by Krista | Dec 13, 2013 | Summer
I love summer rains here in Queensland, especially the soft, gentle ones that last all day, hushing the world into quietness, making me feel like I’m on an island instead of a hilltop.
I love going outside in these rains, strolling through my gardens, breathing in the smells of damp earth and rain-washed herbs.
My garden is a late bloomer this year and for awhile there I wondered if anything would grow. I’m happy to report that lots of things are growing at last: tomatoes are ripening and chilies darkening, herb seedlings leafing out after looking decidedly straggly for a long time.
The pumpkins are flourishing, sending forth bright orange blossoms. I’ve never grown pumpkins before and I’m very excited for Autumn when they’ll be ready. Aussies have introduced me to a whole new cuisine with pumpkins. I grew up eating them in sweet things: pies, jelly rolls, and sweet breads. Now I love them in savory dishes: roasted with herbs until they taste like candy, tossed into pasta with creamy chunks of chevre, scattered over pizza with crispy prosciutto. Mmm.
I’m especially excited to see my calendula blooming. It is such a wonderfully healing plant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, astringent, antifungal, antiviral, and immunostimulant. I can’t wait to harvest the petals to infuse in oil for a healing skin ointment and stir them into luscious creams and soaps.
I suppose I could be using the fennel blossoms for something, but they look so pretty and delicate that I can’t bear to cut them just yet.
After my garden meanderings, I like to sit down with a good book and a nibble. This week I’ve been making homemade gummies.
I adore gummies. They’ve been my favorite candy since I was a little girl. Unfortunately most store-bought ones are full of sugar and chemicals, so I started making my own. They are ridiculously easy, take five minutes to make, 15 minutes to set, and that’s it!
I started with Apricot ones, which were delicious, and yesterday I made an adult version with homemade Sour Plum Juice and Port Wine. Oh my. Glistening little jewels with rich flavors and a hint of sweetness, they are my new favorite.
They are scrumptious accompaniments to my wood-burning, keeping me going as I etch designs into spoons, paintbrushes, and Christmas ornaments.
What is your favorite treat while you’re working on projects?
Sour Plum Port Wine Gummies
Ingredients:
1/3 cup plum juice (to make your own simply simmer 4-5 halved plums in 3/4 cup water until plums are soft, strain, bring juice to boil and simmer until 1/2 cup juice is achieved)
3 Tbsp grass-fed gelatin
13 Tbsp Port Wine
1 tsp real maple syrup
Directions:
- Pour juice into small saucepan over medium heat. Sprinkle gelatin over juice, stirring and heating just until gelatin is dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in Port Wine and maple syrup.
- Pour into container with spout.
- Use container to fill chocolate molds or ice cube trays 1/2 way.
- Place in freezer for 15 minutes then remove.
- Gummies will remove easily from molds.
- Store in fridge until ready to eat.
by Krista | Dec 11, 2013 | Summer
Although my actual birthday wasn’t so festive thanks to doc visits and whatnot, Bear and our dear friend Elizabeth pulled out all the stops in giving me a fantastic birthday celebration when I was feeling much perkier.
Bear and I left home bright and early to drive through the misty mountains to Brisbane, entertaining ourselves with a new audio book while munching our way through brekky: salted dark chocolate, toasted croissant with turkey, cranberries and brie, and an oh-so-creamy chai latte. Bliss.
Our first stop was the Brisbane Botanical Gardens. I love it here. Love, love, love it. And never tire of wandering through the twisting pathways. Even when I’m by myself I’m rarely alone for there are always tiny and not-so-tiny lizards scurrying about and once I even happened upon an 8-foot python sunning himself on the rocks!! Yipes! That is one sight I don’t mind never seeing again. This time I was followed through the gardens by a marvelously colored bush turkey. Don’t know why he took a fancy to me, but I was delighted with his company. (click here to read about my discoveries in the rain forest)
We met up with Elizabeth and were whisked away to a beautiful penthouse apartment with stunning views of the city. Elizabeth had created the most wonderful champagne brunch and I felt spoiled rotten as she brought out platters filled with fresh mango, plump cherries, and toasted croissants stuffed with avocado and brie.
We finished our gorgeous meal with a stunning gluten-free chocolate roll filled with fresh cream and studded with cherries. Oh my. Twas rich with chocolate flavor yet light as air. Pure decadence. The best part is that she shared her recipe!! You can find it at the end of this post.
Just when we thought we couldn’t fit another morsel in our bellies, Elizabeth and Bear announced that we’d better skedaddle if we were going to make our lunch reservations at a seafood restaurant in Manly. More food?! Those two know how to plan a party!
So off we went to Manly, opening our windows to bask in luscious sea breezes as drove along the coast. We dined at Keith’s on Cambridge, a small but bustling establishment with views of the harbour and windows that opened to capture cooling winds off the water. We sat down to more champagne and grinned at the Christmas decorations that were festive but so odd when the weather was so warm.
