Preparing for Christmas and all things festive

As it is now December 1st, I will turn my thoughts towards Christmas. Today we will venture into the loft and retrieve this candle display which is always the first decoration to go up. Then little by little other festive bits and pieces  will make an appearance.  I have to do this in stages otherwise I get bogged down with it all, which rather defeats the purpose!

  Look what just dropped through my letter box this morning, right on cue because I am supposed to read Chapter 1 today! 

 From this company:

http://www.alibris.co.uk/booksearch?qwork=1087756 
 for the  price of £0.64! Our next book club read!  We are to read a chapter a day throughout Advent.  Each chapter is headed with the date.....sounds intriguing! (Am awaiting another book from the same company written by dh's great grandmother...but that's for another time!)

And this was my impulse buy today! I love snow globes,but most of them are quite tacky, this one however, ticks all the tasteful boxes!

 ....and finally, a reminder right at the start of Advent:

 1 Corinthians 13 (the Christmas version)

If I decorate my house perfectly with tinsel, strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls, but do not show love, I’m just another decorator.

If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas delicacies, preparing gourmet meals and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime, but do not show love, I’m just another cook.

If I work at a soup kitchen, sing carols in the nursing home and give all that I have to charity, but do not show love, it profits me nothing.

If I trim the Christmas tree with shimmering angels and glittery snowflakes, attend a myriad of Christmas parties and sing in the choir but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.

Love stops the cooking to hug the child.

 Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the husband. 

Love is kind, though harried and tired. 

Love doesn’t envy another’s home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens. 

Love doesn’t yell at the kids toget out of the way, but is thankful they are there to be in the
way. 

Love doesn’t give only to those who are able to give in return but rejoices in giving to those who can’t.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

 Love never fails. 

Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust, but giving the gift of love will endure. 

(Anon)

For Evia and Evia Amen!

Last night's sunset; every evening is different and I thought overlooking Glastonbury Tor was inspiring each night!

Today we travelled to the island of Evia, It took us 20 minutes to drive tothe coast. This is the view from the mainland looking over to Evia, a 30 minute ferry ride away.

In it comes!

Arriving in Evia

A welcome coffee overlooking the sound between the mainland and the island.

 Followed by lunch, this was just the starters, a delicious Carbonara followed....

Tonight I will knit,read and relax. Tomorrow dh may go swimming...I will beachcomb!

International flavours

Last night rounded off nicely which an English Greek combo! Roast Chicken with a Greek influence!

Then this morning off to St Andrew's International Church....some songs were familiar...even if the spelling wasn't! Still, I'm sure the Savior/Saviour didn't have an issue with it! Uplifting to look around the room and see so many different nationalities represented.

Then it was off to Starbucks with a Greek/English/American contingent to drink coffee and have conversations about, amongst other things...Politics....but mainly the politics of the represented nations. The Americans are voting next week and the Greeks are striking for 48 hours on Tuesday and Wednesday....and we are supposed to be flying home during that time....We had planned to visit the Acropolis museum on Tuesday, but that will now have to wait for another time....as will the Greek wool shop I have discovered on someone else's blog.....It happens to be very near the museum, and also where some of the demonstrations take place...but since there will be no buses or trains running we won't be visiting on this occasion.

Can't believe the Christmas shops are appearing....there is no escape!

A spontaneous decision was made to have lunch in a local restaurant with resident feral cat waiting for food to drop....Could do with her at home.....but must not think of the mouse issue....

Moussaka! Dh chose  a minced meat with rice wrapped in cabbage parcel served with lemon sauce. We shared a carafe of wine.....

A side dish of chick peas with tomato....

Then home to coffee on the terrace where Lucy the cat made an appearance briefly and we ate cakes from the "Cakes and Cookie Sale" at the church this morning in aid of a Ugandan orphanage.....which was  probably a little decadent (the cakes not the orphanage)

...and I continued my french knitting  "probably a christmas decoration" project, having completed the first dishcloth yesterday.  I will make the next one a little smaller as I am using larger needles this time.

Caught up on Yeovil news via Facebook....can't believe it has snowed there today!!!!

Market research

To market, to market to buy a.....cooped up chicken? I don't think so.....we'll be looking elsewhere for ours in the Spring. Hopefully some interesting breeds...,

I love Greek Markets for the fruit and vegetables plus all the herbs, shame you can't capture the aromas!

We spent some time (no pun intended!) at the herbs stall and  came away with oregano, thyme and a herb mix for meat which smells heavenly and I spent the next hour lifting the carrier bag up to my face to inhale the aromas.....don't care what I looked like! We also bought a string of garlic, quite handy as we're coming to the end of of French garlic purchased in  Carentan in September!

The purchases:

View from the coffee shop, iced coffee outside at 26 degrees, just hits the spot!

