Saying goodbye to 2015 with a good book

What better way to say goodbye to the year than by settling down with a nice book? I spent the morning in the garden, checking that all was well; bird feeders full, bird baths topped up, gave my chooks clean water and filled their bowls with some extra snacks, cleaned the wildlife pond's pump and filter, saw to it that the patio was clean and washed, the pathways neat and free from debris and that all the pot plants had enough water.

I've prepared a light meal and some snacks for hubby and I for tonight, and now I'm looking forward to settling down with that good book, a cold glass of Rosé, some snacks nearby and soothing back-ground music. Although that might be trumped by hubby wanting to watch some TV. That's also OK.

No noisy party or get-together this year - in fact, we have not attended noisy parties or get-togethers for quite a few years now (and it's not an age thing!) Smile! I've always been partial to quiet evenings at home on New Year's Eve, even as a youngster. Sometimes I stay up to greet the new year at midnight, yelling "Happy New Year!" to all the garden birds, much to their consternation! Then it's time for a midnight snack and off to bed.

However you spend your New Year's Eve, here's wishing that you enjoy it immensely and that your new year is filled with abundance, peace and lots of good books.

Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right!

.

Season's Greetings! 2015!

Camera : Canon EOS 550D

My chooks taken in my garden (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa)

Background texture by Kim Klassen
Edited in MS PowerPoint

We have never had snow over Christmas in South Africa (not that I can remember anyway), but I’m sure if we did, my chooks would be absolutely thrilled!

May you have a wonderful festive season with friends and loved ones this year!

.

Christmas vegetables

These simple roasted vegetables from Jamie Oliver are a no-brainer for Christmas dinner or a classic Sunday roast!

Serves 10

Cooks In 1H 35M

Difficulty : Super easy

Ingredients
 - 1.5 kg King Edward potatoes, peeled and halved
- ½ bulb garlic, separated into cloves and crushed with the back of a knife
- 1 small bunch of fresh rosemary, separated into sprigs salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 6 tablespoons good-quality olive oil
- 50 g butter
- 2 kg parsnips
- 2 tablespoons runny honey
- 1 small bunch fresh thyme, leaves picked
- 1 kg Chantenay carrots, if you can't find any, use normal carrots cut at an angle into 2 inch pieces
- 1 orange , zest of

Method
Preheat your oven to 220°C/425°F/gas 7. Parboil your potatoes for 10 minutes. Drain in a colander and toss around to scruff up the outside of the spuds. Toss with the garlic cloves, half of the rosemary, salt and pepper to taste, 4 tablespoons of the olive oil, and 30g of the butter in a large bowl. Arrange in one layer in a roasting tin and roast for 45 minutes until golden.

For the parsnips, cut them in half lengthways, parboil for 10 minutes and drain. Toss with the honey, thyme, salt and pepper to taste, 10g of the butter and 2 tablespoons of the oil. Lay the parsnips flat in a roasting tin in one layer, and roast for about 40 minutes until golden.

Put your carrots in a pan, cover with cold water and add a pinch of salt. Boil for about 15 minutes or until cooked. Meanwhile, finely chop the remaining rosemary and the orange zest together to mix. Drain the cooked carrots and toss with the remaining butter. Season to taste and sprinkle with the orange zest and rosemary before serving.

Serve with some Cheeky Chilli-pepper Chutney - cooks in 1h and is super easy to make.

Ingredients
 - 8-10 fresh red chillies
- 8 ripe red peppers
- olive oil
- 2 medium red onions, peeled and chopped
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary, leaves picked and chopped
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 x 5cm stick cinnamon
- sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 100 g brown sugar
- 150 ml balsamic vinegar

Method
If you want your chutney to last for a while, make sure you have some small sterilised jars ready to go. Place your chillies and peppers over a hot barbecue, in a griddle pan or on a tray under a hot grill, turning them now and then until blackened and blistered all over. Carefully lift the hot peppers and chillies into a bowl (the smaller chillies won’t take as long as the peppers so remove them first) and cover tightly with cling film. As they cool down, they’ll cook gently in their own steam. By the time they’re cool enough to handle, you’ll be able to peel the skin off easily.

