Spinach

This is the spinach I picked yesterday from my little patch out of my back door. I have a flower bed next to my house.  It's on the southeast side of our home.  It gets the sun until about 3:00 p.m.  The spinach has done quite well there.  I wanted you to see how green it is.  I picked it and let it soak in cold water for about an hour or so.  All the dirt falls to the bottom of the container.  I then take the spinach and put it in a salad spinner to get the excess water off and then into a plastic bag. 

This is great sauted with a little fresh garlic, I use it to juice, I love spinach salad and today I'm making a grilled chicken fettucini with spinach. 

This is so easy to grow.  I didn't get it planted until the end of September.  You could even plant this in a container garden on your patio.  Anything that you can grow yourself is so much healthier than what you buy at the store.  Every little thing you can do helps your health and helps you to feel productive.  I order my spinach from Johnny's Seeds in Maine.  They have great seeds, organic and non organic.  I always get the smooth leaf spinach.  For spinach in the spring, you can plant mid March.  It will grow until the temperature gets in the 80's.

Just a reminder - find ways to be a producer!

Truth Regarding Paris Attack

I would be called a conspiracy theorist but in reality it's not theory this is what is actually happening to humanity and the world.  We are led to believe lies through the media.  The media does not bring the truth, so I was so thrilled to see this journalist being able to tell the truth about the Paris attack. It is amazing that he was allowed to say what he said.



If you don't believe what he is saying, please research this and find out the truth for your self.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D-9_LFPN7g

Cleaning Silk Flowers

As I was cleaning house over the weekend, one dirty spot led to another and I ended up cleaning my silk greenery and some of my silk flowers. :(  Just dusting them off was not doing the trick.  So I ended up putting them in the sink and washing the dust off, shaking off the excess water, then putting them in a king size pillow case, tying string around the open end to secure it.  I then put it in the dryer on air dry for 15 minutes and it all looked like new. 

Some of you may have already figured this out but it was a welcomed discovery for me.

These were flowers that were in bush form not individual stem flowers.  Some of the stem flowers have a substance to keep them stiff.  If you did this they may flop and not stand erect.

Wonderful Arugula Salad

This was dinner one night last week.  This arugula salad is easy and so delicious.  The recipe is from a dear friend who is a wonderful cook and she has an eye for good recipes.  I love exchanging recipes with her.  If you try this, I'm sure it will become one of your favorites.

3-4 garlic cloves
1/4 cup olive oil
the juice of 1/2 to l whole lemon
dash of Worcestershire
3-6 tablespoons of mayonnaise
1/4 - 1/3 cup of Parmesan cheese
Freshly ground black pepper
5 tablespoons of olive oil
Toasted pine nuts

In a blender add garlic cloves and 1/4 cup olive oil and blend until garlic is liquefied.   In a bowl whisk together next five ingredients then add the garlic and olive oil.  From this point add the extra olive oil until it has the consistency of salad dressing. Toss the arugula with dressing and add toasted pine nuts.

We were at a meeting together and my friend gave me the recipe off the top of her head.  So, these measurements are pretty close but you can adjust a little according to your taste.

The arugula is easy to grow.  There are so many wonderful salad recipes now using arugula you might want to try growing it.  This fall I planted spinach in a flower bed next to my house and it is doing wonderful.  I'm still getting spinach and it is the darkest green and so tender.  I hope it will make it through the winter.

Christmas Cactus

My Christmas cactus is full of blooms.

 My husband is gone this weekend visiting a dear friend and I have the whole weekend to myself.  I love him dearly but I love my time alone.  I don't get it very often but it is something I really enjoy.  I realize its not for everyone, I know there are people who don't like to be alone.

It's weird, I know, but I love cleaning house and decorating when I'm alone.  I've had a very leisurely day.  Got up and read for a while, then put the T.V. on my favorite gardening, remolding and cooking shows.  Watched those as I was doing my thing.  Great day!  I'll be ready to see Gary when he gets home tomorrow evening.  :)

My Husband's Birthday

Yesterday was my husband's birthday.  This was the quote for the day on my flip calendar, "Good company on a journey makes the way seem shorter."

Things were so hectic yesterday that I didn't see this.  But this morning, I saw it and thought how true.  It made me think of my wonderful husband and this journey of life that we have been on together.  I'm so thankful he has been my partner in this journey of life.  Believe me, we have made lots of mistakes and we didn't do everything right but as I have told my children,"every one has issues and everyone makes mistakes but the important thing is that you learn from your mistakes and that you do your work to change your issues." The work to change the undesirable part of ourselves is not easy and it is the hardest work we have ever done.  I don't want to sound like we are finished or that we have arrived because we haven't but we work everyday on becoming the best we can be.  My traveling partner has never abandoned me along the way when he saw my ugly!  We have learned to be very patient with each other.

Because of his good company the journey has been exciting, tolerable, meaningful, sweeter and full of revelations.  As for shorter, the years have flown by.  I can say truthfully, that I look to the future and smile!

Song of Our Heart

This is a story written by N'Shama Sterling.  I loved this story I wanted to share it with you.

When a woman in a certain African tribe knows she is pregnant, she goes out into the wilderness with a few friends and together they pray and meditate until they hear the song of the child.  They recognize that every soul has its own vibration that expresses its unique flavor and purpose.  When the women attune to the song, they sing it out loud.  They then return to the tribe and teach the song of the child to the village.
When the child is born, the community gathers and sings the child's song to him or her.  Later, when the child enters education, the village gathers and chants the child's song.  When the child passes through the initiation to adulthood, the people would again come together and sing.  At the time of marriage, the person hears his or her song.  Finally, when the soul is about to pass from this world, the family and friends gather at the person's bed, just as they did at their birth, and they sing the person to the next life.
In this African tribe there is one other occasion upon which the villagers sing to the child.  If at any time during his or her life, the person commits a crime or aberrant social act, the individual is called to the center of the village and the people in the community form a circle around them.  They sing their song to them.  The tribe recognized that the correction for antisocial behavior is not punishment; it is love and the remembrance of your true identity.  When you recognize your own song, you have no desire or need to do anything that would hurt another.

In the book of Sound Therapy it says, "The human being is therefore likened to a very complex, unique, and finely-tuned musical instrument.  Every atom, molecule, cell, tissue and organ of the body continually broadcasts the frequencies of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual life.  The human voice is an indicator of its body's health on all these levels of existence.  It establishes a relationship between the individual and the wondrous network of vibrations that is the cosmos."

This is in my favorite devotional book and I've always loved it! 
When their heartstrings were stretched upon some cross of pain and the winds of persecution blew through them, then from this human Eolian harp men heard the very music of God.  They did not bear pain, they used it.