Enjoyable Weekend

I have just spents a wonderful weekend by the sea. I do love the sea, the water, the waves, the colours and most of all the sound of the sea.

We had a wonderful house - called Baileys Beach House right on the beach. It was great to wake up in the morning to see what the ocean had brought for the day. I loved sitting watching the sea while having my coffee in the morning - so relaxing.

Another, great sight was watching the whales and Seaford Bay. We drove out there on Sunday afternoon, the tide was coming in late in the afternoon and there was a swell. The afternoon light filtering through the clouds and spreading a veil of softness on the surroundings. Just of the bay were five whales it looked like 3 adults and 2 younger ones - what a majestic sight. The calm of the end of the day and the presence of others all sharing the sight was so wonderful.

The reason we went was that my daughter and nephew participated in the country soccer championships - they both did very well.

It was great being there, supporting and cheering on the children - teenagers. The atmosphere at these events are great - with parents, grandparents, sibblings all there supporting their children. One must not forget to mention the comamandrie of all the team members as they compete against other teams. Unfortunatley, this time has come to an end after some 12 years - as both children partook in these events.

All blessings in ones life.

Poppy

New Beginnings

What exciting times we live in with all the changes to technology. It amazes me that we can sit in our home, and be able to talk and view someone at the other end of the world, just by being on the computor.

In the last week I have been able to connect with family and friends on the other side of the world and catch up with what has been happening in their world. I actually enjoyed and felt connected to them.

I have talked to nephews and nieces (actually the children of cousins) how wonderful. To be able to get to know them - the younger ones have so much to teach us. I feel blessed to have made their acquaintace. Thankyou to you all.




In a earlier post I wrote of communion with others - of sharing our lives with others . How wonderful that we are able to do this and be able to share our lives with others even if it is over the internet. It opens many possibilities.



Blessings to you all!

Poppy

Autumn Eve

As the weather gets colder and autumn has arrived - the summer harvest has all been picked. The seasons grapes have been turned into wine.

Easter has come and gone and we are travelling into winter.

The autumn colours have arrived the yellowing and mellowing of the leaves, the vines and trees are loosing their leaves and soon the pruning will begin - when the crops are dormant and have gone to sleep.

So as to prepare for the next years harvest. Will they awake too soon as the seasons have been so erratic we no longer get the longer winters - they are shorter and not as cold.

And nature is she not finding her way, as the seasons have been erratic. Do the daffodils flower too early, there is such confusion when in one day we get all the seasons.

Or is this the cycle we are progressing to - has human kind had it too well over the last thousands of years - may be this is another cycles on earth. Will there be a turn around.

Will winter come and bring the rains that are so needed in this dry place - we have not had very much rain and it is needed so.

The days are warm and the evenings cooler.

For this we give thanks.

What a lovely evening we have had, a good meal, good wine and good company.

Be present

"When our minds are no longer fragmented by the illusion of our separation from each other,

but healed by the truth of our oneness,

we are awakened to a new dimension of compassion.

Within the mantle of that love, there is literally nothing we cannot do.

We have remembered who God is.

We have remembered who we are. Finally, we are whole at last."

We are all one eventhough some of us don't know it. There is a spark of our creator in all of us, and we come from there. Each on our own - but connected. It is our lifes mission to enflame this spark with all our thoughts and deeds and in love. For love is the answer to all. Love be open to receive and give - let it flow from within and without - be open and receive.

Love is empowering and compassionate.

Thus,

Be in your divine presence of self

To be our divine self is the greatest gift we can be

and give to one other.

To be present to our divine being

That which is holy

Which uniquely connects us

to one another and the supreme.

So,

place my divine presence in front of all

and let it be my guide

On this path called life.

"When we start at the center of ourselves,

we discover something worthwhile extending toward the periphery of the circle.

We find again some of the joy in the now,

some of the peace in the here;

some of the love in me and thee

which go to make up

the kingdom of heaven on earth."

So, with these words I aspire

to reflect and start afresh,

to leave the past behind.

the new year of new beginnings

living within my truth.

The truth of my soul.

With love and blessings,

Poppy

Eve of Epiphany

Tomorrow on the 6th of January, the "twelve days of Christmas " come to an end. This day takes a special meaning in the Greek custom, there is a special ceremony of the blessing of the water and the vessels that ply them.

There is a service and the priest blesses water, which people then can take home. The water has special healing and protective powers associated with it. Then the priest and the congregation will go down to our river where the waters are blessed. A cross is thrown into the water and young men/teenagers dive in to retrieve it.

Were does this come from - it is said that Jesus was baptised on this day and this is where the day's association with water comes from. Plus it is the day that the three Magi came to visit Jesus bearing gifts to reveal and acknowledge him as king.

Today was the day that our Parish Priest "Father Demitrios" visits all our homes saying prayers and blessing them for the coming year.

God bless you all,

Poppy

Welcome 2009

Welcome to 2009 - what a wonderful start to the new year.

Merriment with a party to see the old year leave and the the new year come in with Family and friends.

It has been a special time for me and I have enjoyed the festive season - I wish to keep the spirit of the festive season with me for the rest of the year. The love, happiness and wonderment of the days.