When you’ve got rid of most of the skin, trimmed off the stalks and scooped out the seeds, you’ll be left with a pile of nice tasty peppers and chillies. Finely chop by hand or put in a food processor and whiz up. Then put to one side.

Heat a saucepan and pour in a splash of olive oil. Add the onions, rosemary, bay leaves and cinnamon and season with a little salt and pepper. Cook very slowly for about 20 minutes or so, until the onions become rich, golden and sticky.

Add the chopped peppers and chillies, the sugar and the vinegar to the onions and keep cooking. When the liquid reduces and you’re left with a lovely thick sticky chutney, season well to taste. Remove the cinnamon stick and the bay leaves. Either spoon into the sterilised jars and put them in a cool dark place, or keep in the fridge and use right away. In sterilised jars, the chutney should keep for a couple of months.

Here's wishing you a very Merry Christmas and beautiful times spent with family, friends and loved ones!

.

Merry Christmas 2015!

Here's wishing you a good book and a cup of coffee this Christmas day! May this festive season be filled with LOVE, JOY, INSPIRATION and lots of reading!

Solly's dustbin chook, Mr. Brown

This is Solly’s chook, Mr. Brown, one of the dustbin chicks born a few months ago. He’s turned into a beautiful rooster, obviously of mixed blood as his feathers are like those of a Silkie. But what makes him adorable is the fact that he talks to me – whenever he sees me, he utters this whole repertoire of cackles and croaks all the while staring me straight in the eye. He’s also very tame, sitting down when I put my hand on his back and then allowing me to pick him up for a cuddle. Normally all Solly’s chicks that turn out to be roosters are destined for the pot, but I’ve asked him nicely to spare Mr. Brown. (Solly is our mechanic/handyman and he has all these chickens that wander all over our smallholding and usually end up breeding somewhere in my garden!)

.

Delicious Jaffels

Jaffels seem to be a good old South African treat, and by combining your favourite filling combinations (mine is mince and cheese) it can be transformed in a traditional, quick and charming meal idea.

I've still got one of the traditional, round Jaffel pans (I wonder if one can still buy them?), which I used over a gas flame. But a hot plate works equally well.

No surprises here, the process is simple. Bread must be buttered on the outsides (to prevent sticking) before putting it into the maker.

Prepare your fillings beforehand or you can use left-overs - minced meat, cold cooked chicken, mushrooms, tomato and cheese are but a few ingredients you can use.

Place one slice of bread buttered side down, fill with your choice of filling, place the other slice of bread on top, buttered side up, and place into into the jaffel iron. Cut off all excess crusts, place the maker on a hot plate stove and turn it over to crisp the other side. And voila! delicious jaffels!

.

My pet peeve - a dog ear

One of my pet peeves is the dog-earing of books! And yes, underlining and highlighting passages, scribbling in the margins and crumpling dustcovers! When I get a new book, I spend several minutes caressing it, gazing lovingly upon it, and eventually hugging it to my chest in unabashed glee and just the thought that someone could desecrate it by folding pages or scribbling in it has driven me crazy for years.

Why would one want to dog-ear a book? I know it's meant to mark a section or phrase in a book that one finds to be important or of personal meaning, but why harm the page? There are so many innovative ideas of marking a place or keeping your place when you stop reading for a while. This shops are full of beautiful book markers. Anything from metal markers with beautiful dangling silver charms to fabric corner bookmarks that you slip over the corner to plasticized cardstock with magnets.

 

Narrow sheet of paper with inspirational words and laminated for durability

And the sky's the limit if you use your imagination for making your own bookmarks. There's so much you can do, from tearing a piece of notepaper to place at the page (and you can scribble on it!), crochet something, cut out magazine pictures or creating something something unique like inspirational words on a long narrow piece of paper and laminating it. I'm always making some like the one above and below, not only is it sturdy but it also gives me a daily dose of some really inspirational thoughts.

