Pumpkin Pie - Thank you Internet...

Highly recommended:

 

by my writing group,

by Americans at Doug and Nadia's Thanksgiving dinner,

and by us South Africans who ate it.

 

(The Americans said this was the best they had ever tasted.)

 

Here is the recipe if I ever need to make it again,

or if you want to try it.

 

Crust:

 

Cream together

150g butter

1/2 cup sugar

 

Add to above and mix

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

 

Press mixture into three aluminium pie shells

Bake 190C for about 25 - 30 minutes until golden brown

Allow to cool

 

Pumpkin pie filling:

 

Mix together in a pot:

2 cups boiled and mashed pumpkin - cooled

1 can evaporated milk

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup white sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 eggs

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

 

Turn stove plate onto high

Stir briskly ALL THE TIME so that the mixture doesn't "catch" on the bottom of the pot

When the mixture gets nearer to boiling, turn heat down to medium while the mixture thickens

(Keep stirring all the time)

Immediately pour the hot thickened mixture into the cooled pie shells

Sprinkle pie filling with ground cinnamon

Allow to cool

Chill before eating

Serve with whipped cream for those who would like it

 

ENJOY!

I can Happily Pledge

I pledge to...

 

Respect water

Not pollute

Respect all forms of life

Re-use, re-cycle, reduce

Save energy

 

Love people

Love the environment

 

Oh yes, I do pledge those.

 

*********************

 

This tortoise looks well and energetic doesn't he/she?

This one side does...

The other side of his shell is seriously damaged.

The outer layer is off.

Yet there he/she was scooting along - for a tortoise.

Less afraid than others I have seen in the Garden.

 

And off into the shrubbery.

 

I hope I can be off about my business every day

permanently damaged though I am in some respects,

like all of us,

and temporarily damaged at other times,

like Vi is at present.

 

I learn a lesson every time I go to the Garden!

On This Thanksgiving Day -

I am very thankful for the internet.

We are having a Thanksgiving Dinner this evening at Doug and Nadia's home.
All family and our tenants are invited.
My job is to make pumpkin pie for 30 people.

I went to the internet, copied, pasted and printed three pumpkin pie recipes
on one sheet of paper, compared them and made my decision as to which I would use.

Then it was "What is half and half?"
"What is 12 oz in grams?"
"What is cardomon?"
"What is a substitute for cardomon?"

Click-click... and there are lots of answers and I get to choose
which site I will look at.

Happy Thanksgiving my loved-ones!
Today is the 27th. 
I am going to list twenty seven things I am thankful for.
Do join me?
What will be on your list of what you are thankful for?

I have decided to try and make the filling on the stove like I do with melktert.
I have kept half the cinnamon in the recipe to sprinkle on the top of the fillings. 
I'll let you know how it turns out.  These are my pie shells ready for their filling. 
The next three are in the oven now. (7am) 
One batch of filling made and poured into the pie shells.
I will take a pie to our writing group and see how they enjoy it.

Friday Trip to the Temple

I enjoyed the sunrise!

At this time of the year this is my view as I top the hill at Bergbron.

 

This is a new statue very near University of Johannesburg

(used to be called Rand Afrikaans University)

The city is so pretty early in the morning.

 

Welcome Home Kayla!

After a rainy morning we went across to Doug and Nadia

for a Welcome Home Kayla Lunch.

 

Vi walked across.

First time in a month that she is out of pyjamas too!

Progress!

 

Notice behind Kayla and Doug that Kayla has re-arranged the

H O M E "Nadia will know I am home!"

she said mischievously.

Steering By Starlight

I first read this in 2010 and

have just finished re-reading it in bits and pieces over the last 6 weeks or so,

- a paragraph or a page at a time.

 

I find her perspectives interesting -

I sense her depth of understanding relayed to

those of us less interested in depth as such,

but interested in living a better life.

 

I love the way she uses words.

 

If you want a good read about steering your life

when the course before you is not clear, and all you can see does not feel 'right'

this is likely to be a useful resource.

Some quotes I selected:

"When we learn to watch our fears without believing them, we can burst out of a fearful universe into a totally safe one in an abrupt, irrevocable flash of insight..."

"Liberation is the ability to see multiple options."

"The raw material for joy is sorrow; the raw material for compassion is anger; the raw material for fearlessness is fear."

"We burn, burn, burn until our attachment to whatever we have lost is completely incinerated."

"The alchemy of the Stargazer transmutes psychological lead into gold.  Pain becomes joy.  Fear becomes peace.  Anger becomes absolute compassion."

"The general rule to remember is that when we're scared, we're scary, and when we're scary, we're usually scared."

"In real life, people who perpetrate evil virtually always see themselves as victims, forced by circumstances to "defend themselves" by attacking others."

"... lead the relationship by sustaining calm, fearless affection."

"If you keep breathing deeply, feeling peaceful, and offering reassurance, you'll defuse arguments that could become endless, before they even begin."

