~17th November 1973.....A Very Special Anniversary~

Well who can believe this

today is our 40th Wedding Anniversary

Holey Dooley where did the time go!!!!!!!!

Me and Hubby after the ceremony

My Step-Grandfather and my Grandmother

Doing the circle saying 'bye to everyone on the night I met up with Hubby

My Godmother is on the left

My Godfather Robert who took the pics on the night sadly passed away not too long ago

Here he is with me

My Mother is to my left

I think we're looking a bit worried here LOL!!!

Our wedding invitations using a traditional Latvian sign 

I am now using my Latvian name and Ingrid is my middle name

And sadly my Dad passed away before I was married

Our first place we lived in in Wollstonecraft, Sydney

We built our first home in the Blue Mountains in Blackheath and stayed 10 years

Ten years later we went to further inland to a little place called Peel outside Bathurst

No street lights......no garbage service and no town water

But I loved it all......some of my best years would have to have been spent there

Above is a painting of the house by Lindsay

We then moved down to Bungendore outside of Canberra

and lasted 4 years before we made a Sea Change

That was the name of the house but since moving here Hubby has take down the sign as he thought it looked poxy!!!

Our first baby James

pic taken on our 2nd wedding anniversary at Port Stephens

James Christening Day

James with his baby Sister Jacqueline

and here's little JoJo

One of my favourite pics of all time taken at Peel

Jacqueline at 4

I recently gave her this little coat for  her daughter

Jacqueline's Wedding Day

And her first baby Ryan........our first Grandbaby

with Ryan

A couple of years later we all welcomed Ryan's Sister Lidija

from the country to the sea

above is a pic of our small flock of sheep next to the old dunny which had newspaper pinned on to the back of the door from the 1800's

JoJo and James

Today we headed down to Bermagui and stopped at Blue Earth Cafe

Boats at Bermagui

And just to compare 1973

and 2013

We bought ourselves a little setting for our top balcony.......the turquoise one

My friend Geo (no blog) said it should be a ruby one LOL!!!

My gift from Mr Armchair!!!

Happy Happy Anniversary to us!!!

I thought I would dedicate this post to my Beloved Dad.......Mans Mils Papins

Love Dzintra xo

~Cook Up with donna hay and Irina..Peppered Snapper with White Bean Puree and Caramelized Fennel

Black Cherries in Pomegranate Molasses, Vinegar, Rapadura Sugar and Cinnamon ready to go onto the stove......part of my latest Cook Up with donna hay magazine

The Menu was:

Black Cherry Compote with Brie

Peppered Snapper with White Bean Puree and Caramelized Fennel

Glazed Chocolate Bundt Cake

All from this gorgeous issue of donna hay magazine Issue 70 August/Sep 2013

Oh how I loved this issue.......some issues are just like that and I have to go through them a few times before deciding!!!

The Compote ready for the Brie
We had South Cape Brie an Australian Cheese and Whitestone Blue from New Zealand

How delicious was this with the Cheese!!!

Fennel sliced and in Vinegar ready to cook

The recipe called for Malt Vinegar which I didn't use as it isn't gluten free so I looked up 

Cooks Thesauras which is an invaluable resource when you want to substitute an ingredient for another due to dietary requirements or simply if you don't have it at home and wonder what else you can use......In this case White Wine Vinegar or Cider Vinegar was a good replacement so I went with the White Wine one as that was the one I had......

All ready now with the Snapper sitting atop the White Bean Puree

This was delicious and more so since I had never made it before and a nice change from potatoes/rice/pasta

And the Bundt cake made with organic 70% chocolate bought in chunks from Rustic Pantry

Absolutely divine!!!

Irina has joined me in doing these cook ups from Donna's magazine

All you have to do is make something from the current issue and blog it......easy peasy!!!

If you would like to join us just drop me a line.......

The lovely Irina has a cook up from the same magazine at the moment if you want to pop over and have a look at what she has made.........

Bon Appetit.......Dzintra 

OPAM......October 2013

4 Small Items this month for OPAM (One Project A Month)

2 little pin cushions and 2 scissor fobs

Fabric and Pattern by Hatched and Patched

One for me and one for a gift...

Thank you Peg and Kris for running OPAM again this year......

I haven't been around the blogs as much these days commenting as normal
been a bit busy here with one thing and another and hoping to catch up soon

Have a great week everyone......Dzintra xo