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Thursday, 16 January 2014

Labradoodle Fun and Facts. 12 Good Reasons for Bringing 2 Australian Labradoodles Home.

 
Handsome William of Tora Australian Labradoodles.
Kindly reproduced for my book cover.

Yes, at last, Labradoodle Fun and Facts is finished. It's available on Amazon and will shortly be available on Kobo, Nook and iTunes. It seems like this book has taken me forever, months in fact, but hey, there is sunshine at the end of every long, dark and difficult tunnel. This book also marks the end, for now, of my doggie books. I will post updates on Winnie and Hunny here of course.

So what's this book about? Seems obvious doesn't it, Labradoodles! Well actually, Australian Labradoodles. Many moons ago, a breeder for the Royal  Guide Dog Association of Australia was asked to breed a dog for a blind lady whose husband was allergic to dog hair and saliva. To cut a long story short, he came up with a Labrador/Poodle cross which ticked all the boxes and he named it a Labradoodle.

Old news you say? Okay, well do you know how the Australian Labradoodle came to be known and how it differs from a Labradoodle? Read my book I say :), but for starters, let me also say that the Australian Labradoodle has evolved beyond the Labradoodle through careful, consistent and standardised breeding. It therefore now looks and is quite different from a Labradoodle.

Indeed it is the coat that is truly unique. It is allergy friendly and non-shedding, which was the original aim of the original breeder. This has taken many years to perfect, and along the way, other breeds have been infused into the Australian Labradoodle to contribute genes specifically to its allergy friendly and non-shedding coat. But for some people like me, dog dander and saliva are also issues so the breeding programme covered these, also part of the original aim.

It is hoped that in the not too distant future that the Australian Labradoodle will be recognised as a Purebreed in its own right.

For me, Australian Labradoodles have everything I could want in a dog, and I can truthfully say, never having had 2 dogs before because I considered 1 to be enough, that my decision to bring 2 into my life has been one of the best ever. Yes there is twice the amount of dog food to buy and twice the amount of doggie 'doo' to clean up, but there's twice the love, twice the fun, twice the joy, twice the happiness, and no hair, no itching, no sneezing.

And my 12 good reasons for bringing TWO gorgeous Australian Labradoodles home? Here they are.

1. Personality Plus.
2. Family Friendly
3. Excellent Companion Dog.
4. Allergy Friendly.
5. Non Shedding
6. Easy to Train, Great Service Dog.
7. A Breed Standard.
8. An Accredited Association.
9. Bloodlines.
10. 3 Sizes: Miniature, Medium, Standard. 
11. 2 (desired) Coat Types: Fleece and Wool.
12. Many Coat Colours.

And that's That. Now to the future. My next book is called BROKEN, and is a Memoir. I have a first draft finished, actually it was finished before any of my doggie books had been conceived. It needs (I think) a fair amount of work as I haven't looked at it for around 6 months. May I look at it with fresh, positively critical eyes!

I'll be off to celebrate this afternoon with family, coffee and cake...mmmmmm...and be ready next week for a new beginning.

Take care everyone, enjoy your weekend,

Leonie



















Thursday, 9 January 2014

Dogs Having Fun.

I could have fun with my dogs Winnie and Hunny 24/7 if I wanted to because they do. The girls are ready for action as soon as they've had their breakfast biscuit and been outside. At least Winnie is. Picture this: I've just sat down on the veranda with my breakfast. Winnie comes along with a ball ready for a game of fetch. Hunny settles onto the 2 seater next to me in spectator mode. I'm barely awake, let alone up for a game, but okay, how can I resist? At least I don't have to move much. Winnie knows to drop the ball at or near my feet so all I need to do is pick it up and throw it. She always brings it back. Again and again and again....

Hunny isn't into ball games thankfully. I'd never get my breakfast eaten if I had 2 ball-game loving dogs. I'd also have no arms to eat breakfast with anyway, they'd be in the backyard somewhere with the ball. However, if the tension builds sufficiently in Winnie's game, Hunny will be in on the action with a bark and an attempt to grab the ball. This game can go on for some time, so as you can imagine, I'm usually the one to spoil the fun. I need to eat, shower, do stuff, after all. Winnie doesn't seem to understand this. When I get up I'm followed...into the kitchen, the bedroom, the bathroom, everywhere. Winnie is panting and often still has the ball hanging out of one side of her mouth, her tongue, the other side.

