by Krista | Oct 25, 2014 | Spring
Life is good but not very quiet for me right now. I’m up at 4:30 a.m. working on my book for a few hours until breakfast, then I’m outside to wrangle goats, take care of a sick mama, check on all the babies, water gardens to keep them alive during this drought, and the innumerable little tasks that farm life entails. Then it’s back to my book and writing assignments until dinner. It’s a good sort of busy, satisfying and fulfilling, but it doesn’t leave room for much quietness unless I choose it.
Yep, life is busy, and I’m still battling a flu that just won’t go away (begone foul thing!), so I’m learning to make quiet moments so I don’t get lost in the shuffle of must’s and should’s and it’ll-collapse-if-you-don’t’s.
Moments to sit in the breezeway and breathe in the scent of sweet peas brought by a kind friend, or peruse a stack of dreamy books for a few minutes of escapist inspiration.
Moments in town to sit my weary self down on a shady bench and look at my rings that remind me I have the strength and courage I need for every situation (foxy-ring), and that peace is always within my grasp if I just take the time to foster it (green ring).
Moments to savor, truly savor, good food and company. My gardens and the markets are overflowing with lusciousness at this time of year, so Bear and I are in veggie heaven.
At this time of my life I refuse to eat on the run or at my computer. Meals are my time to disconnect and rest and luxuriate in deliciousness and the companionship of Bear or friends who have dropped by.
Sometimes we’re too knackered to even chat, so we just sit on the back veranda and watch ducks waddling past and grass parrots toddle about. Others we’re nattering a mile a minute, swapping stories of projects started, finished, and only dreamt of. Either way, it’s bliss simply to reconnect and recharge.
Today we had boiled eggs (thanks, chickens!) and a chunky salad of capsicum, tomato, and Lebanese cucumber with Feta dressing. It hit the spot on this hot afternoon.
Now it’s time to get back to sorting through rather marvelous old photos for my book.
What quiet moments keep you going on busy days? xo
Chunky Salad with Feta Dressing
Serves 2
Ingredients:
1 red capsicum (bell pepper) seeded and chopped
2-3 Roma tomatoes, diced
1 Lebanese cucumber, quartered and sliced
1 Tbsp white wine vinegar
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1-2 Tbsp grated Feta cheese
1 tsp grainy mustard
salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
1. In medium bowl combine capsicum, tomato, and cucumber. Set aside.
2. In small bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients until emulsified.
3. Pour dressing over chopped vegetables and toss gently until coated.
4. Serve immediately.
by Krista | Oct 21, 2014 | Spring
If you paid a visit to our farm this week and happened to stroll by the plum orchard, you might be greeted by fierce hissing and serious stink eye from this chap, one of our Embden ganders. Bear has named him Goofy because he’s so feisty, attacking ankles, boots, shorts, anything within reach, until he gets used to you, then he morphs into your dearest friend, following you around while you work, chatting away in incomprehensible goose babble.
But this week he remains fierce, no matter what, because he’s got five of these gorgeous little yellow babies to protect.
It is rather difficult to get work done with this much cuteness only a stone’s throw away. We keep thinking up reasons to wander over there: bring some feed, fill the water troughs, check on the orchard. Any excuse will do.
It does not matter how crazy of a day you’re having, a few minutes with these waddling fluff balls of adorableness will set the world to rights.
I think this dreamy little one is my favorite, lost in thought, enraptured by sunshine glistening on waving grasses.
And lest you swoon from entirely too much darlingness, let me introduce one of the craziest looking chicks I’ve ever seen: a naked neck. They’re so marvelously ugly that you can’t help but adore them.
Even with all these chicks, goslings, and soon to be ducklings toddling about, we’re still getting heaps of eggs for the kitchen to go with our current garden produce. Breakfast these days is nearly always an array of freshly picked veggies roasted with oil and sea salt, accompanied by a souffle. Last week we had fresh dill souffles, then spinach and cheddar, and this morning it was parsley and Parmesan. Scrumptious.
What is a welcome distraction in your life this week? xo
Parmesan Souffle
Ingredients:
2 large eggs
2 Tbsp cream
1 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
1-2 Tbsp freshly grated Parmesan
salt and pepper to taste
drizzle of green chili sauce
2 tsp butter, separated
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 F (200 C).
