Healthy, Simple Living - and promoting my other blog (one of)

Harvesting our potatoes from the veggie garden.

These are King Edwards and Dutch Creams (Dutch creams make the best mash, with lots of butter)



Seeing as I was all inspired with the garden (when we had a couple of days of sun last week, its raining again now), I thought I would tell you about one of my other blogs - Watering the Seed

Watering the Seed is about Healthy Living, Simple Living, Natural Living, Christian Living.

Due to my own health issues over the last 8 years or so, I have been led down the path of discovering about different foods and techniques for basic health. 

Also about various herbs and healing plants, standing in faith and believing God for healing, how the body works, etc, etc.

I am a trained Remedial Massage therapist, and am currently studying aromatic and herbal medicine. I don't have any great plans to have a career in these areas, I am simply motivated to learn to help my family and friend and myself.

Above:  These are some of the processes that can be going on in my kitchen at any given time.

In one container I have rice soaking in water with some apple cider vinegar - this helps to break down the rice before cooking, making it more easily digestible.

The other container is lentils soaking in the same solution (sometimes I use whey, if I have any). 

I will either cook these after soaking, or drain them and leave them to sprout.

There are very good reasons why you would want to take the time to soak these things like this before eating.

Below:  This is the start of a new sourdough culture I am making, I managed to kill the last one from neglect, but I had been using it for quite some time before that happened.  All it is, is flour and water + the naturally occuring organisms in the wheat and air that cause a fermentation process.

This allows me to make lovely healthy sourdough bread at home, for a fraction of the cost that it is in the shops.

Here it is a few days later - see how it is starting to go bubbly?

It is nearly ready to put into a jar and start using. Brilliant!  Don't you just love God's creation? (As long as we work with it and not against it ;) )

Here are some German Chamomile (Matricaria Recutita) flowers I picked from the garden - I'm going to make a pot of tea with these and some Lemon Balm (Melissa Officianalis).

The Lemon Balm just self seeds all over my garden.

Here are both herbs together in the jug

If any of these topics are of interest to you - hop over and have a peep at Watering the Seed

If not, the crochet and crafty and arty channel will be resumed shortly.

Cheers

Fi

Around the house with Izzy

I've been very busy this week, as I have just enrolled at TAFE (not sure what it's called overseas - technical college, advanced education???)

I'm doing a Certificate 1V of Aromatherapy. (I already have a Diploma of Remedial Massage, so have a lot of course credits.)

My plan is to go on to do an Advanced Diploma of Aromatic Medicine.  I love herbs and essential oils, they are so good for so many health issues.

So I thought I would just share a few random images of roundabout the place.

This is my Rayburn woodburning stove.  I love it.  It's the best for making scones, baking/roasting meats, etc.  And for just general all round cosiness.

That's Nate in the photo when he was 3 - cuddling his Mr. Doobee.  Australians will know who I'm talking about if they are old enough to remember Romper Room.

And I love this image - it's not real clear as it's taken through a glass door. If I had thought, I would have opened the door first........

I thought I would sit down and do a bit on the ripple, but.....

Izzy didn't like that idea.

And she made it painfully clear that she didn't.

Mummy!!!!!!   Look at me!!!!!!! Me!!!!

I am going to spread myself out on as much of you as I possibly can mummy - so don't even bother trying to find that crochet hook.

Now, play with me.

Cindy - this one's for you - see Miss Marple on the laptop?

Also please note the fashion statement of the year - pyjamas underneath an apron.

These are some of my Sarah London appeal squares.

So, when you're crocheting in your pyjamas, you obviously need to get out the Royal Albert China.

....... those muffins are the HEALTHY variety......

Cheers

Fi



Happy Birthday Nate

I saw your true colours, shining through -

beautiful - like a rainbow,

Love Mum

xxx

Down to the beach - again

My sister-in-law and brother-in-law took my husband, myself and mother-in-law out for lunch last week.

So off the mountain we came again.

It wasn't that long since we were down here having lunch, but who's complaining.......

This is the restaurant (to the right of the picture) that we ate at.

The view across the table, through the window.

Hubby wishing that he was still......

And the view along the beach.

But, surprise, surprise, we must have taken a wrong turn or something on the way home, because look where we ended up!

Naturally, I was FORCED to buy something.....



Cheers

Fi

What Can I Do?...... and an invitation

Don't you sometimes just feel helpless, when you know people are suffering and there's not a lot you can do?

I sort of felt a bit like that this morning.

I was planning on a slow day, just finishing off (yes, Im at that stage) my ripple blanket......

But I can't help thinking about not only the people in the floods in Queensland, but now the ones going through the cyclone.  I feel like crying (I did a bit)

A much better way to spend my day, will be to get to work on these -

These are the squares I started for the Sarah London Flood Appeal.

She has invited crocheters to send in granny squares of 5 rows each (more details on site), and she will have them made into blankets for the flood victims, to 'Crochet a Rainbow', as she put it.

If you have a spare half hour today, I would invite you to crochet along for a couple of squares and send them in.

It may not seem like a lot to some people, to crochet a few squares - but, when you think, that a lot of people have lost everything that they called 'home', these are the sorts of things that money can't necessarily replace.
It's like wrapping up your warm wishes around the people that receive them.

And it helps the people (like me) who feel there is nothing much they can do.  I CAN contribute, I CAN do something.  And that somehow makes me feel connected to them.

I heard one father on the news saying, "How do you tell your little boy that he can't go home".

Cheers
Fi

P.S.  I just had a thought, that Im going to try and organise a crochet day at our Church, for people to come and crochet squares for the day, then send them in collectively - maybe you are part of a group that would be interested in doing that in your area.

Calling for prayer

Could I ask for anyone reading this that believes in the power of prayer, to pray for the people of Far North Queensland, who are expecting a cyclone to hit tonight, worse than any that has ever hit this country.

Let's join together in prayer and believe for these people.

Thankyou

Fi