No cards or presents sent

This year Mrs H and I decided not to buy any greetings cards or gifts, instead we have made a donation to our favourite charity.

The Society of St Vincent de Paul who do so much good work for those whose need is greater than ours.

Our personal message to you all :-

To those of you who celebrate Christmas 

and to those of you who don't 

we send you 

Peace and Happiness !

http://www.svp.ie/Home.aspx

Council of Ireland, National Office, SVP House, 91-92 Sean MacDermott Street, Dublin 1

Telephone: 00353 1 838 6990 Facsimilie 00353 1 838 7355 Email: info@svp.ie

Charity Reg. No. CHY 6892

WINTER: Food and Cures

A Cornish Pasty

The pasty has to be one of my favourite dishes and especially at this time of the year. This one was made quite recently by Mrs H when I was feeling slightly under the weather and her culinary skills cheered me up no end. It contains cubed swede, parsnips carrots and lean beef steak, plus white pepper and an oxo cube for additional flavour. 

It was absolutely delicious and very filling, so much so that I was unable to consume all of it at one sitting and approximately half of it became a meal on the following day  

A cough remedy

I recently suffered an irritating dry and tickly cough which disturbed me both day and night. After having tried homeopathic drosera which helped, that alone was not sufficient and so I resorted to Manuka honey to which one drop of thyme oil had been added and stirred into; the dosage I took was one teaspoonful twice a day for about four or five days which am delighted to say completely cured me.

Cayenne Pepper

Another one of my home remedies is cayenne pepper which I use fairly frequently throughout the year. It is well known for improving the circulation and has many uses; my best advice is for you to look it up on the internet and make your own decision.

I take it once a day: one teaspoonful in a small glass of cold spring water.

The Cayenne Pepper Drink

The cayenne pepper drink is extremely hot and the way I take it is have one large mouthful and to hold it in the mouth for about three seconds before swallowing down as rapid as is possible, quickly followed by drinking second glass of water to flush away any residue from the gums, of course another way to reduce the burning sensation in the mouth is to have a spoonful of honey.

I try to avoid pharmaceutical medicines and visits to medical practitioners as far as is possible, unless it is absolutely unavoidable. My preference is to eat wholesome foods, exercise regularly, do nothing to excess and maintain my height/weight ratio.

My plan is to grow old disgracefully by being a geriatric hippy !

Important places

The Spirits that live unseen in our cottage are

most definitely feminine. So to honour them &

the Divine Feminine I brought back from Glastonbury

this figure and in her belly sit my favourite crystals.

This is the most important area of our home, in my mind

I call it the 'engine room' for from this small space is

delivered the sustenance that drives our lives.

Our array of storage pots, you will notice two coffee

jars and that is because we blend two different types

&  sometimes we make a brew from just one of them.

The brandy was there just to remind me that I still

had to make another coffee liqueur for Yule.

I have a deep curiosity of looking at other peoples 

storage cabinets when visiting their homes & so

just to correct the balance, I thought to display ours.

Our collection of jugs, pots and vases sitting safely

on a beech shelf next to the books.

Shelves of curiosities from from a quaint musical box

to willow plates, a smoker's cabinet & the requisite

drinks shelf with a dish of crystals that separate

Wine from Whisky

All of the willow ware shown here was purchased to display in Mrs H's recent series of paintings. 

I hope that you have enjoyed your visit to our home.

The Trees Sleep

This is a special day it being November the 1st also the first day of Winter. Now please stand as you read on... 

The very special occasion is that it's Mrs Heron's Birthday, she is now xx years of wisdom and I am too much of a coward to enumerate here exactly how young she is. Er' you may now sit okay.

Ollie playing peek-a-boo while standing on a

carpet of leaves

Above is the largest tree in our back garden - an Ash of which is always

a delight to the eye throughout the year and I am keeping my fingers crossed

that it avoids being damaged by the dreadful fungus as are so many elsewhere.

This pair of horses live in my neighbours' grounds, they seem to spend much of their lives grazing in this field and are only missing during the warm summer months. I took this photo to tie in with the title of the blog and depict the sleeping trees.

Oliver's 2nd Birthday

Today is Ollie's second birthday

The Rufus Family

Oh look he has toes just like mine

Ollie with his friend Leah

'What is this all mine?'