Thank you to all who have been part of this - my family and friends.

We visited Mt Gambier as it was my parents 50th Wedding Anniversary. What a milestone to reach two people sharing their life and creating a family full of love, growth and learning. Together with what ever comes during the passage of time.

In the Greek Orthodox Wedding there is a part of the service where the priest places crowns on the heads of the couple. The crowns are linked together by ribbon, symbolising the joining of two souls and the couple is prepared to establish thier own kingdom as king and queen of a new family. The Koumbaro or Bestman then switches the crowns back and forth tree times, symbolising that two are now one.

After the crowning there is a reading fro the epistle and the Gospel. The reading describes the marriage of Cana at Galilee, which was blessed by Christ and where he performed his first miracle. The miracle converted water into wine, the couple is offered the wine from a single cup and they drink from this three times - this symbolises that they will share every joy and sorrow from the cup of life together.

On reflection my parents established their own kingdom and raised a family of four and there have been many good and tough times in their life. But, they have been able to overcome all t0 have had a good life together.

It is a time to reach out to those I love and for me to send my love to them with my thoughts and wishes.

For those who I cant be physically with, I send my love through the mists of mystery and essence and remember them forever in my heart.

In the new year I hope to be the best that I can be and to grow in all areas of my life - in my communication with family, friends and all who touch my life. For in the end we are answerable only to ourselves and the pact that was made before entering this life with our creator - our one.

God bless and may the angels guide you - all you have to do is be open and receptive.

Poppy

Hello

Back on deck.

It has been a while and much time has passed. My last blog was on the 11th December, 2007 at that time I had 10 entries in blog land.


Today is the 14th May, 2008.

Much has happened.

Christmas and New Year came and went.

We had our Grape Harvest - all things went well considering the drought we are having in the Murray Darling Basin.

We have had hardly any rain. The rain we did have was not enough.

The majority of Murray Irrigators leased in water, so as to have crops this year. As we were only allowed to have 32% or our irrigation allocations. Majority of growers need 48% of their allocation to keep their permanent plantings alive, let alone to get a decent crop.

The notrocious thing is, water has been seperated from the land and it is being treated as a commodity.

In October, 2007 we could only use 23% of our allocation and we were lead to believe that we wouldn=t get anymore. So what happened, the price of leased water skyrocketed from $300 or so early in the financial year, to $1,200 per megalitre in October.


We were then informed that growers could use 32% of their allocation. This then brought the trading of water back to a reasonable amount of approximatly $500 per megalitre.


But in late Feburary, March the water minister anounced that growers would be able to use the amount that they had leased in, as carry over water for the next financial year.


Now tell me if there is no water in the system, how does it miracuously appear, when pays exhuberant amounts for it.

I wonder were this is all going.

After that we came to Easter, I do love the easter celebrations through out Holy Week in the Greek Orthodox Church.


Life has been busy and I have not had much time to do any needle work, which I am missing.\


May be as winter sets in this might change.

I am still working only three days a week - which should give me time to keep the house, spend time with my family and still be able to do my needlework. But, alas no.


There are a number of projects on the go. I also keep in touch with other girls who are also love patchwork, quilting and various other forms of needlework, via blog land. A site I like to visit is Leanne's House and from that I link into other sites belonging to other bloggers.


I also have been busy at work with a number of projects.




I have a Greek background, my parents migrated to Australia in the mid fifties. The images above are from the respective islands, Dad from Patmos and Mum from Lemnos. The top picture is taken from Hora, that is my Dad's village, looking down to Skala which is the port. The other picture has been taken in Mirina, wich is the main town on the island of Lemnos.
I last visited Greece in 1980, that seems such a long time ago. I would like to go again one day, and I hope that it will be soon.

Oh yes, I have included a greek sweet recipe. this is for the ladies of the art group that meet at the McCormick Centre for the Environment.

EKMEK OR KADAIFFI

Base
½ packet kadaiffi pastry slivered or flaked almonds
2 tblspn oil
Take the pastry and pull it apart to get it fluffy, then layer in the base of your dish I use a ceramic dish ( 28cm x 18cm). Sprinkle the olive oil over the pastry and the almonds, place in moderate oven to colour. In the mean time make the syrup.

Syrup
2 ½ cups water 2 cups sugar
3cm of cinnamon stick 4 – 5 cloves
½ lemon

While the base is cooking put all the above ingredients in a pan and bring to boil and let simmer for 10 – 15 mins. Just before placing syrup into dish, take out the cinnamon stick and cloves, squeeze the lemon juice from the lemon into the syrup and pour over the cooked pastry. Now it is time to make the custard.

Custard
For this size dish I make custard from 1 litre of milk, as per instructions. When the custard is cooked I sometimes add a little liqueur lemon or orange, or what ever you might prefer. I have also adapted the recipe and have added passionfruit pulp into the custard to change the flavour, again experiment. When the custard is ready, pour it over the pastry base and let it cool.

Topping
cream powdered cinnamon

Top the custard with whipped cream, run the fork through the custard to create a pattern and then sprinkle cinnamon onto the cream.

Enjoy !

On that note I'll say goodnight

and wish you

a great day tomorrow

Poppy