Off To The Bright City Lights .....

Our garden earlier this week .... I'm saying 'goodbye' to the peace & quiet of farm living and 'hello' to the hustle and bustle of the big city for a while, as we leave Tanzania for a short break later today ....

As much as I love my life here on the farm, it’s been a terrifically busy season so far this year, hubby’s been working from dawn ‘til dusk 7 days a week as we’ve been planting around the clock … and I’m feeling ‘all farmed out’ at the moment ……

We all need a break before our busy harvesting season begins, and our daughter’s school closes for half term tomorrow … so, we’ve decided to pack our bags and head off to the big city lights for a while …. and a bit of a family holiday and some much needed R & R …

I’ll be back on the farm again the week after next, so won’t be blogging again until then, I don’t think, as I'm leaving the laptop at home.

Once I’m back, I’ll fill you all in on my adventures ... and I’ll remember to take lot’s of photo’s, too !

'See' you all again soon …… ;)

Print Me ! Email Me ! Put Me Into PDF Format !

My front garden view over the farm fields, taken yesterday (this photo has nothing to do with this post - but I thought that you'd enjoy the view anyway !)

You’ll notice that since yesterday there is a small green ‘Print Friendly’ button appearing at the end of each of my blog posts. (Meant mainly for my recipe posts, but as there’s no way of having it appear only on those posts, you’ll see it appearing on all of them). This is a tremendous help if you like printing my recipes out, as I know some of you do – no more tedious copy/pasting and this print friendly option even gives you the choice of removing all images before printing …. or converting the recipe into pdf format or even emailing the recipe to yourself or someone else.

So, hopefully it will make printing recipes off my blog a breeze in the future ! I must just add though, that when selecting the pdf option, a window pops up with a few adverts as the document is loading. You know I pride myself on keeping this blog AD FREE so I do apologise for these few ad’s when you choose this option, but it is unavoidable (I am not making any money from these ad’s).

Thanks to Pam from MidWest Kitchen Korner, as I first spied this little green button on her blog !

I have also recently taken the *plunge* and have started learning how to change the html code on my blog template (I believe this is sometimes called a ‘Blogger hack’ ?) …. baby steps …. (don't want to delete my entire blog by mistake !) but this is helping me to add a few new features to the blog … like the drop down menu for my categories in the right sidebar ('What would you like to read about, or cook, today ?') Oh ! This endless, endless list of categories (aka ‘labels’) used to drive me dilly … taking up all that space …. now I have a nice, compact category section (which I am slowly re ordering and cleaning up, too) & I am so happy (‘cause it bothered me for so long) that I could just dance !

I’m also considering …. possibly ….. a total blog revamp sometime in the future …. I get tired of seeing the same old background, header photo etc every time I come on here ... it's all getting a bit blah … blah …. blah ... what do you all think ?!

This & That .....

The sunset from our veranda last week ....

Is it just me, or is the blogging world rather quiet at the moment ? People just don’t seem to be posting as much – maybe everyone is taking it easy as Easter approaches. (Gosh, seems like just yesterday we were talking about Christmas and now it’s almost Easter - where IS 2010 going to ?!)

We’ve been having some much needed rain on the farm this week – which has been a great relief as the situation was getting pretty desperate (with crops planted to meet deadlines and no sign of any rain). We were planning on going away for the Easter weekend but due to the rain, those plans have been put on hold for the time being as we now need to get on with planting.

Instead of going away, we’ve invited some friends out to the farm over Easter, and on Good Friday we are off to our neighbour’s for afternoon tea and an Easter egg hunt ! (Yes, the Easter bunny does know how to find his way all the way out to Kilimanjaro’s foothills !) Easter eggs are very scarce here and are one of the most difficult things to buy each year, so this coming week I am on a *mission* to find as many eggs as I can in the big city – or possibly have to end up making my own this year ?

I’ve recently added the new Blogger ‘Pages’ element to my blog – yay to the clever Blogger people for introducing this – long awaited – blogging feature. So now you can click on the tabs at the top of the blog to find out more – ‘About Me’, ‘Contact Me’ & ‘Recipe Conversions’ and I hope to add a few more pages (like ‘About This Blog’) soon. The ‘Recipe Conversions’ page will tell you all you need to know about converting the recipes on this blog into measurements which suit you, as well as a few other tips and things. (Remember, too, that if you scroll to the very bottom of the blog you will find the ‘Conversion Calculator’ which will also convert weights etc for you.)

I’ve added a new ‘Visitors Map’ recently, too (scroll to the bottom of the blog for this). It’s a rotating globe and aside from recording the location of everyone who’s ever visited the blog (by means of a small red dot) shows the current country flag/location of each visitor browsing the blog in ‘real time’ - I find it quite fun to see which ‘countries’ are reading at the same time as me as I pop in and out during the day to moderate comments etc (as I type this now, there is someone reading from Prahran Victoria & someone else from Berkhamstead, Buckinghamshire – hello there to you both !)

On a more personal (& completely un blog related) note, as you know we’re often waaaay behind the rest of the world here in Africa and a case in point - my l’il sister (who lives in the waaaaay ahead UK) has been nagging me for ages now to do myself a favour and watch this series (which apparently took the world by storm … starting a couple of years ago !) on DVD – I have the first 3 series and recently started watching it and oh my, I’m completely hooked …. so late night blogging has taken a back seat for a while. (So if I disappear for a while, you know it’s probably because I’m lost somewhere on a mysterious island, surviving in the jungle ……)

Lots Of Things To Talk About Today ......