The food was fantastic. Truly. Even though I loved the massive coconut prawns, marinated grilled halloumi, and tender chunks of crab and lobster, the most unexpected pleasure was the bowl of deep-fried, breaded olives. Good heavens. I could’ve eaten the whole bowl myself. It was a glorious birthday lunch.
After lunch we ambled down to the harbor, grateful for cooling (albeit fierce) winds as we perused market stalls, admired boats bobbing in the water, and stepped onto the white sand.
It was a great day for people-watching and checking out the wind-surfers hurtling across the water in the stiff breezes.
After a nice stroll we headed to the Manly Gallery, a small but inspiring place featuring local artists and artisans. I loved the vivid colors of these paintings and went home with a bar of exquisitely scented lemongrass soap.
It was a beautiful birthday with dear ones, scrumptious food, and a gorgeous setting. What is your favorite memory from your birthday this year?
Elizabeth’s Chocolate Roll with Fresh Cream
Ingredients:
4 eggs separated
4 Tbsp castor sugar
1 heaped Tbsp cornflour
1 heaped Tbsp cocoa
1 tsp vanilla extract
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375 F (180 C)
- Prepare jellyroll pan by lining with baking parchment.
- Whisk egg whites till foamy, gradually add sugar and beat till thick.
- In separate bowl whisk egg yolks, vanilla, cornflour and cocoa.
- Fold egg yolk mix into egg whites.
- Spread onto jellyroll pan and bake 15 minutes until cooked.
- Lay out clean tea towel and dust with castor sugar.
- Tip cake onto tea towel, peel away baking paper.
- Gently roll and leave till cool.
- Fill with whipped cream and decorate with fresh cherries.
by Krista | Dec 10, 2013 | Summer
Life is not always rosy here on the farm.
Sometimes you get kicked in the backside by a goat so many times that you can hardly move for the next two days.
Sometimes you drop a wood-burning tool on your leg and sizzle yourself rather badly.
Sometimes you get the 24-hour flu three times in one week.
But it’s not always like that. Thank goodness! 🙂 Lovely things filter their way in making the painful, frustrating things much easier to bear.
Love-filled parcels from Germany and Denmark arrive, chockablock with wonderful things like hand-scrolled ornaments, beautiful pictures of beloved faces, and cookies and tea from Russia.
Stopping by the dump and seeing their jolly tribute to the holidays.
You open a mystery box from America to discover it’s a birthday pressie from Bear – the Harry Potter series, the Hogwart’s Library, and the Guardians of Childhood series – and you’re so happy you can’t help smiling whenever you think of it.
Sunday morning cuppas, cake, and reading at a favorite cafe with my Bear.
It all seems to sort itself out.
Today is marvelously cool and cloudy and I get to spend it going to the doctor and cozying away in a cafe to work on some beloved projects that will be unveiled in the weeks to come.
What lovely things are making your painful aspects easier to bear this week?
by Krista | Dec 6, 2013 | Summer
Just when I thought I’d explored every inch of the Brisbane Botanical Gardens, I discovered the lush rainforest.
It is truly an enchanting place, especially first thing in the morning when there isn’t another soul on the trails, giving you an entire rainforest to yourself to explore.
Such solitude lends itself to observation, allowing you to notice treasures like this.
The trails lead up, up, up through fern grottoes, palm groves, and beautiful waterfalls.
I stood here a long time, lulled into reverie by the water and wind through the palm fronds.
At first glance the rainforest is a sea of greens – lime, Kelly, emerald – but if you move slowly, you discover stunning blossoms in colors and shapes straight out of Dr. Seuss stories.
The trees are like marvelous sculptures with their incredible above ground root systems and wondrously textured trunks covered in stripey layers and spiky knobs.
The rainforest is a wonderful place to amble through, quiet, utterly serene, and astonishing.
It is the colors that delight me the most with their strange shapes and dazzling hues.
And I love the rough stones steps that make the rainforest look like the setting for an Indian Jones movie.
Aren’t these blooms amazing? Looking at the simple green leaves you’d never imagine that such beauteous flowers would emerge.
My favorite trees were these ones, hung with oblong gourds that dangled like otherworldly Christmas ornaments.
It is the bobbing gourds and enormous pods resembling pine cones that turn simple bushland into something exotic.
I’d never seen anything like these luminous blue blossoms almost hidden in a profusion of glossy green leaves.
And I loved these ones that look like purple tipped flames. Wondrous.
What is the last place that awed you with its beauty? xo
by Krista | Dec 4, 2013 | Summer
Do it scared.
I’ve been mulling over these words since I heard them earlier this week. Letting them filter down into the frightened, anxious, insecure cracks in my soul and flooding them with courage, with deep breaths of resolve, with encouraging nods of “go on, give it a whirl”.
It’s a lovely thing to be reminded that we don’t have to wait to “do” until we’re brave, prepared, confident, assured, validated, affirmed. We don’t have to put the doing on hold until we feel clever enough, talented enough, worthy enough. We don’t have to wait until we have what we’re told is sufficient health, wealth or education.
