crazy moose ink-blots

this is an ink-blot/water colour doodle that has been sitting on my art table for the past couple of days. every time i walked past, i added a little more to it. it reminds me a lot of my morning meditation. i sit in a room that faces east & as the sun comes up my head is filled with light & colour like this, which then spreads throughout my whole body. a great way to start the day.

you of course, can interpret the ink-blots any way you please .... & now that i look again it could be a crazy moose - a drunken bullwinkle...!

this morning i harvested some strawberries & talked to my cucumbers that are growing fat & green. tiny cherry tomatoes emerging from small yellow flowers are pale green & shiny. furry leaves on my mystery seedlings are now huge like elephants ears & snails get plucked from damp leaves in the morning & thrown a good distance away. i have created a happy green microcosm :)

thanks to badfaery & the big draw i have been inspired to pull out my sketch book. this is a bromeliad that sits on the front porch in an old terracotta pot. the flower spikes which appear in autumn/winter/spring are fuschia pink with purple tips. lovely.

beach shack dreaming

saturday afternoon at the beach...



the ever watchful surf rescue, patiently looking after us...

we've been visiting the beach occasionally throughout winter, but now that spring is here it's hard to stay away. yesterday afternoon the tide was coming in, & the waves were surging towards the shore.

the lifeguards were having a difficult time getting over the breakers. they had to keep making do-nuts, & approach the waves again & again. they finally got over them.

after walking from one end of the beach to the other, i sat here on these rocks, watching the surfers & body boarders do their thing. each wave became increasingly larger & closer, till i suddenly realised i had to run or get washed away. the people who were sitting behind me laughed their heads off!

this is my beach shack (not!) this kind of real estate is worth a couple of million.

kelly talked about beach shacks & mindful consumption a few posts back. if my beach shack dream came true, i know i'd be happy with the bare essentials - a beach towel, a beach basket, a hat, thongs (flip flops), sunnies, a hammock, a mosquito net, a basket of fruit, books... could i do without technology...? just imagine...!

open sesame

my daughter brought 'the food of morocco' (a journey for food lovers) into our kitchen last week & i instantly fell in love with it. in my dreams, i travel to spain & drop down to visit morocco afterwards :)

the recipes are healthy & wholesome as can be, often dairy free with gorgeous ingredients such as dates, figs, olives, quinces & apricots.

i've been inspired to make a tomato, capsicum & onion salad (chakchouka), the result - a bowl full of colourful, shiny jewels. a tagine of chickpeas (tagine bel homus) fragrant with red, orange & yellow spices, served with couscous & topped with fresh green herbs (straight from our garden), nutty sesame seed cookies (ghoriba dial janjlane), almond macaroons (briouat b'looz w'assel) coated with icing sugar & laced with rose water - in morocco, these cookies were made daily and cooked in communal ovens, to be eaten later with a glassful of mint tea. all so simple to make & so delicious.

there is a recipe for a light, flat moroccan bread (kesra) sprinkled with sesame seeds & coarse salt - this will be my next thing to make. have i stirred your appetite yet?

talking to plants

at the findhorn foundation spiritual centre, founded by eileen caddy, the cabbages are famous for their size (40lbs!), reputed to be a result of connecting with nature in a spiritual sense. in essence, talking to the plants.


in the sixties the centre, originally a caravan site on a scottish hillside, attracted lots of attention from television stations, wanting to record the 'miracle'. hippies they may have been, but the results you cannot argue with! the findhorn foundation's ecovillage, like their famous cabbages, is still thriving today.

in our little vegie patch, the seedlings i planted only a couple of weeks ago have tripled in size. i talk to mine as i water them each day & i'm thinking i should meditate on my peas, cucumbers & tomatoes as well & see what happens! :)

do you recognise the seedlings in this next pic? they are bonus seedlings that have emerged from the compost and i don't have a clue what they are. we'll have to wait & see i suppose. i hope we like eating them cos there's plenty of them!