As I said, Hunny's not into ball games. She loves carrying things. These days she has her own face washer to carry around whenever she pleases. This is very cute behaviour, not a game exactly, but fun to watch and get involved in. It's better than carrying my clothing all over the house, or removing the toilet paper from the holder and then shredding it. They were her favourite activities when she was little, but not mine you understand, so a substitute was found. She's very proud of herself when she's carrying and holds her head and tail high. Maybe she's a bit like Linus from "Peanuts", the character who always carries around his security blanket. More often than not Hunny's washer is hard to find. She just likes carrying stuff for me i.e. helping with carrying, like the mail or her bed or the shopping bags when I come home. Funny Hunny.

It was super hot here last week and as a way to cool the girls down and for them to have some fun as well, I hung the sprinkler over the clothes line so they could get wet without attacking the sprinkler itself. 

 Before the clothes line days.

Somewhere, somehow, way back in the mists of time, Winnie became obsessive about water coming out of hoses and similar devices. I learned quickly to adjust my behaviour, as I could tell it would be very difficult for her to change hers when the neighbours water along the fence line and I can't catch her among the shrubs. A fuse seems to ignite in Winnie's brain and it sends a signal to her bark and run-up-and-down-the-fence centres. Again, I've tried to discuss this with her, but 2 years down the track I think I've failed. Bad mother. When this started I only had 1 dog exhibiting this behaviour, now I have 2, all thanks to you Winnie :)
I have to think this is funny, but it really is annoying. At least it isn't as intensely annoying as it used to be! And to think Winnie doesn't like getting her paws wet or swimming!

Hunny on the other hand is a natural born water lovin' dog. She adores the stuff so much that she used to get into my garden pond to cool off. Unfortunately, when she hopped out she'd reek of algae and mud as the water level dropped from her constant bathing and stirring up of the sediment. Now she has a pool of her own and she's much more smell friendly. There's still no fountain, fish or plants in the pond though, sigh.

    
Before Hunny had her own swimming pool.

Yes, I could have fun with my dogs all day. They have fun in most things they do because they are happy. They make me happy. I could watch them all day and get next to nothing done. Wouldn't that be great! I love the way they get silly and excited when playing, and just before dinner is served. Hunny dances and turns in circles with happiness and pleasure that food is on its way. I love the quirky little dogerisms they use when they talk to each other when one wants to play. I love lying on the ground with them. I love how they sit on me, lie on me, and are always close to me. I love patting them, stroking them, praising them, talking to them, just being with them, loving them.

Dogs are such fun, and they love having fun. 

And finally, by this time next week, my latest book "Labradoodle Fun and Facts" will be available on Amazon for Kindle, and very shortly after on Kobo, Nook and itunes. This one's been a while in the writing, but hey, December and early January have been good for 'down time'. I will write a short post next week when the book is published. 

Until then, take care everyone,

hugs from Leonie and a smooch from the pooches Hunny and Winnie.

Thursday, 2 January 2014

S/He who Procrastinates this year, Fails.


Where are we heading in 2014? Not down the path of procrastination I would hope. According to the Astrological calendar, and before you turn away, 33% of people TRUST horoscopes according to www.dailystatistic.com (Dec.11 2012), the New Moon on New Year's Day portends a year for laying down well thought out plans and setting realistic and achievable goals. BUT, more important than that is to get going on the decisions you've made, don't procrastinate, and SEE THE PLANS THROUGH. Apparently the gods are serious on this and won't take half-hearted attempts or false promises. Here is one perspective.
http://www.judytsafrirmd.com/new-moon-on-new-years-day-2014/

Okay, that doesn't sound too difficult or different really does it? But I believe there is more. This year feels different to me. For a start, here I am telling my story to the world. This is not at all the same me I was a year ago. The old me would never have dared to do what I'm doing today, "exposing" myself like I am. Yet this is what this year is also about. We are being called to wipe our slates clean of any allusions or false securities and being asked to jump into our selves, our true natures, life, to be our real selves, warts and all.