We can just Do. Try. Attempt. Have a go. Give it the ol’ College Try. (I actually have no idea what that last phrase means, but it’s folksy and I like it.)
We can do the things that are important to us. Those deep, secret, treasured dreams that give us so much happiness we can hardly bear to bring them out into the light for fear they will lose their shimmer or that others will not see their value.
As I pondered these words, I thought of the brave people in my life who are Doing It Scared.
- Quitting a hated job in pursuit of a freelance career that fills her heart with joy even though there’s no guaranteed paycheck.
- Moving to the place that feels like home even though they don’t have jobs, a house, or a secure future, just because they know it’s the right thing.
- Leaving her high-paying, prestigious job and starting a new home business because she couldn’t bear the thought of spending the rest of her life under intense stress.
- Celebrating the love she shared with her husband by going on every trip he’d planned for them before he died.
- Launching an Etsy shop with her beautiful handmade creations after twenty years as a stay at home, homeschooling Mom because she realized her dreams and goals matter too.
- Embracing a whole new way of eating and living in the hopes of healing their battered selves even when others told them it was impossible.
- Leaving an abusive spouse and building a new, beautiful, safe life with her daughter.
- Going back to school in her 60’s because she wanted to grow and find friends.
- Leaving a place of painful memories and starting over in the place that fills his soul with peace and hope.
- Hiring a life coach at age 40 because she doesn’t want to let those who told her she was worthless steal one more moment of her life.
- Facing his abusive past and transforming his life through counseling even though everyone told him counseling was a waste of time and money.
- Getting up each day and taking a shower because she’s not going to let Depression win.
It makes me cry to think of them, happy, proud tears because I know what such bravery cost them. But they did it anyway.
So I take a deep breath and I press on through all the “not good enough’s” and all the naysayers and doom-prophecy-ers and dream-underminers – especially the traitorous ones in my own thoughts! – and I Do It Scared.
- I create things I think are pretty and hope others like them too.
- I scribble Dream Lists and try to do one thing every day that gets me closer.
- I experiment with new recipes and groan at the flops and happy dance at the deliciouso ones.
- I keep going back to the doctor for tests and try new medicines and supplements and ways of eating and hope that one day, ONE DAY, we’ll find the things that heal this poor ol’ body of mine.
- I speak my dreams aloud, albeit with a quavering, hesitant voice, and feel braver and stronger every time.
- I exercise every day even though it doesn’t make a lick of difference because my body just wants to stay chubby right now.
- I reach out to the dream-makers in my life and cheer them on because we need each other.
- I go to my beloved counselor, even though it’s painful and hard, and do whatever I can to become a thrive-er not just a survivor.
- I reach out to strangers because I need friends and maybe they do too.
Is there anything you’re Doing Scared this month? I’d love to hear so we can cheer each other on. xo
by Krista | Nov 28, 2013 | Summer
Sometimes you have to spend your birthday going to see doctors because the treatment that was working to get you better stopped working and you’re getting much worse again.
Sometimes the doctors tell you they need you to go back to the hospital and be put under anesthetic and go through some rather invasive tests to find out what the dickens is going on.
And sometimes it all feels scary and painful and sad and awful so you have to have a cry and feel a bit sorry for yourself then take a deep breath and get the ol’ chin up and make it a good birthday anyways.
So you go to a beloved cafe where the people are happy to see you and engage you in jolly conversation and bring you a pot of Earl Grey Tea with milk and sugar and an oh-so-comforting breakfast and before long you’re sinking into a comfy gold armchair with a good book and the world has started to right itself.
And you get lost in a new murder mystery and think how even though it’s dreadful getting sick again it’s so much better than being murdered by a dastardly n’er-do-well.
And while you’re waiting for the next doctor you order another pot of tea and indulge in a new dessert simply because it has pink icing and is filled with jam and has a dollop of fresh cream and makes you smile.
And your phone keeps pinging because Bear told his co-workers it was your birthday and they keep writing with messages of love and kindness and cheer and you can feel your wobbly ol’ heart swell and feel loved and much, much braver.
Then Bear pulls in to pick you up and take you home and there on the trailer is your beloved car, Lucy, all glossy and spiffed up after a couple of months in the shop. And you’re so happy to see her you get rather teary and hug and smooch Bear who beams back and hands you…
…a bouquet of roses he had hidden in the car and then you get even more teary cuz you’re sick and feel like death and it’s so lovely when someone’s so nice and thoughtful when you feel so terrible. Then you both pile in Lucy and go for a little drive around the farm, weaving through trees and goats and ducks, so happy to be driving again after 2.5 years without a car.
And then you sink into comfy chairs and put on a funny old movie and dine on fish and chips and champagne and feel like two of the luckiest people in the world.
And it ends up being a very, very good birthday after all. xo
