This is the first illustration in Hannah Dunnett's book 'More than Words'.
I expect many people are familiar with her work. She has a way of weaving quotations from the Bible into her pictures.
This is the front cover of the book;
When we were talking about using creating or colouring pictures as a way into prayer in my zoom church home group we came across this book and decided to follow it together. In my ignorance I thought it was a book for colouring in the pictures, but no, that has been done already!
We plan to take each of the 24 illustrations in turn, one a week, to look at and talk about together in our meetings. As it turns out, there are roughly 24 weeks left in the year...
The Lighthouse is our illustration for this week.
Once you start looking, there is so much to find in each illustration, even before you start reading the thoughtful reflections HD has written.
Each time I look at this picture I discover more... I am feeling quite inspired to spend time pondering and praying in response to the words.
Zoom in, and find comfort in the age-old wisdom. Repeat the phrases in time to your breathing. Create your own picture. Or just sit, with a cup of tea of coffee (or iced water!) and let the words do their work within you.
I took some time in the garden this morning before the day heated up. My cardoons are flowering, even the ones that were attacked by blackfly and liberally sprayed with a mixture of washing up liquid and vegetable oil.
They are taller than the fence, over 6 feet.
I deadheaded some more lavender, watered the pots nearest the back door and enjoyed the scene.
I picked the last few broad beans; we've a hosepipe ban starting from next weekend so the less we have that needs watering, the better.
Picking the beans was a bit of a dodgy exercise as my long oxygen cannula only reaches halfway towards them. I took it off and hooked it over a handy bay tree at its full extent, walked down to the beans, and made it back before I was getting seriously out of breath.
Oxygen
I could have gone and fetched a cylinder but... there are time when I feel a bit cantankerous about the whole oxygen scenario and just go for it. BB would raise an eyebrow and remark 'it's hard work being lazy' and he's not wrong!
In these really hot days I've been using a cylinder instead of the mains powered concentrator in the afternoons when the temperature rises. The concentrator, as well as making a continuous chuntering noise like an air-conditioner also produces a lot of heat. Well, the heat is welcome in winter, but not in a heatwave!
The cylinders are really for going out and about, well, that's not happening at the moment! So I use them while I sit and watch the tennis.
Saving water
I have suggested lowering the buckets out of the bathroom window on a length of rope when we save the bathwater. BB says carrying them down the stairs is easier. I guess the bathroom window, being directly over the bath would be tricky.
Ice Cream
I have removed temptation by buying icecreamd that BB prefers and I actually don't like. This has worked well. There is a tub of vanilla in the freezer though, and sometimes I hear it's gentle call...
Here's my contribution to the sweet treat collection
Hot Chocolate Sauce for Ice Cream
Make this just before you serve the ice cream
2oz plain chocolate
1 oz butter
Melt in microwave (90 sec on full power, but this is an old recipe from the days when full power was probably 600W)
Beat in 2 tablespoons milk
It sets when you pour it over the ice cream
Tennis
The men's doubles final was terrific.
The women's singles final is tragic. I can hardly bear to watch. Amanda Anisomova has lost to Iga Swiatek. 6-0 6-0. It was as hard to watch as Djokavic and Sinner yesterday.
Men's final tomorrow...
Music
I thought I'd choose gamelan music from Bali. I have a feeling this might be a modern composition, but in the traditional style.
Here's the YouTube link if you want to read a little more about it.
It must be years and tears since we had a takeaway, even fish and chips. We have our main meal at lunch time, and tend to get supermarket takeaway-style dishes or make them ourselves if that's what we would like.
Today I was going to make a Thai Green Chicken Curry sort of lunch;
I had bought some pots of IceKitchen frozen curry paste a while ago. I thought today was a good day to try the Green Thai pots as I wanted a meal that was easy and wouldn't take long to prepare, cook and serve.
Anyway, I can't report on the Thai Green Curry pot yet as after hunting through the cupboards I had to come to the conclusion we were out of coconut milk. Another time.
Warning; should you wish to try their Jalfrezi curry paste, be prepared for a blisteringly hot curry! Even with a good dollop of yoghurt stirred through we couldn't finish them
Anyway, it was now a case of Help! What next? Make a Stir fry.