I think books are sacred. Well, you know, not really sacred - The intrinsic worth of a book belongs to its content. Most books aren’t sacred in and of themselves. A book is only sacred for what you get out of it. And then, of course, there is the beautiful printing. Anything in printed form can highly excite me, from a magazine to a lady's journal to beautiful greeting cards and, of course, books. Hard cover books, with or without a dust jacket - they feel so firm and heavy in your hands...

But now, here's the thing. I also have trouble throwing away books. Even 'rubbish' ones like cheap soft covers or promotional or advertising booklets. However, those I have found a use for! Those destined for the dustbin, I now keep on a special shelf and often use them for sketching and painting in, like the image above - the words behind the painting lends a certain charm and these little books can become artwork in themselves.

However, whether you dog-ear or not, love your books. Allow them to look loved by adorning them with beautiful silver charms and always cherish them, not for what they are, but for what they say.

 Image credit

.

Half a beauty!

Artemis during his moult. Half his cape and half his beautiful tail feathers are gone, but it won’t be long before they are all replaced by healthy, more beautiful than ever, new feathers!

.

The way of nature

Nature - it is breathtakingly beautiful, it is life, it is death. Nature brings us great joy, but it is full of sadness as well. That is the way of Nature.

The great debate is whether one should interfere with nature or not, whether to help or 'rescue' an animal in peril or not. The problem is that it is human nature to rescue things and my take on it is normally to let nature take its course. If you should find a baby bird in your garden, it is best to leave it alone as the parents know it's there and will continue feeding it. That is how it learns to fly, how it gets to know its territory and learns all it needs from its parents for survival. If you have dogs or cats, this could present a problem, so, if possible, try and get the fledgling back to its nest or at least up into a tree. It's a myth that the parents will abandon it if they 'smell human contact' on their baby, they will still keep on tending to it.

But sometimes one is presented with a situation where it is impossible not to interfere or to help, like finding an owl entangled in a barbed wire fence or finding an animal with a serious injury that requires medical attention. And living on a smallholding in the country, I am often faced with scenarios like that.

On the home-front side, it's terribly hard to watch when a hen decides it's time for her babies to make their own way in the world. But that's the way of nature. Solly's hen (above) had 8 of the most gorgeous babies and she was a really wonderful other, tending to their every need, finding them succulent insects and protecting them and keeping them warm.

But when they were the tender age of 7 weeks, she decided it was time to go back to Mr. Rooster and besides, nature was calling and she wanted to lay an egg. She started pecking and chasing them and generally being nasty until they were too scared to go near her. She then took off in search of Mr. Rooster. They clumped together, walking around the property, constantly calling for her, absolutely breaking my heart.

One of the chicks, forlornly standing at my studio door and constantly calling for mommy

They soon found solace in my garden where they kept close to me as I went about my chores. They knew me very well, as from birth I would take them snacks and seeds which they eagerly took out of my hands. They even allowed me to pick them up, trustingly sitting in my hand while I cuddled them. 

Now they are almost 4 months old, just about fully grown and quite independent, joining the rest of Solly's chickens when I feed in the mornings and afternoons and often looking for me in the house, hoping for a snack of minced meat, their favourite.

Yesterday I heard a strange, forlorn call in my garden, and not recognising it, I went outside to investigate. There was this 'unknown' bird sitting on my internet aerial, so I got the binoculars to have a better look and soon realised it was a juvenile Red-winged Starling, therefore I never recognised it's call. I have never heard a young Starling calling for its parents and it sat there for a half an hour, calling and calling, with no response from anybody, until it eventually took off to search somewhere else. So, so sad...

Many a time I have also watched as the Mynah's lead their off-spring out of the garden, taking them to another area to fend for themselves, returning alone a couple of days later. That is nature's way of protecting the food source in an area and from over-population. However, Laughing Doves do not seem to adhere to this law of nature - I have hundreds in my garden - where they breed, they feed! Smile!

 Laughing Doves early watching and waiting as I prepare the feed tables at 6am.

::

Peeps

Camera : Canon EOS 550 

Taken in my studio (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa)

After being abandoned by his mother at far to early an age, Peeps often follows Snoodles into my studio, hops up on my desk and takes a break on the window sill or on top of my speaker on my desk.

