Where do butterflies come from?

 

I spotted this gorgeous visitor to my garden the other day.

 

 

He only stopped for a little while and then continued on for his short but beautiful life.

 

Theres another butterfly that makes me smile....

And my nephew loves him too...

 

Butterflies are the most amazing creatures, they live this mundane life of a caterpillar, at risk of being eaten by birds, sprayed with chemicals, in my case being plucked off their plant and fed to the chooks, then after they have grown they create a coccoon, hide away and come out a beautiful butterfly.

 

Sometimes I wish I could just create a coccoon, go away and hide for a while and then come out a beautiful butterfly. But God know better, he knows that the trials and struggles in my life are better for me than a hiding away. It is the prickly bits in my life being sanded smooth as I deal with people who rub me up the wrong way, with plans that go astray and yet I don't attack and blame those around me who are not responsible, as I choose to forgive even when I have been hurt again by one I love.

 

1 Peter 1:6-7 says "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honour, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ."

 

Are you facing trials, struggles and pain. Don't give up, don't let go of your faith. Pull into God and his unmeasureable love. Be found in him in the midst of the storm, and he will be your peace and your shelter in the midst of the pain and fear. He will be your rock and hold you firm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Computer issues

I am having some major issues with my laptop currently so blogging is extremely frustrating and hoping to find a solution soon and get back online again.

The power of a mentor

As a teenager I was not very confident, I enjoyed school and learning and quickly was boxed as the smart kid, the know it all, studious (my mother would laugh) and I also was very introverted, loving reading walking and riding horses. Most parents today would freak out at what I used to do, walking off track in the bush behind our school, with nothing but an occasional bottle of water... I think my mum probably did freak out a bit, and then learnt that that was who I was and she couldn't stop it, but she loved me enough to let me keep going with some boundaries around letting her know where I was going and when I would be back... something I still try and do :)

But I have changed, I am much more social, I love spending time with friends, the occasional party, and walking with others... I love to teach others to love the outdoors, to garden, to cook, to walk alongside those who are starting a faith journey and give them some pointers for what helped me...

I know I would never be the person I am today without people who walked along side me some of the journey, showing me that they cared for me, demonstrating Gods love in a practical and sometimes not so practical way. Picnics at the beach with icecreams and books, prayer over breakfast, chats late in the night over mugs of tea or hot chocolate, drives to the beach, walking in the bush or by the ocean, working, creating, serving together.

Sharon, Natalie, Doreen, Lisa, Meredith, Fiona, Ainsley, Elsie, Diana, Miriam, the list could go on forever.... these are just a few.

So last Friday another girl and I started a group for highschool girls in our church. Many of them have never been in a bible study or lifegroup before, some of them I'm not sure yet where they are in their faith journey. Karien and I want to provide a space for growth for these girls - growth in themselves, in their faith, in their identity as women, in their relationships.

Please be praying that they feel loved and supported, welcomed and accepted as they come through the group and for us to lead and mentor them well... The bible says that there is a greater responsibility and expectation on those who lead others and we need all the prayer we can get!

Have a lovely day xo

A beautiful day! Sun + Sea + Supper

John and I went to Huskisson for a late brunch today... the water was bright blue and so beautiful, if it had been much warmer I would have been in there. Maybe I should have anyhow?

We had brunch at Pilgrims using one of our new entertainment book vouchers... very excited there's one for the south coast now, we had a beautiful breakfast looking out over Jervis bay for little more than it would have cost to make it at home, and read our favourite sections of the paper, did a little window shopping and a walk along the beach....

I love living where I do!

We stopped at the tip on the way home and picked up some iron bars to make a tripod to cook over the fire with... and some black pipe for another vege bed covering...

And my amazing husband made this for dinner... boeff bourguinonne! In the slow cooker, it was rich, delicious and tender... I made lime meringue pie with limes I picked from mum's tree when I dropped around for a cup of tea this afternoon.

We ate in front of the TV watching the movie Tintin... very enjoyable day and evening together...

Love Weekends :)

{This Moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

oops - set the smoke alarms off tonight :)

Cooking of course!

I found a recipe for Gozleme which is a rustic Turkish snack stuffed with silverbeet and salty feta.

I don't have silverbeet at the moment, so I used a mixture of Cavalo Nero, Mizuna and Beetroot leaves.

I found a 'good taste' magazine from last month at the op shop - so 50c instead of $4!

