Seal Rocks

We have just had a fabulous week away up on the mid North Coast of NSW at Seal Rocks.  A gorgeous little spot that reminded me so much of Depot Beach.  Perfect beaches that are totally unspoilt by development, surrounded by national parks.  No cafes, just a tiny little general store and best of all no mobile service.  Woohoo, it was bliss.  The one significant difference from Depot though was that Seal  Rocks has a lighthouse.  The boys having had the fabulous Lighthouse Keeper stories by Ronda & David Armitage read to them from a young age were just besotted with it!

These two are their favourites!

                  I think I could have quite happily lived in the lighthouse keepers cottage on the cliff!

                               I think that they had my husband in mind when they whipped this particular sign up.

          

 This is the house we stayed in for the week.  Yes, we lit the fire every night, despite the fact that we didn't really need to.  There is just something ever so cosy about having stories in front of the fire in the evening after a lovely day at the beach.

                                   


    The locals call this little corner of the beach kiddies corner.  It was divine.   Crystal clear water at a gorgeous temperature, the kids adored it and so did we.  I can't wait for our next visit!

                             

Baking a Dolly Varden

My sweet little niece recently had her 4th birthday and in our male dominated household of helicopter, pirate ship and digger cakes, I thought it would be a lovely change to bake a Dolly Varden cake for her. Foolishly I thought that this would be much easier than it actually was. It all started out well and I felt quietly confident as I popped the cake into the oven and sat down to drink my tea... after first stopping to admire how nicely my Cornish Ware pudding basin matched the mug... hmm clearly should have been a bit more focused!

Uh oh! Total disaster... husband came to the rescue and opened the bottle of red in the background.

After a glass of red, a bit more oven time and an urgent phone call to sister-in-law seeking advice on where to amputate Barbie's legs. (We went for a full leg amputation). I then wrapped Barbie's pelvis in glad wrap to keep things neat and tidy (ie. no cake inside Barbies bits... that sounds bad but you know what I mean!). The end result was not as catastrophic as I was anticipating. The clothes peg in Barbie's hair was to keep her hair out of the way for icing.

Happy Birthday Miss Zee!