Slowing Down Time.

Why Does Time Go Slowly On Holiday?

Even short trips away make you feel like you've been on holiday for ages.
Reason: Our brains use different ways to measure time.
It is creating memories that slows down time.
Each new experience, smell, sight, person, culture, sound, taste creates a memory.

Visiting another country or even several in one day is bound to create a wealth of memories that we store as mental images and sense bytes 

These actions enhance our perception of life and stretch it out or appear to make time seem a lot longer.

How can we capture this effect in our daily routined lives?

some simple ways to build more memories into your life are: try new and different foods and combinations of ingredients, vary the route you drive or walk to work, talk to someone new in your school or workplace, learn a new skill, start a new project with someone etc.

The biggest robber of time appears to be internet surfing or watching TV as this shuts off the part of the brain which makes memories.

This makes it appear to you that you have done nothing at all 

In normal daily life we make 6-9 memories in a fortnight

On holiday we can make more than that each day.

Don't let the rain stop your plans, some of the best memories come from battling the elements.

Make sure you sample all the local fare.

Eat like the locals.

Goulash in Vienna.

A flower shop in the Austrian city.

Taking photos and keeping a journal are easy ways of bringing your memories to life again.

God claims Earth and everything in it,

God claims World and all who live on it,

He built it on Ocean foundations,

laid it on River girders.

Psalm 24 The Message.

Free Gifts For Hunter-Gatherers

Best Things In Life Are Free:Collections;

Feathers, light as air, soft as gossamer, strong as steel.

Free, floating feathers for your fascination. Finders keepers.

It's autumn in the southern hemisphere,

jewels lie scattered, splendour in the grass:

Shells collected from summer or winter scavenges, smelling of salty weed.

Place them in a glass container in the sunlight, turn at your leisure.

Buttons, torn or fallen from garments outgrown, playthings for children, resource for the future.

Postcards received. Bonus: Graphic script. Stories of trips and travel, birthdays, old relatives and friends. Stamps from long forgotten countries, now remembered.

Many natural or man-made things, which cost you nothing but space, have their own beauty when grouped together. What have you got hidden away in boxes or basements?
Some things, of course must be purchased:

Watermelon triangles, strawberry thirds, blueberries, raspberries and black grapes, serve with Marscapone. Feast!

Down-and-outers sit at God's table and eat their fill.
Everyone on the hunt for God is here, praising Him.
Psalm 22 The Message.

Turquoise Violet and Lime.

 A Stone, A Flower, A Fruit.

Colours found in nature are not always neutrals but are often brilliantly riotous.

By combining these 3, for example, we can create a lush palette to be used in designing fabrics, interiors, gardens, jewellery and artworks.

Peacock's feathers and oily slicks in rain puddles, bubbles blown by children and the wings of dragonflies reflect these hues.

These four details are from Painted Country by Tricia Guild.

 Try combining violet, turquoise and lime glass wear or mismatched table wear or linen.

Turquoise is a hard colour to find in plants but turquoise pots look great with violet and lime flowering plants. Pinks also look great with this colour range.

                   
 The colours can, of course, be toned down for a more subtle effect.

William Wordsworth
Poem to a lost love:

A violet by a mossy stone
Half hidden from the eye!-
Fair as a star, when only one
Is shining in the sky.

Violets themselves are the subject of many romantic poems and painting because of their associations and their delicious perfume. Lime, too, has a delectable smell as well as a million uses in drinks and various cuisines.

Turquoise is also associated with the Mediterranean Sea and all it's attendant summery pleasures.

Bring these colours into your dining by using turquoise serving platters or cutlery with lime shaded foods or violet-like beetroot salads. Here is asparagus wrapped in beef carpaccio. But it could be proscuitto or a dark red salami. Blanch the asparagus for 1-2 minutes, then wrap with a suggested meat or parma ham. Add shavings of parmesan.

 Heart shaped frozen yoghurt or ice-cream, or even a pannacotta can be  topped with purple berries and edible violet flowers. Colour will bring joy to your table!

Your thoughts - how rare, how beautiful!
God, I'll never comprehend them!
I couldn't even begin to count them -
 anymore than I could count the sand of the sea. Psalm 139 
The Message.