Gozleme:

600g plain flour

1tsp salt

410ml warm water

1/4c olive oil.

Mix til dough comes together, then knead until smooth and elastic... Recipe said for 10 mins... I learnt a new way of kneading on masterchef last week. Carefully stretch the dough out as much as you can by pulling one side toward you and pushing the other side away... then carefully roll it up. Only needed to do this about 6-8 times (less than one minute) and it was good, didn't stick to the bench at all.

Place in a bowl covered overnight if possible, or at least for the day (I mixed it up in the morning and cooked them for dinner.)

*for all the sourdough ppls out there, I actually redid recipe with sourdough - about 500g starter with 300g flour, salt and I forgot the oil, but it didn't seem to need it :)

Filling

6 cups finely shredded leaves

4 shallots finely chopped (the mini onion ones rather than the green onions)

100g ricotta

250g feta.

Mix well.

when ready to cook divide the dough into 6 portions.

One at a time roll out to a rectangle about 20x40cm

Top half the dough with the filling, leaving a 3cm border, fold the other half over and press edges together.

Recipe said to cook on flat BBQ plate on med low heat - drizzled with a little oil 5 mins or so each side... as it's wintery - cold and blowing a gale outside, I cooked on flat cast iron pan inside - which cooked really quickly - only 1-2 mins each side but well cooked inside and not burnt... although the smoke was all through the house :)

Serve cut in half with lemon or lime wedges to squeeze over!

I'm always looking for recipes using things that are in the garden - seasonal recipes...

To help this I have rearranged my recipe magazines into month by month, not worrying about what type of magazine, meaning that I can pull out all the magazines for the month I'm in a flick through to find something that I already have the ingredients for... In this recipe all I had to buy was the ricotta and the shallots. (Had some feta in the fridge already, and the limes are from my mum's garden. (Her tree gets so many there's no point planting my own tree :)

How do you plan seasonal recipes? any tips or ideas?

sourdough waffles..... delicious of course :)

I have had an old waffle iron in the shed for ages and in a recent sorting, decided to move it inside and give waffles a go.

Sourdough style of course.

They need a lot longer cooking than pancakes, but were delicious, with that crispy edge typical of waffles. The key seems to be cooking even amounts on each side and oiling between each waffle. I have a small olive oil spray that I used, but would like to try brushing oil on with a silicon brush...

But what you all want - the recipe.

Night before - one cup of starter, one cup of flour and one cup of liquid (I use whey, you can use buttermilk or water)

In the morning mix in 1/8cup oil, one egg and mix thoroughly, then add pinch of salt and 1/2tsp bicarb soda.

Cook!

I had mine with bananas and frozen yoghurt... but it was gone before I thought to take a photo loaded up :)

Have a happy day xo

keeping warm in winter

Last winter my electricity bill went up more than it ever has (hanging my head in shame) I used the oil heaters that can be kept at a constant temperature with a thermostat and we had them on most of the time keeping the chill out of the house, but when we got the bill in the mail at the end of the quarter I discovered that the cost of running these was more than I expected. This year we have replaced the oil heaters with a gas heater that we run only if using the living room and temperatures are too cold to be comfortable just with jumpers and a leg quilt.

Gradually I have been putting up curtains as well as the blinds that were already installed when I moved in in some of the rooms. The most recent addition has been the lounge room. Out at huskisson last week my friend spotted these gorgeous curtains that fit just right in the windows (ideally I will get around to letting the hems down soon of course) They are opened up in the morning for the sun to come through and whoever is home first shuts them up to keep the heat in.

What are you doing to keep warm and save energy this winter....?

We have lift off! (Rocket stove)

I had a great day at the tip on Friday, found a piece of metal I felt would be perfect for making my rocket stove work better, as previous version was not big enough and was not drawing enough oxygen to maintain fire levels.

It worked!!!!!

The pot had water and was boiling in a few minutes, frypan sizzling hot in no time at all, and seems quite easy to maintain the heat.  The only downside really is that there is little temperature control... It's hot or hot.

The basic premise as seen in the diagram below is feeding small diameter sticks into a chamber surrounded by insulation (easy to create with ash between the wall of the chamber and an external surround) The chamber allows air to flow in and burn the small diameter sticks at a high heat, creating less smoke emission and high temperature emitted through the top of the flue.