Kilimanjaro viewed from the bottom of the farm - well, she's just peeking out of the clouds in this pic !

Thanks to everyone who voted in my poll last month, which I put up to see how long readers have been visiting the blog for.

I was interested to learn that 39% of readers first started reading the blog in 2009, for 28% of you it was your first visit, 16% of you started reading the blog in 2008, 4% of you are new readers this year, 5 % of you have only been reading the blog for a few days/weeks only and a further 5% of you have been reading me since the very beginning, 2 years ago !

So, thanks once again to everyone who ‘reads’ me so regularly – both old and new readers alike !

I’ve been having some computer problems and several weeks ago transferred data from one computer to the other and somehow managed to lose some of it – most importantly, many of my emails ‘disappeared’. Two blog readers emails have been ‘lost’ and if you are reading, please could you resend them to me – Marilyn (who had a dog called ‘Tiny’ when growing up here in East Africa !) and Jaco (a South African now living in the US) – I am so sorry that I have not been able to reply to either of you.

I know of few really good African blogs out there – blogs which really showcase parts of Africa in a vibrant, positive light – so it came as a wonderful surprise when I recently came across the blog ONE STONED CROW (who visited & left a comment on my blog - and with a name like that how could I not be a little intrigued ?!)which is written in – and about - Namibia, in Southern Africa. I just know that readers of ‘Food, Fun & Farm Life !’ will enjoy this blog as it contains some fascinating glimpses into Southern African life aswell as gorgeous photography throughout. (Some of the followers of this blog are also followers of ONE STONED CROW – so there you go !) I am all for promoting wonderful fellow African bloggers …. so please do go and have a look …. you won't be disappointed !

And speaking of African blogs and bloggers, I am proud to tell you that according to 'Afrigator', the stats for my blog are currently as follows -:

Blog Rank:
FOOD, FUN & FARM LIFE IN EAST AFRICA ! ranks 926 in Africa and 16 in Tanzania

I’m thrilled that my blog has made it onto Tanzania’s ‘Top 20’ list and Africa’s ‘Top 1000’ and of course, I only have all of YOU to thank for reading me & for your loyal support – as we say here in Tanzania ‘Asante Sana !’ …. thank you very much !

It's The Second Anniversary of 'Food, Fun & Farm Life In East Africa !'

The photo's above are a selection which have been published on the blog over the course of the past two years of our farm house in different light/seasons/angles - the house & it's location with Kilimanjaro behind it, has probably been one of my biggest sources of inspiration for this blog !

I can’t believe that it’s been a whole two years since I decided to start this blog ! I never knew, when I published my first post on Valentine’s Day 2008, how wonderful blogging would turn out to be …. how many wonderful people I’d ‘meet’ along the way and how it would change the way I saw the world around me.

I have each and every one of YOU to thank, for reading what I write, for (hopefully !) enjoying what I write about my life here in Tanzania and for all the comments and emails you send me. If it weren’t for the people who read this blog, there would be no blog – ‘cause what’s the point of writing if no one is there to listen ?! So, thank you all for your support and for being such loyal readers – and to all the new readers, too – it’s always lovely to welcome you !

For last year’s anniversary post, I did a recap of the best/worst/most popular posts of that year (you can see that post over here) and I thought it would be fun to do the same again this year, as ‘Food, Fun & Farm Life !’ reaches her 2nd year anniversary …. so …. here goes !

Two of the most popular & most visited posts of the year were -:

‘The Incredible Kitten Rescue Operation” where I wrote about the lengths we went to, to save 2 kittens which had fallen down between 2 storage containers and faced certain death, and ‘Come For A Drive Out To The Farm With Me ?’ where I took you on a tour out to our farm !

My most anticipated post was when I was awaiting the birth of my son in South Africa in May/June last year … he was born with some problems and had to spend a week in Neo Natal ICU and I even did some late night blogging from my hospital bed !

This past year was also the first time I’d ever met an online friend … my dear friend Jo who is also a fellow blogger over at Memorable Meanders – I was in South Africa & just about to have my son and you can see the blog post and photo’s of our meet-up over here.

And then a few months later I disappeared and had you all guessing as to where I was when I posted greetings from the top of Kilimanjaro (?!?!) and a few days later some photo’s as clues as to which country I was in over here !

I had a scathing couple of comments on this post over here and I retaliated over here and what was most hurtful about these comments were the fact that they came from a couple of fellow Tanzanians – when my blog has done nothing but sing this country’s praises and promote it over the years & I was being accused of showing it in a negative light. But there you go …. I was amazed at the support of all my readers as people rallied around in my defence – thanks once again, everyone !

Some interesting stats – the majority of my readers live in the USA, followed closely by the Australians and then the British … and my visitors come from as far afield as Malaysia, Japan, Slovenia and Puerto Rico …. I have more and more local Tanzanian readers, too, as the months go by.

‘Life’ posts still seem to be more popular than ‘Recipe’ posts and many new readers find the blog through Google searches for certain African recipes.

