Birthday beauties.

So, Friday was my birthday. We have been so busy having fun that I have only just got round to showing you some of my beautiful pressies.

 

John gave me 24 botanical prints of plants endemic to St Helena. I have been after some botanical prints to decorate our kitchen at home for ages. Since in fact we went into a little Italian restaurant in Covent Garden about four years ago and there were some on the wall.

Anyway, I love them and they will be a fabulous souvenir of lovely St Helena.

I also received some lovely thoughtful gifts from friends here. This beautiful necklace was made specifically to go with my fav red spotty dress that was a charity shop find that I sliced the bottom off and put darts in the back of.

It is made of hand made beads. I am working on a post to show you these properly because they are easy peasy and totally gorgeous.

Lastly another island friend gave me a tomato seedling. The girls here know me so well already!

Maybe beads tomorrow...

xx

The Bell Stone

Well, the writing of this post has caused an extraordinary amount of headaches. Who knew adding a little video would be so hard!

Anyway, we went out on Sunday afternoon to find something we had spotted on the map called the Bell Stone. Who could not be attracted by that. Well, we went, and we saw and look, or rather, listen:

How cool is that?

After we had all had a go, we went for a walk further down the track. To start with there were amazing eucalyptus trees with fantastic peeling bark.

Then the path turned to very fine sand which I think was probably volcanic ash many many moons ago.

We had views right across where one day there will be an airport. At the moment they are making it flat by filling in a dry valley.

 

Like most people I have mixed feelings about this. The island cannot move forward without the airport and the people will always be a five day ship passage from a major hospital until it is built; but it will bring all sorts of change - good and bad.



I am just glad we got here when it was still one of the most isolated places on earth.

Even if that does mean fruit is only available once every three weeks.

And if you think too hard about a thousand miles of ocean, it sort of freaks you out.

But it is so beautiful and it would be lovely to be able to share, just a little bit more easily.

 

xx

February Slow Living

Hello,

 

I am hooking up with the chaps over at Slow Living Essentials again for a monthly look back. 

 

 

Nourish

As usual most of our cooking has been from scratch. We have a new family favourite which is slightly faffy to prepare but goes down a treat with the Smalls: Fajitas. I have been making the flat breads out of River Cottage Every Day which are pretty much fool proof and very yummy. Then I put out a selection of bits and pieces - grated cheese, lettuce, finely chopped tomatoes (the Smalls eat those but would not eat salsa), guacamole, refried beans my way and stir fried veg with maybe pork or chicken in and a little paprika. Everyone eats a different subset of what is on offer and most importantly, nobody moans.

I have also cooked my first chow chow, a vine fruit about the size of a large baking potato with spiky skin and a stone in the middle. We have a shortage of potatoes on the island at the moment and they make a good alternative. I am planning a chow chow post in the near future.

Prepare

No bottling or preserving, we are too busy living in the moment, but I have discovered the joys of frozen bananas. Once peeled it is a great way to keep slightly over ripe bananas until you are ready to make a banana cake or smoothie.

Grow

I have been giving away courgettes and beans because we couldn't eat them fast enough. We have our first cucumber waiting to be sampled and the peppers have a wee one coming. Sadly the fruit fly have decimated the tomatoes, and the sweet corn and melons are sulking.

Green

Making stuff out of flax is very green. It is completely natural product and the only processing required is boiling in salt water.

Reduce

Having lamented the lack of recycling last month, I have since discovered that there is an organisation who will recycle cardboard so I have been zealously storing that up in an attempt to make amends for everything else going to landfill.

Create

The flax making is going from strength to strength to the detriment of my blankets which have been somewhat abandoned. I did get my hook out on Thursday to make daffodils and a leek for some welsh friends to sport on St David's Day.

Discover

Having chickened out of scuba diving lessons, I did have a try-dive (otherwise known as a suck-and-see) last week. We put all the kit on with the help of some experienced divers and under the watchful eye of one of the local dive instructors (aged 76!) swam backwards and forwards under the water in the shallow end of the pool. I tried to go down into the deep end but I couldn't get my right ear to pop so had to abandon that. I found the breathing hard work and a bit like using the gas and air when you are in labour, and the kit was heavy and awkward. I am pretty sure scuba diving is not for me but I'd have another try if the opportunity came up and see if I can at least get to the deep end.

