How’s everyone going with Christmas preparation? We’ll be having a quiet day (again) – not even doing stockings this year 😦 The tree is up, the pressies are wrapped, and there are choccies in the fridge! I like to have things clean and tidy, so that’s pretty much sorted.
Time to rest a bit. Have a cuppa, and a nice little treat.
The “milk and cookies” (I would say “biscuits”, but it doesn’t sound right…) were on a doughnut I had a little while back. I’d seen them in the cabinet a few times, and thought they looked good.
A fairly ordinary doughnut with icing, a squidge of cream, milk bottles, and a couple of tiny choc chip biscuits. A cup of tea to go with it… What could be sweeter? ❤
It was a hard weekend. Being reminded of the darkness (again)… The hatred bubbling over into terrible action. Choices – actions – that are hard to understand – and some reactions that inflamed rather than soothed.
I don’t know what to say, really. This is a season that heralds peace. Joy. Hope. But it has always been in the context of a darkened world.
And so, I will pray. Because I believe that to be a powerful place to start. But I will also pay attention to the marginalised, and oppressed. The ones who don’t live in the same level of ease and safety as I do. I will question the tendency to blame a whole community for the actions of one. Look for what is true, and challenge unthinking reaction – whether mine, or others’. And remember the words of One who came as a baby, to bring reconciliation.
“The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”
We had nowhere to be today, so I caught up with some work at home. Feeling a bit weary, although not entirely sure why. The days have not had quite the same shape as they usually do, so I may have been doing more than I normally would. Today, I slept in. Read a bit. And finally finished off some mending that’s been sitting waiting for me 😀 I’ve done most of the time sensitive things – at least for this week!
We went to our favourite cafe yesterday. Haven’t been for a few weeks. There was Christmas in the air… A tree of lights, a few poinsettias in pots, and a “sugar plum” flavoured cappuccino
Vaguely fruity/sweet? It was quite nice.
Tomorrow there will be more errands to run. Today was a time to recharge. ❤
We finally made it to the Carols Under The Big Tree last night! It’s something I’ve been wanting to get back to for a while – the last time we went was 12 years ago. Apparently the service has been run for 50 years now, and the family who owns the land (and tree 🙂 ) has been putting lights on it for 60 years. There had been forecasts for storms in the evening, but when we got there about 6.40ish it was still fine. This tree was lit up in my favourite colours ❤
A bit blurry. Still very pink/purple.
We stayed, and sang (at least, I did!), even though the rain did start slowly, just before the end. This was our view for the last few songs.
And, of course, the big tree itself…
😀
We left just as the rain was picking up, and got home before the storm. I rarely go out at night these days. Glad I was able to get to this!
We’re still waiting for our smoke alarms to be fixed – hopefully tomorrow. Because we had to deactivate the alarms (to stop them going off incessantly), we have been following a roster of one person staying up (to check for smoke/fire), rather than everyone having a sleepless night. Yes, the likelihood of a fire is tiny, but we’re in the position of not being covered if there is a fire, since we deliberately turned them off…
It’s my turn tonight. I have a painful shoulder(blade), which helps keep me awake, but I’ll also be watching shows online, or reading. Right now, I will while away some time sharing photos I’ve had sitting, waiting to be seen 😀
Firstly – what have we enjoyed at cafes lately?
A hot chocolate and a matcha/pistachio (or maybe matcha/white chocolate?) “cookie” (biscuit, for us Aussies) I think this was a franchise type cafe, that we wouldn’t normally go to, but we had been chasing down a particular item, which involved driving all over town. We were tired, and this was refreshing.
Last week we tried out a cafe down the road, next to a nursery.
A cruffin…
and a red velvet hot chocolate. Very nice. I’ve tried cruffins a couple of times. For something that’s covered in sugar, it’s not overly sweet.
This was our dining companion for a time.
…as we (almost) sat under the light of the disco-ball pot.
I have been noticing the different flowers around me.
These beauties by the mailbox.
Most of the petals on this had fallen off, but it still looked sweet. The centre bits almost look like little pink bow ties!
And here are some cheerful marigolds in our church garden, radiating the sun.
❤
Are you feeling Christmas-y yet? How about a song!
It was a busy/weird week last week, but I’m glad to be back in action for the start of Christmas imaginings… We had a fractured night last night. The smoke alarms went off around midnight – for no reason that we could see. I had not long slipped into a lovely sleep, which was something that has been hard to come by lately. We got that alarm sorted. Then it went off again seven minutes later. My Babe deactivated our bedroom alarm, as that seemed to be the one that was triggering the others.
Back to bed. And back up around 2ish, when they all went off again. We were all stumbling around like zombies…decided eventually to deactivate all of them, and waiting to see how soon the electrician can come and fix them – they’re meant to be hardwired into the electrical system, which in turn (I think) is supposed to continually charge the batteries. Because when the batteries run down, the alarm goes off.