Looking to my right, sipping  coffee and people -watching...a favourite pastime.

And here are the dogs... from back to front: Elsa, Connie and Tilly.

and Bella, totally submissive!

But are there enough olives to pick this year to take up to the olive press?

Had some visitors and they brought this delicious cake a liitle like egg custard with a lemony flavour and lots of syrup.... It's called Galaktompouriko!

and so the day ends, the same view at sunset.

Tomorrow we leave at 08:30 for the 09:00 service at the International Church in Athens

Knitting at 603 miles per hour!

So, BA informs me I can take knitting needles as hand luggage, so here I am, somewhere over Europe on our way to Athens, starting the latest dishcloth (a girl cannot have too many, after all). I bought some short size 8 (4mm) needles in St Margaret's hospice charity shop:50p a pair, bargain, never buy new needles again, charity shops always come up trumps, but you do need to ask for them....they are behind the counter...considered as dangerous!

View from the balcony on arrival at Mum's mid afternoon. Been awake since 02:30, but don't feel too tired considering.

Frozen pomegranate seeds from the garden, can't compete with that! Later we had homegrown figs which had been sundried.

Then finally to bed to read this:

 "Spanning decades and moving from the stark beauty of the Welsh landscape to the Himalayas and Kashmir, this is a story of bravery, courage and love.Within one exotic land lie the secrets of a lifetime…Newlywed Nerys Watkins leaves rural Wales for the first time in her life, to accompany her husband on a missionary posting to India. Travelling from lonely Ladakh, high up in the Himalayas, Nerys discovers a new world in the lakeside city of Srinagar. Here, in the exquisite heart of Kashmir, the British live on carved wooden houseboats and dance, flirt and gossip as if there is no war.But the battles draw ever closer, and life in Srinagar becomes less frivolous when the men are sent away to fight. Nerys is caught up in a dangerous friendship, and by the time she is reunited with her husband, the innocent Welsh bride has become a different woman.Years later, when Mair Ellis clears out her father’s house, she finds an exquisite antique shawl, woven from the finest yarns and embroidered in the shades of lake water and mountain skies. Wrapped within its folds is a lock of child’s hair. Tracing her grandparents’ roots back to Kashmir, Mair embarks on a quest that will change her life forever."

So I am caught up between Greece in my reality and India in my imagination!

Will meet the dogs tomorrow and visit the Saturday market!

Wash Day Blues

You know how it is, you almost finish ironing someting and then you realise, actually it needs to be rewashed....so irritating!!! The offending article was a light coloured pair of trousers that dh had been wearing in India. The washing machine had done its best at 40 degrees, but deep-seated Delhi dust and grime was stubbornly refusing to budge...ingrained and tenacious.  

Action plan:

24 hours soak in biological washing powder in bath....followed by

Kneeling down by side of bath, bent over scrubbing with nailbrush and Vanish soap, any bits I could see.....and there were a fair few up for a fight!!!

Steam-washed on 60 degrees...

Hung out in sun to dry..

PERFECT! SORTED!

Such hassle...one pair of trousers...so inconvenient.....so  time-wasting...

but what if I had to do this every day, like some of my friends in the slums....day in, day out.. Bent over a bowl, scrubbing away, hanging things out to dry in the grimy conditions they would not choose to live in...

It made me realise, yet again, what I take for granted....and suddenly I wasn't frustrated any more with my minor annoyance....I practiced gratitude.....

Lady Dufferin, a remarkable woman!

Whilst in Shimla,we went to visit Viceregal Lodge which was a former residence of Lord Dufferin who was the 8th Viceroy of India from 1884-1888.  However, as I came back to research more about the house, which has been described as a cross between The Tower of London and Hogwarts, I became more interested about what his wife was involved in during that time.  I read the poem first, which describes the love and respect the women had for her, then I was drawn in to imagine what life must have been like before medical help was available for them. It is all in the poem, harrowing accounts.....

Lady Dufferin  went with her husband to India in 1884 when he was appointed as the country's viceroy, and set up the National Association for supplying Female Medical Aid to the Women of India a year later. She was in her mid forties.

Hariot Georgina Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava to give her her full name!

This association recruited and trained women doctors, midwives and nurses to improve the situation for Indian women in illness and in child-bearing as it was not felt appropriate that they were treated by male doctors.

 This involved her in a great deal of fund-raising and is sometimes referred to as her zenana work; it was celebrated by Rudyard Kipling in his Song of the Women. She received the Crown of India in 1884 and the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert in 1889.

 The Song Of The Women

 by  Rudyard Kipling

How shall she know the worship we would do her?

The walls are high, and she is very far.

How shall the woman's message reach unto her

Above the tumult of the packed bazaar?

