1000 Fields of Roses

Rambling With A Happy Heart

Today was a bit of a day… I was in a tussle with The-Government-Department-Which-Shall-Not-Be-Named for most of the day, and it still hasn’t been resolved.
It’s been a lovely sunny day, though – hasn’t it?
Just before lunch I decided to go for a walk. I walk through the nearby cemetery, which tends to concentrate my thoughts anyway… on this walk, I noticed several things. I was contemplating the problems of money, or the lack of it, as I was walking along the road. I looked down, and there was a five cent piece at my feet.

No, it’s not going to pay off the mortgage. It’s a reminder, though, that I’m blessed and provided for.

I turned in to the cemetery and noticed a tiny spider web in the grass at my feet.

You might not be able to see that very well – the slightly foggy looking bit in the middle is a fine gossamer web, the only one left at that time of the morning. I walked through here earlier in the morning a couple of days ago. There were hundreds of these in the grass, sparkling with dew. They didn’t last. I saw this one and thought of perseverance.

Lives change suddenly, in big ways or in small. Mine is taking a bit of a detour at the moment – not in a massive way – just requiring a shift in thought and action. My third sight for the day was the bright yellow dandelions dotted through the grass. I suppose if you have a lawn to care for, you have a different view of dandelions… I love them. They’re tiny, but they pop up all over, regardless of the surroundings, turning their shining faces to the sun.

They even seem to glow!

…and this was one of the songs I was listening to. 🙂

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on May 7, 2015 at 6:51 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: contemplation, dandelions, walking

Time For Science!

…or science for time?
We’re moving through the timeline for history studies – last term was pre- to the beginnings of ancient history. This term we’re continuing on to the end of the classical era.
As part of our studies I’ve been using a book called “Ancient Science”, and today we looked at ancient ways of telling the time – a sundial (Egypt) and a water clock (Greece)

We followed the instructions in the book, and found that our sundials were reading backwards… it seems obvious to me now, but I had forgotten to factor in that we are in the Southern Hemisphere. The book was printed in the Northern Hemisphere, but we needed to turn everything upside-down! 🙂
Added to that was the fact that we hadn’t used the right angle for the triangle in the middle (the gnomon or style) that corresponded with our geographical latitude. For our house, the angle should be 27.4*. Having just looked over the pdf from Queensland University of Technology, I realise that we made another mistake – we rewrote the hours on the base of the sundial, while still pointing the base of the gnomen North. We should have pointed it South…
Our other problem was using a cheap, wonky compass. The above photo was slightly out – it should have shown the time as round about 11.30am.

Here they are, corrected.

Our second project was the water clock, called “clepsydra” (literally “water-thief”) by the Greeks. It works on the principle that water flows at a regular rate, and uses marks on a receptacle that show the water flow for regular intervals (our book said to mark out each minute; we marked each 30 seconds). We had some issues with the water flow with this, as we followed the (misleading) illustration in the book. It showed the hole used as being slightly above the base, but probably would have worked better being at the base…

Here’s the (sorry-blurry 🙂 ) results…

A fun day today – and a good opportunity to learn from mistakes!

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on May 6, 2015 at 6:01 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: ancient science, clepsydra, sundial, water clock

Rising To The Occasion

Bread again today!
We made focaccia – quicker than the bread we made a couple of weeks ago, so we were able to have it with lunch…
We’ve been having trouble with it rising, since the temperature has been a bit cooler lately. Today was warmer anyway, and we put the dough out in the sun, under a teatowel. We used cheese, onion and rosemary for the topping. Here’s the result 🙂

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on May 6, 2015 at 4:54 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: baking, bread, focaccia

Night Lights

We went to the Ipswich Lantern Parade this evening. I think it’s the first time it’s been done so late – there were a variety of lanterns, a well as other forms of lighting. The hot air balloon company shooting a huge flame into the air was quite spectacular. We were a bit worried each time it passed under trees, though…
It was fun, and I’m glad we went. Way too many cars at the start, though.

Just before the parade started.

Littlest Bean was quite excited. He tried some of the craft – a block printed banner, and a clay head sculpture. He won a couple of things at the kids’ activities (including a Lego mini-figure set – much excitement!), but we were looking forward to seeing the Tardis. It’s at a shop in town, and festival-goers could have their photo taken there. Little bean wore both his and my medals from a virtual fun run we did a while back…

I believe it normally serves as a changing room…
With his curls, and a floppy hat and scarf, he could have been the fourth Doctor.
We had fun. Glad to be home, though.