For myself, I'd forgotten about many deep interests. Don't worry, I'm not about to swamp you with them, but they will emerge through these pages now and then as is astrology today. I'm one of those 33% who trust horoscopes, but not the ones to be read in newspapers or magazines, I delve deeper. And for those forgotten interests? I can thank writing again after so many years for bringing them back to full awareness. And it feels good. It feels right, and I know that the decision to write, although it seemed very whimsical and without solid foundation six months ago, has been 100% the best decision I've made in a long time. Something I did not expect.

So in 2014 I plan to write better and write more, and to improve my health, the big one for me. I'm normally not a New Year Resolutionist, and I choose not to call my plans resolutions, mostly because everyone else does and I like to be different :). I'm being serious about my plans, but not obsessive. If I become obsessive, I fail, past experiences have shown me this, so I'm not really making a plan! I just know in my head what I need to do.

Certainly though that's where to start, and if you need a solid plan,

    a) work out what's important and don't sweat the small stuff
    b) make a decision and just do it
    c) leave half-hearted attitudes for another year or never
    d) the resulting extra time = fun and relaxation time : a more balanced life

I'm still learning the above myself so I need to take my own advice. I don't rush and mulit-multi task like I used to years ago, even though the last six months have seen me do so on occasion because of the amount of learning I've had to do to get up to speed in this business...Writing, publishing, promoting, learning about social media and then using it...ARGH!..., there were many times when my head nearly exploded and I had to lie on the bed for several days. I desperately wanted to be at the top of the game with my finger on every pulse, but I couldn't, AND at the end of the year, I realised it wasn't me anyway. Phew, got that sorted. Now, instead of becoming a quivering mess flat on my back seeing stars with heart and head pounding feeling sick to my stomach, I'm doing it my way, being honest, and true to myself. I cannot do it in the fast lane or I become more ill.

Some more advice I'll be following on the writing front is from Ruth R Allen on How to Slay the 6 Writing Dragons.
http://annerallen.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/6-writing-dragons-how-to-slay-themand.html

My horoscope says I'll be very successful this year with my writing, so gods, if you're listening, I'm serious.

Take care everyone, 'till next Friday,

Leonie, Hunny Winnie, who were all in bed before midnight.







Thursday, 26 December 2013

A Multi-Cultural, Ninja Turtle Christmas

Christmas has come and gone for another year, and I hope you all had a wonderful day with family and/or friends wherever you may have been, and however you may have celebrated it.

This year, our Christmas was a little different, it was a little extra multi-cultural than usual. Having Dutch parents, but being born in New Zealand has meant that there has always been a mixture of Dutch and Kiwi at Christmas time and sometimes as early as the beginning of December when the Dutch celebrate Sinterklaas on the 5th of December, or the feast day of Saint Nicolas who traditionally arrived from Spain in a boat with his Moors bearing gifts. Christmas Day was then more reserved for the celebration of Christ's birth.

As such, our family in New Zealand, mum, dad, my brother and myself, did not celebrate Sinterklaas, but I did have the pleasure in 1974 whilst in Holland, with my aunt, uncle and cousin. By then, Sinterklaas in our family was more a "gift with a twist" occasion, in which you had one person to gift for, but the gift was hand made and personalised in such a way that it told a story. I believe, if I remember correctly all those years ago, that I received a miniature cardboard constructed town, with painted buildings, people and cars etc and snow, because I had wanted a White Christmas. It was absolutely brilliant, and priceless, without a doubt the best gift ever.

To keep up my Dutch heritage and to ensure my children do as well :), I make a few Dutch Christmas and New Year dishes, see last post, and hang ornaments like this beautiful star in Delfts Blauw (Blue).
But as I was saying, we had extra culture this year, introduced by one of my daughters. It came on Christmas Eve in the form of a magnificent, local Argentinian parrilla, or BBQ, to which we were invited.


We were amongst Argentinians who knew how this was done, and it was done expertly may I say! This backyard parrilla was enormous, big enough to grill a butterflied pig and enough chickens to feed around 60 of us! We all sat around long trestle tables and ate our meal of meat, salad and chimichurri off wooden platters. http://www.food.com/recipe/chimichurri-21151

The flavours were wonderful, unlike any I had ever tasted before. Here is a short youtube video of a parrilla so you REALLY get the idea. (paint and right click if you can't access the link)
https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDQQtwIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D5JccEXUj8yA&ei=TNe8UtH1CIfIlAXJkIGQDg&usg=AFQjCNEwYdTFWY25RDkcEj8I_dWX82UNPA&sig2=-_3uZcB6LhkVhon9x0ml_w&bvm=bv.58187178,d.dGI

It was a very convivial atmosphere with great food, great company and beautiful music. Same time, same place next year? I hope so!