I know that I haven’t been putting as much in to the blog lately as I used to, this is mainly just down to time issues …. with an 8 month old baby, a home schooled 5 year old plus a home to run, family meals to cook … I really never have enough hours in the day ! But hopefully that will all change as the months go by … I certainly want to keep the blog going and to also improve on it without changing it too much, too.

There are some exciting prospects in the future, too, for us as a family, which will also affect the blog. So all I can say for now is … watch this space and THANK YOU, THANK YOU for continuing to read, comment, email and support the blog …. you’re all great !

Would You Like To Vote In My New Poll ?!

As the blog approaches it's 2nd anniversary, I thought it would be fun to put another poll up for readers to vote in - I think the last poll I put up was about 2 years ago !

This will also help to give me feedback which I can use to improve the blog in the future (in this case, to see whether I need to list with more blog directories and promote it more as I haven't done this for many months now !)

You don't need to sign in to vote, nor do you have to have an account of any sort and your vote will remain anonymous. I'll keep the poll up (at the top of the blog) until the end of February, and will let you all know the results in early March.

Thanks for voting, everyone !

And The Winner Is ..............

A bowl full of ..... comments ! (My daughter holding the bowl of comments yesterday - just before picking the winner out)

Thank you all so much for leaving your comments and entering the ‘draw’ to win the Maasai beaded items. I loved reading though your comments to see which posts you voted as your favourite/s.

I was also really touched by the people who commented and let me know their favourite posts, but asked not to be included in the draw (as they have already visited Africa or are friends who I’ve sent similar things to over the years, or whatever) - so giving others a better chance. It was also lovely to hear from people who have read the blog for ages but had never commented before - lovely to 'meet' you !

I must say I was surprised at some of the ‘favourite posts’ chosen – some which I had considered to be ‘a bit boring’ when I published them (like the ones on our various crops, or my garden views) and some others (like the kitten rescue one which came up a lot – my critics told me that it was too long winded & when I wrote it I actually thought to myself ‘are people really going to read through this entire story and be interested in it ?!”) … so it just goes to show, you never really know which posts are going to be ‘hits’ and which are going to be ‘misses’ !

The post on the death of my beloved Zonde came up a lot – it probably still remains the most difficult and emotional post I’ve written – I felt that my heart was spilling out onto the ‘pages’ as I wrote as I felt so much raw emotion at that time … and I am pleased that my pain (and baring a very personal part of myself) was not in vain as many of you said this was one of your favourite posts, which I found really touching - thank you ! (P.S. You can search for any of these posts mentioned, by typing the title of the post or keywords into the search box in the top left hand corner of the blog).

So, it is now time to announce THE WINNER !!!! Yesterday my daughter and I cut up all the comments & placed them into a wooden bowl (she helped me to fold them and felt very important getting to draw a name out !) ...................... and the winner is *drumroll please* .......

MARI ("I'M SASSY") from Minnesota, USA - CONGRATULATIONS, MARI !!! (You can see Mari's blog "Just Once Around The Sun" over here) Mari's comment was as follows -:

'I started reading your blog sometime during 2009 and became hooked after the very first read. Although all of your blog entries are extremely interesting, my favorites tend to lean towards the wild animals that wander onto your farm. I have never been to Africa, it is on my bucket list! Things to see before, well, you know!When i saw your blog where the giraffes and wildabeasts wandered onto your farm i imagined how breathtaking it must be to look out the window and see that! Amazing! I`m waiting for an elephant now.Also i enjoyed the post where you mentioned weavils in your flour, the commeter who replied rudely that SHE never had bugs in her flour. Your response was perfect, and brought a smile to many of us readers.Thanks for such an interesting blog!Mari'

Mari, I hope that you'll love the African items on their way to you ! If you could send me an email with your postal address (just click on the 'Contact Me' link in the right sidebar of the blog) I will pop the package into the post for you when I am next in the city (in a week or two ?)

Sorry to all those who were not lucky - but this was so much fun, so maybe we can do it again sometime hey ? What do you think ?!

Christmas Shopping, Meeting An Online Friend & More .....

Some photo's of the scenery along the beach near my parent's home .....

A few things to blog about today …. just bringing you all up-to-speed …. ‘cause when I blog it’s like sitting around my kitchen table chatting with friends …. so thought I’d let you all know what’s been happening recently …. now if you were really at my kitchen table, I’d offer you a drink first. A nice cuppa tea, perhaps ? Sit, & make yourself comfy ….

My husband is back on the farm ! After being away for almost 6 weeks, he has a lot to catch up on, but he hopes to fly to South Africa to join us next week sometime (I say ‘hopes to’, as nothing is a sure thing in Africa until it actually happens !) He’ll then spend a week here with us – having a bit of a holiday/break - before we all fly home to Tanzania together.

So, in the meantime I have this week to madly try and finish off things like my Christmas shopping and other bits and pieces, so that when he’s here we can just have a full week of uninterrupted fun & family time together before we head home and before he heads back to working 24/7 again (being the workaholic that he is – I know, I complain about this often on the blog ! You’d think he’s be winding down for Christmas at least, ‘eh ?!)

