A Little Bit of Beauty

Over the coming weekend, I hope you will find a little bit of beauty in the world. Something that brings a smile, that softens the harder edges, that slows your footsteps or turns your head, that gladdens your heart.

A little bit of beauty blooms in my garden.

Have a lovely weekend.

Meg

Wonderful Wombok Salad

A fresh Chinese cabbage, crunchy ingredients and a peanut-y dressing make a wonderful, fresh and light salad. Perfect for warm Spring days!

Fresh ingredients for a delicious, crunchy salad.

Wombok forms the leafy basis of this delicious salad. It is an oval-shaped Chinese cabbage with distinctive lighter-green, crinkly leaves. Finely shredded and then tossed with other fresh, raw veggies like capsicum, spring onion, carrot and celery, sprinkled with toasty slivered almonds and sesame seeds and finished off with a generous drizzle of a tangy, peanut butter dressing. So good...  and so good for you!  (Please note that it's not suitable for those with nut allergies.)

As soon as I spotted the wombok, grown just to the North of our city on the Sunshine Coast, and available in our little local organic market shop, I knew I could put it together with the  crunchy celery from my garden to make this salad.  Here's how it came together in my kitchen:

Wash, dry and finely shred leaves of the wombok. 

Chop spring onion, celery, capsicum and grate carrot. 

Toss prepared salad vegetables together in a bowl.

Sprinkle with toasted slivered almonds & sesame seeds.

(Toss again to incorporate throughout the salad.)

This is a very versatile salad. I don't work off exact quantities for the salad because you can add as much as you like of the extra veggies to the shredded wombok. It really doesn't matter if you use one carrot or two, half a capsicum or a whole one.  You could add some chunks of de-seeded cucumber, some fresh bean sprouts or some fried Chinese noodles for extra crunch.  Shredded chicken is nice if you want to add a meat to the salad.

There are many different kinds of dressings that you could use with this salad. I chose to make this peanut-buttery dressing that I found over at the Laughing Spatula website.  I whisked up the dressing separately and then drizzled it over the top of each serve rather than adding it to the salad bowl. Leftovers of both went separately into the fridge ready for lunch the next day. (No soggy salad that way!)

This is a really lovely salad. It's fresh, it's crunchy and it's totally delicious. Enjoy!

Meg

Hope on ANZAC Day

Here in Australia today, it is ANZAC Day. A day of solemn remembrance that has its origins in a hopeless World War 1 Allied landing and ensuing battle, fought over 100 years ago, on a distant shoreline from which many never returned.  At a place now known as Anzac Cove, on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey, on the 25th April, 1915,  so many Australian and New Zealand men lost their lives and many more, on both sides, would do so before the eventual retreat was completed by the end of January, 1916. 

Rosemary, a herb for boosting memory, blooms in my garden.

(Sprigs are worn on ANZAC Day & it grows wild on the Gallipoli Peninsula.)

Both my son and I share a love of history and sometimes he asks some very complex questions to which there are no easy answers. This morning, before I'd had my breakfast and was not fully awake, he had asked me, "Why are there wars, Mum?" In answering him, I told him of battles over honour, power, religion, land, oil and those that will probably come over food and water. We spoke about World War 1 and Gallipoli. I showed him images of the cliffs that tower above Anzac Cove and explained why it was such a futile landing. And then I played him Eric Bogle's haunting anti-war ballad, "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda". 

For me, it is in the sobering, honest words of Bogle's ballad, that never fails to leave me quiet and goosefleshed, that the lessons of history and war reside. While, at the end of it all there may be a victor, so many lose so much. 

A peace lily flowers in my garden.

Why write about something so serious on my blog, where the word hopeful features prominently in the banner? Because, just as it does in my son, with his inquiring questions, I truly believe that in every child there lies the hope & potential for a peaceful future. 

Peace is what every human being is craving for,
and it can be brought about by humanity through the child."

                                                                                              (Maria Montessori)

So, as I remembered today, I also wished for peace; for my son and for all of the world's children.

Meg

p.s. There are several videos of Eric Bogle's ballad on You-tube. I chose one without accompanying photographs because I think the words alone are enough. 

Looking Forward

Hope. The looking forward of things to come, the belief that good things will happen, the trust that "better" awaits. The gentle wind that can lift our spirits and move us forward.

 "Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, 

and sings the words without the tune and never stops at all."

(Emily Dickinson)

As we look ahead to a new year, many resolutions will be shaped. Yours (if you make them) and mine (if I make them). Perhaps, they will just be whispered silently within our own thoughts, maybe they'll take the form of words written down in a journal, on a refined piece of paper or the back of an old envelope. Maybe, they'll be displayed as pictures on a vision board (like Sherri's) or we'll see them only when we close our eyes. I think, at the core of every resolution, every promise we make ourselves, is hope. 

So it is with much hope, at the start of this new year just a midnight away, that I am looking forward to:

*spending time with those I love & holding them close*

*growing food & flowers in my little garden*

*crafting beautiful & useful things with my own hands*

*learning some new skills & refining a few others*

*walking regularly with the warm sun on my shoulders & sand between my toes*

* continuing to simplify my life & letting go of more that is unnecessary*

*exploring the natural world & taking purposeful steps to care for our Earth*

*reading many, many books*

*returning to beautiful Straddie* 

(Just under a year away now but who's counting!)

*watching the sun rise on the new days I am blessed to live*

A new day dawns, one of my 16, 263 days lived...so far!

As this new day dawns, and a new year beckons, I hope that you have much to look forward to. May 2017 be a year of hopefulness and happiness for you.

Meg