2. In small bowl, whisk together all ingredients except butter.
3. Put one tsp of butter in the bottom of two ramekins.
4. Divide batter evenly between ramekins.
5. Place in oven and bake 20 minutes until souffles have puffed up and are golden brown on top.
6. Serve immediately.
by Krista | Oct 17, 2014 | Spring
“Over time I have come to believe that brave does not mean what we think it does.
It does not mean ‘being afraid and doing it anyway.’
Nope.
Brave means listening to the still small voice inside and DOING AS IT SAYS.
Regardless of what the rest of the world is saying.
Brave people block out all the yelling voices and
listen to the deepest voice inside the quietest, stillest place in their heart….
Brave is VERY SPECIFIC and EXTREMELY personal.
It can’t be judged by people on the outside.
Just can’t.
Sometimes brave means letting everyone else think you’re a coward.
Sometimes brave is letting everyone else down but yourself.
Brave people only answer to ONE voice and that is the voice that arises within.
Brave people are just people who trust themselves more than they trust the crowd.”
Glennon Melton
Sometimes you need to hide away from the world for a bit and care for yourself, body and soul, until strength and courage return. The past week has been such a time for me. Time for turning off my computer, shutting down my phone, and doing the things that ground me and make me feel safe and secure.
Time for learning a deeper kind of brave.
The weather seemed to think cocooning was a good idea too. The skies filled with dark clouds as wind howled through the trees with a spine-tingling roar, sending furniture, leaves, and branches hurtling across the yard.
My soul needed storms and wildness, so I settled into a chair on the back veranda to watch, wrapping a flannel shirt around me to ward off the chill. Soon the wind was joined by pelting rain, thunder so loud it shook the house, and streaks of lightning that flashed and danced wildly.
I breathed it all in, the swirl and dash, boom and shudder, crack and swish. When the wind sent the rain sheeting in under the veranda, pelting my face and drenching my bare feet, I scurried indoors, brewed a big cup of Earl Grey Tea and settled down on our bed to watch the storm through the window.
For a while I read, reminding myself of the healing work of mindfulness and self-care, the nourishing company of kindred spirits, then smiled as I realized that what my soul needed most right then was to sit…just sit…and
breathe
watch
listen
be.
So I closed my lovely book, held my tea between cold hands, and gave myself the gift of rest.
My dear friend Sam shared with me the passage I quoted at the beginning of this post. It meant so much to me, especially these words: “Brave people only answer to ONE voice and that is the voice that arises within.”
Cultivating a relationship of trust with myself has been difficult for me. For decades I’d believed lies that wonky religious leaders drummed into me, lies that said I was “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” or that there was “nothing good in me, no nothing, nothing at all.” Reciting such things over and over to yourself each day tends to have a crippling effect on your spirit. I became my own enemy. I was afraid of myself, wary of anything I felt or thought that went against what others deemed acceptable. So I drowned myself out with busyness and constant activity, muffled my voice under layers of soul-crushing religious teachings that I parroted in an attempt to be thought “good enough”, and made myself invisible by disassociating and moving like an automaton through life. Silence and stillness became my enemies, for they were the moments when I tentatively tried to speak.
I’m so thankful to not be in that place of shame and self-loathing anymore. It turns out I’m not evil and wicked with nothing good in me. None of us are. We’re just human with the usual mix of good and not-so-good inside us. When we neglect ourselves, the bad bits come to the fore; when we nourish ourselves, the good grows stronger and we’re a light in the world.
I treasure silence and stillness now. They are my invaluable companions in helping me calm down and work through the scary, sad, hurtful, and bewildering things of this world with a settled heart.
I’m learning to live more mindfully, to be fully present in my day to day activities rather than disconnecting and disassociating, coping methods I had to have when I lived in such inner turmoil, that are no longer necessary or helpful.
Sometimes I forget how vital quietness, mindfulness, and self-care are. I get caught up in projects and deadlines and revert to my old habits of frantic busyness. But now that I’m responsible for me – a deliciously scary thing – I’m learning to stop, breathe, observe, and get back on track.
This week was my return to those good things after falling off the wagon again. Thankfully I no longer berate myself when I take a tumble, well, not too much. A simple, “Oh bugger!” will usually suffice, perhaps an apology or two to those who’ve suffered from my frantic bout of mind-numbing busyness (I’m looking at you, Bear), and then I start fresh.
breathe
watch
listen
be.
