JUST LIKE MIL MADE

It’s absolutely years since I made tomato relish – sounds so old fashioned these days of ‘ready made supermarket fare’ but since my tomato plants have been producing heaps of fruit I decided to drag out the old recipe book. The measurements were in pounds and ounces – and that was superseded by decimal here around the mid 1960’s so it took a bit of working out how much of what I needed.

I had been skinning and freezing the excess fruit for a little while so part of the recipe was technically not going to be correct but I decided to try out ‘my’ version anyway and see how it turned out.

Tomatoes and onions, sugar, vinegar, mustard, curry powder and plain flour are really all there is to it. Boiled for 30 minutes then put into sterilized jars. It tasted good to me and was pretty much like my mother in law made so long ago when every good housewife made her own sauces and preserved fruit and vegetables to stand the family in good stead throughout the long winter months when the fresh stuff wouldn’t be available.

Gave a couple of jars each to my K35 and C41 for their families to try. K35 was amazed after trying it and proceeded to consume nearly half a jar spread on bread and margarine. Boy, have I let myself in for something here? Although store purchased stuff is OK, the home made variety certainly beats it hands down!

66 TODAY!

My birthday! It’s turned out a wet day, but blissfully cool - not at all usual for this time of the year here.

Birthdays bring with them the fact of having to face up to being another year older – and there’s nothing we can do about it! Would I want to? Sometimes I’ve heard others say (and have occasionally said it myself) I’d like to be a younger age but know all I know now. But that in itself would also bring it’s own problems wouldn’t it?

I think I’ll just be satisfied and try to resign myself to the fact that I’m no spring chicken any longer – in fact getting to the time of life when one could easily say I’m nearer the ‘old boiler’ end of the scale. Birthdays are a great time to reflect on the past and what life has brought us. For me, the good times far outweigh the not so good. Family, friends, home, health, enough to eat, clothing, shelter… enough there alone to reflect on just how good. And another good thing – I won’t turn 66 officially until 10pm tonight so I can spend the whole day knowing that I’m still only 65!

BUBBLES

Have you ever watched those iridescent shimmering spheres we call bubbles, float heavenward as the reflected sunlight sparkles and catches your eyes until at last they burst, sometimes high in the sky?

As I watched E4 and L2 ‘shooting’ the globby liquid into the air making dozens of them with their clacking, whirring bubble machines, I became almost mesmerized by their absolute beauty as the fragile rainbow colours swirled into space. I could have stayed there for longer, just watching – but alas, their joy was not in the beauty of them, but seeing how many ‘tricks’ they could perform while jumping, running and crouching, shooting the air.

I have to admit to ‘having a go’ myself after they had gone home and taking a few shots simply to see how they looked. One day when the air is still, I plan to do it again. I find it fascinating.