Winter Begins

Welcome all to my Blog.

What glorious weather we have been having and we also got a lovely drop of rain. Autumn /winter is such a good time in the garden as you can work all day in the garden and not get too hot like you do in summer.

Over the last few week ends my partner and I have been preparing this garden bed and it involved removing 50 wheelburrows of dirt out and back into this garden bed. Why did we do this? We did this as there was some deep rooted grass roots that if left here would just grow and take over the garden again. Steve my partner did most of the work, I helped towards the end.

I will get a photo of it once the plants grow a little more. I have planted garlic, Kale so far and will get some more seedlings soon. This week end has been very productive as I also planted purple snow peas. I cleaned out the chook shed ( very smelly work ) and dug up and cleaned the weeds out of another garden bed. I slept well that night as I was so tired.

Anyway I realised that you can get a lot done , just by putting your mind on the job.

I have been reading about attachments and detachments when it comes to our life . We could have attachements to our material things or our feelings. I was reading that if we let go of our attachments , we are able to do more and be more. Sometimes we may be attached to how we feel about something that is stopping us from achieving. Once we analyse why we are keeping these attachments and decide that we no longer need to and detach ourselves from them, we are free to do whatever makes us happy.- read this article as it explains it well.

On Being happy and contented , I know I talk a lot about being contented and I would like to clarify a few things incase I lead anyone astray. It is most desirable to be happy most of the time, but sometimes we do feel sad and that is natural and good for us to feel sad every now and then. I always say that if you never feel sad, then you would not know what feelig happy was like. Things happen to us that make us feel sad , as long as we go back to being our normal happy self once you have dealt with the issue at hand. Also being sad makes us analyse and perhaps change direction of our lives for a better outcome. Hopefully that clears things up.

In the end you have be happy with the person that looks back at you in the mirror.

Parting Advice:

Love makes us happy and smiling at people we don't even know can bring joy to them and you when they smile back. Practice simple acts of kindness often and you will be amazed. Material wealth rarely brings everlastings happiness, love does.

Cheers for now.

Lina

A Sight to Behold

Welcome to my Blog

Happy New Year to you all. Hope you had a great Christmas and wonderful new year.

Here is a lovely photo of our frontage lined with these majestic looking Red Hot Pokers. We haven't watered these so it's amazing
to see so many flowers.

One Tonne Challenge Update

Just Updated my One tonne Challenge- Now have harvested 39.4Kg of produce.


Here is Fred the rooster Crowing


Did we all make resolutions?. I made one about consuming less and trying not to rush around so I can enjoy the here and now more. So far I am living up to the consuming less- we bought a soda stream and have saved about 10 plastic bottles already. Also stayed at home ( bliss) for a day or 2 without going anywhere (saved some petrol) and sorted out some stuff and donated some toys , blankets and threw out some rubbish ( old toys broken , missing pieces). It made me think of how wasteful we are.

Do you know that sometimes when we want something, it the conquest in aquiring it and once it is aquired it no longer holds its appeal and soon we are pining after another object of our desires? Does this sound familiar? Do you know if you go to the after christmas sales, you are not really getting a bargain unless it is something that you need or wanted for a long time. Are you buying only because it was reduced to 50% off- in which case you have paid 50% too much.




I just love this time of year and how relaxing it is compared to the end of the year. This January I have been in business for 18months and I use this relaxing part of the year to plan whatI want to achieve for the year ahead. This year I hope to support more charitable causes through my handmade jewellery business and support other handmade artists. If you would like me to come and do a jewellery show at your office, please contact me and we can discuss how we can raise funds for your charity.








My Jewellery Website- http://www.zanildesign.blogspot.com/


Email: zanil.design@bigpond.com



I leave you with some photos of our Vegetables growing in our green house.

Lina

Maltese Bread Pudding

Merry Christmas to all.

Today I made a Maltese Bread Pudding for Christmas . I made a few changes to the ingredients to make it more like a traditional Christmas pudding.

I have tasted it and it's yummy. This recipe uses day old bread , so if you have a lot of bread left over it is a good way to use up the bread so there is no waste.

Ingredients.

800 grm bread.
3 eggs
50 gr butter melted
100 grams sugar
1 table spoon Vanila essence
2 table spoons cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon mixed spice
grated rind of 1 orange
50 grams mixed peel
200grams sultanas
1 1/2 cups milk

Optional extras
Walnuts
glazed cherries
mixed fruit instead of sultanas

Method

Soak bread until all moist and soft - about 1 hour. Drain bread until alomst dry. In another bowl
combine othr ingredients together and add bread graduallt mixing well. Add Walnuts last.
pour into greased and dusted tins ( makes 2 meduim sized puddings) and cook for 1 hour in 180 degree C.

check if cooked by testign with a knife. Insert knife and if it coems out clean then it is cooked.

I decorated the top with walnuts and cherries prior to cooking.

A Wheel Barrow Full of Pumpkins

Welcome to my " Hajja Kuntenta" Site.

I aim to impart and inspire my readers with lots of simple and easy ideas that will enable you to be able to get from your time and lead a fulfilled life.

This week we harvested our pumpkins.

At the beginning of the season, I thought we would not get many pumpkins. I actually went and hand pollinated a few just to make sure I would 2 or 3. Well I am so pleased that we harvested a wheel barrow full and a few more. Through out the season , I would count them almost every week or so and I would water more so if there were a few more new flowers. I have got a few people on my list to share with and I am saving some for my family. I feel so fortunate to be blessed with all this food.

Did you know if you plant a fruit tree like a lemon near your front door, that you will feel like you have abundance in your life when you walk past it I see my lemon tree with fruit on it. It is near our verandah where we sit when we are relaxing and sipping wine or coffee. It gives us a feeling that we have all that we need.

I have 2 great easy recipes that use Pumpkins so I will share these with you.

Maltese Pumpkin & Bacon Bone Soup

1 good Bacon bone

1/2 cup Barley

1/2 cup Green split peas

1/2 cup yellow split peas

1 large potato chopped into medium pieces

2 cups thinly shredded cabbage

1 good sized pumpkin wedge chopped into 3cm pieces

1 carrot chopped

2 tbsp tomato paste.

1 tsp curry

pepper

2 tbsp oil.

I large pot.

Method

In a large pot place bacon bone and enough water to cover. Bring to the boil and boil for about 20 minutes. Add all the other ingredients except the cabbage. Allow to boil and then simmer for 1 hour. Add cabbage about 20 minutes before serving.

Remove bone from soup- meat should almost fall off bone. Squeeze lemon juice over meat. Serve with the soup.

Serve with garlic bread or other bread.

Moist Pumpkin Scones

3 tbsp butter

1 cup warm mashed pumpkin

2 cups SR flour.

3 tbsp sugar

Mix butter and sugar together to make a paste. Add the warm pumpkin and mix well.

Add the flour and knead out. If mixture is too wet add more flour, or if too dry add a little water.

cut and roll into prepare board.

cook in a oven 180C for about 15 minute.

That's it for now.

Keep posted for some more tips and great handmade jewellery designs on my ZaniL Design Blog.

What do you think? What makes you happy, would you like to share your ideas?

Anyway until next time.

Lina