These stoves are being introduced as an alternative cooking source through africa and along with solar ovens being taken up as they require essentially scrap wood as opposed to existing charcoal stoves which need expensive and high polluting fuel

If you are interested in reading more about rocket stoves try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_stove

Maybe waffles on the rocket stove can be next :)

Have a happy day xo

Garden update, may 2012

The garden is growing beautifully.

This bed has lettuce (with some baby broccoli planted - as the lettuce is not too far away from being munched and will make way for the broccoli to grow, We have started to pick some leaves but not whole plants, then garlic, some of which are growing strong, others didn't do so well. Onions getting bigger, beetroots as starting to plump up at the base - so excited for our home grown roast beetroot salads in winter. Carrots and parsnips also just starting to thicken....

This bed has rocket still going strong, picking basil in top left and dill bottom right, cabbages and broccoli starting to get bigger (although having to watch them carefully for catterpillers) but the stars of this bed today are the legumes, broad beans bottom left to top right (grown from my own seed) and peas the other direction. Both just over the height of the walls of the bed and looking healthy as. There are tall poles attached to each of the corners, the peas have a frame in already to start climbing up, wheras broad beans will just have twine wrapped around them as they grow as they need support but don't use it to grow, whereas peas send out little feelers that grab onto the trellis and pull themselves up...

I can almost taste them!

Have a happy day xo :)

Gratefulness

Rasperries surprising me with red globes of goodness, it didn't last very long as a ring....

Sunshiny days spent in the garden and at the beach with a friend, eating icecream by the bay....

Knowing that God is with us, never forsakes us, even when we feel a little lost...

Beautiful babies to create for. This is a jumpsuit with a skirt added to make a little dress for winter, perfect for little Hadassah, my friends' new daughter.

Weekends :)

Scrummy Muffins

Having muffins for breakfast means getting up earlier, to finish the recipe started the night before, but theres something in getting up early, seeing the sun rise. Takes 5 mins to mix and knead the dough, then you have 40 mins or so to let them rest until cooking. Lots of time that for me at least was productive time. Shower, cup of tea, quiet time, putting dishes away....

And then breakfast of an English muffin straight off the grill with butter and local honey... mmmmm

I whinged the other day that my hubby almost never picks up the camera so he insists on taking one this morning. Thanks babe.

ENGLISH MUFFINS (sourdough recipe)

The night before: combine 2 C flour, 1C water and 1C starter

Leave overnight.

In the morning put 1C starter aside to keep, mix in

1/4C milk powder

1/2tsp baking soda

1/2tsp salt

1tsp sugar

and enough flour 1/2-1C to make a dough that sticks together.

Turn onto floured surface and knead well until smooth and no longer stickly, adding more flour if needed (for 2-3 mins.) Flour generously and roll to 1/2inch thickness. cut out with drinking glass about 7-8cm diameter. Place on parchment or silicon baking sheet sprinkled with polenta. Sprinkle more polenta on top.  (Should get about 16 muffins from this recipe)

Leave to rise, covered in a warm place at lease half an hour.

Cook muffins kind of like a pancake, in lightly greased pan - cast iron is best for this if available.

7-8mins on low-med heat (I set the timer and get other things done while waiting.

Have a happy day xo

Gardening and Cooking with Friends

It was lovely to spend the morning gardening and cooking with some friends from the permaculture group and with some friends from church who are interested in similar things.

Jody and Deeann weeding the cherry tomato jungle - and all the subsequent weeds, pruning the grape vine and harvesting what they could.

We spent the morning gardening, below you can see the other garden bed near the house weeded, mulched and the rhubarb plants were dug up, divided and replanted with soil food - horse manure and dynamic lifter! We then stopped for (a couple of pots of) tea and lamingtons, and then spent the rest of the morning cooking. Made sweet chilli and tamarillo sauce, posted about that one last week, bottled pears and demonstrated and discussed drying food. I am currently experiementing with my first fruit leather.

Jody really enjoyed bottling fruit and was very proud of her bottle of pears.

Working with 4 is so much more productive than one.

Thanks for those who came lending a hand. hope you had fun, and your cuttings grow well!

Have a lovely day xo

A new member of the family - needs a new home

On Sunday I went for a drive down the road, about 20 mins to Bewong - near the famous roadhouse to pick up our new rabbit. We had two rabbits, but then discovered that on their own they were always going to stay two rabbits as they were both male - this isn't very helpful when you are hoping to develop small scale meat production. So we needed a female, and she was advertised in the paper.

Maisy is 8 weeks old and is a flemish giant x New Zealand rabbit - both larger meat breeds.