Enhance

I have written about the plans for our little craft group to work towards a fund raising stall. I also made a cushion cover to help make a local young women's refuge a bit more homely.

Enjoy

Soooo much to enjoy, and as you know we have grabbed it all with both hands. We have had meals out, walks, tried snorkeling (the fish, you should see the fish!), swam in the sunshine, shared time and food with friends and generally embraced every opportunity.

Another good month. A few hard days, which is only to be expected, but a good and happy life.

The pictures were all taken in Castle Gardens, a small, but rather lovely public park in Jamestown.

xx

Thursday night is craft night

Good morning, or afternoon as it almost is. I hope you are well. I have been super busy as usual and have not visited you here as often as I would have liked. I have several posts stacking up, full of lovely things I want to tell you about, but for now, I am going to tell you about Thursdays.

On Thursdays a group of ladies/girls/women, (not sure which I prefer), gather to chat, make things (or not), eat yummy home baking and drink tea, or sometimes something stronger.

Some are veteran crafters, some novices, some self taught, some taught by Granny, some who have attended classes, some who claim not to be able to make anything at all.

Some are married, some single, some are Mum's, some not, some have small Smalls and some have grown up Smalls. This week someone brought her Mum so we had a Grandma too.

We have a marine biologist, two solicitors, a police woman, and a receptionist. Lots of us are in St Helena because we are accompanying working husbands. When they are not being full time Mum's and home-makers we have a PA, an occupational therapist, a teaching assistant an art teacher and a few who I am not sure what they did before (including me).

We share our skills and teach each other, or we work on our own projects.

Did I mention the tea?

or something stronger?

or the baking?

This week we have decided to work towards taking a stall as a craft fair later in the year, to raise money for a wonderful organisation called SHAPE which provides meaningful work and training to disabled adults.

So we can have fun and do something for someone else at the same time.

What do you do that makes your heart sing?

xx

Busy doing EVERYTHING

We are having a completely amazing and fabulous time in our new St Helena life. There is so much to do and so many lovely people to do it with. The trouble is, we are doing just a teansy bit too much of it. We are definately burning the candle at both ends and sometimes in the middle too. This week we have car boot visiting, swimming, snorkling, world thinking day, party, friends to play, scuba dive lessons, flax weaving, football, rainbows, scuba dive taster, PTA meeting, craft evening, massage, tea out, plus school, work, shopping, washing, cooking, playing, blogging and everything else.

I wouldn't want you to think I am complaining. Quite the contrary. I just need to get a bit better at managing the stuff I have to do as well as the stuff I want to do. And maybe a bit better at saying No!

The trouble is, I don't want to finish our two years in this amazing place wishing I has done something or been somewhere because it really is a once-in-a-liftime place.

See, I spent my only 'free' evening making a flax hat because someone said it took two years to be good enough to make a hat. It's not perfect, but it is a hat. Now of course I want to have another go and make a better hat!

xx

Feeling good on Friday

Hello

Are you having a lovely day? I am having a very lovely day. My first whole day without Giant Baby since November. Actually it is just the school day, but I really feel the pressure has been taken off for me to rush, rush, rush all the time. He is with our fabulous childminder and I have been footling.

I did the shopping with my new I'm-totally-pleased-with-how-it-turned-out flax bag.

Then I went for a little lunch and a little swim all on my own. A treat indeed to potter up and down the pool with no Smalls in tow.

I had planned to spend some time playing with these. They were in one of the parcels of loveliness that came on Wednesday.

Forty little squares just screaming to be stitched. What a fabulous gift. There are four little felt flowers too. Sadly a little necessary correspondence meant I didn't have time to do more than admire them today. But there are lots of Fridays stretching away with infinite crafty and indulgent possibilities.

I wonder what next Friday will bring...

xx