What do you do to get back to a place of peace? xo
by Krista | Oct 10, 2014 | Spring
As I readied myself to get back to writing this morning, Bear looked at my frazzled self and suggested that I take a break for a bit and just work on things that have been niggling at me, projects that, when finished, would ease so much stress and enable me to write with a clear head. It was a jolly good suggestion and one I’m embracing wholeheartedly.
This morning break is a treasure, truly, with time to clean and air out my office after an unexpected flood earlier in the week, cook all sorts of good things in the kitchen, and maybe even just sit on the veranda for a bit with a book and a bowl of fresh strawberries and cream.
First on my list is a box full of red and green peppers. I roasted them until their skins blackened and bubbled and now they’re cooling and will soon be peeled, sliced, and tucked into jars with herbs, roasted garlic, and olive oil.
This is my first time roasting green peppers and I’m looking forward to tasting them. I think they may be rather scrumptious on tacos or chopped and stirred into chili.
Then I had bowls, buckets, and boxes full of veggies to work through. I snapped a pile of green beans to steam for a zesty salad tossed with feta and lime dressing, roasted carrots with dill for snacking, and make pineapple spearmint smoothies. I boiled up an entire stockpot of eggs to make curried egg salad – good thing we like eggs – and will soon work on the last of my pumpkins, roasting it for a salad with pine nuts and goat cheese. As my compost bucket fills with peels and shells, I take jaunts out to the chook pen to share the bounty with them. The chooks are delighted.
Breakfast this morning was gleaned from the garden: fresh chicken and duck eggs, Italian parsley, dill, and long spears of asparagus.
I made fluffy baked eggs blended with cream and seasoned with fresh dill, salt, and pepper, and roasted the asparagus with olive oil and Parmesan cheese.
I added a little bowl of blueberries and we were set.
Now it’s time to finish up the laundry, start on the pepper-peeling, then tackle the office and see if the carpet can be salvaged after the flood. I’m feeling my stress melt away already. 🙂
Is it hard for you to work when things around you are in mayhem? xo
Baked Eggs with Dill
(serves 3)
Ingredients:
4 large eggs
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 Tbsp fresh dill, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
butter for ramekins
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 F (180 C).
Butter three ramekins and set aside.
Beat all ingredients together and pour into ramekins.
Bake for 15-20 minutes until eggs puff up and brown on top. Serve immediately.
by Krista | Oct 6, 2014 | Spring
My favorite gardening chore is shelling peas. There’s something so peaceful about sitting with a huge bowl of peas, rhythmically stringing, shelling, tossing. When I was a little girl in Alberta, Canada, my Mum would plant 20 or more rows of peas every year. Some were sugar snaps that we could eat right away, but others, buckets and buckets of them, needed to be shelled and frozen for the long, cold winter ahead.
We used to sit on the back veranda that was shaded by huge trees, each with a big bucket overflowing with bright green peas. It was fun for a little while, but long before the chore was done, us kids would be restless and fidgety. At this point Mum would make the time go faster by telling us stories about her childhood on the Alberta prairies, or get us started on round-robin story telling. One person would start a story and when they ran out of ideas, the next person would pick up the thread, weaving their own tale until it was time to pass it on to the next person.
Our fingers flew as our minds were distracted by the stories, and before long our buckets would be full of little green pea jewels and the veranda littered with hundreds of empty pea pods.
With only Bear and I to plan for, I don’t plant 20+ rows of peas. Five rows suit us fine. But I still love the ritual of shelling peas, letting my mind wander to the stories I’m now writing as an adult. Instead of adventures on the Alberta prairies, my current stories are set in the wild bush country of Australia in the 1800’s.
Although the places are vastly different, it’s amazing to me how many of the stories are similar. European immigrants toiling to make a life off a strange land, battling wild animals and wicked weather, coming up with creative ways to clothe, feed, and medicate their families when the nearest shop or doctor took an entire day to reach. They learned what native fruits and plants were good to eat, planned ways to connect with distant neighbors through dances, church services, and work parties. They even came from the same countries: Denmark, Germany, England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland.