Everything is apparently fine on the farm, despite the fact that we are in desperate need of some rain and also aside from the fact that Emily has not been seen for a couple of weeks – but I’m hoping that she’s reverted to her timid (cautious) ways and is only coming inside for food in the dead of night when everyone is asleep.

Those of you who read me regularly will know that earlier this year when I was also in South Africa & still pregnant with my son, I met a fellow African blogger and longtime online friend, Jo. (You can read about that wonderful day over here). I was so happy to be able to meet up with Jo again during this trip – along with her husband (as I’d never met him before). Jo and her hubby spent the night in the town of Gonubie at a delightful bed & breakfast overlooking the ocean, and invited us around to join them for morning tea on Saturday. Can you believe it, I forgot to take photo’s ? (We were too busy talking !) But Jo has a few and am sure she will be posting about her trip on her blog soon. You can read Jo’s lovely blog ‘Memorable Meanders’ over here.

A few week’s ago ‘Woman’s Day’ contacted me about using one of my photo’s and a short description from one of my previous blog posts as they were publishing a feature on ‘Breakfast’s Around The World’. (Funnily enough, this was a post I wrote when I was visiting South Africa last year !) You can see the Woman’s Day article over here, and you can read my original blog post over here if you like. Welcome to the new readers who’ve found me through ‘Woman’s Day !’

Oh yes, and after writing this post recently about the ‘Yekelela’ venue which was wonderful but sadly let down by it’s rather poor quality of food, I was, infact, contacted by the Yekelela chef (thanks for that, Juan) who explained the situation – which just goes to show, you never know who’s reading you !

Right, now - what with all the Christmas shopping I was telling you about, comes all the wrapping of gifts and writing out of gift cards, so I won’t keep you any longer as I need to get cracking with that !

A Storm In A ..... Cupcake ?!?

Mt. Kilimanjaro ... Africa's highest mountain. Taken from the road to the farm a few months ago.

Phew. Okay. So in the almost 2 years since I started this blog, I have only had one negative comment (& a couple of sarcastic ones, which I chose not to publish !) For the most part, my blog has been wonderfully received by people all over the world – by people who’ve visited Tanzania, and those who haven’t – by people who live here today, and those who used to – by both expat’s and Tanzanian’s alike. So it came as a surprise this week, when I was accused (and by a Tanzanian, at that !) of lying and deceiving my readers ! The storm in a teacup ? An innocent comment made in my “Easy Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting” post about the quality of flour and sugar I bake with. (If you wish to, you can read the post and resulting comments over here.)

Long time readers of my blog will know how untrue these accusations are and how much I love my adopted country of Tanzania and her wonderful people and how I continually promote the country, local products and tourism. Which is why the comment’s made even less sense to me !

I receive many emails from blog readers who wish to visit Africa, and who have perhaps been in two minds about visiting Tanzania (or any other African country, for that matter, as Africa is ‘the big unknown’ to many people), but who upon researching the country have come upon my blog through a Google search or similar, and have been so impressed with what Tanzania has to offer, and being able to see a ‘true’ picture of the place from someone who actually lives there, that they’ve decided to come and visit !

There’ve also been a few people who’ve been offered jobs here or in other African countries, who say that reading my blog (& corresponding with me ‘behind-the-scenes’) has swayed their decision to choose Tanzania over another location ! And those people come here, spend money, employ people and (hopefully) add something back before they leave …. so, in a roundabout sort of way, my blog has helped contribute to that.

After publishing, and responding, to the negative comments on the post, I have since received more ‘choice words’ via Blogger comments from the same person, which I have chosen not to publish as I don’t want to waste any more time or energy on this person (who seems to be quite bitter & who obviously has issues in their own life – my friend Jo has a great expression “Hurt people …. hurt people” … so true and I actually feel sorry for this person at the end of the day – imagine living your life with so much anger inside you ? I think the issue here probably goes far deeper than ‘insects in flour’ !)

I have a tracking tool on this blog (which I never use, unless in a case like this !) so I know exactly where this person is posting from, as well as where else they have posted about my blog on the internet (a nasty comment on another blog, including a link back to my blog to alert people – mostly fellow Tanzanian’s – to the post) and the funniest thing of all, is that this person has infact done me a favour as because of this link on another site, they’ve sent some lovely traffic my way and caused my blog to have close on 1100 ‘hits’ yesterday alone ………… with more new visitors as we speak !

Having my cake and eating it too ? Hold the multi coloured sprinkles, please – I’ll have mine with a sprinkling of insects on the top instead ;)

Half Hour Meals

Today I'm the 'Featured Community Member' over at 'Half Hour Meals' & if you'd like to take a look at the questions they asked me, you can click here.

Here's an extract from the site, to let you know what they're all about -:

"HalfHourMeals.com is designed for people who love to cook but do not have time to slave over a hot stove for hours. We understand that people have busy lives, but we believe that everyone deserves to enjoy a great meal at the end of the day. Do not let your hectic schedule prevent you from giving your family the very best. Search our collection of quick, simple, and delicious recipes today, and serve an extraordinary meal tonight!"

They have a great (& quickly growing) selection of recipes and have kindly featured some of mine already.

If you're a food blogger, then it's a great site to join to meet fellow foodies, learn new things and find new recipes !

Blog Housekeeping .....

