be Summer. I have a solution, or do I?

Yes, as I walked into my nice warm home yesterday, I was bombed by flies as they went about their devious business. How very dare them alight upon me as I pursue my more important tasks, like preparing my bananas that I had grown for drying in my solar oven. For a few moments I blamed Perdy, accusing her of having a secret dump somewhere in the house. How cruel of me. She would never do that. Hell, she saves those activities for the park, preferring to keep the garden free of her actions. By the way, Perdy is a dog, not a person, but don't tell her that.
OK, what to do? Of course the answer was staring at me via my memory of one of the catalogues I have perused online. Solar----you guessed it. There is a solar zapper for mosquitoes so why not use it for flies? We shall see and I will wait until they are discounted, unless I break because the flies drive me nuts. Too late, you say. Cheeky buggers!
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