Simple Woman's Daybook

1. 

Outside my window… it is "as black as your father's hat"

I am thinking... "one day at a time....lived to the full..."

I am thankful for... my church family who teach me so much. I am so privileged to have such people in my life.

I am learning that…when the pears fall off the tree, they are generally ripe after a couple of days in my kitchen.

From the kitchen...comes the aroma of a chicken meal cooked by N, made up (always the best!)  Secret ingredient?  Syrup....but it worked!

I am wearing...my work uniform and wondering when the new tops will arrive....

I am creating...many things in my head that involve ensuites and dining areas, kitchens and bathrooms....all dreams for now. I am content but this word facillitate keeps popping up!

I am going... to Bath Spa on Sunday afternoon, with the Friday girls, A pool on the roof?!

I am reading…Zephaniah and River Cottage Cookbook :)

I am praying…"Your kingdom come in Yeovil"

Noticing that…cobwebs are strangely beautiful when covered with dew.

I am hearing... David cough, Dh type, the computer fan and clocks ticking.

Around the house...there is a pile of unsorted washing on the stairs, still damp from the line. I will hang them before bed, which will be soon.

One of my favourite things...dinner cooked for me.

Pondering these words…" But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always"  didn't expect to discover that in Hosea last week! (12:6)

A few plans for the rest of the week: get to grips with the camera, I am missing out on so much that it can do......but I wish there was an instruction BOOK instead of flippin' software to download.

A picture to share…

An English cream tea !

Between washing the windows and making the chutney

It's Saturday, nearly evening and if I sit here for much longer, the green tomato chutney will be just a an unticked job on my list.  I sit here in baggy joggers, surrounded by magazines that "need sorting" Home Farmer to the left, "Slimming World" to the right. The house in a sort of "lived in" chaos, at least I've cleaned the windows and can see out!  Blackberries never got picked form the hedgerows...perhaps tomorrow...after the chutney....after lunch...after meeting with my precious (( church family))... :)

But I did come across this blog today and much of what she has written here resonates with me, I do find it reassuring todiscover there are people across the world thinking similar thoughts, but manage to say it far more eloquently that I can!  See what you think:

http://sharonastyk.com/2010/09/23/staying-put-2/


And then there is Anita Renfroe, hopefully I've spelled her name correctly, who made me smile on this quirky clip.  Some of you may remember her from "the Mom song"!






A small peep at part of my Saturday. Tomorrow I will look at Autumn and marvel at cobwebs beaded with dew....perhaps I will practice macro settings until I get it right....

The Greenhouse cometh!

A recent Sunday in September...P wants to get rid of the Greenhouse, but she wants it done...this afternoon.... a stategy is devised.

Take one Greenhouse, remove all panes of glass, place rubber seals and clips in German carrier bag. Look confident!



Up over the garage, steady does it....

 Up you go Nick...

 Nonchalant Nick

 and down the other side...

Okay, everyone grab a corner and let's go!

Texting on the move

Got some strange looks from motorists!

Add caption

Add caption

So there it will sit until operation trellis removal and measurements are taken. Hopefully by the end of the year, we'll have a his and hers side by side....better than two Jags any day!

"With an apple I will astonish Yeovil...... (Paris)." apologies to Paul Cézanne, French Artist (1839-1906)

The apple season is upon us which means the apple, peeler, corer, slicer (thank you Ceri!) will take up residence on the work top.... Kat, where are you when we need someone to organise the process and act as quality control taster? The food dehydrator will do its stuff and I will be making crumble mixes (like Gran's....I suppose.....no high fibre to be seen...never right....may disguise it....) and Dick will come into his own with the soon to be a family favourite, apple cake, the recipe, no doubt, will appear at some point! "An apple a day" certainly has the opposite effect on this medical man!



Just because we were so impressed and I had to weigh and measure for posterity, to mark the moment...before we ate it!




Now I'm showing off....





For those of you who prefer metric!




Another day I will write about the mysterious fake sheep and the pretend farmer that have appeared in the neighbouring field this week... A nosey neighbour photo will follow and the intrigued begins!

Finding time to blog? Making time maybe?

This is ridiculous! There is only one thing for it and that is to slot in blog time... I want to write as an expression of what I see and hear around me, you know, the small moments that make you smile inwardly or exasparate you or make you think... Instead, I have allowed the "work that needs to be done" flow into more work that could be done and by the time I have said "Enough already!"( in my best Fagin accent) I am wiped out and apart from a quick friends' status updates trawl on Facebook am not fit to write anything except "I'm for bed, mother" and out goes the light!

So......what's a girl to do?! I'll be pondering on that one. In the meantime I'll be totally girlie and show you my "dressing table" which is really just a glorified chest of drawers, but I'll show you my latest creative purchase from Greenbelt last w/e. The felt flowers adorning my mirror... I have the need to stake a feminine touch in a home that is becoming more male orientated by the day....









This is a naff photo and only serves to annoy me that I decided at the last minute NOT to take the camera to Greenbelt BIG MISTAKE....My phone camera doesn't do it justice. The first evening I saw the best rainbow I had ever seen which stretched in a dramatic arc right over the Cheltenham Race Course where Greenbelt is held each Bank holiday w/e in August.


We survived in a 3 man tent, the two of us, a weekend was fine....not sure I could do a week at New Wine with two of us in it, pretty cramped...Still, we left the tent in the morning and didn't return until late in the evening, so it wasn't really an issue. The food was plentiful and international, so we were glad we had taken advice from friends who go every year and just packed breakfasts and a kettle! We did take a while to find our tent again the first evening on our return in the dark.....

How can I describe Greenbelt in a nutshell? A rich and varied mix of the Arts, Music (Beverly Knight was brilliant!) justice talks, particularly Palestine/Israel situation, debates, ethical issues, off the wall, monks, hippies, grannies, babies, charity stands, ethnic clothing, henna tatoos, massages, films, beer tent, wine bar, Politicians (Claire Short and Peter Tatchell were doing talks) coffee served everywhere, themed tents, curries, pizza, mexican, chinese food, food for all palates. Loads of creative stuff to do...the kids were having a great time from what I could see! You can't do everything there is so much going on, so we may just have to return next year methinks, perhaps some of you may join us?

http://www.greenbelt.org.uk/

A sample of what I did:

Hospitality seminar and discussion
Interview with Simon Mayo with a lady who was raised on a rubbish dump in South Africa.
Boycott Israeli goods or not?
Beverley Knight gig
Hearing Church from a Deaf person's perspective.
Consultant Orthopaedic surgeon's experience working in Beirut and Gaza operating on wounded Palestinians.
Be Attitude (Sermon on the Mount) living it out.
Compassion talk

The list goes on and the programme is downstairs so that's all I can say off the top of my head, but you get the idea...

So it's goodnight from me, but hopefully I'll get my head around this blogging and I'll be more intentional from now on!