Ah young Jedi.....

Right. This contention about the jaffle maker and the use thereof for the purpose of creating gooey, messy, and ultimately tongue branding sandwichy goodies will be once and for all put to rest.

As the lovely Sister B says, we did have a jaffle maker at home. We used it. When I was a young whipper snapper. BUT!! It was only ever brought out on cold Winter afternoons to use up the overflow of 'curried mince' or 'mince dish undefined'. Never do I remember the jaffle maker being used for something like breakfast. Never.

It was just 'not done'......until the catalyst of Sister B's birth. (oh joy! oh rejoice for the saviour has been BORN!) hmmmm. I think that's just a tad sarcastic really.....

Then the floodgates were open to hot baked bean or canned spaghetti jaffles for elevenses, for afternoon tea too! I remember on various occasions being delightfully scalded for weeks from a particularly plump baked bean jaffle. The melted cheese ones were my favourite but one had to be excessively crafty to avoid Mama putting tomato and pepper and salt in too. That was for a more mature palate. Yet sometimes we would be tricked by the deceptive gooey cheese gushing out of the jaffle and eat the nuclear hot tomato ones. Nothing like atomically heated tomato to really rip the gums into gear and completely resurface the tongue.

So anyway. There was a jaffle maker and yes it was used. But never for brekky.

Cheese on toast and Autumn

There's a definite quality in the air at this time of year, that is so very conducive to the partaking of warm and oily toppings on bread.

I remember from my childhood, never being 'allowed' to make something as extravagant as 'cheese on toast' in the mornings. Much better for my Mum to just clean up a milky bowl than the gooey and crumbly mess that such a project as cheese on toast does accrue. At least this is the distinct impression I got.

So, no spaghetti on toast, not baked beans on toast, not cheese on toast. I did however get the occasional omlette seeing as Ma was partial to these herself, but mainly it was 'the large pot of porridge' for brekky in Winter, and the cereal or jam on toast in Summer. (anyone who has grown up in a tropical climate knows that Summer actually is just the season that should be called 'Hot', and lasts for nine months of the year)
I only discovered that bacon, mushroom, sausages and grilled tomato were considered breakfast foods, in my late teens and early twenties. What a sheltered life I'd had!

It was good to find the full English type breakfast at such an age as it was required to reline the stomach after drinking binges, and offset the inevitable hangover scratch in the small intestine. (youngsters take note)

Lyfe at home was an endless search for the feeling of Autumn. That coolness that led me to truly believe I could put on clothes that had sleeves. The view of plants not wilting in a sea of crackly goldeness. Skies of blue without 'bite'. I think that's what ultimately attracted me to go to Britain.

Then I did a very silly thing.

I went from midsummer here to midwinter in Scotland. Sort of blew the fairytale ya know?

So now, I enjoy the onset of cool weather here. I make the most of it. I eat my toast and melted cheese! I make large breakfasts of spaghetti, grilled tomato and mushrooms with shallots and pepper and herbs! (gone vego you see, no piggy wiggy for me) I wear sleeved shirts! I wear my jeans and I rejoice in my clothesedness!!

Oh beautiful Autumn, may we never ever call you Fall.

My Aquarius

This picture really speeeeks to me. Thinking of star signs, prompted by Sister Buckle and the amazing Tim, I had a little brain holiday and remembered this picture. Light of Knowledge above the Waters of Life. The Merkaba is a geometric that gives the message 'as above so below', ........... which brings me to Aquarius.

Aquarians are supposed to bring knowledge to this plane of existence, yet a lot of what I have learned was gained from observation. So I think the enlightenment from 'above' is tempered and needs the experience of 'below'.

Nyce picture though eh?

La la-la la-la....off to my brain holiday again.....


notice the 'angel bubble' the artist has put into this too? lovely hey? :)

the Great and Beautiful Beyond......

I am just about to go 'off' and visit the heady realm of Evanessance (is that how you spell it?) and Three Doors Down. I have a fixation with the songs 'Bring me to Life' and 'Kryptonite' at the moment. As well as Kate's new 'Sunset' song. Fab. Fab. Fab. They are the fingertips to sanity at the moment as we are packing up this house and buggin out to a new place. Just in the nick of time methinks.

Moving house has led itself to a place where I am visualising actually BEING in this new place. I see the light from certain windows, I feel the breeze in the courtyard, I imagine walking to the library up the hill. All very comforting.

This has made me think of my Grandmother's house. Her walls. Her wallpaper. Her swirly wirly carpet. The SMELL of her cooking. The smell of her bathroom, with the soap and the powder. It's a beautiful reminder to me that the 'great beyond' need not be at all filled with any kind of fear, but rather, a kind of longing for the 'new' in life. Oh LIFE.

Oh now to the 'Last Week' of living in 'this' abode. The things that bug me, come up 100x their intensity. The annoying sound of the fridge clicking on and clacking off and the generated HUMMMMMMMMMMM of it's motor tooo toooo tooooooo close to my bedroom door. Oh to be in two floors of living again. Yes, I am definitely living in my new place already, if only in my heart so far.

Aye but it's nyce to see all the stuff getting packed. To discover stuff packed since the last move and to find toys behind and underneath furniture that the kids have been parted with. They LOVE me for finding these things. It sort of makes up for the skid marks on knickers to clean and the endless damp towels to pick up. Oh the joys and wonders and absolute beauty of motherhood!!!!!

Moontides, Feng Shui and the Karmic Super Highway...

Been thinking about how the Moon affects life in general. I have always watched the Moon, been fascinated by it's various appearances, awed by some of them. Lately, I've been 'affected' by it though. I have been sent into a state of instability.

I think its this house I'm in.

Chinut moved into a house with very warped Feng Shui. If she had known just how much it was going to influence her life she would not have come here.

See? this is what happens when you surrender to the Universe and say 'I now surrender', because it just goes "Yippee! some new human to send on a Karmic Superhighway!!"
Gee.....thanks.

So, I have learned my lesson with Feng Shui. 'Don't let the Feng Shui spook you, but take enormous notice of your intuition too'.

The photo I have attached to this post is from a site called 'Harmonik Ireland', which is all about natural healing and a lot about water healing. Great site.

William's Bum and Charlotte's Smile

Well 'lo there everybody!

My Sister Buckle has been saying for a while now that I am one of the people she knows that would benefit from having a blog. B-L-O-G. sounds lovely. Kate's new album sounds lovely too. I have been listening to it today and can say that it was worth the wait.

So on this very wonderful new day, I thought I would share with you some simple thoughts and happynings of my life.

My son William, 3 years, has given me much joy and consternation in his life so far. One of the joys at present is his pre-bath sequence in which he gets naked, by degrees, until standing proudly starkers, he turns.....and shakes his bum at anyone present while singing 'Nakey! Nakey! Nakey! Nakey bum, na-na-na-na-nahhhhh!'....and then he tears off at top speed to the bathroom with my inevitable cry of "DON'T RUN ON THE TILES WILLIAM!!!!!". bless.

Little Charlotte is just... beautiful. She sings along to Tori Amos and Kate Bush, and quite frankly, I think she is just as good at dancing like Kate Bush AS Kate Bush. We did a bubble blowing Tori-fied dance today, outside on the grass. She is also really into any reptiles, so we watched the crazy South African guy who catches snakes on Animal Planet last night, and we ate chocolate and crisps while William was in bed and Daddy was out playing snooker. Perfect life. The South African dude is like totally rad too. Check him out if you can. (he jumped out of a tree into a river to catch one of the snakes he was looking for! Just mad...)