My desk & computer ....... where I blog from each day .... in our home office (conveniently situated just off my kitchen/store room) & with views out over the garden and Kilimanjaro's Western foothills (just obscured by the banana trees in the background)

Okay. Time to take stock of (blog) things – now that I’ve been back home for 3 weeks already ………….

I’ve been thinking and planning and pondering just how I’m going to ‘run’ my blog now that I am busy 24/7 with a new baby (& a very active 4 ½ year old !) and the business and lack of sleep that comes with that ! So, I’ve decided that although my blog is described all over the internet as a ‘daily account of my life …’ I am going to have to make it an ‘every second day’ account of my life until I have enough time to go back to daily blogging …...

So this means that the blog will be updated every second day, and I will once again alternate between posts on Tanzanian/Farm life and recipes, as I always have done. I hope that this will be okay for everyone !

I love blogging and I love being a Mum but I also know that it’s important as a mother to take (& to make) time for yourself each day – not only to have some ‘kid free’ time (to keep your sanity !) but also to make you happy & content enough to be a better mother in the long run. So blogging, for me, is part of this ‘me’ time … and I won’t be disappearing anytime soon – I promise !

Right. Okay – now on to the next thing …. do you have a room in your house that’s a sort of ‘junk’ room ? Where you put all sorts of stuff you just know you have to sort out some day, but never seem to get around to ? Well I have one too here on the farm … (the laundry section of my store room !) and also one on my blog – the ‘Miscellaneous’ section in the right sidebar where you can browse old posts of mine …. ugh, it’s a mess !

It has just over 70 posts lumped under that ‘Miscellaneous’ label. I really DO have to sort it out & categorize it better. I bet new readers are missing some old favourite/most popular posts ‘cause they are all lumped in ‘Miscellaneous’ which is a nightmare to browse through. I plan to sort that out sometime soon.

Okay, now the last thing …. Many people have been emailing me to say that they’ve been experiencing problems trying to comment on my blog (error messages, multiple windows opening up at a time, comments disappearing etc). I’m really sorry about this. I have looked in to it and it seems to be a Blogger fault which they are aware of & hoping to rectify. I have also changed some blog settings on my side to try & help matters. You can always contact me through the link in my right sidebar and hopefully, everyone will be able to comment again soon ….

So, that’s it from me for today …. I’m off to … errr …. ummm …. tackle that junk room of mine ... in a minute that is, as you can see by the photo above - my tea's getting cold ;)

Mid Week Catch Up ....

My garden (this photo taken earlier this week) looks a lot greener than the surrounding countryside & is a haven to birds and insects during these drier Winter months

Phew, it’s been a hectic first week back at home – after being away for 3 months you can imagine how much catching up I’ve had to do - together with caring for a newborn baby (& the interrupted sleep that goes with that !), sorting through my freezer/fridge/pantry stocks and getting the house straight again, as well as unpacking close on 100 kg’s of luggage (which arrived in Tanzania a day after us, but at least everything was in one piece !) Oh yes, we also had visitors out to the farm for the day on Saturday – friends who wanted to come out and meet the new babe, so I made a quick lunch for everyone (roast chicken, salads, bread rolls) which was no mean feat with a baby on my hip ;)

I have not photographed anything I’ve cooked this past week, nor written any new recipes up for the blog yet – mainly because I’ve been cooking ‘easy’ (read ‘lazy’ !) meals or recipes previously published on the blog.

Once I do start publishing new recipes again, you’ll note that quite a few of them will be healthier/lower fat options as I begin my war on getting rid of the post pregnancy weight (all 17 kg’s / 37 lb’s of it – eeeek !) I’ve done it before, so no excuses not to do it again now but goodness, it’s tough - especially if you live, eat, drink, sleep food and have an appetite like mine ! (Oh, and have a food blog too !)

The fact that breast feeding (supposedly) melts all the excess weight away ? A MYTH !! Well, let me rephrase that – what they forget to tell you is that the extra 500 or so calories you burn up every day breastfeeding, makes you starving, crazy hungry and you end up eating around 1000 extra calories a day just to refuel/compensate – ha ha !

But ... fear not, all the skinny blog readers out there, as there will still be some ‘full fat’ high calorie versions of certain recipes appearing as my husband refuses to eat anything of the low fat, high fibre variety and prefers the majority of his main meals to be smothered with full fat melted cheese (or at least a chunk of it on the side !)

Yesterday I asked my husband to take some photo’s of me so that I could update my profile picture …. and whilst my back was turned my daughter grabbed the camera off a high work top and it dropped to the floor and it is no longer working – and according to hubby (Mr Fixit) ‘it is unfixable’ – oh no ! So, no more blogging photo’s until we can get into the city again to replace it (there is a shop in the city – one of few – which stocks all manner of electrical goods and gadgets from Dubai and further afield, so I will try there). Luckily I have a few recently taken photo’s which I’d downloaded before the ‘crash’, so those will be appearing soon.

Well, that’s it from me for now – just a quick catch-up as I suddenly realized it’d been a week since I last blogged. A week ? Eh ? Or was it just a few days ago ? My sleep deprived brain doesn't even know what day of the week it is, never mind my own name ! Anyway, more to follow soon .......

Been A Bad Blogger !