Silver and Green Gardens

Add grey and silver to your green garden to enliven it.

Most grey and silver foliage plants come from hot, dry places- so make sure they have well drained soil and full sun. Poor, light soil is no problem. If the plants are in shade they will not look their silvery best.

These succulents are nearly always out of the sun, so have reverted to almost green.

A lot of silver and grey plants have weak looking yellow flowers which need to be clipped off in order to maintain the neat shape of the specimen.

Contrast the grey with a strong green or a blue/mauve.

Pyrus salcifolia is a small tree that contrasts well with the green backdrop in this garden.

A formal garden works in all seasons with a mixture of grey and silver. Olive trees and Santolina, here, make sure this formality is not dull. The clipped form brings the shape, essential in any good design.

Helichrysum or curry plant is a silver plant that works well in the herb garden next to sage, another of the plants liking it hot and dry.

Lavender, of course joins many other common plants that can be used for silvery contrast.

If you have a sunny spot for potted plants, Dusty Miller, a cineraria, looks great with purple petunias or similar, it's lovely toothed foliage great all year.

Should you have no flowers at all this mixture of grey/silver and green will look brilliant.

The words and promises of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in an earthen furnace, purified seven times over.

Psalm 12 verse 6 New Living.

 

Silver jewellery on a green plate.

Hope for a New Year

Hope: An attitude of expectation that something GOOD will happen in the future. Romans 15.13

A new year means new possibilities. Be on the lookout for opportunities that lead to new positive places, points of view and new ideas that fill you with hope.

It's summer in New Zealand, this doesn't mean settled weather so we must take every opportunity to enjoy the sunshine.

Eat all the seasonal fruit and vegetables while they are available, preferably outside!

There are roses and lavender in the garden, pick them continuously to enjoy their fragrance and ensure that they will produce new buds.

Dare to hope in a new and brighter day.

Flowers are always inspiring and have led to some great art and design.

Use edible pesticide free petals or flower heads in salads, for e.g. pansies, thyme flowers, rose petals, lavender buds, nasturtium and geranium, or pelargonium petals.

Salade du potager aux fleurs: Garden Greens and Blossoms Salad:

1 handful of snipped chives or a finely sliced tiny red onion

6 cups of mixed salad leaves such as butter crunch, red oak, curly endive, rocket, torn into pieces

several freshly picked flower heads, torn into petals

VINAIGRETTE:

2 tbs red wine vinegar

squeeze of lemon juice

1 tsp Dijon mustard

salt and pepper

1/4 cup olive oil. Whisk until the mix emulsifies.

 scatter top with toasted hazelnuts chopped or whole if you like, for extra crunch.

This year learn to rest:

Daydream, feed your imagination.

It's not your possessions or talents that count but what you do with them.

Keep looking at nature for inspiration, Picasso once made a print from the skeleton of a fish he had just eaten for lunch!

If we believe, though, we'll experience that state of resting. Hebrews 4 The Message.

CHRISTMAS JOY.

          A big shout out to all you lovely readers: Yay!     And Thank You!

 Home made decorations and gifts are really much more in the spirit of Christmas than store bought.
However we don't all have the luxury of  the time in which to make and create gifts.
I usually leave it too late- October or November are the months best suited to plan and collect materials.
Ha, but we can always look at what others have done and enjoy that if we have left it too late.
A batch of jam,  pickle,  or sauce can still be produced in time though. Fudge or nougat too.

                       Simple looks great doesn't it?

Suddenly, God's angel stood among them.

They were all terrified. The angel said

" Don't be afraid. I'm here to announce a great and joyful event

that is meant for everybody, worldwide:

A Saviour has just been born in David's town,

a Saviour who is Messiah and master.

This is what you are to look for:

a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger."

At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God's praises.

 The Message Luke 2.

Leftover Christmas Turkey, Chicken or Pork

to be eaten on Boxing Day:

The Joy of Christmas is that God came into the World as a man so he could become our Saviour.

Great and Wonderful News!

All the best for the new year, hope to see you soon, G.