Free wind of March, against the lattice blowing,

Bear thou our thanks, lest she depart unknowing.

Go forth across the fields we may not roam in,

Go forth beyond the trees that rim the city,

To whatsoe'er fair place she hath her home in,

Who dowered us with wealth of love and pity.

Out of our shadow pass, and seek her singing--

"I have no gifts but Love alone for bringing."

Say that we be a feeble folk who greet her,

But old in grief, and very wise in tears;

Say that we, being desolate, entreat her

That she forget us not in after years;

For we have seen the light, and it were grievous

To dim that dawning if our lady leave us.

By life that ebbed with none to stanch the failing

By Love's sad harvest garnered in the spring,

When Love in ignorance wept unavailing

O'er young buds dead before their blossoming;

By all the grey owl watched, the pale moon viewed,

In past grim years, declare our gratitude!

By hands uplifted to the Gods that heard not,

By fits that found no favor in their sight,

By faces bent above the babe that stirred not,

By nameless horrors of the stifling night;

By ills foredone, by peace her toils discover,

Bid Earth be good beneath and Heaven above her!

If she have sent her servants in our pain

If she have fought with Death and dulled his sword;

If she have given back our sick again.

And to the breast the waking lips restored,

Is it a little thing that she has wrought?

Then Life and Death and Motherhood be nought.

Go forth, O wind, our message on thy wings,

And they shall hear thee pass and bid thee speed,

In reed-roofed hut, or white-walled home of kings,

Who have been helpen by her in their need.

All spring shall give thee fragrance, and the wheat

Shall be a tasselled floorcloth to thy feet.

 

Haste, for our hearts are with thee, take no rest!

Loud-voiced ambassador, from sea to sea

Proclaim the blessing, manifold, confessed.

Of those in darkness by her hand set free.

Then very softly to her presence move,

And whisper: "Lady, lo, they know and love!"

Comfrey under attack!

I'm nurturing my newly- planted comfrey, taking great pleasure in dreaming about its many uses once it is established. I'm watching each leaf unfurl with a sense of anticipation.....but it seems I have an enemy....Tonight I wandered down the garden and see a wiltered leaf...WHAT?!!!!! On closer inspection a small yelllow and black beetle flies off just as I'm peering at yet more leaves with holes in them.  Now, I have noticed the furry underside of some of the few leaves that are starting to get established, have got a downy look to them, hmmm ?eggs, I've ignored it until now....because now means WAR!

Now having done my research before I bought said plant, I know that any gardener worth his/her salt has comfrey growing because it makes a great liquid fertiliser.  So I am keen to encourage it even if it threatens to become invasive. Apart from that it has a variety of medicinal uses which I haven't got into yet....although its claim to heal broken bones seems a little far-fetched, won't bring that up with dh!

So what to do? Trawling through web sites, it appears that getting rid of said beetle is almost impossible, if it is cucumber beetle, which I suspect it is, by its description  If , of course, someone tells me it isn't resident in the UK then I will try and see what it is...but whatever it is, I'm up for a fight! Armed with my weak solutiuon of washing up liquid in spray bottle I have drenched the plant with it, having absolutely no idea if it will work, but sounding a lot like the father in MY Big Fat Greek Wedding who thinks that Windex cures everything!  I read it somewhere on an organic gardening website years back.... Next I have covered it with fleece and peg it down with tent pegs.....we shall see. I'm up for a fight! If it dies, it dies, but it's going to go down fighting and I'm going to spray and watch it like a hawk.... my little plant needs to have a chance.....wretched beetle.....

 One day, I want to see it looking like this!!!!

Next morning:

Don't think Confrey liked my diluted washing up liquid deluge..... Leaves gone brown overnight...no sign of downy eggs on underside of leaves though.  Have  removed some leaves which I consider past all hope and covered it up with the fleeceagain! Have about 3 or 4 leaves left and a tiny leaf coming up at the base. Decided NOT to respray!! Not about to give up yet!

A Flourishing weekend with the girlies

Psalm 92:12-15

The Amplified Bible  does these verses total justice in my opinion!


¹² The [uncompromisingly] righteous shall flourish like the palm tree [be long-lived, stately, upright, useful, and fruitful]; they shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon [majestic, stable, durable, and incorruptible].

¹³ Planted in the house of the Lord, they shall flourish in the courts of our God.

¹⁴ [Growing in grace] they shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap [of spiritual vitality] and [rich in the] verdure [of trust, love, and contentment].

¹⁵ [They are living memorials] to show that the Lord is upright and faithful to His promises; He is my Rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.
                       
I shall be reading this verses through slowly and thoughtfully again and again....

My reflective soap carving which  is now positioned on the bedside table as a reminder at the start and the end of the day.



and on the back....as if I needed reminding....!