She is currently the same size as our other full size rabbits, and she has a long way to go - probably at least double the size. She was quite skittish when she arrived but within two days is much calmer, inquisitive, enjoying her greens and coming up to say hello and ask for pats when you walk past.

But her temporary cage is just temporary, so we are converting large, long rabbit cage to two sections, here is the labourer creating a second door, we have already put a middle divider in, and raised the cage off the ground. makes it dryer, warmer and cleaner. Most weekends we give them some grass time which they love.

Have to wait a few months for Maisy to finish growing, and then we'll see how she goes as a mummy!

another use for milk - cheese

My work has started getting milk delivered.

Problem is not everyone looks at the dates before they open the next bottle of milk...

Problem?

There were three unopened 2L bottles of milk at work today that were out of date...

So I thought I'd make cheese - Ricotta cheese is one of the most easy things to make in the world.

1. Put milk in a clean saucepan

2. Heat up to lukewarm

3. Put some lemon juice/vinegar - or as I tried tonight some junket or vegetarian rennet in the milk, stir then let the curds form (the white lumpy stuff in the photo below)

My experience is that with acids - like juice and vinegar - the curds are lumpy

With the rennet it formed a huge curd, which I then cut with a long knife into inch sized cubes and stirred while warm

4. use a slotted spoon to scoop the curds out into a colander (mine is one that was one that a large round of ricotta came in - so gets the perfect lines as seen in the next photo that is on the ricotta you purchase at the supermarket.)

5. Let it drain

6. If you want to you can use the whey for breadmaking, the yeast loves the protein in it.

 

I think Ricotta and spinach something is in order for dinner tomorrow night.

Have a Happy Day xo

worth more than their weight in gold!

these tiny threads are worth more than their weight in gold.... what are they?

Saffron.

I bought a pack of bulbs this year and planted them the other week, and I have already had one flower come up! After my autumn flowering and fruiting pear tree, I freaked out that this is the wrong time of year and that they would wither and die, but no, they are supposed to flower now.

The flowers themselves are beautiful, and should be followed by thin green leaves.... the cost for the bulbs works out quite similar to buying a small packet of saffron threads in the supermarket, plus I will get them year after year.

In researching them it seems if you live in an area that freezes you may need to lift them and store them until the next year, but where I live there are no frosts so they can grow and multiply to their hearts content... I may have to consider investing in more - my retirement strategy :)

http://s-elliott.suite101.com/grow-your-own-saffron-a43196

Have a happy day xo

Hannah

what's in your mince?

Have you ever looked at the label of your mince.... it doesn't tell you whether your chicken mince is breast meat or thigh or indeed all the leftover bits with lots of skin and fat plopped in the mince machine...

I have one of these mincers and have been looking at the increasing price of unidentified mince and thinking that if chicken mince is $10-12 per kilo and chicken breast fillets are $8 per kilo I prefer cheaper and identified fresh mince.

Last night I defrosted a chicken breast and this morning made mince for the first time (have had the mincer for years but used it mainly for breadcrumbs with toasted stale bread....lol) I have now marinated the mince with coriander, garlic chives, finely chooped jerusalem artichokes (in lieu of water chestnuts) and some oyster sauce, ready to make wanton soup for dinner....

Photo of soup to come. Apologies for google image as my camera file corrupted and I had to format it and lost my photos, luckily only a few on there at the time.

Have a happy day xo

Gardening at work!

Today was the first sunny day that wasn't blowing a gale in a couple of weeks, so I brought the seedlings I had purchased, seeds I had saved from the garden and some pea seeds I bought and we planted out the garden!

There were two of us gardening and a few more having a look, we planted two rows of seed and a lot of herb seedlings... here's to winter salads at work from the garden!

Does your workspace have anywhere you could put a garden? I am blessed with a workplace that wants to encourage wellness, healthy living etc and we recently had a garage sale that raised money, some of which has been earmarked for the garden and supplies.

Just as I write this I am watching River cottage talking about landshare systems, where people who have land they can't utilise due to time or physical ability invite others to come and garden it. What an idea!

Post a comment where you think we should start growing veges and fruit!

Have a lovely day. xo

Thankfullness

Good friends of ours have just welcomed their third blessing into the world. Hadassah

She is one week old and most beautiful.

I am thankful for the gift of life that is so mysterious, so magnificent and wonderful.

