A short break...

Back next week :))

I'll leave you with this photo I took yesterday morning while waiting for the library to open.  Looking over the parkland above the river...

Spring!!

xx

Weekend Words

and pictures

Hi Ho! Hi Ho!  It's off to church I go...

Should Thy mercy send me sorrow, toil, and woe,

Or should pain attend me on my path below,

Grant that I may never fail Thy hand to see;

Grant that I may ever cast my cares on Thee.

(James Montgomery)

Spring arrived today...

I've been slowed down this week with headaches, but all is good now.  This morning I walked mid morning (rather than early morning), to savour the spring weather and sunshine...

On the home front...

I rediscovered my English piecing in the cupboard when I was looking for something quiet to do.  Actually I knew it was there, but I was conveniently ignoring it because I'd started it about 8 years ago and felt guilty I hadn't finished it yet...

It was a fabric swap with a group of ladies that Sharm organised...

Still not sure what I will make with it, but maybe I'll get it finished into 'something' this summer.


And there is always work to do in the garden...

the mint patch

the weed patch (one of many...)

A trip to the library…

 most of which usually get returned unread, but I think I might start the Maude Julien one as it looks interesting

Cook dinner...

apricot chicken and rice with broccoli and zucchini

And then, of an evening, I get to knit and read...

Still working on my cardigan.  Back done and one sleeve almost finished.

I've also just finished reading this Billy Graham book.  I really enjoyed it! 

And these words towards the end of the book, by Calvin Thielman (the Graham's pastor in Montreat)  "the older you get, the more like yourself you become."

Do I like the person I am becoming?  Do you like the person you are becoming?

Food for thought...

Well...there ya go...all caught up :))

Till next time!

xx

Weekend Words

morning light

"Mid all the traffic of the ways,

Turmoils without, within,

Make in my heart a quiet place,

And come and dwell therein!

A little shrine of quietness,

All sacred to Thyself,

Where Thou shalt all my soul possess,

And I may find myself!

(John Oxenham)

morning peace

Bread alone?

Having not made any for a couple of years, I had the urge to make some Irish Soda Bread...

I then had the urge to eat some.!  It's very morish…

especially with blueberry jam

Here's the recipe:

Notes:  My 3 cups of flour were 1 cup white, 1 cup wholemeal, 1/2 cup spelt, 1/2 cup buckwheat (because that was what I had, but you could use any combination).

The dried non-fat milk is powdered skim milk.

I used honey instead of sugar.

Baking soda is bi-carb soda, not baking powder.

And I also added some (amount is nonspecific, just what ever you like) sunflower, pumpkin and caraway seeds, but you could also add nuts and dried fruit if you wanted a sweeter version.

And I cooked it in a bread/loaf tin.  This is the first time I've tried this as previously I'd been dumping it onto a tray and getting a more damper shaped loaf, but the loaf tin worked well (and having it a loaf shape), so I will use that in future.

I maybe cooked it a bit longer (40 minutes?) and the oven temp of 350 is Fahrenheit, which is about 175 Celsius.

So easy!  

But not so easy to stop eating it!!!

Now instead of cake or biscuits/cookies, I just have a piece of bread.

With a cup of tea!

Maybe man cannot live on bread alone, but you almost could...

xx

Weekend Words

The greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13:13

"I'll master it!" said the ax, and his blows fell heavily on the iron.  And every blow made his edge more blunt till he ceased to strike.

"Leave it to me!" said the saw, and with his relentless teeth he worked backward and forward on it's surface till his teeth were worn down and broken, and he fell aside.

"Ha, ha!" said the hammer.  "I knew you wouldn't succeed!  I'll show you the way!"  But at the first fierce stroke off flew his head, and the iron remained as before.

"Shall I try?"  asked the still, small flame.

They all despised the flame, but he curled gently around the iron and embraced it and never left it till it melted under his irresistible influence.

Hard indeed is the heart that can resist love.  "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love" (1 Corinthians 13:3)

(from Springs in the Valley - L B Cowman)

Fog

Yesterday rain all day.  Early this morning fog...

And now it's cleared to a sunshiny day!

So I'm off to work in the garden :)

xx

September Yarn Along

Linking up for Yarn Along

Last year (or maybe it was the year before?) my friend Debbie sent me some yarn from India. She was working in the same yarn over there and she thought it would be nice to see what we both came up with using the same colours.  When she visited recently she brought her blanket and here they are...

 Debbie's on the left, mine on the right

Debbie's is a mood blanket, where each colour represents a 'mood/feeling', each row represents a day and each squares a week.  Then the weeks are sewn together into months and the months...  

She's still working on it.

That all sounded like too much hard (mind) work for me, so I just made mine up as I went along.

Interesting how using the same colours and yarn can turn out so differently!

My cardigan is coming along...

And I'm reading THIS book by Lena Yoder.  It's not fiction, but a true diary of a real Amish farm wife and mother.  I'm really enjoying it because I can relate to much of what she says, not because I was Amish, but because I was a farmer's wife and lived and worked on a dairy/cattle farm for 13 years.  