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Thinking....

on May 2, 2015 at 9:59 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Ipswich Festival Parade, Tardis

Lazy Loaf

Baking again today! 🙂
We decided to do some more bread, but chose Nigella Lawson’s Lazy Loaf recipe. It’s a sort of non-sweet fruit loaf, and meant to be mixed and then just left in the oven at varying temperatures…

Yum!!

Here’s the basic recipe –

Lazy Loaf

200g muesli (we didn’t have any, so just combined rolled oats with sultanas)
325g wholewheat bread flour
1 sachet (6g) instant yeast
1 tsp salt (we use Himalayan)
250ml milk
250ml water

Mix dry ingredients, then mix in wet ingredients. It will look like a thick porridge.
Pour into greased loaf tin.
Place into a cold oven, then turn on to 110*C. Leave for 45 minutes. Then turn up to 180*C, leave for one hour. Tip out and tap base of loaf – if it sounds hollow, it’s cooked. If not, put in the oven for about 10 minutes more. Cool on a rack.
Eat warm with lots of butter 🙂

We had some issues with our oven, and didn’t have a loaf tin (we used a steep-sided casserole dish), so our loaf took longer than it should have. Still worth cooking!

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on April 29, 2015 at 8:46 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: lazy loaf, nigella lawson

April 25

LEST WE FORGET

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Thinking....

on April 25, 2015 at 4:25 am Leave a Comment

Bread And Biscuits

We’ve been baking this week! Wednesday we did a simple bread recipe – we’ve been watching one of the River Cottage series and decided to try it…
The dough after the first proving – the boys each did their own loaf.
Waiting to go in the oven…
Yum! 🙂
Lovely hot from the oven, with butter (and maybe a little bit of honey)

Since tomorrow is Anzac Day, we made Anzac biscuits today, to a basic recipe from “The Commonsense Cookery Book”. We sampled some today, but left the rest for tomorrow..

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Homeschool

on April 24, 2015 at 11:22 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: anzac biscuits, bread, commonsense cookery book, river cottage

Cosy

Finally, we’re getting a taste of winter!
I can’t say I love being cold, but I find it better than sweating and trying to cool down without success…
I love being able to snuggle up in a blanket, reading a book… here’s my chair/bed, all dressed up in pink and pillows, with my princess sleeping bag for when it’s too cold. 🙂
Here’s to snuggling with a good book!

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Simple life...

on April 21, 2015 at 10:27 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: pink, reading books, winter

School, Sales And Serendipity

Another school term! It’s going well so far…
Saturday we went to the book sale at the local library. They happen fairly regularly, and we usually stock up on educational books. This one was no exception – about seventy books for $23 (and then they gave us $5 back – they didn’t want to overcharge…)
On our way home we passed an old bloke thumbing a lift on the main road out of town. We circled back to pick him up… he was on his way out to one of the outer suburbs here. That’s what he told us, and we said we’d be happy to drop him off where he needed to go. Had a chat on the way there – turned out he was ultimately trying to get to a little place outside Armidale, with a stop in Boonah to try and pick up some work to earn his bus fare further on. He’d lost his farm to the bank (the last dairy farm in the area), was left with just enough to put his wife on a bus the day before. He’d been travelling since around dawn… hadn’t had the money to eat that day. He was only sorry he didn’t have enough to give us for the lift.
Ever had one of those fortnights where you pay all the bills, and somehow, unexpectedly, have a bit left over? We’ve just had one of those fortnights… It was lovely to have the ability to help him with his bus fare, with a bit left over for food. He was still going to check out the day’s work – he’d made a promise, and he wanted to keep his word.
You never know what you’ll find in a day. We almost passed by… it would have been easy. We’ve had many people help us when we’ve been in need. I’m glad for any chance to pass that on.
I don’t know if or when he got to his destination. Probably never will.
Sad (and yes, angry) that someone who seems to be a good, hardworking bloke should be in that situation, especially at a time when he and his wife should be able to be looking at retirement. Prayed for them that night. And still glad we were there that day, at that time – just passing by…

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