Sorry I have not updated my blog for several days - things have been sooooo hectic here, and I must admit that I'm battling to keep on top of things ! This must be my shortest blog post ever, but I just wanted to let you all know that I'll be posting again soon. Promise :)

Meeting A Fellow African Blogger (& Long Time Online Friend !)

Last week I finally had the pleasure of meeting a fellow African blogger and long time online friend (we first started corresponding online in 2005), Jo who's blog 'Memorable Meanders' covers her current life in South Africa, aswell as her previous life as an expat in various African countries. (Here is a photo above of Jo & I together, taken just last week !)

Jo & I 'clicked' immediately when we first met online, as we had so much in common - at the time Jo was living the expatriate lifestyle in remote West Africa, she was also feeding (& rescuing !) stray West African animals (Jo even had a village duck feeding programme. Yes, ducks !) so we had that in common, and she was also into a healthy diet/exercise lifestyle (I still remember her emailing me detailed instructions on how to do lunges with a pack of playing cards to make it extra hard on the thigh muscles !) Since we first made contact, we have had weekly - and often daily (sometimes multiple times a day !) - email contact, 'phonecalls when we've both been in 'civilisation' & have swapped gifts and cards over the years.

Once Jo moved back to South Africa and I was visiting the country regularly, we tried to meet up but for some reason or other we never quite managed it. Until this time ! Last week Jo had to travel to Johannesburg on business for her husband (who is currently working in the Sudan, and Jo has some interesting posts on her blog on his life there) so we finally managed to meet up at a lifestyle garden/nursery centre where we spent the better part of the day in a delightful tea garden, drinking endless pots of tea & coffee (not to mention eating some delicious cheesecake !) & catching up in person for a change !

Jo is the first online friend I have ever met 'in the flesh' (& hopefully not the last !) & she is every bit as delightful, warm and friendly in person, as she is online - it was an absolute pleasure to meet her, and we got along so well !

As an added 'bonus', I also got to meet Jo's son, daughter-in-law and their 3 children - my daughter got along so well with them, and they all had great fun playing together. My Mum was also with me, so she got to meet everyone too but unfortunately my husband was still in Tanzania at the time - and as Jo's husband was in the Sudan, we thought that was fair and that next time we'd have to meet up with our husband's, too !

Thanks, Jo, for being such a great & supportive friend for all these years, and I can't wait for the day when we can all meet up again - hopefully on East Africa soil ?!

To learn more about Jo, you can read her blog 'Memorable Meanders' over here. It's well worth a visit, and I'm sure that you'll soon be back for more !

Guest Blogging on 'Look & Taste'

I was honoured to be contacted by ‘Look & Taste' a few weeks ago and asked if I would feature as a guest blogger on their site.

‘Look & Taste’ is an Irish based site which features an incredible collection of recipes and food related videos, submitted by members from all over the world. Another great feature of this site is the food glossary, where you can look up food terms which you may not be familiar with and they are all explained in a clear and interesting way. If you’re not sure what a certain ingredient looks like, you can also go to their handy video glossary & see it for yourself ! There is a lot of interaction between members of the site too, which is great (dare I say that it’s a bit like the ‘Facebook’ of the food industry ?!)

‘Look & Taste’ is headed up by Master Chef & Managing Director Niall Harbsion, who has himself cooked for the likes of U2 (who just happen to be one of my favourite bands ever !) and Bill Gates.

It was Niall’s blog which featured me on Thursday this week, after ’interviewing’ me online and asking me to submit a recipe for them to use. Can you guess which recipe it was ? (I’ll give you a hint - it’s one of the most, surprisingly, popular on my blog to date).

Do you know what my last meal would be ? (Let’s hope we’re not talking death row here, ’eh ?!) Do you know what one of my most special food memories is ? Well, if you’re interested you can pop across to Niall’s blog and read what I had to say over there.

Have a look around while you’re at it, and I guarantee you’ll find many drool worthy recipes & great food photo’s that will get your taste buds racing ;)

Have a great food & fun filled weekend, everyone !

Thank You, Everyone !

Thanks so much to everyone who nominated my blog for the 2009 South African Blog Awards ! The results were announced yesterday, & sadly “Food, Fun & Farm Life In East Africa !” did not make it to the finals. (But hey, there’s always next year, right ?!)

Anyway, a very BIG thank you to all of you for your support with this & for your nominations, too – I appreciate it very much ! If you’d like to see the list of finalists who you can now vote for (until 31st March) you can click here.

My vote goes to the extremely well written blog Cooksister (in the “Best Overseas South African Blog” & “Best Food & Wine Blog” categories) – a South African expat blogging from London. Her recipes are to die for and her photography outstanding – pop on over to her blog to have a look. You won’t be disappointed !

100 000 Hits .... and The South African Blog Awards

Sometime on Sunday my hit counter reached the 100 000 mark - wow, 100 000 hits to my little blog in just over a year - I really don't know what to say except THANK YOU to everyone out there who reads me, and a special thanks to all my regular readers who pop in to visit me either daily or weekly !

Last week I posted about the South African Blog Awards (you can read that post over here) and the fact that "Food, Fun & Farm Life In East Africa !" has been nominated this year. Nominations were due to close on Saturday, but have now been extended until tomorrow, 18th March. If you haven't yet nominated this blog and would like to, I'd be most grateful if you popped on over to The South African Blog Awards 2009 to do so before the end of tomorrow - thank you so much ! (You can only nominate once - a big thank you to everyone who has already nominated !)