'Sorry Dad but I'm too puffed out after all of that cake, to play footy

with you today'

Magic at the Door

Our black cat Magic sits in sunshine before the door 

 cleaning up before entering. 

I not being a gardener cannot tell you the name of this shrub;

 all I can say is that when it's green leaves brightly redden 

then winter is on is on it's way

In a southern corner of our garden old roses still bloom

partnered with the luscious red Fuchsia

Collector of Oddities

I have the habit of a magpie in that occasionally something bright catches my eye and I bring it back to our nest.

The above is a bronze plaque with a silver filigree pattern.

I think the words may be Arabic but am not certain, perhaps

someone can throw light on this ? 

Of all of the oddities this is my favourite.

It is of course a small soda syphon about 5 inches high x 1-1/2 inches in diameter.

 I can imagine it being an essential item for those who like to travel

and imbibe a whisky & soda at regular intervals!

Another plaque carved from wood and overlaid with bronze, 

it's about 4-1/2 inches in diameter. The quadrant design is a Celtic,

 cross in a circle which is as old as the hills however, I have no idea as 

to why the vertical leg is channeled out - any ideas please ?

This object is a very strong magnet, it was found

attached to the bonnet (hood) of our car and neither the 

mechanic nor myself have a clue as to why it was there.

 I look forward in receiving your suggestions!

Autumnal Equinox 22nd Sept 2012

The Equinox Sunrise this morning

Preparations towards a 70th birthday in early January

the eventual Red Plum Brandy & Peach Brandy

for the pleasure my guests !

This my new and very comfortable tub chair

(notice the orbs ?)

Our Friend - Toby

This is our faithful old Toby, whose age we estimate to be about 9 years.He is a cross bred English Sheepdog and Welsh Collie, having the character of a lovable rogue, his hearing is absolutely brilliant and so makes for a great watchdog, especially at night.

Considering his background was not that great he is very well behaved with clean habits. Toby’s first companion treated him viciously, hitting him with a broom handle, punching him, feeding him on dry bread and water. He kept him on a short chain in a concrete yard with no proper shelter all the year round and only let him free to exercise about every six weeks.

Today he stays mainly indoors as he is not fond of rain. During the days of sunshine his favourite hideaway is a shady nook under a tree or shrub from where he keeps a watchful eye on what we are doing or eating, for his vast appetite can never be sated and we are careful not to over feed him. At the first opportunity he raids the cats’ bowls and leaves them without food.

There doesn’t seem to be any food that he doesn’t like. His tastes range from garlic to lettuce leaves and he even chews turf (the burning kind).
He also has a fondness Bailey’s Irish Cream and is especially good at plying his long tongue into a neglected brandy glass and not spilling a drop whilst he licks. On that occasion he did go through the door sideways then lay down and snored for a few hours! At a recent party a young friend placed a slice of gateaux on the coffee table only to find it missing within seconds of doing so... Toby had struck again !

We took him in the back of the car to our nearest beach, 70 miles away, because Jane had an idea that he would run on the beach with her and play in the waves. No such luck ! He was back in the car as fast as his legs would carry him when he realised it was wet, cold and tasted bad.
Toby is our friend, playmate and guardian and we are his. 

No photos, no drivers - thanks to Canon

As many of you are aware I use an iMac desk top and recently installed Apples new operating system Mountain Lion OS 10.8 which is amazingly fast and smooth.

My camera is a Canon Digital IXUS 80 IS which is perfect for me with my limited knowledge of photography.

Nearly all all of the photo’s on this blog were taken with my camera. Today I am unable to display any, in fact I am unable to download any of the photo’s from my camera onto the apple application iPhoto.

The reason for this is that Canon have yet to produce any drivers to work with my camera and OS10.8 operating system. 

Twice I rang Canon to enquire about this problem. The first time after having pressed all the buttons I was cut off, on the second attempt the female techie that I was talking to spoke so quietly that I had a job to hear her and I had to as her to speak louder.

During our conversation she asked me for my email address and said that she found some drivers and would email me that information. 

You know what! I am still waiting! 

I am in a quandary now as to whether to sell the camera and buy another one but most definitely not a Canon.

I await guidance from you my readers.