Blogging and the Seasons.

I love reading all the various blogs. It makes me happy to read all the people out there who have the same thoughts as me and the same desire to express them to those who want to listen, or should that be read? In one the writer has asked about Christmas and how do people celebrate or otherwise. The comments are interesting. I celebrate with very simple things like walking in the Australian bush early in the morning with my daughter and dogs. We even saw 'Rudolph' one morning who thought he was safe from being seen because of the early hour.
 This year for the first time it will be just one dog which will be very sad but the other one will be with us in spirit. She loved her walks. I feel sad just thinking about our little family being one short.                                                 



Walking the tracks in earlier days.



But then we go to our friends' place for Christmas lunch and their dog loves it and makes sure he gets plenty of good food by asking very nicely for it as you can see in this photo!

Those two small things have become our little family Christmas traditions. My daughter and I treasure them and I hope we can continue them for many years to come. We are lucky to have such wonderful friends. We are grateful for such wonderful friends. Even when one of our dogs has gone, or if we should be away for that day, we will always have that feeling of fun and sharing in our hearts and that is what matters most.

I do know that Christmas can be a very lonely and depressing time of year for many people who don't have a good relationship perhaps with family or due to family splits which means that the usual way of enjoying Christmas is no more. I think the other thing is  that people feel incredibly pressured into spending huge amounts of money. This is a really difficult one and it took me a very long time to come to terms with my feelings of guilt, shame and unworthiness and realise that those feelings were ridiculous. If I didn't have lots of money and refused to go into debt for the sake of one day then I had to understand that a small gift, a hand made gift or no gift, when given with love and real thought was as worthy if not more so and that I did NOT have to buy into the commercial 'sell'.

One has to be very organised though to be able to give handmade and I have not been that this year. I am also a really big fan of giving people gifts 'just because I can' so to speak. In the Disney movie version of Alice In Wonderland the  Mad Hatter sings a song called a Very Happy Unbirthday to You. That appeals to me. I am going to start giving people UnChristmas presents. Or maybe I can give people Summer Equinox presents to celebrate the passing of the seasons. I am not big on Christianity  so that might be more in keeping with my views of reasons to celebrate.

All I really wish for everyone, known and unknown, is that they have a safe and happy time with those they love and that the New Year is a time of hope and expectancy of good times. For those who are dealing with loss and sadness, try and allow the depth of the grief to be replaced with the happiness of memories of Christmas days gone by. 

Preserving.

I finished work today and went to the local green grocer and there I saw boxes of 'rain marked' cherries for five dollars. I had lent my bottling pan and bottles to a friend just yesterday as she wanted to bottle cherries again as her mother used to do . I was on the phone to her as quick as can be to say that the cherries were there at that price. We decided that we really couldn't go wrong with them being that cheap and I quickly bought two boxes. I went and got new rings for the bottles at Dahlsens. It gives me hope that they are so available as that means there is a demand for them.
Well I went around to my friend's place and we sorted through all the cherries. She washed and sterilised the pan and the bottles and prepared syrup, while I checked each cherry and took out those that had a mark on them but were still good enough for jam and pulled off the stems. We washed and put into the bottles the best of the fruit.



Rain marked cherries -yum!

It was such fun to be doing something so useful and it was great fun to be doing it with a friend. I was so grateful to have someone to ring and say 'look how cheap the fruit is' and she got where I was coming from and was excited too!
I was also really pleased that I had kept the old bottling outfit that I was given, along with lots and lots of bottles, probably about 18 years ago! I kept thinking that I should get rid of it over the last few years but I just couldn't bear to part with it. Now I am glad that I have it, as I don't think you can buy stove top ones anymore, only electric. That means I can use it on a gas stove or for that matter a wood stove. I bought a new thermometer and that was pretty cheap at Dahlsens. I am now busy looking in my books about preserving and conserving for recipes for various yummy things to make.
I am at my happiest when I am doing homemaking things and I often wish that I could find the best path to having enough income to live but still have plenty of time to care for things. I am an earth mother at heart but I only have one child and she doesn't live with me anymore.
So I will enjoy my cherries and share them with friends. 

It is such a warm feeling to be making things to enjoy over the coming months. I also love the fact that I am using a bottling outfit that has been really well used and is really very old. That makes me feel the connection with my elders and their wisdom. I have asked my 94 year old mother to let me know her secrets about living through the depression and I can't wait to read the letter and learn some things that will be of use to me.

Well I am off to walk the dog in between the storms I hope! I am bound to see something of interest in the park as I nearly always do. Here is a honeyeater I saw last time I took the camera with me.

I write this blog with the intent of preserving my experiences in the hope of encouraging others to also remember and preserve their own memories and/or food.