Chicken stir fry, satay style
Chicken, sliced into suitable sized pieces
Selection of veg
1 nest of Chinese noodles per person cooked as per packet instructions
'Fake' satay-style sauce; for recipe, see below
Stir fry meat and veg in the usual way (my mother learned in Singapore to add a splash of hot water once the veg were sizzling away, as the steam would speed up the cooking time)
Add the sauce and mix through, and add a little water if it's a bit gloomy looking. If the pan is too hot or the sauce too thick it will start to stick.
Serve! A squeeze of lime or lemon, and maybe a little extra soy sauce is a good idea. Go the whole distance and garnish with chopped spring onions or coriander!
I've tried the teriyaki sauce - not bad; I added grated ginger. I haven't tried the sweet and sour one yet.
Tennis
I thought Novak Djokavic had been looking uneasy in himself all week, so wasn't surprised that he lost his semifinal against Jannik Sinner. The Carlos Alcarez versus Taylor Fritz match was amazing, and I enjoyed Andre Aggassi's commentary very much.
Music
Paganini violin caprice played by Hilary Hahn. Parts of this could be the sound track for some of the rallies I watched this afternoon.
There was watering the garden this morning, and deheading a rose bush, and making a start on deadheading lavender and picking rather manky looking broad beans,
There was a piano lesson plus our usual putting the world to rights, or to what we two consider to be right,
There was lunch (sausages, boiled potatoes and green veg medley)
And then there was tennis... I gave up on the first match as both women were 'shouters', but watched the second.
Fast, hot, sweaty, running and turning and twisting and hurtling round the court... how can they keep it going?
So I've chosen scurry scurry music; Schubert Impromptu in E flat. It's almost too hot to listen to it;
I had bever actually made spaghetti carbonate before, although I'd eaten it often enough. I read through a couple of recipes online, and settled on 'Easy Spaghetti Carbonara' from the BBC Good Food site. There is an Ultimate Spaghetti Carbonara recas well, which is Nigella Lawson version, almost the same but using 3 pans instead of 2...
Basically, for 2, you boil 200g spaghetti. While that's going on, fry 75g lardonds in a little olive oil. grate 100g parmesan and stir this into 2 beaten eggs. Season the egg and cheese mix with pepper and a little salt. Dip a bit of water out of the spaghetti pan with a mug in case you need it later. Drain the spaghetti, but not too thoroughly so that a little water clings to the strands, and tip it into the pan with the crispy brown lardons, and straight away stir through the egg and cheese mixture, off the heat. Add a little pasta water to loosen the sauce if necessary.
Serve in warm bowls with extra grated parmesan.
It was delicious! My only problem was that I was using up some rather old parmesan which was too hard to grate. I ended up chopping it finely with knife - time consuming and messy.
This recipe is keeper
...
4-Ingredient Impossible Pie
I was intrigued by this recipe and thought I'd give it a go. I made half of these quantities and cooked it in a dish in the air fryer.
Ingredients
4largeeggs
3/4cup (148 g)granulated white sugar
1/2cup (64 g)all-purpose flour
2 cups (473 ml)low fat milk
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Grease the interior of a 9-inch pie pan.
Add eggs, sugar, flour and milk into a blender. Blend until all ingredients are incorporated and evenly mixed. Pour batter into prepared pie pan.
Bake for about 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. The pie will also start to pull away from the sides. Let pie cool to room temperature. The pie will deflate a little as it cools. Place pie into fridge for several hours or overnight to chill and to let the flavors fully develop. If desired, dust pie with powdered sugar before serving. Pie is best served chilled.
The website suggests using vanilla flavour coconut milk, but I used ordinary dairy milk and vanilla sugar.
What you end up with is very similar to the custard part of a custard tart. I found the pie too sweet; next time around I'll use a lot less sugar and add nutmeg. BB didn't care for it, but then he's never liked custard tarts, but I love them!
Music
More manic music to accompany the tennis. The Flight of the Bumble Bee played on the piano by Yuja Wang... un be lieve a ble
