Connecting with Life's little Blessings

A gift from ex HelpxChange, Amy.

I can't believe my good fortune!  2 weeks holiday!  Yay.  I've been waiting for this for 13 weeks!  I have my usual lists of TTD (things to do).   
The first day's list was flat-out ignored in favour of Blobbing.  Given that it was raining a fair-dinkum flood outside, I did not feel very guilty at all.  Did a bit of this, A bit of that.  We sat and watched 2 day-time movies.  Yep, we are serious movie watchers, in danger of running out of viable viewing matter. We have historically hired videos from our local video store, then our son worked there for 2 years and we had the great benefit of watching movies he would bring home for us, for free.   When he moved away to Hamilton, we supported an online video hire outfit for a year.  But then we thought, hey, why not offer our local video store owner our support instead, if he could match the online membership deal.  Realising that he could count on our regular business, he immediately agreed and now our money stays local. That's sustainable business.  Connecting with local business.

Fly my Pretty Dragon.  Detail on our garden shed door.

Sometimes, I get so busy on projects that I have to force myself to stop, look around and enjoy what we have already created.  Breathe in the beauty all around.  So armed with my camera, I captured some images that remind me of little moments of  beauty created over the last few years.  And admired some of the "artworks" that already enrich our home and lives.  These are are random items that connect me to a person, or place.

Home-crafted  stepping stones

A week has already passed since I started to write this post, and in between,we spent a couple of days with very dear old friends in the Far North, whom we had not seen in 12 years. Precious memories of Connectedness.

Wall plaques created by our children when they were pre-teens

Capturing the sign created by a HelpxChanger, and the reflected garden in the window of the shed

Today I spent the day in the presence of like-minded women.  All healers.  All reflexologists. We gathered to simply celebrate time together sharing ideas, stories, opinions and treatments.  Wonderful stuff.  Moments of Inter-Connectedness.  

Imagine a group of doctors getting together to share stories, ideas, swap prescriptions and drive away feeling uplifted and fulfilled?  Hmmmn, interesting idea.

Wha???  Well, spot the poop.  Hedgehog poop.  Yay.  They are nocturnal so
this is the closest we should get to a healthy, happy hedgie.  The things that make me happy!

The garden has been producing 5-7kg of feijoas, daily, for the last 3-4 weeks.  I am exhausted.  Just the picking is a half hour job every evening!  The local backpackers have been happy recipients, along with the bags going to kindy every day for grateful little people. And then there's the guavas, and chillies, by the bowls-ful.  I am ready to move on now.  Bring on the citrus. There is also a big bunch of bananas ripening up.  I have my eyes on them.  We have been thrilled to be able to pick some figs - after battling avian thieves who eventually had their fill of figs and went on to other culinary delights.  Much to our delight!

Our preserve cupboard stocks are looking really good, with oodles of bottles of fig jam, cherry guava syrup, guava jelly, feijoa puree and jam, Canadian dill pickles (gherkins), bottled peaches, peach jam, beetroot relish, basil pesto, bottled beans, saurkraut, plum jam and plum chutney.  I've given plenty away, with our student children taking a fair share.  The freezer is also chocka-full of harvests from fruit to veggies to munch through the winter months.  I am a few days off of bottling our year's supply of olives, after 30 days of daily soaking in fresh water.  Yay!  Intimately Connected to our food supplies.

Daily harvest of Feijoas

Chillies and capsicums

Figs - hooray!

Red cherry guavas

Over the past few weeks, I have enjoyed a little needlework , making little felt Christmas ornaments.  It was triggered off by finding a bag of felt, hundreds of years old, left over from other projects!  Okay, not quite hundreds, but old.  All the uckie colours left over.   I sent my 2 sisters some in the mail but unfortunately, in True African Spirit of Enterprise, they have not reached intended destination.  Oh well, maybe some postal workers needed to brighten up their Christmas trees.  Below are the ones I made for our own tree.  I didn't particularly set out to make them, I just wanted to use up the felt but so enjoyed the process that I made quite a few in the process.  They are padded with thin strips of old throw-away socks.

Humpty Back Camels

So let the new projects begin........... I'm fast running out of time!