Amish or not, some things just don't change :)

I could particularly relate to this entry (p8):

"...The cow decided it was not necessary to be forced into a place she did not long to be.  I was appointed to stand in a little alleyway that leads to the motor room.  The cow was to go in exactly the opposite direction.  She got downright evil as she came toward me and decided I was nothing to fear.  She politely shoved me along... 

She shoved me into the diesel room...  

Glass, pipes, bolts - you name it - were flying all over the place.  I bailed out as soon as I could sure that my husband wasn't happy with me...

Shakily, I started picking up pieces and apologising, wanting to say sorry and how worthless I really am a hundred times.  I stuck with just a couple times because I knew that didn't impress him either."

One of my experiences was with helping(?) The Farmer pick out/separate beef steers to go to slaughter (apologies to all you vegetarians out there) that often weighed 900lb/400kg (I weigh around 48kg!!)  My job, with the help(?) of the farm dog Dusty, was to turn the steers (that The Farmer let through the laneway) into the side yard.  Yeah...right...   Mostly if you jumped up and down, yelled a lot and waved a big stick, they would turn, but sometimes they just weren't intimidated by little ol' me.  Dusty wasn't much helps, he would mostly slink away and hide behind the stockyards (smart dog!).

I usually tried to make sure I had some cover (like the stock loading ramp) to jump behind if a steer decided I was not a force to be reckoned with.

Anyway, this one steer (BTW a steer is a castrated bull for the uninitiated) decided it was going to go where it wanted to, which was straight ahead!  By the time I realised he was not going to turn, it was too late to run for cover, or even sidestep because we might have both moved in the same direction.  I don't think he actually had it in his mind to flatten me, but if I was in his way...  

So what could I do but stand there, shut my eyes and scream (maybe the scream was just in my head, I don't know if I actually screamed out loud), as I heard his hooves thundering by and felt the wind as he charged past inches from me.  

When I realise I was still alive, all I could do was collapse on the ground in a shaking, crying heap.  That's usually when Dusty decides to re-enter the picture and come and sit beside me.  

It's right about then that you get yelled at (me and the dog), so we both hang our heads in shame as The Farmer goes to rectify the problem.  But Dusty and I have an understanding (both being used to getting yelled at), so we just look at each other and shrug, and are thankful we live to work another day!

Whoever said life is dull has never worked on a farm!!

xx

On the home front

Just back from helping Marnie clean out her spare room for a friend coming to stay for a night or two.  She had these beautiful quilt tops that she had pieces ages ago and was getting rid of...

So of course I said I'd take them :).  They are being washed as I type becaue they had been stored away for a number of years and were a bit musty, then I will probably back them with polar fleece and hand quilt them.  I'm a bit over the knitting and crocheting I've been doing all winter, and I also found this cot quilt panel in my cupboard that I plan on backing with polar fleece and hand quilting...

But having said that, I do still need to have a knitting project on the go to do while watching DVDs (because I don't need to watch what I'm doing when knitting whereas with other handcrafts I do).  So I found this jumper I had started to knit many moons ago, and am undoing it.  Don't be too horrified, I'd only done the back :).  I decided I'd wear a cardigan more than I'd wear another a jumper, so am going to make the one below...

well....that's the plan... :)

...while re-watching a couple of DVDs I have, thanks to some recent blog posts by Pen re. the Amish and Hutterites.


And over the last couple of weeks I've been baking.

I  made these muffins...

Recipe here...

I did substitute some of the white flour with rye, buckwheat and almond meal, used a bit less sugar, and just used ordinary milk as I didn't have any buttermilk.  Also added a dash of mixed spice, allspice and cardamom.  I didn't ice them (just dusted with icing sugar), and next time I think I'd like to try adding some fruit, maybe blueberries, chopped apple or rhubarb?


Also made some Anzac biscuits...

And, surprise, surprise...I didn't change the recipe!!!

I undercook mine a bit, because I like them still a bit soft in the centre

I feel a headache coming on (easterly winds) so although there is much to do in the garden, I think I'll take it easy with some knitting.

Spring is in the air!

xx

Weekend Words

How Smart?

I like innovation for all it can do.

It helps in our work and that really is true.

   But I'm bothered a lot by a syndrome I see;

   It's supposed to be "cool", but it gets next to me.

Each day we see children, big people, and teens,

Two thumbs on the keypad, eyes glued to the screen,

   It seems all important that they be connected,

   To whom and to what I have not yet detected.

But it's not to reality, I'm sure in my heart.

Though it's modern and "in", it doesn't seem smart.

   With an app on their phone and the phone in their hand,

   They wander unseeing through fantasy land;

Quite blind and unheeding with plugs in their ears,

It's nearly enough to bring one to tears.

   Our smart phones have ceased to perform as smart tools,

   I'm afraid they have made us a bunch of smart fools.

(By Gary Miller)

Just a thought...

xx