Christmas Day saw us up early to have breakfast with my son and his family. First we collected my mum from the nursing home where she lives. It was already around 27 degrees C at 7.30am so the day was warming up. Mum is wheelchair bound, but we got her inside safely to be confronted by the uproar of 3 young excited boys under the age of 3 (two of whom are twins), Christmas Carols, floor space almost non-existent in the lounge, but the promise of an Aussie breakfast of bacon, scrambled egg, pancakes, berry fruits, pineapple, melon, ice-cream, mango daquiris and champagne.

After all that was consumed and the twins put to bed, the serious business of present opening could begin. (As the boys had already opened theirs from Santa, the twins being in bed was not an issue). As you can see, we had help, expert help.
And, surprise, surprise, this expert help also turned out to be a ninja turtle at one point in the morning. Yes, we have a very devoted ninja turtle fan in the family. Ninja turtle costume, pj's, jocks, figurines, shorts and t-shirts materialised that morning.
By 11.30 it was time to head home. My son and family were heading off to the in-laws for lunch, mum to the nursing home and 4 of us to our own lunch. Although we weren't having an Aussie barbie, our lunch would be a typical Aussie/Kiwi Christmas Day lunch. On our menu were prawns, cold ham and chicken, smoked salmon dip, 2 salads, mango salsa more champagne and pavlova for desert. Yum, yum, As it turned out we didn't eat until 3pm, which is also typical!

After eating and cleaning up, it was time for a movie and total relaxation for the remainder of the day. There was only the 2 of us now, so we settled down to watch Terry Pratchett's "Hogfather".
Christmas on Discworld, an alternate world moving through space supported by 4 elephants standing on the back of a turtle.  Weird? Yes. Wonderful? Yes again, like all of Terry Pratchett's books. He has in fact to date written 40 books in the Discworld Series. Here is his latest.

So that was our Christmas. On to New Year. I usually don't see the New Year in, believe it! Our family is small, the kids celebrate with friends and I find it a real challenge to stay up. However, I wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR, enjoy all the parties you'll be attending, and I'll see you in 2014.

Leonie, Winnie and Hunny, Santa's tired helpers.








Friday, 20 December 2013

A Special Christmas Treat

Every year at Christmas time my mum used to make, amongst other treats, a Kerstkrans (Dutch Christmas pastry), a VERY delicious and moreish almond pastry shaped into and decorated like a wreath. I thought I'd share the recipe with all the foodies out there in Christmas land. There are lots of you right? Thought so, here goes.
KERSTKRANS/DUTCH ALMOND CHRISTMAS WREATH
Oven 220C/400F
Ingredients
500g shortcrust pastry (I use sheet pastry these days, but I used to make my own)
200g ground almonds/almond meal
200g castor sugar
1tsp grated lemon rind
1tbsp lemon juice
Pinch of salt
1 egg
1 tsp water, icing sugar, apricot jam, mixed glacé cherries (for decoration)
Method
Mix together the ground almonds/almond meal, and the castor sugar. Stir in the salt, lemon rind and juice.
Beat the egg a little to combine the white and the yolk. Reserve about 1tsp of the egg to use as a glaze. Mix the rest of egg into the almond mixture to form a stiff paste. Get your hands in there! It's crumbly at first but then firms up like a ball of pastry. Form the paste into a ball, place into a bowl, cover the bowl with cling film and place in the fridge until required. Make a few days ahead if possible to allow the flavours to mature.
On baking day, remove almond paste from the fridge half an hour the next step.
Cut a 25cm/10in square of pastry in two to make a rectangle about 50cm/20in long and about 12cm/5in wide, or roll out your pastry to the same dimensions and 1mm/1/8in thick. Join the two halves of the cut sheet by dampening them with water and pressing together to make a firm join..
Dampen your hands slightly to ease formation of the almond paste. Form the paste into a 'sausage' shape about 2-3cm/an inch (no more) thick, to fit on the pastry rectangle. Place along one long edge of the pastry. It doesn't matter if the pastry is too long, it will get trimmed later. Carefully roll the pastry so that the paste is entirely encased. Seal the pastry with egg mixture or water where the edges overlap, making sure there are no gaps for the paste to escape through during baking. Gently roll the 'sausage' so that the 'seam' is underneath and not showing. You need about 2cm/1in of pastry extending beyond the paste at one end, so cut off any excess pastry now there. At the other end, cut the pastry off close to the paste and 'wrap' it over the end of the paste.
Next, carefully curve the 'sausage' into a circle.  Fit the covered end of the paste into the end with the bit of extra pastry and seal well with egg mix or water, again making sure there are no gaps and the seal is firm and smooth.
Glaze the Kerstkrans with leftover egg mix.
Place the KERSTKRANS carefully onto a cold, damp (not greased) baking tray. Make diagonal cuts in the pastry around the KERSTKRANS. Bake in a hot oven at 220C/400F for around 30 minutes or until the pastry is golden.
Remove from oven and leave on the tray until cool.
Glaze with warmed apricot jam. Decorate with chopped, mixed glacé cherries and dust with icing sugar.
Serve, cut into 3cm/1in pieces, with coffee. Yum, yum. ENYOY!
Zalig Kerstfeest,
Merry Christmas.
Leonie