Until they’re fixed, we’re following a roster as “human smoke detectors” – someone stays up all night to check for smoke. Seems like overkill, but even though we think there’s no actual fire hazard, we’re not completely sure what’s setting them off. And we’d all be lying awake wondering. It’s Sweet Bean’s turn tonight. ❤
Well. In other news – we got the tree up today. I haven’t decorated it yet. I have put snowmen, Santas, baubles, and angels around the place 🙂 I’ll probably post pictures when I’ve done the tree 🙂 Sneak peek!
Yay!
The day was dry, but cool enough to do stuff (not something that’s been common lately). I potted some plants. Organised some things. Did some washing (which seemed to dry almost instantaneously…) I got another rainbow tie-dye dress at a Lifeline sale recently. It certainly cheered up my backyard!
I already had the rainbow throw/cape thing. You would think that wearing them both together would be a bit too much. I would say that, in my opinion, you would almost certainly be wrong! 😀
The days are settling into a bit more heat now, and I am catching wafts of Christmas breeze. This may be partially because we’ve started tiptoeing into “end-of-year” things, but I have also just suddenly tipped into vague excitement. Not sure why. We haven’t even got the tree up yet! I’m feeling tired, after a few of the afore-mentioned “e-o-y” get-togethers. Missing the cool rain, these last couple of days! …as had my unexpected visitor.
Must have crept in during the last rain. I was checking my pots, and got a bit of a fright. Had a look today though – no frog. That pot would have been a bit too hot today, I suppose.
I got myself a new mug. Chunky, floral, and still good to perch a unicorn on!
Happily providing my dandelion coffee 🙂
It also looks sweet with its little “hat”.
I realised a while ago that I don’t tend to drink enough, and that the advent of summer would be a good time for drinking more. This was a portion of my liquid intake today (I prepare the herbal teas and let them draw for a while)
Coffee, of course. The herbal teas are mint, and hibiscus. The collagen powder was a freebie from Market Organics (someone ordered too much, in the wrong size). It’s not something I would usually buy, but I thought I’d give it a try. Supposed to be berry flavoured, I think. It tastes a bit like slightly weak, liquid jelly. Not sure what it’s doing for my health yet. The mint tea is nice – refreshing, with that little chill in the aftertaste. The hibiscus tea… I like it. It certainly seems to have health benefits I need. It does have a slight hint of sweetness, but overall is fairly sour (tart?). I don’t mind that – it’s quite refreshing as well. Sort of a fruity taste? It’s definitely pretty!
The tea it makes is a deep, dark pink. Almost Christmassy! 🙂
I will do my best to keep hydrated this summer. And stay excited for Christmas. Only 11 more days until I put the tree up! 😀
It’s been a lovely day, but I’m a bit tired now 🙂 Caught up with friends at a Home Group break-up brunch (can’t believe it’s almost Christmas!). Good food, good conversation…
Thankfully, we have a lot of good cooks. I tried to make some shortbread biscuits, which I had planned as little “gingerbread” people holding shortbread hearts. I had ingredients. I just couldn’t find my scales. So I decided to eyeball it – shortbread is a matter of ratios, really. Unfortunately, my measurement of the butter was a bit…overenthusiastic. And the sugar was raw sugar, rather than caster sugar. I’m not sure what type of biscuit I ended up with. Tasty (the boys liked them), but – so not shortbread. The texture was crunchier than I’d expected, because of the bigger granules of sugar, and the lovely shapes I painstakingly put together spread in the oven. I didn’t have food colouring for the hearts, so I used turmeric. Spicy, and sweet 🙂
Here’s my cutters. I didn’t have a heart one, so I just cut those freehand. The butterfly and star were for extras.
I pulled them out of the oven a bit early, and cut shapes out of the mess, but it wasn’t what I’d planned.
Crunchy. More fragile than I’d hoped. And a little turmeric goes a long way!
Still – a good day. The table was set beautifully, and each place had a sprig of rosemary as well. I brought some home, and have put them in water to see if they grow roots.
Lots of sunshine lately, after the storms a couple of weeks ago. My newest plant has a flower open, and I tried to take a good photo. The sun seems to make it look a bit glowy…
The (glossy) leaves seem pretty clear, though!
There are a lot of glimmering things about. What about the humble pigeon?
I’d wear that colour! 😀
The moon was having one of its “large” phases the other night. I have trouble photographing it – night mode gives a clear image, but makes it too small.
Using ordinary photo mode (and keeping hands as steady as possible) gives a better idea of size, but reduces clarity.
Still – that’s a bright moon!
Here’s night mode again – with tree and clouds…
…and a last try at moon portraiture through the screen door.
a bit of creativity, a bit of eco consciousness, a bit of inspiration.... hopefully not a lot of pompousness and blathering :D
i'm not entirely sure what's going on here... let's travel along and see...
1000 Fields of Roses 