A Divine Bird !

My camera is to humble to take pictures of birds, but this buzzard crosses my path so often that I had to give it a try.

Counting The Days Until The Light Comes Back

This morning : 8.30 am driving home from school, it's warm (10°C/50°F) and clouded.

11.30 am : going to the supermarket, still as dark as it was this morning

 

1.00 pm Bringing home some brightness !

2.00 pm Look at these clouds

 

3.30 pm driving to school again

past the graveyard, seeing flowers !

a WWII monument

This used to be the main entrance of the castle, now it's the rear entrance of the school,  by the forest (forbidden for students)

5 pm the sun is going down again

~~~ good night, sleep tight ~~~

Doors of Welcome (Part two)

Today is the second part of Doors of Welcome, hosted by Karen (Some days are diamonds).  It's all about Thanksgiving.  Of course, we don't have thanksgiving in Belgium.  But I wanted to join this event anyway (how else can I show off with my new painted door ?).  I do like the though of celebrating gratefulness for all that is given, maybe we should start having some kind of Thanksgiving day here too.

I kept the mum's from last month, the colors have faded a bit, and the flowers feel like paper, but I couldn't say goodbye to them yet.

The fall bouquet is made from leaves and tansy flowers that I dried myself.  The cones are brought home from France years ago and serve me time after time. I used the tansy flowers in the wreath too, together with some feathers found in the fields.

 

A new garden !

We did not only get new paint, but also a new front garden. I can hardly wait until spring to see it all growing and blooming.

I discovered one little flower, pink roses ! This will look wonderful.  The picture is a bit blurry because of the heavy wind we had today.

I am so happy with this, thank you (land)Lord !

Sunday

We had a dark and wet week, leaving me all depressed, but last night brought frost and left us with a beautiful sunshining morning.  These gorgeous calendula flowers are strong enough to survive some frost and make me happy.

And then of course there are the many mushrooms

I think these are some kind of Russula's

And these might be Sulphur Tuft (Hypholoma fascicular) but I'm not sure of this, if you know more please let me know !!!

And Sunday morning in Belgium means also going to the bakery for fresh 'pistolets' and 'sandwiches' and 'koffiekoeken'. I couldn't find a translation but I think the photo's make it clear :)

These would make you smile too, don't they !

A Family Recipe

Apple Bundt Cake

200g/7.5oz of all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
200g/7.5oz of icing suger
16g/0.5oz vanilla sugar
2 eggs beaten, if you eat no eggs you can leave them out and use the same volume of water instead
3-4 apples peeled and diced in cubes, make sure you have one more if there are children in the house, they will come begging for a taste...

Mix all dry ingredients, then add the eggs and then the apples. The batter might look too dry but when you wait a few minutes the juice will come out of the apples and go into the flour.

Put in a prepared pan, a ring shape looks nice but isn't necessary. Bake in a preheated oven (200°C/400°F) for 60 minutes. Depending on your oven you will have to turn the heat from above off after 20-30 minutes and use only the heat from below.

I added a new product to my Zazzle Store today, it's a recipe binder !

Cooking with Heirloom Tomatoes by ArtsandHerbs

Doors of Welcome !

Karen at 'Some Days Are Diamonds' had this wonderful idea to share our 'Doors of Welcome'.  It's a series of tree and today is all about Autumn and Halloween.  Last week while I was decorating my door, my landlord suddenly decided the house needed some paint.  Maybe it was the decoration that drew his attention to it ? Now I'm very happy with this, as you can see on the pictures this door really needs it, but it's the timing that is bad.  Before the door was even finished I hurried to take some pictures and then had to remove everything.  But at least, I will have a nice clean door for the next of the 'Doors of Welcome' in November...

There should be a nice wreath on the door, you'll have to imagine it...

I made the broom and the crocheted cloth myself, the gourd and pumpkins are from my garden.

 

 

Thank you for your comment and don't forget to visit Karen and the other participants of 'Doors of Welcome'  !

We have frost !

A view from our backyard this morning...

 

Flying !

My husband used to fly a little one-engined airplane.  Last summer his plane was sold but I though it would be nice to share some pictures from our flying days.  Unfortunately, the best photo's were on my husbands laptop which was stolen out of his car (take copies if you don't want to lose memories !) but these will do to give you an idea...

Did you notice the corn circle ! Here it is bigger :

And this is the school again

Making Cakes and Preventing the Flu

We have rain! Never though I'd be happy with that one day ! Time to think about building resistance against winter colds and flu. And that's what elderberry syrup is perfect for. I've known this for years but it's the first time I'm making my own syrup. There are several recipes but this is how I did it :

First of all, if you want to try this, hurry, the best time to pick the berries is September, you can start in August but then there could be some green ones in between which is toxic.

After picking the berries I used a fork to comb them off the little stems which gave me about 1,5 kg / 3 pounds of berries. I cooked them with a little bit of water for about 10 minutes. You should never eat the berries raw because then they are toxic (one or two don't harm but they taste bad raw anyway).

Then I poured them trough a fine strainer (you can use a fine cloth too) and put the juice in the casserole again (never use an iron casserole, it would react with the juice). Ad 500g /1 pound of sugar or cane and let cook for another 5 minutes, then pour into bottles.

Some people ad lemon juice for a better conservation, and some ad a little stem of thyme in the bottle, which also kills bacteria.

Make sure you wear an apron and be careful or your kitchen will be covered with purple black stains ! The juice has a beautiful color, I would love to try this on some yarns.


I will have to collect some nice bottles for next year.

If you want to use the syrup as a medecin, take 1-2 spoonfuls 3 times a day. I recently heard they give it to coughing horses too !

And the best part is, you don't have to be sick to enjoy the syrup. It can be used in many desserts, in pudding, on pancakes,... Of course I wanted to taste right away so I made some cakes with it !