Thursday, 19 December 2013

Memories of Christmas Past.

The arrival of my eldest daughter on Wednesday has brought my family together for Christmas. With the togetherness comes the usual family banter and walks down memory lane. This year memories are particularly strongly focused on books of Christmasses past, as my focus the past 6 months has been on writing books.

I'm not a traditional Christmas person, come to think of it, I don't really do much 'by the book' at all, pardon the pun. I like to do everything slightly differently from the norm. This year I decided, too late, that I needed new tree ornaments and that what I really wanted was old world fairies, elves, gnomes and suchlike. Why, you might ask? Because I love and like them, as well as a vast array of other worldly interesting, alternative history, science, healing, energy, and environments, to name a few. Check out my Pinterest boards to get an idea! http://www.pinterest.com/leonievdvorle/

But I'm wandering and beginning to obsess. Back to Christmas tree ornaments. Living in a small town meant my local stores had nothing, so I began an online search. Dissapointingly, and unbelievably, not much of what I like is available in Auatralia, so my search took me to the U.S and the U.K. It was then that I hit the jackpot, and ultimately a most wonderful surprise with multitudes of memories, books taken off bookshelves, texts and photos sent to my daughters and son and a fairy purchase of $45.

I found a gorgeous Sugar Plum Fairy, but didn't buy her because even though she was only $10 or so, postage from the U.S to Australia is in the order of around $25 to $30, so I decided to pass for the moment. Bother. Looking further I found my treasure. A Cicely Mary Barker Christmas Tree Fairy from Flower Fairies of the Winter book! Now this is no ordinary Flower Fairy. This Flower Fairy is very special. When my children were young in the late 1980's, early 1990's, we had all the Flower Fairy books and the girls in particular, of course, loved them so much I was commissioned to make each of them a Flower Fairy dress. My elder daughter who was 6, chose the Blackberry Fairy, and my younger daughter, 4, chose the Christmas Tree Fairy.

So not knowing these Flower Fairy ornaments existed, imagine my surprise to find them. I ordered the Christmas Tree Fairy on the spot, $45 delivered to my front door, after Christmas, but I didn't care about the price or the lateness.

Off I went to get the Flower Fairy books off the bookshelf. The dust covers had long gone, some pages were more worn than others, but I sat there for an hour, going over every image again. Down came the photo album, and sure enough, late 1992 had photos of my girls in their dresses, with my 2 year old son in an elf costume. I was over the moon with joy and happiness. I immediately mms'd my kids and we all OMGoodnessed over the memories. It's wonderful to be family, and for me it's been great that these memories surfaced at this time of year. They've even given me an idea for a book!

And speaking further of books, I then went and retrieved the Christmas books from the bookshelf. "Father Christmas" by Raymond Briggs, "Letters from Father Christmas" by J.R.R. Tolkien, and, just for fun, "Fairy Book An Anthology of Verse" by Shirley Barber and last but not least, one of my favourite books, Brian Froud's "good faeries - bad faeries".