I got hugs, although was careful not to touch her skin as I had been cutting up chillis earlier in the day and was not wanting her to get burnt by them. This couple now have three children under four, and it's hard for them to get out at night due to their business being on call, so we regularly go to their place for dinner and games. This visit was the first time I had been over when their older boys were up, and they were very curious who this new person was... they were most indignant that I had been to their house and not met them before :)

Have a happy day xo

Home made crackers

Lavosh crackers are not very cheap at the supermarket...

I had seen someone post a blog about these a couple of years ago and always meant to have a go... but never did until last night.

I was lent a lovely book called 'the free range cook' which is by Annabel Lanbein from New Zealand and had a recipe for Lavosh crackers. The recipe said to roll out thinly, however I remembered reading that it was possible to get them very thin using a pasta machine. I have one of those so put it into action.

Of course I had to try them straight away, and they were delicious! With a bit of homemade plum paste and some Brie they were spectacular.

Sesame and Lavosh Crackers

1cup plain flour

1/3 cup wholemeal flour

4Tbsp sesame seeds

1 dsp salt

1 tbsp finely chopped oregano or 1 tsp dried

1/4 cup olive oil

1tsp sesame oil

1/2cup water

Mix oils and water together and add to dry ingredients (I didn't need all the water) until it forms a sticky pliable dough.

Roll as thin as possible - I used a pasta machine to do this.

Cut into shape of crackers and carefully transfer to baking paper covered tray.

Brush crackers with oil and sprinkle with extra salt and bake at 170C for 15 mins or until golden brown.

Once cool store in an airtight container... but they won't last long.

Have a happy day xo

Garden update part 2

So due to difficulty uploading more than three photos, here is the rest of the vege garden... (I should make a disclaimer that if I took photos of all the garden I think we'd be upwards of ten posts so just the veges today)

 I had pulled everything out of this garden last week and on the weekend planted broad beans and peas/snowpeas on the diagonal. In the spaces between I planted red cabbage seedlings and you can see there is still some nastutium straight ahead, dill in rh corner, spring onion on right, rocket bottom right and you can just see the basil on the left.

 This is the last bed, although eventually there will be two more... just waiting on more fence palings, and possibly have a lead on some more through a friend this week. In here is chillis, kale, ceylon spinach, leeks and rocket. In the middle I planted a second sowing of asian greens as many of the plants in here weren't ready to get rid of yet.

A close up of some of the kale - this is Cavalo Nero. It is delicious and around 1m tall stems now, we have benefited a lot and I also pick a couple of leaves each day for the chooks whose gate you can see behind.

Have a happy day xo

garden update part one

My blog seems unwilling to add more than three photos to a post so this shall have to be part one!

The garden has been progressing well and now the vegetables are all in raised beds. I am attempting to implement a crop rotation system to some success but when there's a space sometimes things just beg to be planted.

This is the labourer (aka husband) installing a pipe support over this bed so I can put a cover over as it is underneath the jacaranda tree and the camellia tree and when they let loose, anything in the bed can be smothered. I'll just pick up an old net curtain at the op shop to go over.

And in that bed we have from left to right... lettuce, garlic, onions, beetroot, carrot and parsnips. The garlic was the last of the Australian garlic at the local fruit market, with warning that it was sprouting... which made me more inclined to buy it! The beetroot seed I soaked overnight and had a much better germination rate than with the last lot I grew.



This bed is a half size one, as there are some steps next to it... I have lettuce at the right hand side, and the rest was asian greens although a pumpkin seems to have decided to join... we have eaten and given away so much bok choy and mizuna... I don't think I'll try the asian cabbage again, it just seems to go straight to seed?

Tamarillos + Chillis - mmmmm

I was given some chillis from a friend in the permaculture group the other day....

 They had been waiting for something to be done with them. And then I was given a bag full of Tamarillos from a friend who's trees had all ripened at once.

Thanks to Linda at 'The Witch's Kitchen' for this delicious and easy recipe. I had everything in the cupboard and it was simple to make...

But there is still nearly a bag full of tamarillos so my friend Lida from permaculture is dropping over some more chillis tomorrow.

Have a happy day xo



An aunty day!

One of the reasons my blogging has been somewhat erratic lately has been that through 2010 and 2011 I was studying part time to get teaching qualifications as well as working close to 30 hours a week.

This year I have negotiated to work three days at my regular job and have the other two days available for casual teaching! It's been a but slow over term one as well as schools losing paperwork and not processing working with children checks, so I have had a bit of time to catch up with friends, get involved with a ministry of my church calles SOS store much like food bank, do gardening, prepare lessons and resources.

