Slow Living Month 11 and 12

Time to wrap up 2013...

November and December have been wonderful months with loads of activity.

 We wrapped up the school year at the end of November and my eldest finished his final exams early in November and begun working as a junior software support technician. He is loving his job and we miss having him around the house.  

My daughter and I had a fantastic holiday visiting my sister and my mum in Kwa Zulu Natal. My daughter is still away, now visiting with her cousins on the farm in the Free State. 

NOURISH:

 Summer is here and braais and simple salads are best in the heat. 

I bought some wonderful curry mixes while on holiday and we have enjoyed a delicious chicken curry with apricots. I look forward to trying out the others too! 

While on holiday, it was a real treat not to take care of daily meals and I was blessed to enjoy my mum and sisters cooking. We were also treated to a fair amount of eating out. 

PREPARE: 

In holiday mode, there was not much achieved here, except a batch of tasty tomato and chili jam laced with loads of ginger and garlic....

made with my own abundant tomato harvest!

REDUCE: 

My daughter raided my cupboards and decided what needed to go. We gave away most of the clothes she thought I should no longer wear. She also went through her cupboards and passed things on. We have been blessed with so many clothes by a dear friend and it was a pleasure to pass some of ours on.

GREEN: 

Nothing new here.

GROW: 

I planted green and yellow peppers, leeks, beans and gem squash. 

Kale, cabbages, tomatoes, chilies and granadillas are all doing well. I have harvested strawberries, gooseberries, onions and leeks.

Its been fun to pull up carrots when they are needed in a meal. 

My lemon tree has a few lemons on it and so far I have picked the first two.

CREATE:

 I have had great fun creating all sorts. 

Most of the items made were used as gifts for Christmas.

 The above was sent to Germany as part of an International Handmade Gift Exchange.

 I made my first ever Christmas wreath using a fynbos wreath, ribbons and cones. I loved the way it turned out. 

I finally finished off a pair of thick warm bed-socks for a friend. I felt rather guilty that they took so long as she will have to wait a number  of months to wear them. I knitted up a number of snoods and beanies as gifts too. 

My daughter made these magnetic decoupaged fridge notepads as gifts.

DISCOVER: 

I caught up on magazine reading while on holiday, just little snippets enjoyed at a time. 

ENHANCE: 

We took part in an International Children's book exchange and received two parcels, one from China and one from USA. We sent sent out gently used books with a South African flavor to our exchange partners.

My youngest son and I took part in an alien vegetation hack in a local fynbos area.

ENJOY:

We certainly embraced enjoying this season with precious family and friends!

We enjoyed our Church family fun day, numerous Christmas parties, Christmas Carols and more. 

My daughter and I enjoyed the beauty of country life in the Underberg area with my sister and her husband. 

We all traveled south to enjoy time with my Mum down on the coast. We dipped our toes in the warm Indian Ocean, caught up with one another , rested well and ate far too well! 

We were treated to a fantastic day at the Wild Coast Sun where we spent the day at the Wild Waves water park. Adrenaline  pumped as we had enormous fun riding the thrilling rides! 

I celebrated my birthday in style with my Mum at the balmy south coast and the following day I flew home to my guys. 

It was a fantastic holiday! 

Christmas eve was celebrated with extended family at my Dad and on Christmas day we enjoyed celebrating with hubby's parents. 

A wonderful time of year ...

Thank You Christine for hosting Slow Living in 2013.

Slow Living Month 11

Time to look back on a month that seems to have flown by with the blink of an eye. Our eldest completed his exams despite not being well, and the younger two and I have been furiously trying to finish up bits and pieces so we can enjoy the coming summer holidays.

NOURISH: 

Early this month we enjoyed lunches of decadent and delicious open sandwiches using garlic and herb, two peppers or honey and mustard flavoured cream cheeses. A much appreciated hand made gift from my farm sister. We topped them with lettuce from the garden and my home-made pickled onions and coriander pesto. 

My sister had also sent me some of her hand made houllumi ... delicious... we enjoyed that over a freshly picked spinach salad. Another of her cheeses was used with home made tortillas, filled with chicken cooked with onion and garlic from the garden. Her cheese also went into some tasty courgette muffins.
First courgettes from the garden went into Spanish omelettes, a simple yet tasty dinner.
My daughter spent a fair amount of time in the kitchen helping with baking: 
orange cake, pecan and carrot muffins, corn and chili bread, rosemary shortbread. 
The boys certainly appreciate her efforts.
Ooh...almost forgot....I made my first ever pumpkin pie and it was a winner even if I say so myself!

PREPARE:

Not much in this department except the usual chili and tomato jam and then yesterday I made a batch of apricot and ginger jam. 

REDUCE:
 Old stockings have been snipped up and used to tie up the tomatoes and prevent the wind from destroying them. 

GROW:
The granadilla vine is heavy with fruit and numerous new flowers appear each day. Every morning I run out to check on my squash for new flowers and fruit. Sunflowers stand tall in the garden and bees and butterflies are everywhere.

I planted a number of seeds shared with me from my sister in law's visit to my farm sister: scarlet runner beans, watercress, cucumbers,  safflower, lemon basil, fennel 
and mustard greens.  

We have been enjoying herbs, chillies, first tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, green beans, first courgettes and garlic from the garden.

CREATE:
 I have been battling to find the time to be creative but my youngest made this wooden stool at his technology class.

My daughter has been enjoying making some pocket money helping out at Sweetarts. She has natural creative flair and is loving working with Jacki and learning from her.

DISCOVER: 

I discovered "The Micro Gardener", a great website with ideas for the garden. A post on spring onions led me to discover that mine had gone to seeds and the seeds were ready to collect. I also made the "sensational spring onion salsa" as a side dish one evening.

I have downloaded a number of free books onto my Kindle Cloud Reader and have been trying to get some ideas for easy home-made Christmas gifts and holiday ideas.

ENHANCE: 
Our youngest attended his monthly Chaeli Campaign meeting and has continued selling bath sprudels to raise funds for the Chaeli Campaign. 
My daughter held her monthly craft workshop where she showed the girls how to make beautiful wooden hanging hearts, strung with beads and decorated with roses.
She and I have also begun exercising in earnest again and are enjoying the enormous benefits thereof. 

ENJOY:
 We enjoyed a number of outings; UCT Zoology Department, Newlands Rugby Stadium and the Cape Dairy Expo. 
There have been plenty of impromptu enjoyable neighbourhood dinners where we all just come together and share pot luck dinner, catch up and relax.
 We shared a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner too.
We visited the Cape Doctors Art Exhibition where some of my father's art was on display and last night we enjoyed an exhibition of the work of my neighbour's brother, Gavin Collins.

 Thank you Christine for hosting this great link up at Slow Living Essentials.