"... a commitment to handle change with creativity and negotiation."

"... when we're calm, we're calming."

"If someone else freaks out, you must get even calmer. ... It works with almost everyone."

"Recognise... a Dark Arts Practitioner."

"...the dominant emotional state of someone who practices the Dark Arts is a baseline state of boredom, marked by swelling, repetitive waves of self-pity."

"Test (all they say) against the facts, against your sense of truth. ... Question every thought that causes suffering and test it against your own sense of truth."

"'When two great forces collide, the victory will go to the one who knows how to yield.'" Lao-Tzu

"... living this way... you'll learn and benefit immeasurably from your friends, but even more from your enemies."

She finishes this book with this favourite poem of one of her African guides read by him "as the sunlight faded and the moon cleared the horizon"...

“Live while you are alive …

Learn to be what you are in the seed of your spirit

Learn to free yourself from all things that have molded you

And which limit your secret and undiscovered road …

Never forget that love

Requires that you be

The greatest person you are capable of being,

Self-generating and strong and gentle -

Your own hero and star …

Be grateful for life as you live it,

And may a wonderful light

Always guide you along the unfolding road.”

 

Rare Picture of Us

It's not often that a picture is taken of the two of us.

This was taken by Eddie when they visited on Monday.

 

 

Thanks Eddie!

Vi's Visitors

Monday 10th November:

 

On this lovely rainy day...

 

Vi's youngest brother Eddie came to visit with his wife Gertie and

his son Eddie and wife ...

 

Vi is about 9th of 13 children.

There are just three of them left.

 

Her other living brother Viv visited when she was in hospital.

It's been good reunion time.

 

We had a simple and wholesome lunch of vegetable soup and muffins,

with Rooibos tea and Melk tert for afters.

 

Beautiful Sky!

Angela Simon and I went together to the Temple Saturday morning.

This sky was very beautiful to watch as we travelled.

 

In the Quiet of the Night

Thursday evening:

Glenn and Vi are asleep...

And I am bright eyed and bushy tailed!

The last couple of days I have been reminded of when I broke my ankle.  I sat a lot.  I watched a lot of television.  I read a lot.  I listened to the radio a lot.  For six weeks!

In the last couple of days I see the progress Vi is making.  She moves more surely.  She speaks less tremulously.  She still moves slowly, but less slowly.  She is more independent.  She has been out of bed the last two days.  She has sat in the lounge, gone for a walk down the passage, then returned.

We have made some minor tweaks to our furniture re-arrangement. 
When she was in hospital we got her a portable radio tuned into Classic FM.  She has lovely earphones borrowed from Glenn.  She is using them at home too.
Her phone from the flat picks up signal in our house, so she has her phone next to her chair in the lounge too.  And some tissues, and some water in a bottle, and a toothpick.  When we have what we need life recuperating is so much more tolerable!

After supper we push the computer chair to outside the bathroom.  After she has brushed her teeth in the evening I push the swivel chair into the bathroom ready for the morning routine.  She can sit and wash.  She is actually thrilled with the convenience of the bathroom for her.

I looked online to see how to wash hair for someone less able.  I found a couple of youtubes  (is that how you say it?) showing how.  Amazing!  So we will try that tomorrow.  I am sure she will feel a whole lot better with freshly washed hair.  It's been two weeks...  Her hair actually looks well enough I am surprised to say... but it's time!

I also have a portable radio that I carry around the house and garden with me as I attend to my responsibilities.  I asked Glenn if he had some more earphones.  He had two more sets!  I chose the lovely ones with the longer cord.  So now we can each listen to what we want to listen to - without disturbing each other!  I like to listen to Radio Pulpit in the morning, SAFM and Classic FM during the day.

With Glenn retired I was thinking of getting earphones because he likes to sit in the lounge sometimes when I am preparing supper and listening to the news and discussions of the day.  I was used to having the house to myself most of the time when he worked!  I'm not sure these will suit me best, when I worked I had small ones that fit into my ear.  I cut the one ear piece off and just plugged in one of the ear pieces so I could hear what was going on around as well.  I might want that for now too.  I will see as I go along.  For today, these earphones worked well enough.

Actually adapting to our circumstances for now has been relatively painless - long may it continue to be manageable.

I'm off to bed.

We Adapt as Vi Comes Home

We re-arranged the furniture.

 

We got the chair from the computer.

Vi backs up to the chair swivelled sideways,

she sits down, we swivel the chair and push it in comfortably.

Vi makes has made progress in the first day she has been home.

Thank you for all the messages and calls.

The Finish of the Dukes Court Project

Thank you Glenn for putting up the Medicine Cabinet.

A Pause Moment in Clearwater Mall

We waited upstairs to meet John and Brenda.

I heard the lovely sound of water,  looked over the rail and

saw this lovely water feature.

I soaked up the sight and the sound.

 

The Additional House that Doug is Buying...

A few doors down from his home.
The building of prosperity continues.

Jacaranda Time!