This is another letter from your Uncle Roger. I hope you liked my last letter about cooking spinach. This time my letter is about the snake I found in the firewood heap. I suppose this snake thought my wood-heap would be a nice place to hide and spend the Winter. Snakes are not very active during the winter-time and so they usually find a quiet place to hide until the warmer spring weather. This snake didn't know that during the Winter I would be using all my firewood and his hiding-place in the wood-heap would be discovered.

I've sent you some photos of this snake for you to see. This is a carpet snake very much like the one we saw in the back garden of your home in Brisbane when I came to visit. Do you remember? - Your Mummy took some photos of it.

Carpet snakes are not poisonous; - they can bite, and they will bite if we don't handle them gently, but if we pick the snake up carefully and hold it by the neck it is quite safe and there is no need to be afraid of them. Carpet snakes go hunting for mice and so they are useful creatures which are good to have around. Sometimes I find a carpet snake in the shed here on the farm looking for mice and so I just let them stay and find somewhere to hide amongst all the things in the shed. They are called – CARPET – snakes because they have a pretty pattern on their skin like the pattern on a carpet; so they are called carpet snakes. 

Carpet snakes also catch small birds, but they have to be quick and so they just keep very still, waiting and hoping that some little bird or animal doesn't see them and gets close enough to catch them. Carpet snakes are included in the kind of snakes called – PYTHON.

Pythons often grow very large, and there are many different kinds; they live in tropical jungles of Africa and Asia and in Borneo in South-east Asia. Some pythons grow to a great size, sometimes as much as 30 feet long. There is another very large snake which we call a BOA - these snakes are found in South America and they grow very big. Here in Australia snakes of the python family grow to about 6 or 8 feet long.

I heard you have been helping Daddy and Mummy repairing the roof of your house; and Aisha, I saw the photos of you doing some painting; - and Brioni, I saw some photos of you learning to measure with the tape-measure. I'm very pleased to see that you are learning new things.

I've also sent some pictures of my broad beans and cabbages growing in plant pots; see how much they have grown since the last time you saw them.

This is the end of my letter now. Remember - I love you all very, very much.

Uncle Roger

Cooking spinach

This is another letter from your Uncle Roger. I hope you liked my last letter about crickets; this time, my letter is about cooking spinach. You know I like spinach and I have a little garden of spinach plants growing in the old bath-tub. Well, this letter is about my favourite recipe for cooking spinach and I've sent you some photos to show you.

The first thing is to gather the spinach from the garden and give it a good wash. It needs washing because we like to eat our food from the garden nice and clean.

You can see in the the photos my 2 large bowls of washed spinach ready for cooking. The next thing is to prepare an onion; and you can see the pictures showing me chopping the onion ready for cooking.

Into the cooking pot I put the chopped onion and some crushed garlic with a small amount of olive oil, a very small amount of water and a little bit of salt, and I fry the onion and garlic in the cooking pot to get a nice tasty flavour. Then I add the washed spinach; you can see a photo with all the spinach in the pot.

It looks like a lot of spinach, but when it cooks it reduces down to a smaller amount. I try to use as little water as possible without risk of it burning on the bottom. When the spinach is cooked I sometimes add a can of red beans to go with the spinach and then I add the 2 eggs and stir them in. I put the eggs in last because they don't need very much cooking, so when the eggs are cooked it's all finished and ready to eat. 

In this meal, I'm also having boiled brown rice which you can see in the photo.
It was a very nice meal and I enjoyed it very much so I have sent you this letter to tell you all about it.

It's still very cold here, and I'm looking forward to the Springtime when the weather is a bit warmer, but I'm OK here and I have my nice warm fire. I've been inside most of the time lately, reading and doing my bible study.

I heard about the time you have been making submarines from drink bottles; and Aisha, - I heard you have been learning to sew. I'm very pleased to hear about your sewing.

This is the end of my letter now. Remember - I love you all very, very much.

Uncle Roger

Crickets

This is another letter from your Uncle Roger. I hope you liked my last letter about foxes; I haven't seen any more foxes since then, but sometimes at night I can hear a fox barking. This is the Winter-time now and the weather is very cold. But I have plenty of wood to keep the fire going and it's nice and warm at home.

I've been in communication with Uncle Ben who is living in China, and he caught an insect which is called a cricket and asked if anyone had seen one like it. I've sent you the photo which Uncle Ben sent me for you to see the cricket he caught.

Although I have often seen different kinds of cricket here in Australia, they are not quite the same as the one Uncle Ben found in China. I sent Uncle Ben some pictures of crickets here in Australia, and pictures of some very big crickets which are found in New Zealand called – WETA crickets. I thought you would like to see these pictures too.

You will see from the pictures how large they are. Of course, crickets are quite harmless creatures and it is quite safe to pick them up, but if you see one in the garden it's best to ask your Daddy or your Mummy if it OK to touch it. I hope you like my pictures of different kinds of crickets.

Did you like the photos I sent of my beautiful Jacobean Lily which is flowering?

On Tuesday I had to go to town to do my shopping and collect my mail at the Post Office, and I bought some new batteries for my digital camera so I'll take some more pictures for you when I see anything interesting which you would like to see. It has been very cold, wet weather and not very good for taking photos, but when the weather clears up and we have sunny days again I'll take some photos for you. - Is the weather cold in Brisbane?

I've been inside most of the time lately, reading and doing my study, so I don't have very much to tell you about the things I have been doing around the farm.

This is the end of my letter now, but I will write to you all again sometime, and I will try to take some nice photographs for you.

Remember - I love you all very, very much.

Uncle Roger