This week my state is on school holidays so I got to babysit my awesome nephew Rylee yesterday, we went for a walk down to the river, had morning tea, watched birds, butterflies, boats and people.

At nearly two he has an amazing curiosity and sense of fun.

 And a very cool hat!

The rest of the day was spent catching up with my sister after she finished her work, having some friends around to look at the garden, trying to go to the twilight markets in town however they appeared to be cancelled, so went for coffee instead, and homemade pizzas with friends for dinner - sourdough of course.

Now breathe.... just kidding. I loved it.

Have a happy day xx

Bush Tucker Harvest

About three years ago I planted a Midyim berry plant

Daley's Fruit Nursery have this blurb about them

Have to be the morst delicious of all the Australian Bushfoods. They can vary in flavour from extremely sweet to a rather aromatic almost menthol flavour. They occur naturally on the coast, from northern NSW up to Fraser Island in QLD and were a favourite food among local Aborigines. they do best in a shady sheltered place, with well, drained soil but are very adaptable to most sites if water is available. They make a great ground cover, tube specimen or garden plant. They are attractive, growing to a maximum height of 1m and width of about 80cm. Narrow pointed leaves, 1-3cm long which are silky and red/pink when young, giving them a lovely flush of colour. They have a delicate mass of white fluffy flowers, which occur in spring and summer. They can produce fruit twice a year - jan and april. fruit is best eaten freash, seeds and all, but can be added to fruit salads, into a pie or made into a fabulous native jam.

Three fruit up close, you can see they are a light grey, speckled with blackish dots.

I have my bush planted under the apricot tree, and after I mulched the courtyard food forest it has just taken off!

Also spent the morning putting small nets over the new pears to see what they do, there were about 15 formed pears all up!

Off to babysit my gorgeous nephew now as his regular babysitter has a meeting and I am not at work. Looking forward to taking him to the park as there has been a break in the rain and the sun is shining :)

Have a happy day xx

It's Autumn here.... or is it spring

So I live in Australia, which means at the moment as the northern hemisphere are enjoying the weather getting warmer... here it's getting colder.

But... perhaps due warmer weather accompanying recent heavy rains, it appears my garden has decided to put out in hopes that winter might have been and gone.

This is my almond flowering.

And some budding pears! There's about ten or so pears forming. I won't worry about the almonds, but I think I'll net the pear and see how big they get.

Otherwise normal activity in the garden... pulling out spend summer plants - beans, capsicum, tomatoes and feeding the bed in preparation for planting autumn legumes on the weekend.

Have a happy day xo

a confronting movie

Machine Gun Preacher - Our church had a viewing tonight and the man the movie is based on, Sam Childers, is coming to speak tomorrow night. I have observed some controversy around the story, but regardless of exactly what has happened the issues it deals with are real issues.

-Children stolen and forced to fight other people's wars
-Girls who don't perform as comfort women have their lips, ears and noses hacked off with razor blades
-Entire villages are destroyed so the children who are stolen have nothing to come home to
-Children walk miles to and from safe houses each night and morning as they are afraid of being stolen in the night

Some amazing people working with children who have been freed from these forms of slavery are Watoto who have recently seen the first women they are working with complete their facial reconstructions - and get their smiles back! They also have many young men who were previously child soldiers, rehabilitated, restored, part of families and community and education

For I know the plans that I have for you says the Lord, plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11

Anyone near Nowra tomorrow Sam Childers will be speaking at Nowra City Church cnr of Rockhill and McMahons Rd, North Nowra at 7pm.

Exciting new project... and chokes!

Very exciting to be asked to be part of a new blogging project -

can't say much yet but know it will be fun

And bless your world

and mine

For now you can see the photo shoot done to start setting up the blog....

Soup for lunch!

Made from Jerusalem Artichokes straight from the garden.

These were planted in the spot they're growing about three years ago, got a harvest the first year, then little the next, then they were mulched over with newspaper and woodchips and suddenly they made a reappearance!

They are a member of the sunflower family and you just eat the tuber - great sliced thinly in salads, pureed and mashed, or just baked.

Jerusalem Artichoke Soup.

Saute One onion diced in 20-30g butter.

Add 500+g jerusalem artichokes (scrubbed and chopped roughly) and 1 litre vegetable stock

Bring to boil and simmer 15 mins or until soft. Puree and season.

Delicious!