1000 Fields of Roses

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.

A day to enjoy.
And rosemary, to remember.
❤

The car’s still not operational.
We thought, initially, that it was the battery.
Got a new one, put it in. Nope.
Then we thought it was the alternator.
Got a new one, put it in. Nope.
Trying for a starter motor now…
Hopefully we’ll be up and running some time early next week 🙂

Since I haven’t been out of the house for a bit, I’ve been steadily working my way through my papers. I’ve accomplished quite a lot. It took me a while to work out how to sort things (and there are still some anomalies), but a couple of days ago, things seemed to fall into place!
Yay!

I’ve been sitting in my art room, with a cuppa and the fan on…listening to Enya, or Loreena McKennitt.
Just browsing through my history, finding things I’d forgotten I’d written over the years.

I’ll be glad when we’re mobile again.
But I’m enjoying my little creative oasis.
Piecing together papers, and cars…
And a cute mashup of cats and bugs!

❤

We had a weekend of mishaps – car stopped working (just before going to do the weekly shop), and the storm yesterday turned into big hailstones…no critical damage, but things that need fixing.

I was watching the lightning yesterday afternoon through my bedroom window – big flashy strikes, straight down to the ground, and looking like they weren’t very far away.
Decided to film a bit, although the rain was coming down in sheets by the time I started filming.

I had to cut this short so we could plug the leaks…
It doesn’t seem to be as bad as our last house. Pretty sure it was the fierceness of this particular storm that made things leak. That, and maybe the fact that the windows are old, the putty holding the glass in is brittle and largely missing, and the wood of the frames looks like it’s rotting.
Still better than we’ve had before. Certainly more manageable.

Here’s a view of the hail towards the end of the storm.

We had a look outside after the storm.
The yard looked a bit bedraggled.

Those dark patches on the pot are not dirt or leaves that have been kicked up. That’s where the hail punched through.
Here’s a better view –

Might need to repot that.
I’m absolutely amazed (and pleased 🙂 ) that my plants made it through so well, though!

The power went out for a time.
We got a bit hot and uncomfortable in the humidity, but it was only a few hours before we got power back.
And it gave us time to play trivia questions by candlelight with the boys ❤