We've had quite a few visitors out to the farm lately, and I've been experimenting with new recipes and old favourites, to keep everyone well fed during their visits ! I've actually been in the kitchen quite a lot lately, and have some tasty recipes lined up to publish on the blog over the coming weeks, so look out for those ! I have not started thinking about Easter baking and cooking yet, but I see that some of my fellow foodie bloggers have, so I'd better get a move on, 'eh ?!

Hope that you're all having a wonderful start to your week, no matter where in the world you may be !

The 2009 South African Blog Awards

You can nominate "Food, Fun & Farm Life In East Africa" by clicking the link here

Some of my online friends (both those who blog & those who don’t !) have been kind enough to nominate my blog for the 2009 South African Blog Awards (thanks, Kecia, for getting the ball rolling on this one !) I am very honored that they have chosen to do this, as this is quite a respected annual award within the African blogging community, and brings a lot of exposure to one’s blog.

As you all know, with my passion for Africa and for my adopted country of Tanzania in particular I am in support of anything out there that can help me to spread the word about this beautiful continent, by getting more people to read my blog – and being nominated by you will help me to do this !

In order for my blog to make it to the finals (where blogs will be voted for by the public in order to find a winner), I need as many nominations as possible, so I am asking you – the wonderful people who read me and have helped shape this blog into what it has become – to nominate “Food, Fun & Farm Life In East Africa” by clicking on the red “SA Blog Awards 2009” tag/logo in the right sidebar of my blog & following the instructions there, in order to nominate me - thank you !

(As my blog is written outside South Africa, I qualify as I am a South African Citizen – just incase you were wondering how an East African blog qualifies !)

The guideline/rules are easy, & clicking on the link in my right sidebar will take you to a page explaining all the rules & everything clearly, but basically -:

Only one nomination form is allowed per person/per email address, & if you vote/nominate more than once your first nomination is automatically cancelled.

There is no limit to the number of categories a blog may be nominated for. I am nominated in 4 categories, so you can nominate me again in one or all of them if you wish. (The categories I’m nominated in are -: Best Overseas South African Blog; Best New Blog; Best Food/Wine Blog & Best Personal Blog)

Nominations are only open from 01st March to 14th March. After this date, the top nominated blogs will go through to the finals, and then voting for the best blogs will begin from 17th to 31st March, with winners being announced on 03rd April.

So, if you'd like to nominate this blog, I'd appreciate it - you can follow the link in the sidebar, or you can click right here before the closing date of 14th March. Thanks so much !

P.S. I know I've recently made this an award free blog, but this is an official annual blog award (& not one which requires you to pass it on to other bloggers & include several links etc) so not a 'tag award' which are the ones this blog no longer participates in. Just incase you were wondering !

It's The First Anniversary of "Food, Fun & Farm Life In East Africa !"

A photo of our house & part of the garden taken last Sunday, in evening light. The house, farm & my life on the farm & in my beautiful adopted country of Tanzania has been my inspiration for this blog !

Today is the one year anniversary of “Food, Fun & Farm Life In East Africa !” I can’t believe that I’ve been blogging – daily – for a whole year already ! (Well, I’ve missed a few days here and there but only if I’ve been away from civilization & internet connection). In total the blog has had almost 82 000 hits from every continent in the world (including the oceans - "Ships at Sea" !) & I have published 417 posts …. and I still haven’t run out of things to blog about !

Actually, when I first started blogging I would publish 2 posts a day (how crazy was I ?!) but changed it to 1 post a day when I realized just how difficult that would be to keep up ! I now alternate my daily posts between sweet & savoury recipes and what I refer to as ‘life’ posts – anything to do with my life, farm life or Tanzanian life. So let’s say that on Monday you will read a recipe for a sweet treat like a cake, perhaps on Tuesday a post about a walk I recently did on the farm and on Wednesday a recipe for a chicken casserole.

I’m not sure how many people actually read the recipe posts (because I don’t read the entire recipe on other blogs, I’ll be honest here !) but most of my recipes contain ‘life’ posts within them, as I will tell the story of how I discovered the recipe or where I first ate it, or who I’ve served it to, or how I came by certain ingredients.

My main aim is to have original, quality posts on my blog with interesting content that people want to read about, so I rely a lot on feedback from readers either via comments or emails. Every photo ever published on my blog has been taken by me (or my Mum – the ones when I visit them in South Africa) and as a result they are all original.

So, to celebrate my one year blogging anniversary, I thought I’d give you a summary of my best and worst posts of the past year, along with some other interesting snippets -:

I started this blog because friends and family nagged me (!!) for years about doing something like this, my brother-in-law Chris was the most persistent and put the idea of a blog into my mind, and on Valentine’s night last year (hubby was away on a business trip & I was feeling rather lonely & sorry for myself *sniff sniff*) I published my first post -:

“Every Man & His Dog Has A Blog” …. it was a pretty embarrassing first effort now that I read back on it (!!) but you can read it over here and cringe with me if you like !

