... to Think How You Live Your Life

A Greek Sculpture from Chania, Crete

This week I have been reminded of a passage from the novel 'Zorba the Greek' by Nikos Kazantzakis.
  Zorba visits a little village and comes across an elderly man planting an almond tree. He wonders aloud why the man is bothering to do that when he is so old.
  The man turns to him and says, "My son, I carry on as if I should never die."
  And Zorba replies, "And I carry on as if I was going to die any minute."
   Which one of them was right?
   How do you live your life?

... to Appreciate Your Friends

An early twentieth century postcard

This postcard was sent by Beth to 'Dearest Edith' in September 1910. (The Rontgen Rays mentioned in the verse are the newly discovered X rays.) Beth is expressing her concern for her friend as she was when they last saw each other.
   'You did not seem to be so cheerful as before. I hope you are not worrying over anything, Dear, because I don't want you to.'
  Nowadays we are likely to make a phone call or send an email or put a message on Facebook. 
  Or perhaps you let the days and weeks slip by without making contact, assuming your friends will always be there and know that you appreciate them.
  How about taking the time today to make that call or send that email. Let each friend know how much she or he means to you. How each, in their own way, has added a glowing thread to your life.

.. Life is Like Baking Cookies

Cookies = Life

I indulged in a spot of whimsical thinking today while I was baking chocolate chip cookies. And I came to the conclusion that daily life is like baking!

• Some days all the ingredients blend perfectly and smoothly to produce an excellent result.
• Some days you may be missing one ingredient so nothing turns out right.
• Some days, no matter how hard you stir, the result will be uneven and full of lumps!
• Some days the mixture may start out fine but crack or crumble at the end.
• And some days, despite all your efforts, the mix will curdle!

So how has your day been today? Smooth, lumpy or turned to custard?!

... to Find Your 'Treasure'

Wherever your treasure is...

... there will your heart be also

I seem to be in an introspective mood at the moment and this quotation really resonated with me. But I don't mean the 'X-marks-the-spot-buried-treasure' of pirates!
 My 'treasure' is the time I lived in Greece and this year I will be returning yet again to that country which captured my heart in so many ways years ago. That's very exciting!
 I made these little collages by tearing and pasting the entrance tickets to some of the Greek museums I have visited - the National Museum and the Acropolis Museum in Athens; Knossos, and the museums in Chania, Heraklion and Aghios Nikolaos in Crete. Each ticket features a picture of an archaeological treasure. 
 When I look at them, I am reminded of so many of the sights and sounds and smells of Greece: the blue of the sky against the white-washed houses; the braying of donkeys; the smell of bread baking in the brick oven. That's a good feeling, to be able to instantly recreate in your mind a place and time of great happiness.
 What is your passion? What do you think of when you read this quotation?

... to Say Goodbye to 2012, Hello to 2013

Italian art on ms Volendam by Gilbert Lebigre

Janus, after whom January is named, was the Roman god of two faces. One face looked back at the past and the other turned towards the future. He was the patron of endings and beginnings, the opener and closer of gates.
    We've come to the end of 2012 and now we wonder what 2013 will bring us. I'm not much of a one for making New Year resolutions. I prefer to take each day as it comes, to not look too far into the future. I've experienced instances, through illness and accident, when my life was changed in a heartbeat and no amount of forward planning or sticking to resolutions or timetables would have altered the outcomes. From those times on, for me, thinking about the future has seemed much less important than being fully involved in the present.
   So what will I do today? I want to take time to sit quietly and reflect on the parts of my life that mean the most to me - family, friends, creativity, travel, the beauty in nature. I want to think about the lessons I learned in 2012. The most powerful of those was the grace I felt when, in one particular situation,  I let go of anger and practised compassion.
   What will you do to start the new year? What does 2013 have in store for you?
 

More Advent Activities and Happy Christmas

Counting Down to Christmas

I seem to be super-organised this year and haven't felt the usual pressure that seems to mount day by day in the lead-up to Christmas. I've been able to relax and enjoy the Advent activities of week three.
Here's what we've been doing:

1. Eat marshmallow Santas! Almost as good as Easter eggs!
2. Mulled wine and Christmas mince pies: More food - do you sense a theme here?! I make the mulled wine from a recipe published in 1901 and it's delicious.
3. Send Christmas emails: For some people I send Christmas cards by snail mail; for others I send e-cards. I use this website for the cards - by sending a (free) card you support various charities with donations from the website's advertisers.
4. Remember our first Christmas meal together:  It was Ernest Hemingway who said, "Memory is never true." How right he was! Pete thought our first Christmas was when we went to a Regional Park beach and shared our picnic under the pohutukawa trees with a park ranger. I thought it was when we walked into the city centre from my apartment and bought hamburgers from the pie cart! Who was right? Me!
5. Have a fun day out together: We've put this on hold till after Christmas hoping the weather will improve.
6. Donate 'treat' food to the food bank: Instead of the boring old pasta and pasta sauce I donate each week, I put in bags of gold wrapped chocolate 'coins'.
7. Watch a Christmas movie: We tried, we really tried, but the DVD I got from the library was so dire that after half an hour we switched it off and went for a walk instead. Probably better for us after all the marshmallows and Christmas treats!

Which leaves me with one pleasant task - to thank you for the lovely comments, emails and cards I've had about this blog and to wish you all

                     A Very Merry Christmas

See you again next year!

... Be Very Downton Abbey

Edwardian Yule Pastries

I'm feeling very Downton Abbey today. I was reading some of the research I'd done on the Edwardian Era and came across a Christmas recipe from a women's magazine, 'The Delineator', dated December 1901. It is for Yule Pastries, the early 20th century version of Christmas Mince Pies.
  I can make those, I thought, imagining the scene in the kitchen at Downton Abbey with Daisy helping the cook prepare all the festive food.
  The fruit mince was easy to make; chopped up raisins, glace peel, glace pineapple and figs boiled for five minutes in orange and lemon juice and a little sugar.
   Once that cooled, I rolled out the sweet short pastry. I cheated here - mine was store-bought, definitely not home-made. I used a small espresso cup size saucer to cut it into rounds, piled some of the fruit mince on & folded the pastry over so they were shaped like Cornish pasties.
   20 minutes in a hot oven and they were done. It took me longer to clean the sticky, floury pastry board and saucepan and bench and hands and cupboard door handles! 
   Not sure if they'd pass muster with the Lords and Ladies, but they taste delicious!