                                                  
                                             

All of these books are available on Goodreads. So it's that time of year when, after the Christmas feast is consumed and all the guest have departed and all you want to do is curl up with a good book and 'quietly' spend a few hours reading away from the hustle and bustle. Transport yourself into another realm with a browse through the Goodreads Choice Awards 2013 for best voted books of the year https://www.goodreads.com/choiceawards/best-fiction-books-2013

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas, relax, enjoy the holidays, be safe.

See you next week.

Love and best wishes, Leonie and family from hot Australia.

Thursday, 12 December 2013

Views? News? Information? What do readers want?

For the past week I've (naturally) been thinking about the topic of today's post. This is how it usually works for me...it's a process of evolution over several days as it gels in my mind rather than a set plan and structure. Since starting this blog in August, I've talked about several topics, as I wasn't certain where the blog might go.

I started with a little background history, then Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS/ME), because that was the hot topic for me then. Next it was my Doods, ebooks and writing generally. I'm still wavering on direction, and since I don't want to be boring in my posts, but informative, engaging and responsive, I thought to ask you what you like reading the most about my blog.

a) life with CFS
b) life with Labradoodles Winnie and Hunny
c) ebook writing life/progress/pitfalls/tips/
d) all of the above
e) something else you've noticed in my blog 
f) added snippets on my neck of the woods
 
 For example for (f). I live on the doorstep of the Great Barrier Reef. My background photo is of the supermoon rising on June 23 this year and was taken with my cell phone (not the best device for such a photo I know, but hey, I got a shot). The view is looking over Great Keppel Island from Yeppoon. GKI lies near the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef. As most people know, the Great Barrier Reef is World Heritage Listed and is and extraordinarily beautiful natural world treasure. What many people may not know is that it is in serious danger of serious damage from dredging and port expansion. Major harbour dredging already occurs at a large port about 150km from my home and more is planned up and down the reef.


This is a very hot issue in Australia right now, not only for Australia, but for the environment, the planet, for us. Now I'm no political activist, but I live in a beautiful part of the world and what I'm saying is this is going on in my neighbourhood. Maybe there are other snippets I could post about my beautiful neighbourhood, as well as what I otherwise write, that you'd like to read?

Now for those of you who like to read about my ebooks, "Labradoodle Fun and Facts" is near completion. Seriously! It's electronic snail's pace I know, but as you know, I have (CFS) reasons...I've re-arranged the book this week with a better structure, and it's feeling more "comfortable" as a fun and informative read, rather than a mess on my laptop. But that's often how books start out anyway. You start writing from an idea, even if it's a mess and doesn't make much sense or feel right. Better to start and get something on the page than to procrastinate and give up in frustration while trying to get it right from the beginning. It's always a jumble for me.

I SERIOUSLY DISLIKE (hate is a word too loosely used) how at first it's hard to start, but I LOVE how at some point, a warm and fuzzy sensation comes along and I know the book is turning into what I wanted in the first place, that I'm getting my chapters sorted, my headings feel right and everything is beginning to flow. It's a real knowing in my guts that I'm on the right track. And that's what keeps me going. I'm not sure about how it works for other writers though!

AND ta da, ta da!!!! I have some NEWS on my first ebook in the "Winnie and Hunny Speak" Series, Hi, I'm Winnie. It is now permanently $0.99 on Amazon (Kindle), Barnes and Noble (Nook), Kobo and Apple. I wanted to make it free, but I couldn't on Amazon without too many changes, so $0.99 was the lowest I could go. Check it out for Christmas, it is a fun read :)

Speaking of Christmas, how are your preparations going? Trees and decorations up? Gifts bought, food sorted? I've done my gift shopping and that's it so far. The tree is still in it's box as are the decorations. I've at least brought them in from the garage! On the food front, I'm waiting for my eldest daughter to arrive next week from Townsville, about 800km to the north. I haven't seen her for 6 months and am very excited to have her home. Then we'll get together with my other daughter and browse recipes. For us it will be cold meats, seafood, salads, as Christmas day is usually a scorcher here. There will also be one or two traditional Dutch dishes that we always have, because my parents hale from the Netherlands.

I hope you all have a relaxed as possible week for this time of the year. Please do leave a comment for me so I can improve your reading time and value. It will be very much appreciated.

'till next Thursday/Friday

Leonie, Hunny and Winnie