Sheep in the paddocks

This is another letter from your Uncle Roger. I hope you liked my last letter about the carpet snake I found in the firewood heap. The snake is still hiding in the wood-heap waiting for warmer weather in the Spring-time. Did you like the photos I sent of the wattle out in bloom? - When we see the wattle flowering, we know that Spring-time is not far away and soon the weather will be warmer.

I've sent you some photos of the sheep here in the paddock close to the house and the sheds; they are getting woolly and soon it will be time for the shearing. We shear the sheep once a year in the Spring-time. I have a friend called Laurie who owns these sheep, so when he wants to shear them, I'll take some photos for you to see the shearing.

Early in the morning, sometimes we see the dawn just before the sun rises, very pretty in the sky, I've sent you 2 photos of the dawn here taken about 6:15am in the morning. 

Also, 2 photos of me sitting on a log out in the bush.

My letter this time is a bit short, but I have not forgotten you and I hope you like my little letter. Maybe I'll try to write a bit more next time. Remember - I love you all very, very much.

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

Cutting firewood

Dear Aisha, Brioni and Calista,                                                        

This is another letter from your Uncle Roger. I hope you liked my last letter about butterflies and caterpillars. This time I want to tell you about getting the firewood to keep the fire burning in my home to keep it nice and warm. I usually bring the firewood in every second day because it's very cold now and I need to keep the fire going all the time. As you can see from the photos I have sent you, I use my wheelbarrow to carry the firewood home. But first I must split the large pieces of wood with the axe to make them the right size to fit into the stove. A load of firewood on the wheelbarrow lasts about 2 days. 

Also, if you look carefully at the pictures you will see that I am getting some little sticks ready which I split with a little axe called a – TOMAHAWK. - This is a smaller sized axe and very useful for splitting sticks which we call – KINDLING.

The word – KINDLING – just means little sticks suitable for starting a fire.

This time of the year is Winter, which starts at the beginning of June and it can be very cold and frosty here in New South Wales, so I'm glad I prepared for the cold weather and got a good supply of firewood ready.

My garden is still growing nicely and my fresh spinach has recovered and I have not found anymore caterpillars on the leaves.  I've sent you a photo to show you.

If you look in the background of that photo, you will see  little seedlings coming up of my Silver Beet. This is a green vegetable like spinach but not quite the same. In the foreground you will see my garlic shooting up, coming along nicely. 

Most mornings after I've had my breakfast, I go for a walk out in the bush for about an hour. As I go, I listen to the music on the Shaker MP3 player which your Daddy and Mummy sent to me in the big parcel. Would you tell them that Uncle Roger is very pleased with the Shaker, and tell them I use it every day.

What have you been doing lately? – Are you still reading books and learning new words? – Brioni, are you still practising your writing? - I’m very pleased to hear that you can write your name now. 

This is the end of my letter now, but I will write to you all again sometime.

Remember - I love you all very, very much.

Uncle Roger