Separated at birth

I couldn't resist doing this post for a colleague of mine.

See how our greens grow

We cleared a little plot in the garden and prepared it so we could grow our own vegetables. Every morning I would stand at the edge and pray for the seeds to crack the soil, peep through and meet the sun. On the fourth day, our first breakthrough, radishes. Can not wait to add it to a salad. And so every day something new would appear. And even though we planted it and knew it would grow we are still amazed at the wonder of it all. The thunderstorms we have had recently have been unkind to some, the beetroot seemed to have drowned, but kind the others, the butternut and gem squash are flourishing. From time to time we add another seed, at the edges we have planted sunflower and borage and mielies and beans...

And my voice be still

For thirty years I have been listening to his music, over and over again. The most beautiful words.

A hop, skip and a jump

A hop, skip and a jump from September to November, it's almost as though October never was. So here is just a short recap for October. If there are any typos in the text please forgive me. No need to highlight them and send me a message, like all good mistakes, I cannot go back and undo them.

Worshipping the sun

Anton Smit has a sculpture park in Bronkhorstspruit, which is on my to-do list. But I saw on his Facebook page that he was invited to do installations of his artwork at the new Menlyn Maine mall, so I went there instead. I loved his work but wished I could remove the building and cars so they could be viewed against the magnificent sky. It was difficult to photograph them without the clutter of the surroundings.

 

Turning Point Foundation Open Day at Mulligatawny Farm

Support a charity and have an absolutely beautiful experience!

They supplied a map with 25 sights you could see, then tick off the list. We went to every one of them and I photographed it all. I have spared you the journey of 432 photographs and have selected only a few here.

They had an open air church in the garden and it made me think of my dad. He always said: My garden is my church.

1 The Sulking Pond, 2 Garden Entrance, 3 The Tower, 4a Manor House, 4b Farm Stall, 5 Herb Garden, 6 Lily Pond, 7 The Brooke, 8 Look-out Point, 9 Bamboo Forest, 10 River Walk, 11 Potager, 12 The New Orchard, 13 The Fountain Garden, 14 Wetlands, 15 The Boat House, 16 Toilets, 17 The Grand Lawn, 18 Skeerpoort River, 19 Aviary, 20 Apiary, 21 St-Michael-in-the-Fields, 22 Grotto, 23 The Poultry Palace, 24 Kingfisher Cottage, 25 Toilets.

Delicious carrot cake

I found a recipe in the WW Taste magazine (page 70, October 2016) but it's pointless reproducing their recipe on my blog so I adapt it a little to make it my own. In the Taste recipe they take care care in mixing things up separately and then combining but I just put everything in one whole and whip it together. Ha, ha, you may prefer to rather the original method.

I wanted to add cranberries but dried cranberries are always too hard when everything else is soft so I heat them up in a little red wine. I decided to leave the sugar out of the batter and add a cream cream and honey topping.

Honestly, I  thought two carrots wouldn't be enough but it's plenty. Also I don't peel the carrots.

In the original recipe it instructs to preheat oven to 175° but I always use 180°. My mother baked everything at 180° and I am sticking to that too. Everything she baked was fantastic.

I think if she had written a cookbook its title would have been 180degrees.