 

Peeps was born 3 weeks after Snoodles (one of the original dustbin chicks), and was an only child. Mommy had 10 eggs, but due to weeks of heavy rain, Peeps was the only one to emerge after the designated 19 days of brooding. Mommy was absolutely wonderful with Peeps, protecting him when he was cold, finding him the tastiest morsels, showing him all the corners of the garden and teaching him the way of chickens.

Normally baby chicks stay with their Mommy for about 7-8 weeks, after which she regards them as grown-up enough to fend for themselves. Besides which, she starts longing for Mr. Rooster and getting the urge to lay eggs, so that's perfectly understandable. But Mommy started getting these urges when Peeps was a mere 4 weeks old and summarily abandoned him in search of Mr. Rooster.

Peeps wandered the garden for 3 days, desperately calling to his mother, but to no avail. She had moved on. But soon he sought the company of Snoodles who, herself, was a bit of a loner, growing up in my studio and not mixing with the other chickens much when she was out in the garden. He started following her around, coming into my studio to eat when she ate and soon became quite at home here.

But every night I tried to put him back outside to find his Mommy and besides, he had his usual little sleeping place out in the garden shed. After a few failed attempts I gave up, and he joined Snoodles in her basket at night, the two of them snuggling comfortably in one another's company.

The two of them became have now become inseparable and spend their days together, foraging in the garden and keeping out of the way of the grown-ups, who will not let a chance go by to let them know they are new-comers and better behave!

The next challenge is getting Snoodles and Peeps integrated into the flock. They're ready to leave the basket and it's time for them to move into the coop with Artemis and the rest of the girls...

 

Snoodles in the garden

 

 

Snoodles taking a turn on the speaker, looking to see who's outside

Snoodles roosting on Jacko's chair, much to his disgust - his chair is private property!

::

Do what you love - curl up with a good book!

Nothing is of more importance than our mental and physical health - if you're not well, you are of no use to those around you. In fact, you might be a burden.

I have this special little corner set up in my dining room where I can disappear into my own little world, doing the things I love - journalling, sketching, making notes of new birds visiting my garden and where I keep some seeds ready for sowing. Here I often also plan my week, it seems to bring order to my life and reminds me to not fill my day with too many things and to leave some moments for just being quiet...

A corner in the lounge where I curl up with one of my favourite books

Another favourite is my reading nook (actually, I can read anywhere!), but nothing beats a comfy sofa or daybed for curling up with your favourite book, a cup of steaming tea and maybe a snack or two.

My reading corner in the lounge before I got the comfy yellow sofa.

A daybed in my bedroom where, in winter, I often snuggle up under a throw to enjoy a good book. Originally built as a spare bed in my bedroom for when my 3-year old grand-daughter came to visit (she was scared to sleep in her own room), it is now used as a daybed to read.

Doing what you love is one of the most important steps to mental and physical health. It has been proven scientifically that people that feel passionate about, and enjoy, what they're doing, live a longer, happier and healthier life than someone who struggles to get up in the morning because they hate their job, or what they're doing.

Put a spring in your walk, get your skin glowing and exude vibrancy - by doing what you love! And if you want to make a difference in the world, the single most important thing you can do is consciously and deliberately choose to do work that you are passionate about.

 Isn’t this just the most inspiring reading nook with a view?!

When you follow your bliss, it seems like the rest of the world orchestrates things so that your life is easy. It becomes effortless. 

 

Pasta Alfredo

(Serves 4)

1. Cook 2 Cups durum wheat pasta until al dente.

2. Gently dry-fry one chopped onion in a heavy-bottomed pot, using only chicken stock water when it sticks. When browned, add ½ C water and simmer till soft.

3. Add 3 rashers finely sliced bacon, and toss until cooked through. 

4. Add 1 punnet sliced mushrooms, 1 clove crushed garlic, and salt and pepper to taste.

5. When mushrooms are limp, add ½ tin low-fat ideal milk and 1 t Maizena pre-mixed with a little water to form a paste.

6. Stir until thickened, and serve immediately over pasta.

Top with chopped parsley.