My most favourite blog post out of all 417 has got to be “It’s Raining Today In Africa” which you can read over here. This is my ‘true’ writing style, or should I say the way I most love to write, where I really feel it from my heart although I think that this style of writing is perhaps a bit too ‘heavy’ for everyday blogging !

The most difficult post I ever wrote was “Devastated” - when my beloved dog Zonde lost her battle with cancer. I had tears pouring down my face as I wrote it, and could barely get my words out or see my computer screen. I have not been able to read it again since, but you can read it here. This was also the post which brought the most comments ever on my blog, along with a flood of emails from blog readers & made me realize what wonderful & caring people you all are, to have reached out to me (a relative stranger) in comfort during one of my darkest hours.

The angriest blog post I ever wrote is this one over here “Just A Comment” which I wrote in retaliation to a particularly nasty (and unpublished) comment I received. I’m happy to say that I’ve had no more since !

The most read blog post on this blog is “Goodbye Faithful Old Donkey” which you can read over here and is all about the revamp of our hot water “donkey boiler” – go figure !

The most searched for recipes on the blog are dessert recipes, and the most searched for and read recipe of the entire year is the one over here for “Peppermint Crisp Caramel Fridge Tart”. This has, hands-down, brought me the most Google traffic, despite not even appearing on Google’s first search page. This is not a recipe that I would’ve though would bring me so much traffic – which just goes to show, that you never really know, do you ?!

Three interesting snippets for you about my blog -:

My husband has never read my blog, and wouldn’t even know how to access it online ! (I just asked him the name of my blog & he knew that, though !) There have been times when I’ve asked him to read certain posts for me & give me his feedback before publishing them though, which he happily does.

No one in my ‘everyday’ life knows about this blog. As an expatriate, my family live all over the world so they all read my blog, along with close friends who’ve known me for a very long time – but friends here in Tanzania, even my closest female friend or people I see often ? No ! Not one person here knows that I have this blog and I certainly won’t be telling them anytime soon ! (I guess because I’m happy for you all to know what I do/cook/eat/think/feel on a daily basis, but not the Mum’s at the school gate, my bank manager, or my husband’s colleagues for example. Am I weird, or what ?!)

I have people who read my blog every day but instead of commenting, they send me emails instead. Which is nice too, as I’ve got to know many readers this way. I’ve also exchanged things (ingredients, cards, gifts) with fellow bloggers around the world in the past year, too !

And last but certainly not least -:

I want to thank YOU, each and every one of YOU wonderful readers for reading this blog and for the wonderful support and encouragement you’ve given me over the past year – because if it were not for each and every one of you, I probably wouldn’t still be blogging today – ‘cause who wants to write a blog that few people actually read ? So thank you, all of you, and I look forward to the next year of blogging, improving my blog further, and seeing what another year of blogging brings !

Tidying Up .....

A small section of my recipe books on a shelf in my kitchen. I'll have to tidy these up soon, too !

I must admit that I haven’t done much work on my blog (aside from publishing my daily posts as usual) for a few months now. I haven’t even looked to see what new features or gadgets Blogger has brought out, whereas in the early days I was always adding and trying new things.

I think it’s mainly because I’m happy with the way my blog looks for the time being, and there is not much I really want to change or add to it for now. I’m also trying to make it a fast loading blog, so don’t want to slow it down with too many unnecessary things and if I do spend extra time working on it, it’s mainly on the content of my blog posts which I feel is more important as after all, that’s why people ‘read’ me !

Anyway, one thing which has really been bothering me for a while now has been my labels. You know, the “Categories” section in the right sidebar ? I had all my Main Meal recipes lumped under “Main Meal Recipes” for example, and all my desserts & sweet and savoury baked treats lumped under “Baking”. Which - let’s face it - made it very difficult to browse and find the recipe which you were looking for.

So, this weekend I started to tidy my labels up (starting with my recipes) & if you look now, you’ll see that everything has been categorized a little further. For example, Main Meals are now in different sections like “Main Meals – Pork”, “Main Meals – Chicken” and so on. Baking has been split into sections covering desserts (hot and cold) and there are now sections like “Cake and Loaf Recipes”, “Savoury Treat Recipes” etc. I also have sections like “Salad and Soup Recipes”, “Sauce and Preserve Recipes” to give a few examples, and I hope that this will make it easier to find what you’re looking for !

I’d also like to – when I have some more time – break my “Miscellaneous” section down into categories to make that easier for browsing, too – although I don’t want to end up with a hundred labels, either !

You'll notice that I have also recently added "Link Within" to my blog, which shows links to related blog posts (with thumbnail photos for each recommended post) underneath each blog post I write. So lets say, for example, you're reading a post about my garden, it will give you 3 of my previous gardening posts underneath that blog post which you can choose to read if you wish - or if you're reading a recipe for a chicken casserole, it will show you links to 3 of my previous chicken recipe posts. It's quite fun and I hope that it will make your browsing experience more enjoyable, too ! (Thanks to fellow blogger and ex Tanzanian expat Catherine over at "Dispatches From The Deise", as I first saw this great widget on her blog !)

So, I hope that these small changes make it easier for you to browse and enjoy the blog – and that you find some recipes which inspire you to get into the kitchen – if you do, let me know how you like them as I always love hearing back from people who’ve tried and enjoyed recipes which I’ve published. Happy cooking !