A privilege to enjoy a brilliant weekend with some lovely ladies, all 25 of you!

Perfect Popcorn!

It was decided. Chick flick with mates:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letters_to_Juliet

 A great opportunity to try out the Toffee popcorn recipe recently discovered on Pinterest (don't get me started on this site!)

 Basic Popcorn

• 3 Tbsp oil
• 1/3 cup  popcorn kernels- (this makes enough for a bowl of plain too(with salt and melted butter added to taste)
• 1 large covered saucepan

1 Heat the oil in the saucepan on medium high heat.
2 Put 3 or 4 popcorn kernels into the oil and cover the pan.
3 When the kernels pop, add the rest of the 1/3 cup of popcorn kernels in an even layer. Cover, remove from heat and count 30 seconds.  This method first heats the oil to the right temperature, then waiting 30 seconds brings all of the other kernels to a near-popping temperature so that when they are put back on the heat, they all pop at about the same time.
4 Return the pan to the heat. The popcorn should begin popping soon, and all at once. Once the popping starts in earnest, gently shake the pan by moving it back and forth over the burner. Try to keep the lid slightly ajar to let the steam from the popcorn release (the popcorn will be drier and crisper). Once the popping slows to several seconds between pops, remove the pan from the heat, remove the lid, and dump the popcorn immediately into a wide bowl.

 Here is the original link for the Toffee popcorn:

http://bloggingwithchildren.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/crazy-karo-crunch.html

I have added what I did below:

Crazy Karo Crunch Ingredients: 

1/2 cup Butter melted
1/2 Cup Karo Syrup (Light) - I used ordinary syrup
1 Cup Brown Sugar
 1/2 tsp Vanilla -I forgot to add this!
2 Quarts air popped dry pop corn - I filled a v large deep rectangular oven dish which was about  half of the popcorn I had prepared.
Cooking spray - Didn't bother as dish didn't need it
Preheat Oven to 200 degrees -Gas 4 in my case

 .Spread the popcorn across the rectangular dish.

3. In a pot on the stove, combine butter, sugar, and syrup on high. Stir until boiling. Reduce heat to Med-High and boil for EXACTLY 5 minutes. Add Vanilla.

Drizzle over popcorn, stir, and bake for 15 minutes. .

Remove from oven, mix the popcorn and caramel around, replace in oven for another 15 minutes.

 Repeat the above, until caramel corn has been in the oven for 45 minutes (Instructions said 1hr, but this too long for mine)  and has been mostly covered in caramel. I wanted a Butterkist look, so mine was pretty much coated! You could always include more popcorn if you want a less crunchy effect....but what's the point?! (Dentist's bill, I guess...)

 Allow it to cool, break apart, and serve.

Oh my word, it was AMAZING and really DID taste like Werther's original as she states! Thought I had made too much, but don't think it is going to last long in this house.... oh and they enjoyed the film too!

Is it me?

Saw this in Poundland (or was it in the 99p shop?!) in Romford.....I'm sorry...

Make your own crisps and chips?!!!!!

I despair.....

but it made us laugh....and a photo had to preserve the moment!

Thursday afternoon, slowing down and enjoying the rhythm!

Came home from work this afternoon and this was the view I had from my back garden!

and the other end of the rainbow!

.....and the full effect on the video!

The light was exquisite. I am constantly thankful for this panoramic scene that I can enjoy day after day throughout all the seasons.

Then I sat for a bit and did some of this:

...which will be a tunic top to go over trousers.  I'm no expert but I find it relaxing and it helps me to slow down and ponder!  I'm keeping to the straight forward patterns at the moment, although I must just show  you this, now that Christmas has gone!

For a special lady!

Then off I went with a small bag of bits and bobs for a local charity shop.....of course whilst I was there I had to peruse the books. My excuse being to look out for the Book Club reading books that are coming up.  I was shown the back room in which were stacked crates of books, paradise!  However, I could only gaze as there were so many piled up, I would have had to dismantle the whole area! my eyes did alight on a Nigel Slater book though....I love that man's mouth, forget the recipes, when he is on TV, I just stare at the curve of his mouth....hahaha, mad woman!

So here it is, such sensible recipes, food we all eat!

Photography is outstanding too!

However I believe my next culinary attempt will be Chinese tabioca! Got the ingredients (left by a previous medic....refuse the check the sell by date, sure it's fine...) Found a recipe online, it's chilled and is made with coconut milk....pictures may follow! (Bet you can't wait...)

Until then, have rambled for long enough, need to plate up the dh's dinner.  He will be home after extended hours surgery...12 hours at work being all things to all people.  I'll leave him to unwind in front of the TV in peace without me jabbering on (have learned the hard way! ) As for me I shall retire to my bed surrounded by my books and many thoughts, unwinding in my own way...with  A.W.Tozer!