I find it quite lovely to see how, even though we’re on opposite sides of the world, we are more alike than some would think. We all want to be safe, happy, and loved, close to those we adore, with freedom to grow and learn and thrive. As I see the new waves of immigrants arriving in Australia, Canada, USA, and Europe, I can’t help but think of the other immigrants, the people who made the civilizations we love today. And I hope that we will support and encourage this new wave as much as we can. I can’t wait to see the contributions they make to our food, culture, medicine, faith, technology, all of it. As an immigrant myself, I’m so thankful for the Australians who have welcomed me, made me feel valued and wanted, and given me freedom to be myself.
With the last of my purple peas, I made a Spring potato salad with a hodgepodge of ingredients from around the world: Dutch purple peas, parsley and capers from the Mediterranean, paprika from Hungary, nasturtiums from the Americas, and potatoes from South America. If it wasn’t for immigrants, we wouldn’t have access to any of these ingredients. Eating it makes me smile, makes me purpose to give everyone a chance, especially the cultures I don’t understand or that scare me, for we all have something good and worthy to offer.
What is your favorite food from your family heritage? xo
Caper Pea Potato Salad
Ingredients:
10 medium-size potatoes (white, red, or gold)
1/2 – 3/4 cup whole egg mayonnaise
1 tsp paprika
handful fresh parsley, chopped
1 tsp salt
pepper to taste
1/4 cup capers, lightly drained
1/2 – 1 cup freshly shelled peas
Directions:
Cut potatoes in half and place in large pot. Cover with water, salt well, bring to the boil and boil about 15-20 minutes until potatoes are easily pierced with a fork. Drain well. Spread on cookie sheet and set aside (or put in fridge) to cool.
While potatoes are cooling, whisk together mayonnaise, paprika, parsley, salt, and pepper until well mixed. Stir in capers and fresh peas.
When potatoes are cool, slice them into a large serving bowl. Pour dressing over and stir gently to coat. Serve immediately or chill until ready to serve.
by Krista | Oct 2, 2014 | Spring
You know how sometimes everything happens at once and you find yourself just a wee bit frazzled as you try to keep on top of it all? Well, it’s that sort of week here as I collect and complete the last of my Australian visa paperwork and get it to our lawyer, finish the final draft of my book and start the design process, and somehow find time to finish Spring planting, look after baby chicks, and make sure we don’t starve to death. Yep, it’s a crazy time so self-care and quiet moments are essential.
Yesterday was Town Day and I decided to put everything else out of my mind and make a celebration of it. We went out for breakfast and discussed all sorts of projects, found a myriad of treasures at various thrift stores, and stumbled on a serious plant sale where every veggie plant was 25 cents!! Let’s just say we’re going to have bushels of tomatoes and zucchini this summer. The afternoon was more relaxed and I had a great meeting with my counselor (how I love her!) and spent a happy hour or two at the library leafing through fabulous books and putting together a puzzle. We ended the day with roast pork and crackling (yum!!) and chips and gravy – good ol’ comfort food.
Today is a blur as we track down various documents, print out pieces of evidence, and write up proof that our marriage is real. Although it’s stressful, there’s something quite lovely about writing down why you’re with someone and what makes your relationship work. We’re keeping ourselves going with stops for marvelous Red Delicious apples, homemade bread rolls, and coffee.
And I’m taking a moment to document three things that are making me smile today. If you’d like to see the fourth, pop over to Facebook to see the newest cutie-patooties at our house.
One: this pressie from my friend Ann. It’s so pretty I can’t bear to put it away, and it’s been sitting on my kitchen table for a week.
Two: inspiring books. I have a towering stack of books on the veranda for me to leaf through on my breaks. It’s so nice to sit out there on hot afternoons, sipping bush lemonade and losing myself in the creativity of others.
Three: eggs. Oh so many eggs. Geese, ducks, and chickens are laying right now and I have eggs everywhere! Filling bowls, stacked on plates, mounded on platters. Good heavens. 🙂 If you have any eggolicious recipes you’d like to share, I’d love it! They do make me smile though because they remind me how lucky we are to never, ever go hungry.
How about you? How’s life in your world right now? What little things are making you smile? xo
Moments in town to sit my weary self down on a shady bench and look at my rings that remind me I have the strength and courage I need for every situation (foxy-ring), and that peace is always within my grasp if I just take the time to foster it (green ring).
Moments to savor, truly savor, good food and company. My gardens and the markets are overflowing with lusciousness at this time of year, so Bear and I are in veggie heaven.
Now it’s time to get back to sorting through rather marvelous old photos for my book.
