I'm glad I was wearing gloves

Yesterday, I found my first live scorpion while cleaning out the flower beds.

It's only a very small one, and after a little Googeling, I found out that there's only one type of scorpion that lives in Tasmania: The Wood Scorpion.

And, thankfully, they're not like the kind in America, where smaller equals more deadly. Smaller, here, just means it's smaller. They can sting you, of course, and it's supposed to hurt like heck for a while, but nothing more. Unless you're allergic to the venom. This was just one of the sites I checked out, if you're at all interested in some extremely basic scorpion info: http://museumvictoria.com.au/discoverycentre/infosheets/scorpion-facts-and-fallacies/

And, this week, I also cooked my first kangaroo. On our wood heater.

It cooked for about 4 hours, lightly covered (I don't have a lid that fits our largest frying pan), and was still a little too tough for my tastes. It did, however, taste quite delicious.

I cooked it in a few tablespoons of olive oil seasoned with salt and pepper. Threw in one enormous fresh garlic clove, roughly chopped, three onions cut into eighths, and later added some water to it so it could simmer away nicely. Just before serving, I mixed in a little flour so that the juice would thicken up and stick to the meat in a gravy-like fashion.

Served with fresh mashed potatoes (moonlight potatoes are now my favourite kind) and steamed broccoli and cauliflower. Again, the roo was kind of tough, but I got some nice reviews from my husband's grandparents (who were over for supper) and my husband.