Weekend Reading: an eclectic mix.

We are such an eclectic mixture of peoples all of us. You and I.  Such a wonderful bunch. Some of us are photographers, readers, writers, observers, cooks, chefs, Mamas, Papas, some of you are lovers OF photographers, or writers, cooks,  chefs, words, living, sharing, old trucks.   We are  farmers, gardeners, roamers, travellers, craftspeople, poets, beautiful.  Well  – obviously beautiful!

Eclectic. Awesome word. I can tell you the day I learnt that word too.  But I won’t.  There was a man involved (years ago) and he told me that my collections of art and books were an eclectic mix.  I was thrilled. Because you see I just picked up and hung up whatever I wanted to, I never even meant it to be a collection.  Eclectic forgave me! Enough about that day.

My Saturday introduction pages are a favourite day for me because I can just lazily collect an eclectic mix and share my favourites with you.   And I can use this time to check up on all of you, make sure you have all been behaving this week. We can all take a wee step back from the intense weekdays and raise our heads for a look around.  Below are a few suggestions for Saturday wanderings. Hopefully you will find a page that interests you.   It is a short list today. And we all know why! Next week may be quieter.  And I will have more time to visit you all. 

It appears, much to my dismay, that I have become a photographer of roosters (sigh). But like cats, they always look beautiful. 

The Lonely Walkers. Two young women from two different countries.  Both photographers. They take photographs of their respective countries and then post the results together. Their work is good, very good. In fact they were recently freshly pressed but I won’t hold that against them. They write too. They have discovered a wonderful collaboration across the oceans.  Much as we have. 

Some drunk writer fell off his perch!

At Down Under. Vivianne moved from Paris to New Zealand a while back and makes beautiful food. Also she makes beautiful photographs.  There is an elegance to her creations that belies the accessibility and simplicity of her ingredients.  I do recommend that you visit if you have the time this weekend.  Lets sneak her across into our world.

It is possible that this is quite weird, but I weave discarded crockery into the forsythia hedge.  The plant grows through the handles after a few years and holds it tight. Little surprises for the birds! Finding a sugar bowl in a bush!! 

The Witches Kitchen. Linda Woodrow is a cook, writer  and gardener with a conscience. She is terribly lucky to be able to live in an area where she can grow vegetables all year round. And she works very hard at living and sustaining herself off her plot of land.  I suspect she is a bit of a toughie. She is very sure of her views and her 100 mile radius of grazing.  I really admire her resolve. She is more than happy to take on any passing windmill.

The Complete Cookbook. As I have said before (and will probably say again)  – Mandy is a fabulous, linear cook.  One of my favourite pages.  By linear I mean that her instructions, unlike mine, are direct and ordered.  Her posts are consise and straight to the point. Some of her recipes are now staples in my kitchen and will be passed down to my children.  There are three reasons why I love Mandy and her pages. 1) She loves trees.  2) She makes complicated processes seem simple. 3) She has an ingredient  conversion page! And as we all know, when we are working with recipes written from wonderfully different countries sometimes guessing will not do it.  We need to do the math. Or let Mandy do it for us.

My early morning check promised another day of happy animals. I feel gently confident in looking forward to a quiet day. Cross fingers . Touch wood.  Everyone Touch Wood-Quick!  I am planting onion beds today and John (after rattling about with his hammer for a bit) will start to prepare the New Fields. There are three acres,  (newly rented out of corn production), they will be divided, one fenced into smaller areas in the usual mixture or clovers and grasses and delicious weeds, one field in organic alfalfa for hay and bees.

Today has dawned clear. The faceless weather people are forecasting wind (downy face) and warm sun (smiley face). No-one told Daisy that is was a quiet Saturday, and she is bellowing – so off I go!

Good morning.

celi

PS Oh and Yes TonTon and I got to sit for a while in The Old Codgers quiet room. He has a way of putting things in perspective with the experience of  his long long life.  As we walked down the corridor to his room I said to TonTon “See Dale”  The dog’s ears went up and his tail went up and he proceeded to hurry, looking, looking.  Left and right until he found The Old Codger in his wheelchair and zeroed in on him. The delight on that old mans face.  They just beamed at each other. Lovely. Now I must get moving!  c